I'm sure I will get hammered for saying this, and perhaps I am the only one that feels this way, but PLEASE DO NOT NERF MYSTICISM!
Before anyone gets to spun-up about my plea, please allow me to flesh it out.
First of all, I want to make clear that I am speaking solely from a PvM perspective. From everything I have read, seen, and overheard, ALL of the combat and magic systems in the game could use a good balancing effort WHEN IT COMES TO PVP, such that when two players want to fight each other, ANY character class/template will have a fighting chance. I understand that in the PvP discussion, players have been complaining bitterly about various templates and imbalances both perceived and legitimate for a long time. I don't PvP. I don't care for PvP. But for those that do, I stand with you--PLEASE Dev Team--get the game systems that affect PvP fixed/balanced ASAP!
But, it needs to be equally understood that PvM relies on a completely different set of parameters than PvP EVER will. Why? There are two primary reasons: one is computer AI versus human AI. But the second--and vastly more important reason--is that player characters have but a FRACTION of the hit points that monsters in the game do.
No, I am not talking about zombies and mongbats--I am talking about higher end critters. Ever since Age of Shadows was released, there have been more and more creatures introduced into the game with well over 200, 500 or even 1,000 (or more) hit points. The hit points for characters are capped. Because of this, we have seen melee weapons slowly gain in effectiveness (e.g., 20% DI was once rare; now an exceptionally crafted weapon will have at least a 40% DI--with much higher percentages available for runic or imbued weapon creation). This has forced two significant changes in the game--first, players are now constantly on the hunt for the most devastating weapons they can find--making MOST weapons found on monster corpses as loot and virtually ALL weapons found on NPC vendors obsolete and irrelevant (and who has not seen complaints about the worthless loot found on most monsters in the game?)! Second, players are increasingly forced to find partners to do things with in the game. While I am all for Guilds, Factions, and the spirit of cooperation generally, this is not always a sensible, feasible, or even welcomed situation. For a myriad of reasons, players often want or need to play UO alone--and anyone who will not understand or accept that is automatically alienating many players.
If we are to fight monsters that have thousands of hit points, we must be given the tools to do so!
For purposes of illustration, consider how this plays out in a PvP setting. In PvP, there seems to be much complaint that the "stealth-archer" and, more recently, the "mystic-mage" are unfair templates--that they are too strong. What makes ANY character template "too strong" in PvP is a simple equation of four factors: 1.) how MUCH damage the template can deliver; 2.) how OFTEN the template delivers this damage; 3.) how MUCH damage the template can undo, heal, avoid, or repair at once (including the removal of curses or poison); and, 4.) how QUICKLY the template can repeat this healing effort. Essentially, (and assuming no cheating takes place) a PvP battle is decided by these four factors in that, with the experience and skill of the opposing players held equal, the winner of the duel will be the combatant that can deal the most damage in the shortest amount of time, while also being able to heal enough damage to stay alive.
While the interface mechanics are largely the same, PvM is very different. Even the strongest monsters typically do NOT deliver the same amount of damage with each blow that characters can deliver against the monsters. A top flight melee character is expected to deliver well over 100 points of damage with every blow. Magic wielding characters must generate hundreds of hit points of damage in every minute of game play. But the monsters usually will not deal more than 50-80 points of damage in a single blow. Characters typically regenerate stamina, mana, and hit points (through healing) faster than monsters do. Top-flight monsters start with huge pools of hit points, stamina, and mana--but don't typically regenerate these vital resources quickly. So, while balanced PvP means that both sides are delivering and healing about the same amount of damage with every passing round, PvM has evolved into a scenario where the monsters have the edge at the beginning, but are slowly worn down over the course of a given battle by characters both delivering more damage at a faster rate, and healing the damage they receive at a faster rate. Thus, PvP and PvM are VERY DIFFERENT worlds. Against the backdrop of that realization, consider the idea that Mystics are too strong and must be nerfed. Perhaps this is true for PvP. Perhaps tweaks need to be made to all of the skills (including mysticism) to achieve fair and balanced PvP combat. When it comes to PvM combat, however, mysticism is NOT the problem. It does NOT need to be nerfed. Instead, the OTHER, older skills need to be adjusted so that they "catch up" a bit.
