upcoming patch, the nerf predictions

[Jangos]

yeah in an isolated cases people have 0 probs getting groups if they have a perma group. Especially if part if said perma group consists of priest and warrior.


This game scales just like EQ used to in group balance, early on you could get by with just about anyone. As you gained levels you needed more specialized roles to function (aka cleric, warrior enchanter). WoW is EXACTLY like this, the higher the level, the more specialized the group needs to be. Its worse due to a 5 man group compared to the EQ 6 man.


So those last two group spots are at a total premium. Everything matters, thats why locks are so fucking borked right now. People only look for locks if there are no paladins available. Paladins are a dime a dozen.

Last patch after the first mage slot was taken, it was competition between the rogue and the mage for the second damage dealer slot. Now rogues are an obvious second choice to a mage for a DPS slot in a group. Smart players will look for rogues if no mages are available (both dime a dozen classes). This was not brought about by JUST the stealth nerf, but the MoD nerf, the Sap nerf, the talent tree nerf.

Overall rogues got their dps lowered due to talent changes (we did less than mages last patch, now the gap is wider).

Rogues got their stealth and croud control nerfed drastically as well. Pretty much every aspect of a rogue got hit this last patch.


As for you pulling SM, At that level elites are not the crazy damage machines they are at 55+ IF I go to sap 3 lvl 55 elites at 55 and appear or fail My chance of survival is slim to none.


Think early kunark ranger. LEveling up rangers are the shit, they could tank, snare, nuke, do good damage, as they got into thier 50's they began to become more and more hindered. No more tanking, dying easily, losing group desirability.

[Lyion]

Being there are only a handful of classes, it shouldn't be too tough to balance them.

Also, the talents are not done I've read, and other additions are coming.

A few questions Jangy(or Arlos), since I haven't made it past 40:

Can Paladins tank decently high level?

Can Warlock pets off tank adds, which would be a boon?

Does the priest lower aggro spells work?

How tough is it for a rogue or mage not to get aggro?

In playing, it seems Warriors are the most prolific class out there. Is there a reason to have 2 in a group?

Are priests solely healing bitches 50+?

Warlocks are just Necros, correct?

[Zanchief]

I play shm.

You should compare them to EQ bards more then anything.

They have totems which AE really good buffs for a short amount of time.

You can heal and tank and melee...kinda.

Really good solo and pretty good backup healer rezzer and buffs in group.

DPS is crap though but hey.

[Tacks]

That's because you think you're a warrior with your 2 hand axe! =P

[Zanchief]

My axe is awesome bitch

[Arlos]

Lyion:

Paladins CAN tank at high levels, they have access to the same armor and equipment warriors do. The primary issue with paladins tanking is they have no direct means of aggro control. You can fake it with tossing a couple big heals around, but it's far less efficient and reliable than the aggro tools warriors get. What you DO get though is the backup healer role, and, sometimes more importantly, the backup rezzer role.

The biggest issue with paladins is that their abilities don't synergize particularly well. Individually, their abilities are quite powerful, but the whole is probably less than the sum of the parts, to be honest. If the different abilities were to synergize as well as the disparate abilities of, say, a mage, Paladins would be godlike. Unfortunately, it's not that way at this point. Now, this may change when they give paladins talents, I dunno.

One of the warlock pets, the voidwalker, isn't too bad at off-tanking in my experience. Warlocks are more than necros, tho. I haven't played one, so my knowledge is entirely secondhand, so take this with a grain of salt. Warlocks are the only other class to get AOE spells (well, there's a druid talent spell that's a PBAOE, but to get it fubars healing abilities, since you need 30 in the tree), they get nukes, and some very nice debuffs. So, they are kinda necro-ish, but they have other abilities too.

-Arlos

[Tacks]

Having played Kizzy's warlock and seen her playing the warlock I'd say it is pretty close to the necro. You still have the same; send pet in, let him get agro, dot, dot, nuke, nuke, nuke, fear the add, use life tap and heal the pet, nuke, nuke, loot, pattern. One cool thing they do get though is the ability to use soulstones (rez stones) and healthstones (potion) (both of these can be handed to other players).

[The Kizzy]

bitch, stay off Kizzy, she had no panties on last time you used her.

[Karynna Suxcle]

The downfall of WoW in my opinion, will be trying to balance PvP and PvE at the same time. I still firmly believe there should be different rulesets for the two types of servers.

I see so many changes to balance PvP that just cripple a class in PvE.

As I always do, I mainly play a priest. I have hardly played since last patch because I have slowly gone from an ass kicking class I adored, to a glorified EQ cleric. On the big fights, I have become simply a one talent, heal button pusher. I never minded the Holy Word: Shield nerf either. I thought it was totally necessary and any priest that relied on it to solo or group was slacking.

At first I felt the holy trinity of classes only existed because people came from other games where it was essential and couldn't break the habit. I had friends who cleared BRD without a priest when I wasn't online and they said it was a really smooth run. People just always demanded a priest because they assumed it was necessary from years of EQ or whetever. Slowly however, it is becoming less of simply a perceived notion, and more of a reality. While I enjoy being a needed class, it also seriously pigeonholes my role in a group.

Pre-patch we were brd farming easily with no secondary healer in the group. I hardly think when it's that easy they need to make priests even more concentrated as healers. I'm not a shadow priest or anything who wants to do crazy DPS. I don't even switch my talentes depending on the group. I try to play with a consistent set of talents in all situations to see how it works, and if I make a change it's usually a small one and meant to be permanent.

I also think the rogue stealth nerf is retarded beyond words. I don't think it's parallel to the mage invis nerf at all. I thought the invis nerf was 100% needed, but this stealth nerf is just ruining the gameplay of most of the rogues I know. If they don't want rogues stealthing around to mine or whatever, just make see-stealth NPCs and put them a few key places. The change as it went in seems somewhat crippling.

As for grouping, I have a rogue friend I've known forever and I rarely go anywhere without him. The problem is I have other friends who are rogues, who I'd love to group with from time to time. The trouble is bringing one precludes my ability to bring another for the most part. I also have three warriors I group with a lot, and while we have made groups with two warriors, it's mostly because we are friends and would rather hang out with each other than make the ideal group. While I like the diversity of the classes, I wish it was possible to be more creative with the groups. For example, I'd like to see anyone come up with a feasible, non-exploiting method to pass Lycium without a mage.

[Jangos]

f mages!@

[Harrison]

Anyone that has played Anarchy Online knows that balancing PvE and PvP at the same time is IMPOSSIBLE.