I'm insane (in the membrane) regarding this suggestion

[bois]

My responses

Originally Posted by Kyrottimus

In order to un-BS-ify (yeah it's a word....look it up) the game, I suggest the following extreme measures.

1. Get rid of all evades. Seriously. Make all spells that affect evades do attack speed malus (if a debuff on an enemy) or maybe a combo of attack speed and/or range for bonuses. Replace Hit Chance bonuses with critical hit chance bonuses only.

I would say reduce the evasion rate rather than remove it . Complete removal will require removal of armour and gems with evasion bonuses on them. Spells would have to be reworked with an aim to removal. Adding an attack speed malus on all those spells would involve more server calculations. Not what we need at this stage. Thinking about range bonuses on melee too? Attack speed buffs stackable? No concrete position on this. I need to think about this further.
Yes to the hit chance to critical hit chance bonus.

2. Get rid of all resists. Seriously. Make things like SotW have some new feature like "cannot target new" (meaning if you don't already have the caster of SotW targeted, you cannot target him while he's under SotW) but it would do nothing for spell resistance (since it would be removed).

No resists mean no defense at all for some classes other than buffs from enchanting locks and conjus. I have no concrete position on this, I need to think about it further.

3. Get rid of all pets. Seriously. Stick some new skill tree, Ranger...tracking...traps, something more creative and dynamic than an uninspired tree that always leads to cookie-cutter hunter builds.

Add the traps tree, Abolish slavery. No more monster slaves to do the bidding of hunters.

4. Cut all barb buffs and spells mana cost by at least 20% or increase their buffs duration by 20%. Seriously.

Yes but start with 10% test and check again

5. Cut all marks buffs and spells mana cost by at least 10%. Seriously.

10% test and recalibrate.

6. Give all levels and classes 10%-20% hit point increase (to compensate for the loss of evades and resists) so people still live about the same length of time in battle, but without the need of BS luck.

Yes. Actually this should have been done long ago before the nerf stick was brought out to make wars and combat last longer. I would go as far as 20% to compensate. This could only work if resists and evades were actually reduced significantly. With attack nerfs in place this is less significant now.

7. As part of the philosophy of "balance" every spell should have a way to counter it. Areas can be countered by MoD, MoD can be countered by DI or prevented by UM, DI can be countered by Mindsquasher, UM can be countered by Beetle Swarm...Beetle Swarm can be countered/prevented by...Nothing. Let's change that.

Yes. Requires a new thread to ventilate this further

8. Make knights actually block with a realistic (not totally random) approach using "block dmg soak" sort of like Savage 2 (when you hold down a "block" key with a timer, which recharges when not in use, but it can only withstand so may "hits" before failing and it has to recharge/cd). I'd have the higher the block rate the longer/more one can block before attacks break through.

Yes to this. I would add a block system spell that uses mana to charge your block. Every hit transfers a portion of the damage to consumption of your mana . Set this as a specific toggle spell. Introduce "deflect" which deflects a small proportion of the damage received to all enemies in the area.
Actually , I think NGD should consider adding the concept of a supplemental spell. That would be a spell that becomes available when you max a tree but cannot be improved by adding power points. Such a spell has good power, high cool-down and expensive mana cost. Only a lvl 1 spell. Of course you require points to skill it. It is not a freebie. You could even make it more tricky and make the spell available if you max 2 specific trees. They then converge to a new subset which unlocks the new spell. These should have strict RVR applications.

9. Increase all melee attack's range (including Stunning Fist for archers) by 10%.

Or add a spell called "Lunge" The spell provides a range boost over a time period. Stunning fist can be automatically set to gain the 10% at level 3 and above.

10. Cut confuse duration in half. Yes. Half. Seriously.

Yes

11. - 15 no comment



</sleep-deprived insanity>