Obviously the original thread got out of hand. But because I believe it is an important issue, I would like to start over and have a decent discussion about it.
To start, I love AO, It's the only game i've been playing since 07/22/2001. I've played others since then but always end up wanting to play AO again. I've played other MMPORPGs but I'm not impressed yet.
Neocron is dreadful and Asherons Call looks nice but gameplay is missing something to me... I always enjoy my time playing AO and the people I get to hang out with.
That said, there are just somethings that I feel are not right. I am not the only person that feels this way, nor is soldier the only profession.
Many professions have had adjustments to further balance the game for everyone. I thought that traders were unbalanced before, and it bothered me. I made my own trader to see for myself and leveled to 74 (PvP twink - who hasn't made a trader PvP twink?) So I have seen first hand, both sides.
It is not the traders fault, but everytime something is adjusted in the game, something else goes. The trader heal nerf came the same time that the OE patch came.
I thought for sure that I would be gimped in PvP with my trader then... that was not so, I was even more powerful... At level 74 I was able to get off two drains, one plunder and one divest which would OE my opponents but at the same time make my QL 190 Windchaser usable at 100%. I didn't even need heals in PvP because my opponent could almost never hit me... My evades after the drains were nearly twice thier debuffed attack.
Some high level traders will say that I should have leveled my trader to 175+ to know anything about traders. I have knowledge of high level traders from dueling them with my soldier level 167.
The two highest drains add to 450~ which cuts Everyones attack at that level by nearly half.... I know a level 196 doctor who is forced to use QL 60 heals when she is debuffed by a trader fully. As for a soldier I have a lower quick bar and i'm forced to use TMS 4 which lasts like 30 seconds or something and shuts down my nano for two minutes.
I've said maybe make Only the Skill Drains (divest/plunder) NPC/MOB only. And:
1. Give Traders Shotgun Mastery or
2. Some kind of AR buff or
3. Increase the duration of the Drain bonus so that they have sufficient time to get to Arena/Political zone and still have time on buff.... Maybe 15 minutes instead of 3 ?
This way Traders would still recieve benifits from their nano lines but it would not be so much of an unfair advantage to the rest of the gaming community.
Please post all constructive comments to the very important issue. I will try not to offend any Traders out there, but please try to look past all the haze and see the big picture.
Thanks, Lohem