I stopped playing EQ2 towards the end of EoF due to getting burned out on progression raiding, but recently I found out that some friends had started playing again. I decided to give it a try with them, and since coming back to the game in January, I've been having a great time despite the various bugs, incorrect itemization, mechanics weirdness (why do only two stats matter for any given class?), and so on. The breadth of content in the game now is pretty incredible. In particular, since my primary and favorite class is coercer, I've been pleased with how CC, timely power feeding/hate snaps, and other support abilities are useful and desired in many of the DoV/SS heroic zones. Maybe that's a function of our guild groups being solidly on the average side in terms of gear, so we can't just power through encounters like a better-equipped group could, but it's been enjoyable nevertheless. One especially nice thing is the way that even heroic encounters often have scripts and such, since that used to be something reserved just for raid encounters; I don't have the time to devote to raiding any more, so I love seeing group-level content that's more interesting than just tank and spank. However, one thing that has disappointed me--especially with the new SS content--is the way charming seems to be getting marginalized more and more in newer content. Early DoV zones like Kael had worthwhile mobs to charm, often several types per zone. The extra DPS was nice (of course ), but I enjoy experimenting with game mechanics, so the process of finding the most powerful mob to charm in any given situation was a lot of fun for me in and of itself when running through those areas. Unfortunately, I've been missing that in the Drunder/SS zones. Practically nothing is charmable in either the instances or contested areas, and while Possess Essence still works to produce a pet, it just isn't the same. Every PE pet is the same as any other of the same class, with none of the special abilities the mob originally had, and they all--regardless of class--do the same pitiful DPS and have the same pitiful amount of health. A few classes have some decent abilities, but mobs of those classes have always been few and far between; I have yet to find a bard-classed mob to PE in any of the SS zones, for example. More than that, though, there's no real point in doing the sort of parse comparisons and experimentation that I enjoyed in the earlier DoV zones, since any given PE pet is going to be more-or-less equivalent to any other one. What I'm wondering is whether this trend is going to continue or if we'll start to see zones with more options for charming and such. I realize it's a relatively small issue, but the lack of variety and forced reliance on (in my opinion) the far more boring PE ability really has taken away some of my enjoyment of playing a coercer, and it would be disappointing to see future zones with the same issue. tl;dr: More charmable mobs with fun/unique specials in heroic zones, please (either that or make PE pets inherit specials from their "parent" for some added variety).
