rebalancing stuff

[Ellarisa]

quoting what they are proposing to change:

--Engineers:

GERNAEDS!!1!

Buffs: Buff cast times will be decreased for all professions. Potential combination of pet-buff nanolines to decrease time spent getting pets battle-ready.

Team Blockers: Change functionality, look into creating a more 'active' system of refreshing blockers on team-mates/self.

Reflect Shields: Remove reflect shield prohibition in Shadowlands, remove double-reflect shields from pets on RK.

Pets: Rebuilding pets from ground-up to rebalance pet viability across all level ranges.

More Pets: Look into possibility of creating newer pets which serve more specialized functions. Most likely as an alternative to the mechdog pet line.

Cyberdeck: Potential 'weapon' which allows the Engineer to vastly increase pet efficiency at the sacrifice of personal damage.

Tradeskills: Increase functionality for tradeskill-based Engineers - Potentially new weaponry along the lines of the Remodulator, new tradeskill items/gadgets for combat use.

Snares: Duration decreased, faster casting, increased functionality in Shadowlands (goes for all professions).

not that i do not agree with a lot of this stuff, but this is what they generally have in mind it seems.
Greetings,



Ellarisa

[aramsunat]

i kinda agree with this stuff
where did you quote if from? and what's up with the reflect shields? we already have a line for it working on SL, so all this "change" would do is virtually nothing but nerfing the endgame pets on rk

[Kintaii]

The quote comes from us, in information we've been giving to the Professionals over the last few weeks. I'll let Ella and Techno talk a bit more about what the quote contains (and other information they've been given) before chiming in any further. =)

[IHaveHugeNick]

Active refreshening blockers: on team/other players: yes. On self? I hope you're ****ing joking.

Faster casting on snares: too bad we dont cast our snares. Its an aura.

Specialized pets: yes please.

Reflect changes: as long as it goes with rebalancing the pets.

Tradeskill/grenade/cyberdeck weapons: 3 new basically completely new (since currently they're all unfunctional) weapon lines , in addition of Pistols we already have, and that also need attention ? I think we'd all prefer if you focus on making at least one right.

If it was up to me i'd completely rework entire tradeskill system so we don't have to be community's TS whore and community doesn't think we have unfair advantage by being able to make stuff and still perform in combat, which actually will be unfair if we see TS weapons that are as viable as regular ones.

But that's propably too much of a change and you'll continue making TS weapons halfassed to avoid unfairness factor and we'll continue current nonsense of a) tradeskill profession users who do not tradeskill b) tradeskill profession users who no one wants in team.

q.e.d.

[Technogen]

Buffs: Expect 220 buff time to be under a minute.

Team Blockers: The design is not finished on the dev's end yet but expect the self blockers to be a cast and forget, and the team blockers to have some sort of way of keeping them active.

Reflect Shields: Our shield line will exist both in Sl and RK, which will increase our pets survivability in SL. Mech Reflect will get a bonus to the amount of reflect it grants, but will stay pet only.

Pets: Rebuilding pets from ground-up to rebalanced pet viability across all level ranges. Also the possibility of new pet types; aka pvp pet, pvm pet.

Tradeskill and Cyberdeck Weapons: The cyberdeck line would have us sacrificing some of our damage for a boost in the pet. Think of a 1-1 off hand weapon so Augmep + cyberdeck combo. Tradeskill weapons will be an extension of the remod line.

Tradeskills: Increase functionality for tradeskill-based Engineers, as well as USE items for combat.

Snares: The snare's duration will get shorter but the tick from the pets will be faster.

[Mostadio]

This looks.. scary.

[zartosht]

Having to ACTIVELY refresh the team blockers (and even possibly ours)? This is so far away from what we have been discussing and complaining about that I do not know what to even begin to say... This is freakin' unbelievable. So not only we don't benefit from team blockers but now we will have to work to make them available or else be hated and bullied by everybody? FC's message is that we are officially totems: warp totems, blockers totems, TS whores. Give us a break.

