By the time you cast most of those spells, the fight is long over I hope. But changing the way spells can be cast would remove refresh timers which now make us a bit slower to cast them when we change them out, so there is some strategy to which ones to mem in which sets. If you have spell X memorized, you can cast it in Y tenths of a second, but if you have to sit and mem it, you can cast it in double that or some such. And it could possibly make a difference to the knights, who have a more difficult time trying to get a spell memorized while tanking, so it would effect them perhaps the most. However, while it would change some strategies, changing how long we sit to med up changed things up in a vastly bigger way. And I like the new way better. So I could go for changing this. Just realize, it can make a difference, if you cast more than what is memorized, in the time it takes to cast them, now, versus how long it would take to cast them if such a change is made.
Just plain NO. Good grief! How much further do you want EverQuest to be dumbed down??!! Tedious to memorize a spell? Hard to find a spell? Part of the game is strategy! This suggestion tosses that right out the window!
Spell stagnation? Like, you wouldn't bother upgrading your spells from level 100 to level 105? Are you suggesting the devs would stop trying to develop new spells, rather than just add a new level to already existing spells? Hmmm. Personally I think the limit on new spells types is imposed by imagination in finding something which is actually new, and not overpowering, or useless, or steps too much on another class, etc. etc. etc.
Well I don't think that the EQ team is going to suddenly expand the spell bar by 50 slots or give us the ability to cast any spell at will. It's 14 years old now and in all that time we have been given 4 more spell slots. It isn't gonna happen probably. But, I still think there is a strategy involved (as an enchanter) even if I had 50 spells slots. More really. The strategy in choosing only 12 spells really revolves around preparation. In other words, I have been through the event before or I know how it works from reading about it online. How else could I decided what those 12 spells should be unless I had some information. So the strategy is rooted in the preparation and in the execution I have less ability to deviate from my plan (without sitting down and meming new spells). It takes a little thought to decide on meming a different spell, while in the thick of combat, and if I do then I can adjust my strategy a little. I can do that as many times as I want but it is an act of preparation that i am doing while in combat. Having 50 spell slots means that there is much less strategy involved with preparation. I would have nearly my full suite of tools available. But there would be a much greater ability to change strategy while combat was happening. I would have more choices available so the strategy would actually be deeper with the enchanter class. This might not be so with a wizard, for instance. They may have no reason to have 50 spell slots. For that reason, I think it should be an AA line if it were implemented. As an enchanter I would spend 1000 AA (I would spend a lot more) to have 50 slots. Maybe a wizard wouldn't. I, as an enchanter, vote in favor of increasing the number of spell slots through AA abilities. I would really, really, love that for my favorite class. I think the increased flexibility would cause the enchanter (especially them) to be much more effective at supporting a group. My suggestion is to allow an extra slot to be bought at each level starting at level 51.
As a player who avoids spoilers, I can tell you that spell selection when going in blind is quite strategic. For instance, I tend to drop all damage spells to make room for root and other utility spells that I don't often use, but may desperately need, but it depends who I'm going in with.
Alright, people tend to throw around the word 'challenge' when they fail to distinguish between 'fun' challenges and 'annoying' challenges. The spell interface is archaic. It is past its prime and is in need of an update. The 'challenge' of the spell-bar is "What's the quickest way to get around this clunky, obsolete system?" That is not a fun challenge. That is the same challenge as, "How much earlier than usual should I hit the 'jump' button to account for the unresponsive control's half second delay" in other games. The 'fun' challenge and strategy of spell-casting is timing it all around casting-times, DoT and buff lengths, refresh timers and the like, actual game-balancing features. And guess what? Removing the spell-bar won't change that, all it will do is remove a step that *used* to be necessary due to technical limitations, is no longer so, and only remains due to apathy/pointless tradition. If you really want to keep to the classic feel... just limit yourself to eight (or nine, ten or eleven because whoops, looks like AA's are already 'easy-moding' that cherished spell-bar tradition!) ability commands at a time and knock yourself out.
I believe I recall this being discusses in the way back machine, and the existence of the 8 spell gems was a plan to force us to choose wisely.The added time to mem other spells was intentional. I don't recall ever hearing there was a technical issue. But it was the same for slow regen. That was intentional, to force us to choose our usage wisely, and pace our movement through dungeons so we could succeed. They changed that, and I can't think of anything other than the old "we did it the hard way" reason for this to not change. Just because someone thought it was good thing then, well, whatever. I still think the best change to the game was the introduction of Shadow Rest.
