Soloing and Cooperation

[Emaakcion]

I think you should:

1)
Make it possible to make people find teammates via an Icon or colour.
For instance if Im looking for a team I could click off a checkbox in the teamwindow. And this would make an icon appear next to my name above my head (or change the colour of my name). So that other players can se that im looking for a team!

This would make it much more easy to find teammates.

2)
You could make up a lot more mission-texts. It is irritationg to get 2 missions with virtually the same text twice in one day. How many "mad bombers" and creatures building "nest/hive" is there on this planet!!!! If you want I would be happy to help with some mission-texts. Just send me an e-mail :-)

[__________Zephoralyn]

Well, if you're finding the monsters are dropping too quickly...the problem is not the monster - your team is hunting mobs that are too close to your level. Try being level 100+ and fighting verteran/ace mobs sometime - they are currently next to impossible, by making them tougher, they *will* be impossible.

You see, the problem here is not necessarily mob AI or mob difficulty, it's how AO scales. At the lower levels, the game is perfect, a yellow mob is defeatable solo and will be destroyed in seconds by a team, yeilding the appropriate amount of xp in both situations (time vs. xp). At the higher levels, currently, that scale shifts as the mobs currently ignore title caps and continue in diffuctly dozens of levels passed where you (the player) have stopped. So now the same yellow is the equivalent to a red, yeilding awful xp for the amount of difficulty involved - this yellow (lvl 100+) can no longer be soloed by most classes btw. So the *team*, which MUST now be a team in order to continue playing, will hunt tougher mobs, for better xp vs. time, whereupon the doc, the ma, the crat, the mp, you name it...ALL professions are VITAL to survival at the higher levels. I cannot stress enough how important every class is when combined and cooperating to the survival of the player.

The game you are playing is quite obviously not the same game most others are playing - perhaps we should compare notes one day? :P

I'll end by suggesting NOT to make the mobs tougher, for fear that this *toughness* will scale into the higher levels in a horrifyingly impossible way. As it is, any mob after lvl 150 can near one-hit-kill our tanks. Izzygimmers will one-hit-kill anyone in the mission at the time of it's casting... so...yeah...right, that's pretty weak... we should just not be able to play AO? Is this what you are suggesting?

Regards,

--
Zephora
http://www.aorealms.com

[__________Mindswayer]

There are already too many Professions with "Calm" Nanos. It's not so special when everyone has it.

Crowd control is the Crat's "thing". It's all they add to a group really (The xp bonus doesn't compare to the XP another Soldier or Enforcer or MP would bring in if they were in the Crats team slot)

If you are going to give all, or next to all, professions crowd control abilities, some crats are going to be mighty upset.

Right now I see AO heading down a boring road in regards to it's profession balance. It's on it's way to becoming a game with one class that has 12 different names.

[_____________fearGod]

Group/solo wise...

We have absolutely no formulas to use, during combat.
Surely there has to be something we can do, other than tossing pet in:

I'm thinking Star Trek

Phaser Nano Line:

Direct damage types
Stun and damage types

Force field line:

Erecting a force field over entire team (10-30 seconds), when getting blasted upon, by Cyborgs (for example).

Nanobot Control Specific Line:

Since nano bots are everywhere and really just microscopic bots, we should have a special affinity to them.

Increasing Engy versatility

Vehicular Creation skills:

New engineer specific plane, car, water models
I mean, we are engineer's, right?

[Malachii]

Good evening...

I would like to ask if there might be anything done for those who do not have, or have very little Nano skill. The team I work with on Rubi-ka do not use Nano's or Implants as they wish to be true to their natural abilities as specialists.

