sauruman
06-08-2006, 05:18 AM
This thread will be for tracking items that have received RESPONSES from the developers, and questions that remain UNANSWERED. Red will indicate answered questions, while white remains unanswered questions
This listing will be updated from the top weekly, and the older items will be at the end of the thread.
Week of July 5, 2006
(this weeks question had a bunch of links that don't easilly copy over, see this thread (http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/post?board.id=necromancerbalance&message.reply_to_id=3275) for a version with links)
How do the developers view necromancers as a class evolving over time? This question is to help the necromancer community mesh better with the developers, and understand what areas are best to focus in on.
In particular, what factors lead to the eroding of many of our utility spells? Was it a change to make necromancers a pure dps class instead of a class with a support role? A few examples to follow:
Screaming terror has received no upgrades since it was added into the game. Although an upgrade was hinted at some time back, nothing has come of it. With its three tick duration and no resist modifier, this spell wasn't unbalanced in its era, nor would it be in a current upgraded form working to level 70 or past that. Often when used in the old world this meant the necromancer had to switch to a CC mode instead of DPS, instead of doing both in that particular setting, which was refreshing and welcomed by the group, versus wiping.
The fear "upgrades" were capped so low level wise that they were rarely/never used. A fear upgrade must go beyond the level range of the player, since it is SOE's concept that players now fight creatures of equal or greater level then themselves. Level 65 and lower creatures aren't likely to be targeted by a level 70 necromancer.
On the undead vane, necromancers used to be "masters of the undead"
-Our undead mez doesn't work reliably on content in our level range with its -10 modifier
-DD versus undead is trumped by our high end dots with its pitiful 1610 damage and frequent resists despite the supposed -100 modifier
-Undead charm spells haven't scaled with content, plaguing it with the same issues our enchanter brethren suffer. Low damage output, frequent charm breaks and generally not worth the risk v. reward instead of normal methods of damaging. Also this spell is capped at level 65 when necromancers are normally hunting undead creatures at or greater then their level. In order for this spell to be viable it would have to land on creatures in the dodh 70 spell arc for instance, while scaling with new content.
Degeneration (takes str/sta from creature and shares it with group) and crippling claudation (takes attack from creatures and shares it with group) haven't been worth using since stats maxed out on characters. These spells were central to luclin group play and now have paled away. Were they too powerful to continue in another form in todays game, such as adding a damage or avoidance modifer when cast?
How come the resist checks on our spells such as lifetap and our damage over time spells haven't remained competitive, when we are the pure derivitive? I.E. Shadowknights get a special lifetap with a -500 resist check, while our best lifetap pales in comparison at -200. More damage isn't always better if there are no guarentees on its use. Lifetap no longer is the "lure" spell it once was for our class making a few fights where damaging the raid boss is nearly impossible. There are many high resist situations where necromancers desperately need low resist spells for that highly resistant creature, and we are curious if some remedy is in the works or if the perception by the dev team is we are doing ok regardless of these dynamics.
Our pets usefullness seems to have been phased out of usage for sometime now, and we are curious if any fixes are in the works. By keeping the damage low and the difficulty to maintain high, it is darn near not worth the effort to use our pet these days, when a single dot can out dps him on raid encounters. Not to mention to keep the poor guy alive requires constant healing and management so as to keep him alive and kicking. For something that adds such a minor dps increase, the difficulty of use must reflect the difficulty of use.
By addressing some of these general areas we are hopeful some common ground can be finally reached on these longstanding and important issues.
-------------------------
Week of June 26, 2006
This is a three part aggro question for whoever wants to take a stab at it :smileywink:
1) Nothing aggro reducing works on Necromancer dots past the zero tick. This makes it difficult for lower level Necromancers without death peace, or Necromancers with inferior tanks to survive. Are there plans in the future to make aggro reducing foci and AA's work on dots past the zero tick?
2) Dot crits still create twice as much aggro as a normal tick does. This is contrary to direct damage type spells which suffer only a minor increase in aggro for this boost in damage. On the same principle as above, is it possible to look at this long standing issue and correct it?
3) Finally, not all Necromancers want any kind of reduction in aggro, no matter how minor, all the time. Silent Casting is a wonderful AA for those fights where aggro is a real issue, like PoTime Zeks, or more recent content such as Zi Thuuli. If your a necromancer and want this ability you must train spell casting sublety first, which is something I won't do myself as I like my high aggro for kiting. Is it possible to remove the pre-req from silent casting and allow the aa to be purchased on its own merits so we can toggle when we have high or low aggro?
"This is being looked into but no concrete plans have been made for this at this time."
