Monday Morning with Major Mal

[DANTEIL]

Hey

Give me your thoughts on the following. Be verbose, but not 'it sucks' I need 'it sucks because of'

Enhancements

Guild Decay

Whatever your pet peeve is.

Thanks.

Thanks for being willing to send out this call for feedback.

To start with the last question first -- I should say that I am a very casual player who used to play DDO a LOT but now play increasingly less and less, mostly due to changes in the game that started with the addition of the Guild Reknown/BraveryBonus system that, when combined, made the game a lot less friendly (I think) for solo casual players. That is my major pet peeve. Because XP is at such a premium, partially because the end game shifted toward multiple TRs on each character, people seemed to be much less willing to group with others outside their immediate circles.

Another pet peeve is the crafting system that you came up with. I simply don't have the mental energy to figure it out and I don't see why it was made so complicated. The items you can make from it don't seem worth the effort and the components just add more clutter to an already cluttered inventory. So, I've ignored it.

For the Enhancements: The trees seemed like a clearer more intuitive interface, which would be an improvement, but the actual content of the trees that I've seen simply didn't seem sensible to me. Since I'm not a 'build' guy, it doesn't bother me that my current characters might become so-called 'broken,' but I'd still want to be able to make choices that allow me to create something equally fun, and I'm not convinced this will be the case so far.

Guild Decay: I think you have to decide if you can live in a world where every guild eventually reaches level 100 with all of the benefits. I actually understand why decay was put in, but it seems to make a lot of people unhappy. I think the game was just fine before Guildships and the hooks and everything were in the game and it wouldn't bother me if that was all taken out of the game.

Oh yea, and the new forums are pretty horrible. I'm much less inclined to come here and read, much less post.

[Munkenmo]

Experience Related

• Heroic quests in Eveningstar. It's time for direct access to eveningstar without running through the weave, CR 15 content that requires you to run CR 16 content first is very frustrating.
• Quest experience rewards from levels 16 onwards, aside from Meridia / reavers refuge, you could easily Triple the base XP of almost every single 17+ quest.
• Once you've boosted xp throughout the board, remove bravery bonuses. I would hate to have to start from scratch on a new server and join a bravery group. Imagine how much worse it would be for a new player who doesn't know how to put up an lfm, or have meta knowledge of most quests.
• Re-introduce Experience awards for doing quests successfully under level
• Change survival bonus to be self only. If that's impossible, boost base xp of all quests by 10% and remove it entirely.
• Don't allow re-entries into epic difficulty quests.
• Cannith challenges need a total xp formula overhaul. They're ****ed, we know it, why do dev's try deny it?
  New formula : Xp = (CR rating * 100 * party members) + ([minutes*100] * star achievement) + score.
  Not a perfect formula, but it's a ****load better than the current one that's lead to the double nerf. (would probably need to cap minutes * 100 )

Mechanics & Guilds

• Stop allowing Re-entries in Epic (especially elite) difficulty
• Guild Decay, character levels don't decay, Guild levels shouldn't, get rid of guild renown decay, and make all of the Gold Seal ship amenities ML : guild level 20.
• Increase guild cap to 150, with it bring 2 larger ships, 6% xp shrine, elemental absorption shrines, PRR shrines.
• Scrap N/H/E loot mechanics > all difficulties drop the same loot, with something like the seal / shard /scroll system. It takes 1/3 items to upgrade from N-H, and 2/3 items to upgrade from h-e. 3/3 will upgrade from n-e. (there's no reason you couldn't use 2 scrolls and 1 seal to upgrade from n-e)
• With the new expansion pack, Make ALL of the old raids drop viable level 20-28 loot.
• Epic raids should drop pre made gear, aswell as seals / shards / scrolls.
• Cannith crafting needs to be extended, time to allow us +6/7 enhancements, +3dc's, +7/8 stats and the doubled prefixes / suffixes.

