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Top ten update 1/7/04 from EQLive

Started by Grbage, January 08, 2005, 03:18:14 PM

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Grbage

Beastlord Top 10 list for 01/07/05

Items 2, 4, 6, and 10 have mulitple "Proposed solutions," please see post above for detail.
1) Beastlord slowing: This will most likely be considered as part of the class Re-Envision process.
Beastlords currently are unable to perform the role of main slower in a group to a reasonable level in an increasing number of zones. The problem with our slow isn't the % it does, but rather the resist rate on the spell and as a result of the high resist rates the streaks of resists we see.
Proposed solution: Add a new slow spell for beastlords in our omens spell line that has a -30 resist mod on it.. This will allow beastlords to better land slows and function as main slower for groups without having the beastlord actually debuff the mob or affect how other classes or even other beastlord spells are landing.

2) Beastlord sustained dps: DPS for all classes to be evaluated with the class Re-Envision process
This is an issue that comes about because of progression. Since beastlord dps is divided up among melee, proc, pet, and non-melee beastlords simply gain less % wise from a weapon upgrade than other classes do. If you take a class like monk or warrior and give them a weapon that is 10% better than what they are using they will see almost a 10% boost to their overall dps. However, a beastlord getting that same 10% weapon upgrade will see closer to a 3% boost to their overall dps. Weapons have had a major tendency to improve in terms of dmg/del ratio, but stay the same in terms of proc damage. This causes a lot of problems for beastlords because we rely so heavily on proc dps. An example of this would be the ED from time that only has a 16/22 ratio, but out performs a SotA that has a 23/20 ratio. Weapon ratios have gone way up, but with few exceptions proc dps has stagnated for awhile. With the GoD expansion and now omens all of those smaller % gains have added up to beastlords at the higher end doing less sustained dps than they should be. Please note that this is a problem that comes about because of progression, itemization and a few other factors. Beastlord sustained dps is nice up through about the plane of time level of the game. However, after that things start to fall off and beastlords dps simply doesn't scale up as well as it should resulting in beastlords doing less sustained dps than they should be.
3) Beastlord "burst" dps: DPS for all classes to be evaluated with the class Re-Envision process
This is a similar issue to #2 in that it comes about largely because of the beastlord division of power. Most other classes are able to "burst" by using a disc to raise their damage or mana dumping. A beastlord, however, can't mana dump because our nukes are on a 30sec refresh timer. Also our discipline only affects the melee portion of our damage. That means that while other classes can disc and almost double their damage for the duration of the disc a beastlord only doubles their melee damage. This leaves their warder damage, proc damage, and non-melee damage at the same level as before.

Proposed solution: The easiest way to fix this issue is to make it so that beastlord burst disc and AAs boost more than just the melee portion of a beastlords damage. Bestial alignment is a GoD AA for beastlords that raises just our melee damage currently and has roughly double the reuse time of most burst disciplines. Lowering the reuse time on this AA to be inline with other burst disc type of skills and having it give our pet a buff would help raise our burst dps. Another thing to consider would be adding an effect to it that raises our non-melee damage well the effect is going. Again it's an issue of the division of power and beastlords need some way to "burst" the other aspects of their damage and not only their melee damage if they are expected to stay inline.

4) Beastlord aggro issues: Currently being discussed
I know it seems kind of funny to talk about aggro problems right after talking about how beastlords aren't doing enough dps in various cases, but that's just how it goes. The fact is beastlords generate far too much aggro for the damage they are doing. In fact, part of the reason many people think beastlord damage is higher than it really is currently is because beastlords are generating so much more aggro than they should. The main cause of this is because of how much aggro is associated with non-melee damage and the fact that beastlords have to be close and melee'n while doing their non-melee damage. Please note that beastlords are ok with getting aggro well slowing or doing other things that generate aggro, but doing 100+dps less than another class and still pulling aggro off the MT isn't right.

