Given all of the back and forth regarding balance and how many people disagree with the current balance concept (or lack thereof) I wanted to start a thread to explore different ideas. Below are mine. I think each category of powers (DOT - e.g., Elec, Mobile Assault - e.g., Ice, Combos - e.g., Celestial, Pets - e.g., Earth, Advanced Interactions - e.g., Gadgets) should have pros and cons that throughout a piece of content but not necessarily on each phase of content. For example, DOT should be best at bosses but weak on trash whereas Pets (with their fast cast) excel on trash but are weak on bosses. A few tweaks to things could accomplish this and the Devs could just craft content that takes has all powers pros and cons. Many games take this approach versus trying to literally balance Damage Per Second. For example, black mages in FFXIV do great AOE dmg but avg single target - they also have a cast time so that if you move you are interrupted. A monk has a ramp up time wherein they get a variety of dmg buffs so that the longer a fight goes on the more dmg they do. However, when running from trash to trash they are weaker since they don't have the dmg buff. Each piece of content has enemies and situations that favor one and disfavor another but throughout a piece of content they are relatively balanced. You could make some enemies weak to fire but strong def against ice etc and place enough of a mix of enemies that by the end of a raid it all balances out. There are many more ideas that I have seen people post about over the years and think they should be explored because the current "balance" is out of whack, IMO.
The problem with that is people would claim it as a respec token scam. And then you will see call outs for only the powers that excel in that content.
Scoreboard is not the only way to tell if people are way underperforming. Will solve some but not all issues and still not be fun for players when enemies are dead before the punch from your power even activates.
You see, here's the issue. The devs make these raids for a 2222 set up. Despite what the community says or what kind of conspiracy theories there are, these raids were aimed for a balanced group. The community though isn't having it and insists on bringing 5 dps into a raid that was built for only 2 dps. You want your damage to matter on trash mobs? Bring a balanced group. Then the damage won't seem so skewed in favor of pet or burst powers.
So three nature dps toons will burn a boss AS FAST as a three ice dps toons? I want a link to that video please.
If they truly want it two two two then build content for it. Cause no one else will have it with the content that exits.
It is built for it. Issue is support role stats are too high. Why bring 2 when only 1 can do the job? That's the mindset of the community. The devs are going to work on support roles though, Mepps confirmed it. Once more people are willing to do support then maybe they can start making more complex raids.
Closest you're gonna see to a balanced group is 3221 going 5111 on mobs. Am devalues the troll role greatly. 1 troll can easily power a group and do the minimal cc duties that this game allows them. The devs cannot build content that requires roles because the population won't allow it. Maybe offering a second free armory as a collection or briefing reward may help but that's doubtful. I don't understand why they only give 1. The players that will buy a second one ate the ones that wouldn't just stop at 2 armories anyway. But it would help with the casual player maybe playing both roles instead of just dps. They also need to revamp the troll role making controlling a valid playstyle over recharging. And revamp the way damage is dealt to us. Idc how many healers you have in group, full health-dead isn't healable. Tanks are to strong and the only thing the devs can do is annoying cc tactics and scripted attacks. Making stats matter again will destroy fire and earth tanking again.
First they need to make support fun to play for more people. Dps like the simplicity of powerback AMs. So...
