Ryzom

lazarus wrote:I have a question...

Did the Varinx agree to participate in this experiment, or did he have you for lunch for your impertinence in waking him up from his afternoon snooze?

Yes , he agreed to participate peacefully, i payed him in teammat...... errr pork chops.

And yes, the xp when grouped seems slightly higher now.
A preying ocyx prepatch would give me 2k xp. post patch, a group of 4 ppl and myself killed it, we all got 1,8k. (yes i was using the same skill)

erm please ignore the comments about concentration being usefull, it seems [on further testing] to be no use for hitting high level mobs.
Sorry if I got anyones hpes up


Kestrel

I totally agree with the post about mages being useless in a group, other than healing.

I was in a group yesterday that were killing Grunting Mektoubs. I am a level 65 off/def caster (72 healer). Grunts are around lev 100 I think.

The melees and healers could handle this safely (most of the time), which means that is what all the melees and healers will be doing because it gives the best exp.

Off/def mages however I found 1 in 4 spells would work and links would drop very quickly. I was simply a drain on their exp in that mode, so I was simply a healer.

Once melees realise that all they need is healers you can expect the usual dynamic to occur..."Off/Def mages need not apply!"

I really think this needs to be addressed, off/def mages need to be able to contribute equally to a group, and if the group is able to melee/heal 20-30 levels above their level, then off/def mages need to be able to cast on those mobs.

Further: I know for a fact that level 100-120 people (full group) can take down some level 180+ mobs. How on earth is a mage going to contribute to this arrangement, other than heal.

I quite agree to this - there was a similar situation in the OB once, too, exept that it was caster lvl vs mob lvl instead spell lvl vs mob lvl. With the general effect that parties then did consist out of melees (since those CAN - unlike mages - hit mobs 30+ lvls above them) and healers. The three other magic branches were more or less nonexistant in melee-mage groups.

To be honest, I don't think full teams are a good way of getting experience now. They used to be, when killing mobs over 50 levels the highest skill being used. But now that resists have been <insert term for increasing resist rates>, having 3-5 person teams near each others level might be the ideal for xp. This way you don't have to fight things massively over your level to get xp, and the affliction/nuking mages have an increased chance of landing spells. Leave the 9 member teams for bigger events, like future crossings to other civilizations, killing of named critters, etc.

But then again, this is just how I see it, and how it has been working out well for me.

Agreed. If anything, large teams dilute what little experience mobs provide.

hm I'm not entirely sure I agree with you on all this. Yesterday I was out hunting near Dyron in Fyros with a full group consisting of 1-3 melee and the rest mages (it changed during the day) and we were of all levels; personally I was playing as a lvl 37-40 defensive mage (I leveled a few times) but some people were level 125+ (I have no idea how high the levels got but they were quite high).

We were hunting big Varinx and Ocyx (I'm not sure what kind exactly, I was cowering at the back doing healing, but I think the Varinx were Raging or something) and I was getting 2-3kXP most times, sometimes twice per fight as we pulled a couple of mobs and still won (most of the time).

Mostly it was half the mages chaincasting heals on the melee and each other with some of them casting big nukes onto the mobs. It seemed to work quite well, and if i understand it correctly, it seems to fly in the face of your argument.

Mages useless in groups besides for healing ? I have to strongly disagree.
I was in a group casting stun/madness.
Whenever these spells Did land (not too often granted we were hunting lvl 150 + mobs , but at least 2 times /mob) the effect was very much noticeable.
When a stun landed, the mob could not dodge, and thus took quite a bit of damage. When madness landed, the mob would very often critical strike(1.5k + damage) itself, which caused a pretty little drop in its health.

Now i cannot argue that affliction and elemental magi are as vital as healers in a group, but they give the group tremendous advantages and a greater chance of success.

Magic is the difficult path in every game out there, and its always very rewarding in the long run

pcheez wrote:Mages useless in groups besides for healing ? I have to strongly disagree.
I was in a group casting stun/madness.
Whenever these spells Did land (not too often granted we were hunting lvl 150 + mobs , but at least 2 times /mob) the effect was very much noticeable.
When a stun landed, the mob could not dodge, and thus took quite a bit of damage. When madness landed, the mob would very often critical strike(1.5k + damage) itself, which caused a pretty little drop in its health.

Now i cannot argue that affliction and elemental magi are as vital as healers in a group, but they give the group tremendous advantages and a greater chance of success.

Magic is the difficult path in every game out there, and its always very rewarding in the long run

Almost exactly my point