Critique on the current state from a veteran player.

[Hazmy]

I doubt this will even be read but do please remember that the game was made as a "quasi mirror" class system and not exact mirrors. Making duplicate changes is boring and I think most people like the idea of quasi mirrors that this game offered all those years ago. yes, "balance" is harder this way, but having a more in-depth class system is worth it.

On behalf of the Return of Reckoning Team I can safely say that all Threads, especially Feedback Threads, are read and relayed to the proper people within the Team for evaluation. That is why we constantly recommend posting well structured and worded suggestions, as they are taken quite seriously.

Thank you for your support.

[gyps]

4: I would love for guard to no require a party (a tank can dream).

What about a toggle on/off guard that while OFF guards the nearest player outside of your party that will work wonders for random pugs outside wbs and while ON works as it currently works inside parties? Doing so tanks will be always guarding someone intentionally or unintentionally.
This + guardpack addon-integrated in the game like current SOR will teach randoms how to play and how to stay in range from the very beginning.

[Faction69]

Healers would be killable by a solo dps without detaunt, and with it they can be killed fine by 2 competent dps. That's hardly unkillable, very killable if anything. The reason why it's inadvisable to train healers first has nothing to do with them being unkillable and everything to do with:

1) By attacking a dps you force them to play defensive and thus mitigate their damage. By attacking a healer you not only mitigate no damage but no healing either, because when they kite they lose very little.
2) Healers can heal with detaunt up, melee DPS can't dps with detaunt up

[Morradin]

I mainly play dps classes, and healers just fine. Not too hard and not too easy to kill. At the same time I do not expect to get a solo kill on a healer on my tank. THAT is absurd. Tanks have too much dps imo to begin with. Damage is not what tanks are around for.

Slayer dots should be reduced to 3 seconds, and 2 ticks max. I see players getting hundreds of feet away from a slayer, and the slayer dot is still ticking. Make slayer a skilled class to play, like WH. Between Slayer aoe and WL Aoe, no one else can get a kill in. Slayer and WL need to be made into real playable classes, not spam aoe on 2 buttons.

WL should have the pet range for leashing back to the player reduced to 20 feet. Seeing every WL set pet to attack and the player falls back to comfy position and has a cup of coffee while pet does all the damage and killing. No skill needed, same as slayer.

PULL is fine for both WL and Mara. I do not see how players can understand the mechanic. Once you are targeted, and pulled, it doesn't matter if you take cover afterwards, you will be pulled through walls, rocks, and trees.

[Phantasm]

Spoiler:

1: [Healers] are still too hard to kill. Shammies are near unkillable if they play their cards right in even fights (AMs are easier to kill). Shammies and AM DOTS are still over tunned. These dots are easy mode since they are ranged abilities, and they are 3 quick cast abilities. Why do they need 3 insta DOTS? That's just bloated. Zealot and Runnie staggers are too long for ranged insta cast abilities. DPS Dok's and WP heal themselves too much for going dps spec. All healers who go dps for that matter should lose almost all of their ability to heal.

2: [Melee DPS] dps AOE range is still too far. Mdps AOE range needs to be 15 ft max (unless tooltip gives a valid reason. Dragon GUN for example). Also, in my opinion Mara Demolition should shoot spikes out to 30ft making it an acceptation in the tooltip and maybe even WL slashing blade could have a wave of magical energy in the tooltip. The Spam mdps classes could use some actual skill-based game play imo. Perhaps requiring target locks for certain powerful abilities for example. Imagine requiring a target lock to play... Get to the Choppa is still the dumbest ability in the game because there's no believable reason/tooltip/graphics to explain it. Oh, and no target required. Mara still pulls people through all kinds of objects. This is not a skilled ability either (tab and mash/click) and about 80% of the time you have yourself a pull. IF maras actually pulled for 1v1's maybe I'd be ok, but there's so many chicken mara players these days it's annoying. Riposte tactic should only be available to WE/WH. Why on earth mid armored brute classes can have this tactic is beyond me. WE/WH need unique heal depuffs and not standard ones that all other classes have. They are the assassins after all. 75% heal debuff or poisoning of incoming healing to cause a % damage of the healing that would have been done to the target. Something different for sure. WH bullets should not be parried but require dodge. Burn away lies tooltip needs to be changed to describe it as a torch and oil douse to fit the animation and range. WE should not have 30 ft melee attacks with daggers. WL pet.. the bugs omg, needs more HP.

