SOE Answers Questions About Melee Changes

Just in time for tomorrow's patch, Alan VanCouvering answered some questions for us about the upcoming melee changes: Q: There will be some form of UI limitation on the number of available abilities. Are disciplines going to be included in this limitation? A: There will be no UI restriction for the new skills. Each of them can be made into a Hotbutton and used from there, as well as from the new window. The same is true for disciplines. Q: Given an Empty endurance bar, for a level 65 warrior, with no endurance buffs, how long would it take him to regenerate it to full? Level 20? Level 50? A: We're still working on tuning that particular piece of the puzzle, so I can't give you any sort of accurate answer. But I can say that you won't have to sit down to regain endurance faster then standing up, so you don't have to worry about having to med. Q: Which classes will be receiving endurance buffs, and by what percent are you aiming to have +endurance buffs effect regeneration? A: We are still working out the details about who will get what endurance buff spells. Right now we do not plan to create any spells that regenerate endurance. Q: When you get ressed are you planning for peoples endurance bar to go to zero, much like Mana is today? A: We have been toying with various levels for endurance to be restored after a resurrection. At this point we're thinking of setting it something near 25 to 50%, to allow some use of disciplines and skills upon resurrection, but not unrestricted usage. Q: Most of the released data I've seen regarding the changes are going to be events or skills or whatever to occur during the course of the fight. The real warrior problem is in the initial pull where they can't establish initial aggro the way a Knight can. Will anything be done in the new system to address this concern? A: Several of the new skills allow each of the melee classes ways to control aggro. Warriors should see an improvement in their ability to gain "snap aggro", as it's often called, that is not tied to an opening. Q: Presumably, the different disciplines will drain different amounts off of your Endurance bar. Combined with the lack of a timer, will this result in, say, a high level Warrior being able to /disc offensive, and then /disc evasive immediately after? A: Yes, if a warrior has enough endurance in his pool, he may very well be able to use two unlinked disciplines in a row. We've generally linked them into different categories of similar abilities. For example, you won't be able to use Evasive and Defensive back to back, as they'll share the same reuse timer. But you may be able to use a more offensive discipline such as Mightystrike. Q: How frequently can we expect to see openings? Are they being put on a timer? Are they randomly generated, like procs? Will there be a way to "force" them? A: That's another thing that we're tuning. But the goal would be to have a few appear during each fight in and experience group situation. Obviously more during a boss fight, because they last a lot longer. There is no "timer" for openings. They are essentially random, and there is currently no way to force an opening. Q: How long will the opening window last? The two-second-ish window on test right now is a bit staunch. 6-8 seems right, but I don't play a "pure" melee. A: We've been increasing the time that an opening is available. We want it to be long enough that you don't have to "twitch" to take advantage of the opening, but not so long that waiting to activate a skill becomes a strategy. Q: Will the UI be customizable in a way that players don't have to stare at a button for half an hour to catch one opening? As it stands, the openings are very easy to miss. A: Our UI is fully customizable. But you will have to pay attention to use openings. There is an indicator in the window as well as a chat message, so they shouldn't be hard to notice. We're planning on making additions to the UI that make it easier to tell when you have an opening. We're certain that players will come up with their own methods to change the UI to their own tastes, but we'd like the default to effective as well.

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#Anonymous, Posted: Dec 18 2003 at 10:25 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) What i want to know is
RE: hit points
# Dec 18 2003 at 12:05 PM Rating: Decent
no matter what some people will not understand things till they are in front of their faces... *shrugs* wait till patch over (btw... this patch is long over the 4hour estimate =\ ) and post again then... =P
RE: hit points
# Dec 18 2003 at 10:51 AM Rating: Default
a) you do have reading comprehension, right? The BAR is changing, they aren't getting rid of the Stat "Stamina" ...

b) Use more than 1 hot button group, you have 10 you know... 10x10 is a lot of hotbuttons. SHIFT +1-10 to get access each group

C)You don't like spell effectS? Turn em off... sheesh. /showspells OFF, and turn opacity and density to 0.

D)WTF are you talking about? Nothing about the melee changes make us a Caster... We get new discs... WHEEEE! and later we get some more strategic abilities, this can only be GOOD THING.
RE: hit points
# Dec 18 2003 at 10:44 AM Rating: Decent
*
170 posts
Can't help you with the rest, but for #1...I am sure this has been answered many times, but the Stamina bar is changing to an Endurance bar. The Stamina statistic is not changing, and will still add to total hit points and probably affect your total Endurance.

