I've gone from -8000 to about -6000 in 3 hours, with a group that started as a trio and gradually picked up more members. We even wiped about four times and a lot of people had to take 'quick' AFK of 5 to 10 minutes. I don't see this as a real problem... I've scouted a bit and the south ruins have mobs that are purple to me, and probably give faction as well. I could exp here for days and have fun while doing it, too.
Besides, Orcs aren't the only ones getting shafted. So are Gobbers and Dark Elves. If you have just one member in the group who can get the Foes of Vol Turiel (or something like that) quest from the building immediately right when you come in, they can share it with the group. If they also get you the quest for the North ruins by the paladin right next to the broker, you'll be non-KOS by the time you've finished both and can then proceed with the other quests.

Side note: I hadn't gotten a single positive faction hit before starting those quests, and did them both in about a half hour.
FD II at level 30 failed on me three times before I died, so that was not an option for me to get the quests.

Then I like the http://vg-en.curse-gaming.com/database/items/details/1034682/ratunmas-chestguard/ better. It drops off the named at the top of the Tomb of Lord Tsang.

Speaking as a Dragon monk, I don't think new stances are the solution. First of all, switching stances requires little to no brains. Second of all, the new ones would have to overwrite existing ones. Finally, the ones for Dragons make sense to me, why rethink a good idea?

Erm... ALL offensive casters have a dispell... druid and necro I've played, PSI and SOR I've heard. We HAVE a form of dispell... Pushing Hands, which can dispell the stance the mob is in. We also get the 8 sec DPS debuff as a reactive. Forgot the name.

I might only be 30, but I feel I have to chime in. Overall ANY attention to ANY class is good. These changes IMO are highly positive. I cannot comment on RITW because I haven't found the mobs that will teach it yet - spend all of my time on Qalia.
The thing is, when those casters are getting hit, they'll drop rather fast. We, as a melee class, get hit, and dodging a lot of hits probably feels like cheating to devs although it isn't, really.

I don't know how you play, but I use WASD in combo with my mouse. One mob pounding on me is no problem whatsoever, because if I see that's happening, I just get up by pressing any WASD button. No need to even click your FD hotkey or remove the icon. You can also combine moving with clicking on your defensive stance button, can you not?

I fail to see the problem. I have no problem with the one minute timer as it is and five minutes makes it easier. But honestly, what's the point in asking for 15 or 30 minutes? All you're doing is diverting attention from other abilities to go from 12 clicks an hour (5 min timer) to 4 or 2. Gimme a break.

Currently, it's not 30, it's 20. But yes, you will have ten seconds where no secret is up.  It's worse now - 20+20 = 40 for a reuse of 60 per ability. Which means you'll be going from 20 to 10 seconds without a proc Secret active.

When I dinged 30, I redid my hotbars and added Dragon's Rage again. So far, after about 20 uses, it opens up finishers every single time.

Update: I've had my first non-opener, non-crit with Dragon's Rage today. It happened when moving.

Is there any place on Qalia where I could learn Reed in the Wind I? I could probably go to Trengal Keep, but I'm not looking forward to an hour of travel...

I love the damage changes !

About the 20% mitigation loss: I regularly tank in Storm Dragon stance with a group of buddies, and the healers (2 of them) didn't notice an increase in healing needed, nor did I see my health drop faster than before. The change to mitigation is, as far as I can tell, non-existant or marginal. Perhaps it wasn't in the tooltip before but it is now?

I agree with Chunli on the topic of AEs, and to the OP: regen wasn't added to Stone Dragon, it was added (as it should have been) to Dragon Stance - our "neutral" one.

I voted FD, very closely followed by stances.

Hey folks,

I've got a very odd thing going on with my specialisation points. If I have my facts straight,  they only provide a benefit if they're maxed, right? Well, I can max four skills, but I'm lacking exactly five points to max my last skill - so I'd have 5/7 skills maxed. Is this a bug or working as intended? Am I wrong on only a maxed skill providing benefits? FYI, I'm talking about skills like Martial Staff, Handwraps, Knuckles, etc, not about 2HS, 2HB, 2HP or H2H.

The problem is, in most fights a mob won't last much longer than 30 secs to begin with. Only on nameds and their adds should a ranger by that logic drastically outdamage us. So I'd say: either re-evaluate their 'study meter' to work as it's supposed to or up our damage by a lot.

I, for one, do not want auto-attack to be the bulk of damage. Why? Because it's boring and makes botting easier. As for 'special attacks', abilities like Boundless Fist and Six Dragon Strike are not by any means Special Attacks. Why? Because they can be used at any time you want.

What are specials are things like the Secrets, Ashen Hand, Jin Surge, etc because they use a limited resource you as a player have to build up, whereas building Endurance only takes time. Other specials are Thousand Fists and other finishers, because they depend on (semi-)rare circumstances or long timers.

Why my plead for the bulk of damage coming from 'clickables'? Because you actually have to choose. Do you want to build initial aggro on several mobs by using Whirling Storm and then build up Jin as fast as possible? Or would you rather focus on one mob, building and exploiting weaknesses? The choice is yours  - and should be, IMO. If auto-attack is the bulk of damage, skill is thrown out the door.
Comparing to EQ1 is no use, either, because let's face it: EQ was hard because of two reasons: bugs (aggro/pathing) and upped numbers on mobs (HP and DPS on mobs being upped to ridiculous amounts to present a challenge).

As to haste, it could theoretically also work on cooldown timers or lower the time it takes for Endurance to regenerate.  Don't limit your thinking out of experience with one other MMO.

I do feel the auto-attack 'cooldown' after buttons is artificial, and as such wouldn't mind it going out the window.

Hmm... just thought of something (Dragon monk). How about creating a macro that casts Jin Surge and then an AE ability? Might make them worth your Endurance spent.