Answers from Cosmik to our concerns

[Letah]

Enjoy! FC answered all our stuff:
(this is a direct paste from the Professional forum. it is working, as you see )


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Doctor-Specific bugs:

Nano Repulsor
This nano, originally intended to be a Nano Resist buff, now buffs Disease AC. A "legacy" item from Betas gone by. A clarification on the existance of this nanoformula would be desired, if not an actual 'fix'.
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This is currently in our bug databse, and yes, is a bug. It will be fixed. (That is, I have made sure the bug says nano resist should be buffed, not Disease AC)


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The HealDelta nanos
Namely Continuous Reconstruction and Hearty Constitution. They modify the Healdelta attribute, which effectively does nothing. Certainly nothing worth 45 and 24 NCU respectively. Again, a clarification on the existance of these nanoformulas would do, but it'd be nice if they could be changed to have a proper Heal over Time effect
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This is a fossil of the beta age We agree they could use some looking over and we will do so.


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Swim/Muscle Booster stims debuff instead of buff
A fairly simple bug. The Swim Stims and Muscle Booster stims currently debuff your skill instead of buffing it! Though the actual utility of these items is debatable at best, they're certainly more useful if they work properly!
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I tested some of this myself, and could not find any issues. However, I did go over this with the designers and have been told it is a known issue, and is due to be fixed in 14.6.


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DoTs
As you know, our DoT nanos have two 'strains', which stack together. They also tick at different speeds. Those two pieces of information should be in the nano description, as the tick rate (combined with the size and duration) is needed to determine the power, and the strain so that you can see at a glance which nano stacks with which.
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A good suggestion, and we will look at following through with it. The nano designer liked this suggestion


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Init debuffs
There are two types of Init debuff, in the same stacking order. One debuffs initiatives by a larger amount, yet has a chance to break when damage is inflicted ('Decrepitude' is an example). The other debuffs initiatives by a smaller amount, has a larger damage debuff, yet will alway run its full duration ('Uncontrollable Body Tremors' is an example). Presently there is no information stating that the first line is breakable, and that leads to a lot of people incorrectly stating that they are bugged (as they use the one with the biggest numbers).
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This is true - the first line is breakable. I have included a bug for this information to be added in the description, and it will be done.


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Gargantuan Health
Gargantuan Health has an annoying bug which affects HP bars. Casting it will cause all HP bars to appear to show damage... damage which cannot be healed up. Only running out of visual range/zoning removes this bug. This is because (according to AntiGuardians) the nano has the effect "modify team max health 854 - 854 ". This should read "modify team health 854 - 854" to represent the heal effect that is intended to be part of this nano
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This should have been fixed in 14.4.


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HP buffs healing effects
The Doctor Team HP buffs are intended to inrease teammates health by a certain amount, and then heal them for that amount to 'fill up' the extra HP. Presently though, the heal effect hits before the health buff takes effect. This means that the extra HP that is buffed on does not get healed automatically, but requires an extra 1-2 team heals afterwards. More of an annoyance than a serious bug, but a bug non-the-less.
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This has been sent to PQA for testing. Once they look into it some more, I'll get the answer and status of subsequent fix.


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Recharge Bar Bug:
Sometimes the recharge-bar does not show after casting a buff. At that time we need to guess when we need to cast again. Sometimes the hotkey keeps faded-out too (but still works).
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Also sent to PQA. I could not generate this myself, and they get paid to do that stuff anyway. Any common instances in which this occurs?

General bugs affecting all professions:


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HP bar bug
These aren't Doctor specific, but as the primary healing profession they're very important to us. There are two significant bugs. HP bars (both in the team window and target) do not accurately reflect the health of the people. Buffed HP, from nanoformulas and items, is not shown in the bar. As a result, damage taken does not begin to show until the player drops below their unbuffed health. The second bug happens when a team member runs out of range and comes back. Their health will show as partially damaged until you target them, when it pops up to full again. Very distracting
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Major issue - Yes, we agree. It's a well known problem, and we would like to fix this as soon as possible. I have checked the bug in regards to this in our bug database and it is being looked after. Once more progress is made, I will let you know what the full deal is


