[iTOS EXCLUSIVE] Dev Comments: Intense Balancing (Feb 20)
By STAFF_Ines
Feb 20th, 2018
Greetings, Saviors!
As you may know from this week’s patch notes, today’s content update includes a serious balance rework in classes of all trees. We at the dev team have previously discussed many of these changes in the Intense Balancing post series, and now that they’re being applied to the game, we thought we’d chime in with some additional comments for our iTOS audience about how certain skill adjustments came to be and what our intention behind them was.
Keep in mind that this post doesn’t cover all that’s being applied in this patch. For the full list of changes, check the patch notes for February 20, 2018.
: Falconer
Roost
- Falconer skills within 100 range from the roost will now deal 50% more damage.
- Duration decreased from 120 to 20 sec.
- Cooldown decreased from 60 sec to 20 sec.
This one is simple: Roost didn’t serve much of a purpose before, but with this change the skill takes on the role of focusing the Falconer’s attacks.
Circling
- Will now decrease AoE defense ratio to 1 regardless of skill level.
- Effects will now be maintained even when the character moves (the Hawk will follow).
- Duration changed from 10 sec to 10 + (skill level * 1) sec.
Circling is one of the most recognizable Falconer skills, and a very appealing one at that. The downside to its unregulated power was that, not only were bugs frequent, but under certain circumstances it could become too much of an overpowering skill. To address this, we cut the AoE defense ratio decrease and made it a “mobile” skill where the Hawk follows the casting character. With this, Circling can no longer be used for unlimited attacks, but it remains just as powerful and important in the Falconer repertoire.
Pheasant
- Damage to Beast enemies increased 50%.
- Max. targets changed from unlimited to 15.
- Skill factor changed from 660% with 36.3% per skill level to 990% with 54.5% per skill level.
- Cooldown reduced from 40 to 25 sec.
Despite being a red icon dealer class, Falconers didn’t really have a representative attack skill. What’s more, considering the unique concept of the class, it was lacking a true attack that made proper use of the Hawk. Pheasant was the obvious choice for the role, so in this patch we wanted it to be reborn as the skill to go to for a powerful blow. Along with its various attributes, we hope Pheasant will become the staple Falconer tile skill in the eras to come.
Pre-emptive Strike
- Skill can now be turned ON/OFF at any time.
- Increased damage of Sonic Strike and Hovering activated by Pre-Emptive Strike (skill level * 10%).
- Added cyclical SP consumption effect that applies whenever Pre-Emptive Strike is active.
- The buff disappears if SP is low.
- Duration changed to unlimited.
- Cooldown changed to 0 sec.
We at the dev team were happy with the concept of Pre-emptive Strike, but we had a few issues with its low performance and lack of overall convenience. In this patch, we applied a solution to those problems by allowing the skill to be switched ON/OFF and increasing the damage of Sonic Strike and Hovering under its effects.
Hawk Hunt
- New attribute.
- After performing its skills, the Hawk remains in standby mode and does not leave.
- Max. level 1.
Circle 3 Falconer may have Pre-emptive Strike and Aiming, but we felt like it was missing a certain charm, so we decided to add a new attribute that would facilitate the process of managing the Hawk. It’s at C3 that Falconers can really prove themselves as veteran hawk hunters now.
: Musketeer
The Musketeer is a widely attractive class with a fanbase of its own, but its skills weren’t quite living up to the appeal. Our main gripe (and that of many players) was that the most powerful attack skills were all concentrated in Circle 1, so making a satisfying investment of your early skill points was almost impossible. Our goal with these Musketeer changes was, then, to redistribute and improve the performance of the class’ skills in order to simplify skill point investment while staying true to the original Musketeer concept.
Subweapon Attack
- Musketeers can now use subweapon attack (C) when equipping a Musket.
With Butt Stroke gone, we brought in subweapon attack so that players can use it in conjunction with the new attribute as an escape move. This, we hope, can add to the technical repertoire of the class.
Covering Fire
- Charging time removed.
- Reduced pause after casting from 2 sec to 1.5 sec.
Covering Fire is a good option for making up for the lack of AoE attack in the Musketeer class, but the long charging time and cast delay meant that it was far from practical. With these changes, the skill becomes considerably easier to handle.
Snipe
- Skill moved to C2.
- Skill factor increased from 2266% to 2833% (567% increase).
- Damage increase per level increased from 124.6% to 155.8% per level (31.2% increase per level).
- Reduced pause after casting from 2 sec to 0.5 sec.
Having Snipe in Circle 1 was somewhat of a disadvantage to Musketeers due to the limited performance of the skill and the amount of points required for properly investing in it. By moving it to Circle 2 and adjusting the damage, Snipe can now be free of its main restrictions.
Bayonet Thrust: Reduced Recovery
- Attribute removed.
