My honest opinion is that I wish to see us warriors get higher mitigation to be on par with the Knights self healing abilities .. Lets face facts here Warriors are 9/10 x thee last picked for grouping because what ever .. place what ever explanation you want in here.. Fact is that were no longer the Weapon master's we were .. were now just knight wanna be's .. with the sword an board an what not .. My personal opinion is have them up our innate mitigation to the point its a virtual trade off from the Knights self healing to the warrior's ability to soak dps, and for the love of god let us Duel wield again as it stands warriors WORST dps is in fact the duel wielding capability. My 2 handed dps is as good as my sword an board (minus bad rounds where I miss more) so its a near trade off there .. Mitigation raised to the point of a virtual trade off of knights abilities to heal .. Ability to duel wield as we ARE .. the master's of melee combat .. Thats what the warriors are supposed to be .. so LET US BE !
I know this might sound unworthly but.......Lets not have Fortitude Disc drop Shammy Fortitude portion of unity spell line. Its not just for my main PC Warrior but for all the people complaining about how thier merc warrior constantly uses fortitude overwritting thier buffs. sounds like an easy fix to me, but then again its probably some ancient code that if messed with would desturb the time/space continuem and destroy EQ forever.
This is an impossible balance to strike when Knights can fight certain mobs and gain health with no external healing. I posted a couple ideas on TSW along the lines of giving us "Ultimate soak" that would reduce lighter damage sources to zero. Scars of Battle: Passive 100% shielding AA Dominance discipline (skill damage taken -XXXX) to replace Stalwart Defense. Ideally these should mitigate the majority of damage from current content trash mobs while making us all but invincible vs trivial content. The balance point being Final Stand or an upgrade to Evasive should win against Big Bad Bosses (and probably around half of group named) Additionally, these abilities would be a huge step forward for the undergeared type Warriors.
A warrior should have superior avoidance/mitigation over a knight thus balancing the self healing a knight can do. As a warrior I don't mind relying on other classes to keep me healed, its part of my job description. However the difference between a warrior and a knight's mitigation/avoidance is next to nothing so with self heals, knights require far, far less heals in the group game especially. Warriors don't need self heals, they need greater avoidance/mitigation. It's bad enough we run around now with a shield equipped like a knight. Self heals would further break a class that is already without an identity.
Warriors used to require less healing than a Knight. Knights had better snap aggro and that was fine. But with Mitigation pretty much equal between the two and their spells it has become a bit unbalanced. I don't want utility or fluff make it so that warrior mitigation makes Warriors bring something distinctive again.
From a healing perspective: Easiest to heal in all situations (implies steady dmg intake, implies lowest amount of heals needed) From a tanking perspective: Capable of generating sufficient agro in burn situations for a limited amount of time. The rest is irrelevant, although a lot of it is implied with these two definitions. The abilities should be spread more fairly amongst the tanks. I have the feeling the balance is somewhat off currently when healers prefer Knights in the group because they require less healing or can absorb damage peaks more easily (ie, easier to heal overall). I have no wish to have the warrior class to be superior in that regard, but it should not be inferior either. All other abilities like most agro, soloing, swarming, pulling, buffing, healing... yes even DPS, the other (tank) classes can have, if they donot have it already... but Warriors should be the easiest to heal in all situations.
Options I could think of: 1) AA to apply further shielding to the DB mobs have (currently 35%) ... after all, what good is having the best DI mitigation when trivial mobs still hit for atleast their DB - 35%. Perhaps level based, like for every level a mob is below the Warrior's level, you gain 5% shielding, upto the max of 100%. 2) AA that reduce damage on every hit by X hitpoints, so mobs hitting below that could no longer damage a Warrior (seems extreme, but it is what Knights do basically, except they offset the damage with heal procs). X somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1-2K, upgradable with AA every expansion to keep up -- tune it to keep up with the knights when it comes to ease of healing in group content. 3) Regen AA's that far surpass normal regen, on the order of 1000 hp/tick or something. Differs from knights in that it is a constant and predictable effect, instead of luck of the dice heal crits.
