i won't pretend to be as knowledgable as some of you obviously are in EQ, and certainly not in the ways of the melee arts. But.. it seems to me SKs did get a bit screwed. If someone could tell me if i'm right/wrong without flaming that'd be sweet.
I only have a lvl 52 chanter a lvl 28 sk and a lvl 10 monk, haven't been playing for more than a few months so, i'm very much mroe aware of casters than melee.. but it just seems that a pally, being mostly tank with a bit of healer and a SK, being mostly tank, bit of necro should be basically equal in terms of what discs they get. Yet SK doesn't get one untill lvl 51, pally gets some at lvl 30. How can this be? a pally can heal and buff himself while an SK can barely lifedrain 1% health (at the lvl they GET the spell, nevermind 5 lvls after it) and cast a few (very short)buffs like vamperic embrace and siphon str.. how is this supposed to be balanced?
SOE Answers Questions About Melee Changes
Just in time for tomorrow's patch, Alan VanCouvering answered some questions for us about the upcoming melee changes:
Q: There will be some form of UI limitation on the number of available abilities. Are disciplines going to be included in this limitation?
A: There will be no UI restriction for the new skills. Each of them can be made into a Hotbutton and used from there, as well as from the new window. The same is true for disciplines.
Q: Given an Empty endurance bar, for a level 65 warrior, with no endurance buffs, how long would it take him to regenerate it to full? Level 20? Level 50?
A: We're still working on tuning that particular piece of the puzzle, so I can't give you any sort of accurate answer. But I can say that you won't have to sit down to regain endurance faster then standing up, so you don't have to worry about having to med.
Q: Which classes will be receiving endurance buffs, and by what percent are you aiming to have +endurance buffs effect regeneration?
A: We are still working out the details about who will get what endurance buff spells. Right now we do not plan to create any spells that regenerate endurance.
Q: When you get ressed are you planning for peoples endurance bar to go to zero, much like Mana is today?
A: We have been toying with various levels for endurance to be restored after a resurrection. At this point we're thinking of setting it something near 25 to 50%, to allow some use of disciplines and skills upon resurrection, but not unrestricted usage.
Q: Most of the released data I've seen regarding the changes are going to be events or skills or whatever to occur during the course of the fight. The real warrior problem is in the initial pull where they can't establish initial aggro the way a Knight can. Will anything be done in the new system to address this concern?
A: Several of the new skills allow each of the melee classes ways to control aggro. Warriors should see an improvement in their ability to gain "snap aggro", as it's often called, that is not tied to an opening.
Q: Presumably, the different disciplines will drain different amounts off of your Endurance bar. Combined with the lack of a timer, will this result in, say, a high level Warrior being able to /disc offensive, and then /disc evasive immediately after?
A: Yes, if a warrior has enough endurance in his pool, he may very well be able to use two unlinked disciplines in a row. We've generally linked them into different categories of similar abilities. For example, you won't be able to use Evasive and Defensive back to back, as they'll share the same reuse timer. But you may be able to use a more offensive discipline such as Mightystrike.
Q: How frequently can we expect to see openings? Are they being put on a timer? Are they randomly generated, like procs? Will there be a way to "force" them?
A: That's another thing that we're tuning. But the goal would be to have a few appear during each fight in and experience group situation. Obviously more during a boss fight, because they last a lot longer. There is no "timer" for openings. They are essentially random, and there is currently no way to force an opening.
Q: How long will the opening window last? The two-second-ish window on test right now is a bit staunch. 6-8 seems right, but I don't play a "pure" melee.
A: We've been increasing the time that an opening is available. We want it to be long enough that you don't have to "twitch" to take advantage of the opening, but not so long that waiting to activate a skill becomes a strategy.
Q: Will the UI be customizable in a way that players don't have to stare at a button for half an hour to catch one opening? As it stands, the openings are very easy to miss.
A: Our UI is fully customizable. But you will have to pay attention to use openings. There is an indicator in the window as well as a chat message, so they shouldn't be hard to notice. We're planning on making additions to the UI that make it easier to tell when you have an opening. We're certain that players will come up with their own methods to change the UI to their own tastes, but we'd like the default to effective as well.
