Dear Developers and Moederators

[desinence]

<p>The moderators have taken to locking quite a few posts, which have lead me to make posts and thus get warnings for flaming the moderators. Were my actions childish, most certainly, but the state of the class have lead many of us to believe the class has become just as ridiculous.</p><p>1) Moderator Bearclaw made the statement that just because a Dev. does not post here does not mean they aren't paying attention, which is viably true. However, the responses at fanfaire and interviews with Xelgad have most certainly proved without a doubt, the ignorance they have in relation to the problems with this class. This is part of the reason we began the spam. Xelgad made the statement he scans the forums daily, since he clearly has made evident he does not, he has lied. By lying to the gamers that fund his wallet, we considered all bets off as far as forum rules go when it comes to spam. You obviously haven't which creates an impasse for us as we are now being silenced, and even threatened with being banned and our accounts closed if we do not stop. I find it hard to believe that such a concept would come full circle as we all well know the state of EQ2 dwindling populations as well as the new releases on the horizon. However, SOE keeps making real bad decisions as if they had no idea how to effectively run their business in this country, so I personally will not take any such action for granted.</p><p>2) The moderators have made the statement that we should post constructively and that what we have been doing will simply make the developers want to ignore us more. This only shows me how little effort the moderators made before flaunting the power of moderator hammer upon us. If you would dear sirs or ma'ams would please look back before the countdown spam, you will see pages of constructive criticism and issues with the class described in full detail that were also ignored. This was exactly why we got stupid with our posting, it became clear to us that there was no consideration given towards the many customers that have chosen to play this class. Quite frankly, with all the effort we put into the class we have chosen to call main, I do not believe it is too much to ask that we be given some viable notice. I mean, we've been ignored for so long, i was partially shocked just to get the attention of all you moderators, especially in the last couple days. That shock only goes to show more how little acknowledgement was given to the class.</p><p>3) So, yes, not every illusionist playing still have posted their support, but lets face it, this sight was found less desired long ago and everyone went the way of eq2flames. Most posting here either know nothing of the class/game or are returning her for nothing more than to get the developers attention. </p><p>In closing, yes we have broken the rules, but we wouldn't have broken these forum rules if Xelgad and his like had not broken the class. We may have broken the rules, but we wouldn't have done so if the developers hadn't claimed to be paying attention to their customers and clearly show they are not. But byegones, fact is we broken the rules, and its your prerogative to punish as accordingly and since i've had my word I will leave it there. I would ask you to acknowledge that i have been civilized with this post, and have not chosen to get another warning for "flaming the moderators." Now for the next part, I'll regurgitate the prior constructive criticisms we gave before, i would ask that it be sticked as I think my tone will clearly make known the frustration players have with the class.</p><p>1) crowd control: for years now, crowd control has been little more than a gimmick of our class. Very rarely has it ever been a tool needed in instance unless making up for the poor skill of others. In raids, it was utterly pointless until nexona and since has again become pointless. In soloing it used to have great uses but with how easily it is shrugged of or ignored by the npc's in the game, it has left most enchanters forgetting where the buttons for it sit on their hot bar. To make matters worse, Xelgad has described a future upgrade for the class being raid mezzing. I am fairly certain that this would not be a plus in any shape and form. My reasons are as follows; The first obstacle would be the two off tanks that are now required because the developers wanted to make brawlers matter in raids. Problem is, they still don't matter but are required for a few gimmick raid fights. But since you brought them along, why would you bother mezzing what two off tanks could pull away from the raid? So whats the cure for this issue, you would have to make the target requiring mezz so impacting that there was no other option than to mezz, ie. nexona. Now lets acknowledge some nexona issues... First of all, it only took one resist to trigger a raid wide fail, but beyond this, the whole concept was fail. You had to keep the mobs away from raid because they were so impactful, but then you group was out of the fight because they had no power. Nexona was an astounding raid fight until this point, and then it just became a hassle with this crap at the last 20% that any joy was removed. I bring this up also because tanks need their power and tak healers need their power too, so guess whose goona be raid mezzing, i'll give you a clue, its not the coercers.</p><p>Time Warp: First of, the design of this spell scream loudly with a megaphone lack of effort, in primate terms, its throw some crap at the wall and see if it sticks. First of all, its concept is to work like Jester Cap or Gravitas, yet it doesn't. Added to this, its duration is so short, once it is received, it is only by chance that a recipient can use it in a worthwhile way.</p><p>Time Compression: So not that i thought spells like this should be self cast because it defeats the concept of being utility, but since dirges can battlecry themselves, and troubadors can upbeat temp themselves, we have a major inconsistency in class balance. added to this, if there are a troub, and illy, and a warlock, the warlock is goona want ut first and foremost, leaving you to do what, cast tc on the troub? the healer?</p><p>DPS: Alright, theres a lot of mixed feelings on this, but lets face it, we are a utility class. With that in mind, we still have a problem. If nothing else, we should be able to parse higher than coercers, since we have a troub, and they do not, It would a tleast be nice to not be out parsed by them. To go a step further, its even more annoying when you struggling to beat a fury who is also healing while out parsing you. Quite frankly, taking hits to dps suck pretty bad when you inviting carpal tunnel syndrome every time you attempt to parse. all that effort casting, and blah.</p><p>Utility: Someone apparently did not realize that they made gear that would cap everyone on what we are intended to buff for. TC has become only viable for reuse/recovery and 5 spell double attack at this point. Synergism remains the only buff you can feel proud of. The rest are pretty much outdated garbage now thanks to gear.</p><p>pet: why give us a pet that can't even survive raid encounter trash aoe's. I know of no illusionist who bothers casting this after 10 SF raids max. Coercer have this problem also, but it has not been quite as bad from what ive noticed, this is open to debate however.</p><p>gear: Sorcerer and Summoner Gear this expac, once again enchanters are mix-matching their set as best they can. Generally in the past, enchanter gear has been so poorly designed and out of touch with the role of enchanters, reaching back to KoS or something, but now this expansion, they didn't even bother. Either make one set of gear for all mages or one for each of the three subclasses, otherwise you are making it blatant that you are ignoring a class.</p><p>power: I do not have a lot to complain about power myself, but i generally only concern myself with my group and leave out of group power issues to the coercers. I would say we are about equal over all on the power issues minus on, Group Mana Flow... That alone honestly blows us out of the water, and i have to admit, though I have made due fine with out it as have many in our class, why should we have to? Because quite frankly, coercer have not had to do without it.</p><p>I urge anyone to add any issues i neglected. Rather than risking spam, I'd urge you to just bump this post since I highly doubt it will be stickied or anything of the sort. I have switched mains now, so it is of little value to me to fight for this class since all efforts seem futile and the game is becoming little more than another WoW clone, especially with changes expected in the next expansion, good luck all, best wishes.</p>

