Ooooook.... today they post: http://www.lineage2.com/news/news.html#a018058
"Changes to PTS and Launch Plans
The launch of Goddess of Destruction is almost upon us! As we finalize specific launch details, we had to adjust some of our original plans. One of the changes included the cancellation of plans to host a Goddess of Destruction PTS before the game update launches. We understand that this inconveniences players by eliminating the possibility to test the Awakening classes before having to choose which one they will become. To alleviate this problem, the full patch notes for the eight Awakening classes and for the Awakening race skills have been posted to the forums early. In addition, positive plans have changed regarding the Stone of Destiny: the item will be available to characters of lower level, and for longer than originally planned. More details about this event will be published in the future."
Skill list they posted = http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=219199
This is the same skill list we have all seen for months now, and it makes zero difference to people still trying to choose a class at this point. Everyone has already read that, in fact, almost all of the information there was already contained in Cryo's original post in JUNE (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=216369). There are also other sites with better descriptions of all the skills as well as actual details about skill reuse, enchant options, range, cast time, etc. (such as found here, click on the class you are interested in: http://www.terragamers.net/wiki/index.php?title=Goddess_of_Destruction_Preview#Cla sses )
Therefore, posting that skill list on official forums means nothing, and also does nothing to compensate for no PTS. To be clear, posting that in NO WAY alleviates the problem.
People want PTS because since official patch notes are so non-specific, with no real numbers about damage or reuse etc, we all know that we have to actually test things in game to really know what will actually happen on a live server. Also, some people are worried that there will be too many pink fairies and such; we also just want to simply SEE the skills for ourselves and what they look like as well to get an overall feel of the class in general. What things look like and sound like is just as important as what skills do and how they work; pressing the button yourself in game helps you get a real feel for the class in actual game play, and since most of us play our chars for years, yea it's a bit important.
Now, changes to the Stone of Destiny IS actually a good thing and an actual step in the right direction of making up for not having a PTS.
But, I would also argue that only making it available to lower levels or lasting longer is not yet sufficient to actually compensate for no PTS.
IF at the least you gave each char two Stones of Destiny (or more), with no expiration date, then we could possibly think about sufficient compensation for not being able to test the class beforehand, because then you could at least change to something else if you ended up hating your first choice. It would still, however, cost us a lot of our own adena/time/armors/weapons to do the testing on our own actual chars on live server.
Finally, I still want to know if the Stone of Destiny is given to ALL chars 76+ (or whatever level it will be set at), whether the account is active before Nov 30 or not. Because if not I have to reactivate some accounts before Nov 30, but I would hope it is given, because if not it would screw over the many players who will be returning only at free to play time.