f13.net

Link (http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=42532)

TLDR:
Game is doing well as the launch has been smooth except a small amount of bugs that were found and are being worked on
New monthly content for free to subscribers/lifetime pass holders
Mission Packs (which are free) will be added monthly
LFD coming soon
PVP Dungeon
Raids
New Zones
Seasonal Events
New shops (barber as well as more clothing, and new clothing options in Pangea)
UI Improvements and Cabal management systems


 

Colour me impressed. And excited.



EDIT: So let me get this straight: they just promised to do what SWTOR and Bioware promised but blatantly failed to do? If they pull this out... *IF* they manage to pull this out I really hope somebody in a studio in North America will be really ashamed.

Wow, if they actually manage to drop a decent content patch by July 31st, I will definitely be impressed.

And yeah, if Funcom shames Bioware Austin that hard? So great.

Means more builds?
Head explodes.

:funcom:

they promised engine update to AO, too. oh, and it's only been 6 years since Dreamfall.

edit: i think you realize it yourself, though. As that "pull out" is quite a Freudian slip.

That's a fairly ambitious list. I really hope they can pull it off since lack of long-term content is my one worry about the game. I'm slightly skeptical that they can do it, but that just leaves me some room for a pleasant surprise if they do.

The one thing that makes me optimistic is that their style of content is such that they don't have to worry about nearly as much as say SWTOR did.  SWTOR had to worry about recording voice acting from 16 different voice actors for every decision to maintain the level of story telling the players were accustomed to.  Not to mention the vast multitude of companions that people wanted continued storylines with?  Yeah, that's not going to work out long term.  Far too much branching content.  And It's going to be disappointing to the players when all that comes to an end, because that's what they had come to expect.

The style in this game is far simpler and sustainable.  Get a cool voice actor, write a character, write some monologues and go to town on some clever new quests.   If the players like that, then you can keep providing them with it much easier than the SWTOR devs could hope to do.

If the announcement had been more conservative, I might have bought it, but honestly, I found it kind of farcical given funcom's past performance.

While this list reads like a wish list, the only things on there that will be challenging are the monthly updates which will be huge if they can do it. I agree with Trias in Funcom doesn't have to cater to nearly as man voice actors and the content lends itself better (I think) for faster content production. Especially if this was the plan from day 0 then they likely have a lot of this content already made and just waiting to be released.

I'm very excited to see if this pans out. I won't hold my breath, but if it does than this will be a game that holds me for a very long time along with GW2. Of course the one thing that may really shatter this entire dream would be :Funcom:


Past performance sure, but more recent performance has been okay iirc, starting with their turning around of AoC, to producing a pretty decent BLC, all the way to present with what is a surprisingly great MMO in TSW. I'm not saying I trust them entirely, but I'm willing to give them much more of a chance now than I was before they started fixing AoC

Aren't they saying that the monthly update will simply involve adding a couple of new quests to each zone? They're promising new weapons and zones too, but not every month. It doesn't seem that implausible?

Edit: Although the quests in this game must be quite an undertaking to make compared to quests in the average MMO.

Yeah, this isn't something like "<Character Name Here>, you are the chosen one go kill X amount of Y-manbearpigs and return to me when your task is done!" making these a bit tougher to come up with. So far, a short list of things I've had to do would be look up Morse code, some basic cryptology, 1700's era composer's, Edgar Alan Poe work, and match dialpad tones to solve quests. Again, that is the short list and I'm only into Transylvania and haven't done all the quests there are.

Those quests, along with voice acted cut scenes, on a monthly basis is why I believe it starts becoming difficult.

I think they'd have far more luck if they'd sell mission packs or something.   People would scream bloody murder but those people are going to just quit when their magical free content patches fail to appear.

My daily grindquest sense is tingling.

So that takes ten minutes to put together rather than the two seconds of 'fetch 10 rat balls'. The Poe and composer is straight up trivial pursuit. Buy a set of TP cards and there's a millenia of quests.

"We're going to be releasing fresh and tasty new content FREE to our subscribers on a regular, monthly basis."

"Oh, and like everything else in our monthly updates, these packs are FREE for our subscribers!"

Those phrases make me think they have some sort of f2p model in the works.

f2p is assumed to happen at some point and the systems are basically already built into the game.  Even before it released there were offers to buy name reservations and so on.

