Preview of Upcoming Changes to Combat Escape AA Abilities

I really don't see what the current problem this change addresses, nor how it addresses it.

But I also don't really care too much about it personally.

So I can't split anymore? Are you trying to make me start boxing? None of these changes make the game more engaging or enjoyable. 2.5min reuse is total hot garbage. Scrap these changes.

Don't have time to review whats been said already but...........

As I stated in our previous convo, "Since you know you aren't perfect take the time to mull over the next big change carefully". This qualifies. Not everyone pays to play the game as you guys see it so drastic changes while in your mind good often only serve to hurt the game as much as something glaringly broken.

• You need to carefully consider how you are lumping the categories of classes, because it matters. Like zerker should be in the final group with longest reuse, period.
• The resource aspect should go out the window unless it can be spammed. Horrible change in general. Bards need a resource cost to it, as will monks if they can now spam it. Otherwise if its limited to 60 second or longer reuse then there should be no resource cost to it at all, as the timer limits it. When its needed you often don't have resources.
• YOU HAD BETTER NOT TRY AND SELL US ON THERE NOT BEING ENOUGH TIME FOR A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF AA, number of and not just cost, THIS BETA BECAUSE YOU SPENT GOD KNOWS HOW MUCH TIME ON THIS JUST PRIOR TO BETA. I get you probably worked on this on and off for awhile so its not all done recently but there is zero way this did not in some manner impact what AA packages will come in beta because of its timing. Which shows you and the team learned next to nothing with the debacle that chased away tons of people last year. You are still fielding and considering feedback for the next month before the patch which is time that could have been spent on something that really mattered like extra AA lines for every class this beta. You guys just don't seem to get it. Taking away peoples options hurts the game. Stop pet peeving the game to death with limited time and resources constantly going to the wrong or "less important" things. Take a poll if you guys really don't get what is and isn't viewed as important because riposte checks, fade changes to all, faction windows, etc are not it when they come at other things expense.

Absolutely a horrible plan. The reuse timers lengths are absurd. The mana / endurance requirement is too much. The system is fine as it is!

Clearly the wrong ones.

Please delete fade from the game, it would free up your precious time, 4 years you said? To nerf other abilities multiple times. I know as a paladin that my fade button is rarely used, now it will not be used, I appreciate the additional space on my hotbar.

Interesting how the teams were divided though. Not by traditional archetypes like priest, caster, tank, melee and hybrid....but rather into what you "think" are pulling classes. I've witnessed enchanters out perform monks/bards in that respect.

Obviously this caught my attention :

Nothing to see here, folks.

As a paladin, this very niche ability will get removed from the hotbar. As an SK, I'll use Death Peace - 5s re-use, Terminal Breath - 15s re-use, Rigor Mortis - 15s re-use, all different timers btw folks or I'll wait for whatever gift Velious re-make will provide.

I ask this of the dev team, is the intention to absolutely decimate classes that are already difficult to field in the game, druids, wizards, bards, are all limited in game.

Signed - Tired of the actual issues going ignored while something no one in game is asking for gets "developer team" time...

Is the % resource cost a percentage of total or remaining ?

Not that I'm expecting any official answer.
This seems to be more of a "We're doing this." post than any type of discussion.

^ this - the OP is ambiguous, but I'm reading it as "costs 20% of your total mana/end", which sounds like we would not be able to fade at the point you would most need to?

Will we at least get the ability to reduce this timer via additional ranks of the AA? 15 minutes is dumb long. I'd rather have the 90% success chance and 2.5 minutes.

I was responding to your saying you can only move your pet once per raid which I don't understand why you need fade to do that. Summon companion only means your pet cant have aggro, has nothing to do with you.

Pantheon looking better and better. Oh wait, maybe they are doing this to the game to eventually kill it and then get hired over there with Brad's team. Conspiracy theory much?

