(If there are any more gear/skills than the ones listed here, please do tell, i've only been on iRO for so long :v)
Over the years, a couple of gears or skills received adjustments to make it fit the balance of the game at that current time. The issue however, is that many of them don't make sense anymore in the current day setting of the game. "Balance" doesn't exist anymore, everyone is capable of dishing out tens of millions of damage per second, and the PvP/WoE scene of Chaos is unfortunately long dead.
I also tried to ask around some people that have been playing for longer if they remember an approximate timeframe on when the change was made, and if there was any specific reason to it.
Lastly, i tried to get some footage from bRO(another oficial server), wich hasn't had these changes. It was different people sending each thing, that's why the format changes.
Bowling Bash
(For documentation purposes. Since the 2nd job rebalance has hit main servers, the changes in it make this not matter anymore)
It received a 0.5s cooldown back in pre renewal days. Reason being it was abused of NoDelay, and Heim not knowing enough about NoDelay asked kRO who also knew very little about NoDelay to do something about it, so they put a hard cooldown in it.
Double Strafe
Same story as Bowling Bash, it received a 0.3s cooldown back in pre renewal. Heim decision again when trying to do something about NoDelay users back then.
Elemental Sword
Heim decision, back in pre renewal era.
"Bolt" Assassin was a pretty powerfull pvp build at the time, as you could have very high matk from INT alone, and the swords would allow for many spells to hit the enemy simultaneously.
It was made so that the sword procs are self contained, meaning no outer sources can activate the sword other than itself, not even a second sword.
You should be able to initiate/continue the chain of spells of one or two swords(assassin can dual wield) from any spell in the chain, activated by any source.
Solar Sword
Nerfed at some point in/prior to 2011(?), early renewal.
Like every leech gear on RO, activation chances and recovered amounts should stack additively. Solar Sword at some point was bugged, with it's unequip script missing, meaning that if you put it on and removed it, it would keep the 100% activation chance, as well as stacking recovered amounts with the remaining of your gears. It was "ninja nerfed" and now it's leech effects are completely self contained, and don't interact at all with any other leech gear on your character, a completely separate roll.
Glorious Fist
Happened in late 2011 early 2012. "Renewal 1.0" era, by Heim.
The original effect is that it makes your Guillotine Fist instant cast when +9, the same as Bellum Claw. It was changed to -50% fixed cast time.
Now for why this change happened is quite a trip, and the culmination of many things happening at once ( plus Heim 200 IQ fixes).
- Renewal 1.0 Guillotine Fist only stopped your natural sp regeneration, you could still use items right after it to recover sp.
- The server just had it's first HD ores event, so there were a LOT of Suras walking around in WoE with a +9 KVM Fist, thing that basically did not exist prior to this.
- There was an ongoing St. Patrick's Day event. That means TONS of Green Ales for everybody( instant 50% HP/SP heal consumable, an Ygg Seed)
With all of the above stacked, you had a scenario where every goddamn Sura and their mothers in WoE were walking around spamming insta GFists. Heim "fix" to the situation was to change the weapon effect, rather than put a cooldown on Green Ales like we have now. and add a cooldown to Green Ales, also slowly decrease it's recovery power over the year. In the following year it was made so that Green Ales regain their full effect when St. Patric's event is active.
(unfortunately i don't have bRO footage for this, no one in there seems to have a +9 KVM Fist :v)
Dragon Breath/Water Dragon Breath
Now this is a rather recent one :v
In short, DB received a 0.2s to reduce the impact of NoDelay abusers in WoE. It became a bit more bearable at the time, but there was still a very clear difference from those NDLing and those not.
The thing is, the WoE scene has been completely nuked out of existance already, and even with the 0.2s in place, it matters very little as DB damage has skyrocketed with gears like Red Baby Dragon hat and Fafnir Scale.
Since WoE balance is not a concern for the balance of this skill, the cooldown on it doesn't make sense anymore, it only hampers it's PVM potential.
Release (Warlock)
The skill received a 1s cooldown on iRO circa 2012/2013 due to cheaters abusing packet injection to use it at impossible speeds. As stated above, WoE is not a concern anymore for balance since it doesn't exist anymore.
That should cover most things, lemme know if i missed any.
The game is super messed up balance wise already, at least let people have fun :v
Edited by Ashuckel, 30 November 2021 - 02:25 AM.