Balance Thoughts

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Zarth
Posts: 364
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2015 8:04 pm

Balance Thoughts

Post by Zarth » Wed Aug 11, 2021 1:30 am

I want to start with how I see things as they were ~9 months ago and then reflect with how the changes since have effected things.
I think it’s useful to come up with a tier list of where the different classes/setups rank. This is my opinion and while I’ve not played any setups beyond one, I have seem a large population of players play the other ones and I have formed my opinions on how well the different classes/setups perform both against my preferred setup and generally. This is focusing only on melee PK or at least skills that can be used in melee PK. Basically, I’m ignoring stab and charge.
It’s important to recognize that PK is not static, but I think it can be broken down into 3 fairly solid categories. Each class/setup has strengths and weakness depending on the category/stage of pk.
Categories:
1) Stationary PK – standing in the room, dealing damage
2) Mobile PK (Chasing) – When you’re trying to track someone down and kill them. Normally in this situation you have more hit points than your opponent
3) Mobile PK (Running) – When you’re trying to escape from someone. Normally in this situation you have fewer hit points than your opponent.

For a holistic view of PK you have to consider the classes in all 3 stages of PK. My discussion here is mainly around 1v1 pk but I think it generalizes fairly well to group pk, though I will try to call out where it doesn’t.
Anyway, here are my feelings on the tier lists for the different PK situations as of last December (before the removal of berserk attack and weapon rebalancing). I have ranked all of the somewhat common setups in pk (basically ignoring abs rogue, abs fc, and dodge warrior) and while there is a rock-paper-scissor component to some of the matchups I think this is close enough to start. Classes within a tier are roughly equivalent but they are ranked within the tier as well. I am also assuming that Fades and Warders are both combo (not always correct!) and that people have high end gear, though possibly not perfect sets
Stationary PK:
S Tier: Berserk Fade, Berserk Warder - I rank Fades higher because Fear seems generally more annoying to fight against than Multi-bash, the 10 ob makes it close though
A Tier: Berserk ABS Warrior, Dodge FC, Berserk Combo Warrior, Fade, Warder – Berserk abs warrior ranked a bit higher than combo warrior because they’re not giving defense up for attack. Dodge FC could be easily ranked above Berserk ABS warrior if they practiced contagion, and even chill makes it close. Similar reasoning as S Tier for ranking fades above warders
B Tier: Combo FC, Combo Warrior, Combo Hunter, Dodge Hunter – Combo Warrior is basically equivalent to Combo Hunter here. Dodge hunter is slightly worse than the combo options. If the combo FC practices contagion then they move up to the A tier
C Tier: Dodge Rogue, Combo Rogue, ABS Warrior, ABS Hunter – If the rogues practice kick then the 2 abs options drop down to a new D tier and they’re basically drawing dead

