Summary of Profession Rebalancing: Round 1

[crattey]

Not sure where you see "capture essence" fitting there though.

Mostly to serve as an alternative to the entirely useless Gallant Slave nanoline.
Keep in mind that untill 220, there's quite a few playfields where crats can't get useful charms, either because the mobs all suck, or can't be charmed.
Allowing crats to take charms beyond a single zone would be rather nice as it fills a rather large gap.

So from a gameplay perspective, it fits perfectly. From a RP perspective, perhaps less... who cares, though? If I recall you lot got blockers and a shovel!

[darkwalkx]

Yeah, true that. They are reworking our only working defense into something even more useless.

As I said, they are working on a lot of things, if your CURRENT defense gets nerfed, it doesn't mean you won't get other and better stuff back. Stop being so negative, if your not willing to read answers, why bother complaining.

Not sure where you see "capture essence" fitting there though.

How does taking control over other stuff, giving it commands and tasks as the manipulative class not fit in? If you mean the name that sounds a bit spiritualistic, yeah, the actual name might fit mps better, but it's about the ability itself that I I think fits crat better, and it's only a proposal, so I doubt this will be the actual given name to the ability.

[-Klod-]

As I said, they are working on a lot of things, if your CURRENT defense gets nerfed, it doesn't mean you won't get other and better stuff back. Stop being so negative, if your not willing to read answers, why bother complaining.

Yeah, because it's hard to be negative when they promise you TTB kind of defence, in place of this one (must be that "better" stuff you are talking about).

I take it you know what TTB stands for.

How does taking control over other stuff, giving it commands and tasks as the manipulative class not fit in? If you mean the name that sounds a bit spiritualistic, yeah, the actual name might fit mps better, but it's about the ability itself that I I think fits crat better, and it's only a proposal, so I doubt this will be the actual given name to the ability.

Capturing "essence" most certainly doesn't fit in there. It has absolutely nothing to do with charms. The only logical pet fix for lower level crats would be another Carlo/Carlita/whatever.

[darkwalkx]

Yeah, because it's hard to be negative when they promise you TTB kind of defence, in place of this one (must be that "better" stuff you are talking about).

I take it you know what TTB stands for.

Yes, Take the bullet that will be. You also know devs will take into account an TTB alike defense might not be enough? Your actling like the final decision has been made and published, stating all the mp's will get in return is that. Wake up call, no such an statement has been made.

Capturing "essence" most certainly doesn't fit in there. It has absolutely nothing to do with charms. The only logical pet fix for lower level crats would be another Carlo/Carlita/whatever.

Dump the name, keep the skill idea. Taking control over mobs fits the crat. The 'temporary' name might only been presented to fit what the skill is, Im almost sure they will change it before it hits live.

[crattey]

Yeah, because it's hard to be negative when they promise you TTB kind of defence, in place of this one (must be that "better" stuff you are talking about).

I take it you know what TTB stands for.

All pet profs get that, iirc. I hope that means that you get our current TTB, and crats get something actually worth casting

Capturing "essence" most certainly doesn't fit in there. It has absolutely nothing to do with charms. The only logical pet fix for lower level crats would be another Carlo/Carlita/whatever.

The logical fix would have been making the Gallant Slave line useful or providing a means to have access to charms in zones where currently none are available. 'Capturing' an essence is actually a way of doing just that.
It's not that different from the current Carlo pet, which in itself is very much like an MP summon, and not technically a charmed or robotic pet.

I still fail to see why MPs are throwing a fuss over it.. Other than the usual 'I want it, and crats can't have it' retoric Also, considering you are literally getting something out of the crat toybox, e.g. a TTB-ish protection mechanism, I think you can't really make a big hissyfit about crats getting something that has a working concept title that is vaguely reminiscent of an MP'ish thingiemajiggle.

[Magnificus]

'Capturing an essence' should be changed to something more crat like. I'm not creative enough to come up with something clever but the wording needs to change not the effect. But I agree that 'Capturing an essence' would be more MPish than Cratish.

