Ok let's get started...

[Karaja]

Weapon caps: This is indeed my greatest issue atm too. we have a lot of nice 1hb, piercers available, but are most likely not going for due to the loss of 50-100atk.


Petheals: I also agree here, my pet died a few times due to casting a 7 (or 9?) second heal was way to slow even after burning pet LoH. Against GoD mobs the pet usually is dead and against Time AE's too.

A new heal would be nice, clerics, druids, shamans, rangers, pally's all got a new one, where is ours?

Dot tick agro is something i have been noticing more and more. For my Shadowknight it's great when i want agro, festering darkness, ignite blood is 150% sure agro, but for my beastlord 1 scorp venom tick isn't something i want to see getting me agro.

Agro control: Many thanks for my new dagger of distraction to proc a agro decreaser else i would be dead in a few boss fights yesterday. But other then that weapon i can't really think of one that is usefull enough to wield. Giving us WA5 and LDON procs results in more agro then we can possible loose.
I am not going to wait 10secs after attack call just so i don't die during a MT switch.

AA's

Very happy with all my AA's i get to pick, but im missing the SCF mastery line. I mean even shamans get it and you know how much they nuke  :roll:

[Tastian]

"If you want a fix for our spell casting aggro then find out if they would concider giving us access to the Spell Casting Subtletly AA that Shamans get."

I personally don't like the idea of SCS and I know lots of others don't because most of our aggro issues come about because of other issues atm.  Beastlord weapons with procs like ED that are big aggro.  Dot "tick" aggro that hopefully will be looked at soon, etc.  

"Very happy with all my AA's i get to pick, but im missing the SCF mastery line. I mean even shamans get it and you know how much they nuke"

Shaman nuke a lot.  With the aggro of dots it's simply not worth it in many cases or fight duration or whatever.  Lots will simply chain tears/torrent or some other combination.  DoTs are mostly used well solo'n.

Some good points/suggestions here.  Keep them coming and like I said I'll throw everything together with what my take on not only this thread, but other talks/threads is and let you know what I'm thinking before I submitt anything.

[Karaja]

Note that it was sarcasm Tastian I play a 65 shaman too and also play a friends one  :P .

On the subtlety aa, it's about as usefull as innate int, unless they put a toggle on this (read the SK boards, they'd like a toggle too  :D ) it won't do us much good.

[Bheran]

I'd love to see a "joltish" solution ot our aggro. When I'm tanking LDoN's or am the secondary tank in a group, the aggro is nice. But too many times I've gotten "lucky" on some crit dots and all of a sudden, I'm getting beat on.

Also, pet survivablity is a pain, even with pet mend and the rune. I'd be very excited to see the aforementioned HoT ideas for both pets and pc's.

[Chackra]

Somebody on this forum recently (sorry, don't remember who) wrote up a very good explanation of why a Shaman-style HoT would seem appropriate for high level BSTs.  This would seem to help the aggro issue, Ranger heal envy, and even pet heal issues all in one.  (My big problem with pet heal is I use it so seldom, I hate to allocate a spell slot to it; then I end up needing it and bye bye dogzard.  An HoT could be fast-casting, and almost as efficient as a pet heal.  I figure if my pet needed a big burst heal, then it probably didn't deserve to live anyway.)

As for the ATK caps, I wouldn't mind being limited to H2H weapons if there were just some more variety in them.  Why not some big-hitting, slow H2H's like the old Fist of Rock?  And hey, how about some graphics love for H2H?  Somebody here recently pointed out how you can look around the bazaar and see dozens of stupendous swords and staffs.  But the H2H weapons are either 1) grey, slightly curved claws; or 2) a glowy red half-circle.  Mega lame.

[Purrfekshun]

One important thing:

If we get a quick heal over time spell (mini-topor) or whatever, please let it be in the Short Duration Buffbox. (the one bard songs and such go in)

I generally don't have enough buff slots left for regen unless there's a shammy in the group, and even less if the mobs are casting lots of debuffs. Same is true for my group, my heal would just get in the way of a real torpor or celestial heal. Short duration buffbox would fix it up real nice =)

And as long as i'm here, putting cleric HoT's and torpor/qui in the SDBB would be awesome too. OOh, and paragon! I hate having paragon not stick on someone because they're full on buffs and got tashed or something.

This is possibly the best idea I have ever heard!  Beastlords are the absolute worst at having full buff boxes;  this leaves a choice of the beastlord leaving off buffs for HoT's, or the cleric/shammy not being able to cast these mana efficient spells on beastlords.  I also play a cleric, and this is always an issue when I group/duo with a beastlord friend (I didn't realize how bad it was from the beastlord perspective until I started playing one).  Change the SDBB to buff <1 minute and things would be so nice.

