Agents will always be broken
Well it all comes down to FunComs incompatible design of the Agent class from day one. The Agent has never been compatible for PvP and PvM at the same time.
Agents need concealment for PvM, but is not even needed for PvP. You do not need any concealment skill to AS in PvP. Since you cannot sneak up on someone that can plainly see you on their computer monitor walking around in sneak mode. So FunCom assumes we are always concealed in PvP, I guess.
If an Agent sneaks, eveyone can see him. This major flaw made the Agent silly in PvP, as if no one could see you sneaking around in any zone, much less a political zone. TAB, TAB, TAB >>>>>>> "Look, an Agent over there. Shoot him!" Or maybe "Run away, an Agent is sneaking over there!"
With all the right buffs, an Agent used to be uber concealed from mobs, so Agents were sneaking through missions. So people cried foul, and FC nerfed concealment, several times in several ways. Now concealment is a joke for everything, but you still need it in PvM to get off an AS.
Aimed shot damage - Any high level Agent can tell ya, AS does worthless damage 80% of the time. Worthless I say, when you think of all the IP put into it, and the recycle time & requirements to even attempt it. Burst and Full Auto give a much higher return for your IP investment.
So concealment/sneak is broke, lets delete the skill all together maybe. As a side note, sneak mode shuts off if anyone in your team does a team buff, or the engineer's Sympathetic Armor cycles off/on.
Next patch FunCom wants to make player characters actually turn invisable. Will this invisability apply to non-aligned factions only? If so, then what about if your Clan character is actually teamed with Neutrals or the Omni-Tech folks? What if my Clan Agent switches sides to Omni, as a spy, and I later team with my guildmates, still as an Omni, who will see me then? Who will I be invisable or visable to? Makes it hard to coordinate attacks if you can't see your own team mates.
I'm sure next patch won't change this - Will we still see nano bot damage posting from invizo Agents that are using a cloaking device? How about DoTs posting from an invizo Adventurer? Yeah, you can't see him, but you know he is near cause you keep seeing damge posting from his cloaking device. How about nano buffs, will we see an invizo character buffing themselves?
As it is now, if I team with a neutral, I can TAB that person, as well as the opposite faction. When will FunCom fix it so I do not TAB my team mates, if they happen to be Neutral or of the opposite faction??
I say, just make Aimed Shot cycle faster and give it a base 50% chance to crit. And if you want to see fur fly, then put an additional skill on all weapons with AS, add concealment to the weapon's skills. This way AS is tied to Concealment, and no more Concealment checks need to be made. Only if you have the proper skills in concealment, can you perform an Aimed Shot. With all the Concealment buffs around out there, the skill may have to be as high as the rifle skill, or close to it. Ithica Traders would love that change eh?
See how broken the Agent, Aimed Shot and the entire Concealment skill are!?!? What a mess!
What are you complaining about?
Seriously,
And I know that I may be way off base with this, but come on! Agents are getting the shaft?! I don't think so. I'm sorry but I can't feel bad for you because you're no longer able to do the things that are supposed to be primarily the domain of a different profession. You're an agent not a pet magnet. I think maybe Funcom should reconsider the sniper damage caps but even so.
And what is this nonsense about all of the sudden we can't solo missions over 40%? I play a Fixer and I can barely solo at 10%. Where's my help? Besides if you hadn't noticed this is supposed to be a team based game. Team nano's, team missions. You do the math if you wanted to solo all the time you got the wrong MMORPG!
I do agree that this trend of having the bosses holding the new "Items" that come into tweak a new profession is a little silly and lopsided. I can't find Grid Armor for less than ten trillion. Can you? (That was a joke by the way)
Overall I'm pleased with the patch though. I think agents are missing the boat though with this new PvP sneak. As a fixer I know I'll be taking as much advantage of it as I can. I think agents should consider it a major blessing. And buff up those B&E skills. You're supposed to be good at that black ops stuff. Lockpicking XP just went up. You don't have to be the tank to get good XP especially in teams. If you're the only one who can pick locks you get 10% more xp then the rest of the team. I don't call that a bad deal either.
Anyway, these are just my thoughts.
Re: What are you complaining about?
Quote:
Originally posted by Kahsiki
Besides if you hadn't noticed this is supposed to be a team based game. Team nano's, team missions. You do the math if you wanted to solo all the time you got the wrong MMORPG!
Not meaning to flame at all, but where did you dig up this little nugget. You're not the first one to make this claim.
Pre launch, one of the main advertising and selling points of this game was that you wouldn't need a team to advance/play the game.
Off course... a lot has changed since then... it's almost a whole different game from what was promised in several ways, but that's a bit beside the point (not even sure why I put that in here).
Anyways, a lot of ppl came to AO on the promise that you wouldn't be dependant on others to play. In addition, time available for playing varies significantly from player to player, and some don't allways have the time to spend near 1 1/2 hour just getting a teeam together or even getting into one.
And a little personal gripe related to teaming/not teaming, based on my illusion of a profession containing of spies and assassins: Nothing compromises a spy more than constant mingling. An efficient spy/assassin mostly tend to be a loner, with no ties, who is able to blend in anywhere. The more ppl that know your name, the harder your job will get.