So for starters a disclaimer; this will be a proposal for SW mainly, so don’t come crying “but mah SQ”, I play one myself, but don’t have the required detailed experience from MSH to make a full balance proposal about it.
SW and SH share some problems in some areas, while in other areas there are differences between the classes, mainly in their melee specs, along with the differences originating in the cross class mirroring concept of WAR. Therefore, the SH might need a slightly different medicine than the SW, and this is the reason why this post mainly relates to the SW. If you find some good points here, please feel free to use them for your own SH balance proposal.
To set the context of my proposal we need to agree on a couple of things in order to go forward in a constructive manner.
1. Class concept:
Everyone who picked the SW as a class to play, be it 12 years ago or yesterday, did so because they found the class enticing when looking upon it in the character selection. This I will call the concept of the class. When looking at the class in the character selector screen, you probably related this class to either; “Legolas” or “Ranger” these two are basically the same, I will address it as the “ranger” concept. The ranger concept in literature and mmorpgs are more or less a “jack of all trades, master of none” concept, with variations of pet related class etc (SH).
2. Class mechanic;
In order to understand my proposal you need to agree that the concept of the class mechanic is that the class mechanic mainly supports three goals:
- a. Make the class mechanically and conceptually fun to play
b. Improve your characters performance if you adhere to the mechanic
c. Restrict and reduce your performance if you don’t adhere to the mechanic.
The last common operator for WAR clases is that all classes have a path specialization.
The class specialization enables you to enhance a certain playstyle within the class concept and the class mechanic with obvious consequences, both in play style and environment.
Now, the combination of the class concept with the class mechanic and path specialization should sum up into the power level of the class, that, given optimal play (be it high or low skill level) should result in a relative power level of the class compared to the other classes it competes against. This power level is what should be sought to be as balanced as possible for all classes from a developer point of view.
Now these two things are cleared up, I’ll kill the first usual misconception people get when they see the term “jack of all trades, master of none”; It does not mean the relative power level of the class should be any less than that of a “pure bred” dps class of either the melee or ranged concept. What it means is that if played correctly, adhering to you class concept and class mechanic, the sum of “master of none” should still be equal to the powerlevel of that of a purebred dps class of either discipline.
This is of course rather hard to balance, and is comparable to lifetap healers, who are notorious of being either god mode or useless.
The last context that needs to be set is what kind of environment the class operates in. In WAR this is “smallscale hero” or “Zerg” (put to the point ofc), and being successfully balanced means your class is able to operate on the same relative power level in either environment. It is of course very hard to balance 24 classes to be 100% equal in all environments, but again, it should be sought to make the relative power level of all classes as balanced as possible. So, lets say you want to reduce the discrepancies in power level between the classes. (the successfulness of “environment balancing” is statistically evident in preferred WB compositions in city sieges for example)
Of course, there are other factors to be counted in while balancing, for example how well the classes and skills synergize with each other in different environments and compositions, but if you get the two first right, the rest is easier to manage.
So, the TL;DR so far is;
You need to have a class concept vision that is supported by a class mechanic that enables you to operate on the same power level across classes in different environments.
Currently the SW is very close to the bottom in this power level comparison, maybe competing with WH, SH, engie, magus, shammie and AM. (my personal opinion ofc)
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In this section I will address the actual balancing proposals.
Firstly we need to recognize the fact that SW (and SH) burst potential was very focused around the now removed M2 “Unshakable focus”. This was a very lazy/stupid concept by Mythic, which required the classes to have a relative low power level without it, because of the morale.
It was a very good and necessary move by the ROR team to remove it. However, the full implications in burst potential loss was never thoroughly addressed, hence the classes suffer. I will also address this.
Briefly a note about path specialization that is paramount for my balance proposal:
In this proposal the concept is that at some level, you will be able to play your class concept, regardless of path specialization, but your path specialization will enable you to go deeper into one of the listed play styles;
Scout; commonly known as “turret” playstyle, for medium high dps output from long range at the cost of mobility and survivability
Assault; commonly known as “melee” playstyle, for high damage output at the cost of lower range capabilities and a higher degree of support requirement in order to function.
(guardbot/heals)
Skirmisher; commonly known as “kiting” playstyle, for less burst, more sustained damage output, but with the most mobility and hence survivability.
Now these paths specializations should have a purpose both in small scale and large scale combat, but to varying degrees.
To start on the actual proposals I will start with the assault spec, because in certain ways it already is or it will be overperforming when the other specs are brought up to date because of the nature of the class mechanic. The path was revised (now only fully functional spec dmg wise after UF was removed) and got a new merciless soldier tactic that actually performs well, but that also opens up counterplay (i.e with negative chance to be crit, ASW dmg output is negated)
Assault;
- 1. Remove Shadowstep, replace with current melee pbaoe 2400 dmg morale.
