New Beastlord AA Discussion

[Swampfunk]

Greetings Beastlords,

    I am Swampfunk, a troll berserker.  But I am also  Gatorfunk, troll Beastlord.... anyways, there is an upcoming beta and expansion in the works over at SoE.  Due to the fact that the Beastlord community has no single class leader at this time, I figured I would try to help out. 

   Why am I helping out? Because Beastlords need a voice with the Dev team.  Why should you care? I've been doing the community feedback thing for the last 3 years for berserkers... I run GoBerserker and I know several of the Developers on a closer than most basis.  If you feel I'm stepping over my bounderies by starting this post, feel free to PM me.

  So, basically, I was just hoping to get people to toss out some serious suggestion for the next round of AA.  It could be a continuation of previous AA or a completely new idea. It's important to consider the impact of an AA on the single and raid ends of the game, also it's important to consider the power impact of an ability.  Basically anything that sounds too powerful, probably is...  But, I always suggest to dream big and then let the Dev's decide whats proper.

Anyways, some AA I personally hope to see next expansion:

Upgrade to Double Attack,
Tripple Attack
Nuke Crit Size Mod (similar to Vetern's Wrath for melee crits)
a Self proc buff (like panthers but, an AA button... similar idea to Berserker Blood Pact)
A new Melee Disc that is AA
Much MUCH more powerful Paragon but in a GROUP only form (*no MGB*)
-or- Single Target Paragon with much more regen in it...
A New Beastlord debuff similar to Cripple but on an instant cast timer... with a 2 minute reuse... (like Roar of Thunder... but no damage, and a different set of debuff qualities)..
OverCap Slowing
Bestow Divine Aura on Pet type of ability (e.g. like Mend but a DA for the pet instead)
Flurry AA


Well this is just me rambling out some idea's... really the pro beastlords need to post their ideas.  I promise to send all the quality idea's to a Nodyin's email box personally..

-Funk

[Damim]

I'd still like to see Spell Casting Reinforcement Mastery.  I doubt it will happen, but one can dare to dream!

[Pindol]

Besides the obvious upgrades like paragon line and some other shared AAs, I would like to see something like this...:

1. New and improved Bestial Alignment in the form of orange wolf with the recast timer cut to 15 min.
2. Raise the Beasts - same line as necro AAs but limited to animals.
3. Gift of the beasts - similar to effects of Growl of the Panther, but with 2 min duration, recast every 30 min and effecting the whole group (MGBable also perhaps).
4. Run3, 4 and 5 for pet
5. Advanced Pet Focus - pet will only attack when told without the need of pet hold after each kill. It will also stay on after zoning.
6. Advanced Frenzy of Spirit
7. Advanced Taste of Blood - make it fun and usefull
8. Touch of the Beast- when HPs drop below 30%, beastlord has a chance of 10, 25 and 50% to summon a beast which would shield the beastlord and provide minor healing.
9. Some new, no DD deagro
10. Cure AA similar to other curers

[Inphared]

5. Advanced Pet Focus - pet will only attack when told without the need of pet hold after each kill. It will also stay on after zoning.

I believe it's already been said by developers that they want pets to require attention, and won't do this.

[Khauruk]

My thoughts (including non-AA)

Upgrades:
*Bestial Frenzy - overhaste, high % damage mod, 10% chance to Rake per round (my preference), something to bring it up to date.
*Ragged Claws - more damage
*Bestial Alignment - change to smaller illusion (I like the werewolf idea), reduced reuse timer (7AA/rank, 4 ranks, 15 minute timer reduction per rank), perhaps innate 15% spell overhaste?
*Roar of Thunder - increase damage
*Fetter - some sort of upgrade, dunno what but some sort of continuing pet utility
*Paragon - single group, 6 x as potent as what the MGB'able upgrade would be.

Discs:
*Deagro disc, not on shared timer w/ any other discs, should have short reuse timer
*Rake upgrade - becomes weapon ratio dependent (highest ratio of worn weapons).  Current rake should be considered 1:1 ratio weapon for tuning purposes.

