I chat a lot about class balance. I fully believe that it is one of the most important aspects of an MMORPG. These days developers and players just don’t seem to think so. The notion that a lot of shops use a single person to handle this aspect of design and that it is generally on an extremely long cycle blows my mind. Someone needs to take this problem by the horns and wrangle it. We need small incremental updates monthly with clear defined goals! There should be no mystery about what your class does and where it should be. To aid in this I’ve made a chart.
All characters are © 2007 - 2012
Ha ha ha. So true.
I’ve always thought that there should be mathematical guidelines. So if class A does X dps but all the class does is damage then class B which does damage and can Feign Death does X-Y where Y is a numerical expression of the value of Feign Death. Or Healing. Or Plate Armour.
As you iterate you may realise that your Ys and Zs are a little off and tune them. But you really shouldn’t let your game get to the point where one class hits harder and does a load of cool things too compared to a vanilla and rather pointless damage dealer.
Personally, I think there’s too much emphasis on “balance” and not enough emphasis on “roles.” Screw the “holy trinity,” why not create more roles, or employ classic ones ignored in today’s biggest game(s)?
In the original Everquest, during its ‘golden age,’ I looooved the Enchanter Class. It was wicked fun to play, every group wanted one… and, yet, had horrendous DPS and even worse survivability. They just buffed and debuffed like some serious MoFos and could save groups from wipes, or allow groups to pull way more mobs than they otherwise could. It was a fun class to play, one that if learned well could be even more fun, and the groups that had a chanter were more fun, too. With all due respect to Mages, who have sheep form, there ain’t no Chanter in EQ, or many other non-SoE MMOs out there. It was a great class and a great role — and made the game more dynamic — so I’ll never quite get why they’re not in there. There are probably many possibilities for roles that aren’t even implemented — or at least commonplace — in games today, or roles that are put to limited use and should be expanded.
As for balance… that stuff seems to always work itself in the end… in the form of every class getting screwed, save one or two who just always seem to make out (and brew tin foil hat stories about how that’s the class/faction the developers play, etc.).
It really depends on how you’d define balance and roles. If you take balance in the current WoW context of “all classes can do everything” yes I totally agree. If you just mean balance between peers, I disagree.
I don’t think there is enough emphasis on balance these days. Too many people are willing to say “it will never be balanced” and move on. That just isn’t true. We put less of a focus on it and as a result so do developers.
There should be a clear understanding of a classes role and where they fit in the abilities that define it. There should be a healer that does the most damage but dies fast. A healer that does the least damage but survives well. Unfortunately those lines have stopped lately and you get healers that can do it all with no penalties and others that can’t.
You can always make the argument of “yeah well that second healer can still heal too” but that doesn’t make it fun. There should be equal reason to play any class beyond just your preferences. That is all I’m saying. I’m with you on roles too. Believe me. I’m all about class differentiation. I just think they’re two different things.
correction:
*with all due respect to mages >>>>>>in WoW <<<<<<<, who have sheep form