Discussing Balance

[Bleak]

Continuing the conversation from the following thread: Latest Corpse Skin Update

I would like to thank everyone for contributing to this conversation. The team did have a conversation about curse + corpse skin stacking while updating the Focused Necromancers and decided to allow it. The goal for the Focus Necro buff was to give some much-needed love to Necromancers. This discussion of whether this use of teamwork should be tweaked is still up for discussion but shines a light on other mechanics that may also need to be discussed. The community sets the current meta from the gear to the templates available in the world and the team tries to provide more depth in the choices available. In the case of curse + corpse skin if over capping resists were not allowed I feel this would be a bigger issue. Based on this thread I have couple questions to the community:

1. Do you feel that PvP balance should be based on 1 v 1 or the use of teamwork and why?
2. What is the least amount of time you feel it should take to kill a target solo and why? Or put it another way what is the least amount of time you feel is required to respond to an attack before being killed and why?
3. What templates do you feel currently are viable in a team setting and why?

Looks like I need to provide more context for question 2. How much damage can I do to a target in the shortest period of time? Burst damage is a major key to balance but is not the only consideration when we think about balance. So with that I have another question:

• Which templates do you feel provide the most burst damage to a target 1 v 1 on average and why?

 

[PaithanTheElf]

1. I think it should be based on 1v1's. If you start trying to base it on team work then you can come up with all sorts of crazy situations (i.e. well, what if he omened that hit too?!). Also, it wouldn't be fair to someone that runs around solo. I personally never liked that you NEED 6 people to get a circle. The solo pvper/pvmer is at disadvantage for something like that.

2. This is a tough question- because some kills that are near instant.. you need to have everything lined up to perfection and land for it to happen. And that doesn't happen often for those combos.

3. Archer, 4/6 Chiv, Parry mages, Dexer Tamers- This game would be way more entertaining if more templates were viable again (patches made a lot of templates not possible/useless)

 

[Merus]

1. Balance needs to be 1v1. Anything else is inherently unbalanced just by the number of skill points available for 2 or more characters.
2. IMO it isn't a question of time, it is a question of damage stacking.
3. Most any combat related template can be useful in a team setting depending on the size and template compliment of the team. I think we all have to face that fact that players will naturally gravitate to the templates that work best... for pvm and pvp. That will ultimately lead to only a few templates being used by the majority of players for any given encounter. The fact that there are 3-5 pretty viable templates for pvp (not just 1 or 2) I think shows balance. If you try to expand that to 10-12, what I think you would see is there would STILL be 3-5 that have an advantage over the others and players would gravitate toward them.

 

[Lythos-]

I said I would never post here again but I will make a rare exception for this.

1) Base it on 1v1. Debuffs should absolutely stack in team fighting.
2) Too many variables to answer this question and makes me question what you're thinking of doing to us. Whatever it is just don't.
3) Paithan listed all the templates that are currently used. The rest have been made completely worthless in a pvp setting. Mystics are useless. Hybrid mages are useless. Straight melee is beyond laughable. Bushweedo and Ninja aren't that great either.

If you intend to balance anything I have suggestions that will greatly improve the flow of templates.
1)Revert the fix so people can toggle specials while casting again. This will bring back tactic mages.
2) revert tying deathstrike to hiding and stealth. Hardcap the damage if you must but this will make Ultima flow with new and exciting ninjas.
3) Revert tying parry into evasion so we can have evade mages again.


To successfully move forward sometimes you have to take a couple steps back.

 

[cazador]

[*]Do you feel that PvP balance should be based on 1 v 1 or the use of teamwork and why?
1v1..hands down. When it comes to team play everything is pretty balanced out. No need to hurt teamwork with nerfing good tactics. Making bards in pvp less reliant on having real skill and all skills really hurt that template for some viable support characters. PvM it is fine but in pvp they don't exist in a team setting, unless your multi clienting at a Harrower or something.

[*]What is the least amount of time you feel it should take to kill a target solo and why? Or put it another way what is the least amount of time you feel is required to respond to an attack before being killed and why?

