- General
-
Ideas
Is a weapon rebalance in order?
Since the newer staff was added, I have seen more players using it than any other weapon (even axe). I haven't seen anyone using hammer. This lack of variety is due to the simple fact that staff is undeniably better than every other weapon, and sword is undeniably better than any other melee weapon. In a mechanics-based, combat-driven game like Wilds, this lack of variety and having one weapon be better than all others isn't healthy.
Making the more powerful weapons more expensive doesn't solve anything, it only emphasizes the skillgap between newer players and elite veterans, and leads to more unbalanced gameplay.
I know some replies will tell me that staff is balanced and that I just don't know how to counter, however, I can pretty much prove in every circumstance that staff is a superior weapon.
-The overall burst DPS of the staff's ranged attack is marginally higher than that of the bow's, along with being more consistent and easier to inflict. While it does consume stamina, the price is low for guaranteed damage, and guaranteed damage, however minor, is a big unbalancing to a skill-based game like this.
-The staff's special attack shares the piercing quality of the Piercing Arrow, and freezes the opponent long enough to deal ridiculous amounts of damage with the ice bolts, or just plant a mine and walk away. All they need to do is land ONE PROJECTILE to guarantee a kill, whilst an archer must land 4, and even more so if their target is armored.
-These effects stack exponentially as you try to face more staff users. If you think defending against the onslaught of ice shards form one mage is hard enough (even when no skill is required on the mage's part), try three. Having buddies doesn't help when they're chunks of ice, and if you're asking me to protect them along with myself, that's some next level strats that I will not feel obliged to execute while the mages are playing W+M1.
3v3 has basically been ruined for all non staff-users, because if the opposition if playing three mages, they get three chances to freeze someone, if they do, they all focus them and melt them disgustingly fast, then they rinse and repeat.
Oh, and try playing goalie while you're in a cryogenic pause, too. One projectile hit is all they need, and then they can line up effortlessly and walk the ball into the goal. And forget about making it back to your base with the flag. You're going to chill for a bit while the enemies catch up and proceed to beat you to death and reclaim the objective.
But enough about the wand by itself. The sword and hammer are also offenders of the shattered game balance. I understood having the hammer and sword being better than the axe back when the beta was a new thing, but now since people have made enough gold to buy all of the better items, the game just feels so gimmicky to play, especially as a newer player, because the advantage offered is more than significant. The sword special basically grants you invincibility, you can eat all attacks, projectiles, and specials, and your opponent can't even counterattack you. Nothing short of a landmine or sand worm will interrupt the sword or axe special, which is unbalanced in it's own right.
CONCLUSION: I am calling for a rebalance of all weapons in an attempt to make them equally powerful in order to bring more variety and fairness into the game. Preferably, this rebalance will make each weapon suited to a certain playstyle or scenario. This would be brought about in a change to the melee weapon's special attacks, and perhaps the addition of unique charge melee attacks for each weapon.
In addition, yes, I am calling for a nerf to the Staff/Wand, and my testament is how it unfairly compares to the bow (as it yields more consistent damage and quite frankly has an overpowered special attack), how it unfairly compares to all melee weapons (in that it inherently requires less skill and puts the user at less risk, all while reaping a greater yield), and how it disrupts the 3v3, Brutal Football, and CTF scene (in that multiple wand users are overwhelming to combat, and that the wand special attack bears even greater power when in an objective-oriented gamemode such as CTF or Brutal Football).
I hope these calls and suggestions as to how to carry them out are at least recognized, if not heeded.
Thank you for your time,
The E%patriate
(Note: Putting together a post like this is a lot of work, so if you have disagreements or criticism, please express such in a civilized manner below.)
Customer support service by UserEcho
There are counters to most of the weapons that are in the game. just find them.
i'm assuming you didn't read the post, I addressed that.
Additionally, I've been playing Wilds since we had 3 health apiece, I know the counters.
And exactly how do you counter a mine planted at your feet when you're frozen solid?
you can dash while frozen.
you can't dash from the center of a mine radius to it's edge.
The axe shock wave disables the mine, also the freeze blast can be blocked and dodged.
Again, you can't axe wave if you're frozen solid, or if you're using hammer, sword, or bow.
Also, EVERY SPECIAL can be blocked or dodged, so your point there is invalid. The problem is that it grants so much more damage than the other specials and the weapon doesn't have adequate drawbacks to compensate.
The staff is like the bow,when it comes out everyone starts using it and a cuple of weeks later its back to nrmal
I don't have any problems to reach top1 on server with any weapon, even axe.
They are now all well balanced.
To be honest, you are asking to make them all equal!
Equality is a bad thing, what we need is a variety. Variety is what makes the game exciting, that's why people were and still are asking for new weapons.
"I am calling for a rebalance of all weapons in an attempt to make them equally powerful in order to bring more variety and fairness into the game. Preferably, this rebalance will make each weapon suited to a certain playstyle or scenario. This would be brought about in a change to the melee weapon's special attacks, and perhaps the addition of unique charge melee attacks for each weapon."
What, was that me asking for less variety?
Equally powerful doesn't mean lacking variety. If anything, it means more variety because if one weapon is undeniably better than others, others won't be used.
