Gear/Stat/Skill Changes Required For Balance

[Rashkar]

Proposed Gear Changes
Rift Gear-
Issues: no mp regen

This is a no brainer to fix, add mp regen (2 per peice and reduce crit, a tank doesnt need crit anyways). This would leave a full geared rift tank with 8 mana regen in best gear.

Cosmos gear -
Issues: too low survivability

Here's a crazy idea that only void wearers would disagree with, make it the same def as void!! This would allow both dps/Debuff classes to remain on par, the fact that this isn't so already is mind boggling... There is really no reason why this isn't so at current.

Void gear -
Issues: none

Proposed Stat Changes

Firstly it seems like the presence of only three stats is a huge mistake. There should be either a "vitality" or "constitution" stat that would provide the bonuses to tanking. This would allow people to branch out and select to be either a true tank or a damage dealing melée. This would also serve the purpose of helping to bring in a class system that is pretty much necessary for future advancement of content in the game.

Constituiton/vitality-
This stat should be the one that increases armor and health. This would require this stat as the survivability basis for the game. Forcing tanks to allocate their points here would allow for real tanks to be necceary for later areas of the game.

Each point of constitution/vitality should add 5 health and 1 armor and 1 block. I realize currently that this could result in a stupid amount of mitigation at current levels however the current system makes it extremely difficult to ramp up mobs and especially bosses as new content Is released. I will address this issue later in the post and it will make sense.

Strength -
Strength should increase melée attack damage, similar to how dex does for all weapons currently. This helps open up the realm of a their/assassin type bird style and adds the possibility of future advances in this direction. Also it allows for ursan players to be able to choose between a tank or a damage dealing role. This helps with customizability for all character types, even paladins now that I think about it as well.

Dexterity-
This stat should nearly remain as is and will parallel the type of idea above regarding the strength stat, except be for ranged weapons such as bows/Xbows/talons.

Intelligence -
This stat should be the bread and butter for mages. Increasing normal attack marginally compared to strength and dexterity, however should provide ankles significant increase to skill damag than it currently does. This falls in line with the changes I will propose to skills later in he post as well.

Secondary stat changes-
Health - health MUST increase with level as well as based on the proposed new stat of constitution/vitality

Armor- the idea that 1 armor reduces roughly 1 damage is silly. Armor should, depending on characters level, reduce a percentage of an incoming attack. This would allow for better ramping up of content as mobs could do less damage to tanks and more to the dps classes. With increased health pools as described above, the increased damage balances out so that birds and elves can withstand a few more hits before dying making it much less of a hope you don't get crit situation like it is now.

Dodge - this stat I beleive is already percentage based and therefore should be reduced to keep in line with the new changes otherwise birds will be eventually sitting at 100% dodge in the not so distant future.

Block - new secondary stat based on he equipping of a shield: wither this change should be added for all "shield type" equips (eyes/wings included) and provide a new skill to increase block for bears, or have only constitution/vitality shields give this new tank-oriented secondary stat. This would add in another mitigation of damage aspect for tanks allowing bosses and mobs to be increasingly more difficult and encourage greater team play.


Proposed Skill Changes
Ursan - get rid of the useless first skill in the tree (forgot it's name cuz it's useless) and add in a block type increasing passive/active skill. Also taunt MUST be made 100% effective to ensure simplicity of aggro like this game requires as it is never going to be anything more than a touch game.

Birds- give them an aggro dropping skill, or add this inherently into one of their present skills.

Elves- same idea as above with the aggro dropping skill.

Also all skills should be percentage based instead of a static damage increase/decrease, to allow for new content to be met with increasingly more beneficial skills.

Anyways I'll add more later feel free to rant/ give suggestions I just thought this all up whilst I couldn't fall asleep and decided to mash it out quick. Hope it makes sense as I typed it all on my iPhone hahah (I know I'm crazy!!)

Also if something is unclear or needs elaboration to make it a valid idea please tell me and I'll fix it up!

