RoK and consolidation of abilities

[Generic123]

<p>On some other web sites there is a lot of discussion over EQ2 combat, in particular the "spam" or "whack-a-mole" nature of the combat for some classes.  This has lead to suggestions that EQ2 has too many abilities and for some cries to consolidate "similar" abilities, and we know there is going to be at least some of this in RoK, hopefully aiming more at buffs then combat abilities.  </p><p>Here is a hypothetical example.  Some people see class with three abilities, one does damage + DoT, one does damage + physical debuff one does damage + elemental debuff.  They also differ in damage/cast time damage/mana and recast time.  If you are going to use all three regardless, the differences in the abilities mean nothing, you just click them one after another.  This creates the feeling you are clicking far more often then necessary and for some people the "answer" is to combine them into a single ability and therefore a single click. </p><p>I do not like that answer!  For combat to be fun people not only have to be active they need to have real choices to make.  I admit, for many fighters and scouts you simply click through all your abilities as fast as you can and wait for them to recharge so you can hit them again.  However, simply consolidating spells and reducing their number actually makes the problem worse not better, and could create a problem for classes that don't have it now.  </p><p>If it's determined that something really needs to be done, a better solution is to play with cooldown and recast times to ensure that there are always multiple abilities up and ready to use.  With multiple abilities up you have to choose which is best in the current situation. </p><p>Currently something that is somewhat lacking in EQ2 is that for many classes your choices in combat change nothing about its outcome.  There is therefore no good play or no bad play and almost every person of a given class is interchangeable.  Although it doesn't guarantee it, choice means at least the possibility of influencing the outcome of the fight.  </p>

[Dasein]

Combat is so fast that there is really no time to actually think about what ability is the best to use in a given situation.

[Generic123]

<cite>Dasein wrote:</cite><blockquote>Combat is so fast that there is really no time to actually think about what ability is the best to use in a given situation. </blockquote> <p>That depends on class.  Some classes do have time to decide on their next spell, provided the mob lasts long enough.  Classes with longer cast times have more opportunity to choose.  While melee classes need to have short cast times so weapon damage isn't compromised you could probably archive the same thing by playing with cooldowns.  </p>

[Wallzak]

<p>any class can mash buttons and be ok... but if you chose your abilites to the situation takes a good player and make the great.</p><p>Having a 70 assassin I raid with, when you use your dots, your sneak attacks, debuffs, aoes can have a huge effect on your dps (great example of this is "saving" your string of sneak attacks to the brig dispatch call).  There are times... when I'm sleeping... and I find myself using an ability that is quite useless... just because it's up and I'm not thinking (ie 1% on the mob and i'm casting a debuff or dot).</p>

[Ahrav]

<p>Hopefully the won't do any such consolidation. As a former paladin and now a shadowknight, I can't think of any two abilities that should be consolidated. The diversity of the skills and spells makes the combat interresting. You must be both carefull and act quick in a lot of situations. Having to push just 1 or 2 buttons (like a WoW mage...no offence to any here) makes things a lot easier, but at the same time the combat will become quite dull. I am sorry to hear, that people are complaing on some forums about having too many abilities, but this is part of what makes EQ 2 fun. If the game needs to be simplified, I have the following suggestion:</p><p>Each time someone types /afk, the game activates a game bot, that starts just patrooling around and grinding. That way people can play even when they are at work <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> When the bot levels he goes and gets automatically the best available weapons and skills/spells. In raids, a person detined as a raid leader will get a pet control window for each afk player. He then can give orders to that character....this will allow one man raids to be done <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I wonder how people weren't complaining about complexity around 1997-2000 when the big UO, AC 1 and EQ 1 came out.....</p><p> P.S.: The above bot thing was just a sarcastic joke......</p>

[Hukklebuk]

don't forget that adding 14 abilities every 10 levels will eventually run you out of hotbar space....  minor consideration to some, but even with macro's I run 6 hotbars in combat and pop a new one when crafting.  big deal? no not really at this point.  but honestly, I'd like to see some of my debuffs combined.  I stay plenty busy, and even dropping from 14 to 10 abilities / spells I'll stay very busy. I think it's a good move from a clutter perspective and a game play perspective.  figure you have 100 hotbar buttons,  you start lumping AA abilities into those as well as your current 14 abilities and crafting abilities / secondary crafting abilities, you're going to run out of space. granted it's probably worse for some classes than others.  but I don't see the plan they have causing any real disruption or giant sweeping changes.   Some timers will have to be looked at when abilities are combined, but I doubt looked at very long. Fulginous Dominion and Putrefy could easily (imo) be combined for a Defiler as well as having an Abasement equivalent attached to Malignant Shroud without changing hate list status much at all for the second combine.  Takes the Defiler class down to 12 abilities right off the top.  Definitely don't want to combine any DoTs with debuffs personally. I think if you look around you're probably going to find a few items that could easily be combined without sacrificing any sense of being busy or affecting gameplay. my $.02 anyhow.

[Cocytus]

The only things I want to see consolidated  are buffs that have no duration limit.

[Radigazt]

I'm a PvP'er.  I disagree with the OP.  I think consolidation is a very good move.  Right now we have too many hotbars which stems from too many spells.  I agree on the "choice" point the OP made, but we have to make choices now and will continue to make choices.  I'm hoping they reduce the needed spells to 2 hotbars worth of spells, not the current 4 we need at the moment.  THEN we can have choices without clutter. 

[Drager]

an easy way to do this is to use macros but of course they dont work all of the time.....i think consolodation could be good as long as my main spells stay the same or are improved...

[Siclone]

less CA's and spells does not mean easier or less to do... when you have less CA's that use more power and have longer caste the CA tend to matter more, timing matters more, you get more thinking less spamming. this is a good thing