The engine upgrade is taking forever because they scratched the one they were planning to use (the one in the teaser trailer) and started adapting the AoC one (no eta on that one i think).
As for the OP...havent even bothered reading after the comunity lines. Yes it gotten a bit worst over the years. Yes it has its fairs share of moronic trolls, but still is one of the most mature communities from the crap load of mmos i played similar to EVE's one. Guess the difficulty of the game does help somewhat filtering most of the wow kids
The Op is 100% correct when it comes to the community. all the good players have left leaving behind elitist trolls that that try and control game development. Failcom has no idea what its doing but what makes it even worse the trolls have even worse ones and they often get their way. Just look at some threads on their forums. One big thing now is loot selling rights the trolls defending the position that weaker professions should buy loot farmed by the more useful and wanted professions since the weak ones can't get teams. Its an ironic mirror to our current global economic situation. The strong and powerful trying to feed off the weak.
The whole AS situation that is just one giant can of worms that might cause the game to crash for good.
Dunno about AS tbh, even in 2004 or 2005 when i started playing for good was kinda broken, on the other hand you might be right tho.
AS for the community part not exactly sure how is it in game since i haven't logged more then for a raid at most or to give some items to some friends in 2 years, but i do read the forums now and them. Yes it seems it has degraded. Tho the morons % compaired to the total..small playerbase is way lower them in many games. About asking on general chat and getting sh***y replies or ppl just spamming...that's in all mmos. Always the morons are more vocal then the rest:)
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. A. Einstein
The OP here is full of untruth and ridiculous flaming. As a long time player, I'm fully aware that with AO there's a lot of problems, as there are with most MMOs, but those problems relate mostly to rather inconsequential things, unfortunately one of the problems is the newbie area experience... but the amount of garbage in the first post that's simply untrue is astounding.
There's just so much blatant lying going on that it's not even funny. Ridiculous, OP, ridiculous.
What is amazing to me... is that Funcom never listened enough to it's fanbase until they got all new developers and the game was already... dead (Post Lost Eden). Yet, these people defend their abusive father like their lives depended on it. Sad.
Game wasn't destroyed by LE or the froob invasion
It was destroyed by the players that after this update became fair game and did not have the "immunity" they had before the update.
The game was dying & finished way before LE or AI. Shadowlands killed AO as it swayed it from the sci-fi theme to try to compete with WoW. Shortly after, Funcom focused on AoC and let AO deteriorate. Shadowlands was pretty much grinding Hecklers, whcih got old quick As a result, whatever players liked Shadowlands ended up going to play WoW. Others quit prior, like me, cause the AO that I was enjoying was killed by that expansion.
In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that Funcom makes really bad & stupuid decisions. They had an amazing game in AO, which was quite successful. They dropped the ball every which way and conitnue doing so.
What is amazing to me... is that Funcom never listened enough to it's fanbase until they got all new developers and the game was already... dead (Post Lost Eden). Yet, these people defend their abusive father like their lives depended on it. Sad.
Game wasn't destroyed by LE or the froob invasion
It was destroyed by the players that after this update became fair game and did not have the "immunity" they had before the update.
The game was dying & finished way before LE or AI. Shadowlands killed AO as it swayed it from the sci-fi theme to try to compete with WoW. Shortly after, Funcom focused on AoC and let AO deteriorate. Shadowlands was pretty much grinding Hecklers, whcih got old quick As a result, whatever players liked Shadowlands ended up going to play WoW. Others quit prior, like me, cause the AO that I was enjoying was killed by that expansion.
In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that Funcom makes really bad & stupuid decisions. They had an amazing game in AO, which was quite successful. They dropped the ball every which way and conitnue doing so.
This
Every veteran AO player since the beginning knows that was the killing blow to the game, it was a complete turn around from what the game was about. Sci-fi game with a grid to move between cities and then you move to some Everquest themed environment that has no real connection to what was on the original story line.
