Everquest II

This post was made on September 2011Long post of probably ignored

Here's my post, but here where you can actually type things like sucks, and fuck.

Where does the game currently stand?

Forgive me if this post comes across as all over the place, because it probably is. It's also quite long.

General statements and overall concerns

I'm worried about the game. Very. It feels like all the design we are getting right now is really half complete. Every new feature we got is already forgot about by the time it is released because the next big thing is being worked on. I don't think anyone can look at the itemization revamp as anything less than a complete disaster that probably still isn't anywhere near being entirely fixed, let alone the fact that DoV itemization is in a state of complete and utter disrepair. The much vaunted Dungeon Finder is really over a month late, and it is hitting test with a bullet point list of bugs that who knows when will get fixed, if ever. The expansion is supposed to launch in 2 months and we haven't even heard a whisper about it, nor mention of a beta of even just the content hitting test with a reasonable amount of time to actually be looked at. The AA revamp left plenty to be desired, as it really didn't open up choice. To actually open up choice you have to spend time to actually make sure all the AA's are actually useful, which they most definitely are not.

Some of the things I'll talk about below have probably been talked about below, and have definitely had some discussion on the forums, but we as players simply don't know. To some of these we've received an "It's getting looked at" but the weeks tick bye and we hear nothing. I simply have absolutely no idea where the game is going, because the communication about intent is not there. Quite frankly, I'm not even sure the team knows. It really feels like the team is in so deep and so far under they just don't know where to start anymore.


Time tables and communication

I think I speak for most players when I say we'd rather have things take a little longer and be working than get pushed and have to wait for fixes. The fastest way to do something is to do it right the first time. Things like what happened with the itemization revamp just aren't acceptable. Knowing something is completely broken and so full of bugs that you can't even make it to test before launching it just leaves me speechless. Players were giving constant feedback about messed up item after messed up item, but we couldn't even get the decency and respect to keep pushing it to test to make sure the vast majority of these things got sorted out first. I mean it was so bad we even made it live with items not named. I'd 100% guarantee there are items that are messed up that will never get looked at. I mean, people don't even know what to expect that gear should look like anymore, and it is still changing. Is meeting a deadline so important that you are willing to let the quality of your product slip that much?

Dungeon Finder is another great example of this. It is something that does have great potential, and I believe sees a lot a of use in other games. Are you really going to give this to us with a bullet point list of things about it that don't work and cause problems? What do you think that does to it? That doesn't encourage faith in the product, nor does it encourage people to use it. Doing something like that is going to push people away from using it all. They are going to run in to these bugs and say forget the system and go about groups the same way they always have. Making all that time and work a wasted effort because it wasn't done right the first time.


Mechanics

The overcap curves are still botched. To start with priests gained nothing. They focus on things like cast speed and reuse, neither of which does absolutely anything for them in their primary role. Cast speed is still entirely useless overcap for everyone, and also does nothing for melee classes. Reuse gained absolutely nothing, neither did recovery. DPS mod curve is too steep to really show gains.

AA's need a lot more attention. The restriction of spending 16 points in the SF portion of the KoS tree to unlock the final ability should be removed. Make it 86 points total in the tree, so people aren't forced to spend 8-16 useless points to get a class defining ability. A lot of AA's still need attention in general. AA's should force choice because they are all useful. They shouldn't be cookie cutter because half them are utterly useless.


Raiding, Progression, and Frustration

I've hashed out the easy hard discussion a variety of times. I think the team gets it, and I don't really feel like going in to a few more pages on it. Suffice it to say I don't think it helps the game at all because it doesn't encourage people to get better, nor does it actually encourage progression. It also takes away from encounter design by being one of the main causes of many of the problems illustrated below.

The curves are too steep. I've been saying this all expansion, and I'm going to say it again. The curves are too steep. I'm not just talking about crit mit, I'm talking about crit chance, and overall power of gear. Six people in mostly launch HM gear can kill easy Tormax. Could 12 people in PQ gear do that? 18? So that gear difference equates to making your character worth 3 people? The fact that the progression curves are so steep and tiered also creates a major back log of farming. People feel like the have to farm gear, because really they do. You combine that with 3 day timers and all people ever accomplish is farm for the revolving door of people they can't keep. They don't actually progress any further.

Drunder has been out for 4 months. 3 Challenge mobs in all of Drunder have been killed. At that pace, and not counting the farming after, the absolute top guilds in the game will just be clearing Drunder in January of 2013 and opening themselves to Plane of War. 2013.

That's right, 2013. And that is just opening Plane of War.

