Falkun's preferences appear to be considered primarily with raiding in mind. Due to my personal indifference towards raiding, I'd do things a bit differently. In particular I'd be less inclined to remove class-defining, powerful abilities and I'm not in favor of "nerfing" in general.
From a group standpoint, tank improvement would be fairly straightforward. The hybrid tanks should have had the same innate mitigation advantage (often referred to as -1 DI) as the warrior, whilst the warrior needed better hate generation (both snap and sustained). Bash, Slam, warrior Kick at 55+, and Disarm all probably should have generated more hate than they do. Maybe crits, too. Neither such change would alter the relative strengths of the classes, only lessen the gaps in a good way.
Note that I never have, and never will, view Paladin buffs not stacking with Cleric buffs as a problem. Hybrid spell casting times become a problem at high level, but this was fixed during Velious.
Healers are trickier than tanks because there's only one genuine healer class in Everquest--the Cleric. Clerics themselves are in a good position, but having only one real healer never was satisfactory. Druids could easily be improved as healers without displacing a Cleric. Note that even with Complete Heal, a Druid would usually be less efficient than a Cleric healer owing to the Cleric's vastly superior hit point buffs. Such suggestions are therefore commonplace, but I'm dubious of the prospect. While the Druid's group role seems weak, it's by design since it's predominantly a non-group class that excels in most other aspects of the game. I'd prefer to add a second, genuine healer class as opposed to improving Druids in a role most of them probably wouldn't have wanted to be pigeonholed in to. My preference would be for something similar to the Disciple from Vanguard.
Wizard sustained damage output is rather weak even in a group setting. The goal of improving the class's damage per hour without improving it's already best-in-game burst damage mean some form of innate mana regeneration would have been the best approach. I believe this was eventually done, though not during the classic era.
Rangers should have had bow damage that roughly matches their melee, and a means of obtaining and carrying sufficient ammunition. This could be accomplished by several means. I don't see a Ranger as equal to Rogue damage output, but rather a class that should have uniquely possessed the capability to deal competitive damage both from melee and range.
Magicians and Necromancers would both benefit from better pet control than provided by classic Everquest ("pet hold", etc). The pet experience penalty for pets that do most the damage should have been greatly lessened or eliminated except in cases where the pet did >95% damage (so as to discourage AFK leveling).
Outside main healing, both Druids and Shamans should have received Superior Heal at a somewhat lower level. This change was actually made during the Velious era if I recall. Shamans are in a fairly good place otherwise. Druid direct spell damage probably should have been somewhat more efficient.
Monks, Rogues, Bards, and Enchanters are in a generally good spot already in terms of group roles. I'd probably have added more places for things like disarm trap and pick lock.
The above represents what I see as general improvements that could have been made. Specific tweaks are too numerous in number to be worth listing.
Danth
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