Curious if they've announced anything about the expansion pack or pre-order details on one of the shitastic communications channels I can't be bothered to monitor. I saw somebody on the motherboards mention something about a scarecrow?

The information you seek can be found on the DDO Forums.

I spent some time searching there and found the patch notes. So far the only pre-order freebies are a lvl 10 hire and a useless hire, and some cosmetic shit.

Yeah.  Most of the talk so far has been on the Race, the Tree, the items, and sentient weapons.  I've not heard much about pre-order freebies. 

They only mention new stuff coming out 1 day before on the launcher.. This company is complete shit... Be glad they even give you that 1 day notice.. haha

There have been no announcements about the release date or the bundles.  About the only thing you can be sure of is release prior to Christmas, because Daybreak wants to see good revenue numbers for the end of the first year post-WB.

My bets on collectors edition:

- Knife Fighter tree
- Spoopycrow hireling
- 5X sovereign XP pots
- Tome of +3 to any skill (1/character)
- Tome of Reaper XP (perma +10% reaper xp, 1/server)
- 1500 DP's

Of course you'll still have to pay a premium for the human with wings race or use the 1500 DP's that are included to buy it (conveniently priced at 1495 DP's to unlock).

Yeah a really cool loading screen! Get used to staring at it! /s

Skrilla wrote on Oct 10^th, 2017 at 3:17pm:

They only mention new stuff coming out

Honestly, I firmly believe they are handicapped in this.  And I don't mean that in the insulting way.

I mean that in order for DDO to remain financially viable they have to bend over backwards for WoTC.  Neverwinter is their baby and you see advertisements for it everywhere, but advertisements for DDO are virtually non-existent.

From what I understand a lot of what they can/can't do is dictated by these agreements, some of them going back a decade.

So it's entirely possible that they -can't- advertise the game to anyone that isn't already playing it.

At least that's what I hope.

Zehnpai wrote on Oct 10^th, 2017 at 3:18pm:

My bets on collectors edition: - Knife Fighter tree - Spoopycrow hireling - 5X sovereign XP pots - Tome of +3 to any skill (1/character) - Tome of Reaper XP (perma +10% reaper xp, 1/server) - 1500 DP's Of course you'll still have to pay a premium for the human with wings race or use the 1500 DP's that are included to buy it (conveniently priced at 1495 DP's to unlock).

I'd be surprised if they didn't include stones of experience like they did with MOTU.  They're introducing vet3 (level 10) with Ravenloft, which is similar to the level 15 Eveningstar requirements for challenges and non-epic quests.

Aasimir will likely be included in the collector's edition, similar to PDK/Shadar-kai for Shadowfail.

I doubt we'll see a reaper tome.  We've seen a whopping one bonus weekend for reaper XP, and no store pots.  The RXP synergy with racial TRs is working to SSG's advantage, driving the purchase of XP pots, hearts and other store consumables.

It would be dumb not to have a reaper tome.. Theyre throwing away cash by not having them.

Zehnpai wrote on Oct 10^th, 2017 at 3:18pm:

My bets on collectors edition: - Knife Fighter tree - Spoopycrow hireling - 5X sovereign XP pots - Tome of +3 to any skill (1/character) - Tome of Reaper XP (perma +10% reaper xp, 1/server) - 1500 DP's Of course you'll still have to pay a premium for the human with wings race or use the 1500 DP's that are included to buy it (conveniently priced at 1495 DP's to unlock).

DPs are?

Aside from, you know... and no, I don't want 1500 dual penetrations from SSG.

noamineo wrote on Oct 10^th, 2017 at 5:47pm:

and no, I don't want 1500 dual penetrations from SSG.

We know that. Just like we know you got them anyway. Just like you know how we know.

I mean 1500 MORE dps...

I hear is gonna be expen$ive..

I'm not terribly concerned with price so long as they actually pack in value.

Doing things like including a shitload of ancient adventure packs I already own is not that, incidentally, nor is loading it up with shitty cosmetics.

I expect the price ranges will mirror the last LOTRO expansion.  Something like 39.99 base, 79.99 collector, 129.99 yo dawg I heard you like cosmetics so I gave you cosmetics for your cosmetics edition.