Reasoning is that shadowstep synergizes too good with other mobile classes on order, it grants too much defensive capabilities. Reducing the defensive capabilities will leave the skill as a never used skill at the top of the tree. The pbaoe morale is good, but is not in harmony with the ranged specs, i.e you need to spec it in melee. (also main gripe on destroy will be removed , with too much mobility)
2. Remove Crosscut, replace with speccable standard melee charge and snare/root immunity skill.
a. Reasoning is that if you remove shadowstep, the class needs a new charge and snare/root breaker like other melee oriented classes in order to be viable. At nine points into Assault, that is a good place to put it in order to not “give it for free” in ranged spec, i.e, you want this, you have to give up range spec goodies. Also crosscut chance to be crit component is slightly overtuned, as it gives you and all others hitting the target +10% crit, significantly reducing the actual counterplay option against ASW, as well as giving the ASW options to spec less into crit, more into defences (single target dmg god with insane mobility and tank armor level, we all know it)
Scout; Currently there is little reason to spec scout, the path is outperformed by skirmisher and assault in every way possible. This is what I believe will fix its viability:
- 1. Remove guerrilla training tactic at 3p, replace with no quarter, 1 sec cast time reduction on eagle eye only.
2. Swap place between festering arrow and fell the weak.
a. Reasoning, you want FA, with enchanted arrow for festerbomb, you have to spec deep for it.
3. Acid arrow effectiveness redesigned with an exponentional increase in armor debuff the more you sec into scout. (unspecced base as it is now, up to 1500+ if fully specced into scout. This way you will have an effective armor debuff but you will have to pay for it.
4. New tactic in 11p: Acid arrow now applies to everyone within 20 feet of your target.
a. Reasoning; make scout sought after in wb play with unique aoe armor debuff. This would guarantee you need at least one in your WB.
- 1. Make eye shot core ability, but tie KD component to VoN.
a. Reasoning; RKD is a class concept ability, needs to be accessible in all specs, but availability needs to be reduced as to not make it OP across all specs.
2. Replace eye shot with flanking shot at 13p, but redesign to give critical dmg increase instead of critical chance increase relative to targets hit point status.
a. Reasoning, skirmish needs some more burst, with this change flanking shot will be worthy of a 13p ability
3. Move powerful draw to 7 point tactic slot, in order to make the tactic available in a larger variety of spec combinations. The power level of the tactic allows for a 7p tatic slot.
4. Shadow sting switch place with Barrage
a. Reasoning; spammable heal debuff is a main class concept ability, also it will allow for a Wider variety of builds.
5. Revise Keen arrowheads tactic and put in 11 point slot: Keen arrowheads; Shadow sting will now apply to all targets within 20ft of your target, add cooldown 10 seconds to Shadow sting.
a. Reasoning: With this change skirmisher spec SW will be sought after in warband play with a unique aoe heal debuff.
6. Remove dmg reduction component off Split arrows tactic
These changes will make the SW a more balanced and fun class to play, while adhering to the class concept, utilizing the class mechanic and path specialization.
But is this enough, will this remedy the fact that the dmg output is still to low compared to other classes?
No, but my next general proposals will, although not directly, but rather indirectly, and only effective if you play your class well.
General changes;
- 1. VoN; reduce CD by 10 seconds to 20 seconds. This will increase your damage output for burst potential, while it still will require AP, a GCD ( you effectively will get off 5 – 6 abilities in the 10 sec window) as well as your RKD will have a higher availability, but not on demand. You will need to think before you “spam it” handing out free immunities. You want to use your RKD, then you better make sure you are in a position to also benefit from the increased dmg output from VoN. This way you will not need to increase damage of any other ability by a flat amount percentage or the lazy approach of “please gief moar dmg”
2. Hunters Fervor; Largely useless due to the amount of increase and the nature of ap gain, this should be redesigned to the following: “For the next 10 seconds your party will reduce AP cost of all abilities by 50%”. This will again be a reason to pick SW for group because it will increase the performance of other AP starved classes, but not all, so it is not an over the top change.
3. Steady Aim: This is a useless skill outside of one specific use, festerbomb, which is pretty useless in itself in its current form, also SW do not need more critical chance. My proposal is to redesign it into the following; Reduce cast time by 50% for 10 seconds for your party. Increase CD to 45 seconds.
a. Reasoning; Again, this will make the SW a valuable addition in any group/WB, but it will not affect instacast abilities (SWs own melee abilities or melee abilities in
general), but it will be a nice addition under certain circumstances), both to increase damage output in a burst period, but also increase heal output for your group. For
example ahead of a push. It will also synergize well with focused mind, where you can train them, for a total of 20 sec reduced cast time. This will not be over the top,
because again, you only have time for 6 -7 abilities in the time frame of the skill, and if you want to train it with focused mind, then you have to give up other m2
morales like ambush (which is borderline OP imo)
Final note regarding “buth what about mah SH??!”
The concept of aoe armor debuff and aoe heal debuff can be transferred to the SH in the same way, you need to take into consideration the melee squig performance (which is slightly over the top today), you need to take into account the benefits and restrictions of SH pet mechanic and its implications.
Flame away
Ugle
Edit; I see I missed an important part of new shadow sting aoe tactic, 10 sec cooldown to allow for cleanse counterplay.