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Bracer bug
Growing/Shrinking flesh bracers aren't visible to other people if you leave their visual range after putting them on. Not a serious bug, but some of us Doctors want to be tall/short
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This is a tricky issue. The problem here is that for changes to size (wearing bracers, being in a Yalmaha) to appear to everyone, the bracer information must be relayed to everyone. By this I mean for every person to see a smaller Cosmik (if I'm wearing a bracer), information must got from my client to the server, and then to every single person in visual range - and this information must be constantly updated as people go in and out of visual range and as people put on and take of bracers. Essentially, it means alot of traffic, especially in those congested areas like Omni-1 Bronto Burger, Newland and Tir Grid on busy days. That's the layout of the issue, and why it hasn't been totally fixed yet, but to confirm, we are aware of this and are looking at ways to remedy it, but I can not say for certain what can or will happen. I'll update everyone once more is known.

Doctor-speficic balance issues


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Heals are not scaling well with HP past 125
Doctors can use their top target heal (bar Complete healing) at 125. After that point the average HP that a player has (particularly following level 146 when MK II armour can be worn) goes up, yet the heals don't get larger. Team heals carry on past 'Complete Healing', yet Target heals do not. Of course, additional heals would mean an increase in the power of a Doctor
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This will mostly be addressed in Shadowlands, with new buffs and profession specialisation. We will look at what we can do now, but Shadowlands will bring a great improvement here.


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Alpha and Omega is unworkable
As it stands... this nano is useless. A 12 second cast time effectively means that you will take 5-6 seconds at least to get this nano off. For a nano that would be used in an emergency this negates its usefulness entirely. It is my opinion that the 12 second recharge time and massive nano cost are sufficient drawback for the bonus of healing your entire team completely
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This nano is designed as a situational nano program. A complete heal for everyone in the team should not really be executed time after time after time in terms of balancing game mechanics - and that seems to be the want by the point of the recharge time. Also on the situational aspect of the nano also reflects the execution time - if everyone in the team is getting hit over and over and a full, emergency heal is needed, the execution time is low enough to get it off. For one or two targets getting hit fast, there are single target nanos used for that situation. Alpha and Omega is used in specific situations, and may not be the most desired option at every time.


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Team heals go DOWN in healing output
Because the latter end Team heals increase in healing strength only slightly, yet still get penalised with a slightly longer recharge time, we are currently in the curious situation where the top Team heal does not heal at the fastest rate. In terms of average health per second healed, the QL Of nanos goes like this: 175, 172, 169, 182, 152, 156, 159, 149.
This doesn't seem right to me. There's not an awful lot on it actually. The Q149 nano does 147.95 HP/sec, and the QL175 does 150.74. I can imagine if it didn't go up much, but when it's debatable as to whether a ql182 nano outheals a QL169 nano something is clearly wrong.
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Although the average health per tick does seem to move around a bit within QL, also note that the higher nanos have a larger cap, giving you the chance to heal for more. That being said, we will be looking at this - another note is that Shadowlands will have better heals, and they will improve on the current nanos.


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HoTs are too NCU-costly
Heal over Time nanos are underused in teams. People very rarely have the NCU free for them, and aren't keen to do so because they take up . The Fixer HoTs in 14.4 are far better, being longer and smaller. That's understandable, as Fixers are intended to be the masters of health regeneration. But our HoTs could do with being smaller, as currently they just aren't worth the NCU they take up.
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We are currently considering adjusting the NCU cost. Once more has been discussed, I'll let you know.


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Init buff seems to be NCU-intensive for what it does
The Nano Init buff, 'Instinctive Control' (+85 Nano Initiative, 28 NCU) is rather large compared to other similar nanos. Focused Anger (+72 to ALL initatives) takes up 19 NCU, roughly 2/3 of the size. It could be that this is intended, because Instinctive Control stacks with the line that Focused Anger is in. Can we get clarification on the role of this nano?
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Just finishing up on this one. I'll let you know soon.


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Docs and soloing/weapons
We do know we are a support class but you said yourself once that every class should able to solo. Docs can't. Our dd-nanos stop real soon and all weapons are darkblue cept pistol, who don't make good weapons. Our dot's are too weak too. Any thoughts in enhancing our solo ability? Maybe more DD nano's? Better Dot?
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To start, at this moment, Doctors will not get better DDs or DoTs. I would like to hear from more Doctors on the ability to solo, however. Although soloing should be possible for everyone, soloing is not always easy. I'd like to hear more information about what weapons/nanos are being used at what levels, and what MOBs are being fought. Just, again, to give more firepower back to the designers.

