Suggested Balance Changes

[DrawingGuy]

Time to create a popcorn thread.

What I think should have been done instead of screwing QP over to help balance:
- REMOVE Monk Forms as a selectable feat and make it auto-grant ONLY at the appropriate Monk levels. This shaves off some of the crit profile of Centered Kensei making monk splash more of a survivability choice rather than survival AND DPS.

- Fix Fury Epic Moment to only build with melee like the description states.

- Increase the "shared" cooldown of Manyshot and 10k Stars from 30s to 60s. This effectively takes the overpowered uptime of multishot with only 10 or 30s gaps to 30 or 40s gaps (IE 50s of multishots in a 2 min span instead of the current 1 min 20s in a 2 min span).

- Take a close look at all classes capstones. Many are just pulled from the old capstones that have since been made (or always been) weak and negligable by the power creep. Some classes' capstones are so bad, such as the Barbarian Frenzied, they are actually detrimental and make your character WORSE. A cross class should NOT be able to do what a pure class is designed to do better than that pure class. I have a thousand ideas on how they could be buffed, or completely scrapped and redone... but the key factor is they need to be worked on.

- Pull the Class Enhancement tiers further out of reach - preferrably doubling past the first (so 1 > 4 > 6 > 8 > 10 levels in that class). Part of what made cross classing so immensely more powerful is that you can reach many of their powerful abilities with just a little splash, leaving only a few core moves as the incentives of staying pure. Yes it's true that as you level up you could no longer dive straight through a single tree with minimum level investment... but why is that a bad thing? Diversify a bit and hit what helps you as you level and then respec once you unlock that tear - we've done it for years in the old enhancement pass as we waited for expensive specializations to be unlocked the respending. This change won't kill diversity in builds or multiclassing, it instead would make multiclassing a choice of utility/purpose rather than required since all the power is low hanging fruit.

[Therrias]

TL;DR: You're a hater and you hate multiclassing.

[DrawingGuy]

Yep, which is why every single character I have is or will be multi-classed with the exception of characters that I haven't played since the enhancement pass. Pre-U19 it was about 50/50.

[Qhualor]

1. yes. they should be auto granted according to monk levels.

2. I need to go back playing my barb because I don't remember this being a problem.

3. I say detach 10k stars from zen archery.

4. some capstones need buffing. some need rework. some are fine. overall, the capstones isn't whats deterring players from playing pure, its the low hanging fruit.

5. I assume you mean prestige tree core enhancements? there are no class enhancements which I think is what we really need to make pure more attractive. class trees would help a lot more and some of the enhancements that are in prestige trees that players choose with their splashes wouldn't be able to get them if its too high up the tree or too costly. more choices is better and it creates a better balance with pure and mix builds.

[Sonos]

A common thread on these kinds of posts are always to "nerf that which makes my toon look gimpy" rather than "buff my toon or lower incoming EE dmg for melee huggy bear toons".


This should change.

[Teh_Troll]

A common thread on these kinds of posts are always to "nerf that which makes my toon look gimpy" rather than "buff my toon or lower incoming EE dmg for melee huggy bear toons".


This should change.

Nah, monk tears are glorious. Nerf 'em some more.

[DrawingGuy]

A common thread on these kinds of posts are always to "nerf that which makes my toon look gimpy" rather than "buff my toon or lower incoming EE dmg for melee huggy bear toons".


This should change.

See this is where the dilemma is - the current metas are so powerful that they can solo EE content with little difficulty. It's not a factor of "nerf that which makes my toon look gimpy", but taking putting what trivializes content in check. Now if things were on the level where you're effective but not tear-through-solo-on-your-construct, then it should be the goal of bringing other things to that point. There are plenty of things that need buffing - assassinate DC items, unarmed DPS (like making Monk Past Life and Improved Martial Arts do a die size instead of a die step), S&B, Paladins, etc. But how far do you buff them? If it's not to the level of the current massive disparity, it's still a case of "that which makes my toon look gimpy"... but if they go that high, it'll be EE like EN. So on top of my suggested power shaves, here are four boosts:

- Paladins: Give them 3 class feats where they can pick from martial or their diety, granted at 3, 12 and 20. Have "Smite Evil" work on any non-good target... though this touches into the option of a new Prestige for Paladins: Fallen Paladin. Cores that turn your Aura into an Aura of Evil (likely capstone) that lowers all enemies saves instead of raising allies (same amount). Aura of Courage that turns into an Aura of Fear lowering saves against Fear (and enchantment if coupled Chalice Courage of Heaven). Some fear inducing attacks in the tree. Allow "Smite Evil" to work on any target. A Fallen Paladin would still be Lawful Good, they just have a twisted view of the world, and would be a fun thing to add to the game to give Paladins extra utility and power.

- Unarmed Attack: Make wraps count as a melee weapon for the purpose of enhancements and EDs. Change the Monk past life from a pitiful .5 die step back to the original die size increase. Improved Martial Arts the same (so a Monk could potentially have 2d6 unarmed with 1d6 base, 1d8 enhancement from Shintao, 1d10 past life, 2d6 Improved) though leave the centered weapon bonus at .5. The poor base crit profile of 20/x2 will keep the damage in check while helping pull it out of the gutter.

- Assassinate DC items: There needs to be new assassinate weapons/items that reach +5, and should keep up with the spell DC item bonus increases. Also melee items that can utilize INT (other than just staves - so daggers, kukris, rapiers, and all other finessable weapons) as their attack and damage modifiers. Basically tools that allow them to be their potential utility without being as far left in the dust DPS wise as STR builds.

- Shield and Board: Tanking capstones (Sacred Defender and Stalwart) have a Hate Power bonus. Apply a 1 damage boost per 5s that you're at the top of a mobs hate list. Must have Shield equipped. All stacks removed after 5s if you're not the target of a mob, or instantly if shield is removed. Stacks capped at 25. This here solves multiple issues with S&B - increasing their lack luster DPS while also concurrently increasing their holding power as increased damage is compounded with hate gear/enhancements. Cap can always be decreased/increase for balance. If the case is such that an enhancement can't be coded by hate, it then can instead be triggered off being hit/missed, though I find that slightly less flavor fun.