Did you know one single group of trash mobs in Sullons HM has almost the same quantity of hit points as HM Tormax, and more HP then all the other named in the zone? How's that for a curve for you. Apparently killing Tormax is supposed to triple our dps? I'd guess if the gear in Drunder HM was actually an upgrade in dps we might be able to talk about this, but it isn't. You can't just put more crit bonus and potency on an item and expect it to be better. We didn't need 9.1 bonus and potency, we needed allocation that made sense. You can't just keep throwing more stats on gear and expect things to get better.

Remember how much players hated control effects because it took away your ability to play your character? So much so to the extent that they basically got done away with in Sentinels Fate? Oh, well, we decided to double down on those in DoV. Not only double down, but hit you with ones worse. At least with the control effects of old (you know, stun, stiffle, daze) you could do something about them. They could generally be cured to start with, and multiple classes had abilities for immunity or simply ae avoiding, and there was more gear that could do the same. Now? Hah! Unavoidable, uncurable, and can't be immuned because we simply made you unable to cast beneficial or hostile spells! We even took away your ability to target! The single most frustrating thing you can ever do to a player is take away their ability to actually play the game. When all they can do is sit there hands in their lap staring at the monitor what makes them want to stay? Why not get up and go do something else, because that is what you left them, they can't actually play their character.

Cooperative Strike. One of the worst things to come out of this expansion. It completely takes away from enjoyment and encounters. There is nothing like sitting there for 10 minutes on HM Valdemar and then watching an add mem wipe to your tank hit him once and he dies because of coop. You know what that added to the game? A ton of frustration. It's even worse because of the fact that we seemingly forgot about linking mobs, and intentionally made it so they aren't. Not only are they not linked, but basically every set of adds this entire expansions spawns seconds apart. Unlinked, and seconds apart from each other. Then worse they all mem wipe 3 seconds after they spawn. I mean, come on. What part of that sounds like a good idea? It's just obnoxious. That isn't even getting in to the fact that it destroy's the later replayability of the content. It's kind of like SF raids, people don't go back and do them because of the curses. Not only is it curses now, and effects that take a certain absolute number of players out of the fights, but coop as well. That takes a huge amount away from the game. You know some of my fondest and most fun memories from EQ2? Doing old raid content. Doing T5 raids in T6 with 2 groups. Doing T6 raids through BOTH T7 expansions. Even doing Kos raids through EoF. That's slowly been destroyed by encounter design, and I think the game suffers because of it. It got people to see the content, and how good it was. It let them enjoy what raiding had to offer. No one does that now, and things like coop just make that even bleaker for the future.

Did you know that we can't cast on the run in EQ2? I just thought I'd mention it, because it seems like a favorite to have us running all over creation during combat. It works in other games because everyone has some buttons they can hit on the run, that isn't true here. It worked for Theer because you gave us the ability to cast on the run without any penalties.


Itemization

Take your loot generator and throw it out the window. It isn't doing you any favors. It has caused more frustation amongst players than anything else, and probably created 3 times the work then if someone just did the items by hand in the first place. It's so inconsistent and makes no sense. There is no itemization scheme or consistency, because everyone has something different in their head. Things are just all over the place. We don't need just one choice, or every item to be the same/have the same stats, but we do need the choices/upgrades to actually be realistic. The rare named Drunder heroic instance necks are a fantastic example. In the case of melee (when comparing the HM Kolskeggr necks) you lose dps (in the form of multi attack for fighters, and also flurry for scouts) but gain crit chance. This makes it a great situation piece, and something you might choose to wear depending on your needs. Then on the other end of the spectrum is terrible examples, like the Fighter charm upgrade (and I use this term very loosely) from the first named in HM Sullon (comparing to HM Kraytoc). I lose 40 MA and 1.8 Flurry to gain 1.9 CB/Potency, 40 dps mod, and 3.5 mitigation increase. I hate to break it to you, but that mitigation increase while useful isn't going to be incredibly noticable, and I lost a ton of dps on the upgrade. In no way does 1.9 CB/Pot and 40 dps even hint at equaling the dps of 40 MA and 1.8 Flurry. It would be like playing the pro's and getting a promotion to play in the minor leagues.

DoV is a mess. Drunder seriously needs to be looked at. Both easy and hard, and not just stats but the full tables. They need to be compared to what people have from launch zones, which shouldn't be hard because they only had one choice in item.

