Fan Faire - any word?

[Silda]

Was wondering if any of our mystic brethern have anything good or bad to say from the fain faire. Inquiring minds want to know <span>:smileytongue:</span> <div></div>

[Sandain666]

I attended most of the EQ2 panel discussions and there was little direct comments on Mystics, other than what we already know about wards taking armour mitigation into account. Mostly we were told that they are working on healer balance which should be coming eventually. No firm date given on that either. I did not attend the developer brunches. so i dont know what info was given there Sandain <div></div>

[Loral]

<DIV>Official word: wait on Combat Changes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>From my "internal sources" at FanFaire... Expect the combat changes to drastically change the game. Alot of us will have to... say... unlearn a few things. Or change their assumptions of some things.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I expect a huge uproar of drama in here when it will come to test. </DIV>

[Mystiq]

<P>Pretty much what the above two said. When you get the idea that the devs are taking a look at every single spell and CA in the game, it's hard to find much more to ask/comment about.</P> <P>I didn't just go to hear Mystic related changes, but wanted to hear what's going on and coming up with the game as a whole. Just feeling like a weak healer isn't what's making the game stale for me right now, it's the lack of challenging content as well. But I was surprised to hear from a lot of people that the solo type content in the game has gone too far, and most people want the fear and danger put back in the game.</P> <P>Digression aside, if anyone has any specific questions regarding what was said at FF you can ask them here. So much information was shared over those 4 days i was there that I, and i'm sure many others, couldn't possibly comment on it all from a broad perspective.</P> <P>Regards,</P> <P> </P>

[Silda]

<span><blockquote><hr>Eloora wrote:<p>I was surprised to hear from a lot of people that the solo type content in the game has gone too far, and most people want the fear and danger put back in the game.</p> <div></div><hr></blockquote>Did they have anything to say regarding this specific point or was it on the agenda?</span><div></div>

[Banditman]

The problem at the end game revolves around a stagnant end game. If you make the content harder for the folks who have been sitting at L50 for a few months and raiding, you make that content inaccessible to the folks who are just now arriving at L50. For instance, the Darathar encounter.  When you first do that encounter, and I know its been a long time for some of you since Darathar was new, but when it was, that encounter was unbelievably hard.  No one had Legendary+ slashers to hit the mob, Elemental resistances were low making the AE deadly. Once you complete the encounter, your guild now has weapons capable of hitting him and it goes much smoother.  As you farm, your resistances go up. Basically, the longer you sit at the end game, the easier the encounters get because you are constantly improving the function of your players through the rewards. Ideally, the level cap would go up faster.  Maybe 10 levels every 6 months or so.  At that rate, you've still built 7 years of growth into the system (the system was designed for a level cap of 200).  The folks who grind hard will farm a couple months before the cap increases and then boom, 10 more levels to beat. Yes, that's a tough goal, but it would prevent a lot of the current stagnation that's happening. <div></div>

[Mystiq]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Sildaan wrote:<BR><SPAN><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Eloora wrote:<BR> <P>I was surprised to hear from a lot of people that the solo type content in the game has gone too far, and most people want the fear and danger put back in the game.</P> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Did they have anything to say regarding this specific point or was it on the agenda?<BR></SPAN> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Gallenite and all of the other devs are definately aware of the issue and they said they would be looking into anything from making the solo content already in place harder, or reverting some of the more popular camps that used to be group encounters back to that. There's also the possibility of making travel thru overland zones more perilous, perhaps like it once was. They can't really give a time frame on these things because if something happened to delay when they hoped to implement the changes, there'd just be more whining on the forums about it, which isn't really fair to them considering the massive amounts of things they have on their plate to accomplish, most of which everyone wants NOW.<BR></DIV>

[Silda]

The fact that it's at least on their minds is good enough for me...for now. Thanks Eloora. <div></div>

