Classflex and the Doctoral Tam of the Anomaly

Viynain

Now that I've taken the time to review the list of released artifact goodies once again, I find myself wanting to know: is the Doctoral Tam great as-is, or is it still too prohibitive in relation to classflexing?

Mind, I want to preface all of this with the fact that I'm absolutely thrilled with the availability of classflexing. However, that 12 RL day delay between switches stops me in my tracks each time, especially with how limited my time in the game is lately.

The Tam's release, however, brought me more hope. While reading that instead of 12 RL days, it's down to 3 RL days makes the delaying mechanic an easier pill to swallow, it's still quite a hefty pill. A lot can happen in the span of one hour, let alone seventy-five, and the possibility of being locked out of your main role in that time is not that great an idea to entertain. Besides - 3 RL days is still a heck of a long time when you have a small timeframe to play.

I wonder though - is it just me, or are there actually roving bands of people utilizing classflex with a Tam that are thrilled with it? Of course, compared to pre-classflex we're lightyears ahead, but is the current situation ideal and I'm just greedy (likely), or are people just sucking it up because it's what we have?

Lorina

I have also wondered this too. I mean, don't get me wrong, I LOVE classflexing. I finally had a place to dump all my lessons.

But I was wondering the same... am I just being too greedy in my desire to classflex earlier than 3 days? What would happen if I classflex out of Aquamancer(primary) into my more supportive role of Celestine? Combat is so dynamic and strategies vary greatly... I found myself afraid to leave my primary.

It's my opinion that the 12 day limit without the Tam is pretty intense. Opening that up to half that time even would allow more breathing room for folks to try new classes (and buy credits *hint hint*), but still be able to fall back on their primary role. The Tam is one expensive artifact, and VERY worth it for folks who enjoy multiclassing, but the Tam's 3 day cooldown is a tad bit much.

 I would almost say 3 day would be good cooldown for folks without a Tam and to just make a Tam like a Cameo to where it can work once a month. Maybe more? HOOOOOPE.

Lavinya

I'd actually have no problem with classflexing with Tam having the same limit as the cameo - once per game month. I'd likely be tempted to make use of it in that case.

Lerad

As a point of reference, Aetolia's classflex cooldown is 12 hours. You can spend 30 lessons to reset that cooldown, with each subsequent reset costing +10 lessons on top of that, reseting to 30 lessons at 0 GMT every day. Their artifact to reduce classflex cooldown is 750 credits, and reduces it to 1 hour. They earn most of their $$ from limiting the amount of classes you can hold (2 for all players by default) with a credit cost to increase the amount of slots you have. 100 for the first increase, 200 for the second, 300 for all subsequent increases.

In summary, it costs them 1250 credits to get a 1 hour classflex cooldown for 5 classes, with around 4300 credits needed to tri-trans all the skills of the 5 classes.

For full disclosure, I have a tam, and am slowly working toward getting my classflexes through RP means, and I have a vested interest in seeing our cooldown greatly decreased.

I also feel 75 hours is excessive, much less 12 RL days. Of course, 1 hour cooldowns might not be a good idea, and just because Aetolia does it that way doesn't mean we need to follow them blindly like sheep. However, a more reasonable cooldown will allow more people to get into the system and enjoy it, RP and mechanics both.

Saran

As far as I'm aware, MKO has neither a restriction on how many classes you can hold (though they only have four) nor how how many times you can "flex". 

The only restriction I can remember is that it takes an hour to complete the process normally and 25 lessons per skillset (so 75 for the full three). The relevant artefact there just speeds up the process and removes the lesson cost (250 / 45 minute recovery, 500 / 30 minutes, 1000 /15 minutes).

Personally, I think that, at the very least, classflexing back to your guild's class should be really simple and quick without artifacts. 

Otherwise... with the current timers, even with artifacts, it's kinda prohibitive. I've flexed to Spiritsinger to try to get to demigod but it's really unlikely that I'd happily go back to druid until I'm done, and once I've gone back it seems unlikely that I'd go back without some good reason. 

On the flip-side, I have nearly every trade. I happily sink lessons into skills until I have them all and the cord is attractive because of this. I would love to be a Moondancer again, but the restrictions on classflexing are holding me back (we'll see about the rp side in time). 

Idk, I guess the 2k artifact and base restrictions are actually standing in the way of me spending more money on the smaller purchases I would make (lessons, relevant artifacts, etc)

Enyalida

None of the other IREs that have multiclassing require you to pay a further cost to access skills you've already spent on, either, as far as I know.

@Lerad, they don't earn most of their money by making you buy more class slots: The majority of $$ is spent getting the lessons for the new class. Making it easier and more palatable to purchase more classes will inevitably bring in more than forcing players to repeatedly repay for access to what they've already paid for.

Arcanis

In the cord's current state, I find it too expensive for what it gives. I think it alone should perhaps be 500 and then better options presented at higher prices.

Synkarin

The Cord is definitely worth every credit of the 1.1k credits it costs

I have a Tam, and I love it because I can switch between brewmeister to tinkering to enchant something and right back to brewmeister without having to worry about waiting the couple of hours it used to take. That alone makes the Tam pretty great

Tarkenton

+1 to cord being awesome as is.  I utilize it for swapping tradeskill/acro/psymet all the time depending on what I happen to be doing.  Granted, it's an hour cooldown each time, but that isn't too big a deal to me.  I can find something to occupy myself for an hour between skillflexes.

Ciaran

I got the tam mostly because it allows more skillflexing. The classflexing is just a lesson consuming soul consuming bonus.

Saran

I guess this is kinda two, related but also, distinct discussions in here.

One about the mechanics of classflexing (and possibly even skillflexing), looking at the restrictions and costs of this system at it's basic level. 

And another about the worth of the doctoral tam in relation to this system.

Relative to the system as it currently functions to Tam is pretty cool and awesome.

The system itself though... it's notably more expensive and has a longer time restriction than anything similar in IRE at entry level, which lets be honest this will always be compared to the other games because enough players cross between the various realms to feel a disparity.

I guess the next level of the issue with comparison is that the cost of the Tam doesn't actually make classflexing as good as the entry level version available in the other games.

One difference that does fit though is the ability to lose access to your skills if you go against the guild that controls them. (Even getting permission might be different but not sure) But in turn this becomes a restriction that doesn't exist elsewhere.

Enyalida

I'd hazard to say that players also spend more on skills than in any other IRE. Not that they need to, to compete, but we have generally more common skills, and more guild skills than any other game. 

Saran

In turn we spend more on things like trade artifacts (because it's worth to have more than just one) and the endowment.

Compared to MKO... they charge you a gold (their money works differently, maybe roughly 10000 gold here) and you just have the skill, no need to swap in or out if you want more as you just buy more.

Aetolia on the other hand charges 100 credits (I think this is the same as Achaea and Imperian?) per trade but they're miniskills so half the lessons and it looks like you can have multiple of them active at once (though no combat bonus I think), they then also have talents which cost between 60 to 80 credits to learn and seem to give really specific trade options (Like floristry, bombcrafting, fletching, etc).

Aetolia here seems to follow the mindset of a lot of small transactions over time. 

Viynain

Well, this sure has brought up a good bit of perspective from the other players for me, and I thank everyone for that.

The consensus seems to agree that the Doctoral Cord is wonderful because the underlying mechanic it supports is stable enough to not be too limiting, even without the artifact. The Cord is not by any means needed, but it's desirable for its main purpose, and I feel this more than justifies its cost.

The Tam, however, functions nicely to better emphasize the skillflex perks of the Cord, but the main perk of it bolstering classflexing seems to fall short because the mechanic itself is still too limiting with the artifact, let alone without it. The artifact is undesirable for its main purpose, and just peripherally desirable for another - but is it enough to justify its cost?

My question then really turns to @Estarra or maybe @Ieptix - are we at the point where classflexing is set in its ways, or could the Tam still be refined a bit more?

Saran

Viynain said:

Well, this sure has brought up a good bit of perspective from the other players for me, and I thank everyone for that.

The consensus seems to agree that the Doctoral Cord is wonderful because the underlying mechanic it supports is stable enough to not be too limiting, even without the artifact. The Cord is not by any means needed, but it's desirable for its main purpose, and I feel this more than justifies its cost.

The Tam, however, functions nicely to better emphasize the skillflex perks of the Cord, but the main perk of it bolstering classflexing seems to fall short because the mechanic itself is still too limiting with the artifact, let alone without it. The artifact is undesirable for its main purpose, and just peripherally desirable for another - but is it enough to justify its cost?

My question then really turns to @Estarra or maybe @Ieptix - are we at the point where classflexing is set in its ways and we just have to deal, or could the Tam still be refined a bit more?

Just quickly, I personally feel that the base should be modified as well. If only the Tam is changed then the disparity between those who can afford it (on top of the other costs) and those who can't just kinda increases and doesn't resolve the entry cost.

Enyalida

Or even better: The system refined more, with the Tam potentially being changed as a side-effect.

Viynain

Either, really, but it all depends on the thoughts of Those On High - if they feel classflex is pretty set, or that the Tam is staying put, then that answers my big questions about these opportunities.

Shuyin

Lol. Good luck. I can see reducing class flex b time with the tam but that's about it.

Saran

Yeah, again I'm mostly just telling the admin how to get more money out of me. It's their choice in the end.