The Agent profession

[torakx]

Dear Funcom employees,
i wish to extend my appreciation for the current effort on creating a balance for all professions.
i do however have a few questions which can also be used to bring a little more insight into the needs of the agent profession.
Currently and as far as i know all other professions or most have a perk action that can be used in a defensive way to block,evade,negate,redirect damage and so on.
i would like to ask will agents also be getting a defensive tool that wont be effected by the multitude of debuffs?
if not will the agent profession be the top damage dealer in the game because of the lack of such a defensive tool?
i believe currently shades are close to the top damage dealers in the game in most situations.
but they also have evade perks and an absorb and also some heals to go with there incredible damage.

thanks

[MyGift]

This!

Agent is one of rare(possible only) profession w/o def perks or anything that can save us when our only defense (CH) is disabled and god knows there are so many ways for almost every profession to completely disable it or reduce its effectiveness by moderate amount.

I can understand that some profession should be squishy/easy to kill but they got wicked offensive power cause of that. For example shade...If they get to u, u are dead , they got proly best pvm dmg as well, they can do huge amount of dmg in split sec. Fast perks, stun proc + stun from perks along with sa/bs will make u proly helpless while they killing u. Price they have to pay is their defense...Although they got very high evades,combined with drains,shd,5k apsorb(better defense then agents for sure) they are still easy target to kill...few regulars and caping attacks eventualy kills them if they dont kill u first. What i wanna say is that shade for example got strong offense but defense is their weak spot. Its the price u have to pay. As agent if u decided our weak spot is defense or offense (cause with new AS both will sux hardcore) give us something to shine with.

[Cyberleet]

I think this is the best class ever designed in a game. Hands down!

And yes, wtb a reply please.

[Klodovik]

Shade is not ranged, you are. You have access to part of other profession's toolsets, shades don't.

IMO, working as intended.

[Marinegent]

Shade is not ranged, you are. You have access to part of other profession's toolsets, shades don't.

IMO, working as intended.

Doesn't matter if we are ranged or not, when half the time the only reliable source of damage we have is AS, because our AR is so low that we can't perk most professions, or if we can, our defense is so low that we are alpha fodder for anyone 210+.

The access to other professions toolsets is very limited as well, and it's hardly a make -or- break tool. It's usually only good for a few OSBs that anyone can get if they spend a few minutes searching for a TL5+ toon of that profession.

And even if it was (note this is PAST tense) working as intended, the state of the game changes constantly with expansions, new game directors, etc. And as such agent's need fixing in accordance with the rest of the game.

[sultryvoltron]

Shade is not ranged, you are. You have access to part of other profession's toolsets, shades don't.

IMO, working as intended.

A metaphysicist is not ranged, you are. You have access to part of other profession's toolsets, others don't.

IMO, NOT working as intended.

Let's not go down the road of what's intended and what's not.

[Klodovik]

Doesn't matter if we are ranged or not, when half the time the only reliable source of damage we have is AS, because our AR is so low that we can't perk most professions, or if we can, our defense is so low that we are alpha fodder for anyone 210+.

So, you are telling this like everyone else will stay the same and only you will get nerfed. That is not true though.

As far as I can see, with incoming agent perk changes, others will become your alpha fodder.

A metaphysicist is not ranged...

Yes, he is.

You have access to part of other profession's toolsets...

No, I don't.

Let's not go down the road of what's intended and what's not.

Just because you can't follow that road, doesn't automatically mean that I'm unable to do so as well.

[Kinkstaah]

As far as I can see, with incoming agent perk changes, others will become your alpha fodder.

30s of alpha execution = not an alpha
perks that never land = not an alpha
if they change all of the perks to 30% def check, I'd agree that Agents would have high PVP dps but not an alpha. And definitely not enough time to actually stay alive to make use of that dps.

No, I don't.

Blockers, AS, Healing, Pets, CC pets, stun, evades, (if nm you even have absorbs) and debuffs.

Ok
MP is the class (toolset wise) that literally does have a piece of everything thrown together. I'm not saying it's OP, but its clearly a toolset that is combined of every element of every other toolset.

[sultryvoltron]

Yes, he is.
No, I don't.
Just because you can't follow that road, doesn't automatically mean that I'm unable to do so as well.

By the same token, a shade could be ranged. Shades also have access to HP drains and Absorbs, and even Piercing buffs! What's your point?

Let's have some real points brought into the discussion please.

[Klodovik]

30s of alpha execution = not an alpha
perks that never land = not an alpha
if they change all of the perks to 30% def check, I'd agree that Agents would have high PVP dps but not an alpha. And definitely not enough time to actually stay alive to make use of that dps.

But, alphas that are getting you killed now, are getting nerfed as well, so...

Perks that never land are a lie. They do land and if they don't land on certain people, they don't land on them for a reason.

Blockers, AS, Healing, Pets, CC pets, stun, evades, (if nm you even have absorbs) and debuffs.

What about them?

Ok
MP is the class (toolset wise) that literally does have a piece of everything thrown together. I'm not saying it's OP, but its clearly a toolset that is combined of every element of every other toolset.

I'm not sure why are you forcing off topic theme now. This thread is about agents, not MPs.

Let's have some real points brought into the discussion please.

Go with AR setup. It will be worth trying out after the balance.

[Kinkstaah]

But, alphas that are getting you killed now, are getting nerfed as well, so...