I know there is mass exaggeration, but I think the ratio of time is still about right for time comparisons of quest development. Also, Trivial Pursuit would be a solid place for them to get quest content from. Especially since a lot of people playing TSW have probably never played it or really studied outside of what was forced upon them, which is probably why a lot of these quests work so well.


I'm not completely sure, but I think those bits were added later. The reason being is that someone started a thread to discuss the State of the Game on the official forums and by page 3-4 there were enough questions about whether or not the new mission packs and other crap was going to be free or cash shop that it seemed even the friendlies of staff was being annoyed at the questioning after answering it the first time. Though, a f2p model could very well be in the works, it is FC and it's not like that hasn't been working as as model lately, afaik.

Ehh, bulk of questions is pretty much that. "Why don't you kill a few zombies since they are in your way anyway", "Here's 4 locations for you to visit around town to click on various hotspots and return", "Those manfishpigs seem to guard eggs on the coast, they must be important so go and shoot a few of them, won't you", "You are chosen to shoot naked anatomy exhibits until you collect X drops from them, then return when your task is done!"

There's some that aren't of course, but you get plenty of standard fare just the same.

So, this from Ragnar. He even took the time to reply to our very own and dearest Numtini:




I want to point out something else though. How many major MMORPGs had their Lead Director posting an average of 30 posts a day right after launch and basically working as the Lead Community Manager? He was there in beta too, when lots of criticism was going back and forth, and he's superactive now explaining, clarifying and teasing all day long. It's hard to feel more "listened to" than when you know the Director of the game is the official boards posting for a good part of his day.

I don't know if this was part of their plan or it's just something that came out spontaneously and it's working extremely well, but I have to say that I love it.  Sure, there's a certain amount of generic answers, but at least you know exactly they are coming from the chief, and not from some community manager who is there just to moderate the boards and feed the the pack of wolves with rubber bones.

The fact that all of this is coming from someone who is responsible for some awesome games (in spite of all your "lol funcom") like The Longest Journey and Dreamfall is definitely a bonus, and gives hints of hope. If anything else, he already surprised us all at this point. Who (well.. except me) would have put a dollar on this game two months ago?

More interesting bits from Ragnar Tornquist about developing the updates, doing cutscenes, voiceovers and all.

The game is complicated enough that I don't see how they would even have that customer management middle man because he'd half to spend half his day writing up documents and explaining them to the CM person.  If his predictions fall short and he starts getting called out we'll see how much he keeps posting.

The game itself was delayed so I'm not sure why he's so optimistic with his deadlines.  Good luck to them though.  I'd like an auction house.  Agartha is currently like that old school EQ freeport tunnel, just rolling WTB/WTS along with LFG talk.

Yeah, that was in response to Palmer saying making the quests here is more of an undertaking than other MMOs, where I assumed he meant due to cut scenes and voice overs. That is what I was talking about, is how most quests that aren't side quests have cut scenes which will take longer development.

Of course there are still some run of the mill quests with just text/objectives/kill 10-whatevers, but those are more breadcrumb quests, and quests that can be done while doing larger quests and act as complimentary quests, than anything else. The ones that you want to do are red/green/yellow quests which all (that I can remember) are fully voice acted and have a cut scene.



As for Ragnar's community involvement, I'm with Falc in thinking that is fantastic. I honestly look for FC staff posts in threads and read them before realizing it was Ragnar, yet again, answering questions regularly. It's pretty nice.

Funcom always had great participation and communication. Also a sincere and real dedication to story. It was the followthrough that was lacking.

Mark Jacobs sort of did that for Warhammer (though it was here and on other boards as opposed to official boards because they refused to have any) until everyone realized the game was empty shit after rank 2 and started asspounding him anytime he popped his head up like he was the bonus mole on a game of Whack-A-Mole.

However, since Ragnar has already been through 2 rounds of asspounding from Anarchy Online and Conan, I'd imagine his ass is pretty immune and he'll stay around.

While it's true that MJ was around, and is a great example, it was an entirely different feeling. Ragnar is answering more and tougher questions faster and better than I ever remember MJ doing, while at the same time doing so in a much more relaxed and casual fashion when able. Ex:




While I can't remember anyone wanting MJ to have their babies, I also can't remember a time when MJ was that at ease with his customers to joke like this. I think that is the major difference on why I appreciate Ragnar more than MJ

Well, like I said, it ain't like Ragnar hasn't been absolutely raped before over the Anarchy Online fuckups. He's probably a lot more comfortable than Jacobs ever could have been, not the least of which because Funcom has always had official forums and Mythic was adamant about not doing so.