[Steinbeck]

<p>Not to de-rail from your post, as you do make some great valid points----but under no circumstances should you be anywhere near a fury on the dps parse.  If you are, then something is terribly wrong (even the most beast parsing furies shouldn't be anywhere close).  But I do agree with the OP regarding our counterparts (coercers), our incredibly weak personae's,  and our outdated utility.  Nice post, well thought out, and thank you for posting it. </p>

[Andu]

<p>Its all already stickied and has been for months. They've even read it and PM'd to say so. Not that they are goign to do anything about it ......</p>

[desinence]

<p><cite>Steinbeck@Guk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Not to de-rail from your post, as you do make some great valid points----but under no circumstances should you be anywhere near a fury on the dps parse.  If you are, then something is terribly wrong (even the most beast parsing furies shouldn't be anywhere close).  But I do agree with the OP regarding our counterparts (coercers), our incredibly weak personae's,  and our outdated utility.  Nice post, well thought out, and thank you for posting it. </p></blockquote><p>on a zw, no, a fury will not beat you do to some fights being more intensive with healing, however if a fury at no point is getting near you on the parse, it is not do to your class or skill, it is because they as a fury suck. I've heard that argument before from a couple illusionists of skill, i've heard it my statement confirmed by some without skill. the one thing that remains through all of these is that furies with the right gear can parse around the same as an illusionist, ie. i cannot switch to healer gear and out heal them. I will grant you that i have not seen many furies that parse that high, but i know of two, and if two can do it, all have the ability. BTW, i have a track record of out parsing better geared illies, so I highly doubt there is something wrong with my parsing.</p>

[desinence]

<p>Indeed, but with a different title and by a different author. maybe if enough people post it, they will stop looking at facebook, stop playing farmiville, and actually do their job.</p>

[RobF]

<p>I've come to the conclusion that Devs do read these forums - they just couldn't care less. Im waiting to be proven wrong but thats the way it is as far as I can tell.</p>

[desinence]

