The Real Problem With Balancing in PvP

vortexman11

Light Armour:
- Reduces the Magicka cost of spells by 3% per piece of light armor equipped
- Increases Magicka Recovery by 4% per piece of light armor equipped
- Increases base Spell Resistance by 8% per piece of light armor equipped
- Grants 10% chance for Spells to cause Critical Damage while a light armor set of 5 or more pieces is equipped
- Player's spells ignore 4% of enemy Spell Resistance per piece of light armor equipped

Heavy Armour:
-Increases Armor by 3% and base Spell Resistance by 3% for each piece of heavy armor equipped
-Increases Health Recovery by 4% per piece of heavy armor equipped
-Increases Weapon Damage with melee attack by 1% per piece of heavy armor equipped
-Reduce cost of Break Free by 4%
-Decreases Stamina cost of blocking by 20% when a heavy armor set of 5 or more pieces is equipped
-Increases healing received by 1% per piece of heavy armor equipped

Crossed out = Perfectly Balanced
Bolded = Needs to be scaled down
Italic = Needs to be scaled up

Why on earth did they not just make armor passives balanced but into different attributes? I can see they tried, but honestly...Whats the point of "Increases Armor by 3% and base Spell Resistance by 3% for each piece of heavy armor equipped" if "Player's spells ignore 4% of enemy Spell Resistance per piece of light armor equipped" completely negates that....Why doesn't someone in heavy armor have a passive like this "Players weapon attacks ignore 4% of enemy armor per piece of heavy armor equipped"? Whats the point of the increased armor when almost every skill people use is spell damage based? The only useful heavy armor passives are the 4% reduction to break free, which even isn't that great, as you don't need to break free of anything if you're tanking with a sword a shield, which leads into the second and last only useful heavy armor passive which is the 20% block cost reduction, which is something, but still isn't enough when you could get better by just having a few enchantments.

The second problem I've seen with PvP in this game, and probably the biggest problem to date are shields, and how they keep their effectiveness when used by someone wearing light armor. I know this game is meant to allow you to play your character in any way you choose, but if someone in light armor, already powered by all the unbalanced passives it provides them can use a shield just as effectively as someone walking around in a full set of heavy armor, I think theres a problem.

Now I know alot of you are going to shake your heads at this post, but hey I really don't care.

All of you people out there complaining about certain classes and class skills being over powered and should be nerfed/removed completely just don't understand how this game was intended to be played. Sure it was marketed as a game where you could be a crazy sorc running around in full medium with a greatsword, but it was never made to be like that. ZOS made this game so that NBs wear medium, Sorcs wear light, DKs wear heavy armour, and templars choose between heavy or light. The game was balanced to be like that. A DK is spamming reflective scales so you can't hit him? That would never be possible if it wasn't for that reduction to cost and increased magicka regen. You can't kill a sorc because they're stacking shields and blocking all your attacks? Thats because they're all running around carrying shields and running imovable, a NB tank that just wont die? Thats because they're in full heavy, spamming their siphoning abilities while blocking everything with their shield.

Im not saying that all the people built like this should stop what they're doing because it's hurting the game, Im simply pointing out the obvious issues that arise from the freedom we are given as players.

Some Fixes that might help:

1. Only allow block casting on actual sword and shield abilities, this will give them more use in PvP and remove the entire "I have a shield so Im invincible while still doing damage"

2. Remove 360 degree blocking or all armor types ACCEPT heavy armor, this would give heavy armor the buff it needs and deserves in PvP while removing the effectiveness of shields for people in light or medium armour

3. The most drastic of the changes. Remove stamina costs from blocking, roll dodging, sneaking, and sprinting, all together, and add another resource pool, where the size depends solely on your armor type, with light armor having the least medium armor being in the middle, and heavy armor having the most. While medium armor still maintains its cost reductions to roll dodging/sprinting/sneaking and heavy armor keeps its reduction to blocking.

Now let me explain that third option a bit more, and why it makes sense.

1. Alot of you are going to say it's not fair that people in light armor would have no reduction to sprinting/block cost/roll dodging/sneaking but in truth it makes sense for it to be this way, YOU'RE WEARING A DRESS FOR GOD SAKES!! If you try and sprint, you'd trip, If you roll dodged and you're not wearing any underwear... (lets not go there) and how sneaky should you actually be in baggy pants or a skirt? Your clothes will hit every leaf and get caught on every tree branch.. and please, don't get me started on blocking...
2. This will make stamina builds viable as you'd be able to stay in fights without dying due to no stamina left to block or dodge because you wasted it all during your fight.
3. Because every problem I've outlined so far has to do with Magicka vs. Stamina, and this will reduce the load on stamina therefore balancing out the game.

Im tired of writing, please feel free to tear apart everything I have said and correct me anywhere I was wrong.

Banananoze

i like it but:
1. - Increases Magicka Recovery by 4% per piece of light armor equipped---i do not think that should be removed, just scaled down to maybe 2% per piece, as light wearers depend on magicka and w/o some sort of additional magrecovery they would be running dry.

2. Increases Health Recovery by 4% per piece of heavy armor equipped---same as above, scaled down, not removed as heavy armor is typically meant for a tanky build and although i would rather have it removed, it would give nb tanking more difficulty because they have less survivability(imo)

3. i really like the heavy armor: additional healing per piece buff. That is a major needed adjustment. Im not sure how much would make it balanced maybe 3% if heavy recovery is removed or 2% if it is scaled down.

4. 100% agree, get rid of that 360 degree blocking bs. Gotta love trying to gank someone and they are preblocking, i stealth>surprise atk from behind, only to be set offbalance. I think it should be completely removed.

5. The only thing i really do not agree with in your post is scaling down the magicka reduction per piece of light equipped. I think it is fine the way it is. This goes hand in hand with my opinon on the scaling with increased magicka recovery. I think with the scaling down of magicka recovery to 2% per piece or (maybe 1.5/3/4) + reduction in magicka cost would solve some issues.


All in all, great post i like your ideas.

Still_Mind

360-degree block is necessary, as long as PvP doesn't have collision.

Otherwise, I firmly believe that cost ability reduction by armour type needs to be nerfed across the board, and heavy armour needs flat damage reduction (non-armour, non-spellresist) that can't be pierced with armour\spell penetration stats.

Cody

I think only people in HA using a shield should be allowed to do 360 degree blocking. there is no reason that a wooden stick should be able to do that(same goes for block and casting)

HA just needs outright damage reduction. say 2/4% per peice or something like that. the increasing weapon damage passive needs a massive buff. 0.5-1% is NOTHING. maybe if you have fighters guild passives and are using it on daedra and/or undead enemies it may amount to something......

i originally was against a 4th resource pool, but iv seen the huge imbalance, and now i agree: we need a 4th resources pool for things like block cost, sprinting, etc.

make the size of it based on armor type, with medium and heavy obviously having much more than Light armor. i know a lot of you "pros" will hate me for suggesting LA have the smallest, but you are wearing a dress or a skirt. nether was made for sprinting, sneaking, and blocking. i know the truth hurts, but its the truth nonetheless.