AA inflation would have been the same without the ability to mass kill for XP. Simple fact, most of the players that can mass slay, don't. Either by choice or by chance, they simply don't do it. Why? Because there is not enough of the right mobs, in the right zone configurations to allow them all to do it.
I'd say this part is subjective without actual FACTS. Any time I ever passed through F2 while it was a HZ I always saw Rangers there or oodles of corpses in HS spots. There are now dozens of SKs swarming the Grounds and Library tasks, so I'd have to see actual numbers before I believe the simple fact.
Just because you will always find rangers in Feerrott does not mean most of them are there headshotting (or even a significant percentage of the appropriate level of rangers on your server). Feerrott can only accommodate two HS groups at a time. There are simply not enough mobs that meet the requirements to support more than that. You try to have more than that and all the rangers would wind up standing in a circle with their hands in their pockets waiting for the lizards to respawn. Two rangers can kill everything that is headshottable in that zone before the first respawns. Four rangers working in pairs will spend half of their time waiting for repops unless they are purposely dogging it. You don't have to see the numbers, just do the math. The same holds true with swarming. While the Grounds could accommodate more than three or four SK's swarming, its geometry is such that any more than that and they would wind up swarming each other's mobs or standing in a circle waiting for repops. Tasks are another story entirely. They could, in theory, support a very large population. But Library (static or instanced) isn't all that great of XP for anyone over level 85 or 90. The question about tasks is, just how subjective are your numbers since you cannot see into all the instances to see what is happening?
Played every class over the years. Almost all to 80+ most 85+ I typically solo/box. Bard- Well-played Bard is a staple of any truly awesome group. Annoying to play pre-melody. Beastlord- Nice DPS, decent at soloing but really burns through the mana fast. Berserker- Meh. Everything unique about this class should just have gone to Warriors imo. Cleric- I generally dislike playing healer but there's just no substitute. Fun procs too. Druid- I really like the flexibility, but the healing power pre-70 is terrible. Awesome at 85+ Enchanter- This was basically a fun class for me until 65, after that I prefer Bard strongly. Magician- Didn't enjoy this class until recently but they really are monsters these days. Monk- Always been a great class but they really take off after 70. Dps kinda varied over the years. Necromancer- Don't box well imo and I hate kiting. Can't deny the flexibility or power in longer fights tho. Paladin- Healing is a little weak until the 70's but this is probably the most fun class in EQ imo. Ranger- Great flexiblity but I neglect mine because I get annoyed with a lot of folks who play Rangers xD Rogue- Love/hate over the years. Was fun for awhile, sucked for a long time, then got fun again. Shadowknight- Always been a decent class and they just get fearsome after 70. Shaman- Mostly a buffbot these days. I prefer Clr/Druid in most situations. Warrior- Pillar of a raid, otherwise don't play one. Newer instant hate stuff is nice. Terribad soloers. Wizard- Another class that was typically solid but really really improved after 70.
Paladins should get spears, spears you can throw. THROW AT GOD-KINGS. But it kinda sad that my character is exponentially more powerful than he would be 10 years ago, yet THAT SPIROC LORD KILLED ME ASNDGAJSDGAS. wtb respawnable Sleeper.
Nice stab, but clear from your post what "archetype" you focus on. Fact is just because one has been thrown into one archetype does not mean one wants its specialty to be what "YOU" think it should be. Example: Priests (which is obvious you do NOT run) Clerics could be the king of AoE healing. They can help keep a whole raid alive. - I don't think anyone, including druids and shaman believe they should be anything other then best of class at ALL healing, along with having some nice group utilty and soloing power. Druids could be the king of single target burst healing. Fastest heals available. Ok interesting, but most people who run druids chose them due to their solo and group capabilities, not healing all the time (unless they have only started running one in the last several years) Shamans could be the king of sustained healing. They can canni/etc so they can heal forever. Again, interesting, but most shaman I know have even less patience healing then the druids (many of home dislike healing). Part of this reason is that many older druids quit or changed classes, whereas the shaman have had more to offer in buffs, utility, dps, etc. Again, I don't think many shaman are going to like this advent over what they have now.
