I'm not in favor of the avoidance changes in testing

[Jindris]

<DIV>Please SOE... reconsider the change that will not allow fighters to buff their own avoidance skills. I'm speaking from the view point of a Paladin, with one ability in mind. The Aegis of Hope line of abilities, wich blocks and parrys for other group members. This spell also increases our own shield and parry skills a bit. One of the main reasons I even play MMORPG is its lots of fun for me to be a meat shield. Its even more fun for me to see my character block and parry attacks. And I really get a kick out of being able to increase the chance of my character to avoid attacks. If you must... make it so our avoidance buffs have no effect on mages priests and scouts... but please dont take away the fighters ability to increase his own avoidance skills.</DIV>

[Anlari]

Well the problem they are attempting to fix is with tanks raising their avoidance so high they can't be hit.  I honestly have no idea what they will do with entire lines of abilities that do nothing but add to block and/or parry skills.

[Ys]

What amazes me about this change is that SOE has stated it's a buff stacking issue.  One buff or another does not make a tank invulnerable, instead it is the result of a combination of buffs that come from two different classes.  I'm not a genius but why not stop those two buffs from stacking with one another.  Instead of nerfing the entire game just make it so that guardians and troubadors can not both buff avoidance at the same time.  This allows players to continue buffing themselves outside of group situations and prevents the invulnerable tank situation in group situation.

[Jindris]

<P><STRONG>Avoidance</STRONG></P> <P>- Your likelihood of avoiding an attack is now based on two primary factors:</P> <P><SPAN>  </SPAN>- The con color of the attacker.</P> <P><SPAN>  </SPAN>- The type of armor you are wearing. <FONT color=#ff0000>The heavier your armor, the lower your chances of avoiding an attack</FONT>.</P> <P>- Increasing your Defense skill gives you a better chance of avoiding attacks, but there is now a cap on how much it can be buffed or debuffed.</P> <P>- <FONT color=#ff0000>Increasing your Agility improves your base chance of avoiding an attack, but it will not improve your likelihood of parrying, deflecting, or blocking with a shield</FONT>.</P> <P>- There is now a cap on the effectiveness of Deflection buffs and debuffs.</P> <P>- Mages and Priests no longer receive the Parry skill. It temporarily still shows in the Skills window, but these archetypes will no longer have any chance to parry.</P> <P>- <FONT color=#ff0000>There is no longer any way to buff the Parry skill over your current skill cap</FONT>, and there is a limit on how far it can be debuffed.</P> <P>- Shields now have the following base chances to Block: Tower (20%), Kite (19%), Round (5%), Buckler (3%). Your chances to Block scale up or down based on the con of your opponent. <FONT color=#ff0000>Shield buffs no longer have any effect</FONT>.</P>

[Boli32]

<blockquote><font color="#ffff00">Please SOE... reconsider the change that will not allow fighters to buff their own avoidance skills. I'm speaking from the view point of a Paladin, with one ability in mind. The Aegis of Hope line of abilities, wich blocks and parrys for other group members. This spell also increases our own shield and parry skills a bit. One of the main reasons I even play MMORPG is its lots of fun for me to be a meat shield. Its even more fun for me to see my character block and parry attacks. And I really get a kick out of being able to increase the chance of my character to avoid attacks. If you must... make it so our avoidance buffs have no effect on mages priests and scouts... but please dont take away the fighters ability to increase his own avoidance skills. </font></blockquote> Actually speaking from a Paladins point of view - if thorough all the changes we remain as viable then as we are now, and till have the ability to cast our spell like abilities in combat I honestly don't care what they do to the class. If we lost a few buffs we could slip down into ony soling low-green++ at best - strip off all your buffs and you'll see while they DO help they don't make that much of a difference. The one thing that we must REALLY keep an eye on is our ability to cast spells in combat. Half of our abilities ARE SPELLS. Getting hit more often means more interrupts - it is works out impossible to cast a heal in combat... that is when you have to start to worry. I don't pretend to know what is around the corner in this rebalancing of classes, but we all know on some level some amount of rebalancing has to be done - we just have to hope in the tweaking our voice isn't lost. <font color="#ffff00"><font color="#ffffff"></font></font><div></div>