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Thylek Shran -> Class balance - Staff/Club/Blades requirements for skills (12/17/2013 6:09:33)
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Im criticizing this since Gamma or Delta but its still unfair and unbalanced
so I bring this up again. For class balance and build diversity its necessary
that all classes have the same number of skills that require a Staff/Club/Blades
and its also important which skills those are. As example Cheap Shot is a
less important skill while Assimilation is about to be a must have skill.
The reason why there are so many powerfull Bounty Hunter sword builds
around is because of that. All their skills that require Wrist Blades are pretty
much obsolete now: Cheap Shot, Massacre, Venom Strike.
This is also the reason why Bounty Hunters dominate since a long time.
Its not only their skills like Smoke Screen and Blood Lust / Mark of Blood.
Its just that they can use swords without much or no handicap at all while
mages and mercenaries have a much bigger handicap when using swords.
Defensive Cyber Hunters can make good Venom Strike Builds but a
Strenght/Sword combo seems to be more powerfull.
On the other side there are not many Tech Mage sword builds around
because Assimilation is about to be a must have skill and Plasma Bolt is pretty
powerfull and energy efficient while Overload is usefull too for a dex/support
build and its tactical potential.
Number and names of skills that require a class only primary weapon (Staff/Club/Blades):
Tech Mage: 4 - Plasma Bolt, Overload, Super Charge, Assimilation
Blood Mage: 3 - Fireball, Overload, Super Charge
Bounts Hunter: 3 - Cheap Shot, Massacre, Venom Strike
Cyber Hunter: 3 - Cheap Shot, Massacre, Venom Strike
Mercenary: 2 - Maul, Static Smash
Tactical Mercenary: 2 - Frenzy, Atom Smasher
As you can easily see its pretty unbalanced in numbers and while BHs and CHs
seem to be in average they benefit the most from it because their 3 skills are
not a must have at the moment and often not usefull for several reasons.
The bonus that swords grant are mostly better than dealing around with those
skills (Cheap Shot, Massacre, Venom Strike).
Another point are the so called Ultimate skills (Massacre, Super Charge, Surgical Strike).
While Massacre and Super Charge do require a class primary weapon Surgical Strike
does not which is a bonus to the mercenary classes. On the other side mercenaries are
dependant on energy control skills (Static Smash, Atom Smasher).
But for balance it woul be better if all Ultimate skills require (or dont require) a class
primary weapon because those skills can be very powerfull and can be compared
to each other.
As a first step Tech Mages should be able to use Plasma Bolt, Overload or Assimilation
with a sword while Surgical Strike should require a club. This would at least make
the numbers even to 3 skills for each class.
There are many ways to balance this. Here some examples which also could
be combined in some cases:
#1 Change the weapon requirements of skills to even numbers between classes
(good option for more build diversity and also can lead to balance with some other adjustments)
#2 Make Swords, Staffs, Clubs and Wrist Blades even in power
(most players would use Staff/Club/Blade then so its not a good option if used alone)
#3 Remove weapon requirements from skills
(maybe would lead to the most balance and also offers alot more style customization;
some animations like Overload and Massacre would require to be adjusted maybe)
#4 Remove weapon requirements from all but Ultimate skills (Massacre, Super Charge, Surgical Strike) and reduce the bonus that swords grant.
(A very interesting option I think)
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