Honest Opinions about the Current Meta and a little thought on balance (30-40)
Hey everyone,
So for about the past 3-4 weeks of pvping after coming back from a year gap, I have noticed that the current pvp system became really "fast". What I mean by this is that it's either you nuke or get nuked type of meta.
I want to talk about the pros and cons about this meta and since this is just an opinion of my own, y'all are welcomed to disagree as well. Also, keep in mind that because I have been playing mage class for the most of my pl career, there might be a little bias (Will try my best not to).
Pros:
1) Meta gives a chance for bird users at this level range.
As we already know, birds have been suffering a lot from the past updates and they rarely stood a chance against other mainstream classes at this level range. However, birds with STR weapons now have the potential to fight its way against other mainstream classes, which I think is what birds needed. (Still slightly weak in terms of dodge / armor, but damage seems great).
2) It gives an opportunity for the so called "new generation" players.
Gears have affected pvp a lot in the past and even up to this point. However, unlike the past, where gears significantly determined the winning rates of players, the current meta gives the new players a chance to fight his / her way out against the experienced players. To give an example, a 35 voodoo mage with voodoo set is still able to kill 35 mage with halloween gears (Not so frequently, but can happen if used right). Overall, the amulets compensate the disadvantage in gear stats for the new players.
3) Fast paced PVP
This is something that I find it as a pro and a con simultaneously. Range awareness has become even more significant than the past, to avoid the risk of getting nuked. Fast paced pvp allows games to go by rapidly and allows players to gain faster kills (and deaths as well ofc). It usually takes about 10-30 seconds / each "go" fights (Not all the time, but mostly) and this fast paced pvp offers the new pvp approaching players to gain more experience and the chance to thrive at this level range.
Cons:
1) Amulets
Alright, so amulets are definitely op. The stats are just insane. Maxing out the enchants on 30 amulets can grant you +60 dmg / +60 armor and on top of that, additional stats on your selection of amulets (dodge / crit). To use a bit of analogy, +60 dmg in the perspective of old meta pvp is basically piling up 8-9 ish pink evidence bracers or 12 founders (Scrutinizing only on the damage). What this leads to is a level 30 player being able to nuke down level 40 pallies (Not so often, but is commonly seen nowadays). So the question is, do players have to get this amount of damage to be viable in this pvp range? If 30s can nuke down 35-40 players, what's the point of leveling up to 35 or 40?
2) Damage for all classes.
In relation to the amulets, the damages of all the players have dramatically increased.
To point out some skills of each classes individually, here it goes:
Mage - Drain damage is out of control, out of all the skills. If a 35 mage maxes out on drain, then it can do around 400-500 in crit. Based off of my 35 mage, the health amount is in the high 400s (P.S this means you can miss all your skills and if you land just one single crit drain, you can still win :)!).
Bear - Beck stomp damage is insane. Idk the specifics of the damage, but hey, grab a 30 bear with couple taunt and raise your beckon / stomp to around 5-6, easy kills. Based off of my experience, even if other classes try their best to kite out the bears, the beck stomp combo is inevitable (Unless you dodge, which happens merely and is luck based). If a 30 bear can nuke down a 40 pally mage, I hope you guys know what that tells you about this pvp range rn.
Fox - I have never played fox, so I hope I don't get criticized for this from the professional fox players (All the respects to you guys), but fox damage is highly op too (Under the condition of landing combos). The cooldown on the dash skills (not just 1, but two dashes) seems a little bit out of balance, but I guess that's what foxes are. Again, based off of my experience, let's say you are playing a game of ffa as other classes besides fox. Let's say you won the first buff fight and since you buffed, your buff is draining out slowly. While you hope to live, you can't! Guess where the fox is after 1-2 seconds, right in front of your face, buffed and ready to nuke you down. Although there is a way to counter this type of situation, it all becomes invalidated if the fox dodges all of your skills while your buff is half away from cooldown. [Too much bias here, my bad]
Birds / rhino - Alright, birds and rhino, I grouped these two classes together because I feel like they are about the same in terms of sustainability. While they are given the chance to nuke when allowed the chance to combo, they can also die easily. I can't really say that these two classes are op, rather they seem more balanced than the other three classes.
So what are some changes that can be made?
1) Nerf the amulets!
Bringing the 3pc rings into lower level pvp was already a huge boost in terms of stats for the majority of the players, but adding amulet stats made slightly off balance pvp into an insane pvp. The damage boost from these amulets should definitely be reconsidered.
2) Reduce the skill damage for the currently OP classes.
I wrote out some particular skills above and I believe that those skills need some nerf (Hopefully damage wise and cooldown wise as well). I hate to restate this, but despite the mage drain being so op, bear beck stomp is just wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too much. Hate to be biased here, but Mana shield skill takes about 1-3 seconds to appear, whereas bears' beck stomp can be done within <1 sec. Mages die even before Mana shield goes in, majority of the times and the situation does not get better even if starting off with mana shield.
3) IF balance change is ever made, dodge system should be slightly fixed as well.
Although we know that "Higher number in dodge stats = more chance of dodging," there should be a guideline as to what dodge is and how it works. So basically what I mean by this is that we, as players, don't exactly know how dodge works. What's the difference in 15 dodge vs 17 dodge, despite the difference in numbers? Does it mean that you will avoid 15 hits / 100 times? and does adding 2 more dodge truly yield more dodge overall?
Plat pack bears at 40 can usually dodge all of my skill shots and considering the fact that these bears have 6 beck 6 stomp stomp options, as well as HS / CB to significantly diminish my dmg + dodge rate, there's merely a chance. Although you guys might think, "Why does this mage complain about every single thing? Get a 40 then". I have tried using my 40 mage against 40 bears and the results are usually the same, only different if I am able to land couple dodges against their beckon.
In conclusion:
There are soooooo many other things that can be listed out here, but to narrow down to a conclusion, amulets definitely need some nerf. Although changing the pvp system in just a matter of couple days is impossible, I believe that when the creators update the gears for pvp, they should test it out first and see if the balance is there or not. Tracing down the statistics of how each class does against other classes might be another option. Active feedbacks from the devs and players should be combined together to make this happen, but I am a little disappointed that this isn't happening.
Thank you for your time in reading this and feel free to state what you guys feel about pvp in the (30-40) ranges or other pvp ranges as well.
Best regards,
Jun.
