Curse

Saphatorael · Dec 24, 2007, 02:20 PM // 14:20

Q:What is best approach to updating skills?

A: Fire Izzy, lolol.

No, seriously now. 'Balance' to me, is having skills that synergize properly, yet do not grant the team/player any auto-win benefit. I love the idea of having teammates cooperate to realize the maximum potential of the teams/skill bar amalgame, but apparantly it just leads to gimmicks focussing on one synergy. Hard to fix that.
Nerfing only gimmicky/overpowered skills isn't a very good approach, as similar skills should always be kept in mind and kept in proportion. With over 1000 skills (I think it's even over 1300), you can imagine how hard it would be to balance everything out. But then again, when there's crap like Wastrel's Collapse lying around, I just can't help but wonder what Izzy was trippin' on when he invented those abominations.

twicky_kid · Dec 27, 2007, 12:17 PM // 12:17

Two words: test server

There is absolutely no reason NOT to have one. Make the changes available before they happen so players can test them. 1 weekend of testing is not near enough to find problems with skills. Players will always be smarter than the devs and Izzy doesn't set the bar very high to begin with, though he has already admitted he doesn't spend much time on the game anymore. This must be fine by the company considering he still has the job.

Hong Kong Evil · Jan 02, 2008, 06:13 AM // 06:13

one way to approach skill balance it to nerf all powerful damage skills, such as Chilling Victory, Blades of Steel, Final Thrust, d shot, Magebane Shot

nerf some overpowered healing skills, such as Word of Healing, Zealous Benediction

as buff some self healing skills, such as Leader's Comfort, Glyph of Restoration, Healing Signet, Troll Unguent

RhanoctJocosa · Jan 02, 2008, 06:24 AM // 06:24

Nerfing the sources of strong damage and strong healing would make PvP terribly boring.

Dominator1370 · Jan 03, 2008, 06:13 PM // 18:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hong Kong Evil

.. nerf all powerful damage skills, such as ... d shot, Magebane Shot

Dshot does ~15 damage. Magebane has no +damage. Fail.

Anyway, you need high-damage skills to force kills around protting. If you can't deliver a good damage spike, we'll all be standing around swinging into block and hoping for a kill before everyone falls asleep.

Quote:

nerf some overpowered healing skills, such as Word of Healing, Zealous Benediction

Infuse is probably the single most powerful healing skill, despite the cost. Of course, you need a few big red-bar-go-up skills or spikes become neigh unstoppable and pressure will nearly always be overwhelming. That's bad.

Quote:

as buff some self healing skills, such as Leader's Comfort, Glyph of Restoration, Healing Signet, Troll Unguent

Troll Unguent doesn't need a buff, Rangers are already good enough at staying alive. Trolls + Natty Stride + Mending Touch FTW.

Leader's Comfort is one of the stronger self-heals around... +200 health on an 8s recharge? If you don't think that's enough, that's fine, but there are plenty of self-heals that need work first.

Healing Signet might benifit from a tweak on cast time and/or armor penalty, but Warriors have a ridiculous AL, as well as being arguably the strongest single-target DPS dealer available. With a Warrior, you should be more than capable of killing your target, healing up in the clear, and moving on to another target. If you're spamming Healing Signet in the middle of a fight, you're using it wrong. Kill, heal, repeat. It's not going to eliminate the need for a monk, nor should it. 1 skill >= Monk doesn't make sense.

There are plenty of ways to keep an Elementalist alive, too. Mystic Regen works wonders. Take a look at a Dual Attunement Air Spiker with Blinding Flash and Mystic Regen or a Mind Blast ele with Mirage Cloak and Mystic Regen. You don't usually run Dual Attune in 8v8, but you don't usually worry too much about self-heals on your Ele there, either.

Blame the Monks · Jan 03, 2008, 07:10 PM // 19:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winstar

What is best approach to updating skills?

Hire Ensign.