Is class balance even possible?

Freelancer_ESO · September 1

SilverBride wrote: »

There are numerous threads saying "nerf this" or "buff this" or "rework this" but why even bother? Every time one class is reworked then the rest of the classes fall behind and need reworked to catch up. But they never achieve balance.

I don't understand why the classes need to be constantly reworked. Why is it so hard to just make them equal in their skills and potentials?

People like the idea of balance but, the practicalities of attempting to reach it may not necessarily be popular with some people both outside of ZOS and inside of ZOS.

The easy way to have balanced content is to nerf things that perform too well, to generally follow formulas, and to tweak the formulas when they aren't working.

However, an easy way for ZOS to get people to do their new content in the short term/spend $ on it is to release content that isn't balanced.

Part of the appeal that MMO type games have for parts of their audience is that MMOs offer the opportunity to feel special by letting players gain in power and be more impressive in power than other people by optimizing their build/gearing. Balancing content can limit the amount of gains that players can make in that way and at times can lead to losses in effectiveness.

For example, Subclassing added a fair amount of power creep into the game as players could stack skill lines that all did the same job.

ZOS could have chosen to try to deal with subclassing by moving the passives in the various lines around to try to get the lines into a more even position on the various roles.

That would have potentially avoided needing to consider reworking classes but, that approach would also mean that the effectiveness of everyone that was subclassing to min-max would drop which would make them less successful in PvP and in PvE encounters and some would not be pleased about it to put it mildly.

AdonisJorge · September 1

Balance is possible — a game doesn’t need to be perfect, but it also shouldn’t be atrocious. The main reason for frustration in PvP is the huge gap between the strongest and weakest classes. When one class can deal 20k damage while another struggles to reach 7k, or when one sustains easily while another burns all resources after just five skill casts, the environment becomes unhealthy. I wouldn’t mind if the strongest class were about 20% better than mine in some aspects, but being 80% stronger in almost everything ruins the experience.

In PvE, I don’t really care if an Arcanist deals massive damage while my heavy attack build only reaches 60% of that. At least in medium-difficulty content, like veteran dungeons, it doesn’t bother me. Things might be different in harder PvE content, but I don’t play that often.

Another issue is how certain playstyles, like DoT damage, fall far behind in PvP. That lack of build diversity makes the environment less fun. Personally, I play mostly for enjoyment. Even if I lose, as long as the fight wasn’t a lag fest or full of cheap shots, I’m satisfied. I’d rather lose ten good battles than win one horrible one.

And i have the impression that ZOS is too reactive on their balance adjustments, like they do not have a design behind their decisions. Player base is not fair our right always, sometimes the player base must be ignored and be given what they need and not what they want

Renato90085 · September 2

since subclass and class mastery,now we are in mid way
use op balance op
there pvp post problem is,some class not got they mastery op in pvp,but some is,so they still weak
PvE is actually quite balanced because no class mastery have been nerfed.
the U50 weakest class(maybe is templar)parse still have 160k+,only bad other class 10k-15k and same good with meta subclass
The biggest problem with the Temple is.. class did not benefit from meta(morag tong/Martial damage Traveling Knife/direct banner)

XVestigeXx · September 2

Yes

Class balance is not about which class has the most stat value or op skills, its about making all classes fun to play. Being fun to play requires relative balance but not exact balance in every number.

Frayton · September 2

This is my biggest pet peeve with this game. The devs constantly make wild changes that destroy our builds and progress. It's extremely demoralizing to have that happen non-stop.

I was stunned when they actually stated that this was their core design philosophy and they do it in the name of balance, but it all just seems like out of touch busywork.

We're seeing the outcome of year after year of the unending rollercoaster of changes. Players are just worn out and it look like the powers that be are as well.

Frayton · September 2

Oceanchanter wrote: »

It will never happen because there always will be someone complaining for one reason or another.

Don't put this on the players. Anyone who has had any kind of build experience beyond casual knows where the fault lies.