Ok, where to start....
High Level Game play....
I along with many others have reached at least LVL 100. I hit this level right around the time that the cyborg barracks was opened. Nice design I like that the nodorp armor adds NCU (lets see some more of that in higher QL's I am beggin ya), but I was sad to see that myself a level 100 enforcer Atrox, equipped only through self buffs and self buffed into implants, and a lvl 50 doctor from my guild who just wanted to check it out. Were able, with some planning, to go through the place with minor difficulty. The dungeon is designed for teams lvl70 - 90. My team should not have been succsesful. Other than doing this countless times to help out some of the lesser experienced gamers in the guild a few times, there is nothing really for a player of my level or above to do. Example...
I logged in the past two days formed my usual team (100 enf, 98 doc, 103 soldier, 2X105 NT's) Our problems began simply enough with cast timing, when the doc was casting team heals the NT's would almost immediately fumble, or vise versa. So a little planning in offsetting of heals and NT Nanos, we were under way again. We were hunting MOB's that dropped QL130 Monster parts, as it would seem that would make these mobs approx. lvl 130. The fights as susal were long and alot damge was done both by party and mob. This is good push over MOBs get really boring really fast. So we move on to the nex mob in the area it is on eof same type and approx same level. I being the tank of the group initiates combat, and the mob that is of same type and level starts wailing away on me doing over 1500 points of damage per hit at least 4 times before I drop. After returning to the place of my teams and mine demise, we give it another try. Staying with the same type and approx level of mob we are shortly dispatched after all of my attacks including specials are evaded and the doctor was aggro'd when casting a heal. I decided just for grins, and to try and cheer the recently departed members of the group, my atrox char adorned only in some underwear that someone had found (AC 0 across the board) i decided to attack once again the same type and approx level of mob. This brought alot of laughter as they watched form a safe distance. Once again all my attacls were evaded (i was unbuffed at the time so that doesnt suprise me) and I was hit for the exact same amount of damage when I am fully armored and with AC buffs (which works out to be about 2900AC in the three main) The mobs were doing melee damage only. Shouldn't my AC effect the amunt of damage i actually take?
After this and all the laughter stopped it was time for us to find something to do. We were all burnt out on missions as we did that the night before for some new nanos and whatnot. We flew to all the available zone to find something worthwhile to do. We found a few areas where the mob popualtion and level range was good, but the Experiences points were less tha stellar (ex... The mobs we started hunting at level 100-ish would award approx. 7k - 15k a kill. What we were finding that didn't bring on an entire army of mobs when one is attacked, was that we were only getting about 4k and sometimes 5k- 6k. At this level range where you need 1 million plus experience and your fighting harder mobs, I would think that the exp would stair step up like it did when we were all noobi's (at lvl 10 a red mob gives 700exp at level 20 a red mob goves approx 8k-9k when hunting somehting in a zone designed for your level). Other than that there is nothing to do especially for an Atrox enofercer that uses the same buff at level 100 that an agent can FP cast at level 60. I do enjoy the occasional PVP , but that is not what drew me to the game. Half the time you just get hate messages about how I am using an exploit that i was unaware of before it was taken out (hammer quick attacks). Now i am not griefing about this, but when i decided to make a new char to play so that i could venture about and share my experience withthe lower level people in my guild, That there is truely nothing to work for, or look forward to. There is no area that i cannot access at lvl 20 (given the proper transportation for those particularly nasty zones) that I can at level 100 or 200 for that matter. At level 20 I am recieving missions in areas that I recieve missions at for lvl 100.
Like I said, I am not a griefer nor am I an exploiter or over equipper, but let there be something for us higher level players to do, if it is going to be a static dungeon great but you better make it huge, what about epic missions(kind of like in EQ) or multiple part missions that all parts need to be done in order to recieve a profession specific NODROP item of real use (BTW thanks for the pioneer back pack that i can't use I wear tank armor). Give us something to strive for, something to drool over when you think about how long it will take to get it. The QL200 Hammer of doom was such an item I had only seen one and I thought it was quite rare, until i started talking to alot of high level enforcer hammer users and found it is quite common place. Once I got it I think to myself, now what do I go after? What do I work for? There just isn't anything.
Soldier and Enforcer love (heck even agents need some love)....
