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Why class balance sucks.

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Zorele, Apr 17, 2023.

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  1. Zorele
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    Zorele Mr. Anchor

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    Jan 12, 2018
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    9:58 PM
    Zorele
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    The first point I wish to make regarding this topic is that in maplelegends GEAR matters way less than class choice in terms of the performance you can expect out of a character. In turn this goes completely against what a progression game stands for and it would make more sense for the biggest weight to be held by gear since all of these classes have the exact same goal. The varying degree of damage done by these classes should be within reasonable margin and dictated by the side benefits these classes provide in the context of a group and mostly in the form of utility skills.

    Currently the biggest problem and not necessarily the only one is shadower. I pick shadower for this exercise because it’ll all feel like this one big hyperbole but I assure you not, these are actual numbers. For the numbers I will present I'll use Akash’s DPM guide since it’s the most updated guide. Since I'm going to exclusively use akash’s numbers I will provide first for reference the expected DPM of an endgame shadower with perfect gear and apple (including a perfect shield). The reference number is 12.82m (Using the NATE as a reference since nate dashing has mostly niche uses and a handful of limitations). You can feel free to confirm any of this but shadower in this list is the weakest of any of the attackers. I choose to ignore intentionally weaker builds such as 1h pally/heroes since these classes are presented with better, cheaper options. The closest class to shadower in this list is hero who does a 13.55m DPM. It’s arguably not a big gap but if you take into account this doesn't consider the usage of panic at all and since this is all purely theoretical, it should be 10% more of that base number. Some other reference numbers would be a 20.45m dpm corsair, 17.14m NL, 15.28m BM, 14.74m MM.


    I mentioned earlier in this post that class choice matters infinitely more than gear and let me highlight this by providing some interesting breakpoints considering endgame gear and ciders. Roughly a shadower would need 61 external att (assuming perfect shield dragon khanjar) and 110 att assuming the usage of apple to do the same damage as a Nl . What this ultimately mean is that chances are that a random NL with average gear still damages even the #1 shad of the server with infinitely more expensive items. I’d argue that from a game design standpoint this doesn’t make any sense. All these “attacker” classes have the exact same objective of dealing damage and the current gap that exists would mean that no amount of effort and gear could put shadowers close to their sister class NL. Just to give an example of what a healthy gap would look like we could compare the even breakpoint of BM and NL. The att equivalence is roughly 22~ att. This breakpoint gives room for a superior BM be it gear wise or skill wise to outperform a NL all while providing arguably the most important damage buff in the game

    I’m sure we can all agree there’s a significant gap between these numbers but what does shadower really offer to merit being weaker by this gap? Usually the most mentioned points are shads ability to cleave, the importance of smoke, their ability to grind, their damage efficiency and lastly their survivability. To keep things short shad is by far the worst “cleaver” being weaker than all 3 warriors (Yes, paladins cleave better), While smoke is useful , their use is infinitely less significant than other utility skills and is not something you'd go out of your way to get. In terms of grinding shads are generally good grinders yet the importance of this perk is fairly limited. Warriors get roughly give or take the same rate and despite what many people think the rates that ranged attackers can get at 7f isn't far below than what melees can and not to mention leeching and bossing for exp exists so there’s a lot of alternatives. Exp is also a “limited need” so only so much importance can be given to it. While shadowers damage efficiency is good, the same can be said about every ranged attacker who’s avoid numbers plus the less frequent need to reposition compensate can and even surpass. Warriors have 90% stance which offer superior damage efficiency, Buccaneers have range for ⅔ of the time, iframes, stance and avoid..

    Then the biggest perk shadower has is their survivability. But can you really balance a game based on survivability? The short answer is no. If the “perk” to survive would be exclusive to shadower then the other classes would have no room to participate in content not to mention how hp washing trivializes this “perk” in 90% of the content the game has to offer. Recently there’s been a lot of hype regarding shadowers in PB but the fact is that you only bring a shadower because there isn’t another NL to take the spot, it’s not that the class offers a particularly mandatory tool the same way Buccs, archers and even bishops do.

    Why should NL be the survivable thief with damage while shad is just the survivable thief without damage? Why does the class with the least damage by a significant margin also have the least important supporting skill (Unless someone is of the opinion that smoke > SI/SE/TL/Holy Shield)?

    There’s obviously more issues in general with class balancing but personally I think it’s easiest to make a case for shad since it seems to me the most problematic regarding the attackers. I have a few other comments regarding other classes but depending on the way the main thread develops I'll be sure to comment. With that being said, thanks for reading and definitely do voice your opinion. I don't claim to know it all and while there are facts between in my post, there's also opinions so feel free to agree or disagree and explain your rationale.
     
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2023
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