Sidgil
Legacy Supporter 3
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2011
- Location
- Washington, USA
Please excuse my grammar and spelling, for I am fairly drowsy while typing this. I am constantly hearing about "OP" this and "UP" that, "this needs to be nerfed" and "why did they buff that?" and I felt that I should share some of my experience on thebasic idea behind balanced class.
This is not another bitchy, or moany thread about how steve killed jerry and steve should be nerfed/banned etc thread.
I am writing this to enlighten, not only players, but give a few suggestions on how to help clarify the BASIC idea behind each general class and how balancing works for them. Maybe this way, some players can rethink how they play, and how to justify a class as being under or over powered.
I have experienced the standard warrior, rogue, healer, mage class RPG cliche in many different forms, be it World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, Final Fantasy, and so on. What I have learned is that the balancing system can be broken down into 3 basic ability types; OFFENSIVE, DEFENSIVE, and MOBILITY.
OFFENSIVE abilities are ofcourse the skills and spells used by the class to deal damage. Be it buff, melee, or ranged. These are the key damage abilities.
DEFENSIVE abilities are skills and spells that reduce damage via armor or spells, or abilites that heal damage taken., so on and so forth. These are the key survivability abilities.
MOBILITY is the classes ability to move around and manipulate the battlefield. This includes moving quickly, dodging, blinking, rooting, freezing, sneaking, the list goes on and on. Be it Crowd control, or beign light on your feet, mobility is one of the most important ability sets in my opinion.
No class should ever have all 3 of these, while I do feel we may be suffering from that issue now, I would rather open a SEPARATE THREAD to discuss those views. This one is meant to be informative, not debate our current state of balance.
So here is how your basic setup usaully works:
The Warrior:
Your typical warrior class is built to be tanky, meaning they rely heavily on DEFENSIVE abilities, sacrificing MOBILITY for heavy armor. The move slowly, but still do a decent amount of damage.
In short, a warrior's basic balance system is DEFENSIVE / OFFENSIVE.
The Rogue:
There is a reason rogues are sneaky little bastards, they are meant to be quick, depending on MOBILITY to get around the battlefield, sacrificing DEFENSIVE to stay ahead and out of arms reach of their opponent. Since they usually wear light armor, they are not hindered like the warrior and are often granted sneak attack bonuses, higher crit chance, and higher damage to account for their lack of defense.
In short, a rogue's basic balance system is MOBILITY / OFFENSIVE.
The Healer:
Your typical support class, they are meant to stand back and keep themselves and others alive. They are all about survivability and depend heavily on DEFENSIVE abilities. They sacrifice damage for healing and use MOBILITY to stay out of danger.
In short, a healer's basic balance system is DEFENSIVE / MOBILITY.
The Mage:
Often known as "Glass Cannons" they focus mainly on OFFENSIVE abilities, dealing more damage then any class, they tend to be very squishy, and easy to kill upclose. The mage uses MOBILITY abilites like crowd control to keep themselves out of harms way.
In short, a mage's basic balance system is OFFENSIVE / MOBILITY.
Now before you go off and take this in a concrete idea, you need to realize that this is just the basics, there are variations of each class, no class goes without having all three types of abilities, only that they should always highlight only 2 of them, not all 3. Rogues have more armor then mages, Mages do more damage then Rogues. That is the idea behind balancing.
When you enter variations of classes, balancing becomes VERY difficult, how much or how little of the 3 ability types is the right amount? Only trial and error can really tell, especially when player skill levels vary so greatly, one player could be an excellent rogue, while another plays a rogue like a warrior and then wonders why he can't do anything.
I just want you all to keep these ideas in mind when determining what you feel is off balance, and that way we can communicate with the Balance team what we feel is offset in clearer terms.
ADDITION: (10-11-12 9:24pm pst)
I forgot to mention another set of abilities that are not normally pvp, or combat related at all. These abilities are referred to as UTILITIES. A few examples would be safefall, Gills, and light. While safefall does provide defence and mobility, it is not technically a combat skill, but when used in combat it grants an advantage to flee down dangerous terrian, forcing opponents to take higher risks. Gills could turn the tide on a water heavy battlefield, allowing a player to breathe underwater while the others would start to drown. Lastly, Light, while it may seem useless, grants a fun tactical advantage if the fight makes its way into a darkroom, since it is client based, only the caster sees it, and the opponent is left in the dark, literally.
