Clarification please?

[LordCalido]

<DIV>The following post was made by Lockeye on 5/26/06</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV>Troubadors were not forgotten in LU24, hence the many and ongoing changes to charm being tested on the test server. Also, what is visible on the test server is often one week behind what is being tested internally. There are already more changes that will show up on the test server that reflect decisions based on the data collected from the previously tested version (and not the non-tested message board reactions to each change).<BR><BR>The charm originally was an expensive mesmerization that would hold an enemy for an extended duration and their only action would be to follow the Troubador.  Through other changes to the spell system, the charm allowed the creature to attack enemies, even though there wasn't an attack command ever allowed for the pet. Effectively, it became close to a 1 concentration cost charm available to a scout class. The new changes reflect that it is now a short duration charm that a Troubador can use to effectively remove a creature from combat and use their damage to the Troubador's short-term advantage. It won't be until next week when you can see the latest changes that were made to it on the test server.<BR><BR>Control abilities across all classes were evaluated. After these changes, Troubadors are the only non-Enchanter class that can use mesmerize to lock down a creature. It's certainly less than what they could do before, but how powerful it was before in locking up to 4 creatures had to be evaluated like all other classes and did not have a place to be so powerful in the broader control changes. I've taken precautions that Troubadors can still solo even level solo creatures and solo encounters with handcrafted gear and apprentice III spells.<BR><BR>I know this is not the response that some of you want to hear, but it is the direction that these two spells are being changed.<BR> <P></P> <DIV>===========================<BR></DIV></DIV> <P>Jared Sweatt<BR>EverQuest II Spells and Combat Designer</P> <P></P> <HR> <P><U>LU 23:</U> Troubador song Aria of Acclaimation was changed resulting in a major loss of DPS for troubadors and their groups. Currently to my knowledge the song is broken and does not work at all.</P> <P><U>LU24:</U> Changes to mez decreased troubador's ability to solo. In addition, changes to charm decreased the troubador's DPS even further. 100 - 200 damage was added and cast timers reduced on a few troubador abilities and spells.</P> <P> </P> <P>The trials in the monk tower from the new adventure pack require players to kill a certain number of NPC in a set time period increasing in difficulty as the tower floors increase. <U>This trial has both a group and solo version with even con NPC.</U> From the feedback I've recieved on a post I made in the Zone and Population forum with my concern over the difficulty of the trials most other scout classes and some fighter classes have no difficulty in completing these. This leads me to believe the content isn't too difficult.</P> <P>Troubadors however, with the reduction in DPS and crowd control abilities are unable to complete this content that is listed as solo. I'm level 70 with 50AA, most spells at master1 and my gear is well above the hand crafted level in quality. I however, find that I cannot defeat the required number of NPCs or even come close because of my inability to inflict damage on NPC quickly enough. I believe pre-LU23 that my chances would have been greater but still not great enough to complete the trial.</P> <P>I would like clarification on the following:</P> <P>1) What were the precautions that were taken? I am assuming Lockeye is referring to the small increase in spell damage and reduction of casting timers that were included with the live update. Is this correct?</P> <P>2) Lockeye's test were made with handcrafted armor and apprectice 3 spells. My gear is far superior so I assumed I would have a small advantage. Am I wrong in thinking this?</P> <P>3) If so many other classes are able to complete the content that is advertised as solo with little difficulty so I am lead to believe the content does not need to be tuned. Troubadors were assured that we could do the solo content with the changes made in LU24 by an employee of Sony Online Entertainment. Why therefore am I unable to complete the solo content because of my lack of damage output? Is this going to be changed?</P> <P>4) Based on Lockeye's statements and assurances that troubadors would be able to solo after LU24, I purchased the new adventure pack. But post LU24, my class is unable to complete content that the game lists as solo. I feel I was misled by an employee of Sony and is it possible to get a refund on the amount I paid for the adventure pack?</P> <P> </P> <P>Bastion</P> <P>70 Troubador</P> <P>Everfrost</P>

[Bassist]

I have to agree with the OP on the 2nd floor trials.  I'm mostly legendary/fabled/master/adept III and while I can finish the first floor solo trial I don't even come close on the 2nd floor solo trials.  Maybe if those mobs on the shard one didn't see invis I would have a chance on that one, but 75 blue-to-yellow solo mobs in 30 minutes just isn't going to happen.  If I could make it close I would certainly tweak until I found the right combo to do it, but after going through as fast as I could for the first 15 minutes I was at 28.  Since I had no trouble finding them, it was purely fighting.  Maybe one of the other Troubs has completed this and has a good strat?  I know I'm not at the top of DPS for troubs yet, since I only have 2 proc items and don't have fabled weapons yet.  I can't imagine doing this with treasured/app 3s.