[Tastian]

"Note that it was sarcasm Tastian I play a 65 shaman too and also play a friends one"

I know, but some don't hehe.  I've seen threads get off track real fast from one stray comment or misread so wanted to make sure it was noted.

"Somebody on this forum recently (sorry, don't remember who) wrote up a very good explanation of why a Shaman-style HoT would seem appropriate for high level BSTs."

Beng made the post as I recall and I reread it over recently.

I've given my test results on dot aggro to them and a few other tests.  Brael (sk rep) gave some more of his results and it is simply very clear that with BA/CA the extra damage you get gives you extra aggro, unlike how nukes work.  I think this change is one that will help keep beastlord aggro down in some places, but I think even without dot'n you have some beastlords that simply swap/bag weapons or turn off attack in places.  We'll see how things go, but I think beastlord aggro is an issue that will be effected by a few different changes.  I'm not sure we need a jolt type of spell if other issues are addressed and I'd rather not see it done through an AA because this is an issue that effects a lot of ranges of beastlords and I just don't like the idea of having to be 55 or 62 or whatever and spend 12 or 20 or whatever number of AAs just so you can not pull aggro well doing less damage than someone else.

On the issue of pet heals.  Are more people concerned with actually healing the pet in a raid type of enviroment where pet mend, PoC and Pet affinity just isn't enough?  Are you more concerned with healing the pet as he OT's in groups?  I've found that it's almost impossible for pet heals to be efficent enough at later levels to let the pet tank well solo'n in any real capacity.  The loss of my melee dps along with his mitigation just makes having the pet tank so inefficent that no reasonable heal ratio will help.  I do think the 9 second casting time on sorsha is too long though for almost any situation.

[Tastian]

The buff box issue is another issue I've talked about some and I'm sure others will have their opinoins too.  I find that with the increasing number of NPC debuffs/dots/etc that the buff box is just too small even when you aren't loading up on buffs.  I try to keep as many spaces free as I can, but when I've got 1-3 MGB heals, 1-3 dots, and a debuff on me it's kinda hard to have frenzy of spirits or bestial allignment stick.  

The SDBB isn't the answer imo though because if you have a bard in your group they can almost fill it on their own.  1 decent bard + another bard doing AE resists = full SDBB.  I'd like to see them simply increase the normal buff box like they did the NPC debuff boxes on test recently, but will have to see how it goes.  Definitely an issue that effects almost all players too and not just one class or even just the ubers.

[JillieMT]

I only have one comment, and it's the agro issue.

I don't think *we* have the problem. I think tanks have the problem. Increase the hate that taunt generates, and we are good to go. It's that simple.

[Chackra]

Are you more concerned with healing the pet as he OT's in groups? ...  I do think the 9 second casting time on sorsha is too long though for almost any situation.

Most of the pet heals now seem to be set up for the Pet Cleric role, but I think 90% of us would rather melee, and just have a fire-and-forget spell for when the pet gets in trouble.  I may be dumber than most, but in exp groups my pet is usually at full health, but then will take damage without me even being aware and I won't notice until he's in trouble; then my goal is keep the pet alive so that his regen can take over and I can get back to fighting again.  I don't want to stand there forever and CH him back to full health.  I hate coddling the pet, it just makes him soft.

I just one something quick and readily available to do this.  (Man, the more I think about it, the more I want that HoT!)

[Tastian]

"I don't think *we* have the problem. I think tanks have the problem. Increase the hate that taunt generates, and we are good to go. It's that simple."

The reason I don't think it's a tank issue anymore is you have wizards doing 400dps for several minutes and not taking aggro.  You have rogues throwing out 300+ dps and not taking aggro.  Then you have a beastlord that didn't slow the mob or debuff it at all, that is doing ~250 dps(counting pet, but pet doesn't add to aggro) and is pulling aggro from a poison dot, or not using a poison dot, etc.  I've seen more beastlords than I can count bag their EDs at times or not use poison dots, even sometimes hold back on nukes a bit.  On most raids I don't even use poison dots because they are almost guaranteed aggro and until changes go live I don't want to eat the buff slots on someone else, but it's still quite common to see my name 2-5th when MT goes down.  This is well rangers, wizards, necros, rogues are out damaging me on this mob.  Why should beastlords get eaten for doing less damage than other classes?  

Also understand that in lots of GoD spots aggro and not mana is the limiting factor for wizards.  If you raise aggro generation for tanks then wizard dps is going to go up even more.  Keep the ideas coming, but atm I do think the aggro issue for beastlords is more because of DoT aggro, because of non-melee/proc aggro and not so much an issue that tanks universally need to generate more aggro.

