Impressions from a long-time froob

[Tradeher]

I think the main problem with the balance changes is pressure from players. FC obviously have to listen to a lot of requests "my keeper sucks in pvp, give keepers more tools!" "I got rooted, nerf roots!" type of biased crap, and most of these requests are from a pvp perspective, in the aim of balancing out all the chars so everyone can fight everyone else fairly in pvp.

I don't think this is the correct approach. If you keep giving more attacks, perks, tools etc to chars to try and even them out, you just create another inbalance elsewhere. Nerf aimed shot and you have a lot of useless agents. Reduce the effect of snares and you completely change the toolset of crats, fixers etc.

I think that FC needs to remember that chars are supposed to be specialists at different roles. Is it wrong that traders are the most powerful pvp profession? Is it wrong that keepers and shades are gimped until the very endgame? I'm not saying no changes need to be made, just that in doing so chars should still be specialised and not make every class an all-round class.

Here are the changes I most care about voicing:

Nelebs rod - Has the same damage as a mortiig beater but 250 less requirements. Almost every under 40 pvp char is using it at the moment. I suggest increasing the requirements to around 450 2hb to match other weapons of it's power.

Traders - 100-174 traders are overpowered at the moment. I think a 150 level lock on nanite drains would be appropriate. Traders have also become a lot more evade based than nano based characters, so I feel that their evade IP skills should be slightly nerfed.

Roots & snares - overpowered. Snares should only reduce runspeed to a minimum of say, 30. Negative runspeed is a joke. As for roots, they should be a maximum of 3 minute duration.

Aimed shot - I think AS is actually underpowered for agents who gain the same advantage from it as fixers, advys etc etc. I think the AS cap should be increased dramatically for agents and replaced with a long attack time, as would be had taking an aimed shot. Shotgun & pistol AS should be somewhat nerfed. I think bow is fine the way it is.

Fixers - from what I've seen fixers can't do their job (running, evading, snaring) better than most other profs at the moment. Runspeed needs to be nerfed for non-fixer classes and especially for adventurers.

And finally, FC should remember that it's okay for a class to dominate pvp, or for a class to be a pvm solo god, or to be a good money-making profession. It's the unique specialisation of the classes I feel that made AO so popular in the first place. Don't make every class into a bread-and-butter combat class, please.

[Kinkstaah]

However, every class advances via combat. They should all be viable, but without a doubt some should be more challenging/complex/require more skill to be viable than others, following their ability to do tradeskills/support prof/etc.

Rock/Paper/Scissors + I cant fight at all but can do tradeskills, is crap.

[Djantro]

"I think the main problem with the balance changes is pressure from players. "

I think that if they wanted to be truly objective and not biased by player's lobbying on forums they d just have to know their game perfectly. What would makes sense would be that a guy from their crew were an expert pvper that would pvp all day long on live server, with access to all the prof at appropriate levels and maybe 3 level of equipment - gimp, average and perfect twink - including different setups for each prof (known viable setup). 2 months of intensive in game playing would be enough to have a nice overview of the situation.

Maybe they do that allrdy but i rly doubt

[Ceenah2]

If u ask me everything was pretty much fine in notum war expansion. Until SL comes out and things get messier and messier from there onwards :-P

With all these massive amount of perks, ultra equipments that does not have weakness, it is going to be very hard to balance thing up perfectly but they are trying to do it to minimize the gaps.

[Hacre]

About the only thing I agree with in your OP is the point about the Neleb "noobstick". The rest seems to be random conjecture with little reasoning and what reasoning there is, you're basing on an utterly incomplete picture. All we have seen so far, is perk proposals and nothing else.

I don't see how pressure from -players- is a bad thing, when it's the players that pay to play the damn game and are the reason the game exists in the first place. Would you care to hazard a guess as to why it's wrong to ignore what your player base is saying?

Nelebs rod - Has the same damage as a mortiig beater but 250 less requirements. Almost every under 40 pvp char is using it at the moment. I suggest increasing the requirements to around 450 2hb to match other weapons of it's power.

As stated, I agree. However you're comparing a 2hb weapon with a 1hb weapon.

Traders - 100-174 traders are overpowered at the moment. I think a 150 level lock on nanite drains would be appropriate. Traders have also become a lot more evade based than nano based characters, so I feel that their evade IP skills should be slightly nerfed.

