Kookynotes

When did you change your name to the Carebearanator? JK lummy JK..lol

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methulah

I should have rephrased my question to read: "if you give one class the abilities of another, and allow it to retain its current abilities, how is that balanced, especially on servers where class balance actually matters?"

Wormy

So, really, what is the difference between true class consolidation, and redistributing abilities across the good/evil line? Why turn the Inquisitor or the Templar into a generic Cleric when you can leave them named as they are, but add more offense to one and more defense to the other? If modified to the point where they both fill the same functional role, yet still have enough minor differences to please the roleplayers, have they not created parity that you can deal with? Or, again, is itemization the problem?

Ravanos

there is so much you can do with the classes. for example maybe tie a group heal to the inquisitors attack. so for example ...

the inquisitor throws on his heal buff and runs up to the mob and starts just wailing away on it. Maybe for every hit the inquisitor heals his group for 50% of the damage, so if he/she hits for 1000 he heals everyone around him for 500.

have a defiler not have mana but have to use part of thier HP to use thier wards and give them lifetaps so they can regen thier HP. or give them a bar that the can "store" enemy HP and stop using thier own.

Give Shadowknights the ability siphon various stats for a large amount and buff thier group for short durations.

give paladins different "auras" that give nice benefits (think the paladin from DAOC).

Give monks combos that have different status effects tied to it. Think of these combos as self heroic opps.

and these are just ideas off the top of my head or from other games.

Illuminator

What shows me you haven't been paying attention is that you're resisting the merge of the priest tank and the mage tank, which most of us have already written off long ago.

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Bow down before the one you serve. You're going to get what you deserve.

methulah

If that's directed at me, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. All I'm opposing is what I see as a destruction of some of the most important and beneficial mechanics the game currently has, while neatly sidestepping the real issue at hand and not changing anything for the better.

And for future reference: I don't give a fuck whether most of you have "written off" something long ago. That doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention, and it doesn't mean your right, either?

Deson

Most is not all and a rereading of the thread and a few of the others makes me question even most- unless I'm misreading you and you meant it's not on the table.

Edit: Actually, rereading the last few pages again, do you mean templars and Inq's or the crusaders? I thought crusaders from what you said but the most recent back and forth was about clerics.

This was good for a laugh though, first two posts.

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Talonis

The list of long-time players exiting stage left.....grows.

This happens as predicted. People are familiar with this game. We know the drill. Roll, grind, grind, grind, raid, raid, grind, grind, raid, raid, /rage quit (with lots of bitching in between). I approach this conversation from the section of this stadium where 1% of 1% sit. Your gaming experience may vary. Some of you, more likely most of you are pleased with your experience overall. The section filled with 100% satisfied players is non-existent or at the minimum, houses a fraction of the fraction (numerically speaking) that I represent. Everyone has something to add, tweak, or remove from the game that will make their play more rewarding or satisfying. This is an inherent effect of playing the genre. The developers know this. They read your threads. They see your ideas. They have the ability and responsibility to maintain the health of the game as it evolves. If you think their task is an easy one, you are among the cancerous rabble that hold this game and others like it back.

There is no single solution that is correct. I would liken the evolution of an MMO to a painting or some other piece of art. The 'errors' and inconsistencies are what make the product unique. If there were a universal formula for creating an MMO, we'd play the same game, Medieval Vanilla Quest. I don't want to play that game.

Yet.

I already did a summary post, but I felt compelled to post again for a couple of reasons. First, interest still seems to be warm enough to keep the thread alive. Second, I see impending demise of this game on the horizon. It wasn't clear to me until recently. Something happened to turn me abruptly in the direction of those that feel similarly.

I quit playing.

No, I'm not making the tired statement of "hitting them in the pocketbook, where it hurts", because my subscription is still active. I don't know for how long, but that is no matter. The reality is that following a brief RL break from the game, I came back to a new expansion, filled with curiosity and resolve. I picked up and commenced playing, questing, and interacting, same as the 3 years previous.

It was different this time.

How was it different? It was different in the fact that everything was way too much the same. The 'same' is not in the details, it is in the general scope of gameplay, as viewed from afar. Of course the quests were different, the maps, the rewards, the lore (if that is your bag), blah, blah.

The parts that were the same were there. Right in front of me. Nothing had changed. There were still elite classes that were pandered to in item/spell/encounter creation. There were mechanics that remained heavily retarded and yet still not addressed. The game is still primarily item-centric. There is an absolute, pre-determined min/max profile for gear and AA's for each and every class. The race to make your toon match the 'Aryan' rolemodel had commenced. We see the same itemization follies repeated. Unfinished content mocks us. It bides its time in Unfinishedville, hoping the drug-addict urge to play will suffice and we can be placated with a shiny bauble here and there until it will be finally injected into our gaming veins on the predetermined schedule of 'the man'.

Sorry, I'm getting dramatic.

But the urge isn't what it used to be. It isn't enough anymore. Sorry SOE, you didn't make the tonic strong enough this time. A big one finger salute to you for that. Yeah, that's right. I'm a little pissed this time. OMGZ! An EQ2 geek is up in arms at SOE for XXXXXXXX. News at eleven.

Whatever.

See, you people that read this thread and fail to see the question being asked are confused. You are blinded and deceived by the smoke and mirrors placed before you [again]. Barring someone that 'gets it' responding, I'll depart this failed attempt to.....whatever.....by stating my position or epitaph if you will.

The details don't matter as much as the concept that this game requires change at a fundamental level and on a large scale. It is not the 'answer', it is one potential outcome to make an attempt to revitalize the game. It can be done. It only requires the guts to try. It also requires the faith and cooperation of the people truly interested in the longevity of this particular game. Fuck the goddamned details. Seriously. Embrace that the concept is possible and become a part of the solution or kindly go fuck yourself, figuratively speaking in a video gaming sense of the phrase...

...or enjoy things as they are. Make a new thread about the dmg rating on some fucking treasured piece of shit that dropped off of a mob you sneezed on yesterday while you did a flagging quest to get faction to buy an item that allows you harvest something with a fabled tag in order to beat your GF's brother in a heavily retarded PvP match so he will lose the bet and be forced to help you grind a quest that may get implemented into the game before Prom '08.

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~.......This site is now FFA against SOE.......Since The Good Way is no longer an option, we now shift our format to The Bad Way.......

........let them know the meaning of dissatisfied customers.........~

-LFG

Deson

This sums up about how I feel- and I sit in the solo/group/ crafting section. Had a forced pre-RoK mini-break and after the first week of RoK my summary was " nice new world, cute quests, same stupid shit." Wondered why I couldn't get a group to Karnor's, found out grouping there was just about pointless( when level appropriate). Started leveling crafters, saw what could be made and thought "why bother?" Looked at the itemization and went "How'd this fly! What does the raid gear look like?" Saw the raid gear here and went, "WTF?" That doesn't even touch minimal spell upgrades, the "meh" feeling at having the AP upped to 140 and the stated uneven grade of class treatment.

RoK pretty much showed that something serious needs to be done and that the crap core design needs to be addressed since an itemization dev sees it as too much work to make all classes seem special (legit or not it's pretty much what he said) and it's fairly obvious the spells/mechanics guys are having their difficulties.

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aduros

That pretty much sums up the one of the core issues with EQ2 development lately. "Too much work". The decision to make healer items mostly leather, and the reasoning behind it was one of the most stupid and laziest things I've heard. The constant cutting of corners, which has been made glaringly apparent in RoK, just compounds the issue for many.

"Too much work" seems to be one of the many factors of EQ2's constant decline.

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