Serious questions that need answers from ZOS. (The data is out, no need for "more time to bake")

Jaraal

Turtle_Bot wrote: »

What can we learn from this data?

We learn that people who want to play the top performing class must purchase the latest DLC.

It's not hard to figure out.

Amottica

There is always an imbalance between classes in every MMORPG. No matter how much they "balance" there are classes that are more desired for raids than other classes. That is life in an MMORPG. I have not looked at the links but I do know this. When Zenimax does a major rebalance the only difference is which classes will be on top.

ZDunlain

The balance actually is dead in my opinion. I always watch logs and it is a good laugh.

sarahthes

The thing is, in nearly every optimized trial group you have...

1-2 dragonknights
1-2 necros
1 warden
1 sorc
1 nb
some arcanists
sometimes a plar (because the execute is nice and so is the purify synergy for alkosh)

All 7 classes being generally desired for each trial, even if they're not all DDs, is pretty darn balanced in my opinion.

Dr_Con

sarahthes wrote: »

The thing is, in nearly every optimized trial group you have...

1-2 dragonknights
1-2 necros
1 warden
1 sorc
1 nb
some arcanists
sometimes a plar (because the execute is nice and so is the purify synergy for alkosh)

All 7 classes being generally desired for each trial, even if they're not all DDs, is pretty darn balanced in my opinion.

shh you're ruining the narrative of this topic. we also need to ignore the fact that other classes provide damage utility to increase the group DPS, and that without this utility other players at the top of the charts playing classes like DK and arcanist can't shine. FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE! TURN OFF YOUR BRAIN, CLOSE YOUR EARS AND YOUR EYES.



edit:
To the OP's credit, there have been issues with balance in the game for a long while. If you remove arcanists from the equation, DKs would dominate the top groups even more. Remove or rebalance the Velothi amulet and suddenly you'll see more classes that aren't arcanist in the top 100 (probably replaced by just DKs), but what probably needs to be done is that other classes need to receive items and mythics specific to PvE to improve what their class can bring to the table, as opposed to across-the-board nerfs/rebalancing/reimagining of DPS that occurred with u35. The cleave damage these classes provide is a lot while not sacrificing much in terms of single-target dps- the issue (if you interpret it as one) of massive AOE while not being inferior in terms of Single-target DPS needs to be addressed, either all classes should have massive AOE damage and good single target damage, or none of them should, in order to achieve the sense of DPS balance most are calling for, or the type of damage that is outputted needs to be relevant to the trial (ex. fire damage is not effective in vRG, magic damage is not effective in vCR, lightning damage not effective in vAS, etc) to spread out the viability of classes in certain positions in certain encounters.

Lags

Masteroshi430 wrote: »

I tend to look at all these "you should do this, you should do that" posts from players to ZOS with an amused eye because I genuinely think there is a mastermind behind the class balance that has planned balancing while including future features and all will balance correctly later, but at the same time I think "Why waiting for the game death eve for the classes be correctly balanced? That doesn't make sense, we are playing it NOW"...
So I'm constantly in puzzling mode on that question...

A mastermind behind class balance huh, clearly you havent been paying attention over the years.

Marcus684

I guess I'll never understand this obsession some people have with "balance". Topics like this have popped up regularly over the years and it's always the same thing, "Sorc is OP. Nerf it!", or "Warden is OP. Buff everything else!"

Class balance is a myth, a theoretical state that will never be achieved, and ZOS has zero incentive to actually attempt to achieve it. Oh, they'll nerf classes/sets/skills that become too prevalent and buff others and say it's because "it's overperforming" or "to promote build diversity", but the real incentive is to keep players chasing the meta, thereby sticking around longer and paying for more subs/crowns.

If ZOS were to actually achieve something closely resembling true class balance, I'm pretty sure players would quickly get bored and leave as there would no longer be that brass ring dangling just out of reach, telling us, "If you just swapped to DK/Arc/NB you'd be soooo OP!"