There is no reason to go higher than 34 Blades without changing the Warden's weapon damage and skill tables. Even then, you lose PBT, resists, higher value da/speed/self buffs.

 

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lol was just a quicky suggestion and i only Implied that Base buffs such as AF,Spec AF, Dex, Dex/quick, Str, Con, Str/con, Acuity. Be removed.

Let me try to help then. The op is onto the problem (buffs, buffbots) but his solution of removing them to me is backwards. Instead of removing them they should add more access (which is what the NPC buffers have done which has been a dramatic success and should give them the courage to do it in the big boy rvr world)

Consider stats. At level 50 you get an item cap of 101 and a buff cap of 155. Just think about that for a minute. Buffs are 50% more important to your character than your gear.

Let's look at gear a minute. Gear is located on the character. It's usually acquired through game play (although some people buy it) Part of the fun of developing a character is the gear stays on that character. Like skills, and levels, and ranks, Gear is a persistent reward to the player for playing. They can add expansion after expansion with more gear and people tend to like it (when it's not overpowered). You can collect it and 'own' it and it serves to remind the player of all the successes he's had in acquiring it. It's shiny, it's glowy, it's got a cool skin whatever. And unless you change the caps or add new effects the great thing about it is that it doesn't FUBAR balance too much.

On the other hand Conc buffs are located on someone else and typically get applied during downtime. They are ALWAYS bought and paid for. (The macabre irony of how much Mark Jacobs fought against gold sellers while promoting this buy a buffbot system demands a mention)
Anyway, conc buffs exist in this bizarre semi-persistent state where if you live and don't zone (and don't get sheared, another add-on to fix the bad model) and the buffbot doesn't go link dead, you keep them indefinitely. (It's no coincidence this model hasn't been duplicated in the 10 years since daoc introduced it because it's a horrible model.) And out of 45 classes in the game 3 of them (1 per realm) have the 3 bigger spec stat buffs (93/155). Meaning that spec buffer is basically as important to you as having near perfect gear because the base buffs are only 62.

And everyone knows that those stat buffs make such enormous differences so much so that they have paid for buffbots for years. But here's the fact that demands change.
The game is balanced around the assumption that EVERYONE has them. Therefore making them accessible to everyone is a must.

Think about how it sits now: about 1 in 15 classes has something but everyone else is assumed to have that. Kinda weird no? Kinda way out of balance. In the NF world that means that there is enormous pressure on those 3 classes to specialize in buffing. To the OP's point about specs, ask yourself when the last time you grouped a cave shaman or a smite cleric or nature druid by choice in a full group. Buffs are even more important to those classes than healing (which is part of why heals have been upgraded in terms of delve and cast time so dramatically.) It's why every full group assumes that there will be min of 2 buff classes with at least 1 of them being a spec buffing class AND be speced to do so. There's simply no justification for this model.

In the battlegrounds where the zone size is small and the basic activity revolves around running back and forth to the PK the NPC buffer works well enough to even the playing field from the pov of buffs. It's success is demonstrating how much buffs and the lack of access to them for regular players harms the game. It would be interesting to know over the years how many people have quit because of the mechanics of buffbots. I would bet the number is staggering.

In real RvR where people hope to spend hours in a party out in the frontiers they need to give more classes spec buffs.
They should immediately be giving access to the stat spec buffs (not shears) to friars, heretics, healers, bards and wardens.

It helps all the OTHER players and it opens up more spec options and more grouping options and reduces the pressure on the existing spec buffers to spec just for buffs.

You say you enjoyed having your team rely on you. That's great, it also doesn't change if more buffs are available to players from players. It just gives EVERYONE else a more reasonable pool of characters and classes to rely on. It doesn't change the fact that they will still rely on someone. It doesn't change the fact that the support you provide on your shaman is an integral part of the success or failure of a group. All it does is make the very thing the game is balanced around more accessible during game play instead of at the PK from an NPC or Bot during downtime.

 

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Could just make the "self" spec buffs some classes get conc based realm castable.


Bards spec Str/con, Friars spec dex/qui, Healers spec str/con and maybe even the

Thane/Champ/Paladin self buffs?

 

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you need all of them. but it does go to show how little impact it would have on the classes "getting" them. All it would mean for most is 1 more buff that couldn't be sheared. big deal.

 

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Would have to revamp Healers, no buffs just makes them chain wearing cc machines with heals.

Buffbots were the first nail in the coffin. You can thank the players for this. Don't blame mythic for trying to make it fair for everyone else who couldn't afford a bot.

 

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Buffing is not fun; it is tedious.


It should be easy to up the time a timered buff lasts. Making them all last at least an hour instead of ten or twenty minutes would save a lot of needless clicking. Seriously, is the chance that you'll catch an opponent with a buff down during a fight so important that we need all of that extra buffing?


How about being able to keep self casted buffs after releasing to a border keep? (Not rezzing, as that could tip a fight too much, especially with PR.)

 

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Quoted for truth. People that complain about this (and the new BP gear which caps all resist and stats) are the BG denizens who used to get their RPs less from skills than just having stronger toons. I cancelled my bb account day these buff NPCs were added, and I applaud Mythic for having the courage to do this when it also meant they would lose subscription money from bbs.

 

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I think its different than people with better gear.

Acquiring gear and a good template takes time and work and there should be at least some reward for it. I think if you can play two characters at the same time, then you should be able to do it. However, there is something wrong with the mechanic of allowing one player to make another character significantly stronger without having to do anything (except buff them initially).

It's just pathetic when you hear complaints like this though. But people with this mindset still win in their minds, they are still proud of the extra $15 a month they spend, and are truly convinced that because of this they deserve to get free realm points and waste other peoples time who aren't buffed, and then they get truly pissed off when the playing field is leveled. So pathetic.

 

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