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Loads of classes... but, more disbalance chances...
Uhm... I've just seen the 4 new classes and... what to say, they look awesome. But, I was thinking about it carefully... ATM we have 20 classes, 5 per Calling. And they intend to put out even more! This, mixed with the Ascended Class System maybe can be harmfull for the gameplay, especially in the PvP area.
I mean, there will be a lot of balancing patches at first. It's kinda cool to mix classes, but if any player will be able to play 3 of them, at the same time (I mean soul trees) maybe the "pure" classes will just disappear because anyone will be interested into getting the top Branches talents, etc. IMO this means: Hard to balance the PvP (and open PvP with 2 factions is my favourite, so better for Trion to balance it properly -.- ), loads of "traits" or "talents" will be useless, the "root" system where you pick the skills must be perfectly balanced, etc.
Opinions?
Comments
I think balancing for the sake of balancing causes unneccesary nerfs.
I think balancing weaker classes to catch up to stronger ones is the right way of balancing.
It's a very fine line.
I m hoping people don t end up like FFXI where it had to be XXX/ninja to even get parties etc. I want to play it the way I want to. If that means something odd to most so be it. As far as balance goes I can see it happening, but I m sure tweaks in time will balance things out. I ve read almost everything you can about this game, and one thing I see first and foremost, is these guys care alot about what they re making.
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They'll think of a way to keep the classes balanced
That's why, imo, pvp ruins MMOs. The game becomes constant class updates, nerfs etc in order to balance pvp. Very few MMOs have gotten it right and, in many games, it has a negative effect on the game overall.
The biggest problem I have with balance is that it must be done with care and consideration.
What I mean by that is, when someone doesn't know how to play his/her class they all want the "quick fix". So they start screaming on the forums that their class is broken and soon many other people who cannot play the game start joining in.
The developers start listening to the ever increasing ignorent masses and start to implement class balances that weren't needed in the first place, imbalencing the game ever further.
Before you start saying this game might walk into an imbalance trap, play it first. You might find you have to work on your skills and change some souls but in the end it just might work out. Give it time.
I can t argue with this.
IMO the term "useless traits" has been overused in the past. People in wow for instance frequently claimed that build X was the only way to go for a class when it just wasnt true. There should be tradeoffs. Build X may have 3% more dps but build Y may have added advantages that parsers dont see. I want a game where there is more complexity than just dps balance.
There is already a pretty long discussion thread on this.
In short - there are only 4 callings to be balanced. There is no need to balance the 8 souls within each calling against each other because the game isn't about picking ONE soul and playing it against other people playing another soul. Any abilities that end up "good" or "overpowered" or whatever it is that usually causes balance issues will be available to be used by every player in the calling. This actually makes it much easier to balance than other games.
Add to this the fact that you're not locked in to your soul choices. People will have multiple soul (Class) combination templates and can switch them quickly and easily as long as they're out of combat. This game will not be about picking a class and getting a spec and hoping it's a good one. This game will be about knowing all the abilities of all 8 souls in your calling and picking an appropriate combination for every fight.
Stop thinking about it in terms of how other games work and you'll realize it's actually a lot easier to balance (or rather, a lot less necessary).
For example in another game if a Ranger that has the awesome "Pink Ranger Blast" attack which is better than any attack that an Assassin has, then there is an imbalance. In Rift, this isn't a problem, because as long as you're of the Rogue Calling, you can get the "Pink Ranger Blast" as one of your abilities. If it's overpowered, it's literally possible for every single rogue to have it and still have a totally unique soul (class) combination (as long as it includes ranger).
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
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Currently Playing: ESO
As far as I am concerned about balancing, especially in PvP, it's fairly simple.
There will be balancing, but only on OMG OP attacks rather then combo's. That's because if say a Shaman/Druid/Warden combo would be extremely overpowered, you could as a, say mage, make a combo that easily beats the crap out of the OMG OP combo you faced before.
The ascended soul system gives players who are limited to killing enemies the chance to adapt and change their playing methods to beat the enemies they normally weren't able to beat. And because you can chance your souls on the fly you will be able to benefit from this in PvP and PvE.
Cheers!
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
Even if there was an unbalanced spec with the current amount of possibilities it would be highly likely another spec could be created to beat it. Therefore, obviously the devs will keep an eye on balance, aswell as the players can use the sheer options and there initiantive to create greater specs to counter act so called "OP" specs.
Keeping an eye on skill balance isn't enough to make it so. Look at Aion (not open-ended but...chain fear, nuff said), Champions Online and Guild Wars (especially the latter two). Open-ended skill systems always come with overpowered combinations that the devs won't catch until enough people get ganked by them and start bitching. That's sort of the nature of it, and if this is the skill system you want then you should go in expecting for there to be continual balance tweaks throughout the history of the game. Look how long Guild Wars have been going, and they're still constantly nerfing skill combinations people find that let them solo the entire game...on HARD mode. And Hard mode in Guild Wars is no joke.
There's pros and cons to open-ended and archtypical game systems both, you just should know what to expect when you get into one or even the other.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Outstanding! I couldn't agree more.
QFT!