With the right build and set up correct a good dump shouldn't insta kill but keep it in line with a curse/ explosion/flamestrike. Anything over 100 damage isn't really something that should be easy to obtain without sacrifice.


[*]What templates do you feel currently are viable in a team setting and why?
4/6 chiv, Parry Scribe mages, archers are all you see for the most part. Why? Archers hit so hard so fast Parry is almost needed in every template now..holy fist is fast and hard hitting but not broken anymore. Archers because they lack any real skill and 3 buttons characters will always roll out the clone machine.




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[drcossack]

1. Do you feel that PvP balance should be based on 1 v 1 or the use of teamwork and why?
2. What is the least amount of time you feel it should take to kill a target solo and why?
3. What templates do you feel currently are viable in a team setting and why?

1) 1v1, no question. Group v group or group v solo opens the door for a lot more variety that can't exist otherwise, and isn't how it should be balanced due to the MUCH higher damage output.

2) Depends. "Insta-kill" combos like Explosion/Flamestrike/Armor Ignore/Supernova do exist, but there's a lot of setup/timing involved in them. The player's skill level is also another determining factor - some guys I've fought 1v1 will go for a fair amount of time, other fights have ended in under 30 seconds, because the person is, well, not very good.

3) At a place like Yew Gate, I'll second what Paith said, with the rare deathstriker and melee (non-deathstrike) dexer. At a champ spawn or grinder fight, you'll mostly see archers, necro mages, and mystic mages, with spellweaving seeing a fair amount of use as well. However, that's apples and oranges - Yew Gate is, as it's always been, the home of the gankfest, and champ spawns/grinders are group vs group. The metagame for both is completely different.

However, for me, while Curse/Corpse skin from one person is only possible on Test Center, and therefore not viable unless used on yourself for testing purposes: I feel that allowing the resist cap to get that low, even though a team effort is required to do it, is detrimental. To test the damage potential of the curse/corpse combo, I just went over to TC1 and Explosion/Flamestrike on myself did 108 (47 from Explosion, 61 from Flamestrike) damage. I'll admit that's hardly representative of the actual game mechanics, there are times where it'd come up (since it can't happen 1v1, it's balanced around that, but...), and I don't think that it should be possible to do that much damage in two spells, however many players it takes to accomplish it.

 

[Bleak]

Updated with an additional question for those who have already responded.

 

[OREOGL]

1.) Majority of pvp is balanced on damage output in 1 vs 1 scenarios. This doesn't mean there won't be few instances where group play may require adjustments. (I.e. Curse and holy first when it came out for those not playing a chiv Mage)

2. I'm not sure where you're going with this. There is no time frame, it's subjective to the player, templates, and suits.

3. Necro archer, necro deathstrike, tactics Mage, alchemy bushido templates, and of course anything with a dread mare or bane dragon.

But based on these I would not even consider capping damage if that's what you're thinking about doing.


In fact, if you want to do something please let us know before you make a change, and we will be happy to tell you if it's good or a horrible idea.

 

[virem]

The fastest you can kill a person is pretty much displayed in my video here.
1) Balance should be based on 1 vs. 1

2) There is nothing wrong with the amount of time it takes to kill someone, it's actually really difficult to kill anyone 1 vs. 1 right now if they two people are close to the same skill level because the gear is so strong.

3) The only two really viable templates in high level pvp are archers and parry mages. No other mage can be played because archery/moving shot does too much damage. Anyone who plays any mage with mage weapon, or even lack of parry can't stay alive long enough to matter in a group fight. Template diversity if absolutely the biggest problem with group pvp right now and it 100% has to do with archery being too strong.

video I made highlighting the damage of moving shot, 1.25 second arrows with 35-40 total damage possible? some of these archers aren't even max possible damage

 

[virem]

A post by me from earlier this year outlining archery power creep and why it is the main reason for lack of template diversity in pvp right now.

History of how/why archery became the best skill in the game;

Prior to November 2011 it was mostly impossible to get 211 stamina on an archer suit. Base damage on comp bows were (I think) 13-17.

