After reading a few threads about self healing and life.

Interesting opening post idea.

Seems that LOTRO uses something like that with one character class. The more the heal, the better they get at healing. And visa versa with damage.

 

~Empathy is a Good Thing!~
I actually think it's there, in some form or another...
I think it needs some looking into. Yet every time I hear Chris talk about what he's been building, he's so right 90% of the time!
The other 10% is when I can't understand what he's talking about I know it's in English, but it's far over my gigabits free to sometimes understand him
~Time Lord~

 

@Time Lord Your posts suggests that I should bend over and play the way the game wants me to play. Forget about classes and what-not, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I merely talked about archetypes because those are the extremes used to test game balance.

The Elder Scrolls series, for example, is designed with three archetypes (extremes) in mind: The Warrior, the Thief and the Mage. Every character is capable of using every item and has access to every ability or spell in the game. Bethesda has figured that any combination of ability and items that they've designed will fit within this trinity of archetypes. Some combinations are stronger than others, but it doesn't matter... what matters is that those extremes work and are fun to play. Because, if they work, everything in the middle works.

If I do not want to use a specific skill or item for WHATEVER reason, I require alternatives. Regardless if my choice fits in the "middle" or is at an extreme. Those alternatives should be just as interesting, worthwhile and fun as the other.

There is no gray area; it either provides or it fails. If it does fail, then it's simply not a game worth playing.

This is why we give feedback even if it's negative; the end goal is to improve the game. It's very counter-productive to suggest that we just "deal with what we have".

 

If you want to be forced into a hybrid melee/mage PvPer, then yes he is right 90% of the time. If you aren't wanting to be forced into that narrow niche, then lots of what he's been building isn't even close to that.

 

~Oh NO, No, no, Don't Get Me Wrong~
I love, Love. LOVE rhetorical opinions! Here in our forums we hoist our petards and then defend the onslaught or grind it into sausage
Yes those brick walls that a class character will hit will remain formidable, yet then comes the patients waiting for more uber classed skills to overcome it if one chooses to remain class hindered.
What I'm pointing to, is that there will always be a more flexible/hybrid character's world here. Such things have been most of our outcomes within our top PvP Champion's Fighting Tournaments... I'm a betting man on those fights Which is why I can't wait to begin seeing those fights when we go 24/7. All those great fighters will then have remade their characters from scratch providing a way of evaluating the odds for some time to come.

But back to what we were talking about...
Balance to me from that Fighting Fan perspective becomes a matter of how those champion fighters have balanced their skills or leaning towards one class of skills or another. If one gets the inside scoop on what circles they prefer, then odds are better weighed.
Much of evaluating combat PvE, PvM or PvP comes from "soft descriptions", meaning that only Chris truly knows what's there and what's not there and in what degree anything is there. Ours is often the wonder of what we are seeing and speculating why we experienced them. There are times when he allows a peek inside when he jumps into a forum... mostly when he's found something of interest to do so.

Our combat threads have always been this way, where some ponder on what they feel is needing some balance. The subject of balance is a 2 sided issue when it comes to class vs class, or being "forced" <(that's a word that comes up always because doms tend to see the world in a forced or my way... way, and doms are usually our combat types of players. That's just the nature of the competitor).

As for me, I'm only stating what is here and then you may wish to find a competitor to compete with, thus any who state what is here that they see becomes the target of that opposition. The other part in this is that people come here addicted to other games, wishing our game to be as the game they played before in many ways.

We as players on such combat subjects tend not to agree or disagree, yet what we do, is to bring our individual desires and pit them against what is. Therefore anyone who says anything of how it is, becomes somehow the defender of the game we have, yet all that was stated is how they see how it is. Then it becomes a matter slipping into wonder of how it is, where opinions can vary. Varying opinions then contend as to what is here.

Wanting our game to be some other game (to me) seems half of what is in between all those mountains of critical words that come from such....
"We have our healing skill being a defending skill"... agree or disagree, that is what I see we have which provides the conflict, as well as contending class warfare wishes...
My "likes" within heated discussions where I may never even comment tell a tail of how I enjoy the creative proses
~Rhetoric is My Favorite Credo When Finding the Strong~
It's one way of finding the Avatar
Another is to look for the silent
~Time Lord~

 

The reason for this is that our current system is broken and forces you down that path. 8^p

But yes, I do like the few times Chris has actually given us really deep dives. It is nice to peek into his brain, even if he is far more "force people into PvP because PvP is fun" than I prefer. I don't necessarily argue balance because that is an unbeatable/unwinnable impossibility (there will always be someone to find a way to consistently beat someone else). But, when the game gives you either archery, magic, or melee as a base character concept (from truth, love, or courage options at the start) and only one of those is balanced for current game design (melee with a touch of magic), then there is something clearly wrong with the design and implementation. Even the targeting changes that have been implemented are mainly a benefit to the melee build using a weapon that strikes multiple enemies at once. It's why melee has been using this system for the last few releases.

As for the opinions, I agree. They are like butt holes. Everyone has one and most people don't want to see someone else's. 8^)

 

~Really Disappointed in Our Opening Scene~
That is a class issue, as class goes and those questions and pigeon holes... "only 3!?... which have got to be no doubt for storyline. I'm hoping and counting on a broader change within those... but then it's storyline that would get in the way of entering into such questions. I would hope that our beginning skill choices become separated from those questions, allowing those questions to remain (eh) and then after go into describing your own skill attributes similar to some UO choice thing (I'm still recovering from UO and there is no true escape from it).

"Please describe yourself to me" would be a better ending question after what we have...
The questions may be linked somehow to those 3 class base in pathways where those skills have a chance of being properly challenged, yet we don't really see 3 paths. That's what leads me to believe it's a simple place holder. We've had simplicity in all place holder issues, "simplicity" being the tip off.

I am looking forward to our quest, as a friend and I took 2+1/2 days to solve the first UO quest on Siege Perilous Shard. He was a Russian player who said the "F word" allot... I truly hope he finds his way here because I had such fun apologizing for him to all my more subtle friends, but he was such a grand player, and at the time, it was a time to set aside differences and concentrate on the common objective. He often apologized about me to his other Russian friends because I was always in RP'ed Old English and much too polite to be taken as the formidable player I was at the time... But I'm much older now, so much so that I could never be that uber again, thus my personal quest here to find and know the great Avatars is relevant to my admiration of them and my willingness to aide in any way I can provide.

It is they that will and mine to stand beside...
All Quests are relevant to ability...
~Time Lord~