merc2

Yes, I see three options that make sense to me. Remove buffs completely, make the class specific buffs not be party buffs (so every class just has there own buffs), or make a way to get full buffs with out needing 4 party members.

I don't know how much rose you've played over the years, but I know I have played too much. I could sit in a spot and mindlessly farm for hours on end. 95% of the time I want to be alone so I don't have to split the zulie after it took 6 hours to get the drop.

hmm really? So you would rather search for a soldier, muse, and a hawker for a full buff on a dealer? I don't think you even realize what you are saying here. You act like its easy to find a group of people everywhere I go and for everything I want to do. That is so far from the truth. Half the time the parties are full and the other half they are looking for a specific class to fill a spot or two, and that's just trying to level up. Maybe I want to level up in a different spot where I know a unique drops (lil brother got one to drop yesterday) but there isn't a single person but me on the map.

I'd rather be a mage with heals over a battle cleric.

Also cleric feels like the same thing, just with out its buffs. Now its just an afk healer pressing 2 buttons?

You can only run two game clients, so its impossible to go solo and get all the buffs. Best you can do alone is buffs from two classes. Literally forcing you to play with others to get the full ROSE experience. The thing that always kept me coming back to rose was the fact that I didn't need anyone to help me when I wanted to do something. Just log a cleric and farmer and spend hours in a spot alone. I'm looking at the bigger picture not just leveling. Like when you want to run into a pvp zone and get picked off, how will you rebuff? Or if I want to log for 20mins and mess around in pvp zones, I'm going to have to face people with full buffs running me down. My brother and I used to love going into pvp zones and picking off 3 or 4 people from different clans when ours wasn't online. A lot of the classic things that I was looking forward to doing don't seem possible or at the very least way more challenging than they were. Another point I should have mentioned earlier is that this game is going to rely on OG players not new players that have never played ROSE before. Most likely still playing on a different server. If these players are going to migrate and stay here, it would probably be best to not prohibit them from doing what they have been for years.

Hmm where to start? I don't mind the cleric changes. What bothers me about it is that I have to have one of each class in the party to get a full buff, why?? Yes its an mmo but every mmo has solo players or small groups of 2-3 people. But now this is the only mmo that makes you feel like you have to play with a decent sized group to do regular world content. Also the idea that this stops "buff slaves" is just a dream that will never happen, as long as there is a way to buff another player. there will be alt characters with max charm and base stat to get the best buff possible. with their only purpose being to give 4 buffs to the party and then go afk waiting to be brought back into the party for a rebuff. The buff system is unique to ROSE and drastically changing it could be good but also could prove to be bad in the long run. Has there been any thought into just removing them completely or trying an approach where buffs aren't shared by the party. Giving each class there own buffs would make them even more unique. Could even give cleric access to weaker versions of all the buffs. in conclusion, I think there is more work to be done here with the buff system. I've been playing different versions of ROSE for over a decade, and have many friends that won't even try this one because of the buff changes. I like the idea but also hate being forced to play with strangers that don't even speak the same language half of the time.