November 17, 2011 - Upgrades to the dungeon shame. Allowed archers to get stamina on jewels and splintering on warforks. This allows archers to get to 2011 stamina on expensive suits, mostly their damage increase was pretty low, also their mana was around 100, suits consisted of greater reforged barbed kit suits

April 16th, 2013 - Weapon and armor rebalancing. Composite bow base damage changed to 16-20, swing speed remained the same. This resulted in just a straight buff to moving shot, as good(rich) archers were already swinging at max speed. Studded armor now allows archers to get to 55% LMC and quickly became the meta as it allowed significantly more special moves in a row. Suits still extremely expensive to make because jewels required were relatively rare.

September 25th, 2014 - Global loot changes. Stamina and swing jewels become extremely common. Legendary armor becomes usable and common. Everyone can make a 211 stamina suit, most with high damage increase. Elemental bows become popular around this time.

October 8, 2015: Time of legends. Masteries added which make archers with 120 tactics 120 archery have a 90% chance to block disarms - removing their primary weakness.

2016 - Archer armor and jewels are so easy to obtain that almost anyone can get 150 hp 211 stamina 120+ mana 15-18 MR and 100 damage increase. Character can literally do everything well, and has no weakness that isn't inherent to every character without parrying.

Miscellaneous changes them I am not sure when they happened - Mortal becomes stackable.

As you can see it wasn't one thing. It was a bunch of changes that result in the character being overpowered. The result of these changes were the reduction or elimination of the viability of all other warrior templates and every mage template that doesn't have parry.

@Kyronix @Mesanna @Bleak

 

[Merus]

Burst damage:
prolly the focused parry mage w/ alchemy: curse then exp+flamestrike+nova

or a focus necro archer: corpseskin/omen then double shot poison yumi with hit fireball+hit velocity

Either of these if timed right can do 90+ burst damage.

 

[King Greg]

And those archers are doing that much damage with just curse in that video. Once you stack Corpse skin on top of that, good luck.

The base hits will do 37% More damage when you drop from 60 to 45 resist , putting the running shots on a composite on par with an Armor Ignore.

 

[PaithanTheElf]

Archery isn't the reason for lack of template diversity.

 

[OREOGL]

The fastest you can kill a person is pretty much displayed in my video here.
1) Balance should be based on 1 vs. 1

2) There is nothing wrong with the amount of time it takes to kill someone, it's actually really difficult to kill anyone 1 vs. 1 right now if they two people are close to the same skill level because the gear is so strong.

3) The only two really viable templates in high level pvp are archers and parry mages. No other mage can be played because archery/moving shot does too much damage. Anyone who plays any mage with mage weapon, or even lack of parry can't stay alive long enough to matter in a group fight. Template diversity if absolutely the biggest problem with group pvp right now and it 100% has to do with archery being too strong.

video I made highlighting the damage of moving shot, 1.25 second arrows with 35-40 total damage possible? some of these archers aren't even max possible damage

The bottom video doesn't mean much, it's a glass cannon template where you got nailed with hit lower defense against four people, two of them being archers.

 

[virem]

It's certainly the reason that templates have gone from 6-7 from 4 or so years ago, to pretty much two now.

 

[virem]

The bottom video doesn't mean much, it's a glass cannon template where you got nailed with hit lower defense against four people, two of them being archers.

The moving shot video is only there to show the total damage possible, and it doesn't even show that. Everything without parry is glass cannon - that's the problem.

 

[cazador]

And those archers are doing that much damage with just curse in that video. Once you stack Corpse skin on top of that, good luck.

The base hits will do 37% More damage when you drop from 60 to 45 resist , putting the running shots on a composite on par with an Armor Ignore.

So scale archery damage back, because something can be overdone doesn't mean you punish one template. I can omen concussion with a perfect situation for almost 70 with no Necro and about 85 with Necro and a perfect situation l, build and damage increase(like a bil+ suit). 15 damage for sacrifice doesn't mean nerf it. Especially when it's easily defended.


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[OREOGL]

The moving shot video is only there to show the total damage possible, and it doesn't even show that. Everything without parry, is glass cannon - that's the problem.

You were showing total damage from multiple archers.

Can one guy land a running shot for 35 points? Yep.