Balance issues that affect all profs


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The "Vets to 200" issue
This effects Doctors a little more than most, but pretty much everyone runs into this. After you are able to kill Veteran mobs for XP, you will be killing those same mobs all the way to level 200 (when most are yellow-green). This is simply because the mobs which are level 200+ take too long to kill, and give less XP over time than Veterans. Really, the added risk of fighting red mobs should yield more XP rather than less. What this means is that teams will invariably choose the fastest route, and missions become a 'chore' with no challenge as mobs pose less and less threat. This affects Doctors significantly because their services are less in demand, as mobs will die in seconds. Making level 200+ mobs more rewarding XP-wise would add some more challenge to the high level game, as people will have an incentive to fight mobs which pose a threat.
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Yes, the xp curve does change at the higher levels, and this is intended. With the addition of new MOBs and Shadowlands there will be harder xp MOBs to fight that you won't be fighting over and over from level 120 (Veterans) or so - you'd be dead. Still, I will continue to look into this current issue with the designers to see what can be done now.


--> next post -->

[Letah]

--> continued -->

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Ineffectiveness of taunts
Other professions' tools for aggroing mobs are ineffective compared to that generated via normal gameplay. This means that professions which can 'tank' well find it difficult to get aggro, and other professions, notably Doctors, have less protection (and die more) as a result.
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Taken from the Enforcer report - "We agree that Enforcers taunts are vital to the role of the Enforcer, and we are looking at the taunting capabilities of the Enforcer, as well as other professions that require taunts. So, we are currently looking at the taunting capabilities of the Enforcer, in an effort to see what can be done in regards to the situation. I have no definative answer as of yet, but will let you know of developments. Ideas are welcome too, as always." Note that the same will be done for other taunting professions too, though Enforcer is the main taunter.



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On the complete heal issue. It's not complete. It needs to be 20001 HP or more.

Calling a nano "complete heal" when I can now easily get more than 10,000 HP is rediculous .
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Also being looked at.



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The DoT "Rampant Decay" is intended to do 20 hits of 174 damage over 1 minute. However, the ticks are 6 seconds apart, when they should be 3. This means that it only ever gets through 10 ticks, with a total damage of 1740. Compared to the DoTs directly before (All-Consuming Toxin - 3150 damage) and afterwards (Morgue Longings - 3790 damage) it is clear that there is a problem. Halving the tick delay to 3s will allow the DoT to get in all 20 ticks before it times out, thus letting it do a total of 3480 damage... which is in scale with the other two
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This is currently being looked at.




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The Team Health buff lines have the incorrect NCU usage in their descriptions. As an example, Superior Omnj-Med Enhancement is marked in its nano description as taking up 55 NCU, but the actual nano, when executed, takes up 45. This trend continues all the way through the line, with the NCU usage a little lower than it should be



Skill debuffs have no visual effect on mobs. This is only noted for Doctors with the 'Wrack and Ruin' DoT's debuffing effect, but is more significant with the Trader debuffs. A reduction in attacking power relating to the skill lost would be needed
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Superior Omni-Med Enhancement - currently being changed (the description will be changed)

Skill debuffs on MOBs - this is also a Trader issue, and I'm in discussions with the designers over it. We are looking at changing some things, but I can't give out any further information just yet until things are set in stone. I'll keep you updated.




Thanks again for the great report. More feedback always welcome.

Cosmik

[Turin]

Excellent!!! Alot of the problems we have were sumed up nicely there. no deffinetive answers on much there, but its a start. Thank you for your guys continued hard work at bring the issues of the doc community before the devs to work on and look at.

[______________Squick]

Looks exactly like every other profession answers (it is being looked at) with the exception of us certainly not getting any heal fixes until the expansion pack, and never getting any more damage ability, yey.

I do not think I have ever seen a MMRPG company tell people their class fixes or balances would not be added until an expansion...

Squick

[Jynne]

I like the replies here.

What does bug me a bit is that our nano damage output, either via DOT or DD, isn't slated for an increase. Soloing might not be meant to be easy, but I consider it so very time-consuming that it is more worthwhile to work on another character than it is to solo.