They can't price it the same as Lotro though, if they do it's fucking dumb. DDO doesn't have the players so they'd maybe sell like three $130 versions  ;D

Add $5 to the MOTU bundle pricing and that's what it'll be for MOR: $84.99, $54.99 and $34.99.

Too much.. fuck that...

noamineo wrote on Oct 10^th, 2017 at 7:08pm:

I'm not terribly concerned with price so long as they actually pack in value. Doing things like including a shitload of ancient adventure packs I already own is not that, incidentally, nor is loading it up with shitty cosmetics.

This.  I’ll pay $130 if the value is there.   My two sons will each get one too.  I guess we would be the only ones, according to Jelly.  Because that’s 3. 

Unless you just can’t afford the $130 or $90 or whatever in your budget , then saying it is too much without knowing what you are getting makes no sense. 

Would you pay $20 or more for a meal?  Depends.  If it was a mcdonalds happy meal, no.  That’s too expensive.  If it was a high end steakhouse, hell yeah. 

Would you pay $10 for a movie ticket?  The last Jedi?  Yes.  My little pony? No way.

Also agree with naom.  Including old adventure packs and cosmetics won’t be enough. Reaper xp tomes, skill tomes, xp stones, gear with actual stats that is bad ass,  sovereign xp pots, shared bank slots, a unique clicky like a ddoor clicky (1 use per rest).   Stuff like that. 

I'm still waiting on increased/re-vamped storage... *sigh*

Here's what's known about availability per bundle

Aasimar race: A new heroic Eberron race which will be available in all Ravenloft Expansion bundles. Free to VIPs. Later purchasable via DDO Store

Vistani Knife Fighter: A new universal enhancement tree which will be available in select (but not all) Ravenloft Expansion bundles and, at a later date, in the DDO Store, as well as able to be earned from Favor attainable in Ravenloft content on a per character basis.

New Cosmetics: A variety of cosmetic outfits, helms, pets, and weapon aura's which will be available in select (but not all) Ravenloft Expansion bundles.

Permanent Gold Seal Hireling - Scarecrow: Two new Permanent Gold Seal Hirelings which will be available in select (but not all) Ravenloft Expansion bundles.

http://ddowiki.com/page/Mists_of_Ravenloft#Content_overview

Asheras wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 6:55am:

saying it is too much without knowing what you are getting makes no sense.

it's ddo. we all know we're getting crap, so....

How much you wanna bet those weapon aura's will be single use?

Anyways, saw the new Strahd leaked art

http://ddoplayers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Raven2.png

and immediately thought of this:

http://i.imgur.com/gQ85cdh.gif

noamineo wrote on Oct 10^th, 2017 at 5:47pm:

DPs are?

The moneysink formally known as turdbine points.

Makes more sense than calling them SSG points or Daybreak points since it's only a matter of time before the company gets sold again.

Zehnpai wrote on Oct 10^th, 2017 at 3:27pm:

Honestly, I firmly believe they are handicapped in this.  And I don't mean that in the insulting way. I mean that in order for DDO to remain financially viable they have to bend over backwards for WoTC.  Neverwinter is their baby and you see advertisements for it everywhere, but advertisements for DDO are virtually non-existent. From what I understand a lot of what they can/can't do is dictated by these agreements, some of them going back a decade. So it's entirely possible that they -can't- advertise the game to anyone that isn't already playing it. At least that's what I hope.

To my own knowledge and understanding for when I pushed for the vampire iconic, this is pretty true. I was told ultimately any such idea would have to be sent to WotC and then they'd have to approve it and accept it. It's the literal reason my campaign for turning The Blood is the Life into a vampire shroud toggle for Blood of Vol divines was also stopped at the door.

That being said; to my knowledge from outside sources beyond SSG/Turdbind devs, they are allowed to do most shit they want for -EBERRON- content. They only have to get permission on things that are 'GM interpreted' per the setting. AKA: Blood of Vol vampires, a blood of vol vampire blackguard iconic, etc. Anything that would be seen as moving beyond the standard operations of Eberron's playerguide needs acceptance.

Which leaves the question of why the fuck they still refuse to do Shifters, Kalashtar, Psionics, summonable dinosaurs for halflings, completing the god damn Droam storyline, or generally doing anything that's straight eberron based anymore. There are so many good storylines and zones available in Eberron but they're splitting their attention way too much into other settings.

