What is the point of MA?

My bad then, the '6+ times' made me think you were unaware of the changes.

So basically they just nerfed everyone big time who isn't going to be getting a brand spanking new set of ToV gear. Well at least the melees. Ahh yes, SoE at its finest.

"If you don't buy our expansion we'll nerf you into the ground"

The change was to address server lag, not to 'punish' players.

Actually the only people that really suffer are the ones without reforging.

On all 8 of my L95 characters I could reforge into DPS mod and get it to a similar level as my MA was.

Interesting because in the release notes they said they were lowering the value of MA in reforging (as I understand it it would take more MA to get the same x of something else, it would take less of something else to get the same y of MA) and they were increasing the value of DPS in reforging (would take less of DPS to get x of something else, would take more of something else to get y of DPS).

Well, if you said you could make an even swap I believe you, although I suspect you made that swap in beta so there's still some uncertainty. We'll all find out soon enough if it held up when it went to Live.

If you can indeed make an even swap to get back to where you were then instead they're nerfing the people who didn't buy AoD, or the reforging part since they broke it out. As well as those who didn't have the foresight to reforge all their gear beforehand -- so the reforge is free now -- and don't have the money to pay it now.

At this point I'm worried more for several friends then myself since I bought ToV and have the plat to pay for reforging. I was overjoyed when those friends came back and am hoping this isn't the final straw that drives them away for good.

As for whether they meant to nerf people who didn't buy this or that expansion; that's immaterial. What counts is whether people feel nerfed. Nothing makes someone want to leave more then getting nerfed. Especially casual gamers who don't have a lot of resources to draw upon and aren't going to create and level a new character just to keep up with the changes or do anything else comparable to keep up.

silly Q, but any improvement in server lag for anyonel? I haven't noticed any yet...it still sucks.