Mages

I don't know a whole lot about Mages. I've found that it's entirely too much for me to concentrate on. Fortunately, Bongo and Ship are both altaholics (actually, Ship is a charter member of Altaholics Anonymous, not that their 12 step program is helping him any. He comes back from every meeting with a new alt!) and both play Mage classes on a regular basis and were able to provide some feed back for me on this.

Bongotezz - "Necro nerfs were needed, but it's like the 'Great Ranger Nerf of '06' all over again. I think they're taking it too far. The dumbfire pets DPS is going down too, the tank pet is also having its dps reduced
but no reason why. He's not uber on DPS anyway. It's needed but nerfing too much, in addition the root, snare, and grabby hand thingy spell is being nerfed too."

Shipwreck - "Mage is where it gets dicey, so I will break Mage up into Enchanters, Sorcerors, and Summoners. Enchanters - Lots of nerfs in this LU to pay for the ability to affect Epics, and if you don't raid, you gain nothing. Most Enchanter control spells are also getting nerfec, and for Coercer at least they are also losing a lot of direct damage. Enchanters are losing direct damage, duration on crowd control spells, increased resistability on control spells, etc. If they don't raid, they are gaining nothing in return.

Sorceror - Wizards don't seem to be getting it too bad, since they are keeping stun on Ice Coment. Root and nuke at lower levels will be hard with the shortened durations, but I think Wizzies will be okay. Warlocks are getting shafted pretty hard. Their class defining spell is a DOT, which inherently breaks root more, but they are a root and nuke class. Add to that increase in group root resistability from 8% to 15%, shortened duration, and loss of stuns like everyone else and the Warlocks will be in a bad place.

Summoner - Pretty much the same thing for both Necros and Conjurers. Stun nerf won't hurt too badly. But the nerfing of pet classes will make a lot of people reevaluate how they play. I can understand the nerfage of scout and mage pets, but for Necros the tank pet also got nerfed. It wasn't all that great to begin with since recent changes. Summoners will be okay, but quite a bit harder than before, so it will be an adjustment. Overall, I think LU 24 will hit Enchanters and Warlocks the hardest."

Kyriel - "I'm a little concerned about the changes they're making to the roots/stuns, etc, because I have enough problems with interrupts and resists on my Wizard as it is now. I can't imagine how hard it is going to be for me to solo after the LU."

Scouts

I am completely incompetant at anything that doesn't involve healing. But! I know folks who play scouts. How totally convenient is this? Here's what my mini panel (they were all trying to play, and I made them die a few times answering my questions) had to say about the upcoming changes to their class (or in the case of Shipwreck, one of his 84359 alts).

Bongotezz - "The crowd control nerf is needed. Too many stuns, roots, etc. Every class has one. But they are nerfing scout cheap shot which really works against solo mobs anyway. No need to nerf it. They just are. Ranger Thorny Trap's root effect is being nerfed by time duration. Not sure if it's really needed. Most Rangers say they don't even use it. It's not fully reliable. It doesn't work like mage group nukes. You have to place it on the ground and hope the mobs walk over it."

Shipwreck - "Will hurt soloability, shorter stuns will lessen positional attacks you can use to solo, but again, we can adapt."

Darammer - "Only major scout change is Cheap Shot, our stun: Reduced from 6 to 4 seconds on solo mobs, and 2 to 1.5 on heroic. 6 seconds is a ridiculously long time; even 4 should be plenty to get most of one's positional attacks off. And if not, it adds a level of skill needed to soloing, via actually having to choose which attacks to use. We hadn't relied on our stun for anything other than interrupts on heroics anyways. Troubs are the only scout class that seem to be getting hit real hard; IMO, they should function as a poor man's chanter. Their charm is looking nearly useless to me now (8 seconds, 60 recast). Dirges actually get a root now; we're actually the only scout class that may arguably be getting an upgrade in this LU."

Tradeskills

Bongotezz - "I like the crafting nerf, but they nerfed it too much. Too much stuff will be available. They should have nerfed it to where you only need four subcombines, then one combine of the four for the final product. With crafting too easy, items will flood the market and drop prices down. That combined with increasing the rare drop rate if you're high in harvesting skill will make great items too cheap. Good for me to level up my jeweler, bad for crafters overall."

Darammer - "Tradeskill changes: I'm wary of em until I see em. I don't confuse making more combines in the form of subs with 'difficulty.' But now, more of one's time is going to be spent harvesting rather than tradeskilling."

Kyriel - "I really like the fact that they're getting rid of the multiple tradeskill zones. As a jeweler, I end up making palladium torques for a lot of people, and it'll be nice to not have to meet them in Castleview Hamlet every single time. If the harvesting changes are coming out in this LU, I'm REALLY looking forward to them."

Naturally, these are all impressions from reading the updates and discussions on the forums and some playing around on the test server. Since none of this has gone live yet, none of us really knows what's going to come of the changes being implemented. Are the changes going to make a big difference to how we play the game? Certainly. Will they bring about the end of EverQuest II as we know it? Highly doubtful. As always, I'm holding my opinions until I've actually played with the changes and seen what they do to us. I panicked just as much as the next Templar when LU 13 went live. But, I lived through it and I'm sure we'll all make it through this as well. Truly, one of the most remarkable things about EQ2 and MMO's in general is the constant evolution of the game. It's definitely one of the things that keeps me interested. Could be bumpy, but then again, it always is.