Mobile PK (Chasing) – Generally you’re not going to be chasing berserk because of running into mobs, however it is possible. I’ve included them in order to keep things consistent though
S Tier: Warder (if they’re a Hunter), Fade – Warder +10 ob helps with unbashed hits, fades compel helps them keep up on long chases. I rate the ob a bit more, but I can see it the other way as well.
A Tier: Combo Hunter, Dodge Hunter – Auto track and they don’t get hit by mobs
B Tier: ABS Hunter– Autotrack is so much better than anything else for chasing, but ABS is at large disadvantage here especially if chasing a dodge/combo user. I tested this last night and when chasing a sblader who was fleeing I ate ~40 damage before they had enough fleelag so I could finish a bash.
C Tier: Dodge Rogue, Combo Rogue, Dodge FC, Combo FC, Combo warrior – When chasing absers the rogues are superior, when chasing combo/dodge the FCs are superior because fstrike is fast enough that their target doesn’t have to build up as much fleelag as the combo warrior requires
D Tier: ABS Warrior – No autotrack, gets damaged by the one they’re chasing
E Tier: Berserk Fade, Berserk Warder (if they’re a Hunter) – Auto track and they’re not taking damage from the person they’re chasing, but if they get hit by a mob then they’re fucked.
F Tier: Berserk ABS Warrior – Lol
Mobile PK (Running) – You’re not running while berserk (I’ve tried it, it doesn’t work) but I’ll include them in the list for completeness
S Tier: Fade – overpowered sneak along with a get out of jail free card, noquit does make it harder but they also have compel and such
B Tier: Warder, Trolloc Rogue – Just a bit better than the C tier because of the HP regen. I could also see moving them down to C tier because to be honest they’re not really close to fades in this aspect. This is the only place I differentiate trolloc rogues vs human rogues and it comes down to the fact that the trolloc rogue is already dismounted. If the human rogue is only running a single zone or they have a ton of ciders then they’d be at the same level.
C Tier: Combo FC, Dodge FC, Combo Hunter, Dodge Hunter, Combo Warrior, Combo Rogue, Dodge Rogue – I think these classes/setups are all pretty equivalent, they’re probably not going to get hit in melee and you have to roll a dodge. FCs are a bit better because they can try to roll ports (not as easy as fades because of sp drain) and they can refresh their mounts. They probably also have less fleelag accumulation. If you want to rate them lower within the tier because of the reduced hit points I think that’s a reasonable position as well
D Tier: ABS Hunter, ABS Warrior – They both suck as they’re taking damage every room they’re caught in and from every mob that aggros them. The hunter is slightly better because autotrack can let them know if someone has beat them to a block and they want to go a different route.
F Tier: Berserk Fade, Berserk Warder, Berserk Combo Warrior, Berserk ABS warrior – Good chortlesnorfling luck

While the majority of melee PK is the stationary variety I think that all stages have to be considered, especially when there are large differences for a given class between the different phases. What does this tell us briefly? First off, fades and warders are absurd in basically all aspects. Second, let’s drill down into abs warrior specifically because this was both the main complaint before the warriors change and my main complaint afterwards. ABS Warriors were basically the worst setup unless they were berserk, while berserk they were a top setup in 1 phase (stationary) but still completely trash in the other 2 phases (both mobile). However, it was possible to overcome that in 2 ways.
1) Follow a fade/hunter and outnumber the opposition to eliminate the need for the running phase and alleviate almost all of the downsides to the chasing phase
2) Make all of the PK stationary and try to do enough damage to kill the opposition without them being able to run. This could be done by sitting berserk at mobs and/or by fishing for berserk opportunities when the other group scatters to snowball.
These two tactics is what I think most people who complained about warriors were talking about. This did not incentivize PK that spans all three phases and for players who both enjoyed and optimized their characters for the more mobile PK it would certainly be quite a drag.

Now, here’s my opinion on the breakdown with the current situation. I have removed the berserk option for the warriors but left it for fades and warders.
Stationary PK:
S Tier: Berserk Fade, Berserk Warder – If the warder is a warrior then I might rate them above a fade now just because 15 ob + multibash might be better than fear. From my low wil experience though fear saves fades from my sneak attacks though so I still leave them here.
A Tier: Dodge FC, Fade, Warder - Similar reasoning as S Tier for ranking fades above warders
B Tier: Combo FC, Combo Warrior, Combo Hunter, Dodge Hunter – Combo Warrior is basically equivalent to Combo Hunter here. Dodge hunter is slightly worse than the combo options. If the combo FC practices contagion then they move up to the A tier
C Tier: Dodge Rogue, Combo Rogue, ABS Warrior, ABS Hunter – The +5 ob moves the ABS warrior to be strictly better than the ABS hunter, but I don’t think it’s enough to move them above the rogues (especially if the rogues practice kick, which would move both ABS setups down to a D tier). The mob damage reduction here can also be useful in hitting at patrols but it’s generally still better to be combo hitting patrols.

Mobile PK (Chasing) – Generally you’re not going to be chasing berserk because of running into mobs, however it is possible. I’ve included them in order to keep things consistent though
S Tier: Warder (if they’re a Hunter), Fade – Warder +10 ob helps with unbashed hits, fades compel helps them keep up on long chases. I rate the ob a bit more, but I can see it the other way as well.
A Tier: Combo Hunter, Dodge Hunter – Auto track and they don’t get damaged by mobs
B Tier: ABS Hunter– Autotrack is so much better than anything else for chasing, but ABS is at large disadvantage here especially if chasing a dodge/combo user. I tested this last night and when chasing a sblader who was fleeing I ate ~40 damage before they had enough fleelag so I could finish a bash.
C Tier: Dodge Rogue, Combo Rogue, Dodge FC, Combo FC, Combo warrior – When chasing absers the rogues are superior, when chasing combo/dodge the FCs are superior because fstrike is fast enough that their target doesn’t have to build up as much fleelag as the combo warrior requires. I don’t think the +5 ob for the warriors does much to move them here as it probably doesn’t break defense enough and if they’re chasing abs it doesn’t matter at all.
D Tier: ABS Warrior – No autotrack, gets damaged by the one they’re chasing
E Tier: Berserk Fade, Berserk Warder (if they’re a Hunter) – Auto track and they’re not taking damage from the person they’re chasing, but if they get hit by a mob then they’re fucked.

Mobile PK (Running) – You’re not running while berserk (I’ve tried it, it doesn’t work) but I’ll include them in the list for completeness
S Tier: Fade – overpowered mounted sneak/rsneak along with a get out of jail free card, noquit does make it harder but they also have compel and such
B Tier: Warder, Trolloc Rogue – Just a bit better than the C tier because of the HP regen. I could also see moving them down to C tier because to be honest they’re not really close to fades in this aspect. This is the only place I differentiate trolloc rogues vs human rogues and it comes down to the fact that the trolloc rogue is already dismounted. If the human rogue is only running a single zone or they have a ton of ciders then they’d be at the same level.
C Tier: Combo FC, Dodge FC, Combo Hunter, Dodge Hunter, Combo Warrior, Combo Rogue, Dodge Rogue – I think these classes/setups are all pretty equivalent, they’re probably not going to get hit in melee and you have to roll a dodge. FCs are a bit better because they can try to roll ports (not as easy as fades because of sp drain) and they can refresh their mounts. They probably also have less fleelag accumulation. If you want to rate them lower within the tier though because of the reduced hit points I think that’s a reasonable position as well.
D Tier: ABS Hunter, ABS Warrior – They both suck as they’re taking damage every room they’re caught in and from every mob that aggros them. I think The hunter is slightly better because autotrack can let them know if someone has beat them to a block and they want to go a different route. Here the mob damage reduction does come into play a bit but I think the autotrack ability is still a bit better.
F Tier: Berserk Fade, Berserk Warder – Good chortlesnorfling luck