We pride ourselves on this point, and so far... much to the surprise of our higher leveled friends on this world... survived well. *laughs*

I play an agent... Sorry... I roleplay an agent. There is a difference I've found. *grins slightly* I used to be pour my earned IP into my rifle and aimed shot. Then I slowly found that Aimed Shot was not actually making a large enough hole in the brief home of my target. So I decided to let it drop slightly.
Then I found that my Grippo wasn't really making an impression with damage high enough, or fast enough to continue in my work. (Although the Critical hit was nice once in every mission)
It was not effective enough. (This is obviously because I do not 'wrangle' or 'buff' which would comprimise my character)

The bright and shiny world of the Martial Artistry skills took my attention. Okay, so it's more expensive to train... and so is Dimach which is really handy to make a quick and deadly slap before running away from the next potential lethal green. (Can't pit myself against Slight dark yellow or above... and even Yellow makes some real nasty bruises)

So I'm a little bit of both worlds... then I was using my rifle as close range AND smacking the enemy with it as I also unloaded into his/her/it's face... but alas... t'was a bug. *sniff* Can't use it can I? *laughs*

Sorry about the length of this... it's drawn out a bit eh? I just like over-emphasis I suppose.
Can't equip scopes (Weapon Smithing is DARK blue... so I'm leaving that well alone as I never have any IP spare. Computer Lit is going to be set at 60 as again... the IP is NEEDed elsewhere... and there doesn't seem to be anything else out there on the Rubi-ka market to help non-robotic/augmented humans)

Black market anyone? I'm a shifty theif/saboteur/hitman (Shifty... at first glance that may look like something else.) And we're serious roleplayers that enjoy the atmosphere and setting of Anarchy. *drool*

I aint flaming. I just would like to know if there'll be anything in the pipeline of ideas which could allow benefits to those of low Nano skill...


Blimey.. what is this... my life story?

I'm not looking for special treatment. I know it may seem that way. I want to stick up for those who have a proud sense of a humans development. Could there not be a way to allow us off-worlders to make a living?

To infiltrate other companies in Omni-tek... to get in the know with Clans... to be able to become a threat from within the shadows... to change our identities with false documents, our faces!

Anyone making a cup of tea? My throat feels a bit dry after that. I'm a group player... as are all of my associated business felons... *coughs* fellows...
Bars and nightclubs is where business is best. And with the threat of war coming... I can smell the sweet scent of credits. *runs up the ladder and jumps for the level 300 title, missing completely*

This may not have been very helpful at all. *laughs loudly* I'm going to Baboons for a drink. Btw, if there are any other non-nano using, implant refuser Rubi-kans... please feel welcome to /tell me. Or Bearnorm, who is my trusted associate in crime.

*grins*

-"If ya contracted mate... I'll be watchin' n' waitin'..."-

-"Hey, you tight fisted leet! It's your bloody round!"-

-Malachi, keeper of reverie.

P.S. Members of the dev team can feel free at any time to grid jump to my position and beat me senseless... or to the reclaim booths if you so please. *Waves at Norway*

[__________Lucid Flow]

To the clueless people are Funcom:

Mobs are already hard enough, they do NOT need to be made harder. You obviously don't understand how your own damn game is run and this is why it pisses me off already. I can't kill greens solo and you want to make mobs more intelligent and nastier?

What are you guys thinking?

Why don't you make all mobs like the Steps of Madness? A Dungeon that is aimed toward level 30-40 chars and yet you will never see anybody below level 90 in it because it's almost god damn impossible with a level 90+ team including Doc and Tank!


Fix the professions for gods sake and leave the mobs alone!!!

Don't get any smart ideas. The number one gripe in this game is the imbalance of professions.

Support Characters are Useless
Mage chars (i.e. NT) are the least capable of defending themselves against attacks yet they don't have high damage to augment it.
MAs do crap for damage.

You guys already messed up this game. Trade skills cost more then stores and have absolultely 0 use to any character except the Trader so all that is left is pointless and endless killing.

You guys really need to get a clue.