The guy who was the Game Director for Shadowlands was the main GD for Age of Conan and look where that game went after he completed that game...
i do agree with one thing tips for buffs , which i never do just dont see the point in it cost you nothing if your stood there doing sod all . why not buff people some do say thks one day they might help you for free when you need it
I am downloading the game atm despite what the OP says. The new graphics in the videos I have seen look pretty decent. Also saw a mech video. If the OP is BSing, they should just lock this post because its bad for the game and new people wanting to try it, IMO.
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
With Funcoms rep, I was all set to buy the OP's comments, to some extent. But the blurb about SWG pretty much blew any credibility, whatsoever. That game is a crap sandwich without the bread.
I am downloading the game atm despite what the OP says. The new graphics in the videos I have seen look pretty decent. Also saw a mech video. If the OP is BSing, they should just lock this post because its bad for the game and new people wanting to try it, IMO.
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
If you want to power level, yes. Those are common professions for the shallow crowd who get to 220 in a month or two and then leave. If you actually want to play the game, roll any profession, join a solid org, and enjoy good teaming and fun for the many months/years you may take to get thru the game.
I am downloading the game atm despite what the OP says. The new graphics in the videos I have seen look pretty decent. Also saw a mech video. If the OP is BSing, they should just lock this post because its bad for the game and new people wanting to try it, IMO.
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
Noone wants docs DPS to their pocket teams me thinks,endgame is different thing.
For newbs; avoid this game at ALL costs!
Me thinks this is best game for "newbs" it can teach so much about computer rpg basics,like theres explanation for allmost everything,theres somekind of logic how everything works and why,theres skills and stats to modify beyond imagination.
for example you can make lvl1 char and play it for years,twink it,and then twink it even more.
I am downloading the game atm despite what the OP says. The new graphics in the videos I have seen look pretty decent. Also saw a mech video. If the OP is BSing, they should just lock this post because its bad for the game and new people wanting to try it, IMO.
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
If you want to power level, yes. Those are common professions for the shallow crowd who get to 220 in a month or two and then leave. If you actually want to play the game, roll any profession, join a solid org, and enjoy good teaming and fun for the many months/years you may take to get thru the game.
Actually for power leveling any prof is fine. The comment of hobo refers to every endgame raid/instance. Pick anything besides those 4 profs and unless you are in an org willing (and able, public raids are gone now) to redo content just for you, you will spend 10 more the time to do the same things. Put a TV next to your PC to watch something while you wait on lft for hours.
Honestly when i started reading what chrisel said i was like eh ok to are you insane.
And he is a veteran player talk about being a newb .
Twinking is for alts has never been the focus on your primary character if you dont know someone willing to give you the money for it.
I did like many before me doing mission for money and selling the crap either to shop or when finding good stuff to other players.
Sure the game maybe not for the casual player but it sure is newb friendly all it takes is a set of eyes and scouring the ao forum for a wealth of info.
Graphic is old but it still has a very nice feel to it.
I recommend starting as a froob and if you like it buy it not a very large monthly subscription
I am downloading the game atm despite what the OP says. The new graphics in the videos I have seen look pretty decent. Also saw a mech video. If the OP is BSing, they should just lock this post because its bad for the game and new people wanting to try it, IMO.
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
If you want to power level, yes. Those are common professions for the shallow crowd who get to 220 in a month or two and then leave. If you actually want to play the game, roll any profession, join a solid org, and enjoy good teaming and fun for the many months/years you may take to get thru the game.
Yeah right.... You clearly have not played anything besides those 4 these days. Anything else is useless garbage and everyone knows it how many hours wasted trying to get one team a day. Even resorting to desperation using a service tower to display LFT using a colored lft window script stand out. Any noob rolls anything besides the fantastic four they are going to quit out of rage and frustration.
There are two castes in ao now and who wants to an untouchable a leper?
You say its hard on newbs? i might have to give it a go then. Been looking for difficult MMO thanks OP.