[Nesja]

Something like being called up for jury duty. "Enrolled for jury" or "Temporary employment", "Intern"

[darkwalkx]

or how about: You! Go make me some coffee!

[Plektrum]

I play all the professions in this game, and have been around since launch 2001. When I look at these changes being made I think most of them looks good except for the following:

Trader don't need a working pet line - it doesn't go with the concept. Remove all pets from traders and instead increase their crits and evade lines. To me it's unbelivable that traders do not have a dedicated crit perk or nano line. They should have received it when MA's crit buffs where changed. Defenses are also low, and with evades being more within concept than absorbs or HP, please increase evades/AAD a bit further.

Crat basically don't need nothing new at all, so just throw them a bone and be done with it. They are the #1 most wanted teammember at any pvm situation. Please balance them, don't nerf because I hate nerfs, but they shouldn't by any reason get all the best new stuff either. Especially not the essence thing, see MP below.

MP's are the ones needing most love of all, in most peoples opinion they bring nothing to the table in pvm and I've seen so many teams that would rather grab a 205 solja than a 217 MP and thats sad. Move the capture of essence idea to the MP and make it really cool, and they will get teams again. Maybe there could be dedicated, quest reward, nano crystals for the really really bad mobs, like an essence of the Beast, that only works to capture the essence of this specific mob, and has a long cooldown or only hold it for one use? Sort of like a nano equivalent of popping shadowbreed. A one timer that can change the outcome of combat. Maybe in the beast example giving the MP's a temporary baby beast pet with badass AoE dmg. Also, variation for the third pet is kinda cool, but I think skill debuffs belong to trader. Better make it a NSD pet or something that goes for the nanoskills and leave weapon skills alone, to stay within concept. Overall better damaged output is more needed here than variation, but I just assume that this will be taken care of with the pets being completely revamped.

Engi getting cyberdeck. This idea is nice if implemented right. I think that if we let go of our weapons and go for cyberdeck , it must also mean an increase in the pets resist to root and mezz while weilding cyberdeck, because then we would rely 100% on pets. I also think that the cyberdeck would be a great oppurtunity for the engi to finally get their long awaited third pet. The kamikaze bot. All other pet profs have nukes, debuffs etc, as well as and more pets, along with weapon lines. Engi should at least have the same amount of pets if letting go of their weapon.

Agents - There has been talk before about giving agents a range of truly deadly sniper rifles, but with the equipment req of"not while in FP" would give the agents a choice between DD machines or FP specialists. The true sniper route could be the equivalent of a ranged shade. I wonder why that idea died? And just for fun, they should recieve a undercover nano that lets them get displayed as omni, clan, or neutral by choice. That would let them equip whatever armor they wanted and go into BS on either side of the conflict. Like a true double agent. Or sneaking around cities ganking people, which is totally within agent concept and tradition.

[gergiskoo]

^^^ listen to this man ^^^

Regarding engineers, I was actually thinking that, instead of a cyberdeck, maybe they could also become specialists in grenade weapons (since this is already semi-true), perhaps with an extension of the idea of having tradeskills account for part of the AR. It'd be just as in-concept as a cyberdeck, and it'd also force engineers to make a choice between total pet reliance (cyberdeck) or a more balanced mix (tradeskill grenade). I'm not terribly familiar with high-level engineer play, so I wouldn't be able to be more specific than that.

[Yesiamstoned]

I think it would be really cool to have a game where weapon choice(meaningful weapon choice) is based on skill and not class.

It would be a unique idea as every other game does all those restrictive things...

[Philty]

^^^ listen to this man ^^^

Regarding engineers, I was actually thinking that, instead of a cyberdeck, maybe they could also become specialists in grenade weapons (since this is already semi-true), perhaps with an extension of the idea of having tradeskills account for part of the AR. It'd be just as in-concept as a cyberdeck, and it'd also force engineers to make a choice between total pet reliance (cyberdeck) or a more balanced mix (tradeskill grenade). I'm not terribly familiar with high-level engineer play, so I wouldn't be able to be more specific than that.