From my perspective the only effects of the changes have been to remove the warriors top end options in stationary PK. ABS Warriors are now mediocre at stationary PK and dogshit at all mobile PK. ABS Hunters are mediocre at stationary PK, high tier at chasing, and crap at running. It basically means ABS in general is pretty weak except at 1 phase if you’re a hunter. Because warriors are so bad now there will be fewer of them so there will be less people attempting to force PK to be stationary, so if the goal is to make the PK more mobile then I guess it has been successful. However, my point has long been that if you look at the players and characters who optimize for the mobile style of PK what I think you’ll see is the following:
1) They’re almost all very good players, they know the game inside and out, they have access to the best equipment
2) Nobody likes pking against them
Think about the classes and setups that optimize for the mobile PK phases. Fades, Wolfbrothers, Trolloc Rogues, Combo Hunters, Combo Warders. With rare exceptions (Davor!?) nobody on darkside has ever thought, “Oh great another wolfbrother/warder has shown up, this will certainly improve pk”. Similarly, while I don’t play LS I can’t imagine that they’re sitting there in pk narrating, “This fade/trolloc showed up, now we’ll get some good pk”. There are certainly situations where you’re looking for the other side to get some more leadership, but especially for the wbs/trolloc rogues do people really want more of them to show up?
I think we should also take a look at the results of the weapon changes here and this goes back to my point from before. The reason that people don’t play dodge isn’t because it sucks compares to abs (especially after the warrior nerf) the reason they don’t play dodge is because it sucks compares to combo. You can basically have the exact same playstyle in combo vs dodge, the combo setup is just better at basically everything.
Why has combo continued to dominate? I think a big reason is the ease of equipment, especially trinkets that started happening absers started listening to me and stacking pb for bash. Absers die all the time and they issue trinkets and they smob for trinkets so basically everyone is running pb trinks except for dodgers. This makes it trivial to get top tier pb trinkets and makes combo better.
Some proposed fixes to change the balance between dodge/combo without affecting the balance between dodge/abs. It’s basically making combo worse without making abs much better compared to dodge.
1) Remove berserk attack from Fades and Warders. One of the arguments was that it’s difficult/impossible to balance weapons with berserk attack on warriors. If this is a given then it applies to fades and warders as well. While certainly less common than warriors they’re not exactly rare.
2) Remove the move cap on trinkets. This gives absers a choice, They can stack movement points instead of PB if they want to be a bit more mobile. One of the other proposed changes makes this an even more interesting tradeoff. If absers are using move trinks instead of pb trinks it will lower the supply of pb trinks and start downing combo a bit.
3) Add a 2 tic cooldown on all non-cure potions. So, if a vial gives you REFRESH for 2 tics you are unable to quaff another vial for 4 tics. Similarly for strength potions and ciders.
4) Bump the max bash chance up to 74% and apply the riding and club bonus before capping instead of after. Currently, we cap the bash chance of your weapon/pb vs their db at 60% with riding adding 5% and clubs adding 9%. This change would not affect dodge at all but moves someone with 90 db from getting bashed by an axe 60% of the time to possibly 70%+. Again this makes combo worse while leaving the abs/dodge balance untouched.
5) Change defensive posture to add db instead of pb.
6) Remove all 1/2 handed weapons, they all become 1 handed

Now the more aggressive changes:
Drastically reduce the differences between classes:
1) Remove the +5 ob and damage reduction on warriors
2) Autotrack comes with 92 track
3) Autoscan and peek remain
4) Damage vs flora/fauna remain
5) Damage vs humanoid remain
The most aggressive and I think interesting changes:
Attack applies to all weapons and classes, proc rate is determined by a function of:
1) Attack practice % (still a rogue practice)
2) Dex
3) Weapon Weight, lighter weapons get more attack
4) Mood, berserk gets more attack than wimpy
Weapon weight and prac % dominate so that a 18 lb weapon gets ~30% proc rate while zerk and <5% proc rate when brave or lower. A 4 lb weapon gets ~80% proc rate while zerk and ~50% proc rate while wimpy.
Parrying with a 2 handed weapon should decay the weapon. Weapon decay should reduce PB. Parrying with a shield should decay the shield, shield decay should reduce PB. The longer PK goes on the more absers get fucked as they’re constantly losing abs. The same should apply to PB.

Raiste
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2020 6:39 pm

Re: Balance Thoughts

Post by Raiste » Wed Aug 11, 2021 5:04 am

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I hope it provokes a productive discussion. At minimum, you've provided an interesting framework and used it effectively to articulate your position on the changes.

I've analyzed the impact of bash on damage dealt / sustained as a function of land rate extensively while attempting to create a closed form approximation to replace outright combat simulation. My impression is that your proposed change to the cap and when the relevant factors are considered is a clever way to adjust combo and abs relative to one another and to dodge simultaneously. I believe it is more than reasonable---especially in view of the reality that 1-round bashes aren't going anywhere.

Going to experiment with your proposed changes to attack in terms of damage output. Mind elaborating on what informed your choice of parameters?

Davor
Posts: 417
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2015 9:38 pm

Re: Balance Thoughts

Post by Davor » Wed Aug 11, 2021 6:09 am

We need more immortals to come back after not playing for 10 years and make drastic changes. Those are the best and most informed.

isabel
Posts: 1713
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2016 5:19 am

Re: Balance Thoughts

Post by isabel » Wed Aug 11, 2021 12:08 pm

What I got from Zarth's post is that Davor only wins because he has S Tier characters.

