ah, i get it. eq2 is a GUI for a spreadsheet program, ACT - Page 5

Kallarn · 04-01-2008, 09:14 AM

I was a parser hater but then i raided more and started to understand how useful a tool they are for both personal performance improvements and general raid things like timers. The bad side of ACT is the group parsers, who the hell cares as long as the group is surviving and people are having fun. Its easy enough to spot slacking group members without ACT in groups.

As a serious raid tool its invaluable, as a tool for testing new AA/weapon setups its very handy, for anything else its waving your E-peen.

Morgander · 04-01-2008, 12:17 PM

The reason parsers make such an important impact on the world of Everquest II is because of two features. The way skills are set up to work, and in combat regeneration.

When you're up against an encounter where you have to do a group or raid wide damage per second ratio of a specific number over a specific time in order to even have a chance to kill it before your power reduces to zero, there's bound to be a problem.

In Everquest, you could easily juggle your mana, healing, and mitigate through crowd control which inevitably allowed groups and raids opportunities to hold their trigger finger some for the sake of things such as aggro.

A good example of this would be in this hypothetical situation: In Everquest, if you gained aggro, you could just stop attacking or casting on the creature until your tank got their aggro back. In EQII on the other hand, if you want the creature to die (especially on raid content) you have to be spamming your buttons every time they're refreshed, which due to the spammy nature of EQII's combat development, is very frequently. Not only that but also due to this shitty development style, some classes have a distinct advantage over others in regards to use in this system. For example, if a Wizard wants to perform their primary task of damaging mobs proficiently enough to make them viable over another damage class, they can't be holding spells back for the sake of the tank's aggro, they can't be equipping items that reduce aggro over those that increase damage, and they just can't be holding back for any other reason.

What's the point in having a Wizard parse 1,500 when a Monk could do that and then some? Why even let that Wizard in your group if you can get a Conjuror that due to dots and pets, which both help them mitigate their own aggression can deal double that?

That's like getting a Warlock to tank for your group over a Guardian, you could certainly do it--if you wanted--but it wouldn't make any sense.