Scribing - PvP Balance Issues

Decimus

Hello!

I figured it's about that time we make a forum post again since there hasn't been any balance changes to Scribing yet.

I'll preface this post by saying that I've extensively tested abilities on the PTS on every class and play every class on Live, POV is mostly solo/small-scale PvP oriented.


First things first, the idea of Scribing is nice and it could serve as a way to increase build diversity in the game and provide viable options for important buffs such as Savagery/Prophecy & Brutality/Sorcery, or good CCs that some classes simply lack. However, with the way things are on the PTS this is not going to be accomplished since too much power has been packed on a few abilities, while others just feel... weak, and don't provide anything a certain build might be lacking.

The issue is basically that instead of increasing build diversity, Scribing as it stands is going to decrease it by replacing class spammables, class burst heals etc


Let's start with the biggest offender:

Wield Soul
This skill can act as an exceptionally strong single target spammable dealing another spammable's worth of oblivion damage upon landing, as well as providing a very strong Major debuff such as Major Cowardice, or a buff such as Major Brutality/Sorcery (so on a lot of classes you can have it on a high value skill, rather than something like Degen/Venom Arrow) or Major Vitality.

This alone would replace most class spammables in the game and especially abilities such as Arterial Burst or Crushing Shock, but it can also act as a burst heal with different Script... turning it into a burst heal that is simply just better than class alternatives.

...same also applies when comparing it to Resistant Flesh, Honor the Dead, Runemend etc etc

Templar Class Script


...need I say more, 50% worth of mitigation alone is broken - you get this for basically free since you simply replace Honor the Dead with the new Healing Soul & mobility downside is minimal if you're running Sea-Serpent's Coil anyway (40->50% snare -> 10% snare from casting the ability). The healing tooltip of both abilities is the same.

This is not all of course, since you also get Major Vitality to buff up rune/ritual/vigor healing, as well as to heal more with the Healing Soul itself.

Broken.

Vault

Not having a stacking cost on this ability that can act similar to Streak is going to have some undesired consequences and will be quite annoying to fight against. I like the concept of this skill though, as there is currently no on demand "backwards" movement skill in the game. Needs some adjusting.


These are the obvious ones, but other than that, there are a couple of other outliers when it comes to things that are perhaps too powerful... Elemental Explosion can be used on gank builds with little to no downside and the Warden Class Script is quite strong, but as the "ice class" of this MMO I believe it should have good crowd control options as befits the archetype.


Otherwise things are either more or less balanced or just underwhelming.

You cannot make a good DoT or HoT for instance with the Scribing system as the values seem super low - it would also be nice to be able to get Major Prophecy/Sorcery or Brutality/Sorcery with a buff rather than an active combat skill and the durations of those are rather low (10s, in line with Biting Jabs - which is also very low compared to Venom Arrow, Degeneration etc).


In general it'd be nice if Scribing brought new things to the game rather than simply replaced old ones that currently form the class identity. The delayed 2s AoE pull from Soul Burst for instance is really cool and was formerly only obtainable from an item set (Dark Convergence), it's nice to have this option for bomb builds. If similar ideas could be implemented for other skills, that'd go a long way towards making Scribing more interesting.

Some of the Class Scripts also feel very underwhelming compared to others... but I'll need to do more testing on that regard. So far the warden & templar ones seem far better than other classes'.


That's all I've got for now, thanks for reading.

Lystrad

Decimus wrote: »

The issue is basically that instead of increasing build diversity, Scribing as it stands is going to decrease it by replacing class spammables, class burst heals etc

To be honest I don't think it's possible for this to not be the case. There are only so many ways to create a new skill and only so many skill slots for them to fill. They're always going to be replacing something, and I'm pretty sure one of the main goal was giving character options for players who's class abilities don't match their character fantasies so odds were high they were going to be replacing class abilities over neutral ones.

Now I'm sure some of the scribing abilities are definitely over tuned currently, but other than toning down the numbers I don't think there is anything I'd really handle differently about scribing as it currently is, other than maybe creating more dot interactions like a channeled version of wield soul that's damage scales with the number of sticky dots you have on your target up to 3, and letting dot ticks proc an instant cast elemental explosion at reduced effectiveness to open up a class neutral burst ability.

tsaescishoeshiner

Some good points--I do feel Vault is different because your backwards walking speed is way slower than forwards, and you can't quite see where you're going. A ramping cost might still be appropriate--I'd wonder if it should be a bit lower than than the other ramping costs.

NyassaV

This isn't to mention you can make weild soul a spammable that applies major defile FOR 10 SECONDS and does 8% of your enemies' HP in oblvion dmg every 3 seconds.

BRP Resto applies major vitality for 3 seconds, why do scribing skills get 10 seconds? It's a ridiculous value.