War runes are not bad, you just didn't give us enough choice. The system was too limited, and it was massively frustrating because they weren't heirloom (this applies to PQ ones as well, which should be heirloom). Open up the system to all jewelery slots and offer some alternate means to gain war runes. Put them all over the place. Have a couple quested. Have some from heroic instance bosses. Put them in zones. There should be multiple places to get them however, and the getting them in the future for new characters should be kept in mind. For example War runes that came out of launch easy raid zones could come from Drunder and Elements of War heroic instances, while War Runes that came from launch HM zones could come from easy Drunder raids, then hard drunder raids could have new war runes. It is pretty depressing when you kill a HM Sullons mob and get a Torrent of terrible rune that no one wanted day 1 of the expansion in easy Kraytoc. There are plenty of places you can look for new war rune ideas as well. Item effects from zones like the Throne of New Tunaria, Shard of Hate, or old Contested encounters.

The itemization curve in heroic content is far too large. Itemization in heroic content should be about alternatives and rare items. The large curve here is what extrapolates to make the raid curve so large. Heroic content is where it is really important to have options for itemization. Let people get the items they want. It is good to have really rare items that are on par with x2 or easy x4 loot. It is good to have items where you are given a choice. Do I want this item with 4 cb/pot, or this one with 2 cb/pot and 12 ma, or this one with 3 cb/pot and 5 cast 2 reuse 50 mod, or maybe even this one with 2.5 cb/pot and 12 crit chance? See where I am going here? Options, that is what is all about. One choice is lame, boring, unimaginative, completely unrewarding, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring. Did I mention boring? Does anyone here even know they names on any of the items on their character without looking? How many players remember getting their Najena Ring? Ethereal Mist Gauntlets? Hood of Dark Dealing? Robe of Al'Kabor? When you don't actually have options and everything is the same there is nothing memorable about anything, and that leads to a lack of desire to play, because you have nothing to play for.

August 2012Raiding is too hard

Of all the people to come from, most people would find this coming from me to be a surprise. I'm a realist though, and I tend to think I shoot pretty straight.

Honestly, content is too hard. lt isn't that the scripts are too hard, it's the requirement they put on raids are too tough. That's why people aren't killing things. You look at HM Drunder, HM Skyshrine, Plane of War, these things all take a ton of power regen (something that has been getting nerfed from players, as we basically get 0 from items now unless we wear non current stuff). A lot of these fights if you don't have 3 Coercers you can pretty much forget about it. Then you add to that the tank situation. There was a time raid encounters took 1-2 tanks and the second tank didn't need more then one healer, you could bring a third to add a little stability but it wasn't really necessary. Raids got by with 5 healers. Now? Pretty much every encounter mandates at least 3 tanks, and often 4. On top of that tanks pretty much always need 2 healers to stay alive. 1 might be able to handle it, but something random is bound to take them out of the fight which would cause the tank to die, so you need 2. It's pretty much the same story over and over again. Adds constantly mem wipe, adds aren't linked, everything hits so hard that if it isn't on a tank it is just running around wrecking the raid, mem wipes that not only mem wipe but take tanks out of the fight for 8-10 seconds. Then you stack on that the requirement that a lot of these still have a fairly large dps check on top of that. It isn't that the encounters are any easier or any harder, it is can you bring the absurd right balance of classes.

What happened to encounters like Mayong (any version)? Everything in FTH. Mutagenic Outcast, Three Princes, the two Hot/Cold dragons I can't remember the names too in AoAx4 during RoK, most of the Palace of the Awakened One encounters, most Avatars, Pumpkinhead, Harla Dar, Vilucidae. Encounters that you didn't need a ridiculous raid for, you just needed to pay attention. Kind of like Rhoen Theer, which although you needed 4 tanks for you didn't need a special raid. Everything was in your control. The only thing out of your control was possibly getting stuck in a corner, and you could control that too. Encounters now just do too much, requiring too strict requirements on your raid. Not only that, there wasn't a strict point of failure. In fact, it was pretty much assumed that people where going to fail. Basically guaranteed. It was about reacting and keeping things together while minimizing that fail.

Skyshrine was too easy, fights still need soemthing. They all pretty much did absolutely nothing but stand there and die. Sevalak was a good encounter. More people probably don't kill it because of the speed at which the adds explode (or the death touch on the OT, could be both). No Death Touch on the OT and a little longer before the adds explode and I think a lot more people would be killing it. Vyskudra is a pretty unique encounter concept. However it fails from the same problems, too many tanks, mem wiping mobs, and a script that is piled on top of itself. Change how it functions a little so that when you kill both the little adds the big add spawns, and everyone in the raid gets the damage proc buff for a certain duration (this way you don't get screwed by having to have magical positioning on where people stand so they don't get the buff twice causing you not to kill the big add). Take the mem wipe off the little adds. If you get a second set of little adds while the first is up you could kill the raid, because there is plenty of time between it.

