EQ1 - Developer Merloc on Upcoming Item Changes : EQ1 EverQuest 1 News

Calelena - *Swampfunk* Question: After recent posts on eqlive... 2handed weapons in TSS raids have been noted to have less upgrades when compared to the 1handed weapons, willl we be seeing any changes to the TSS 2handed weapons to help compensate for this lack of upgrading when compared to previous expansions weapons (mainly epic 2.5s)?

Merloc - I've been looking over the feedback for several weapons in TSS, and I'll be retuning several of them, including some of the two-handed weapons.

I've been working on reviewing and tuning TSS weapons the past few days, and I wasn't ready for them to go out with the patch tomorrow. I know a lot of people are concerned with weapons, obviously they are very important to class and game balance. I have been somewhat conservative with weapons, which I know upsets quite a few players... At this point, If I improve weapons too much, I'm concerned that players will use the weapons on me. 8(

I've still got a lot of feedback to go through, and more coming in on TBS weapons. I'm planning to have several weapon changes made for the next regular patch, and I'll be looking for feedback on the changes, and tuning more if needed.

Calelena - *Swampfunk* Question. Are there any plans to change the TSS class items, both single group and raid level? what sort of changes?
Merloc - I'm currently working on items for TBS... at this point, I'm working on adding mods to those items, as I'm doing that, I'm also adding more mods to several TSS group items.
Merloc - I'm planning for those changes to the TSS items to go out with the next patch.

I wasn't able to get these changes out with the TBS patch, but they should be going out tomorrow, I've added mods to several hundred TSS items for single group content... I've also modified/added mods on several raid items, and I've got a list of feedback I'm still going through.

Calelena - *ZigeeTR* Question for merloc, will the TBS armors at the end be like in TSS where they are CHEST mold generics, or like in PoP when it was lether, plate, etc type chest molds?
Merloc - The high end TBS Armor will not use molds... we are trying out a sort of raid point system where points are looted from boss mobs. Those points can be used to purchase class specific armor and items from a raid point vendor.

By now, most people should have some idea of how the point systems in TBS work. There was a lot of feedback during beta, and I think it resulted in some good changes to the system. The raid system is something of an experiment, and I'm hoping that it is a boon to raiders (which is the primary design concept)... I'm sure I'll be getting a lot of feedback on it.

Calelena - *Kela-the-Gypsy* Itemization Question - Ice focus is currently only available to a wizard on one item. Is there any change being made to the focuses available in TSS or are fixes getting passed over in favor of the new expansion? Wizards do the most with ice based spells and are restricted to a single item that many guilds probably cannot even kill seeing how it is one of the bosses of the entire expansion.

Merloc - I will be introducing new items with focus effects in TBS to cover deficiencies for specific classes... I am not planning to make any major changes to focus effects on TSS items, but I'm willing to look into specific instances that players bring to my attention... I'll make a note to look into ice focus for wizards, feel free to post or PM me with more information.

I'm still getting caught up on PMs, I try to respond to every one I get, and I'm looking into issues that come up in PMs, and on threads.

Calelena - *Kela-the-Gypsy* Itemization Question - When can we realistically expect changes made to the class specific items in TSS? Additionally, why is there no shaman only item?
Merloc - Part of the item changes I mentioned earlier includes the TSS class specific items, I'm going to be modifying several of them based on player feedback... As for the Shaman item, it is currently in the game, and is up on lucy as well... http://lucy.allakhazam.com/item.html?id=46703

Merloc - Just a clarification on the question about the Shaman only item, I linked the group item, not the raid item, which doesn't seem to have been discovered in game yet... it does exist, so I'll check and make sure there isn't a problem with the drop rate.

I haven't had a chance to track down the Shaman class raid item yet, but it's on my list (which is actually shrinking). I'm looking over feedback on the TSS class items (raid and group), and I'll be adjusting them over the next week or so, most of the changes involve the spell effects on the items, which takes longer than just general item issues.

Calelena - *Caio* Will the Algid Bag of Frozen Tears be given an Augment slot like the Vule's Frozen Heart had before it?
Merloc - I've just added a type 8 augment slot to it, so yes.

This should have been in game for a while now.

Calelena - *Illandra_RF* How many tier's of rewards will be in TBS and how will the levels compare to current loot? For example Tier 1 Elemental, Tier 2 Qvic, Tier 3 Anguish, Tier 4 Raid Level.

Merloc - There are going to be two main areas in TBS for single group content, with 4 tiers of items in each area ranging from 65 to 75+, in terms of item quality they will be about the same as TSS quality, but with one more tier that is above Ashengate / Frostcrypt level.

Merloc - For raiders, I believe there are 4 tiers of content that is more difficult than the endgame in TSS, and there will be items that match the content difficulty.

I think this should be fairly clear now.

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With tomorrows patch there is a lot of changes to items that I managed to squeeze in this morning for QA to check. I've fixed several bugs/issues with TBS items, and addressed several issues with TSS items. I've mentioned a few of them already, and I'm sure they will be talked about in the patch message threads tomorrow, so I won't go into much more detail for now... I should note that I added two more high single group silk bracers with disease and chromatic damage focus (thanks for the good idea) for TBS.

I've also increased the AC on high single group plate armor in TBS... I was overly conservative with the AC upgrades in TBS compared to other stats, and I'll be looking at leather armor for possible AC increases as well.

I'll be looking into several other issues that people have brought up in various threads over the next few weeks.

I am getting somewhat caught up with communications, I'm currently down to 4.2 post-it notes, 40ish PMs, 3 and 1/2 pages of email, and 72K of text note feedback... I'm sure people still have a lot more feedback to toss at me, I'll keep doing my best to address it as time allows.