Beta Uber-Mystic!

[BigDa]

<DIV>Well, I only tried for, like, two hours, but in that hour I took my 43 Mystic around the sands.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I soloed 3 yellow crocs almost all at once (kinda two at once then another during the end of the first round) and finished with no power but having not been worried for my life too much. I found that the risk and resulting power/health was hardly effected when I used haze and mourning. I soloed orange encounters with 3 mobs (two vv and one v) and even with my very low Focus skill (i.e. got interrupted LOTS) I was still barely challenged, though I had to keep a ward up as much as possible.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If this is re-balancing and making the /con system work better, then they've screwed up.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It seems to me (though I admit only a couple of hours doesn't prove it) that by 're-balancing' they have pulled us up to be nearer how stupidly easy things are for clerics (and, yes, I play a cleric too and it is boring because of how easy it is soloing <EM>and</EM> keeping a group healed).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I really think SOE have to grow some cahones and nerf, nerf, nerf. If they want their /con system to mean something they have to make it more difficult for <EM>everyone</EM> and just deal with the whining kids who find it 'too hard'.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I recently re-commissioned the same mystic in live to get myself some perspective (and to remind me how to play) prior to trying the beta. I have found that, doing Harclave's for example (the first bit, not the stupid uber-buffed bit) that fighting yellows gives a good /con. I have mostly Adept1 and pretty crappy equipment and I found that a yellow needs me to concentrate and sometimes surprises me into all out effort and rarely into running. A white is a matter of not being to scarey if using skills properly but rarely surprising me. An orange has a significant risk of killing me, though I can often prevail or at least sucessfully run away.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Basically, I think the /con of mobs and the difficulty for a mystic in live (soloing at least) is pretty good. The problem is only that just about every other class soloes better and is preferable in a group. IMHO, the other classes need bringing down so everyone is challenged.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Beta? So far it looks like they've balanced it great - content is equally trivial to everyone...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>If I were a more cynical person I might think that SOE were quite happy to make the game easy for everyone so noone moans and so they can concentrate on the 50+ game where the 'real' players are... *sigh*</DIV>

[dennis]

Hmm... I have to go check this out myself. Sounds a bit too sad though. <div></div>

[Banditman]

What you experienced in that hour likely changed the next. Don't EVER base your opinion of the condition upon an hour of play when you are talking about beta. Balance versus the environment is what constitutes challenge.  By merely picking increasingly difficult encounters, you can find a place where it works for you, regardless of the "color" of the mob. However, balance versus the other classes is less flexible.  Either it's working or it's not. Right now, it's not.

[Eepop]

There are a number of combat bugs that are making encounters easier that they should be.  They are known and being worked on.  There are issues with buffs not applying correctly for NPCs and PCs alike.  There is an issue with str not applying to damage correctly. That second one is of particular mention when fighting the crocs as they are melee mobs.  With no str applied thier damage is pretty crudy. <div></div>

