Ideas for 2011 expansion/State of the Class

[AbyssalMage]

I would rather have a pet root then a pet mez, its more in line with sham that has VP and it would add sime cc to us again but not be OP

Why would you want to have pet root? Snare > Root unless your thinking about root parking (cc) then possibly, but root CC doesn't work all that well in current content as is.

AoE/PBAoE slow proc (25%, no counters, 20 minutes base duration) would be nice to replace the crap we have now. Or combine Slow/Snare with no charges seeings that they share the same spell slot on the buff list.

[Zunar]

Yeah Root from the warder I can't see how it'd be good tbh. a root cast by self would be much more useful.
But then again, I don't know if that'll ever happen.
Maybe in some limited form, but that'd probably become useless to us then.
About warder mez, I was thinking something in line with Warder Growling at the npc, making it too scared to take any action for like 6-12 seconds.
Then it could be made with limitations so we can't mez more than one mob, and not too often either /shrug
I don't know if chanters would cry about it...I'd leave that to them tbh....just throwing ideas out here :)

[Zunar]

One idea that just came to my mind...
I found myself often enough emergency healing groupmates in the dps group when the shaman died, but our heal isn't good enough to save the group..
What would be cool is if we got a call ability, so we can call back the shaman (we can rezz them using loyalty points rez potion too anyways, but meh)
Either that, or a group heal of some kind, so we can keep the group alive until the healer returns.
Of course, this group heal shouldn't step on any toes, so it should have limitations of some kind..either a long reuse timer or added negative effects to balance it off.
I wouldn't want it to change us into a group healer, but instead it'd be a situational emergency solution.

Some ideas are maybe a 2 minute group heal over time buff that also has a 10% damage reduction to the group. They wouldn't want to rely on something like that cuz it hurts dps, but it'd be a nice save when there's no healer around for the moment..
It could be a pet proc group heal, with a longer reuse timer, so we don't get stuck in the tank groups to heal..

I think it's at the same time a dangerous idea to give bsts a group heal, so it has to be done carefully, so it doesn't change our current role, imo.
Any thoughts welcome :)

[Zunar]

From SOE EQ forum, AA dev...
Time to think about new AA.

Yep.. it's that time again. Time for you guys to start collecting your thoughts about what you want from new AAs. I'd recommend compiling and vetting a list and submitting it as a class rather than just a random stream of PMs and such.

Some guidelines:


If an ability has a recast time shorter than 5 minutes, it's likely better served as a spell. Of course there are exceptions, but that's pretty much a guideline.
No refresh time on a spell can get any faster than 50% of its original cast time, no matter how much you want it.
Crit Chance likely is never going to be upgraded again.
Slows just aren't happening. We're not going to make them better.
"It's about time", "It's only fair", and "We've asked for it for X years" are NOT valid reasons for getting something.
Just because you ask for it, doesn't mean it's going to happen.


Oh.. and please please please.. one VERY SPECIFIC DETAIL I'd like from each class is what they'd like to see in a 4th Spire ability. I won't guarantee I'll make them, but I'd like very much to know where your collective heads are on the idea.

Elidroth Renato
-----------------------------
Doug Cronkhite
Game Designer
Sony Online Entertainment, LLC

[Zunar]

One idea that comes to my mind, is Bolstering warder....maybe to make an activated AA that would either significantly boost this spell for a period of time, say 5 minutes tops, then with a reuse timer.
After that wears off the spell would work as normal again. It'd just make it worth something situationally for raids..

And, as already said, a new version of Bolstering warder to heal the group instead of target's target, so we could choose.

For the 4th Spire, I know we've wanted a crit chance mod (iirc) asked for already, but reading Eli's post I don't know if it'd pass....but he does state crit chance isn't going to be upgraded....I wonder if that means the passive AAs or what.
Anyways, a 4th spire to boost spell damage is still the way to go imo.
Call it beastlords called nukes or whatever :P

[Nusa]

Quickened Focus Paragon - Reduce cast time of Focused Paragon by 10% - 5 ranks

[kharthai]

Anyone willing to compile a list or whatever?  I salute you if so :p

Couple AA I wouldn't mind, for the hell of it:

Sha's Guardian- 5-10 minute reuse offtank pet.  High hp, high aggro but low dps, maybe some sort of aggro proc if needed.  Should stand up to a group mob for a decent time.  My preference for model would be lion or some other animal that isn't often used, or alternatively- a race specific, different coloured version of our warder (red scaled wolf, white bear, etc).  Would be nice to help deal with the odd overpull/add or whatnot.  Would also give pet lovers something new to look at, without forcing us to use more pets to dps.. which is very unattractive in the raid game.

