Class Skills category of the EverQuest II Development section of the forums each class has their own sub forum specifically for class ability change recommendations and discussion. A forum user with a membership account will be able to make a proposed change thread. Other forum users with membership accounts will then be able to participate in a discussion about the pros and cons of the change in that thread.
Each proposed change should be to a single ability or line of abilities, and be as specific as possible. Requests for changes to multiple abilities will be closed.
Based on that discussion, development will flag the thread as either In Consideration, or Declined. If a proposed change is Declined, the thread will be closed for further discussion. If a proposed change is Declined, but still of interest, a new thread for that change can be opened at a later date.
If a thread is flagged as In Consideration, development will update the thread with the amount of time the proposed change will take to make, and the change will be open for further discussion with that work estimate, so the community can decide if the change is worth the time and resources it will take.
Barring any major shifts in the discussion, the In Consideration thread will then be moved to in Voting, and a voting poll will be posted linking to the change thread. The poll will be open to all forum users with an active membership, and run for approximately two weeks and then closed. If the poll results in a 60% or higher yes vote, the change will be adopted, and the change thread will be marked as In Progress, which means it will be added to the schedule.
Once the work for the change is completed, the change thread will be moved to Resolved, and the change will be in an upcoming update.
Each class will have the same allocation of development time designated towards these changes per year, a change that takes 10 hours of development time would reduce the amount of time that class has in that calendar years allocation, while a class that voted to adopt ten 1 hour changes would see ten changes in the same time allocation.
FAQ
Each proposed change should be to a single ability or line of abilities, and be as specific as possible. Requests for changes to multiple abilities will be closed.
Based on that discussion, development will flag the thread as either In Consideration, or Declined. If a proposed change is Declined, the thread will be closed for further discussion. If a proposed change is Declined, but still of interest, a new thread for that change can be opened at a later date.
If a thread is flagged as In Consideration, development will update the thread with the amount of time the proposed change will take to make, and the change will be open for further discussion with that work estimate, so the community can decide if the change is worth the time and resources it will take.
Barring any major shifts in the discussion, the In Consideration thread will then be moved to in Voting, and a voting poll will be posted linking to the change thread. The poll will be open to all forum users with an active membership, and run for approximately two weeks and then closed. If the poll results in a 60% or higher yes vote, the change will be adopted, and the change thread will be marked as In Progress, which means it will be added to the schedule.
Once the work for the change is completed, the change thread will be moved to Resolved, and the change will be in an upcoming update.
Each class will have the same allocation of development time designated towards these changes per year, a change that takes 10 hours of development time would reduce the amount of time that class has in that calendar years allocation, while a class that voted to adopt ten 1 hour changes would see ten changes in the same time allocation.
FAQ
- My class all want a specific change, why should players of other classes get a vote?
- Class and content balance in EverQuest 2 are very interlinked, and the community as a whole gets to participate in any proposed changes, as a change to any class may have ramifications that are felt by all other classes.
- Stats affect class balance, can we ask for itemization changes?
- This is for class ability changes only, not for itemization or content change wishlists.
- Some content mitigates physical damage more then it mitigates spell damage, can we ask for content to stop that?
- As above, this is for class ability changes only, not for itemization or content change wishlists.
- There are more Assassins then there are Swashbucklers, can we have more allocated time for updates?
- No. No class is more important then any other class.
- If an ability is not working as described, should we use Class Update Requests to get them fixed?
- Bugs are handled outside of the Class Update Request process, and should be reported in the Bug forums.
- If I think a class has an ability that is too powerful, is it valid to request a change to reduce that power?
- Yes. While everyone likes the idea of buffs over nerfs, rampant increasing of power to match an ability that is in essence broken due to it's power just leads to broken content and content mechanics.
- A change I want to see was not moved to In Consideration or didn't pass the poll, what do I do?
- If a change you think has merit does not get adopted by, then you can open another discussion about it after the initial thread has been closed. A different approach to explaining the purpose of the change, or more community involvement in the discussion about a proposed change is a perfectly valid reason for revisiting a declined change, however it will be treated as an entirely new proposal.
- Will there be any changes to classes that are not voted on through Class Update Requests?
- Yes. Development will still make changes based on releases or the needs of content development.