When Jen Chan took over as the Studio Head she wrote her first letter to the EQ 2 community in her new official capacity. Within the letter there was a reference made to class balance. Here's the quote: https://www.everquest2.com/news/jenn-chan-first-letter The fact that class balance an important objective for EQ 2 makes me wonder if attaining class balance is a likewise critical objective for EverQuest. As EQ is a class based MMORPG, there is no doubt that striving for class parity is critical. The reasons for this have been discussed ad nauseum in may other forum posts over the last 24 years. I have done extensive anecdotal surveys of how many TLP players are in each class channel and published them a previous post and it's very obvious that some classes are very unpopular with players. I expect the offical numbers that Darkpaw has will bear this out. However, in recent years the developers have not shown any interest in even tweaking various classes to help the marginalized classes attain class parity. Therefore it is reasonable to speculate that Darkpaw has no interest in striving for class balance. I may be wrong. Having a diversity of classes is what makes EQ special and unique. But that diversity is performative and meaningless if most players are gravitating to a handful of classes. One sign of a healthy MMORPG is one that classes are equally desirable. The numbers do not lie. Yes, that parity does take work to accomplish and that's part of the cost of doing business when a studio produces a class based MMO. MMOs are like automobiles. They need regular tune ups and maintenance to function properly. I believe that most EQ players believe that class balance is important and fundamental to a class based MMORPG. But we also know that perfect class balance is impossible. There's a saying in the business word that is apt: perfect is the enemy of good. But that doesn't mean that the developers should not at least try to ensure that all classes are relatively equally desirable. I would like to know what Darkpaw official position is regarding class balance. I am not interested in hearing second hand information or theories about what other players think about what Darkpaw position really is. I would like to hear it directly from the horse's mouth. I don't think I'm alone here. We're all adults here. We can handle the truth. Just let us know if class balance is on the table or if it's off the table. Praying and hoping for class balance to come in the future is not fair to the players if class balance is not even on the studio's to-do-list. As the EQ franchise moves into 2024 and the 25th Anniversary of EQ, perhaps one New Year's resolution we can get from Darkpaw is a sincere commitment to communicate more often and more reliably to their loyal players. The return on investment for robustly communicating with your players is excellent. I think Darkpaw can do better. Thanks for listening.
Ahh class balance lol. Ever since they created the warrior, cleric and wizard, they have been trying to balance classes. What is balance? What is being able to teleport or feign death or heal or summon a pet worth? How much should those affect dps? How do you balance abilities like that with dps etc? You can't balance classes, you can only try to make classes equally fun to play. If no one is playing a class, then they need to see what they can do, to make that class more enjoyable. Maybe more dps or an upgrade to some skills or abilities. They can easily see what classes are the most desired and which nobody plays. They would bring the classes, that aren't as good, UP to a higher level and not nerf other ones DOWN to their level. It's all about making sure every class, has a reason to play them, over another. They just adjusted wizards dps with new spells, that should bring a lot of wizzys back, if they did enough. They gave berserkers new poleaxe weapons to help their dps. They can keep tweaking these classes, that people have stopped playing, until they become desirable again.
I think the whole concept of class balance is BS. Not every class needs to be balanced against the rest, the world aint fair. The idea to beat Daybreak over the head with class balance is such a foolhearty idea.
As much of an antagonistic relationship I have had with Darkpaw in the past, I can say I have seen a change of heart so to speak in the last few years as far as the direction of the game is concerned. They seem more open to new ideas and more willing to take a look at improving previous systems that people have complained about for years. At this point I am hopeful that they take a look at the 4 classes they said they would (Wizard, Monk, Berserker and Rogue) and make some changes that bring them closer to what one would expect out of a class that is pure DPS.
This is a game. It's for entertainment. It is not an analogy for life, and that is not a good reason to not improve balance.
No amount of demanding that Darkpaw answer to you specifically will get you a direct response from them on the forums. This is not a company board or shareholder meeting where you are a principle share holder or executive of the board so stop trying to make demands as if it is a storified version of those (i.e. such demands also only happen in fiction, not reality). The comments by producers and development in the letters and release notes are the position of Daybreak but may use terms that are more development-oriented or that have a broader meaning in their own context even they don't use the exact words used in some gamer vernacular. Lag fixes, for example, are usually indicated by some type of performance enhancement. And, other than QOL improvements to the game as a whole, not specific to any one class or early eras, there are likely to be no changes to class balance specific to the TLPs since they are supposed to be about the "original game experience" which does include all the class imbalances rife in the early game and expansions. If you want to complain about how badly certain classes were vs others in the years of The Vision, that has nothing to do with Daybreak as it is now. The original game was heavily slanted to being group required without any parity in the classes. Each class had a role with some of them overlapping. As for "regular tune ups and maintenance", those are generally done in the Live game not the 'keep it in amber and make no changes' TLPs. The QoL features like key rings, Dragons Hoard, Tradeskill Depot, etc being unlocked on TLPs already create a completely different game there. AoCs? In the aughts, there was competition for the over world raid targets but now everyone does DZ, how is that like the original game?
