2012-05-28, 06:09 PM
My version of balance involves having monsters and bosses that each have a unique attack setup and manners of moving that would put some classes at a disadvantage, while others are well suited for them. Have warriors hit hard but have difficulty keeping up with faster enemies, have archers shoot farther and move moderately fast while not hitting as hard as warriors or mages, have mages attack at a medium range while moving slower than archer and hit less hard than warriors, and have thieves move extremely fast while not hitting very hard outside of crits and not throwing stars as far as archers shoot arrows.
That said, Nexon did actually manage to use that set-up way back before Pirates were released, but they've never had enemies that were very distinguished from one another. It's always been a hoard of oddly shaped creatures that all moved at about the same speed and dealt about the same damage. They seriously need to think about making the monsters themselves balanced and not focus on giving every class a skill that gives them what every other class has.
For example, Empress Cygnus could have a large map filled with floating platforms that serve as the territories for each instructor (and not have the instructors spam a crapload of summons), then have each instructor's stats set up to cater to their job. As an example, Mekhail could have like 70% PDR and only 25% MDR and deal something like 15k touch damage while only being able to deal 5k magic damage; thus, he would clearly be a boss meant to be fought by mages with a warrior holding him away and debuffing him. Cygnus could have something like 50% PDR and 80% MDR, while dealing something like 15k magic damage but only 10k touch damage, and have many different attacks that can be dodged by most classes if they time their movement skills correctly, oh, and of course have her shift her elemental weakness around.
That said, Nexon did actually manage to use that set-up way back before Pirates were released, but they've never had enemies that were very distinguished from one another. It's always been a hoard of oddly shaped creatures that all moved at about the same speed and dealt about the same damage. They seriously need to think about making the monsters themselves balanced and not focus on giving every class a skill that gives them what every other class has.
For example, Empress Cygnus could have a large map filled with floating platforms that serve as the territories for each instructor (and not have the instructors spam a crapload of summons), then have each instructor's stats set up to cater to their job. As an example, Mekhail could have like 70% PDR and only 25% MDR and deal something like 15k touch damage while only being able to deal 5k magic damage; thus, he would clearly be a boss meant to be fought by mages with a warrior holding him away and debuffing him. Cygnus could have something like 50% PDR and 80% MDR, while dealing something like 15k magic damage but only 10k touch damage, and have many different attacks that can be dodged by most classes if they time their movement skills correctly, oh, and of course have her shift her elemental weakness around.