Okay, I know the issue has been brought up before in a few topics, but a quick summary: Swordsman’s auto-attack has a massive advantage over the other basic classes due to the fact that it has AoE. I’m aware that apparently, this imbalance becomes less noticeable at later levels, but as someone who’s played Wizard, Ranger, and Swordsman so far, the difference in auto-attack is killing the enjoyment of the grind on my Wizard and Ranger (and this is coming from someone who actually likes grinding in MMOs). I’m also aware that Wizard and Ranger are supposed to be more difficult classes than Swordsman, but this supposed difficulty gap doesn’t make me feel accomplished for using a more technical class, it makes me feel like I’m being punished for choosing a weaker class.
Anyways, on to how I would suggest trying to equalize the auto-attacks a bit:
1. Give all melee weapons, regardless of who wields them, a bit of AoE. