CH4OT1C!
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I thought that this would be a good point for me to weigh in my thoughts. In a purely superficial sense, Cray and Dreiko have already summed up the situation. These weapons were nerfed because they were healing more than they were ever supposed to. There can be no argument from the perspective of balance, and I think everyone is more than willing to accept that. The issue being raised here is that this could have negative ramifications for the effectiveness of certain builds. At its most simple, this manifested in comments like the one below, indicating that many builds become unviable: quote:
the day we lack any truly efficient form of SP sustain (right now the options we have are either laughable -ie.taxing cutlass and the like- or broken -essence orb, and to a lesser degree Soul Gauntlet-) is the day mage builds become the only viable way to play at endgame I can only ever consider such an opinion as hyperbolic and unhelpful to the discussion at hand. Aside from being bluntly untrue (we played this game perfectly well before Essence orb existed), it encourages the propagation of the unhelpful warrior vs mage dichotomy. This isn't to say that there is no smoke without fire; Mages have traditionally had access to larger equipment stocks than other builds. Although MP isn't a unique resource in its own right (for reason which I'll gloss over for the moment), it undoubtedly represents a more accessible resource than the equivalent options for other builds. However, for the purposes of this conversation, propagating this dichotomy has two negative side effects: i). This becomes a dichotomy. We overlook the other builds played. For example, by the standards of a Ranger, Warriors have it pretty good. This isn't about warriors vs mages. This is about ensuring all builds, with their respective identities, are catered for properly. I gloss over whether builds have a true identity for the sake of parsimony. ii). We pigeonhole SP as a Warrior/Ranger resource when it isn't. In terms of balance, SP is an inherently universal resource. In an ideal world, Mages would have equal access to SP resources just as other builds would. The reason for differential access is not because SP is inherently a resource designed for non-mage builds. It was decided by the staff that other builds would get better capabilities, even in spite of the obvious implications for undermining balance, in order to better and more effectively balance the relative tradeoffs between builds. It is for this latter reason that having SP scale by STR (or DEX, for that matter) would be an inherently flawed system. Just as it isn't a dichotomous Warrior vs Mage, it isn't SP vs MP either. SP is universal, whilst MP is mage exclusive. Transferring SP to STR or DEX would force it to become a build specific resource. Out of necessity, this would mean removing it from Mage assumptions, meaning they would need extra power from elsewhere. Alternatively, other builds would have to pay for this exclusive resource in some way. The best case scenario would be that non-mages would find themselves in a situation akin to a pseudo-mage, with their own exclusive bar and resource. It would stifle build identity and wouldn't hamper mages as much as you would think. As @OG ranger eloquently put it, I don't think the answer to balancing builds vs mages is to turn everyone into mages. This precludes all the problems with then differentiating which builds are then able to use SP vs which aren't (if it scales with STR, then Rangers get DEX as a main stat, does that mean they can't use SP anymore?). Addressing you specifically @SapphireCatalyst2021, this issue is nothing to do with theme. On a fundamental level, this would be a huge amount of work to implement a change that would not work, and may cause more problems than it solves. The real problem with mage as a build is that it attempts to utilise a strategy of high damage output at an inefficient cost. As it stands, balance standards assume a 20-turn model and offers resources accordingly. For FO players, 2 battles (the number of battles between heals) takes nowhere near this amount of time. In many cases, you'll be lucky to see turn number 6. Mages have no incentive to be efficient, because they have more health, more MP, more SP, than they will ever need. To be fair to the staff, recent bosses and quests have attempted to shift this. However, it is still very much a work in progress. To fix that is going to take a lot more than retaining a few busted items like Dragonlord or the old CIT. They're bandaids to a deeper underlying problem and, just like the SP issue, they cause more problems than they solve. To be clear, I understand your frustrations. It's not fun to see one build getting more toys than you. All I wish to convey is that rash decisions aren't going to solve this deep, underlying problem. The groundwork has being lain already. I'm also not against, as mentioned in a more limited sense by @Angelus111, going outside of balance as a temporary measure to reach a healthier equilibrium. As I mentioned above, this is what the staff have already been doing with regards to SP. One thing that could immediately help is having some blatantly overpowered Mage-exclusive items (e.g. Mana regen on Essence of Carnage), being fixed. In short, my argument would be this: It's ok to be frustrated about the current situation, but don't let it cloud your judgement as to how best to solve the problem. This isn't about warriors vs mages, or about SP vs MP. To fix this problem, we need solutions which target the source of the problem, not ones that could act as bandaids in the short term (or, in the case of STR influencing SP regen, make the situation worse). Regarding the Dragonlord items specifically, I've suggested a fix whereby they deal -10% damage in exchange for a tripling of the current regeneration levels. This should increase the heal without it becoming ridiculous. With that said, it is likely to take some time before these items are assessed again.
< Message edited by CH4OT1C! -- 10/13/2021 20:10:28 >
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