Spells:
*Growl upgrade
*Haste - 45minute base duration, 55%, single target
*Ferocity upgrade - lobby for something cool (offense), but await NPC AC changes from beta to lobby hard /shrug.  Needs different defensive portion for sure - %Spell Shielding/Dot Shielding is my recommendation (can be subject to current worn cap, as few melee are maxed on either/both, works double nice for melee then)
*Heal - double ratio of current heal again w/ only minor efficiency upgrade
*Slow - additional -15 resist check, 2 minute duration

[Khauruk]

I appreciate your voice Swamp...it was cool to see some people (mainly Wycca and yourself) in the last beta working with, rather than against us.

Some thoughts on your thoughts:

Upgrade to Double Attack,
Tripple Attack - another several ranks of bestial frenzy would be nice, aye.
Flurry AA
a Self proc buff (like panthers but, an AA button... similar idea to Berserker Blood Pact)
All of these will increase our agro a considerable amount.  Imo, Beastlords already have rather high agro for the amount of dps that we do.  I'd rather see an extension of our current special attacks (whether just raw upgrades, or gear-based scaling) to provide more dps.  Triple attack in particular:  Triple attack is currently ~20% (at lvl 70 anyways) for monks, etc,....  With our current 50%, we would get half the benefit.

Nuke Crit Size Mod (similar to Vetern's Wrath for melee crits)
Would be nice

A new Melee Disc that is AA
See my thoughts on Frenzy of Spirits upgrade

Much MUCH more powerful Paragon but in a GROUP only form (*no MGB*)
-or- Single Target Paragon with much more regen in it...Hell yeah.

A New Beastlord debuff similar to Cripple but on an instant cast timer... with a 2 minute reuse... (like Roar of Thunder... but no damage, and a different set of debuff qualities)..Any specific thoughts on debuff type?

OverCap SlowingI have a hard time seeing the devs implementing this concept, as it would break all raid content up to now (much of it anyways).

Bestow Divine Aura on Pet type of ability (e.g. like Mend but a DA for the pet instead)Are you thinking of this simply so we could use pets better as a growl 'battery,' or for general survivability?  If survivability, I'd think an endurance-based large Vie effect could work much nicer (along the lines of 25+%)

Rejoinders?

[Pindol]

OverCap SlowingI have a hard time seeing the devs implementing this concept, as it would break all raid content up to now (much of it anyways).

With introduction of triple attack and implementing it into NPCs in the near future....overslow makes perfect sense. If the mob is currently slowed partially..lets say 25%.....adding 10% from overslow casted by bst will not break the current raid content imo. Just like overhaste has never broken past contents...more and more dps is required with each expansion we buy and try to raid. It's a new concept and with diminishing function of original thought of slowing and more and more mobs with flurry and better accuracy...........it might be worth of putting this thought on the devs table. And..at the same time it would make  beastlord more desired in raids. Sometimes I get lazy and miss the message of slow being resisted....guess what...on mobs when it lands partially, I barely see the difference (while experiencing).
I might be mistaken, but the last time my slow landed fully was in Ferubi few yeas ago, lol.

[Vidyne]

Haste addressed - double duration single form or make it group.
Fero-line made useful if possible(It has its uses in my level of raiding, but I know the upper levels want something done to it)
Paragon upgraded
or Paragon changed to be group only and more powerful
Pet survivability increased a little - although most issues have been addressed... I believe aoe ramp still eats a few pets.

*note
- They won't give pets run3 because of PvP servers I believe that issue was discussed long ago /shrugs.
- They won't give us Auto pet hold because of the aforementioned post above about wanting pets to require thinking.

[Pindol]

- They won't give us Auto pet hold because of the aforementioned post above about wanting pets to require thinking.

Well....I agree with them for levels 1-79. When I am at level 80 with loads of AAs as prereqs...why not make it available? I guess they prefer making lousy upgrades like paragon line or create crappy AAs like Taste of Blood. It's time to push Nodyin to make something fun and usefull.

