Balancing Taming

[Bruin]

So, just another one of those tamer are overpowered threads, but hopefully with some good ideas as to how to better balance their power versus other templates, particularly in pvp. Essentially, I'll tell you why and how I think herding and vet should be required on all tamer templates.

Now the basis of my suggestions is this, if had only one character and you were to pick any two skills in the game and your job was to make the most powerful pvp/pvm template, which two skills would you pick? I'd say taming/lore. Do any other skills even compare? Mage/med, nope, arch/chiv, nope, fencing/tactics, nope.

Now my problem isn't directly with taming/lore - its simply that taming lore by far are the best two skills a person can have for both pvm and/or pvp. So to balance it out, I think additional secondary skills must be needed in order for taming and lore to keep their effectiveness. Imagine if mage/med/eval all got rolled up into one skill, supermage - supermage would be an overpowered skill but having it split amongst mage/med/eval and requiring 300+ skill points to be effective balances it out.

So my suggestion would be require herding and vet for tamers to be effective, by implementing the following changes:

Require it so that pets have a time delay in listening to successive tamer commands, and herding lowers the time delay. So for example, a tamer with 0 herding could issue one command (all kill/all stop) every 60 seconds - any other commands issued would be ignored. A tamer with 100 herding could issue a command every 10 seconds, 120 herding - 8 seconds. The specific time interval would be tested and balanced, these are just examples.

Furthermore there should be a command delay like a spell casting delay for pet commands, similar to say a 4th level spell, and interruptible. If I were to tell my dog "go get him boy" that would take me a second or two for me to say as well as it would be quite difficult for me to say that if someone was pummeling me in the head with a mace.

Next, make it so that you can only heal a pet via vet (or require vet for any form of healing to be effective so as to not take away spellweaving healing). Simply put, if you are going to heal your pet, you need to have vet. And if for whatever reason you don't heal your pet, your pets disloyalty to you should drastically increase. If I were to constantly tell my dog to go kill a tiger and after the fight do nothing to help my dog lick his wounds, he would probably lose some loyalty towards me eventually.

So, now if tamers were required to have 400+ skill points in taming/lore/vet/herding, while still being the best pvm character, it would be much more balanced when comparing it to having 400+ skill points in mage/med/eval/resist or fencing/tactics/anat/heal. I could see those two characters in a more fair fight than just currently taming/lore vs mage/med or fencing/tactics.

All this does is force the tamer to be a pure tamer and not a tamer/bard or mage/tamer or tamer/archer by reducing the availability of skill points for secondary/support skills. The tamer by itself is no less powerful than before.

 

[Uvtha]

cap damage at 25. I think that would do it.

 

[Lord_Puffy]

Cap fire breath at 35 dmg, and make the stealth skill have a 10 second timer to use just like every other skill. I think that is a big step in the right direction.

 

[Wolfman]

Cap fire breath at 35 dmg, and make the stealth skill have a 10 second timer to use just like every other skill. I think that is a big step in the right direction.

Quiet a good idea I think....especially the stealth 10sec idea! (no smoke-bombing disapearance all the time)

 

[God_Majere]

My idea.... A pet's speed should be decreased by half when it is used to aggressively attack another player and the pet's damage should also be reduced by a 3rd...

 

[Touzoko]

Cap fire breath at 35 dmg, and make the stealth skill have a 10 second timer to use just like every other skill. I think that is a big step in the right direction.

many skills do not have timer. Melee skills. Taming. Magery. Magery has "delay" which can be eliminated with jewelry. So you suggest that stealth can then use jewelry as well, and thus eliminate delay?

Actually, many many skils no timer. Stealth may be used in combative sense, but is of itself not combat skill. Many posts have been made, better than mine, how hide and stealth may be over-powered and negated. Most players just do not want to invest skill points to counter skill points. They merely wish easy victory aginst all.

This one thinks if timer must be had, should be reasonable time. Also that faster cast and recovery jewelry should then be included with it, to eliminate that delay, just like with chiv, magery, and other magic endeavors.

 

[Phaheela]

If you add in herding to the required taming template and all 4 skills need to be 120 to be effective thats leaving you only 220 skill points with which to try and come up with some sort of effective secondary skills, its not enough for a wep skill + healing + tatics + anat, nor is it enough to put effective mage on a tamer, thus rendering tamers pretty useless for anything else.


My tamer is also an archer which means she can defend herself (getting better at it every day ) when needed, doesnt need to rely on pets instant reactions and can heal both herself, others and pets, its a good template, it works, its balanced & I enjoy playing.


Im in total agreement about the need to nerf the damage pets do in pvp or better still a penalty on the tamer if the pets are used in pvp, the higher level the pet, the higher the penalty.