-----Original Message-----
From:
kim@... [mailto:
kim@...]
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 7:56 AM
To: '
eqbards@onelist.com'
Subject: RE: [eqbards] Kunark Expansion
From: <
kim@...>
On Tue, 14 Mar 2000, Kimes, Dean W. wrote:
>
> Also, our guild has two necros, both have a played days to level ratio far
> better than any other class in the guild. Both can solo low reds with
> little fear. Both can take on things that I and my nearest fellow bard
have
> trouble taking on when we group. Adding either of the necros to one of
our
> groups has proved equivalent to adding any two other characters of similar
> levels. If this isn't imbalance, what the heck is it?
Despite all the cries of nerf from necros, necros are still so
overpowered compared to the other classes that a single necro
can do things that require several L50s of other classes. It
hasn't been fixed yet, so my guess is that a couple important
people at Verant play necros and want to keep things that way.
Seriously, I think class balance is a low priority with them.
--
John H. Kim
kim@...
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LOL, just after I read your post John I checked out the Sony EQ board and
found this:
Author kdermond
Topic: Abashi' dirty little secret -- He plays a necro, so necros get the
best treatment
posted 03-15-2000 10:55 AM
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At first you might think, man there is no way that something this obviously
wrong would happen...but lets analyze the situation a little bit.
#1
Abashi plays a necro on Tallon Zek. In the beginning, he was the GM of
Vallon Zek. It was really funny because in the very beginning he used to
talk about how badass his necro was going to be. Abashi flipped out one
night when my friend told him that at level 50, he was just going to Pumice
off Abashi's spells then continue to beat his ass. (My friend did not give
me permission to relay this story, but i cant hold back any longer)
Abashi went off on him, talking about how badass necros were supposed to be,
how
they were supposed to be the most powerful caster due to the fact that they
have bad faction so they need to be able to solo to level 50, etc.
"Some classes should be able to solo, some should not be"
- Abashi, 2/24/00
Abashi admitted that he didn't know what Pumice was. (Hehe isn't that
typical for a PvP server? Verant puts n a GM who obviously has no PvP
experience - how could the GM of a PvP server not know what a pumice was?)
Abashi told my friend he was going to get pumice taken out of the gameor at
least get it changed, because pumice was too powerful, and it was total BS,
etc.
You know what? Pumice is still in the game - but now it doesn't affect necro
DOT spells the way it used to. Some necro spells are totally immune to
pumice. The change to pumice happened within a short time after my friend
told me about that conversation.
#2
Let's look at another interesting fact. On the race-war servers, there was a
massive nerfing of casters spell damage due to mass complaints from melee
characters. This nerf to spell damage happened only a couple months after
racewar server opened - at that time Abashi was GM on the VZ server, and
actively playing his necro (he still does, his necro is in the high 40's).
Well, guess how the nerf went down -
DD Spells (wizards only damage) - Nerfed to do only 63% of full damage
Root Spells (wizards only defense) - Nerfed to stick less and break faster
BOLT Spells (mages) - Nerfed, but still does 75% of full damage
DOT (Necros master of dot) - No nerf in pvp
LifeTap (Necros take your hp) - No nerf in pvp
All other necro spells - No nerf in pvp
** Can't you just hear Gordon in there talking with the tuning team?? Damn
guys, wizards are just way too strong. We need to nerf DD spells really
really hard. But you know, necros take so long to do their damage (total bs)
lets just leave those dot's spells alone. (Of course many months later, they
did nerf DOT against monsters to stop the abusive kiting enjoyed by necros
and druids, but they still do unreal massive damage in pvp)
#3
Let's examine Gordon's thinking about wizards, and lets see if we can find
such an obvious flaw, that we can look for some personal bias as the reason
for his position about wizards.
The basic theory is this - wizards were told by Verant 'when it comes to
dishing out damage, wizards have no rival.' Most wizards thought, that means
they can do the MOST DAMAGE of any caster, but that they will probably have
weaknesses and drawbacks as a tradeoff. Well they have the weaknesses and
drawbacks, no pet, no buffs, no debuffs, no heal, no group friends spells,
no dot's, no bolts, very little spell diversity. However, Abashi admits that
when it comes to total damage, wizards are outdamaged by many other casters.
His explanation, well that line just means wizards are masters of 'direct
damage'. Can you even say that with a straigth face? The whole reasoning he
uses to ignore wizards is hey you are masters of damage, so powerful that
you should be one-dimensional and have all these other weaknesses. You think
all those other weaknesses are in exchange for doing decent dd, but doing
nowher near as much damage as a necro or mage?
Here are some quotes
"While not as adept at offensive spells as Wizards, Magicians still wield
considerable power in this area as well."
- Verant, Magician Description
"They also have some skill in offensive spells, but are never as skilled as
a Wizard."
- Verant, Enchanter Description
"In their ability to do magical damage, they have no rivals."
- Verant, Original Wizard Description
"When it comes to dishing out 'magical' damage, wizards have no rival."