Init debuffs and anti caster debuffs are what kill agents, as well as roots/snares/stuns.

Perks that never land are a lie. They do land and if they don't land on certain people, they don't land on them for a reason.

Fine, they need to land on a LOT more than they currently do to be considered. Given agent survivability, "everyone" really is everyone except fixers. All the time, unless something is done about Agent defence, in which case having a good defence + landing every perk on everyone is stupid.

What about them?

Whoops, thought you were whining about MP's not having access to everyone else's toolsets. But you were referring to shades. Silly me for assuming you were whining about MP's. My bad.

[torakx]

sorry klod but i rarely have died to an alpha and more so to the debuffs before hand.
i used to duel alot over the years and no alpha can kill me even to this day.(except soldier and fixer i think)
it is the debuff that kills me really.the reason the debuffs kill me nearly always is because im an agent who is either forced to play as doc and therefore totally vunerable to debuffs or i am in trader and totally vunerable to dmg but can at least aoe root some and drain some.landing perks with 3.2k ar is a serious issue on my agent. i just dont have enough ar to do it.
so i ask for a defensive perk to protect me a couple of seconds while i have a chance to unload my perks.
all other proffs have this and i play some of them.agent doesnt....

[Klodovik]

all other proffs have this

Not all of those "other profs" have access to heavy damage dealing perks as you do.

[sultryvoltron]

Go with AR setup. It will be worth trying out after the balance.

It's worth trying now, but the thread is about defensive perk actions. Not offense.

Currently our +200 AR is spread over 3 lines, and they only give offensive actions. Torakx just asked for some defensive options, which is pretty reasonable considering the perks of other profs.

[randomalpha]

ur defense toolset is not that bad enough with RRFE/CH , SL ess/tms , RI/Drains etc . . .. . . . imo agent is well balanced prof u got all the defenses u need from nanos and ur setup u just need to make ur mix

[Lupusceleri]

ur defense toolset is not that bad enough with RRFE/CH , SL ess/tms , RI/Drains etc . . .. . . . imo agent is well balanced prof u got all the defenses u need from nanos and ur setup u just need to make ur mix

Except we need a different choice in defense for almost every prof we fight. That's not practical in a non-duel pvp situation.

For example when I fight a Sol the most effective combo is Engi + Doc.
Engi: NT and Doc.
MA: Enf and Sol.
Shade: Enf and Sol.
Doc: Eng and Doc.

Most others the best combo is Sol + Doc though. That doesn't include swapping around gear for different professions, aggdef bar sliding, NR perks or no NR perks, high nanoskills or low nanoskills, twink AR or twink def, or twink -cost, or hp. I make all such adaptations in a duel, each profession is dueled with a different setup and often I even make adaptations for every individual person I fight.

It's simply not realistic in normal pvp.

Agent doesn't get all the defenses they need from nanos, since the nano based defense is so easily shut down. Yeah when I fight you I stand a decent chance if you don't use RI. If you start using RI I'm 100% dead every time because my nano defense doesn't work.. while on the other hand if you don't use RI we have a great fight with lots of close moments (remember the fight I won the duel with 39 hp left? or when you insta-removed around 80-90% of my hp?).

[Cyberleet]

I am one of those who oppose giving agent significant defence.

I much rather see agent more deadly and lethal, and a strenghtening of the unique toolset and specialities.

But, alphas that are getting you killed now, are getting nerfed as well, so...

It's not very hard to kill an agent unless they get you first or manage to escape.

Go with AR setup. It will be worth trying out after the balance.

AR-setup won't be worth it with everything changed to rifle.

They have reduced the damage on a lot of perks as well without no apparant reason why...

[torakx]

I am one of those who oppose giving agent significant defence.

I much rather see agent more deadly and lethal, and a strenghtening of the unique toolset and specialities.

so would i.unfortunatly it looks like alpha online is gone.this has been hinted at quite a bit and i have even spoken to means on test myself and gotten this clear feeling coming away from that convo.you know the best chance a species has for evolving and not going exstinct is the ability to adapt and change.
we need for once a perk defence i believe and accept we wont be insta splatting people with or without nerfing ourselves this time round.

AR-setup won't be worth it with everything changed to rifle.

They have reduced the damage on a lot of perks as well without no apparant reason why...

yes there is no apparent reason.yet there still may be a reason.perhaps they are trying to decide wether to give us some defensive perkline hence the loss of damage on our perks.
im just thinking in there shoes. if i was to be thinking of balance i would also see agent as already having perks for damage and want to see what they need elsewhere.and if it was something kind of controversial i would certainly not publicise it now but wait until the changes came in and everyone was smiling with there new "toys" then pop the good stuff in during the high period

[Klodovik]

It's not very hard to kill an agent unless they get you first or manage to escape.

That's how it's supposed to be.

AR-setup won't be worth it with everything changed to rifle.

Sure it will.

They have reduced the damage on a lot of perks as well without no apparant reason why...

I must be blind.

It's worth trying now, but the thread is about defensive perk actions. Not offense.

Offense is your best defense. I know it, it used to be that way with bow MPs.

[Xootch]

Offense is your best defense. I know it, it used to be that way with bow MPs.

hush little kiddy. now you're just being silly. actual agent players told you before: what good is offense that hardly lands and that you don't survive dumping on anyone? yeah yeah, i know, you got it all figured out...in your head that is.

I am one of those who oppose giving agent significant defence.

and

Lletah
Agent Unproffesi0nal