Feats, Skills & Enhancements

• Spell crafting / Repair / Heal = spell power. It's a skill tax, and it does not effect all classes / races equally. (eg. human wizard vs. w/f Sorc.)
• I don't want to get into the alpha enhancement pass, I submitted my surveys, I'll see what's changed in beta.
• Don't release the enhancement pass to live until : all racial pre's are ready, all classes have 3 prestige's, there is no 3 tree limit, Points spent count across all trees.
• Natural fighting feats need to go, there is no synergy between meleeing in animal form / elemental form because of them.
• Epic feats need to lose : requires x class levels (ie. improved sneak attack and vorpal fists) (stat requirements are fine)
• Why do I have to take power attack, cleave, and great cleave for overwhelming critical on my Ranged toon? Consider making Elasticity (bow of sinew) an Epic feat > pre-reqs, Precision, Weapon focus ranged, Power critical.

Forums
PEEVES

• Getting logged out of the forums whilst drafting a post.
• Not being remembered.
• Not getting redirected to the forums after logging in.
• Not having a direct link to the forums after logging in.
• Community > Forums link, Not actually linking to the forums.

[Arnez]

Hey

Give me your thoughts on the following. Be verbose, but not 'it sucks' I need 'it sucks because of'

Enhancements

Guild Decay

Whatever your pet peeve is.

Thanks.

Enhancements- I'm open. No doom here. Willing to try new systems.

Guild Decay- NEEDS TO GO AWAY. Because? Marketing reason- the value of Guild Renown potions will go up in the DDO store as no one will use the excuse "Why buy the guild pots? Decay will just make it disappear anyways." Our small guild gets penalized for taking A FEW DAYS OFF for work or vacation- sometimes penalized more due to server resets. Also- no hope for us to ever get the level 85 ship as we'll plateau somewhere in the 60's. Which is FINE, but I thought you wanted my money. I mean it's right here ready to just throw at the screen should we make 85.

Pet Peeves: node bugs, Closed Quests (ahem Spinner)

[Nickademus]

Pet Peeves:

1) Reincarnation Bank/Cache: make it filterable and/or sortable... It's a pain to search through right now.

Pet Peeve: I agree about the reincarnation cache, but more importantly, please adjust it to be closed when I open the bank. If I need something out of it, I'll open it (and THEN all the items can be loaded from the bank database). I hate waiting 5 seconds for the 'rest' of my bank to load so I can pop a scroll in my shared bank and be on my way. Too much caffeine in my blood for that.

[Cleanincubus]

Hey

Give me your thoughts on the following. Be verbose, but not 'it sucks' I need 'it sucks because of'

Enhancements

Guild Decay

Whatever your pet peeve is.

Thanks.

I see a better organization of the Enhancements, to be a very good thing. However, it should be easier to customize characters, not more AP intensive & end up with enhancements that a player doesn't want. For example, if I create a Pale Master, I shouldn't be forced to spend APs on every Shroud, just to unlock the Lich one. That was how the Preview was set up (obviously things can change). Or to unlock the Radiant Servant Aura or Burst, I shouldn't have to take a bunch of other stuff that does no help to have I've built my character. It should be based solely on character level and APs spent. To me, a positive revamp isn't a positive one, unless it's less restrictive. Otherwise, I'd rather stick with what is currently on Live, but have enhancements just cost less APs.

Guild Decay is far too excessive, and occurs far too frequently. Guild Renown is supposed to be the publics' acknowledgement of a guild's accomplishments. The public obviously have other things they are more concerned with (evil creatures & cults trying to take over the city), but how do they forget about adventurers saving them in just a 24 hour period? I realize there has to be some sort of difference between realism and game mechanics, but maybe have renown decay every 7 days (if at all)? Of course the decay percentage/rate would need to be decreased as well, because a huge hit from a 7 day period of renown decay once a week, wouldn't go over too well either.

[chrisdinus7]

Hey

Give me your thoughts on the following. Be verbose, but not 'it sucks' I need 'it sucks because of'

Enhancements

I posted in detail on Lam & through the suveys and bug reports. Key comments:
1) The multiple selectors as used are severely limiting. Before you could get lots of critical lines. Now you are often limited to one or two, as an example.

