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Originally Posted by Tecmos Deception
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EQ classes are so obviously imbalanced that the devs couldn't possibly have actually intended them to be "balanced" in the modern understanding. Trying to do so, therefore, isn't in keeping with the spirit OR the mechanics of the game; you're basically just making a truly custom server and using the words "classic spirit" to make it sound more palatable.
And even beyond that, you have strong biases that show through in your balancing attempts. You heavily penalize solo players despite many classes having toolkits that obviously contemplated solo play? You nerf the enchanters to the ground, buff the hell out of wizards, and tweak some melee classes. But you don't address the asinine discrepancy between clerics and other healers? Between raid warriors and other raid tanks? You don't buff rogues to be more than a player mage pet who can sometimes drag corpses? Lol.
Personally as far as class balance goes, I'd limit enchanter charm to humanoids, give wizards innate crits and massively buff harvest, eliminate class exp bonuses/penalties, nerf CH (perhaps make it heal a percentage of max or something so it still is a unique, powerful spell), buff poisons damage and utility potential, give paladins significant self-healing perks, give SKs significant lifetap perks, give rangers significant archery perks. I don't know what else but I feel like that would go a long ways to evening out the classes without drastically altering their original design/vibe like totally reworking charm, moving clarity around, giving SK undead crits, etc. does. I want to say "no" to melody, but I guess I've never played a bard with it so maybe it's just a RSI relief and laziness tool more than a real adjustment to the class's power.
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The idea is to not to balance the classes in the sense that every class is equally powerful, it's to simply reduce the power disparity between classes while making as few changes as possible to the game. So, no, I don't want to change Rogues or modify CH. I just want the weakest classes (Wiz, Hybrids) to get a little extra boost and knock the OP classes (Ench, Shm, Monk) down a peg. And I want to emphasize, the main point is in making as few changes as possible, otherwise the game quickly becomes unrecognizable.
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Originally Posted by Keebz
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I like the classic "in spirit" parts, but the random buffs/nerfs to classes are very unnecessary imho.
Randomly buffing Wizards and hybrids is totally not classic in spirit. Nor is nerfing Shamans and solo players. The pet window is also not classic in spirit at all. I'd also hold off on nerfing monks until they are actually super OP (Velious).
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Class balance changes are classic AF. Literally every patch was tweaking class balance in some way. The devs clearly did not want enormous power disparities between the classes. They wanted each class to be distinct and powerful within its own niche. Thought experiment: imagine the original EQ dev team in 1999-2000 had all the knowledge of EQ tactics and mechanics that we have now. Do you really think they would leave class balance the way it is, or would they make some adjustments, with some classes being buffed and some nerfed?
Also, on a more general note, it's interesting that almost all the negative feedback has been in regards to the proposed class balance changes. I can only assume that means most people are in favor of the other changes, which is what I expected.