[BigDa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Eloora wrote:<BR> <DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Sildaan wrote:<BR><SPAN> <BLOCKQUOTE> <P></P> <HR> Eloora wrote: <P>I was surprised to hear from a lot of people that the solo type content in the game has gone too far, and most people want the fear and danger put back in the game.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Did they have anything to say regarding this specific point or was it on the agenda?<BR></SPAN> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Gallenite and all of the other devs are definately aware of the issue and they said they would be looking into anything from making the solo content already in place harder, or reverting some of the more popular camps that used to be group encounters back to that. There's also the possibility of making travel thru overland zones more perilous, perhaps like it once was. They can't really give a time frame on these things because if something happened to delay when they hoped to implement the changes, there'd just be more whining on the forums about it, which isn't really fair to them considering the massive amounts of things they have on their plate to accomplish, most of which everyone wants NOW. <HR> </DIV></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>I wish I could have gone.�  I would have been very vocal about solo content.�  I solo 50% of the time and a few months ago I really needed more solo content and the solo/group loot/XP gap closed.�  What did they do?�  Trivialised a load of good group content to make it 'soloable' and just increased XP for soloing,� rather then� 'balance' group XP.</DIV> <DIV>� </DIV> <DIV>Gah!�  Someone should really give them a talking to about their "have a go and see what happens" attitude to development.�  I swear most of the issues in the game since beta started have had their basis in lack of forethought and lack of testing.</DIV> <DIV>� </DIV> <DIV>*sigh* I hate that SOE have turned me into a moaning bastidge.�  EQ2 is an <EM>excellent</EM> game, which just makes the problems SO much more frustrating!</DIV>

[Banditman]

There is a post on another forum, heaven help me, I don't remember which, that has a boatload of information from the past, all of it direct quotes from Moorgard or other Devs. It is very clear from this information that EQ2 was not designed to give solo players the same loot, or advancement rate as groups.  Moorgard addressed this exact topic, and I'm paraphrasing here because I *still* can't find the post . . . Moorgard - Basically, we want to give all classes the ability to solo to the extent that if someone only has a limited amount of time to play they can still make progress.  If you want to make faster progress, or gain greater rewards, you'll need to group.  The game is about socialization and grouping - its a massively multiplayer online game. Those are his words . . . as close as I can remember them at least.  I'll edit back in if I can find the stinkin post again, but I read it in the last week and it's just full of information about the design and intent of the game from the perspective of the devs. <div></div>

[Loral]

<P>That post was on the boards during Beta I think Banditman.(thus wiped since) I also remember something along theses lines from Moorgard. From design, soloing is supposed to be viable. But grouping gets more XP and rewards.</P> <P>I haven't noticed a renew of that phrase other than to get the zone's population more toward the 30% solo, 40% small group and 30% full group average.</P> <P>Again, we'll wait and see. And brace for the uproar of the malcontent on the forums <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[Banditman]

Someone had the foresight to save that information locally and has since (recently) reposted a great deal of it, but I still can't bloody find it, even though I read it within the last week.  :/ <div></div>

[Silda]

Heres one that Im guessing might not have been asked...are we going to be limited to Bucklers for our entire lives? I Seem to remember a couple people mentioning this here on the boards in the past and it didnt seem like that bad of an idea IMHO. <div></div>

[Mystiq]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Sildaan wrote:<BR>Heres one that Im guessing might not have been asked...are we going to be limited to Bucklers for our entire lives?<BR><BR>I Seem to remember a couple people mentioning this here on the boards in the past and it didnt seem like that bad of an idea IMHO.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV>It's not a very big issue to me personally, and not something that was brought up in any dev meetings i attended. But if i had to guess i'd say that bucklers are going to be the only shield priests will be able to use for quite some time. I don't really know how I'd want them to balance shield use if they decided to incorporate round and kite shields into our use - should kite shields go to clerics since they're already heavily armored, or should the better shields go to the druids to make up for their lack of armor mitigation? </DIV> <DIV>In light of the trouble the devs are already having balancing our archetype within itself, i don't think they need to tack another issue onto the list.</DIV>

[Sandain666]

<P>There was another item that is not mystic specific but will be of interest to us. They will try to consolidate buffs so that we dont have so many buffs that do the same thing, i.e. strength , They will try to make each group buff more specific so that a buff in particular will be known for buffing a specific Statistic. For Example Spirit of Elephant may become what we rely on for a STR Buff .We will have to wait and see for more specific infomation though</P> <P> </P> <P>Sandain</P> <P> </P>

[Mystiq]

Yep, that's correct. There are already some stacking adjustments on the test server now, as my husband Noah discovered he can no longer stack many of his HP buffs. I didn't see any messages barring me from using my staple 4 group buffs when I was with other healers in the group, so I don't know how far reaching this change is.