Since Raev deserves more than a couple lines in reply, here's some thoughts on the specific items he lists:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raev
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What's your opinion?
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[*]Rebalancing of several items including the 'real' Blade of Carnage and Ranger-usable Crown of Narandi
---This strikes me as kind of fluff; existing itemization already allows for the trivialization of content.
[*]Spell fixes including no more dex+focus, cheaper Rapture, AE immune Wizard pets, and pets using player level/resistances
---Case-by-case. I like dex/focus stacking, it helps bridge the cap between lower-end and high-end equipment. Rapture cheaper...Enchanters aren't exactly needing buffs. Wizard pets were fluff, but kinda harms the classic feel of the class. same effect could be baked in without the visible pet, if you want to re-tune the Wizard. Pets using player resistances seems moot given the general way resistances work on P99.
[*]Full FT stacking
---See above note with respect to itemization. Fluff.
[*]No-aggro Eye of Zomm
---Not enough. Want to fix trivialization of pulling, probably need to disable beads/probes entirely.
[*]Blessed Coldain Prayer Shawl
---More itemization, hence fluff.
[*]Ring of Vulak
- --Maybe it was just the folks I hung around with, but back in the day pretty well everyone I knew despised that event after doing it once.
[*]DoT stacking
---Positive change that benefits DOT-specific classes and harms nobody.
[*]Focus Effects
---Spell scaling is needed, but I didn't like that solution to it. Should've been a statistic akin to warcraft-style spell power. Placing the entirety of spell scaling on individual pieces of equipment tended to limit overall itemization too much.
[*]Ancient Spells
---I don't remember those. What are they?
[*]Late Luclin AC system (289 hardcap should be in effect all through P99's timeline)
--P99 already seems to use something of a custom AC system, so this might be moot. In general the Luclin-era AC tuning changes were an improvement over that of Kunark/Velious.
Basically Raev, aside from a couple exceptions I don't oppose most of the balance-related stuff so much as I don't think it goes far enough. (the itemization-related stuff, as noted, is fluff to me since existing itemization is already plenty strong enough for existing content). The way I see it, if we want to improve the game--then improve it, instead of limiting ourselves to half-measures. I'm not a classic purist in that sense, so much as a proponent of doing a job right. None of the game's most serious weaknesses are sufficiently addressed by that list. No defense-oriented discipline for hybrid tanks (IMO give 'em evasive at 60 on a 72 min cooldown), insufficient tuning for Wizards and to a lesser degree Druids, Charm remains grossly overpowered, Warrior snap aggro still sucks (make melee stuns generate high hate IMO), and so forth. What's your own thought on that assessment?
Danth