[Kitvear]

Well, I've been watching my "slow aggro" lately, not to the level of detail that it should have been given.   On a big mob with a warrior tanking, I almost never draw aggro.  I watch the tanks hps and listen for the healer to call thier ch and I find some balance in there to land my slow without aggro.  It's the grinding groups with pally's and sk's that really get me.  Forget about casting a dot, I draw aggro with my slow 1 out of 4 times mainly on resists to be sure but the pallies stun and sk's dot just doesn't seem to be cutting it in fast pull groups for me.

As for dot's, I keep scorpian venom loaded nearly at all times.  I can't cast it in a ldon without getting aggro but it's nice when a add is whaling on a healer because it's one sure way to snap aggro off of someone.

I don't have enough spell slots as it is, otherwise I would love "jolt"
I agree about SCS, there is time's I need aggro and would hate to spend aa to get myself neutered so to speak.
The hate reducing pet proc idea sounds good, though if the tank dies, in a exp group, I would want to be able to still rise to the top of the aggro list.
As much as I want to be able to modify my place on the hate list I can't think of a single situation where I would want to have less hate on me then the healer does.
Perhap's we can have a hotkey'd ability that does something similar to evade.

[Nonposter]

I have an issue with Frenzy: After I cast it, my ENTIRE spell bar greys out for 30 seconds. I cannot cast ANY other spells until 30 seconds have passed. I can rt-click items with effects, I just cannot cast any other spells. I am not aware of any other spells that do this.

I also do not like the 2 min recast time on Ferocity/Savagry. I would rather see a higher mana cost, or grey out my entire spell bar for 30 seconds (like Frenzy curently does) than have to wait on the 2 min. What ends up happening is I have to start timing my Fero rotation way before any raid targets are hit, get into a rotation, and stay in that rotation...for 4 hours! If it is just me, then no prob...if I am trying to keep it on 2 or more people, and miss a rotation, then they are SOL for 4+ mins. Other than decrease the recast time, a longer duration or making it a group effect would be nice. It is too much a PITA to bother with if trying to keep on more than 1 person. If it is sooo unbalancing, remove the ability to cast on others.

I would agree with pet heals not keeping up with mob damage. When I started my beastlord, I would fight until 70% hp, then back out and med. Usually the pet would need 1 or 2 heals before the mob was finished. Now, I have to step into combat to prevent my pet from dieing. It has almost come full circle (pet saving me early, now I have to save her). We can heal about 175 dps chain casting our best heal, which cannot keep up with PoP Tier 1+ mobs. Either up pet mitigation, or improve our pet healing dps.


I would also like to add: I like being a utility player. I dont care if I do the most DPS, slow the best, tank the best, heal the best, have the best pet, buff the best, etc. I would like to be an acceptable alternative in any situation, rather than be the best in one area. I started playing my beastlord almost 2 years ago. I pet clericed/melee'ed my way through the levels. I had gear that most people laughed at, but still leveled faster than most of them (even other beastlords). LDoN's have opened alot of people to the power of a beastlord, as you can have several in one group, and they all do different things. Let me keep my utility.

[Rhutubok]

/agree weapon skill caps. Huge, big enormous /agree!

Haven't seen it mentioned, but I would also love if pet procs overwrote one another (including Hobble). If Hobble stacked that'd be even better, but just allowing us to change procs without annulling would be enough for me. My apologies if this has been mentioned already.

Rhutubok

[Jataan]

Beastlords are simply put, THE single most balanced class for all 3 areas of EQ, ie: Solo, Group, Raid. I have played 5 classes over 50, 2 of those are Time/GoD flagged. No other class enjoys our diversity and utility except maybe Bards, and they had a good 5 year fight to get to that point.

1. Healing...Chloroblast is works just fine with a few AA's. I do not want the roll of spot healer. I have plenty of responsibility now. If we get a Torpor type spell crammed down our throats please please please make it self only.

2. Aggro...This is the whole key to the game on a raid. DO NOT steal aggro from the MT. This is a difficult job. Some of our tanks allow me to go full bore, when others MA i know i need to hold back a little bit, maybe wait 4-5 seconds longer before going "Beastly" on the mob.

3. Skill Caps...Being limited to 1 type of weapon is one of those negatives we have to endure for the very long list of positives that we enjoy. But the problem is NOT that we only have 1 weapon skill at 250, it's that we share those weapons with a very popular class that just happens to also be the melee class that churns out heinous DPS from any direction and has the best de-aggro ability in the game.  The solution isn't raise our piercing or 1hb...make a couple bst only weapons.

4. Pet heals...Sometimes, some fights, pets die.

 I am sorry but i feel that we are the absolute best class in the game and our real issues are pet shrink, backwards claws, certain zones where you suddenly achieve a 1 FPM video rate, /tar Jata  gets my warder more often than me. Not 1 of the above 4 issues is an issue in reality. I have not 1 problem operating as a beastlord with the current restrictions in place, it defines my role. There are things i simply stink at. This make Bst differ from Rog and Brd and Rng and War and Shm. This is why i love my beast !