Keeping in mind how certain UTILITIES can be used in and out of combat can be helpful when playing any class, and may be a tactical advatange your class has, that you may not have realized.
This is not another bitchy, or moany thread about how steve killed jerry and steve should be nerfed/banned etc thread.
I am writing this to enlighten, not only players, but give a few suggestions on how to help clarify the BASIC idea behind each general class and how balancing works for them. Maybe this way, some players can rethink how they play, and how to justify a class as being under or over powered.
I have experienced the standard warrior, rogue, healer, mage class RPG cliche in many different forms, be it World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, Final Fantasy, and so on. What I have learned is that the balancing system can be broken down into 3 basic ability types; OFFENSIVE, DEFENSIVE, and MOBILITY.
OFFENSIVE abilities are ofcourse the skills and spells used by the class to deal damage. Be it buff, melee, or ranged. These are the key damage abilities.
DEFENSIVE abilities are skills and spells that reduce damage via armor or spells, or abilites that heal damage taken., so on and so forth. These are the key survivability abilities.
MOBILITY is the classes ability to move around and manipulate the battlefield. This includes moving quickly, dodging, blinking, rooting, freezing, sneaking, the list goes on and on. Be it Crowd control, or beign light on your feet, mobility is one of the most important ability sets in my opinion.
No class should ever have all 3 of these, while I do feel we may be suffering from that issue now, I would rather open a SEPARATE THREAD to discuss those views. This one is meant to be informative, not debate our current state of balance.
So here is how your basic setup usaully works:
The Warrior:
Your typical warrior class is built to be tanky, meaning they rely heavily on DEFENSIVE abilities, sacrificing MOBILITY for heavy armor. The move slowly, but still do a decent amount of damage.
In short, a warrior's basic balance system is DEFENSIVE / OFFENSIVE.
The Rogue:
There is a reason rogues are sneaky little bastards, they are meant to be quick, depending on MOBILITY to get around the battlefield, sacrificing DEFENSIVE to stay ahead and out of arms reach of their opponent. Since they usually wear light armor, they are not hindered like the warrior and are often granted sneak attack bonuses, higher crit chance, and higher damage to account for their lack of defense.
In short, a rogue's basic balance system is MOBILITY / OFFENSIVE.
The Healer:
Your typical support class, they are meant to stand back and keep themselves and others alive. They are all about survivability and depend heavily on DEFENSIVE abilities. They sacrifice damage for healing and use MOBILITY to stay out of danger.
In short, a healer's basic balance system is DEFENSIVE / MOBILITY.
The Mage:
Often known as "Glass Cannons" they focus mainly on OFFENSIVE abilities, dealing more damage then any class, they tend to be very squishy, and easy to kill upclose. The mage uses MOBILITY abilites like crowd control to keep themselves out of harms way.
In short, a mage's basic balance system is OFFENSIVE / MOBILITY.
Now before you go off and take this in a concrete idea, you need to realize that this is just the basics, there are variations of each class, no class goes without having all three types of abilities, only that they should always highlight only 2 of them, not all 3. Rogues have more armor then mages, Mages do more damage then Rogues. That is the idea behind balancing.
When you enter variations of classes, balancing becomes VERY difficult, how much or how little of the 3 ability types is the right amount? Only trial and error can really tell, especially when player skill levels vary so greatly, one player could be an excellent rogue, while another plays a rogue like a warrior and then wonders why he can't do anything.
I just want you all to keep these ideas in mind when determining what you feel is off balance, and that way we can communicate with the Balance team what we feel is offset in clearer terms.
ADDITION: (10-11-12 9:24pm pst)
I forgot to mention another set of abilities that are not normally pvp, or combat related at all. These abilities are referred to as UTILITIES. A few examples would be safefall, Gills, and light. While safefall does provide defence and mobility, it is not technically a combat skill, but when used in combat it grants an advantage to flee down dangerous terrian, forcing opponents to take higher risks. Gills could turn the tide on a water heavy battlefield, allowing a player to breathe underwater while the others would start to drown. Lastly, Light, while it may seem useless, grants a fun tactical advantage if the fight makes its way into a darkroom, since it is client based, only the caster sees it, and the opponent is left in the dark, literally.
Keeping in mind how certain UTILITIES can be used in and out of combat can be helpful when playing any class, and may be a tactical advatange your class has, that you may not have realized.