3: [Ranged] SH disarms needs to be moved to the actual SH and require parry (it's in the MELEE TREE) it's effectively a ranged ability atm and having an active pet is too low of a cost when you can shoot 65-100 ft attacks at someone (this class SH has SO MUCH, not that I'm complaining). In fact, all physical disarms should require parry. There should be no physical range disarms, only magic ones. ENGI/Magus are the most consistently satisfying classes to encounter in the lakes. I love fighting these two classes. I never feel cheated or feel they are underwhelming. SH pet bugs, but not as bad as WL since it has ranged attacks.

4: [Tanks] have seen the most changes of late and have had some good fixes. Kotbs and Chosen are no longer the sole punt bots. All tanks need at least a guard breaking punt. Meaning the punt will break the guard range when a tank is punted away. I think IB still needs a little tuning on its punt trajectory, but things are looking better in this area now. I would love for guard to no require a party (a tank can dream).

I doubt this will even be read but do please remember that the game was made as a "quasi mirror" class system and not exact mirrors. Making duplicate changes is boring and I think most people like the idea of quasi mirrors that this game offered all those years ago. yes, "balance" is harder this way, but having a more in-depth class system is worth it.

Posts like this has one problem - those are opinions without actual facts. If you could post a video - lets say, you dps in bis gear and standard spec vs bis gear and standard spec healer and disucuss there - it would have a value. But eveything else is a mater of point of view then cant be really taken serious.

Im leveling up atm dok/WP and ill try make comparision vs different dps/tanks and ill see which class can kill me and how, then I can make any conclusions.
But it will take some time.

[Panzer80]

I also forgot to add that the Mara touch of rot and the magic one still need initial damage. They still aren't worth the global. The removal of the flat 160 or double 120 stat bonus tactics also. Integrate more base stats if needed for compensation. These tactics are boring and in many cases are hard to resist. It would encourage use of more interesting ones. Of course, many tactics are just underpower and need buffing or changed. That's more of a specific thing though. I'm just giving general impressions here. I also very much like the idea of innate racial tactics.

Thanks again to all involved!

[Panzer80]

Spoiler:

1: [Healers] are still too hard to kill. Shammies are near unkillable if they play their cards right in even fights (AMs are easier to kill). Shammies and AM DOTS are still over tunned. These dots are easy mode since they are ranged abilities, and they are 3 quick cast abilities. Why do they need 3 insta DOTS? That's just bloated. Zealot and Runnie staggers are too long for ranged insta cast abilities. DPS Dok's and WP heal themselves too much for going dps spec. All healers who go dps for that matter should lose almost all of their ability to heal.

2: [Melee DPS] dps AOE range is still too far. Mdps AOE range needs to be 15 ft max (unless tooltip gives a valid reason. Dragon GUN for example). Also, in my opinion Mara Demolition should shoot spikes out to 30ft making it an acceptation in the tooltip and maybe even WL slashing blade could have a wave of magical energy in the tooltip. The Spam mdps classes could use some actual skill-based game play imo. Perhaps requiring target locks for certain powerful abilities for example. Imagine requiring a target lock to play... Get to the Choppa is still the dumbest ability in the game because there's no believable reason/tooltip/graphics to explain it. Oh, and no target required. Mara still pulls people through all kinds of objects. This is not a skilled ability either (tab and mash/click) and about 80% of the time you have yourself a pull. IF maras actually pulled for 1v1's maybe I'd be ok, but there's so many chicken mara players these days it's annoying. Riposte tactic should only be available to WE/WH. Why on earth mid armored brute classes can have this tactic is beyond me. WE/WH need unique heal depuffs and not standard ones that all other classes have. They are the assassins after all. 75% heal debuff or poisoning of incoming healing to cause a % damage of the healing that would have been done to the target. Something different for sure. WH bullets should not be parried but require dodge. Burn away lies tooltip needs to be changed to describe it as a torch and oil douse to fit the animation and range. WE should not have 30 ft melee attacks with daggers. WL pet.. the bugs omg, needs more HP.

3: [Ranged] SH disarms needs to be moved to the actual SH and require parry (it's in the MELEE TREE) it's effectively a ranged ability atm and having an active pet is too low of a cost when you can shoot 65-100 ft attacks at someone (this class SH has SO MUCH, not that I'm complaining). In fact, all physical disarms should require parry. There should be no physical range disarms, only magic ones. ENGI/Magus are the most consistently satisfying classes to encounter in the lakes. I love fighting these two classes. I never feel cheated or feel they are underwhelming. SH pet bugs, but not as bad as WL since it has ranged attacks.