2) Cross-class balance. Sorcerers have a weaker version of an FvS nuking enhancement, for example. It is strange. The druid and fvs crit lines are far better than the sorc / wizard ones.

3) Not adding new abilities, but removing old ones. Again, in many cases, classes gain no new abilities (or at least, remotely useful new abilities), but due to random applications of mutual exclusion (see 1, for example), they lose old abilities.

4) Points in tree. This is a bad mechanic. It is makes race abilities terrible, in general. For example, to gain spell power, you need to spend points in the proper trees. But racial trees don't count. So, every ability you pick up in a racial tree weakens your spell power.

Guild Decay

Just ditch it. It serves no remotely useful function now. If you want guilds to keep getting renown @ 100, give them something to actively spend it on, instead. As a random, not necessarily thought out idea, you could add +3 stat shrines that cost guild renown to place, or the like.

Whatever your pet peeve is.

Thanks.

Uninspired raid design. I like DDO a lot. But its raids are terrible. The main raid mechanic we have is kill n things at the same time. Most of the rest of the time it is tank and spank. Often without even needing a real tank. The black abbot is probably the best raid in the game. It actually has raid mechanics. The shroud is good, though the lights puzzles and kill n things at roughly the same time mechanics are over used. Raids should have interesting mechanics, not just be 12-man quests.

[oberon131313]

Don't have a ton of time or energy right now to get a comprehensive list, but the one pet peeve of mine that I can think of off the top of my head is inventory management, and more specifically, the inability to rename bags. I utilize the account shared bank for a lot of item collection, and have separate bags for things like House Cannith ingredients, Shards, Seals, Scrolls, Gianthold Relics and Scales, and crafting essences, however I have no way of knowing which of 6+ large ingredients bags is which because I cannot rename them. I then have to rely on item counts or having to pull the bags out of the shared bank, open the bag, check it, and then replace it in the shared bank. Being able to simply rename the bag, even if it is only in the description / hover text, would be a great quality of life change I fear I'll never see...

[knightgf]

Hey

Give me your thoughts on the following. Be verbose, but not 'it sucks' I need 'it sucks because of'

Enhancements

Guild Decay

Whatever your pet peeve is.

Thanks.

Enhancements - Someone once said (and I wish I could quote it) that the enhancement tree was great, but the enhancements inside the tree were either underpowered or too costly. I would rather have the enhancement tree system than the enhancements currently in alpha/beta/whatever, because the current system is only awkward, not bad, aside from missing PrE's.

Guild Decay - Meh, I think Guild Decay should be relevant, but what I think needs attention also is guild scaling - currently, way too much experience is needed for smaller guilds.

Other things that are my pet peeve include:

Guild Augments - What on earth happened to those? Is there anything that is going to be done with them? If not, maybe I could make a suggestion thread about it. I do hope they're not going away because I like the idea of 'If your in a guild, you get slightly more benefits to your stats!'.

Lack of raid in the upcoming expansion - Why? It's not automatically a bad idea of course, given what happened to the last raid (Lots and lots of technical trouble), but im just curious as to why it doesn't exist in the new expansion.

Turbine point purchased expansion - What do I get if I buy it in the Turbine store? And no, im not talking about the pre-order or DDO market version, im talking about the Turbine store here, where you use Turbine Points.

That is all.

[ComicRelief]

Well, I had a nice, somewhat detailed reply on "enhancements", but since the auto log-out feature apparently timed-out while I was typing the reply, it vanished when I tried posting it. And since I didn't compose it outside of the reply window or copy it before trying to post (I know, I know - one should know better by now), it's now lost to the Ether. And seeing as how I don't have the time to reproduce it, I guess it will remain lost...

*sigh*

I suppose I shoudl post this before I get logged-out again...

[Dalnarac]

It's the little things that annoy me. Such as moving your mouse over a new weapon and not being able to see all the details because you have a green steel weapon equipped. This is a minor issue that everyone can see including new people to the game. In my eyes it makes the game look bad that something so simple has never been fixed.