Butt Stroke and Bayonet Thrust were not only ignored by most players, but they also didn’t fit right with our vision of the Musketeer class. For this reason, instead of finding a way to make players use these skills, we decided it was better to delete them (with our sincere apologies to bayonet fans) and create new skills that more accurately represent the Musketeer technique.
Grooving Muzzle
- New skill.
- Maximum level 15.
- Increases accuracy +100 when using skill.
- Ignores 15% of enemy defense.
- 30% chance of changing basic attack to 3 consecutive critical attacks.
- Duration 10 + (skill level -1) sec.
- Cooldown 35 sec.
In order to improve on the Musketeer’s compatibility, we decided to add in a new basic attack skill. Not only is Grooving Muzzle a handy addition to any class build, it can be used during the cooldown of your other skills in place of raw basic attacks.
Volleyfire
- Changed from AoE ratio of 5 to fixed value of 8 targets.
- Changed from “effect” multi-hit to true multi-hit.
- Overheat increased from 1 to 2.
- Cooldown reduced from 26 sec to 20 sec.
While Covering Fire and Volleyfire can both be considered as the go-to Musketeer skills for AoE attack, the latter was significantly less popular. Now, with increased overheat, reduced cooldown and differentiated features, players will have to think twice before forgoing Volleyfire.
Sniper’s Serenity
- Added ability to walk slowly when in Sniper's Serenity status.
- Movement speed is fixed to 10 and unable to move during basic attacks.
- Using skill while on the buff deactivates it and applies cooldown.
- Cooldown reduced from 20 sec to 1 sec.
- SP consumption changed from 370 (+41 per level) to 111 (+12.3 per level).
We at the dev team are very satisfied with how Sniper’s Serenity performs. It’s a favorite of in-game Musketeers, too. However, we did feel like the way it was structured resulted in too many gameplay restrictions. Because of this, we wanted to make a few changes that would improve the feel of the skill without tampering too much with its performance.
Prime & Load
- New skill.
- Maximum level 1.
- Cooldown 25 sec.
- Using skill resets Musketeer's C1 and C2 attack skill cooldown.
- Additional cooldown is applied according to the reset skills.
As we said earlier, although the initial concept of the Musketeer is fairly attractive, it was lacking in compatibility with lower Rank classes. We tried to amend this in previous patches, but it wasn’t enough to solve the main problem at hand. Here, too, we came to the conclusion that instead of forcing the use of unrelated skills, the answer was to reinforce combat in the style of the Musketeer. That’s how we came up with Prime & Load, which can be used to deal powerful blows without interruption or fill in the gaps of other skills.
: Hoplite
Stabbing
- Increased piercing speed by approx. 2 times.
- Damage now increases up to 2 times with consecutive pierces.
Stabbing is an appealing skill, but due to its subpar efficacy it was never a favorite of Hoplite players. We wanted Stabbing to become a somewhat risky skill with the payoff of dealing large amounts of damage from one spot, so we had damage increase over time to make that risk worth taking. We also improved on the general feel of the skill by upping the stabbing speed.
Long Stride
- Damage now increases with weight (100% weight = +100% damage).
- Increased range by approx. 2-3 times.
- Targets increased from 5 to 10.
- Cooldown decreased from 49 to 30 sec.
Long Stride was originally intended as the go-to Hoplite AoE technique, but in reality it turned out to be a little too impractical. For this skill, we doubled the range and number of targets, and we reduced the cooldown time to improve the overall utility of Long Stride.
: Cataphract
As developers, we always felt sorry for how the Cataphract class was being used mostly for Trot. We tried to come up with ways of improving it more than once, but it wasn’t enough to transform the class in the we had hoped. This time, we decided to go all out and not only add different effects to the skills, but also develop new skills to help cement the Cataphract’s offensive side.
Earth Wave
- Changed to increase damage by 50% on knocked down enemies.
- Removed casting time.
- Overheat changed from 1 to 3.
- Cooldown decreased from 12 to 10 sec.
Our goal here was to make Earth Wave a more quintessential Cataphract skill. The increased overheat and shorter cooldown make it more readily available, while the absence of casting time gives way to an easier application.
Steed Charge
- Reduced staggering effect that occurs after the skill is cast.
- Skill can now be used one more time within 1.5 sec of being cast.
Although charging is an important concept to the Cataphract class, it wasn’t always explicitly represented in skills other than Trot. That’s why we’re reducing the staggering effect of Steed Charge, allowing players use the skill again within a shorter amount of time. Hopefully, Steed Charge can now be used as a better technical tool to quickly rush to the enemy or retreat when necessary.
Acrobatic Mount
- New skill.
- Increases the damage of skills only able to use while riding by + (skill level *5)%.
- Increases SP consumptions by + (skill level *10)%.
- Only able to use while riding (deactivates when dismounted).
- Duration 40 sec.
- Cooldown 60 sec.
Another distinctive trait of Cataphracts is mounted combat. Sadly, the heavy mounting restrictions on skill use all but nullified any merits the class had in cavalry play. Our solution to this was enhancing mounted skills with an added buff, which gives Cataphracts the ability to deal high degrees of damage in exchange for increased SP consumption. With Acrobatic Mount, it’s up to the players to decide whether they want to take the high risk, high return route or give up some of the damage boost for a more comfortable management of their SP.
: Dragoon
Dragon Soar
- Damage on Flying enemies increased 30%.
- Overheat changed from 1 to 3.
Our plan for Dragon Soar was to create a handy skill players can use to fill in the gaps of other Dragoon techniques. We think the skill’s damage and overall performance are good enough for its purpose, so we went for an overheat increase as the main change.
Dragontooth
- Casting time changed to 1 sec regardless of skill level.
- Critical rate now doubles when the skill is accurate.
- Additional effects are now applied according to the type of spear equipped.
- Two-handed spears ignore 50% defense.
- One-handed spears increase critical damage by 10%.
The problem with Dragontooth was that, as you increased in level, the casting time grew significantly longer, which severely constricted the skill’s usability. That is far from the vision we had for Dragontooth, so in this patch we worked towards improving its synergy with other aspects of the class. We added weapon bonuses and reduced the casting time in order to give Dragoons enough room to play around with the skill and make the most of its performance.
: Quarrel Shooter
Running Shot
- Additional attack calculations changed from multiplication to addition formulas.
- Base 80%, per-level increase 30%.
- Buff can now be right-clicked to cancel.
- Duration changed to 300 sec.
We know Running Shot was already a fairly popular skill, but with the introduction of Double Gun Stance and other high rank skills, it was threatening to become a little too OP. So, in consideration of future basic attack skills, we decided to modify Running Shot’s calculation formulas into producing more reasonable results.
: Linker
Hangman's Knot: Splash Defense
- Name changed to Hangman's Knot: Focused Attack.
- Effects changed to set the AoE defense ratio of linked enemies to 1, and increase damage received by 5% per attribute level for 3 sec.
Having Hangman’s Knot reduce the AoE defense ratio of enemies below 0 could sometimes make the skill unintentionally overpowering, so we limited that reduction to a maximum of 1. To compensate, we added new effects to Focused Attack in an attempt to maintain some of the performance of the original attribute without restricting it excessively.
: Matador
With our tweaks to the Matador class, our goal is to cement its role in situations where the casting character is being targeted, as well as increase its overall technicality. This was only our first step towards achieving that goal, but we have more plans to continue working on the Matador in future patches.
Muleta
- Added buff that increases critical rate by 10 per skill level for 20 sec when the counter-attack is successful.
- Changed cooldown and SP consumption to apply immediately when the skill is cast.
- Blocks physical melee attacks when counter-attacking.
- Duration increased from 0.5 sec to 1 sec.
- Cooldown increased from 8 to 10 sec.
Muleta was a rather difficult skill to use against continuous enemy attacks. Because of this, we made a few changes to help it block consecutive attacks more easily after the first counter-attack.
Paso Doble
- Skill range increased by about 33%.
- Skill length increased from 40 to 60.
- Cooldown reduced from 25 sec to 20 sec.
- Character no longer takes damage while the skill is being cast.
- Increased AOE ratio by 5.
We felt that Paso Doble wasn’t performing as well as we had hoped, so we started by adjusting the cooldown, range and AoE ratio. Then, we added the “no damage taken while casting” effect to give players better control in escaping dangerous situations.
Black Slide
- 100% chance of evasion during the maneuver.
Allowing Back Slide to be used at the right time to evade enemy attacks is one example of the measures we took to increase the technical aspect of Matador combat.
: Lancer
We were already pretty satisfied with the situation of the Lancer class as a whole. We only felt like the SP consumption was a tad excessive for a Swordsman tree class, so we decided to reduce the overall SP requirements of its skills.
: Inquisitor
Breaking Wheel
- Breaking Wheel: Additional Damage attribute activates up to 15 hits regardless of the wheel's durability, and the wheel remains even after 15 hits.
- Breaking Wheel can no longer be destroyed, even when hit by enemies.
Using Breaking Wheel with an attribute to deal additional damage is in no way a flaw in the design of the skill. However, under certain unconventional situations, this skill did allow for unlimited hits, or for the number of hits to be increased beyond what we intended. Since we had no problems with the basic performance of Breaking Wheel, instead of nerfing it, we simply put a stop to its unintended use. In fact, now that the wheel can’t be destroyed by enemy attacks, the skill can perform even better than before in normal circumstances.