[__________TiDaLbLaDe]

the veiw your character is taking it from seems to b that of a lvl lvl character, lvl 100 - ... my soldier used to b able to take 5 mobs at once at lvl 1-60, after that i couldn't take that many, but i could still solo reds, at lvl 70 i could solol both dungeons in mort with little to no problems, and they were the only "easy" kills for alot of xp... atm soloing missions from lvl 80+ is proly the supidest thing any1 could do if they were trying to lvl... if u do a mission at 50% for a lvl 80+ character, u will get greys to maybe, organge mobs, each kill u will only get around 1500-4k xp, and when u need close too 1 mill xp to lvl thats just retarded, at lvl 85 i could solo lvl 120 misisons, but their would still b greens in them wich shows me the lvl rng in misisons is too much. also in the lvl 120 missions i would get 3-12k xp, which for a 2-3 hour mission would still only get me around 300-600k xp and for 3 hours of soloing i think u should lvl at least once...

atm to lvl do lvl 200 missions with a group, nice and easy xp, we can do the missions with 1 mp 1 engie 1 doc and 1 soldier... only need 4 people to get 60k xp a kill, might take a lil longer then haveing 6 people in a group but its ok if we can;t find other people. and for 200 mobs we only get around 70k xp a kill, and some of these mobs take 5+ mins to kill, exp the enforcer mobs, the 1's that are the size of juggernauts that have essence of god cast on them, they take 5 mins longer then elite medusa soldier elders... now that medusas are nerfed their is almost no place to hunt out in the open, unless u want to hunt borgs in mort, those lovely things hit for 1k+ non crit, and if they are in melee range then they hit u as fast as an ma, while still shooting.... bassically 2k+ dmg in 2 secs... and for the low xp they give lvl 200 missions are alot safer.

also i think funcom needs to change what monsters aggro, fighting something and it aggro;s a doc while i can crit 4 times in a row is down right retarded. as well as mobs aggro'ing mp's for casting damage nanos pet owners should b lowest on the list no matter what dmg they are doing untill their pets die, then they should b bumped up to highest on list...

soldiers are proly 1 of the most gimped professions right now, all of our buffs suck, esp for the nano req's they need, raising sensory imp from 230 to 340 costs 60k ip, thats crazy... sure it should cost alot, since were not nt's but then the nanos shouldn't have as high requirments for the little help they provide, right now theirs no use to raise any but 2 or 3 nano skills for a soldier, u can simply get buffed by all other people, since their buffs are that much better anyways. not to mention a few of out buffs are bugged, and help less then buffs 50 lvls lower then it *hint* battlefeild endurance *hint* and make mk shield better plz it should reflect more then 49 dmg, when you are fighting monsters with 10k+ hp, put a lvl requirment on it or soemthing so at certain lvls it can reflect more dmg back etc... or ven better make it the same as befor when fighting monsters, and have it work like it does now when doing pvp.

BTW all proffessions with pets are uber

[____________eleetist]

First, let me say, EXCELLENT article Gaute. I'm glad we can feed in a little input on this. As a Level 112 agent I will comment on what I see for myself and others in a group... and of course what ways I think things can be improved.

1) Aimed shot, although I must be concealed to get off an aimed shot, and Aimed shot immediately moves me up to the top of a monsters hate list, even when I team with an enforcer using mongo. I would like to see concealment ability in some way affect the likelihood of being aggroed in battle. But mainly I would like to see the Aimed shot not cause insta-aggro. I think Aimed Shot damage should not be viewed similarly as other damage in terms of the hate list. Or else I'd like to see some aggro de-ehancers that can be used by support personel in a group. I like variety, but variety is not knowing I am dead if I get off a good shot. Anytime I hit a 3-7k aimed shot I get aggro and no one can ever pull aggro back. Last night the aggro resulted in me getting hit for 1k in three consequetive hits. Sending me to the reclaim and making sure I would not even bother to try and use aimed shot the rest of the night in my team. With the Agents Dark Blue body dev, there is no way we can tank... and Aimed shot is efficiently making us do that.