Can he land two in a row? Sure.

So you're talking maybe 70 damage in 2.5 seconds. But with alchemy on your char, one of those goes away just by drinking a potion.

Again, the video doesn't reflect moving shot balance.

 

[King Greg]

I am not saying to punish Archers. If you look at the sheer damage from an Evil Omen Crushing Blow With an ornate against a toon with 45% Poison Resistance can hit for 81 damage just on the hit, not counting the hit spell. The Problem is allowing resists to drop that low.

Poison Strike + Evil Omen Crushing Blow + Pain Spike/evil Omen Pain Spike.

Go give it a whirl and tell me its a support class.

 

[virem]

I think the only two changes that should be made to pvp are the following;

1) lower the damage of moving shot with a cap or the total damage on the bow.

2) add back the jack of all trade skills being considered towards the 300 skill points required for lower mana cost reducion on special moves. While we are at it, wrestling needs to be added to the group counted.

 

[OREOGL]

I think the only two changes that should be made to pvp are the following;

1) lower the damage of moving shot with a cap or the total damage on the bow.

2) add back the jack of all trade skills being considered towards the 300 skill points required for lower mana cost reducion on special moves. While we are at it, wrestling needs to be added to the group counted.

This screams "Nerf him! Not
Me!"

I think it's best to stick to facts and not opinions or this will turn into a **** show.

 

[drcossack]

Looks like I need to provide more context for question 2. How much damage can I do to a target in the shortest period of time? Burst damage is a major key to balance but is not the only consideration when we think about balance. So with that I have another question:

• Which templates do you feel provide the most burst damage to a target 1 v 1 on average and why?

Parry/Alchy Scribe mage - Curse/Explosion/Flamestrike/Supernova with 80% EP. If not an outright kill combo, it comes pretty close.

Focused Necro Dexer. The weapon hit after Corpse/Omen allows for a very quick finisher, like Pain Spike.

It's certainly the reason that templates have gone from 6-7 from 4 or so years ago, to pretty much two now.

If you did more than gate fighting you'd see more than two templates.

 

[PaithanTheElf]

It's certainly the reason that templates have gone from 6-7 from 4 or so years ago, to pretty much two now.

Negative.

And I listed 4 templates and forgot a stealther temp of any variation as well.

There most certainly should be more templates to play- but it is not because of archery.

 

[PaithanTheElf]

I am not saying to punish Archers. If you look at the sheer damage from an Evil Omen Crushing Blow With an ornate against a toon with 45% Poison Resistance can hit for 81 damage just on the hit, not counting the hit spell. The Problem is allowing resists to drop that low.

Poison Strike + Evil Omen Crushing Blow + Pain Spike/evil Omen Pain Spike.

Go give it a whirl and tell me its a support class.

How are you getting them to 45 poison resist by yourself?

 

[PaithanTheElf]

If you did more than gate fighting you'd see more than two templates.

When talking about 1v1 templates it doesn't really matter where you pvp.

Yes dungeon pvp uses different templates, but guess what- those aren't 1v1 templates as this thread is talking about.

 

[leet]

video I made highlighting the damage of moving shot, 1.25 second arrows with 35-40 total damage possible? some of these archers aren't even max possible damage

You were cursed. lol which isnt 1vs1, unless it was a curse archer - in which you should of appled, or done that fancy little combo of yours.

 

[drcossack]

How are you getting them to 45 poison resist by yourself?

You can't.

When talking about 1v1 templates it doesn't really matter where you pvp.

Yes dungeon pvp uses different templates, but guess what- those aren't 1v1 templates as this thread is talking about.

Actually, it does. You can't balance around the extremes of offense and defense, even if it's 1v1. They're gear dependent for one thing, which, despite global loot, isn't something everyone has access to (due to the cost of said items and the time investment needed to get them), and it's dumb to balance the game around these uber items.

 

[cazador]

I am not saying to punish Archers. If you look at the sheer damage from an Evil Omen Crushing Blow With an ornate against a toon with 45% Poison Resistance can hit for 81 damage just on the hit, not counting the hit spell. The Problem is allowing resists to drop that low.

