Current Changes from Test as of 8-13-05

[-Aonein-]

<DIV>An extensive post with <STRONG><U>EVERY</U></STRONG> skill for a Berserker from 1 - 43 side by side as it is now after the Test patch from 8-10-05. Can be found <A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=comtest&message.id=2362" target=_blank><FONT color=#ff3300><STRONG>HERE</STRONG></FONT></A>.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Its 5mb worth of pics, so be patient if u have a slow ISP.</DIV><p>Message Edited by -Aonein- on <span class=date_text>08-15-2005</span> <span class=time_text>03:54 AM</span>

[Swordmage]

<DIV><STRIKE>Quick correction, the referenced text indicates that the spell list is for update 13b, not the current 13c</STRIKE>.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>But a really good list presentation of the changes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Edit -- ok, now up to 13c</DIV> <P>Message Edited by Swordmage on <SPAN class=date_text>08-14-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>01:05 PM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by Swordmage on <span class=date_text>08-16-2005</span> <span class=time_text>05:17 PM</span>

[-Aonein-]

<P>Only thing i know for certain is our HP regen CA's have been reduced to around half the amount of regen. Notice there slowly increasing the amount of time it takes to cast our CA's also.</P> <P>Some if not most are 0.5 second cast timers and less then half the damage output, some wont balance out if you do the math for people who think that we will do more DPS because of the faster cast timer, and note that some of them are also longer recast timers, not many i seen a few that are though.</P> <P>Alot of our CA's haven taken big hits, BIG hits, not minor adjustments. If you look at the amount a Guard can raise his mitigation compaired to how much DPS we will be doing plus we have half the amount of mitigation gained from our CA's, we arent going to be as good a tank as what people make us out to be, add to the fact, look at the hit our Threat increasement CA's are taking, do you honestly think that our DPS will be enough to keep up with it, now take a look at the Guards Threat generation CA's, there is a massive difference, plus the wide variety they get.</P> <P>To sum it up, Guards have alot more mitigation per CA, and its a hell of alot more, there main Defensive stance increases mitigation by 1200 <STRONG><U>alone</U></STRONG>, not to mention the others they can stack with it, they have Threat over time CA's that are mixed with DPS encounter debuffs, they can raise HP total, STR and STA.</P> <P>Berserkers get to give the group HP regen which has been recently cut in half in 13c patch to test, a watered down Berserk effect, half the amount of mitigation per CA, less Threat generating utility ( just look at there AE taunts, notice i say taunt<STRONG><U>S</U> </STRONG>cause we only get one AE taunt that is half the amount of threat compaired to a guards, 600 - 700 for Zerkers, 1300 for Guards and thats just one of them, they have another AE taunt as well ) and we geto add to the group STR, which on most occasions wont even help casters because STR doesnt effect the amount of damage a caster does, so its going to help maybe 3 people max per group, if that, depending on group formations etc.</P> <P>Am i ranting on about Guards are over powered? No, im ranting cause i think Berserkers are both underpowered in the Tank + DPS department as to being a Offensive based tank. As it stands, Guards out do us in mitigation bya huge amount........to be honest there is no number % wise because a Guard in full ebon and no special equipment has np hitting the 80% mitigation cap self buffed, can the same be said about a Berserker? But, take into effect that a Guard wearing mostly Fabled gear, can hit the cap without even breaking a sweat PLUS have over 65% avoidance still while wearing Heavy armor as well, while Berserkers on the other hand dont do more then 10% more DPS then a Guard, something is seriously a miss. For example, a guard in the full fabled equipment has 80% mitigation capped, but there is still mitigation left over that we cant see, so lets say for sake of conversation the Guard in Fabled has for example, 80% capped and another 30% left over we cant see because of the cap against a WHITE con mob, making him able to tank a yellow or orange con mob at 80% mitigation cause of the extra mitigation that is left over due to the way the * <STRONG><U>new</U></STRONG> * con system will work. Now take the Berserker who is at 75% mitigation, he, fighting a yellow or orange con mob will effectievly have his mitigation reduced to around the 50 - 55% mark due to not being able to increase his mitigation as much as a Guard does, BUT this isnt the problem, the problem is our DPS just doesnt make up for the loss in mitigation we take for being a Offensive based Warrior, OR Guards might have there mitigation adjusted down a notch. What ever the verdict is going to be, we arent going to tank as well as people make it sound out we will, sure we will tank better then we do now, plenty of Berserkers have proven that, but we have basically no <STRONG><U>soul</U></STRONG> purpose except some HP regen, and a bit of extra fluff that wont go unmissed in the event we arent around, anyways....</P> <P>Like its been said numerous times, Fighters and Priests are still undecided and being tossed about with no final run of testing, things are still constantly changing and ive no doubt that it will still contunie to change and there is <STRONG><U>less</U></STRONG> then a month to go. </P> <P>Why do i get the feeling that SoE will release these new combat changes rain, hail or shine even though they arent finished yet + the expasion pack, only to do more changes later on down the track while we help them finish of testing that they didnt have time to do in DoF beta or Test or alternatively, they post pone the the expasion and combat changes date to further test it.</P> <p>Message Edited by -Aonein- on <span class=date_text>08-15-2005</span> <span class=time_text>06:46 AM</span>

