The reagent cost ruins the spell for me. I was dirt poor for the entire beta, every time I thought oh cool I actually have some money, maybe I can buy an upgrade. Then I'd remember I'm coming up on a spell level soon better go get those. And like that....it's gone. Tried slangin crack to fund spells, got a 2-3 single silver tips, over a couple hours during high pop time. Most gave nothing but the amount that showed up at all was exceptionally low, and it's not like I was doing it wrong because I lived on it for years in EQ, I know how to slang. Once I got a request to cross a few zones for a full buff and the guy gave me 30s. That was it in 39 levels, so if you guys are imagining we are getting crowd funded, that isn't happening and that was when they lasted an hour.
I def will not be paying silver to cast buffs. As stated by others the mana cost is way too high. We have other responsibilities and we need to always have a pretty hefty reserve of mana to cover that 'oh shit pull'. The devs seem to think there are these things called mana breaks, but they aren't really a thing generally. Sometimes there might be like 5 mins bio break but I never see mana breaks. We are less required than in in EQ, the Last thing I want to do is be the guy who stops the xp flow. I will warn them that at the current rate I have to start cutting out some buffs/debuffs to maintain. Most pullers will take that sacrifice, as long as you are there to bail them out when they mess up. The cost of the buffs are now more expensive per min. Along with the dmg reduction, I'm wondering how many less groups am I going to be getting, and what will I do while I'm waiting since soloing has been heavily nerfed?
The thing that pisses me off the most is I know these changes were designed to curb the buff trade, which we never even benefited from. Just make sow a little slower and maybe people would be less addicted to it. It feels significantly faster than it does in EQ.
