Go ahead and read
Craig Morrison On Melee vs. Ranged Balance. Sadly this is nothing more than "theorycraft" and "blah blah blah" bullshit coming from a man who has never played his own game. I am not first to say this and won't be the last. Mr Game Director has never engaged in PVP that we all experience in day to day minigames. You really have to face a caster premade to know your stuff before opening your mouth on "PvP issues". The evidence is before you: this is the same man who approved 1.5 going live with casters afterwards being able to steamroll every class for several weeks. What were you thinking?
Our balance in that respect probably isn't quite there yet and we acknowledge that and work on it, but it also isn't as far away from being well balanced as a vocal hardcore player would have you believe
I don't know how about you, but that alone screams to me "its fine, l2p". What was the point of that article? It contains no new information, it basiclly tells old time players to "go fuck themselfs" while trying to do what? To convince new players to come and try PvP? If a game is in such state that Game Director has to go out and write articles on "how fine things are" then you can bet your ass that said game has some real issues.
So if you were to ask someone active on our forums who is part of the dedicated community they will most likely tell you that it is quite a severe imbalance between melee and casters due to that, but on the flip side, melee classes make up all of the top four most played classes in Age of Conan so it also doesn't effect things to the point where any kind of majority feel compelled to 'reroll' as the easier option, even if the acknowledge it is easier.
Melee classes make up all of top most played classes (assuming thats even true) because this is HYBORIA, the savage world where people supposedly lived by the sword. What comes to your mind when you think "Conan"? I bet battle axes, rolling heads and steel clashing against steel..or perhaps robes, good tea, magic wands and pointy hats? The second sentence is even better: our game is not broken to the point that people resort to rerolling casters. Well good on you, hope you are proud of that.
The players that provide us with the most feedback clearly see that it is easier to maximize the potential of a casting class rather than a melee class (due to the mechanics aspects as I mentioned earlier) and that is the case. It is easier, and offers and easier option, but the other side is that melee is still very viable and in skilled hands equally powerful at what their role is on the battlefield, the issue is that with two players of equal skill the caster is easier to master.
Melee in skilled hands...What the hell does that even mean? Perhaps this is a little reply to
Feedback on Stamina thread where US community took Morrison to school on mana vs stamina usage (one of core problems right now). As I type this the article from MMO mmorpg.com is getting quoted in that thread. I expect things
to get nasty. Even the mmorpg comments are getting some
juicy replies.
If FC is going to tweak (what a wonderful word to use when describing horrid task of re-doing whole stamina/mana system) the casters overtime then fine, that tells they are aware of the issue and willing to act accordingly.
Silirrion has a tough job - no doubt about it. It is not time to for writting smart-ass articles on balance theory (this is no longer beta, remember?). Just play your own game not in a friendly "pizza party" office enviroment, but on pvp servers where the vitual metal meets the meat (or atleast it would meet that meat if it wasn't for the fact that owner of that metal is geting CCed back to stone age by casters).
I don't expect things to change overnight and yes, it will take time. However what I am not DOWN WITH is going out in public and then pissing on players backs and telling them it is raining.
In preparation for upcoming Age of Conan expansion I am taking a break and going on vacations somewhere in Asia.