I have no doubt you can reach number one with axe, we all can. In ruins. The problem arises more prominently in CTF, Brutal Football, and 3v3, because an objective-oriented gamemode is easily exploitable by a 5-second freeze mechanic.
How is equality a bad thing? What makes variety-driven games successful is their balance, each character/weapon/whatever is as close to EQUALLY POWERFUL as can be.
Well, there are games with huge variety and no balance at all, diep.io for example:
http://diepio.wikia.com/wiki/Tiers
These weapons are not equally powerful, and game is still playable.
Also, imagine such games as Counter Strike with equally powerful weapons (sniper rifle doing same damage as pistol? lol). This makes your last argument invalid.
In current state, axe, sword and hammer are exactly same weapon with just different sprite and different special effect. Bow and wand have less damage than melee weapons, also, they are hard to handle (with bow one has to be really accurate, and with wand one needs tons of stamina to kill someone). I really don't think that special effect which can be easily blocked makes wand (or any weapon) so OP. Consider changing your gamestyle instead of complaining about imaginary imbalance.
Diep.io and Counterstrike aren't variety driven games, i'm talking about MOBAs with hundreds of characters, MMOs with thousands of different weapons and spells, ect. Counterstrike uses a match-based progressive system, so it makes sense, and Diep.io is a less evolved game than Wilds, and it isn't successful.
Every special in the game can be blocked. 'the special can be easily blocked' is absolutely no excuse. But wand special has the potential to deal seven damage as opposed to one or two, and a mechanics-based game like this shouldn't give you the ability to kill an opponent uncontested if they miss one block. ONLY THE WAND GRANTS THIS ABILITY TO KILL UNCONTESTED. How is that not unbalanced? And if you don't have stamina, then you just plant a mine and blow them up or have someone with a melee hack them to pieces. How is that not drastically more powerful?
Sure, the melee weapons are mostly mechanically the same, but they also aren't balanced. I could draw up a nice diagram and show you how sword is in every way better than axe, and the special moves in this game are a big part of combat. If I use sword, I can consistantly get 2 free damage on each opponent by coming in from an unexpected angle. With axe, it's only one, and with wand, it's SEVEN out of eight total health.
And the imbalance isn't imaginary, and the proof is how you can ask players ingame and they'll admit that it's overpowered but they just want to keep abusing it.
"I could draw up a nice diagram and show you how sword is in every way better than axe"
And this is why you have to PAY for the sword! Would you still pay for it, if it won't be better than axe? I don't think so.
I would still argue that wands special is not so OP - it can be blocked, kicked. Even if successful, the chance to plant a mine etc. is still low enough (and also requires some skill, which honestly, most of players don't have).
I still don't know how you get these numbers. To be precise, a single player has base of 16 HP.
Here are correct numbers:
Players base HP: 16
HP potion - additional 4 HP
Armor - each of 3 pieces adds 4 HP (full armor gives 12)
Axe, Hammer, Sword melee dmg - 4 HP
Bow ranged damage - 4 HP
Wand ranged damage - 2 HP
Bow and Wand melee - 2 HP
Fists melee damage - 1 HP
Mine takes 12 HP
Knife takes 4 HP
Wand special has no additional damage (or was it changed? I'm not sure), so by freezing someone and planting a mine you will take him 12 of 16 HP. How did you get 7/8 points there? Also, most players use armor and HP potions, so they usually have way more than 16 HP.
yes but what about hammer? Its special is very predictable aswell it is not an aoe. so?
i'm not sure what you're trying to say here.
First off, base players HP is 8, not 16. Each orb constitutes a half a hitpoint. Do your research.
The freeze shard itself does one damage, that is, 1/8 of total health, so plus the six from the ice shards and you get 7.
And yeah, I would still pay for it if it was unique with an equal power rating. The whole point of the post is that the coin system has been going on long enough that enough experienced players have the high-tier weapons that it went from a rarity to veterans stomping noobs even harder than usual:
"Making the more powerful weapons more expensive doesn't solve anything, it only emphasizes the skillgap between newer players and elite veterans, and leads to more unbalanced gameplay."
The rebalance is necessary not only to give new players more of a chance, but to grow the game by adding diversity in the form of different playstyles supported by different weapons.
The purchase system made sense when the beta was brand new, but the game has grown outward so much since that point, and not changing this system would only empower veterans more, which is not in the best interests of the community, as it devalues the average player, and because of the sudden spike of populrity and influx of new players.
"First off, base players HP is 8, not 16. Each orb constitutes a half a hitpoint. Do your research.
The freeze shard itself does one damage, that is, 1/8 of total health, so plus the six from the ice shards and you get 7.
And yeah, I would still pay for it if it was unique with an equal power rating. The whole point of the post is that the coin system has been going on long enough that enough experienced players have the high-tier weapons that it went from a rarity to veterans stomping noobs even harder than usual:
"Making the more powerful weapons more expensive doesn't solve anything, it only emphasizes the skillgap between newer players and elite veterans, and leads to more unbalanced gameplay."
The rebalance is necessary not only to give new players more of a chance, but to grow the game by adding diversity in the form of different playstyles supported by different weapons.
The purchase system made sense when the beta was brand new, but the game has grown outward so much since that point, and not changing this system would only empower veterans more, which is not in the best interests of the community, as it devalues the average player, and because of the sudden spike of popularity and influx of new players."
seems like you got outclassed, kid.