Azarael wrote:peterthepan3 wrote:General suggestions
My advice in this case would be to isolate one or two suggestions and push for those specifically in a dedicated thread, same as what happened with SM/BO. A battery of changes has very little chance of success, but incremental changes are much more realistic.
A battery of changes only has a little chance of success if you do it improperly. I've seen you state this theory multiple times (test one variable at time, see what works), which is the safe and easy way to do something. However, it doesn't automatically imply what would be the chance of "success". Realistically, sweeping changes have as much of a chance of being successful as incremental ones, because the measure of success of any change is what is done, not how it is done.
If you have a deep knowledge of the issues, and a solid theory of what should be done to resolve such issues, the way in which they are resolved is fundamentally irrelevant. What matters is that the theory is correct and the changes are made.
TLDR: sweeping changes can work, and can be much better than incremental changes, but only if you really know what exactly you are doing.
Anyway, I clearly stated in a thread long ago what should be done with these classes (met with much derision I concede).
The reality is you cannot compare anything in a vacuum. This archetype needs to be properly evaluated vs the other RDPS classes individually and as a whole, as well as the other archetypes and individual classes, and greater realm balance.
As per comparing to RDPS classes, each archetype was designed with a particular niche (the sorc/bw with high burst and sustained but low survivability, the sw/sh with high mobility and single target damage but low aoe and armor reduction, and the magus/engie with high utility/cc and sustained damage but limited mobility and burst).
So the solution is, and has always been simple. Increase the magus/engie survivability/utility to equate to the gap is burst vs the sorc/bw and the mobility/burst of the sw/sh. Lets break this down in simple terms.
If the Sorc/BW does X more burst damage than the Magus/Engie, than the Magus/Engie should have Y more utility/survivability than the Sorc/BW.
So lets use some random numbers here because this is hard to objectively quantify (you'd have to run multiple dps tests both sustained and burst and realistically compare utility at the same time). Lets say X is 30%.
If Sorcs/BWs do 30% more burst damage than Magus/Engies, but only have 15% less utility than there is your issue. (Note I am making that number up just for the sake of argument).
However, if you are afraid of just over-buffing the Magus/Engie archetype, there are other solutions. You can nerf the other RDPS archetypes (if you feel RDPS as a whole is overpowered towards other archetypes, however most people who've played this game would argue that melee trains rain supreme later game so this is probably not the case). You could also swap ability function for parity (for instance, giving the Engie the BWs KD and giving the BW something from the Engie in return). Of course, you could just buff the Engie/Magus as well.
All this being said, I don't even play RoR anymore (I mean fallout 4 is out cmon naw), but I'm drunk and felt like adding my $3.50 (I'd like to meet the loch ness monster).
Outtie.