Dozekar? Again, tanks. 4. Too many, plus healers. It's just a long fight that causes too much too potentially go wrong. The assassins are inevitably going to kill people, because you can't effectively kill them easily. Especially because all too often you are trying to kill them while you are killing adds, adds that if you don't kill fast enough causes the raid to get wrecked. This encounter also suffers from a different trend in EQ2. Big mobs. More big mobs, mobs need to be big. Huge even. Monstrous in size. Massive. Absolutely Massive. You're a spec of dust next to this mob, a flea. Never seen anything so massive. That's cool and all if you stop doing range based AE's instead reverting to one damage regardless of range. Big mobs are fine, when the ae doesn't slaughter you at close range, a close range that your healers can't get out of and still heal the tanks because of how big the mob is.

PoW just gets worse. Glokus is actually a good encounter, except the knockback that really shouldn't be there. Maybe a little too high a dps check, and Glokus himself has too much hp. Boar is fine. Berik is pretty much all on the shoulders of your tanks, which is okay. But the mem wipe/can't do anything lining up with the blood effects shouldn't happen ever.

Eriak is meh. He shouldn't go immune to tanks, and the fight probably speeds up too fast after 50%.

Tagrin is an overwhelmingly great example of the tank situation. It does pretty much every single thing mentioned above, plus there is a charm that can hit the tanks as well. Takes a tank out of the fight for like 8 seconds plus mem wiping off him (which by the way can line up with the red text, causing it to either hit someone random in the raid killing them, or causing the tank to not be able to move and get killed by the red text). Plus a group of 4 mem wiping adds. Plus another mem wiping add. Plus a bunch of ae's that make you unable to cast hostile, meaning you can't even taunt or use snaps or dps. Oh, and ridiculous zone geometry that can create line of sight problems since you are on the other side of a pebble on the ground. With a pretty high dps check or you wipe. Pretty cool.

What exactly are we doing? There was nothing wrong with the problem that raids got built for dps. People actually had fun like that, and every class can dps in todays game. Encounters just require too much now, putting too strict requirements on what the raid has to have.

This was May 2013 and took like 4 posts403 Forbidden

Incoming seriously long wall of text not for the weak at heart. Your day will vanish, you have been warned. This post comes in 3 pieces because character limit, so take that for what you will.

This post is going to go through a few phases, and they are going to be somewhat separate and unique, but some things will also be blurred and possibly seem in the wrong area. That's just what happens in something so broad and encompassing. What is the post going to entail? Problem identification and why these things are problems. Mechanics changes needed to facilitate good itemization. Solutions and Items that could be unique, desirable, and thought provoking. My ideal itemization scheme. It's also been done over a period of time, not all at once, so things may seem scattered from time to time.

Itemization is one of those things that people generally really haven't been happy about in eq2 in a long time, and even the stints of happiness aren't long lived. Over the past few years we've heard a lot of "We want to make it more unique, desirable, and have items that make you go WOW." It isn't to say there haven't been good items, but even those kind of good and unique items are really overshadowed by a lot of problems. You get a cool Ethereal item, but it isn't even really cool, it's just item +2 instead of +1.

Problems
Uniqueness
The major one right now is that nothing is really unique at all. Itemization is clearly on a template, and the template isn't unique, all that desirable, all that balanced, or really even all that effective. There are pretty much 4 items for every slot (or a few more where double slot or armor restricted), 1 each Fighter/Scout/Mage/Priest. Sometimes these are restricted to class, sometimes they aren't. There is no variety, there is no choice, there is nothing unique. This is the Elephant in the room, and the hardest one to get away from. I think it is this way because it's the "easiest" to "balance" from a class/game balance perspective.

Loot Equality
One of the things that results from number 1 will bring you to number 2. Not all mobs are created equal, yet all the loot is created equal. I'll use the latest zone as an example, although most will just have to take my word for it. Difficulty is supposed to get harder as you go through the zone right, even through just the non-challenge mobs. But the loot doesn't get better? Sometimes mobs drop more or less items then others, and I think that this is try to address the issue of increased difficulty, but is it consistent and is it a good solution? I'll talk about non-standard rewards later.

Stacking
More specifically, effect stacking. Right now, seemingly nothing stacks, and you can't even kind of tell what does and doesn't stack. Things that seem like they should stack don't, things that don't seem like they should do. It's really a completely unmitigated disaster. Should things be limited on stacking? In my opinion, not a chance. This is something that can easily be solved in other ways, like limiting certain effect types to certain slots. Want to put it outside that slot? The value of it increases. D&D has done this since inception, and it works. Currently effects are kind of just thrown on things. I believe this is in an attempt to try to make certain things more desirable by putting things on the item outside of the template, since they template doesn't necessarily do effects. Honestly, aside from the ridiculous problems we've had telling what doesn't stack lately (and trust me, there are definitely items that don't stack that seem like they should, and we have no way to know until we try) I'm pretty sure all this non-stacking stuff doesn't help the server in the least bit. It's that much more code that has to constantly be gone through on every item for every player in raid.

