- Joined
- Nov 25, 2012
- Location
- United States
Let's take a moment to talk about Pyromancer, shall we?
Pyromancer is a rather interesting class. It's a caster that has one of the highest melee damages, as well as some of the highest damaging nukes in the game. The amount of damage a Pyromancer can deal in one instant is quite insane, and against casters it can be one of the scarier opponents to face. Despite this, almost nobody plays the class--and the few that do, well, aren't very successful at it.
So why is this? If the Pyromancer is supposedly "good", shouldn't more people be playing it? Shouldn't it be raping small 12 year olds in pvp on a daily basis like Wizards and Samurais do? It should, it could, and occasionally, it does. But there are some very fundamental flaws in the design of the class that prevent it from doing so.
Before I get too deep into that, I'd first like to state that most melee classes, such as Samurai, Ninja, Dragoon, or Runeblade, are able to deal very massive amounts of melee damage due to an interesting mechanic.
To quote Northeaster on this,
This essentially means that there is a "set" amount of "left click' damage that any melee class can deal within one period of time. You cannot exceed this by clicking faster. However, Herocraft has an interesting effect on this "invuln" mechanic. Any "damage" dealt through a "Herocraft" skill causes this invuln period to reset, allowing you to deal another left click when you normally would not be able to.
What does that mean? It means that melee classes that have damage over time (Dot) abilities can use them to get in many more left clicks than other classes. Samurais and Rogue classes fall under this category. This is why when fighting a Samurai, you appear to get autoclicked to hell and die almost instantly. It's also one of the bigger aids in making Runeblade such a bursty melee class.
So why do I bring this up? Well, it's important to understand that this mechanic is not only present on Herocraft, but crucial to a melee's success in a real fight. For a Rogue, Evenom deals only 19 damage per tick--truly a weak ability. But it is the tick itself that makes it a useful skill, not the damage. (Coincidentally, this is why Samurais are so stupidly powerful, because they have both damage and ticks on their DoT abilities.)
Additionally, you should understand that this "invuln reset" occurs when Herocraft damage is applied. Not vanilla Minecraft damage. This means that the "invuln reset" does not apply to the damage that comes from falling, fire ticks, or withering. Conversely, they actually cause an invuln period to start, rather than resetting it.
See where I am going with this? The Pyromancer's skillset is counter intuitive to the design. By using their standard set of skills, they hinder their ability to deal melee damage, which is one of their supposed "strengths".
Unfortunately that required a very large amount of explaining, and it is only one part of the problem.
---
Here are some very general problems with the Pyromancer class.
* The Pyromancer is a low armor, low health melee class with no escapability or mobility of any kind.
* The Pyromancer skillset does not benefit their melee damage.
* The Pyromancer skillset actually hinders their abiltiy to deal melee damage.
* Many of their skills are short ranged, forcing them to go into a melee fight if they wish to use all of their abilities.
More specifically,
* Chaos Orb is almost impossible to land in an actual fight. The projectile speed and distance is ridiculously low, causing it to be a very weak skill, despite the high damage.
* Their Fireball is weaker than a Wizards or Beguiler's.
* Fire Armor is a bit lackluster (and quite expensive) for the more poor Herocraft playerbase.
* Fire Blade has no real benefit. It causes fire ticks, which you already have on your target 100% of the time. Additionally, the fire ticks from this skill (as well as the others) cause your melee to be ineffective.
I do not mean to say that Pyromancer is a "shit class" or anything of the sorts--they'll completely destroy almost any caster due to Flameshield and Kick. But against any Rogues, the Rogue's silence and superior melee viability can usually win them the fight. Warriors can be a little different, but it's still a pretty big risk to fight them in melee.
Also, regarding Chaos Orb, I'd like to make something clear. This skill makes me rage pretty hard. I love it, but I also hate it, and I was pretty displeased at how Kainzo decided not to to alter the skill in any way, despite the glaring issues it has. I'd like to make this point very clear: If you are sprinting forward and you use Chaos Orb, you will literally RUN INTO your chaos orb before it travels more than a single block. This makes it very difficult to use in any real combat situation. It should not function this way.
Typically, against other melee classes, the Pyro is forced to "kite" in order to win. This involves running around in circles, spamming Withering, Fireball, and Blaze. This isn't a perfect strategy either, as many rogues/warriors have abilities that allow them to get to you much more easily than you can escape from them.
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My main issue with the Pyromancer isn't necessarily their "balance", but how their skillset "plays". I find that when I play the class, I am forced to take up two playstyles, one of which is not very fun or particularly effective.
I also understand that since Ender Pearls were disabled, Pyromancer lost the utility from Chaos orb, as well as the Ender Pearl itself. I also do not agree in solving all of the Pyromancer's mobility issues with Ender Pealrs. Even when Chaos Orb teleported properly, I do not believe the teleport was all that effective for combat due to how you run into it, or teleport halfway into a block and get yourself stuck. It was useful for sure, just not typically during combat.
So what am I hoping to get out of this thread? Not much, really. I'm basically ranting, but I'd like to gauge the rest of the server's thoughts on the Pyromancer, and see if anyone has any suggestions in mind. I'd also like to take the time to ask FuturizeHandgun not to post in this thread, as he is both delusional and a tad obsessed regarding the class.