[sicshift]

how bout an AA that will allow you to see the aggro list of the current mob? maybe have it show the top 5. i can see that helping me even though i dont really raid but i can see that helping a lot of folks that raid as well. i think it would be a nice tool to help you avoid getting aggro. for example if you are number 2 on the list you might wanna wait a tad before dropping that bite of the empress

[Pindol]

how bout an AA that will allow you to see the aggro list of the current mob? maybe have it show the top 5. i can see that helping me even though i dont really raid but i can see that helping a lot of folks that raid as well. i think it would be a nice tool to help you avoid getting aggro. for example if you are number 2 on the list you might wanna wait a tad before dropping that bite of the empress

This sounds like an upgrade to the current leadership AAs

[sicshift]

as a leadership aa, that wouldnt do me any good. would rather it be an invidual aa so i can use it while boxing. also you would be able to tell if someone else is messing with your mob (kill stealing, etc) this would be something i would have up all of the time and i would prob never be able to get it if it were leadership =/

[Xacer]

The only way i see them fixed fero is to make it an aura...ive seen aura of ferocity on lucy so i assumed its close.

Triple atk would be great to improve our dps for raid purposes.

Group Haste with duration.

An AA id really like to see would be an illiusion with a benifit of defensive or offensive.  Necros have there skelly and mages there elements.  Why cant a beast have one. Im still quite upset with shammys getting werewolf when theve had bear forever and yet we get nothing.  Make and aa illusion for us like werewollf and give it some type of offensive or defensive ability this will help alot with grp, solo, or raid purposes.  Perhaps make the illusiion give triple atk, or added midigation.

The only way i see us getting more then one into a raid is to up our Dps to keep us in line or give us some type of benifit needed for a raid that others do not have. We are the hybrid of a monk/sham and yet we do not have the main purpose of either. Our buffs do not even compare to shamys. Nor do we dps or FD like the monk. If u look at the other hybrid classes they have shared purposes. Sks can tank like their warrior counterparts. Pally can do the same (and lets no speak of what they can do to undead).
Rangers have a unique purpose with there bows.  That being said what do we have?  1 buff that any box could do?...and if u take away our pets as most raids lately do that makes us even less effective due to our dps going down with pet and growl.
There are plenty of ways to up dps and we would like that but the spells are a problem. Endurance buffs would be great and give raids a definte need but why would sony give that to a hybrid class and no other? wont happen. Other ideas are dps buffs which shams have a lock on.  Our SV is great but hardly ever taken over bsg, mabye if they stacked? could be usefull. Which leaves us with our fero, like i said make ours an aura and that would help, but for raids give us a buff like fero that gives mabye atk,ac,resists...put it in the old fero buff slot so it does stack with quite a few spells and make it a grp but not mgb and thow a shorter time on it like a panther that way we would need more bsts to keep it going and up dps for the grp.

Last thing before my huge suggestion rant is done. If anything give us an aura that wipes enrage like the monks. That would save my pet 200 times over most often in raids when mobs hit that before ur know it and pets toast.

Or since this is AA type post. Give us a grp aa that increases pet dmg to all pets in grp and pets avoid ae ramp...Hello to being loved by all pet classes in ur group during raid.

The End sorry if this was way too long. Had to get it out  :-o :-D :-o

[Jazzera]

What do you think about add cure to paragon? it could be a nice soluce a get a new utility of this ability in raid situation and could be usefull in grp or solo
so it would still be MGBable then bst would be the only one class able to mgb cure and we will get a new utility in raid

And for pet survavibility what about a DI like spell for our pet?

[Tigrah]

I would personally like to see a line of AA to cut the reuse timer on some of our AA abilities. Such as, aa's to cut the reuse on bestial alignment (along with more powerful version)... I would also like to see some pet defensive, I'm sure someone has suggested that in this thread by now, I'm just giving my 2cp in support of that idea. SCRM would be wonderful, but... let's not be waiting for pigs to sprout wings here folks lol. I would love to see more utility, some of the paragon upgrade suggestions are nice, but we need raid specific utility as well as invaluable group utility. Thus we need some AA/spell abilities that are uniquely utilitarian and powerful enough to be a REAL asset to both group, and raid situations. if not together than similar lines made for those situations.

EDIT: hey swamp, thanks for stepping up to this job. I'd always thought inphared was our guy... don't know why lol. Much appreciated to all the bsts, and folks who support us that always lend their 2cp and try to better our class as a whole, in addition to the game as a whole. Cudos ppl.

FURTHER EDIT: I had forgotten one of the AA I would love to see the most. An AA that either allows us to use our warders as a mount, or gives us a mount in an appropriotely sized variation of our warders. Now that would be cool