Balance of items
This is somewhat touched on in point 1, but it needs more elaboration. It doesn't feel like the current templates have ever truly been valued out. How much DPS increase does stat A give Archtype A vs Stat B to Archtype B? Lets look at the following 2 rings.

[IMG]

The left ring is the Priest ring, while the right ring is the Mage one. Are these items really even remotely balanced? The Priest ring has 8 Ability reuse (the better stat) over the 6 Spell reuse, 152 more ability mod, both spell (while having spell attack speed, generally the more desirable of the spell stats) and melee stats (you'll be able to reforge the one you don't want into something else) while only losing 28 Disruption and Subjugation (not even focus, the stat that determines spell weapon hit rates!). This to me, is not even kind of balanced, never mind the effect on the priest ring that doesn't stack yet is on multiple slots across the board. Now, you might say it isn't a problem since these 2 items aren't restricted to class and these just give you a choice (although one is clearly superior to the other), and you would be right to say so. However, that is not always the case. Go a little farther up the progression ladder and suddenly you have some class restricted items. If it was just the case of giving choices or slightly better rings from farther in progression that would be one thing, but it isn't. It's just a case of inconsistent design created by computer generated gear. The following 2 rings are from one of the first 2 named in Dreadcutter, and continue the pattern, but are then class restricted.

[IMG][IMG]

Now, you might say that priests don't gain as much from DPS stats so you can give them more. An assumption to some extent I might agree with, however it's not just limited to Mage/Priest gear (and never mind that some casters want melee stats as well) but also the comparison of Mage gear to Scout gear. Would you really say that Scouts get the same or less dps from this ring, from the same mob, as Mages get? While Mages get 17.2 Spell Weapon MA, 6 Spell Reuse (a generally capped stat with no overcap), 258 Mod, and 39 Casting Skills (though not focus, the auto hit rate stat) Scouts get 1 more CB, 4 AE Auto, 39 MA, 21.2 Attack Speed and DPS, 4 Flurry, and 117 less Mod. Was that really stated out and balanced?

[IMG]

Yes, I understand Scouts have to to some extent get Auto Attack stats as well, because Potency doesn't effect all of their dps (but CB does). However, these things have to be balanced, and it certainly seems like the math was never done. The math is going to be different for different classes as well, something I'll touch on later.

Class Restrictions
When playing D&D we used to have a saying. It's a game about possibilities, not limitations. It was always about enabling you to do more, not restricting you from doing anything. Restricting gear to classes is kind of like this. In certain situations it really is necessary, like you can give a mage a stoneskin that you probably don't want to give a tank. Generally speaking though, is it really necessary? It aids in creating problem 1 (Uniqueness). If you have an Illusionist who is usually in a Melee oriented group and really wants to focus completely on Melee, is it a problem letting him equip a bunch of Scout gear? Generally this is restricted in 2 ways. 1 by the class restriction itself, and 2 by the lack of primary stat. There is nothing wrong with making some gear that is for example Agi Int Sta, while other gear might be Wis Agi Sta, or Str Int Sta for the mage that wants to be more defensive and try to tank some heroic instances. Variety is the spice of life. To some extent this gets partially solved by getting rid of spell weapon stats, but primary stat should still be considered.

Scalability
Simply put, a lot of stats scale rather poorly (if at all), even after overcap conversion to other stats. I'll break these out further in the mechanics area below.

Mechanics
Mechanics and Itemization go hand in hand more often then not. You have to have mechanics you can itemize, and you have to have mechanics that are desirable to players in a manner they can be upgrades, functional, and useful. Some of the things I'm going to talk about are easier to implement, while others are a lot more work. My general focus here is making the mechanics work for the players with a path of advancement. Stats that cap are generally a problem because what do you do when those stats cap?

Spell Weapon Stats
SWS for short. I think they where introduced into the game for 2 reasons. One was a desire to give Mages something else they could get from itemization, and in this aspect it has completely failed. The other, which may not have been entirely intentional but was something that was necessary, was a means to balance out proc differences between scouts and Mages. Scouts often got double proc chance from Mages due to Auto Attack also proc'ing things. I've said this plenty of times in the past, and here it comes again. There are really only 2 solutions to SWS as they stand right now.