(But seriously, interesting read :P )

Penetrator
Posts: 75
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:02 am

Re: Balance Thoughts

Post by Penetrator » Wed Aug 11, 2021 12:59 pm

Excellent post
I support everything

Fermin
Posts: 453
Joined: Sat Sep 10, 2016 12:16 pm

Re: Balance Thoughts

Post by Fermin » Wed Aug 11, 2021 1:30 pm

It's sad that the PK changes over the last year (weapons and berserk attack) are so bad that I would pick to go back even though the other changes in general are all quite good over the same time frame.

At the least the imms doing these changes have been very clear they do not listen nor care about the players in this regard, so not sure us all echoing the exact same thoughts every month helps anything. Just play S tier characters...I'm sure everyone would help you fade.

tekela
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Jul 07, 2017 12:29 pm

Re: Balance Thoughts

Post by tekela » Wed Aug 11, 2021 1:58 pm

- I've found it relatively easy to afford 90% track on warriors by ~level 36, which makes chasing a bit easier than rogues (or non-DL channies), who typically have to settle for two pracs in track. You focus on what happens *after* you catch someone chasing, but not really much around how the *chase* itself actually goes -- I think the ease with which ABS warriors can afford 3 pulse tracking gives them a slightly bigger advantage in the chase department than you think.

- Hunters have another advantage in running -- seeing movement of chasers instantly via autotrack, which has saved me on numerous occasions (most recent example being running from a group via LS and noticing someone or something beat me past bush and was waiting at the choke south). This is particularly noticeable on trolloc hunters who get 4 lines of autotrack pretty easily

- I do think the more that OB stays down (relative to December 2020), the sillier Warder bonus OB looks in comparison. Berserk attack from warders is rarely a factor in PK (and pretty much an absolute non-factor in 1 v 1 pk that you've set as the premise) and berserk attack from fades is a bit more balanced now than in the past by virtue of rank-tied damage. ​

- "3) Add a 2 tic cooldown on all non-cure potions. So, if a vial gives you REFRESH for 2 tics you are unable to quaff another vial for 4 tics. Similarly for strength potions and ciders." Would primarily benefit trolloc rogues. This just means that you flee around the same area while waiting for effect and that disproportionately benefits that class because they can hide and everything they fight actually has a cost associated with notice. Refresh vials also work differently based on your total MV pool.

I really think we achieve a fair bit of the more reasonable stuff you want by simply removing parry trinkets/gear, adding some more innate parry on abs weapons (or spread it across abs gear in small enough increments that it makes no sense to use in combo set ups), and forcing combo to literally just be a set of basics that you have to make-do with dodge trinkets.

edit - Also, can you chortlesnorfling format this? :P

Harun
Posts: 168
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2015 9:45 pm

Re: Balance Thoughts

Post by Harun » Wed Aug 11, 2021 5:15 pm

I will repeat myself as long as necessary, but the primary solution to balance right now is to nerf sitting parry. If you're bashed, you should get hit by whatever is on you - even if it's just one player. Right now, it's just too difficult to finish defensive characters. My sitting PB in current combo set only goes from 194 - 146. That's silly. If you go for a risky bash on someone crit at their mobs, you can land the bash and still not finish them because you don't break their parry. There's no incentive there, just like there was no incentive to hit zerk warriors who were standing in one room spamming when you have even HPs. Otherwise, we're going to keep ending up in this loop where parry is either too high to break (right now) or too low to actually parry anything (closer to what it was before the recent balance change.) Nerfing sitting PB would remove a lot of the frustration of playing against mobile, bonused characters in defensives setups.

I'd be fine with removing berk attack from fades and warders. But it's not really true that warders are S-tier when stationary. They really shine in extended PK when their regen has a chance to overtake DS regen. There's better balance options for fades - particularly removing mounted ranger sneak. I also wouldn't mind warders being ABS-only, but I'm sure that's not going to be a popular suggestion.

