The Glade 4.0

Facism is not a school of thought, it is a racial slur.

So, we're all good with George Lucas's changes, then?

I'm going to take a leap here and assume that most of you are familiar with League of Legends or some other MOBA (DoTA, Smite, HoN, etc).
I've seen article after article out there picking away at what was said during the class panel and trying to guess how the AI (as smart or as dumb as it is to be tuned) will make up for the lack of a dedicated tank, healer, dps, (crown control) combination. And, the first thing that keeps jumping to my mind is the MOBA genre and how fights work within it.

You still have tanks. You still have supports. You still have dedicated DPS. However, the AI (or other opponents) know enough to not just run face first into the "tanks". But, part of the kit of a good tank (or bruiser) is their disruption ability. Now, the AI has to think about whether it's a better decision to damage the person they can reach, or to take a lot more damage (and risk dying) before getting to a more desirable target.

Now, let's take this one step further and quit saying the word "tank" and saying the word "melee". And instead of healer let's say "support". Now, we have the same group, but the AI has to decide between a melee who can do decent amounts of damage, but is in their face, or a ranged who can do higher damage, but requires gap closing. Or chase the support who can constantly kite them while the melee and ranged are doing damage.

This is what I imagine the "destruction" of the holy trinity to be while still maintaining player roles. I think it's just a progression of AI - sure, some creatures may be stupid enough to just attack the first thing they see, but if you were fighting human-equivalent thinking NPCs, you would expect them to be smart enough to assess threat and invalidate the idea of a true tank. And, without a true tank, I don't think you're going to see the idea of a true healer. Support skills that limit mobility, etc will become much more important when there is no longer one damage sponge to be clicked on.

Nailed it! You are on exactly the right path here. Now start to consider the potential of how the AI can interact that way and what it does for group dynamics and you'll start seeing why we think this is going to be a BLAST.
(Not that we're a MOBA, of course. Just being clear.

The problem is that people (myself included) are skeptical of this, because we (I) haven't seen AI similar to this in an MMO before. If it works out, that's great, a lot of us just need to see it in action to believe it.

That seems like a perfectly reasonable response. Why shouldn't you doubt? It's up to us to prove. Workin' on it!

I've watched the bulk of the EQ Next presentations, and am intrigued by a lot of what they are doing...

The artistic style however is a big turnoff for me.

I realize I am probably not their target audience (at least I hope I'm not). I would much prefer something similar to the original EQ styling, but with modern details and technology.

By original Norrath, you mean top-heavy chicks in chainmail bikinis, assless chaps, and swimsuits?

By original Norrath, you mean top-heavy chicks in chainmail bikinis, assless chaps, and swimsuits?

The problem with realistic is that it quickly looks dated, whereas a stylized graphic direction is much closer to timeless.

The solution to those of us who want a hard game set in a fantasy world with EQ like mechanics is obvious:

We build our own.