Before Stygian Abyss came out, the most powerful player-character force in a PvM setting was a mage-tamer leading a greater dragon. The greater dragon was largely introduced for two reasons--to add a greater challenge for stronger player characters to test their mettle against, and to give a more powerful tool to tamers to deal with the stronger monsters that had been introduced into the game to that point. The problem was that greater dragons were so strong that other skill classes couldn't compete with them in terms of the damage they delivered. So, greater dragons were nerfed. A problem remains however: nerfing greater dragons (and other tamed pets) was only half the solution that was needed. The other half of the solution is to strengthen the remaining skills, classes, and templates. Consider that, even after the greater dragon was nerfed, the most powerful character was STILL the mage-tamer leading a greater dragon! Fencers, macers, archers, swordsmen--and even other mages--could not (and cannot) deliver the kind of damage that a greater dragon can--nor can they sustain the amount of damage a greater dragon can absorb in a toe-to-toe fray. Perhaps the next most powerful force after the mage-tamer was the mage-arcanist, and only because of the highly controversial and hotly debated spell, Word of Death.
Then, along came Stygian Abyss and the skill known as Mysticism. FINALLY, a skill is introduced that can really stand up well against the tougher monsters. The reality is that mysticism is STILL weaker than the mage-tamer coupled with a greater dragon, but, at least, it is tough enough to stand up to the harshness of the Stygian Abyss' tougher creatures.
I am sure that, in the PvM world, nobody wants to see the situation where every monster stronger than a regular dragon needs to be tackled by a tamer with a high-end pet, or a large group of players, but that is what has evolved. Few if any swordsmen or macers can stand up to a greater dragon by themselves--and if they do, they are usually the most advanced characters in the game, and it still takes a few minutes of hard effort to secure the victory. The complaint is NOT that defeating a high-end monster takes a lot of effort--it is that using a greater dragon requires so much LESS effort compared to other (non-taming) skills!
Having mysticism as strong as it is means that there is finally an alternative to the "uber-strong" mage-tamer/top-flight pet pairing. I submit that Mysticism is the only skill that is properly balanced against the Stygian Abyss' hardest denizens (even though it is STILL not as strong as the mage-tamer/greater dragon combo). The problem, then, is NOT that Mysticism is too strong--it is that the other character classes are too weak! The solution is not in nerfing the mystic--rather, it is found in finally addressing the deficiencies of older skills.
I firmly believe that ALL skills (mysticism included) should behave differently in a PvP setting than they do in the PvM setting. I agree with the continued pleas of the PvPers that the various skills need to be adjusted, buffed, nerfed, and otherwise balanced. Please--go ahead and make those long-overdue corrections Dev Team! BUT, be prepared to have different code written for the way skills behave in the PvM setting, because PvM IS DIFFERENT from PvP, as outlined previously. In PvM, recognize that you have created a huge abundance of ultra-powerful creatures--skeletal dragons, bone demons, Dark Fathers, Peerless Bosses, Skeletal Liches, Medusa, the Slasher of Veils, Corgul--(the list goes on and on)--and you need to provide and maintain the tools for FIGHTING these monsters! In PvM, don't nerf the arcanist! Don't nerf the tamer! Don't nerf the mystic! Instead, start improving the other skills so that they can be more competitive too! I want to be able to take my macer confidently into battles that only greater dragons dared to fight before! I submit that most players would prefer and welcome a UO where ALL (combat) skills/classes/templates had an equal place on the battlefield, rather than just leaving the toughest fights to the tamers and their high-end pets!
Just my opinion here of course--and I mean no offense to anyone.
Respectfully,
Arafel Ilianna
