Worrying trend with the rebalance (and FC in general)

[Youfirst]

Just a few comments, after reading most of the stuff here.

1. PvM is too easy atm, but NOBODY will ever set up a team to make it harder...what's the point? If stuff isn't nerfed, it will still be crat/doc based combos. I can do Mitaar on my MA, with a doc OR a crat. Now why would i do that with another ma and a advy, or other combos? To make it harder, last longer? To split loot between more ppl? No thnx, and i'm sure 99% of the population think like this. Let's pretend for a sec that some ipande rl decidest to make things harder...so decides not to get a crat. Do you think it's easy to find enf/doc/dd that are willing to take unnecesary risks for making things a lot harder.

SO, the only sollution is to have no other solutions but nerfing some profs.

@ drops
"You're wrong. Nerf docs, you'll need 2 docs. Why bother with some secondary healer that performs worse? "

Why bother? Because a ma could actually do some DD too besides heal? Cause a trader could debuff the mob and add overall power to the team, etc.

ALL IMHO

The best ingame experience i've had so far was doing neretva area X for the 1st time, in a team of a few ppl that were doing it for the 1st time too. Nobody did it before. We knew the "basic" tower/adds/tower/adds/boss idea, but that's pretty much it. It was damned hard. It was damned fun. We managed to get to the boss and we killed him. We were all so happy...but wait...no q update...3.2.1.0 BOOM....All we did was useless. But we were all laughing about it. That was fun, a lot of fun, best fun i've had so far ingame. We actually had to THINK how to do it (no crat or CC at all in the team(of GIMPS!).

Now, go to pande...every DD assists, doc heals tank, sold presses G on tank, crat mezzes/debuffs. Everyone knows their role and it's boring.

In to

[Neista]

So in a server with declining population you think its a good idea to increase the amount of people needed to do content?

Sure if the rebalance and the new engine draw people back it might work...if not its more likely to kill the game.

[Youfirst]

No, indeed it isn't, but that's the whole point. Reballance and the new engine are things that will HOPEFULLY(lot of hope needed) bring new players in.

[Xtremtech]

Ok, question, are you 100% sure Calm/Root/Snare will have individual cooldowns rather than a single 'Crowd control' cooldown?

I'm pretty much certain that cool-downs apply to nano-lines, yes. Whenever we've seen devs discuss the new nanos, they've always talked about the cool-downs on the lines. And I seem to remember talk about this positive element to cooldowns, where your extended toolset gets more usage... but I won't swear to that.

X

[Aeliniyah]

No, indeed it isn't, but that's the whole point. Reballance and the new engine are things that will HOPEFULLY(lot of hope needed) bring new players in.

I think that's wishful thinking at best. The engine will bring in some people, but not nearly as much as needed if every raid instance after the rebalancing requires full/multiple teams to complete.

There's some new games incoming in the near future that are aimed at exactly the same kind of playerbase that AO has. (SWTOR for example. While it might be pretty much singleplayer online game, it's still going to eat even the current AO population not to mention the kids who only want eyecandy and shinies rather than challenging and/or innovative gaming experience).

IMO you can't balance the game for the player population which MIGHT be online after the new engine. The power of players must be balanced on the real population - not some imagined number that might be coming AFTER these changes + the engine goes live.

If the population indeed starts to increase - then it's time for some difficulty adjustment - not before!

[Neista]

I'm pretty much certain that cool-downs apply to nano-lines, yes. Whenever we've seen devs discuss the new nanos, they've always talked about the cool-downs on the lines. And I seem to remember talk about this positive element to cooldowns, where your extended toolset gets more usage... but I won't swear to that.

X

Thanks, that kind of change, coupled with the RK lines becomes SL viable, is one i can live with!

[Autohead]

<snipped>

Just want to say you've been making some great posts today. It's nice to hear from someone else who thinks about this in the same perspective as I do. The only difference being you've actually said it, where I usually just post things I really don't mean and people get pissed at me...a trend I need to get past.

[-Klod-]

So in a server with declining population you think its a good idea to increase the amount of people needed to do content?

Ummm, of course not. The idea is to chase people away from this game.

Oh, wait...

[Jellyfunk]

But I think you're wrong. I think that if there's content where a doc's healing just falls short a bit, going for another doc is overkill. Going for a lesser healer who is also bringing much more DD to the mix would be a much better option than taking two docs.

Having great DD and the second best reflects has been so terribly successful for engineers.

[Xtremtech]

Having great DD and the second best reflects has been so terribly successful for engineers.

That's different though isn't it? Your reflects can't add to a soldier's. But a secondary healer can add to a Doc. Or a secondary CCer can add to a crat etc.

X

[viandante]

XtremTech, I think that Neista is worried because of the possible future usefulness of the crat toolset. As an MP I see that my toolset is worthless in PVM and wouldn't like the crats to have the same fate.

I like a playstyle that most people hates here (or voices against it) I like the old huge, big...raids (sided) in the outside and soloing for instances. It is really hard, if not impossible to balance team raids or to make encounters that are balanced for a team with so many classes the combinations too many.

If they focus in soloing for instanced (and many outside) encounters even if it is hard you can balance much better most of the encounters and some can be harder for some classes or others but all can be done. Rebalancing them would be a matter of making the relative PVM power of all the classes equal. The feeling of accomplishment when you manage to kill a hard mob is great.

And no, nerfing some classes won't benefit the others. Making more encounters that need teams and killing the big raids didn't help the game or made it funnier to me. One day I logged in, saw that there was nothing to do, that I could be and hour of my life just waiting to make a team that didn't want a full geared meta in a big world where I can't meet people and when you need a doc and an enfo (or soldier) to make anything. I just logged out and canceled my account. And there where lots of encounters, just only soldiers, enfos and docs where needed or could manage to finish them.

It was much more interesting while I was leveling and I could always do something while waiting or making a team.