Actually, I do play a Cleric as what most would consider my "raid main". I'm also a raid leader and am aware of all of these various weaknesses. I was looking at this from the perspective of classes that can primary heal. Just because this is what they are "kings" of does NOT mean by ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION that they would NOT also be good at other things. I'm simply giving each and every class a place to thump their chest. Clerics would ALSO have good fast heals. Druids would ALSO have good DPS. In fact, being the king of fast heals would mean they could spend LESS time topping off the hp of their group giving them MORE time to spend dpsing the mob. Same for Shamans and dpsing...canni gives them the *ability* to heal forever...or dps forever...which would put them high on sustained dps as well (just not the king of it, because they also have the ability to heal). Further...if Clerics really *were* the king of AoE heals and AoE healing was more viable...it would free up more time for druids/shamans to DPS as they wouldn't necessarily have to top off their groups hps on all AoEs that go off, only under special circumstances, or if they are asked to heal the MT on a particular event due to raid make up or healing demands of the event. As far as healing goes...as raid leader I expect my druids/shamans to be able to heal...but I usually try to make it so they are only responsible for their own group. That doesn't mean on a particular event they don't get moved around, and that doesn't mean I don't have druids stuck in a healing rather than dps role more than I'd like (just due to numbers and how raid makeup works). That said, I usually talk to each of the druids to find out which don't mind healing so much before putting them into a tank group. ~MrGPAC
First character was my wizard in 10/2009 and still playing him to this day but since he is max level I have played every other class, some more than once. Second favorite are my two mages. I usually box the wizard and two mages together. My least favorite class is paladin (my paladin is only level 25) (only class I did not play past level 60). I definitely favor casters and mainly solo or box. The only class I used to like that I no longer like is druid. SOE needs to show them some love.
Agree to much of your post... Clerics should be the best healers in the game...period. AOE healing is a gimmick at best...if it goes beyond group. But still...clerics should be best healers...and worst dps really. Give them solid defensive ability to survive when attacked but no dps. Druids can heal tanks on raids...but even clerics need more than one healer on a MT on a raid...so druids are not solo healing tanks on raids. Druids can heal tanks...and do it well...and yet...can DPS on raids and hit the top 10 parse if they are working it right on many mobs. This is to push those slacker DPS casters to be in the top 10 parse. It depends on the group makeup...target...and raid leader requirements as mentioned above. Shamans....is one of the worst played class in the game. A good shaman can heal tanks or DPS and to either very very well. There are too many shaman that simply think slowing and tossing a couple dots on the mob then a hot on a toon is the role of the shaman. A shaman dedicated to healing should be able to almost match a druid in healing...and the same on DPS...a shaman dedicated to DPS should be putting out scary numbers...maybe not match a druid but put out impressive numbers. Dedicated as in by target and by group make up...yet it seems many shaman are fine with the slow and lazy dots/hots and sit back and watch role. But it seemed the point of the post was to give ideas as to how to lay out specializations for classes so it was a good example. Maybe not perfect...but then again it was just a short list of all the classes. Looked good in general....refinement would help but it got the point across clearly it would have seemed.
