Could someone update me on community's veiw on Warmasters?

[fotomay]

sorry to be a bug. i could search and read all the old posts on forum complaining about warmasters but, i would like an up to date succinct summary.

why did you guys not like warmasters?

i thought the main objective of rebalancing the game in favour of melee players was a good and justified decision. it may not appeal to everyone in the playerbase, but it wasn't meant to. it was meant to improve gameplay overall - which i think it does (even though I prefer stronger mages).

i have heard that prior to warmasters everyone rode in a single pack running round to every fort together. but i think that mode of gameplay may be too dependent on a single community staying with the game. it isn't going to happen in the long term and those kinds of fighting days may be unlikely to return, because the potential playerbase Regnum faces today isn't the same as it was last time?

[Shwish]

My opinion is that the current version of warmaster spells are okay. I honestly don't see anything overpowered anymore however the marksman spells really do need a bit more attention. Also the warmaster chat could do with a bit of work too. Other than that I'm fairly happy with it.

The purpose of Warmasters are to promote teamplay. Certain spells do that and some have missed the boat completely but I'm glad to see that offensive warmaster beacons have been removed which was the single most damaging aspect of the warmaster update.

[Rising_Cold]

1 warmaster in a group vs a group w/o warmaster no longer makes sure the warmaster group wins
offensive beacons (immune to cc's) are gone, there is still the 2k def beacon but only for barbs
horn has been nerfed in speed and need 4 people near to cast it, only hunter has it
offensive tele is only for lock and def tele only for conju

you get the WM chat and if you make the tree lv 19 you can get a nice hp bonus
(amount depends on class, mage/warrior/archer)

there is no more horn spam with hunting parties and no more running for your lives
because the enemy just used offensive beacon.

I kinda like warmasters the way it is now, although knight has drawn the shortest end of it all :(

[NotScias]

I don't know if you were around at that time but the first iteration of Warmaster spells was beyond terrible.

Not only all classes had the exact same set of WM spells, making things even more monotone, but these spells were totally out of balance.
Old offensive beacons granted a 90% immunity against all CCs to entire armies, so after some times with enough WMs on every side, all fights were just about a brainless damage contest only, since CCs were nearly useless thus making some classes pointless for RvR (Hunters, Warlocks...).

I don't know where you read that WM was specifically designed to improve melee classes more than ranged, but if it was the case then it was a horribly cheap way to do so, especially when it was already the result of the previous big balance update.

Really this expansion was totally rushed, like if it was designed overnight without measuring the consequences on the current balance. The current iteration is much better (or less worse), but the poor originality of the new spells still doesn't make as good as it should be either.

[bois]

Meh.

I'll start at the beginning.

NGD produced what was one of the best ever balance updates. I think it was 1.6.3.

Soon after came Warmasters.
Disclaimer :This is my personal opinion and not meant to represent any group, or the opinions of anyone else.

Level cap went to 60. This was fine but what it did was flood the system with increases in attributes, damage and other things which started to strain the equations. No balance update in any major way or even a discussion on that to date.
On top of that, we were flooded with 20 extra power points and a wash of discipline points with no sink to return any kind of balance or scarcity of spells to allow uniqueness of differentation. So we had cookie cutter, all you can eat buffet classes.
Then, we have the warmaster tree. A half baked tree with only a few rushed spells that everyone had. It seems to me that NGD got caught off guard just how fast some players on RA might achieve WM status.
The beacons were , as I said before, compensation of Resistance and HP for the obvious problems creeping up with excess CC because of above problem and the increase of the gap between say level 50 and level 60. So HP up to allow players to compete. Also , there was a looming problem with barbs and their damage. The HP boost was to try and regularise this.
They nerfed Onslaught and then just brought back Horn of the wind which was somewhat confusing.
The system then caused a rift in playerbase because , due to the Opness of those spells and the positive feedback loops, the more WM you had, the faster you would get more.
The non stash-able gear was... perplexing.

So now we have the spells revamped. Some are at the brink of uselessness, some are totally useless. Others are reasonably balanced. But, spells are few, flexibility minimal and still no levels, no power point sinks. No diversity and still cookie cutter all purpose builds.
Balance update/ discussion for conventional spell system is a distant dream.
Aside from equipment, a horse and elixirs, what else is there to buy? I have over 90,000 WM coins, don't want a horse, have a crapload of elixirs I never use and have multiple WM equipment and gear that surpasses it.

