I'am now actively looking at other MMOs and waiting for new releases and caring less and less about the game. If this is what the devs wanted for eq2, then I guess... carry on! Do not update us, nerf everything on sight, gate all raids behind rare harvest. At this stage I almost feel bad trying to raise awareness of the channeler class knowing so many other classes are in need of love (hello rangers, bruisers and brigs) Here is a copy paste of the Email I sent to Kander. Have not had any polite acknoledgement so I'm putting it here in case whoever deals with class balance also somehow sometimes read posts like these. "Hi, Following your post on discord announcing that you are planning on rewriting Channeler and BLs’ special spells, I went around and spoke with a few other Channelers. We hope that pet essences will also get looked at/scaled up. Pets used as an aura/proc machine could be a fun option. A good amount of requests I had were for a recovery group wide buff or strong fervor buffs like the fury or Crit bonus like the mystic that could be implemented through conduits or pet essence but worry that we would then have our DPS scaled down. (I kinda disagree with myself now and think we actually do deserve a beefy buff too! BL can give 3k pot and we... meh let's not talk about our new buff shall we? ) Pet essences that need scaling up: Mythical/simian/drake/aquatic/bear/enchanted/avian Needs reworking : Amphibian essence lowered intercept has no use that I can think off. Boar essence and bovid essence are not worth using either. Pet essence ideas: Group/raid wide proc dmg reduction of 3-6% A dissonance proc Dissonance dissipation buff or reduction in dissonance cost A group or self cb proc/fervor overcap buff that can stack/build in increments (max 150 ish?) Conduits slot 1/2 : Essence weave and construct regeneration are good as they are. The other conduits in the slot 1/2 are not really worth casting as they are due to dissonance cost. Conduits slot 3: Could potentially add a group wide ward or increase the duration of truespirit defiance or reduce it’s cost. Conduits slot 4/5/6/7/8: Conduits that do not need changing : channeled cleansing/interpose intercept/truespirit restoration Conduits that are good and need scaling up: Mist of poison/dissonant decimation (lower dissonance cost pls)/poison bolt( lower diss.cost pls) Conduit concepts that could be worked on: Auras Conduits ideas : Temp buff on group/raid member that makes the next spell instant cast or instant recast (would require team work and communication) Raidwide /tank only thorn proc A fun spell that makes the floor ice or allow channeled evacuation to work even if out of direct sight. A personal preference : group wide increased proc rate or a damage proc Death prevention, when it procs pet loses 50% HP (therefore the pet would need healing because it would stop intercepts at 50%) Combat mitigation debuff aura on pet Increased range of spells/Cas aura In combat single target raise (channeler only has 1 single target auto rez every 90 secs from AA and 1 group raise with a 60 seconds recast to be used in combat (this one is not fully agreed between us as some are struggling with hotbar space , or the group raise to be casted as a pbaoe around the target and not the channy) An auto rez for the channeler (self raise like the warden’s one, fizzles if not enough dissonance when the channeler dies or delays the recast of the construct for 10 seconds insta cast?) AOE avoidance Group immunity aura/proc (fear/stun and/or stiffle?) Requests: Allow pet essences/conduits to be changed during combat please--- If not possible, can we change conduits/essences when our weapon is sheathed? Allow sacred follower to affect channeler pet so that the pet can proc the pet essences at a normal rate--- (on the same tree, the raise AA Ally revivification does not affect the in combat raise) Allow ready up to also affect the following AAs: auto rez + dissipate as well as emergency power epic spell and sanctuary of darkness. Channeler CA’s are all mostly instant recast. Remove the construct recast time or reduce it greatly (when there's a bug in some zones and the pet gets dispelled we have to wait 30 seconds without intercepts to recast. The pet is not meant to die and this has caused issues with some mechanics on occasion) Thoughts: Consider lowering the dissonance cost of the abilities if you include new buffs/procs/auras that require dissonance to maintain (pet essences could be used to help with that) Interpose redirect is a must have and costs 570 every 5.4 seconds to maintain, the crippling aura costs 300/5.4 secs to maintain. Total cost of 2 maintained conduits= 870 every 5.4 seconds which would cost more than we dissipate naturally and means we would run out of dissonance quickly without even using other conduits to heal the pet/group or DPS. As it is right now, running 2 maintained dissonance buffs (aura + intercept) can become an issue very quickly during the fight if lots of healing is required or when trying to DPS efficiently. I believe that complaining without participating and offering ideas is of bad taste so I hope this compilation of ideas gathered from other players can be useful to your team. Kind regards, Gaiadea of Thurgadin" In addition to this the pet auto attack delay is too long, allow us to tweak it through shared haste. Whats' the harm... the pet hits like a wet noodle anyway. We would then be able to proc pet essences at a better rate. To min-max right now, you need a 1h with a short delay.
Some good ideas. I especially like the idea of a death prevent using the construct. Keep it off the cool down of the AA death prevent. Maybe have a requirement - construct must be >= 90% health, or it fails. Amphibian essence lowered intercept has no use that I can think off. - Really.. I have no idea why I would want to lower the intercept value. And I repeat, the construct isn't meant to DPS, so why can't it have 100% hit rate? The proc's right now aren't really much of anything. I say 100% hit rate, increase the values of these essence's and maybe lower the proc rate? Or 100% hit rate, and slightly increase the auto attack speed.
well - there's apparently work ahead for Channeler's in the coming GU. I wonder what kind of "utility" or "buffs" are being added. I hope some of the concerns expressed here were taken into consideration.
Too little too late, if there had been communication I would have stayed. Still checking weekly looking at the patch notes and even changes to my favorite class isnt going to bring me back. Communication skills on the devs part = 0
I am rather tired of "We will do something maybe about it eventually maybe" mentality modern developers seem to have, but EQ2 has grown past my intrest, I do not like having to go back 4-5 expansions, find an augment, that is "Bis" just so i can do CURRENT SOLO CONTENT, I also never liked the mechanic heavy stuff from other mmo's like ff14 "memmorize the fight or fail" then some of the RoS solo stuff, even has random aspects to the mechanics, which for me is a nightmare. All in all on the channeler though, its sadly the only class i can play in the game, im getting old and slow, so i need something that can have the durability to survive a hit without needing to look through my 5 hotbars to find the potion or heal, and mercs AI, last i looked, was still spotty at best, when before they used to be on point and useable
Any channelers gotten a chance to really test out the new changes? I'm wondering how well the new potency temp buff from hostile conduits work. How well the new temp crit bonus buff from shadow escape works. How well the new group/raid HOT from beneficial conduits work. How well the combat mitigation debuffs work.
Yeah Channeler isn't my main but nice break from the temp for bit in an another raid force...however the buffs to stances while look good on paper feel sluggish or spotty on live think in raid was trying to the raid heal on the heal stance got it to proc bit but getting to to reliably proc from a 50% trigger is meh when u try an spam a beneficial pet spell....as for the buffs on the offensive stance even worse off from a 35% trigger and incrementing up can be painful if your not careful and burn ur dissonance.
