EZ Server

To add some detail to my comment about CT essences on Maslow's T9 plat post - I've been farming the zone recently and averaging 1 CT essence every 30 minutes. I'm not pulling the entire zone, but doing a section at a time since running the whole zone for the millionth time has proven incredibly tedious, and many mobs often die one way or the other during the trip rendering the results less than optimal. I'm not posting this to argue how long it takes to get a CT essence. 30 minutes is my experience under the new instance system (since we can no longer stick by the pyramid), and with my play style.

For 100 essences for UW that's 3,000 minutes or 50 hours of farming a newbie zone with no loot to speak of outside of CT essences (which is also apparently a lot of folks' least favorite zone to pull). Personally, it has become my least favorite zone overall.

If you count essences for augs for a couple groups of toons, the new mana necks (4??), shield(s) of the ages, maybe another UW etc. we're talking easily 100-200+ hours of farming a zone with nothing to offer besides the occasional essence.

I know EZ is about the grind, but it's no surprise at all no one in their right mind wants to farm essences in this zone despite the fact that CT essences are used for everything. At least in Qvic there are plat bags, and you can run through the bosses so you know you will probably get at least one essence every 10 minutes. Qvic essences also aren't needed for augs at all, dropping the demand significantly. For later essences you can look forward to the rare GSOA drop, AA crystals and other goodies.

CT essences are also especially rare as newbies will often use them to make early level augs instead of selling. Additionally, EZ hasn't had many new players recently (as evidenced by the emptiness of Surefall Glade) - so the influx of CTE has gone down.

To put this into perspective, I've taken at least thirty toons through all of their required gear in CT, and farmed probably twice that much time for just the essences alone, and all together I've collected somewhere between 60 and 80 essences from the zone - total. Not nearly enough for one UW, and not nearly enough to create augs for my core toons let alone other items.

There is an economic reason why GSOA and CT essences are trading for ridiculous prices. GSOA because it almost never drops, and CT essence for the reasons above.

Hate - I think you should review the drop rate of CT essences, or at the very least consider adding something to the drop pool in CT to make the experience less daunting for everyone. Maybe you could adjust it so CT bosses drop the essences as a common drop similar to Qvic, and add rare plat bags or something.

As it is I will get mine done just as everyone else has, but I have no problem seeing this reviewed for future players. Now, cue the "everything is too easy" folks with 4 UWs:

I would be happy with 1 every 30 min ... lately it seem like 1 per hour to 1.5 hours for me

Add plat bags to CT

Add Ct essences to pool for t2-t4 daily.

Everyone is happy.

Hmmm, I just geared 3 toons in CT.   I came out of there with 14 CT essences.   That was not even full clears.   

Drop rate in CT has always been a point of contention.     Scrap CT as the zone blows chunka, I mean chunks and bring back Tacvi!


Pro tip:   If mobs die during pulls, take your weapon off.

I liked Tacvi

Cazic Thule was one of my two favorite zones on old live - but it's so bland and tedious on EZ

Adding CT to Dranik would help the problem

I get 2-3 a clear ...clear in 10 min I only avoid the tunnel at zone in because it doesn't connect with the rest of the zone....take out uw pull zone takes 10ish min with loot looking at 4-5 clear an hour so 8-15 an hour so 6ish hours...if you hardcore grind it...so that's pretty quick ct has one of the highest drop rates of ess per change of Hunter as they drop off trash and named at similar rates unlike other zones

Agree with Ishallnotdie ... CTs are as easy as Qvic. Oh, I don't have multiple UWs yet ... been back farming.  If its a progression thing ... suck it up, that's what progression means.  But they are dropping as Hunter last left them.

Seem slower for me.....maybe just bad run of RNG. During DLW I did 22 clears for 46 essences (avoiding sewers, clearing everything else). Today I did 9 clears for 4 essences.

I did two clears zero essences today. Very discouraging.

