reenvisioningFollow

Class Re-envisioning

Over the course of the last few months, since we announced this project, we have had numerous discussions on the classes. During these discussions we identified some key changes, that are relatively easy for us to implement, that could result in better gameplay for all of you. While this is far from complete (the process and this list) it is the start of this class re-envisionment, reflections, redefinition, whatever we all decide to call it besides balance. Some of these changes you see on this list will make it live for our April 6th update. Others we would like to hear your thoughts and ideas on before continuing. We think that there are some very positive changes here, some of which kind of go against the grain of EQ gameplay. So let the discussion begin;

We'll start with some general gameplay changes that either affect all classes or multiple classes.

General

We are removing the level 55 fear cap and adding advanced spells to the fear lines to make them current. Now, this doesn't mean that all NPCs can be feared, we will be making use of a no-fear flag to stop potential game-play problems.

We will remove the hard coded aggro generated by poison based debuffs which will result in some DoTs and Tash generating less aggro than they currently do as well as more consistent aggro generation.

We are going to spread spell progression out for levels 1 to 50 to reduce the levels gaps between gaining new spells. We would like casters to gain new spells every level and enjoy more even progression.

We are planning to add new abilities and disciplines to non-casters and spread those out between levels 1 to 50, along with their current abilities to make sure non-casters also have progression, in the form of a new ability, every level.

Pet owners will be able to click off any buffs they do not want their pet to have.

We are changing many of the all-or-nothing immune flags so they mitigate the effect instead. We want you to use your abilities on most NPCs, but where we feel the ability might be problematic the ability will have a lesser effect.

You will see the healing messages for Heal Over Time spells. There will also be a filter for this new message.

We will change the potion "Essence of Concealment" from invisibility to improved invisibility and make the components easier for alchemists to find.

All spells will check for immunity before they are cast. So if the target is immune, the spell will not generate aggro for the caster.

We would like ammunition to auto-feed from your inventory directly to the ranged slot.

We are eliminating the +mana cap.

We are removing the inherent resist rate from rain spells.

Solo Play

EverQuest is a group-based game we all know that but we also know that there are times that many of us like to hunt alone. Some of our classes can solo effectively, while others can't. We plan to make changes to classes that struggle with soloing to allow them some solo play. These changes will be made to only affect their abilities while solo and not affect how they perform in groups.

1. We are still discussing the best way to go about this but some of the options we have discussed are listed here;

a. Add healing potions to the game. To prevent this from unbalancing the group game, we need to be careful how these potions work. They may need to be a healing potion that does heal-over-time and does not stack with any other healing spells. Another option is simply having a long reuse on the potion so its effectiveness in a group situation, where the player is generally taking on much more difficult NPCs, is not affected much.

b. We are exploring class abilities that add the pieces needed to solo while also taking away the abilities that make them useful in a group situation. An example of this is a warrior ability that increases their defensive abilities and gives them a damage boost, but causes them to be able to generate nearly no aggro while the ability is in effect, so the warrior would not be able to tank for most groups

Class Specific Changes

Now onto the class changes. We know that this is what most of you are looking for and we think we have a pretty solid plan. Again, as I mentioned above, this is just the beginning folks. Our team is still crunching numbers and other changes are dependent upon that data. We will not be making any changes to melee DPS, tanking and other combat balance issues until that data is completed and we see what effects these changes have on gameplay. We ask that you please discuss these changes on your class board. And please folks, be constructive. If you think the ideas have no merit, say why. We can't work on it with you with bad feedback. OMG This SUXXORS is not going to help.

Bards

We will be increasing your instrument mod cap and using itemization to limit the inherent power gains. This also means that certain songs will have built in maximums to prevent them from scaling indefinitely.

Beastlords

We will add at least one new slow spell for you which has an innate resistance mod built in so that it lands more often. This will help you perform the role of slower in your groups, since you don't have access to the powerful resistance lowering spells of other slowing classes.

We will be boosting your healing so it stays on par with ranger healing when we improve ranger heals.

