Decapitate and Headshot and Every class Fade. For you piestro :)

At one point, in Thule Library, I was wondering where all the mobs had gone... it was me and my group, and some 95 rogue and corpses in the entire zone. Tracker in the group confirmed that there were only a few mobs left up... (yes, most Thule Library mobs are level 89 or lower)

years ago, when it was Wizard manaburn that was unnerfed, and team manaburns were showing the entire set of servers how out of balance they was by taking out raid targets with one synched click burn... the developer post on the reason behind the nerf was it was add the instant click high power nuke to every class, and raise the NPC's stats accordingly... or nerf the manaburn, as it was not only overpowered, it was being used to put the rest of the people playing at ransom ("your raid was here waiting for days, the name popped, we had a spotter listen for the emote, and was able to port over and take it first while your raid was getting buffed and assembled... too bad", or some of the servers, there was webpages where team manaburns would charge cash to take a named out... even a few wizards posted they was doing team manaburns as revenge for lack of groups)...

I'd love a headshot... or even a harmonious arrow for Druids (who up to the point of the introduction of Harmonious arrow, was about the same ammount of pulling power (an outdoor pacify/harmony, root and snare (Druids could evac, but that means running back thru content to get back to the spot they was pulling from)...Paladins recently got an update to their pacify spells (They hadn't had an update to pacify in years, if i remember right)...

While my post was slathered with sarcasm, there was a point to it all.
If we all had the same abilities everquest would just be a game, not an mmo. I realize that the devs likely read about 2% of the threads on these boards, but when they become hot topics and draw the attention of one of them, the end result is typically a nerf. Not saying that some abilities are not op, but eq nerf history shows us that in many cases they simply take away an ability that makes a class desirable or useful.

I got fade as a cleric at 91 (this year)
I dont use it for that for most part, I use it for the perma invis portion because that has been a sore spot to the class for years (clicky invis semi rare and potions cost plat)

Normally I avoid threads with my name in the title like the plague, just to avoid every thread having my name in the title. Just a heads up. Since I needed to review this thread anyways (moderator escalation), I figure I'll weigh in.

1) While it would be ideal for every ability to make perfect logical sense, there are larger considerations. Decapitate (by my understanding) is much more limited in some ways than headshot (in terms of needing to be in melee range for instance). Perhaps the developers felt the need for it to effect a wider range of targets for that reason. Also abilities are not balanced around 1 to 1 equivalencies, more on that in #2.

2) Cover tracks has a longer re-use timer, but the flusterbolt line certainly doesn't. How does that impact pulling and how many seconds is that worth? Vinelash certainly doesn't hurt in many pulling situations either, I've used it as ghetto CC many times on both my ranger and druid to manage pulls gone awry. How many seconds of reuse is Vinelash worth?

Ultimately abilities can't ever be balanced on a one to one basis, you have to look at the entire panoply of abilities present in each class to determine balance. With non quantitative abilities such as those of pulling and utility types it becomes much much harder to see the complete picture. Arguing "other classes have this" is usually less useful than arguing why "my class could use this". If rangers need a shorter fade length, make those arguments.

I haven't bothered to pick up cover tracks yet, mostly because I have so many other tools it's not a high priority. I expect somewhere around aa 2500 it'll be a worthy purchase, but that's a long way off for my ranger alt. Hell I haven't picked up the similar ability for my cleric yet and have been pulling for years on him. I've got playing possum on my beastlord (nowhere near as useful), and of course death's effigy on my necro (amazing, but it's for a necro), so I certainly understand the use. My ranger just flat out doesn't need it at this time.

3. You're welcome. The EQ panel had nothing to do with any other game or panel preempting it. It was just a silly technical issue. Not enough wired connections in the room for everything we needed to do, because the speakers on the panel were using all of them. Been noted, this year we dramatically stepped up our livecasting schedule and as a result of course ran into a few difficulties. That particular issue has been the focus of a fair amount of feedback internally as well.

We still recorded the panel and I expect it to be up on Youtube today so everyone could see it. It sucks when people schedule time and it doesn't happen, we get that. I do want to make sure you folks are aware that it was nothing to do with EQ as a game but simply a technical issue we weren't adequately prepared for.

Hope that helps,

The cleric ability isn't instantaneous, but it's almost always successful. You just stop healing.

