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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Class balance
Chaps2100
Member, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Is it just me or do other people believe it will be hard having 64 different class and keeping them game balanced. I believe that was one of the problem with ArcheAge allowing people to combine three different classes. I do like the idea of creating unique class combinations, but I feel it will be overwhelming when it comes to balancing.
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Right now WoW has the same class copied 12 times. I'd rather avoid that.
U.S. East
Sounds simple but it is more complicated than it sounds.
U.S. East
There will also probably be a dominant gatherer class . My guess is bard as they usually they have run speed buffs and will probably be among the lowest 1v1 dps. So gatherers won't have to worry about being ganked by meta 1v1 class.
Just a guess
So instead of picking and choosing from different jars, and praying that the abilities you select mesh together, you're simply applying a predefined layer on top of the class.
its 8 classes with 8 class skins.
the augments dont change that much to the base skill from what we have seen. and the more you change 1 ability with augments the less you can augment others.
they also said when you choose a subclass, each subclass has 4 schools of variants to choose from.
So in my opinion this game is going to be a lot easier to balance then first thought. Meta skills will begin to surface and everyone from each class will probably spec hard into specific abilities. Such as blink and charges with more augments.
Think of diablo 3 for example. How 1 ability has the 5 morphs that change the ability. AoC will be similar to that but itll be 4 choices that are based on youre subclass.
For the sake of an example (though a rough one because GW2 doesn't use the trinity) in GW2 Revenant is very desired in their elite spec because they provide alacrity, but it's a rough shot that the Rev will out DPS a Dragonhunter or Soulbeast, but neither of those give alacrity, and the rev can do some dmg. Alacrity is only provided by 2 elite spec, so even though the primary healer (Druid) is the main support, another group member provides some support that the primary healer/support can't, so it's viable
U.S. East
This is the best answer imho.
I do think however it will be more like 8 + (so the secondaries will need to be adjusted to a certain extent) but nowhere NEAR trying to balance 64 totally unique classes. Holy cow that would be a pain in the ass. I know that DAoC had 48 unique classes and there was NEVER balance, more an acceptable tolerance most of the time. :P
Reminds me of a great Indy game I played called Savage 2
was like a mix of RTS and 3rd person combat team vs team
Classes had ranged abilities but was designed to be inferior. They wanted melee to be dominant. I pissed a lot of vets off because I could make the ranged work and was really good at dodging/kiting. Sometimes you can beat the devs balance and meta by playing what works for you.
The reality is, there are characters that will be stronger, this expectation that a bard or a healer can beat a rogue or a fighter mentality or rogue should beat all hands down. Each Character should play their role they are designed for, each one can become powerful if the right choices are made in the build of the character for the role they are going to play. Comes down to learn to play your character, I have seen more people with lesser characters beat higher lvl over powered characters because they know how to spec and play their class, they know their rotations. Some classes will put out more damage regardless, the only balancing should be around ratios of the group as a whole , output of healing, receiving, damage output, damage received. Can the fight be won without buffs or is it totally impossible no matter how hard you try with full buffs.
Not true. Some level of balance has to exist. No balance is what drives most of the players away as it forces them to play one class over the other, not nerfs.