Classes that I think have improved a lot over the years: Magicians - an above average class in 1999, when pets were capable tanks, but had severe weaknesses ie no root, no snare, no escape, no mana regen, no CC, and no advantage over necros back then. Around Luclin, and for about 5-6 expansions after that, mages became crap. Pets struggled to tank lite blues because 'otherwise tanks gonna get mad' and the class was held back by an outdated Vision of balance for years. The class took off in SoF, however, with the pet revamp thanks to the mage community's organized beta pushes coupled with effective CRs. The class took a dive in UF due to no level increase but otherwise it's been smooth sailing. Continuous improvements fixed a lot of the mage's weaknesses, such that though they still don't have root and snare, they do have escape, mana regen, and a bit of CC from their swarm pets. Effective main account material, a bit FOTM due to ease of play. Beastlords - BSTs are, in a lot of ways, a flawed class. They're a melee DPS class with a tanking pet. Due to pet mechanics, that says the BST is the tank, while the pet is the DPS. Yet, after the pet buffs, their pet is the tank, while they're the DPS, placing BSTs into a situation where they're not able to make use of both sides of the class. What changed it around for BSTs was mercs. Using a wizard merc, a BST is able to make effective use of both sides of the class by playing the healer to his pet. This allowed for a drastic increase in BST moloability and made them fun to play again. Bards - Bards have never been a terrible class, but while the best thing about bards in 1999 was their ability to travel very fast and swarm kite, their ADPS shot through the roof in later expansions such that today, bards are a necessity in well balanced groups. The one down side to bards becoming the best ADPS, however, is that their active abilities became less and less important. Today a lot of bards are simply /melody bots and I think that's a shame. Shadow Knights and Paladins - Both hybrid classes were the red headed step children of the tanking community in 1999. With exp penalties, no /defensive, and poor passive / active healing back in the day, these classes sucked in PvE and were a waste of a slot in groups and raids - a slot better used by warriors. The turnaround started around OoW with the introduction of the SK epic 2.0, and continuous upgrades soon made SKs into one of the best classes in EQ due to the ability to swarm for exp and solo. Paladins had a bumpier road, but after a while reached the same spot of being the premier tanks in groups. With RoF, paladins have become better at tanking raids and in a lot of ways it is one of the best times to be a paladin. Classes that I think have been neglected/fallen off over the years: Warriors - used to be the best tank in EQ. Still is on raids, but less so than before. The biggest problem with warriors is simply that they've not kept up with the times. Today's EQ is towards class interchangeability, but warrior class design is still stuck in the era of class interdependence. The benefit of playing a warrior in the old days was that you were NEEDED. The downside was that it was boring and you had no utility whatsoever. But the game has moved away from that, and yet warriors have not gotten less boring, and their utility hasn't improved. Clerics - Clerics suffered the same fate that warriors did. At first sight, they got a deal in that they did get a couple of improvements out of it - ie in soloability. However, clerics took a bigger blow than warriors from mercs, because while the warrior merc sucks, cleric mercs are rather decent and have become a staple of groups. The cleric population took a dive after cleric mercs were introduced, and in the grouping game it hasn't recovered. On raids, however, clerics are still the premier healers and so people still do play them, but that's no different from warriors. Shamans - shamans were one of the best classes in 1999 due to one simple ability - slow. 75% slow, which wasn't mitigated back in the day, was game breaking and every group needed a shaman / enchanter. One of the best soloers around Kunark time, shamans were the first Big Game Soloers in EQ. Combining group desirability with soloability, the only down side to shamans were that they didn't scale that well on raids. The problem with shamans started when slow mitigation was introduced. For a while the class operated off of its old desirability - still being invited to groups because of habit, but mechanically not required. Then came the slump, with people figuring out that they didn't need 75% slow and that everything else the shaman offered was obtainable via a buff bot. While shaman heals were buffed later, the class never recovered from its fall to buff bot status because, simply put, the class was neglected and slowly lost all its unique abilities - ie the best debuffs, the best buffs, the ability to HoT tank, etc. - to other classes and changes in game mechanics. Today, shamans are used primarily for their buffs and the token slow, which cleric mercs don't offer. Enchanters - enchanters were one of the best classes in 1999 and all the way up to GoD. They had a huge impact in groups due to the CC requirements in old content and the lack of effective pulling tools by a lot of classes who have them today, had slow back when it wasn't migiated, and had one of the best abilities in the game - charm. Charm, prior to its nerf in GoD, was the single greatest DPS / soloing tool in EQ, and with trash mobs being little different from loot droppers back in the day, enchanters were able to do it all when it comes to soloing. Sure, it was risky, but it was also thrilling, and enchanters were the thrill seeking class. All of this changed with the slow nerf and the charm nerf, followed by content requiring less and less CC, and pulling tools for other classes being given improvement after improvement. The class went through a revamp after it was decided that the nerfs made enchanters useless, and went from a thrill seeker's fantasy to a mundane ADPS class, which is where enchanters are today. Recent improvements to charm have made it viable again to use charm pets for DPS, but with all the restrictions and DPS nerfs, charm is just not what it used to be, and the way mobs are designed today prevent enchanters from soloing for loot the way they used to with charm. Nothing too exciting / unique remains - this is a class that has been ruined by the dogmatic pursuit of balance. The other classes - Necros, Wizards, Berserkers, Rangers, Rogues, Monks, and Druids - have all had their ups and downs, and were this another expansion, one of these lists ought to include them. However, presently I feel that none of these classes have drastically improved/worsened. For example, rangers are not doing so well DPS wise this expansion, but in 1999 they also weren't the best DPS. Rogues were and are high DPS stabbies who sneak around and do little else. Monks are still pullers, still tank the best out of the classes not wearing plate, still solo/molo well, and still put out decent but not jaw dropping DPS.
