Possible big changes incomming

[Bastler]

This change is already DEAD. The changes would be too complex and it wont be followed up for now.

RE: Defensive changes
The more work I put into this project, the more work I am uncovering that will need to be done in order to achieve the goals I set for success.

While I still believe the basic idea to be sound, the sheer scope of work involved is growing much larger than I expected, and is reaching a point where it may not be feasible or accurately testable. The NPC changes themselves are not hard. That data is fairly simple to adjust and test. Another issue gets into the fact that so much of raiding is scripted with many npc power changes happening within those scripts under specific conditions that the likelihood of catching all the changes accurately would be increasingly difficult.

Then there is the issue of healing. Were casters able to survive even a short increase in agro time, the light tanks and hybrids would then have a much easier job of tanking, to the point that they would be sustainable in a raid fight where they should not be. In short, literally all classes would have to be adjusted. Again, scope of the project growing out of reasonable limits.

In short.. this idea is likely dead in the water unless I can come up with a way to reduce the scope and still achieve the goals I set out in the 1st place. Considering how much I have on my schedule already, it's unlikely I'll be pursuing this further.

Link

[dorfillya]

I can't see why they couldn't have accomplished nearly the same goals by either reducing some (if not all) NPC's attack by a little, or increasing the player AC caps a little. Which does not sound so impossible to do, to me.

[Sillaen]

I can't see why they couldn't have accomplished nearly the same goals by either reducing some (if not all) NPC's attack by a little, or increasing the player AC caps a little. Which does not sound so impossible to do, to me.

For the very reasons mentioned above. For quite a bit of raid targets, if you bump AC up to the point where casters would be able to survive unhealed for a short period of time, that means light tanks could tank for quite a while and real tanks could possibly make it trivial, which would break the scripting or intent for quite a few raids.

Taking NPC attack down would net the same result. Either way you look at it, a lot of raids would have to be re-tuned and the scope of that kind of project is just too big for them at this time.

And no, you can't bump caster AC up without bumping leather AC up without bumping Chain AC up without bumping plate AC up. People would endlessly complain about breech of territory.

[svenalo]

People complain? In EQ? Surely you jest!

[Tweelis]

Just an odd random thought I had (not sure if it's a good one or not) but wouldn't bumping the AC over softcap on shields for different classes possibly have the same effect? Just making up numbers here but something along these lines:

Plate tanks keep: 1=1
Non-tank plate classes: 1.5=1
Chain classes: 2=1
Leather classes: 3=1
Silkies: 4=1

So this means a paladin, sk and warrior would get 1 real AC for every point of shield AC just as they do now. However my shield with 185AC would act like it really had 760AC. If a cleric had a shield with the same AC it would act like it had 277AC and so on and so forth.

Would this allow me to tank trash in MC or SS? Nope, but then again I wouldn't get one rounded either. A shaman would be able to take a couple more hits also but wouldn't be able to effectivly tank unless the rest of their gear and AA's were way overkill for the current content.

Just a though.

[Malleria]

It has merit. But it's no use to people who choose not to use a shield. Not only casters who make the choice out of preference, but monks, rogues, zerkers etc don't routinely use a shield.

[svenalo]

Especially when the math (thread over at SOE) is showing that the best mana return aug choice given the HoT changes is for us to get the best 2hr with mana return on it, and then put both of the mana return augs in that. That gives up our shield and a ton of AC.

[Daiou]

I haven't been playing EQ in a while so forgive me if there was an update i'm not aware of but...
Shields Armor class is calculated as raising your base AC. Therefore 100ac shield would net you 100ac. Its not actually that easy because there is a calculation involved IIRC but using true numbers, if your soft cap is 75ac a sheild with 100ac would change your soft cap to 175ac.

Here found a post that says what i remembered

http://chosenprophecy.guildportal.com/G ... 908&Page=1

sorry for the slight derail.