Update top 10 list (9/24/04)...

[Tastian]

1) Omens of War spells – Currently Beastlords get fewer spells than similar classes and many of the spells we do get have issues that could use tweaking.  In the post below the spells and their issues are listed.

This is a new item; I hope to have information on this issue when we next update the lists, scheduled for 10/08/04



2) Pet buff box – The recent changes to pets have been wonderful and I think it's safe to say all pet classes are very happy with the changes. What most of us were wondering is if it's possible to have the pet buffs display their remaining time and to also be able to click off pet buffs like we do our own buffs.



Situations where this would be very useful -



   * Pet haste is a very important buff, but it has a big refresh timer when you first memorize it. If it fades during a fight the beastlord will be in a much harder situation. Spell slots are already pretty limited as it is and not everyone has half a dozen egg timers around to keep up with pet haste, fero, haste, regen, etc.
   * Hobble of spirit and other buffs that once they land on the pet you can't get rid of them or overwrite. When a paladin lands Brells on the pet there is no way to get vigor on the pet for the extra attack outside of waiting for Brells to fade or dispelling the pet down to the buff you are after.  With all the ninja buffing going on, pet affinity and now pets zoning it's simply become more and more common to find a buff on your pet that you simply don't want or that is blocking something you do want from taking hold.  

Buff timers for pets going on Test server soon [TM]





3) Agro issues – This is a big beastlord issue that a lot of people don't quite understand. Beastlords are ok with getting agro from high agro spells such as slow and incapacitate. Beastlords are also ok with getting agro when they are simply putting out more damage or doing things that obviously should draw the mob's attention. The problems with beastlord agro become clear in raid situations and many grouping situations though. What you'll have is the beastlord operating in a total DPS role. By that I mean the

Beastlord isn't on slow duty or de-buffing the mob, but rather is just contributing damage via melee/nukes/dots. In this situation a beastlord is generating far more agro for the damage they are doing than most if not all other classes.  Again the problem isn't when a beastlord is doing 200dps and they get agro over someone doing 150dps.  Rather you have situations where a beastlord is actually doing less damage than many other classes; they haven't de-buffed the mob or done anything else to generate agro, yet they are the ones that pull agro off the MT or get summoned and killed first on tank changes. Some would say that the beastlord simply has to do less damage or watch their agro with that tank.  However, this same tank that can't keep agro off the beastlord doing X damage is successfully keeping agro off the wizard doing X+100 damage or the rogue doing X + 50 damage, etc.

Currently being discussed



4) Modify pet heals – Currently healing of Sorsha (62 beastlord heal) is all but unusable by Beastlords. The spell sees some use as the beastlord levels up, but as the beastlord progresses the spell gets used less and less. The main problem with the heal is its 9 second casting time. In almost any situation a beastlord would find themselves wanting to cast a heal on their pet 9 seconds is just far too long to wait. As such many Beastlords simply don't memorize the spell at all.

Currently being evaluated



5) Feral swipe – Feral swipe is an AA that has a lot of potential, but unfortunately suffers from several issues. The first problem with feral swipe is that its current DPS boost is very minor. In even the best of situations the skill does notably less damage than kick does. The skill being on a one minute refresh is very streaky and it's not unheard of to go 15 minutes without having a single feral swipe land.  Also the AA still has a small range issue. The range was increased once, but it wasn't quite enough. There are still monsters that you can melee, but you can't land your feral swipes on. Spacing is extremely important in these cases and as such feral swipe becomes completely useless. Finally, feral swipe takes up yet another hot key space that is getting to be in almost as much demand as spell gem spaces. When a beastlord has pet controls, kick, prot spirit, possibly spells and macros along with other AAs in their hot key bank they simply don't have room to add another button. I know several Beastlords that haven't purchased this skill simply because they have no room to actually activate it well playing.

Currently being evaluated



6) Pet run speed – This is mainly an issue indoors, but what happens is you have Beastlords with various ranks of AA run speed and swift journey that leads to the pet simply getting left behind sometimes or taking awhile to catch up.

Currently being evaluated



7) Pet spam - This is an issue for all pet users, but one that could really use some looking into.  Currently messages for "backing off" and "holding" are done in /say and with

a couple pet classes present the spam quickly becomes annoying.  Another pet spam issue is that of bard songs + pet affinity.  If a beastlord (or any pet class) has a bard in their group they will constantly get "fade" messages from the songs the bard is singing.



Proposed solution:

   * Change the pet messages to be "tells" to the pet owner and allow filters to turn these on and off as the owner sees fit or at least put them into a different window if they so choose.
   * Allow a toggle to turn filter out spells fading off he pet.  Make it so short duration "buffs" such as bard songs don't give a message when they fade.

Currently being evaluated



2X4) Hobble of spirits – This AA has very few uses - First of all the proc buff overwrites relic, but you can't overwrite hobble back again. This would be a non-issue if #2 from above were done, currently though being locked into hobble and losing your other proc for its duration is a problem. Also hobble doesn't stack with relic. The beastlord gives up a lot of damage and a stun to get a semi-reliable snare currently.

Currently being evaluated



9) Gates of Discord AAs – It was said that once Omens was out the Gates AAs would be looked at. In the post below are the Gates AAs that most Beastlords feel need looking into and possible fixes for them.

This is a new item; I hope to have information on this issue when we next update the lists, scheduled for 10/08/04.  I do want to make note that the cost for Gates AA would be evaluated after Omens launch, not the AA's themselves.



10)     Warder names – This is actually a two fold issue.  Some Beastlords want the ability to name their warder as their warder is a close friend and life long companion.  Another issue with the current warder names is that it creates issues with targeting.  If you use /tar you are likely to get the Beastlord's warder and not the beastlord.   This can lead to issue with buffs and heals.



Proposed solutions:

·         Allow beastlord warders to be named upon reaching a certain level; similar to how surnames work.

·         Make it easier for players to properly /tar the Beastlord or their warder

·         Add an exclamation point or something to the front of beastlord warder names so that by typing /target tast" the person will target Tastian, but by typing say "/target !tast" the player would then target Tastian`s warder instead.

Currently being evaluated

[Hereki]

I think it's time to ask for Turpetan Spirit back in some form as spell available for those beastlords unlikely to be in a position to get GoD runes.  Possibly as a 66 OoW spell, or as a vendor spell :).  Although not of value to the extremely well equipped raiders who were able to get it before, TS was of great value to less well equipped players, and is of greater value now that stat caps have been raised with OoW.

[Tastian]

To quote myself hehe...

"Group infusion of spirit.  This spell was highly requested by beastlords, but where it came from in GoD made it almost useless to those that could actually get it.  Now that omens is out and the stat caps are going up again a lot of beastlords could use the spell if it were put at level 66."

This is on the list.  I didn't post the entire break down of the list because with all the spell and AAs the list was much longer than usual hehe.  If people want I will copy/paste over the breakdown though as well.