all this hate for "mass-killing"...thosecomplaining obviously have no idea how it really works. headshot sucked til 90+ because hte mobs were always green or gray until then, at 90 3 more ranks were added that boosted the level to light blues. swarming takes thousands of aas at modern levels, far more aas at any level than soloing does for other classes, and far more clickies and gear/augs etc so blowing it off as some simplistic hit it and forget it xp method are simply missing hte point. decap and headshot are always forgotten about, decap didnt exist til last year so thats understandable but it works on more mobs in the game than anything else, and assassinate works on anythign headshottable but afaik its always been higher mobs than headshot up until 90 when headshot got 3 extra ranks (there werent 3 extra ranks at 90 for anatomy from what i can tell it's always been 7-8 levels lower) the 2 most frequently complaineda bout masskillers int he game also happen to have THE MOST aas in the game needed to perform their jobs in groups and raids correctly, the 2 most frequently forgotten masskillers however have the 2 lowest aa totals in the game necessary to perform correctly. thats not to mention the others like the dreaded subject of mage beaming etc. nearly every class in the game HAS some method of mass-killing if they care to learn it, so when one complains about another it's amazing. not many have legit complaints because not many truly dont have something comparable. i hear clericscomplain all the time but yet clerics have been swarming for longer than sk's even, jsut most dont want to learn how, just for example. there's too much class envy going around. nearly every class has a reason to be necessary to someone somewehre. play what you enjoy and stop looking at your neighbor to see what he has that you don't and look at yourself and what you ahve that he doesnt and be happy about it sheesh
I really enjoy playing my enchanter. Yes, we have some very powerful abilities. Yes, we can trivialize content and solo almost anywhere. The main thing about an enchanter doing these things is that it is difficult at times. You have to learn and understand the way several of our un-related abilities work to play at your most efficient level.
Mr, find yourself another dead horse to beat it, ok ? Looks like you have no clue about being a cleric, so please don't speak anything about clerics.
Every class has had it's hayday so to speak. Bards where common before they got nerfed. Manaburn wizards use to rule at one point til that got nerfed. everyone wants to make the class that everyone thinks is OP. Rangers sucked and everyone remembers all the ranger jokes then all of a sudden they get HS and everyone had a ranger alt. I remember being on raids with my SK and thinking sweet all the sk only stuff is mine cause i am the only one here. I may have seen another one or two and that was a lot of SK's. Then the 2.0 came out and then people found out how to swarm... now when I raid i find 5-6 Sk's...all because they can PL and get gobs of AA just like rangers when HS came out. The same goes for zerkers, they sucked truely sucked when they came out not may running around none really on raids then they found out about decap and now it's the same as the SK they are all over the place. Funny how a class gets 1 good ability that makes them faster at getting massive amounts of AA and everyone jumps ship on what they are playing and you suddenly see a spike in that class running around. Everyone is looking for that easy button and when a class gets one everyone converts it seems.
Yes and no. Enchanters (much like bards) are a utility class, so they have a huge variety of abilities. For example, when we pull there are many ways to do this. We can use basic pulling tools like pacy & beguiler's banishment to split. We can add mez + memblur to lock a mob next to the one we want to pull. We can also use bind sight + pacy + low-level pets to pull around corners.
