Honestly? I'd be happier if proc damage were reduced a little and make it a guaranteed buff when you cast rather than a chance. I think this would provide consistency people are looking for without breaking whatever balance exists.

Casting is not the issue. i tie all my attacks into 2 buttons one for ae and one for single target damage. The problem i have with the neck is it not proccing consistently. I can go from 2 to 3 casts for a proc to 20 casts. If melee strikes worked that way there would be issues.

I'm trying to find an old Zam post that this reminded me of.....and cannot. IIRC it mentioned that some proc buffs seemed to not work well with pets...and one of the replies suggested that it had to do with pet melee geometry; that they dont "approach" (for lack of a better term) the mob the same way a PC will, and because of that they are out of range for the cast. We have similar issues here with necro pets not being able to proc their tap on melee if they are too close to a wall. I solo corals in T5 with my necro because NO other class can kill em faster (no, not even my UWXI zerk or war) and I sometimes see that pet issue....though T5 corals are their own special brand of hell, and I dont really rely on the pet for damage in T5 (but then later you dont rely on pet for DPS on ANY class unless its a pet bagged UW). Unsure, just an idea.

I like the casters through t8 so far but they are a much worse choice than a melee is at the moment for a progressing group. Squishier, less damage, higher upgrade costs, relies not only armor drops but spell drops aswell. Imo This cuts your initial dps options in half.

All I can tell you is that its worth the ride. Casters later are....well, very much worth the effort. Set up your necro right and there simply IS no better AE damager on EZ (MAYBE a warrior with riposte up, but thats short time, and a non UW zerker isnt even close). Get your mage set right and even without a UW in the pet bag they do very, very steady dps. Hell, even a druid later ends up being pretty gnarly AE dps. And the bulk of the DPS on casters later is NOT from the pets. Shit, my biggest issue on my caster team is trying to find a way to keep agro off of em....they'll out agro anyone if I slack on the warrior for even a minute....especially in T10 where there IS no agro clear.

And if you're crazy enough to actually max a UW on a mage with a pet bag....well, its insane. Watching a T10 mage pet solo Thunder is kind of eye opening.

And yep, if you want DPS from your pet class you need to work at it (cast).

Tested on all 4 classes....first mate's gift works fine, every necklace class. Used Death on necro, insanity on chanter, taelosian gift on mage and Timeless Tempest Wind on druid. All proc'd quickly.

One thing I did notice....when using the halloween pet the temp buff DID land on the pet, but I saw no proc. I summoned the druids shitty little warder (damned near worthless) and I started getting 800K procs like crazy.

I gotta agree with that.....talk to Ergg about that one, Ray. He put a few of his boxes on a second, cheap machine and saw some pretty big improvements on play.

Honestly, were I in need of upgrading my system I would wait and see what the new Zen brings to the table. A friend who works for Apple is telling me (without hurting NDA's) that they're "most definitely worth the look". You have to know the guy, but thats like you or me saying, "HEY! BUY THIS!!!" And no, not saying you should buy Apple.....the Zen AMD processor will be available for PC's.....Apple's using them as well.

Prelims are showing as much as a 50% increase in performance over AMD's Excavator design....and 14nm architecture means low power use AND far cooler running temps. The new AM4 socket will mean boards that support DDR4 ram (worth the cost), PCI-E 3.0, new interface architecture, etc....which should by all reports mean a board that should be upgrade ready for years to come.

But again, time will tell.

Now....all that being said, I LOVE my Skylake 6700.....and thats saying a lot. Before this I stayed with AMD because of costs and benefits to gaming.

From what I remember Hunter didnt want to do guild banks on EZ because of how much of a potential pain in the ass it'd be....and I fully agree with that. I'd say your best chance of getting Akk to pull the trigger on this is by using the "Bandolier Rule": use at your own risk, and dont come crying to him when you lose shit.

Now that I will grant you....kicking the cash up a bit in T5 would help newer players considerably. I can see not doing cash in ToFS (by the time you need to REALLY farm ToFS cash isnt as big of an issue, FWP or no) but for players trying to get through T5 it can get pricey.

And T8 without a FWP is....ugly. Same with ToFS, really....especially since the money's gone from ToFS. But on the bright side....T9 without a FWP is a non issue, really....and T10....well, you know about that.

How does increasing boss spawn rates (not difficulty) on t5 which is mid tier, trivialize content?

Because of the nature of the zone. T5 the fight IS NOT about each boss....its about getting enough kills done within a time frame to force the spawn. Its probably unintentional at inception but its why this is such a GREAT bottleneck to later tiers: the spawn rates, forcing you to greater dps while pulling larger numbers of mobs at a time (and surviving those pulls!) to effectively get past the tier are what show you exactly WHERE you need work. Fiddling this is a very very bad idea. Its already been nerfed more than enough. That being said, I agree that alternatives with similar difficulty would be a great idea.....boredom and wanting to smash your monitor with a hunk of Australian coral from your aquarium in frustration can suck.

