Why we can't have nice things (powerful abilities) and one way to fix it

Due to the open nature of the skill system in this game, I've noticed that we're lacking in some common abilities that you might see in other games because they would be exploited by everyone. I believe this is one of the major reasons we can't have powerful summons for instance, or an ability that helps the party regenerate their focus.

In order to have powerful spells or abilities in this game, the game developers are stuck having to try and balance these abilities with negative consequences. It's the reasons we see a negative focus cost on pets. It's also the reason pets can't be powerful (everyone would summon one and it wouldn't be unique).

In other games they might make class defining abilities, such as a slow spell, that has a significant impact on a monsters speed, or a really good mesmerize or stun that would change the course of intense combat. In this game if they made powerful spells like these, it would end up in every single deck.

So I think the trick to this game having more diverse and interesting abilities and builds in the future is to figure out how to apply negative consequences that are balanced by these unique abilities. How do we allow a person to have a powerful summon for instance, without it being in every single build?

There's a number of options the developers have, but I'll mention one that I think might work here.

I think they should implement a system where certain key abilities would lock out 3 to 5 of the characters "icons" on their bar. For instance a powerful summoned creature might take 1 slot to cast like usual, but it would also grey out the last 3-4 icons as long as the pet is summoned. If a character casts one of these powerful spells and switches his combat bar to another, the spell instantly becomes cancelled.

Now you can implement that powerful bard ability that makes the whole group move faster and attack faster, without every single player using it. People would specialize in these fun unique abilities, but might have to function with only 6 slots instead of 10, meaning most people would decide against it. It would create much more unique character builds and allow for more powerful abilities the developers want to put in the game but can't due to current balance issues.

Thanks.

 

The greying out of 3-4 glyphs seems similar to the stacking and combo system. If I build a deck to get my best action to stack or combo, I'm going to have a very limited set of glyphs in the deck. Forcing the trade off of a wide range of abilities for a small set of higher powered abilities.

 

You already can have access to more powerful skills in game, but it's contingent upon you focusing your skill development on less skills rather than spreading your Exp Pool amongst every skill. So, if you really want a particular spell/summon, for instance, to be really powerful, then cut off other skills and devote more of your gains to that spell/summon. No need to redesign the wheel. Even then, there has to be limits on the power/effectiveness of skills/summons, so you can't have things be overpowered.

 

Atm you can get every high end spell with little consequence.

With this kinda setup you'd need something like a power for focus tradeoff. Got an aoe ranged stun that hits 5 targets for 150 and stuns? Make it cost 200 focus to cast. Atm theres folks with 700 focus spending 15-30 to hit for over 200 with spamable spells

 

Just for giggles I equipped a lich ring and two thunder branch wands and went into DRW to farm spiders... I killed a few red spiders in a nice little group and would then lure over Ferocious Reds and one hit them with Corpse Explosion. It was awesome, sometimes I'd have to hit them two or three times - but when the CE would crit - it was over.