Guild decay is a game play feature that ddo decided should be there and so be it. I would prefer it not be there but at least it works as intended.

Enhancements, I definitely carry issues with this. I love the current versatility, but also understand how this is probably a nightmare for someone new to the game and hasn't played pnp d&d. No other mmo that i have ever played has ddo's versatility. Please don't loose that if you decide to make enhancement changes.

[DrNuegebauer]

Hey

Give me your thoughts on the following. Be verbose, but not 'it sucks' I need 'it sucks because of'

Enhancements

There are some positives to the enhancement alpha that we saw. However the three trees things and lack of 'class tree' was ridiculous.

For example, moving iconic things like Barb and Ranger sprint boost to a level 2 class requirement, and dumping it into a certain prestige really hampers the ability to multiclass effectively.

Suggestion: eliminate the restriction on trees

Also, shunting incomplete prestiges to a 'full tree' was silly. The prestiges need to be 'completed' before being implemented.


The whole alpha thing seemed like it would have taken 15 minutes over a beer scribbling some ideas on the back of a paper napkin. It was very poor.

Guild Decay

Perhaps reward large amounts of guild renown gain per week instead of penalizing?

Whatever your pet peeve is.

Thanks.

Pet peeve is that often when we get asked for feedback, we get ignored. Example: people get asked which thing they would most like to see fixed, they give feedback which isn't in accord with a devs desire, and so said thing does not get fixed.

Concrete item: Spell components. In all honesty what purpose do things like 'Hearts of Hen' serve in the game? People carry several stacks of 1000, which cost basically nothing anyway. All they do is clutter up inventory and require 'management'. Either get rid of them, or provide a 'component bag' (in game, not store bought) which carries stacks of up to 10k, and has room for 20 or so.

[slarden]

I can't tell you how much it means that a dev actually cares or listens about this subject.

Please get rid of guild decay because it hurts the social dynamic of this game. If someone asks me for help in a quest when I log in during the week, it means that I will end up running slower and getting less renown as a result. Yet decay is still there every day regardless.

Guilds shouldn't be punished for slowing down their pace when running with casual or new players. To me this is just a common courtesy and not something that should cause guilds to move backward. I shouldn't have to solo to earn enough renown for the day.

The change October helped large guilds with a big reduction in decay. That is great, but small guilds that accept new/casual players and guilds started by new players will still stall at some point. Since most people have limited play time, that means the only way to combat it is by getting renown faster. This means soloing and not posting LFMs.

RPG players want to progress - it's in our bones. Taking away progress that is earned isn't necessary and isn't going to improve satisfaction with this game.

I also think Guild Elixir would sell better if people could actually keep what they earned. A level 55 guild that is stalled at level 55 due to decay would earn 2 levels in a whole year if decay is removed. I can show you the match to back that up. Let them earn their 2 levels please.

[Mithis]

1. (Guild) Renown Decay: The change done last year has absolutely killed the ability of a small guild to progress. When the change was made to decay my guild was nearly level 54. Currently we are...level 54. We have not gain a single level in all this time and I anticipate we will not hit 55 for another 3-4 months. That is a broken system. Not only is the current implementation frustrating it is costing you (Turbine) money. We desperately want to buy a bigger ship. In addition, I can guarantee this: If I ever have to take a break from DDO that will be it for me. I can not stomach the idea of not playing for a while and coming back to a guild that has lost a bunch of level. We worked hard to get to where we are. Get rid of decay!

2. Monsters spinning around (ie trying to get inside a character's hit box): this frustrates me beyond reason. I should not have to "chase" a mob around that is trying to attack me. I cannot stand it!!!

[Psiandron]

Enhancements:
I was really okay with the new system, generally. I do think it needs work. I believe that one of you Turbine guys (MadFloyd maybe?) said something once, long ago that the current system actual causes a lot of problems within the game itself. Ergo, we need to change it anyway, especially if it makes the bug situation better.

There does need to be a high level of flexibility maintained in the system. That's a big reason why people play this game. I really don't care if the new process breaks some builds, so long as the potential is there for new builds to rise up; preferably more than exist now.

