"Ta da! Here's our brand spanking, never-seen-before, roxxor-your-boxxors, happy fun time new Spell and Combat Arts system! What's that you're saying? That new spell that goes by the exact same name and description as a spell in the old system? No, no. That's new too. Really. It's completely different. What are you? Stupid? Now shut up and pay me money."
EQ2 released another Moorgard-filtered info dump today, demonstrating some of the spells and combat arts available in the new system concocted to stop people complaining about the lack of class diversity.
On first look, it seems pretty sweet.
There's plenty of cool sounding names like "Thuri's Doleful Thrust" and snazzy descriptions, designed to blind me and cause me to surf blindly across the IntraWeb thingy looking for EQ2 pre-orders. I guess that's how I ended up with a copy of Daikatana and an N-Gage.
Damn those fancy words thrown at me in one huge glob of brain-consuming sneak peeks. It gets me every time.
But then I looked closer. Like, I peered at the screen. Nose to the glass, arse off the seat.
Something seemed odd to me. Odd like the smell from my neighbour's car. My Cosmik-Sense was tingling, and it wasn't from the 3 cups of tea I just drank.
Grabbing the already revealed spell and Combat art list, I decided to have a little read.
Prepare to humor me, because this is what I found:
The new combat arts themselves look different compared to the already released version. But, of course, I can only say this because the names are different. Then again, I don't have the descriptions of the old combat arts, so it could only be a mere name change that SOE has thrown to us for all I know.
But I'll give SOE the benefit of the doubt and applaud them for conjuring up a new system so quickly (even though it remains untested and is rushed into a box so it can earn Smed a new Ferrari).
Then I looked again at the new combat arts, and noticed things like this:
Guardian
Level 31 - Suppress: An art that increases hate towards the guardian and slows the attack speed of the enemy.
Bruiser
Level 36 - Boast: This art increases hate towards the bruiser and grants him or her an increased attack speed.
and
Berserker
Level 43 - Rupture: This is an extra attack that deals additional slashing damage over time.
Guardian
Level 29 - Shatter: This is an extra attack that decreases the enemy's slashing resistance.
So it seems SOE is telling us class diversity is boiled down to the same general attack move, and tacking onto that an ability that essentially has the same effect on the target, albeit either enhancing the player or crippling the target.
Well, I can live with that. I mean, making up hundreds of combat arts, and having them all different, is hard. But until I see the complete combat art list, I won't be dropping my pants in the name of class diversity. I'm not that friendly with the system yet.
But what was this? I was still tingling. And not in a good night-of-the-prom kind of way.
The spell list was next under my bleary eyes. And, it could just be me, of course, but a few of these new (Moorgard's word, not mine) spells seemed oddly familiar;
From the old spell list for the Fury -
26 Savagery Augmentation that increases Agility and Strength on the target party member, and has a chance at an additional Melee attack and Slashing damage over-time on each successful attack.
29 Vicious Feast Impairment that replenishes Health over-time and increases Stamina and Strength for the entire party when the target opponent dies.
From the new spell list for the Fury -
Level 26 - Savagery: An augmentation that increases the agility and strength of a party member. It also give a chance for an additional melee attack and slashing damage over time on each successful attack.
Level 29 - Vicious Feast: An impairment that, upon the target's death, increases the stamina and strength of the entire party and replenishes their health over time.
From the old spell list for the Warden-
25 Frost Does instant Cold damage to the target opponent. (Does additional instant Divine damage if the target is Elemental)
34 Warden of the Forest Grants a Wolf form that increases Health and Power pools, increases Armor Class, grants See Hidden vision, and adds a chance for an additional melee special attack
From the new spell list for the Warden -
Level 25 - Frost: This spell does instant cold damage to your opponent, plus does additional instant divine damage if the target is elemental in nature.
Level 34 - Warden of the Forest: This spell grants a wolf form that increases health and power pools, increases armor class, gives the ability to see hidden entities, and provides a chance for an additional special melee attack.
From the old spell list for the Mystic -
40.3 Howl of the Ancients Reduces Stamina, Noxious mitigation, and Elemental mitigation on the target opponent and surrounding encounter members.
From the new spell list for the Mystic -
Level 40 - Howl of the Ancients: This spell reduces the stamina, noxious mitigation, and elemental mitigation of your opponent and its allies in the same encounter.
And so forth, and so forth, and so forth.
Gee. I enjoyed that game. What fun.
So. Hmm. It seems out of the 3 new spells listed in this sneak peek of the new spells, only 1 is new. Also, in alot of cases that I've cared to examine closely, I find that the 1 new spell is either like a previous, older spell (power pool buff with damage type defense buff), or is similar to another new spell that another class gets (breathe under water spell).
Now, granted, this could be a poor sample, what with it being a small sample size and all. However, I've got to say that this announcement leaves me with the impression that;
a) We still have a lack of class diversity because many spells stay the same.
b) We now have new, untested and unbalanced spells being placed into the game, with less that 2 weeks until launch.
Now, when I say "untested", I do know it's been through internal QA. But c'mon. We all know QA can act like a broken sieve sometimes.
We've also got a whole bunch of fancy sounding spells that generally lack flair. Damage this enemy with this damage type. Buff this person with this resistance type. Turn into animal and buff these stats. Damage this enemy with this damage type, and give something back to the player.
Come on now, SOE. Where's the actual class defining spells? Where are all the various PBAOE spells you could include? Where are the AOE spells with diminishing returns? Where are the damage spells that spray out in a cone? Where are the spells that jump from target to target? Where are the charm animal spells? Where are the spells that shoot up a wall of fire, or water, or whatever? Where are the beguile spells that make an enemy attack another enemy for a shot period of time? Where are the skills you give to only one melee class like hard core defense buffs, or stat siphons, or multiple target attacks, or mini teleportations to cause reactions such as "See that cool effect? That's why I want to be a Monk!".
Come on SOE. There's so much more you could do. Really. If only you put your mind to it.
Instead we are left with a mish-mosh of skills and combat arts that are shared between multiple classes, perhaps only changing in what type of damage is done, or what type of damage is resisted. You do not need to do this to make sure every class can get a group.
On top of that, we now have rushed and untested spells and combat arts (and traits and traditions and blah blah blah) to boot. Fun, fun, funny fun fun.
It's going to be an interesting November.
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