OK, lets say the stance mode goes into effect.

Give the Druid's and ONLY the Druid's the abillity to have another AA that will take our secondary Forte to a 200 skill level.

I am a Evok Druid, so even if I was in the healing stance, my mana would still shiver up and die after only a few pulls. With me having a 200 skill lvl in Alt. I could keep up at a decient rate.

And you can see the same factor with Druids that took Alt over Evok.

Sure we cant Nuke as hard as a Wizzie, but we should beable to cast more often. Sure we can't heal as big as a Cleric, but we don't go OOM as fast. That is what would make us balanced and not over powering.

Just my Opion, and it stinks.

Roxxx the Drunk Rebel

Why? Only time I go OOM is when I have to heal multi group members non-stop. That could be solved with a group heal. I never go oom nuking, on a raid at least.

Let's wait up till next exp is released, there are some new innovative (well at least to EQ) stuff in it that will please everyone i think.

Thing is that I'm not buying the expansion until druids are fixed. :)

There is no good reason I can think of in my head why SOE will not take 10 seconds to post a status update after over five months of silence.

The only reasonI can come up with is either SOE has such utter contempt for the Druid Class that they feel zero obligation to us or even worse... they feel that us "sheep" errrr players will continue to play and pay for EQ no matter what they do.

Can anyone else think of a good reason why SOE will not "officially" post a response or status update to stances?

-Cass

P.S. An unofficial response to our player rep in email does not count IMHO. Not only has the contents not been posted but due to the nature of this response SOE does not have to own up to this. I suspect if SOE was to "officially" post that stances have been tabled that they would get much flack for saying this so it's better to just lead us on the long chain, so to speak, as they feel that "no communication" is betetr than "bad communication" - it's only our acceptance of this lack of communication that allows SOE to continue to use this "blow off" strategy.

Cass, what do you expect as official?
http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board/message?board.id=Druids&message.id=4541#M4541

has been there since June yet you conveniently continue to ignore it. /shrug

If I had the information to give you I certainly would give it to you. As Scirroco mentioned in his report for the Summit, Dev is not sure when they weill have stances competed, but it is expected to be done before the end of the year. They want to complete the spell alterations then will be moving on to other large things like DPS.
Kytherea ~~wielding a giant hammer & a hairless War Hamster~~

"I'm late, I'm late...."



If you consider this a proper answer I can assure you that I do not. This was a board mod responding to pressure and his answer was not the least bit official in my eyes. Words like "not sure" and "expected to" do not mean much in light of years of broken promises. Besides.... this was months ago and even if I was to consider this a real replay from SOE and not a board mod who in the world is going to see this burried within a long thread?

So what do I think is an official reply?

Well at the very "lease" an official post from a developer that is locked at the top as an original post so people could see it without having to search all over the place. Oh and maybe some substance to the post.

So SOE "hopes" to "someday" do what the promised when they get the time.

Whoop de frigging do :)

-Cass

P.S. Why is it so hard for SOE to post either on this board or on their boards something like this: (made up post BTW LOL)

From: Official SOE Developer
To: Druid Community

Subject: Stances

After proposing the issue of stances as a way to allow the Druid Class to continue in it's unique roll as both a healer and DPS we have studdied the issue and have listened to your input. Due to the complexity of this change and our goal of providing a well tested feature to the Druid Class, we have gone a bit slow on implementing this change. Right now this change is being internally tested but we will wait until after the expansion is realeased so we might test it with some of the new features the expansion will be adding to the game. We would rather do this otherwise if we added stances now they might have to be changed after the expansion and we all know how much you like us to weaken (read: nerf LOL) something at a later date.

In closing I can assure you that we have not forgotten Druids and it is our hope that we can get stances into the game within a few weeks after release of the expansion... at least for public testing on the test server.

We thank you for your continued support and we hope you like some of the goodies we have waiting for druids with the upcoming expansion.

-SOE Developer

---------------------------------------------

This is what I expect from a "professional" company and not what we have been getting. This "example" post promised nothing but is what I would consider good "PR" instead of the crap we have been getting from SOE.

-Cass

CASS, I am with you on most of what you have to say, but I believe they will come around one day soon. I just try to have fun with it cause I have complained far to much and nothing came of it. I am going bald not so don't go to the extreme i did for your sake.

Cass if you're worried stances are gonna come in form of an expansion AA or spell... there's absolutely no indication that they will come out in that form :P

Me worry? Never *smiles*

-Cass

My fear is that our nukes and heals will from now on be balanced in offensive and defensive modes, so when we're in no stance, we will be even further behind in both healing and dps.

I hear you Cass, and agree 100%. I have eveen been toying with the idea of cruising the other class forums and count the number of official SoE responses and creating a tally list....but I'm afraid that I'll find even more disturbing news.

What scares me even more, however, is that some day I'll wake up, log on and find that stances have been implimented...and the result is so frigging lame/awefull/pitiful that I'll be screaming for them to be removed. (kinda like have 3 options of high end snare spells, and an epic that doessn't make sense and...and...and)

Yet as we wait, and wait, for stances I remain the last player picked for exp group, high end trials and all. I grow so tired of kiting th tables in fire I could vomit. High DoN progression? Can't get into even a Trial of Perserverance group....

...and another expansion is due...

...and how far will I fall benind AGAIN?

/sigh

When I log in and go LFG I see how many Clerics and Druids are also LFG. If there are more than 1 or 2 I simple log or solo a bit. My average LFG is well over two hours now and since I'm not elemental flagged (my guild cannot seem to get past RZ LOL) I have little in the way of good solo spots.

The situation is getting pretty dire for the "average" druid. Heck I have read that even the uber druids are having some issues.