It isn't actually hard. You can solo missions all day if you want. But it is extremelly boring.
The whole gameplay consists of pressing the key <TAB> to select the next target and then the key Q which is the default key for autoattack. Any class you play it is like that except the mages (nanotechnicians) which instead of Q you have to spam your nuke nano... Sure there are some buffs you have to renew every 15-20 mins and some extra attacks you get the chance to do every like 30 seconds but that's it. I found myself constantly trying not to fall asleep when doing missions. I am not kidding.
The only hard thing in the game is what you do BEFORE combat. The preparation - the twinking of your character. And even if you are a good player and know/understand what you have to do in order to properly twink your character, that ain't enough cause you actually need a lot of buffs from a lot of different classes which actually means having a couple of alts AND guildies to help you AND some extra cash. As a new player you 'll have none of these.
So you end up with a pretty crappy character running around in dungeons trying to find a group, getting kill stealed all the time from veteran players that have uber twinked their characters AND uber buffed them with their lvl200+ main/alt that is standing just right outside the dungeon. And these players won't team with you. Even if they do they 'll treat you like shit.
The OP overreacted a bit, but he is actually right on most of his points. AO is doomed to be run by an elite of veteran players that control the twink market which is what this game is all about.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
Yeah right.... You clearly have not played anything besides those 4 these days. Anything else is useless garbage and everyone knows it how many hours wasted trying to get one team a day. Even resorting to desperation using a service tower to display LFT using a colored lft window script stand out. Any noob rolls anything besides the fantastic four they are going to quit out of rage and frustration.
There are two castes in ao now and who wants to an untouchable a leper?
That's just pathetic. Are they trying to fix this imbalance? Ugh soldiers are so boring too.
I was thinking of trying this game again once the graphics engine is unleashed, but unless this is fixed, I won't be.
Yeah right.... You clearly have not played anything besides those 4 these days. Anything else is useless garbage and everyone knows it how many hours wasted trying to get one team a day. Even resorting to desperation using a service tower to display LFT using a colored lft window script stand out. Any noob rolls anything besides the fantastic four they are going to quit out of rage and frustration.
There are two castes in ao now and who wants to an untouchable a leper?
That's just pathetic. Are they trying to fix this imbalance? Ugh soldiers are so boring too.
I was thinking of trying this game again once the graphics engine is unleashed, but unless this is fixed, I won't be.
Means claims they are working on balance issues and they even sent out emails to people giving away a free months time saying to come back the game was rebalanced which was a total lie. Not one balance fix was been patched by failcom yet. On top of that they held an election for the new class professionals (the people that are to represent the issues of your class and bring them to the devs to be fixed) which turned out to be nothing but a high school popularity contest for the ao boards forum trolls. They elected a neo nazi, a ninja looter from a ninja looter org that openly screws clan players and they even admit to it on their org forums that they rig bot rolls to screw clan players, and a guy that cusses with the mouth of a sailor in game to represent them and send feedback to fc on what needs fixed.
My last toon was an agent and what a mess that was its like playing a pariah the way fc treats you. The first day means took over he decided RI bug was not a bug but an intended feature of out spite for the agent class. I have no hope what so ever whatever changes he has planned will make the game more enjoyable.
This what a typical day is in ao for getting teams at tl7 as a pariah and and or leper class. If you play on Rimor do the following ./tell neutnet !history and read what it says. Look close and see if anything doesn't say XXX needs crat/doc/crat/enfo maybe keeper to do XXXXX. It never will!!
Doc/crat/enf/sol is probably by far the easiest and safest way to do things. If everyone in the team is just decent players with a decent equip, all the content that AO has to offer is cakewalk for that team. But the doc/crat/enf/sol combo isn't the only way to do every farm instance with just 4 people.