To that end, I want to renew the call for a minimum of 3 PREs per class (and sorc savants should all count as the same PRE, not 4). There was a vast and huge difference in doing enhancements in alpha, depending on how many other PREs there were to poach from. That's one reason the new system is so multi-class friendly. Making a fighter in the alpha system was pretty boring, for example, compared to making a rogue. There are hundreds of PRE's that have been created for D&D over the years, I am sure that some could be adapted to DDO.

One more thing, Drow should probably get another weapon, probably either a Falchion or at least a scimitar.

Guild Decay:
I've thought about this a lot over the years, and what it's boiled down to is why? What is the point? Because every guild would eventually reach level 100? So, what. How exactly is that a problem? Is the system there to protect the privileges of those guilds that have reached the summit, or is it there to provide a system that helps the entire player base?

Tldr, scrap it.

Pet peeves:

Communication!!
This sort of thread is a great tool to facilitate communication, but communication is a two-way street. The player base often spouts off on what we think or feel about this that and everything under the sun. It isn't hard to find out what we think. Turbine has continually kept us in the dark about most everything. I'm not trying to whine, it's just a statement of fact.
Yes, the player-base is whiny and peevish and often afraid of change. Again, so what? It's like that in MMOs. The less forthcoming Turbine is about what's up and coming and what the goals are for the game, the more snide and nasty you can expect the Forums to get.

Augment Bags:
BTC! Really??!!

Skill augment crystals:
OMG do we need this. The new augment system is great and provides the players a way to be more flexible with our gear, but without augment crystals for skills (or even the ability to craft multiple skill bonuses to an item) it really cuts back on that flexibility. Btw, I think skills should be on a diamond. That way, they could be used on a clear slot (and there are tons of empty clear slots around), or any other color slot if desired.

My air savant's damage:
Best that I say nothing and just hope that this gets fixed ASAP.

k, that's all for now.

Thanks for the opportunity to provide some input Maj.

[GermanicusMaximus]

Hey

Give me your thoughts on the following. Be verbose, but not 'it sucks' I need 'it sucks because of'

Enhancements

If I were designing this game, I would have looked at the other things on my plate, and simply left well enough alone. There are more important issues to be dealt with.

If I felt compelled to do something, I would have left the base system intact, and dropped a pretty UI on top, as that would have addressed the majority of the problem with a fairly minimal development cost.

As it is, it feels like the underlying, unstated agenda is to make this an even more melee centric game. That begs the question: "Has Turbine not already done enough to make people wanting to play casters leave to go to another game?"

Yes, Turbine is going back to revisit at least clerics. That is good, because the Alpha cleric pass looked like it was designed based upon the input of a rather well known player of barbs.

If the pass is designed to make all classes equally viable, then

1) Are you factoring in Auto Attack and the ability for unlimited weapon swings for melee as part of your viability calculations? How about the fact that they can heal themselves using pots/scrolls/Epic Destiny features? My cleric is wondering where he can pick up a pot that allows him to do 10,000 damage when he swings his sword, where his Auto Cast function is, and when he will get unlimited spell points.

Really, if all classes must be equal, these are all valid questions.

2) If you are counting in the ability to heal groups as part of viability assessment, you are doing it wrong. Stepping into a raid and healing 10/11 other people so they can have fun is a public service. There is already a shortage of divine casters, and they are becoming increasingly rare. From a practical standpoint, it is probably a good thing that the expansion does not contain a raid, as it would likely simply lead to 10/11 people standing around asking "Where are mah hjeals?"

If you really must consider the ability to heal others a great advantage to viability, please split off the ability to just heal yourself from the ability to heal others. If you are going to make my offensive casting cleric make hard choices, I can make them.


You did ask for verbose, right?

My benchmark for evaluating the enhancement pass for my cleric, which is my favorite toon, is the ability to replicate his effectiveness as a self healing offensive caster under the old enhancement system, once he LRs into the new system.

