Sketch of Current and Planned Profession Roles

[Dalv]

Perhaps someone has already done this, perhaps it's not appropriate to do, but something I'd like to see is a breakdown of the viability of professions at various levels at various styles of play, both now, and Funcom's intended viability (or perhaps what the playerbase interpret as the intended viability from documents released so far).

As one possible presentation:

* Consider each profession in the range 1 - 100, 101 - 200 and 201 - 220 - viability clearly changes over the levels, perhaps another range, perhaps a few indicative levels (60, 150, 200, 220) instead. Perhaps even split a few professions (e.g. ranged and melee Advies)

* Consider the roles of Solo PvM, Solo PvP, Team PvM and Team PvP

* Consider some indication of support, knowledge and wealth - from credit-less n00b up to Billions of creds with a family of alts to buff/assist in quests and a strong org

* Choose a system of ranking.

Example rankings might be:

* Non-viable - don't bother, it's not possible; will never be invited to teams

* Marginal - really hard work to get anywhere; considered no better than leaving a team spot empty

* Viable - can be done, but don't shine; might get team invite to complete the six

* Thriving - good steady progression; will regularly get team invites, occasionally named in LFM announcements

* Dominant - regarded as overpowered; in teams considered a vital profession to have

Viability is not quite the same thing as fun to play but has some correlation.

Why do this - well, it might help balancing discussions. But for me it might point in the right direction in musing on what I might play after rebalancing. Personally I want significant Solo PvM viability, some teaming PvM viability, and don't really care about PvP. For instance, it seems to me my current high level and poorly supported Trader will be dropping down to Marginal Solo ability, so will get retired (yes, a trader was fun for solo PvM up to about level 200).

Oh, and a decent discussion of team vs. solo from both side in an MMORPG is over in
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=581809
It perhaps doesn't need rehashing here.

[Hvyshadows]

Not a bad idea, but it has a bunch of holes.

1) Without actually being able to play the game with the new nanos and perks in place, everything is speculation. You can easily come out and say "This profession will no longer be an asset to a team or that profession won't," but we can't say for sure.

2) Desirablity in teams is not just a reflection on the toolsets of the profession, but the knowledge of whomever is pulling the team together. I hear a lot of talk about how traders aren't wanted in teams very much. I always try and get one in my team. They are just so fricking useful. Reinforcing the idea that such and such a profession is not desirable in a team is just going to mean that few new players will choose it and continue to perpetuate these misconceptions.

3) There are so many different kinds of teams that could be put together you will need to rank them situationally. For instance, if you are talking about an Ely kite team, then NT and Crat are the only two you need to worry about. The rest is filler. If you are talking about a 12 Man team, then Keeper, Crat, Doc, and Enfo will still be the big 4 even with the changes. If you are talking about an inferno mission then Crat + boatloads of DD is still going to rule. Collector will be something else again.

Just to point out a few.

[Cyberleet]

My concern is that they should keep storyline and the roleplay as an integral part of the rebalance, not just do maths.

Will the agent in practice actually be an agent and viable as such, or assaultdoctor with rifle? Things like that...

[Dalv]

Good points.

Strength of perks, reworking of kit, etc. are indeed likely to have a major effect. Much easier to prepare a "where we are today" than "guess what FC plan - perhaps, to dream for both, a player consensus for "now" and FC telling us their plans for the future.

On traders in teams - yes, for a team that's pushing their limits the mix of skill buffs, bit of mezzing and bit of healing is good. For grinding teams (Inferno Easy's for instance) - not so much.

For team type - to be of any use the presentation needs to be concise - or at least not more sprawling. So, to pick examples, perhaps "classic" heck teams for the first two (no OSTs, no kiting) and Inferno Hard missions for the last.

And yes profession "fun" is crucial, but so utterly personal. Controlling pets or laddering and maintaining drains are two examples of things I've enjoyed but I could imagine them tedious to others. Thus trying to tabulate "fun" seems doomed.

[SoapTarder]

agreed with Hvy. until the changes are put on test and put through a thorough testing by players, than theres no certainty as to whether the changes are balanced, and still keep professions all viable. the current talk by devs that there will be a lot of adjustments still yet to be made is imo, and opinion of many others ingame, completely unneccessary at this stage. get the friggin changes out on a beta test server already. get people testing them asap, and make adjustments based on real numbers, not speculation. currently, the overall big picture of rebalance is nothing more than a house of cards thats getting bigger and bigger. and FoF is a horrible excuse to not test until everything is absolutely perfect, ironically so, because it will callapse if not tested and solidified stage by stage before its done. thats all i will say, no need for me to get a fist-full of infractions.

[Hvyshadows]

get the friggin changes out on a beta test server already. get people testing them asap, and make adjustments based on real numbers, not speculation. currently, the overall big picture of rebalance is nothing more than a house of cards thats getting bigger and bigger.

This, this, and double this. So much "sky is falling" going on around changes that no one has even played yet. Throw everything out on a beta server asap just the way it is right now and let's see what adjustments need to be made. I have a strong feeling that after playing through some of the new nanos/perks that people who have been talking about how broken their chosen profession will be will say, "Oh, that's how it's going to work. That's okay then." Doctors in particular will not be as bad as everyone seems to think, imo.

[doctorzoidbyrg]

let everyone copy their characters over to the test server, put the changes on, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me have a go at shooting some of those formerly-silly traders. (not that theyll stay logged in for long ;P)

[streppelchen]

Charcopy + Premade Chars to test the changes

[Xtremtech]

Too many variables, too much dependency on builds, too many factors in each decision... impossible to do really.

Best you'll be able to do is very broad high level stuff which I don't think will really address or answer the questions you're wanting to get at.

X

[Shareida]

Get the friggin changes out on a beta test server already. .

That.