We want to assure pet classes that we believe you should be able to use their pets in most gameplay situations, including raids. We believe that pet classes do not have many problems with pets on raids at the moment, but want you to understand that we intend for you to use pets on raids and if you find that there is a problem, we will find ways to correct it.

We will be increasing the availability of pet focus items, particularly for the more casual players.

We will be looking into the casting time of some of your pet healing spells and reducing the casting time where appropriate.

Berserkers

Many Berserker complaints are about their damage output and this isn’t something we can really address without the results of the number crunching. Our thoughts are that you are fine at lower levels and pretty decent at high levels with your AAs, but you may need some help at the mid levels. Should our numbers support our thoughts, we will be adjusting things so your damage progression is smoother across the levels.

We are looking into the endurance cost of many of your abilities and lowering them as necessary.

We are looking into adding throwing quivers that grant innate haste similar to normal quivers.

Clerics

With Dragons of Norrath you gained two new spells that you seem to enjoy; Mark of Vengeance and Mark of Retribution. We will be changing these spells into full spell lines that you get early on and that scale up as you level.



We want to make your Turn Undead spells effective at all levels. Some of the suggested changes include:

a. Changing the fear part of the spell so the rest of the spell still works even if the fear fails or removing the fear portion of the spell entirely.

b. Adding a strong snare effect.

Druids

Druids are a unique challenge in that the class is divided evenly between you offensive druids who enjoy doing damage, and you defensive druids who prefer to play the role of healer. We want to support both play styles, but if we were to increase both halves of the druid equally the class would quickly become overpowered. Our plan is to introduce a new option where a druid can enter into a particular “mode” or “stance” where they become better at one part at the expense of the other. Our preferred solution for this is to add an innate ability for druids. The ability would get its own button similar to abilities such as backstab or track. You will be able to be in one of three states and can switch between them once every 5 minutes.

a. Normal – Their healing and offensive abilities are in balance. This is the state they exist in today.

b. Offensive – Their offensive power is boosted by 25%, but they suffer a 50% reduction in the power of their healing spells.

c. Defensive – Their healing power is boosted by 25%, but they suffer a 50% reduction in the power of their offensive spells.

Another of our goals is to broaden the core grouping roles to allow all classes to more easily put together groups. Similar to how any of the 3 main tanks should be able to perform that role in a group, we want any of the 3 healers to be able to perform the role of a main healer in a group. The changes mentioned above for druids will allow you to fill a healing role and perform at about 80% of the effectiveness of a cleric.

Enchanters

We will add higher level upgrades to the Word of Morell spell line.

We plan to change the way mana drain works. In the past the spell had diminishing effects on NPCs above level 53. We will be removing that limitation so you can use Theft of Thought on higher level caster NPCs and we can introduce more powerful spells in that line, in the future. However, we will also be changing drains so that they only return the mana the NPC has instead of always returning the full amount. If an NPC only has 100 mana and your spell does a 400 drain, you will only get 100 mana. This is a necessary change as most NPCs, including non-casters, are given small amounts of mana in order to power some innates.

We all know that the power of NPCs has climbed and the difficulty in charming NPCs has retreated. This has led to an imbalance where you were able to charm NPCs that do far more damage than ever intended and with minimal risk. This lead us to the unfortunate decision to make many NPC's uncharmable. With OOW, we introduced a change to charm that allowed us to make most NPCs charmable again, but reduce their effectiveness and remove the gameplay imbalance. We did this by reducing their stats while charmed. This presented some new problems though, the largest of which is you like to haste and buff your pets to get the most out of them and when the charm breaks, you face a much more powerful NPC. We have a plan to ensure charm’s usefulness and want to gather your opinion before putting it into motion.

a. We want charm to be an integral part of your gameplay. You should be able to grab a charmed pet in most circumstances and use that to benefit your group.

b. We will be looking at the stats NPCs use when charmed to ensure they are within the intended range.

c. We would like to add innate buff effects to enchanter charm spells. While an NPC is under the effects of the charm, they will also be under the effect of spells similar to what you would use to buff your pet. When charm breaks those effects will go away so you are only dealing with the NPC in its base state.

d. The change mentioned above would cause further imbalance in zones where NPCs don’t currently lower their stats when charmed, the changes that were made in Omens will need to be made across the rest of the game and this will be the way new charm works in all of Norrath.

e. After charm changes for all zones, we can go back and open up the use of charm in areas where it was previously excluded due to balance problems making charm much more usable throughout the game world.

