I think most balancing in cRPG is misguided really. I know there's good stats on server damage per weapon that I used to see but haven't in a while, you should post that if you can still get copies of it San.
Too many cRPG players are real narrow-focused and attached to specific builds and playstyles over years, all viewed in a weird black hole of unorganized pubbie play mixed in with banner stacking 5 year warband vets dominating, if any still even really play.
Everytime I play there is no one inventing any new playstyles, challenging my understanding of Warband combat, playing in some distinct way that inspires other people to get better. That shit was everywhere when cRPG was new. If I ever play now its like I am a relic from some ancient glorious classical peak of cRPG, shredding faceless hordes of mediocre white noise players who are all trapped in the dark ages of scrubdom, never evolving to step out of the promordial ooze.
A sense of competition has disappeared completely from the mod. People who have innate fundamental grasp of Warband mechanics, comparing and contrasting other rival player's decisions, adapting and discovering new bullshit to stomp people with and making it look cool.
Basically, without a competitive scene, all the competitive players will just get tired of shredding terrible players and leave the game for something else. Games with changing metas, differering opinions, organized teams or solo competitions where flavor of the weekers can actually show how to dominate doing something different or copying someone else.
I'm pretty sure Rohypnol alone has caused more balance changes than anything else, cuz he's one of those consistently shit stomping the server dudes and makes mechanics that seem easy or weak with regular players, suddenly become the most rage inducing OP unfair shit in the game. People would impersonate him and start trends with his HX performances. HX would get nerfed. He'd figure out some new build and loadout and immediately return to the same power level until nerfed again, etc.
Like it was all just balancing around some real good player pubstomping bads. Doesn't accomplish much except feed into expectations, reduce skill ceilings of classes or playstyles, drive good players away, bland up the gameplay.
Now if all the effort in skullfucking animations and raising or reducing the same stats on the same weapons every few months was instead used in buffing counters to current popular builds and making game modes or events that got competitive minded people in a competitive environment to demonstrate what really seems to be overpowered or what is just not understood and meta-countered yet.. you'd probably have something more like Dota than fucking cRPG.
Why I hope Melee Battlegrounds has twitch tv crap so good players can easily stream and people can copy their builds and playstyles and evolve community understanding of counters and interplay and shit maybe more naturally. Way cRPG has always been run "skill" is a lost metric in a sea of confirmation bias, claims of corrupt lobbyists or balancers only knowing 1 class, etc etc whining and bitching. When the only thing in balance discussions that matters should be what actual good players do or don't do. Who wins the most doing what and why? Not who posts the most bullshit.
