There was a House of Commons chat with several of the designers of EverQuest last night, and quite a few questions were asked and answered. You can check out the logs here.
A quick recap of what was discussed:
For the next expansion, Ngreth - the tradeskill designer - hopes to add new cultural armor tiers as well as new type 12 augments for this cultural armor. But going into this, folks should expect higher tier augments, as the intent of them is to make the gear raid-level, so lower tier augments being added isn't something planned.
Ngreth also talked about the possibility of adding tier V and VI foci to augments, but wanted to point out that it's not something planned out or set in stone just yet. Ngreth is also going to be adding rank XII and possibly even rank XIII potions to the game with Secrets of Faydwer.
Maddoc comments on the next expansion's level-cap increase, and how it will affect current end-game content, as well as content from previous expansions. They're closely evaluating the impact the increase will have, as well as currently planning the progression for the trek to level 80.
Merloc touched on itemizaion in The Burning Sea, and how the augments from past content are somewhat obsolete due to the difference in slots for single-group and raid-dropped items. He also mentioned that one of his top issues to address is the poor performance of Solteris 2-handed weapons when compared to their 1-handed counterparts in terms of DPS output.
Prathun talked about going back and adding in low-level versions of some of the more popular high-level spells for classes, so that new players and alts can enjoy the same spells that their higher level counterparts do. He also commented on a question regarding raiding Wizard DPS, and the fact that he realizes there must be a balance between doing burst and sustained damage. Another topic of discussion was the Beastlord spell Ferocity; one player suggested that a group version be added, and the spell be improved, but Prathun mentioned that it's a tricky spell due to hard-caps, and not likely something easily improved.
He then commented on the cast times of spells, and mentioned that there is definitely something that needs to be done, because the current fast-paced raid environment does not really support 8 second cast times on spells, even when the casting time is reduced by the best available focus effect.
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