Combat Achieved Balance

It happened, there is balance. People of equal skill that are anywhere near a similar level can now fight with their preferred build and compete. Mage, melee, ranger..whatever it does not matter, it is completely down to your personal preference. There is a slight PVP rock/paper/scissors with Ranged good vs Mage good vs Melee good vs Ranged but it is only slight. Root is fixed and working nicely, the new escape mechanic for it is perfect. Break weapon no longer castrates people and instead causes reduced damage. Poison seems to be sane again and pole, bludgeon and blades are all working well with no "OP" skill of the month. A full day of PVP starting in shardfall and ending in Lockbrier with hundreds corpses strewn everywhere, bags full of skulls and bones and everybody had fun... one loose end left to test as i hear Turin is out there with a really nice air mage build.

 

Sounds good! I don't see mention of life magic vs. death magic, or builds without healing vs. builds with healing? If healing isn't basically required, particularly with melee builds, this is even better news!

 

Death vs Life seemed fine when we tested it

 

Thanks, good to hear

 

Proclaiming that balance has been achieved after less than a full day of player progression is a stretch to say the least.

 

1 month and 2 days of progression.

 

How about a pure weap skill with no magic vs a pure magic user? Is there balance there?

 

Only if you allow healing touch.
Edit: hmm i did not try potions

 

healing touch is magic so that means that it is not balanced between weap skills and magic.

 

Well no, its not balanced between naked fisherman and heavily armed soldiers either but their is a point where you are just picking knits

 

I must have misunderstood them in the postmortem, I thought they were talking about another wipe for r24.

1 month and 2 days is still a stretch tbh. Less than a day to explore the new changes before saying it is balanced is a large stretch.

 

6 grandmasteries , level 85 testing with a dozen or so people at similar levels of progression, each with different build and all of whom put allot of time into testing combat. It is the first release ever where none of them can name a skill that ruins PVP. It is a good sign, try it for yourself.

 

I must add, Turins build is pretty powerful with his lightning and blink.. very hard to run him down but not impossible.

 

no hehe, I am serious. If one wants to be a pure warrior or a pure castor then he should be able to compete. I made a thread on this and I think its a good idea to have an innate that has weapns users vs magic users. It would allow for example pure warriors to compete against pure mages. Give a pure warrior a regeneration skill. Or give it a bonus to alchemy for heal potions. Right now just like you say, you are forced to use magic, even if one hates it. Like Conan the barbarian! I know its a classless system but we should be able to specialize in some skills more than others. This is no different than likeing Ice over fire magic. Instead it would be weapon over magic in general.

 

hey i don't disagree, i am melee this release but i do have healing touch for sustainability and i threw in searing ray as a finisher for when people are almost dead and fleeing.. i would rather some form of bandages and throwing weapons that served the same purpose.

 

I'm pure melee with no healing... still tough (I rely on healers in the party but for PVP I'm dead eventually) and potions need love... lots of love.

If potions healed 50-200 depending of the level of the alchemist or bandages did HOT, I'd be happier.

 

I fought as a pure mage (cloth armor + staff) and i must say im happy ! I was not ridiculous vs melee , im not super gm all skill badass and i really had fun !
Thx Chris for bringing mages back !
Archers are a pain for mages (well until i find a good tactic hehe) and thats really good ! (by pain i mean they are hard to kill as mage)
Now, speaking about mages >> need good mage weapon ( the wand is nice but do almost no dmg and has one stat less than any melee or ranged weapon).

For pure warriors (without using any magic at all) .... Its not about balance its just that you cant play like that at the moment (if you want to survive or if you dont want long regen time) because there are no existing skill that allows you to heal but you still can hit at distance if you switch deck with a pure ranged deck.

Even Conan can throw an Arrow! (or Lurtz if you are evil hehe).