Howdy everyone long time player, first time poster. I play a shammy obviously, so I have questions for the EQ team / players in the know. Why did shammies get shafted so bad? We got no AA upgrade to canni, (one of our class defining traits) We didnt get a rain spell upgrade, we didnt get a pet haste upgrade. We got 0 new spells, just upgrades to old ones (including stupid spells we will never use) We gain 5 levels, and our spell line up dimenished. Shammies are suppose to be the "curing class" but druids get their cure before we do. We get one group cure at 105. Oh thats exciting!!! So very cool! Oh wait, NM i lied, it sucks. Our dps is beyond horrible, our healing is subpar. We are the class that is great at nothing, ok at a few things, and sucks at everything else. Oh wait there is more! Act now and you get a free toaster! ( Oops sorry wrong website ) Yet again, we still are using our same lvl 51 slow. We dont have a new cripple ( ya know shammies, the debufing curing class) And EQ leaves us wearing 2 left shoes. Yaaa we have an expansion. Wont get another for a year. Oh wait, the average player can accomplish progression in a month. Can i get a refund on TDS please? ESO looks pretty cool!
95% of all spells all class are the same for years. Last big change was the swift dots and we know what happend after: nerf, yell, class unbalanced etc. Now they prefer to change nothing, just a (scripted?) copy/paste and here you go. About AA: why doing an IRC chat for days if there is no new AA planned?
Is this supposed to be serious? First, go look at the spell and AA lists for every other class. I'm not going to write out every instance of exactly what you're describing for other classes but it's across the board. Example: Enchanters received no Cripple spell upgrade or Veil of Mindshadow AA upgrade. Both staples of the class. Your cure spell is superior to Druids so don't even try and get away with saying Druids are better just because they got a spell a few levels before you. You received one of the best spells out of COTF (wave heal) that doesn't need an upgrade yet. And again, shaman are much better healers than Druids. Mobs in TDS have more HP so your DOTs might actually give you some decent DPS! Upgrading slow constantly is just a waste because they all get mitigated down. At least you have two slows on different resists compared to the other classes. So good luck with that refund!
You can't have a new Cripple because Enchanters didn't get a new Cripple, and what's the Enchanter to do while you're slowing? As far as slow, it looks to me like this is going the way of the Necro Epic. It's so good, people still use it, but a few complaints about "Why can't I have something new?" and SOE will look to nerf the old so they can provide modern upgrades. Congratulations! As others have posted, your spells are not out of whack, but similar to what we all got. Next time, don't ask for a level increase.
Level increase isn't an excuse for shoddy development. Everyone is getting shafted across the board because there wasn't enough resources. Granted level increases take more work, but its a cop out to say you asked for it, so take it. Its safe to say we all asked for an engaging expansion, TDS has a lot of ground to make up on so many levels. Anything that wasn't a simple to implement appears to be scrapped. Those include coding issues or items that required a bit of balancing. The have opted to leave out or remove versus add, and have taken every and any short cut. Ruven
No need to be an arrogant EQ player. As you can see he said he is not an avid message board player. He has the right to gripe when you buy a full expansion and find out that is was a cut and paste. It is this type of attitude that allows them to keep doing it because you all just take it. As for the OP, you are not going to see much in the line of improving classes at this point of EQ. The game is on auto pilot and they are not going to strengthen certain abilities in fears it would unbalance the game since they don't have the resources to test anymore. This same reasoning is why we haven't seen much in new abilities also. Maybe since this is an all in one expansion it will leave them time to develop a larger expansion next time but with Next lurking in the shadows I doubt it.
This is not WoW. There aren't zillions of dollars flowing in to pay for tons of fabulous new content. There is a meager flow from us old, arrogant players who refuse to move on to EQ2, Landslide, or EQ Next, even though in their opinions, newer is better, or else why bother releasing it? I think TDS is a fine expansion, and I'm enjoying it so far. Easily worth the discounted $36, and $10/mo for the umpteen hours I play it. In fact, it's brought back the feel of old EQ where zones are crowded with players, and people PUG and work together to face difficulty. More, better content comes when more money flows into EQ and not into the other SOE games, so unless you can make that happen, take it or leave it. Don't blame SOE for putting out less than the past, thank them for not shutting EQ down as they did Vanguard and EQ Mac.
as far as I know... no classes got significant new stuff in TDS... spell line weren't completly updated for everyone either, including primordial AAs line (harvest of druzzil for wizards). Actually, with the 'fixes', several class got downgraded ( rogue disciplines on the same timer + rampage fix... wizard arcane fury fix...) it's safe to assume your slow won't ever get upgraded ; % base stuff work like that... if they give you a stronger slow, you can expect mob to mitigate more of it. Cripple is also a moot point; mob would just start with more str-agi-dex-wathever stats they have to compensate. can't comment about heals. Your DPS has always been subpar and never meant to be anything other than subpar. shaman pet haste? really? Basicly, you are in the same boat as everyonelse.
