Im trying this game out during the free time I got for buying (and quiting) Vanguard. I've recently started to group xp (im a level 32 Coercer on Venekor) and it was not a good experience. Combat in general is not very fun and so far it consists of nothing but targeting the monster and spamming every skill you have non stop untill its dead. This is how its been for 31 levels and it was even worse during group/dungeon xp (monsters died faster, so my 10 million debuffs mattered even less).
Random spamming of your arts is generally considered a pointless waste of power. Particularly in groups. There are only a few things more annoying in a group than having to wait for the spell/art spammer to regen their power after a fight when the other members of the group are already sitting back at full ready to go again.
I liked old EQ combat, where each battle was a challenge and bad pulls had you and your group fighting for your lives.. I remember critical classes running out of mana and backing up to sit down and regain some more, then rejoining the fight, etc.
I can assure you, if you are fighting in an area that actually offers some challenge for your level, you'll see bad pulls, people running low on power (with no way to increase other than FT items and clickies, no sitting down mid fight like EQ1). It can become quite exciting when the tank runs low so can't taunt, the healer starts to run low and can't heal and the wizard gets agro and is trying to root park the thing.
I dont see anything like this so far in EQ2. It is even worse then Vangaurd (the whole spam powers randomly per fight). You regain mana so fast out of combat, there is no real incentive to conserve it during a fight. I also dont care about most of my powers and "thinking" which one I should cast next.. why "think" about which one to cast next when you CAN CAST THEM ALL INSTEAD??
Out of combat regen is nothing, it does nothing but reduce the downtime between fights (which is a good thing, no one has fun sitting on their duff for 10 minutes waiting for their power to come back). It is the in combat regen that matters (provided you are actually fighting mobs that are a challenge for your group). As I said before, spamming is a waste of power most of the time. Power management is key for some classes. You play a coercer, so have your own in combat power regen buff, you will have less issue with power than say a mystic or a berserker.
If power is overflowing, chain pull. Have a puller is bring in the new mob before the old on is dead.
Please tell me now, from here on out (im level 32) is combat going to be the same old "engage monster and go down your spell hotbar, clicking each one as they refresh", as ive seen so far?
It really shouldn't have been a spamfest thus far. As I've said before, the key is to fight something that is actually challenging. Running around open zones with full group, nothing short of an epic encounter or an absolute horde of seperate encounters is going to be challenging. Running around in a dungeon at 31 in a full group that is designed for levels lower than yours is not going to be a challenge.
At least soloing I have to strategy "a little" as I manage multiple mobs, but in groups, I just blindly follow around the tank and spam my powers at whatever agros us. VERY bornig. Combat happens so fast, most of the time I have no clue what we are even killing, or what powers/abilities it has.
If you are finding full group situations to be so boring and you can't seem to get into a group for a zone that is higher in level, try a duo or trio. Lowering the number of people in a group will up the difficulty even of easy blue stuff. If you are finding solo boring, try harder mobs.