[Svan]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> -Aonein- wrote:<BR> <P>Only thing i know for certain is our HP regen CA's have been reduced to around half the amount of regen. Notice there slowly increasing the amount of time it takes to cast our CA's also.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>umm, my regens havent changed at all.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>almost all of the CA's that were changed to instant at the beginning are now .2 cast times, this was applied to everyone as far as i know.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>and their main defensive stance raises mitigation against HEAT dmg by 1200. ours does the same for cold damage.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Svanny on <span class=date_text>08-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>03:07 PM</span>

[kono]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Svanny wrote:<BR> <BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> -Aonein- wrote:<BR> <P>Only thing i know for certain is our HP regen CA's have been reduced to around half the amount of regen. Notice there slowly increasing the amount of time it takes to cast our CA's also.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>umm, my regens havent changed at all.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>I think Test is a little behind Beta.  Khalad has already indicated the new values for Blood Boil and Destructive Rage, and they're down about 40%.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>najena.konk</DIV>

[Khal]

Since the 8.12.05 patch (no mention of it in patch notes, could be a bug) <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> <P>Destructive Rage had its regen per tick lowered from 78 to 47 (adept 1)</P> <P>Blood Boil had its regen per tick lowered from 40 to 24 ( app 1)</P> <P> </P> <P>NOTE: I havent logged into beta today (sunday) so it may be changed back. not sure</P> <P> </P> <P> </P></DIV> <P><SPAN class=time_text></SPAN> </P><p>Message Edited by Khalad on <span class=date_text>08-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>03:31 PM</span>

[Khal]

<IMG src="http://www.secondawn.com/images/upload/khal6.jpg">

[fiercele]

<div></div><div></div>These changes are starting to worry me. I was upset at the changes that were being put into place but the efects being lowerd even more is very upsetting. I feel like the character I've poured countless days into is being squeezed out of the role it was originally given and being left without a place in raids and grouping in general, when theres many classes that will have more to offer. 47 group health regen is not my idea of an art that would define or describe a berserker in anyway..or that would help to win an encounter or even remotely change the way we tank. I have seen the gaudians Combat art list and id have to say, at this point from what I have seen with the changes, Id gladly reroll a gaurdian over my soon to be berserker. Rerolling is not an option though, I will be there when changes happen and if what i expect to happen happens I will not be starting a new character. These changes are fine and dandy in the eyes of someone trying to balance a game, but when the balance complety strip's a character of all definition and removes all personality that you poured your gaming heart and soul into. The game will lose its fun and personality and the gamer will lose his drive to play, and when that happens your going to see alot of berserkers hang up their swords and axes, and walk away from this game. <div></div><p>Message Edited by fierceleaf on <span class="date_text">08-14-2005</span> <span class="time_text">04:42 PM</span></p><p>Message Edited by fierceleaf on <span class=date_text>08-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>04:49 PM</span>

[Carancir]

