Power drain

[Zoolin]

Is any consideration being made to change those skills that tap power directly or cause power to drain more rapidly? They seem like cornerstones of certain classes, most notably the Troubador, but are no longer effective against mobs with enormous power pools. I remember when power draining had it's usefullness in encounters, but now that isn't the case. Yet, several skills still remain that are based on that ineffective function.

[Vulking]

<div></div>I think I would be interested in seeing these abilities changed to either prevention of the mob using its power, or a reduction in the effect of the mob using power.

[standupwookie]

The ability to stop something from happening is not something that you want to put into a game like EQ2.  Rooting a target, stunning an opponent, stopping him from casting....all these can make encounters trivial.Think back to EQ1 where you could chain stun a mob and make it trivial.  Or root adds and make the fight trivial.  EQ1 took much more skill than EQ2, but thats the way they designed both games.Mobs power is the vital part of the encouter.  Being able to cut that off with constant stifles, or drain them very fast would make fights way to trivial (in the devs' eyes).  Thats why mana drains seem so weak...cause they have to be.Now, in PVP, that might be a huge advantage as PCs have much lower power pools than mobs.....chanters might actually be worth playing.

[pera]

Power drains in eq2 are pointless simple and true... yeah thats all there is to it its completely pointless.<div></div>

[Zoolin]

I understand how powerful that ability could be and the reasons for it being ineffective now. My comment was, that looking at the spell/CA descriptions, some of them exist solely to drain power, or have their direct damage significantly reduced because there's also a power drain component. Several classes, dirges, troubadors, illusionists, etc., get spells specifically for this function. Several months ago mobs power was increased. No adjustment or change to these skills was ever made. In the case of certain classes, 4 or 5 complete spell lines were rendered ineffective.

[SunT]

<div></div>I would love to hear a response on this.

[Craig3]

<div></div><p>I would as well. I've reluctantly bought into the fact that power drain is too powerful if it is taken to the level of actually draining a heroic MOB, but it centainly feels like a waste of a spell line that could be replaced with someting useful.</p><p>I would be up for a very very short duration epic interrupt or could even live with an additional DoT.</p>

[Solkarr]

<div></div><p>Yep,  us guardians also have a power drain attack line... at level 59 I can drain 200 points of mana from a mob every 20 seconds... YAY!  I can sometimes see the power bar on a solo-con mob move when i use this attack.  Heroic mobs regen more mana per tick while in combat than my skill uses up it appears, since it never makes their bar move.  Heck, most heroic (and certainly epic) mobs can nuke/heal non-stop while I use this (and other attacks) and their power bar never becomes visible, because it is always full, until the moment the mob dies!</p><p>On the other hand there are mobs that can do complete power drains in players in one shot, some are epics, some are not.</p><p>For guardians the power drain attacks are a small part of our skill line up, but still a part that makes us a little different from other tanks.  Many of the classes mentioned earlier in this thread have a much larger part of their line up invested in power drains.  A new look at their effectiveness (lack there of) would be a good idea.</p>

[Krooner]

<div>Yep.  Guards got one that we used to depend on when we solo'ed difficult content.  The dirge one is a joke now too.  Heres a suggestion.</div><div>Instead of giving the mobs super power pools.  Why not just give them normal ones based on players modles..I MEAN come on theyre using our spells again anyway.  If you want to keep it from getting trivial then give them a really good regen rate.  You might be able to drain the mob but not for long.  If your not careful its going to get just enough power back to use that nuke on you.</div><div> </div>

[quetzaqotl]

<div></div>Same for furies other than in pvp, our irr swarm spell line is completely useless.

[Zoolin]

Hmm, the problem is even larger than I originally thought then. I'm surprised this hasn't been noticed and fixed. I guess there's squeekier wheels out there.

[Signal9]

<div>Coercers and Illusionists have multiple spell lines that are barely worth a spit due to power drain being functionally useless.  It is exactly the same issue I saw in CoH with electricity.</div><div> </div><div>Unfortunately, it dovetails nicely with the rest of my spell lines.  If they're allowed to function, I trivialize the game (stun/stifle/mez/power drain).</div>

[Plague Mast]

<div></div><p>Sure, we can see the effects of power drain on a solo mob, but I can't think of a reason to actually drain a solo mobs power.  By the time we drain it, we could have killed it...</p><p>Power drain spells are currently just a waste of a spell.  Too bad so many of my spells are wasted as a coercer.  Seems all I'm good for are a few buffs and some crowd control, but CC only when grinding xp.  Yay!  I'm the grinding levels champion!</p>

[Jai1]

<div></div><p>When necros could power drain, I always thought the Arena Champion was easier doing so.  Not sure if it made a difference because after LU13, I just tore him up.</p><p>I think there needs to be a balance between the spells/skills making encounters trivial and having the spells be worthless.  I can't remember too many encounters in EQ1 that powerdrain was useful.  Only one I can remember is the white, complete healing, dragon in WToV.  We'd drain her because we thought that this reduced her CH chances.  I don't think we did it on anything else.</p><p>Sony puts in ways to make some of the encounters in the game more trivial already.  Whether it be killing mobs in a period of time, a ring or a token that does 50% damage.  I don't see why they couldn't add an encounter or two that power draining makes the encounter more trivial.</p><p>However, the mass pools of mobs makes the effort seem futile.</p>

[Shogok]

<div>I am a 45 illusionist and I just want to say that power drains are not pointless. There are mobs that I cannot solo without draining their power... I can say that in a group setting I COULD use power drains in the same way but I don't think my group would have the patience to hold off fighting the mob till its mana was depleted. Though if we really could not kill the mob and found it was impossible due to the mob being a tough caster I can tell you this - I have used my power drains to turn around such instances in a group. Its just that I find if groups can take out a mob somehow... even if it results in many deaths they take that route rather than let me do my power draining.</div><div> </div><div>I hope they don't do anything to power drains. I couldn't live without mine. Could I have lived without them 2 weeks ago? Yes... what has changed my mind is that I put a lot of thought into them and found a usefulness out of them that wasn't very traditional but it works. Personally, I've been afraid of SOE nerfing my power drains since I discovered how powerful they can really be.</div><div> </div><div> </div>