The spells proposed for PoP are nice, but not great. Without a balance, such as a new HoT or the MiNi CH, things are going to be basically the same in the life a druid. Still no defined important raid roll, still not needed in groups, and can solo a tad better then before, and only better from PoP Breath of Ro and WD upgrades. <sigh> Still need a balance.........thoughts and comments plz =)

Pherrot

It seems that the mini ch is about to go live.
With this in mind and the upgraded pop spells I feel quite comfortable for the class again damage/healing. We can improve our direct damage by the cold/fire debuffs, sure still not a defined role on raids but very positive changes because healing was the part that was lacking the most, glad it got adressed.

I don't agree. The healing upgrade - if it happens - does not help our cause. We have no defined roll on a raid. No reason to bring a druid. Sure, we'll be able to heal....in 10 seconds - thanks rest of my group is going to die to AE.

Sorry, but this heal doesn't cut it..not even close. This spell will help when you're in an exp group. It will have limited uses on raids.

Will you be able to heal a caster with this? No. Do you have any other tools to keep a caster alive? Again no.

This spell is not balance for druids.

It's not going to happen I'm afraid. With about a month before PoP comes out, I'm sure they are focusing on what they consider more important stuff... stuff that will bring in revenue.. balancing priest classes will not generate more revenue like the release of PoP will.

They know you are hooked.. last expansion druids adopted a "wait and see" attitude.. meaning you did nothing and while you didn't like it, you allowed it to happen.

There's an old saying "The squeaky wheel gets the grease"

Druids have gone from kicking @#%$ to getting their asses kicked in terms of relative power.

Bääh hehe I don't agree with you either. The problem wasn't really the versality it was the fact that we healed like a noob at lvl 60 and this is fixed with this spell.

So you can't heal ae damage good enough, and ? who said that we should, the only thing that was pretty sure was that we should not heal like a newbie, we should not have all the options clerics have.

And as I said I agree with the missing role on raids but I don't see your point why this wasn't a good improvement in our healing power.

The heal should be percentage based with no cap. Otherwise just make it capped period and drop the %.

We should also have upgrades to our other heals. CB and NT if they aren't going to give us a HoT or group heal. What are you going to use when you aren't using this mega long casting time capped gimp heal? The same old crap heals we've been complaining about from the beginning.

I'm saying that this 1 10second casting time heal that is capped at 2925 does not balance us nor does it make us good back up healers. And by itself does not address our healing concerns.

Id hope that we get this new heal.

However at maybe level 65 we get an upgrade to it...which maybe does 4.5k-5k heal with 85% max.

This hopefully should counteract the 5 level increase in HP of Tanks (because items will get better too) and NPC damage which is guarenteed to increase.

Tils

Speaking for me and me alone I will NOT buy POP unless we are balanced first.

I am on the fence and leaning toward quitting right now. While I was excited to see how rapid the "new" Verant was acting after we got their attention a month ago all communication has once again stopped and it does not look good.

I have to agree that considering all that has occurred that the "Proposed" incomplete heal on test is not enough.

The cap has to go if the tanks will be getting a huge boost in Hit points and we need a HoT.

I've not played EQ in weeks aside from logging on for a few mins to say hello to some people.

I was "sure" that POP would introduce some new unique Druid skill or ability. The spells on test do nothing to excite me in any way shape or form. Minor upgrades to existing spells.

I think what urks me to no end at this point is the total, utter lack of ANY communication from Verant.

I'm trying to keep a level head. Trying to have faith but it's hard... very hard at this point.

I have this feeling that this capped heal will be the "only" thing they do for Druids. I would feel MUCH better if it was at least an uncapped 3k heal or a true 50% heal (heals 50% of a players total hit points no matter how many hit points the player has)

A true percentage heal (which is what many asked for) would always scale no matter how many hpts POP introducers.

Tanks gte up to 10k in hit points - fine as a 50% heal would then heal 5000, only have 5000 hut points and we would heal 2500.

THAT is what is really needed to always keep Druids heals in line with the game. Not some capped 3k heal that will only force us once again in Jan-Feb '03 (if anyone is still playing then LOL) to ask Verant yet again for a bump in healing.

EQ is on the shelf for me atm. I will keep watching to see if things change, but it doesn't look good from what I am seeing.

The *only* way to show your disapproval is to cancel your account. Simple and effective, VI will get the message eventually.

Perhaps we should start a Retired due to "balancing" thread, maybe we'll see how many Druids have given up the fight.

Venerable Firren
(Retired)

My druid is 54 and has been for 8 months. He serves as a support for my other toons. What toons, you might ask?

The warrior, go hit things, duh. The cleric, who heals the warrior, duh. This is lowest common denominator thinking at its best, so I surrendered to the clear imperative. Play your duh-hit things class and your duh-heal the thing-hitter class.

Verant has let this game go the way of many 'Monty Hall' AD&D campaigns where the items got bigger and better 'til the party was too powerful for the world. VI's answer to powerful casters was unlimited power for melee classes in Kunark and Velious, minimizing caster utility. Minimal caster utility means even less utility for the generalist caster, the druid.

Now, to keep those of us who love to game addicted longer yet, Verant brings us Planes of Power (shades of the Outer Planes in AD&D, LOL). Has anyone noticed that rangers (who hit things, duh) get most of a druid's good 50-60 spells?

I will play their game until something shows up that's better than their simplistic hack 'n slash computer version of AD&D, then I will cancel my account and go elsewhere, as all dissatisified customers do.

However, I will continue to play their game with two caveats:

1. I will not purchase further expansions and
2. I will not play any toons past level 50, since the game is severely broken past that level.

And yes, folks, something better WILL appear on the horizon. For you who remember AD&D, how about Runequest or Hero System or White Wolf or even G.U.R.P.S.?

A computer version of a true skill-based RPG will come along sooner or later.

I am gonna try out that all caps things where someone types in all caps and is annoying...

IF WE AINT BALANCE AT 60 AINT NO REASON TO GET INVITED AT 61+ EVEN WHEN BALANCED.

hehe, that wasn't even fun, oh well.

You gonna boot that Cleric thats been healing you since 39 cuz druids get a 3k heal? Why? I see no reason for Clerics to get huffy, your irreplacable darlings.

Who is gonna group for 3 hours and then go LD or something die, and lose all that TIME? Rez alone makes it irrelevent. (Mind you does not make it fun, but define EQ fun when it comes to EXP grinding.)

You gonna give up a Cleric because a Druid can throw a 60sec DOT on the mob and heal? No. Thats assuming you would even dream of testing your feeble healing ability by casting any other spells.

PoP?
Well when Clerics are buffing 1500 hp and the druid heal cant even heal that amount why even bother.