(no dev citation, this is exactly what Kytherea wrote in reply)
---------------------------------
Week of June 19, 2006
Necro question (Zajeer)
From the March 22nd HoC chat of this year this question was asked:
"Brannoc - *Arial* Hi! This question is for Zajeer. Being that most of the items in the game have been itemized through demi plane is there any plans to rethink some of the more less desirable drops and possibly bring them in line with there counterparts? "
With this answer:
"Zajeer-Dev - I’m definitely open to feedback on specific items from specific zones that seem a little less than desirable for certain players. I’ve been receiving a ton of feedback through email, the boards, and in game about specific items and how to make them better. I’ll be keeping an eye on specific items and making adjustments in the coming patches. "
Some input from the necromancer community includes adding additional modifiers to our demiplane class item.
-Spellshielding
-Shielding
-Dot Shielding
-Stun Resist
-Regen/FT
All the above modifiers are getting rarer and rarer, and unless they are added to more armor, it will be incredibly hard for necromancers to keep maxed at one or multiple mods.
Additionally, changing the mod from evocation (which caps at 100 for 99.9% necros) to either alteration or conjuration would be helpful, as this is where almost all our spells come from. Adding a modifer such as ID IV would also help bring the item more on par with other items in the zone.
Thx!
-----------------------------------------------
Week of June 12, 2006
Apokalyps wrote:
Why was the necromancer oow tier 1 and teir 2 clickies changed in the June 13 patch? The clicky used to last 60 secs, now it lasts 18 and 36 secs respectively. To say the community is up in arms over this 2 year old content nerf would be a severe understatement at best.
In this form the clicky is mitigated severely and many folks who over the course of years have paid top notch amount of DKP for a misrepresented item. EQ players are entitled to continuity of content and knowing the items they loot aren't subject to revision two years and many expansions after the fact.
Message Edited by Apokalyps on 06-14-2006 03:23 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Rashere) The change was intentional to bring the necro clickes to some semblance of balance with the other OOW clickies. It's still far more powerful than the other ones, but not quite to the degree it was before. It's not changing back.
------------------------------------------------
Week of May 29, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTION:
Apokalyps wrote:
Is it possible for necromancers to get channeling mastery as we damage nearly as much as enchanters do?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWER:
Channeling Mastery is mainly a tank ability to help them cast their spells while in combat. It was offered to Enchanters as well because they often find themselves under attack, moreso than other intelligence casters. It's not something we are planning to offer Necromancers, Magicians, or Wizards.
-------------------------------------------
Question week May 15, 2006
-PoR spell inquiry re-submitted
--------------------------------------------
Question week May 8, 2006
-Willful Death AA inquiry re-submitted
---------------------------------------------
Question week May 1, 2006
Necromancer question:
Can Willful Death receive adjustment to become a viable pulling and survival ability?
Willful Death only works at a maximum of 25% of the time, and when it fails, it is difficult to ascertain and usually the result is death. Increasing the ability so that on a resisted spell it works 100% of the time would make it reliable and effective, and help Necromancers pick up the pulling slack when other classes are not available.
Increasing this ability some degree of reliability would not be unbalancing, yet would promote fairness. Monks have a 100% chance to FD though a spell, if resisted, and a 50% chance if not. Bards have fade. Shadowknight’s- the Necromancers hybrid- have a heightened ability to survive due to their higher mitigation, AC, and HP. Over time Necromancers have received little to no help in modifying their pulling ability, but modification of this ability could help in that regard.
Thx!
Since I received a message after posting from Kytherea in the question thread saying that aa's won't be seeing an answer for a while, I submitted an alternate question:
Q (Prathun): Spell damage upgrades are essential in each expansion in order to keep Necromancers in line damage wise. Considering the only dps upgrade of the expansion was a trap spell which is at best one of the lowest damaging dots we've got in years, while having a plethora of CC and no ability to see the functioning of it from the players perspective;
Is it possible for either:
1) Changing our trap spell to an aura that increases % damage for the group of all dots run (set 20% or so), as per discussion with Rytan during beta? Or perhaps removing our aura spell all together for a pure damaging spell, like a low resist prismatic or chromatic dot with decent efficiency.
2) Increasing the Mind Flay upgrade from 15mana/tick to something higher/tick or with a lower resist (either magic or poison instead of disease like MW was)
3) Increasing the new lich from 7mana/tick to 15mana/tick being that its function and the duration between expansions merits a full upgrade and not an ancient?
In any case, there is ample discussion on beta spell boards, eqnecro.net, eqlive (necrotomb), and necrotalk.com regarding the type of spells necromancers would like to see replace the current form.