Game on,

The Oneiromancer
So What now?
# Dec 18 2003 at 9:27 AM Rating: Decent
So what does everyone think the effect will be now on Paladins and Shadow Knights? We were finally on par in desireability with Warriors for groups and such after being a second choice for so long - it sounds to me like this may knock us back down to the end of the line?

Edited, Thu Dec 18 09:30:03 2003
RE: So What now?
# Dec 18 2003 at 9:54 AM Rating: Default
Paladins and Shadowknights get slightly stronger with the changes how Discs work... and pure melee get the ability to more damage or get agro.

I don't think Knights will have anything to complain about, unless they are set on becoming the ONLY viable tanks.
RE: So What now?
# Dec 18 2003 at 10:20 AM Rating: Decent
The way I understood it, they weren't going to change the timers on the existing discs, meaning that changes don't really affect us at all. Please correct me if I misread that.

The way it stood, Warriors had better HP, better DPS and better damage mitigation, but did not hold agro as well. Now, they will likely be the best in all 4, plus have some cool new toys to play with. If this was all just to help warriors hold agro better, why not just raise their taunt cap and give all the melees the new features?
RE: So What now?
# Dec 21 2003 at 5:44 PM Rating: Decent
And to add to that, your only 75% warrior, you should have 75% of the HP, and 75% of the dps. It's the price you pay for a manna bar.

RE: So What now?
# Dec 21 2003 at 5:43 PM Rating: Decent
Are you kidding?? warriors have more HP, more ac, yea, but DPS SK's own warriors, and pallies are about the same. you wanna be an SK and get cool spells, you wanna be a pally and get cool spells, fine, but STOP trying to cry when a professional warriors finaly get the MELIE ablites they should have had over SK/Pallies all along.

Hiredtanker 65 Warrior
Slaton 65 pally
Ricko 50's SK.
what about us!
# Dec 18 2003 at 8:40 AM Rating: Default
What about Rogues we get this stuff too right ? not just Warriors?
what other classes is this for
# Dec 18 2003 at 4:43 AM Rating: Default
all u warriors keep crying and i cant figure out if this for any other classes. Are pallys going to be affected by this? Then again nothing can hurt a good pally. We pally rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#Anonymous, Posted: Dec 29 2003 at 6:56 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) yeah so you pallys are ****** come find me in rallos zek names youwillpay lvl 42
RE: what other classes is this for
# Dec 20 2003 at 2:36 PM Rating: Default
I have found some upper lvl stuff for pallys in the library. I think the lowest I saw was lvl 30. Can anyone else shed some light on this?
hmm
# Dec 18 2003 at 2:25 AM Rating: Decent
MY #1 Question is simply Will it hurt a Warrior to have 0 endurance/sta (whatever they want to call it now) in reguards to regular combat. I understand all these new abilitys will require endurance, Im talking about just attacking, tanking, basically doing the things we do now.
RE: hmm
# Dec 18 2003 at 6:07 AM Rating: Decent
doesn't look like it
confused!
# Dec 18 2003 at 12:15 AM Rating: Default
ok so warriors disc's will take this endurance now? so we cant use /disc defensive if we dont have enough endurance?
??
# Dec 17 2003 at 9:06 PM Rating: Default
Quote:
We want it to be long enough that you don't have to "twitch" to take advantage of the opening, but not so long that waiting to activate a skill becomes a strategy.


Isnt that kinda the whole point of the whole thing.....?

Lieno 59Th Warrior of Brell
Sweet
# Dec 17 2003 at 7:49 PM Rating: Default
awesome, i cant wait for this expansion to come out. More into the new continent than the melee though. lol

http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=863505

Marroar Muffins
62 Druid
Prexus
RE: Sweet
# Dec 18 2003 at 12:29 AM Rating: Default
Don't get confused with the upcoming expansion.
All the melee changes are free and have nothing to do with the expansion.
RE: Sweet
# Dec 17 2003 at 8:17 PM Rating: Good
The man who started it all!
***
1,635 posts
The melee stuff is getting added in tomorrow's patch.
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