Either way it's looking pretty bad right now. My subscription will lapse in a few weeks. I have not renewed it as I am waiting to see if SOE does anything. If not I guess I'll move on to another game to play.

-Cass

It was really funny when I LFG. If someone from a time or elemental level guild is forming a group, I'ld get grabbed even if its for GoD zones. Everyone else won't even invite me, not even for a BoT group.

Yeah, getting in a group is becoming harder and harder to come by. Makes me sick waiting, I usually try soloing but since I have not killed Sol Ro yet I can't get into PoFire unless guild is raiding. I usually try making a group for DON, but I want to go to some of the other zones where i can get the runes for high spells and how do I get a group there when no one wants a druid. Now on EXP night(not raiding) my guild members usually get together and make groups, but what when its not officially done. i am ready for us Druids to get something that others would want in a group. Hell back in the day we were saught after for ports now they have stone heck the game is replacing us with a rock, doesn't say much for my future as a Druid. What next??

What is sad is that I cannot even get a group within my guild. Since there are always enough clerics in guild, the groups form around them. While I know some of you will say "what kind of POS guild do you belong to" it's not that I ask and they say no.... they just form up in tells (or they are all mind readers) - not all but enough to really start to piss me off.


When I log in now I don't even ask. I put up LFG and wait my two hours before I log in frustration.

-Cass

My fear is that our nukes and heals will from now on be balanced in offensive and defensive modes, so when we're in no stance, we will be even further behind in both healing and dps.
This is what I've said numerous times and have generally been blown off by people.

But so many people (especially game designers) must have grown up on Barbie because they seem to think it is a great thing to have to pick your outfit (stance) before every battle and change it out at various intervals.

I have zero doubt that any complaints in the future about druid abilities will be answered with, "It works fine in the proper stance.".

Just like past complaints were answered with, "Well, that is the price you pay for being able to solo.".

This is what I've said numerous times and have generally been blown off by people.

But so many people (especially game designers) must have grown up on Barbie because they seem to think it is a great thing to have to pick your outfit (stance) before every battle and change it out at various intervals.

I have zero doubt that any complaints in the future about druid abilities will be answered with, "It works fine in the proper stance.".

Just like past complaints were answered with, "Well, that is the price you pay for being able to solo.".

At this stage I would be happy to just have stances and an extra heal or two. At least I could get a group if my DPS was +25% or my healing +25%.

Right now I can't buy a group it seems so I'm looking it as picking the better of two bad choices.

Now if anyone can find a way to get SOE to actually do something with the Druid Class I'm all ears. I have two weeks left before my subscription runs out and I'm looking for a reason to re-subscribe.... right now I have none.

I log in each night and solo for a few hours while LFG.... I should buy the expansion and re-subscribe for what reason? LOL

-Cass

Cassea sounds like you need to start advertising yourself as dps when looking for a group, especially if you have an abundance of clerics like you stated. Time to become more of a Storm Wizard. I usually always get groups whenever I want one, I hate healing and only assume that role when no clerics are to be found. Then again I'm a guild leader so getting groups is naturally a bit more easier too.

What is sad is that I cannot even get a group within my guild. Since there are always enough clerics in guild, the groups form around them. While I know some of you will say "what kind of POS guild do you belong to" it's not that I ask and they say no.... they just form up in tells (or they are all mind readers) - not all but enough to really start to piss me off.


When I log in now I don't even ask. I put up LFG and wait my two hours before I log in frustration.

-Cass

Perhaps you answered your own question there. The are not mind readers as you imply so how do they know you are LFG if you do not even tell them? Have you tried to ever put a group together? Use the LFG tool and send tells to a tank and some dps and a slower or mezzer whatnot and see if you can create a group? Doing this will begin to let people on the server know you and if you do well in a pickup group, over a little bit of time, people will start seeing you LFG on the tool when forming a group and you will get invites.

Why should you buy the new expansion? Because there may be something in it that you like. A new zone you can solo in for fun/exp/loot. Who knows. If not... you can always quit.

One of the greatest challenges I face is getting my guild to remember that I DO NOT always solo! The Druid class is perceived to be a soloing class and many assume that's what Im doing.

However I understand. Just last night i spent 2.5 hours lfg as my druid, logged on my ranger and got a MPG group on the 1st try. That's right, I /ooc 70 ranger lfg and before the echo faded I had a group.

The no.1 reason to stay in the game is NOT SoE and how they are treating the druid class, its for your friends. Even tho they pick you last, even tho they don't understand the druid class they still need you.

Last night was a good night for me.... only 45 mins LFG before I got a DoN mission :)

As far as my guild goes... it is heavy with clerics and DPS types and I get the impression that most people feel a druid is nothing more than a healer. The bot situation in regard to clerics is so bad now that people are just botting clerics with their main instead of taking a druid main.

Maybe the real issue is that so many cleric bots have been made due to the huge needs for clerics on raids that it is impacting druids as healers.

As far as DPS goes all casters are broken in regard to DPS. With Druids only being average at best in regard to caster DPS why would anyone want to waste a spot with a druid doing DPS when they can get twice the DPS with another class?

My issue with my guild lies more due to the fact that I hate raiding and no longer have time to raid 4-5 hours 4 days a week (I know some guilds raid nightly) so this leaves me as a more casual player who is very poorly equiped with no 69-70 spells trying to compete with the raiders when they are not raiding LOL.

I tried slumming in MGP and RS but all those rotting drops do not seem to happen on Eci/Tunare LOL. As I get more and more AA's it will get better but it's a long slow climb on the aa ladder when you are forced to solo most of the time or your play time is limited so that you cannot raid very much.

Even when I can raid it basically takes away most of my play time that would go toward more aa's to in the never ending RZ wipe :)

It will get better
It will get better

-Cass

P.S. I hope :)