Speaking of LR/GR, it does sound like a great number of toons will be using this game mechanic once the enhancement pass goes live. A free +20 LR might be over the top, but I certainly think a free +10 LR sounds reasonable. By the way, I also have been waiting to GR my cleric (details on why below), so a trade in of an existing Greater Heart for a +10 Greater Heart seems reasonable to provide as well.

My cleric is my favor toon, and has collected favor for the past 3 years. I have no interest in TRing him and losing that 3 years of work, so I will be Greater Reincarnating him once the enhancement pass goes live, as it appears he will be borked if I don't.

Does LR/GR now work? By that, I mean all the time, not 99% of the time, as there was a 1% chance of an "Oopsie!" for a very long time. Yes, even after it was declared that the "Oopsie!" had been fixed.

From a practical standpoint, with an enormous number of toons about to be LR/GRed, a 1% "Oopsie!" rate is going to have a pretty significant impact on your customer satisfaction.

This is the point to add the "Oopsie!, revert changes!" function to LR/GR. Yes, I know, the code is now "golden". Please, just add it in before the fecal material hits the fan. And no, customer support is not an adequate fill in measure, as customer support in this game is incredibly spotty. Some reps are apparently superstars. Some...fall somewhat short of that.

Let people revert as a last measure of defense against a bug that could undo years worth of work and, of course, please make sure that the revert works 100% of the time. A simple character snapshot of EVERYTHING about that character can't be that hard to implement. It is, after all, stowed in a DB when I log off.

Guild Decay

Its not a core issue for me, but then I have the luxury of viewing the issue from a level 76 guild which is slowly leveling up.

For some people, it clearly is a significant issue, which begs the question: "Why is guild decay so important to Turbine that it risks alienating a portion of its customer base? Store sales of pots?

Whatever your pet peeve is.
Thanks.

Hot topic of the moment: Awesomium multiple processes, and the performance impact they have running the DDO client. I've seen your statement, in the weekend thread, that you think this is a net "no change" from a performance standpoint. A fair number of customers seem to disagree.

I do notice it on my system, but I can still dual box. Some people seem to be having more significant issues. I think it bears an additional look from someone at Turbine.

In general, there is a continuing trend of degrading client performance that spans multiple updates.


General pet peeve: The general decline in game quality. Yes, I saw from your weekend thread that Turbine fixed oodles of bugs over the last year. It seems likely that most of those bugs were fixed before they hit live, which is good. I would expect that oodles of bugs would be fixed in any new software before it was released to customers.

From someone sitting on live, however, the net number of bugs seems to be increasing. The Fernando "quality of life" patches seemed, at best, to be nothing more than the prior level of bug fixes. More realistically, we got one patch which was predominately Daily Dice and the Astral Shard Auction House.

Given the general decline in quality, releasing a new expansion and an enhancement pass is just scary.

We have a functioning heroic enhancement system, and 327 favor granting quests/raids/challenges. Toss in a few more from Threnal which give no favor. While I am noticing the general decline in quality, I really don't feel short changed on content at this point.

The problem with not fixing bugs is that it becomes a race between a natural death of the game vs death by accumulated bugs. At some point, people begin to notice that race. We have reached that point.

[Aliss7]

A lot of useful things I used to use all the time are just gone or not working:

1. UI art pack. This would at least make the look of the UI bearable. BTW, the UX got worse after the whole UI revamp. Not gonna go there though. (ok, one example, trying to use cosmetic hat clickies without it showing is like 5 steps longer than it should be)

2. myddo: I could check so many things offline like what toons were on timer and what gear I was wearing. I used to track my guilds renown. I'd browse ddo blogs (not religiously, but it had a nice community feeling to it). Instead of actually fixing the bugs here you just made it disappear. poof.

3. You regressed arrow usage. There was a time (maybe it was just a dream who knows) when I could at least hot bar different types of arrows and choose what I wanted and then it would pull automagically from my equipped quiver. You could have made it better, but you just broke it and now arrows will just randomly spawn into my inventory until I can't even swap between weapons.

4. I'm gonna stop now. But note that my main pet peeves are all regressions. You took things that I found halfway decent or "ok" or even enjoyed and instead of improving them, you just broke them or took it away.

