God Hates Lags
The Last of DusT.
General Tso's Alliance
1179
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Posted - 2014.05.24 19:33:00 -
[1] - Quote
I've noticed a consistent problem with CCP's balancing philosophy and I'm posting this here because it really needs to change before legion comes out. There has been a tendency amongst the balancers in CCP to balance in ways that homogenize all suits and weapons. While I appreciate that balancing in and of itself is a delicate art the CCP's balancing design has long graviated towards this philosophy.
As a most recent example, let's look at the Hotfix Alpha numbers that were initially proposed. Initially, CCP stated that they wanted to reduce the speed of the Minmatar commando slightly to make it less OP, which it most certainly is. The problem with that, though, is that the Minmatar commando's thing is speed. It's supposed to be the fastest commando. And with a movement speed only .2 higher than a cal of a gall commando, even the slightest change to movement risks trivialising the commando class's diversity. A better option to make the other commandos more appealing would be to make them more powerful within their niche. Give Cal commandos faster shield regen and with a shorter delay. Give Gall commandos the innate armor reps that every other gall suit has and is kind of the main feature of a gall suit. Increase the Amarr commando's HP because right now it's being outtanked by SCOUTS.
This is not an isolated incident, but has been a foremost feature of CCP's balancing philosophy. Remember when Heavies were going to get an HP nerf and CCP was thankfully talked out of it? The 25% reduction would have put them in line with assaults.
Wait. Isn't that a good thing? Assaults are underpowered right now? Nope. Because then the heavies are basically assaults. Rather than decrease Heavy HP, CCP should focus on making assaults better at being assaults. Extra grenades would be a good start, as would better bonuses. The minmatar and Amarr bonuses are a good start. The Gallente assault is under used because its bonus promotes hipfire on the Plasma Rifle, which is not a hipfire weapon. A better bonus would be faster aim down sight or faster tracking while aimed down sight allowing them to make full use of their weapon of choice. Similarly the Cal assault gets a reload bonus to RR when reload is hardly the RR's biggest weakness. Lessened kick would go a long ways towards making the Cal assault more appealling.
TLDR; CCP has for a long time pushed balance features that push all classes towards being the same thing. When balancing in the future for legion, CCP should buff a class by increasing the power of what makes it unique, and while nerfing a class should give it weaknesses that don't compromise its core appeal.
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