Anarchy Online and Age of Conan were broken in very different ways. AO's servers were a mess, Conan's were fine as far as I remember, but the game just wasn't finished and people were finding invisible bugs like stats not affecting things.

Part of what really got Jacobs nailed was it seemed like the same old Mythic making the same old mistakes. When I saw a response in War that they were "waiting for metrics" I laughed and cancelled. I'd heard that before.

What Num said

Also, even if Ragnar has been beat down more times than MJ by the community, I'd think he'd be more cautious and professional and no where near as laid back and relaxed as he appears to be. I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but I would just be surprised if previous beatings caused him to be more casual as it seems the opposite of what I'd think would happen

As for official forums, assbeatings aside, they really don't come into play in this imo. Forums are forums, the difference is that Ragnar has mod tools while MJ did not, but both were recognized for their respective positions regardless of who owned the forums being used.

No, it really does make a difference. Despite Mark and Sanya's opinion, as a major MMO not hosting your own forums just makes you look completely unprofessional. Farming them out to VNBoards/IGN doubles down on that. Etc.

No, it really doesn't make a difference to the subject being discussed. What you're responding to with about official forums was regarding comfort level with interfacing with the community and the playerbase from a high position of power in a game's chain of command, not how professional a company makes themselves appear.

If we're talking professionalism and 3rd party forum vs 1st party forum, then I absolutely agree that it currently would make someone look unprofessional. I only say currently because I honestly did not mind vnboards being the main forums back in 2001, but that is ancient history in internet time.

Ahh, think i misread it then -- got impression you're saying that the TSW quests would likely take longer to create than ones in "typical" MMO because they involve atypical story/setup/whatever to them. So that's why i mentioned regular ones; in the sense they'd likely make a part (if not bulk) of these "monthly updates" and as such, the impact of more complicated writing etc on their ability to deliver would be probably lesser than expected.

More Ragnar:


And:



On shirtless men:




On Gear Manager being terribly bugged:





On being on the boards too much:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these the dudes who made this game:

Yes, but they're probably going for a higher rating than AoC.

RPS article on the July update:  http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/12/a-sneaky-glimpse-at-the-secret-worlds-july-update/

Looks like we're getting more of Sam Krieg in the form of an investigation mission, and Carter (girl in the academy).   Have to admit it sounds pretty sweet.  Regarding the new investigation mission with Krieg:  


I doubt I will be able to have exhausted all the content by July 31st anyways, but I'll be heading back to the savage coast right when this update hits.

I KNOW AND ALL BUT SOMETHING SOMETHING BOOBS

I think they really hit the design jackpot with being able to deliver "supposedly low level" content that even top level players have reasons to play. The "endless and flat" XP is a great, great idea. And brilliantly executed so far.

Sorry, I could hear you over thoughts of fiery succubi.

On deckbuilding, and the expansion of the skill-wheel concept.

I haven't bought this one yet since I just bought a house and I've played about 2 hours of video games in the last three weeks.  I'm interested in playing in a few months though.  We'll see how things go.

I use this to post more things Ragnar says. This one is interesting, and after all the Bioware debacle I think it's really risky. So, on player choices:


He hinted somewhere else that the future chapters of the main plot for your character will be influenced by his/her own choices.
So either this is a very strong feature they are going to reveal at some point with much global amazement, or he's aiming at his foot waiting for the right moment to shoot.

I don't know whether to be hopeful, or to be quaking in my boots.

I would be incredibly pissed off if because most people took option A the story assumed I did even though I chose option B.  I am mostly thinking of

You get to make two more choices like that. (major end spoilers, though I tried to keep it vague)
 so I can see that being used to justify Ragnar's comment.

I've made the second choice, for which I remained consistent, and should be able to finish up the Transylvania line tonight hopefully.

Look, I haven't got to that part and I had no idea there were options A or B or what. So please, more spoiler tags  :heart:

Hey, I'm about a quarter of the way into SC!

 :grin:

Knowing there is actually a choice is a great thing, tbh. This is one thing I did not like, the reason is in the spoiler though it doesn't give away quest info just talks about the way they did something which sucked

 

Yes after wrapping up the last main questline

August SOTG is up
http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=56889


While we all know they took a big hit, the game is still fun and hopefully all this pans out and people join and/or come back to check out some of the new issues. I like the post overall though

Every GM ticket I've put in has been answered in less than 5-mins ingame.  Dunno where they've been cutting, but they haven't cut much in support so far.

