Greetings Splose, thank you for stopping by
So yeah, I been thinking about new ways and new class balance a lot. My goal is to make something in spirit of EQ, but yet completely new, to bring back that sense of adventure, where every min/maxer doesn’t know exact spawn time and drop rates of Manastone down to a second.
So on subject of class balance, I was never really happy with very narrow vision of original EQ where some classes too limited. I want a set up where all classes can solo, but when it comes to groups or raids specialization kicks in. I am leaning towards something close to early EQ2 idea where let say Wizard can solo and blowing up mobs really fast, but he is a glass-cannon and needs to take downtime to recover mana. Cleric on other hand is a slow soloer, but due to efficient mana and hp management he has literally no downtime. So in the end solo rates of both classes will be somewhat similar, where Wizard can drop 5 targets and then rest for 5 min, where cleric takes all this time to kill 5 targets. And rest of classes fall somewhere in between. This is of course very rough draft, as there going to be situational bonuses and class perks.
Now going back to special bonuses issue. As you correctly pointed out – if Cleric bonus spell package is too good – it makes everyone one else useless, and mostly undead zone will be done by 6 Cleric groups, which is bad
The goal is to find this middle ground where classes get this LORE PERK, without going into extremes. In original EQ Cleric is such a poor soloer, that even with his bonus vs Undead nukes, its hardly making a difference. Essentially, original EQ Cleric (untwinked) can only truly solo vs Undead, because even if his vs Undead spell are better than his normal spells, it still too poor to make a difference, not to mention they eat his spell slots. In a group setting, and in undead dungeon, Cleric may contribute some DPS, but again his primary role is group support. What they did in WoW and EQ2, instead of giving priests separate spell package vs undead or elementals, then gave them double damage bonus when used vs special targets. So Cleric nukes in EQ2 work on all targets but deal double damage vs Undead. I am wondering if this is better way to go.
Now going back to Fire mage vs Fire Elementals – full on 100% resist is problematic, unless Mage has some other spell set as back up (for the record- I hate WoW Dual Specialization thing, and easy switch back and forth – if you pick a Spec – you suppose to stay in that spec, otherwise what’s the point? Of course all specs must balanced enough o be all decently useful, and not like – this is awesome solo spec that 100% useless in raid, and vice-verse).
And final issue is – should all classes have this special situation where they really god vs A and really bad vs B? Like what can you do with Shaman? Who are Shaman’s easy victims and who are his nemeses? Also to keep in mind, that in a typical setting not all groups of monsters are equally represented. There is usually a lot of Undead, but much fewer elementals or dragons outside of high end game, which creates another disparity.