Tristan and I must think alike because I too fail to see how a character come become downright "unplayable" (unless it's stuck somehow and unable to move). I've known players that less than a month after starting a new character in Ackadia, they were already solo'ing Ancients by pure feat of wits and skill. Ackadia was a brand new server too so it's not like they had saved-up resources, gold or magic gear to help themselves advance faster. I don't know how they did it (I still don't), but for them their semi-new characters were far from unplayable, much less "not fun."
I believe whether playing a certain kind of character is "fun" or not has only so much to do with skills and stats and A LOT to do with
attitude and disposition. [Personal example: I hate playing a ranger (tamer), but It would be a GROSS inaccuracy to claim they're "unplayable" just because they're no fun for me.] If you
think your character is no fun to play with, then it'll never be so even if it has uber stats and gear. On the other hand, you can be the weakest, most inept of newbies, and be having a blast fighting harpies and ettins.
If you're definition of having "fun" means killing any mob in the world real easily and riskfree, then you're setting yourself up for disappointment because powergaming, loot-harvesting isn't what WoD is about. Killing the toughest mob on the shard (by yourself) in less than 4 mins shouldn't be possible for ANY character. Yet if you wish to try it, it should at least be a serious challenge. A great adventure, not a "good amount of virtue" + 800 gps and a magic item.
What's that you say? Your tank can't melee ancients as easily as magi do? Well that's because mages DO NOT melee, they use ranged attacks (*hint hint*). By the same token, magi shouldn't have the same AR a tank has. Magi already have a huge advantage over tanks in using powerful spells. It is a mockery of game balance for a mage to be able to melee mobs (i.e. attack at close range) as easily (or more easily) than a tank character.
Personally, I don't mind Joram has a helluva time melee'ing an Ancient and other tough-hitting mobs, while Vardion can kill just about anything in the world without much trouble (relatively speaking of course). If Vardion has now been somewhat 'limited' to do certain things I'm confident I can adapt and still have fun playing that character. Whatever changes Drocket has in mind, whether I like them or not, I can tell you for sure neither Joram nor Vardion will become "unplayable" as such. In the past four+ years, I've seen dozens, maybe even hundreds of changes implemented to the tank and mage classes. Joram and Vardion are both at least four years old, and in those four years I've done rather minor changes to their skillsets (drop a skill here, pick another one there). Far more drastic changes than these could have made my characters "unplayable" by some people's standards. Not for me.
Orion Michaels wrote:Again, I'm not against a creature that can't be soloed. It gives the uber-experienced the chance to try and figure out a way to do it. Juat make it a new monster and put it somewhere where things usually don't spawn, like fire island.
Orion, I've seen you running around with some mighty fine gear. In fact, my stuff isn't all that much better than yours (I still wear fort armor for instance, not invul). By my estimation, you should be a so-called "uber-experienced" player. You certainly have been around long enough to have faced the worst our dungeons have to offer, and develop schemes and strategies to overcome such difficulties. Why is it that after all these months you still speak as if you were a month-old newbie? If it isn't gear and experience (or skillset probably) that differentiates the two of us, what do you suppose makes this "nerf" seem so minor to me and the end-of-the-world to you?