My first thread on the forums. I didn't find it appropriate to classify this as either Alliance War or PvE discussion, as the topic affects the whole game, not only one or the other.
Right, so, I guess we all can agree that Magicka builds are more powerful than Stamina builds.
I've spent days and weeks reading multiple views of "why," and many touch reasons like the sheer strength of Magicka abilities, the availability and thus diversity of Magicka abilities, how Ultimate abilities mainly scale with Magicka, and my personal favourite and probably the most accurate view, how Stamina is used for both offense and survival.
That last point there shall be my primary focus in this thread.
Without (much) further babbling, I present my hypothetical (can't say "theoretical" as I haven't made calculations about it) solution:
Give Magicka the same attribute of reducing incoming damage as Stamina.
In a way, the player's Stamina pool represents the character's physical exhaustion, and thus, logically, Magicka pool represents the character's mental exhaustion.
So why not take this a step further and make Magicka builds consume an amount of Magicka proportional to the amount of Stamina consumed when blocking magical attacks, sort of as a "willpower" effect? Probably a bit more than what Stamina blocking uses, seeing that Stamina is used for the constant block effect's sustenance, bashing & interrupting, sprinting, sneaking and rofl-dodging in addition to the normal ability usage.
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Would this make restoration staves overpowered?
Not necessarily, as blocking's consumption of Magicka would only be triggered from attacks whose types are "Magic" or any of the elemental forms of damage (Fire, Ice, Shock). As such, a resto staff user could be handled relatively easily (not accounting for player skill) by a melee player using Stamina-based skills, as the resto staff user's abilities (assuming he's running a full Magicka build) would deplete the physical opponent's Magicka if blocked.
In PvE environment, this would probably have little effect if the spell-using hostiles were not focusing on the healer - but a larger impact on the whole PvE environment would probably be caused by the requirement of physical players taking down the spellcasting hostiles and spellcasters the physical hostiles. More about this later.
Would this make Stamina-based builds overpowered?
I'll say I "doubt" this, as the system I propose would, optimally, promote a more diverse attribute layout, with Magicka being effective against Magicka-users, depleting from their offensive potential -if- blocked, while similarly, Stamina would be effective against Stamina builds.
Would this make Magicka-based builds underpowered?
As with Stamina's OPness, I "doubt" this, as the system would, again, optimally promote a more diverse attribute layout.
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This system would also make the common "Impulse spam" I see people having a problem with less useful, as you could repel the method of running into a crowd, blocking and spamming Impulse, simply by using magical abilities and thus depleting his Magicka pool bit by bit.
In PvE, this would promote a different approach to a variety of situations.
As one example, if your healer was attacked by a pack of melee hostiles, he would have to hold down block while waiting for his saviours, as usual. However, if a magic-using hostile joined the fight, someone should focus on that one asap - even though the bigger threat seems to be that big pack of hostiles after your healer. But if your healer is forced to block and that magic-using hostile is pummeling him, his own survivability is weakened because of the lower Magicka regeneration due to the blocking mechanism.
Abilities with spell reflection, damage absorption shield and other similar "useful utility" effects would probably become more common, both in PvP and PvE, as they would provide alternate means to reduce the need to block and thus lose your valuable resources.
For example, a magic-user could apply a spell reflection spell when facing a magic-using foe, thus eliminating the possibility of having Magicka loss if some melee hostile takes his attention away for a moment and forcing him to turtle up for a moment. Or alternatively, he could apply a dmg absorption shield if a physical fellow begins pummeling him and then keep fighting the enemy magic-user.
So to end the post, I ask this (rhetorical) question: Should your Magicka pool be nothing but a "mana pool" from other MMO games, where it has no impact on the gameplay experience past dictating your ability usage, or couldn't it be a fluid, interactive resource pool like its "underpowered" counterpart?
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The main post ends here. Disclaimers and notes, reading optional but I would personally prefer if you did:
I do not claim that the solution is perfect; It would require some more work and brainstorming to be effective. Nor do I claim to be an extremely good (would say "pro," but I don't know anyone who plays games for a living) player, but I'm suggesting this with the interest of a more enjoyable, level playing field.
Constructive criticism, especially from skilled and long-term PvE and PvP players, would be appreciated, as I cannot claim to have played the endgame content as long as they have, and thus may lack a certain point of view they've acquired through their experience. So if people can point out major errors in my thesis or find overwhelming inconveniences caused by such a system, I would appreciate constructive responses.
Also, a sneaky word to the forum moderators: In case this post needs a relocation, feel free to do so. If you've read this and are considering moving the thread to another forum category, then I've (probably) had you gripped enough to have read the "solution", and thus may have a slight chance of having the devs consider it. Apologies for potential deception.
And last and least, I'm a non-native English user, so try not to get too distracted by my potential grammatical errors.
Ultimate TL;DR:
Cause Magicka to be consumed through blocking magical attacks, keep Stamina as the physical blocking pool, and thus make the two "polar opposites" of each other. Constructive criticism welcome.
"These boots are meant for walking, and that's just what they'll do."