Cheetah Pounce- Short reuse AA that launches the beastlord forward, similar to Shadowknight Hate Step.

4th Spire- Would like some way to augment our spell damage.  

Oh, and AA slow.  Not sure it's worth requesting- however, it wouldn't have to be a "better" version, which is what Elidroth seems to frown on in his post.  Anyway.. UF we got outright rejected on the AA slow, after shaman got theirs.  Fast forward to HoT, enchanters get a brand spanking new AA slow.  I'm not sure what the deal is.

[nedoirah]

Oh, and AA slow.  Not sure it's worth requesting- however, it wouldn't have to be a "better" version, which is what Elidroth seems to frown on in his post.  Anyway.. UF we got outright rejected on the AA slow, after shaman got theirs.  Fast forward to HoT, enchanters get a brand spanking new AA slow.  I'm not sure what the deal is.

As far as I know there are only 4 classes with the ability to slow a mob not counting stuns or other outside abilities: Bard, Beastlord, Enchanter, and Shaman. I'm only talking about the pure slow ability. The two pure caster classes (chanter and shm) both have AA slows. The hybrid casters (bard and bst) don't unless something has changed. Did bards get an AA slow? If they did then it would stand to reason we should as well. If they didn't and we do then it would stand to reason they will either want it or should get it. Just trying to add weight to us getting an AA slow.

An AA/spell I'd like to see is one that binds our warder to us like the Bond of the Wild spell from LoY that gave both of us 150 hp and a few other nice little boosts for our pets and not be blocked by the other hp and other effect boosting 20-30 spells/aa out there.

[Inphared]

Did bards get an AA slow?

Nope. Bards have had the same slow since Planes of Power.

[Zunar]

Here's an attempt to collecting all the AA ideas...I miss anything?

Edited from suggestions/info so far.
Please let me know what you think.

4th Spire
-- increase our spell damage for 2 mins, crit mod or twincast possibly.

Playing possum
-- AAs to upgrade it's effectiveness, and reducing the timer.
-- AAs to make it persist 100% through an AE/spell cast from an npc.

Bestial Alignment
-- upgrade
-- extended Bestial Alignment

Empathic Fury
-- extended Empathic Fury
-- more hastened empathic fury

Frenzy of Spirit
-- Make a rk3 that triggers on the warder as well

Flurry of Claws
-- A single target version

Gelid Claw
-- Activated proc instead of innate

Protection of the warder
-- to stack with the cleric Vie line.

Protection of Spirit discipline AAs to enhance
-- shorter reuse
-- longer duration 24 seconds

Increase beastlords AC softcap. (like armor of wisdom does)

Warder's Gift
--AAs to reduce reuse to 1 min (monks mend ability is set at 30 sec, 1min would still be half of theirs only)
--AAs to increase heal

Asp/Claw/Smash
--AAs to increase effect
--make them 30second reuse?

Chameleon Strike
--AAs to increase effect

Companion's Sacrifice
--hastened AAs to reduce Reuse

Paragon and focused paragon
--Increase power on both, especially focused paragon, which falls behind abit
--quickened focused paragon AAs, or make it insta cast

Taste of Blood
-- Rework this to trigger from self or warder, either way hitting both with the buff

AA slow
AE slow, either self or pet cast

Second Spire
--Possibly rework 2nd spire to something more useful, like making it overwrite
bolstering warder with a bigger version with procrate triple/quad for the spire duration.
As it stands now, 2nd spire is never, ever used. 20K damage isn't too hot anymore.

upgrades to the normal abilities like burst of power, double atk etc.

Third Spire
--Same here, it's worthless, so reworking this into an effect that actually matters to use is a must.
The third spire should be the most powerful one, but our current one is a lackluster...and 1st/2nd spires are even better.