Poison Strike + Evil Omen Crushing Blow + Pain Spike/evil Omen Pain Spike.

Go give it a whirl and tell me its a support class.

I don't need to give it a whirl, I have the character built. And it's useless unless your in a group. 1v1 it's stupid hard to get off hits unless they are an archer. Then they just back away and pick you off cause u have no Parry. Why? Because it doesn't fit. And the only way it does 80+ is with LJ. Now your sacrificing even more. I had to sacrifice Resist to hit 70's mid 80's with hit spell 50% of the time. It's a glass cannon template for niche play. It's rarely viable in group play. I made it and it sits there. It only is useful in certain situations. The jewls alone are worth more than most suits. Wanna buy the suit since it's so good? Cause I'll probably never use it.


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[King Greg]

How are you getting them to 45 poison resist by yourself?

You can't.

You can curse a character using 29.9 Magery and 29.9 Eval with a scroll....... Not Even Factoring evil omen or SUIT Swap to literally give you those skills for free...

 

[Lord Arm]

I don't really get any 1vs1 fights anymore, since vvv. I'm kinda of lost why we wasting time again where the archer will probably just get nerfed again lol. try killing a good parry mage. with archer. mages don't miss. need to look at para spamming and curse which is over powered, not just mortal blow. evil omen/death strike yahoo 70 damage., lets stack corpse skin and curse too. no comment. just my opinions. can anyone really tell me why nerco need a buff, honestly? I know I don't want to see anymore multi char use/abuse by trying to do more support char crap/buffs ect... when the devs start talking about helping support groups, this means helping the multi char use again.

pvp balance needs to be base on 1vs1, common sense

 

[CovenantX]

1. Do you feel that PvP balance should be based on 1 v 1 or the use of teamwork and why?
2. What is the least amount of time you feel it should take to kill a target solo and why? Or put it another way what is the least amount of time you feel is required to respond to an attack before being killed and why?
3. What templates do you feel currently are viable in a team setting and why?

Looks like I need to provide more context for question 2. How much damage can I do to a target in the shortest period of time? Burst damage is a major key to balance but is not the only consideration when we think about balance. So with that I have another question:

• Which templates do you feel provide the most burst damage to a target 1 v 1 on average and why?

1) One vs One balancing is most important. Teamwork can and will improve itself by the players. Why? Balancing things based on "Teamwork" causes a stalemate in one vs one.

2) This is a very difficult question, as changing this may drastically change the pace of pvp.

3) Archers & Mages in team settings. Why? Mages have Curse, which makes elemental weapons deal more damage. Utility of dismount from an archer is normally pretty easy to ensure your target isn't going to run away as easily.
Melee dexers are good, but it's much harder for them to "time" their attacks than it is for an archer. -this is why Archery>Melee.

Alchemy-Focus Mage - not so much the "most" but the most guaranteed* burst damage. because spells cannot miss. (I don't want spells to be able to miss).
Curse -Explode,flamestrike,supernova,lightening.


Burst damage is only a problem when it's easy and unavoidable if you're on the receiving end. Word of Death + Armor Ignore as an example (Fixed)
The more sources of damage in a combo the harder it would be to execute it properly. Virem's videos are a perfect example of this.

Side note: Pvp doesn't need any major overhauls, just minor tweaks to specific effects, properties, spells & skills (IMO).

 

[drcossack]

You can curse a character using 29.9 Magery and 29.9 Eval with a scroll....... Not Even Factoring evil omen or SUIT Swap to literally give you those skills for free...

With that little investment, wouldn't it last about 10 seconds? Hardly worth considering...and I think there's a minimum eval requirement (which is higher than 29.9) for Curse to actually do anything?

 

[leet]

You can curse a character using 29.9 Magery and 29.9 Eval with a scroll....... Not Even Factoring evil omen or SUIT Swap to literally give you those skills for free...

True Greg but they would also have to have 0 resist for that to work

 

[King Greg]

Go test it out my friend I'm on test center casting on my secondary toon with 120 resist.

 

[King Greg]

It lasts about 36 seconds, which is longer than the apple timer. Corpse only lasts 40 seconds at 120 spirit speak, so it doesn't have to be much longer anyways.

