What are the current design goals regarding the unique Shaman benefit of recovering health & mana at the same rate, while in combat?
Specifically, will their in-combat rates be the same as all other classes out-of-combat rates? If not, what is the design goal?
Reference, from the Shaman Class page, today:
"
Ancient Focus
Passive Ability. Because of the Shaman’s temporal freedom, their Health and Mana generation rates do not slow while in combat.
"
Everything else I want to know will just have to come from playing the class. Shaman and Enchanter (possibly Cleric too) are my forerunners for my main, so I'm excited about this stream!
1) Will the Shaman retain the wolf pet? It did seem odd to have a carry-over from Everquest, especially with how pet mechanics like with the Summoner are to be much more complex and detailed. If the pet will remain, will it be anything more than a simple form of damage that is controlled by simplistic pet control functions (attack, back off, guard here, follow etc.)?
2) With their performance functions such as Melee Slow and Melee Haste, do you see Shaman moving more towards a Support function and away from being a true Healer like the Cleric? And if not, would it be fair for the Cleric to have a competing class that can heal as well and can modify group potential and incoming damage so much?
Will there be a limit to debuffs and dots present on a target ? In short : Will multiple shamans be able to put every single bane on an ennemy, and would the same bane stack (for debuffs I doubt of it, but for dots ?) from two different shamans ?
Will a "multiple shaman raid" make each shaman focus on different aspects of their class ? Buffing, debuffing, over time healing, burst healing, Dots, direct / melee damage ?
As a follow-up to the first question from MauvaisOeil above, will players be able to leverage an out-of-group shaman to circumvent the strategic (this/that ability selection) focus of the LAS for non-raid content? In other words ... if you have a single shaman in your group, and multiple shamans outside of the group, could they collectively leverage the full kit of the shaman class and effectively ignore the strategic implications of LAS-driven design? If so, it would appear that players would be encouraged to zerg non-raid content. Are there any features/systems/mechanics that would prevent this type of cheese-play and preserve the integrity of the meaningful hotbar choices that players are supposed to be making?
1) What is the approach to the progression of buffs? Single-target-single stat that later turns into a multiple-stat-single-target that even later becomes the multi-stat-group target ala EQ1?
2) What are your intentions for resist buffs/debuffs? You've got 10 different damage types listed so I'm expecting that there will be a buff/debuff for each and every one of those spread across the classes. Which ones will be for the Shaman? (I have handy Venn Diagrams for what I'd like to see)
3) Utility spells. Levitate, See invis, Invisibility, invis to Undead, Fear, Blind, Underwater Breathing, Infravision, Ultravision, Grow, Shrink, Regeneration, etc. Can we expect to see these and if so, which ones can we expect to see for the Shaman? (I have handy Venn Diagrams for what I'd like to see)
4) Have you re-addressed the issue of the Shaman resurrection where the Shaman first has to be dead in order to resurrected someone else while still in combat?
5) Will the Shaman have a resurrect that returns XP like the Cleric currently enjoys?
6) How exactly will the ability 'Hurry the Past' work? The assumption is that you cast a HoT, activate HtP, and then you cannot use it again until the original HoT expires (basically prevents you from just chain activating HtP).
7) Can you provide the reasoning behind why the Shaman combat resource, Vision, is spell haste and not something like mana efficiency? Also, why does it only activate when using Heal spells?
8) Does Vision deplete over time?
9) What are the reasonings behind the cooldown timer for Primar Fury being 6 minutes AND only being single target?
10) Will there be some form of Cannibalization, something on a longer cool-down so we aren't doing the Canni-dance from EQ1? (even though I did not mind that).
11) What is the reasoning behind the Shaman's AC buff, Interlocking Stones, relying upon the AC of the Shaman to determine the AC bonus?
12) Can you explain why spells like Mark of the Fireclaw, that increases your resists to Fire and Nature, also increases your DEX and AGI? Why are those linked? Same goes for Reptilian Cloak that buffs Poison and Nature as well as STR and STA.
13) Why are the Boons/Banes using Earth, Water, Fire and Air? Isn't that more an elementalist/summoner and not so much "Shaman"?
14) Does the Headwinds spellline, which reduces enemy aggro radius, work on social assist radius as well?