I'd like to see a completely new T10 or at least have it somewhat working better. The current one sucks and I got 15 chars right now in full T10 gear. I understand gut checks but 1000 plagueborns is basically 1 year of time for any hardcore player. Took Brunaa 10 months from the start to get 79. Then there are bosses that don't pop. The lag in there is still crazy compared to all other tiered zones.

I dont want a nerf to t5 i just want an alternative, not that im thinking to make another new toon but hey who knows......

^Samples of "tweaks" And good ones, IMO. I am against making T10 much easier but there is some shit in there thats just plain broken. T9 had similar issues, and took dozens of players MANY months and burning out two devs to get it fixed....though some would argue T9 tweaks may have delved too deeply into Nerfland.

And Ponzi, I understand. I am on hiatus now for a variety of reasons, including sheer raw boredom (not to mention a series of rather embarassing medical issues). Sadly a lot of end tier players are there, because the thought of doing yet another UW XI or spending another minute in T10 (which, as I have admitted is broken) makes us shut down the PC and reach for the TV remote....

Anyway, many of us are trying to discourage making EZ easier not because we want to deny content to anyone.....thats pure bullshit and you KNOW it. You've watched MANY of us help people through said content more than once, or offer drops/spawns to complete strangers. Its about making sure LESS players hit that boredom point many of us have hit, or are approaching. Its about trying to keep this game we all have loved for years (some of us as long as Live, or longer) viable and alive when so many seem to want to send it down the hypercasual, immediate gratification primrose path thats killed so many other games out there.

Anyway, the hell with it. screw this. Do what you want, I'm absolutely sick of people spewing this type of "oh, you're an elitist that just wants to keep the little guy down" bullshit. I'll simply hope that Akkadius is smarter and more farseeing than some others.

And Jarred....have you played T5? I missed it if you said you had. And sorry if I seemed to pick on you, but your statement made absolutely no sense unless you just assume you looked at what I typed and decided to only read every 5th word.

Actually, the server is pretty top heavy. A pretty large number of active players (not folks like me who log in once or twice a week) are either in T10 now or knocking on the door.

And to correct you, I am not asking to see T10 made easier. If anything I am one of the few out there saying T10 is on the right track, just needs some tweaks and fixes (and FYI, tweaks do not mean make it easier.....unless your a WoW reject). And you gotta read before ya type....I stated rather openly that it took me a while to finish T5, but that it really taught me a lot of lessons that I needed to learn later....lessons a lot of todays players ARE NOT LEARNING as well as many older players, because T5 is already FAR easier than when we cleared it.

T5 aint broke. The sheer number of people who get through it all the time prove that. It just FEELS that way while you're in it. By the time you're in T8 you almost look back at T5 as the "good old days".

If you are long past t5, why does it matter so much? Just sounds elitist if you ask me.

It always does if you look at it from the wrong side. Once you get passed it, you understand: making some of these zones/tiers easier/faster doesnt do anyone ANY favors, it trivializes gameplay, allows players to conquer content that much quicker, leads to ennui and discontent sooner and overall kills the quality of the4 player base. That effects EVERYONE.

I believe a re-tweeking is in order or maybe alternative route similar to how tofs is put in to help relieve Ldon farming. Don't get me wrong I don't want anything handed to me, just want to at least enjoy the experience.

Gutchecks are important. T5 purposely stops you and FORCES you to consider things like resists, DPS, max pull, etc. I can honestly say, looking back at the nightmarish amount of time it took me to get through T5 (and it was FAR FAR harder when many of us did it than it is now) that it was time well spent. It MADE me get my team prepped for T6 and beyond, and in ways beyond just the armor sets and epics. T5 needs to stay the way that it is IMO.

Alternatives to things like LDON or HoH for UC in ToFS and perhaps eventually T6 and T8 for further UC are a bit different, and we arent asking it to make things any faster or easier (in fact we'd be completely happy if backfarming alternatives to T6 and T8 were HARDER, just an alternative....as it is with ToFS). ToFS is definitely more difficult for the same charm upgrades than LDoN or HoH.

So with that in mind, sure, I'd be fine with a shortcut to T5....if it were as hard as T7.

And I know you may not have been around for it, but as I stated, T5 has BEEN retweaked numerous times...and in general its been made easier by far.

What about a zone similar to ToFS but for UC2 and UC3? An alternative in a dungeon crawl style, and something that scales to the people in the instance that would make it possible to get scales and/or upgrade orbs? Perhaps something that also has spiffy alternative loot? Keep it CoH free.

Zones that might work well for this: Dreadspire Keep, Deathknell, Skyshrine, Morell's Castle, etc.