Originally Posted by
Kintaii
I wanna say again that I'm sorry for pulling the rug out a bit on this one - As I said in earlier in the thread, the Trader drain stuff is the most tenuous of all the various plans we've posted and, in the long run, honestly the least likely to be implemented. However, the reason behind that is we honestly view the "feel" of Traders to actually be ok - Like Shades, Traders are one of the few professions in AO that we really think still have the true core and nature of their profession well-defined; Traders, in terms of theme and feel, are still pretty much spot on.
There are a lot of professions in AO that, over the years, have lost their "feel" - Their spark, the thing that makes them truly unique. Ultimately, we're trying to restore a bit of that to the professions that need it, and make them feel special again - Traders are one of the very few professions to be in a spot lucky enough to where their overall core definition hasn't really been diminished over the years. I say "lucky" because at the end of the day, unlike a lot of other professions, their roles will only be slightly changed by the rebalancing efforts, meaning that most Traders will have to do very little in terms of altering their character/setup after the rebalancing hits. This is not to say, however, that things won't change at all.
It's been a bit hard trying to convey to people that the rebalancing takes place on two fronts - First, from a systems standpoint (things such as the new Agent Mimic actions, or the NT nanoweaving idea), we're attempting to reconvey a sense of uniqueness to the various professions. Secondly, however, we are also attempt a complete and overall *numbers* rebalancing, meaning that even beyond adding in new shinies, we're also trying to make the rest of the game as balanced as possible - Bringing professions attack ratings in-line, adjusting healing amounts, balancing overall damage output, adjusting skills needed to cast nanos, ect. ect. While the first part of the rebalancing (the systems adjustment) may not end up effecting Traders that much, the second part (the numbers balancing) will effect EVERYONE, hopefully bringing *all* professions onto a much more interesting (and level) playing field.
So yes - Even without the "enhanced" drains, there are still many things which will be adjusted for Traders over the coming months. It just may not all carry quite the same sparkly shiny nature as some other professions.
Hope that clears a few things up. =)