Is there any hope that they will ever offer the expansions for points or has that ship sailed?

Edrein wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 9:25am:

There are so many good storylines and zones available in Eberron but they're splitting their attention way too much into other settings.

One thing that leads credence to it all too is that they've never denied it.  Lynn is usually pretty quick to call me on my bullshit especially.  I know it's a pretty tin-foil hat thing to say but in this case if the shoe fits...

I had a similar experience when I asked about removing spell reagents.  They are a -very- early/mid 2000's concept and you'll see that almost every other single MMO/game out there has moved away from it since it's simply put, not fun.

DDO hasn't and the vague wishy-washy answer I got from Cordovan on the livestream was that they aren't really allowed to fiddle with certain things and he dropped the subject at that.

So I can't help but imagine a -lot- of 'bad' stuff still in the game and the dearth of Eberron content isn't just a lack of man hours, but also a lack of permission from WoTC.

Now granted we haven't heard Keith Baker weigh in on DDO in quite awhile but he's also been hinting that WoTC has been showing more and more of an active interest in Eberron materials which may be why that we haven't seen much in the way of Eberron content in quite some time.

I'm really curious to see how they tie in Ravenloft.  If it's something like manifest as part of Mabar or an extension of the Day of Mourning and thus contained within the lore of Eberron or if it's more like Forgotten Realms was where they just said "Screw your Astral plane folding shenanigans, we want Lloth!"

Zehnpai wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 9:17am:

How much you wanna bet those weapon aura's will be single use? Anyways, saw the new Strahd leaked art http://ddoplayers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Raven2.png

Strahd with pauldrons...meh.

crunch wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 8:19am:

Here's what's known about availability per bundle Aasimar race: A new heroic Eberron race which will be available in all Ravenloft Expansion bundles. Free to VIPs. Later purchasable via DDO Store Vistani Knife Fighter: A new universal enhancement tree which will be available in select (but not all) Ravenloft Expansion bundles and, at a later date, in the DDO Store, as well as able to be earned from Favor attainable in Ravenloft content on a per character basis. New Cosmetics: A variety of cosmetic outfits, helms, pets, and weapon aura's which will be available in select (but not all) Ravenloft Expansion bundles. Permanent Gold Seal Hireling - Scarecrow: Two new Permanent Gold Seal Hirelings which will be available in select (but not all) Ravenloft Expansion bundles. http://ddowiki.com/page/Mists_of_Ravenloft#Content_overview

How many new dungeons? Raids?

I find it extremely annoying they don't even mention new content (except a new wilderness area...big whoop).

Technomage wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 11:25am:

How many new dungeons? Raids?

Don't quote me on this but I seem to recall them saying 10 dungeons and 2 raids.

Zehnpai wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 9:17am:

Anyways, saw the new Strahd leaked art http://ddoplayers.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Raven2.png

If DDO marketing was run by an intern who gives a flying fuck like Lynnabel, it would be 100x better than the schlok like this or the 3 min long video of the logo.  At the very least the art should have been in context of the game, like a screenshot or desktop art.  "Concept art" is something you let the artists release in the context of a blog/livestream where they are discussing the development of the game, not give it to a fansite as a leak/preview.

Zehnpai wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 11:36am:

Don't quote me on this but I seem to recall them saying 10 dungeons and 2 raids.

One raid has been confirmed by devs (I think by Cordo, but can't find the ref).  Two raids were indicated in Lam builds back in April through the /quests output, but who knows what's been cut since then.

Zehnpai wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 11:12am:

One thing that leads credence to it all too is that they've never denied it.  Lynn is usually pretty quick to call me on my bullshit especially.  I know it's a pretty tin-foil hat thing to say but in this case if the shoe fits... I had a similar experience when I asked about removing spell reagents.  They are a -very- early/mid 2000's concept and you'll see that almost every other single MMO/game out there has moved away from it since it's simply put, not fun. DDO hasn't and the vague wishy-washy answer I got from Cordovan on the livestream was that they aren't really allowed to fiddle with certain things and he dropped the subject at that. So I can't help but imagine a -lot- of 'bad' stuff still in the game and the dearth of Eberron content isn't just a lack of man hours, but also a lack of permission from WoTC. Now granted we haven't heard Keith Baker weigh in on DDO in quite awhile but he's also been hinting that WoTC has been showing more and more of an active interest in Eberron materials which may be why that we haven't seen much in the way of Eberron content in quite some time. I'm really curious to see how they tie in Ravenloft.  If it's something like manifest as part of Mabar or an extension of the Day of Mourning and thus contained within the lore of Eberron or if it's more like Forgotten Realms was where they just said "Screw your Astral plane folding shenanigans, we want Lloth!"