[BigDa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <P></P> <P>DISCLAIMER: I only just saw the post about the current STR bug, but I'll leave my following post as is, so you can see my ranting powah! <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P></P> <HR> Banditman wrote:<BR>What you experienced in that hour likely changed the next. <P><FONT color=#99ff00>Well, it's just the same tonight - I picked some other orange mobs. Just pathetically easy.</FONT></P> <P>Don't EVER base your opinion of the condition upon an hour of play when you are talking about beta.</P> <P><FONT color=#99ff00>Lol, ok, yeah, but how many hours do you have to play to see that they have a SCAREY amount of work to do when it's releasing in a few weeks. This should be in the final polishing stages and, against what it has set out to do re. re-balancing, it is rubbish. Are they holding back the 'proper' system as a surprise for the real release? <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></FONT><BR><BR>Balance versus the environment is what constitutes challenge.  By merely picking increasingly difficult encounters, you can find a place where it works for you, regardless of the "color" of the mob.</P> <P><FONT color=#99ff00>I don't really agree (didn't think I'd ever say that to you, Bandit!) For one, they are supposed to have 'fixed' the /con system. At the moment, the orange cons I killed for an hour tonight were ZERO risk and the /con message pretty much said "This will kill you dead, yeah". Broken.</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#99ff00>Does that matter? Well, yes. The whole way SOE developed 'tailored' encounters is based upon a functioning /con system, or at the least the mechanics beneath it. Sure I could go pick on 52nd level (high orange) or 53rd (just red) or 54th (red), but at 43rd level it's looking like my 'variety' of challenging targets is reduced to next-to-nothing. By making everything but high orange and red stupidly easy, they have made most of the stuff I could be encountering (greens, blues, whites, yellow, most oranges) pointless. Also, am I right in thinking that resists to my spells will suddenly hit the roof with reds? In which case I'm pretty much restricted to fighting high orange (and <EM>maybe</EM> just-reds if I can stand the pot-luck resist-fest).</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#99ff00>If it's pointless and trivial killing anything but high orange, effectively, a soloers content at any one time is cut down to about 10% of what it should be. Grey should be ignored unless you need to finish a quest, greens should be easy, blue should require a little care and skill, white should require care, skill and introduce fair risk, yellow should require great care or great skill and still have some risk, orange should perhaps still be risky even with great care and skill, red should be risky even with great care and skill. With this new system grey=pointless, green=pointless, blue=pointless, white=trivial, yellow=boring, orange=still boring, red=boring resist-fest as always. Great.</FONT></P> <P>However, balance versus the other classes is less flexible.  Either it's working or it's not.<BR>Right now, it's not.<BR><BR><FONT color=#99ff00>Are we saying the other classes are <EM>even more powerful?</EM> What must they be killing?!</FONT></P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Maybe I'm missing the point. Are we supposed to be taking on green/blue heroic stuff in the new release? Is soloing for people who don't know how to use HOs or are learning how to operate their purchased high-level characters? If so, they should change the /con message for orange to something like "This will kill you if you are an awful player, otherwise it's just XP fodder for the race to 60th"</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Anyway - here's some anecdotal findings from tonight: -</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I stumbling across some goblin things - Dustscrawlers I think. They had obvious classes (grunt, magus, mender, thief) and were orange to me (I'm 43rd, they were 51st and 52nd).</DIV> <DIV>I tried them all. Grunts were pathetic. I initially fought just repeating [HO starter - Pox - Icy Flames - HO starter - Smite (just to progress) - Touch of the Grey].</DIV> <DIV>For the 51st level grunts that's all she wrote. I finished on about 30% health. No wards, no heals, no debuffs. With the 52nd grunts I maybe had to cast 1 or 2 instant heals.</DIV> <DIV>With the magus I had to do 4 or 5 heals - they output a fair amount of damage.</DIV> <DIV>The 51st thieves were about the same as the grunts.</DIV> <DIV>The most challenging? The mender. What class is it? A shaman! hehe. He warded and healed lots. So did I. I had more power. He died. Still no 'risk' though.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So, I went on the 'test' wards and debuffs and on the 52st level grunts.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As I said - a fight with no wards or debuffs left me with loads of power and 30% health.</DIV> <DIV>Keeping a ward up (recasting when it failed) left me with 95% (only lost health while ward was down) and 50 to 60% power.</DIV> <DIV>Casting Fallacy to start the fight, then Mourning Soul, then Howling Haze, then moving on to the kill routine was almost the same as using nothing. I was left on slightly less power and slightly more health.</DIV> <DIV>Combining the two (wards and debuffs) was pretty pointless - it just used up a little more power - it couldn't really get any less risky.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So - as I say, I realise this is just anecdotal stuff after just a few hours of limited testing, but the way I look at it, even if I am wildly off, something is seriously screwed.</DIV> <DIV>If the other classes have it easier than us then, good grief, soloing truly has become a pointless grind method.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I really hope grouping / heroic encounters are more of a challenge.</DIV> <P>Message Edited by BigDave on <SPAN class=date_text>08-31-2005</SPAN><SPAN class=time_text>03:40 PM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by BigDave on <span class=date_text>08-31-2005</span> <span class=time_text>03:40 PM</span>

