An idea for consideration....

[Leatherneck]

From my post on this thread:

http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=Veterans&message.id=20789

I can understand where you're going with this, but honestly....I detest short duration buffs.  Ferocity is both a boon and a bane.  It has a great effect, but the short duration + long recast makes it just obnoxious to deal with in a group/raid setting.  Add to that the coming of the OoW Ferocity-type spells and that's 6 Fero-like buffs, averaging 1 per minute.  Tossing in more short duration buffs would mean very little time fighting, most time buffing.

However, thinking about your idea gave me one of my own.  How about a non-cast buff.  A bonus simply for having a specific class in your group.  IE ranger.  What if, by having a ranger in your group, your own ranged attack damage was a little bit better (say...2%, tho that might be a bit low).  And more than stacking, what if they resonated.  Instead of 4% for having two rangers in your group, 125% of the bonus, so 5% improvement in ranged attack.  Or if you have a wizard in your group, your DD based damage improves.  Druid?  Natural regen improves.  Beastlord, Attack improves.  Mage?  Pet damage improves.  Monk?  Hand to hand improves.  War?  HP improves.  Knight (including both SK and Pal) AC improves.  Numbers would have to be carefully looked at, but it would make group selection (both for exping and for raids) somewhat more interesting.

That would have the bonus you're looking for in making all classes wanted-assuming numbers and stats to be improved were carefully chosen...giving shammies a general stat improvement wouldn't be very impressive but giving shammies an ATK bonus twice that of BSTs could help make them more viable in a grouping choice.  It would also add a new dimension to the game, IMO.  Plus, no extra burden to the player.  It should be a small enough bonus that it doesn't step on the bard's toes any, but still tangible.

Considering I spent more time typing this out than thinking about the idea, obviously it's very rough.  Yet a potentially interesting idea to begin with.

[bham]

I had a similar thought a while back.

However, it was more of a case of you select what buffs you want on group/raid members and then the mana cost of the spell is divided by the duration to get a mana cost/tic. The buff is then permanent whilst the person is in your group/raid and the cost is subtracted from your current mana regen each tick. I.E. Ferocity costs 600 mana and lasts (for ease of calculations) 6 mins, or 60 ticks. Therefore, you select how many people you want to Fero and you lose 10 mana every tick for each one. The ferocity is permanent, with no need to recast, as long as the people are in your group/raid and you dont die/run out of mana.

If all buffs were run this way it would change EQ significantly. If you want kei, you must have a chanter in your group. If you want virtue you must have a cleric in your group. If the beastlord that cast spiritual dominion on everyone in the raid dies then everyone loses SD immediately.

Such a radical change to the buff system would probably not be acceptable to Sony or the EQ player base. Although, I believe that a similar system, or at least one where you need that class in your group to get that classes buffs, is being implemented in EQ2.

Just another idea.