- Verant, Late 1999 Change to Description
"Wizards had this expectation that they'd be much more powerful than the
other casting classes. But that line you've quoted speaks of Direct Damage
spells."
- Verant, Abashi Post 3/10/00
"Take the FAQ to mean direct damage, or take it to mean damage in a given
amount of time."
- Verant, Abashi Post 3/14/00
"Did you expect that you'd be able to do more damage in a full load of mana?
I'm sorry,
that just isn't the case. Most of the other casting classes can do more
damage than
wizards."
- Verant, Abashi Post 3/14/00
If this doesnt make it obvious enough, consider abashi's response to massive
wizards complaints that even their DD sucks because the resistance just
out-of-control at high levels.
"Perhaps an enchanter and/or shaman is required equipment for a wizard in
the same fashion that a cleric is required equipment for a warrior."
- Verant, Abashi post, 2/11/00
* AMAZING - masters of damage, uh yeah that means masters of 'direct damage'
and uh yeah you need an enchanter and a shaman with out at all time in order
to even do that. Give me a break Gordon.
Here's some of Abashi's posts on Necromancers in response to someone saying
Necros were having problems..These are all quotes from Abashi from 1/7/00,
his responses to a player (incredibly) whining about necros.
"Necromancer's always were and continue to be xtremely powerful. There
haven't been any changes/fixes/nerfs to them that have significantly altered
their
level of power. They are maybe 5% weaker than they were [at launch],
assuming
you've adapted to the change. "
"Me? I love the necromancer, they are my favorite class."
"Yep. Had a 16th level necro in beta (22 days played) and I have a mid-40s
necro now on
one of the Zeks (32 days played). "
"The necro is a far better soloer than the magician. It isn't even close. It
got closer when magicians gained the root-casting earth pet, but it's still
the
necro, hands down. In fact, the magicians actually need to be enhanced a
bit."
"That change/fix/nerf should hardly be noticeable and is nearly unresistable
for
anything within the level range. The only time you should hit a resist is if
you cast on deep reds, outside the acceptable level range. The chance of
resist on anything lower than 7 levels above you is like 1 in 1000. I just
whipped up a necromancer on the
Test Server to make sure I wasn't nuts. I went into Lower Guk and tried a 33
necro versus a few level 40 frogs. I went 50 for 50 on assorted life tap
spells. "
HERE IS THE CLENCHER
">>>>>Player>>>>>>But look at the damage on lifetap! A level 50
necromancer's best nuke is 320 damage for 210 mana...a level 34 wizard does
better, thats "balanced"?
"This is also not true. 320 might be the damage on the top lifetap, but it
is NOT
the 50 necromancer's best nuke."
CAN YOU IMAGINE? Its a LIFE-TAP spell, it not only NUKES, it gives the necro
the targets hitpoints. Unbelievable.
This "nuke" was not nerfed in pvp. So Necros mana:damage efficiency ratio
stayed at the same leve, but wizards dd fell dramatically, making Necros
nuke at the ratio wizards nuked at, AND TAKING THE HP of their target to
boot.
You look at what verant said about wizards, its so obvious wizards were
supposed to do more damage than anyone else, masters of damage. You look at
Abashi's spin-doctoring, and then it becomes clear that he is so personally
biased against wizards (due to his own necro, and his desire for necros to
remain so powerful compared to wizards).
Abashi's comments about wizards in the last 2 weeks has started an uproar of
complaints, showing that he disregards the class. Look up his posts, hes
made a ton of comments about wizards that show such an obvious bias against
wizards, there is only one explanation. Abashi knows wizards got screwed,
but he does NOT want Verant to live up to its promise that wizards would
have NO rival in dishing out damage.
Its not enough for abashi that Necros are the masters of solo, masters of
DoT, they have the best pet, they can heal themselves by taking hit point,
they can give themselves more mana, they can give mana to those around them,
they have unbelievable power to DoT, they can buff, they can debuff, they
can root, they can snare, they can turn you into a skeleton when you are
near your guards, making you KoS to guards, they can even Feign Death and on
and on and on. (remember verant nerfed the FD to wear off, due to players
complaining that necros could solo the ghoul lord room - i bet ya abashi had
never pointed that one out)
Haha there was all the outrage when people found out that Necromancers would
pop a pet in a good exp place, then let the pet fight. They would Feign
death, and go afk continuing to get experience while their pet kicked ass
with danger to themselves. How long did Abashi know about that one?
The bias towards necromancers should come as NO shock to anyone anymore.
Necros got special treatment in PvP, basically the opposite treatment from
wizards. Wizards ONLY way of doing damage, nerfed harder than ANY other
spell. Necros spell - they didnt get one single nerf. (Later it became so
obvious that player petitions may have gotten some minor nerfs to necros,
but still havent tested since the original nerf patch).
Can you prove this? Probably not...but look at Abashi's attitude in his
posts, consider that he's got a necro on a pvp server, consider that he is a
GM, and consider that Necros didnt get nerfed in pvp damage anywhere near
the extrem that wizards were nerfed....add it all up, and what do you think?