Hastened Nature's Fury

---NEW stuff---

Sha's Guardian- 5-10 minute reuse offtank pet.  High hp, high aggro but low dps, maybe some sort of aggro proc if needed.  Should stand up to a group mob for a decent time.  My preference for model would be lion or some other animal that isn't often used, or alternatively- a race specific, different coloured version of our warder (red scaled wolf, white bear, etc).  Would be nice to help deal with the odd overpull/add or whatnot.  Would also give pet lovers something new to look at, without forcing us to use more pets to dps.. which is very unattractive in the raid game.

Cheetah Pounce- Short reuse AA that launches the beastlord forward, similar to Shadowknight Hate Step.

Warder's Gemination
--activated ability to make the pet proc at double rate, or double cast all procs.

New Activated AA--Pet Summon Master
1hr reuse/ instant Cast/ Does not wipe agro.  Pet can summon BST to pets location.  
Can work well when parking pet, and BST out of position due to AOE or doing quest turn in.  Etc.

Flurry ability

Pet weapons
-- A way to summon/craft our own, or buy from vendor?

Pet Armor
-- Make our warders summon clothed?
Also been suggested to rank our pet spell, and make rk1 normal, rk2 summoned with armor, and rk3 with armor and some weapons...preferably with no elemental proc.

Terrifying Stare
-- Give our pets an activated ability pet stops dps, but is able to mez-park a single mob (add like ~3% chance of mob fleeing (fear) instead to make it intersting?

defensive AA that has a chance to proc a pet every time we are hit. I really like this spell line that other classes (Cleric, Pally, Mage) have. I would love to have one also. Short duration (2 minutes unfocused), 30 charges, and 200(or 400) mod to trigger would be awsome.

Proc modifier ability - Activated, Make weapons proc every swing for a set amount of time (can be used in many ways depending on the weapon proc, deagro, heal, stun etc)

Specialized weapon AAs
AAs to boost HtH and 1hb

2hander AAs

Feel free to forward from this post or use this list maybe.. :)

[Gatash]

Just some of my thoughts on the list compiled by Zunar:

- Protective Spirit
I would be against adding a set number of hits to this ability, but an increase in duration would be nice. With a set # of hits, the more mobs you have on you, the less time the ability would be active. I commonly use this skill with multiple pulls while I try shift some mobs onto pet, get them slowed or burn one down a bit so my life is in the lap of the gods for less time :). In these cases, imo it's much better to know you have a set amount of time to get the situation under "control".

- 2nd Spire
I seem to remember this being the only spire we had that gave parse-able returns or was 1st Spire upgraded? I have been using 2nd; can't remember where I read it on these forums so could be wrong. I haven't even bothered buying 3rd Spire, so I would def like that being upgraded :)

- Defensive AA that procs pets
Could an activated riposte modifier AA not serve a similar purpose? It's a shame things like Feral Swipe don't scale properly with players and neither would AA defensive pet procs.... at least with riposte it would scale with weapon quality. I don't like the idea of adding any more weak pets to our arsenal, I would prefer the ones we already have continue to upgrade.  

<Edit: Realised this would also increase damage mitigation (brain on a go-slow). If it is not intended only to increase dmg output and not mitigation whilst tanking, could use a modifier to either increase the chance of double riposte skill for x seconds or somehow increase the base dmg of riposte itself? Other alternative would be a high dmg DS based on porcupine spines or something but this last one again wouldn't scale.>

With the exception of the AoE slow (which I can't decide if I would like), I think the list looks good. Thanks for taking the time to compile it Zunar, not had time to read whole thread.

[kharthai]

Protection of Spirit discipline
-- or possibly much longer timer with # hits it can soak up before fading.



Ew. No! :p

[Nusa]

Messing with Protection of Spirit is asking for nerfage in some aspect of it....it's pretty awesome as it is! I'd much rather propose ANOTHER defensive disc of some kind.

1st spire remains valuable when the pet isn't there, because it's usable without the pet being up....otherwise, 2nd spire is the best of the bunch.

Remember, when being asked to submit AA ideas, don't include disciplines unless they're AA based, don't include regular spells, and don't include bug or non-AA wish lists, because the AA guy is more likely to look at our ideas seriously if they aren't buried in stuff that's not relevant.

[Zunar]

what about hastened Nature's Fury?

[Orbus1]

Pet Armor
-- Make our warders summon clothed?

The idea was to add levels here like our other spells, Rk 1 is normal, Rk 2 has armor, rk 3 has armor and weapons(with no procs, or maybe something like lifetap or some other type that won't cause any issues like cold or fire)