2) Concealment... the aimed shot concealment requirement is too stiff. I spend half of a fight with a team trying to pull of the elusive aimed shot that gets me insta-aggroed and killed. Because of these two items many groups don't particular care to have agents join them in battle



Other than these two main agent concerns, I feel we are adequate in groups.... but mainly we are only sought after in hopes we can buff the rest of the groups members. Somthing Agent Only and unique would be nice to have more groups that want to get agents. Maybe a buff Nano Crystal (Aggro De-enhancer)... makes target less likely to be attacked than other team members... any group with a doc, meta, NT, or engie would be begging us to join!!!


For other proffesions I have a great idea.... Fixers are pretty underpriveledged... how about a nano for them that has like a 30 second cast time that saves half of all xp you have earned... Too Bad you have already used the name Insurance Hack... as that would be perfect for this nano.... make it target only... so it can't be used on a whole team... and maybe make an even higher level one that can be used on the whole team. This would give Fixers an awesome role and an awesome responsibility in groups.


In terms of soloing, much is needed to be improved. Most proffesions can't solo... I'm not sure how far you intended people to be able to solo, but Agents pretty much can't after Level 65... i think the same holds true of fixers. I'm not sure of other professions. Mob Strength is just way too high for us. An agent can get by for awhile with a heal pet. But you have previously admitted your desire to remove the one saving grace that allows an agent to solo for a little while.

I think one thing that almost everyone agrees with is that mob strength needs to be toned down.... Casual gamers are being left out of the game.... I understand an overequipping fix is being planned by your staff, but this should not be done unless mob strength is adjusted before hand... we can barely survive as it is and if you tone down our weapons it will be total slaughter.

At higher levels the pet classes seem to be the most desirable in groups... docs and tanks seem the most left out as MP heal pets and Slayer Tanks replace them in groups. This doesn't seem right... are these supposed to be this powerful, if so other classes should be improved to reflect the same level of power these classes have. These classes seem to have very little risk and very high reward. It's frustrating to see a team with 3 slayers, 2 MP's, and doc just sitting around killing things with great ease that equivalent level players can only do through extreme risk and great difficulty and lots of luck. This seems a little imbalancing as it makes it more difficult for the rest of us to find groups.

From what I have seen in the field in terms of buffs:
MA's highly desired to have one on team for crit buffs
Doc's HP buffs are great
MP's Highly desired by many groups for Nano Skill buffs
Enforcers HP buffs are desirable
Soldiers shield and AC buffs
Advent polymorph abilities not that great
NT Humidity Extractor appreciated by docs little else
fixers - run buffs not often used (I clear them from my NCU)
Crat - good xp buff
Engie - Sypathetic buffs should be optional!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They ruin any chance of an agent getting off an aimed shot by breaking conceal every 10 seconds

Agent - NONE.... If we want to go fp, which removes our roots from combat then we have the option of any of the above buffs... however no class just wants to be the groups buff monkey and fp buffs interfere with your agent buffs as the duration of agent buffs run out before fp does and you can't recast.


Well thanks for taking the time to listen to us Gaute!

Eleetist
Lvl 112 Agent

[generation]