Remove double reflect from our pets? Huge disappointment again and an idea going totally in the wrong direction. We are just OK soloers in RK and we need more pet survivability in PvP. Not a reflect nerf... WTF? Seriously?

More weapons gets the annoying big pink: LOL

Resubscription status to AO now on "negative watch"

[Kintaii]

Yes, double-reflect will be removed as it is a bug, but it will be made up for by altering and increasing the numbers in the rest of your reflect shield toolset - Ella forgot to mention that bit in their initial post. =)

I'm not a huge fan of cross-posting, but I made this comment over in the Soldier forum and I figure it's worth posting here as well:

For the most part I'm wanting to let the Professionals handle the dissemination of information with all of this, but there is one thing I want to chime in on, and something we've been a bit coy about overall in mentioning.

When we talk about rebalancing, we do mean rebalancing. We mean a complete, ground-up look over all the numbers in game - How much AAO professions can receive, what their overall nano-costs are for buffing, how much IP they have to spend to cast their nanos, ect. ect. ect.

When you guys see things like the perk docs, or receive information on the rebalancing, it's important to understand that we're not going to change one or two things - There are massive changes incoming to the overall balance of numbers that professions receive, to make them more viable across the board. What you may perceive as an issue with the announced changes will also more than likely be addressed as we go through and fix the overarching numbers spread for the entire game.

There's more to The Great Rebalancing than just tweaking a couple of items/perks/nanos. A whole lot more.

[Technogen]

Remove double reflect from our pets? Huge disappointment again and an idea going totally in the wrong direction. We are just OK soloers in RK and we need more pet survivability in PvP. Not a reflect nerf... WTF? Seriously?

As both Kintaii and myself said, the current Mech Reflect nano will get a boost to offset the lack of double reflects.

{edited by Anarrina: removed unnecessary comment}

__

Side note I am personally attempting to get our blockers extended to our pets in some way/shape/form. Our "Team" buffs are looking at being extended to our pets, which if that happens then our team blockers would land on our pets, thus giving us a direct benefit from the blockers.

[Mountaingoat]

Grenades - awesome
Decreased buff time - awesome
More active team blockers - not quite sure what this means, if it means having to spam a nano then not awesome at all compared to now
Pets - potentially awesome (optimism)
No more double reflect on pets but better mech reflect - not sure, depends on pet changes
More/alternate pets - awesome
Cyberdeck + better pets - awesome
Tradeskills in combat + combat clickables based on tskills - frikin unbelievably awesome
Snares - decreased duration + faster pulse = ? Any lower defense check?

Overall I am quite excited.

[Technogen]

More active team blockers - not quite sure what this means, if it means having to spam a nano then not awesome at all compared to now

I'm going to see if I can't pry more info on this out of the dev team for you all, but I agree if it's just us spamming a nano, no good, but if it's something like "roll over" blockers, so the effects stack and the more people you get rid of faster the more blockers you get to keep, that kinda is a neat idea. But IDK WTF it is right now, all I know it's TEAM only not our personal blockers that they addressed right now.

Snares - decreased duration + faster pulse = ? Any lower defense check?

Snares over all are going to get changed and "be more effective" I'm not sure how thats to be, but I'll push to make sure our land rate is moderate (its aoe, it can't be 100%"

What I'd like is AOE snare be moderate land rate, and a "direct" action from the pets. If they hit the target, or if we hit the target with the cyberdeck on the land rate would go up to high levels, thus making it a mix between the direct proc snare and the aoe snare.

[Forek]

ok, some of that stuff is nice and some of it just seems like it's going to make things more irritating (not balanced, just more irritating).



Buffs cast time reduction is good. While you're at it, can you get someone to take a look at their nano cost as well. I shouldn't have to empty my nano pool two or three times just trying to buff my pets. Nano Pool is surely supposed to limit casting during combat, not to slow down pet buffing.

Team Blocker changes I sort of saw coming, however if you're going to make us recast it you're going to have to reduce nano reqs (I'm not going to swap buffing armor in pvp) and cast time (Anything over 10s cast or so is not feasible for a pvp combat situation). Also, I will be really really pissed if you change self blockers!

