Also, as to the point of dedication to the game and putting time in. I have played every single day for the past two months. 18, Fighter/caster guild flags, 18 level 50 charms, 4 UC's, Fully geared 18 up to t4, multiple shield of ages, 3.0's on all 18 characters and trying to finish up my complete t4 so i can move into t5. It's not lack of dedication or willingness to put in the time and effort into the game. My issue stems solely on using Luck and RNG to progress.

The thing about losing players, what is the benefit of getting more players to stick around? for all intents and purposes this is a solo player game with box armies, there is no need to rely on others except for higher end players to not have to farm as much by buying items from lower players and in return helping those younger players with the massive plat sink that they have from the get go.

I truly don't want EZ to be easy. I love challenge, I crave it. I do not want to be one of those entitled players who think I deserve something just for logging in. Regardless, even if it doesnt change, I will still be here, chugging along because I do enjoy this server and the poeple on it. and in the end, as long as I am having fun that is all that matters.

I  didn't mean to start a fight with my original post. It was just my experience as a new player and what I perceive as flaws in the game mechanics for progression. Arbitrary time sinks just for the sake of being arbitrary doesn't add anything to the game, in fact it will indeed turn new players off. Even if you added a merchant that sells the gear, and put points. tokens whatever on the mobs through the tiers where at least you "feel" like your time invested payed off would make a huge difference. at least you could SEE that you were progressing instead of it just being random luck to get the drops you needed. I dont want to burn through a tier in a day. Yet again this was never my intent for the original point. but if you have to farm 1k mobs per piece of gear at least you could look at it and say, alright ive got 500 x things so far, just another 500 to get that item. and it would make sense. the same way that the UW, UC, Shield of Ages and tons of other items are set up. same way as collecting AA to upgrade your Ring of the Ages. Im just saying that relying on luck is not good game design. nor is adding in time sinks that everyone shares along the investment. I know everyone brings up t5 as a "well if you are having troubles previous to this, then you will quit when you hit t5."
My response is no, at least in t5 I have a Shining goal that I can track my progress with the 100 bosses needed to be killed, regardless of how long it takes. not a cross my fingers and pray like hell that my item drops from x mob.

In my case, I had 100 lightbring and 100 prince of darkness, out of the first stack not a single cleric piece dropped. on my next set of 100, not a single mage item dropped. add to the fact that tokens are complete random drop on which you get with lightbringer, prince of darkness and oceanlord seeming to be the most common drops and the fact that a low drop rate of tokens ( I had 4 times as many charms drop as I did tokens in 20 full clears). It makes it mind numbing for the grind with a single goal of just collecting tokens. Perhaps if each tier had multiple goals that you could work other that token/pages it might not be as bad.

This has been brought up before....The early tiers are not that difficult and if that little bit of a grind is turning folks off then they are going to straight nut up or die come to t5 or later tiers. I have been accussed in the past that I am bad about "back in the day we had to walk uphill barefooted in the snow" mentality but this server doesn't come out with new content every 6 months...so just relax and enjoy the ride...I mean grind.

Don't get me wrong Orthanos, I don't mind grinding. What I do mind however is spending over 100 tokens in t4 to get a single item and never seeing it just because i didnt happen to get lucky. Like i Said, I dont want to trivialize the content, that is not my intent at all. You are also absolutely correct that the challenge of the lower tiers isnt difficult however relying solely on RNG mechanics doesnt bring challenge to the game it just adds frustration. Lets be honest, from t1-t4 has 0 challenge other than getting lucky with what drops you need. There isnt a significant difficulty or skill needed to acquire any of these things just need a good lucky streak and voila you are done. I want to get into the meat of the game I don't mind spending a week or two grinding out what I need as long as in the end I know i will get it. The problem comes up, when with my limited experience, I have spent two weeks grinding t4 tokens just to see the same patterns drop over and over and over again. The lack of advancement is where the frustration comes in. Again, I don't want anything just handed to me. However if you put in the time and effort, you shouldn't have to rely on luck.

hey there folks,

Ive got a couple of ideas that might improve quality of life for new players trying to grab a toe hold on EZserver.

First off, is there a legitimate reason that spell research for only starts at t5 with inks dropping there and not in previous tiers? for the most part classes don't rely on spells as much as say necro's do, considering they have a specific quests that makes it mandatory to have all four of their dots before they can complete the death spell quest? I suggest inks starting to drop at lower tiers just to help out with this. in the long run I don't think this will effect any trivializing of the content as it just helps fill your spell roster.

Second off, it would be nice to see some sort of exchange merchant like in t1 for the lower to medium tiers probably only up through t4 as I have not reached higher than that. It becomes exceedingly frustrating to see drops that cant be used because you don't have x class and needing those 1-2 items to progress and it never drops.

I understand that no one wants to give out a free ride through progression and I completely agree. I want to earn what I get but having your advancement roadblocked by the RNG gods doesn't in my opinion add meaning in any useful way to the game. Even if it were a system of kill 1k x type of mobs in a quest like fashion or turn in x amount of tokens for a class token that your class can actually use would make significant improvements on the player side of things that feels like the work and grinding you have put in actually pays off.

As a new player, the frustration with drops takes it toil. With all of the other grinding you have to do, with strike augs, charms, shield of the ages, and the plethora of other grinds you can work through not even counting aa's for the ring of ages and mask of exp, having a complete RNG stop you from advancing due to not getting the drop you need is demoralizing to say the least.

Let me be clear, I am not asking for a hand out, or to trivialize the content. I am just asking for an alternate way to continue progressing without having a luck factor determining how far you can get. Personally I box 18 toons. Yes, it's my fault that I chose to do this. This in itself slows me down greatly and Im ok with that.  I just want my time invested to seem like it means something or the very least that i know I will progress without being road blocked by chance.

I am an old school gamer with the old school mentality of you get what you put forth, If you work for it, you should obtain it. I like the challenge, I don't want it easy, just to be on a more level playing field when it comes to what you can and can not do.

Anyways, feel free to blast away at these ideas, I am new and I will bow to the experience of those that have put more time and effort into the server to make it what it is. I am just coming from the point of view of a new player and seeing how things are up till the t4 level of things, If there are legitimate reasons for things being the way they are I would love to hear them. Regardless Ezserver is my home. We have a amazing player base with great people, and that alone makes it worth playing.

Thank you for your time.


-Vorthis