[engelstein]

Well, they've probably got 80% or so of their staff working on Shadowlands, so if something isn't a game-breaker chances are it'll wait until Shadowlands.

[Aristaeus]

Originally posted by Letah




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Team heals go DOWN in healing output
Because the latter end Team heals increase in healing strength only slightly, yet still get penalised with a slightly longer recharge time, we are currently in the curious situation where the top Team heal does not heal at the fastest rate. In terms of average health per second healed, the QL Of nanos goes like this: 175, 172, 169, 182, 152, 156, 159, 149.
This doesn't seem right to me. There's not an awful lot on it actually. The Q149 nano does 147.95 HP/sec, and the QL175 does 150.74. I can imagine if it didn't go up much, but when it's debatable as to whether a ql182 nano outheals a QL169 nano something is clearly wrong.
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Although the average health per tick does seem to move around a bit within QL, also note that the higher nanos have a larger cap, giving you the chance to heal for more. That being said, we will be looking at this - another note is that Shadowlands will have better heals, and they will improve on the current nanos.

Uhm this is a red herring. the nano also has 50% chance of doing less healing in that time. That is why people use averages. And I personally use minimums since there is no way that the person who needs it most gets the best heal.

[M@hdi]

Another attempt at a HP bar fix is nice

Yes, the xp curve does change at the higher levels, and this is intended. With the addition of new MOBs and Shadowlands there will be harder xp MOBs to fight that you won't be fighting over and over from level 120 (Veterans) or so - you'd be dead. Still, I will continue to look into this current issue with the designers to see what can be done now.

Shame 95% of the player base post 140 refuse to kill mobs that can kill them

-mah

The undying words of a RK 2 doc: "Why take a doc in your team when the only person you will need a doc for is the doc itself"

not 100% accurate, but still pretty funny

[_______________Hypos]

Thanks for the info!

Add Burst of Speed stims to the list of busted stims. They used to buff, now they debuff. This was changed in either 14.2 or 14.4.

posted by Letah on behalf of FunCom
another note is that Shadowlands will have better heals, and they will improve on the current nanos.

Does this imply that the expansion will change all our existing nanos? Or is it simply stating that the new nanos (with level reqs) will heal for larger amounts? Probably the 2nd, but as a pessimist I tend to suspect the worst.

[Thyrra]

sounds like the new ones are going to be the 'better' ones.

the levels reqs will 'insure balance'.

pffft

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it is good to get info. the impression of caring for the customer is a nice illusion to have.

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the increase in hard mobs means that docs will be in demand for more a longer period of time than they are now. good for the prof.

[Destria]

Just got back from work. I was quite impressed with some of the answers, but it's a shame that we'll have to wait for Shadowlands for some of our concerns.

I'm guessing Shadowlands will add some very high level Heals which require 'super-buffed' Nanoskills to use, as Blackmane has mentioned in articles in the past

[Jynne]

It occurs to me after some thought, that the inclusion of "super buffs" and "super buff items" in addition to implants and general buffs and existing mocham's and wrangles and such... is probably a bad thing. Think about it... it's already an exercise in math and tricks of equipment and implant juggling to do stuff. "If I get +143 to this from my implants and +140 from mocham's to that, and then equip a khan pistol, I can cast Superior Omni-Med Enhancement!" Then, "Now I have to take out those implants, and equip a pillow, and put in these other implants, and get mochams for MC..." yadda yadda yadda.

Now, I'm assuming that our new "uber heals" are intended to have regular use, not just situational use (ie... we wouldn't just be using them to fight Tarrasque, we'd be using them normally instead of Greater Bloom, every day over and over). Maybe that's a wrong assumption - could our professionals please ask?

But assuming we're meant to be using these new heals frequently means that our teams will be going up against enemies that require greater healing power than we can already offer, no? Otherwise, why would we bother getting the new heals (and going through the required rigamorale of buffs and gear to use them) if the old heals will work as well?

So, if that's the case then number 1 - doctors who don't buy the expansion are screwed; and number 2 - success for the doctor profession post-Shadowlands will hinge entirely on being good at these math games and especially on having access to super buffs and super buffing items.

But if the new heals are only situationally useful... then why bother making them uber-buff required and/or level-limited?

Could this please get kicked up the chain of communication? I plan on speaking to it at the conference, in more detail, but it's something I think we should seriously start thinking about.

