Here goes my opinions and some suggestions about future changes:
1. Your community day secret bonus is the release of a new race: Fae. This new race will be unique. They will have low str/int in favor of an extra attack. They will also have some racial bonuses as well, such as a pierce modifier, fizzle modifier and dodge modifier. The race is will being finalized, and will be out very soon for testing. EXPECT CHANGES AS WE TEST AND TWEAK THE RACE. This should be coming shortly.
Good news. Seems it has potential to good combos, but not for a slayer in pvp events per example. As you wouldn't triple hide, the benefit of an extra attack would be better for a ninja. Not that it would be bad, diversification is always good for the game. Just something to consider.
2. We are going to take a look at modifying a couple races. Right now I'm looking at tweaking Elves (and HE/Human since they follow patterns). Now I don't think this will be the final changes to elves in the future, but I'm looking at lowering and even removing fizzling on elves. This will mean a more 'constant' rate of healing/damage without the fear of fizzling out. Currently fizzle rates without modification are between 2% to 6%, depending on the spell itself. HE and Humans will be tweaked as well, with HE being somewhere in between the two. Humans will get a 7.5% cooldown speed modifier (up from their current 5%), elves will get a 2.5% cooldown speed modifier, and HEs' will be in the middle. 'Cooldown speed' is coming out of combat and also the time to drink another potion in succession.
I think that part of the bonus for fizzling rate should be transfered to the classes: I. e. Priest: 20% fizzle chance, DM: 25% fizzle chance, Chanter: 30% fizzle chance. And make the races fill that holes, like: Elf: 20% fizzle bonus (no fizzle priest), Gnome: 15% fizzle bonus, and so on.
3. Druids are going to get re-balanced. They aren't terrible, but they aren't great either. I'm looking at splitting the two roles of Bear and Cat form into specific roles, and then looking at modifiers to make more races more useful. Currently, it's pretty much either primordial or gnomes for 90% of all druids. We are going to attempt to make certain race/morphs the 'best' combos depending on what you want to do, damage, tank, dodge/hit, etc.
Don't worry guys, we will be giving all druids a free racial change. So if you don't like your current race, you will be able to change race. This will be at no cost of XP either. We will try to give you stats/data for each race once released.
When i think about classes, i always think how fun it is when you play each of them differently. What i see now about druids is that you just cast some set up spells and then play them like a knight.
I think that there are two things that could be changed about them, that would make playability interesting without unbalance them:
1 - Make morph time based instead of mana based
Give them more damage (for cats) and more defense (for bears) but make them unmorph in few rounds (time based), with a cooldown to morph again. Mana consumption for morph wouldn't change. So they have to stand healing until they can morph and shine again.
2 - More skills when morphed/ when unmorph
For cats: Rend: A 50% damage, moderate chance to cause bleed. Unmorph: +2 agi for five ticks.
For bears: Intimidate: chance to reduce target str and int by 1, based on druid current hp (you wont intimidate anybody if you look weak). Unmorph: +10 hp recovery for 5 ticks.
4. Monks & Smoke bombs. There will be two types, a general smoke bomb which fades yourself, and a large smoke bomb that covers your whole party. We are also looking at buffs while being faded again, but they will be different compared to the spell itself. (Spell may be adjusted as well!) Expect the party version to cost a penny. They won't last very long but will provide a way to run off or jump someone fast. There may be more interesting smoke bombs they can throw in the future. (Ones that blind perhaps?)
Right now it can be used in combat just like the fade spell can, it is undetermined if this will be the case after testing. It may be based on requirements, like your combat timer being half or less, but we'll test it first and tweak afterwards.
Good idea. Would be nice if the group bomb raise dodge chance for the group in pve.
5. Something I've been mucking around are item sets. I'm starting it as a simple using the gear that is coming out with this latest community event. We can add to the sets as needed to increase the bonuses, which should be cool!
Another great idea.
How about a random class based enchantment for enchanters. Like /enchant paladin <name of the hammer>. give a random small paladin bonus to the hammer.
6. Revamping the control crystals. This will be faction based and grant you stat bonuses and other effects. You will be able to capture cities this way as well. This will be added last and after this update. There will be a heavy revamp on trying to force some PVP in this area though!
There was a fun event months ago which was a dps race. I think one of the conquer modes could be a no-pvp dps race as well.
Thanks