The current state of the changes to our class leave me nothing but worried where zerkers will end up even more so considering they are supposed to go live in one month. I am playing EQ2 now for one year - when i rolled my main on the 3rd of february i was very well aware that zerkers were taking a backseat to guardians in raid-tanking generall speaking. Well i know that with the current system a zerker can tank "just" as well as a guardian with the right group-setup (and comparable gear) due to overpowered buffstacking that finaly gets adressed with the combat revamp to make the game more challening again. There are end-game raiding guilds that have a zerker in full fabled as their MT but those are the exception. In guilds like mine where there is a decent number of guardians the MT-role goes to them which i presume is the common case as guardians had better defense and more HP to start with so when starting to raid they did qualify first for the MT-role. I knew this when i rolled my main and still went zerker because it was a great and fun class to play. All the way to level 50 (and helping others to get there too) i always felt the zerker was the best group-tank around - best aggro controll coupled with good mitigation and some noticable dps too. As for raiding i was relaxed knowing that i would be a valuable addition to any raid - MT-group or not. The 1K added HPs are welcome everywhere and the great haste profits all melee, besides with either RGF or prismatic greatsword i'm killer-dps with the current system. To sum it up the zerker maybe? didn't end up as what the class was designed to start with but it was a good and wanted class to play either grouping or raiding. Now there are changes ahead. I am open to change - i know i rolled a warrior ("tank") to start with and currently i'm standing in the dps-department. First though i hate the idea that fighter damage sould be significantly lower then that of "pure" dps-classes. What's a dps-class lol - gladly EQ2 is more flexible when it comes to what clases can do (except priests maybe). Mages and scouts both are utility too and it's the designers call to make those utilities effective and wanted. Both archtypes seem to do well with the revamp. If you want pure tankage or pure dps plz do go play another game. Now everything i have seen so far concerning the combat revamp points in the direction of kicking the zerker back into a tanking role. As i said  before tanking in generall hasn't been a problem. Those HP-regen CAs will certainly be usefull for small-group gaming or soloing but pretty much worthless for raiding - we sacrifice our (group-) haste for this. With HP-buffstacking gone, haste gone, dps nerfed? i'm curious about my place in raids too. Well are we going to be a viable alternative as MT after the revamp?<div></div>

[-Aonein-]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Carancir wrote:<BR><BR>Now everything i have seen so far concerning the combat revamp points in the direction of kicking the zerker back into a tanking role. As i said  before tanking in generall hasn't been a problem. Those HP-regen CAs will certainly be usefull for small-group gaming or soloing but pretty much worthless for raiding - we sacrifice our (group-) haste for this. With HP-buffstacking gone, haste gone, dps nerfed? i'm curious about my place in raids too. Well are we going to be a viable alternative as MT after the revamp? <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>The alternative is us being stronger against Cold casting mobs then other tanks, BUT you also need to take into account how often the spell itself is cast and how hard does said raid / boss mob hit for, because if its a 30 second only cold damage spell, then we still wont be used as a MT just to minimize damage from a 30 second spell, because they would do more damage with there auto attck damage and CA's then they would with a 30 second cold damage spell, and id also like to note that for those who do raid, will notice that majority of the raid content out there casts AoE spells, so its not like there going to drop 8k cold nuke bombs on us just because a Berserker has a stronger resistance in Cold damage, unless they want Berserkers the only ones to be left standing, and we all can see how useful Berserkers will be in the raiding scene after the changes.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So basically its all going to be situational, and if people have followed SoE's history on how they follow the lore of a expasion or content release, you will know it could be 1 or 2 expasions before your situational attributes are even needed.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Only time will tell.</DIV><p>Message Edited by -Aonein- on <span class=date_text>08-15-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:50 PM</span>

[cr0wangel]

<DIV>- All single attacks have thier damage reduced<BR>- AoE attacks have increased damage<BR>- Taunts are decreased in general (I can't believe this, we do less damage and they reduce the taunts?)<BR>- HP buff removed and replaced my HP regeneration<BR>- Most buffs use 1 concentration<BR>- Buffs for mitigation are better<BR>- We get new skills to buff AGI<BR>- Power cost is reduced for most of the skills<BR>- We loose special ability to proc berserk, all will make you berserk now is Focus Rage and the upgrade of it.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>They will do what we feared the most, change us into guardians. But the mitigations buffs they will give us is no match for the damage we loose.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now the question is, do SOE read the berserkers forum? What can we do to let them know our opinion and maybe prevent some changes to happen.</DIV>