From the Producer's Letter (re: Conjuror Damage)

[Daeloq]

<DIV>I just lifted this from the new <A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=testdev&message.id=9980#M9980" target=_blank>Producer's Letter</A>...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <P><SPAN>...<STRONG>Problem:</STRONG></SPAN><SPAN> Taken as a whole, Conjurers, and Necromancers, in groups, are regularly showing up as the best damage in EQ2.<BR></SPAN><SPAN><STRONG>Solution: </STRONG></SPAN><SPAN>It’s not a bad thing that these classes are top-tier damage. If they’re a little higher than we had originally intended and no new extents are being set, nothing breaks.<SPAN>  </SPAN>It becomes a balance problem that needs to be addressed when these two classes are setting new heights in terms of character power.<SPAN>  </SPAN>After the changes, their damage in groups will remain top-tier, but they should no longer be way out ahead of the pack...</SPAN></P> <P><SPAN>Scott Hartsman<BR>Senior Producer, EverQuest II</P> <HR> </SPAN>

[Lader]

<DIV>seeing as how i chose conj because i love to solo, im glad they are focusing on the gruop aspect of our dps. I realize our solo will be affected, but am glad that grouping is their main goal.</DIV>

[Gargamel]

<DIV>Sure, but note how they say we could out-dmg sorc in 4-6 person groups, but not in 2-3 person groups.</DIV> <DIV><BR>Would that not mean that a '1 person group' would be less still?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[XtremSummo]

<P>No it doesn't scale down to 1 because of the necessities inflicted by soloing tactics.</P> <P>Soloing for a conjuror isn't all about DPS. The conjuror is a great soloist because they can lay down DPS without taking aggro themselves. This is the great benefit of a pet profession. Neither class can take much aggro because of our defensive weaknesses. Sorcerers need to do massive damage hits when soloing because they use a repeated root 'n run tactic to avoid damage themselves. They need high damage to be able to solo at all where the Summoner is a more balanced soloing approach based on consistent damage over time.</P> <P>Sorcerers can solo a lot of stuff, but generally their soloing is slower than Summoners because they have to reduce their DoTs and Dumbfire Pet damage in order to ensure that their roots stick. They can't unload their full DPS as a result and need to wait more for high damage stuff to recycle while the mob is rooted. They also struggle when dealing with mobs that have ranged attacks such as nukes where the Summoner can stand their ground longer with the pet holding aggro and the conjuror supporting them through damage reduction and, to an extent, heal (which we may find ourselves needing to use a little more after LU24).</P> <P>Smaller groups work less well for Summoners partly because we can benefit more from a variety of helping from other classes. Pets can benefit from more damage add stuff from other classes. We tend to have a wider range of damage types than Sorcerers which allows us to benefit more from AC debuffs. In smaller groups there's usually less boosting available for us from others which leads to lower DPS whereas Sorcerers remain relatively more stable in their DPS.</P> <P>It's also worth noting though, that conjurors have other strengths in smaller groups in that we are very flexible in terms of how we play allowing us to serve as tank, damage reduction, steady damage over time or group or single-target high damage. Sorcerers are less flexible in their approach.</P> <P>X</P> <P> </P>

[Za]

Yes exactly, and also the fact that our DPS comes from multiple sources. When a wizzard does 20k damage, all 20k worth of agro is immediately attributed to the wizard. When a summoner does 20K of damage, 6k goes to the necro, 10k to the primary pet, and 4k goes to dumbfires. All in all, even in small groups the necro rarely draws damage until one of his pet sources of damage dies, which makes regulating and anticipating agro much easier.

[Condar Tarsonia]

<P>Hmm, where do they say anything about group size?  I just read over that again, and just don't see it... what I AM glad to see, however, is the final line, where Mr. Hartsman states, "After the changes, <STRONG>their damage in groups will remain top-tier</STRONG>, but they should no longer be way out ahead of the pack."  Maybe now the cries regarding our T1 damage will stop, since the big man himself said we're supposed to be... but I'm sure they wont, and that's just wishful thinking :smileyvery-happy:</P> <P>-Kataran Planewalker, Guardians of the Realm</P>

[Darian]

<p>This here where he talks about group size, its further down. </p><p></p><p>No problem - Glad to help clear it up.  </p> <p>On Test Server right now, the server side DPS logs show that Summoners are in the same neighborhood as Sorcerers in 4-6 person groups.  In 2-3 person groups, Summoners are coming in slightly under Sorcerers.  </p> <p>The change is that Summoners are no longer outdamaging Sorcerers across both of these types of group configurations the way they previously did.</p> <p>- Scott</p><div></div>

[Mordith]

Nothing stated about summoner balance explains why they reduced the damage of our tank pet.  That still makes no sense to me.<div></div>

[Lader]

<DIV>devs do 100's of things no one knows why <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> its just one spell for the tank pet, and while his dmg will go down with it, itll still work, hehe.</DIV>

[Loranthala]

You don't use the tank pet to dps anyway.  I rarely use mine at all.

[DobyMT]

Umm, I would be impressed if anyone doesn't pull aggro from their tank pet. And if 1 dmg = 1 hate, nerfing the dmg = nerfing the hate of our tank pet. I'm not asking for the mitigation, or the avoidance, or the defense at all of a real tank. Just the ability to hold aggro against ME and MY crappy spells. And thats with Master tank pet, and Ad3 stance.

[Za]

Doby, go try out the changes on test. They really aren't that much. Yes, you can overnuke and draw agro, but the new solo strat will be to use your scout pet for general soloing anyway. It kills faster and you can heal it easier while its still doing higher DPS. he tank pet is now only used in small groups when you need a tank, or for soloing groups of mobs where you need its crowd gathering skills. Healing it is a tad easier, but still very inefficient. I think they're fixing it finally so that your cast pet is always your "primary" pet for heals and such, so the Sacrament staff will be nice to use when you have multiple pets up. IMHO on test, the biggest impact on my soloing was the availability of the horde pets. The 1 minute recast is noticable.

[DobyMT]

Yeah, I'm on test too with a beta buffed toon. What I'm saying is I have problems with the aggro from my tank pet as it is. I use my scout more than anything, I am only saying that taking damage from the tank pet is just stupid. LOL. I haven't been raiding on Test yet, so I'll have to wait until Thursday night ( our first raid night after LU24) to see how it all goes down on a raid. Hopefully we'll be in the new TFD raid zone. I'll get a good feel if there are plenty of x4 4 - 6 mob encounters. Those are my best dps numbers, and I'll get a very consistant comparison there.