What are the problems with it? It was never fully incorporated into the game. It was kind of tacked on, thrown some stats on some gear, and forgotten about. Add on to that the incredibly low dps it does (which is fine really) and the really high rate at which those SWS reforge, and suddenly you have a recipe for stats that everyone wants not to use, but so they can reforge them into something more desirable that might not be on the piece of gear. SWS are not included in any buffs or modified by anything other then a semblance of them thrown on gear. Generally everything bringing it to that really useless feeling.

How can it be fixed? Get rid of SWS. Spell weapon auto should take benefit from all the normal DPS, Attack Speed, Flurry, AE Auto, etc. Using the normal stats would solve the problem of the reforge mess SWS created, and might actually give Mages more stats they want to go after. Not only that, there are plenty of other ways you could give Mages stats meaningful to increase.

Reuse
Spell Reuse and Ability Reuse. They are redundant stats, every class would prefer Ability Reuse since no one has everything modified by Spell Reuse, they stack but are separate, there is no overcap conversion, and generally just create confusion. They should be merged, and really should have been merged a long time ago.

Doublecast, Ability Mod, and Reactive damage
Doublecast, or Spell Double, really has a lot of flaws. It is a stat that really shows how different classes don't gain the same amount of damage from the same amount of a given stat. It's a stat that currently really benefits Wizards more then any other class. Why? A variety of reasons. Wizards cast the least spells that don't Doublecast, and generally don't have to worry about that ones that did Doublecast getting dispelled or something similar. All the other mage classes have a lot of spells they cast that gain no benefit from Doublecast. Things like temp buffs (personal and group) and reactives (doublecast gives no additional triggers) don't gain anything, and all the other mages spend a whole lot of time on these types of abilities. The doublecasted spells also gain no benefit from ability mod.

How do you fix this? First some classes need some spells merged. Illusionists started to get this (although not necessarily in a manner they are all happy with because it inadvertently destroyed the reset rate of Time Warp) with some temp buffs getting merged together with this GU. It's a treatment that could be expanded (Like Warlock Gift of Bertoxxulous being a maintained spell!).

Second reactives (and likely wards) need to be able to benefit from Doublecast this. It's harder area to venture into because of the beneficial spells, but it needs to be addressed. Wards currently get hosed by doublecast since the double overwrites the initial, and the double doesn't get benefit from Ability Mod (or Fury Myth buff) and they end up losing a good chunk of the ward value. This can be remedied by having a doublecast on Wards increase the ward value by 25%, and doubling the base triggers to reactives for both hostile and beneficial (before anything else that gives extra triggers). This means the cap on extra triggers for reactives needs to removed, as certain spells hit that without this. The argument could be made that extra triggers should double as well, and it would be a solid argument. If this change does take place the extra triggers on reactives on Time Warp will need that portion removed.

I'm including Ability Mod in this general area because the problem and solution relates. Certain classes and spells end up with a lot less value on Ability Mod because of it capping, while others have a virtually never reachable cap since potency increasing the damage outgrows the rate of gain for ability mod. You can kill two birds with one stone here by giving a means for those classes to grow since they won't have to worry as much about the Ability Mod cap, and way for spell double to gain from Ability Mod. It's rather simple, if a spell doubles and had ability mod over cap from the initial hit the overcap ability mod applies to the double.

These things would actually make spell double desirable for more then just Wizards and a couple spells for other classes, while giving you means to improve it further through stacking of other stats as well. You could then uncap Doublecast (and name it back to Spell Multi Attack since SWS are now gone!) and give the Cast Speed to Spell Double conversion a realistic and meaningful conversion rate like 10:1 instead of the joke that is 100:1.

CA Double
At the same time, this mechanic could also be implemented following the same rules as Spell Double (including overcap ability mod).

Scaling
Items generally shouldn't scale with players. This is why I understand proc's not critting. However that means you need to actually increase their damage, we can't be using damage proc values from 6 years ago, it just doesn't work. That also means player abilities do need to upgrade. There are a lot of abilities with green effects added to them, for those green effects to scale with players those abilities need to upgrade. There's been an incredible amount of lazy in that regard and a lot of these abilities don't upgrade. Things like healer group cures are still level 70, yet they have a green heal component from AA's that hasn't increased in value since level 70 because they haven't gotten upgraded group cures. Abilities like Enchanter Haste/DPS buffs haven't been increased, yet we now have an overcap system, and you don't even need to increase the actual Haste/DPS when you could just add something else to the effect. Gear shouldn't scale, but it should be relevant. That means things like damage proc's if they aren't going to crit need to have another 0 added on to the damage they do. Players gain power exponentially, because we don't just get gear, we get 14% more from an ability every time we level, we get new AA/Prestige options, we get multiple levels of gear. Damage proc's especially need to grow at the same rate that players power grows. A damage proc shouldn't be doing .2% of my parse, it should be doing 2%. Why does my level 80 Avatar Neutral Charm 2 Set Bonus proc over 2k power while the brand new ethereal charm 2 set from Sirens only proc's 600 power? Because we haven't scaled effects on gear that have damage/power numbers up at all, even though player power has dramatically increased since then. That extra 0 on things like damage proc's is really important, and power proc's need to get looked at as well. Procing 600 power might not even get me a single spell cast on some of these encounters that increase power cost.