 

[leet]

Go test it out my friend I'm on test center casting on my secondary toon with 120 resist.

I will have to retest that thanks

 

[CovenantX]

Just to clarify... It can be done by a single player. Here

Oh hey guys, What Soup?

Edit:

True Greg but they would also have to have 0 resist for that to work

This is incorrect. The character in the video is 120.0 resist. it should last longer to those that do not have resisting spells skill.

 

[OREOGL]

Just to clarify... It can be done by a single player. Here

Oh hey guys, What Soup?

Edit:


This is incorrect. The character in the video is 120.0 resist. it should last longer to those that do not have resisting spells skill.

I think the context of the question was including swords etc for using an ornate axe to do 81 points of damage as King Greg mentioned.

 

[CovenantX]

I think the context of the question was including swords etc for using an ornate axe to do 81 points of damage as King Greg mentioned.

it was in reference to Curse Scrolls being used to lower resist of another player then stacking it with Corpse skin from a focused necromancer.

I swore I tested if they could be stacked while the publish was on TC1 It either didn't stack, or I didn't test it properly. (probably the latter)

81 damage is not counting hit-spells either. I prefer my method, as it's... more effective against everything.

 

[OREOGL]

it was in reference to Curse Scrolls being used to lower resist of another player then stacking it with Corpse skin from a focused necromancer.

I swore I tested if they could be stacked while the publish was on TC1 It either didn't stack, or I didn't test it properly. (probably the latter)

81 damage is not counting hit-spells either. I prefer my method, as it's... more effective against everything.

Not sure man, I will try it out later and see what happens

 

[BeaIank]

PvP isn't my thing, so I won't give any input here, but I do feel I should commend you for reaching the community to discuss this particular topic.
Well done, @Bleak

 

[PaithanTheElf]

You can curse a character using 29.9 Magery and 29.9 Eval with a scroll....... Not Even Factoring evil omen or SUIT Swap to literally give you those skills for free...

Ok, so what skills are you having on this character? Because that is a 60 extra skill point investment to get a curse off.

 

[Drowy]

I personally would like to see pvp fights last longer, especially when its experienced players vs less experienced players. If people die too fast when they try to pvp, they lose interest in it. My first changes would be fastest swing for archers, maybe all dexxers 1.5 seconds. If you got parry, you cant be a focused mage. Choose defense or offense. After that have a look what templates/skills need a tweak or nerf.

 

[CovenantX]

Ok, so what skills are you having on this character? Because that is a 60 extra skill point investment to get a curse off.

If you're Human there is no skill point investment in Magery & Eval-Int for a Curse Scroll. -Whatever template you want. Honestly I'm surprised you didn't know about this.

In all honesty, the hardest thing (IMO) to balance pvp based on feedback from the community is knowing if there are any hidden agendas with the players suggesting changes.
JoaT is very useful even without contributing to the 300.0 combat LMC bonus, (IMO) that far exceeds +20 mana from Elves in just about every single situation.

 

[Smoot]

@Bleak

1. 1v1
2. 4 seconds (may only happen less than 5% of the time for heavy burst damage temps, but from a gaming perspective thats enough time to react and respond)
3. pretty much every template is viable in a group setting. many templates are pretty useless 1v1, but in a group just about everything has its place and drawbacks can be compensated by other templates in the group.

highest burst damage templates - alchemy mage and evil omen deathstriker.

 

[virem]

and also, just because pvp should be balanced for 1v1 doesn't mean that group fighting shouldn't be considered in the balancing. curse/corpse stacking is pretty dumb... curse and running shots alone is pretty dumb. Maybe elemental damage on weapons needs to be looked at.

 

[FrejaSP]

PvP should be balanced for 1vs1 and I believe it is in many way. 2-3 PvM'er should be have a change to fight vs a single PK

We need not to forget, UO is more than just PvP. I see a mega imbalance when a char in PvM template/gear try to PvP to defend him self.
I know most here know a lot more about templates and gear than I do but I do feel mods on items should matter less and real skills should matter more.

