Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
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.
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.
Comments
There still needs to be some balance for self-heals. Nobody wants healers to be able to 1v5, except maybe healers...
Eh? In New World you still needed a healer even though it had active blocking. You just balance the stamina bar so a tank can't block all incoming damage, and then healer's are still relevant.
I generally agree what you said. So many games try to balance 1v1s and end up entirely messing up the meta-game.
An exception to the stalemate scenarios might be stealthers. When attacking from stealth, a stealth class should be able to kill squishy targets if they hit their combos/attacks. If they miss them, they die. If they attack a tank from stealth, they probably die.
And the Cleric is one of two possible healers, right?
Tanks are currently labeled 'tank' because regardless of their Archetype they still get called 'tanks'. In like form, whichever archetype is the defacto healer (probably the Cleric) they will be LFGd as 'Healer'.
Is a group going to LFG CLERIC for his debuffs? Not likely, but we'll see.
I've played plenty of games that were "group balanced". For one, that was never true, since there were always character builds that were vastly meta (and clumsily overnerfed afterward). And two, the expression of that ideal came down to a ton of sparkle fests with few meaningful ways to play your character at the next level.
One is pretty self explanatory. It's the default run of the theme park used to keep player retention up. Because, let's be honest, the average player doesn't know boss fights, pvp strats, and often even how their characters work. They'll drop into a dungeon, instanced battleground or event and just try to wing it and/or hope to get carried.
Ironically, they're the first ones to complain when they get destroyed by a decent player. Let's be honest though, that's how they live their lives. It's not like their in game or IRL persona is going to be changed by a good smackdown or two.
Nah, they'll just have a midlife crisis at 40 like everyone else. Becoming either creepy old guy in a cheap Porsche or the Karen yelling at the McDonalds cashier while her special child is running in circles screaming.
Don't do drugs kids. Anyway...
The second one demands a little explanation. There have been a few games that rewarded next level play in the past, unfortunately they almost always had too many sins to survive the MMO market. Warhammer: Age of Reckoning was a good example of that. For nearly all of the classes, if you were skilled, you could pull off some legendary plays. Group, solo, skirmish, siege, whatever. There were metas, but, even the non meta builds could do some really interesting things. You never really knew what you were dealing with until the fighting started.
It was fun gameplay. It was unique and exciting. You didn't know everything about your opponent at a glance. It kept it fresh. Even after memorizing the tells (gear, auras, sparklies), you still would have to see the first few attacks before you were sure.
There are other example, better and worse, but, that was the first one that came to mind. It doesn't help that a lot of the examples are also either too old or too niche to be relevant now.
Point being, I would rather have the combat varied and interesting. I would like the various character builds to have unique features that keep it fun. A cleric/fighter should feel different than a cleric/mage versus a cleric/ranger. There's always going to be a meta, a best in slot, but, that doesn't mean all the other options have to suck or be made flat and boring by heavy-handed mechanics.
Kind of turned into a rant, but, I used to love playing healers. It's been a long time since any of them were fun, though. In a lot of games, the "fun" healers if they existed at all were all hybrids. Full healers were just heal bitches. Stand in the back line, make the uwuwu sound and make the green bars go up. Occasionally you have to cleanse and clear dots, but, other than that it's: You will wear the dress, say the uwu and like it!
No wonder they're all instant queue on every mmo on the planet.
It's because healers are fucking boring and they don't have to be.
So yeah... /rant
Just as they will LFG for Mage and Rogue. Rather than LFG for DPS.
Not that what people LFG for matters within the context of this discussion. LFG s irrelevant.
That's not going to be possible if group dynamics is well balanced
Tree: Healers will be called healers, regardless of their archetype.
Forest: We're not talking about LFG, just correcting people on archetype/class/role labeling, courtesy of Dygz.
/e rolls his eyes
If they're going for a rock paper scissors approach certain classes could have abilities that negate or reduce self-healing capability.
For example a rogue could have a poison that reduces incoming healing by 50% for the next 10 seconds. That could tip fight favor of the rogue.
But self heal builds in every game are always the hardest to balance, they're usually OP or nerfed to hell...
Excellent question! Next time I'm in the forest telling dad jokes I'll find out for you.
I bet a potato could, especially if it was at the top of a slope on a breezy day.
Excellent.
I'm glad you helped answer his question because I don't often go to the forest. Its something about those trees... they always seem shady to me.
It will be ok. They are all bark and no bite.