Based on the CoH/V experience, this works great in building up player community and expectations right up to the point those expectations fail to be delivered. Then Emmert Tornquist becomes the face of the company were the most abuse is directed. The problem is where he says, "Hey, here are our plans!" and players get all excited, then those plans aren't delivered on or are scaled back.

Plus it becomes expected that the Lead Dev will always be as involved in the community. When they start to pull back, it gets noticed and interpreted as meaning things.

The GW2 release has cleared the game of unbelievers.  They're gonna have to do a server merge or two here very soon or risk seriously compromising retention.  As it stands now,  it's starting to become difficult to find even elite grps.  And normal runs are near impossible in any zone due to the simple fact u still need a tank/healer.  So at this point if you're not running NM's regularly you're basically screwed unless you're just brought along for the ride.

It's forcing me to spec into chaos in order to play.  Not that it's particularly hard to do, just a PITA when I want to explore other parts of the wheel.

I haven't played since GW2 came out, but I'm keeping my sub up.  I think TSW is a far better non-PvP game than GW2, but right now all my friends are in GW2 so I feel some obligation to keep up with them.

I think there are probably quite a few people like me that will be coming back after the GW2 newness wears off.

I ahve a lifetime subscription, so i'll keep popping in and out for some time, but right now, GW2 is all "omgnewsoshiny" (though it's wearing off and have played some TSW, and even some D3 recently)

Different games for when you feel like different stuff, really

New dev blog (http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/blog_lairs_in_the_secret_world), dealing with changes to Lairs:


TL;DR:

• Lairs will be tuned for groups of 5 people.
• Lair difficulty will be changed (reduced), they are supposed to be a stepping stone between Elite and Nightmare Dungeons.
• Each Lair will have intially 1, later 3 missions attached.
• Lairs will have loot progression - Standard lair mobs can be done in green gear, summoned regional bosses are balanced for full blue gear.

Big bullet point for the TL:DR that wasn't included - bosses are guranteed to drop Blue/Purple signets (depending on difficulty of boss)

So better signets will be guranteed to drop in lairs off bosses, meaning you'll want to keep these quests on cooldown and get as many bosses as possible. Maybe even work with a group to chain summon.

Going to edit myself here in that SUPPOSEDLY LFG is cross-server, but frankly I just dont believe it.  Routinely I'm the only one making a peep in any zone in Egypt. Maybe it's broken - I dunno.  But regardless, PvP is essentially unusable with the server pops the way they are.  And since NM runs require PvP buffs (dependent on gear), this is a big problem.

If no server merges then an LFG tool definitely.  Maybe that'll keep people from just hanging out in Agartha.

LFG tool confirmed for 9/11. Cross dimension, old school, not auto-match.

Someone took pictures of it on the test server (supposedly) and it looked like a worse version of the agent finder mod. Hopefully that is improved upon as otherwise there's almost no reason to use the official one over the mod.

An official built in LFG tool will trump a player tool.

For usage yes, from the looks of it though not in functionality or appearance. That's why I'm hoping FC makes some improvements if the pictures were accurate.

Ughs. Lead Designer Martin Bruusgard is among the fired as well.


Cost-cutting the lead designer? Anyone know more about this...?

Ok that's a bit unexpected, fuck.

Oh man.

What I got from Twitter was that wasn't another firing, but part of big letting-go that happened in August. But still.......

It's not something that makes you feel like it would be a good investment to resub, I'll say that.

He's tweeted that it'll effect the game none at all.  I'd be worried if they axed most of the writing and post-release coding staff though.

I think that's everyones reaction upon hearing these news.. For Funcoms sake (and mine, as I am enjoying the game) I hope they get their act together.

*prays to Aten*

I wonder how much the rights to the game would cost (this is one game where it'd be worth considering owning the IP).  To me, it sounds like FC was expecting TSW to prop up their entire business.  That's just not possible these days, or rather very rare.  I almost wish a smaller house would've made the game.

Why not sell off some assets and prop up the stuff that works??  Dump AO, AoC, or both.  Prop up TSW and work on something else.

Honestly, I can't imagine how they wouldn't have understood that this was a niche game or that their previous reputation was going to come back to haunt them.

Keep in mind he might not have even been working on TSW at this point.  They do have that other Lego mmo in the works also.

Fun stuff:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.387898-Former-Funcom-CEO-Faces-Insider-Trading-Allegations

I don't think I've ever seen a game fail so spectacularly due to reasons mostly unrelated to it's own merits.

Combination of the following:

1)  Funcom brand name lowers credibility and leads to high amounts of skepticism, both from fans and even reviewers who are not immune to conscious or subconscious bias.  I do believe if this game was released by a different studio it would have gotten better metacritic scores.

2)  SWTOR killed the sub-fee model in MMOs forever.  The box+fee model was absolutely and utterly dead for all new MMOs coming out from that point forward.  Funcom didn't recognize this and got tons of hate in the gaming public for it.  Gaming communities like rockpapershotgun that should have the kind of userbase that would be interested in the game, had an incredibly terrible reaction to the sub fee and weren't willing to try the game.  Hell, even Copernicus had this figured out, despite Curt Schilling's massive ego.

3)  Underwhelming beta events, which many of the poor reviews of the game stemmed from.  The word of mouth coming out of beta was awful as well.  The whole 'combat is terrible' idea that is perpetuated to this day by those who haven't played the game after beta continues to plague it.  Guild Wars 2 combat is not any better than TSW's, but one gets tons of flak and the other doesn't.

4)  Didn't launch with any sort of trial to capitalize on the crowd that would be willing to give it a shot but was incredibly wary of previous factors.  (There is a trial now, but it hasn't been advertised well.)

5)  Terrible marketing pre-launch.  No hype whatsoever.  Some lame facebook game that doesn't have anything to do with the game itself.  Ties into point 3, leading to mostly negative pre-launch exposure.

If the exact same game was made by someone other than funcom and was subless I believe it would have been at least fairly successful.  It's all really a shame and makes me sad.

Sub-fee + item shop was probably the biggest mistake that made which they could do anything about.  One or the other.  Preferably the latter in this day and age.

I don't even mind sub + cash shop since the shop was basically cosmetic. My issue was how high their prices are, which are absolutely ridiculous.

Though I still enjoy the game and will keep on playing, I just won't be spending cash in their shop.

Yeah, unsubbing.  They got my money for September though, dammit!   :oh_i_see:

They might not have had a choice. They knew the game was probably going to be niche and carry a stigma due to being from funcom. At the same time they needed a solid revenue stream to deliver on their promise of regular and high quality content. They probably just figured this was the best bet, try and find a dedicated niche market willing to pay for the unique experience.

But any plan that promises rolling content releases is very vulnerable to a poor launch and negative retention rate.

Readings the comments on that link re insider trading is interesting  - somone saying they were interested but didnt buy as it was just 'warcraft with guns'.  shows how badly Funcom advertised and marketed this fantastic little game because it is easily the most unique and different MMo to come along since EVE yet people outside just think its a modern wow...

What's ironic is this is probably one of the easier games to market out there.  It's not like there's isn't shittons of content to derive a good campaign from, quite the contrary.  This whole twisted "we will keep the world secret" idea really just backfired.

Really, imagine just a simple spot including missions like Ankh or the Amusement Park.  Or a huge fight over Fusang.  Then throw in some puzzles, stealth investigation, and sabotage.  Really, there's no excuse.   Maybe what we need is a proper fan-based campaign.

I am their target market:
-Loves Illuminati, Cthulhu mythos and various conspiracy stories
-Loves MMOs, especially new ones
-Tends to overspend on gaming/MMO's

And I never heard this game was out until I stumbled upon it here.  Sure I knew it was in development, but they emphasized the puzzles and I got wary. Burned by Puzzle Pirates.  So, marketing fail.  Once I knew about it, I skimmed around here and the general gist was puzzle heavy with innovative but not amazing combat.  Someone here complained they nerfed themselves and there was no respec options.  Not my comfort zone.  Plus, Funcom.  :ye_gods: Finally, I waited a week or two and really loved GW2 and haven't looked back.  No time for another MMO.  Schedule fail.

Lastly, I didn't know they had a free trial and now I'm deep in GW2 and MoP is coming quickly. 

That is a shame, because you likely would have loved this game.  The setting is done amazingly.  They nail the atmosphere, the writing is great, and the 'everything is true' tagline is actually pulled off quite well.  Playing a cliched fantasy game like GW2 after this game is painful.  If you do get a chance, I really recommend playing it.