Mages

We will be converting most, if not all, of your summons to place the items directly into the hands of the target. Of course, we will also need a new toggle that lets players turn off this ability from anyone not in their group, anyone not in their raid, or anyone at all.

We will be adding new pet pack spells that contain the more used summoned pet item to help relieve the tedium of summoning many different items.

We will be fixing Turn Summoned in a way similar to how we fix Turn Undead for clerics. See the cleric section for more details.

We want to assure pet classes that we believe you should be able to use their pets in most gameplay situations, including raids. We believe that pet classes do not have many problems with pets on raids at the moment, but want you to understand that we intend for you to use pets on raids and if you find that there is a problem, we will find ways to correct it.

We will be increasing the availability of pet focus items, particularly for the more casual players.

We will be looking into the casting time of some of your pet heals and reducing the casting time where appropriate.

Monks

We will be reversing the AC mitigation reduction that you received during the Planes of Power era.

Necromancers

We will add new spells in the Screaming Terror line to give you some more combat utility.

We want to assure pet classes that we believe you should be able to use their pets in most gameplay situations, including raids. We believe that pet classes do not have many problems with pets on raids at the moment, but want you to understand that we intend for you to use pets on raids and if you find that there is a problem, we will find ways to correct it.

We will be increasing the availability of pet focus items, particularly for the more casual players.

We will be looking into the casting time of some of your pet heal spells and reducing the casting times where appropriate.

Paladins

We want you to be a main tank in group situations. We believe that you are currently able to fill this role, but want to assure you that our intent is for a group to be able to grab a warrior, paladin, or shadowknight as their main tank and be effective with any of them.

With DoN, you gained a limited form of defensive. We are monitoring your feedback and if you like this direction; we plan to make it a full spell line that begins at the level warriors get the defensive discipline.

Rangers

Rangers are good at many things and when all the parts add up properly, they’re a class that is in heavy demand. Our feeling is that the parts are not adding up properly in the current game. We are still digesting all of the DPS numbers and stats but in the meantime we identified a couple of things we can increase in the short term.

a. We will be improving the damage you do through spells.

b. We will be boosting your healing ability, particularly at the top end of the game.

Rogues

We will fix the problems with Assassin’s Feint so it works correctly and then gauge your reaction to the working ability. If it turns out to be something that you like, we will look into adding more combat utility through a similar means.

We are looking into adding throwing quivers that grant innate haste similar to how normal quivers work

Shadowknights

We also want Shadowknights to be a main tank in group situations. We believe that you are currently able to fill this role, but want to assure you that our intent is for a group to be able to grab a warrior, paladin, or shadowknight as their main tank and be effective with any of them.

With DoN, you also gained a limited form of defensive. We are monitoring your feedback and if you like this direction; we plan to make it a full spell line that begins at the level warriors get the defensive discipline.

Shaman

In DoN you received the spells Spirit of the Leopard and Spirit of the Panther. You seem to like these new spells and they have added more desirability for you in groups. We will be extending these into full spell lines so that Shaman of other level ranges can see the benefits from these spells.

As with Druids, we are looking to increase your healing ability so you can function better as main healer in groups. You folks are a little problematic though, since your healing ability is the function of not just your heals, but your ability to reduce an NPCs damage output through slows. In a situation where an NPC is fully slowable, you are a superb healer but against an NPC who cannot be slowed, your healing falls behind. If we were to just improve your heals, you would quickly outshine any other healer when facing NPCs that can be slowed. So, we are investigating ways to improve your healing ability only in circumstances where an NPC cannot be slowed or you choose not to slow the NPC (for your own strange reasons). These changes will be rolled out at the same time as any druid healing changes to ensure that one class does not eclipse the other.

