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Archmage / Shaman Mechanic Review

Structured balance proposals should be posted here. Posts in this section will be taken into account during class balance reviews.
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Grunbag
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Posts: 1881

Archmage / Shaman Mechanic Review

Post#1 » Wed May 22, 2019 3:29 pm

Roadmap Overview

The goal for the adjustment is to allow the Shaman / Archmages to become viable healers and nukers, but not necessarily be able to excel at both at the same time, because to do so would make them entirely too powerful in comparison to the other RDPS or healing careers. In addition, I wanted to work in a way for the AM / SH careers to generally be a bit more survivable, but they will have to sacrifice a little DPS or HPS to do so.

This idea has some significant differences from the way the careers are presented currently, but i feel that it makes for a much stronger presentation without radically changing the way most players actually play (dedicated healers). Ultimately, I want to give the Archmage and Shaman more viable options than simply standing back and spamming heals. Please keep in mind that this is an early design and that your feedback at this stage is extremely important to me.

Proposed Mechanic Revamp

Overview


My proposed changes is a complete revamp of the mechanic for the Archmage and Shaman careers. This is currently not "set-in-stone" change and I am interested in gathering feedback from players on. This change represents a complete 180 from the current mechanic and would significantly alter the AM/SH ability to play as a super-dedicated healer or face-melting nuker.


Current Mechanic

For this example, we will be using the Archmage, but the exact same changes will occur on the Shaman.

Currently (on live), abilities are classified as a Tranquility (heals) or Force (nukes) ability. When you cast an ability, the type is checked. If you have Force points built up and are casting a Force ability, you gain another Force point. If you have Force points and are casting a Tranquility ability, you "use" those Force points to increase the cast time of the Tranquility ability (if it is an instant-cast ability, it gains in effectiveness) and vice-versa if you are casting a Tranquility abilities. The result is that if you have been nuking, your next heal is better, and if you have been healing, your next nuke is better.

Revised Mechanic

The new mechanic changes this behavior away from having to nuke to make heals better to one that reinforces focusing on just heals or just nukes. We would switch to a seven-point mechanic scale, running from three Tranquility to three Force (3 to -3, if you want to look at it like that). At each point, the mechanic grants an effectiveness bonus or penalty to abilities, based on what path the spell is coming from. The bottom chart shows the example bonuses, with +3 being full Tranquility and -3 being full Force.


I’ll describe below the Bonus / Penalty in one tab, for a better understanding :

Power Boost / penalty :

+3: 160% of Path 1 (Isha) | 70% of Path 2 (Asuryan) | 100% of Path 3 (Vaul)
+2: 130% of Path 1 (Isha) | 85% of Path 2 (Asuryan) | 115% of Path 3 (Vaul)
+1: 115% of Path 1 (Isha) | 92.5% of Path 2 (Asuryan) | 130% of Path 3 (Vaul)
0: 100% of Path 1 (Isha) | 100% of Path 2 (Asuryan) | 160% of Path 3 (Vaul)
-1: 92.5% of Path 1 (Isha) | 115% of Path 2 (Asuryan) | 130% of Path 3 (Vaul)
-2: 85% of Path 1 (Isha) | 130% of Path 2 (Asuryan) | 115% of Path 3 (Vaul)
-3: 70% of Path 1 (Isha) | 160% of Path 2 (Asuryan) | 100% of Path 3 (Vaul)



• Each time you cast an ability from Path 1 (Isha), you gain a point. (Increase your heal, reduce your dps)
• Each time you cast an ability from Path 2 (Asuryan), you lose a point. (Increase your dps, reduce your heals)
• Each time you cast an ability from Path 3 (Vaul), you move a point closer to 0. (So, if you are positive it subtracts one point, and if you are negative it adds one point.)


When envisioning this on the UI, just imagine that the Current Tranquility shows a positive count, and the Current Force shows a negative count. As such, if you have -3 on this chart, the UI would show +3 Force.

How Spell Effectiveness will change :

Along with the new mechanic and reorganization, the base values of some spells would have to change to meet our new needs. Because heals would be getting a large boost when maxed from the mechanic, we would lower the base value of all heals. The goal is that the "2" point in the system, that heals under the new system are equivalent to what they are now base. This would allow an Archmage who is at full Tranquility (+3) to be slightly more effective than he or she is currently without totally inflating the healing per second value.

Why a Bonus / Penalty mechanic :

Unfortunately allowing abilities to go "Negative" is the only way we can allow AM / SH to compete with RDPS or more focused healers in their respective categories. We cannot (and will not) make the mistake of allowing a career to pump up their damage to close to RDPS levels for a penalty of being only as good as the other healers at healing (And vice versa)


That being said allowing for an infrequent reversal (IE something that switches you immediately from Tranquility to Force or vice versa) is something we're considering with the new mechanic, however it would be a very rare one time a fight at best situation.


General Questions

1) As a whole, do you feel these changes represent a "Step in the right direction" for the career? If not, please explain which changes seem off to you and why.

2) Rate each change on a scale from 1 to 10, where 10 represents something you absolutely 100% feel should happen, and 1 represents something you never want to see enter the game.

Balance Questions

1) Do you feel that the increase in base damage will promote your role as a healer / nuker hybrid enough that more dramatic changes are no longer necessary?

Mechanic Revamp Questions

1) Do you believe the adjusted mechanic will significant hamper or improve your existing play style?

2) Do you believe the adjusted mechanic will better support the healer / nuker hybrid than the current mechanic?

3) Do you feel that the mechanic is effective but not obtrusive to game play?

4) Do you feel that the loss of quick-cast spells is not made-up for by the increase in power represented in the mechanic?
Grunbag - 40 - 33 Squig Herder
Skorri - 40 - 65 Engineer

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