Class Tiers / Class Progression and AA's

Rictis

Hey, 

So I apologize in advance if someone has already posted this, but lately there has been a ton of new threads for EQN. It may have been shown or it may be released later but I was wondering if anyone knew more about the following:

Define Class Tiers and how they work?

Define Class progression?

Will there be AA's or something simmilar?

 

I watched the class panel and I liked what I heard, there were a few red flags but hopefully they will listen to community feedback if need be. I don't understand how class tiers are obtained and how that plays a role in the tiered area design. What I mean in, one of the devs stated that you would need to be a tier 3 class to venture in a specific area. I assume that this hints towards some sort of alternate advancement system or perhaps the tiers in reference to classes has to do with crafted or modified skills etc. My other question is if they base class progression on experiance / time used or perhaps just obtained classes.

newbinator

I hope there is an AA type of system.

ignore_me

Originally posted by newbinator
I hope there is an AA type of system.

Isn't AA just something you tack on over the top of a level system to keep players progressing vertically? I like to have progression, but I don't know if this is something they would have until the game aged quite a bit. They talked about being able to add more classes as the game ages, so maybe that is one way that you progress.

They mentioned something in one of the panels about endgame or difficult content requiring tier 3 or 4 skills to reach and survive. I'm wondering if this means a tier 4 shadowknight, for instance, is a topped out SK.

wizardanim

Originally posted by ignore_me

Originally posted by newbinator
I hope there is an AA type of system.

Isn't AA just something you tack on over the top of a level system to keep players progressing vertically? I like to have progression, but I don't know if this is something they would have until the game aged quite a bit. They talked about being able to add more classes as the game ages, so maybe that is one way that you progress.

They mentioned something in one of the panels about endgame or difficult content requiring tier 3 or 4 skills to reach and survive. I'm wondering if this means a tier 4 shadowknight, for instance, is a topped out SK.

That is a good question.  With their statement similar to 'tactics are a bit more important than roles', I wonder if the term 'shadowknight' now just relates to an available skill set to accomplish a goal.  Roles become an abstract concept in this sense, and your playstyle implements the role, instead of just picking the role from a list.

asdar

This is what I think we know officially about tiers and gear and such. It's from a panel interview, I think it was Darrin McPherson answering

Quote---------So our progression system is not based on levels, it’s based on tiers. There’s a shallow tier pool, because one of our focuses is on horizontal gameplay. We definitely have vertical gameplay, where a player increases in power in a particular class, but remember, there’s 40 classes. There’s a lot of classes out there to gain, and each one of these is advanced individually.

It’s based on player accomplishments. It’s not skill based, so you don’t have to use your mace over and over again to level your mace skill up. But your tier three warrior, in order to advance to tier four, has to collect a full suit of tier three armor. You have to have spent enough points in that class. You have to have accomplished a certain amount of things in the game in order to have advanced.

It’s not grinding XP. It’s not completing a thousand quests or whatever it is. That’s just not how it is. And we reward you with advancement in lots and lots of different ways. Whether it be participating in a Rallying Call, or doing quests, or engaging in any emergent AI that happens to be near you-----------End Quote

Kiyoris

I think the character tiers might correlate to the underground tiers.

Arcona

40 classes, each one is advanced individually. There are tiers. A tier three warrior, in order to advance to tier four, has to collect a full suit of tier three armor. You have to have spent enough points in that class. You have to have accomplished a certain amount of things in the game in order to have advanced.

Cannot progress both a paladin and a shadow knight at the same time. Basically you have to do bad things to get friendly with the SK people so you can up the SK skills, but you have to do good things to get in nice with the paladin folks to get trained in paladin things.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/08/03/everquest-next-interview/

Dracock

Pretty good info on what we do know the dev's stated here. I don't have a link handy, but I think there was also some reference to unlocking more rare abilities through the PvE content. Also something about needing levels in other classes to unlock special abilities for your original class. Considering  that 4 skill slots are open for any class ability, you will probably need to collect a lot of classes to min/max for a variety of situations.

Wild Guesswork:

I'm guessing for a lot of the content you can probably just stick to you're warrior, mage, or whatever. You will be able to tier it up and gain access to the "late game" relatively easy. However, to completely maximize your potential and be more suitable for the top content, you will most likely need a lot of classes and a few gear sets minimum.

The separation between progression players and more casual / laid back types, will most likely be the number of classes and gear sets. 6 months into launch, I'll bet you average player may have around 2-3 classes leveled with a good set of gear for their main role (decent for others). The power gamers on the other hand, will probably have 9-12 classes progressed with 3-4 sets of really good gear.

I expect the top content to require players to use a lot of different skills/gear sets. Where as most content will be fine with a max level rogue or whatever with good gear. There probably won't be a massive power difference between the hardcore and casual gear, because game companies cave to the self-entitled casual crowd every time.

Rictis

Hey,

 

Thanks for the replies ... I was hoping there would be something more specific available and that I just missed it. Although I would love it if you had to do nice things to acomplish paladin advancement and bad thinks for shadow knight. However with 40 classes I sure hope they don't start copying requirements for some of the classes etc. I think they will end up with a different approach by the time launch hits.