<p><cite>RobF wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I've come to the conclusion that Devs do read these forums - they just couldn't care less. Im waiting to be proven wrong but thats the way it is as far as I can tell.</p></blockquote><p>I would assume that the total lack of knowledge they speak with when referencing the class leads me to believe they do not read these forums at all. the only aspect they know of an illy is its power regen, which all supports my suspicion Xelgad is Aerlick as a conjuror. I mean if you were to play any class that would give you a lesser grasp on game dynamics, you'd be hard pressed to find a better choice.</p>

[PinChaser]

<p>the squeaky wheel gets the grease. IMO the statement that the devs would ignore you because of the way you post is asinine. No offense to the mod who posted that, but if the developers are so caddy to ignore something as important as class balance based on forum posts, then they're not doing their job. There is something wrong with this class, and the longer the devs ignore it, the more upset the players of this class will be, while I don't condone spam posting it was an obvious plea for help.</p>

[biig]

<p>Blame dat velo guy for breaking ur class !</p>

[Zephanor]

<p>I agree with the majority of the OP.  With the release of SF these issues are more accutely felt and as each week goes by I find more and more of the joy in playing my class slipping away.  I've been here since release and almost quit until the revamp shortly after DoF which was a revolutionary change for us.  I'm hopeful that we'll see something similar soon!  Even a bone or two would be nice.</p><p>I believe the devs read these forums and whether they post or not is besides the point really.  We need to continue to submit /feedback and posts so that our activity can be noticed but without goading (which will almost never illicit a response, I know I wouldn't.)</p><p>Only time will tell!  I do hope to see improvements soon so that I can start to feel that old joy build again.  My friends keep me here but it's hard to talk with excitement toward the game as I see us fall behind more and more.</p>

[Marilee]

<p>Issues for the class were well pointed out in SF's beta.  Devs were made aware that the class was going to suffer when SF went live in testing feedback.  It was ignored then and they still don't seem to give a flying rat's behind about it now.   </p><p>It's hard to not feel jaded when your class has needed attention for far too long.</p>

[desinence]

<p><cite>Marilee@Lucan DLere wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Issues for the class were well pointed out in SF's beta.  Devs were made aware that the class was going to suffer when SF went live in testing feedback.  It was ignored then and they still don't seem to give a flying rat's behind about it now.   </p><p>It's hard to not feel jaded when your class has needed attention for far too long.</p></blockquote><p>indeed</p>

[Amphimedon]

<p><cite>desinence wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>...</cite></p><p> which all supports my suspicion Xelgad is Aerlick as a conjuror.</p></blockquote><p>The fact that conjurors went from non-wanted in raids to a T1 dps class says enough <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>And i couldn't agree more with the OP.  The illusionist class is a joke now.  The main question remains : should we be utility or dps ?  We aren't dps for sure ... ffs we are a mage class and we're outparsed by healers <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />And unfortunately we arent utility either.  Our buffs for which we were wanted back in the RoK days are completely useless these days.  We provide powerregen, yes, but only looking at the difference from Mana Flow from a coercer (groupwide, across raid) and the Mana Flow from the illu (single target, own group) is a proof of the lack of balance in the enchanter class.</p><p>It is clear that SOE did a poor job in foreseeing the impact of their new game mechanics on the illu class.  While other classes were boosted considerably, the illu class was left out in the cold.</p><p>It would have been nice if we got some feedback, but the let's-pretend-the-problem-doesn't-exist-and-maybe-they-all-forget-about-it mentality of the devs & mods is making people quit the game or changing classes. </p>

[desinence]

<p><cite>Amphimedon wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>desinence wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>...</cite></p><p> which all supports my suspicion Xelgad is Aerlick as a conjuror.</p></blockquote><p>The fact that conjurors went from non-wanted in raids to a T1 dps class says enough <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Well that goes for both summoners. Thus you could only surmise that Xelgad played a summoner. The fact that life burn can be dispelled, and continues to be able to be dispelled despite promises for a fix leaves you looking at the non dispelling plane shift with no other conclusion than conjurer. Added to this the fact they are now Tier 1 dps and you are left chuckling at the ridiculousness of the supposed class balance excuse keeping illusionist down. I have not heard yet, one valid argument against us, in fact i have changed many minds of onlookers who thought we were exaggerating the problem until we started spelling out the details. Even brought my raid leader to the conclusion to bring 3 coercers and only one illy, and if i had my way, it would of been zero illies... four synergisms and the reusue/recovery from time compression does not out way the first and foremost use of chanters, which is regen, and with this new expansion, getting people up from zero is far more valuable than keeping people at 100%.</p>