Is it better? yes. It was brought back into line by the sheer mediocrity of the spell sets.
The thing is that it is pretty dead ended too. After they fill out the trees, the system of progression would hit the wall.

[fotomay]

i agree with the posts above - warmasters right now is good and well done. it's just that on reading recent postings, sometimes i get the impression players are still unhappy with warmasters.


...

I don't know where you read that WM was specifically designed to improve melee classes more than ranged, but if it was the case then it was a horribly cheap way to do so, especially when it was already the result of the previous big balance update.

darnit.. i can't find the post by Adrian the mod now :( i believe Adrian has specifically stated in his posts that warmasters was designed to give melee a stronger role in order to preserve the "trinity" of mage, melee and archer that is the hallmark of fantasy rpg pvp.

i suspect the magnitude and complexity of the issues facing regnum has grown larger than forum discussions can easily represent or solve. forum polls may not be representative either. i guess the devs have to ensure they keep a finger on the pulse of the industry and game playerbase, as well as maintain leadership in thinking.

[Lebeau]

Warmaster as it initially was or Warmaster now, same problem. UNlike others who actually like UNbalanced classes & the resulting UNbalanced game, I feel the overall direction taken by NGD since 1.6.3 & even b4 then was DE-emphasizing mages & hunters way-too-much, as well as bolstering warriors & marks way-too-much. As the various changes progressed over last 3 years, one relative truth emerged, consistently remained & was routinely reinforced by the devs' changes. Success during largescale RvR play in CoR fully hinges on barbs, how well their groupie sidekicks (ALL other classes) support them, keep them up & running, set up enemies for them, etc. The speed at which enemies can be dispatched due to the overwhelming dps of the barb class makes it first & foremost, the central & primary class. This was intentional & by design. NGD has had a 'vision' for years now & it is called "Barbnum Online/Chumpions of Barbnum". All mechanical changes made benefit this class more than any other. Many of those changes actually hurt other classes. No one SINGLE class imho should be central/primary, but I ain't the 'balance guru' at NGD. I admit, their lack of range can really stand against them in a one-on-one PvP fight, unless they have cover to work with. BUT, in RvR? Bois & many others (in many other threads) are right, changes made increased the overall soak, the overall weapon damage & the remaining wm banner gives them another 2k hit-points (that 2k only really matters to a class with soak/tank ability. Oh my, the mage is bannered! All that means is just ONE more solid hit from a barb. Turn it around. How long is it gonna' take a mage to do an EXTRA 2k damage on top of the 5k he starts with to the charging, now in-your-face barb?). They hit hardest, soak/tank as well as any but knight, move fastest & have very nearly the most hit-points of any. Typically, if they ever reach your mage or archer, u r dead. What's not to like? Want to kick ass & take names? Get with wargroup & train a pet conju (or 2) to DI u (this one spell changes whole outlook for barb) ... & maybe bless, bless weapon, friendly shielding, material & magic wall too, & keep his finger on the dispel & heal triggers ... oh, & have another barb gift u with Off with their heads ... then watch out! Unstoppable killer Ginsumatic industrial blender comin' thru! ... :eek: ... Until the 1st successful MS lands. ;)

[Krungle]

I am not one that often says a class needs a nerf but... a class that does consistent 1-1.5k damage per swing on opponents with 3-5k health is out of balance.

Also, more spells/abilities need to be scaled better. There have been many suggestions on how such scaling can take place including but not limited to formulas involving level &/or stat multipliers, evening out ability progressions (+5, +7, +9, etc. might not be the best progression, for instance), and other ideas.

But the topic is warmasters. Sure, War Mastery is not for the typical casual gamer but I have seen many many other games that End-Game content was much harder for a casual gamer to achieve than in this game. Anyone remember Everquest's 60-100 man raids that took hours to complete or their Epic weapons that required several of these raids and might, if you were lucky, drop an item for said epic that would then have to be rolled between all those of a certain class that were present?

IMHO, this game gives even the casual player a better chance at reaching end-game content (including War Master) than most any game I have played before.

Do WMs need a little tweaking? Sure, but very little.