I made a topic like this a year back. I pretty much have the same stance, but things have changed and I want to try to get more to the point/see what people think nowadays (more strength builds in EU, etc). This suggestion is mostly geared with melee's balance in mind, but ranged users would be able to wear a bit more armor and hybridize easier. I am not trying to buff myself since I am planning to make a 0IF character regardless, but the balance issue cannot be ignored. I just feel that agility users get unneeded penalties like a weak WM attribute and losing almost twice as many wpf points as strength builds.
- Strength is too strong. IF is too weak.
- WM is weak and wpf is biased towards strength/low wpf builds if you use medium+ armor
With these changes, I feel we'll have a more balanced and faster game. One type of playstyle among melee (strength) won't feel like the dominant choice and both sides will feel closer in viability.- Strength attribute is too strong
Reason: ~4-5 points in agility = 1 ath. 2 points in strength = 1 IF and you also get strength/5 extra damage.
What should change: Hp from strength= ceil(strength/2) instead of just strength. IF = +3 hp.
Why: That way, 5-6 strength = 1IF with the small strength/5 damage boost. Penalize low IF builds slightly, make IF more worth it. A 30 strength 0IF build just won't have as much HP as an 18 strength 6 IF build like it does currently. After using an agility melee build, IF is currently pretty useless for it. It's more effective to squeeze an extra point into ATH and just wear more armor so that you move faster and take more hits, which also doesn't make as much sense (ath is very powerful).
Optional (but highly advocated): Increase base HP ~5 so that Max IF builds have around the same HP and 0IF builds aren't penalized too harshly, maybe losing 3-6hp, not much. High strength 0IF loses more hp, but they'll still have higher base hp anyways.
- wpf reduction is too biased towards strength builds
Reason: %based armor reduction heavily penalizes players with decent wpf levels. Wpf centralizes around 110-130. WM only gives 9wpf on a pure build, where only 5-6 points get used. 1WM essentially being 5-6 points is too weak. Even if the wpf curve is changed, most of the playerbase won't notice much if they use medium-light armor and above.
What should change: Make wpf reduction linear- a straight up subtraction.
A central wpf value needs to be chosen where above that value, armor reduction is better than it is currently. I think that value should be 140-> The equation becomes
effective_wpf = base_wpf - (effective_armor_weight * 1.4). At 130, it will be *1.3 instead of 1.4, and is more lenient for lower wpf builds.
Why: This makes it so that wpf reduction from armor is unbiased. This change can also be done without messing with any plans for changing the current wpf curve. Hybrids that evenly split ~120 will be very slightly nerfed by a few points, but hybrids with a primary and secondary weapon can shave off more points on their primary weapon while having more effective wpf than they do currently in both weapons.
Pure builds buffed. 0 WM builds are nerfed, but a pure build can manage with 2-3 WM easily. Movement speed reduction from armor is pretty linear with ath relieving you of an extra ~7 weight for each point, so it's natural to believe that wpf reductoin should be linear. Also, don't fret light armor agility users, you guys will be buffed when the staff implements the new wpf curve.