Special on Siege, where PvP gear is very expensive, it is a problem. In old days, everyone could try to fight in a gm suit and with a gm weapon. now a smith, lumberjack, miner not even have a chance 2 or 3 vs a PvP'er.

I know it is very hard as the PvP'ers will use advantage of changes made for the crafter, but they still need to have the skills to get that advantage from skills like Alchemy, inscribing, imbuing, lumbering?

An other issue I have, stealth templates on Siege, you should not be able to hide and stealth away if redlined as you should be to hurt to do it. Make stealth fail a lot more if you are more than half dead.

Again, I'm just an old lady trying to PvP on a good old school archer template with poison. I don't think it is archery that is the problem but more some of the skills used with it.

Speed, I believe we all run way faster now, than we did in old days. Maybe we need a cap for how fast we can move on feet and on mounts. In old days, I did not need moving shot, I just needed to know when it was time to stand still and get a shot off.

I do like 1vs1 fights to take longer but not so long, that the ones with most potions or bandages will win.

I'm glad to see all being respectful to each others, even when about PvP.

 

[cazador]

Just to clarify... It can be done by a single player. Here

Oh hey guys, What Soup?

Edit:


This is incorrect. The character in the video is 120.0 resist. it should last longer to those that do not have resisting spells skill.

I'm glad you're proving my point which I already made that it can be done with a single player. Show your template though. I can explain about 10 loopholes in it which make it so you're sacrificing a lot for those extra damage hits. I can also used a focused Mage with omen scrolls and insta kill with about a 100% success rate. No RNG involved, No chasing down single tile combat, and I still have Parry and shield bash that's an extra 35 damage un disarmable. As well as not giving up any survivability, Resist or damage. You should see my play a focused Tact archer with novas, it's too bad Parry is almost necessary in today's UO. Then you'd get to see almost a 140-150 damage output character. Post some videos of Cossack dying though..I'd appreciate that lol.


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[cazador]

it was in reference to Curse Scrolls being used to lower resist of another player then stacking it with Corpse skin from a focused necromancer.

I swore I tested if they could be stacked while the publish was on TC1 It either didn't stack, or I didn't test it properly. (probably the latter)

81 damage is not counting hit-spells either. I prefer my method, as it's... more effective against everything.

I'm even more glad how you show another remedy which I forgot. Refinements nullify a focused Necro pretty much completely. Unless again, you're fighting a dink. Trial by the fires of fel. We've all died to templates like this before you learn to adapt. Anyone recall Necro/Axers with the Axe of the heavens? Granted that was before 70's+ in all Resist wasn't so easily attained and you could quick toggle specials for double hits.


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[Lynk]

I think PvP is pretty balanced right now. Yes the bulk of players are either some type of parry mage or an archer of some type. You also have a lot of stealthers.

I don't find a huge problem with the corpse/curse. Yes - you could in theory abuse and stack to run a single char that could do it, but your defensive ability would be so low that you become a glass cannon. It can be done in group settings, which I'm fine with. I would say just leave it as it is.

I do think Archery is a little OP right now, but truthfully I don't know that I have the answer for how to fix it. The only thing that comes to mind is to have the base damage of weapons reduced, or, have some type of penalty (whether to damage or hit chance) when toggling moving shot.

To me, Alchemy seems to be a bit OP. You can't fight today without people spamming double conflags that tick for 12-13 dmg and seeing every one use 3-4 Novas in a fight hitting for 25 dmg a piece on a cursed target. Pretty much every template you make you try to free up 100 skill points to fit alchemy in. I don't have a solution for this, but when every good player is using a mechanic on as many templates as they can, then it is usually a pretty good indicator that something is out of balance.

I'd rather stay away from nerfs and go in a different direction, making some other things more powerful. Improve template diversity. I get bored playing parry mages and archers.

Removing tactics requirements for specials would be a good start.

Adding the ability to toggle special moves with spell cursors up would be even better.

I'd also like to see melee weapons that are two handed (lance, no daichi, spear) have a 2 tile swing radius opposed to 1 tile. I think you would start to see those being used more.

Those first two changes would immediately inflate the different types of templates that you see on the field.