[Design Blog] On Balance - Adjusting items not working as intended

[VROOMIGoRealFast]

Hey Arlorians,

I wanted to start a discussion with you all about balance adjustments. Whenever players bring up questions or feedback regarding items or abilities, we look into these items or mechanic in question. Sometimes we discover issues in the items or abilities that require further adjustments. While we understand that players have gotten used to the way this item or ability works, when it’s important for the overall balance of the game we have to make those adjustments.

When a weapon proc or ability is causing more damage than we intend, it not only throws off the balance of the game but it hides where balance problems are. One example I can give is the Wildfire proc. Recently I found the proc was ignoring the armor of enemies on the DoT, which should not happen. This meant a substantial increase of damage against targets with high armor.
For players, this means “Yay sorcerers are super strong!” But this is only when using a weapon that is not working properly. If without using this weapon Sorcerers are weak, then there’s an overall problem with sorcerers. Ideally, we want to fix that overall problem with Sorcerers and not the items or mechanics perceived to be the issue. This is at the core of what we're trying to find in order to make the proper balance adjustments in the game.

Another example which will be addressed in the next patch is an issue with Aimed Shot. There’s a specific combination of Aimed Shot upgrades that inflated the maximum potential damage of Aimed Shot beyond what the ability is supposed to be balanced for. This allowed Aimed Shot in this specific configuration to deal almost 2x as much potential damage as other combinations, and this is aside from the upgrade benefits displayed. Due to the popularity of Aimed Shot, this causes the opposite effect as the Wildfire upgrade. From a player perspective, “Rogues deal too much damage!” when in effect there’s one ability of Rogues which is causing unintended and excessive damage to be dealt.

The balance of Arcane Legends starts at the base classes and their abilities, then expands out to their weapons/armor, and then to the procs. We want to make sure all balance issues are properly discovered and addressed, especially if they go all the way back to the base class and abilities. It’s from this point that we can maintain the balance of AL and have usefulness and purpose for all classes.

Please keep all weapon and skill related feedback coming, and know that changes we make may not be the end of changes to that weapon or class, but in other areas of the game that we identify as core to the overall balance. Arcane Legends should feel fun and balanced for all classes, that’s our goal!

*UPDATE*
Speaking with Carapace about the performance of Rogues and Aimed Shot, this is the path we're taking. All analysis is going on right now, I gathered stats from high end Rogues in game to use as examples. The previous combination that resulted in really spiky damage for Aimed Shot will be adjusted so that the High and Low aren't so drastically far apart. All other combinations of Aimed Shot will be buffed to be in line with this combination so there won't be the disparity.

I'll be more transparent about this after the analysis is complete and will show the stats gathered for players as well as how damage would be affected (without any player names).

-STSVroom