The Best Buff Only System

[John Adams]

I've heard discussions from both camps about Vanguards "Best Buff Only" system; that it was a last minute addition in the life of the game, that some loved it and that some hated it. Where do you stand? Is "BBO" something we should even be emulating?

[Jakkal]

I greatly disliked it. The VG devs blamed buffs for the lag, which wasn't the case. Most of us knew the big switchover in April 2012 caused the lag that they could never end (the running theory was that they put VG on cheaper hardware). Then very late in the game they decided to do this BBO thing.

To basically give an idea of how this works (From what I remember), If you have class buffs with the same stat, only the highest one of that stat will be placed on the character. So let's say a Cleric buff gives you 30 con, and a Pally buff gives you 20 con. In the old system, you got 50 con. In the BBO system, you got 30 con.

Buffs were important to people because while the gear capped you, Buffs didn't. So if you were capped out in Con from gear and augs, you could get more via buffs.

The only thing good about BBO was giving the lower levels a lower version of the All-In-One buff, so they didn't have to cast 5-6 buffs on everyone, just the one buff. That's the only thing that I would keep from the BBO system.

[Faux]

I don't have a strong opinion about BBO either way, but our current spells list is predicated upon implementing it. When the devs designed BBO, they dropped pretty much all the old spells and combined them into the class BBO line, but they drastically inflated the numbers I believe because they knew that the spells wouldn't directly add.

We can revert BBO by adding in the old spells (if we can find references to them anymore) or we could keep the current line and retune the actual buff numbers and let everything stack. I kind of like the idea of having an "all-in-one" type buff so you don't have to have extra hot bars just to hold your buffs, but I wouldn't mind not having to implement bbo. I already have the code done to implement it (it won't change that much in retuning the system) though so not really a hassle to keep bbo in.

[Starcrusher]

I'm with Jakkal on this one. I hated most of it, but did like the all-in-one buffs for lower levels.

[Frawr]

I also disliked it. I felt that it was an unnecessary simplification/alteration, possibly implemented (from memory) as a means to reduce server load by reducing the number of buffs cast. Note that this was never an issue before the April 2013 patch.

I preferred the 'complexity' (if you can call it that) of stacking buffs from different classes and I would much prefer that this original system be reimplemented.

[Amnath]

Did not like it. Had less charm, moved VG more in line with most other games. Supposedly was part of changes to improve performance, and to simplify the path for expanded content/new gear.

For some reason, at lower levels I like having the distinct buffs which increase incrementally at different levels. Also makes the high level buff more of an achievement.

[elquar]

I have no pref here.


I could not honestly comment on the buff system since i only played a druid to 23 i think original release of vanguard so didn't even get to really notice the old buff system.


just my 2 cents

[MayorTibbles]

I never liked they BBO because being a diplomat I loved going around to various cities getting all of the buffs up that were possible thereby helping everyone with their crafting extra diplo cards/buffs etc.

[Cyrcle]

Didn't care for it much, but I liked the idea of having all your class buffs in one buff early on instead of having 4+ buffs per class. You could to get a combined buff from APW or later, but I sure did hate having the entire length of my screen taken up by buffs. Combining them into one buff and allowing them to stack would be nice.

[Billham]

I didn't like BBO though I did like the combo buff.