50 hours seems about right, during Christmas double loot last year - I did CT essences in a 27 hour straight grind (minus the servers 5 AM reboot) down time period.

this is a horrible horrible mind numbing grind..

why do we want these types of things to be the checks on this server? CAN YOU STAY AWAKE TOTALLY borred for 50 hours....congratz!

fuck...

sorry...

any ideas to improve this?

Update: I was able to get a couple essences on a couple of clears. I honestly believe I am averaging 0-2 essences per clear max, so maybe one per clear if I'm really generous.

Regardless, it's not the same as Qvic. You have to pull the entire zone (apart from sewer since it's a wasted area) in order to get one essence. In Qvic, I averaged 1.5 essences per clear, and it was significantly easier to pull the bosses. I was able to clear Qvic in 6 minutes flat, that's 1.5 essences every 6 minutes. CT takes significantly longer to clear, there is risk of death, you need to catch every mob, and the zone sucks the life force out of you it's so boring. Qvic was a pain. A test if you will. CT is just a waste of time.

The problem with CT is, the essences are needed way more than Qvic essences, the drop rate is extremely low and you have to kill every mob for the opportunity. Additionally, CT is not built for zone pulling. It's the worst zone in the game to do this due to it's size, the distance between mobs, the tiny halls, dead-ends, doors and all the pitfalls. As a tank who just entered T9, I am forced to remove all weapons and ds buffs to avoid killing the mobs, and even with full T8 gear, one bad move can spell disaster as I'm hit 1000+ times for 1000+ dmg in an instant, forcing me to clear the current group before moving on. God forbid you accidentally kill them too close to a wall or you won't be able to loot all the corpses. Considering 90% of the zone is made of up tiny hallways from 1999 this can and does happen. Also, in CT you must loot every corpse, while in Qvic, you can loot just the bosses. The two zones don't even compare.

Personally, I'm not a fan of zone pulling to begin with. I never did it with drake in higher tiers, and I hate feeling like I have to do it with CT. It doesn't feel like I'm playing a fantasy mmorpg when all I'm doing is running around tiny maze-like halls pulling a thousand weak lizards for 50 hours. Some of you seem to enjoy this - no idea why. I prefer to pull small groups of mobs, always have. Didn't Hate nerf Skin specifically because he didn't want us pulling zones? In that case CT is even harder.

As I said before, every other zone that drops essences provides incentives beyond just the essence, they are more fun to play and navigate, and the time/reward ratio seems on par.

CT is the exception. It's an outlier in the mix. Anyone who says farming CT essences isn't a bottle neck of unreasonably boring boredom-filled painfully tedious lizard puke pie is kidding themselves.

I've seen higher tier folks on this server pay lowbies to farm CT for them that's how bad it is. Literally, not like "wtb ct essences" - I'm talking "if you farm 20 CTE for me I will pay you 20mil plat" or whatever. That's how you know it's a problem.

That combined with the fact that no one ever has CT essences just lying around. Ever.

Never Ever.  :P

Not everyone is going to get all the shinies.

Funny how the people complaining the server is to easy blah blah are on here complaining that it's not far enough and they are getting stunned to much and the server is to hard...you guys need to get on some xanax

if every item is within everyone's grasp, then nothing is special.    Part of mmorpgs is that you get out what you put in.    If you choose to sit in nexus and or write buff bot macros during your play time, so be it, you get what you put in.   

all mmorpgs had some element of grind and or bottlenecks.     Lets look at EQ live.   When epics first came out, they were difficult to obtain.   You had to jump through a lot of hoops.    Not everyone was capable and or willing to jump through those hoops so therefore not everyone got the epics.     

Everything should not be easy.   Everything should not be just given to everyone.   That entire concept diminishes the value of the items.

Stop bitching that things are too hard and get your candy asses into the grind.    Less talk more grind == more items. 

Grind? shit i dont mind grind... I would like to enjoy the GAME...you know...game... its a game...this is not some way to prove how badass you are in real life... its a freaking game..

Game should be fun...

we can identify parts that are not fun we can improve them..


I am not saying it should be click click reward but if I have to click 2000000 times for a reward ..make the clicking at least fun...in some way..

If the game is not fun for you, I would suggest taking a break.   A couple months off then come back, the game is fun again.

This is a farm game...and especially this server is a farm server...get over it.. all these Damn "oh this is to hard" fixes is taking away from new content stfu and play or quit either way stfu

It's a suggestion board. To quote Peign, just asking for a review - nothing more. Don't get your panties in a bunch :P If you don't like the suggestion just ignore it. Also, if we don't want to adjust the drop rates, my suggestion was to add something to the drop pool to make it less mind numbingly boring since we have to loot every single corpse. Either that or add CT ess to Dranik drop pool so we at least have another option for farming.

These are easy solutions imho and in no way make it less difficult. Just because Hunter had it set one way before doesn't mean we can't change it. Remember how often charms used to drop in LDON? Things can and should change sometimes after reassessment.

Just because you don't like the zone and don't want to be there doesn't mean it should be easier ...ct has one if the highest ess per hour rates out if all tiers

Disagree respectfully. Your numbers don't add up.

Regardless I already explained it doesn't have to be "easier" - just less boring.

Armor in CT is cake. Nothing wrong with the armor drops in CT. If ANYTHING armor farming in CT is easier. Essences....not so much.

All for keeping UW difficult. It should be. What bugs me is that CT essences are the very first rank needed for strikes, and strikes just plain are not optional.

I'm farming a set of 100CT atm for a UW. Its a pain in the ass....and it should be. But....newer players arriving on the server are told strikes and UC are musts (because they are) and they face CT. Yesterday I did 9 clears of CT for 4 essences. During double loot I did 22 clears for 46 essences. That means, if the rate remains constant I will need to do 225 non DL clears of CT to finish a UW. Ok, cool, I can do that. But it also means 9 clears to get 2 NS rank 2 for a newbie monk. For a newer player thats a bit rough. I am not saying change the drop rate.....I am saying, again, that using the same materials NEEDED for necessary items for starting players as a throttle for UW rarity isnt a smart idea. I am saying we need to separate the two. Yeah, keep UW rare and hard to get.....and if anything make it harder! But dont do it by simultaneously punishing newer players. We have decent "gut checks" for newer players as it is, and they get progressively harder as you go. But to have it this big a bottleneck at the first rank strikes I think isnt something we wanna do to newer players.

Again, separate UW from strikes/SOA/Mana neck. SLS are enough of a crossover. Dont compound issues by also keeping essences as a crossover item.

Watch, maybe we're seeing different drop rates. I get OC essences easier and more reliably than I get CT atm.

Besides revamping content (which ct is the revamp of tacvi) you can't make it less boring unless you add new content like I said... and it is I got 37 ess in 15 clears ... if you are having issues getting items to drop..try something new...like creating a new instance under a different toon...seems to work well for me... either way just because you feel it's to hard (which it definitely is not) doesn't mean hate should take away from new content to work on it....I think you don't get that new content is where the game gains stature.... going and adjusting old tiers ruins the content...which I have stated with every content change...all it does force more content adjustment for other tiers till the game is broke...which at this point it kinda is

This is exactly my point. It's not that I think getting a UW should be easier. I agree with Chunka go ahead and make it harder! It's the fact that CT essences are used for EVERYTHING - and it's a nightmare for all players, including newbies. Additionally, farming them is like plucking eyebrows and nose hairs. It sucks big time. There is a difference between difficult, and just plain boring or annoying. Right now farming CT is a headache, and a bottleneck for newbie augs as well. To fix the boredom for UW farmers we could add CT ess to Dranik, and maybe add plat bags to CT. To fix it for newbies, we could put the essences on boss mobs only and up the drop rate significantly, since they are unable to clear the zone like we do.

Watch your drop rates are not typical. You're having tremendous luck in CT - or your recollection is inaccurate. Personally, I liked Tacvi a lot more than CT - not sure why it isn't still an option for those of us who find CT mind-numbingly boring.


The game is not broken. It's a thousand times better and more interesting than it was when I last left (almost two years ago). The content has expanded rapidly, the server runs like a well-oiled supercar, and there is much more to do with mini dungeons and tiers etc.

Adjusting CT would be just another improvement in a long line of improvements under Akkadius and Hate. Not sure how you could possibly think things aren't significantly better nowadays.

That's because people QQ hg was to hard and hate put it on ez mode to shut people up... now t9ess are just as common as t6


And I have stated that uw has been ess based to long for it to change now... if we were to change it where would the stockpiles of ess.go? The few new players who join rarely ? ... most quit at or before t5 so then what?...on top of the fact of what your previous suggestions to fix uw requires you to farm old zones which means more stockpiles of useless.ess... as I said at this point the only way to fix it is new content and stick to your guns... dont let people.bully you into making the new content easier... besides a.full blown server revamp.new content is the only true fix...but everyone wants old shit worked on so we are sitting here doing farms waiting for new.content. my guess is you guys aren't looting all the corpses or are missing the loots themselves... I got those ct ess in about 3-4 hours play time... t6 and maybe t5 are the only 2 zones I have been able to match our exceed that drop rate... and well as I said t9 is the new t6 not all zones should be so trivial.


 I've helped numerous.New people... haven't had a single one complain about ess drop rate... only older geared players that are to lazy to farm... keep that in mind...I don't see a SINGLE ONE on here saying it's to hard...just people who don't like the zone

Come on Watch we all loot the corpses. You're missing the point. It's not about making it easier necessarily. The boredom can be fixed in other ways. Putting CT ess in Dranik, or putting them on bosses, adding some other type of loot to CT, bringing Tacvi back as an optional zone for gear / essences etc.


Most newbs don't even understand the value of essences until they are forced to make their strike augs - which sometimes doesn't happen till T3/T4 and T5. You don't hear them complain because they don't know. Maybe when the find out they quit :P

As much as chunka hits his wiki hotkey people know they need augs... when I help I tell them...and those ess I got were from leveling up new chars ...So the drop rate is on par with aug/soa possession...you're just bored and want it even more easier than it already is... and every suggestion you have made has said that

Okay you win.

Newbies know CT essences are needed for everything as soon as they log on and they're immensely happy with the zone.

My experience is very different, but I think you're an expert on this so I'll defer to you.

Hate please don't review Cazic Thule - Watch has convinced me it's too easy and lots of fun as is. Also, even if it isn't - since he had to do it the hard / boring way, we wouldn't want to improve the experience for new players. It wouldn't be fair to Watch.

The boredom issue is there for me, yeah....but I can pull a Dimur and just watch TV while I farm. No biggie. Mostly my issue is that UW shouldnt use as a rarity bottleneck an item that is required for advancement.

And as for the people who claim, "Oh, you got yours, Chunka, now you wanna slow all of us down". Well, you're entitled to your opinions no matter how f'ing stupid they may be, but there are three issues with that claim:

1) Been saying this for well over a year in game and on the forums....back when the highest UW I had was rank 2 or 3.

2) I have right now 2 characters I am working on UW, and neither is over rank 2

3) My goal is to make breaking in to starter content less hellish for newer players. Strikes have a bigger impact than UW. You CAN progress without a UW (plenty have) but you really cannot progress without strikes or at least their caster counterpart.

Oh, and lastly......honestly I could give a shit how someone else does compared to me on EZ. I dont compete with others here, because I find that rather silly. Hell, I cant even begin to count the number of players I helped here.....in some cases within the last year....who are well beyond me in gear, stats, etc. If anything I'm kind of proud of that.

Again, dont give a shit what ya do to UW.....I think if anything it needs to be harder, and many of the posters here have stated as much numerous times. My issue is that you shouldnt so closely tie UW to strikes/SoA/etc.

And sorry, Watch, but again our experiences differ. I know of several people I have helped who've cleared CT numerous times on their own with poor results while farming for their first strikes on a team....and they spent one hell of a lot more time, effort and farming than I did when I did it in Tacvi per essence....all because of ultimate weapons.

Make a new team pl to 70 hit qvic spend the week farming there hit ct spend the week farming there...see how many ess you end up with...odds are you'll end up with 75% or more of the ess you'll need for augs/soa(which you won't be able to farm eon yourself till t4/t5) so what you suggest is to make it easier for you... and yea the content is trivial but the end result is uws make higher tiers easier...that's the end thought...as it stands qvic ct t7 t8 ate the wanted ess because they aren't as easy to come by...I seen 100 dmjr being sold for 8 mil then dropped to 7.5 mil the other day... that is nuts. .it's to easy...nice to have a time sink

I never worked on strikes in any capacity until I go to T4, I have never and will never understand how anyone can claim that the current system is somehow hindering people from being able to progress. Even if you are doing CT in relevant gear, I don't think it's an unreasonable return on investment. The last few stacks of essences I have farmed here have been at a 2 per 3 clears rate.

Totally, completely wrong.

While you were typing this I did another clear with zero essences  ???

I deal with boredom via trolling.   It's all fun and games until you get put on /ignore!

LOL

Totally, completely wrong

That's what it looks like when someone summarily dismisses anything you've said because it doesn't agree with your own point of view, and it also subjects your own view to be dismissed as completely false in kind.

Y'all are arguing about the 'newer' players. Well, I'm a newer player (I'm finishing T4 when I actually play), and here's my 2cp.

CT was hell compared to Qvic. mobs hit A LOT harder, I could literally only tank 2-3 hits on my warrior before he died. I had 6 toons initially when I went through, then I grabbed another 6 sometime around when I was finishing T2. The small corridors and seemingly randomly-placed mobs made traveling a nightmare, and I couldn't realistically pull things either. Eventually I got gear and life got better, and I geared out my toons, and then I geared out my second group of toons. I loved the openness of qvic compared to the enclosed nature of CT, so (of course) I mostly stuck to the pyramid in CT.

But we aren't talking about the zone and how to get through it as a newb, we're talking about essences. Well, I went through the zone in two discrete time periods, raising 2 groups of toons. I got somewhere around 40 essences during that period. I've only made NS so far (i'm broke), but I've had plenty of essences for them, and I have 1 of each NS class (monk, rogue, ranger, beastlord, bard). Granted, I don't have those two-slot weapons yet, so I only have 2 augs per person isntead of 4. But if I continue to have enough DPS to ignore FS/IS and focus NS, when I get into T5, then... I still have enough CT essences!

tl;dr: I don't think there's a problem with essence drop rate, from a newbie essences requirements standpoint. I never saw TACVI, I think it would be interesting to see it come back as an option, but see no problem with CT now that mobs don't kill me :P

I got to t9 only augin out 3 toons

Eh

make tacvi an expedition add tacvi and qvic essences along with loot for qvic-t1 people.

Dont make anything focus on t10


Or better yet...Make every named have 100% chance to drop an ess in every zone... that will make it less boring right?.... just leave shit alone...hell leave skin the way it is too who cares...just adjust

Lol like we said auto lvl 78 at character creation let's do it!

Forget everything I said I just figured out a way to farm CT 100x faster  :o

Finally figure out the zone connects in all areas

Nah something way better.  ;D

You finally left Nexus?

Bingo

Its working!  :o

thats tricky looting them on a toon that only loots the essence..lets see a time stamp on them loots

4 mobs 4 essences :)

Grats man.   It is amazing what can be accomplished once you actually leave the Nexus.

Now, please proceed to farm me the last 4 bosses and 3 pieces of armor (armor required for progression seriously?) from T5.