I can't speak for TL5, but TL4 Traders aren't even remotely over powered. The highest level lock that should even be considered for Nanite Drains is level 75. They're overly powerful against gimps and idiots, yes but that's hardly an issue, most classes that are twinked properly are overly powerful against gimps and idiots. Given that Traders aren't OP at TL4 I fail to see how they are at TL5...does Easy Shot really suddenly over power Traders?

Also, Traders have always been a profession that works on their evades. They've always had an evade buff, the second best evade buff you can cast on others, even. They also have an entire perk line that buffs evades. Trader evades are mediocre and brought into decency by their drains. One compliments the other. It's not as if Trader evade skills are cheap on IP as it stands already.

Roots & snares - overpowered. Snares should only reduce runspeed to a minimum of say, 30. Negative runspeed is a joke. As for roots, they should be a maximum of 3 minute duration.

Snare duration is rather silly I agree. I'm not sure what you have against roots that you feel cutting their duration by 1-1.5 minutes is going to solve. Roots rarely, if ever, last that long against anyone anyway due to breaking on hit/debuffs/nukes.

Aimed shot - I think AS is actually underpowered for agents

No it isn't.

who gain the same advantage from it as fixers, advys etc etc.

No they don't. I'm amazed a Fixer hasn't crawled all over you for this already.

I think the AS cap should be increased dramatically for agents and replaced with a long attack time, as would be had taking an aimed shot.

It's getting a 3s interruptible attack time. The damage on AS is already high enough and they're getting a second Backstab like special along with it.

Shotgun & pistol AS should be somewhat nerfed. I think bow is fine the way it is.

Pistol AS is already nerfed and apart from the Silverback, Shotgun AS sucks too.

Fixers - from what I've seen fixers can't do their job (running, evading, snaring) better than most other profs at the moment. Runspeed needs to be nerfed for non-fixer classes and especially for adventurers.

Runspeed is already being addressed and Fixers can outrun anybody.

And finally, FC should remember that it's okay for a class to dominate pvp, or for a class to be a pvm solo god, or to be a good money-making profession. It's the unique specialisation of the classes I feel that made AO so popular in the first place. Don't make every class into a bread-and-butter combat class, please.

What Kink said, for this. Until combat isn't the only way to level or win at PvP, then everyone needs a decent bite at the combat pie.

[Notcrattey]

Nelebs rod - Has the same damage as a mortiig beater but 250 less requirements. Almost every under 40 pvp char is using it at the moment. I suggest increasing the requirements to around 450 2hb to match other weapons of it's power.

What the hell are you smoking, tiig is a lot more powerful than nelebs. The only weapon neleb's is comparable to is the Styg, but you already mentioned a stat similar to that.

[PingBong]

IAimed shot - I think AS is actually underpowered for agents who gain the same advantage from it as fixers, advys etc etc. I think the AS cap should be increased dramatically for agents and replaced with a long attack time, as would be had taking an aimed shot. Shotgun & pistol AS should be somewhat nerfed. I think bow is fine the way it is.

most of agents dps in pvp (which is certainly not lacking) already comes from AS, what led u to ur opinion?

[Reids]

I can't speak for TL5, but TL4 Traders aren't even remotely over powered. The highest level lock that should even be considered for Nanite Drains is level 75. They're overly powerful against gimps and idiots, yes but that's hardly an issue, most classes that are twinked properly are overly powerful against gimps and idiots. Given that Traders aren't OP at TL4

Nanites should be TL5 locked, it's quite stupid to be reduced to negative AR at TL3. TL4 traders are pretty OPed (not as much as tl2/3 but still pretty damn powerful).

Just cos you got a TL3 trader now!

[Coffeebeans]

"I think the main problem with the balance changes is pressure from players. "

I think that if they wanted to be truly objective and not biased by player's lobbying on forums they d just have to know their game perfectly. What would makes sense would be that a guy from their crew were an expert pvper that would pvp all day long on live server, with access to all the prof at appropriate levels and maybe 3 level of equipment - gimp, average and perfect twink - including different setups for each prof (known viable setup). 2 months of intensive in game playing would be enough to have a nice overview of the situation.

Maybe they do that allrdy but i rly doubt

Then again if they decided that a level 35 enfo needed better weapon for 2hb you get battlerod that everyone under 40 uses like OP said

If it were me in that position I'd nerf pistol docs because I preferred MAskill on docs, would you like to /agree then to MY version of what should be what?

Everyone does things differently, thus you have variety, what makes AO unique? Certainly not the usual cookie-cutter characters. I'm sure mr twink pvp solja would be flaming GMs about the keeper that alpha with FA and burst on him.