I'd argue a lot of the problem is they probably lack anyone with charisma to actually make an argument worth a damn to WotC. I'd argue every time they make a request it's a lifeless, "Can we add this?" and WotC gives a near automatic yes or no.

Granted after a while you'd get annoyed by the micromanagement and probably go full jaded and just throw ideas and take whatever they allow without any form of bargaining but meh.

Yeah I knew the ten dungeons/2 raids part. Didn't really care about the raids, they're just going to be lvl 32 grind for lvl 30 items. Don't really need anything to wear from the bank to the reincarnation grove, thanks.

noamineo wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 1:08pm:

Yeah I knew the ten dungeons/2 raids part. Didn't really care about the raids, they're just going to be lvl 32 grind for lvl 30 items. Don't really need anything to wear from the bank to the reincarnation grove, thanks.

Most people are doing racials... i prolly wont even do the new raids. I only did this newest raid 1x.. and never will again. No point to..

Skrilla wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 3:25pm:

Most people are doing racials... i prolly wont even do the new raids. I only did this newest raid 1x.. and never will again. No point to..

Raiding is picking back up as people are getting to 30 racial PL's on their mains.  Still a lot are working on racials, but when ravenloft hits, there should be enough ready to go at end game that the raids will see some action.  RSO's timing was very unfortunate given the value of racial PL and the reaper XP-heroic levels synergy.

But what point are the raids? Are you really going to stay at cap just to grind two raids that only give you better lvl 30 gear?

noamineo wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 4:27pm:

But what point are the raids? Are you really going to stay at cap just to grind two raids that only give you better lvl 30 gear?

A)  Raids are fun.

B)  Raid loot is the best loot.  Probably will have some system that feeds into Sentient weapons.

C)  Playing at cap will allow you to grind 4 raids (RSO, Shroud, Ravenloft I, Ravenloft 2) and 10 Ravenloft quests, Slavers, Mines of Teth.  If they fix the reaper XP earn at cap/epics, that works. 

D)  Playing fully finished builds is fun.  Especially the best builds that really hum when all the feats are available and working in concert with the gear and the PL's and the twists and the ED's. 

The game for me has always been to create finished builds and then see how they do in the toughest content on the toughest possible settings.  Heroic TR's, Racial TR's, Epic R's.  Those are fun and all.  But they are mostly parts of the journey. 

YMMV.

P.S.  I don't play exclusively at cap.  I have two characters that are earning PL's and two at cap, typically.  So that I can intermingle all aspects of the game together.   

They really need a end game raid that you can run that gives you gear that you can use from level 20 and up.

Something along the lines of what greensteel was when the cap was 20. You got to level 20 and ran shroud on just about all your toons every 3 days because the stuff was great end game gear for any build and every toon you had and was just flat out fucking amazing when you got to level 12 and could use it.

There's a reason that Shroud runs were up daily. The gear was great and you could use it for a large portion of your life if you were banging out past lives. You could also trade the ingredients, and it was a LDS economy back then because of it.

Ah memories.....how did they fuck things up so bad to get this game in the state it is in now?

Asheras wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 4:22pm:

RSO's timing was very unfortunate given the value of racial PL and the reaper XP-heroic levels synergy.

And is filled with completion-preventing bugs like the dragon falling off the platform, and air vent rides that never stop going up.

somenewnoob wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 4:45pm:

Ah memories.....how did they fuck things up so bad to get this game in the state it is in now?

They decided to ignore TRing, and assume everyone just wants to play at cap.

What's funny is how MUCH effort they put into it back then. In addition to Greensteel, you had Ioun Stones. Hell, even Delaras was mostly lvl 7 but gave out some still amazing lvl 4 gear. I want to see more of that!

noamineo wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 6:55pm:

They decided to ignore TRing, and assume everyone just wants to play at cap.

are you high or something? every thing they have ever done has been for trs. everything. you butthurt bitch, open your eyes.

The only raid worth doing is Lshroud.. and havent seen one up in about a month..

And before that.. niggas couldnt even complete lh shroud or even ee fot.. raiding is dead af on our server..

And i wouldnt have ever done that newest raid if it wasnt for Rubbinns talking me into joining when I had my mind set on ship piking....

The other reason im not doing the newest raid and very likely the 2 future one is this...

Since cap is 30 and been 28 to 30 for a while... they continue to make items that make the old raid items complete shit within months... for example...

All old heroic raids.... all items other than abbot quiver complete shit at cap. Some are good for rtring.

Citw.. all items other than celestia.. not used at cap.. rest can be replaced by bta stuff you can get in a run.

Fot.. all items complete shit now..

Mod.. all but litany and maybe embers complete shit..

Doj.. boots still good.. gloves good... rest.. total shit..

Rso.. ? I havent even looked.. but if you see the pattern above.. bta shit will make this stuff worthless as well in no time.

I know some people will think... no shit.. older stuff gets garbaged all the time.. its part of the game..
But.. atm.. there isnt end game everyone including me is doing racials.. that too is part of the game..

So when this last raid came out, I needed room so after thinking of this I threw out like 30 or more old raid items into the trash. I thought when the fuck will I ever use this? And I cant store it elsewhere.. citw stuff is decent but i only would use them a few lvls. Why hold shit im using for a lvl or so?

And now that im doing racials.. why stop and do those raids just to have to throw it out by time I complete the 30 lives?

So... at this pt.. im not even wasting slaver mats.. because if i use them before end game is around.. ill just have to remake shit once ravenloft comes out..

Motherfuckers need to make the new raids heroic and epic .... peeps still dig VON and TS at 10-12, ffs make more raids multi level and give us something to do while grinding racials and shit

somenewnoob wrote on Oct 11^th, 2017 at 9:43am:

Is there any hope that they will ever offer the expansions for points or has that ship sailed?

I was wondering the same thing. I refuse to pay real money for the expansion, or to give the Russians my CC info through their portal. Not that the Russians don't have it from Equifax or a host of other sources, but still....

Plenty of content to play, and by time I finish my Racials, everyone will have farmed Ravenloft for what they care about and there'll be no run to run with (See shadow phlogistans).

Friendship wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 9:31am:

I was wondering the same thing. I refuse to pay real money for the expansion, or to give the Russians my CC info through their portal. Not that the Russians don't have it from Equifax or a host of other sources, but still.... Plenty of content to play, and by time I finish my Racials, everyone will have farmed Ravenloft for what they care about and there'll be no run to run with (See shadow phlogistans).

Yeah I'm kind of done with spending money on the game as well. Just on principle since the changes and new content have been so meh.

IIRC i came back from my break around the time DOJ came out. And they had both expansions available for points and I got one of them with points. Then before I scrounged up enough points to get the other one  they stopped being available for points and I got the other one for a couple bucks during a 85% off sale around the holidays.

And since then I don't think either has been available for points at all and you could only get them in that DDO market thing (Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't really been checking to see if it is in the point store since I already have it)

Jelly_Muffin wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 1:44am:

Motherfuckers need to make the new raids heroic and epic .... peeps still dig VON and TS at 10-12, ffs make more raids multi level and give us something to do while grinding racials and shit

The reason people like doing them is that they're also good exp.  With their new and improved "SUPER PLUS DOUBLE GOOD XP CALCULATOR!" any new raid at level would be shit.

To put it in perspective if they remade VoN5 using modern numbers the mobs in there would have 2k hp at level 10 and the quest would give like, 11k xp.

Can you imagine a level 10 RSO?  The dragon would have like 400k hp.

Friendship wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 9:31am:

to give the Russians my CC info through their portal. Not that the Russians don't have it from Equifax or a host of other sources, but still....

oh dear, somebody need to learn The Internet.

Fact : the DDO Store uses IP addresses that reports being in Russia.

