AA Points

[Daldaen]

Originally Posted by Rhambuk [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

thats still 3 fades per 10 minutes compared to a rogues #2 aa ability on a once per 72 minute reuse.

there was just no need to slap rogues in the face by giving bards this unnecessary ability and when things like that start to happen are when im probably going to quit p99.

No thats 1 fade per 10 minutes and 3 fades with a full mana pool.

Rogues aren't really pullers, bards are and Fade suited them to fill that role more often.

[M.J.]

Originally Posted by heartbrand [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

AA's gave me a way to progress my character while helping others.

AAs allowed raid geared players to back farm trivial content solo. For every awesome 60 warrior with raid gear and a bunch of AA bringing along a lowbie snarer / healer and boosting a group you'll have 8 more hybrid melees doing old cash camps solo and competing with legit lowbie groups over experience and not just loot. Lower Guk is a good example of this type of content bottleneck.

You'll also have power farmers which aren't going to do anything except make the gap between casual and hardcore even more massive.

A middle ground to the AA / quest idea would be some sort of mentor system that allows people to temporarily lower their level and require them to be grouped with people around that actual level to gain AA experience. Each level range of experience would unlock one rank of an ability. So AA gained while mentoring 8-20 would get you rank 1, 21-30 rank 2, etc. Now add in solo / duo quests to gain access to the ability and you have a personally satisfying quest that increased interaction with other players, or just helped level your friends alts.

LUCLIN RANT BELOW

The reason Luclin was such an awful expansion was because the raid scene was impenetrable to casuals, and it had massive zones with content no one besides bards and people with mounts would ever see. However beastlords were the shit, and AA allowed you to focus on a character you loved but had otherwise become an aimless auction bot and cash farmer once you had BiS. Stat inflation, stratifying the player base, and reducing player interactions are all things that happened because of Luclin.

[DrKvothe]

Can anybody direct me to a list of the sort of class-defining AAs nilbog might have been referring to? I didn't play past early velious.

[heartbrand]

I think luclin would be far different here. On live maybe only 5% of your server pop was max level end gamers. Here it's far higher.

[Coridan]

When Luclin went live the mid level zones from classic went completely vacant. Everyone was in Echo, Netherbian, Dawnshroud. The Karanas are too quiet as it is. New zones should be added in one at a time after Velious. Warrens, Stonebrunt, Jaggedpine, Unkempt, and then reuse Luclin zones for places in the EQRPg book and the map that aren't in game (Rujarkian, Loping Plains)

[Laok]

Originally Posted by Rhambuk [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

thats still 3 fades per 10 minutes compared to a rogues #2 aa ability on a once per 72 minute reuse.

there was just no need to slap rogues in the face by giving bards this unnecessary ability and when things like that start to happen are when im probably going to quit p99.

It wasn't useless to bards. It helped define us as a pulling class. Saved many a raid, Fade did.

Rogues are pure DPS, the purest. Bards are hybrids that can fill any role (well, most roles, and in classic, no one role was really defined by bards, they were just OK at everything), but Fade actually gave them a singular role in a group. Pulling.

It was VERY mana intensive as bards only regen one mana per tick standing and 2 sitting EVER (until FT items anyway, so chanters save your mana, don't C bards [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] )

[justin2090]

If velious is the stopping point I wouldn't see any problem with AA's. They would give something else to strive for after everything has went stale. I really can't speculate much because I don't know what custom content will be released.

On the topic of custom content, I think would be unique to gain an AA token instead dinging. You could use the token for 1 AA point or trade it to other players. It would be something that would never depreciate in value, and it could be an alternate route to gaining an epic (or other expensive item) for those solo'rs out there.

[Unidus]

Epics won't be a problem to get in Velious. If AA's were to be implemented then having multiple methods of getting them would be the best way. Exp based AA gain, quest based AA gain, and a random rare drop token from any 50+ mob.

[Waedawen]

Originally Posted by drktmplr12 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

What are your thoughts?

NOPE.

NEVER.

THAT IS NOT. GOING TO HAPPEN!

Originally Posted by M.J. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

8 more hybrid melees doing old cash camps solo and competing with legit lowbie groups over experience and not just loot. You'll also have power farmers which aren't going to do anything except make the gap between casual and hardcore even more massive. Stat inflation, stratifying the player base, and reducing player interactions are all things that happened because of Luclin.

And that is why. We don't need AA's. We don't need Luclin. We just need to let Nilbog and Rogean make really fucking cool sand castles for us to play with because it's their sand box and we're just playing in it.

The custom content long after Velious is going to be 10x better than any shitty AA or Luclin bullshit.

[drktmplr12]

I wouldn't contend that we need AAs or Luclin.

I think there should be a form of character advancement for the new content that goes beyond kill harder targets for better gear. People are going to want new abilities that define their role.

As I stated eariler, new abilities that allow you to specialize your role would be very interesting. However only allowing one specialization at a time that can't be changed immediately.

Perhaps a druid wants to be better at nuking and lose some utility in healing to gain that? Or a warrior wants to focus on damage instead of tanking. A ranger on archery instead of dying.

I vote for rangers getting an ability that absorbs 1 death touch.