Warriors

Many of the ideas for changes to the warrior class are dependant upon the results of the data we are still compiling. However, we are looking into improving your ability to solo in the mid and high level game as well as;

We are looking into the endurance cost of many of your disciplines and lowering them as necessary.

We will increase the knockback on Press the Attack slightly.

Wizards

With DoN, you received more mana efficient nukes that are aimed at improving your sustained DPS. We will be extending this into a line of spells to help out with sustained DPS at different level ranges.

We will fix Manaburn. Our preferred method is to uncap the ability and implement a cap based on the maximum percentage of health you can do in a single hit. So one of you, facing a million hit point boss mob (fairly common in today’s game) can expect a full manaburn to land for 10s of thousands of points of damage in one hit.



Once again I would like to remind you that this is the beginning of the changes and there is still more to come. We encourage you to openly discuss these changes and let us know what you think. We want this to be a cooperative exchange and we will chime in on your discussions when appropriate.


Edited, Mon Mar 14 23:03:29 2005 by czaemon

good. there was no reason for pals to go past 55 and sks not to.


needed.


umm.. I guess good.


many raids are just absolute pet killers currently. I can't speak to the pet focus items. I would like to see beastlords get a clericish set of heals, but pet only. IE, fast 2k heal on pets, medium 5k heal, slow 10k heal.

[quote]Many Berserker complaints are about their damage output and this isn’t something we can really address without the results of the number crunching. Our thoughts are that you are fine at lower levels and pretty decent at high levels with your AAs, but you may need some help at the mid levels. Should our numbers support our thoughts, we will be adjusting things so your damage progression is smoother across the levels.

We are looking into the endurance cost of many of your abilities and lowering them as necessary.

We are looking into adding throwing quivers that grant innate haste similar to normal quivers.[/quote]
berserkers aren't 'pretty decent' at higher levels. they suck. they have less dps than rogues, and offer less utility too.

[quote]With Dragons of Norrath you gained two new spells that you seem to enjoy; Mark of Vengeance and Mark of Retribution. We will be changing these spells into full spell lines that you get early on and that scale up as you level.



We want to make your Turn Undead spells effective at all levels. Some of the suggested changes include:

a. Changing the fear part of the spell so the rest of the spell still works even if the fear fails or removing the fear portion of the spell entirely.

b. Adding a strong snare effect. [/quote]
turn undead needs some luvin' badly to be even half-worth considering using.

[quote]
Druids are a unique challenge in that the class is divided evenly between you offensive druids who enjoy doing damage, and you defensive druids who prefer to play the role of healer. We want to support both play styles, but if we were to increase both halves of the druid equally the class would quickly become overpowered. Our plan is to introduce a new option where a druid can enter into a particular “mode” or “stance” where they become better at one part at the expense of the other. Our preferred solution for this is to add an innate ability for druids. The ability would get its own button similar to abilities such as backstab or track. You will be able to be in one of three states and can switch between them once every 5 minutes.

a. Normal – Their healing and offensive abilities are in balance. This is the state they exist in today.

b. Offensive – Their offensive power is boosted by 25%, but they suffer a 50% reduction in the power of their healing spells.

c. Defensive – Their healing power is boosted by 25%, but they suffer a 50% reduction in the power of their offensive spells.

Another of our goals is to broaden the core grouping roles to allow all classes to more easily put together groups. Similar to how any of the 3 main tanks should be able to perform that role in a group, we want any of the 3 healers to be able to perform the role of a main healer in a group. The changes mentioned above for druids will allow you to fill a healing role and perform at about 80% of the effectiveness of a cleric. [/quote]
I really really like this idea. I'll probably regear zatz for a bit just to see it in action. I am curious about implementation. If it's done straight up mods (IE, you get a 50% innate focus to ctrope when in heal mode,) then druids will never be 80% as effective as clerics.

to achieve 80% of cleric effectiveness requires implementing separate spell lines, only useable when you are in heal mode.

[quote]Enchanters

We will add higher level upgrades to the Word of Morell spell line.

