Thank you for the input. I feel like I should make a quick rebuttal to some of the balance points put forth by Ristvall and others.

The points have been made that casters do have some inherent advantages in damage and even critical frequency. This is of course true, however the question becomes one of balance. These damage and critical advantages are already offset by having to contend with a limited Mana pool. Melee also has obvious advantages like not expending Mana when attacking. Keep in mind this reliance on Mana also inhibits casters from charging skills. If you town more frequently to shrine or regen those charges go away.

If you need any indication of how the balance is a bit off track at the moment you can just look at the number of players who choose to cast vs those that choose to melee. Simply put it is just much easier to melee, and because casting has so many annoyances like these mobs and the Mana handicap most players find it not worth the advantages in damage and crit. This, I believe, is even more prevalent on HC where casters are a bit more fragile and you have to devote more stats to vit and have a smaller Mana pool as a result.

This post was edited by ItsLotd on Jun 28 2016 12:09pm

All true.

In a decent to well setup group and whistling from 1 to say level 65, the caster doesn't need to regen or shrine, they level up fast enough to disregard these mana issues.
So how about we balance out the better damage / crit chance of casters by increasing the mana cost to when it was originally in the game? ... No? ... Hmmm, casters have
been given more boosts than any other character class. Note: increase mana costs for attack charms and reduce mana cost to healing charms. "Why decrease cost of healing
charms?" ... why not is my answer, it doesn't effect the game at all, you have to take 1 action to heal as it is to attack.

Anyway... great points... still, solo'ing needs to be balanced out more in comparison to team play.

This is one of the items I don't have a lot of experience with. I slash HC the vast majority of the time and as the only person in my guild that slashes, its difficult (understatement) to find groups.
I do think that on HC the problems with casting are magnified because of the necessity to stat more vitality. Again, not a ton of experience here with group casting, but I don't think I could get close to no regen / shrine casting on HC in a group and my setup is above average.

I will absolutely acknowledge there are some aspects of the game that I just don't know enough about. I think that's part of the problem in implementing changes... We're really talking about 3-4 different games here with HC / SC and Solo / Group play.

I have done this on Hardcore [only core I play(ed)] with a full group... whistling is the shizz-nizzle if you have even just one caster in full group... and as you know, I am the guardian that melee / heals, which also helps the caster... or even datis.

When using a caster on Hardcore, you just go with melee from level 1-20 and you stat to a set vitality [50-75] which ever you are comfortable with, then rest into intelligence, no joke, whistling is just damn too easy with a full group. And I did state originally "In a decent to well setup group ... "

Now, when I am(was) solo'ing HC, or basically anyone solo'ing HC, they have some form of healing capacity with their build... so, when people are within range, they may combine into a group of, 2, 3, 4 and if really lucky, 5, and then these people will have different level characters that they may use to replace the one they are using to benefit the group ... and if you are very lucky, the 5 players may just start at level 1 and whistle because it is faster and safer. That is my experience of climbing in groups, and those were far and few in between... one thing for certain, if I am solo'ing and more than 3 people join me... I get nervous when healing and melee'ing, but in most cases, the others will help me out, but I prefer the max of 3 if I am mid level already.

Idk what you're talking about whistling is too easy, it does what it is supposed to do.
This game wasnt made for ppl to make forum gold of.
This game was made for guilds to compete with their guilds to get ranked up, nothing more.

Some ppl like myself only do exploring for better prof, or if im bored and got time to do explore.
I dont care much about drops, except for the few skillables i need.
Whistling is meant for the ppl who want to reach mq fast. & its by far the best system we've had that makes it fair to everyone.
In whistling you cant use a driver with exp and get an advantage like we have in UA with our exp setups.
All that gear today is completly useless.

Whistling is very fair and if u dont like you dont have to use it.
You can still drive like before, explore as much you want.

What the fudge have you been drinking/smoking.

We are only comparing whistling vs solo'ing. So you don't care about this and that and you only solo for this and that, what does
that have to do with Caster solo'ing vs a Caster in a full group and mana consumption difference because a caster levels up way
faster in a group and does NOT really need to shrine compared to a caster solo'ing.

Shit, talk about misreading the simple content... keep to what you are doing, you do have the gear to do either as you please comfortably.

rist and paragon, you are both right

But what para is sayin is, it honestly doesnt make sense for a caster or even a melee'r to whistle solo, u can drive pretty fast aswell.
Its all about the community/helping skillers and also finding ur own loot. Alot of you just whistle to 71, which does save more time but it did nothing for yall but give u 5 gps if u all failed.
Yall will get the 5 gps regardless so just endure increments of 5 more minutes...I understand whistle 1-20 in group or solo...for a caster get maps with warmlights and 100+ effective
Back then was much better than it is now, now its all about help urselves. Ofc i liked every new patch he released, but im thinking for other new players aswell.
I dont agree with the increase attack charm and lower mana useage for heal.
You can just use easy to get fish. levels 1-15 300> mana, would only need 1 fish per level if u got mana gear/descent dps. Nothing u mentioned was wrong ofc.


Now rist, the game is not just for competing and having a better guild...Its not all about bragging rights on gps. I didnt join a guild till i got paid years back. its how i made fg.

You said this game wasnt made to make fg off of, thats not true either..
A person with 80+ee gear can do anything and wouldnt cost nothing, he doesnt have to get off of feeder. He can solo/skill..etc...he can be a loaner

Also you contradicted urself, i think u need level 20 items for ur glyph. U can explore and find a bunch of eps and get more skillables...but u wouldnt have to with all that fg
But think of it like this.. a few groups exploring levels 20+ and killing a couple hundred eps each day, you know how much that would help all of us? And the drops would be descent.

And about this topic/map idea...if ur soling u would only encounter a few immunes per level to actualy give you a problem, which is not that big of a deal its just annoying.
But why would you need a map to avoid this simple issue? Yall are taking sides and not actuly trying to fix somthing that wouldnt have a bigger impact anyways.
So why not get rid of the fire healers? or like this topic states, an indicator...im tired of seeing people say, well u can do this and that, or have a second charm...thats alrdy known facts.

If yall actuly wanted to level fast/ faster if ur good. get maps with 1-40+% more exp and other very nice mods. A good drop can even be a worthless level 15 item thats arcane+
Just think of this new patch with finding higher rarity...a arcane is 6 times more likely to have a useful mod than a magic. Its time to actuly save us all time and feel good about doing it.


Also alot of you dont look at the future, within a year u know how much useful gear we will lose? many people lost and many new players.
Why not be dora the explora?

This post was edited by richboy1991 on Jul 1 2016 03:22am

This is the one thing i qouted. SO my post is kinda on point still.


-_____


But you¨re still wrong once again, casters always have to shrine on hc, ALWAYS unless they slack and are afk most of the time because the dont do what they supposed to do.
wbsfoo have to shrine like 3 times per level over on hc because ppl slack and not click.
HC is terrible core for casters.

I still contend to whistling being damn easy with a full group... and you basically just answered yourself as to why it doesn't work in your groups. Note: read the blue bolded part in your post.

My experience is in groups that click, yes 1 or 2 may afk at times, but our caster(s) don't shrine when whistling... NOW, when we explore, yes, we do have to shrine. Maybe it was because I was a Guardian attacking, healing and tanking at times [mind you, tanking with 0 ee is fun]

End Note: I am talking about my previous experience with it, at present it may have changed, but, my perception is based on what I have experienced with good team players that basically always clicked.