The issue you are missing Qest if they continue down the path they are going, EQ is going to be shutdown. Classic death spiral, invest less in a project, as a result receive less revenue, thus invest less going forward rinse and repeat until you killed the goose. Instead of making WoW II, WoW made the investments in their current game that keeps it current. Frankly not a fan of WoW, but if SoE made investments into EQ instead of publishing new related games, EQ II and EQ Next, the player base would be substantially larger. They are missing we have an emotional attachment to our characters, we have made countless investments in their development, and would gladly continue to play EQ with updated engines, updated code, and graphics (just put more investment in zone revamps, no clue who did the last bunch but Freeport is horrible). EQ has so much content, its just not relevant to the majority of players. If the resources were put into EQ itself, you would see a huge resurgence of returning and new players. Ruven
We didn't get a new Canni AA because there is only 1 Tier worth of upgrades in gear and it would probably kill you during an AE type encounter, lmao. Seriously though, who knows. Shaman are still great at healing, use your AE heals along with single target ones. You know this ,you just want more. Shaman level 95, 100 and now 105 Cures are still great. Combine them with Radiant Cure when extra is needed in a pinch. However, I always thought of my Shaman as a debuffer, not so much as a curer per se. Shaman are much like bards in the fact they make everyone else better, but a tough class as a stand alone (doable, but tough). That is where they differ from Druids and Clerics, leaving them a better match for tanks overall during group content and a required resource on many, if not all, raids now days. Shaman DPS has always been horrible unless you are speced out in all raid gear. Even then is it subpar in comparison to an actual dotter/nuker in group gear, like say a necro or wizard. Our DDs are next to useless, but ok for "added" damage when we don't need to heal. Shaman can throw some dps though, if that is all they are doing or have to throw just an occasional group HOT.
They shouldn't release new games at the detriment of EQ's development. There are two components of the equation, return on investment (ROI) of development and residual income. They have their weighting on the two skewed, as long as residual income is greater than the one time purchase price, it should always trump development ROI. It also appears that they lack understanding that development is critical for continued residual income. So a new project will have more initial interest and a greater ROI for the development costs, and investments in EQ will have a lower initial ROI, the monthly subs will result in a higher net return. So my round about answer is as long as investing in EQ results in a higher ROI for the development costs and income from subs than other projects, continue to keep investing in EQ. Given the track record of other SoE games, EQ is a proven commodity, the others have not been as successful, so ROI for new projects needs to be adjusted to make those decision appropriately. Ruven
I'm so glad we have our own EQ Forum Economists to point out all the things SOE is 'missing' and just 'not understanding.' As for me, I'm certain every single decision that has been made with regard to this game has been through countless cycles of Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR) meetings to determine the best path forward. You have finance folks weighing in, PR departments calculating the impact of letting the original EQ go before the next gen Everquest Next is established, etc. Its a business, and its being evaluated as such. Would one more developer and his invested time over an entire year equate out well in additional funding? Apparently not, otherwise they'd bring one in. Most of us are here for the long run - good or bad, the loyalty exists and we're going to buy the expansion anyway. The truth is, the amount of man-hours evaluating what to do and how to handle Everquest, from development and man-hour needs to politics involved probably surpass the entire budgeted hours of the expansion. To think that SOE just 'isn't getting it' is the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. Every decison in a software org goes through so many rounds of bureaucracy its rediculous (especially when it could potentially put a shadow on the PR for the next flagship release.) In short, they get it. There is a strategic decision from higher up than any developer on this forum is privy to that determined the asset availability and future plans for this game. Although I wish there was more development in the game, that we would have vibrant, bigger expansions with more content and ingenuity, the fact is we take what we can get. This game will eventually disappear - I'm along for the ride and thankful that I'm still at least getting some new experiences for the time being. It isn't pleasant, but reality rarely is. Enjoy the expansion, take your time, get into the story, find some enjoyment, do a dungeon crawl, stop rushing from point A to B and ignoring the design - you'll end up missing it sooner than you think.
That right there is a problem. I have seen a lot of comments on the boards now that said "I'm a raider, I have to buy the expansion," or "I'm only buying this for my raiding account, not my dozen alt accounts," or "I am begrudgingly buying this expansion because I have to." Your $ vote is what really matters, and buying the expansion makes the amount of content acceptable. Even if you bought it begrudgingly, the opinion attached to the purchase doesn't matter, the purchase itself does. For the raiders, was it really the loyalty that caused you to make the purchase? Or was it because you absolutely had to jump into that race again, to find out who is first on your server and first serverwide for completing the raid content? You, too, have said that this is okay. I still haven't bought the expansion, and I am a raider. But by the sound of it, my $ vote isn't going to matter a whole lot because everybody else "had to buy it" regardless of what was or, more importantly, wasn't in the expansion.
Which of their new games succeeded commercially? PlanetSide and PS2? It seems pretty indisputable that they'd have made more money investing into EQ instead of, say, Star Chamber. Or Bullet Run.
I would argue no they don't get it and this has nothing to do with the developers but SOE's strategic managers. They came first to market and have lost market share to other competitors. They haven't adapted to the market, chose to republish resembling products at the detriment of its pilot project, and instead of learning with EQ II, they are using the same game plan with EQ Next. SOE has been focused on publishing new titles over maintaining existing titles. Given the subscription fees far out weigh the expansion prices, I would say they are wrong. We will never be given data to ascertain if I'm right or wrong. But the bench marking competitor has put more resources into their existing product and its still a current title today where EQ is slowly bleeding out subscriptions since its becoming an extinct game, and I am confident this latest expansion will not meet projected revenue numbers on expansion purchases and subscriptions. So I respectfully disagree they get it, we wont know who is right. Keep in mind, business's make mistakes, we studied past mistakes and there will continue to be new mistakes made in the future. Ruven
I'm going through TDS with a Chanter doing the grp progression. He is amazing. He is mez locking all the unnecessary mobs and blurring them. Slow is unnecessary. ATK buffs is where it's at now.
It's so nice that we have elite, end-game raiders here to tell us the basics of our class. I always had the feeling that there was more to being an Enchanter than just casting Cripple, but until now, I never knew what to do. I'm going to try your method tonight! I'm actually surprised you end-game raiders bother with any debuffs. I was guessing you could just steamroll group content. P.S. A "chanter" is one who chants, aka a Shaman.
