http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=testdev&message.id=11194#M11194 I am leaving my own opinions and comments off, and see what goes on in EoF before I make any comments about either rangers, or these changes.. I will say however.. I am looking forward to these changes and they will help out ALOT of classes. I will be honset though, my account expires at oct 16th.. I will get the expansion when I see steps in the right direction like this, rather than my old plan wich was just letting it dry up. I'll be honest though, im glad I dont work at sony right now - and I think college is tough CRUNCH TIME GUYS!
Im always leery of any type of change that SoE is planning on. That being said, I will say that while I like the idea as a whole, I just hope they implement it properly. It'll be nice to finally get rewarded for being over the stat caps.. although... I guess after the changes take hold, I wont be over the cap anymore. BAH! I can only hope that the new armor pieces + set bonuses will allow us to actually get near the new cap.
Mostly... It won't mean anything. Unless the expansion has more bows with high DRs. Aren't we glad we self-buff AGI? Now it's going to be extra-superlicious-stupifying-lame useless.
I hope that the stat changes, while on a curve, will increase how much damage we do. By setting up mitigation the way they are I tink it gives us a better ability to take a hit, especially those with raid gear. From what i understand it seems this way but it still seems kinda confusing to me.
well imo, this will close the cap between eg. leather and plate tanks, since the lower mitigation numbers will mean more than large So, the rangers who have small miti numbers and raise them will get more benefits as the fellows who already have larger numbers (eg. fabled chain armour)? Gah, doesnt matter... we will eventually see how this affects us anyway ++Xan
Interesting changes, glad to see they are taling about them beforehand. I like the dps and haste increase to 200% I guess we will see how it goes.
I look at it like thei: Casters don't get one shot killed anymore, neither do we I do like the 200%haste cap, but does that include range autofire? It does seem leather will be just as good as chain now...
As i see it this will most likely put rangers even farther at a disadvantage in the ranged stat. Since few items or classes (are there any?) classes buff the ranged skill, how do you actually plan on elevating the skill to be in line with other classes? Remember skills that are at the current max value and for some yet unspecified number after that will actually be take a nerf. With the amount of items with pluses for other skills out there this could easily cause a ranger to fall even farther behind. It does mean the +ranged on our Killing Instinct and Focus Aim short term buffs will be meaningful. What good was buffing ranged by about 120 (from FA) if self buffed a ranger sits at 392 ranged all the time?
What was actually said was: So if you are at 100% dps/haste today you will likely have less effective dps/haste after these changes. I would imagine it will follow a similar rule as the other stats and 40% of the new cap (200 * 0.4 = 80) will be the point at which haste will be equivalent between the models. After which more haste will have a dimishing return but the potential maximum of 125% (actual haste) at 200. It will also mean that 40 haste in the new model will be greater that 40% actual haste. If you notice I have dropped the % on the new numbers as it is meaningless - I hope SOE does the same. No... There is always an improvement for every mit point you get. The relative benefit is reduced as you get higher but chain doesn't get close to the mitigation limits so will still have a big benefit. Just a reference, fully decked out in all my mit I hit around 3500. So will be better off solo in the new system (the break even point is 4000 mitigation), and will be slightly worse off when raid buffed. The idea of worse off is all relative - if the mobs (especially raid) are changed with these new mechanics then this comparison is meaningless and we will just have to wait and see what the mobs are like. Your resident Wanderer -Slic. Message Edited by AChampion on 09-29-2006 08:08 AM
Bah! My relic sleeves are about to become worthless. Edit: For those of us who went with the AGI/INT AA line, a respec might be in order. All of a sudden, the AGI/STR line seems to be getting a little boost from these changes. :smileyhappy: It'll be interesting to test the differences with the stat changes. Message Edited by Gareorn on 09-29-2006 08:38 AM
Looking at just the haste being effectivly increased to 125%, I would see this futher favoring weapons with very long delays since they still didnt say anything about allowing weapons to be faster than 1sec delay. But the fact that you actually have to double the amount of haste to get to that 125% sucks. On the other hand with our focus aim and killing instinct we still should be able to hit very close to that 200% with standard raid buffs. Now looking at the stat cap issue: If Skill A did 1000 damage at the old cap of 520, will it now do 500 damage since the stat cap is doubled? I dunno.
My first thought is something like "Hmm.. 'a lot' is two words, isn't it?" My second thought is "Ummm... big changes incoming...duck and cover." In theory, they will help the overall balance of the game, but we've all seen how far the implementation can diverge from the theory. Like many vets, I just can't help getting a little nervous when the Devs start making significant changes to mechanics.
First thoughts are I pray they are planning on making changes to how some buffs work. If not the gap I finally overcame with getting the Sarnac bow just jumped right back in my face. Because of buffs like Agitate that only work on melee attacks and assassins already having a superior self buff rangers are going to fall behind again. They will be able to hit these new higher caps alot easier. Hell all they need is an Illusionist and a Fury and they are over it. Even if by a stroke of luck I pulled the Coercer out of the MT group and got DPS buffed and had a Inquistor for additional DPS buff I'd be sitting at 104% DPS and 66% Haste with Haste popping up to 116% when the Inquisitor didn't have to heal and could use his haste buff that mutes him. Even this won't put me close the the DPS / Haste that an assassin would be at with an Illusionist and Fury. And lets not forget it's ten times easier to get setup with an Illusionsit then pulling a Coercer out of the MT group. Change Agitate to proc off ranged attacks and make Impetus castable cross raid and I might keep up. Otherwise all I see these changes doing is kicking my poor ranger back to the curb of a wannabe DPS class.
Haste currently works this way, 100% haste, 200% dps = 100% increase, 200 dps dps increase, 200 haste increase doesnt come to a 125% increase, it comes to a 250% total increase... They stated the actuall value of 200% haste increase will realisticlly be 125% increase instead of a 50%.. The way the other caps are set (looking at mitigation primarly) its a 150% actuall cap, instead of the 80%.. A 125% actual cap instead of the 50% actuall diffrence would scale with mitigation as well as dps.
You seem to be under the (common) misconception that weapon attack speed caps at 1 second. It does not.
I can see there being problems with attack speeds when this thing comes out now that I think about it... Currently the lowest attack speed you can get is 0.6s with 100% haste, with 200% haste your looking at 0.3s.. With the natural lag of the internet it might start to cause lapses etc.. I dunno, I am probabbly just talking junk... Friday afternoon and im bored out of my mind.. Yea, my life is exciting!
I'm not really worried about how it will affect rangers beyond giving us more room to grow. I'm sure EoF itemization will be created with the new cap system in mind, so I wouldn't run away from the falling sky yet. I also have a feeling many buffs will be modifed based on the new cap system. The biggest effect this will have, IMO, is make avoidance tanks more viable on raids, and keep the DPS from getting destroyed on AOEs or if they pull agro. Which is a good thing as far as my gameplay is concerned.
hmm combat changes are scary. I do not share this dev's confidence that things will go smoothly. These are huge changes. I foresee many classes getting all sorts of outta whack. I actually think rangers will likely benefit from this system but there are gonna be some classes this hurts. I am not looking forward to another 6months of SOE trying to fix a self inflicted unbalance. I say buy stock in Hasbro now, cuz when everything starts to run amuck SOE will be buying bats -Katsugen
