A true story of a fight

[mwatt]

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

First, whether or not these things are classic is clearly in dispute. But more importantly, I take issue with this kind of reasoning. This game is not meant for people to solo in (maybe for some classes, but not overall and not to the extent that is possible and efficient - even pretty tame stuff like fear kiting and snare kiting were not anticipated by the devs, if I recall correctly). The game is meant for grouping. The game is intended as kind of a D&D simulator, where you have a party and go and take down a bunch of monsters together. As a ranger in particular, you are not supposed to be good at soloing; you are supposed to go and find a group that can take down monsters effectively (of course, in practice on P99 since rangers are a crap class in classic era, this is not so easy to do).

I like changes which beef up mob resists. Spellcasting is incredibly powerful in EverQuest and lets you accomplish huge feats - like pulling five monsters to a camp and calmly taking down one at a time thanks to stuff like roots and mezzes. Or like charming one monster, using it to attack another monster, and ending up killing both for practically no mana investment and two fast kills' worth of EXP. Or like AE groups. All of these things are really cool and make the game interesting in one way, but in another way they run completely counter to the spirit of the game because they trivialize content.

When you can sit around root-dotting a mob by yourself, you are not dependent on a group in order to get EXP; you are getting EXP effectively and with little challenge all by your lonesome. Look at how D&D spells work and you know that you can't just crowd control everything willy-nilly; you actually have battles with multiple enemies that you have to deal with at once, and spellcasting is, while very useful, also very limited compared to EverQuest in this regard.

So I really don't think that pushing resists back down is "for the good of the game" in any way. It trivializes the content and makes soloing easier. You end up saying "aha, I can easily keep this mob rooted and not have to worry about it - easy solo EXPs!" instead of "aha, this mob refuses to stay rooted and is knocking me around a lot - I'd better find some other people who can help me fight it!"

Some people feel that soloing is inherently against the theme of the game. You appear to be one such. It is ok to have that opinion and I understand it (though I do not agree). However, the fact of the matter is that, in Classic EQ it was a wholly viable way to go and one could in fact root a mob much of the time (not always, no, which is good) and rely on root to allow you go win via dotting (if you were a Necro or Druid at least) without a ton of breakage. This is one of the good parts of playing a caster like this. To offset, casters cannot melee very well. This is by design of course.

[tanknspank]

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

First, whether or not these things are classic is clearly in dispute. But more importantly, I take issue with this kind of reasoning. This game is not meant for people to solo in

In the context of this server, the classic-ness of things is much more of a factor than whether or not soloing is ok or if magic is balanced.

I do agree that root and charm were far too reliable before, in a way that was both too safe for balance reasons and not in line with classic EQ live. However what seems like a change to magic-based spells across the board has made them far too resistant, affecting a lot of spells that were not part of a safe, overpowered or un-classic strategy.

Personally I feel that the change to resists needs to be partially softened, and in turn an increase to the breakage chance per tick of root/charm needs to be applied. In classic root, snare, insect dot, lifetap, str tap, etc were not hard to apply to blues. They resisted some (except tap), but generally landed well. What made root and charm risky was that often they landed but broke within 1-2-3 ticks.

Here, I am seeing the opposite. They either land or don't, but if they do, very often they will last full duration (particularly root).

[Nizzarr]

http://www.twitch.tv/fallenfrog1/c/4761582

funnier fight

[GnashingOfTeeth]

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

PLEASE fix resists for God sake they're so fucking broken! Never seen us have to wait this long for a hotpatch fix.

I have to agree, the resists are quite common now.

[Rhambuk]

after reading this im kind of glad I don't play ranger anymore. My ranger pre kunark dominated id have to delete and reroll if i tried and it was like this.

[captnamazing]

that melee solo life
on my warrior, who had full enchanted dwarven cultural, wurmy and lammy, i was pretty much unable to solo dark blues.. ever

[Scrubosaur]

AC is completely out of whack. When I would solo specters in Feerrott on my necromancer in the 40s they would hit me for 50-60 damage melee. Now if I run through there on the way to Fear my level 60 necromancer gets hit for 70-80 damage and for max damage more often. AC should be > than any other stat for most classes. There was a reason that high AC items (Targsins Mask) were in such demand during classic EQ. On p99 it doesn't seem necessary to focus on anything other than your primary stat for dps classes and hp for tank classes.

[Wiery]

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

AC should be > than any other stat for most classes. There was a reason that high AC items (Targsins Mask) were in such demand during classic EQ. On p99 it doesn't seem necessary to focus on anything other than your primary stat for dps classes and hp for tank classes.

You know, that's how I remember it as well. Take it with a grain of salt, but I seem to recall ac was king for most slots for both my warrior and shaman, at least pre SOL (and outside of groups or when I wasn't slow tanking with shaman). I do recall noticing a significant difference when I went from crafted to cobalt on my warrior. But I was 20/21 then and used to drink a often when I gamed, so that could just be my imagination acting up. It seemed real though!

[fastboy21]

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

For real though, if you wanna talk about ranger issues... Try flee mechanics being completely broken. If a mob you are fighting is social with a mob in a certain vicinity, the mob will not stop attacking you when it gets low hp. What the mob should do is flee, and if it fear paths into the other mob's argo radius you get an add.

tl;dr: mobs don't run if theres a friendly nearby (nearby meaning ceiling, basement, or half mile away).

Why this is an issue: There's no point in having a dedicated snarer because only the last mob in a given area will bother fleeing.

yah. not needing a snarer on p99 nearly as much on live for dungeon content is game changing. its not just rangers obviously that lose classic grp slots they would have gotten.

this is one of the long term issues that will eventually get tackled, i'm sure.

[talian21]

As much as it pains me/us in the meantime, imo we all have known ac and resists have needed adjusting for some time. We are now seeing them adjusted. The devs improved it, but did not get it exactly right on the first try. I am going to wait and see how (the very classic) patch-of-the-patch does on second adjustment. The mobs hitting you *way* out of melee range is something I think Haynarr has been workin on, a propos mob/pet ghosting and such. But devs, these guys are right; there is a bit more adjustment to do. Really hope to see that next patch, thanks.

And oh yea, Haynarr, gimme back my damned color con target box =P