I saw a post by, and forgive me if i spell it wrong, Antisotropic(?). That had some very valid points. I see MP's become a vary formidable profession, Engineers becomeng a very very useful addition to any team for something other than a pet to tank with, NT's getting faster cast times, Won't touch doctors I personally think they get aggro'd way too much but I saw that was covered already in the Official answers section, Crats got some good things coming, Adventurers get to shapeshift, Agents Get FP and can do almost anything the other professions can do just a bit slower (they do need their range back on their rifles though), Traders which started out as a rare class but their true strengths are now being realized, Fixers, Doctors, NT's and engineers with there warping abiltiy be it grid, town, or location warps. Fixers summonable weapons armor and ammo. MP's summonable weapons, multi pets, and Quantum wings. Martial artists get their own line of attacks.
But, when you look at soldiers and enforcers, other than some very minor tweaking they are still the same old class they were when I downloaded the beta version and started playing. Other than soldiers using ranged weapons, and enforcers using melee, and different nano formulas they are the same thing. Where is the love for these professions? Since the calculation of damage does not seem to change from AC0 to AC3k we are nothing but bags of health points that can't heal worth a darn. I have scoured all the rumors websites and the official websites and see nothing coming for any of us.
As an enforcer using what I feel is the most effective weapon for my professions (sledgehammer) I have the slowest attack and even with a QL 200 Premium Hammer of Doom, I do less damage per MOB then a level 100 NT using a nano that casts 2-3X faster than my attacks, and doing around 3/4's of the amount of damage per succsessful completion of casting each time the nano hits the mark. (ie., One attack that takes 2 seconds to hit and 7 seconds to recharge will hit for approx 2500 damage (on a good day) while an NT will cast 2 nanos at a target doing 1700 points of damage to one target and have time to recast before i can even get another swing in) Then you have AOE nanos, I like them I truely do, I like how experienced PVP'ers use it on unsuspecting groups. And the damage they have the possiblility of doing per mob in the area can be quite staggering. But let face facts, An enforcer and a soldier can only do damge to one target at a time and then has to wait until the previous attacks ends (even if the mob dies) to switch tagets and attack again. Casters do not have this problem i cannot speak for ranged attakers using guns because i dont play one. Since an enforcer is considered to be the, and i will loosely quite this, "The one you would want to send into a crowd to clean it up" cannot attack a crowd. it can attack on person in a crowd, same with soldiers. Soldiers get these wonderful attacks burst and full auto, now with a little roleplay here....
You are being approached by 3 attackers of approx. your level. Your full auto is ready to go as is your burst attack. Would you fire on one target or would you spred it around to cause damage to all three targets? Personally I would rather damage three targets more than just cause alot of damage to one. I think it would greatly increase my odds of survival. Enforcers tend to use large heavy weapons... same scenario, do i just aim at mob number one and hit him as hard as possible? or do I swing that monster of a weapon as hard as I can at all three targets and hope at least one or two of them decide not to move out of the way? I would think I would prefer to go witht he later to increase my chance at surviving . These two scenarios that in AO means you have to target the biggest meanest one out of the group and hope the doctor can keep up with the damage of 3 mobs beating on you, while your only attacking one, makes us enforcers and soldiers flesh shields so that noone else inthe group gets hurt.
I am not asking to be the most powerful profeesion in the game, Not in the least. I am just asking that the soldiers and enforcers were a little truer to form than they are. I think that soldiers and enforcer are plenty powerful enough, I just think that there should be some sort of specialty that these two professions should have about them. You know help us stick out a bit more like the doctors, adventurers, and so on.
I hope that this reaches the desk of a Developer, and I also hope that other people who play enforcers and soldiers read this and post to it. I am sure i am not the only one who thinks this is important, or at least noteworthy. And I hope that it raises an eyebrow or two. I think that there are still alot of things that need to be worked out with ALL the professions, but what about us, your two forgotten children (hehheh) . I would really like some feedback on this positive negative indesicive , or the occasional I didnt read your post but i decided to reply because i saw how long winded it is post.
I am off of my soapbox, everyone pull out your violins and start playing my heart pumps purple peanut butter for me :P .
-Oslo
LVL 100 Enforcer
Omni-ECPCS Guild Director