LodrinSt
06-10-2006, 06:37 PM
<DIV>Until 44...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I was a buff bot. My damage at full micro was half of a full DPS'r, or worse. I could afk and no one would notice aside from an extra second longer to kill each mob on 30 second fights. I felt more or less useless, aside from my power regen buff. I had no significant influence on any fight. I couldn't tank, I couldn't DPS, I couldn't control, i couldn't heal. I more or less had NO point.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>At 44...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>We got a new charm that actually worked on ^^^. While it took 6 seconds to cast, this was my first REAL form of crowd control in groups. I could stop one monster from fighting my group, and there was no risk of someone breaking it via lack of assist. Sure it might break early, but it was a reliable, if not long casting, mes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>At 50...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>At 50 I got Lullaby, our mez. I was looking forward to this spell since 44 since I could actually DO something that could change the course of a fight. I could pull my weight because I could control, with some reliability, since I had TWO control spells. Open with a lullaby, then go into a charm while Lullaby's 9 sec recast was recharging, cheaptshot the 3rd target then follow with another lullaby. I could potentially stop 3 ^^^'s in 9 seconds (assuming I got no resists and my group wasn't stupid.) While that seems strong, I had NOTHING else. My DPS sucked, I could be 2-3 shotted the moment a mob breaks mes/charm, I couldn't heal, etc. Meanwhile other classes like Wizards, and Swashbucklers had a single target mes and/or root as well while STILL retaining their vastly superior DPS, I did not feel in any way this made me overpowered. It made me desireable. It made people PICK a troubadour for a group slot instead of another full dps class.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>For once. I was MORE then just a power bot. I had to actually THINK and not just spam my 10 or so weak damage hotkeys. How well I could mes/charm had direct effect on the success of my group. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I made a difference.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now apparently charms/mes's are getting nerfed. Supposedly it's to stop Stun-Locking.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The supposed problem was that some CC classes could solo 'safer then others' by "mez - nuke - mez - nuke - mez" repeat. Unlike roots, mez's had a fairly low recast time, so if you got no resists, the above chain was possible. So provided you had the space to kite, and the 3-6 minutes required to do enough solo DPS to kill a tough mob, you could kill some creatures that most people can't solo on their own.<BR><BR>Sony's solution to prevent chain-mezzing a single target was to increase the recast time of mez's.<BR><BR>But, by doing so, not only did you make chain-mezzing a SINGLE target harder/imposslbe, you made multiple target mez'ing harder/impossible. Mez'ing multiple targets for some classes was a SIGNIFICANT class feature that requires skill, just like EQ1. The good enchanters and groups not filled with meatheads who can't assist COULD control 6-7 mobs. It was a house of cards, one screw up and the entire group could get wiped if they were that stupid.<BR><BR>The CORRECT SOLUTION is to add a limited immunity or diminishing returns buff that would make it harder to chain mez in a short amount of time, similar to the way snares work in WoW (if you recast within 15 sec, next one lasts half as long, then half again, then immune).<BR><BR>Such a solution would have virtually no impact on multiple target mez'ing, and would have made "stun-locking" much more difficult</DIV>