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Everquest Mangler Server - DOING IT ALL AGAIN, AGAIN!
- Thread starter Xevy
- Start date
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Xevy
Log Wizard
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Mangler is faster than Agnarr.
P99 is not comparable to either. P99 is like 5 hours to get to lvl 4. Before Mangler launched my group did "test runs" to see how fast we could level and I think in about 2 hours we managed to all hit lvl 6 in a group. Maybe higher. My group was the highest group until about lvl 15ish on day 1 of Mangler, which was a launch shit show, so you're looking at like 5 hours of playtime there. If I recall the server was laggy as fuck and crashed at some point for about 90 minutes and I had to completely remake my character at one point (RIP Zevran lvl 6 with 2 exp pots on him because I'm dumb).
Saying it's as slow as/slower than P99 is like saying McDonald's tastes like cardboard. It may not taste the way you want it to, but it sure as fuck doesn't taste like cardboard.
P99 is not comparable to either. P99 is like 5 hours to get to lvl 4. Before Mangler launched my group did "test runs" to see how fast we could level and I think in about 2 hours we managed to all hit lvl 6 in a group. Maybe higher. My group was the highest group until about lvl 15ish on day 1 of Mangler, which was a launch shit show, so you're looking at like 5 hours of playtime there. If I recall the server was laggy as fuck and crashed at some point for about 90 minutes and I had to completely remake my character at one point (RIP Zevran lvl 6 with 2 exp pots on him because I'm dumb).
Saying it's as slow as/slower than P99 is like saying McDonald's tastes like cardboard. It may not taste the way you want it to, but it sure as fuck doesn't taste like cardboard.
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Zaide
TLP Idealist
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Leveling on P99 vs TLP is dramatically different. On P99 solo or duo is the way to go. On TLP you’d be dead last.
Back in 2011 Vulak and Fippy had probably the worst exp system. I don’t mean slowest though, just the most stupid. Their way of making it more “classic” was to put a 2% cap on exp per kill. It felt real dumb when you actually needed to kill 50 snakes to get level 2 and there were no pick zones so all 80 people in NQeynos just socked static spawns.
By the time we were high enough level that every mob didn’t hit the 2% cap I was on Elite Goblin Island in OOT. It was wild.
Back in 2011 Vulak and Fippy had probably the worst exp system. I don’t mean slowest though, just the most stupid. Their way of making it more “classic” was to put a 2% cap on exp per kill. It felt real dumb when you actually needed to kill 50 snakes to get level 2 and there were no pick zones so all 80 people in NQeynos just socked static spawns.
By the time we were high enough level that every mob didn’t hit the 2% cap I was on Elite Goblin Island in OOT. It was wild.
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B_Mizzle
Avatar of War Slayer
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Exactly my experience. When I thought a TLP was imminent I did a few test runs on mangler. Probably 2 hours to get to 6/7 in qeynos, tons of mobs good area. Everfrost was shit even being the only one leveling, would be worth the risk to just make a break for Qeynos.
Ambiturner
Ssraeszha Raider
- 16,073
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Yeah, at some point they changed how exp works and rapidly killing blues pales in comparison to killing yellow/reds even if it's at a much slower pace.
The group exp bonus also makes it better in almost every circumstance to have as many group members as possible.
The group exp bonus also makes it better in almost every circumstance to have as many group members as possible.
Sterling
El Presidente
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the way the group bonus works, the 6th member is literally free assuming it's not higher level.
Xevy
Log Wizard
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It was my understanding that for each person in your group past 1 person, you get 20% bonus exp. And the 6th person doesn't split the exp of the group.
So if a mob gave 100 exp, with 6 people it'd give 200 exp split 5 ways. So 40 per person, but in a group you're killing 5x+ faster than if you were soloing.
So they did the right thing and made the game "social" in the sense you WANT to group, but most people bypass it by just playing multiple characters at once instead of actually grouping.
So if a mob gave 100 exp, with 6 people it'd give 200 exp split 5 ways. So 40 per person, but in a group you're killing 5x+ faster than if you were soloing.
So they did the right thing and made the game "social" in the sense you WANT to group, but most people bypass it by just playing multiple characters at once instead of actually grouping.
Ambiturner
Ssraeszha Raider
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Arbitrary
Tranny Chaser
- 29,612
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I wish they would redo the exp system on these servers. Over time all the cutesy loopholes, tactics, hidden sweet spots, pseudo-exploits and repeatable quests have been slowly nerfed or excised entirely leaving everyone with one objectively superior strategy - charm. Early leveling groups are all some variant of Enchanter/Magician/Cleric with varying amounts of redundant pet classes or support with maybe some pity spots for the non-Monk melee characters. You do the best thing there is and you do it in the best zones there are and you try to do it all as fast as possible so you can get on to the real game. There really aren't alternatives.
One of the things I liked to do back in the long long ago was level characters that weren't KOS to frogs in Upper Guk on the troll prisoners and crocodiles. The crocs don't social and the trolls are too isolated to. The exp was absurd and the mobs were weak but it just doesn't work on TLPs. You can kill everything the same way sure but the exp is nothing special and not even close to era accurate. The huge suite of repeatable quests in different areas, properly utilized, could comprise a huge amount of your exp up until the mid or late teens. Knowing all the ins and outs of Qeynos, Kelethin, Kaladim and their adjacent zones was like a game within a game. It is true that several repeatable quests were heavily abused on several TLPs but in tackling that problem the good gameplay got excised with the bad. Questing lacks viability for a game with Quest in the title.