Thank you very much!
This listing will be updated from the top weekly, and the older items will be at the end of the thread.
Week of July 5, 2006
(this weeks question had a bunch of links that don't easilly copy over, see this thread (http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/post?board.id=necromancerbalance&message.reply_to_id=3275) for a version with links)
How do the developers view necromancers as a class evolving over time? This question is to help the necromancer community mesh better with the developers, and understand what areas are best to focus in on.
In particular, what factors lead to the eroding of many of our utility spells? Was it a change to make necromancers a pure dps class instead of a class with a support role? A few examples to follow:
Screaming terror has received no upgrades since it was added into the game. Although an upgrade was hinted at some time back, nothing has come of it. With its three tick duration and no resist modifier, this spell wasn't unbalanced in its era, nor would it be in a current upgraded form working to level 70 or past that. Often when used in the old world this meant the necromancer had to switch to a CC mode instead of DPS, instead of doing both in that particular setting, which was refreshing and welcomed by the group, versus wiping.
The fear "upgrades" were capped so low level wise that they were rarely/never used. A fear upgrade must go beyond the level range of the player, since it is SOE's concept that players now fight creatures of equal or greater level then themselves. Level 65 and lower creatures aren't likely to be targeted by a level 70 necromancer.
On the undead vane, necromancers used to be "masters of the undead"
-Our undead mez doesn't work reliably on content in our level range with its -10 modifier
-DD versus undead is trumped by our high end dots with its pitiful 1610 damage and frequent resists despite the supposed -100 modifier
-Undead charm spells haven't scaled with content, plaguing it with the same issues our enchanter brethren suffer. Low damage output, frequent charm breaks and generally not worth the risk v. reward instead of normal methods of damaging. Also this spell is capped at level 65 when necromancers are normally hunting undead creatures at or greater then their level. In order for this spell to be viable it would have to land on creatures in the dodh 70 spell arc for instance, while scaling with new content.
Degeneration (takes str/sta from creature and shares it with group) and crippling claudation (takes attack from creatures and shares it with group) haven't been worth using since stats maxed out on characters. These spells were central to luclin group play and now have paled away. Were they too powerful to continue in another form in todays game, such as adding a damage or avoidance modifer when cast?
How come the resist checks on our spells such as lifetap and our damage over time spells haven't remained competitive, when we are the pure derivitive? I.E. Shadowknights get a special lifetap with a -500 resist check, while our best lifetap pales in comparison at -200. More damage isn't always better if there are no guarentees on its use. Lifetap no longer is the "lure" spell it once was for our class making a few fights where damaging the raid boss is nearly impossible. There are many high resist situations where necromancers desperately need low resist spells for that highly resistant creature, and we are curious if some remedy is in the works or if the perception by the dev team is we are doing ok regardless of these dynamics.
Our pets usefullness seems to have been phased out of usage for sometime now, and we are curious if any fixes are in the works. By keeping the damage low and the difficulty to maintain high, it is darn near not worth the effort to use our pet these days, when a single dot can out dps him on raid encounters. Not to mention to keep the poor guy alive requires constant healing and management so as to keep him alive and kicking. For something that adds such a minor dps increase, the difficulty of use must reflect the difficulty of use.
By addressing some of these general areas we are hopeful some common ground can be finally reached on these longstanding and important issues.
-------------------------
Week of June 26, 2006
This is a three part aggro question for whoever wants to take a stab at it :smileywink:
1) Nothing aggro reducing works on Necromancer dots past the zero tick. This makes it difficult for lower level Necromancers without death peace, or Necromancers with inferior tanks to survive. Are there plans in the future to make aggro reducing foci and AA's work on dots past the zero tick?
2) Dot crits still create twice as much aggro as a normal tick does. This is contrary to direct damage type spells which suffer only a minor increase in aggro for this boost in damage. On the same principle as above, is it possible to look at this long standing issue and correct it?
3) Finally, not all Necromancers want any kind of reduction in aggro, no matter how minor, all the time. Silent Casting is a wonderful AA for those fights where aggro is a real issue, like PoTime Zeks, or more recent content such as Zi Thuuli. If your a necromancer and want this ability you must train spell casting sublety first, which is something I won't do myself as I like my high aggro for kiting. Is it possible to remove the pre-req from silent casting and allow the aa to be purchased on its own merits so we can toggle when we have high or low aggro?
"This is being looked into but no concrete plans have been made for this at this time."