For the love of all that is holy please stop taking the extraordinarily lazy route when it comes to what do with things like AA's. These absolutely need to scale with player power. It's exactly the same as the green effects I talked about, which are generally AA or character traits. 5 Crit bonus to 1 ability does not scale. It becomes useless over time (like useless right now). AA's, prestige tree stuff, it needs to have the ability to grow with the player. It needs to see an increase with the player growth. These type of things shouldn't be 5% CB or Pot, they should be 5% before any other mod so that it multiplies with everything and grows with the player as they increase in power. We can't be asking for a revamp of AA's every 2 years because they've never been done in a way that grows. Increase crit chance? Stop this 1.6% per rank thing, make it a 1% increase in what the player has per rank. Stuff like this across the board.

Things We've Lost Along the Way
Sadly, a lot of the answers to itemization come from things we've already done in this game. Things that got lost along the way and forgotten about. There has been a lot of creative thinking in this game over the years, unfortunately right now it seems to be more about streamlining everything then creative thinking. More about is everything equal then is this something people will like. Balance is fine, but balanced isn't very balanced. Different classes gain from different things, and gear should reflect that. The fact that different classes gain differently from different stats means you should have options. It isn't just about creating unique desirable gear if there is no choice. If there is only 1 possible item for me to equip and a clear line of if you've killed mob difficulty 11.3 you wear 11.3 difficulty loot, but then when you kill 11.4 difficulty loot you'll upgrade to that one. No, there should be options. There should be multiple different choices at 11.3. It shouldn't be man I killed 11.3v4 and got another neck with the same stats but instead of a damage proc I got a non stacking max health increase. That's not creative, it's not desirable, it doesn't make you got wow. You should kill mob 11.3v4 and get options like below.

Red Stats
There was nothing wrong with negative stats on gear. Fyreflyte had amazing insight with this, and I'm sad it died along the way. Powerful items had a negative. Sure, some of those negatives you could deal with overtime. The Bloodthirsty choker could be healed through on most encounters over time, but originally it was a good idea to take off sometimes. Not only that, but it gave healers a reason to heal all the time. Wicked Wand of Malice was a creative item, could it be used without pulling agro and getting you killed? The Jewel of Animosity gave a good DPS increase, but it also proc'd a ton of damage on them. What about an item that proc's increased magical damage on the mob (stacking effect 1% magical damage per person with the proc after debuff cap) but increases magical damage the player receives by 5%? Choices, can I still live with that AE hitting 5% harder?

The negatives on gear doesn't have to stick to things like that either. Maybe this item is going to decrease my max health by 10%. Can I still live through the AE? Maybe this item has -10 Crit bonus, but if it has 30 Potency is it worth it for me? Maybe this item only has 6 CB and Pot, but it has 2k Ability Mod, is that worth it? This means work, because it means you have know roughly how much real increase in damage things are for players, and you're going to have to do that math based on a variety of classes to have a real idea. It opens up a ton of possibilities on how to vary gear though. Especially when you consider that with the current reforging system those negative stats on the piece of gear also mean you can't reforge into that stat.

Different classes have different desires, and providing real meaningful options that strongly vary stat outside of do I get Haste/DPS or do I get Strikethrough means something. It's all about making you think, giving you options, and forcing you to choose. Not just 1 time, but there should be choices that force you to rethink it based on encounter like some of the original negatives did.

Class Effects
Once upon a time we had class things on gear. Then it somehow ended up just on armor. Then it just got folded into the character. There used to be items that just increased certain abilities for certain classes. Remember this? \aITEM -1462860340 2111040210:Twelve Tone Earstone\/a They don't necessarily have to be powerful abilities, they could have just been things like that that are more desirable for those classes. That's a cool bard effect. You know what would have been more interesting and desirable on Pirate Kings loot? Instead of things we've already had, let getting us to replace our wrist set bonus by just putting the set bonus on a single piece, you could have done class stuff on some gear. There are so many options in what and how to do this. Increase bard stealth attack by 10%. Add an extra dot tick to a Warlock/Necro spell. Increase a specific spells by certain amounts. Add a so many trigger damage proc after using a certain ability. Add extra damage on the ability if you use it under a certain condition. Using an ability gives a bonus to your next used ability. What if my next spell after casting Absolution is instant cast? What a doozy. What if my next spell after Apocalypse is instant reuse?

