I owed a Coercer comic to Merilith Prettylights of Permafrost, author of our Coercer Epic Quest guide... and here it is finally - and timely, at that!


It is always neat to see a long-neglected class get special attention. Coercers have had a tough go of it, really. They're not at all COOL like us Mystics, after all.

Anyway, come Live Update 45, the EQII Team is going to give them a big boost to their self-esteem and boominess, among other things... keep in mind that these are not final changes; they need to go on test, be subject to a ton of player feeback, and then tuned before going Live.

Posted by Chris "Aeralik" Kozak (Mechanics Programmer/Designer, Everquest II) to the official EQII forums:

"LU45 will see some significant changes to the coercer class. You guys appear far behind on dps especially compared to your illusionist counterparts so its time for some changes. These changes are preliminary and subject to change of course before going to test or while on test.

Possession - You guys dislike it and I think I dislike it even more. So this spell is getting a big change. Instead of temporarily controlling a creature, it will keep with the possession theme by creating an essence of the creature that is a controllable pet. It basically turns into an always on pseudo charm pet. This pet won't be able to zone or anything but you can at least use it in dungeons with groups or raids.

Reactives - These will be more oriented to players triggering them rather than having to rely on the npcs to trigger them. In addition, Cataclysmic mind will get an upgrade and be similar to the illusionist reactive except that it triggers off damaging spells hitting the mob.

Dehate Line - If the target of the spell gets aggro they will trigger a hate position loss instead of damage which should be more in line with the use of the spell.

Volatile Magic - This will change for all enchanters. The spell does not play well since I see many of the enchanters just spamming sprint to stay under 30% power. That really wasn't the intention of the skill at all. Instead it will be a reduced amount that applies regardless of your current power amount.

Power drains - To compensate some for the reduction to Volatile Magic, both enchanter subclasses will be getting their power drains turned into damage. In their current state these are more useful for their control effects rather than the actual power drains. After the changes the spells should be a bit more useful.

Mana Ward - This will change to be a powerful ward based on the amount of mana the coercer has remaining. It won't be as powerful as soul ward but it will be similar and thus a lot more useful.

Coercive healing - I haven't decided on exact specifics of this but it will see some changes to bring it more in line with illusionist aa lines.

Tashania - This will change to be extremely hard to resist and apply to all magical damage types. This should make it something you use on pull to help land debuffs with the new raid resists.

Feel free to post comments below. I will be reviewing them over time and as you react to them on test. As always make sure your feedback is constructive since that helps me the most. Also please keep the discussion coercer/enchanter oriented so that things are easier for me to find without having to read through off topic posts."

The post is already 14 pages long as of this writing, and the reasonable discussion contained therein is a testament to the folks who play the class. It makes for interesting reading.

And always remember: Be nice to your Coercer, or you may end up doing the Monkey Dance in your underwear.

;-)#
Brasse