To give a few examples:
An engineer played by a good player offers much more survivability to the team than a soldier. Engies may offer slightly less reflects, but when they spam their blind aura they mitigate more damage than a soldier can. Unlike a soldier an engineer doesn't make a good main tank, engineers also offer less damage than soldiers to the team now. But if you're teamed with a 70k hp enf, that is pretty irrelevant since that enf will tank everything and won't die no matter what. So doc/crat/enf/engi works well too.
There's also no content for which you absolutely need an enf. Because of their huge hp (and other tools) enfs make the easiest tanks to hold agro and are by far the easiest to keep alive for a doctor. But with good players an enf is overkill, you don't really need them. Soldiers and keepers make very good single target tanks as well (and the aeo taunting of enfs isn't an absolute requirement in the farm instances). Other professions like MAs, shades and adventurers played by very good players can tank everything in the farm instances as well when in the right team (read: teamed with pve lovechilds like docs, crats, soldiers or good engineers), but less fail safe than a mediocre enf still.
Combine a keeper (with the warding aura) with a doctor and crat and you turn all pve content in a joke as well. Docs+crats can debuff the attack speed of a mob by so much, that when combined with absorbing normal hits (+ reflects from soldier/engineer) any profession with a good equip can tank pretty much all the content. Doc/crat/sol/keeper makes the game look as easy as the doc/crat/enf/sol combo. Doc/crat/engineer/keeper can also turn the game in a joke, but they can't be complete dofuses unlike in those 2 other teams.
Now the 3 examples above aren't all combination possible in AO. The above examples make the pve content a cakewalk. If you happen to have a supply of good players with superb equip, then you don't need the above to succeed. You can tackle content without a crat and still succeed. You can tackle some of the content without a doctor (but with crat, without both crat and doctor you won't do the instances in question with just 4 players) and you can still succeed. You can exchange others of the lovechild professions by some gimpier professions (but not all) and still complete the content. A good team leader will recognize this and not wait for the ideal fantastic four setup before starting.
For the AO farm instances, I think the following is a decent order in which normal players (without personal connections or an extreme reputation) get invited to PUGs:
Absolutely always: doctor.
Pretty much always: bureaucrat and soldier.
Most of the time: enf.
Regularly: engineer, keeper, shade and adventurer.
Rarely: MA.
Pretty much never: NT (generally speaking), agent and trader.
Absolutely never: fixer and MP.
So suppose that someone wants to roll a shade now and asks if he will be able to acquire an endgame setup: Then I would advice to do it. You would get far less invites than doc/crat/sol/enf, but with a good reputation and also by making teams yourselves (+making connections), you will still be able to farm the AO content in an effective manner.
If you wanted to roll a fixer or MP however, then I would advice to level up a lovechild sugardaddy first though
So while I do agree that there isn't anything remotely resembling balance in AO, it's not as black&white as either be a doc/crat/sol/enf or don't bother. There's a few absolutely useless professions that don't add anything to a team that a lovechild cannot already do far better, but there still exists a grey zone in between the absolute lovechild professions and the absolutely gimp professions.
And in case you're asking: Why this obsession with doing "raids" with 4-man teams (or 5 or 6, not everyone goes with just 4 all the time) instead of the possible 12 or more. It comes down to the loot: only 4 people means less people to share loot with. Considering the amount of times some instances have to be repeated to acquire loot, this can be quite significant. And to boot, the killing is not even that much slower than with just 4 people because of the mob events + looting + timed instances. Once the 4 of you have everything you need, you can still continue farming the instance to sell lootrights to people that can't get it themselves or loot the stuff with non-lovechild alts of yourself.
When a teamleader invites lovechild players to his team, he also has to respect their feelings, you just can't invite more people because you feel sorry for them. Players want to get done with the grinding and go once the team can handle the objective, without adding additional players to share the loot with. If the leader announces beforehand that it is a 12 person raid, they won't object, but if you invite a lovechild (I've never had a single complaint from fixers, MPs, ... about doing a raid with 12 people) from lft without mentioning it; there are many who would fake-ld or not accept future invites. A doctor on a friendlist is likelier to join you repeatedly if he knows your raids will be conducted in an efficient manner (and thus with as few people as possible).
