This thought isn't specific to the Divergence discussion, but in regards to what you said about what was supposed to happen with +20 in the move to GS4 and there obviously being plenty of gear over +20 now (lets be honest, 6x is fairly easy to get now) and also making sure development is being done in the right areas:
Thought...
Why does Gemstone even start out at level 0 anymore, where...
- you have to deal with 0x stuff or consistently moving to/having to buy 1x/2x/3x over a short time span of time just until you get to level 10,
- where either you're short on mana (yes I know 1700 is free but 5s hard RT for spell casting blows), or your CS or AS is low, and DS is extremely low in comparison to critters and you're basically forced to get a Dreavening/Invoker if you don't want a high risk of dying.
Just give everyone the ability to hold 4x gear as soon as you start and start people off with the ability to have enough spell knowledge for a decent CS to hunt with or the ability to inherently have enough DS and AS to start with without significant help from spells. The whole race to level 10 so you can get set up with 4x gear is pointless I think.
Last edited by Viekn; 05-16-2022 at 01:50 PM. Reason: clarity
I just don't think the current system is balanced if you can aim spells. Sure, hard RT would be a potential fix, but physical attacks have other things they have to deal with besides hard RT, like armor. Also, would you have to train ambush or combat maneuvers to aim?
As for rogue balance, I'm not even trying to bring that into this. Rogues are underrated and I don't think we really need anything changed other than very very minor gripes I have (like environs in the rift). Just because scrubs make my class look bad doesn't mean we actually are. But even so, I don't necessarily want to see our class diminished by some other class moving in on our turf. Rangers already do that enough as it is.
I think it was Naos (could be wrong, going from memory) at one point said he wanted to adjust how enchanted items were handled by level since, as you even mentioned, folks blow through the first 10-20 level so fast that 1-3x items are pretty much non-existent in terms of use. But, to do something like that a rebalance would probably have to be done for creatures AS/DS. I doubt it will ever change, but I know that one of the GMs at one point in time wanted to - he didn't go into any details, just said he had ideas to fix it.
I think the weapon system should revamped and handled correctly - move all the stupid weapon skills that require you to either run a script or spam more buttons to get reactive skills (such as Overpower) to trigger. These should happen automatically or allow you to turn the automatic use off if you don't want to use them. A lot of weapons needs DF, AvD and RT adjustments (up and/or down) and then tying special weapon skills to individual types of weapons would give them their own personality so people aren't just looking at the best DF or what weapon does crush better for those rank 5 head kills.
I just wish the staff would stop looking to slow things down because that's how they think balance works.
Last edited by drumpel; 05-16-2022 at 03:06 PM.
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam
These are great suggestions. Elegant in their simplicity but with significant, and wholly positive, impact on gameplay. The first one's a massive QoL improvement and frees players up to make more interesting decisions in combat, second one serves to improve weapon variety and introduce unique playstyles and rp at the same time.
Last edited by entropy; 05-16-2022 at 10:01 PM. Reason: usual typos