Balance Update 2011 - Stage 1 - Initial Discussion

[chilko]

Balance Update: Crowd Controls

Crowd control skills are an important part of combat strategy both for PVP and RVR. Even though all clases have different variations of CC skills, some of their possible combinations generate a great deal of frustrations for Regnum players.

Among the different kinds of CCs, we believe that "knock down" is the most powerful. Not Only these skills leave the target without movement, attacking and casting, but also vulnerable to damage.

For this new balance iteration we will try not to modify a great deal of skills but to adjust a small set of them so we can observe the results in real gameplay conditions. By doing this, the analysis period should be shorter (less modified variables to take into account) and corrections that may arise should be easier to implement.

In this stage we will focus only on CC Skills with a single target.

Considering the above, and after studying both the game and the requests on the fórum, these are the proposed changes to be included in the future version.

Please read all the changes for all the classes before stating an opinion as all of the decisions are intertwined.


Class: Warrior (Barbs & Knights)

The damage that Barbarians can do is high. We don’t believe that the issue is with the damage but with the fact that they have 2 Knocks (feint and kick). The ability to combine both skills creates the opportunity for a barbarían, to eliminate its opponent without a chance to get up.

Both of these skills are part of the “Tactics” discipline, and we don’t want to affect the Knight with this change so we will do the following modification:

• Feint: moved to the “vanguard” -knight only- discipline to replace “intimidate”
• Intimidate: moved to the “Tactics” discipline instead of “Kick”
• Kick: Moved to the 1st place of the discipline in place of feint

We’ll have to do minor adjustments to the mana consumption and/or duration of these skills because of the change of place in the discipline. Although Barbarians will lose one of their CC skills, they will earn a slow skill that will allow them to reach their enemies.

 
Clase: Archer (Hunters and Marksmen)

The tactical situation between Archers and Warriors should play around the difference of range. In normal conditions a warrior that reaches melee range should have a positional advantage.
Because of the different CCs and “counter damage” available in the “Tricks” discipline This theoretical situation does not happen as often as we would like.
The following changes will be introduced with the intention of revert this. siguientes cambios serán introducidos con la intención de revertir la situación mencionada.

• Ambush: The range of this spell will be reduced to melee range. This will allow archers to have a CC suited for melee classes (so to gain range for a brief period of time) but not against other ranged classes.
• Stunning Fist: the effect “Cannot attack” will be replaced either by “Stun” or “cannot cast” (please let us know what you think)

Class: Mages (Warlocks y Conjurer)

Based on the previous explanations we propose the following changes:

• Will Domain: this skill is going to be replaced by "Mummify".
• Mummify: transforms the objective into a mummy showering its movements. Reduces movement speed and attack speed.

Subclass: Masksman

We have read many posts about this subclass being OP. We think that this issue is much more related o CCs than damage. Marksmen have a great amount and diversity of long range control skills that allows them to “keep range” all the time.
The combination of said CCs give them an edge against melee classes that need to reach them in order to fight.

This subclass has two CC skills that include damage, Winter Stroke and Burst of wind (cannot be stopped by “divine intervention” hurting team-play)
Also, after the last balance update mana regeneration was increased and it may be too high for this class (both for PVP and RVR)

• Burst of Wind: damage will be removed.
• Mana regen: slightly reduced during combat (we’ll add feedback on GUI while “in combat” status)

We wanted to have an initial discussion about these changes before we upload to Amun. Please try to explain yourselves and maintain a constructive thread.

[HidraA]

Originally Posted by chilko

• Feint: moved to the “vanguard” -knight only- discipline to replace “intimidate”
• Intimidate: moved to the “Tactics” discipline instead of “Kick”
• Kick: Moved to the 1st place of the discipline in place of feint

Best decission ever.

Subclass: Masksman
We have read many posts about this subclass being OP. We think that this issue is much more related o CCs than damage.

Agree with this too.

Burst of wind (cannot be stopped by “divine intervention” hurting team-play)

This will give lots of advantage to warlocks.Results are predictive.Revers..lots of marks complain by meteor spam from warlock side.
But i a gree with change because tired of warlocks complaint about Birst of Wind.

Also, after the last balance update mana regeneration was increased and it may be too high for this class (both for PVP and RVR)

I remeber days when all ppl complaint about lack of mana ..are wee going to the begin?But ok lets give a try.Lack of conj in game due of hard grinding will advantage ppl that complaint about OP of marks.

[terekon]

I will save my opinion for the changes specifically until after I have been able to try them out on amun.

I will say that I am happy to see NGD asking the community directly for input on changes. Hopefully this will help lead to better overall implementation.