Pyromancer is a rather interesting class. It's a caster that has one of the highest melee damages, as well as some of the highest damaging nukes in the game. The amount of damage a Pyromancer can deal in one instant is quite insane, and against casters it can be one of the scarier opponents to face. Despite this, almost nobody plays the class--and the few that do, well, aren't very successful at it.
So why is this? If the Pyromancer is supposedly "good", shouldn't more people be playing it? Shouldn't it be raping small 12 year olds in pvp on a daily basis like Wizards and Samurais do? It should, it could, and occasionally, it does. But there are some very fundamental flaws in the design of the class that prevent it from doing so.
Before I get too deep into that, I'd first like to state that most melee classes, such as Samurai, Ninja, Dragoon, or Runeblade, are able to deal very massive amounts of melee damage due to an interesting mechanic.
To quote Northeaster on this,
---
This essentially means that there is a "set" amount of "left click' damage that any melee class can deal within one period of time. You cannot exceed this by clicking faster. However, Herocraft has an interesting effect on this "invuln" mechanic. Any "damage" dealt through a "Herocraft" skill causes this invuln period to reset, allowing you to deal another left click when you normally would not be able to.
What does that mean? It means that melee classes that have damage over time (Dot) abilities can use them to get in many more left clicks than other classes. Samurais and Rogue classes fall under this category. This is why when fighting a Samurai, you appear to get autoclicked to hell and die almost instantly. It's also one of the bigger aids in making Runeblade such a bursty melee class.
So why do I bring this up? Well, it's important to understand that this mechanic is not only present on Herocraft, but crucial to a melee's success in a real fight. For a Rogue, Evenom deals only 19 damage per tick--truly a weak ability. But it is the tick itself that makes it a useful skill, not the damage. (Coincidentally, this is why Samurais are so stupidly powerful, because they have both damage and ticks on their DoT abilities.)
Additionally, you should understand that this "invuln reset" occurs when Herocraft damage is applied. Not vanilla Minecraft damage. This means that the "invuln reset" does not apply to the damage that comes from falling, fire ticks, or withering. Conversely, they actually cause an invuln period to start, rather than resetting it.
See where I am going with this? The Pyromancer's skillset is counter intuitive to the design. By using their standard set of skills, they hinder their ability to deal melee damage, which is one of their supposed "strengths".
Unfortunately that required a very large amount of explaining, and it is only one part of the problem.
---
Here are some very general problems with the Pyromancer class.
* The Pyromancer is a low armor, low health melee class with no escapability or mobility of any kind.
* The Pyromancer skillset does not benefit their melee damage.
* The Pyromancer skillset actually hinders their abiltiy to deal melee damage.
* Many of their skills are short ranged, forcing them to go into a melee fight if they wish to use all of their abilities.
More specifically,
* Chaos Orb is almost impossible to land in an actual fight. The projectile speed and distance is ridiculously low, causing it to be a very weak skill, despite the high damage.
* Their Fireball is weaker than a Wizards or Beguiler's.
* Fire Armor is a bit lackluster (and quite expensive) for the more poor Herocraft playerbase.
* Fire Blade has no real benefit. It causes fire ticks, which you already have on your target 100% of the time. Additionally, the fire ticks from this skill (as well as the others) cause your melee to be ineffective.
I do not mean to say that Pyromancer is a "shit class" or anything of the sorts--they'll completely destroy almost any caster due to Flameshield and Kick. But against any Rogues, the Rogue's silence and superior melee viability can usually win them the fight. Warriors can be a little different, but it's still a pretty big risk to fight them in melee.
Also, regarding Chaos Orb, I'd like to make something clear. This skill makes me rage pretty hard. I love it, but I also hate it, and I was pretty displeased at how Kainzo decided not to to alter the skill in any way, despite the glaring issues it has. I'd like to make this point very clear: If you are sprinting forward and you use Chaos Orb, you will literally RUN INTO your chaos orb before it travels more than a single block. This makes it very difficult to use in any real combat situation. It should not function this way.
Typically, against other melee classes, the Pyro is forced to "kite" in order to win. This involves running around in circles, spamming Withering, Fireball, and Blaze. This isn't a perfect strategy either, as many rogues/warriors have abilities that allow them to get to you much more easily than you can escape from them.
-----
My main issue with the Pyromancer isn't necessarily their "balance", but how their skillset "plays". I find that when I play the class, I am forced to take up two playstyles, one of which is not very fun or particularly effective.
I also understand that since Ender Pearls were disabled, Pyromancer lost the utility from Chaos orb, as well as the Ender Pearl itself. I also do not agree in solving all of the Pyromancer's mobility issues with Ender Pealrs. Even when Chaos Orb teleported properly, I do not believe the teleport was all that effective for combat due to how you run into it, or teleport halfway into a block and get yourself stuck. It was useful for sure, just not typically during combat.
So what am I hoping to get out of this thread? Not much, really. I'm basically ranting, but I'd like to gauge the rest of the server's thoughts on the Pyromancer, and see if anyone has any suggestions in mind. I'd also like to take the time to ask FuturizeHandgun not to post in this thread, as he is both delusional and a tad obsessed regarding the class.