Geez, WTF happened to this game. I remember when NTs got nerfed and almost became pariahs if not for the train grinding but that's bout it. To see that most of the classes are close to useless is just sad. I remember when most of them were viable and it was more dependent on the player.
Comments
I believe the ETA is "before the end of the year."
The Op is 100% correct when it comes to the community. all the good players have left leaving behind elitist trolls that that try and control game development. Failcom has no idea what its doing but what makes it even worse the trolls have even worse ones and they often get their way. Just look at some threads on their forums. One big thing now is loot selling rights the trolls defending the position that weaker professions should buy loot farmed by the more useful and wanted professions since the weak ones can't get teams. Its an ironic mirror to our current global economic situation. The strong and powerful trying to feed off the weak.
The whole AS situation that is just one giant can of worms that might cause the game to crash for good.
Dunno about AS tbh, even in 2004 or 2005 when i started playing for good was kinda broken, on the other hand you might be right tho.
AS for the community part not exactly sure how is it in game since i haven't logged more then for a raid at most or to give some items to some friends in 2 years, but i do read the forums now and them. Yes it seems it has degraded. Tho the morons % compaired to the total..small playerbase is way lower them in many games. About asking on general chat and getting sh***y replies or ppl just spamming...that's in all mmos. Always the morons are more vocal then the rest:)
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. A. Einstein
I love how troll posts get the most attention in this place.
Groovy.
The OP here is full of untruth and ridiculous flaming. As a long time player, I'm fully aware that with AO there's a lot of problems, as there are with most MMOs, but those problems relate mostly to rather inconsequential things, unfortunately one of the problems is the newbie area experience... but the amount of garbage in the first post that's simply untrue is astounding.
There's just so much blatant lying going on that it's not even funny. Ridiculous, OP, ridiculous.
Sure you are talking about the right game now, OP?
Game wasn't destroyed by LE or the froob invasion
It was destroyed by the players that after this update became fair game and did not have the "immunity" they had before the update.
The game was dying & finished way before LE or AI. Shadowlands killed AO as it swayed it from the sci-fi theme to try to compete with WoW. Shortly after, Funcom focused on AoC and let AO deteriorate. Shadowlands was pretty much grinding Hecklers, whcih got old quick As a result, whatever players liked Shadowlands ended up going to play WoW. Others quit prior, like me, cause the AO that I was enjoying was killed by that expansion.
In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that Funcom makes really bad & stupuid decisions. They had an amazing game in AO, which was quite successful. They dropped the ball every which way and conitnue doing so.
Playing: EvE, Warhammer free unlimited trial, Allods Online
Played: Anarchy Online, WoW, Warhammer, AoC, Ryzom. Aion
Strongly Recommend: Ryzom, EvE, Allods Online
Game wasn't destroyed by LE or the froob invasion
It was destroyed by the players that after this update became fair game and did not have the "immunity" they had before the update.
The game was dying & finished way before LE or AI. Shadowlands killed AO as it swayed it from the sci-fi theme to try to compete with WoW. Shortly after, Funcom focused on AoC and let AO deteriorate. Shadowlands was pretty much grinding Hecklers, whcih got old quick As a result, whatever players liked Shadowlands ended up going to play WoW. Others quit prior, like me, cause the AO that I was enjoying was killed by that expansion.
In retrospect, it's pretty obvious that Funcom makes really bad & stupuid decisions. They had an amazing game in AO, which was quite successful. They dropped the ball every which way and conitnue doing so.
This
Every veteran AO player since the beginning knows that was the killing blow to the game, it was a complete turn around from what the game was about. Sci-fi game with a grid to move between cities and then you move to some Everquest themed environment that has no real connection to what was on the original story line.
