You asked the questions!

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Bard

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Bards are an incredible multi-functional class. The phrase Jack of All Trades is often used in describing them. Bards are one of the premier pulling classes in the game, and has considerable crowd control abilities. When it comes to damage, Bards have always contributed more through Attributable DPS than through direct contribution. While we may increase bard DPS as part of normal upgrades, giving them DPS “in line with other Hybrids” would make them far too powerful.

With the release of the Veil of Alaris, we’ve added quite a bit of functionality to instruments. Currently if you have the appropriate instrument, it adds an extra tick of duration to most songs of that instrument type, making even more powerful and complex weaves possible. These changes are pretty deep, so we’re evaluating their long term impact before we consider any other possible changes.

Magician

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Pets have never been intended to be a primary raid tank, because this somewhat limits a number of classes from fully participating in raids. While pets can sometimes be a very short term stop gap measure when something has gone wrong, raids should not be tankable by pets for long durations. We do plan in the future to mitigate the ability of pets to tank most raid targets; however we’ll definitely keep the group game in mind when we make these adjustments. We’ll unveil the details of these changes at a later date.

Monk

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Ellie: Bare Midriffs.

The concept of a unique class-defining ability or characteristic simply hasn’t survived over the 13 years of EverQuest. Monks are still a very well rounded DPS class, can handle limited tanking, pulling, and even some limited crowd control. If there is a class-defining characteristic, we would say it is that they are quite good at a wide range of roles.

Paladin

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We're not looking to improve Paladin damage against undead. We always aim to make the two knights roughly equal in terms of survivability while preserving their unique playstyles. Both knight classes could use some improvement in their ability to tank. Paladins will continue to get normal upgrades to their existing undead abilities, but it is not a good idea for any class to become too specialized.

A group geared paladin would be best served as a tank for group content, with the additional ability to do some spot healing or cures if necessary.

Warrior

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This is an interesting idea to consider, but right now it has multiple issues. We currently do not have a good way to drop you in front of the target, and not “in” the target and thus “unable to see” the target. Lag would also affect your “charge”, and as things stand now it is a “leaping” charge, so low ceilings get in the way. We are not against the idea, but as mentioned, it has several issues that make it unfeasible at this time.

Beastlord

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While Beastlords are a Hybrid class with a diverse range of abilities, the Track ability is not currently planned as a future addition. Beastlords are primarily a hybrid of Monk and Shaman, while Track is the special ability of Rangers (and to a lesser extent Druids and Bards). While Beastlords do have many elements of other classes, most recently they were given a limited Feign Death like ability through the AA Playing Possum, Track is not on their list.

Druid

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Druids are the most damage focused of the priest classes, but maintaining a balance between their damage and healing abilities is important. Versatility in roles is key to the Druid class, and if we were to further focus the class towards damage output the cost would come in healing abilities.

Class Systems/Itemization Questions:

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There are no plans to review epic quests at this time, nor to make any ornaments with their functionality. One of the interesting aspects of Epic Weapons is that their powerful focus abilities often come with the limitation that the weapon needs to stay equipped in order to benefit from the bonuses provided. This sort of thing is self balancing as gear overall becomes more powerful, without forcing us to constantly include the epic focus effects in our balancing equations.

Epic type quests take an enormous amount of Design time; something that is difficult to justify for one quest for one class. Taking that same amount of time we can make a lot more content that is available for all classes. Right now we are not planning on an epic 3.0 for that reason.

We also do not plan to alter the current epic quests. By their name, they need to continue to be epic, even if it is older content. One of the fondest memories many players have in EverQuest is the feeling of accomplishment that they have after completing their class Epics. We don’t want to cheapen that in any way, or deny that same experience to future players.

Off the beaten path

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Ngreth - Yes, you can hear yourself.

Aritso - Depends on how far you fall.

Elidroth - As a tree illusion, you cannot move, therefore you cannot fall. This is a trick question.

Ngreth - Which came first? The Bard or the Song?

Aristo - About five minutes after their first encounter with a bard-specific rule.

Elidroth - 0.68 seconds, which for an android is an eternity.

Ellie - Really, it depends on how long the rest of the developers want to make the new one suffer. J