EQII: Tip of the Cap

Back in April, I wrote this post on mage skills in EQII. At the time, I said it was an introduction to a post I intended to write concerning the "relative triviality of gear improvement for int-capped max-level mages." I never did write that post. And now I don't have to.

But to briefly summarize my original concern: A big part of an item-centric game like EQII is the thrill of getting new gear. In fact, when you're at max-level and have all your Achievement's, that's pretty much your sole motivation (besides the social aspect). And it's always cool to try on new gear and see how it looks. But as a wizard, I could never get too excited about some super awesome item drop on a raid. Because no matter how good the numbers on the item were, I was already at the cap and it wouldn't really affect my gameplay. I wasn't hitting mobs any harder and my contribution on raids was pretty much exactly the same. Taking away that motivation for gear made the game as a whole less exciting. Obviously, other classes had similar issues. I was giving you an example for the class I'm familiar with.

Because I felt that way, I was pretty excited to see those concerns being addressed by a variety of changes to the way caps work. Gallenite explains things better than I did and there's definitely more to it then I've discussed so go read it yourself.

As always, I have to see how things work in their final version. And this change will really only affect a small segment of the population. But for those it does affect, I think it is an important and positive step in the right direction.