Nobody told me that all the time I spent was more or less useless because the weapons I loomed and the build I am aiming for at level 33 is now useless because after 2 years the Devs decide to make pikers a support-ONLY class, lol.
I don´t know about other pikers/long spear users, but I was able to kill even Kinngrimm in 1 vs 1 at least 4 out of 10 times when concentrating, and know I have a hard time killing not even mediocre guys when 2 of them are coming towards me.
It´s just so - frustrating - thats the right term, you know.
I belive you that, no doubt. And I always support the claim for free character respeccs and heirloom resets if game balance changes are done. So on this part I am on your side.
But on the other hand you must understand that in a team based game with different classes skill always needs to be capped and limited somehow, otherwise it's always possible that a few dominate a majority, which will always lead to the frustration of the majority, letting the game die very quickly.
Games without classes or something like that, like Counter Strike, can work like this. But as soon as you got some kind of rock-paper-scissors-system in it, you need to limit skill, otherwise the system of rules will be broken and the game becomes unfair. Rules were invented to keep things fair, and they are what makes games and competition differ from real life (games = fun. Real life = not). But if the rules are broken (A>B>C>A works. C<A>B>C does not.) the game will die.
I think that a focus on teamplay is something absolutely good, it's not like personal skill doesn't matter. In fact i still think it's the side with the better average skill that wins all the fights on the server, not the side with the better teamplay. But in my eyes teamplay should win maps, and skill should help. Not the other way round. Those games are much more interesting and have far more depths than those which are only about the better reflexes and muscle memory. They are in no way better than those time based browser games: who plays it for the longer time wins. How interesting.
Well, I had something like a 17:0 score on some map today using my long spear, but almost everykill is basically just a "killsteal" from other melee-teammates, and it feels kinda cheap. But if it is that you want poor long spear users to be, filthy kill-stealers, so be it ...
Actually: yes. That's support. If you want to take on the main fight, choose one of the fighting classes, like 1hd+shield, 2hd or halberdier. It's the same thing with ranged: archers are the main class, crossbows and throwers will always only remain ranged support.