For those who don't know new expansion is in February, called Sentinel's Fate, and will include new caps of 90 for adventure, tradeskill, and guilds, with 250 cap for AA (existing AA trees will be expanded). It will be Odus (which is probably why nobody's posted anything about it yet...the late date+setting really upset a lot of players). Here's a recap from
http://fanfaire08.feldoncentral.com/ and I italicized what I personally consider the most important things.
Class Balance (Bards, Enchanters, Summoners)
Typical raid lineups currently include 3-4 illusionists, 1 coercer, 3-4 dirges, and a troubador. Yet they often do not offer ANY slot to summoners or druids.
Some Enchanter and Bard buffs will become raidwide or applicable to one person in each of the 4 groups. The example given was an illusionist giving Time Compression to one member of all 4 groups. Other buffs could go raidwide. This will be done in such way so that having 4 illusionists will not be a significant advantage over having 1 or 2.
Currently, Brigand “Dispatched” and other debuffs are crucial for raiding and some group situations. Meanwhile, Summoners are finding they rarely get a seat at the table. As a result, Rogue debuffs are being refocused to work on melee, while Summoners step into a new role of debuffing spell abilities.
Also, with regards to Rogues, Brigands and Swashbucklers each have irreplaceable abilities such that most raids have 1 of each. Some of these abilities will become common between the two classes so that any Rogue can be effective in raid situations.
Summoner pet survivability is going to be looked into. Dumbfire pets will now act like a spell with appropriate graphics, rather than being affected by AoEs. These pets will also do spell debuffs in line with Summoner’s new role as spell debuffers.
Let There be Light!
