Feldon I have to admit, I have not dedicated as much thought to the races I play in EQ2 as perhaps others have. My Ranger was human because that was my first character and I guess I didn’t want anything too fantastic (in hindsight, I’d go for the wood elf). My Guardian was born around the introduction of Kunark, so is naturally a Sarnak. And lately I’ve been having a lot of fun developing my Ratonga Dirge.
While I’ve never chosen a race because of the benefits, I have really enjoyed the unique (but not overpowered) traits of the Sarnak (fire breathing AoE), and extra de-taunt on the Ratonga (Pitiful Plea). They’re not over-the-top or game-breaking, but they add some color, some flair, to the races which I have integrated into my gameplay.
So I am growing dismayed to see that the baby is being thrown out with the bathwater with the forthcoming Racial Traits revisions currently on Test. A few races have been overpowered (Dark Elf) for quite some time now. There has never been an argument there. However, rather than some subtle changes that would smooth out any truly overpowered abilities, and adding in a few more colorful, interesting traits to each race, the Racial Traits we seem to be looking forward to in Game Update 53 are just bland and unimaginative.
Some of these changes are just downright nonsensical. Trolls now seem to be classed as Priests. Ratongas will only ever succeed as Scouts. Scout-specific abilities like Disarm Trap, Tracking, and Safe Fall have been given out willy-nilly to all kinds of races.
You know, I think some of us were excited to see Frizznik coming back to the EQ2 team after a 2+ year hiatus, but it seems his first project has already been so completely derailed by Aeralik, why bother? I hate to say it, but this whole thing just seems cut-and-paste and unencumbered by the thought process.
It is possible to add something interesting, something unique, without making it overpowered. It’s not easy, but that is the job of an MMO designer. Let’s try it again guys.
There are a lot of ideas being thrown around for how to fix Racial Traits for Gu53. Unfortunately the “details” at that beginning of that thread, and then endlessly copied and pasted throughout the thread are incorrect. (Please see my Racial Traits guide).
I would like to see the unique traits of most of the races come back, but receive adjustments if necessary:
Ratonga:
- Pitiful Plea – deagro
- Poisonous Bite – poison DoT
Human:
- Bayle’s Strike – extra melee attack
Sarnak:
- Fire Breath – AoE
Wood Elf:
- Faydark’s Champion – +2% Range Crit, +5 Ranged,+2% Heal Crit, +5 Ministration
I would also like to see some shuffling around of the “Packages” as they are being called to offer more variety and less pigeonholing of certain races into Priest, Scout, Mage, especially when those changes are the opposite of how the races are currently aligned. It should not be necessary for folks to have to buy a Racial Change just to stay as effective at their class as they are now.
Trolls and almost everyone else with the tanking package (save the Iksar) got pigeon-holed into the priest package because they couldn’t give ANY race the Tank+Scout combo for fear of creating an optimal, double-dipping tank race.
In general, I don’t get why they couldn’t have left the racial DD abilities for every race. I haven’t heard that any of them was breaking the game, they’re useful for soloing on Fighters and Priests who don’t have many abilities, and you could always go through and rebalance them if some were above or below average.
Plea is in a more difficult spot, because it’s an actually new ability that will crack players’ rotations; if you let one race have one, you have to have every race have one. Even if you could get it mathematically balanced, the result would pigeon-hole races even further than the lackluster bonuses currently on test – what good is a de-aggro to a Ratonga tank? Either it would be useless or someone would find some situational encounter where you have to switch off-tanks and you would NEED a tank that has it.
Ratonga have had Pitiful Plea for 2+ years. I don’t know anyone who plays a Ratonga tank. As a Sarnak Guardian, you know I am lacking on AoE’s. So the Fire Breathing comes in very handy, even with its long recast.
By “new” I meant “additional ability that other races which favor that archetype might not have access to”. Ratonga would be the new Dark Elves. You could slap a similar de-aggro on ALL of the other scout-friendly races and balance scouts assuming a racial de-aggro, but that would remove the uniqueness and really leave any would-be scout that did not have the scout package out of the question.
I can definitely relate on the combat arts. My melee Warden is a Sarnak, and, with only four combat arts, I actually use the fire breath whenever it’s available. My point was simply that dealing damage is something that every race and every class already does, so it should be comparatively easier to balance around (especially since some classes won’t even be in range to use their racials in group content).