Oh and if I copied someone elses idea I didn't see your post just msg me and i can give u credit where it's due, just wanting to benefit the PL community haha, not Tryin to step on anyones toes hehe

MORE TO BE ADDED LATER

[Lesrider]

I like these ideas a lot. My only concern is that the "constitution" skill would unfairly make bears choose between an additional stat while birds can still just stay pure dex. I cant see too many people wanting to be a bear that only does damage but has no defense -- especially if bears have only close-range weapons. I think this might just cause bears to turn into walking shields. And then which skill would be required to wear a shield? There may be some way for this to work, but I think it would just turn bears into meat shields that do very little damage. Which might not be so much fun for the bears.

[Rashkar]

not really actually.

With proposed changes to taunt and making it 100% effective, or near that number, it doesnt matter if the dps is melee or range, except for stragglers or adds that might join in slightly later. This changes nothing that isnt already in the game, and is neccessary to ensure that skill is required to stay alive, and makes everyone's job more exciting. The proposed changes i made above make str and dex do the exact same thing, nothing more or less from one another, maybe i wasnt clear, i was really tired when i wrote it. This gives the option to be a damage dealing bear, and makes it viable. The only real differences between the characters would be the skill set which is obviously required, the races need their own set of skills. Additionaly when an add does join the battle, assuming that the health pool change that i proposed (and others have done before me), it will give the dps (the zero defence chars as you called them) time to adjust as they will be able to take a few attacks, no more one shotting like before (except for the obvious boss mobs, and the equivalents to snipers/berzerkers/lorekeepers).

The fact that you said that bears are forced to choose between an additional stat is not true, it just gives choice and requires SOME bears in the community be a tank, and allows others to step into a damage dealing role, and not have to switch to all dex and be glorified archers. This i feel is a much needed step in the right direction, and allows birds even to be more rogueish and gives them the option to choose str over dex as well. Im sure we can all think of some sort of incentive for being melee, like a similar situation that is already the case with daggers and their stackable bleed proc. In fact, it would allow future dual weilding to be very possible to allow for a more roguish feel, maybe birds could be given this option alone? with some additional incentive, like really high burst damage?

Does this answer ur question? i ramble sometimes haha

[noobmigo]

i like the idea how str increase melee wep dmg, but i really think that the constitution/vitality is not needed. Here is why: If you want to be a bear, and have high dmg, just get a claymore-type wep. if you want to tank, go get a shield and a 1h wep.
EDIT:i think i made a mistake here. the high dmg/tank stat that you have proposed is constitution/ vitality?
Anyway, i still say whatever skill for the bears is not needed, just get a shield set or a claymore-type set.

[Lesrider]

Unless I'm misunderstanding, my point is that str will become useless if it has no effect on health or def (ie holding a shield, wearing armor). Why not just use dex if str does the same but doesn't offer range weapons?
Just seems like on of the stats would get lost with this change.

[Rashkar]

i like the idea how str increase melee wep dmg, but i really think that the constitution/vitality is not needed. Here is why: If you want to be a bear, and have high dmg, just get a claymore-type wep. if you want to tank, go get a shield and a 1h wep.
EDIT:i think i made a mistake here. the high dmg/tank stat that you have proposed is constitution/ vitality?
Anyway, i still say whatever skill for the bears is not needed, just get a shield set or a claymore-type set.

Unless I'm misunderstanding, my point is that str will become useless if it has no effect on health or def (ie holding a shield, wearing armor). Why not just use dex if str does the same but doesn't offer range weapons?
Just seems like on of the stats would get lost with this change.

the problem is, strength works with the current system as a band aid fix to both tanking and melee attacking, but down the road its going to be increasingly more difficult to make content work for higher levels. Just slapping on a two hand weapon to do damage is way too hard to balance with other damage dealers, and if they try to increase things for melee attacking. By changing strength to be the same as dex for melee attacking, ursans, birds and elves COULD have the option to do some in-your-face damage.

The best fix for this would probably be to make it so that higher level shields and tank-oriented gear require constitution/vitality instead of strength.

Strength would be given an additional set of gear oriented to melee damage dealing

Does this make sense yet?