We plan to change the way mana drain works. In the past the spell had diminishing effects on NPCs above level 53. We will be removing that limitation so you can use Theft of Thought on higher level caster NPCs and we can introduce more powerful spells in that line, in the future. However, we will also be changing drains so that they only return the mana the NPC has instead of always returning the full amount. If an NPC only has 100 mana and your spell does a 400 drain, you will only get 100 mana. This is a necessary change as most NPCs, including non-casters, are given small amounts of mana in order to power some innates.

We all know that the power of NPCs has climbed and the difficulty in charming NPCs has retreated. This has led to an imbalance where you were able to charm NPCs that do far more damage than ever intended and with minimal risk. This lead us to the unfortunate decision to make many NPC's uncharmable. With OOW, we introduced a change to charm that allowed us to make most NPCs charmable again, but reduce their effectiveness and remove the gameplay imbalance. We did this by reducing their stats while charmed. This presented some new problems though, the largest of which is you like to haste and buff your pets to get the most out of them and when the charm breaks, you face a much more powerful NPC. We have a plan to ensure charm’s usefulness and want to gather your opinion before putting it into motion.

a. We want charm to be an integral part of your gameplay. You should be able to grab a charmed pet in most circumstances and use that to benefit your group.

b. We will be looking at the stats NPCs use when charmed to ensure they are within the intended range.

c. We would like to add innate buff effects to enchanter charm spells. While an NPC is under the effects of the charm, they will also be under the effect of spells similar to what you would use to buff your pet. When charm breaks those effects will go away so you are only dealing with the NPC in its base state.

d. The change mentioned above would cause further imbalance in zones where NPCs don’t currently lower their stats when charmed, the changes that were made in Omens will need to be made across the rest of the game and this will be the way new charm works in all of Norrath.

e. After charm changes for all zones, we can go back and open up the use of charm in areas where it was previously excluded due to balance problems making charm much more usable throughout the game world. [/quote]
the charm changes sound good, there is a gigantic unstated effect of the manatap changes. no more necromancers mindwracking every oow mob.

[quote]Mages

We will be converting most, if not all, of your summons to place the items directly into the hands of the target. Of course, we will also need a new toggle that lets players turn off this ability from anyone not in their group, anyone not in their raid, or anyone at all.

We will be adding new pet pack spells that contain the more used summoned pet item to help relieve the tedium of summoning many different items.

We will be fixing Turn Summoned in a way similar to how we fix Turn Undead for clerics. See the cleric section for more details.

We want to assure pet classes that we believe you should be able to use their pets in most gameplay situations, including raids. We believe that pet classes do not have many problems with pets on raids at the moment, but want you to understand that we intend for you to use pets on raids and if you find that there is a problem, we will find ways to correct it.

We will be increasing the availability of pet focus items, particularly for the more casual players.

We will be looking into the casting time of some of your pet heals and reducing the casting time where appropriate[/quote]
so, they aren't changing mages away from being vending machines, but they will be changed to especially convienent ones!

[quote]Monks

We will be reversing the AC mitigation reduction that you received during the Planes of Power era. [/quote]
sweet mother of jeebus! I'm not sure if this exactly fixes monk problems, we will still be less dps than many other classes, but I am curious about how the miti unnerf stacks up in modern content, and will have to see before I comment further.

[quote]Necromancers

We will add new spells in the Screaming Terror line to give you some more combat utility. [/quote]
I am worried about the effect this will have on enchanters. you can get c6 before you start a group, but you can't get mindwrack/lich/twitch before you start a group. if necromancers new ST is as effective when they get it as their old one was at 34, there will be more problems with enchanters.



[quote]We want you to be a main tank in group situations. We believe that you are currently able to fill this role, but want to assure you that our intent is for a group to be able to grab a warrior, paladin, or shadowknight as their main tank and be effective with any of them.

With DoN, you gained a limited form of defensive. We are monitoring your feedback and if you like this direction; we plan to make it a full spell line that begins at the level warriors get the defensive discipline. [/quote]

this goes for paladins and sks: the new defensive line is weak, just weak. uncap the total damage, just make it a fixed %, and MAYBE it will be worth something.