(no dev citation, this is exactly what Kytherea wrote in reply)
---------------------------------
Week of June 19, 2006
Necro question (Zajeer)
From the March 22nd HoC chat of this year this question was asked:
"Brannoc - *Arial* Hi! This question is for Zajeer. Being that most of the items in the game have been itemized through demi plane is there any plans to rethink some of the more less desirable drops and possibly bring them in line with there counterparts? "
With this answer:
"Zajeer-Dev - I’m definitely open to feedback on specific items from specific zones that seem a little less than desirable for certain players. I’ve been receiving a ton of feedback through email, the boards, and in game about specific items and how to make them better. I’ll be keeping an eye on specific items and making adjustments in the coming patches. "
Some input from the necromancer community includes adding additional modifiers to our demiplane class item.
-Spellshielding
-Shielding
-Dot Shielding
-Stun Resist
-Regen/FT
All the above modifiers are getting rarer and rarer, and unless they are added to more armor, it will be incredibly hard for necromancers to keep maxed at one or multiple mods.
Additionally, changing the mod from evocation (which caps at 100 for 99.9% necros) to either alteration or conjuration would be helpful, as this is where almost all our spells come from. Adding a modifer such as ID IV would also help bring the item more on par with other items in the zone.
Thx!
-----------------------------------------------
Week of June 12, 2006
Apokalyps wrote:
Why was the necromancer oow tier 1 and teir 2 clickies changed in the June 13 patch? The clicky used to last 60 secs, now it lasts 18 and 36 secs respectively. To say the community is up in arms over this 2 year old content nerf would be a severe understatement at best.
In this form the clicky is mitigated severely and many folks who over the course of years have paid top notch amount of DKP for a misrepresented item. EQ players are entitled to continuity of content and knowing the items they loot aren't subject to revision two years and many expansions after the fact.
Message Edited by Apokalyps on 06-14-2006 03:23 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Rashere) The change was intentional to bring the necro clickes to some semblance of balance with the other OOW clickies. It's still far more powerful than the other ones, but not quite to the degree it was before. It's not changing back.
------------------------------------------------
Week of May 29, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTION:
Apokalyps wrote:
Is it possible for necromancers to get channeling mastery as we damage nearly as much as enchanters do?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANSWER:
Channeling Mastery is mainly a tank ability to help them cast their spells while in combat. It was offered to Enchanters as well because they often find themselves under attack, moreso than other intelligence casters. It's not something we are planning to offer Necromancers, Magicians, or Wizards.
-------------------------------------------
Question week May 15, 2006
-PoR spell inquiry re-submitted
--------------------------------------------
Question week May 8, 2006
-Willful Death AA inquiry re-submitted
---------------------------------------------
Question week May 1, 2006
Necromancer question:
Can Willful Death receive adjustment to become a viable pulling and survival ability?
Willful Death only works at a maximum of 25% of the time, and when it fails, it is difficult to ascertain and usually the result is death. Increasing the ability so that on a resisted spell it works 100% of the time would make it reliable and effective, and help Necromancers pick up the pulling slack when other classes are not available.
Increasing this ability some degree of reliability would not be unbalancing, yet would promote fairness. Monks have a 100% chance to FD though a spell, if resisted, and a 50% chance if not. Bards have fade. Shadowknight’s- the Necromancers hybrid- have a heightened ability to survive due to their higher mitigation, AC, and HP. Over time Necromancers have received little to no help in modifying their pulling ability, but modification of this ability could help in that regard.
Thx!
Since I received a message after posting from Kytherea in the question thread saying that aa's won't be seeing an answer for a while, I submitted an alternate question:
Q (Prathun): Spell damage upgrades are essential in each expansion in order to keep Necromancers in line damage wise. Considering the only dps upgrade of the expansion was a trap spell which is at best one of the lowest damaging dots we've got in years, while having a plethora of CC and no ability to see the functioning of it from the players perspective;
Is it possible for either:
1) Changing our trap spell to an aura that increases % damage for the group of all dots run (set 20% or so), as per discussion with Rytan during beta? Or perhaps removing our aura spell all together for a pure damaging spell, like a low resist prismatic or chromatic dot with decent efficiency.
2) Increasing the Mind Flay upgrade from 15mana/tick to something higher/tick or with a lower resist (either magic or poison instead of disease like MW was)
3) Increasing the new lich from 7mana/tick to 15mana/tick being that its function and the duration between expansions merits a full upgrade and not an ancient?
In any case, there is ample discussion on beta spell boards, eqnecro.net, eqlive (necrotomb), and necrotalk.com regarding the type of spells necromancers would like to see replace the current form.
Thank you very much!