Hmmm AO is a great game! best i have played so far ... Meaning I played AC since beta, what attracted me to AC was the skill based system to be able to tailor a charater in unique ways apart from others. Then i played EQ since beta and they did a GREAT job in CHARACTER ROLES! meaning everyone HAS a specific job! Then i tried UO which ROCKED when it came to land/housing/storage and NPC merchants and finally i played DaoC and about the ONLY good thing i got from them was the ability to parse TEXT, meaning its nice to have a split window between regular chat text and combat text!... Soo im not a dev im just someone that likes to play MMORPGS, I guess what im trying to bottom line is, take all those stregths from those games and see how we/AO could merge it in our game system. I.E.
(1) Enhance the Team Missions to a point where ONLY specific items/loot could be attained via Team Missions.
(2) DO NOT start giving all professions the ability to do what a specific profession SHOULD be specialized in.. That kills the whole group concept. However should you do it anyway then BUFF the specilized professions.
(3) dont increase down times, instead i would suggest to parse or split the chat window.
(4) FIX the agro enhancers - Make a tank be a tank, give him the ability to REALLY get that monster on him self and off from others OR minimize the agro cause by healers/support casters in a group. Dont increase HP that would kill the need for a healer
(5) YES YES give professions some type of unique abilities that would complement a group, making the LFG more viable for everyone.
(6) as for Soloing, you guys (funcom) have done a GREAT job at that already in my opinion, However by introducing Team Mission terminals PLEASE tune down the Single Missions terminals to allow the soloers to do so at ANY level.
(7) and finally KEEP UP THE GREAT JOB! i personally love this game, havent seen anything like it, granted lil bugs here and there but in term of the BIG PICTURE i see why you have made or will make the changes you have posted in the past! Thanks for such a great MMORPG game!

--Magerage

[__________TiDaLbLaDe]

lucid flow your a moron lol ...

healers are needed, MA's are uber strong knowing 1 that doens't even twink and he can do 300 a hit at lvl 70 and solo missions easily NT's can do a **** load of dmg and quickly, i'd like to bang off 2500 dmg in 4 secs.

also ... ENGINEERS DO NOT SUCK, LoL ... if your think so your a fool

they have the best ac buffs in the game, as well as damage buff for energy weapons. they can also use uber bots... lvl 100 engie's running around with slayers ... **** my freind can solo 2 brig gens at once with his slayer ...

only mob he can't solol is a medusa now they got twinked out.

engineers arn't supposed to do huge dmg, their bots are, DUH, if u want to use a gun, use a vector or another shootie, get the appropriat implants, 132 wrangle and through a fair lvl gun on, U are not supposed to do as much dmg as your bots !

[Bionitrous]

I don't know if this is a + or a -, but I found that the LFG features of DAoC were very well done. You could set a simple LFG flag on your character by checking a box. When a leader was looking for members he'd get a list of players, professions, and levels within a particular area that wanted to group up.

With them implemented in AO, for example, I would be able to be pulling missions in Broken Shores and have my LFG flag on. If, by some bizarre freak of nature, a group decides they could actually use some crowd control they could contact my 'crat and I could immediately cancel my plans for more solo-missioning. I refuse to run around for hours and hours begging over the /shout channel to get into a group. But if I make it known that I would like to play in a group and someone contacts me, I'll likely drop what I'm doing and go join up.

[____________Ginsberg]

The GUI is fine other then it doesnt update all the time as far as health and nano. Could be lag on my DSL I guess, but doesnt seem to update till I click on their name.

Is their a command that lists every player in the guild that is on?
What thier lvl and class is, and location? That was the key in EQ to knowing who was where and what you could quickly get going. And speed is the key. One of the reasons I think people solo so much is oragnization is a pain the arse. What lvls are going, where is everyone at, do ya need a plane or no where is Fready is he lost or what. In eq I could see that his dumb arse was jerking around at the store in FV and wasting our time. Here I cant.

Then you will get a group going someplace where you dont Have to have a plane to get to in less then 30 min, you find out the soldier doesnt have the comp lit, or that Billybob actually IS grey. We need an ability to see who / where / lvl / class QUICKLY to get things going in an organized fasion. In all honesty I dont reply to group looking for one more guild chat as quickly as i would Hey Trader of the appropriate lvl your not in a mission want to fill this last space? Yes !

[___________killahsin]

"No, we meet monsters with 30k HPs and insta-kill with 5k nukes. You took away insta-kill in PvP, but why are we being insta-killed by NPCs? "



thats a bug.

