Kill or be killed.

[Sterva]

The way I remember it, pre LE I was running around with 2.9k-3k def rating on my crat. And that was right around the super twinked AR's of the day. I remember an MA who I would sometimes team with who would get all orgasmic cause my aura boosted him over 3k AR. Since then I have gained over 700 more to my def rating. The top twinked AR's of today? Right around 3700. Now back then FA's were lol'able so that has definitely changed, but other than that I think things are pretty similar, right above the edge and craving more.

What I'm trying to say is that crats always have been pretty frail. We resist alphas well, but can't stand and tank anyone for extended periods. And I don't want to see a boost in our ability to outright tank people. If there is damage mitigation to be had it should (obviously imo) be had through minus flat root/snare/stun immunity debuffs or otherwise improvements against those professions that we have to depend on pretty much straight evades rather than evades enough to get things under control. But again, less AS spam is gonna be a TREMENDOUS help by itself.

Yep, sounds about right for someone who quit playing their crat to move back to an engie main.

But in all seriousness, yes, we are less frail than we were before when there were 1-2 tl7 pvp crats on any given server at a time. But the terrible state that crats were in back then isn't exactly a great rubric to determining whether we're doing well now.

I'm not asking for amazing offense or amazing defense. I'm asking for some give and trade. If our defenses are going to stay nerfed, then our offenses should stay decent. If our offenses are going to get nerfed, then our defenses should get a boost back up to decent.

[IHaveHugeNick]

But again, less AS spam is gonna be a TREMENDOUS help by itself.

AS had been last problem since quite a good while already, when did you last time pvp on crat? And why? Agents: dont exist on tl7. Fixers: dont exist no tl7. MPs : dont exist on tl7. MAs: don't exist on TL7. Heavy ASing Doctor, Engineers, other Crats: went pistols. Hotswaping Sold happens once a month.

That leaves what, Traders?

[Berinda]

I don't remember having a time feeling that my crat was gimp, even when it was gimp; crats are in a better position than most other professions. As it stands, I feel crats are powerful without being too powerful.

However, there's always kinks to iron out. No one can argue the stun procs weren't overpowered; conversely, one can't argue it took a big chunk out of our defense in both PvP and PvM. I think that if the stun-turned-snare procs were changed into one of four things, or a combination of two of the following four things, we'd be where we need to be:

1) 1-second stun procs. Long enough to disrupt and annoy, but not long enough to completely completely cripple the opposition.
2) Heal proc
3) NR and AAD proc
4) Damage-to-pet proc

[Notcrattey]

AS had been last problem since quite a good while already, when did you last time pvp on crat? And why? Agents: dont exist on tl7. Fixers: dont exist no tl7. MPs : dont exist on tl7. MAs: don't exist on TL7. Heavy ASing Doctor, Engineers, other Crats: went pistols. Hotswaping Sold happens once a month.

That leaves what, Traders?

Ranged advies?

Anyways, on RK2 I see a decent amount of fixers and agents at TL7 And quite a few doctors do have the AS pistol on.

[IHaveHugeNick]

I don't remember having a time feeling that my crat was gimp, even when it was gimp

Hahaha. Right. Powerlevel less, please. Crat "gimp" period is just about the worst it can get in AO, maybe only comparable to Shades. Maybe. Before you get to that unperkable border, your game experience will mostly consist of WTFSPLAT.

[srompu]

AS had been last problem since quite a good while already, when did you last time pvp on crat? And why? Agents: dont exist on tl7. Fixers: dont exist no tl7. MPs : dont exist on tl7. MAs: don't exist on TL7. Heavy ASing Doctor, Engineers, other Crats: went pistols. Hotswaping Sold happens once a month.
That leaves what, Traders?

In the old system i'm also dead after 5th aimed shot hits.

How much of a problem, exactly, is old-school AS? It seems like removing it isn't a survival boost for evade professions, which is wierd. It further seems like CiB professions were ASed harder by support proffs pre-pistol than post-pistol, which is wierder. Last, it seems like AS is enough of a problem that DD perking them via Agents isn't that bad since you're dead soon anyway.

Who do you anticipate killing you in the new system, and by what means?

I'm not asking for amazing offense or amazing defense. I'm asking for some give and trade. If our defenses are going to stay nerfed, then our offenses should stay decent. If our offenses are going to get nerfed, then our defenses should get a boost back up to decent.

I think optimally they should give a mediocre baseline with very viable and heavily supported options to specialize to varying degrees in either direction.
Also, they should specifically address proffs who have a very easy time killing or being killed by Crats to make it a better fight.



Edit: I haven't met a decent Crat who was wtfsplat. I also haven't met a poorly equipped greenie of any profession who wasn't wtfsplat.

[Berinda]

Hahaha. Right. Powerlevel less, please. Crat "gimp" period is just about the worst it can get in AO, maybe only comparable to Shades. Maybe. Before you get to that unperkable border, your game experience will mostly consist of WTFSPLAT.

You do realize that A) it's possible to team in AO and B) there's more to the game than PvP?

Just because you played your toon as a gimped victim doesn't mean others did.

[Hacre]

Hahaha. Right. Powerlevel less, please. Crat "gimp" period is just about the worst it can get in AO, maybe only comparable to Shades. Maybe. Before you get to that unperkable border, your game experience will mostly consist of WTFSPLAT.

Heh I remember when Charmming was DD setup at 220 and WTFSPLAT was the order of the day when I was trying to get the VP to get my Ofab back/helm to start heading towards the more not WTFSPLAT setup. That was with some decent DD output and attack rating too. I shudder to think what it must be like from 210-219, much worse than it is for other professions I should coco. While my NT at 211 (first I started hitting BS) was squishy as hell it was offset somewhat by me not having a title anyone wanted so I got less heat but I still had more fun spamming blinds and watching crowds rush core and suddenly get lost while my side could pick them off. No such fun was to be had on my Crat, until my Crat was standing in a completely different multi billion setup.

Yes, this is largely anecdotal. I honestly don't know how the upcoming changes will affect Crats but I do know from what I've seen so far, nothing has me rushing to re-equip mine any time soon.