First and foremost
Thank you to the developers--I greatly appreciate your time and dedication to the game. This server is the best ruleset I have played on since Mordred. I also greatly appreciate your dedication on improving the gameplay, breaking metas, and keeping a 2 decade year old game as fresh as can be.
Let's talk about Albion
A few thoughts that are swimming through my head. As the addition to new abilities, comes with a particular strength that alb has, that no other realm has. Which is the ability to consistently apply indirect pressure vicariously through a consistent stream of pet spam.
Pet Spam
Fighting albs historically isn't that enjoyable. The proverbial group of: Minstrel, Cabalist, Sorc has 2 incredibly powerful pets--the addition of the theurgist to any composition brings effortless pet spam from a distance John Elway can toss a Vortex Football. Every single fight, you deal with the players plus their companions. With the Theurg in the group, the overwhelming pet spam makes the game far less fun to play--you're pveing constantly in an rvr zone.
Theurgist
Theurgist is an all-around powerhouse that devastates both melee and casters alike--PBT, melee dehaste, 2k pet spam. With the introduction of the tri-debuff, the Spirit Theurg can pet spam and become another damage threat.
My suggestion: The theurgist should have to place itself in danger in order to cast a pet. 1500 range should be the max range of the pet. By reducing the casting range, the Theurg would have to make a risk/reward decision on cast pets on backlines. I would also increase the mana cost of the pet. With current mana mechanics, it's really easy to chug pots, chunk on cooldown. During a reset, it's not unheard of to get an MCL charge out.
Why this isn't a game breaker: Theurgs still have PBT which is a huge requirement in tank versus tank fights, which is where the server appears to be heading. In addition to PBT, the theurg still has dehaste, haste and dps buff.
Minstrel
Minstrel pets are the bane of the existence of any type of fight. It makes 1v1 intolerable to play; and, 8v8 it is virtually un-killable unless you have full control. It often becomes a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation as the minstrel can manipulate CC, and pretty much permanently stay in the backline. Again, should you wheel on the Minstrel, you risk losing major ground, being out-ranged and will get out petted by the alb group.
My suggestion: Lower the max level of the pet that a minstrel can charm tremendously.
Why this isn't a game breaker: Albs will continue to run minstrels for their ability to interrupt, and their realm abilities. Even if the minstrel pet dies, the minstrel has 4 instant cooldowns, and has the ability to twist in charges, flute mezz and can constantly keep a 70 point ablative up every 8 seconds that adds way more value than we give it recognition for--especially coupled with things like PBT, DD, BOF, etc.
Cabalist
So, you need to spec into the spirit line in order to get these insane pet buffs. The reality is this is the most common spec, whether it's tri or full spirit, cabalists will always have fairly overpowered buffs on the pet. Dealing with a cabalist pet can be astronomically annoying as you can't even sprint away from the damn thing.
My suggestion: Remove run speed. Lower the stats and effectiveness of the buffs tremendously. Lower damage and stun proc rate. Remove pet cycle (my favorite thing about the class. Pet cycle, get stupid amounts of power back for those silly long fights).
Why this isn't game breaking: Cabalist's kit already makes the class a powerhouse, even without the pet itself. With disease, nearsight, base debuffs, dehaste, lifetap, damage debuff. The pet's primary goal is to create disruption and cause a minor speedbump in the fight and will continue to do so, even nerfed. It will just be more manageable for the opposing team.
Sorc
I think the sorc pet is fine.
Moving onto melee
Paladin
First and foremost, this class was good before all the buffs. The reason people didn't run a paladin is the effectiveness of an alb caster group with one peel. The paladin does not need a group instant heal. The paladin does not need DD. The paladin has essentially free constant BOF two with the AF chant, provides pretty good peels, guards and slams.
Remove the Friar endurance chant reduction and you'll see an increase of Paladins, even if you striped all the recent additions. Tankers struggle with pot endurance.
Mercs
Back snare is a pretty bad addition to this class, and is the same train of thought as putting snare on a savage or VW. The game is built to play off the strengths of the team--not give everyone on the team everything needed to be individually strong. The merc wears chain armor and has dirty tricks, slam and stoicism. On top of giving it a back snare, the growth rate of the snare is not even on par with standard backstyle--it's higher and in a line you're going to spec to 50 no matter what.
Take merc's back snare away.
Necromancers
Necros are one of those weird classes. You rarely see them, but when you do and they're in the hands of a high skill-cap player and group, it becomes a tier of its own. Tanks can not kill it, can cast six spells interrupted every thirty seconds. These spells can have devastating impacts, to include being melee'd down by earth pets.
My suggestion: Remove conc from necro's RA kit. Lower the duration of the AF debuff on-par with casted debuffs. Lower the delve of the debuff. Potentially put the debuff in another line so that the necro can't be the ultimate power battery, nuker and debuffer. The necro should have to have choose on what to gimp, like many other casters. Lower the pet's armor so that it can get trained down like any other class.
Why this isn't game breaking: Taking a god-mode class, making the player make a decision on what to gimp, and making the player play smartly instead of casting six spells every 30 seconds in the middle of a tank line, un-killable by a melee train is a no-brainer to me.
Melee snares
27 seconds on a melee snare? I'd suggest knocking all snares down below twenty seconds. It's pretty disgusting when you have to win 3x times to equate to one melee win in the melee micro war and then you're snared.
