FalseCourage
05-26-2010, 06:23 PM
<p>The Battlegrounds have been turned upside down with this past update. Specifically speaking, I am talking about the zone changes to Gears of Klak'Anon and The Battlefield of Ganak. Sure, there are other points I could argue - especially in regard to the horrific way the new battleground gear was introduced, the increased presence of AFK bots, and exploitable terrain that seems to have taken a back seat - however, this is more pressing.</p><p>The change in regard to what occurs with the relic when the relic holder drops in Gears of Klak'Anon has healers that I have been taking into Gears dreading it. The change with what happened to the relic, from being available for the team to pick up for six seconds or so to be instantly ported to the center after the relic holder has died, has brought the battle to the center of the arena. Mainly people may view this as a 'good' change, however, the center of the arena is the most open part of the battleground and, in effect, makes any healers open bait. This is because healers lack the ability to cast on the run that scouts and fighters both share. As the scouts and the fighters start to cast their abilities while running, jumping, or doing some crazy vertical drop toward the healer, the healer is locked in place trying to cast off a spell that will hopefully allow them to be able to heal the damage that is moments away from hitting them. However, the heals that the healer will be able to put out will not be able to protected it from the damage that is about to hit. This is assuming, with a probability that is near .64, that there are not two different fighters constantly running taunts that switch the targets from one to another and a percise ranged class picking off the other ranged classes. With this change, a group of Shadowknights could simply sit in the middle and control the relic. Or, better yet, what is presently happening, groups that control the relic are just stacking up ontop of the relic in the middle creating a 'body shield.' This change needs to be reverted for the sake of the healer population in battlegrounds and in the game. It is already painful enough finding decent healers that are outside your own guild to a. recruit, b. group with.</p><p>Piggybacking this change to the way the relic operates in Gears of Klak'Anon is the way the flags in Ganak now operated. In both Gears of Klak'Anon and The Battlefield of Ganak, the icons designating the flags and the relic have been removed from the map. This makes it difficulty to know whether your flag is currently there since only a line of text informs everyone whether the flag has been dropped or captured but not returned. Also, this makes it nearly impossible to actively seek out the flag or the relic in the event that it is not in plain view making a coordinated effort unnecessarily difficult. Additionally, this makes it difficult to chase down the flag taker and relic taker as he or she leaves the base or decides to move it away from the middle since there is often a gap in communication since everyone is not necessarily in voice chat or lacks the ability to speak in voice chat. To emphasis this communication point, the slogan for TeamSpeak is applicable: "When a WORD is worth a THOUSAND keystrokes..." Player vs. Player combat does not grant a second or so for a typed command unless the of the player typing the command is to lay face down on the ground in the battleground. It seems as if this change is the unintended side effect of: "Battleground icons (flags, relics etc…) will only show on the current zone and will not show when browsing maps other than the current zone" change.</p><p>Lastly, the change in regard to teleportation abilities and the relic in addition to the flags needs to be investigated. If the opposite team uses these teleportation abilities on the flag capturer or relic capturer, he or she will end up dropping the flag or the relic.</p><p>Battlegrounds are a really fun instant way of achieving entertainment in EverQuest 2 at any given time during a day. The change in relation to how the relic operates, the disappearance of flag and relic icons from the map, and the issues with teleportation abilities needs to be corrected in order to ensure this is still a viable way of obtaining instanteous fun.</p><p>Sincerely,</p><p>FalseCourage</p>