Sorry I'm late with my 2 coppers worth, but I'll try to make up for it.

First, I would ask the devs to treat ancient dragons as a true Prestige class, and to keep this in mind at all times.What I mean by Prestige here that it's a screaming monster to attain, but if you attain it you indeed have something to be proud of. Think six weeks on Parris Island. This is not, nor will ever be, one of those classes that some kid levels to godhood in a week.

For the entry requirements, I'm thinking that 90 in one class would work, as long as those are just the entry requirements for ARoP and most definitely are not the completion requirements. We definitely need a time-since-creation threshold, though I'm a tad leery of a mere 100 days and would suggest 200 or more. Personally I would prefer a full year, but the business side of the house might not be able to withstand that. I would like to point out, however, that if the typical gamer does indeed hang around for only 2-4 months as someone stated earlier, then a 200+ threshold would provide some incentive for people to hang around longer (and keep paying on their subscriptions), plus help to weed-out the lamers so many of the elder dragons dread.

As for hoard, first let me be honest; I hate the bloody thing. Not the concept itself, but the utter, mind-numbing grind that is required to build it up to the dizzying heights that some dragons aspire to. Personally, I would prefer to not have a hoard requirement for the ARoP. Instead, what I would like to suggest that if a dragon makes it through to Ancient-hood, the benefits accrued to that dragon by its hoard is multiplied by at least a factor of five. Frankly, on this I feel a factor of ten wouldn't be too extreme. This compromise would allow those without a huge hoard to start their ARoP, while at the same time reward those who dedicated the tremendous amount of time and effort required to build theirs up.

Speaking of benefits, after all the trials and tribulations of playing a dragon character all these months, the Ancient dragon must truly be the elite class of Horizons. No longer a brightly-colored, dragon-shaped pinata the mobs whack to pieces and the bipeds sneer at, but the honest-to-goodness dragon that was promised by the ads and then some. This should be a creature that reduces a high-level mob to a smoking hole in the ground in ten seconds flat. This should be a creature that bipeds ask for help rather than the current humiliating state of affairs. Finally, this should be a creature that players look at and say to themselves "Wow; I wish I had something like that!" But most never will, because most are not willing to invest the time and effort to get it.

This is the creature that will be needed to keep the dedicated dragon players in the game (and paying the bills), and with the entry threshold set high enough, there won't be so many as to unbalance the game (as if it weren't already) no matter how powerful the Ancients are.

'Nuff said.
[G]