[Latan]

i think you're approaching in a wrong way to this balance work.

the real issue with CC'S is their DURATION/CD
barbarians could still kill someone in a kick duration (2 RoL, 5% leggings, TfB 5) with kick (4-5), normal, SC, normal, beast attack (5).
marksmen can simply change target if DI'ed and dizzy from 50+ m for 11s.
archers already have a range 25 stun.
mages already have mind push (locks have slow too).

i think the very first step should be a redefinition of CC and a maximum duration for each spell.
for example:
knock: 5 sec max
cannot move: 6 sec max
dizzy: 8 sec max
cannot attack: 8 sec max
freeze: 11 sec max
stun: 11 sec max
slowdown: 15 sec max
confuse/darkness: 20 sec max
armor debuffs: 20 sec max

once defined those limits, give each spell a good balance, so an appropriate range, mana cost, COOLDOWN (it's absurd that WS deals 500 dmg, keep you freezed for 6 seconds, has low mana cost and needs only 14 seconds to be recasted. same for kick: 8 seconds duration, then only 12 seconds to wait).

CC's should give and advantage, but they should not be the "I WIN" button, and keeping the same duration, these changes wouldn't improve the game at all

[Ashnurazg]

Originally Posted by Latan

i think you're approaching in a wrong way to this balance work.

I think NGD should work on a "ground" balance between the classes, attack and defensive without CC, before making any changes at CC.

CC is the icing on the cake of balance. That's like building a house on a rotten footing. Repairing/Repacing the footing and the house is more stable.

NGD should keep in mind, that even tiny changes can have a large impact.

[time-to-die]

hello.

But if ambush is now a melee thing. It got way more cast time than kick or feint. So that means that ambush is now pointless against warriors?

[-Kalid-]

As i understand so far that archers can't knock down their enemies from distance, then why the heck are they range classes?

And stunning fist was and always be the best way to stop an enemy from attacking and know it's cannot cast? Lol you joking right?

[tarugozapata]

Si quitan emboscada, que la quiten a todos por igual, me refiero a fintas y otros poderes de aturdimiento en todas las clases generales. Eso es lo que frustra el juego. Esa es mi humilde opinión. Quien da primero un alto porcentaje gana. Eliminen todas las skills de incapacidad y no habrá más frustraciones

[Punti_X]

When fixing CCs, please finally repair / make usefull Protection Dome spell.

[Castingbeast]

Nerf nerf nerf as always... sigh
I see many ppl complaining about freeze and strategic position how OP it is and such, well I dont think so. I dont see any problems with them, BUT if NGD wanna do something about em, Id rather see something alike:

I dont see any changes about confuse announced (yet), SO hunters should stop whining! They still have camo and confuse.
So much about strategic position

About freeze:

Instead of nerfing it, Id add something to "counter" it, a new spell, ok two, but the effect would be the same (2 coz of the classes )

Called for archers/warriors "Heat", which will be placed either into the Evasion tree instead of Cat reflexes, or into Tricks tree instead of Finesse/Sticky Touch.

Itd be either a Freeze passive skill (lv1 14%, lv2 28%, lv3 42%, lv4 56% and lv5 70% immunity against freeze), or itd be a spell against freeze (after cast itd grant ya a %( i.e 70%) immunity against freeze for a few secs ( 6-8 sec max, CD 60 sec or something)
Note: 70% might be too much, was just my first thought .

So now for mages. Id add "Meltdown" to Enchantments tree instead of Blindness wich is IMHO a completely useless spell. Would work just as I already described above ^^

And for warriors Id add the "Heat" spell to the Tactics tree instead of the Back slam skill.

OT.

Feint: moved to the “vanguard” -knight only- discipline to replace “intimidate”
Intimidate: moved to the “Tactics” discipline instead of “Kick”
Kick: Moved to the 1st place of the discipline in place of feint

Giving barbs only one knock might be a good start but leaving knights without any speed buff or slowing spell not so much promising imho
Not to mention that barbs are already the fastest class atm so why giving em a slow spell as well?

As many already said it the main problem is the duration of knock spells not the effect itself. I liked Annavilya's suggestion the best tho: removing knock effect after a certain dmg received .

Ambush: The range of this spell will be reduced to melee range. This will allow archers to have a CC suited for melee classes (so to gain range for a brief period of time) but not against other ranged classes.
Stunning Fist: the effect “Cannot attack” will be replaced either by “Stun” or “cannot cast” (please let us know what you think)

Dont like these changes at all, lowering knocks duration would be enough imo for ambush and I dont see any sense for the Stunning Fist change, it is just as good as it is now. Archers need to "cannot attack" rushing barbs, knight whatever, dont change it pls

Will Domain: this skill is going to be replaced by "Mummify".
Mummify: transforms the objective into a mummy showering its movements. Reduces movement speed and attack speed.

Again, no change is needed here IMO, maybe raise its casting time and cd but no more, effect is ok.

Burst of Wind: damage will be removed.
Mana regen: slightly reduced during combat (we’ll add feedback on GUI while “in combat” status)

Sounds quite fair about the dizzy spell but I dont wanna go back in time to that when marks were asking for mana every 20 sec, already being said by someone as well, only can confirm that, THO it should be tested first.

All in all its really good to see NGD's back at work, keep on communicating with us and RO might be a better game again!

Oh yeah!!! OLD SAVES BACK TOO PLS!!