Class Balancing - When is it happening?

Good things need time. Sometimes 25 years.

There are a group of paladins that always think they are underpowered, even when they've been extremely OPd. Your crusade against sks is old and sad.

Funny enough, you list eight of the sixteen classes in the game as "just fine". You left warriors off your list who have been silly op for a long time. In contrast to your opinion, druids are very good, particularly if you stop trying to play them as just a healer or just a dps (which ironically they are better healers than shaman early/mid game and are good dps later game). Necros sure aren't hurting. Wizards are fine. Beastlords are more than fine. Enchanters are what they are. Despite the constant claims, Paladins are really good (they aren't meant to be good dps so just stop it).

In the end, Clerics could use some love. One out of sixteen is not too bad.

nerfing bards more
nerfing paladins
nerfing SKs even more

= balancing

wars are pretty fun to the point i rerolled from sk,the dps is lol....not too bad with even a group geared war, people ask if i am raid geared.

Also, I really do not really see a need for shaman in most full groups, yeah i guess shaman are good if its a few people in a group and dots are needed but its basically the same as the necro as far as dps goes, necros and shaman are frankly much more useful in raids, otherwise I'm really going to prefer a cleric. Especially in melee groups, I really see no need for a shaman currently, when things are basically vaporized even by group geared melee classes.

Shaman, decent enough heals, great AE splash healing, respectable dot dps and very good Adps for pets/melee. Great mana recovery. has pet

Druid, maybe could use a bit more on heals, never really played one but their dps and Adps for casters are pretty good. Plus they bring some good utility. Can charm animals if they are available.

Cleric, great heals, bad personal dps, no Adps, some better mitigation buffing.

I feel like clerics could use some work. Their hammer pets, vow line ( maybe it doesnt reduce healing and gives cleric weapons a chance to proc a Vie type buff) and interventions/contraventions are a decent place to start. If they aren;t going to add Adps, they should at least be able to offer decent personal dps and better mitigation through combat abilities. Something to bring them closer to shammy/druid and make them attractive for groups.

I feel like the cleric framework is there, just the numbers need to change. Battle clerics boosting defenses, blasting nuke heals and a swarm of holy hammer pets would be cool. they don't have to be on par with druid/shammy dps but 70-80% shouldnt be bad. And against unead pallies and clerics should be terminators.

They are so overkill on heals right now that its way more beneficial depending on grp makeup to just bring a shammy or druid as long as your tank doesn't suck.

The cleric class is not meant to be good DPS and never was, so why should they be buffed, but not the paladin class ? Their negative DPS (heals) is by far the best of all classes.

You spelled "Shaman" wrong.

Paladins are good at two roles and neither are DPS related. Clerics are only good at one role and they're not even the best at that role. They should at least have good undead nukes similar in strength to wizard nukes. I'd give them a claw/chaotic style nuke as well.

Ahh yes the whole "paladins are fine" while SKs have incredibly easier and BETTER agro, destroy them for dps, and actually tank and self heal better. But paladins are "fine" when their direct competition is significantly better in every way.

If clerics are no longer the best healers, something is seriously broken. Shamans are the best healers now ? They should be only rank 3, after druids, because of OPed slow and OPed DoTs, combined with very powerfull buffs (ADPS). Giving a healer class some of the best DD spells would only work with long cooldowns or high mana costs. It is a long way to class balance and I doubt that it will ever work as long as such serious disbalance does get released with new expansions. Does not look like Darkpaw has a functioning class balance concept at all, where each class role and power did get defined.

The bolded part is simply untrue, but you do you. Different != better. Yeah, pallies could use some aggro help across the board; they are supposed to be 'destroyed' in the dps department.

Yup, SKs are supposed to destroy paladin dps right? SKs are supposed to hit the top 10 raid parses right? Tank differently is meaningless when SKs do it easier and better for less effort.

In their defense, after 25 years of "shiny new things" the whole class balance thing is such an amorphous target, it's hard to be too critical. Class boundaries blurred, sometimes a little, but frequently a lot. Then factor in how few of us play our characters anywhere close to their maximum potential?

One thing they could do that would make a huge difference in the perceived balance? Break the overwhelming influence of pure DPS on the game. Everybody cares so much about DPS now because that's all it takes for about 98% of the game.

Too many DPS classes around today, and too many class roles got mixed. In the early years it was just MNK, ROG, WIZ for T1. Followed by RNG, BRD, MAG, NEC as T2 and T3. During TSoL or PoP, and later, RNG even became T1. Bad idea. Then BST and BER got added. They were only T2 then, but today they can be T1 + ADPS. It should be refocused by putting the classes back into their original departments, or to recategorize them from scratch by counting in all bonuses and weaknesses that they do have.

Tanks never should be T1 or T2 DPS *scowls at WAR, SHD, MAG, NEC, BST*

Also too many tank classes around today with all the pet tanks, that could replace plate tanks without much problems. Tank classes should be ranked more clear, like T1 for WAR/PAL/SHD, and T2 for MAG/BST/NEC. T3 for MNK/RNG. Rule of the thump should again be: Good tanking but low DPS, and vice versa.

Adding more ADPS to the BRD ? Bad idea, they already can grant to much ADPS, beside uber HP and MP regen, and strong DoTs. They were meant to be a melee version of the ENC with a lot other classes mixed in. They should be focused on pulling, CC, and other support. Nearly all their skills and songs are tuned much to high. Why can they track nearly as good as a DRU/RNG ? Why can they pick every door that a ROG can pick, and not just 1/2 or 2/3 ?

I've given up on balance. It ebbs and flows and when your class sucks, you do your best until one day, many years in the future it doesn't suck anymore and then you have fun until they nerf you again.

Or just swap the persona which is also some kind of balance as a substitute.

Stylin' and profilin' of course!

And in the case of the true pallies, i.e. dwarves. Drinkin'

Real dwarves do drink stout. If Nennius does drink ale, he has to wear that t-shirt for a year.

There are many balance issue with the current state of the game.

Here are a few examples out of my head :

The first one coming to my mind is the ADPS, especially bards you need one of them in each of your grp in order to get the max dps possible, which is wrong imo. I would love for bard to have more raid wide adps songs and being able to MGB Quick Time (with maybe a lock timer not being able to get it again for x mins).
Bst and rangers needs to get buffed up for dps.

2nd one : is on kill buff increasing dps, this should either be removed or make it group/raid wide on kill.

3rd one is healing : shaman needs to be tuned down on the splash healing, I would give them a longer CD and/or blocked( or non stacking) effect after receiving it.

4th tanking : SK's epic is too OP, needs to be capped per level or tuned down to lower %.

Edit : 5th glyphs : needs to be taken away from the game or make it cost 120/200 per use.