[quote]Rangers are good at many things and when all the parts add up properly, they’re a class that is in heavy demand. Our feeling is that the parts are not adding up properly in the current game. We are still digesting all of the DPS numbers and stats but in the meantime we identified a couple of things we can increase in the short term.

a. We will be improving the damage you do through spells.

b. We will be boosting your healing ability, particularly at the top end of the game.[/quote]
yay. maybe rangers will have something to do with mana now. there is very obviously something wrong when there are ikkinz geared rangers with 0 ft -- that don't miss it.

[quote]We will fix the problems with Assassin’s Feint so it works correctly and then gauge your reaction to the working ability. If it turns out to be something that you like, we will look into adding more combat utility through a similar means.

We are looking into adding throwing quivers that grant innate haste similar to how normal quivers work [/quote]
give rogues the monk don disciplines. gives monks the rogue don discplines. everyone will be happier.

[quote]In DoN you received the spells Spirit of the Leopard and Spirit of the Panther. You seem to like these new spells and they have added more desirability for you in groups. We will be extending these into full spell lines so that Shaman of other level ranges can see the benefits from these spells.

As with Druids, we are looking to increase your healing ability so you can function better as main healer in groups. You folks are a little problematic though, since your healing ability is the function of not just your heals, but your ability to reduce an NPCs damage output through slows. In a situation where an NPC is fully slowable, you are a superb healer but against an NPC who cannot be slowed, your healing falls behind. If we were to just improve your heals, you would quickly outshine any other healer when facing NPCs that can be slowed. So, we are investigating ways to improve your healing ability only in circumstances where an NPC cannot be slowed or you choose not to slow the NPC (for your own strange reasons). These changes will be rolled out at the same time as any druid healing changes to ensure that one class does not eclipse the other. [/quote]
I love panther/leopard. just make it so it doesn't cause sks to proc shadowstep.

implement something similar to the proposed druid solution, give shamans a clicky that is a heal focus-type 50% boost, but disable slow for the duration.

[quote]Many of the ideas for changes to the warrior class are dependant upon the results of the data we are still compiling. However, we are looking into improving your ability to solo in the mid and high level game as well as;

We are looking into the endurance cost of many of your disciplines and lowering them as necessary.

We will increase the knockback on Press the Attack slightly. [/quote]
oow disciplines plain suck, except for the 69 incite. cut the reuse in half, quarter the endurance use, double the duration, double the effect.

[quote]With DoN, you received more mana efficient nukes that are aimed at improving your sustained DPS. We will be extending this into a line of spells to help out with sustained DPS at different level ranges.

We will fix Manaburn. Our preferred method is to uncap the ability and implement a cap based on the maximum percentage of health you can do in a single hit. So one of you, facing a million hit point boss mob (fairly common in today’s game) can expect a full manaburn to land for 10s of thousands of points of damage in one hit.
[/quote]
make the changes substantial enough so my warrior doesnt outdamage a better geared wizard over time. I like manaburn being fixed, but at the same time if you are going to % cap it, cap IHT too.

Czae, too lazy to doublecheck on Station, if that is true. looks plausible though.

if they follow it through, I think we have something to look forward.

ideas I like most:
- the druids being able to switch from healing to offense. this might also be applicable to other classes at a later stage. very interesting...
- spell progression, so that you get spells not e.g. every 5 lvls
- healing potions

It sounds like a good idea but their is 1 fatal flaw in this which I feel will hurt the druid more than it helps.



Druids aren't great at any 1 thing but were good at alot of things and our ability to change roles in a split second is what makes us so valuable.

For Example:
(currently in offensive mode since we've been grinding for awhile now)
Puller says: Inc %T
Puller says: ADD
(Switch to defense so I can back-up the cleric like a good little druid)
[Mobs are under control but are still in camp and being dealt with]
(Time to woop some a$$ and show these mobs who their messin with...........damage is nurfed for another 4 minutes /sigh)
So because I choose to help keep my group alive now that my damage is needed most of all it's cut in half?

