Gimped. That’s what MMO gamers call their toons which they feel have been left at a design disadvantage, whether on purpose or not.
This is why class balancing is so vital now to any title with a healthy PvP scene like EverQuest II. The guys at SOE just announced that an indirect nerf will hit wizards and warlocks, who have become to so effective at killing opponents with their spell burst damage.
The blog post from EQII game designer Timetravelling said scaling multipliers that lower spell avoidance and spell resist chances have been removed:
“At level 70+, spell avoidance chance was being multipled by 0.6 (reducing your overall chance to avoid by 40%) and spell resists were being multiplied by 0.65 (reducing the damage reduction applied to spell damage by 35%). This has been contributing to the … ah … very high combat effectiveness of spell-damage based classes. We have removed all of these mults internally.”
Simply put, what started as a way to ensure wizards and warlocks wouldn’t be gimped ended up gimping tanks and melee in PvP combat. Thus the increase in spell avoidance and resist.
SOE assured though that offensive casters “will still do impressive damage, and letting one attack you unabated will still be very bad for your health. However, spell resistances and high [stamina] should be contributing to survival as expected instead of at a greatly reduced effectiveness.”
An interesting development to watch out for is the possible rise of the paladin and shadowknight as the classes to be most feared in PvP if wizard and warlock spell damage does get tamed.
The developers said after internal testing is done, volunteers will be called to test the changes. If you’re interested in the outcome of the mult reductions (as you should be if you’re a wizard or a warlock), then hang out the official EverQuest II forums where sign-up details will be posted soon.
Wizzy and Warlock are overly nerf since the resits changed