Post#14 » Wed Nov 09, 2022 4:03 pm
The current 24 AoE cap :
1. Is making AoE meta the only viable meta in RvR and city,
2. Is making already strong abilities (like Rampage) performing "over the top" by allowing one player to hit 24 other people. As some tactics, skills and morales, all were designed around the 9 AoE cap, and werent meant to be this strong,
3. Is making numbers matters more than ever, i.e. you stack more AoE than opponent = you win by default,
4. Is making Movement, kiting and global strategy pretty much irrelevant ; just stack AoE and move forward into enemy blob, removing more and more need to use our brain,
5. Is making ST classes and spec totally irrelevant, forcing players to play whatever specific AoE combo because it's the only way to get into WBs, instead of letting people play what they want,
6. Is making zerg even more impactful, see 3. You cannot go outside alone now, even in small group, because any bigger group with more AoE will likely destroy you. Previous AoE cap allowed people to go out with 12 or 18 men groups (the most common format in most guilds), and still be able to pack a punch and win with smart decisions and better level of play.
7. Is making individual play matters less, especially for non-AoE meta classes. Hard to make a real difference when you hit one guy amongst people hitting 24 at once.
8. Is making ST / group heals weaker, and making AoE heal even more impactful, creating further imbalances between healer classes and specs.
9. Is making people judge you by your AoE/group abilities only, and not by your level of play / ST efficiency.
10. Is making attacks and defenses even harder, and AoE even more impactful (i.e. AoE hitting over a small doorframe is even more deadly than before).
11. Is making imbalances for Forts/City contribution, vastly favouring AoE damage since you have now 2.5x more hits than before, hence 2.5x more damage numbers from AoE classes.
Every of these points are negatively affecting the game IMO, and the global experience is further away from the first years I remembered (wich were super cool).
Yes, you had other "meta" with morale drops and such, the fight was more skewed in favour of who will get M2 first (hence why some morale pumps/drains were nerfed), BUT we also remember morales STILL hit 9 people at once.
Hence it was balanced before.
You could try returning to 9 AoE cap, then balance healing accordingly to avoid making AoE/Group heal too powerful.
Just try returning to 9 AoE cap, and see what happens. I'm sure Destro will scream less about rampage, Order will scream less about gtdc (well, probably not :p), ST specs will be more viable/less negatively impacted by AoE meta, etc.