[BigDa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Eepop wrote:<BR>There are a number of combat bugs that are making encounters easier that they should be.  They are known and being worked on.  There are issues with buffs not applying correctly for NPCs and PCs alike.  There is an issue with str not applying to damage correctly.<BR><BR>That second one is of particular mention when fighting the crocs as they are melee mobs.  With no str applied thier damage is pretty crudy.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Well, I'm glad to hear that, though the caster I fought were also very easy, considering. Also, to be left with loads of power left after just using Mystic DoTs and DDs to kill an orange mob is a bit off.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>*shrug* I really hope that's the answer, coz, as it has been the last 3 nights, it sucks big.</DIV>

[Banditman]

You are also screwing yourself by using Smite.  The power of a HO is now tied to the level of the spell used to progress and complete it.  So, using your low level spells is giving you low level HO completions.  High level spells . . . etc. Have you tried a Heroic mob?

[Bjerde]

From your original post it says you were fighting down arrows....single and double. I think you should be able to kill those fairly easily.....they are undercons. You should be able to kill a regular con (no arrows) of equal level, and up to orange right? Even if it is tough? They are still all solo mobs, if you couldn't kill them, there would be a problem. Try going after a normal con, double, or triple (same as heroic) and see what the results are. I am sure they won't be as easy. <div></div>

[BigDa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Bjerde wrote:<BR>From your original post it says you were fighting down arrows....single and double. I think you should be able to kill those fairly easily.....they are undercons. <BR>You should be able to kill a regular con (no arrows) of equal level, and up to orange right? Even if it is tough? They are still all solo mobs, if you couldn't kill them, there would be a problem.<BR>Try going after a normal con, double, or triple (same as heroic) and see what the results are. I am sure they won't be as easy.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Nah it was normal con orange single mobs that were proving a push-over - like greens in live EQ2.</DIV> <DIV>The down-arrows I fought were in groups of 3. Soloing a group of 3 that are 8 levels higher shouldn't be easy even if they are down-arrow.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>As has been stated in another post, this may be due to STR not being taken into account on damage - those guys should have been doing way more damage to me.</DIV> <DIV>I hope that's what it is.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Folks shouldn't have to solo heroics to get a challenge - that's messed up.</DIV><p>Message Edited by BigDave on <span class=date_text>09-02-2005</span> <span class=time_text>11:00 AM</span>

[BigDa]

<BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Banditman wrote:<BR>You are also screwing yourself by using Smite.  The power of a HO is now tied to the level of the spell used to progress and complete it.  So, using your low level spells is giving you low level HO completions.  High level spells . . . etc.<BR><BR>Have you tried a Heroic mob?<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>I wasn't really using the Smite/Wind HO as a big damage-doer, more just something to do while the DoTs did their stuff (it was that easy).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'll try a heroic tonight if the soloing is still messed up.</DIV>

[BigDa]

<P>Well, it's still messed up. Soloing orange is yawningly easy. Unfortunately wandering for a couple of hours I only saw orange or red and the orange heroic encounters I tried for fun did hits up to 900 and stunned me for the whole of the short time I 'fought' them.</P> <P>Between the either trivially easy or utterly impossible encounters and the [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] ZONE LINES ARGH IF I ZONE BY ACCIDENT ONE MORE TIME I'LL SCREAM I can't be bothered to play it anymore.</P> <P>I'm sure there's lots to do in DoF, but they sure don't make it much fun to find... maybe I've just been unlucky?... I'll keep trying - I can just only be bothered with small doses.</P>

[Arfiniel]

<P>Well I personally am having a hard time with orange mobs... I try killing in Pillars of Flame and usually have to run for my life.  This is 3 mobs, solo encounter, orange mobs.  One time I was able to beat the encounter, with barely any health and life.  However, that was last week.  I've not tried it this week.  Beta changes very quickly.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>I know that all the resists, interrupts and fizzles didn't help... so maybe once those problems go away, orange will be too easy... no idea.</P>