Adding DB to postures would be awful. Everyone who is annoying to fight against would be even more annoying to fight against. Unbashable alts are not good for the game.

Another interesting change could be increasing mv cost per flee.

Zarth
Posts: 364
Joined: Wed Jul 15, 2015 8:04 pm

Re: Balance Thoughts

Post by Zarth » Wed Aug 11, 2021 8:15 pm

I can understand arguments that fades and warders don't get a ton of usage out of berserk attack because they're either cowards (fades and warders) or the situation doesn't allow it (warders if Aes Sedai isn't on), but to say that berserk warders and fades aren't a cut above everything else, especially after the remove of warrior attack is insane.

I was explicit that it was berserk warders and fades that I ranked as S tier in stationary pk, but let me break my thinking and you can point out what I've missed. Again, this is assuming that the Sedai is on (though possibly not in the pk), and that the player is not a coward and actually went berserk.

Attack by itself is going to give about 60-70% more hits which maps to 60-70% more damage and pretty much outclasses anything currently. Prior to the warrior changes you could consider a berserk warrior as well in this range and so I think it's useful to compare the bonuses the fades and warders have over the warrior to see why they're still a cut above.
Fade Bonuses for Stationary PK:
Fear
Stupid strong combo shirt
Available tinfuls for insane regen
Target Switch (ignored for 1v1 but should be remembered generally)

Warder Bonuses for Stationary PK:
+10 OB
+15? HP
Improved Regen
Multibash (ignored for 1v1 but should be remembered generally, apparently it is not a bug to multibash when the Sedai is offline)
Autorescue (a bad thing, again ignored for 1v1 but keep it in mind)

From sneak attacking many fades as a berserk warrior with attack I know that fear is super strong so I think that obviously puts them in S-tier. I think then the comparison is between Warders and Fades. Are they comparable enough so that Warders should also be that high?
Fighting against each other the fade is better because of fear.
Fighting against absers the fade is better because of fear and the +10 ob doesn't do anything for the warder
It becomes a bit more interesting when fighting combo, let's say 73/192 (took this from Jecks' log!) and lets assume that both have a 17 lb weapon with 190 ob for the fade and 200 ob for the warder and let's say they have 0 pb to make things easy, pb probably doesn't affect the analysis much.
Fade unbashed melee chance: 8.63%
Warder unbashed melee chance: 12.83%
Fade bashing chance: 65%
Warder bashing chance: 65%
Fade bashed melee chance: 78.63%
Warder bashed melee chance: 84.18%
Offensively the +10 ob on the warder comes out to around +5% damage. Is that enough to compensate for fear and the shirt? Maybe, maybe not

Now let's look at full dodge. Ghast was in a pretty perfect set with the following stats 135/173
Fade unbashed melee chance: 0.03%
Warder unbashed melee chance: 0.63%
Fade bashing chance: 47%
Warder bashing chance: 59%
Fade bashed melee chance: 78.69%
Warder bashed melee chance: 84.23%
Offensively the +10 ob on the warder comes out to > 10% extra damage. I think is better than the fade bonuses. As Tekela mentioned as ob drops generally that +10 flat OB becomes an even greater advantage

All in all I think it's about a wash with the fades having a slight advantage. Both are simply better than anyone else at melee. Again when berserk you add the +60% extra hits and it's obvious that they're both S-Tier now. With the recent clan damage changes it may also give the warders a small boost as well in comparison. I think warders still require R6 so they'd be all at least +3 damage, while if it's based off of fade rank there are a few fades with less than that.


Discussions about chasing as a warrior:
I can see where you're coming from, but I think it's more situational than that. I break chasing and running down into two different scenarios, the zones involved in PK also has a big deal here. The two types of running:
1) I am running to somewhere
2) I am running away from somewhere
Chasing is obviously then dependent on what your opponent is doing. Let's give some more concrete examples and look at how it affects how the classes chase. These are the obvious examples and are not completely representative as most pk would be a mix of both.

