Yes, an old topic. One that doesn't seem to go away. One which has been discarded as a possibility many times and by many wholly rejected as being the right course of action.
Why then bring this up once more? I bring it up due to a breed perk, the opi 100 aad static breed perk.
Currently, the standard absolutely endgame shade setup which gives 3k ar has a somewhat balanced interaction with other professions. Agents, Traders, Crats, and even enfs suddenly gaining 100 more def would cause this balance to be destroyed.
Agents would require drains to perk, Crats completely inaccessible, Enfs would no longer be a prof which we could drain off of, adv who would be unperkable no matter our effort while only using limber, traders who would have a great amount of time to 'root' a shade, drain it, and then destroy it. In other words, an extra 100 def for all profs will totally screw over Soli, Trox, and Nm Shades while causing troublesome problems for opis.
At first when I saw the new breed perks I thought, hey, it might be a good idea to change from trox now. I have since come to realize, actually while writing this, that even though MR will now be very difficult to successfully use against experienced pvpers, it will truly be the only shot a Shades has in PvP as it stands.
Solutions:
It doesn't 'have' to be combined spirits. It could be:
Stellar CC protection along with more defensive tools to mitigate all types of dmg, even nukes and AS.
Or, better CC protection with positive NCU effects of SP being significantly extended
Decent CC protection and removal with the SP drains having a lower defensive checks. Around 80%.
Or something uniquely creative which only the AO dev team could invent!
What I really wish to do is bring forth an issue I see to which all seem to have overlooked or found to be unimportant.