.... but I wonder what else there could potentially be in this game? Either soon or in the more distant future. I'm not sure what, if any of this is possible, but I have a few thoughts. For now I'm just focused on the Cleric class.
I played a game called Vanguard which was pretty much a big failure, but it managed to do a few things well. One of those things, was the healer classes. This is made by the people who made EQ, so they heard all the 'feedback' from people about how a Cleric was boring to play in EQ, because all you do is sit medding, with your eye on the little red bars, and then you get up and heal the little red bars and then sit back down again.
To make it more fun to play, they basically did away with the idea of a "pure healer" class, and instead made all the healers hybrids. This meant that you were the main healer for a group, but you were also contributing to DPS too (a bit), either with spells or melee.
Anyway, there are two main changes as I see it, that allowed the class to work like this. One is to improve the HoT spells slighty, which allowed the healer to land a HoT and then have a bit more opportunity to start doing some DPS - unless the situation is so dire that the HoT doesn't cut it. In which case you continue the usual Cleric style role. The second change, is to allow the Cleric to recover mana in a more interesting way, other than just sitting on their ass, willing the blue bar to move. The way they did it was to allow the healer to engage the mob, and their spells/abilities could generate mana.
The Druid and Shaman class in SoD is already a bit more interesting because they can main heal and yet they have other roles to play, or at least they CAN do other things if they want/need to. The Cleric however isn't really like that. If you are grouped with a Cleric and the Cleric is running around hitting stuff or nuking, then generally it's a sign that something is wrong with the Cleric or the group makeup, or you are just doing content that is too easy.
So something I wonder, is if perhaps there could be some new abilities or spells given to Clerics that allow them to do a bit more. For example, there are the 3 stances as usual, but perhaps there could be a fourth stance which makes them a bit more vulnerable to damage than the aggressive stance, but each melee hit draws back some mana. The way it could/should work, would be so that the amount of mana generated from fighting, would be about the same as if the Cleric just sat down and medded. So it's not really changing anything drastic in the way the game works, and it's not making the Cleric any more or less powerful, it's just allowing them to join in with the excitement of fighting a mob, in between heals - rather than just simply sitting down and watching everyone else do stuff. The only thing that would need some balance, would be the amount of damage they do, but that should be easy enough to sort out.
Perhaps some people like the Cleric because they get to sit back and watch and med in between heals, so perhaps this could be an optional thing. Personally though, unless I'm duoing, I like more interaction.
There are other ideas I suppose you could use to spice the Cleric class up a bit too. Perhaps there could be a fifth stance. A nuke stance. This could lower the cast time and mana consumption of the Cleric's nukes (or just increase their damage), but it increases the cast time and mana consumption of their heals to offset it. With a time limitation on switching styles, it could add more tactical and strategic thought to playing a Cleric.
I'm sure some people wouldn't like the idea of fiddling with the trusty old Cleric class, but I wonder if people might like it once they saw the other possibilities. I always liked the idea of balancing things when playing. Wizzys are constantly balancing doing as much damage as they can, with trying not to steal the aggro. Some of the tank classes are constantly trying to balance mitigation with aggro and dps, depending on how many mobs are beating on them etc.. And there's my favourite class, the Necro... A good Necro can literally be doing half a dozen things. They can be CC'ing with root or mez, dps'ing, or even off tanking with their pet in some situations. They can even act as a healer albeit in a limited way. The Cleric however, they don't really have anything to balance. They heal or they med. It can still be an enjoyable class, but I think it could be a lot more enjoyable.
Am I barking up the wrong tree hoping to see 21st century MMORPG classes in a 20th century game? No doubt WoW is the laughing stock around here, and I didn't even last long playing it. But I have to give them credit for some things like the Druid class I played. Forgetting about the later levels where you became very specialised, in the earlier stages you could literally be a tank, a caster, or a melee dps, all at the click of a button. On the PVP server I played on, I would one minute be invisibly stalking around the jungle like a rogue, then I'd find myself being beaten on by a pally or something and I would quickly switch to bear form to tank. And then if someone was running away, I could either chase them and backstab them in lion form again, or I could turn in to my caster form and nuke/root/snare them. I still find SoD to be a far better game in almost every other aspect, but I do miss some of the more modern approaches to MMORPG classes, and I wonder if there could be anything like that in SoD's future? Ever?
