Well thats my only suggestion. There isn't anything really wrong with the skill set itself, it's just the amount of power thats output when combined with high level gears, hones and seed runes.
I can't really agree on that. There are several skills & mechanics that will need an overhaul eventually. However, I agree that there are other fundamental problems that have to be solved first. And as I've said here, the high defense rates are the biggest issue. So as long as this isn't fixed, there won't be a true class balance.
To repeat myself, direct heals and heal over time effects will always ignore defense, even if there will be a "MDEF" or "armor as dam.red" balance fix. And that will make heals extremely powerful, especially against targets in a fully refined gear set. And that's not all: Penetration is also way too powerful. Against targets with a 75% defense rate, a 10% penetration results in a 40%... and 25% penetration in a 100% damage boost.(see Trello - Penetration and especially Arbalist's calculator). That means, solving the x4 multiplier issue of Hide won't do much if the x4 multiplier out of 25% penetration will still be around.
But there's a nice solution:
Topic:
[General] Armor as additional hitpoints
Description:
Whereas armor absorbs most the damage right now, players will have less armor but a higher (starting) HP total instead. The most drastical concept would be:
New_def_rate = 0% all the time
New_HP_total = Old_HP_total / ((100 - Old_def_rate) / 100)
= Old_HP_total * 100 / (100 - Old_def_rate)
Example:
If your character has a 75% defense rate right now, he would have 0% defense rate (taking 4x times as much damage) but also 4x times the HP total afterwards ( Old_HP_total * 100 / (100 - 75) ).
Benefits:
Against attacks that don't bypass armor, it would stay quite the same overall. You take more damage but you can sustain more damage as well. Heals, DoTs and attacks that currently ignore the defense rate however, wouldn't benefit at all. Instead, there would be the higher hitpoint total, effectively lowering their potency. And without armor, there won't be any use for armor penetration either.
There we are:
This one change would solve the Heal and the DoT issues by most parts and a 433% Heal would be almost as effective as a 450% Charge Arrow again. IMO, this change is the only true starting point for further class changes.
Note:
This version would be easy to implement, but the changes don't have to be that severe of course. Characters could keep part of their defense rate and gain fewer hitpoints instead.
However, defense rates should never exceed 40%!!!
Let's assume the following defense rates:
Cloth armor: 20% defense rate (25% advantage over no armor)
Leather armor: 25% defense rate (7% advantage over cloth, 33% advantage over no armor)
Heavy armor: 33% defense rate (11% advantage over leather, 20% advantage over cloth; 50% advantage over no armor)
This way armor penetration would still be effective, but not broken. A 20% armor penetration would be identical to a 30% damage bonus.
Problems:
As soon as you don't convert all the defense into hitpoints, a proper conversion will be quite challenging (skipping the calculation until it's really needed). To achieve the 20~33% rates, the defense (not the rate) of heavy armor would have to be lowered to twice the value of cloth armor again (leather => 1.5x cloth). But most importantly, the current refinement bonuses would have to be reconsidered as well. And that means, Gravity would have to think hard about their strategy to make profit.
Final Note:
Once that is done, it will be worth discussing other known class balance issues... like a 700% Cross Impact, the potency of Shadow Armor, etc. Because this class isn't free of inbalances either.
Edited by Greven79, 26 January 2016 - 11:57 AM.