I’m not for a complete balance overhaul project. I do have some items that can increase the appeal of classes early in TLP before AA, spells and more diverse gear brings classes closer together: 1. Necro innate dot crit 2. Necro dot AA available at the same cadence as wizards 3. Necro 1-65 (?) dot overhaul 4. Make Rogue poisons . 5. Make Ranger Endless Quiver innate at level 1. 6. Make Assassinate and Headshot viable again with higher proc rates and a lower damage table 7. Provide Wizards, Druids and Mages a resist modifier disciple for single target nukes by resist type (cold, fire magic) to operate as a lure with a damage reduction element to it (trade landing a spell for less damage). 8. Update all heals to be target of target when the current target is hostile. 9. Make Fade innate for Bards from Level 1 and scale its mana consumption as you level up. 10. Give Bards mana regen like all other classes that use mana, there’s absolutely no reason not to at this point. 11. Give SK their DA hammer on time already. 12. Give both SK and Paladin an “offensive” stance buff / AA that sacrifices their ability to tank for increased damage potential. 13. Give Paladin a disciple and Necro a debuff that makes their target weak to the undead line spells / abilities. 14. Allow Druids and Shaman to resurrect earlier than they can, even if it’s a no experience revive. 15. Revamp Bard mana song to be an aura so bards can actually contribute with a damage dot song. 16. Review a litany of buffs to be moved to the short term window - illusions and debuffs / dots are two good examples.
Having played both a necro and a wizard from 1-65 in the early eras of a TLP, I can tell you that if both classes are well played they are VERY close to each other on damage output if all things are equal (i.e. no resistant mobs that benefit one or the other) Wizards are definitely better on the shorter burn fights, which is as it should be. I will say that one of the reasons I swapped from Necro to Monk in early PoP on phinny was because VT broke me as a necro. Having to mem like 3 different spell sets to max damage on those long fights was just too much. I think if they can find a way for necros to do similar damage without having the need to swap out multiple spell sets, they would be in a very good place since it would probably increase their damage on the longer fights. The old system of rogue poison is terrible and has needed some work for a long time. What we need there is the Bite of the Shissar poisons to have a version that rogues can use starting at lower levels, possibly in classic to help bridge the gap between Monks and Rogues early on. Bards need to have mana regen. They need to able to benefit from more than just worn mana regen. Having the ability to fade earlier would also be super beneficial since it would allow more Monks to remain in camp, thereby raising overall DPS of the group. All in all I think this is a good list of improvements that could be made, and not break the early game.
There were a handful of devs that worked on the previous expansin that seemed more than willing to listen and possibly make changes. And truthfully, they gave me hope. But they're all gone now. And we're back to the same old devs that won't let go of the "The Vision".
Lol people like to talk mess about "The Vision" but there aint been an MMO like EQ before or since. Maybe he was on to something. Here we still are, 25 years later. When MMO's released 5 years ago are already shut down.
That's not an argument. You're hyperbolic reply is in effect letting Daybreak off the hook and trying to absolve them of any responsibility to even attempt to balance the classes. It is completely reasonable to expect that classes in a class-based MMORPG are somewhat balanced in difficulty, power, group utility, and playability. Of course perfect balance is impossible. Yes, some classes are easier to play and some are harder to play but they are all subject to internal trade offs and risk vs. reward. The enchanter is a class that has a high degree of difficulty but it has a high risk factor along with a high reward factor. The mage is the exact opposite. Different strokes for different folks. The numbers don't like. Players vote with their feet. Everquest is a work in progress. It behooves the designers to pause and reflect on how classes are doing as far as desirability every now and then to make sure that they are equally desirable. Darkpaw, please just tell us what your official policy is on class balance for Everquest. A simple yes or no will suffice. We can handle the truth.
Monks on TLP are egregiously overpowered early on, using them as a measuring stick is a huge mistake. But if Monks are not going to be rebalanced in early eras then every other class should be getting that gap bridged & if that means making MOTM even stronger to avoid faceroll raids then that should be done.
The pursuit of balance typically ends with any class serving a particular role being more or less the same. It’s boring imo. I like that warriors mitigate damage better but have worse threat relative to knights. I like that the DA hammer is Paladin exclusive (people want more balance but want to give DA hammer to SKs way early when they already outnumber paladins ~5:1 on most servers?). I’m fine with druids not healing as well as clerics cause they bring more utility that people appreciate. The imbalances between classes gives them each a role you just have to figure out what it is. Any EQ class can be played at a level that can contribute in raids or groups or whatever you are doing.
Why play any other class if they are all the same or you have 1 that can fit every role? I see it on the TLPs all the time people swapping classes every couple expansions because "xxx class dominates" this or that expansion. There is no such thing as class balance. All classes should excel at something and have weaknesses. But people get their egos hurt when they are playing xxx class and they are 5th on the DPS charts because the 4 people above them are xxx class., so it's just not fair!! And then they try to rebalance everything and it makes stuff worse.
/nod balance =/= style Clerics got hosed the worst by mercs. Live, paying players have to loot the rank II spells the mercs get by default. That's just rude. Meanwhile, in an EQ developer's meeting:
