...in modified form, to deal with the extremely overpowered player melee DPS. I know MotM was a major pain in my , but if done right it could solve the current caster/dps power disparity. The major issues with MotM as it existed on Phinny were: 1) It changed mob AI in a way that overly penalized pet classes. 2) It had a component that soft capped damage which skewed the effectiveness of big hits and made mobs more difficult to over-leveled players than they should have been. 3) The effect overcompensated for player power creep on some fights post Kunark. So what I suggest is that we get a MotM buff on all group named and raid classified mobs that reduces player melee damage, and only player melee damage (not pet damage, not spell damage, not proc damage), to cancel out the extreme DPS advantage that melee classes have gained with the Innate ___blade damage AA. No damage cap component should exist, nor should any AI changes, and it applies only to raid mobs and group rares. So why bring back this mob buff rather than just have the innate damage AAs properly marked for later expansions? Two reasons. First, the innate AAs are already accounted for with the old MotM in old world content, and up to the 50s or 60s they actually serve a purpose. The new MotM would allow balancing to be done era to stuff in newer eras without affecting the old. Second, it prevents melee classes who have gotten used to a certain damage level when soloing or general XPing from feeling a huge across the board nerf as acutely.
This would solve current era issues but would screw up balance in earlier eras. It would also result in probably the biggest single overall DPS nerf in EQ history. I think my solution softens the blow quite a bit.
MotoW was a part of MotM and while it was a big and overstrong pet DPS nerf, I the aggro AI changes that were baked into MotM were just as bad if not more so.
Why not? Do you think the idea is unworkable or do you just think melee DPS should be extraordinarily overpowered?
