Runes of Magic US / AU

I don't think having a buff NPC that gives people the healer HP buff is going to stop people from needing a healer or playing a priest. I don't think the people who choose to play a K/P would stop because one of their buffs can be obtained from an NPC. I don't think the people playing the combo that gives Awakening of the Wild will stop playing the combo because the buff can be obtained from an NPC.

Some combos are not popular and some are but I don't believe a single buff will change what people choose to play. People either choose what's popular or what they enjoy to play and I don't judge either one.

The fact is that it's not difficult to make alts and get these buffs already. It's just a real pain in the *SS in my opinion. Some may enjoy it, they feel it's part of the challenge, but in my opinion it's not a challenge it's just wasted time and resources. There's plenty of game challenges that are fun and that take skill and not just a second monitor and a good comp to beat.

In my opinion, people who think they will lose their advantages are more prone to respond to this thread. In my mind, there's no doubt that this buff NPC would be welcomed by a majority of players even if that's not reflected by the responses.

Maybe I'm biased but I simply don't see a real downside to this suggestion except maybe if people don't understand the suggestion and rush to judgement on how it will affect the game. I suppose it's possible people could ragequit not understanding that it's buffs we can all easily get with alts right now so the devs are just making this part of the game simpler for everyone.

Anyways, that's my opinion, everyone has one but I think over time, if people understand the suggestion, they would agree that all it does is make things that should be simple, simple. I'm not asking to remove mechanics from instances or reduce xp/tp requirements. I'm saying, why make me load alts and swap screens for nothing. I can go buy another computer and waste my time swapping and loading toons but why? It doesn't make sense to me.

On a side note, I just heard from a guild member who currently runs endgame content with another guild that half their 12 man group is ALL alt buffers. So how many people are being excluded from their runs because they feel they need the space for alts more than they do for guild mates who've chosen to play a less popular class combo? Now I'm not suggesting every endgame group and guild does the same thing. But it makes the point that having this buff NPC would actually free space for real players. Just one more benefit to add to the list imo.

Also, it could be a choice of skills you add to the NPC after doing some work equal to power-leveling an alt. I mean if people are serious and find power leveling a fun challenge they can make it that way, I'm sure. But it may just end up being harder to get then it was to power level. But even that I wouldn't mind as long as it's reasonable. Personally I find it strange that I need to run multiple instances of a game to compete in siege. It doesn't seem right. I'm playing one game. It shouldn't indirectly require multiple clients to be loaded if that can be prevented. On the other hand, I like being able to load a second toon for other reasons but that's more of a choice then a virtual necessity. Hope that makes sense. For example, I like having one alt at AH while I farm on another. But I just do that by choice not by a need to match other players power. Anyways, enough said, hope people understand and support the idea, I've gone on long enough. Thanks for listening.

I think if people choose to stop playing a combo because they no longer need the main buff from it then it wasn't a combo they really wanted to play but were in essence forced to play like the previous reply suggests.

Obviously this buff NPC would affect some people's choice of which combo they play but only when it was combo they didn't really want to play in the first place. Someone who loves a combo probably won't change because of one buff.

Could people feel pressure to play something else because of a secondary non buff skill, or short term skill, that's possible but like I said before I think people will either play what's popular or what they like to play.

Personally, I don't think every combo has to be used to call the game a success. And if only one buff is keeping people using a combo then it's probably a sign that the combo needs something else to make it a desired combo. I could be wrong. I myself don't want everyone playing one of three combos either. But if a few combos lose a few players it's not the end of the world and points the devs to a problem with the combo in my opinion. Again, I could be wrong, I don't know.

As for the the level of buffs, the option to reduce or cap the buff NPC's power is an option the devs should consider for sure, but I think that would defeat most of the purpose really. It might give me an acceptable alternative so I think it would be better than nothing, but I would much rather the buffs be equal to what an alt would provide. But that's just my opinion.

Just to be clear I'm not talking about any short term buffs or skills. There may be exceptions, I don't know, but I trust the devs to use common sense.