Wow I didn't even realize the worst part for beastlord. It removes pet from threat too. What if my pet is tanking and I want to drop threat off myself? Does this mean we're losing the fade component of summon companion?

If we're keeping playing possum disregard. I read this as a replacement.

Was fade meant to be a pet fade thing as well? I thought fade was for self aggro only and summon companion was the one that had chance to (i think 90 percent) clear pet aggro.

I read it as we gain a NEW ability that is a fade, I don't see (unless I missed it) them removing possum from our toolbox. So... as it seems beastlords are one of the few classes benefiting from these changes, I'm gonna keep my head down

Thanks for giving us a Fade! Not sure I'll ever get to use it, but its nice to know were not overlooked in that regard anymore

Good point... they do seem to think that we don't have a fade ability already in the post. Maybe I need to shut up...

Can someone break this down for a dumb bard;

"Escape abilities for Bards, Beastlords, Monks, Necromancers, Rogues, and Shadowknights will have a shorter reuse time (1s to 2.5 minutes) and a resource cost of 2% mana or endurance based on class."

As a bard my fade will have a 1 second reuse and a 2% mana cost assuming I have maxed the AA's in fade? Is that correct?

Would you not just use playing possum at that point? it would drop you to 1 on agro but not drop agro completely? or if you want to drop out of agro completely you would just have to send pet back in.

I have to wonder where a tool that is to costly to use for benefit gained falls within the design philosophy

This change will cost me 52,000 endurance to use

That is correct

I thought doing things via percentages was bad. Are you really going to make fade cost more mana / endurance as we level / equip better gear? This is a very strange approach to take for the fix. If I'm standing next to another Paladin, he has 200k mana and I have 300k mana - my fade is going to cost an extra 20k just because? Seems silly that the ability would get progressively more onerous to use as my character improves instead of the other way around.

At this point, why not just get rid of it as an AA and put it in as a disc / spell as well to free up more AA spots for future development ideas.

Game play effects for me, as a paladin (stop reading here if you don't care to know) = almost none except while raiding. It's actually an improvement to pulling (more reliable) when I don't care about the mana usage and can med before / after the fight. Although it will really suck when I actually want to use it to escape a real fight that I am losing or during a raid when I need to drop aggro - guess I'll just use Act of Valor more often. It's probably destined to become a button that doesn't actually have a chance of working for me when I would actually use it for the intended purpose.

Example: 7 mobs at the start of a mission and I can only reliably tank 4...
Current/Past use: Pop deflection, root 3 or 4 mobs and pull the others outside aggro range and hit fade. Then aggro the non-rooted mobs with something like Beacon. If it works, I'm only facing those 3 or 4 mobs. Kill them - go back and kill the others afterwards. If it doesn't work, I have to constantly root those first few mobs until the others die off. So there's a real risk here.

New use: Tag all 7 mobs from max range and run a little ways. Pop deflection, root 3 or 4 mobs, run back to original location of the mobs and hit fade when they're out of aggro range of the rooted mobs. Kill those mobs, then the ones at the original location.

This is actually an improvement for how I would split up the mobs in something like Fight Fire - so thanks. None of this changes if there is a named mob involved. Remember - Lull sucks most of the time, so pulling as a Paladin is usually a brute force method and making it more predictable is better as long as I can med before / after.

I personally feel that the changes should be all up to 100%, all should be up to +5 from current level, and THEN pick one of, time or mana/endurence, as both are a very valuable resource and if you make both, than you are double dipping resources.

Also, if there is a way to make fades not fail on moving, like SK/necro FD you have to completely stop or it fails, and even then can fail because the server hasn't caught up.

Are you going to give us the ability to drop ramp in a different way? The ability to drop ramp was specifically added to these abilities, now that is being taken away minus a huge resource cost.

Another thing to look at is many many classes will need more tools to reduce agro as most of those abilities have been lacking for some time with the knowledge that the classes could fade to drop to 1% agro.