[Lesrider]

Sounds like str would still end up being useless. Right now, the benefit of str is not the weapon it allows you to hold, but the armor/shield it allows you to wear. Why would someone choose str if they can just choose dex and have the added benefits of range weaponry and dodge (and then use constitution for extra defense).

[SoShaan]

1

Proposed Gear Changes
Rift Gear-
Issues: no mp regen

2

Proposed Skill Changes
Ursan - get rid of the useless first skill in the tree (forgot it's name cuz it's useless) and add in a block type increasing passive/active skill. Also taunt MUST be made 100% effective to ensure simplicity of aggro like this game requires as it is never going to be anything more than a touch game.

3

Birds- give them an aggro dropping skill, or add this inherently into one of their present skills.

Elves- same idea as above with the aggro dropping skill.

4

Also all skills should be percentage based instead of a static damage increase/decrease, to allow for new content to be met with increasingly more beneficial skills.

Comments
1. Agreed... After finally getting my sparkle, I was very disappointed in its ability to go to war as a set. Currently, its a penalty to have a Rift set in battle.
2. Disagree.. I use it at lv4 early in the combo because its secondary effect does not move the target away from the next step. (root target) or something like that.
2b. I never found any benefit to taunt, Ill switch it with the other Debuff next restat. Give it another look.
3. Birds dont need anything else, they are already unmatched in speed and ability. Unstoppable in PvP.. Dex can be removed from the game completely imo.
Seriously.. How can a bird be running away from me, the arm moving in a forwarded motion not in my direction. But the talon fly's backwards and kills me. All of the range weapons are like that.
Elves need stronger weapons imo
4. Agree sorta.. Skills damage should be based on the number of skill points you invested in each. The current system forces players to choose either heavy on their stats in order to be effective all around, or be a hybrid with little or no use of the skill sets.

[Rashkar]

Comments
1. Agreed... After finally getting my sparkle, I was very disappointed in its ability to go to war as a set. Currently, its a penalty to have a Rift set in battle.
2. Disagree.. I use it at lv4 early in the combo because its secondary effect does not move the target away from the next step. (root target) or something like that.
2b. I never found any benefit to taunt, Ill switch it with the other Debuff next restat. Give it another look.
3. Birds dont need anything else, they are already unmatched in speed and ability. Unstoppable in PvP.. Dex can be removed from the game completely imo.
Seriously.. How can a bird be running away from me, the arm moving in a forwarded motion not in my direction. But the talon fly's backwards and kills me. All of the range weapons are like that.
Elves need stronger weapons imo
4. Agree sorta.. Skills damage should be based on the number of skill points you invested in each. The current system forces players to choose either heavy on their stats in order to be effective all around, or be a hybrid with little or no use of the skill sets.

2. ok, maybe dont remove the first attack skill then, this is a change proposed for the future lol, so maybe this change could be part of a new branch of skills? possibly a class change?

3. i agree birds need nothign else, adding an aggro drop mechanic would just help with the tank holding aggro as, like u said, the taunt skill is pretty flawed. This doesnt give anything new to birds, and would help with future progression when areas get harder, and more teamwork is required. Maybe, add in a debuff that makes it so that your damage decreases by a certain amount for a few seconds to compensate then? i dunno haha, just ideas

3b. yea its pretty ridiculous that a bird can run and still continue to shoot, this should be changed imo as well; they already hava enough tricks up their sleeves as it is.

4. skills should be percentage based to allow for gear/level to ramp them up as the game becomes increasingly more difficult, the current system with its absolute values makes it difficult to add in new, harder mobs and bosses. and provides for a very static feel to the game. If for example, the damage dealing skills increased more with strength, you could choose to be more damage heavy if you go this route. This addition would only work if strength was no longer primarily in charge of tanking stats as well however, which means that tanking needs to be based on another stat like i proposed (vitality/constitution). This new tanking stat could ramp up the current tanking skills of iron blood/evade somehow.

These changes are not for the game in its current stages.... its more of a future-oriented outlook to the game. As it is, the game will hit a dead halt, and actually this is already occuring in AO3....