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Ashari -> RE: =ED= EpicDuel Feb 1st Design Notes - Heart Breaker preview (2/3/2012 16:23:02)
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Thanks to RabbleFroth, we managed to fit in a few balance changes in this weeks release. There's much more planned for next week, but here are the changes that are ready. The changes this week shifts focus on the Tech Mage class which has been underpowered at all levels.
Balance Changes
Battle rewards now always give the same ratio of credits to experience. The credit to XP ratio is set to 8:3.
Deflection chance now improves with Technology. Deflection chance improves by 1% per 3 Technology advantage. The base chance (10%), min chance (2%) and max chance (25%) are unchanged.
Strength requirement removed from Plasma Bolt.
Strength requirement added to Malfunction (19 +2/Lvl)
Plasma Bolt energy is cost reduced by 4 EP at each level.
Overload energy cost is reduced by 2 EP at each level.
Defense Matrix energy is reduced by 1 EP at each level.
Field Commander now scales by 1 Str every 2 levels (down from every 4.5 levels) and has had its base strength bonus increased by 2.
> Battle rewards now always give the same ratio of credits to experience. The credit to experience ratio is set to 8:3.
Battle rewards now have a fixed credit to experience ratio. Previously, losing battles or winning battles against higher level opponents left you with a smaller credit to experience ratio than winning a fair match in 1v1 or 2v2. It did not make sense to have a lower reward ratio for winning a tough battle, nor was it feasible to punish players who lost with a lower reward ratio. The credit to experience ratio for losing would leave many players in a downward spiral - losing meant less credits as you leveled, which translated to fewer item upgrades, and even more losing. This change makes losing purely a time penalty. It won't penalize your character in the long run anymore.
In addition, this change increased 2v2 battle rewards to match the 1v1 reward ratio.
> Deflection chance now improves with Technology. Deflection chance improves by 1% per 3 Technology advantage. The base chance (10%), min chance (2%) and max chance (25%) are unchanged.
Deflection has been removed from Support as we felt Support affected far too many battle mechanics. This created a jack-of-all trades stat that gave small improvements in many aspects of battle, but did not give a significant bonus in any of these mechanics. Technology is primarily a defensive stat, so we decided to pair it up with this defensive effect. Support will receive several improvements in the coming week to offset the loss of Deflect.
> Plasma Bolt: Removed strength requirement. Energy cost reduced by 4 across all skill levels.
> Overload: Energy cost reduced by 2 across all skill levels.
Both Plasma Bolt and Overload are meant to be the bread-and-butter of Tech Mage's damage output. These skills proved too costly to be consistent damage dealers that could be used several times per battle, especially at the low to mid level range (10-25). The strength requirement of Plasma Bolt was removed to allow lower level Tech Mages to create caster build that rely primarily on skills for damage.
> Defense Matrix energy cost is reduced by 1 EP at each level.
Defense Matrix proved to be too costly at low skill levels for early levels. The defense boost gained at these levels did not justify a 10 EP energy cost.
> Malfunction now requires Strength (19 at skill level 1, +2 / level).
Since the Strength requirement was removed from Plasma Bolt, it was added to Malfunction where it would have less of an impact at low levels. The Strength requirement is primarily to prevent Tank and Support builds from completely neglecting the Strength stat. This should be far less restrictive than the Strength requirement on Plasma Bolt given Malfunction's tier 3 position and its effectiveness at mid skill levels.
> Field Commander now scales by 1 Str every 2 levels (down from every 4.5 levels) and has had its base strength bonus increased by 2.
The current Field Commander quickly loses its effectiveness in the high level range as weapon damage overshadows the bonus damage gained from this skill. This improvement in scaling is a small buff to make the skill more effective near the max level. The strength bonus at low levels will remain approximately the same.
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