Fact : the ICANN the organization responsible for IP Address distribution assigned addresses to geographical regions batch lot. ( read : /8 or /16 networks ) and then delegated the task to regional organization to split it further.

Fact : you can buy a public IP address from any point of the world that geographically belong to any other point of the world.

Fact : there's NO FUCKING IP ADDRESS LEFT FOR NORTH AMERICA in their allocated networks. ( and it has been that way for almost 5 years now, IIRC 4 years ago a puny /29 was all that was left. [ that's 6 IPs for the ignorants ] )

Corrolary : if an American company needs more IP addresses it needs to buy them from somewhere else in the world.... Russia, Africa, Tobago, Tuvalu, China,
They can't really buy them from Europe, Japan, Oz and a few other places, because said places are also facing the rarity of the IP issue, even if they haven't completely depleted what they had.

it's really really time we all go to IPv6. ( and it's going to be fun as the addresses are not easy to understand and can't be completely tied to a location on the planet. )

Zehnpai wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 11:12am:

Can you imagine a level 10 RSO?  The dragon would have like 400k hp.

It has like 7m on elite. So, prolly around 2m at lv 10. And the reason people do von and spine is because the xp and the lack of quests at 10. You people are funny, you don't need more things to do while tring. 97.6% of the game is based off of heroic tring, the other 2.4 is epic and iconic tring. 

Related to Flav's post - the DDO Market is run through Games on the River, a subsidiary of Digital River, one of the world's largest and most secure digital content delivery systems.

If SSG can screw THAT up, well, it just displays new levels of dipshittery.

The whining about "we need more stuff to do in heroics" is a joke. 

The "we like TRing and/or we like running 1-20" crowd has been getting features that cater to them for the last 12 months.  More people in heroics in the last 9 months than in the prior 3-4 years.   

Yet, the first update in over a year with the hint of content or systems that are exclusive to at-cap (sentient weapons and two raids) and they still scream bloody murder. 

At-Cap is dying on the vine.  Settle down heroic crowd.  You are still getting 10+ new level 10 quests and shit ton of loot and a race, an Iconic, and a universal tree to play with. 

There's too much heroic content, but only a fraction of it is run because of optimal time vs. XP gain.  The game needs more reasons to run undersubscribed heroic content by implementing hotzones.

Friendship wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 9:31am:

Plenty of content to play, and by time I finish my Racials, everyone will have farmed Ravenloft for what they care about and there'll be no run to run with (See shadow phlogistans).

Yup.. i feel ya.. i missed out on making a L.shroud set because i was doing iconics on an alt. Like i said before i havent seen a group for it in over a month and before that they ones i joined failed.. There isnt too many decent players in epic atm.. including myself.. im running gimp ass past life toons with crafted lvl 15 gear..

If you dont stop what youre doing and run those raids right away... youre fucked if you want to do them later.. so ya youll be doing racials and after 2 to 3 months tops.. those raids will be really hard to find a group for.

Oh and.. we need more stuffz to do in heroic while tring... Because thats all there is to do. Not enough people doing shit else.. so.. you kinda gotta do what others are doing or be the guy looking at the who list and seeing only 3 lvl 30s on and wonder why nobody is doing raid/reaper epic shit. Well other than the same 3 guys running slavers together every fucking day.. that shit is cracking.. almost as cool as doing the same 10 quest over and over while doing epic xp.. "en dailies ftw"..

Asheras wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 12:35pm:

The whining about "we need more stuff to do in heroics" is a joke.  The "we like TRing and/or we like running 1-20" crowd has been getting features that cater to them for the last 12 months.  More people in heroics in the last 9 months than in the prior 3-4 years.    Yet, the first update in over a year with the hint of content or systems that are exclusive to at-cap (sentient weapons and two raids) and they still scream bloody murder.  At-Cap is dying on the vine.  Settle down heroic crowd.  You are still getting 10+ new level 10 quests and shit ton of loot and a race, an Iconic, and a universal tree to play with.

Gotta go with the flow bro.. you dont get to choose the grind.. the grind chooses you...

I remember a good while back when the game was quite the opposite.. couldnt pay for somebody to help you pull levers in fleshmakers.. or run shit under lvl 15.. epics had their time.. and for a while itll be dead like now.. gotta wait for the grind to change.. nothing you can do

Skrilla wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 3:13pm:

we need more stuffz to do in heroic while tring

that is the entire point of tring. past lives and leveling. you got something to do and you get a class or racial past life out of it. only thing epics are getting is another raid and crafting system.