Being completely reliable on pets is not very good idea from many aspects. This is a dead end route. Boring and nearly impossible to balance well in long terms. However its just my point of view on my beloved engi profession.

Anyway, those who remember times when engis were forced in large raids to cancel their pets, raise hands
And there are still areas in this game which are handled very poorly by pets...like DB2, all big nukers and PVP kiters
Complete reliability on pets in these cases would mean being mostly useless....

[Ventor]

Being completely reliable on pets is not very good idea from many aspects. This is a dead end route. Boring and nearly impossible to balance well in long terms. However its just my point of view on my beloved engi profession.

Anyway, those who remember times when engis were forced in large raids to cancel their pets, raise hands
And there are still areas in this game which are handled very poorly by pets...like DB2, all big nukers and PVP kiters
Complete reliability on pets in these cases would mean being mostly useless....

Unless our pets get ranged weapons, with reduced change of hit depending on distance to target (if that's not already the case).

[Plektrum]

Pets with ranged weapons have been in game and quickly removed because of pet pathing problems where they could not decide on a good distance to target.

[Ventor]

Pets with ranged weapons have been in game and quickly removed because of pet pathing problems where they could not decide on a good distance to target.

I know but with the upcoming changes & engine this problem could be solved.

[mammothtruk]

pathing issues can be resolved by increasing the nodes plotted by the pet. And with a cleanup of the walk mesh in general witch I hope is part of the new engine.

Traders could use PvM balancing in a way that doesnt effect PvP pretty please

[Dancingrage]

I'm all for ranged pets for all pet using profs, but I also have to bow to the limits of the game engine and what it can do.

[Xtremtech]

pathing issues can be resolved by increasing the nodes plotted by the pet. And with a cleanup of the walk mesh in general witch I hope is part of the new engine.

These are parts of any solution for pathing. Not the whole solution though - and it can be resource intensive work to do. It'd be nice to at the least see an improvement along with the work done in the new engine.

X

[Louderer789]

I'm all for ranged pets for all pet using profs, but I also have to bow to the limits of the game engine and what it can do.

Give them melee weapons with 20m range instead of ranged weapons?

[nikkydkhick]

Having played just about every type of online PVP there is, I really don't think it is possible to 'balance' so many disparate roles/classes and keep thier individuality. PVP be it Unreal Tournament, or AO always boils down to individuals with the best gear and skill coming out on top. I think it is unwise to weaken professions bread and butter so as to remove any advantage it might give them in PVP.

And why oh why is the most sought after for teaming profession, Crats, getting all the buffs, is the idea to make them the only profession needed on a team or for that matter, just make them strong enough to solo everything while dragging leechers around. (Multi-boxers take note!)

And why is Funcom modeling NT's after one successful against the grain build. Nano-weaving sounds stupid and the last thing anyone needs in combat is complexity to choose from. I mean at least call it mix-n-match, or build-your-own or something else please. Nano-weaving sounds like something they do in the assited living home.

Fixers and Enforcers, thier role is to tank, do damage or avoid damage, so lets take that away, great idea! Nerf city for them, docs as well.

Let's not forget the Orwellian position enforced in these forums as in please discuss these very vague proposed changes, but if you do not slavishly agree with them and cheer Hip Hip Hoo-ray and criticise instead, you obviously are a nut job because you don't have the whole picture of the rest of the withheld details, so why don't you go play in the traffic.

The only way to balance PVP is make everyone the same just cosmetically different. Doing that will take away what is unique about each role, and put the tombstone firmly in place.

Also why is this discusssion centered on PVP? What about PVM, you know what 99% of the in game population does most of the time. Shouldn't there be some rebalancing here like equalizing the experience given accross all playfields and mobs. It just harms the game to have Hecklers give 10x more experience than anything else. They pretty much negates the need of all the other playfields. Either that or just bin Ruby-Ka, which barely has a soul in it anymore and stop putting resources into maintaining it.

Anyone from Funcom want to report on subscription numbers? Does anyone think turning AO into Unreal Tournament is going to improve those numbers?