Thanks.
Thank you to the developers--I greatly appreciate your time and dedication to the game. This server is the best ruleset I have played on since Mordred. I also greatly appreciate your dedication on improving the gameplay, breaking metas, and keeping a 2 decade year old game as fresh as can be.
Let's talk about Albion
A few thoughts that are swimming through my head. As the addition to new abilities, comes with a particular strength that alb has, that no other realm has. Which is the ability to consistently apply indirect pressure vicariously through a consistent stream of pet spam.
Pet Spam
Fighting albs historically isn't that enjoyable. The proverbial group of: Minstrel, Cabalist, Sorc has 2 incredibly powerful pets--the addition of the theurgist to any composition brings effortless pet spam from a distance John Elway can toss a Vortex Football. Every single fight, you deal with the players plus their companions. With the Theurg in the group, the overwhelming pet spam makes the game far less fun to play--you're pveing constantly in an rvr zone.
Theurgist
Theurgist is an all-around powerhouse that devastates both melee and casters alike--PBT, melee dehaste, 2k pet spam. With the introduction of the tri-debuff, the Spirit Theurg can pet spam and become another damage threat.
My suggestion: The theurgist should have to place itself in danger in order to cast a pet. 1500 range should be the max range of the pet. By reducing the casting range, the Theurg would have to make a risk/reward decision on cast pets on backlines. I would also increase the mana cost of the pet. With current mana mechanics, it's really easy to chug pots, chunk on cooldown. During a reset, it's not unheard of to get an MCL charge out.
Why this isn't a game breaker: Theurgs still have PBT which is a huge requirement in tank versus tank fights, which is where the server appears to be heading. In addition to PBT, the theurg still has dehaste, haste and dps buff.
Minstrel
Minstrel pets are the bane of the existence of any type of fight. It makes 1v1 intolerable to play; and, 8v8 it is virtually un-killable unless you have full control. It often becomes a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation as the minstrel can manipulate CC, and pretty much permanently stay in the backline. Again, should you wheel on the Minstrel, you risk losing major ground, being out-ranged and will get out petted by the alb group.
My suggestion: Lower the max level of the pet that a minstrel can charm tremendously.
Why this isn't a game breaker: Albs will continue to run minstrels for their ability to interrupt, and their realm abilities. Even if the minstrel pet dies, the minstrel has 4 instant cooldowns, and has the ability to twist in charges, flute mezz and can constantly keep a 70 point ablative up every 8 seconds that adds way more value than we give it recognition for--especially coupled with things like PBT, DD, BOF, etc.
Cabalist
So, you need to spec into the spirit line in order to get these insane pet buffs. The reality is this is the most common spec, whether it's tri or full spirit, cabalists will always have fairly overpowered buffs on the pet. Dealing with a cabalist pet can be astronomically annoying as you can't even sprint away from the damn thing.
My suggestion: Remove run speed. Lower the stats and effectiveness of the buffs tremendously. Lower damage and stun proc rate. Remove pet cycle (my favorite thing about the class. Pet cycle, get stupid amounts of power back for those silly long fights).
Why this isn't game breaking: Cabalist's kit already makes the class a powerhouse, even without the pet itself. With disease, nearsight, base debuffs, dehaste, lifetap, damage debuff. The pet's primary goal is to create disruption and cause a minor speedbump in the fight and will continue to do so, even nerfed. It will just be more manageable for the opposing team.
Sorc
I think the sorc pet is fine.
Moving onto melee
Paladin
First and foremost, this class was good before all the buffs. The reason people didn't run a paladin is the effectiveness of an alb caster group with one peel. The paladin does not need a group instant heal. The paladin does not need DD. The paladin has essentially free constant BOF two with the AF chant, provides pretty good peels, guards and slams.
Remove the Friar endurance chant reduction and you'll see an increase of Paladins, even if you striped all the recent additions. Tankers struggle with pot endurance.
Mercs
Back snare is a pretty bad addition to this class, and is the same train of thought as putting snare on a savage or VW. The game is built to play off the strengths of the team--not give everyone on the team everything needed to be individually strong. The merc wears chain armor and has dirty tricks, slam and stoicism. On top of giving it a back snare, the growth rate of the snare is not even on par with standard backstyle--it's higher and in a line you're going to spec to 50 no matter what.
Take merc's back snare away.
Necromancers
Necros are one of those weird classes. You rarely see them, but when you do and they're in the hands of a high skill-cap player and group, it becomes a tier of its own. Tanks can not kill it, can cast six spells interrupted every thirty seconds. These spells can have devastating impacts, to include being melee'd down by earth pets.
My suggestion: Remove conc from necro's RA kit. Lower the duration of the AF debuff on-par with casted debuffs. Lower the delve of the debuff. Potentially put the debuff in another line so that the necro can't be the ultimate power battery, nuker and debuffer. The necro should have to have choose on what to gimp, like many other casters. Lower the pet's armor so that it can get trained down like any other class.
Why this isn't game breaking: Taking a god-mode class, making the player make a decision on what to gimp, and making the player play smartly instead of casting six spells every 30 seconds in the middle of a tank line, un-killable by a melee train is a no-brainer to me.
Melee snares
27 seconds on a melee snare? I'd suggest knocking all snares down below twenty seconds. It's pretty disgusting when you have to win 3x times to equate to one melee win in the melee micro war and then you're snared.
Thanks.