4: [Tanks] have seen the most changes of late and have had some good fixes. Kotbs and Chosen are no longer the sole punt bots. All tanks need at least a guard breaking punt. Meaning the punt will break the guard range when a tank is punted away. I think IB still needs a little tuning on its punt trajectory, but things are looking better in this area now. I would love for guard to no require a party (a tank can dream).

I doubt this will even be read but do please remember that the game was made as a "quasi mirror" class system and not exact mirrors. Making duplicate changes is boring and I think most people like the idea of quasi mirrors that this game offered all those years ago. yes, "balance" is harder this way, but having a more in-depth class system is worth it.

Posts like this has one problem - those are opinions without actual facts. If you could post a video - lets say, you dps in bis gear and standard spec vs bis gear and standard spec healer and disucuss there - it would have a value. But eveything else is a mater of point of view then cant be really taken serious.

Im leveling up atm dok/WP and ill try make comparision vs different dps/tanks and ill see which class can kill me and how, then I can make any conclusions.
But it will take some time.

It's an impression about the state of the games combat from someone who's played it a lot. It's as valuable as exactly that. I could just as easily dismiss your point as an opinion too! Anyone can take anyone's point of view seriously or not at any time or not at any time!

[Panzer80]

I doubt this will even be read but do please remember that the game was made as a "quasi mirror" class system and not exact mirrors. Making duplicate changes is boring and I think most people like the idea of quasi mirrors that this game offered all those years ago. yes, "balance" is harder this way, but having a more in-depth class system is worth it.

On behalf of the Return of Reckoning Team I can safely say that all Threads, especially Feedback Threads, are read and relayed to the proper people within the Team for evaluation. That is why we constantly recommend posting well structured and worded suggestions, as they are taken quite seriously.

Thank you for your support.

Oh, I didn't know this, Thanks!

[Panzer80]

I mainly play dps classes, and healers just fine. Not too hard and not too easy to kill. At the same time I do not expect to get a solo kill on a healer on my tank. THAT is absurd. Tanks have too much dps imo to begin with. Damage is not what tanks are around for.

Slayer dots should be reduced to 3 seconds, and 2 ticks max. I see players getting hundreds of feet away from a slayer, and the slayer dot is still ticking. Make slayer a skilled class to play, like WH. Between Slayer aoe and WL Aoe, no one else can get a kill in. Slayer and WL need to be made into real playable classes, not spam aoe on 2 buttons.

WL should have the pet range for leashing back to the player reduced to 20 feet. Seeing every WL set pet to attack and the player falls back to comfy position and has a cup of coffee while pet does all the damage and killing. No skill needed, same as slayer.

PULL is fine for both WL and Mara. I do not see how players can understand the mechanic. Once you are targeted, and pulled, it doesn't matter if you take cover afterwards, you will be pulled through walls, rocks, and trees.

I don't think it's the tank DPS that is too much, but rather that the game favors stacking defense over stacking offense (in small game situations). It's very hard to out glass cannon a rock-hard defense in this game. I agree about the kill stealing of the non-target required mdps AOE blobs. I have a 80+ mara and still have issue with being pulled through walls. Match the buildup and cast time with the results then. Instant tab target and pulls. See how people like that! I'm guessing not XD. Mara does not have WL mobility though, such as pounce. So, I get mara having something better for simulated mobility. I'm also not that ok with the 100ft disrupt KD they have, but it's mostly a non-issue given it's disrupt based.

[Fey]

I don't agree with a lot of the changes that this server has adopted. The cap to morale damage in particular flattened our squig bomb group, but such is life.

The game feels pretty good right at the moment. There have been a lot of nerfs and changes to very potent abilities from AoR. Abilities such as crippling strikes have been completely reworked, while things like leading shots and rampage have been simply modified. But it has lead to a fun and mostly balanced game.

As far as heals being difficult to delete, trust me, you want it this way. No one is going to play a healer if it is a frustrating experience. I have 2 healers at 80+ and the rest at 60+. Heals are very well tuned atm. Yes they are stronk, it needs to remain this way. I'd rather be killing like everyone else, but the world needs ditch-diggers; and I guess that's me.

Pulls being bugged is nothing new, but it's at least entertaining for both puller and pulee.