Shroud items are shit now unless making weapons for vac/salt/affirmation. Some builds can fit in 2 pc hp, while 5 pc sets arent worth their slots in reaper, unlike ee where gearing was more flexible. Builds could skip out on a few slots to fit in ender, but now it's too much with reaper constraints. Coupled with the fact that the leading trash killers are DC casters, means building for trash is wasteful and should be building for red named dps. Very few builds can slot 5pc or even 2pc, and with sentient weapons coming I'm not sure how long shroud weapons will be sought after. Sentient has to be the new mortal fear(not exact, but in power levels) or no one will stay at 30 to pump their shit fucking weapons with 300 million lv 30+ xp.

That leaves epics at shroud, slavers, sentient, and w/e else they throw into ravenloft. Combined with the player base already having run out of epic past lives to grind, plus epic reaper xp is harder, longer, and slower, and you get a ghost town at 30. RSO is a joke as far as items are concerned. There are a few good ones, but that's it. The best items are profane gloves, dodge goggles, and prr boots, and really only for very few builds, which would still probably want slavers and cc instead.

Rubbinns wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 3:35pm:

that is the entire point of tring. past lives and leveling. you got something to do and you get a class or racial past life out of it. only thing epics are getting is another raid and crafting system. Shroud items are shit now unless making weapons for vac/salt/affirmation. Some builds can fit in 2 pc hp, while 5 pc sets arent worth their slots in reaper, unlike ee where gearing was more flexible. Builds could skip out on a few slots to fit in ender, but now it's too much with reaper constraints. Coupled with the fact that the leading trash killers are DC casters, means building for trash is wasteful and should be building for red named dps. Very few builds can slot 5pc or even 2pc, and with sentient weapons coming I'm not sure how long shroud weapons will be sought after. Sentient has to be the new mortal fear(not exact, but in power levels) or no one will stay at 30 to pump their shit fucking weapons with 300 million lv 30+ xp. That leaves epics at shroud, slavers, sentient, and w/e else they throw into ravenloft. Combined with the player base already having run out of epic past lives to grind, plus epic reaper xp is harder, longer, and slower, and you get a ghost town at 30. RSO is a joke as far as items are concerned. There are a few good ones, but that's it. The best items are profane gloves, dodge goggles, and prr boots, and really only for very few builds, which would still probably want slavers and cc instead.

I get that this is an expansion, so it will probably invalidate gear from older packs, otherwise it damages the value proposition, but they really need to build a 3-4 year plan for power scaling that is additive. Rather than superseding.   

Asheras wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 3:55pm:

I get that this is an expansion, so it will probably invalidate gear from older packs, otherwise it damages the value proposition, but they really need to build a 3-4 year plan for power scaling that is additive. Rather than superseding.

Pretty clear that they strongly disagree. It's not that they don't know how, either. (Even though that would be my go-to explanation.) It's that they either don't know enough to know that they have options, or that they really do know better.

If they know better, then that means their business model is still Turbine's business model: Assume customers are addicts. Treat them like shit.

Revaulting wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 4:18pm:

Pretty clear that they strongly disagree. It's not that they don't know how, either. (Even though that would be my go-to explanation.) It's that they either don't know enough to know that they have options, or that they really do know better. If they know better, then that means their business model is still Turbine's business model: Assume customers are addicts. Treat them like shit.

Like a real dope dealer...haha

Asheras wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 3:55pm:

I get that this is an expansion, so it will probably invalidate gear from older packs, otherwise it damages the value proposition, but they really need to build a 3-4 year plan for power scaling that is additive. Rather than superseding.

Might be getting ahead of ourselves with that one :P

Let's assume that Ravenloft is the end of flat stat increase and we can place that as the max going forward. Now where do we go from here? What they need to do is start placing radical, build altering abilities on level 30 loot. The Knife Fighter tree has a good, but niche ability in Weapon Versatility, that would have been perfect to place on an item. Doing so costs a gear slot 1 out 16, and as long as the item had something that goes in that slot it would be a hit for ranged toons, potentially. If they could go play PoE for a bit and see how items are designed in mind with breaking symmetry with skills, or altering abilities of skills. DDO could also use items that grant feats, which is something the older devs knew how to make.   

