Balance the Classes by Moving Existing Abilities

[Kich867]

Originally Posted by ezigrelnos [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

so why not just give them clarity instead of only enchanters having it?

wizards are more convenience than optimization, they delete mobs faster than any other class, CC with aggro clicky/root/stun plus evacs/ports so why not let them have an extremely convenient group buff to round it out?

at the very least the stigma of wizards being useless in groups would go away when everyone is begging for crack.

also my idea is to give Rangers Feign Death so they can be competitive with SKs and Monks

Because that would be like giving Rogues more utility to me. I don't think Wizards need to offer utility, I think they should offer damage, they just shouldn't be so clunky about providing it.

I'm also, personally, a fan of keeping niche things niche and thematically like the idea of a Harvest line of spells for Wizards as their own personal mana generating system.

If wizards could safely nuke like...once or twice per mob without having to worry about pulling aggro even when its below 50% health, they'd be fine. My 35 wizard deals 310 damage per nuke, the average mob HP for things I'm killing are probably around 1200-1500hp. If I could contribute to dealing 20-25% of the damage dealt per mob in a full group, this would be fine.

But the problems add up in different ways in different directions. In small groups you need to nuke more often, which means you have a problem with mana. In full groups you only need to nuke once but since mobs die so quickly the tank has less threat to work with and you can pull off of them even if you wait awhile before casting.

So I feel like the only real issue with wizards is some combination of: their mana efficiency and/or their Harvest line being insufficient as a means of generating mana, and their nukes generating too much threat.

[Tewaz]

These are good wizard thoughts. I feel like Wizards wouldn't be desired in groups still if every one of their spells did 0 hate. It's a rough design.

[Jimjam]

As wanderers of nature in tune with the physicality of nature, it does make some sense for rangers to have a 'play dead' skill. I mean I wouldn't take FD away from monks for it though - monks across the real world mythologically can do all sorts of things to appear dead - slowing pulse, going cold, etc.

Playing dead does seem like a rogueish trick too. I surely can see rogues deserving something like that too - but perhaps at a lower skill cap than monks since they won't be able to do the crazy stuff like slowing their pulse to near zero, stopping breathing for extended periods, etc. I can't decide whether rogues or rangers should be more proficient at play dead. Maybe rogues get it earlier on, but rangers get a higher skill cap at 60.

[Keebz]

OP took FD from monks and called them "slightly nerfed" lol

[loramin]

Originally Posted by DeathsSilkyMist [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Agreed, that would help a lot. Pet issues need to be fixed too so they can be used more often.

Oh yeah: Verant made the genius ([You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]) decision to make pets unviable in the most important end-game zone (TOV ... plus a few others).

If we're making wishes, I would definitely wish to be able to use my class as designed on (Velious) raids.

[Zuranthium]

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Wizards are all about personal power and overwhelming show of force, not tricks of the mind. The nukes, pbaoes and aoe snares are a good start, and I think any other spells should play to that rather than buffing friends (which is what clarity does). They don't subtly manipulate

Wizards are described as seekers of knowledge in EQ. I think mana buffing and tapping can fit into that.

A big problem with Wizard in the design of EQ at higher levels is they can't kill things super fast like they could at lower levels. Spamming their best damage spell on recharge, it's still going to take quite some time against all these 10k+ HP MOBs. Even if they were to have amazing personal mana regen, they'd basically just be like a Rogue in group play. A better design for the class is being able to do huge bursts of damage with a bit of downtime, so not the best sustained DPS, but being able to make meaningful plays. Crowd control being so crazy strong in the game is also somewhat of an impediment to "Burst DPS" being more meaningful. And of course, the Play Nice Policy sterilizing the game world.

Originally Posted by Jimjam [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I mean I wouldn't take FD away from monks for it though - monks across the real world mythologically can do all sorts of things to appear dead - slowing pulse, going cold, etc.

Playing dead does seem like a rogueish trick too. I surely can see rogues deserving something like that too

Slowing pulse and stuff is totally different than Feign Death in EQ. That ability is definitely much more in line with Rogues, a trickery and stealth mechanism.

Originally Posted by Keebz [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

OP took FD from monks and called them "slightly nerfed" lol

They are in the "moderately nerfed" category. Velious era Monk has amazing stats, they don't need FD. Their mitigation and DPS is enough, particularly with Rogues losing their offensive Disciplines it would put Monks in a great spot still, they would be the top DPS for Kunark raid fights.

Originally Posted by Knuckle [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Fun change for warrior - Allow equipping 2h weapon + shield.

I'd rather see Bash improved, to make 1 hand weapon + shield a more worthwhile thing.

Originally Posted by loramin [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Mages: Give them root (or snare) and make their epic piece drop off every Magi spawn.

I swear, just a level 4 spell and a drop rate change and you would see a ton more people playing Magician.

Mage epic is ridiculous and should definitely be more obtainable, but I highly disagree with giving them Root, too many classes already have it, there needs to be some differentiation. I also wish the Epic was a mega focus item, so they could keep using the different pet types as the situation calls for.

Originally Posted by Kich867 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

even the devs noted that Complete Heal was an atrocious design.

Cleric should be soooo much more interesting of a class to play.

[Homesteaded]

Back in the day people gave the warrior time to build aggro. This is the issue on p99.

[astuce999]

Here's my (10 year old) take on how EQ should be re-balanced [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...d.php?t=105887

cheers,

Astuce

[Dural_Levant]

Originally Posted by Zuranthium [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'd rather see Bash improved, to make 1 hand weapon + shield a more worthwhile thing.

Agree with this so much. I would go as far as to increase the damage that Bash does significantly, make it interrupt spell casting %100 of the time and add a significant chance to stun for like 3 seconds.

In addition, perhaps add a discipline called something along the lines of "Shield Stance" that offers a MASSIVE boost to AC for like 10 seconds or so.

[Kich867]

Originally Posted by Dural_Levant [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Agree with this so much. I would go as far as to increase the damage that Bash does significantly, make it interrupt spell casting %100 of the time and add a significant chance to stun for like 3 seconds.

In addition, perhaps add a discipline called something along the lines of "Shield Stance" that offers a MASSIVE boost to AC for like 10 seconds or so.

It hurts pretty bad to use Bash to interrupt something only to have them instantly start re-casting, unless their spell is like an 8 second cast interrupting it just doesn't matter. And agreed, idk if its actually true, but supposedly Bash was meant to generate a lot of threat and wasn't fixed for years.

IDK if that's true though, that'd be insane negligence to overlook that for years without ever realizing it wasn't working. My gut says that they just never thought about it, never thought much about how warriors had no reasonable way to generate threat, never really thought about any of this shit. I think balance was never a concept in their mind outside of really stand-out things like their obviously huge fear that Archery would be way too strong and kept it completely shit, they just built class fantasies.