At this point in the game......

I realize we will never get official answers but my question is this: Why all is all rebalancing work (of of which are called nerfs) being done in Everquest this late in the games history?

Should we take this as a sign Daybreak intends to keep supporting EQ for a long time? Some of the changes are positive like the knights mitigation but even that causes warriors to be pissed off. Other changes like mage and necro changes bring out cries of quiting EQ. So with all the negative energy caused I am interested in why Daybreak decides to make these changes now. I mean it does take up dev time that could be spent on other things

Do we take it as a sign Daybreak has long term plans for EQ? Or is it make busy work for the devs? Is it all smoke and mirrors to make it SEEM like EQ will be around for a long time? If EQ wasn't going to be around for long I would think they would go with "don't rock the boat" and not make any balancing changes.


Any ideas out there?

P.S. for those who hate my posts just put me on ignore it is a win/win

Honestly? The devs that were in charge of balancing before are not the devs that are in charge of balancing now, and it's obvious the current devs have a very different idea of what "balance" means.

Someone who played class X in 2000, and has been pissed ever since at class Y, finally getting their chance?

It certainly is perplexing. From the outside looking in it seems like leaving things alone and going with the flow would have been better for the over all health of the game but in the last several years they have spent an inordinate amount of time nerfing things that seemed to be relatively fine and had been part of the game for years.

I don't know if they don't take the players into consideration when making changes but perhaps they should start every potential change with "how will this affect the players and how many are likely to stop paying and/or stop playing entirely?" when planning each change from here on out.

The lack of communication and suddenness of some nerfs causes a lot of hard feelings and I am sure it hurts the bottom line to some extent regardless of how many people just post on here out of frustration and then still play even after threatening not to.

do we really need another post about the End is near/ communication issues/ or Nerfs.. I mean ......come on enuf is enuf

Would be nice to have community chat like they used to. Maybe I'm being more sensitive about it these days, but this has been one of the worst expansions and the worst communication from the devs in a long time.

From a Clerics perspective:

The spread of play-ability between the classes is too vast, and simply boosting some classes isn't really a viable option after a point. As for a Cleric, how can they boost us? More HP/AC/Tankability? I can hear they cry of pissed off tanks over that one. Significantly increase our dps? Piss off every one else with that one too. Speculation, but maybe if we bring down the dps we can also bring down mob strength and increase play-ability for everyone else. I've taken a bit of a Cleric vacation to try out other classes and was shocked by how much easier some have it. With the effectiveness of mercs, why even bother playing a cleric? Except for the most difficult missions or raiding it's pointless. I've always been a steadfast defender of Clerics, but it's become a muddy slope. I haven't logged in for a week.

Actually not what the post is about

You make balance changes because something is OP or because you need to make the change to take the game in the direction you want to.

Elidroth used to be the "boss" of the systems side (AA, Spells, Gear, etc, basically everything related to game balance). Now I believe it is Aristo, but Dzarn is also on this side now, and Dzarn seems to be the only dev to really parse and test these kind of things.

Devs have gotten full raid parses since like RoF or something which shows everything everyone does on a raid basically (intended to help with Class Balance, if it works as they said it should), Dzarn might be the first one to actually look at the data and act on it though instead of sending it all to a Spam folder or he is actually doing his own research on stuff, dunno (after the last few bunch of stuff he posted he seems to be the only Dev to actually do this stuff as is in game and that instead of on paper or just always increasing values without caring what they do since higher values = harder content right, but who cares what those values do ).

Elidroth would always bail out from nerfing stuff afterwards after enough complaints or gave huge compensation to where it basically wasn't even nerfed anymore and the class ended up stronger. Aristo probably doesn't even read the forums and Dzarn is tougher on that stuff

Im sure EQ will continue to limp along but its really a zombie just going through the motions and has been for some time. It could all change if they got a sense of vision and some funding again but what are the chances of that happening? Imo they screwed themselves using the capital from EQ on other projects instead of vigorous reinvestment in their golden goose.

When was the last time anyone heard of an EQ dev actually playing EQ? Like a normal EQ player plays EQ? They dont and likely never will again without an extreme overhaul over there starting at the top. How many times over the years ive wished EQ would be sold off to a company that actually liked to play it. lol

I think this is your answer. They don't have enough manpower (programmers and artists) invested in EQ now to do huge expansions, but also too many devs for the small content they are releasing. So, they are spending time on projects that were on the back burner. Like adjustments to class dps and mitigation.

Asking questions like this to Dev's that have poor or no communication is like asking for a complete bug free expansion on release date.

Changes like the mass killing nerfs, and pet tanking rebalance were game balance decisions. They have an impact on how the game is played, what content is used, and how events can be dealt with.

I'm fine with the devs coming to the decision that infinitely (or highly) scaling damage abilities weren't good for the game. It's a high level choice on if a game should have OP abilities like that, and deal with the consequences of the actions encouraged by them (beams getting better with each additional mob means you want to hit as many mobs as possible, which leads to pulling everything in a zone, which also lags the zone server to crap). Or if those kinds of abilities are going too far and encouraging behavior that doesn't fit the vision of how that game is meant to be played.

On the other hand, nerfs like the rain crit cap, or godr change aren't changing anything at that high of a level. All the events, encounters, and groups are going to continue on without any real changes. But the players hit by those nerfs are going to be pissed that they're doing worse or have to play in a more tedious fashion.

No design space is opened or changed with those nerfs. It's more like someone is trying to make changes to satisfy a spreadsheet, fill in busy work, or be vindictive towards a class. That's why people are getting to fed up. There are a lot of other things that dev time could be spent on that would accomplish more than just pissing players off.

How's the new job working out?

Edit: Saw it said developer, you got my hopes up...

Hope all is well, Elidroth. You're definitely missed.

Many classes are in a MUCH better state balance wise recently. You don't see those classes being as vocal on these forums about the "good" that some of the rebalancing has accomplished because that often paints a target for nerf calls. Unfortunately, some classes have taken some WAY heavier/senseless nerfs than needed: Necromancers and Magicians both being high up on that list. Whenever a class takes a senseless nerf, to an ability that was around for years and greatly impacts play style, it can be very upsetting to fun factor of game. Combine that with a lack of even an attempt at a logical explanation as to why to the player base that's receiving the nerf and doesn't make for good combo. People play to have fun, progressing their character(s) is often a large part of that. Going FAR backwards in a single patch and having abilities that weren't out of whack to begin on any scale being completely nerfed into oblivion isn't fun.

Headshot. Hate's Attraction. Harmonius Arrow. Fade changes.

And then, there's the "Making cc easier in TDS zones..." for which we never got an explanation or a fix.

Nice to see you Elidroth. I hope all is going well for you.

Also please do not empty the septic over my house

Ah finally you recognize somewhere how MUCH OP knights have become, with the balance being pushed in favor of knights versus warriors. Also, is your plan trying to hide it like I read it in your second sentence ? Haha It won't work, because you won't fool people.