Hello again Bolty!
This is something that has been in place at least since EverQuest started - the idea being that the caster classes get to dish out a lot of damage, very quickly. In order to keep that amount of damage under control, if they get aggroed and the mobs begin attacking the caster - the damage is stopped. Mana is another "controller" of the situation. Casters more often than not got put into support roles in EQ - An Enchanter buffed (cast friendly spells to help hp/attack speed/mana regeneration) his party members, and mezzed (mesmerized, essentially a "sleep" spell on mobs that would be broken when hit, or when the timer ran out) mobs. That was essential the job of the class as a whole, and they were quit essential later on in the game. In exchange for these abilities that made for great party utilization, Enchanters were not good soloers. The same problem was and still is there for many of the classes in EQ. Either you are a good soloer, and have difficulty finding groups, or you are a good group member and you can't solo. I'm happy that Blizzard is trying to address this in WoW, because honestly, not being able to solo absolutely stinks sometimes due to time restraints and the like.
Again, implemented long ago in other MMORPG's - the idea being to prevent abuse due to run-speed enhancements that would allow you to cast a spell on a mob, run away, and keep casting spells on the mob essentially allowing you to kite it with absolutely no risk to yourself. Kiting is a form of soloing that often occured in EQ with the classes who could solo, it involved slowing down monsters with a form of "snare" which is a type of spell that slows down the movement of monsters, and then nuking it to death. Particularly popular was "Quad Kiting" which involved simultaneously kiting 4 mobs of the same type. Effective for gaining exp, but somewhat difficult to do.
In EverQuest, if you got hit while casting a spell you were not charged the mana cost of the spell, however, there were fizzles which would completely eat the mana of your spell, randomly happened, and could occur at the worst possible moments (Need to get away? Casting a gate? Fizzle, recast, fizzle, recast fizzle, oom, and then the monster beats you into unconsciousness! Joy!). It is a pain, but the casters had their massive advantages over many of the melee classes in EQ because of their ability to solo, and their ability to get by with worse equipment than melee characters who needed decent weapons and armor in order to be
effective.
The justification for those disadvantages were in there in EQ, because of the caster's ability to attack from a distance and to do massive amounts of damage very quickly. With the introduction of the "manaburn" ability a couple of expansions ago to the Wizard class, it became possible to do some 50k damage with one almost instant cast spell. 50k damage! That in itself can kill the vast majority of monsters in the game, and it is part of the problem with the current situation in EQ. The "Old World" or the original part of the game was not designed for the candy that is being developed to deal with the constant damage and ability inflation that is going on in the expansions, and as such, things that used to take 50 or 60 people to do, now take a group. The rewards for those quests were designed to be fantastic, and now, they are easy to do, and you get groups who hoard the rewards for killing those monsters and doing those quests which has contributed to the "EverCamp" reputation of EverQuest...
If you have any questions about MMORPG's in general, just keep posting, I'll chip in with what knowledge I still have from my EQ experience. The adjustment from a Diablo to an MMORPG is very difficult at first, but MMORPG's are IMO, the future of gaming adventure because of the persistent world. It just needs to be perfected, and worked on. I'd still be playing EQ if my computer hadn't died on me, and thus broken my addiction due to an inability to get a new one at the time. Maybe it is better that the computer died on me, but EQ was still a blast while I played. :)
Baylan
Edit: quote failure
Quote:1) When a mage is attacked, its spell casting is interrupted/slowed down. Thus, the more hits you take, the less you dish out. With two attackers, you can often reach a point where you cannot strike at all. This doesn't happen to melee'rs.
This is something that has been in place at least since EverQuest started - the idea being that the caster classes get to dish out a lot of damage, very quickly. In order to keep that amount of damage under control, if they get aggroed and the mobs begin attacking the caster - the damage is stopped. Mana is another "controller" of the situation. Casters more often than not got put into support roles in EQ - An Enchanter buffed (cast friendly spells to help hp/attack speed/mana regeneration) his party members, and mezzed (mesmerized, essentially a "sleep" spell on mobs that would be broken when hit, or when the timer ran out) mobs. That was essential the job of the class as a whole, and they were quit essential later on in the game. In exchange for these abilities that made for great party utilization, Enchanters were not good soloers. The same problem was and still is there for many of the classes in EQ. Either you are a good soloer, and have difficulty finding groups, or you are a good group member and you can't solo. I'm happy that Blizzard is trying to address this in WoW, because honestly, not being able to solo absolutely stinks sometimes due to time restraints and the like.
Quote:2) A mage must stand still to perform a spell attack. This does not apply to melee'ers, who can attack while running.
Again, implemented long ago in other MMORPG's - the idea being to prevent abuse due to run-speed enhancements that would allow you to cast a spell on a mob, run away, and keep casting spells on the mob essentially allowing you to kite it with absolutely no risk to yourself. Kiting is a form of soloing that often occured in EQ with the classes who could solo, it involved slowing down monsters with a form of "snare" which is a type of spell that slows down the movement of monsters, and then nuking it to death. Particularly popular was "Quad Kiting" which involved simultaneously kiting 4 mobs of the same type. Effective for gaining exp, but somewhat difficult to do.
Quote:3) Even if a mage misses with its spell, it is still charged with the mana cost of the spell. This doesn't happen to melee'rs, from what I've heard (warriors using rage).
In EverQuest, if you got hit while casting a spell you were not charged the mana cost of the spell, however, there were fizzles which would completely eat the mana of your spell, randomly happened, and could occur at the worst possible moments (Need to get away? Casting a gate? Fizzle, recast, fizzle, recast fizzle, oom, and then the monster beats you into unconsciousness! Joy!). It is a pain, but the casters had their massive advantages over many of the melee classes in EQ because of their ability to solo, and their ability to get by with worse equipment than melee characters who needed decent weapons and armor in order to be
effective.
The justification for those disadvantages were in there in EQ, because of the caster's ability to attack from a distance and to do massive amounts of damage very quickly. With the introduction of the "manaburn" ability a couple of expansions ago to the Wizard class, it became possible to do some 50k damage with one almost instant cast spell. 50k damage! That in itself can kill the vast majority of monsters in the game, and it is part of the problem with the current situation in EQ. The "Old World" or the original part of the game was not designed for the candy that is being developed to deal with the constant damage and ability inflation that is going on in the expansions, and as such, things that used to take 50 or 60 people to do, now take a group. The rewards for those quests were designed to be fantastic, and now, they are easy to do, and you get groups who hoard the rewards for killing those monsters and doing those quests which has contributed to the "EverCamp" reputation of EverQuest...
If you have any questions about MMORPG's in general, just keep posting, I'll chip in with what knowledge I still have from my EQ experience. The adjustment from a Diablo to an MMORPG is very difficult at first, but MMORPG's are IMO, the future of gaming adventure because of the persistent world. It just needs to be perfected, and worked on. I'd still be playing EQ if my computer hadn't died on me, and thus broken my addiction due to an inability to get a new one at the time. Maybe it is better that the computer died on me, but EQ was still a blast while I played. :)
Baylan
Edit: quote failure