Ability Balance and The Balance of AoE
Since my original return to the site, I have always doubted the current place of Area of Effect Techniques/Abilities. I have argued in the past that they were overpowered in there current treatment in regards to both Direct and Split Projectile attacks.
With current mechanics and the logic based clashing system there is little to no point of using Direct attacks, this is due to how Area of Effect attacks interact with the target in comparison to Both Direct and SP attacks.
AoE - On hitting a target completely, an AoE attack at B tier would deal B tier full body damage - Furthermore to this it would deal B tier ability damage to all equipment that creature is currently carrying.
While it can hit everything on a single individual, it can also hit more than one person within that Area of Effect and deal the exact same effects.
Furthermore, due to the general nature of AoE’s being more fluid than Direct and SP techniques it also makes them incredibly hard to “reasonably” block or parry.
SP Attacks - Split Projectile attacks fill a similar idea to Area of Effect, bar that they feature an attack that could arguably be used to interact with multiple people in a larger area than an AoE - However with this function for every split they make they have their damage reduced.
In doing so it also reduced the required damage to destroy them, for example under clashing rules currently a complete split (8 ) A tier Ability would be able to be blocked by a D tier AoE effect.
Unlike AoE when interacting with equipment and players they only deal the damage to what they hit - if they hit your equipment and no you then it only deals damage to that
Direct Attacks - Direct attacks are single entity attacks that carry their full power. These in the current standings are the weakest of all technique types. They interact with equipment and people in the same fashion as a SP attack but will be far more effective at dealing damage overall either the a creature/character or the equipment.
Now for my suggested changes and interactions:
We should look at each attack type as its own single entity - you should only be able to have Direct, AoE or SP - This means no SP AoE techniques (those type of techniques are significantly broken and break what I believe are the intended design)
My belief in the interaction should be that AoE is the hard counter to SP. However, AoE should be vulnerable to interactions with Direct attacks. Finally, Direct Attacks should be Useless against SP techniques.
How I would do this: I would suggest that we move to Reducing the Technique Output of an AoE effect by 1 tier - This would mean no D tier AoE Techniques. This would balance AoE against the smallest of the SP Techniques
In doing so allow for an A tier Direct attack to pass through an A tier AoE and still carry B tier Technique damage onto the target.
By doing this an Extreme Magic AoE (Omega) would still be lethal by dealing A tier full body damage. However, at lower tiers it would become less effective against direct forms of attack and be far less lethal to groups than it currently is.
I believe in making this change, it will help shift away from the standard AoE focus meta. While we still have other features to investigate (Magician’s having access to Seeking attacks, I believe that can be remedied with enhancements to the weaker classes)
We could look at allowing Direct attacks to carry more features than AoE’s and SP type attacks but that could be a further extension if this suggestion - if implemented doesn’t bring AoE into line with the other technique types.
Please ask queries below and feel free to post comments.
Since my original return to the site, I have always doubted the current place of Area of Effect Techniques/Abilities. I have argued in the past that they were overpowered in there current treatment in regards to both Direct and Split Projectile attacks.
With current mechanics and the logic based clashing system there is little to no point of using Direct attacks, this is due to how Area of Effect attacks interact with the target in comparison to Both Direct and SP attacks.
AoE - On hitting a target completely, an AoE attack at B tier would deal B tier full body damage - Furthermore to this it would deal B tier ability damage to all equipment that creature is currently carrying.
While it can hit everything on a single individual, it can also hit more than one person within that Area of Effect and deal the exact same effects.
Furthermore, due to the general nature of AoE’s being more fluid than Direct and SP techniques it also makes them incredibly hard to “reasonably” block or parry.
SP Attacks - Split Projectile attacks fill a similar idea to Area of Effect, bar that they feature an attack that could arguably be used to interact with multiple people in a larger area than an AoE - However with this function for every split they make they have their damage reduced.
In doing so it also reduced the required damage to destroy them, for example under clashing rules currently a complete split (8 ) A tier Ability would be able to be blocked by a D tier AoE effect.
Unlike AoE when interacting with equipment and players they only deal the damage to what they hit - if they hit your equipment and no you then it only deals damage to that
Direct Attacks - Direct attacks are single entity attacks that carry their full power. These in the current standings are the weakest of all technique types. They interact with equipment and people in the same fashion as a SP attack but will be far more effective at dealing damage overall either the a creature/character or the equipment.
Now for my suggested changes and interactions:
We should look at each attack type as its own single entity - you should only be able to have Direct, AoE or SP - This means no SP AoE techniques (those type of techniques are significantly broken and break what I believe are the intended design)
My belief in the interaction should be that AoE is the hard counter to SP. However, AoE should be vulnerable to interactions with Direct attacks. Finally, Direct Attacks should be Useless against SP techniques.
How I would do this: I would suggest that we move to Reducing the Technique Output of an AoE effect by 1 tier - This would mean no D tier AoE Techniques. This would balance AoE against the smallest of the SP Techniques
In doing so allow for an A tier Direct attack to pass through an A tier AoE and still carry B tier Technique damage onto the target.
By doing this an Extreme Magic AoE (Omega) would still be lethal by dealing A tier full body damage. However, at lower tiers it would become less effective against direct forms of attack and be far less lethal to groups than it currently is.
I believe in making this change, it will help shift away from the standard AoE focus meta. While we still have other features to investigate (Magician’s having access to Seeking attacks, I believe that can be remedied with enhancements to the weaker classes)
We could look at allowing Direct attacks to carry more features than AoE’s and SP type attacks but that could be a further extension if this suggestion - if implemented doesn’t bring AoE into line with the other technique types.
Please ask queries below and feel free to post comments.