drychnath

Why not MGB/Raidwide?

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EQ2: Avenger Drychnath Malcherion -AB

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Shaggis

Ancient Balm

Surprised that hasn't been brought up already. It adds control effect cures. But this is an example of a nice Mystic ability being stepped on by these changes.

tomthumb

I've seen it popping up on FoH all the time and that's where they take their "how do we get some of the WoW players to play" ideas.

MadLordOfMilk

WALL OF TEXT INC! I'll argue why this is a good change and not a bad... IF it's done correctly. If I'm completely wrong, then well fuck.

I wouldn't say consolidating spells makes the game all that much easier, but I would say it makes the initial learning curve a lot easier on newbies.

Also, I have a theory on why they're doing these changes. Right now, the difference in my performance from when I'm going nuts and focusing on every detail of the game vs not even paying any attention is minimal. Why? Because this game is pretty much the same thing over and over. Other than clicking the odd cure potion or finishing off a HO my casting order is generally about the same. I don't even have to look at my hotbars that much because the pattern I hit spells is so ingrained into me.

What consolidating spells DOES allow is more content like the Unrest encounters, but even more complex - without the actions you have to do being just an annoyance because it breaks your spell order. Try doing Unrest with a low DPS group... the nameds are a LOT more interesting that way, and actually require some strategy. With the Bartender you have to keep moving out of the way of the ever-increasing number of things he's spawning. They actually stand still and cast PBAoE stuff, and the strategy for that is "keep away from them while still functioning in combat". There's the Hag, who if you can't just speed burn her, you have to actually go and fetch your allies from the cells and have them return to combat. With Screwloose you'll have to destroy bombs he spawns in your bags. With Garanel you have to actually be careful about his AEs and such - they can bring your group down faster than you'd think. In a low DPS Unrest group, I have to actually pay attention, unlike almost every raid mob.

So what's my point? Well say they made a named that summoned screwloose's bombs to your bags, had the hag's "Go to Jail" effect, summoned the bartender's static AEing mobs (is there a term for stuff like this? it's like a dumbfire, but different), had the Blademaster Thul massive counterattack temporary buff, and had a fairly strong AE with an emote/text attached to it? Even if you had mastered the encounter, you couldn't go anywhere near your full effectiveness because you're worried about cycling these debuffs to keep them up and getting this spell off and curing this effect and blablablablabla... what I think SoE aims to do (evidence from one of their most recent zones, Unrest, points to this) is make the challenge of the game come from having to deal with what's actually going on rather than what abilities are coming up. A little less "cast this cast that cast this other ability cast this", more of "cast this, cast that, OH SHIT MOVE, heal, cast another ability, back out of AE, cast another thing, STOP CASTING ZOMG HE'S REFLECTING ZOMG, cast something else, crap he teleported my ally to a jail cell!, SHIT CURE THAT!!, cast, cast, cast, etc". It would allow the same basic gameplay, but with the challenge coming from keeping track of everything that's happening around you and not from "CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, joust ae, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, cure potion, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA, joust, cure potion, CA, CA, CA, CA, CA". One requires little improvisation on your part, the other is somewhat dynamic and at least keeps things interesting as you continue to play. Guess which is which, and guess which makes for a better game.

Why am I thinking of all this? Look at Unrest. Also, yes, raid mobs are like this to a small extent but let's face it, more Unrest-style encounters plzthx, the following is starting to get old: a mob that spawns adds every X seconds or X percent, has two to five AEs on specific timers, and has one to two "interesting" effects (memwipes, temporary 100% reflection, charms, whatever). These raid mobs sound complex, but they really aren't.


::EDIT::
Also just thought of it, but iirc, the new DFC is like what I explained about Unrest but in a different sense, backing up my theory with another example. In any case, your surroundings will actually matter, and gameplay will be more interesting.

MadLordOfMilk

Sorry for the double-post but this is COMPLETELY separate of an idea from my other post.

Mechanically, less spells and abilities = cleaner database = better performance, gives more room for new stuff if they're pushing their database limits, decreases the # of items (again cleaning up the database and lowering server load), etc. etc. etc.... in terms of "cleanup", spell consolidation makes sense, and if it allows for more interesting (and possibly even more challenging) gameplay like I posted above, then SOE can't lose.

Vonotar

Somehow I suspect that this rejig of spells may be part of an excuse to... A. Reducing spells will reduce the number of recipes available to Sages, Alchemists and Jewellers, bringing them more in to line with the other six tradeskills. B. Tinker with the spell levels, perhaps to the point of switching from an 'every 14 levels' progression to something else. As I understand it, popular opinion is that a lot of classes get strong spells in the level 66-70 zone, applying the same old 14 levels rule would mean that these spells don't get an upgrade in RoK.

Istaril

Yup, this is what I'm hoping for as well.

Pinski

Unrest was hard or interesting? As far as I saw, it was just kill stuff in a specific order. It was exactly like doing Den, except with a bit "larger" puzzle.

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kyros

it's my understanding that the mobs were relatively difficult for players not in full fabled. they hit hard, took a little longer than usual to kill, etc. also, figuring out the script for the zone was something new. it was at least more than kill, kill more, and kill more faster.

razieh

You can Duo the zone with a bruiser defiler It can't be that difficult.

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