I'm not saying that they should never, ever do this, I'm just saying that if it was patched in tomorrow with no other changes, several classes would see a significant power boost. That means that, in order to maintain balance, each class would have to be reevaluated in solo, group, and raid settings, and that's a significant undertaking, as with so many combinations of spells, it's probably impossible to get right on the first try. The next problem is that many of us desire more, better AAs. Additional spell gems and AA versions of spells are some of the best AA abilities, and they'd become obsolete or of significantly less worth. You can't make a 1,000 AA purchase as we can only bank 70 AAs. Even if you could divide this into 70 (71?) AA chunks, the first chunk(s) would be far more powerful than the later ones, so most players would just buy what they most needed and not bother with the ability to have, for instance Infravision, Ultravision, See Invisible, and Enduring Breath handy when they have Leviathan Eyes. I've tried shrouded characters that have all their abilities on hotbar buttons, and it sux, so that too would also have to be fixed.
There's still plenty of strategy to be had with all skills laid out on the bars. We already have AAs freeing up some of these choices, so it seems like a natural progression to ditch the spell bar or at least get more spells moving into the AA tables. Every time the cap increases, they can just put another rank in and the proper level.
It is actually a great idea. Most spells share timers anyway and you wouldn't bother casting lower level spells that would not be efficient or increase your dps. Always wondered why you could hotkey combat abilities without putting them in your disc window but not spells. As far as making any class Overpowered ? Don't see it.
Oh heck, why not just have the Developers develop an AI that applies to every class, every race, every level which automatically takes the optimum course for each and every encounter? There, now no one has to put any stress on their brain cells. We certainly wouldn't want to stress the players by creating situations where they might actually have to think and adjust on the fly, now would we? That would solve any and all issues, wouldn't it?
Reduce this, remove that, see invis need to go, blah blah. If this game gets much easier we'll be able to right click named and raid bosses to pick the drop we want without effort. Selecting which spells is all part of strategy, and for unknown encounters, we either adjust, gate, fade or die. Going into every event/encounter ready for it 100% of the time would take a lot of the fun out of the game. Also, those who are able to adjust on the fly due to skill would have one less thing to set them apart.
I am totally in the reverse position. I think it would be more fun to have my spells available. It's precisely because I want to be able to adjust to encounters on the fly that I think it would be more fun. Your skill and experience, that sets you apart, would still inform you as to which spells to cast and when. It would just remove an interface limitation. Seriously, do you think the game would be more fun if we could only memorize 4 spells? I don't know what class you play but maybe 12 slots is the sweet spot for your class and you have 90% of the spells you would have memmed anyways. For my class and play style, 12 slots is only about 20-25%.
I love it. Person 1: "Hey guys, why don't we make the UI a little less clunky and archaic?" Person 2: "Geez, just hire someone to play the game for you if you're that lazy!" Person 1: "I'm not lazy, all I'm saying is that this UI quirk, as it is, doesn't actually add anything and makes things pointlessly difficult." Person 2: "EZ-moder! It's people like you who are casualizing this game! This UI quirk adds difficulty and strategy!" Person 1: "Making people type out every spell by hand before they can cast it, with even the smallest typo resulting in a fizzle, would also add 'difficulty' and 'strategy'. There's a difference between things which make the game interesting and challenging, and things which are nothing more than pointless, frustrating roadblocks that artificially increase difficulty by progressively aggravating the player." Person 2: "Oh, well why not just have every spell at level 1 while you're at it, and all skills maxed out with a single use?!!" Person 1: "This isn't a binary situation. Asking for the UI to be brought into this decade is not the same as-" Person 2: "EZ-moder! EZ-moder! Pay me, I'll play the game for you, you lazy Casual!"
I play a wizard in a reasonably high-end guild (we're in that group that finished Xorbb after the tuning pass, currently working on T3). and while I don't think I'd use 50 spell slots, I'd definitely use a couple dozen more: three resist types (fire/ice/magic), personal vs targeted spell rune, stuns (I almost never load stuns unless I'm soloing), AEs, even goofy stuff like reflect. While I don't see that this would add much power to my class, I definitely can see a fair amount of utility being added. All that said, my guess is this would require a complete re-write of the spell system, which I'd debate about really being worth the dev resources to make it happen, assuming it's even possible given the current code base.
I don't think it would be that difficult, code-wise. Plenty of spells are already coded as AA's, all you'd need to do is code the rest similarly and introduce a method to 'buy' the AA spells from vendors (or even better, 'train' them from guildmasters) at the proper levels. All the mechanics are already in place, it's just a matter of activating them.
The OP's proposal is how EQ2 has always worked. You have essentially unlimited banks of hot bars with every spell available. Many of us have played EQ2, did you like that better as a spell casting system? My opinion is that the EQ2 approach felt less strategic and more rapid fire mashing where each individual spell had less importance. I am just talking about the overall vibe of playing a caster that way. I like the "stop and think about it" feel of EQ1 better.