Another Example:
(Going to solo for awhile so get ready then hit offensive)
After awhile
Soandso begins casting snare
Resisted
Soandso begins casting root
Resisted
[Druid takes a beating but manages to get the mob snared and rooted]
(Click defensive so I can heal myself)
(4 1/2 minutes before my damages spells will be back to normal. Gonna burn a full bar tryin to kill this thing)

See what I'm getting at?

It is a nice concept and could be a nice benefit but I feel it would seriously hurt a druid where they shine most. Versatility.

How about giving us a useful pet???

Does this sound too good to be true to anyone else? That fat scares me more then anything else.



... hmm a quick popping AA ability that acts like evasion but drops a ton of agro making it uselesss in groups. hhmm where have i heard that befoe...OH YEH ive been spamming that for 2 years(and I'm sure im not the only one..

Beastlords

We will add at least one new slow spell for you which has an innate resistance mod built in so that it lands more often. This will help you perform the role of slower in your groups, since you don't have access to the powerful resistance lowering spells of other slowing classes.

We will be boosting your healing so it stays on par with ranger healing when we improve ranger heals.

We will be increasing the availability of pet focus items, particularly for the more casual players.

We will be looking into the casting time of some of your pet healing spells and reducing the casting time where appropriate.

..... Werent beastlords uber enough already? Lets make Beastlords more uber and give them the abilities of a shaman and make a shaman useless .. crap ok lets make a shaman have better heals and make a druid useless .... crap lets totally redesign druids. So in essence make drastic modifications in the abilities of three classes just to make one class that was already ultra-uber even more so. Wasnt this supposed to promote group balance. If a Beast can slow as well as a shammy, have better dps and back up tank it seems to send a loud and clear message from EQ to shammies : GFY

MONKS: GRATZ, NO PLAYER HATER HERE

BERSERKERS: I DIDNT MISS ANYTHING THIS CLASS IS STILL USELESS RIGHT?




Edited, Tue Mar 15 07:53:01 2005 by dracoboars

As a Paladin, I'm downright scared..

If my stuns are resisted, they now generate no agro? Goodbye to the enchanter or Cleric who had to pull using pacification because the paladin line of pacify stops at lvl 55 mobs..

Our DON mitigation line? Worthless.

Your right.. the enchanter or cleric doesn't have to be the one that actually pulls the mob, but that's really not the point..

Point is: Why give paladins the ability, so they learn how to use it, learn to rely on it, and then cease that ability at higher lvls, while continuing to give it to traditional non-pulling classes..

At the higher end, Paladins lack group utility.. You can try to say they don't but when is the last time you "actively" searched for a paladin to tank WoS, MPG, or RSS mobs. Sure they're doable.. if the paladin is about 3-4 lvls higher then what would normally be required of a warrior.

If they expanded the pacification line to paladins, then we could assume the role of puller again, and thus be a benefit to groups.

We are removing the level 55 fear cap and adding advanced spells to the fear lines to make them current. Now, this doesn't mean that all NPCs can be feared, we will be making use of a no-fear flag to stop potential game-play problems.


Whoopie.About ******* time.

/em Rumages for his Fear spells.

they aren't talking about giving them better defensive abilities. they are scaling down the spells, so they get a lesser version at 55.

besides.

have you looked at the defensive spells they get?

they are WORTHLESS

Just to make a quick clarification...


The Mark lines have been in place for quite some time. They're referring to Ward of Vengeance and Retribution.

the changes are useless to rogues, but rogues dont need any changes.

#1 melee dps, and with corpsedragging/sos they have utility.

This isn't bad at all. I can use defensive when I am main healer. I can use offensive in groups where there is a cleric and I dont need to heal much. In very difficult zones or raids I can use normal. This is very good for me and adds to my versatility which is the main thing druids offer groups. The 5 min down time on the ability is not a big deal to me.

it's not like being able to transform in to a wizard or a cleric.

its a 25% healing boost, supposedly, with a 50% nuking penalty. 25% healing boost isn't going to make a druid operate with even 60% the efficiency of a cleric.

its a 25% nuking boost, supposedly, with a 50% healing penalty.
25% nuking boost is not going to make a druid look like a wizard, by any standard.