I have two mains ive raided with, currently back to bard, because high demand, but warrior previously, because wars need raid gear to be strong and because ive always been near 100% attendance at raids to earn gear fast and be relied on. Seeing the new shield specialist and Shield block aa's, does make using a shield with its much higher hard capped AC and heroic Stats and HP etc. needed for tuff tanking jobs. But i think duel wield should be more dps for use on weaker mobs, and multi mobs to give a real life realistic option too, faster agro to keep agro on multi mobs too. Where as common sense say pure higher dps damage, total for 2 handers, that SHOULDNT have riposte boost as some threads suggested, because a Riposte is a fast parry with counter attack Something done best with fast lightweight rapiers, etc. not heavy two handed weapons lol! A two hander is for when dpsing in raid or non main tank, as it lands best if unseen behind the mob for heavy damage. That is you DONT tank with a 2hander. This would make all 3 styles of weapon usage, useful again, opening or re-opening usufulness of Old aa' lines and adding some new ones. Besides fitting in with common real life sense of such usage. That is again, Duel wield for fast dps/agro on weaker hitting mobs esp swarming mulit mobs that might be light blue for instance. Shield for close to level or even con to higher mobs. Two handers for when purely dpsing and not trying to take agro or tank, so warriors can be useful if not geared up yet, or just arent as strong as some other tank because of gear or level or aa's, and so be excluded. That said, having a delayed tie in of Scoff to Vital strike is the STUPIDEST thing of all the links. For one thing it essentially means as tank a warrior can NEVER use vital strike, on pulls of any real speed, because if you hit vital strike ( only useable once mob is 20% health or below) you'll notice that after a little while SUDDENLy your Scoff disc is depressed, meaning the FIRST tag of snap agro for incoming mob WONT work! So as we know since so rare for warriors to be on dps duty, if not tanking, that vital strike ends up rarely being used. Mostly when tanking a named, since most groups pause after a named kill to check loot. But really NO discs should be tied to each other! They all run on END which regens super slow and has limit. So that naturally limits the amount of discs usable on chain pulling, and even on raid fights where OOC dont happen unless a win, wipe, or reset gives time to reach. So why not let Warriors able to use every defensive disc they have long as have end for it? You dont say to Pallys and SK's, Sorry you used that spell too much now! As long as they have enough mana regen buffs, mana pres. etc they can keep going long time. Now as far as another threads comment about knight mitigation, i find it HARD to belive they mitigate even as good much less better. LONG ago i read post where Sony gave warriors an INNATE 5% mitigation, that is right off the bat they take 5% LESS damage ( from melee im assuming only) then any other class. They now have a line of aa's called Phalyanx of ONE, which when maxed adds another 5% except it doesnt stack with defensive discs like Final Stand it specificlaly mentions. Far as Tuant, it fails so much because its been capped at a mere 230 skill for a LONG time. However my other gripe is that War MERCS i guarentee you have a coded NO fail tuant, because even with max raid agro weapons and innate procs etc, a war merc instantly can peel off agro off my warrior, whos mostly SS/VoA T1 &T2 geared, esp T2 Voa War raid blade and shield., right after i make a successful taunt even. My group mates have said even that they set the merc on assist and not MT and designate me as MT and still it had happened. Been a few months since had to tank with a tank merc so maybe its fixed, but yeah great for groups using a merc war tank that they never have to worry about stealing agro but its not fair to War players. I LAFF at the poor Free to play, players Dumb enough to choose and try and play a war, even if they later decide to pay, they prob discover that too hard to acquire gear and aa's to be effective, for a mind set that wanted free to start, so probably casual player. Wars need higher dps options like a 2 hander, because currently they are in a Catch 22 of, to get stronger gear they need to kill nameds that are too tuff to tank, without stronger gear, on each successive expansion release. I myself after 3 half years gone, suddenly in middle of HoT expansion then, my war was level 79 with 1100 aa's and full anguish, Don Dragon, Por gear, and 2.0 and BBob, and was like paper sack in power, Bard was 76 with 600 aa's but able with songs to help group and level and basically for long time i farmed with bards group, rot gear off groupable nameds, and later raid rot, to make warrior viable to tank for group again, sigh.
Oh and discs should do what they say. When i finally am forced to hit, Undivided attention THAT's what it should do, keep agro to me no matter what for the time it is in play, NOT have something else, pull it away. I dont care if its a Knight agro spell, OR even another warriors undivided, WHO ever pops it first, should keep it. Ideally a second warrior popping it, should get a fail to activate message to let them know another is already in effect. I think my above ideas to use three different weapon mode/style/combo whatever want to call them, would make warriors less boring, and simplistic, which is another common complaint. Opening ALL discs too, lets more flexiblity in style too, AND skill and knowledge of player to know when ok to pop a dps disc, versus running a defensive one, since those that use combat ablities window run down are one-at-a-time ones. I think knights should still have best long range and strongest agro holding ablities, its part of the traditional EQ game balance and skill of all players. Good pullers should know got to train mob right into a warrior tank for sure, or get hit, or cause a overzealous dps'er to get agro first and get hit. A knight that lets a puller,/ dps get hit once mob near camp, shows lack of skill of job.