15) Why do Humans, that already get a Cleric and Paladin, also get the Shaman when no other race that has Shaman also has a Cleric.
oneADseven said:As a follow-up to the first question from MauvaisOeil above, will players be able to leverage an out-of-group shaman to circumvent the strategic (this/that ability selection) focus of the LAS for non-raid content? In other words ... if you have a single shaman in your group, and multiple shamans outside of the group, could they collectively leverage the full kit of the shaman class and effectively ignore the strategic implications of LAS-driven design? If so, it would appear that players would be encouraged to zerg non-raid content. Are there any features/systems/mechanics that would prevent this type of cheese-play and preserve the integrity of the meaningful hotbar choices that players are supposed to be making?
I can fast answer that with a wise man blog entry :
http://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/blogs/151/187/very-fast-even-for-me-commentary-on-instancing
I suppose it's still actual ^^.
MauvaisOeil said:
I can fast answer that with a wise man blog entry :
http://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/blogs/151/187/very-fast-even-for-me-commentary-on-instancing
I suppose it's still actual ^^.
The idea that enemy NPC's would retreat when overwhelmed by players has been debated for years. That kind of mechanic would ultimately end up being a new griefing tool. Whether it forces enemies to retreat, enrage, summon friends, whatever ... players would be able to trigger those effects in order to screw over other players. I'm pretty sure that feature has been ruled out for a while now but some clarification would certainly be helpful.
To demonstrate what I mean ... let's say a single group is fighting a challenging boss. They get it down to 30% and it looks like they have a good chance of taking it down but resources are running out fast. Other players in the area see this and decide to engage the encounter in order to trigger the retreat/enrage/summon-friends mechanic. It would effectively be the same thing as maliciously training other players except it would be easier to do since having other mobs in the area isn't even necessary. This kind of scaling mechanic could work if a personal-loot system was in effect (everybody who contributes has a chance to earn a reward) since everybody participating would benefit from the mob being killed. Without a personal-loot system in place, it is far more likely to create a situation where players sabotage each other. It's worth noting that raid-content will be locked to the team that engages which solves the zerging issue and ensures that the meaningful this/that choices of LAS-driven design are preserved.
What is the cool down on Hurry the Past
Can Shaman heal enough to be the only heals in a group
Will other classes have abilities that can take advantage of banes or curses that a shaman may place upon an enemy? How extensive will this type of synergy be across the various classes?
By a similar token, will shaman abilities be able to take advantage of combat states or statuses applied by other characters to be more effective in some way?
Alex Wright said: 3. Does the shaman have an AoE healing ability, or is it primarily single target?
They have at least 2 AE (group) Healing spell lines, Hand & Echo:
Hand of Elemas: Primal Oath Water - Amplifies a Water Boon on an ally, creating a surge of healing waters that directly heals your target ally for a moderate amount and the members of your group for a small amount.
Echo of Ancient Waters: Primal Oath Water - Send forth a rush of restorative waters, healing each member of your group over 12 seconds. If a Water Boon is active on the target (main target), the healing pulses of this ability will be increased by 30%.
Shamans seem to have a number of elemental spells that cause "nature damage." For instance, Wreath of Coals is listed as a Fire Bane which causes nature damage in addition to lowering fire resist. For the purposes of racial passives like Lucent Ancestry and Elemental Attunement, would a spell like this be considered both a nature ability and a fire ability?
I've been sooo excited to ask Shaman questions!
1) Hurry The Past states "ALL healing over time abilities on you and your group members will instantly finish" will this be limited to only HoTs applied by the Shaman or will it effect HoTs cast from other priests in the group / raid?
2) Will Ancient Focus allow Shaman to gain benefits from meditation skill while in combat also? Or will meditate require the player to be seated and out of combat?
3) Primordial Bonds allows a Shaman to also heal themselves for x% of the effective healing on others. How will this mechanic work on group heals? Will the Shaman get a base heal from the ability, and an additional % from Primordial Bonds or will they only receive healing from Primordial Bonds when group healing?
4) Agewalkers Gift - What happena if you were casting Part the Veil and Agewalker's Gift timer expires before you finished casting?
5) Will Shaman pets (Wolf or Bear) have different stats / abilities or will they be identical, just a different graphic?
6) Will Shaman pets have an inventory / armor slots?
7) I really wanna use a big Two-Handed hammer to hit things :) In other MMO's it was nearly always best option to use a 1h and shield for added resists / block chance as a caster or priest. Will there be any benefits of using a 2h weapon as a priest over using a 1h and shield?
Xand said:Will shaman pets match the race they come from rather than just being a generic bear or wolf...............
This has been answered. The response was : if there was time they would like to add more pet options based on race but it is what it is currently.
Read it as not likely on release.