[_____________Loveyou]

And what about Iron circle can that be single cast :P cause i dont see the use of it.

[engelstein]

I agree that uber skill buffs are a bad thing. The same thing happened when the Lord of Destruction expansion for Diablo 2 came out-lots of buffing candy was added, and the monsters got a lot harder. If you don't have access to the LoD buffing items (+skill charms, exceptional/elite uniques, etc.), you're basically a gimp. And the only way to obtain these is lots and lots of boss mob killing, thought the bosses pose no threat at all to your typical item hunter. Sounds a lot like camping or mission running, no?

[Tetra]

Originally posted by Letah
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Recharge Bar Bug:
Sometimes the recharge-bar does not show after casting a buff. At that time we need to guess when we need to cast again. Sometimes the hotkey keeps faded-out too (but still works).
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Also sent to PQA. I could not generate this myself, and they get paid to do that stuff anyway. Any common instances in which this occurs?

I happened to read through your list of stuff here and in my experience as a Meta and Advent this happens on any nano you execute which has the effect of casting some other buff (team buffs and aura's)

[M@hdi]

Originally posted by Loveyou
And what about Iron circle can that be single cast :P cause i dont see the use of it.

Very good point! People in team actually get annoyed if you have to break team 3 or 4 times at Tir grid to buff someone with this and if you cast it precombat in team NT's / Soldiers that weren't paying attention kill you because they didn't have enough NCU free for nullity/MK shield.

This buff has all the characteristics to be a target buff, it's better as a target buff and nobody in a team wants it so can we plz make this a target buff.....?

I migt strt a new bump thread for this, shouldn't be so hard to implement and it would make my life at home (Tir grid) a lot more comfortable

-mah

[georg]

Good to atleast have some answers, yet I personally still have a bunch of conceirns.

Firstly : Our debuffs in pvp, what the hell is intended with that, getting a message " Target can be npc only" or something like that. There have been posts about it before yet no response yet. If these nanos are goign to be made npc only ( where they are useless anyway ) I might as well give up pvp ( the only thing to do 150+ ) , or totally.

Secondly : Regarding the pharmatech tradeskill, it's quite usefull now tho the blindness on the emergency treatment laboratories is quite annoying, but you can disable it. Tho the kits would be way more usefull if they wouldn't have the blindess at all...

Third : About the nano repulsor, if it's intended as a nano resist buff will it still be mobdrop only ? As I believe at this moment it does not drop in missions but only off mobs, as nutility and grid armor.

Fourth : Please give us epsilon purge as original intended, removal of the hostile buffs of ourselves, or better a teamed player. If it cancells the soldiers nanoshutdown / agents fp it would be nice, tho probably not going to happen'\. I believe the arguement earlier used was the risk of abuse so it was made mob/enemy player only, but I believe you can count the doctors who can selfcast the nano at this moment on one hand, or even a few fingers. (Most tried it, but ipr'ed sens imp again , just high enough for +80) At the moment EP is useless, originally intended it would atleast be usefull somewhere -> in teams.

=-=
Regarding soloing:
As a doc you can solo yes, not to difficult missions are doable because of our heals but...
It takes ages to kill a mob as our damage output is low due to our low attack rating/ blue ranged init, ineffective dots and I wont even mention our DD's. (Even tho they _can_ be usefull low level, but get outdated very fast). The huge time it takes for us to solo a mob makes it pretty much ineffective/impossible to do so.


oh yes almost forgot, make an icon for iron circle!

[________________Miir]

Can we get this sticky?

[Turin]

A note on doc soloing.


I tried a 50% mission last night solo, and set a stop watch.


Im using, a ql184 Krutt waltzing Queen Special.

All consuming Toxin.

Acidic Lesions

Induce Musculature Spasms.


Those are my combat gear.

I went into this missions with all available crit buffs ( Mark of Peril / Take the Shot )


There were 100 mobs in this mission.

( i used the 1 mob = 1%, 2 mob = 2% done math )

It took me 2 and a half hours. The very beginning was quicker, thanks to the critt buffs, but once those ran out... ABYSMALLY slow. Without the critt buffs, I wager it would have taken me.... 3-3 1/2 hours.

[Jynne]

I'd like to know if Cosmik ever read the log from the conference... it was great to get everyone together, but umm if FC doesn't know what we said, err, what's the point