I'm not advocating for Daybreak to move heaven and earth so TLPs can be more like WoW Classic with friendly soloing and I don't want a return to the days of turning in 10000000 bone chips, fire beetle eyes or Tumpy Tonics. I just think that the best strategy (charm) and the second best strategy (many, many pets) are so much better than everything else that the low tier play needs another look. The warts that made soloing and being in dumpy little groups still feel worthwhile have all been sanded off. Those activities could be quite a bit better and still never even come close to the pace of organized play. I even genuinely like the better strats. Pet groups and charm groups can be a lot of fun. Charm groups are really dynamic with lots of ways for everyone to leverage skill. Playing the good classes of an era pays dividends every single time you log in. The charm group of today is the AE group tomorrow.
But the shitters could use a little love this time around if the exp rates aren't going to be Selo-tier.
One of the things I liked to do back in the long long ago was level characters that weren't KOS to frogs in Upper Guk on the troll prisoners and crocodiles. The crocs don't social and the trolls are too isolated to. The exp was absurd and the mobs were weak but it just doesn't work on TLPs. You can kill everything the same way sure but the exp is nothing special and not even close to era accurate. The huge suite of repeatable quests in different areas, properly utilized, could comprise a huge amount of your exp up until the mid or late teens. Knowing all the ins and outs of Qeynos, Kelethin, Kaladim and their adjacent zones was like a game within a game. It is true that several repeatable quests were heavily abused on several TLPs but in tackling that problem the good gameplay got excised with the bad. Questing lacks viability for a game with Quest in the title.
I'm not advocating for Daybreak to move heaven and earth so TLPs can be more like WoW Classic with friendly soloing and I don't want a return to the days of turning in 10000000 bone chips, fire beetle eyes or Tumpy Tonics. I just think that the best strategy (charm) and the second best strategy (many, many pets) are so much better than everything else that the low tier play needs another look. The warts that made soloing and being in dumpy little groups still feel worthwhile have all been sanded off. Those activities could be quite a bit better and still never even come close to the pace of organized play. I even genuinely like the better strats. Pet groups and charm groups can be a lot of fun. Charm groups are really dynamic with lots of ways for everyone to leverage skill. Playing the good classes of an era pays dividends every single time you log in. The charm group of today is the AE group tomorrow.
But the shitters could use a little love this time around if the exp rates aren't going to be Selo-tier.
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Flobee
Vyemm Raider
- 2,686
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If only they had he capability of making core class changes that were server specific. Since they say they can't I don't imagine they will. Would be nice to spice up he early game class balance for varieties sake if nothing else.
Zog
Blackwing Lair Raider
- 1,810
- 2,338
I would wager nerfing charm at this point would do more harm than good, pidgeon holed into a boring holy Trinity group of mindless grinding is the last thing EQ needs for it's 8th set of TLPs.
Although it is by far the truest form of EQ grouping, after the mage armies and charm plowing, there's just simply no going back. The game really just needs more exciting forms of group Dynamics, charm is really cool in the sense the damage is nuts and when people got to enjoy that kind of power and xp, they liked it.
If classes could be changed for a leagueesque rebalancing for every TLP to switch up the dynamic for a revolving door of overpowered mechanics, I think the game could continue to be interesting and fun to play, even with the same content.
A TLP that has rogues doing retarded backstab damage or paladins having retarded undead procs, would be a welcome change to the norm and I think a lot of people would enjoy changes like that to try out the new meta for classes they would never even think about playing normally.
Although it is by far the truest form of EQ grouping, after the mage armies and charm plowing, there's just simply no going back. The game really just needs more exciting forms of group Dynamics, charm is really cool in the sense the damage is nuts and when people got to enjoy that kind of power and xp, they liked it.
If classes could be changed for a leagueesque rebalancing for every TLP to switch up the dynamic for a revolving door of overpowered mechanics, I think the game could continue to be interesting and fun to play, even with the same content.
A TLP that has rogues doing retarded backstab damage or paladins having retarded undead procs, would be a welcome change to the norm and I think a lot of people would enjoy changes like that to try out the new meta for classes they would never even think about playing normally.
Oh man, I can tell my story about how we saw a total of 1 plate pants between the time we started Elemental Planes and our first Tunat Muram on Live.
That's basically the entire story.
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DickTrickle
Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
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Xevy
Log Wizard
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You gotta remember most servers had a 3 guild rotation for mobs that only spawned every 3ish days. We're truly spoiled (and blessed) by DZ's. Because fuck that. Back on Live the best geared characters had 3-4 pieces of in-era loot, but most people had 1-2. Now if you don't leave an expac with at least 5 BIS you're a scrub.
DickTrickle
Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
- 13,509
- 15,763
Yeah, but that wouldn't be the case with Time, right? I mean, getting to it was an issue, but once you were there, couldn't you do it every week? I don't recall how it might have changed from its original incarnation.
But yeah, just in time we've had multiple pants of every type in just eight or nine weeks of clearing.
Arbitrary
Tranny Chaser
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Actually getting your own proper instance with everything working didn't happen right away. You'd zone in and get someone else's partial or full clear and have to wait a few days before you could roll the dice again. That shit was still happening when PoP was over a year old.
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