"This is *not* the final form of combat." ~ Dave Georgeson

In a short, but meaningful, post on the Landmark forum, Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson acknowledges that the team should have better prepared players for combat in Landmark. Choosing, he says, to get input from the community releasing it in its early form without that preparation was a mistake.

I've been reading a bunch of the threads here. Reactions are pretty understandable and predictable. We should have done a better job of preparing you for what you are seeing here. These are the first steps into combat and dungeoneering right now. This is in no way the final shape of combat in Landmark *or* EverQuest Next. You are seeing *basic* foundational elements here. Nobody on the design team likes circle-strafe as the core combat mechanic. That's just how the system works right now until we get more tuning and more AI into the system. We had the option to wait until the new year (February sometime) to release what you have now, or we could release it now and listen to opinions and discussion over the holidays. We chose the latter, of course, because we've always opted to listen to you and your feedback rather than work in a vacuum. But this is *not* the final form of combat. That being said, we are not returning to hard-locks either. The final form of combat and dungeoneering will be built on the bones you see today, but it's going to get a lot better, more tactical, and more fun. Combat will improve just as the rest of the game has improved since Alpha. You'll see. This is still Closed Beta and this game is still in development. More to come!

Read the community comments on the Landmark forum.

Not sure what the kerfuffle is about? Check out the combat video released by SOE below: