This is a balance thread because that is why many of the enthusaist dont want to come back or are slowly quiting for now.
The pets still being a issue affecting PvP along with new pets being added, Its still considered MountedOnline 2, and spells are still uncounterable.
This game if its going to succed need balancing amount long standing and recent issues. Thing like mages instant killing players with low skill floor uncounterable attacks have been in the game since the begenning with out a fix.
Rebalancing I heard will happen shortly after Release which has worried and upset some players. Balancing needs to be worked of as soon as the dev team can fit it in. It is extreamly important as even if you turn your backs on the old players who understand the game is broken, the new players will quickly learn that they game is broken with in a month of playing. Esspecially the PvP enthusaist who will be the back bone of the PvP content in this game. You need to support your competive player base.
MAGES
Mage is very strong but not that interesting to play with a few QoL down sides. The main issue is that a FF can not counter a mages spells. Also three mages can focus fire any player down, or a single mage can instant kill with out any way for the FF to counter a low health FF. A FF can use skill to fend off multiple attackers except for when a mage is envovled. You can look at griefers who will use multiple mages to instant kill players before gaurds can react.
Top mage mains who see this issue have came up with a Idea to make the class more engauging for the player(fun), more skill full, and less broken towards FFs.
The Idea is to half the cast time and half the damage. This will half all Alpha damage a mage can do with their first spell but keep over all DPS the same. Now instead of 3 mages instant kill players with uncounterable hitscan spells, you require double the numbers. This at least extends the FFs TTK and raises the skill floor for mages, as they need to land two hits. Also increases the actions per minute to create less boring gameplay for mage.
Corrupt shold probably stay the same as well as the heals as "alpha damage" with heals is a possitive for the game.
My idea would to be also to include damage reduction for spells landed shortly after another to prevent focusing down a player. I think it would be ok but not great with out the mage mains suggestion but could work great with it. The idea is that after the first hit, there is a half second up to full second maybe of time that the next spells damage is reduced. This means that a single mage will not be affected but multiple mages focusing the same target will be less impactfull but still danagerous. Just halving the damage would be enought if the current damage is already halved.
Pyche also needs a rework to not be RNG based, and to be wanted. Simply halving magic damage reduction of a minor ammount would do wodners for pyche. Also remove RNG resist, not one really feels its good to not take damage due to RNG.
MOUNTED
Extreamly low risk with moderate reward class. Even with out vet people are able to keep pets alive, many builds focus around being all 3 mounted mage, combat, and archer. Well known that in MO1 they were king and OP. They still are troublesome today.
Main issue is lack of counters for every play styles. Archery is a deterent, hammers can dismount but you wont finish either horse nor rider as it is now, and When EQ gets it its only a counter mages cant have. EQ also wont work against MAs and most MMs.
Even when you are outskilling the mounted there is not much you can do to kill them as a foot fighter no mater what mistakes they make. Mounted v FF balance is the hardest. SV must be carefull to not mess up foot fights by adding gimiks like crossbows. I suggest in general to add caltrop throwables to create choke points on the fly for foot fighters.
Mage- Any mage can hop on a horse and be a MM agaisnt FFs. You dont need control riding nor another skill to do magic like MC or MA cant. Controled riding is only really of need against other mounted. MM needs more point investment. Also just be mounting a mage takes away most of the issue they will have as a fatmage/wheelchair mage. Dex is somthing that might need to be worked out as a requirment or want for mounted builds. With all of this the mage balance I mentioned in the previous section can apply
Archer- MA is the best mounted v mounted class. Its has the least risk amount the mounted against FFs but with moderat to low damage unless you are a ogh wheel chair. Archery is generally not viable in MO2 but MA makes up for the issue of not being able to move and stamina loss to be some what viable. FFs can generally avoid MA arrows if they know to strafe and be unpredicatble and well as keeping either longer distance or to get really up close to run circles around a horse.
The main issue is the lack of ability to kill the MA as it never gets close. This means close range dismounts are a no go. Calrops can help by denying them a quick exit in conjuction with a forward push. Or by preventing them from running in circles around the player shooting. Another mechanic that might be looked into is "sprint breaks" on horses. Only very tempoary ones.
MC- The most risk of the mounted but still very low risk. Adding EQ will help balance out group v group but we still need each class to be 1v1 viable agaisnt each other. Caltrops will solve alot of problems with MCs by making it more difficult to run in. Im not sure what else needs to be done because mose MCs are bad at the game so much they cant properly use mounted in general. There are not a lot of very high skilled mounted, esspecially MCs because they all found it boring and went back to FF.
PETS
Pets are broken in 1v1. The core of good PvP games is that every class can 1v1. Right now small pets are useless and big pets are just OP.
Even if parriable you have lots of issues fighting pets such as its always a 1v2. They need to do things such as make big pets focused towards large group fights and smaller pets have more utilities. The current thought process of SV to just make the OP creatures more rare or expensive in either skill points or time does not balance out the game. It only lessens the numbers of frustrated players since less peopel deal with broken game design around pets.
Smaller less powerfull pets should be focused to provide utility and use during small scale. Such as wolves having special attacks to bite and hold to slow down a enemy in PvP. With the counter to that CC being that the player must damage the wolf to force it off the player. Could also have passives on pets such as wolves have lower PP for the next wolf you control allowing to have multiple low level pets. Could have cougars, quite the players steps and have a special attack of pounching a player to do a knock down. With the counter being a push to get them off of your or to prevent the knock down.
Larger pets should be focused on doing lower damage AoEs with group crowd effects. Such as White bear having a roar that affects multiple targets for a small debuff and parriable swipes that hit multiple armored players for 20-30. Since bears will have armor soonish they should have their damage lowered but traded out for AoE. If swipes are not applicable to be animated to be AoE then try ground pounding.
I will go on and on later in about changes per animal I would like to see to make all pets have utility that would be desirable but the focus of pets should either to be utility/help to the owner instead of the fighter for the owner. Or seige/large group weapon not sutible for 1v1s due to speed or low damage.
I dont want to take away content, but if pets are not fixed or nerfed they will kill the game. It is better to just remove them untill fixed if the dev team does not have the time yet. You are sacrificing players who spend the most time in game and driving the player enteration for people who dont play as much and rely on pets.
END
While SV makes improvments and strides elsewhere in the game there are long standing issues that have gone untouched which greatly affect the playerbase and peoples frustration with the game. Right now the games balance is broken and is not condusive to competive skill based gameplay. SV can keep and gain so many players who spend lots of effort and time in games to be good. These players will make a back bone which will keep the game stable and bring in more people for such a niche game. This is about the long term player retention too as many player will eventually find out how much pseudo depth there is in MO2 along with how broken it is eventually.
The pets still being a issue affecting PvP along with new pets being added, Its still considered MountedOnline 2, and spells are still uncounterable.
This game if its going to succed need balancing amount long standing and recent issues. Thing like mages instant killing players with low skill floor uncounterable attacks have been in the game since the begenning with out a fix.
Rebalancing I heard will happen shortly after Release which has worried and upset some players. Balancing needs to be worked of as soon as the dev team can fit it in. It is extreamly important as even if you turn your backs on the old players who understand the game is broken, the new players will quickly learn that they game is broken with in a month of playing. Esspecially the PvP enthusaist who will be the back bone of the PvP content in this game. You need to support your competive player base.
MAGES
Mage is very strong but not that interesting to play with a few QoL down sides. The main issue is that a FF can not counter a mages spells. Also three mages can focus fire any player down, or a single mage can instant kill with out any way for the FF to counter a low health FF. A FF can use skill to fend off multiple attackers except for when a mage is envovled. You can look at griefers who will use multiple mages to instant kill players before gaurds can react.
Top mage mains who see this issue have came up with a Idea to make the class more engauging for the player(fun), more skill full, and less broken towards FFs.
The Idea is to half the cast time and half the damage. This will half all Alpha damage a mage can do with their first spell but keep over all DPS the same. Now instead of 3 mages instant kill players with uncounterable hitscan spells, you require double the numbers. This at least extends the FFs TTK and raises the skill floor for mages, as they need to land two hits. Also increases the actions per minute to create less boring gameplay for mage.
Corrupt shold probably stay the same as well as the heals as "alpha damage" with heals is a possitive for the game.
My idea would to be also to include damage reduction for spells landed shortly after another to prevent focusing down a player. I think it would be ok but not great with out the mage mains suggestion but could work great with it. The idea is that after the first hit, there is a half second up to full second maybe of time that the next spells damage is reduced. This means that a single mage will not be affected but multiple mages focusing the same target will be less impactfull but still danagerous. Just halving the damage would be enought if the current damage is already halved.
Pyche also needs a rework to not be RNG based, and to be wanted. Simply halving magic damage reduction of a minor ammount would do wodners for pyche. Also remove RNG resist, not one really feels its good to not take damage due to RNG.
MOUNTED
Extreamly low risk with moderate reward class. Even with out vet people are able to keep pets alive, many builds focus around being all 3 mounted mage, combat, and archer. Well known that in MO1 they were king and OP. They still are troublesome today.
Main issue is lack of counters for every play styles. Archery is a deterent, hammers can dismount but you wont finish either horse nor rider as it is now, and When EQ gets it its only a counter mages cant have. EQ also wont work against MAs and most MMs.
Even when you are outskilling the mounted there is not much you can do to kill them as a foot fighter no mater what mistakes they make. Mounted v FF balance is the hardest. SV must be carefull to not mess up foot fights by adding gimiks like crossbows. I suggest in general to add caltrop throwables to create choke points on the fly for foot fighters.
Mage- Any mage can hop on a horse and be a MM agaisnt FFs. You dont need control riding nor another skill to do magic like MC or MA cant. Controled riding is only really of need against other mounted. MM needs more point investment. Also just be mounting a mage takes away most of the issue they will have as a fatmage/wheelchair mage. Dex is somthing that might need to be worked out as a requirment or want for mounted builds. With all of this the mage balance I mentioned in the previous section can apply
Archer- MA is the best mounted v mounted class. Its has the least risk amount the mounted against FFs but with moderat to low damage unless you are a ogh wheel chair. Archery is generally not viable in MO2 but MA makes up for the issue of not being able to move and stamina loss to be some what viable. FFs can generally avoid MA arrows if they know to strafe and be unpredicatble and well as keeping either longer distance or to get really up close to run circles around a horse.
The main issue is the lack of ability to kill the MA as it never gets close. This means close range dismounts are a no go. Calrops can help by denying them a quick exit in conjuction with a forward push. Or by preventing them from running in circles around the player shooting. Another mechanic that might be looked into is "sprint breaks" on horses. Only very tempoary ones.
MC- The most risk of the mounted but still very low risk. Adding EQ will help balance out group v group but we still need each class to be 1v1 viable agaisnt each other. Caltrops will solve alot of problems with MCs by making it more difficult to run in. Im not sure what else needs to be done because mose MCs are bad at the game so much they cant properly use mounted in general. There are not a lot of very high skilled mounted, esspecially MCs because they all found it boring and went back to FF.
PETS
Pets are broken in 1v1. The core of good PvP games is that every class can 1v1. Right now small pets are useless and big pets are just OP.
Even if parriable you have lots of issues fighting pets such as its always a 1v2. They need to do things such as make big pets focused towards large group fights and smaller pets have more utilities. The current thought process of SV to just make the OP creatures more rare or expensive in either skill points or time does not balance out the game. It only lessens the numbers of frustrated players since less peopel deal with broken game design around pets.
Smaller less powerfull pets should be focused to provide utility and use during small scale. Such as wolves having special attacks to bite and hold to slow down a enemy in PvP. With the counter to that CC being that the player must damage the wolf to force it off the player. Could also have passives on pets such as wolves have lower PP for the next wolf you control allowing to have multiple low level pets. Could have cougars, quite the players steps and have a special attack of pounching a player to do a knock down. With the counter being a push to get them off of your or to prevent the knock down.
Larger pets should be focused on doing lower damage AoEs with group crowd effects. Such as White bear having a roar that affects multiple targets for a small debuff and parriable swipes that hit multiple armored players for 20-30. Since bears will have armor soonish they should have their damage lowered but traded out for AoE. If swipes are not applicable to be animated to be AoE then try ground pounding.
I will go on and on later in about changes per animal I would like to see to make all pets have utility that would be desirable but the focus of pets should either to be utility/help to the owner instead of the fighter for the owner. Or seige/large group weapon not sutible for 1v1s due to speed or low damage.
I dont want to take away content, but if pets are not fixed or nerfed they will kill the game. It is better to just remove them untill fixed if the dev team does not have the time yet. You are sacrificing players who spend the most time in game and driving the player enteration for people who dont play as much and rely on pets.
END
While SV makes improvments and strides elsewhere in the game there are long standing issues that have gone untouched which greatly affect the playerbase and peoples frustration with the game. Right now the games balance is broken and is not condusive to competive skill based gameplay. SV can keep and gain so many players who spend lots of effort and time in games to be good. These players will make a back bone which will keep the game stable and bring in more people for such a niche game. This is about the long term player retention too as many player will eventually find out how much pseudo depth there is in MO2 along with how broken it is eventually.