Learn about how Knights "mitigate" then. Go tank some group content (white, yellows), and find out that you (warrior) need quite a bit more healing than a Knight. Now go tank some light blue content. Find out that Knights don't need a healer at all, while warriors still die after a few mobs. As for our 5% mitigation bonus, that is maximum of 5% only if the mobs damage base (DB) is 0. Most of the time it isn't, which reduces this bonus. Phalanx of One is a nice addition, and long overdue. It however is not enhanced by a zillion other aspects of the class, like for Knights. Their power comes from exponential benefits of several AA lines: - More heal crits - Bigger heals - Less mana for heals - Bigger mana pools - Faster mana regeneration - Focii for heals - More nuke crits (lifetap crits, and then the resulting heal can crit again) - Bigger nukes - Heals on ripostes (= the more mobs the better when they become trivial) Sure, it takes more AA to get there, but if every AA you could buy actually made you more powerful, they're all well worth it. Every expansion, almost all of these lines get extended, until you see them pulling entire zones worth of mobs and solo swarm killing them. Is that really how EQ should be?
I think we should absolutely be superior. Knights ability to heal themselves makes healing them more complex, even if less healing is required. The kind of mitigation required for similar survivability would necessarily produce 'easier healing'. I agree, 3 more ranks of Hastened Bazu Roar and Hastened Scowl would be amazing! I like DW vs weaker mobs for the additional agro, some sort of up-scaling parry bonus could add some defense. I'm not so sure how to make it function better in terms of DPS though. 1h and 2h have large bonuses applied for DPS'ing and I don't think DW should be similarly watered down from an agro-to-DPS standpoint. Offhand triple/flurries might make up the difference but that's more of a generic dual wield melee issue. The reason to add riposte to 2h weapons (instead of block for 1h or parry for DW) is a convenience of mechanics. 2h weapons put out the biggest hits. Scaling that up with riposte chance and # of mobs makes 2h ideal for dispatching swarms of trivial mobs.
I have been playing a warrior since 99 on one account or another and I can personally say I have never been as unhappy with the way my class is going as I am now. When I first rolled a warrior one of the main reasons was mastery of weaponry my ability to switch between and choose whichever I chose to use, be it sword and board, duel wield, 2handed. For years I was happily able to flip between whatever I chose for certain situations. Now the only effective weaponry is sword and board. Our mitigation, our dps, our aggro... is all superior with sword and board. I am very angry that I can no longer duel wield effectively seeing as that is one of the main reasons I rolled a warrior. I was content with shield usage in raid settings for certain mobs, 2handed for dps, and duel wield as my medium. I am not stating any of this looking for a nerf of warrior abilities with sword and board but to make our other abilities relevant again. I want to be able to choose what I use and be effective no matter what. Raise riposte and parry, or add duel wield aa's I dont care. I am well aware there is a split in the warrior community on sword and board vs duel wield. As it is many of us are unhappy with our current situation and I think EQ should be looking into this. Not duel wield for certain situations but for all of our skills to be relevant depending on how and when we choose to use them ( Duel Wield especially). And although I notice I am way behind in this forum I hope this is given proper address. Tronin Evenshade 100 Warrior, Clan Ta Veren, The Rathe
My main is not a warrior. I've played one here and there though. I think it would be magnificent if warriors were really put back on top for tanking with a boost to their mitigation. They pay enough of a price for it! At least let them reap the reward. I think other weapon sets should definitely have uses, and I think it could make sense too. When fighting someone who is not dual weilding, it should be easier to dodge without a shield, and perhaps ideally with one handers (as it is easier to move around with the weapons if needed). Two handers could have a better range than 1handers perhaps. having a metallic weapon such as a piercer that could stay in the enemy sometimes might be great for channelling magical damage back into the enemy instead of having it end at you. furthermore, what about the enemies? I think shields should be useful if they are using a club or a sword, but not as much if they are using a piercing weapon. It seems to me that swords would be better fit to handle a piercing weapon due to their more dynamic nature.
I heard there was a dev chat regarding classes recently for warriors, is there a place I can find it? The stuff in this thread really highlight most of the needs I see for the class.
