U51 My Perspective

[jskinner937]

Over the years, I have came to the conclusion, the ultimate currency in DDO is…

Not Platinum
Not Astral Shards
Not Raid or Normal Loot
Not Threads of Fate or other Rare End Game Ingredients
Not Mysterious Remnants

It’s Experience. Experience is the only thing that you never get nerfed. When Reaper Difficulty was introduced, it added another currency to the game. The same with Epic Destinies.

My perspective is the real reason for the upcoming changes is to renew the push to earn experience. Currently epic levels have little value other than level gating your gear. They were designed at the time with little thought into DDO surviving 7 more years. Now, however the game is continuing and many have grounded the experience needed to complete their character. So that means less XP pots bought in the store. Since gear continues to become outdated, there is little value to purchase an expansion pack, especially the more expensive ones. The new EDs will force players to grind more experience for more ED points. It may not be the case initially for those with completed EDs, however I believe DDO did well with the introduction of racial lives and I see the new ED system soon to follow that model. Since gear is no longer valuable, all the power of your character now predominately comes from build points. More Heroic APs and soon to be EDs will be the largest contributor of your characters power. I guess if you want to continue to play the game on any difficult level, you must endure the grind.

BTW, I stand to gain vs most for this change before you respond. I just do not like this upcoming change. I have had many friends over the years leave due to changes like this. Not having gear to make up the power creep is going to make it worse for those that do not grind and I am confident many more will leave after u51.

[FableFan]

Over the years, I have came to the conclusion, the ultimate currency in DDO is…

Not Platinum
Not Astral Shards
Not Raid or Normal Loot
Not Threads of Fate or other Rare End Game Ingredients
Not Mysterious Remnants

It’s Experience. Experience is the only thing that you never get nerfed. When Reaper Difficulty was introduced, it added another currency to the game. The same with Epic Destinies.

My perspective is the real reason for the upcoming changes is to renew the push to earn experience. Currently epic levels have little value other than level gating your gear. They were designed at the time with little thought into DDO surviving 7 more years. Now, however the game is continuing and many have grounded the experience needed to complete their character. So that means less XP pots bought in the store. Since gear continues to become outdated, there is little value to purchase an expansion pack, especially the more expensive ones. The new EDs will force players to grind more experience for more ED points. It may not be the case initially for those with completed EDs, however I believe DDO did well with the introduction of racial lives and I see the new ED system soon to follow that model. Since gear is no longer valuable, all the power of your character now predominately comes from build points. More Heroic APs and soon to be EDs will be the largest contributor of your characters power. I guess if you want to continue to play the game on any difficult level, you must endure the grind.

BTW, I stand to gain vs most for this change before you respond. I just do not like this upcoming change. I have had many friends over the years leave due to changes like this. Not having gear to make up the power creep is going to make it worse for those that do not grind and I am confident many more will leave after u51.

Indeed. Many people bought expansions and paid for astral shards to reroll to obtain the newer and somewhat improved gear (from Ravenloft to Sharm to Feywild, anyway), then that got to no longer be what they paid to get. Now the epic destinies people have done grinding for are no longer unlocked and the new system gets 'rid of some things we relied upon, such as the ability to twist in cocoon without having to sacrifice what else we are using for a tree that could be entirely useless otherwise for our builds. I am now stuck in 2 trees that are for just 1 ability each and have lost a lot of capabilities even at level 30 with all points spent due to the changes, rendering my build subpar for content on epic elite that used to be a breeze on epic elite and epic reaper 1-3 just before the epic destiny system change. If nothing else, I would say bring cocoon to the first destiny feat choice (level 22).

[Certon]

Because I abhor Reaper Mode, I build everything around solo play. I want every build to be self-sufficient and only in rare circumstances should I NEED a hireling. The solo grind for a meager few points is EVIL.