Something Feels Missing

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by InquisitiveRat, Jun 20, 2021.

  1. InquisitiveRat Shy Artist

    Ever since I returned, I have noticed how the Ascension classes seem to all be Mage-based, there's no tank-based ones, healer-based ones or scout-based ones, just mage. It just feels like those are missing to me. Will there be more added at some point, or nah?
    Vexil likes this.
  2. Jalathan Active Member

    With any luck Ascensions will be a thing of history at some point in the future. I really removed a lot of flavor from the classes and turned everyone in mages.
    Vexil, Mermut and Breanna like this.
  3. Bhayar Well-Known Member

    I'm not clear on the original concept behind Ascensions unless it was intended to be some form of "class balancing" made easy. I don't know that I'd agree with the concept that it made everyone mages. Depending on what ascension you chose, it might align better with what you did--elementalist for priests/wizards for example. Some ascensions added group/raid buffs like Geo. Etherealist added significant damage spells to your arsenal, but it also added a group mana refresh, which helped refresh mana in what has become a singularly boring mob mechanic. IMHO, the devs have gotten lazy in their over reliance on power draining as a mob mechanism and it's gotten worse the last three xpacs. Unfortunately, none of the usual "tools" to help players counter the effect have been upgraded. Which means you've got mana stones, mana pots, temp adorns, yada, yada yada all sucking up hotbar space for mostly ineffective results.
    The existence of ascensions has helped players overall--especially historically low dps toons. That said, they haven't been kept up from xpac to xpac, much less modified. Some of the spells are complete garbage and a waste of time, but newer players (or existing players choosing a different ascension) might not know that.
    At the current time, I think more players would just like to see them gone. They're a PITA to level and the lack of consistency between how you level player spells and combat arts vs. ascensions should be consistent, not at odds. Not the least of which is the virtual non-existence of the scrolls to get them higher. And omg, being able to delete a hotbar would be refreshing.
  4. Smashey Well-Known Member

    Ascensions will never be history because the utility they give is so strong. Unless they want to completely remove or nerf ascension utility to down ground and upset the whales that spent thousands of dollars to upgrade them 2 expansions ago.

    Deleveling a raid mob is so insanely OP its borderline stupid they even added that one. Then we can talk about all the others, but that one is huge.
  5. Jalathan Active Member

    I think they will start to go away though... eventually the resistibility will go up to the point they aren't useful and it doesn't look like they are planning to upgrade them. Granted, as you said, the utility is still there, but it also wouldn't be the first time they make abilities and such not work after certain xpacs either...
  6. Corydonn Well-Known Member

    When I spoke to developers about ascension I was told they were 100% put into the game for one thing : To try and reduce lag on servers by forcing everyone to use slow casting abilities.

    I didn't play for much longer after ascension was added because it destroyed the game-play that I enjoyed on my class but I guess drastic measures were needed to try and combat the rising issues of in game performance.
  7. Bhayar Well-Known Member

    No offense to you at all, but that has to be the single dumbest idea I've heard in quite a while. Thanks for the belly laugh.
  8. Cusashorn Well-Known Member

    I don't mind if long cast times was the purpose in mind when they created them, but the core issue with the topic post is that they're not designed to really benefit tanks.

    You have four classes:

    One boosts magic, fire, and cold and is absolutely mandatory against raid mobs in order to drop their level check from a red con into an orange.

    One boosts poison and disease and seems to really only benefit defilers, shadowknights, and necromancers, specifically.

    One is specifically designed as a catch-all DPS for anyone with nothing better to use.

    The last one is... kinda melee focused? I mean, Geomancers give a boost to crushing damage in particular, and converts all piercing and slashing damage into crushing, which I don't even know if enemies even have those unique damage mitigations anymore like they did when the game launched. Back during Kunark Ascending, I'm told that most tanks would take Geomancer because they do have a lot of buffs for combat arts instead of spells, but as the meta changed, many of them would just change to Etherealist for the mana burning DPS spell.


    They probably could have put more thought into making sure that all of them would retain desirability.
  9. Mercychalice Well-Known Member

    Which is becoming a moot point, because quite frankly, unless it is a stat boosting temp or feedback loop, i don't even bother casting ascensions anymore.
  10. Ruderalis New Member

    Elementalist is working for my dps/tank spec alts. It has significant offering to both of my specs, and I mean, a SK is just a caster who bonks you like Doge anyways, right?
  11. Obano Well-Known Member

    I genuinely like the ascension system as it currently exists. It basically brought multi-class to EQ2 which was something people were requesting for years before ascensions were a thing. I think it helps balance the game because even when my main class was weak (Bruiser) I could still fall back on ascension abilities and remain somewhat competitive.

    My hope for the next expansion is that there is an ascension cap increase instead of a level cap increase. There was an ascension level cap increase planned for RoS but they ended up revamping the AAs instead. Considering the AA changes that were made I would have rather had more ascensions.
  12. Benito Ancient EQ2 Player: Lavastorm Server 2004.

    This is hearsay.
    Obano likes this.
  13. InquisitiveRat Shy Artist

    To be honest, the Ascension feature isn't terrible, but I feel like it should be way better than what it is. Matter of fact, I stiiiill wish EQ2 had multiclassing, would save me a lot of trouble, really.
  14. Dolgrin Active Member

    Benito, your totally wrong, it was mentioned by Kander in one DW-Podcast...
    Go and find...
  15. Benito Ancient EQ2 Player: Lavastorm Server 2004.

    It is best not to start rumors without hard evidence.