[___________dredge999]

The thought of giving more classes better crowd control abilities would be the end of the crat. That's about all any group ever wants me to do. Take that away or give it to a class that has other "team friendly" abilities and crats will never again be allowed in any "uber" group.

Not that we get in "uber" groups now but you will definately nerf us if you add more crowd control to other classes.

Cratomatic

60 Crat - Rubika 2

[_____________Solrael]

If you make the monsters in team missions have more HP and more of them to take at a time without giving a large increase to the xp, it will be useless. People will just keep doing single missions because you can take 1-3 mobs at a time, easy mobs that give lots of xp usually. If you make the mobs harder and make more of them per room without making the over-all experience reward much higher the feature will be useless.

[_____________Mishief]

A major problem I have with grouping is that as a Fixer no one seems to want to group with me. Fixers currently have nothing to contribute to a team. Sure we have a run buff, but the run buffs take away from the amount of damage you can do so most of the time they're not worth it. At level 97 and a ql 137 Mausser I'm lucky to do more 100 points of damage. If we're hunting high level mobs I'm lucky to do more then 30 points, even with burst. The one line of nano's that I thought would make me more valuable to teams, the grid nanos, are no longer unique to our profession. FC has instead given similar nanos to Docs, Engies and Crats. Heck, even MA's have a speed buff. My only heal nanos do so little that they're worthless because grey mobs can easily out damage the healing effects. My root nanos blow because as soon as you hit the mob the effects disappear. Add to these problems the fact that it's nearly impossible for a Fixer to use nanos that are more the half the QL of the Fixers level due to the high cost of raising nano skills and it becomes almost pointless to try and use them. Oh and what's the deal with summon nanos? How pointless are they? Oh, and since thieving skills are not going to be added to the game there really is no point now to being a Fixer.

So how do you fix the fixer? Well, to start I'd put in more SMG / BURST based weapons for us to choose from. This was promised a LONG time ago. SMGs are supposed to be fast yet our Maussers take forever to damage. So far, I've found only one other viable SMG and it does less damage then the Mausser and has a lower crit. The one advantage is that it is duel wieldable, however, the multi wield skill is so high that to put the IPs into it restricts your ability to raise other skills. Additionally, it's a NO DROP unique. Which means there's no hope of upgrading it later when your skills surpase it and you're facing more difficult mobs that require a harder hitting weapon. Top it off that you can only get it deep inside a HUGE dungeon and the effort for getting it out weighs its usefullness.

I'd also suggest adding a couple new nanos that would help to increase the Fixers attack skills. Our starting nano Minor Suppressor is a perfect example. Why isn't there a Major Suppressor? Also, change the effect of Slow nanos, which lower the targets evasion skills, so that they don't disipate when you hit them once. Allowing the team to take advantage of the weakened mob's defenses.

Making just these few changes would help to make the Fixer more viable in both Teams as well as solo.

[_______________Fazun]

huh, i smell so much eq, it's not even funny anymore .... ,(

hmmm so i try to keep this away from anythin that helps gettin more *exp* through *fightin* ..... pffff .... ,)

i still think, it would be cool if we (engineers) could produce ammo, but today i think we should make ammo *player-only* ... yeah, you sure would see a need for engis then .... ,)

yeah, so with the treatment pack -> doctor
and the nano-kit -> nt

maybe we could make *all* nano-formulas player only and only in jobe are stores where you can *buy* nano-programs ....

don't give *any* (or only very little) exp for producin this stuff (that you need huntin with a group), but make it *easy* ....

yeah, this are radical thoughts and not *really* meant for implementation ... maybe food for thought ... ,)

[____________Maitrize]

People actually solo? Haha.
(sorry... that was cute.)

Tanks are fine.

Docs in teams are secondary tanks as they take all the aggro. -_-
(my poor opi pure healer.)

Do the professions that heal (Doctors, Martial Artists and Adventurers) have any use / purpose in the team? Do you really need a healer when the monsters drop in 5-10 seconds?

