new patch magic/MR/epics/balance
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 10:56 pm
As I really have no way of talking to Cele anymore, I figured I would make this thread discussing the things that he intended to balance but didnt get a chance to from putting the patch in early. First thing up, epics.
Epic mobiles still have frighteningly low mobility scores, that seem to go DOWN as you level up, instead of up. Furthermore, 'special' epics (for example dragon hathlings/priests/bovines/etc) spawn all monsters as boss monsters, and have an unadjusted amount of hp.
The balance between MR and magic is still sketchy at best, and furthermore a new problem has come up, and that is that equality between magic and melee in epics. Right now, magic has a huge advantage as with the increased epic complexity they can (im pretty sure anyway) stay above the epic MR as long as they fight things their level. And because of this, they can always do damage. Since damage reduction does not do anything for magic, the only thing casters have to worry about is needing to slow down a bit as they level up, or not even that, because more complexity (should anyway) mean more damage. Damage reduction does however, completly rape melee'er damage.
It is a consequence of AR no longer determining criticals. Before, dragons always had 1 mobility when you reach a certain point (they still do, but I forsee this being fixed so I am speaking as if it already has been), so the criticals you would get against them would be insane, allowing you to do much more damage than their damage reduction. Now, this is not the case. Low epics are fine. But the higher you go, the more problems you will have. I can assume Kiasyn would have some rather massive difficulty problems at her level, and Lingolas even more so (him having 1,000 damage roll and excellent eq.)
Another thing that has to be taken into the equation is that magic users are NOT equipment reliant like weapon users are. Weapon users need Attack Rating and Damage Roll. Both of which take lots of time and effort of crafting and enchanting to increase. All casters need is maxed stats, and they can put all the rest of their enchant space into whatever they feel like, because the only thing that increases the power of magic is your complexity and runes, and your complexity raises automatically.
EDIT: convo with kiasyn, apparantly magic users are screwed too as at her level, they have like 144 MR. looks like it will all need to be re-looked at.
EDIT EDIT: it appears somebody (cele?) has already messed with higher end epics...so thats dealt with...that leaves the special epic areas, and the mr/complexity balance issue
Epic mobiles still have frighteningly low mobility scores, that seem to go DOWN as you level up, instead of up. Furthermore, 'special' epics (for example dragon hathlings/priests/bovines/etc) spawn all monsters as boss monsters, and have an unadjusted amount of hp.
The balance between MR and magic is still sketchy at best, and furthermore a new problem has come up, and that is that equality between magic and melee in epics. Right now, magic has a huge advantage as with the increased epic complexity they can (im pretty sure anyway) stay above the epic MR as long as they fight things their level. And because of this, they can always do damage. Since damage reduction does not do anything for magic, the only thing casters have to worry about is needing to slow down a bit as they level up, or not even that, because more complexity (should anyway) mean more damage. Damage reduction does however, completly rape melee'er damage.
It is a consequence of AR no longer determining criticals. Before, dragons always had 1 mobility when you reach a certain point (they still do, but I forsee this being fixed so I am speaking as if it already has been), so the criticals you would get against them would be insane, allowing you to do much more damage than their damage reduction. Now, this is not the case. Low epics are fine. But the higher you go, the more problems you will have. I can assume Kiasyn would have some rather massive difficulty problems at her level, and Lingolas even more so (him having 1,000 damage roll and excellent eq.)
Another thing that has to be taken into the equation is that magic users are NOT equipment reliant like weapon users are. Weapon users need Attack Rating and Damage Roll. Both of which take lots of time and effort of crafting and enchanting to increase. All casters need is maxed stats, and they can put all the rest of their enchant space into whatever they feel like, because the only thing that increases the power of magic is your complexity and runes, and your complexity raises automatically.
EDIT: convo with kiasyn, apparantly magic users are screwed too as at her level, they have like 144 MR. looks like it will all need to be re-looked at.
EDIT EDIT: it appears somebody (cele?) has already messed with higher end epics...so thats dealt with...that leaves the special epic areas, and the mr/complexity balance issue
then what do you think is fair for the balance on the subject ,now that craftiing high epic eq is rates down as severs, lets talk about the epic dungeon for a second. i love epiccing and the tag along parters. i know its not going to be easy to get the balance in epiccing right away but its hard to craft epic level. 
i should be able to craft my own epic level at 100%. big Issue is crafting your own level because people dont like to unlearn something they have 100% in to get another epic level eq