Shattered Kingdoms

Griffon barbarians have always had less to lose from a death than any other player, and in return they also have a lower "upper limit" of what they can achieve. In my eyes, that has been preserved up until now.

While many recent changes have made alterations to multiple classes and cabals, they have all favored griffon MR barbarians more than any other race/class combination. A cabal skillset has been refactored to accomodate griffons, impairment has made debuff spells more effective, warlocks have been buffed, and Aura of Negation has been implemented. All of these changes, while they have buffed other combinations in one way or another, have most heavily buffed griffon MR barbarians, which was already the class which required the least prep to be near their complete effectiveness.

If you are too blind to see how that these positive changes to griffarbs in turn negatively affect every other melee class/race combo out there, then you're just being obtuse. It's hardly the slay command, but it's a change which diminished the sting of death for the class/race combo that was already least hurt by dying. It's also worthy of noting that griffon barbarians have absolutely no use at all for their enemies' EQ unless an ally needs it, so there's very little IC reason for a griffon barb not to give the "junk all" treatment to their enemies: It's the EQ which -makes- the other character more fit for combat, and after all, there's nothing which can be done back to the griffon barb to even the score.

You can spout "nonargument" like a mantra all you want, but if you do not possess the ability to see how buffing one build results in a weakening of other builds, maybe you shouldn't be taking part in balance discussions.

I know that I would hate being a shaman in the same group as the griffarb.

This is still a nonargument. Junklooting should not be part of your argument. Someone who was planning on junklooting you will do it whether they are a griffarb or not, and being one isn't going to make it any likelier for me to do it, unless that was one of the original goals behind my killing you in the first place. That's how PK works, and has no bearing on the actual discussion, which is about whether aura of negation is too strong or not. It doesn't even have any bearing towards YOUR argument, which is that griffon barbarians are too strong.

In other words: please cite examples and reasons why griffon barbarians might actually be too strong in the metagame, cite situations where the griffon barbarian has actually proven to be too strong in the metagame, and propose a solution or two. Right now your argument sounds like "OMG THEY CAN JUNKLOOT ME ALL THE TIME BECAUSE WHY NOT?!" and that is really, really pointless.

Playing against griffon MR barbs is not fun for every other barb/merc out there.

Let's assume that I'm playing a non-griffon barb/merc.

If I have sick enchanted armor, and I get ganked by any melee class that is not a griffon, he will take that armor, and wear it. I'm set back, naturally, but I have at least some option of getting it back.

If I have sick enchanted armor, and I get ganked by a griffon MR barbarian, my best case scenario is if he gives it to someone else or for some reason gives it back. He surely doesn't need it, and if he junks it I have to avoid fighting him until I can gather enough consumables and armor to face him again.

If I gank a human barbarian, I get to take his armor and consumables and become more powerful as a result.

If I gank a griffon MR barbarian, I get jack squat. In addition there's nothing stopping him from just enchanted a storebought weapon and coming right back as soon as SD wears off, if not sooner, because he doesn't need armor to be effective whereas every other melee class does.

Fighting an MR griffon barb gains me nothing, and also comes with the highest likelihood of me getting junked if I lose (Much more possible thanks to AoN).

Playing against griffon MR barbs is not fun for every other barb/merc.

QED

Pk that griffnewbarb into deletion, nuff' said bub.

I can't believe this thread is still ongoing

He could also sell it. Just saying.


This is where I think you are wrong. Equipment is still useful, even for a griffon barb, and some of that equipment would even be wearable by a non-griffon. Is it essential? Probably not for this particular race/class combo. But they are still less competitive without it and their maximum competitiveness without it is not as high as you are making it out to be.

Clearly the solution is to have griffons produce a lump of gold when they die. Never mind where it might come from but it might give people some incentive to just, you know, PK them profitably?

Seriously, I would rather have someone jloot me then take it to hoard it. If they jloot me, I can go and get the stuff back. If they take it, it usually means that they have better eq than me already and therefore, they are just either give it to a newb, sell it, or junk it. If your only purpose to pk is to take their consumables and eq then I say that you should get smacked with a disenlight. You should be ganking because it is part of the rp, not because you want to take stuff. Now, that being said, you can make the case that you gank people because you want to take everyone else's stuff.

nothingxs, I think their heart should drop and it is made out of ada that can be forged!

As things currently stand, having a griffbarb in the second rank spamming AoN on PCs is one of the best formations in PvP.