[dejafu]

I actually like a number of things about the new enhancement system. The UI, for example, while it still needs work, is infinitely more easy to navigate than the current nightmare.

That being said, I also have a lot of similar concerns to what other people have posted here. Particularly the enormous amount of AP that have to be invested on 'junk' enhancements - that's a relic of 3E D&D that we can afford to avoid, I want to feel like every AP spent is worth something.

But the main issues I want to focus on involve divines:

• Cleric trees are an utter nightmare - I know we're going to get something significantly different later in June, and kudos for answering the shouting on that. But I'm still biting my nails about what will come in its place.
• I don't buy into the paranoid rant "the devs hate Divines," but I do think they suffer from serious neglect. And that's neglect that the future of this game cannot afford, as healing-focused classes are what keep the game running smoothly. Like it or not, specialized healers are needed to keep pugging alive. Yes of course you can get by without one in well-geared, experienced groups, but enough people insist on waiting for hours at a time for a healer that we clearly need to give healing classes choices that are not just "acceptable" (which the current trees aren't, anyway), but exceptional. Make me WANT to hop on my Cleric or Favored Soul, not feel like it's a sacrifice I'm making for the party!
• That being said, people despise the "healbot" label, so while a Healing Domain makes sense, sprinkle in some other benefits like extra negativeenergy damage or some light-focused spell-like abilities. Make sure there is always something that a healing class can do well besides healing. Always.
• Kill Pacifism as a pre-req for all the other core abilities - it's a perfectly fine ability to offer, but making people spend AP on a "do NOTHING but heal" ability is just going to annoy them.
• Add things that will make a party healer's job easier, too - like a shortened cool-down timer on scrolls, or a "healing pinata" ability like the Light monk's Fists of Light.
• Give them a Domain that has respectable offensive capabilities. If you want to make Clerics more defensive and Favored Souls more offensive as a way to distinguish the two, I understand, but you still need to give Clerics some kind of decent offensive option. Again, Negative Energy specialization seems a possible route you could go down - steal a few goodies from the Pale Masters if you have to and make a Death Domain. Cleric Necromancers are a staple of D&D and are a good thematic alternative to Light-damage oriented Favored Souls.
• Give some benefit for having a Domain besides access to an Enhancement Tree. Every class gets Enhancement Trees, calling them Domains is a misdirection for people who have clamored for these things since the game started. Also, this is the only thing that makes a Cleric anything other than a Favored Soul with fewer spell points and no wings (Don't use their spell flexibility as an excuse - that argument would work if there was a wider and better array of Divine spells to choose from). Give them free feats, free spell access, something to make them special.
• Finally, for the love of everything, don't give Favored Souls one of the Cleric Enhancement trees to save time. I get it, the two classes are very, very similar, time is short, and who really cares? We do. A lot. Each class deserves its own unique set of Enhancement options. It was the moment that I saw Protection as one of the FvS trees that I truly felt like the game was in deep, deep trouble - before then, I was patient. Very, very patient. That decision made several of my friends leave the game and left me deeply depressed about it.

Some other, non-divine related Enhancement issues/annoyances:

• The new race trees are in many ways better than the class trees, at least in that they finally make racial choices interesting again. But the decision to tie Spell Power primarily to "spend AP in your class's trees" makes racial enhancements a very serious trap for casters and divines. If you're going to stick to this new method of gaining Spell Power, then each race needs some kind of Spell Power tied into APs spent in their trees. Maybe something like the following: Human/Half-Elf - 1 Universal SP per point spent; Halfling - 1.25 Positive/Negative Energy SP per point spent; Warforged - 1.25 Repair/Force SP per point spent, etc. Heck, maybe this is the chance to make Elves finally the Caster race they were always supposed to be by giving them 1.25 Universal Spell Power per point spent. However you choose to do it, there needs to be some kind of option.
• Bards are supposed to be versatile and need some serious bones tossed their way. Spellsingers got a great boost and is exactly the kind of step in the right direction I was hoping for. Warchanters, however, left me frustrated. Warchanters need Spell Power, too - less than Spellsingers, fine, but they need something. And if you're looking for a relatively quick and easy way to give Bards something, make it possible for them to take other classes' trees as one of their options. Yes, I know, I was just giving you **** about doing that with Clerics and Favored Souls, but Bards are supposed to be dabblers (and already have two other functional trees of their own).
• Sorcerers are facing the horrible prospect of coming up short in terms of Spell Power even in their specialty elements thanks to the way the new system works. Give them access to some kind of enhancement tree that gives Universal Spell Power. Or throw caution to the wind and make the elemental trees grant 1 Universal SP per point spent while keeping the bonuses to their specialty element - they're supposed to be the big guns, let them be big guns.

