Preliminary patch notes up.

[polyphonica]

The new 'expert mode' dungeons are clearly Heavensward only, which is a slap in the face to current players who haven't purchased HW because they're still progressing. It's essentially a brick wall in their path, since from experience we know dungeons will give very little poetics tomes and roulettes tend to be the most reliable source of progression thanks to their bonuses.

As far as Poetics go... the new Expert Roulette doesn't even give Poetics at all; it only gives 80 Law. Meanwhile, the High Level Roulette (all 2.x level 50 dungeons) gives 100 Poetics, and also EXP. Now that Poetics are the only tome tier that exists at level 50, all the previous Soldiery gifts will now turn to Poetics, including the "first-time" bonus. So, in truth, it looks like it won't be very difficult at all to earn Poetics before purchasing Heavensward (or, more crucially, as needed to raise your item level enough to finish the 2.55 story content).

That said, it would indeed be nice if you could run the High Level roulette without having unlocked all the dungeons in that long list.

[Lemuria]

Now that Poetics are the only tome tier that exists at level 50, all the previous Soldiery gifts will now turn to Poetics, including the "first-time" bonus.

You obviously haven't seen the previous trends. Let me break it down.

First up, we had Philosophy and Mythology tomes. Remember those? This was changed to Mythology and Soldiery tomes. Older dungeons which used to grant Philo now gave Mythology, but at a far reduced rate. Next up, we get Poetics. All previous mythology is removed and replaced with soldiery rewards. These rewards are now very small (5 soldiery for Amdapor Keep). Now, keep following that trend as we add Law to the mix and replace all existing soldiery tomes with Poetics.

See my point yet? All previous soldiery gifts may indeed be Poetics tomes, but they won't be given commonly given. This has been the pattern since the start, and there's no reason they would change it up now. The current soldiery rewards have already been a stumbling block for some of my friends, who have instead relied on dungeon drops to carry them to the stage where they can obtain Poetics tomes and skip soldiery entirely.

2 dungeons for expert roulette? WTF! Furthermore, if 3.1 comes and the new dungeons are the only ones in expert roulette, I am seriously going to be pissed. I put up with it in 2.3 and 2.4. It got to be too much in 2.5 as it became AKHM roulette and I left the game for a while.

Prepare yourself for disappointment then. The only new dungeons are the Heavensward dungeons, meaning the ones in the new expert roulette will be from the expansion. I agree, it's a mess and it's abhorrent to existing players. I was never a fan of this cycle of new tomes overwriting the old ones and this just highlights how utterly ridiculous this whole charade is.

[Garlyle]

Tomestone/high-level roulette stuff

It's important to note:
1. We already know the roulette numbers for Tomestones, and those alone are pretty high. Trials roulette is throwing you something like 80; main story's giving a lot. We don't know the numbers for dungeons themselves, but it's not unreasonable to expect high values.
2. For new players - which is where the major Tomestone concerns exist - the main story is going to be throwing gear at them to get them geared up during the 2.1-2.55 events. Tomestones are less vital now for getting through content than they were previously.
3. Most tomestones for new players also actually came from the new player bonuses.

That said, I'm seriously all for allowing High Level roulette with only partial dungeon lists... although I suppose they don't want people skipping over dungeons because they're unpopular or whatever.