Oh wait... you want to insta kill mobs...

Decapitate is going to be useful for like 6 weeks total for max leveled toons.

not for priests or casters without a pet when a mob is highly spell resistant. Melee have always had a huge advantage in that department.

Problem it isn't grays they are able to kill


and to those saying you need a head to headshot... yes but animals have heads and they aren't headshottable. A archer cant kill animals

Piestro, the reason Cover Tracks (ranger fade) needs to be in the 2-3 minute range (and INSTANT. That 0.5 invisible cast time is BS) is because there will ALWAYS be runspeed immune mobs. Snare, vinelash, and fluster/bluster are useless against that (barring ridiculous luck on an instant memory wipe without it reaggroing due to other mobs in the pull).

1. Because ranged instakill combined with vinelash is OP.
2. Balefire burst

IIRC SHM and CLR fade is not instant either.. and even though SK and Necro death effigy is "insta" agro loss, you can still fail the FD if you are trying to cast it while moving (IE: See invis mobs near you will kill you).

None of them are a designated puller though (and I'm pretty sure the clerics and shamen get cast times to see, ours is invisible. It makes stopping, fading, and running again a MASSIVE pain).

Simple, get a puller (Monk/Bard/Necro/SK) or just deal with the HALF A SECOND cast time.

At least you have channeling. Warrior version gets interrupted 100% of the time with 1 pixel of movement or 1 point of damage.

Has no one watched a zombie movie?? Why are undead not headshot-able too!

This + shotgun bow ornaments please.

It doesn't have a cast time because it's apparently a combat ability AA. Don't think it CAN be channeled. Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's the case (hence the invisible cast time).

This! Some one player-studio up a shotgun ornament.

In one of the MUDs I used to play they put in a divine shot on every magic ability in the game including procs. So at any time while playing you could swing with your enchanted proc weapon or cast a normal spell (let's say that the max damage is 1000) and it would occasionally proc a 9999 divine damage effect.

There was a set proc rate percentage and I had actually had it go off five times in a row, but in that game 9999 damage was sure to kill pretty much every monster in the game.

IMHO Rangers at the higher end game are doing pretty well. I am speaking from the perspective of primarily a group player (not raiding), however.

For me, I now rarely use Harmonious Arrow (HA), but a lot of that has to do with my regular group compliment and how I pull. HA is still a valuable item to have in my toolbox, just like CoverTracks (CT=Ranger 85% chance fade), although I mostly use it on those "oh spit, 20 mobs are chasing me" pulls. CT requires you are standing perfectly still and then you must succeed (along with a few other variables). Having the ability to CC some adds with a push root has changed the game for me.

I used to be mostly "dps and snare guy" with the occasional Tracking check. It was boring as heck. As time went on we became a little tougher and able to survive melee hits. Our damage abilities improved and we no longer had to stand back and just be archers. Then HA came along and it was fun for a while, albeit with a long recast timer. HA was reworked and became (IMO) more reasonable. Then we were given a push-back root similar to the one Enchanters have. This was the moment I started to enjoy my class again because we had a good selection of tools that, while certainly not perfect or 100% reliable, allowed the Ranger to be that jack-of-many-trades many of us originally envisioned with out stomping on other classes much. Most of all, I had always wanted to be able to save a group mate in a pinch by shoving back an add, giving everyone a few more seconds to react. CT (fade) did not hurt either, giving us the ability to "do over" a bad pull.

A little more on HA...

Contrary to popular belief, HA could in fact *fail* and did in many circumstances. This often had to do with geometry and glitches in the EQ pathing mechanics. Despite this, it was rather a one-button pull mob of choice AA. HA was then changed so that it worked, I believe, as originally envisioned. I support the change, despite how fun it once was. HA now drops a fairly wide AE Harmony-type effect around the target. There is an inherent danger with its use, that being the "do(ugh)nut hole". If you look at the Lucy link, it shows that rank 2 grants a 12-radius aggro reduction, just like our best rank 2 group Harmony spell does with single targets. The trick with HA is that any other mobs (adds) inside that radius at the time you cast will usually aggro. This can pull others who pass inside their 12-radius area. There is a little more to it than my simple explanation, but if you keep the "hole" idea in mind, it will help you use HA more effectively.