Whew. Need to go catch my breath!

[OverlordOfRats]

Hey

Give me your thoughts on the following. Be verbose, but not 'it sucks' I need 'it sucks because of'

Enhancements

Guild Decay

Whatever your pet peeve is.

Thanks.

Enhancements:

Liked the looks of the interface and some of the new enhancements.

Hated the three class tree limit. Let us be able to still switch the Pre at the bottom after we take an enhancement in it instead of locking it. That way if we have 3 classes we can take low level enhancements from all nine Pres if we want and no need to redesign the interface.


Guild Decay:

Get rid of it.

What is the problem if every guild gets to 100. Our characters can all get to the level cap why not our guilds?
Otherwise, I'll look at it the same way I looked at it when the guild system came out. With the way I play, this is a part of the game I'm excluded from and will not actively participate in.


Pet Peeve:

Non Raid items BTC or BTCoE.

For me BTA is OK. If I want that item, I have to have paid for the adventure pack. I (the person behind the keyboard) am the person paying to play the game, not my character. Is there really a problem if I want to run a level 18 character through a level 2 adventure to get an item for a different character?

0 XP for being over level.

I ran the three new quest with my main (lv22). 0 XP, 0 XP, and 0 XP. I have quite a few quest that are like this. There are quite a few quest I have yet to run that are too low level for any XP.

I'm not asking for full XP, but maybe 1% to 5%. Just something to show a little movement.

[TBot1234]

Enhancements - waiting to see what the next revision looks like. The interface overhaul is a great idea though as the current system makes it difficult to figure out pre-requisites, etc.

Guild decay - please just scrap it. The smaller guilds are hurt by the more recent changes.

Pet peeves
- fix the spell Wail of the Banshee
- fix DC casting (apparently it just doesn't fly in much of the Epic Elite content)
- find some ways for us to have additional character inventory space (e.g., more tabs, fewer BTC items) even if it means paying TP for it

Thanks for listening!

[MelkiorPeasantbane]

Enhancements
Enhancements, especially prestige enhancements, let you control what kind of character your playing. Ranger is a good example, with AA, Tempest and Deepwood (though Deepwood is so messed up it just means you don't know what you are doing if you choose it). If the enhancement pass fences you in too much that you can't have a Tempest Kensai Ninja, then that whole multiclass thing that DDO is really, really good at goes out the window. Unless you move those enhancements into the feat prereqs. i.e. if you have 6 levels of this class, and take these feats, we'll give you these additional things for free.

I am also of a mind, if it isn't broken, don't fix it...though I think a fulfilling a 'promise' of full enhancements lines for three prestige classes is still in order.

Guild Decay
I am in a 3 account guild. One is no longer active and one is casual, and that leaves me, also more on the casual side. We've barely gotten to the level where decay even starts, so I don't have much to say about it, except I dread getting there because then we'll just stay stagnant at that level forever. If I knew being absorbed into a bigger guild wouldn't cause them problems with decay, I'd be willing to do that, but with the way the system is now, that isn't likely either. So I'd say I am anti-decay, it just doesn't make sense.

Whatever your pet peeve is.
Grouping and questing seems to occur within guild and channels and not pugs. I don't have a suggestion or a fix, just a statement of a perceived problem. (Yes, I know I can make my own pugs, and sometimes I do, thank you very much)