[missing_peace]

<P>I have not been able to complete the quest to defeat 75 warriors in 30 minutes.  I have come close, but close does not complete the quest.  This is entirely due to inadequate DPS.  Our abilities simply do not do enough damage or recycle fast enough to complete this quest in the given time.  A master/fabled equipped bard should be better than this.  Much better.</P> <P>No AE attacks.  This limits bards to just one warrior at a time.</P> <P>No big attacks.  Not even on a long timer.</P> <P>The so-called 'utility' does not make up for the shortcomings.  Sure, a troub can fight non-stop using power and health regen, but this does not appear to make up for the low DPS when solo.</P> <P>Remember, to complete this quest you have to make a kill every 24 seconds.  A bard with crafted equipment and apprentice 3 abilities will not even come close to finishing these quests.</P>

[Jaimster]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I know a very very well equipped, (lots of fabled/legendary/masters) bruiser who couldn't finish it either. Nor could a conj. Nor could a lot of people.  The templars and Guardians I know heard that and said, forget THAT. If he can't do it, none of us have a chance in hell. I'd be interested in trying the 50 mob version, but even that I know will be tough.

[ArrBa]

<div></div>I did the shard one with a little over a minute remaining. I finished right above the thing i hand the shards to. If i wasn't where i was when I got my last shard i never woulda made it. The 75 in 30minutes? ROFL i gave up 15 minutes in, i figured i would never be able to kill 60~ in 15 minutes. Let's do some math: 75 mobs in 30 minutes= 2.5 mobs a minute, and that is borderline fail. Now maybe if you were a Wizard or Ranger you may pull that off, but jeez. How about Priests? Can they do this? If we are still higher DPS than priests (lol) then they can't do it either.P.S Secret Strategy for the shard one. Highlight below:<font color="#000000">Look for little green pots around. Attack them for 5 shards apiece.<font color="#ffffff">End of Straegy</font></font><div></div>

[vinterskugge]

<DIV>It's not just troubadors having problems here, it's all non-dps classes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I've done all of them on the first 3 floors except the 100 shards one.  The 75 kills and the 50 shards in particular took me a lot of tries and I made both with seconds to spare.  And I'm fabled/mastered, so I don't know how they expect an average troub to succeed.  The trials need to be different according to your class though, what's challenging for a ranger is impossible for a templar.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>BTW, I used charm to complete these.  :smileywink:</DIV>

[vinterskugge]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> ArrBard wrote:<BR> <BR>P.S Secret Strategy for the shard one. Highlight below:<BR><BR><FONT color=#000000>Look for little green pots around. Attack them for 5 shards apiece.<BR><BR><FONT color=#ffffff>End of Straegy</FONT><BR></FONT> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Most of my pots only contained 2 or 3, and one gave me no shards at all.<BR>

[vinterskugge]

<DIV>As for strats for the zone - they deflect a lot, so use Lore's as soon as possible and also your snare because you'll be relying mainly on your spell damage.</DIV>

[Jeger_Wulf]

<P>> It's not just troubadors having problems here, it's all non-dps classes.</P> <P>So are you officially classing troubadours as a non-dps class? <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P>

[Bassist]

<div><blockquote><hr>vinterskugge wrote:<div>As for strats for the zone - they deflect a lot, so use Lore's as soon as possible and also your snare because you'll be relying mainly on your spell damage.</div><hr></blockquote>Duh, I feel like a ninny.  I used charm, but didn't think about their defelecting.  I'll give it another go.</div>

[Jooneau]

It's hilarious; the designer asked for feedback on the Beta forums about these trials and completely blew off the responses about how impossible the solo ones were.It's OK though. You get no experience while killing anything in these trials, and the rewards for them are pure fluff (suffix titles, la-de-freaking-da). Waste of time. Don't bother with these trials.<p>Message Edited by Jooneau on <span class=date_text>06-16-2006</span> <span class=time_text>10:30 PM</span>

[ShiroiOokami]

Finished the 75 kill trial with 4 seconds to spare today on my first time in. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />It was HARD, I'd figured out a good clear pattern from the 50/50 zone, and doing the 50 shard one, but I was still chain pulling some of the larger spawn rooms with my health in red and hoping I wouldn't get too many resists. I've got two fabled weapons, full legendary armor, over half my attack spells are master 1, and I managed to get bravo's dance twice in the dungeon which really helped out my autoattack DPS. The last few mobs were also amazingly cooperative in terms of charm lasting the full duration, no outright resists, etc. I really don't see how the average troub is supposed to be able to do this no matter how many times they try. The 50 shard one was much easier (not that I finished that with much time to spare).Used buffs: Health Regen, Str/Sta, Self Int/Agi, Haste, and DefenseLooking forward to failing the 3rd floor trials whenever I get access.<div></div>

[vinterskugge]

I didn't use haste because there were so many parries.  I had Quirons and Brias to minimise the downtime, Raxxyls and Daelis, then Aria for some extra dps.

[Cyneric]

While the 2nd floor instances were tough, I managed both of them with a little time remaining.Now the 3rd floor....I don't see how the solo ones are possible unless you are a DPS class with out of group AOE.<div></div>

[Emerix]

<DIV>The second floor is a challenge but doable . I did the shard one and for the 75 kill one i only needed 7 more kills ((on my first try .and i was on phone while doin it ))</DIV> <DIV>Third floor i didnt reach yet but i think its prolly not doable as a trouby without full fabled .</DIV> <DIV>The charm helps a lot btw .</DIV> <DIV>Anyways . Thats a issue for everyone . they should tone down those instances slightly so people can finish the second floor one at least while the 3rd floor ones are the challenge for the .. UBER people heheh .</DIV>

[Jaimster]

LOL - I think we may have inadvertantly figured out that the monk trials are to blame for our charm change ;p That explains everything.:womanvery-happy: