Post by abraxas on Feb 22, 2016 10:09:28 GMT
There has been quite a lot of comment on the skills balance between the classes, so I thought a few observations might focus the thinking.
Going back to Euro, we had the three original classes, Wizards, Warriors and Taoists. Wizards were acknowledged as the fast levellers, but at higher levels Taoists were the real stars, capable of taking on pretty much any boss. Warriors, in contrast, were always seen as tanks with high survivability. Along came the Assassin, and on Mir USA they were stupidly OP with such high attack speeds that no other class could stand against them. This was especially true in a game with Heroes - every Assassin had an Assassin hero and if you went up against that sort of pairing it was "Goodnight Vienna". Of course now we also have the Archer class, originally deemed to be unplayable due to low damage capabilities.
It's undeniable that the new classes were badly thought out, and introduced without sufficient definition of what they actually are. We hear of an Assassin being a hybrid Warrior/Taoist and an Archer being a hybrid Warrior/Wizard (or whatever mixture seems appropriate). However, SOL, and now Vengeance, committed to making these classes actually work, and we have a pretty good working model in play at the moment.
What players need to remember is that Taoists and Wizards (and now Archers also) are classed as "Support" classes. There was never any intention of all three of the original classes being equivalent - wizards and taos were not expected to go toe-to-toe with bosses. Their role was to support the warrior(s) who had gone in and taken the aggro. It was always supposed to be a "cooperative" game (remember Three Heroes?), but we lost that to a large extent through various incarnations of official and private servers. Now, it seems to be the expectation that ANY class can do anything that every other class can do, but this isn't a model that supports team play and cooperation.
Some specific points:
1. If Warrior TDB has no cooldown, why does Assassin FlashDash have 1?
Warrior TDB is a simple melee attack that occasionally stuns for a short time. FlashDash is both melee and poison - different skills for different jobs/effects. Spamming FlashDash on any mob or player would give a massive, unfair advantage.
Reversing the argument, why can warriors not have Hemorrhage? Answer - because if they had it they would have no need of any support whatsoever. Team play destroyed.
2. Tao pets can hardly kill anything. Answer - they are not supposed to. They are there to drag aggro and give the tao time to relocate. Pets don't make taos immortal and nor should they. Nor are they there to make powerful attacks, while the tao stands in a corner drinking tea.
3. Archers can only do real damage from distance. Answer - not entirely true. When an archer gets OneWithNature they get a good AoE attack. But the fundamental point is that Archers fit the role of Artillery - they provide firepower from a distance in a true support role.
You can see the problem from the above. If you choose to play a class, you must also accept the limitations of that class. Otherwise let's dispense with 4 of the classes and give every skill to warriors. Then we are all the same.
Going back to Euro, we had the three original classes, Wizards, Warriors and Taoists. Wizards were acknowledged as the fast levellers, but at higher levels Taoists were the real stars, capable of taking on pretty much any boss. Warriors, in contrast, were always seen as tanks with high survivability. Along came the Assassin, and on Mir USA they were stupidly OP with such high attack speeds that no other class could stand against them. This was especially true in a game with Heroes - every Assassin had an Assassin hero and if you went up against that sort of pairing it was "Goodnight Vienna". Of course now we also have the Archer class, originally deemed to be unplayable due to low damage capabilities.
It's undeniable that the new classes were badly thought out, and introduced without sufficient definition of what they actually are. We hear of an Assassin being a hybrid Warrior/Taoist and an Archer being a hybrid Warrior/Wizard (or whatever mixture seems appropriate). However, SOL, and now Vengeance, committed to making these classes actually work, and we have a pretty good working model in play at the moment.
What players need to remember is that Taoists and Wizards (and now Archers also) are classed as "Support" classes. There was never any intention of all three of the original classes being equivalent - wizards and taos were not expected to go toe-to-toe with bosses. Their role was to support the warrior(s) who had gone in and taken the aggro. It was always supposed to be a "cooperative" game (remember Three Heroes?), but we lost that to a large extent through various incarnations of official and private servers. Now, it seems to be the expectation that ANY class can do anything that every other class can do, but this isn't a model that supports team play and cooperation.
Some specific points:
1. If Warrior TDB has no cooldown, why does Assassin FlashDash have 1?
Warrior TDB is a simple melee attack that occasionally stuns for a short time. FlashDash is both melee and poison - different skills for different jobs/effects. Spamming FlashDash on any mob or player would give a massive, unfair advantage.
Reversing the argument, why can warriors not have Hemorrhage? Answer - because if they had it they would have no need of any support whatsoever. Team play destroyed.
2. Tao pets can hardly kill anything. Answer - they are not supposed to. They are there to drag aggro and give the tao time to relocate. Pets don't make taos immortal and nor should they. Nor are they there to make powerful attacks, while the tao stands in a corner drinking tea.
3. Archers can only do real damage from distance. Answer - not entirely true. When an archer gets OneWithNature they get a good AoE attack. But the fundamental point is that Archers fit the role of Artillery - they provide firepower from a distance in a true support role.
You can see the problem from the above. If you choose to play a class, you must also accept the limitations of that class. Otherwise let's dispense with 4 of the classes and give every skill to warriors. Then we are all the same.