10 Mar 2010 at 22:19 - 43
reworking paragon would also need reworking the tactics line. i've already suggested to change warrior's tactics into 'tactics i use to kill the enemy' rather than 'tactics i and my party use to get through the fight'.
so warrior should still keep shouts like fear me!, to the limit!, or victory is mine! (and all other typical in-combat shouts), while party-wide buffs and commanding shouts should be moved to paragon attributes: charge!, retreat!, shields up!, watch yourselves! and, most of all, save yourselves!.
i think that the very best option to deal both with imbagons and general lore-like approach at class niches would be to split SY and TNTF into paragon pve skills, but limiting them so that only one of those could be used at a given time. the easiest way to achieve it would be to make SY a kurzick skill, while TNTF would be a corresponding luxon version, and spear of fury got moved to sunspear line.
i know that this option is clearly theoretical and probably impossible, mainly because of no filler for warrior kurzick skill. still, it would nerf the imbagon without nerfing any skill (just killing the synergy).
there's more niches in pve than healing, protting, killing, tanking and running. there's party buffing, there's handicapping mobs with conditions and hexes, there's shutdown, there's killing single targets fast. and even more.
the paras' problem is that they are not really designed to have a niche - warriors have party-wide shouts, monks and rits have heals, necros have party energy management, various classes have conditions that can be used much better. lore tells us that they should be the leaders, rather inspiring and motivating their friends than killing mobs themselves. so skills increasing party member's damage, armor, healing rate, attack speed, movement speed, energy regen, hp regen (not necessarily healing, though*) should be in their attributes.
* i can't imagine how a shouting leader could heal his army. i mean, monks have divine prayers and they use the power of dwayna to heal wounds - aight, it's a fantasy game, magic is everywhere, it's pretty logical. ritualists draw energy from spirits, dervishes are mystic warriors in commune with nature (earth, wind) - fine. but how can a shout actually heal someone? i can imagine getting inspired by my leader so i don't pay attention to my wounds and fight despite being severely damaged - it might increase hp regen or even heal a bit, BUT with a drawback - after the adrenaline has passed, i'd feel those wounds, as they're not healed. i mean, elrond can heal you with the power of elves combined with herbalism, gandalf probably can heal you with the power of majars, but what can aragorn do in the heat of battle?
that way - having healing shouts that also have a drawback - paragon could be something different than a monk or rit, yet still fitting their lore role.