Being able to change class mid combat would be absurd given what they've said about their class/combat system. There's no way they'll allow that.
What is this fascination with giving spellcasters less health on top of less armor with less defensive abilities to boot. The universe didn't decree "glass cannons in every game for all time!"
In last years class panel they said they haven't locked down the specifics yet but you won't be able to change abilities/classes in combat.
Don't worry, I'm sure they'll have those, and perma-stealth complete with sick opening damage, ludicrous amounts of CC and 3 versions of vanish just in case they start to lose =D.
No offense but I think changing your life total every time you change classes in a game with 40 classes is kind of stupid. Armor can do the job of balancing just fine. I've never been a fan of the fragile caster preconception anyways. At least one series I've read has very robust casters because of the stress these energies put on the body. I would love for the body adjustments options to be extremely varied. Can there not be fatter elves or more sculpted Ogres? I don't think they will have that but it would be a step forward. I love the options I've seen from Archeage's character selection so far.
Casters usually get vastly improved defensive abilities - for instance being able to attack from range with no danger of retaliation ;p Along with various forms of crowd control. Giving them that AND equal armor and health would probably be controversial.
Without this balance paper rock scissors will not exist. Big guy go boom when pew pew hit him.
I would love to see your list of when spellcasters actually had the "burst" damage to justify this deficiency, in contrast to say RobXIII's callback of what classes really did the pew pew.
Its kind of hard to do a Wizard/mage/whatever that can nuke down an imposing mob quickly in an MMO. Especially when said mob is meant to be "group" content. Not to beat a dead horse, but the last time I saw that was in the Classic Planes in EQ. Three Ice Comets and a Hate mob was usually dead. Turning a 2-3 minute fight into 40 seconds with just one wizard. That is, if you dont have your face plastered across the floor by said mob first.
Also important to remember they were not mana burning anything relevant to the era. And sks could do similar things with HT AAs. Just ring of scale dragons and wuoshi slash lodizal.
You change classes by changing weapons. I doubt the team would make you go to a fixed location to change weapons, but I'm pretty sure it won't be allowed while in-combat.
What other options are you thinking of?