I played a game called Vanguard which was pretty much a big failure, but it managed to do a few things well. One of those things, was the healer classes. This is made by the people who made EQ, so they heard all the 'feedback' from people about how a Cleric was boring to play in EQ, because all you do is sit medding, with your eye on the little red bars, and then you get up and heal the little red bars and then sit back down again.
To make it more fun to play, they basically did away with the idea of a "pure healer" class, and instead made all the healers hybrids. This meant that you were the main healer for a group, but you were also contributing to DPS too (a bit), either with spells or melee.
Anyway, there are two main changes as I see it, that allowed the class to work like this. One is to improve the HoT spells slighty, which allowed the healer to land a HoT and then have a bit more opportunity to start doing some DPS - unless the situation is so dire that the HoT doesn't cut it. In which case you continue the usual Cleric style role. The second change, is to allow the Cleric to recover mana in a more interesting way, other than just sitting on their ass, willing the blue bar to move. The way they did it was to allow the healer to engage the mob, and their spells/abilities could generate mana.
The Druid and Shaman class in SoD is already a bit more interesting because they can main heal and yet they have other roles to play, or at least they CAN do other things if they want/need to. The Cleric however isn't really like that. If you are grouped with a Cleric and the Cleric is running around hitting stuff or nuking, then generally it's a sign that something is wrong with the Cleric or the group makeup, or you are just doing content that is too easy.
So something I wonder, is if perhaps there could be some new abilities or spells given to Clerics that allow them to do a bit more. For example, there are the 3 stances as usual, but perhaps there could be a fourth stance which makes them a bit more vulnerable to damage than the aggressive stance, but each melee hit draws back some mana. The way it could/should work, would be so that the amount of mana generated from fighting, would be about the same as if the Cleric just sat down and medded. So it's not really changing anything drastic in the way the game works, and it's not making the Cleric any more or less powerful, it's just allowing them to join in with the excitement of fighting a mob, in between heals - rather than just simply sitting down and watching everyone else do stuff. The only thing that would need some balance, would be the amount of damage they do, but that should be easy enough to sort out.
Perhaps some people like the Cleric because they get to sit back and watch and med in between heals, so perhaps this could be an optional thing. Personally though, unless I'm duoing, I like more interaction.
There are other ideas I suppose you could use to spice the Cleric class up a bit too. Perhaps there could be a fifth stance. A nuke stance. This could lower the cast time and mana consumption of the Cleric's nukes (or just increase their damage), but it increases the cast time and mana consumption of their heals to offset it. With a time limitation on switching styles, it could add more tactical and strategic thought to playing a Cleric.
I'm sure some people wouldn't like the idea of fiddling with the trusty old Cleric class, but I wonder if people might like it once they saw the other possibilities. I always liked the idea of balancing things when playing. Wizzys are constantly balancing doing as much damage as they can, with trying not to steal the aggro. Some of the tank classes are constantly trying to balance mitigation with aggro and dps, depending on how many mobs are beating on them etc.. And there's my favourite class, the Necro... A good Necro can literally be doing half a dozen things. They can be CC'ing with root or mez, dps'ing, or even off tanking with their pet in some situations. They can even act as a healer albeit in a limited way. The Cleric however, they don't really have anything to balance. They heal or they med. It can still be an enjoyable class, but I think it could be a lot more enjoyable.
Am I barking up the wrong tree hoping to see 21st century MMORPG classes in a 20th century game? No doubt WoW is the laughing stock around here, and I didn't even last long playing it. But I have to give them credit for some things like the Druid class I played. Forgetting about the later levels where you became very specialised, in the earlier stages you could literally be a tank, a caster, or a melee dps, all at the click of a button. On the PVP server I played on, I would one minute be invisibly stalking around the jungle like a rogue, then I'd find myself being beaten on by a pally or something and I would quickly switch to bear form to tank. And then if someone was running away, I could either chase them and backstab them in lion form again, or I could turn in to my caster form and nuke/root/snare them. I still find SoD to be a far better game in almost every other aspect, but I do miss some of the more modern approaches to MMORPG classes, and I wonder if there could be anything like that in SoD's future? Ever?
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