For the first example, suppose I'm gap as an abs human and I'm beat and I get a south flee from bush. I'm almost certainly only running 1 direction. The bonus of autotrack is still huge here, but the difference between 3 and 6 pulses for track is relatively small and you're tracking pretty rarely (only at the chokes) and I argue that the issue with abs getting hit almost every time they catch up is a greater problem.

For the second example, suppose I'm blands zone as a trolloc rogue and I'm batt against 3. I'm not actually running to escape anywhere and as you mentioned before I can just spam a few rooms and hide. In this case you're tracking much more often and the reduced timer does become a larger advantage. However you're generally even worse manually tracking in this situation as track takes 2 moves per room. This is more than the free notice trollocs get!? This is an advantage for the warriors to more quickly find their target but when they find their target they're taking damage (if abs) and have less chance to deal damage.

I think that the first situation is a bit more common as people often run to known locations and I have faith in being able to guess where they're going. This is also where my complete lack of interest in fighting rogues/wbs/combo hunters who flee around every few rooms comes into play. I'll just leave so I don't really see it as much of an issue. YMMV

I mentioned the ability for hunters to see people blocking for them and I agree that's a nice bonus of autotrack and does give warriors with slightly faster tracking a bit of an advantage, however that is swamped if they're abs and getting murked if they're found or if mobs are around.

Nerfing sitting parry is a good idea, but I don't think it's really the way. DB is much easier to balance than PB for 4 reasons:
1) There is a straightforward knob to turn to balance against it (weapon weight)
2) PB is both a defensive and offensive skill with bash, which is why it should be removed from postures. You easily compensate by upping weapon weight slightly.
3) PB brings parried bashed hits because it scales to 75% when bashed (this was your point, and I agree bashers hate this!)
4) PB falls apart with multiple opponents unbashed while db doesn't. This part of the huge complaints from dodgers and why I think people focused on nerfing the dung out of ob
Consider our friend Ghast's set from before
135/173 and he's fighting someone with 180 ob with 18 lbs not riding:
Unbashed Chance to hit: 0.00%
Bash %: 43%
Bashed Chance to hit: 72.32%

That's not too bad really if you bash him he's probably taking at least 1 hit of damage. Now let's say there are 2 180/18 people fighting him
Unbashed Chance for each: 13.78%
Chance of 2 hits landing per round: 1.90%
Chance of 0 hits landing per round: 74.34%
Chance of 1 hit landing per round: 23.76%

He's getting hit a bunch unbashed now and it only gets worse as ob increases. If he gets bashed he's getting completely destroyed.

Now if we move him to 145/163 again facing 180/18
Solo:
Unbashed Chance to hit: 0.00%
Bash %: 29%
Bashed chance to hit: 75%

2:
Unbashed chance for each: 12.38%
Chance of 2 hits landing per round: 1.53%
Chance of 0 hits landing per round: 76.77%
Chance of 1 hit landing per round: 21.7%

Things are better for him as he's getting his unbashed defense broken a bit less and better for the basher as he's getting parried while bashed a bit less. It basically evens out but it FEELS better for both. If we decide that 29% bash chance is too low then we easily fix that by upping weapon weight and possibly ob if the weight pushes total ob down because of encumbrance.
Last edited by Zarth on Wed Aug 11, 2021 9:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Kryyg
Posts: 334
Joined: Mon Jul 03, 2017 9:52 am

Re: Balance Thoughts

Post by Kryyg » Wed Aug 11, 2021 8:39 pm

o HP:Healthy DP:Bursting MV:Full > You are a 470 year old male myrddraal.
Your height is 7 feet, 0 inches, and you weigh 255.0 lbs.
You are carrying 0.0 lbs and wearing 55.8 lbs, very light.
Your base abilities are: Str:19 Int:17 Wil:14 Dex:19 Con:18.
Offensive bonus: 153, Dodging bonus: 85, Parrying bonus: 219
Your mood is: Wimpy. You will flee below: 202 Hit Points
Your posture is: Defensive.
Your armor absorbs about 78% on average.

You are subjected to the following effects:


S tier bitches.

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