SSG has at least demonstrated they can be creative with what abilities can go where in order to make loot attractive. Things like Shimmer that consolidate gear and moves those abilities to cloaks, where otherwise they would be on weapons, goggles, necklaces, or trinkets. Moving those abilities and then consolidating them onto a cloak opens up so many other slots for DC builds. Or Discerning Gaze for another example, it has dodge and insightful dodge on goggles. Normally that is cloak, belt, boot, bracer. That item will continue to get better over time as long as the next few updates don't have an item with dodge 22/ insightful dodge 12/ quality dodge 6.

Well.. the new iconics will bring people back to epics for 3 weeks or so.. and if reaper was easier to get at epic, people would be doing that instead of heroic tring over and over even after all racials are done..

Im on my last racial life atm.. so what do i have to do now? Stay at epic and do the normal epic quests on reaper 2 or some shit cause im only lvl 20? And that shit is hard for a non warlock/dc caster to solo cause nobody will join..Then when im high enough lvl to do them much higher, run them again and get only a few hundred rxp for doing high ass reaper?

I dont think so..

My other choice... heroic tr again but get no past life for it.. then smash through to like lvl 13 or so then do all quests without caring about doublecapping or xp in general. And be op have lots of people to run with and get thousands for each quest until ive done all heroic quests... then tr again..

Looks like im doing heroics... :D

Skrilla wrote on Oct 12^th, 2017 at 8:10pm:

Well.. the new iconics will bring people back to epics for 3 weeks or so.. and if reaper was easier to get at epic, people would be doing that instead of heroic tring over and over even after all racials are done.. Im on my last racial life atm.. so what do i have to do now? Stay at epic and do the normal epic quests on reaper 2 or some shit cause im only lvl 20? And that shit is hard for a non warlock/dc caster to solo cause nobody will join..Then when im high enough lvl to do them much higher, run them again and get only a few hundred rxp for doing high ass reaper? I dont think so.. My other choice... heroic tr again but get no past life for it.. then smash through to like lvl 13 or so then do all quests without caring about doublecapping or xp in general. And be op have lots of people to run with and get thousands for each quest until ive done all heroic quests... then tr again.. Looks like im doing heroics... :D

If you have every past life and are still looking for reaper xp, you can start a new life and park at an exceptionally good xp level. you want a high power to difficulty ratio with lots of short quests, like level 4 for example.

Doing what you describe will also net a bunch of store points while you're at it though.

The best level is probably around level 8 or so.  You can bang out CO6 - 6 quests all less than 5 min.  Some 2 min or less.  And the quick threnal ones, plus the 3 walkups in threnal area.  That level range has about 10-12 quests that are 5 min or less runs and pretty easy, given that they are all 2006 content. 

Ya thx.. I need to.. those +7 tomes are fucking expensive

Asheras wrote on Oct 13^th, 2017 at 2:44pm:

The best level is probably around level 8 or so.  You can bang out CO6 - 6 quests all less than 5 min.  Some 2 min or less.  And the quick threnal ones, plus the 3 walkups in threnal area.  That level range has about 10-12 quests that are 5 min or less runs and pretty easy, given that they are all 2006 content.

I call bullshit on your time estimation. Auto-running those quests end-to-end takes more than 5 minutes, stopping to kill stuff adds more time.

noamineo wrote on Oct 13^th, 2017 at 4:50pm:

I call bullshit on your time estimation. Auto-running those quests end-to-end takes more than 5 minutes, stopping to kill stuff adds more time.

Re-read Ash's post...C A R E F U L L Y.

Technomage wrote on Oct 13^th, 2017 at 5:06pm:

Re-read Ash's post...C A R E F U L L Y.

I'm speed-running them.

Trollero wrote on Oct 10^th, 2017 at 11:43pm:

I expect the price ranges will mirror the last LOTRO expansion.  Something like 39.99 base, 79.99 collector, 129.99 yo dawg I heard you like cosmetics so I gave you cosmetics for your cosmetics edition.

Nailed it.

That is exactly what happened...lol ;D