A natural follow up question here is: Should we increase the unpredictability of monster spawns so that they are more "surprising", and different - so that more healers are needed. (More on this later.)

This scares me.
This scares me a lot.
Unpredictable mobs spawning on top of the doc, killing the doc instantly THEN taking out the rest of the team.

Why make the game HARDER?

Focus on fixing the nerfed classes first... gives the Fixers some purpose, give some range back, do something about a storyline. Heck hire players to actually play roles that have anything to do with the game.

Mm dungeons... pure healing doc... no use there. I can't mission. -_-

Does support people have any real use? I have noticed many players on low levels having an inadequate number of NCUs to really take advantage of the beneficial nano programs ("buffs").

The only way I could see this being fixed is if you were to up the number of base NCU. Actually that WOULD be nice, especially for my lvl 97 char with a 6x belt and 144 NCU because of the range inc and nano recompiler taking up the extra slots. Grr.

Do you have enough time for socialisation?

At this time I ONLY group with friends because I'll die with anyone else. People aren't friendly or social at all. There is no storyline, so no point to interact with others. Oh. Unless you need a buff. See the pattern? :P

Make more interesting monster camps.

More, and more interesting monster camps are required. There is so much overcamping and debate over KS'ing it's not even funny. I WALK PAST SOMEONE and they start swearing at me accusing me of KS'ing their kills. Even if I just landed.

Give monsters a more complex AI when you meet them with a team. Let them pick dangerous opponents, basically be "nastier", more challenging... (More fun?)

*smacks herself* Which teams aren't taking on red mobs after level 50? Heck even below level 50... you see level 15-20 players taking bulls in Galway. MORE DANGEROUS? What level are borgs anyway?...

Go through each profession and make sure it has something unique, or at least very good, to contribute to a team in a fight.

PLEASE!

Include different team-missions. Finally turn on the team-mission booths and give them tougher monsters, more of them, better loot and several levels. Maybe with a boss at the end? + Multiple reward and tokens.

Why hasn't this been done YET? This should have been a priority from the start. ;_;

[____________Maitrize]

Originally posted by TiDaLbLaDe
lucid flow your a moron lol ...

also ... ENGINEERS DO NOT SUCK, LoL ... if your think so your a fool

Mm they don't "suck" but could use better buffs.

they have the best ac buffs in the game, as well as damage buff for energy weapons. they can also use uber bots... lvl 100 engie's running around with slayers ... **** my freind can solo 2 brig gens at once with his slayer ...

Who needs AC BUFFS? I never ask for them... never have enough NCU to ask for them.

engineers arn't supposed to do huge dmg, their bots are, DUH, if u want to use a gun, use a vector or another shootie, get the appropriat implants, 132 wrangle and through a fair lvl gun on, U are not supposed to do as much dmg as your bots !

*shoves a dirty sock in TiDaLbLaDe's mouth* Mean! *snuggles lucid* *offers cookie*

[Metachrom]

I dont think its completely right.. I suggest that monster POD will be shown as relativly to TEAM strength - i.e. average lvl of team + 5% for each member in team.
So for example we have average lvl 60 team of 4 ppl - then lvl (1+3*5%)*50 = 59 monster would be yellow to that team.
Or lvl 60 team of 6 ppl - (1+5*5)*60=75 - so lvl 75 monster will be yellow to that team. This way it will be
1st: easer to find which monster too hard...
2st: encourage teams to fight more tought monster, not just yellows what killed in 5 sec...

As for roots - they are ok, but as mostly teams fight monsters at least 1.5 times they lvl... monster breaks roots a bit too easy...
Thought i would say what as agent i dont have that much trouble with roots as agents have root line with 75% nanoAC, and i keep my nanoskills maxxed.
Pet profs a bit too overpowered now in PVM. In PVP they are ok, but PVM- they r kings...
Also i see some imbalance in weapons, but i guess it will be solved as more weapons will be added...