Reflect Shield was a known bug and it was inevitable it would get fixed. Personally, I'd be happy with about 40% reflect on pets, though more would be nice. I still find some professions targeting my dog and munching him through the 48% reflects.

Pet changes might be alright, you have to admit you haven't really given us much to mull over on this one.

Snare changes seem fine. I like the idea of faster tick on the aura with shorter duration for pvp. Shorter duration could become a pain for pvm raids if we have to keep recasting it. Could we get the shorter one as a pvp nano with VPs?

Cyberdeck option I have to admit I'm actually quite against. I really don't like the idea of rendering my engineer completely redundant (you would loose all damage and perks). Besides the fact that pets have rubbish pathing in combat, I just have images of ToTW where you had a strong pet and the engi just hides behind the nearest column. This would absolutely kill the fun of playing the profession.

[Philty]

Cyberdeck option I have to admit I'm actually quite against. I really don't like the idea of rendering my engineer completely redundant (you would loose all damage and perks). Besides the fact that pets have rubbish pathing in combat, I just have images of ToTW where you had a strong pet and the engi just hides behind the nearest column. This would absolutely kill the fun of playing the profession.

I have exactly the same feeling about this cyberdeck thing.

[Technogen]

Check out my newest thread to see what I'm thinking along the lines of it. It would be much like the TS weapons except instead of just debuffing the target it gives us a bonus for our pets.

[Solidstriker]

Cyberdeck, seriously?

I don't even want to begin comparisons between NT nukes and pets in terms of efficiency- as long as the AI controls the pets, there will always be flaws. This means that the engineer should also have access to some moderate form of damage, not be completely stripped and having to rely on pets for everything.

More weapons, potentially weapon lines? We're going to have to reset some skills, anyway, but if these are just remods under different names, then why bother? The remod engi is happy, I'm glad you're pleasing someone...

Active auras... ok, trade off one annoying set of buffs for another, yippee!

[Xyphos]

Grenades - awesome
Decreased buff time - awesome
More active team blockers - not quite sure what this means, if it means having to spam a nano then not awesome at all compared to now
Pets - potentially awesome (optimism)
No more double reflect on pets but better mech reflect - not sure, depends on pet changes
More/alternate pets - awesome
Cyberdeck + better pets - awesome
Tradeskills in combat + combat clickables based on tskills - frikin unbelievably awesome
Snares - decreased duration + faster pulse = ? Any lower defense check?

Overall I am quite excited.

this.

Decreased buff time - awesome

More active team blockers - not quite sure what this means, if it means having to spam a nano then not awesome at all compared to now.
who would want to spam 1min cast nano all the time?
even with reduced buff times, I expect being stuck on blocker spam duty would prevent us from doing anything else.

Pets - potentially awesome (optimism) WTB giant mechanical Ermite!

No more double reflect on pets but better mech reflect - not sure, depends on pet changes

More/alternate pets - awesome AGAIN, WTB giant mechanical Ermite!

Cyberdeck + better pets - unsure... engi with cyberdeck?

Tradeskills in combat + combat clickables based on tskills - frikin unbelievably awesome ENTER: CS ENGI?

Snares - decreased duration + faster pulse = ? Any lower defense check? I don't think so. snares based on engi nanoskill and CS engi means more snare AR.

[Technogen]

Another thing to note about the cyberdecks, its not going to always be like the NT cyberdeck, think about the Doc Pistols, they were useful and let the docs cast a new nano. That's more what they mean then engineers getting nukes.

[Solidstriker]

Also, a lot of this counts on our pets, which is why I'm so negative about it. If FC makes them somehow become an extremely effective means of PvP on their own, so much so that engis won't need personal damage, I'll suck it up- until then, let's not get too ahead if ourselves.

[navycut]

Well with changes to how casting operates (explained in the NT section) it prolly wont be that bad, most likely won't be 1 min cast time either.

Oh and you don't have to be a team player, just like many docs out there who don't heal anythin but themselves :P

[Technogen]

Made this thread a sticky.