I honestly don't feel that a decked meelee walks all over a decked mage/communer as it is. I do believe there may be a small advantage to the meelee but not the night and day advantage you guys seem to be alluding to. Same with ill clad mage vs ill clad warrior. Yes' date=' there is an advantage to the mage but I don't think it is insurmountable or an instant death to the meelee.[/quote']
I didn't mean to give the impression that I think the advantage is incredibly huge in either case... a poor choice of phrasing on my part. I agree entirely.
increased xp weekends on tha regular
Consumables need adjustment, removal or a far quicker decay time (obviously, stable items like cure blind excluded) as they offer classes that shouldn't have access to certain abilities plentiful access. Sure, you have to have time to gather these however that just further stacks the advantage to those with superfluous amounts of time on their hands. Those who already have the time to get all the greatest EQ around and progress quicker through the cabal ladder.
Locating some consumables as a cleric, I was amazed to find what some people were able to collect and carry around. It bordered on insanity.
I think that non scrolls/staves/wands 'cure ?' HP spells should be practically non existent. Also some herbs should be turned to potions.
For example, the Heart thing. You can stack tons of it and completely recover a large part of life. It can be hoarded, but it takes time. It would make more sense to have another kind of item, like a med-kit (bandages, etc) that granted FIELD Dressing. Field dresing gives 50-250 HP, but it has quite a cool down time. Same as acupuncture.
It also makes sense to have a smokable Herb that grants Herb.
Also why can you smoke in combat. It completely destroyed the potion balance, as there is no reason to get a potion if you can get a herb of the same effect.
Back on topic for me:
I don't know if I agree or disagree with the notion that this would put a rift in the game. I believe it was successful in bringing back some vets, and that mixing it with reduced training times, cabal outfits, moderate heroes, and the fact that there have been IMMENSE changes and new content on a REGULAR basis, should be enough to bring back a few players. I know of two or three including myself who returned because of this exp bonus.
I will give you a little example of what I went through. I created my hero and like usual I was forced to level alone. All the way to 25 solo with a spell type hero where I eventually hit a point where I really couldn't solo level effectively anymore. There was NEVER a possibility to join a group. I asked every person who logged on. I eventually had to turn into quest ranking. When I hit level 35 I was then able to join into a group with a lvl 48 through a level 41. Even with the bonus exp I was barely getting what you would of gotten in a regular old fashioned group. I think in total, and if I go high, maybe 10 ranks in total were achieved in a group by the time I hit 50.
All I have to say is thank goodness the quest exp was increased because it is actually an effective way to rank up and opens the door to being completely self reliant. So all in all, the exp bonus never really helped me hit 50. I came back because I thought I would have some good FL numbers in terms of players to level with but that just wasn't the case. I kept playing because there is so much potential. With recent updates and game content being introduced and things being fixed the game doesn't become stagnant and hopefully we can use events like these to show that to old and new players alike.
I saw there was a question about doing an add compaign for FL, but if we decided to do that we will need to step up as players as well. Attitudes towards ill experienced people/players, upping activity so you can to show higher numbers and more activity, etc. Obviously player and immortal RP events. There are tons of ideas, but you need to polish the product before advertising it! 
I think that non scrolls/staves/wands 'cure ?' HP spells should be practically non existent. Also some herbs should be turned to potions.
For example, the Heart thing. You can stack tons of it and completely recover a large part of life. It can be hoarded, but it takes time. It would make more sense to have another kind of item, like a med-kit (bandages, etc) that granted FIELD Dressing. Field dresing gives 50-250 HP, but it has quite a cool down time. Same as acupuncture.
It also makes sense to have a smokable Herb that grants Herb.
Also why can you smoke in combat. It completely destroyed the potion balance, as there is no reason to get a potion if you can get a herb of the same effect.
so what stops you from using herb then eating hearts afterward? and hearts dont cure disease or poison.
so what stops you from using herb then eating hearts afterward? and hearts dont cure disease or poison.
No comprendo...
so what stops you from using herb then eating hearts afterward? and hearts dont cure disease or poison.
She was saying get rid of the hearts entirely, then introduce an herb that gives herb or med-kits that give field dressing.
She was saying get rid of the hearts entirely' date=' then introduce an herb that gives herb or med-kits that give field dressing.[/quote']
Aye, Mya is well know in wanting to change the game in a way it would suit her playstyle.
Luckily our immortals don't fall for it
I'm not too far removed from her opinion myself. Get rid of the hearts, get rid of red/white staffs, tone down the melee power-spike and communers a bit or give pure casters a small boost... whatever it takes to get this game back to being less reliant on consumables. I do not like melees and mages having access to cure spells through consumables - it helps out powergamers and people with excess time on their hands while making everything more difficult for the rest of us. There were plenty of fights I had with Daenaer that I could not have won without consumables - often because of the consumables my opponent had access to, often because a truly decked melee will more often than not outdamage an invoker no matter how decked the invoker is and curatives kept me in the fight longer when otherwise I'd have had to retreat, allowing them to heal just as much as I would (I learned back in 1.0 that invokers don't out-heal anything).
There is certainly an argument to be made in favor of consumables having power - it is a reward for people who put in extra time, and I get that, I honestly do. Having people on, even if they are spending most of that time just farming or sitting off in a corner somewhere gaining cps, is a boost to the mud, and encouraging that is a very good thing. My own periods of playing tend to work well in this regard - I tend to go months without playing, then spend a few months playing a crapton, so the need to farm consumables hasn't been a problem for me at all. While Daenear may have needed curatives against a number of enemies, I had the time to kill while I was playing him to farm them sufficiently (I think he had 50 red and white staffs in his pack when I retired him, as well as two of the uber-healing scrolls), and so for me personally it wasn't a big issue - but for more casual players it is a significant one, and all I'm talking about is simple healing consumables. For a melee, the issue is often far worse, as a lot of power is to be gained from AC-buffs, frenzy, haste, etc. that the classes themselves don't have access to, and to remain competitive when not a Gladiator often requires a lot of consumable use (when a Glad, it's just cabal consumables, and those I have far less issue with - cabals should have perks).
I'm kind of just rambling here... I don't have much of a coherent point to make beyond my dislike of how important consumables have become over the years. It's not just how classes and eq have developed that have caused it, even - it's also that the playerbase is quite small and many of those that remain have been here for a very long time and have learned many of the small secrets of the game. Removing those does nothing to help the charm of the game, but it leaves me without anything helpful to offer as a suggestion... so my apologies for the rant, but here it is. 
Instead of making a huge post, Pali, go ingame and gather 20 hearts
Instead of making a huge post' date=' Pali, go ingame and gather 20 hearts
Bite me.
What about a compromise. We introduce a malus to the hearts, like a chance to catch a decent duration plague. And introduce the "med-kid".
Then watch what the player base do.
What about a compromise. We introduce a malus to the hearts, like a chance to catch a decent duration plague. And introduce the "med-kid".
Then watch what the player base do.
You kidding me? What kind of a compromise is that compared to the current situation? Lol.
How about we remove cure critical from clerics, they don't need it anyway hm?
I've used nymph hearts with my melees only a handful of times, and that was only when I was fighting Invoker-clerics. Those scrolls combined with hearts and red-white staffs make it very uphill of you don't use hearts.
I think hearts should be removed. Same with the scroll. Same with the buy-able damiana leaves which cure serious. Warmasters using those piss me off - especially with the ease at which they're acquired.
All consumables should be reworked IMO. And classes should be balanced based on their skills/spells etc, and all HP cure consumables I would love to see removed, save maybe some high end rare scrolls and such. Buyable smokable cure serious herbs? Are you kidding me? How would you lose.....
I'd propose making consumables have unique effects that are different from class spells/skills, making class spells/skills more meaningful. But I would certainly settle for removing the immense access to heals, buyable is just not very ideal because you don't even have to grind for it.
I think hearts should be removed. Same with the scroll. Same with the buy-able damiana leaves which cure serious. Warmasters using those piss me off - especially with the ease at which they're acquired.
Are you kidding me?
Those leaves cost A LOT. They rot fast and you can't even get your money back from killing the merchant... Good luck on spending 200k gold on something you won't even use. You can go ahead and remove that. Noone uses those anyway...
A lot of people in this thread, starting with Mya, are pulling stuff from their asses.
That scroll though needs to be removed. Healing 300 HP in 1 second is just too much. Not to mention that after the rare change there are a lot of those around.
Are you kidding me?
A lot of people in this thread, starting with Mya, are pulling stuff from their asses.
Good stuff, I respect your opinion as well.
I'm a guy who abuses those cures bud, so I have every right to say I don't agree with their existence. Thanks for playing.
I don't agree that there is a class that has the melee output of a warrior, the defensive spells of a battlemage and offensive spells of an invoker that has cure critical, but I don't whine left and right about it.
Also, using something the way it is intended is not abusing.
Left and right? First time I've mentioned it. Tell you what, if you want to have a real conversation some time without getting aggressive, we can. I'll show you how many cures I can stack within 1 hour game time and laugh because I have basically 3 lives with a non cure class, yet still hold the much higher offensive abilities a cure class doesn't have access to, nor do they have access to them with any means of quick quaff potions or brandishing staves or reciting scrolls.
Why are you getting so defensive mate? I wasn't talking about you... I mentioned Mya's name a few times... jeez, the world doesn't revolve around you.
Because, you quoted a direct comment that I agreed with then went on to flame the people who agreed with it. Then there is your signature I just read and it all begins to make sense.
I get defensive when people get offensive. I get defensive when people start getting aggressive and name calling when people are expressing opinion. Anyway, I'm not going to bicker with you. Just tone down the language a bit and how about taking the approach of explaining why our opinions are misinformed and try to sway us rather than just tell us all we are pulling things out of our rear?