EQ2Wire: Eleven Questions for Xelgad

[feldon30]

<p><a href="http://eq2wire.feldoncentral.com/" target="_blank"><strong>EQ2Wire</strong></a> has landed an exclusive interview with <span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>Xelgad</strong></span> which those interested in Class Balance will no doubt want to read. We've got your questions about Furies, Mystics, Enchanters and Rangers, and other Class Balance topics from the forums:</p><ul><li><a href="http://eq2wire.feldoncentral.com/2010/06/28/eleven-questions-for-xelgad-eq2wire-exclusive/" target="_blank"><strong>Eleven Questions for Xelgad</strong></a> @ EQ2Wire</li></ul><p><span style="color: #3366ff;"><strong>Also This Week</strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">Also this week, we've got commentary about changes to level 1-20 spells, Heroic Opportunities, and finally, we've got some comments on <a href="http://eq2wire.feldoncentral.com/2010/06/28/kiara-hops-fence-to-everquest-community-manager-position/" target="_blank">Kiara's departure as EQ2 Community Manager</a>.</p><p><span style="color: #3366ff;"><strong>A View From the Top Podcast</strong></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;">In case you missed it, <strong>EQ2Wire</strong> participated in a telephone interview (podcast) with the great folks at <a href="http://vagary.tv/viewfromthetop/" target="_blank">A View From the Top</a>. We covered a ton of topics facing EQ2 today including guild life, the current expansion, itemization, and what we expect from the upcoming Velious expansion. If you haven't heard it, you can <a href="http://eq2wire.feldoncentral.com/2010/06/09/a-view-from-the-top-interview/" target="_blank"><strong>check out this Podcast</strong></a> by visiting EQ2Wire and following the links there.</p>

[Boise]

<p>Great job on the questions!</p><p>Sadly, seeing Xelgad say that rangers are equal to assassins is so wrong. Not sure where he is getting his data, but I suggest he check flames parses (especially the assassin ones). Seeing near 400k assassinate hits is just so wrong.</p>

[Macross_JR]

<p>I'm still waiting for the dev's to acknowlege the imbalace between the fighters.  I have yet to see them even say that they are balanced or that they are not balanced.</p>

[Barx]

<p>There's no such thing as balance. Classes always swing in and out of better/worse.</p>

[Amnerys]

<p><cite>Boise wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Sadly, seeing Xelgad say that rangers are equal to assassins is so wrong. Not sure where he is getting his data, but I suggest he check flames parses (especially the assassin ones). Seeing near 400k assassinate hits is just so wrong.</p></blockquote><p>He's actually got a thread asking for parses from all classes for the Rathgar fight, right <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=481929" target="_blank">here</a>. Feel free to contribute to the data collection process. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Thanks for posting the interview, Feldon!</p>

[Nevao]

<p><cite>Amnerys wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Boise wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Sadly, seeing Xelgad say that rangers are equal to assassins is so wrong. Not sure where he is getting his data, but I suggest he check flames parses (especially the assassin ones). Seeing near 400k assassinate hits is just so wrong.</p></blockquote><p>He's actually got a thread asking for parses from all classes for the Rathgar fight, right <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=481929" target="_blank">here</a>. Feel free to contribute to the data collection process. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>Thanks for posting the interview, Feldon!</p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff9900;">I'm really not trying to come off as difficult but the way his statement read made it sound like the door on any significant ranger class changes was closed.  We'll leave the fact that he did it on a fan site instead of the official boards for another conversation. Per his post rangers are parsing fine. We have balance. We just apparently are not doing things the way we should and everyone who betrayed and does more damage as an assassin. Well I don't know what his excuse for that is.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff9900;">That really leads to the question of what the point of that pasre post is? Is the infamous ability to see all parses and track down trends not as extensive as we were lead to believe when class balance questions are asked?  Is he trying to tweak certain encouters? Does he want information for the next expansion? Is he trying to get highend numbers to figure out what classes are having problems? Is he trying to counter certain perceptions in the community by making these parses more available? At this point we have NO idea what is going on or why he needs this information. Some people who are on those encounters will be helpful and post, but without understanding the goal of the excercise I'm not sure how much buy-in you're going to get. Guess we'll just have to see.</span></p>

[CoLD MeTaL]

<p><cite>Nevao wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><span style="color: #ff9900;">...Is the infamous ability to see all parses and track down trends not as extensive as we were lead to believe when class balance questions are asked?  ...</span></blockquote><p>^^THIS</p><p>Doesn't $OE have access to all this information and more?  When client side parses have problems with distances etc.  If ACT is better than anything you guys have, then a circle the wagons may be in order.</p><p>Please, please do not nerf casuals based on what the top .001% of the population can achieve.  That is unreasonable for all involved.</p>

[Jardon]

<p>Did anyone here ever think they might be trying to compare the data they have with the data the players see, and find out if there is:</p><p>1. A problem with how or what data is logged (or not logged)</p><p>or</p><p>2. There is a subtle problem in ACT that is giving different results then they see in their tools, and they are attempting to correct that issue.</p><p>Just because they are asking for parse data does not mean they don't have any parse data.</p>

[Laenai]

<p><cite>Razgar@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Did anyone here ever think they might be trying to compare the data they have with the data the players see, and find out if there is:</p><p>1. A problem with how or what data is logged (or not logged)</p><p>or</p><p>2. There is a subtle problem in ACT that is giving different results then they see in their tools, and they are attempting to correct that issue.</p><p>Just because they are asking for parse data does not mean they don't have any parse data.</p></blockquote><p>So asking for parse data on a single mob that only .001% of the population can kill will help fix that possible problem?</p><p>And, my other issue, why ask for parse information from the playerbase AFTER you say your data shows everything is fine? Wouldn't it make more sense to gather parse data from the players (which if you've ever seen flames, there's TONS of posted) BEFORE making a statement like that? Folks have only posted about disparities in classes and what parses are showing since SF beta. Are they just now getting around to hearing it? Or has actual game play been put on so far a back burner that they're just now getting around to looking at it?</p>

[CoLD MeTaL]

<p><cite>Razgar@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Did anyone here ever think they might be trying to compare the data they have with the data the players see, and find out if there is:</p><p>1. A problem with how or what data is logged (or not logged)</p><p>or</p><p>2. There is a subtle problem in ACT that is giving different results then they see in their tools, and they are attempting to correct that issue.</p><p>Just because they are asking for parse data does not mean they don't have any parse data.</p></blockquote><p>Why would $OE care about ACT?</p>

[Jesdyr]

<p><cite>CoLD MeTaL wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why would $OE care about ACT?</p></blockquote><p>Because most good players use it (if not all).</p>

[Calthine]

<p><cite>Jesdyr@Unrest wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>CoLD MeTaL wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Why would $OE care about ACT?</p></blockquote><p>Because most good players use it (if not all).</p></blockquote><p>*nod* Same reason they care about EQ2 Maps.</p>