Balance Talk: Jan 6, 2017
By STAFF_Ines
Jan 11th, 2017
Hello, this is the developer in charge of skill and class balance in TOS, writing to you once again to get you up-to-date with the balance-related changes we’re preparing to launch.
We were very glad to see your positive reactions and engagement in our previous balance post, so we thought we’d share some details about the most recent balance patch we have planned.
These changes will most likely be applied in kTOS very soon, and we hope to bring them over to iTOS as well once everything is ready. Note that this could take a while depending on how smoothly the changes apply over at kTOS, so we ask for your patience…
Barbarian
Main changes:
- Reduced cooldown of Warcry to 42 sec
- Added new Warcry attribute
We envision the Barbarian as a fearless warrior, using sheer audacity to intimidate and weaken any adversary.
In the game, as a mid-lower rank class, the Barbarian is unique in that they become stronger as the combat progresses. In order to stay true to this vision, we needed to incorporate more synergy with other Swordsman tree classes that depend a lot on debuffs. That is why we decided to reduce the cooldown time of Warcry and introduce a new attribute that increases the duration of the skill’s debuff effects.
With this, we hope to help all the Barbarians out there unleash their savage side and use Warcy with confidence in battle.
Cannonneer
Main Changes:
- Increased critical chance for Kneeling Shot
- Increased range for Cannon Shot, Shootdown, Cannon Blast and Cannon Barrage by 20%
- Increased range by 20% and reduced casting time for Siege Bust by 50%
The Cannonneer was designed to be the heavy artillery of TOS, a class that can blast through hordes of enemies with a single blow and fill in the role of AoE dealer; a class that comes with its own handicaps, but a powerful one nonetheless.
From what we’ve observed, however, the Cannonneer skills’ short range isn’t always letting them fulfill that role. Besides the necessary slow attack speed and single-hit constraints, we felt that some skill-related restrictions were a little harsh. For this reason, we decided to increase the range of Cannonneer skills and ease some of their restrictions and associated penalties. We also increased the critical chance of Kneeling Shot in hopes it can be more widely used with other Archer tree skills.
Don’t be too sad about the disadvantages of the Cannonneer class, though. We’re going to keep working on it until we feel it’s as true as possible to its concept.
Corsair
Main changes:
- Reduced stamina consumption for Double Weapon Assault according to Jolly Roger skill level
In kTOS, we introduced a few changes to Jolly Roger combo requirements and effects, expecting to differentiate the role of Corsairs as party leaders in Earth Tower and other high-level contents.
We realized, however, that in solo combat, Corsairs were still not living up to the image of the ruthless pirate we had imagined. So this time, we decided to make the effects of the pirate flag apply to the casting character as well, and use the skill level of Jolly Roger to reduce the stamina consumption for Double Weapon Assault.
Ultimately, we want Corsairs to prove their worth not just as leaders of a group, but as capable solo fighters too.
Monk
Main changes:
- Added stamina-reducing attribute to Double Punch
- Reduced Energy Blast charging time to 0.25 sec
- Reduced cooldown of Golden Bell Shield to 120 sec
Last time on the dev blog I wrote about how we thought Monk skills were a bit too restrictive, especially all the cool skills players usually go for when they choose this class.
To bring a little freedom and efficiency into Monk skills, we first added an attribute to reduce the stamina consumption of Double Punch and cut the charging time of Energy Blast in half, increasing these skills’ versatility and efficacy. Finally, we decided to buff Golden Bell Shield as well, seeing as, despite being a Rank 7 skill, it doesn’t offer much more than Safety Zone, which can be learned at Rank 1.
We understand that, especially in the case of Golden Bell Shield, which makes you invincible after all, we need to be extra careful when tampering with some of these skills in order to avoid something that’s too OP. We’ll keep this in mind for future updates.
Rune Caster
Main changes:
- Wizard skills become usable under the effect of Rune of Giants
In our previous dev blog balance post, I broke the silence about hidden class changes to write about the updates we were planning for Rune of Giants.
We played around with some of these changes and, fortunately, they seem to help Rune Casters use other skills with Rune of Giants a lot more actively like we hoped. Following that, we want to lift even more restrictions from the skill and allow Rune of Giants to be used with the most sought-after Wizard class skills.
At the moment we don’t foresee any major negative impact from liberalizing Rune of Giants, so we hope these changes will help turn it into a skill that is increasingly helpful, rather than just “for show”.
Warlock
Main changes:
- Extended duration of Mastema’s stigma (Devil type) to 20 sec
There are only a handful of skills in Tree of Savior that give characters the ability to change the property of enemies, and Mastema is one of them (another prime example is the Druid’s Chortasmata).
The main advantage of Mastema is that, as its stigma changes enemies to Devil type, characters with strong attacks against this property can use it to deal extra damage to any monster (this is especially useful to your Cleric friends). On the other hand, we thought 5 seconds was a little too short to have a significant impact in actual combat, so we decided to give a big boost to the duration of Mastema.
Our hope is that this will encourage Warlocks to use Mastema in a wider range of situations and in combination with their own as well as other characters’ skills.
I would like to stress here that these changes are just a preview of what we have prepared. By the time this balance patch reaches iTOS, some details may have been changed, so don’t take anything for certain just yet.
That said, we look forward to your feedback on these changes, and we hope to keep providing you more updates through the dev blog, so stay tuned!