Quote:
Originally Posted by falkun
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Monks should NOT have been the primary pullers, FD as a mechanic was never intended to provide split pulling, but it worked out that way.
http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/FD.php
http://www.afterlifeguild.org/Thott/Fading_Memories.php
If you think FM did not have its drawbacks, you're wrong. FM costs 900 mana, for a class that cannot make any use of mana regen spells or items (remember when AA shipped with Luclin, FT still did not function for bards), and bard meditate skill is stuck at 1. Also, at 60 I have ~1400 mana, I couldn't even FM twice. The only bards who could would be TMO bards with BIS, and even most of them couldn't FM twice. That may change a bit with Velious and then Luclin loot, but with the slow mana regen, you aren't FMing for group exping much.
While some AAs definitely broke the game (think mana burn), Fading Memories was a tool given to return a class to its rightful place as supreme puller as the need for resists waned. Throughout classic, monks went from being a DPS class to being DPS, puller, and tank. Other classes rightfully got pissed off as monks overshadowed them on every aspect of the game. Monk CC was better than enchanters and bards, monk tanking was better than non-defensive warriors and strictly better than knights, and monk DPS damn near rivaled rogues. See this thread about how OP monks were in Velious. |
Well, that's actually a matter of debate. Thott championed Bards as main pullers because he was a Bard and loved pulling. Thott was pretty entitled about things a lot of the time, and just because he thought it didn't make it so. He was bit full of himself actually, though a great Bard and a great advocate for our class. But he was a player, not a dev, and his opinion was as subjective as anyone else's.
I'm not aware of pulling being a design mandate of the Bard class from Verant's point of view (though I'd be happy to see links disproving me). Bards played as non-pullers were fine - I did mainly that all through Velious and Luclin. That piece of hyperbole Thott wrote about Monk FD ability is a bit of a wank. He was just put out that his favourite role had been usurped by another class IMO. It was sour grapes on his behalf more than an objective assessment of class power. I could write an equally damning piece of fiction about Bards and FM.
Instead of FM and other AA's like it, Bard AA's should have brought their lack of general power into balance with the other classes (Thott wrote a great post about that elsewhere). That's my opinion though, and what I would have done.
I thought monks were fine in Velious though a bit too DPS heavy. I personally would have improved the animations though
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] There is no way they could replace tanks in raid situations and made great pullers in a way Bards never could (even with FM).