..Though I'm with you on EQ. After a certain amount of knowledge/experience, the game is far from difficult to play at a high level when compared to other games, and is very repetitive to raid/group anything that you aren't seeing for the first time.
Kinda-sorta, but not really. In my experience, those factors account for far less of overall performance than you seem to be suggesting, and realistically most people don't even do them, (and if am being honest I don't always do them myself these days, especially the longer the raid goes). Knowing what buttons to press, and in what order, generally accounts for the lions share of your dps, with the remainder coming from those things you listed above. All other things being equal, leading the assist, carefully timing your alliances/instants, carefully AEing etc. will certainly give you the edge over someone who isn't doing those, but generally only by about 5-10%, 15 at the most. I can't tell you the number of times I've had a Wizard in my group (so same adps) who was doing half my damage and after a quick chat they start doing 85-90% of what I'm doing. And it is never because they lacked reflexes, or situational awareness, or were furiously typing vs nuking, it was because they were pressing the wrong buttons and/or pressing them in the wrong order. I'm sure you've had similar experiences. The point I'm trying to make is that even though you can distill EQ gameplay (for a Wizard at least) down to pressing 1-2 buttons (I use 2 keybinds, often only 1), to be able to do that (without being told by someone else) is the meat and potatoes of the class. Anyway I haven't slept yet and I'm starting to ramble and not sure I'm still making sense so I'll stop here.
Hehe, we're of the same mind. You usually aren't interested in shooting for that extra 5-15% because accomplishing that little bit more rarely changes the outcome of the fight, whereas It's that 5-15% bit that brings me any kind of enjoyment because of how 'done' the rest of the game is already if I'm just coasting.
One thing that I really love about EQ is the vast number of gameplay elements and character growth from 21 years and 26 expansions with only modest effort to consolidate and streamline. That combined with the often sparse, archaic and outdated information about how it works makes coming back to EQ an interesting problem to solve.
I enjoy showing up and checking on wizard discussion every so often. I didn’t take the time to read all the post here, but generally I get the idea that wizards are the same as when I quit.I Personally haven’t played EQ for a while now. (Shortly after TBL was on Farm for 4 or 5 guilds maybe?). I stoped mostly because I think that EQ is a terrible addiction for myself, but also because my class just wasn’t what it should have been in general. (Stoped short of getting all the Procs etc.) I know I could have just started a new character and been more useful as far as DPS or just been a utility class. Aside from the obvious problem I saw with spending unreasonable amounts of time on the game, I couldn’t help paying attention to that /char time log. I had invested something like 400-480ish days into my wizard and in the end it didn’t matter because we where simply out classed. I know that’s child’s play in time played for many of you, but for me at least 75% of that time was spent actually playing. Thats literally a full year of my life! I was not going to change my class because I was not going to invest again. I will always have a spot in my heart for this game and the class, but I have to warn you all... time is short and life goes by fast. Invest in the things that last. Devs if you somehow read this.., I’m not bashing your choices or design. I’m far enough away to realize that it doesn’t matter one way or another how the wizard plays, balances, or who the class leader is. Enjoy the game all
Balanced or not Wizards are cool and imo pretty fun and relaxing to play. I skipped the last expansion, I just couldnt get into it. Hopefully the next one brings some improved wizard dps. I tend to like the expansion that dont raise the level cap because it forces them to give each class something. Cheers!
Make no mistake, I was all about that 5-15% for years and years. It was just a combination of running real-time dkp, leading raids, raiding on multiple servers, and just in general getting older / life that it's faded a bit. Well that and the fact that in 90% of cases over the last several years Wizards could barely break the top 10 even less the top 5.
hehe, I hear ya. That fire can burn out with age, and a rearranging of priorities. We're only on this earth for so long.
