Oh how could I have missed this thread?
What many people think is that clerics are useless without buffs, but that's where their thinking about balance goes wrong. A game should never depend on one class that much. Crystal defenders, draconis peaks and akram arena aren't bad games if we look with an over all aspect, but in my opnion, the actual buffs are so game breaking that it isn't even funny. I was hoping that the new skill update would change this and nerf buffs but now buffs are more OP than they've ever been.
Yes, I agree that it's ok if both sides have clerics because then both sides have buffs, but should it really be in a way where a game gets boring just because there's one class too little? Being two sides without a cleric at all or two sides with clerics works perfectly fine. It's not an issue about healing even though I agree that their survivability is over the top for now, but I'm just talking about the buffs.
The thought around it is nice, I get that people want to be the most wanted class in a game, but the way buffs should work in my opinion:
Buffs shouldn't be a must. They should be a bonus. Futhermore, nerf buffs - a lot. I don't think that the players should expect buffs and cross their fingers for having a cleric in the game.
Selfbuffs should be improved in the way that all classes should at least have 1 - 2 self buffs. This is pretty much what it is already, but I feel like the buffs shouldn't increase all your stats, they should exist to make your class stick out from the other classes. Ex. A raider could have a good crit and good dodge buff, like they do, while a knight got a good defense buff etc.
Where's the fun in having all stats increased the same like everyone else? You would have to beat classes more different if self buffs were more attractive then they are. Yes people use self buffs, but do they stick out? - not really. You could get nearly the same buffs from the clerics anyway.
It's not that I'm saying "make clerics underpowered" rather, fix what's broken. Everyone leaves a game without a cleric, or eventually gives up. There's a reason why everyone wants a cleric restriction in each game. If there always was a cleric, it wouldn't be a problem, but that's not the case.
As for the hide-in-crystal, I completely agree. A no honor zone within a certain range around the crystal, make people run around and do things more than just hide like chickens and aoe.
I agree with most of the things that's been said, about manabreak as well. But another thing I would like to bring up is more class balance related than only cd itself, I wish for them to make it more clear what classes can kill certain classes easier. Mages kill knights easier, while mages die from other classes easier... depending on m-def and those other things that we're aware of, I wish for it to be even stronger like that, and clerics don't really have a certain class that can beat them easier than others. I sound like a cleric hater now but I play cleric myself and I feel like I can tank for days.
Back in the days, being a cleric was a challange, you had to run around and you couldn't heal your team the way you do now. Having two clerics in the team, the other one has to run away a bit while the second cleric is muted, aoe purify / purify over all and they can heal back and forth all the time. I remember that I mixed my cleric with mspeed gears and what not, but that's nowhere needed anymore. I simply dont' find the joy with standing in one spot, moving 5 meters and then standing in the same spot two minutes again. CD lacks tactic completely.
And then when it comes to Draconis Peaks, the issue is definitly people. I feel like the minimum should be 5v5 but if there's more people in the que and it's an even number - let them in. I don't think there should be any restriction on how many people should join Akram Arena either, we played it 4 times in a row yesterday, or eh.. 5 because I didn't get in once, there was around 10 people that missed the que - people will play the game as long as it gets announced.
And when it comes to akram arena, the crystals need to be tweaked a bit. They get down sooo quick, we stood at the dusk crystal 1 minute and it was down, they didn't even manage to buff up and come near us before it was down, it needs to be looked into a bit.
And at last, back to draconis peaks. I feel like there's no challange to grab an egg when people don't defend the base if the number is 5v5, as a raider you can sneak grab a egg and run away, could you guys make the dragon do a tiny bit more damage while you pick the egg up?
And also, when you stealth in draconis peaks it's completely useless, people see the circle around your feet and I always know where to decloak, I would love to be able to cloak / stealth normally in draconis peaks as well.
Another thing about Draconis peaks, it's a low point game which is understandable when there's so little people, but I would love for the eggs to give points, so depending on how many eggs a single player picks and returns would give points. I've noticed that many times I'm the only one working hard on getting the eggs to the other side, appearing I'm the only one doing it, while the other people just do damage on the dragon or kill other players for more kills.
Sorry for the messy post er... ~
Edited by DigitalKitten, 30 December 2013 - 01:14 PM.