There's a lot that has been done with AA's that could extend to gear to make it cool and desirable. It doesn't have to be the same, it doesn't have to be overpowered. Would I rather have 10 potency or another tick of Plaguebringer? You know, I'd really have to think about it. The 10 potency is probably more unless it doesn't stack, but that extra tick of Plaguebring sounds nice. Would I rather have a 12% potency self proc or give the group 5% potency on Frigid Gift? A lot of these could be on lesser used abilities to give players a reason to think about adjusting how they cast. Constantly force you to rethink your play as you get gear. Give you reasons to think about what you are doing instead of it just always being the same old thing. Would I cast Distortion more if it got a 50% chance to apply it's damage twice (or a 50% doublecast if you actually go the route to uncap the stat)? It would change it's place in my rotation. If the next spell I cast after Arcane Bewilderment does 10% extra damage am I going to think about what I cast? What about if I give every taunt I use a 1% chance to reset the cooldown of rescue?

That's what gear shoul do. Make you think. Right now, it doesn't, and it hasn't since DoV. I really can't even name a piece of gear anymore, because when you don't have to really think about what you wear you don't really notice the name of pieces of gear. It's sad that if I forget to do DKP and have to go back and input an item later I'll know "Ainaree got the Ethereal Shaman Hat" but not have the vaguest idea of what that item is called and actually have to find it in the notes. Yet I've told you multiple items from prior to DoV in this post by name all these years later.

Alternate Increases
It doesn't always have to be a dps increase. Things like immunity proc's are nice too. Remember when healers got things like Rings and Earrings that proc'd immunities on target of beneficial spell as well? It was nice for a healer to have that chance of proc'ing an extra immunity on someone on a group heal. There are lots of forms these alternate abilities can take. Things like the stoneskins/ae avoids for mages, immunity proc's, but it doesn't have to be limited in such a fashion either. Remember when tanks got items that had a chance to cure them when they got damaged? What about Mana cure type effects on items? I think it'd be pretty cool to swap in a piece for a fight and possibly save my group with a lucky cure when I nuke the mob. What about an item that increases my power cost of spells by 25% but every spell I cast proc's 5-10% of the power cost in power to the rest of the group? What about situational items? Everyone hates Brawler mobs, why not an item that has a 25% chance on parry/riposte/dodge to make my next swing a guaranteed hit? Not something useful all the time, but worth switching in on certain fights.

The Path to Hell
Is often paved with good intentions. So much has been done in the sack of balance that it has really taken the life and creativity out of itemization, itemization that is really the backbone of this game. Nerfing proc's drove a ton of people away, because it took enjoyment out of getting gear. That was the real start of all gear just being equal. Itemization really needs a kick of spice and variety. I hope you actually read this and take things from it. It's a world of possibilities, it shouldn't be about the limitations.

That sound, it was your mind exploding.

Something I forgot to touch on is rarity of item drops. Super rare items are cool, but you have to have a realistic chance to actually get the item in the life of the content, otherwise people will abandon it and not actual go for it, thereby making said item a non-function. Drunder Mythicals are like this. The Drinal neck is like this in that I think it is also way too rare. People want it, it's good, but when nothing else is really needed from the zone is the zone worth running for just that neck? Lots of other things along the way have been like this. No one wants to run 2 year old content that only has a chance to drop 1 useful item on a far too rare chance, even if said item is still better then what you can get today, unless said content can be done with vastly less people then it could have then. If content realistically gets easier and requires far less over time you might actually encourage pick ups to do so, but with the mechanics of late the content doesn't. Often mechanics don't scale based on the size of the raid (like number of curses) so since TSO you really haven't been able to do smaller pick ups unless you've vastly increased in dps since then.

Group stuff can be made ridiculously rare, for a few reasons. 1, you can run group stuff vastly more times, especially if the item is heirloom as it should be. It gives people a reason to do zones, and don't tie everything to one zone, you want people to have different reason to run different zones. TSO did this well. That ability to run the zone so many more times really increases the ability to get the item over the long term. 2, the item is generally going to break the item progression so is somewhat justified on being more rare.

Rare raid loot has generally been far far too rare for the past few years, while there hasn't been any good rare heroic loot to encourage everyone to do those group zones.[/spoiler]

It's funny reading the last one. A lot of ideas I had for itemization is the kind of shit they do with traits in moba's, and I had never played a moba in my life at that point.