The largest cause of aggro problems currently for beastlords is poison dots. Many beastlords simply can't use these in a group or raid setting because the aggro they generate is so much higher for the damage done than other forms of damage. Initial aggro tests done showed the level 61 poison dot having roughly double the aggro to damage ratio of our nukes. Add in the fact that extra damage from crits/focus don't raise nuke aggro, but tests have shown extra damage from crits/focus to raise dot aggro and things just get worse. Actually things get worse even without factoring in focus/crits because the level 66 beastlord poison dot has 80% more poison counters on it than scorpion venom had. This spell should be a proc on an uber warrior weapon, not a spell for a dps class that has no reliable means of actively lowering aggro.


5) Spell casting reinforcement mastery (SCRM) This item used to be part of #9 but it's important enough that it is being placed on the list as it's own issue.  We currently do not have any development feedback on this issue

Beastlords are a buffing class and this AA seems to fit us well.  This AA would help a beastlord in group sustaining short duration buffs such as haste, regen and fero.  Also this AA would finally make it so that a beastlord could have their SD line of spells last as long as the refresh timer on MGB.

Proposed solution: Grant beastlords access to this AA.


6) Ferocity of Irionu - This item used to be part of #9 but it's important enough that it is being placed on the list as it's own issue.  We currently do not have any development feedback on this issue

This spell simply costs too much mana for the small boost it gives over the level 65 version.

Proposed solution: Increase the benefit of this spell in relation to the previous version.

7) Add a group version of Infusion of spirit - This item used to be part of #9 but it's important enough that it is being placed on the list as it's own issue.  We currently do not have any development feedback on this issue

This spell didn't fit well with our GoD spell lineup because of where it dropped. With omens out now though and 66 runes being tradeable it seems like a good place to add this spell in for beastlords. The beastlord omens spell line up is weak to begin with and this spell + stat cap mod would be a nice addition to it.

Proposed solution: Add in a group infusion of spirit spell at level 66 that breaks the stat cap.

8) Pet buff box: Currently being discussed
The ability to now see pet buff timers is a nice change, but pet classes are still wondering if changes will be made that allow us to manage our pet's buffs like we do our own. There are many stacking issues, ninja buffing happens and especially with pet affinity it's very common to have a buff on your pet that you don't want for whatever reason.
Proposed solution: Allow us to click off or somehow selectively remove the buffs we want from our pet.

9)  Omens utility issues: This will most likely be considered as part of the class Re-Envision process.


Beastlords have always been a DPS class with group utility in the form of slow and buffs. Slow was mentioned above, but buffs also need to be mentioned now. Especially with omens beastlord buffing could some adjustments. The main problems are lack of useful buffs, marginal increases to buffs we do use and the tediousness of maintaining buffs.

Proposed solution:

Change Focus of Alladnu to be a group hp buff.
Change Spiritual Ascendance to give +11/11 instead of the +10/10 it currently gives. The spell line for Beastlords has followed the same progression from level 44 up to now. Even by keeping the same constant +2/2 boost the % gain we see is still diminishing.  Please remember that unlike many of the other mana regen buffs that also receive upgrades to the HPs or wis/int they give SD is only a regen buff with the mana being by far the most important part of it.\
Increase the duration on the entire spiritual line of hp/mana regen. Currently a beastlord even with maxed SCR AA can't sustain MGB'n SD because the spell has such a low base duration. Beastlords aren't asking for 2+ hour base duration, but would like to see at least a base duration of 1:12 like our hp/atk buff line of buffs has. 

10) Beastlord pet heals: Currently being evaluated
Pet healing is one of the main things the beastlord class was built on. We had hands down the best pet heals in the game. In fact, our heals for our pet were comparable to cleric heals. However, since PoP beastlord pet healing has fallen off a lot. Both our level 61 and our level 66 pet heal spells have a 9 second base casting time. That is simply too long for the heal to be useful. Beastlords are a melee class and in most cases the 9 second pet heal simply isn't practical. Many high level beastlords don't even keep a pet heal spell mem'd anymore and instead find themselves relying on the exact same tools every other pet class uses (pet mend, pet regen, PoC, etc)

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Ashlanne Barefoot
Sony Online Entertainment
Bare Foot and Flame Resistant since 2000
Grbage Heep
85 Beast of Torv