Reslove, its not right, here is why...

by class do you mean generic like fighter, scout, mage, healer? or say having two necromancers totals 15 resolve compared to having a necromancer and a coercer/illy for a total of 20 resolve?

Except as the 2nd cleric in the raid...I can't bring the same amount of resolve, so I have to log on to my druid or my shaman in order to raid when I'd really rather play my cleric. Because no matter what the devs think, raid leaders are going to crunch numbers to make sure the maximum resolve is there, as well as the best buffs. Creating a mechanic that forces a certain raid makeup in order to statistically be able to defeat content is the wrong direction to be heading, IMO.

What would really be cool if all classes were finally neutral, too.

But the mechanic is already there! You need tank, you need healer, you need DPS. You can't have a raid with healers only. There are other limitation too. You can't heal the group if you are a fighter. Let's give mass healing to fighter so fighter don't feel yourself punished compared to cleric? No, obviously it's not a solution.

In my example I make all classes equal. And it's up to raid leader to compose proper raid, like they are doing it for years.

Even with the improvements given to the swashbuckler class since ToT launched (Marauder's Vaunt, 15 Resolve, boosted Dagger Storm), the class still doesn't bring enough to a raid to be deemed worthy for a raid spot by the top end guilds. Now that mechanics have changed yet again, I've noticed my DPS dropping down on the parse list compared to the boost that some mage classes have gotten since Zek went live.

Guilds that run 2 mage groups with an assassin, ranger, brigand and beastlord stuck in the 2 tank groups seem to be what is happening now. Toss 2 dirges with the tank groups and 2 troubs with the mage groups, and the rest of the big DPS comes from the mages. Swashbucklers are fine for clearing big groups of trash mobs in raids, and are fine for heroic and soloing, but when it comes to raiding, they're not showing up as much compared to the other scout classes...yet again. That extra 5-10 resolve just isn't going to cut it.

Starting with the update tomorrow (5/24) all players resolve buffs will stack. The non-stacking of same classes has been completely removed and those classes that had 5 resolve buffs have been increased to 10 to make less of a disparity. The resolve requirement on raid bosses have been rebalanced accordingly so you will see slightly higher number on the bosses but the raids as a whole will grant more resolve than they did before. As we said before we expected some bumps along the way to getting this system into its final form. Keep the feedback coming and keep it constructive.

Excellent to hear.

I'd rather the 15's drop to 10's (assuming resolve targets are based on 24 people being present) but I'll take it!

Numbers are still not balanced against having a full raid but as you get further into harder tier bosses requirements get more strict. You should never expect the hardest content to be balanced around having a shorthanded raid force.

Which means we'll just go clear Stygian or do the 2x in an hour because only 18 people logged in, and then our 3 hour time slot to raid is now down to 1 hour. When that happens too much, then those 18 people who always show up, stop showing up because they are bored with running the same 1-2 easy zones for the past 4 months. Then you get roadblocked by the Psionists and you just run out of raid content to do. People then log, or just go solo and farm wrought iron keys for 30 minutes, or steamroll through heroic and contested zones.

Thats great news G, thank you all for making that adjustment, can't wait to try it out. Will keep ya informed how it goes. /salute

Quite the exaggeration there....

(ToT doesn't have resolve checks lol...) Gninja clearly stated "the hardest content".... they have shorthanded achievements for a reason, and most of the raid content will still be able to be killed with 3 groups.

You shouldn't expect to be able to kill Kraletus with 3 groups...

This raises a pretty solid point. While I understand not balancing end content around shorthanded raids, there is the idea of shorthanded learning where less than optimal numbers show up for raid and, rather than calling the raid or doing boring stuff no one wants to do, you spend some time working on mechanics for whatever current progression event you're stuck on. You don't expect to win, but you can at least get a bit more experience with the scripts/etc.

With the way Resolve is handled now, this could become impossible. If the raid is missing enough Resolve, the raid won't be able to stand up long enough to actually see scripts to make the learning useful.

I know that's not necessarily the best scenario to try to balance around, but I do think it should have some consideration. Which is part of why I still think Resolve should be mostly gained from gear with buffs only providing small amounts, basically to help boost newer/lesser geared members to appropriate levels.

Oh, no...there goes my big add to the raid. My 15 resolve is less valuable now. Hey I have an idea...gimme an offensive buff that someone might actually want...

He didn't say they were reducing the 15 resolve buff on the (currently) less desired classes, only that the 5s were going up to 10.

Which does make the 15s less valuable, but I'm pretty sure that part was facetious

All the buffs should be the same value. Makes balancing easier.

If the buff for each character class is the same, why have them at all? If you have 22 people with 10 resolve each, just drop the "warm body" buff mechanic entirely and lower the target's resolve by 220; same effect, less code.

Yeah, sorry, Was just making the class balance. Sarcasm is a lot like breathing for me.

When we don't have enough people on to do Resolve-based content, we go do stuff that 18-20 people can do, which doesn't take very long. Once you get a shorthanded achievement once, big whoop that it happens 10 more times.

I don't expect to kill harder content with 3 groups. We don't even bother trying to attempt to pull harder content with 3 groups. Yeah, we've pulled those fights a few times with a less than desirable mishmash of classes with 24 people in the raid (to practice/get mechanics) with only 1-2 bards on and one of those bards was an underplayed/undergeared alt.

I guess I could gear up a dirge or a troub that I've never played (made for tradeskilling), and could faceroll on that toon vs. playing the swashbuckler that I've played 99.9% of the time since launch. Those crappy bards that I could be playing are probably better than my undesired swashbuckler, right?

Well this is a start yall, at least they are working on it to help us as a player base get a better balance. And whoever just said Swashys were not wanted in raids when I was a Swash I was top 1 2 or 3 in the parse every boss, where you been?

If you need some help on how to play that Swashy right hit me up jjstevens1029@gmail.com or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/therealjjstevens