The guy who was the Game Director for Shadowlands was the main GD for Age of Conan and look where that game went after he completed that game...
i do agree with one thing tips for buffs , which i never do just dont see the point in it cost you nothing if your stood there doing sod all . why not buff people some do say thks one day they might help you for free when you need it
I agree that teaming in AO is pretty much impossible now days but apart from that I still enjoy the game.
What kinda broke the game in half was Shadowlands, totally out of context bs but thats only my opinion.
I played at launch until after SL was out, FC fucked the game up badly with SL imho.
I came back a while ago as a froob, doing my soloing with a new char, it still beats wow.
I am downloading the game atm despite what the OP says. The new graphics in the videos I have seen look pretty decent. Also saw a mech video.
If the OP is BSing, they should just lock this post because its bad for the game and new people wanting to try it, IMO.
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
With Funcoms rep, I was all set to buy the OP's comments, to some extent. But the blurb about SWG pretty much blew any credibility, whatsoever. That game is a crap sandwich without the bread.
GB2WoWKTHNXBAI (to the op)
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
If you want to power level, yes. Those are common professions for the shallow crowd who get to 220 in a month or two and then leave. If you actually want to play the game, roll any profession, join a solid org, and enjoy good teaming and fun for the many months/years you may take to get thru the game.
~\_/~\_O
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
Noone wants docs DPS to their pocket teams me thinks,endgame is different thing.
For newbs; avoid this game at ALL costs!
Me thinks this is best game for "newbs" it can teach so much about computer rpg basics,like theres explanation for allmost everything,theres somekind of logic how everything works and why,theres skills and stats to modify beyond imagination.
for example you can make lvl1 char and play it for years,twink it,and then twink it even more.
Generation P
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
If you want to power level, yes. Those are common professions for the shallow crowd who get to 220 in a month or two and then leave. If you actually want to play the game, roll any profession, join a solid org, and enjoy good teaming and fun for the many months/years you may take to get thru the game.
Actually for power leveling any prof is fine. The comment of hobo refers to every endgame raid/instance. Pick anything besides those 4 profs and unless you are in an org willing (and able, public raids are gone now) to redo content just for you, you will spend 10 more the time to do the same things. Put a TV next to your PC to watch something while you wait on lft for hours.
Honestly when i started reading what chrisel said i was like eh ok to are you insane.
And he is a veteran player talk about being a newb .
Twinking is for alts has never been the focus on your primary character if you dont know someone willing to give you the money for it.
I did like many before me doing mission for money and selling the crap either to shop or when finding good stuff to other players.
Sure the game maybe not for the casual player but it sure is newb friendly all it takes is a set of eyes and scouring the ao forum for a wealth of info.
Graphic is old but it still has a very nice feel to it.
I recommend starting as a froob and if you like it buy it not a very large monthly subscription
-Semper ubi sub ubi!
always wear underwear
Make sure you roll crat/doc/sold/enforcer or your game experience will be a living hell.
If you want to power level, yes. Those are common professions for the shallow crowd who get to 220 in a month or two and then leave. If you actually want to play the game, roll any profession, join a solid org, and enjoy good teaming and fun for the many months/years you may take to get thru the game.
Yeah right.... You clearly have not played anything besides those 4 these days. Anything else is useless garbage and everyone knows it how many hours wasted trying to get one team a day. Even resorting to desperation using a service tower to display LFT using a colored lft window script stand out. Any noob rolls anything besides the fantastic four they are going to quit out of rage and frustration.
There are two castes in ao now and who wants to an untouchable a leper?
It isn't actually hard. You can solo missions all day if you want. But it is extremelly boring.
The whole gameplay consists of pressing the key <TAB> to select the next target and then the key Q which is the default key for autoattack. Any class you play it is like that except the mages (nanotechnicians) which instead of Q you have to spam your nuke nano... Sure there are some buffs you have to renew every 15-20 mins and some extra attacks you get the chance to do every like 30 seconds but that's it. I found myself constantly trying not to fall asleep when doing missions. I am not kidding.
The only hard thing in the game is what you do BEFORE combat. The preparation - the twinking of your character. And even if you are a good player and know/understand what you have to do in order to properly twink your character, that ain't enough cause you actually need a lot of buffs from a lot of different classes which actually means having a couple of alts AND guildies to help you AND some extra cash. As a new player you 'll have none of these.
So you end up with a pretty crappy character running around in dungeons trying to find a group, getting kill stealed all the time from veteran players that have uber twinked their characters AND uber buffed them with their lvl200+ main/alt that is standing just right outside the dungeon. And these players won't team with you. Even if they do they 'll treat you like shit.
The OP overreacted a bit, but he is actually right on most of his points. AO is doomed to be run by an elite of veteran players that control the twink market which is what this game is all about.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
Yeah right.... You clearly have not played anything besides those 4 these days. Anything else is useless garbage and everyone knows it how many hours wasted trying to get one team a day. Even resorting to desperation using a service tower to display LFT using a colored lft window script stand out. Any noob rolls anything besides the fantastic four they are going to quit out of rage and frustration.
There are two castes in ao now and who wants to an untouchable a leper?
That's just pathetic. Are they trying to fix this imbalance? Ugh soldiers are so boring too.
I was thinking of trying this game again once the graphics engine is unleashed, but unless this is fixed, I won't be.
Playing: EvE, Warhammer free unlimited trial, Allods Online
Played: Anarchy Online, WoW, Warhammer, AoC, Ryzom. Aion
Strongly Recommend: Ryzom, EvE, Allods Online
Yeah right.... You clearly have not played anything besides those 4 these days. Anything else is useless garbage and everyone knows it how many hours wasted trying to get one team a day. Even resorting to desperation using a service tower to display LFT using a colored lft window script stand out. Any noob rolls anything besides the fantastic four they are going to quit out of rage and frustration.
There are two castes in ao now and who wants to an untouchable a leper?
That's just pathetic. Are they trying to fix this imbalance? Ugh soldiers are so boring too.
I was thinking of trying this game again once the graphics engine is unleashed, but unless this is fixed, I won't be.
Means claims they are working on balance issues and they even sent out emails to people giving away a free months time saying to come back the game was rebalanced which was a total lie. Not one balance fix was been patched by failcom yet. On top of that they held an election for the new class professionals (the people that are to represent the issues of your class and bring them to the devs to be fixed) which turned out to be nothing but a high school popularity contest for the ao boards forum trolls. They elected a neo nazi, a ninja looter from a ninja looter org that openly screws clan players and they even admit to it on their org forums that they rig bot rolls to screw clan players, and a guy that cusses with the mouth of a sailor in game to represent them and send feedback to fc on what needs fixed.
My last toon was an agent and what a mess that was its like playing a pariah the way fc treats you. The first day means took over he decided RI bug was not a bug but an intended feature of out spite for the agent class. I have no hope what so ever whatever changes he has planned will make the game more enjoyable.
This what a typical day is in ao for getting teams at tl7 as a pariah and and or leper class. If you play on Rimor do the following ./tell neutnet !history and read what it says. Look close and see if anything doesn't say XXX needs crat/doc/crat/enfo maybe keeper to do XXXXX. It never will!!
Lol, you guys are a riot...
~\_/~\_O
Doc/crat/enf/sol is probably by far the easiest and safest way to do things. If everyone in the team is just decent players with a decent equip, all the content that AO has to offer is cakewalk for that team. But the doc/crat/enf/sol combo isn't the only way to do every farm instance with just 4 people.
To give a few examples:
An engineer played by a good player offers much more survivability to the team than a soldier. Engies may offer slightly less reflects, but when they spam their blind aura they mitigate more damage than a soldier can. Unlike a soldier an engineer doesn't make a good main tank, engineers also offer less damage than soldiers to the team now. But if you're teamed with a 70k hp enf, that is pretty irrelevant since that enf will tank everything and won't die no matter what. So doc/crat/enf/engi works well too.
There's also no content for which you absolutely need an enf. Because of their huge hp (and other tools) enfs make the easiest tanks to hold agro and are by far the easiest to keep alive for a doctor. But with good players an enf is overkill, you don't really need them. Soldiers and keepers make very good single target tanks as well (and the aeo taunting of enfs isn't an absolute requirement in the farm instances). Other professions like MAs, shades and adventurers played by very good players can tank everything in the farm instances as well when in the right team (read: teamed with pve lovechilds like docs, crats, soldiers or good engineers), but less fail safe than a mediocre enf still.
Combine a keeper (with the warding aura) with a doctor and crat and you turn all pve content in a joke as well. Docs+crats can debuff the attack speed of a mob by so much, that when combined with absorbing normal hits (+ reflects from soldier/engineer) any profession with a good equip can tank pretty much all the content. Doc/crat/sol/keeper makes the game look as easy as the doc/crat/enf/sol combo. Doc/crat/engineer/keeper can also turn the game in a joke, but they can't be complete dofuses unlike in those 2 other teams.
Now the 3 examples above aren't all combination possible in AO. The above examples make the pve content a cakewalk. If you happen to have a supply of good players with superb equip, then you don't need the above to succeed. You can tackle content without a crat and still succeed. You can tackle some of the content without a doctor (but with crat, without both crat and doctor you won't do the instances in question with just 4 players) and you can still succeed. You can exchange others of the lovechild professions by some gimpier professions (but not all) and still complete the content. A good team leader will recognize this and not wait for the ideal fantastic four setup before starting.
For the AO farm instances, I think the following is a decent order in which normal players (without personal connections or an extreme reputation) get invited to PUGs:
So suppose that someone wants to roll a shade now and asks if he will be able to acquire an endgame setup: Then I would advice to do it. You would get far less invites than doc/crat/sol/enf, but with a good reputation and also by making teams yourselves (+making connections), you will still be able to farm the AO content in an effective manner.
If you wanted to roll a fixer or MP however, then I would advice to level up a lovechild sugardaddy first though
So while I do agree that there isn't anything remotely resembling balance in AO, it's not as black&white as either be a doc/crat/sol/enf or don't bother. There's a few absolutely useless professions that don't add anything to a team that a lovechild cannot already do far better, but there still exists a grey zone in between the absolute lovechild professions and the absolutely gimp professions.
And in case you're asking: Why this obsession with doing "raids" with 4-man teams (or 5 or 6, not everyone goes with just 4 all the time) instead of the possible 12 or more. It comes down to the loot: only 4 people means less people to share loot with. Considering the amount of times some instances have to be repeated to acquire loot, this can be quite significant. And to boot, the killing is not even that much slower than with just 4 people because of the mob events + looting + timed instances. Once the 4 of you have everything you need, you can still continue farming the instance to sell lootrights to people that can't get it themselves or loot the stuff with non-lovechild alts of yourself.
When a teamleader invites lovechild players to his team, he also has to respect their feelings, you just can't invite more people because you feel sorry for them. Players want to get done with the grinding and go once the team can handle the objective, without adding additional players to share the loot with. If the leader announces beforehand that it is a 12 person raid, they won't object, but if you invite a lovechild (I've never had a single complaint from fixers, MPs, ... about doing a raid with 12 people) from lft without mentioning it; there are many who would fake-ld or not accept future invites. A doctor on a friendlist is likelier to join you repeatedly if he knows your raids will be conducted in an efficient manner (and thus with as few people as possible).
Geez, WTF happened to this game. I remember when NTs got nerfed and almost became pariahs if not for the train grinding but that's bout it. To see that most of the classes are close to useless is just sad. I remember when most of them were viable and it was more dependent on the player.
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