On Wed, 15 Mar 2000, David Blank wrote:
>
> >If you look at the formulas I whipped up for the
> >seven-string lute comparison, you'll see that the two
> >primary factors in a fight are damage rate, and
> >survival time (rate of damage taken).
>
> I think you're missing something else, and that's
> something to deal with time to kill and downtime. For
> example, two wizards can nuke something to death very
> quickly but then sit and med up inbetween fights. A
> warrior and cleric could tank/heal/med and fight
> constantly with no downtime but the fights take
> longer. In my experience the 2nd group will be much
> more efficient over time.
If you want to incorporate downtime recovery into the
equation, necros become even better. Their lich line of
spells convert hp to mana at a ratio approaching 1:1 at level
49 (c.f. 3:1 for manastones), and their lifetap spells convert
mana back to hp while damaging the mob.
> >In other words, "great solo, poor grouped" is a
> >contradiction. The worst you can get is "great solo,
> >ok grouped."
>
> You're also forgetting to account for how the solo'ing
> is accomplished. A necro can solo outdoors with fear
> kiting, using his pet as a dot, and the efficiency of
Outdoors, a necro can fear and the group tanks can melee as
DoTs and the group casters can safely nuke. All fear does is
increase your survival time - I *have* accounted for it.
> guk. I don't think its as clear-cut as you may think.
No it isn't as clear cut. But my main point is that being in
a group cannot make the group *worse* than you are solo
(stupidity excepted). Given that necros are great soloing, a
group with a necro cannot be any worse than the necro is solo.
Since necros are regularly able to solo some of the toughest
mobs in the game (outside of the planes), that means any group
with a necro will be able to take on the toughest mobs in the
game.
> >From someone elses post:
> >All I know is that a level 50 necro in the group
> >allowed us to take the lords room in lower guk easily
> >and hold the room for hours without so much as a hint
> >of a challenge. He left and was replaced by a level
> >50 wizard and we all died the next lord spawn and 2
> >tries later we still couldn't retake the room...
>
> Well that's a poor example. Two different players can
> be very differing in ability to play the game. (Being
Not knowing much about wizard mana:damage ratios, I tried to
reserve comment on this. But the boks, guks, and lord all
have a ton of hp. It's very likely the efficiency of necro
DoTs (along with their insane mana regen rate) compared to
wizard DDs let the necro do a lot more damage to the mobs per
fight than the wizard could.
One of the biggest causes of the caster/melee imbalance in the
game IMHO is that they made mobs harder by making their
attacks more powerful. That change hit melee classes full on,
while having little impact on the casters (who have many ways
of avoiding taking damage). Exactly the opposite of what
needed to be done. They should've kept mob damage the same
and increased mob hp. Then casters wouldn't be able to kite
mobs they weren't supposed to be able to kill solo, simply
because they'd run out of mana.
--
John H. Kim
kim@...