kessik221 wrote: »

the problem with that is you can't play what you want in order to be competitive. the nerfs that are handed out aren't because of a 2-3% difference, its a huge difference that needs addressed. If you are looking for hardmode vs easymode don't play an mmo. It just doesn't exist. Massive multiplayer online, so they cater to the massive.

This is the same negative attitude that leads to ruining good classes, good skills, and good games

Although your viewpoints always poll in the minority, they always seem to find the ears (and the vile nerf-hammer gripping hand) of some narrow minded developers :0(

#dragonknightlivesmatter

I_killed_Vivec wrote: »

But can people come to an agreement on which need buffing and which can stay as they are?

This, by far, is the most prevalent and pressing issue pertaining to class balance. There is no way you're going to get even a handful of different players, playing many variations of the five classes to agree on what should be buffed/nerfed.

Bias opinions will always play a role when debating/discussing balance as no one is willing to acknowledge nor admit their favorite class/skill/weapon needs a nerf.

They should balance. That's different than "making them all the same", only a small minded person would actually believe that to be the case.

That doesn't mean all buffs, and doesn't mean all nerfs.

Look at the Sorcerer. A source of nerf calls all the time, but the reality is that it's actually a pretty well put together class. The abilities have a strong synergy with one another, they apply their damage reliably, and the buffs for offense give survivability(Surge gives 20% damage buffs plus heals on crits) and buffs for defense give offense(lightning form, AE pulse plus resistance), meaning any half decent sorc can pull together a functioning setup that offers it good playability. Its passive abilities play very well into exactly what the class does.

Now look at the Warden. Its same defensive spell doesn't help his offense at all, but wipes out a slot. The same offensive buff doesn't do any damage nor add any survivability either. Its damage abilities offer little synergy with one another and are, instead, a hodge podge of different ways to apply damage that don't really line up into a particularly coherent rotation. Its passives are also an incoherent jumble of nonsense that doesn't tie the class together. On paper, its abilities actually look stronger than those on a Sorcerer, even in identical gear, but in practice their lack of self synergy shows how inaccurate that really is.

All of that seems like a suggestion that buffs to incoherent abilities might fully fix the problem, but I don't think that's the case. In the above example, if a Warden was suddenly able to tie its abilities into a proper rotation that actually built its power, as well as not having "dead" keys in its rotation to keep some buffs up, it almost certainly couldn't display the paper tooltips that it has because tying them into an effective rotation would suddenly jump the classes power to a new level, and powercreep is a bad thing.

And no, tying all of these numbers together and reworking a few skills to make the two classes equal in power would not make wardens into Sorcerors with different graphics.