To your concerns: The puzzles are just some adventure game esque stuff that requires you to think and do outside research.  They are not a huge part of the game and are entirely skippable if you hate them (or just look at guides).  Respeccing in this game makes no sense due to the skill system.  Your goal is to unlock everything eventually.  If you hate your build it doesn't take long at all to build in a different direction, and the cheap first tier skills are perfectly viable and no less powerful than more expensive skills.  The combat isn't worse than GW2 IMO.  The active dodging is actually done better.

I wonder if they were expecting the secret war facebook thing to be some big viral marketing hit and do a lot of the work for them?

I kinda assumed that was the point, i only use facebook for party organisation and pictures though, cba with games or apps or anything lieke that, so even though the game looked cool, i couldn't be bothered with it.

Well yeah, but it just seems silly if they were expecting it to do all the work for them, rather than mixing it with other forms of marketing. Or maybe they figured the game would be niche no matter what they did and the marketing money would be wasted?

I was actually mildly curious about the secret war until I found out it involved facebook. I would have liked the in-game outfits but not if the only way to get them was to spam my (non-gaming) facebook friends with shit they're not interested in.

I'm not on FB so maybe that's why I missed it.  Hey, they could cut the last part of the GW2 video out and use that. :)

The fact that this was modern horror probably limited it to a niche game. I've heard for 30 years how people are tired of humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, half-orcs, and gnomes, but from table top D&D to WOW, that is the genre that has consistently bubbled to the top.

Past that, funcom is tainted. If they want to do another game, they should spin off a subsidiary that can't be tied to Conan and AO.

A lot of people got round that by making new Facebook accounts for their Secret War Characters (even though it breaks Facebook's TOS) which ruined the whole viral marketing idea.

They don't any more - trials over.  :oh_i_see:

EDIT: I are fuckwit. They no longer have a splash page about the free trial and the sign up is now relegated to a small box that looks like a newsletter sign up. I could not see it for looking the other night.

Might as well not be there if you can't find it.   :uhrr:
In other news, I'm still having a fuckton of fun.  Moving into romania pt. 2 and working my way through the elites.  I've met some pretty cool people in PUGs, which makes sense since the muggles have left.

I'll be branching into tankland tonite maybe to assist with grp. formation.  One thing that's in TSW's favor is the skill system is setup to favor a small gamebase.  A raw crit-strike elemental DPSer can be a leech healer in a few clicks.  So I'm getting over the fact that the population is small right now.

[Assuming muggles means elitists and their type] This was a weird game where even most of the "elitists" were fun to group with. I think it came down to only having a couple of thing being absolutely needed whereas the rest of someone's build could be less cookie cutter, or have some variances based on gear, etc. Also, a lot of them stuck together in their own groups between long lockouts on Nm dungeons, the gear progression needed to clear content, and re-teaching some of the fights isn't always fun in NM (which is why we always make Palmer explain them :p)

Actually, the worst experience in this game was the total opposite of from the assumed definition of "muggles" when someone who didn't understand the idea behind progression in NM mode and demanded we finish a NM dungeon because he has never finished one before (pretty sure it was his first night in NM based on lack of understanding bullions, lack of gear, and lack of realizing how badly he was being carried). That got old real quick to a point I'd have preferred someone calling me "brah" while telling me I'm 3% lower in dps than the maximum my gear potentially can reach for the entire night.

I dont understand how someone starting NM's could have a gear problem when you're required to run all the elites (typically numerous times) before you can even get in.  By then you should have a full set of signeted blues.   :headscratch:

As for dmg., it's so dependent on skill combos and situation that gear is secondary many times DPS-wise.   The only way to figure that out is to sit in the test chamber and stare at logs.

His gear was just showing that it was quite likely his first time in a NM is all I was saying, which didn't help his case when whining like a little kid and demanding a full clear on an instance (even one which has not been cleared by the group he was with).

Though you don't have to run all of the elites more than once before being able to go against the GK, and signeting blues is kind of pointless IMO based on how fast they're replaced compared to how often you get an actually useful signet.

It's not a gear problem with nightmares, it's that the way they're made.   You're not intended to get all the way through them when you're just starting out.  You'll generally maybe get the first and possibly the second boss down if you're in elite blues, but you'll get stopped hard by a dps check after that point.   You need both good skills and good gear to get past those.  There's a vast difference in your ability to dps and survive between ql10 and ql10.4.  Even with good gear, and the ability to get to them, the end bosses are still a gamble at best against the RNG allowing you to win or not.  Nightmare is just a mess in some regards.

Game is 1/2 off for the next 24hrs.  $25.