[silverfang6]

<p><cite>desinence wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>... in fact i have changed many minds of onlookers who thought we were exaggerating the problem until we started spelling out the details. ...</p></blockquote><p>A few folks I know personally and in game actually rolled illy's to prove me wrong at the level of suck I claimed the illy to have.  During the double xp weekend a few folks got to 250/90 and geared up with full raid gear.  Mind you these are people who are hardcore, top-end raiders across 3 different servers.  The result?  They could hardly squeek out 7k dps on their illy in a mix of T2 and T3 gear.  I helped them with cast order, temp buffs, macros, etc with very minor improvements.  Illys are hard to get dps out of; it is a spamfest and if you advert your gaze for a second, you will drop below the healers on the dps parse.  I have some believers now!</p>

[desinence]

<p><cite>silverfang6 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>desinence wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>... in fact i have changed many minds of onlookers who thought we were exaggerating the problem until we started spelling out the details. ...</p></blockquote><p>A few folks I know personally and in game actually rolled illy's to prove me wrong at the level of suck I claimed the illy to have.  During the double xp weekend a few folks got to 250/90 and geared up with full raid gear.  Mind you these are people who are hardcore, top-end raiders across 3 different servers.  The result?  They could hardly squeek out 7k dps on their illy in a mix of T2 and T3 gear.  I helped them with cast order, temp buffs, macros, etc with very minor improvements.  Illys are hard to get dps out of; it is a spamfest and if you advert your gaze for a second, you will drop below the healers on the dps parse.  I have some believers now!</p></blockquote><p>Wow, 7k dps... Now I will agree that the class is pretty weak, but wow... i'm assuming this was only group and without a troub, for a class noob, i guess that would be reasonable. When I've been beat in raid by healers i was doing 15 to 30k dps depending with T2 as the raid force I was with had not cleared any HM at this point. Sorc's and Summoners mind you were hitting 30 to 50k. as far as instance runs go, i would still say i have not ever hit below 8k with T2 gear and no troub, and think I average about 10 in such a situation.</p><p>I will agre though, not a class you can slack on in the slightest. I am always jealous of the classes who can chat in vent and maintain thier high parse at the same time.</p>

[silverfang6]

<p><cite>desinence wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Wow, 7k dps... Now I will agree that the class is pretty weak, but wow... i'm assuming this was only group and without a troub, for a class noob, i guess that would be reasonable. When I've been beat in raid by healers i was doing 15 to 30k dps depending with T2 as the raid force I was with had not cleared any HM at this point. Sorc's and Summoners mind you were hitting 30 to 50k. as far as instance runs go, i would still say i have not ever hit below 8k with T2 gear and no troub, and think I average about 10 in such a situation.</p><p>I will agre though, not a class you can slack on in the slightest. I am always jealous of the classes who can chat in vent and maintain thier high parse at the same time.</p></blockquote><p>We are practiced at our illusionists and that makes a huge difference in dps.  And yes, I am jealous when our wizard is parsing 80k on a named fight while watching TV.   /sigh</p>

[vexrm]

Hey mods! Look at the grumbling here. Something is wrong if there's this much grumbling. This expansion has taken all the problems in the past and shoved them forward. The class is NOT balanced. I posted a thank you a while ago. I was stupid. Spell shield is now not working. No release notes about it being changed, but hey one less spell for me to worry about. The class doesn't work. The buffs are capped. The power regen is stupidly passive and doesn't keep up with demand during a power drain fight. The DPS is relatively small. The amount of button mashing needed is on the level of a street fighter combo, only I'm doing it for 40 minutes straight. Mezzes, one of the main abilities of the class aren't included in anything and in fact are being taken away at low level because they aren't needed. I can go on. In short, the community is angry. The community wants answers. The community saw the responses at Fan Fair and went "You gotta be kidding me." So, we want a simple and direct answer on the class. I promise you "We don't see any problems" will most likely lose you less people than silence right now.

[Shareana]

<p>Sadly I must close this one as it discusses forum moderation which is not allowed on the forums.  If you have a question on how a certain moderation was done, please PM a moderator. Bear Claw is correct, not all Developers post on the foums, but they do read them.  There is a lot of ideas and thoughts on these forums that they can not get to them all in addition to the new stuff that they are working on.</p><p>As for recent closures, we ONLY lock/remove/close down threads that violate the forum guidelines that everyone agrees to when they sign in and post on the forums.</p>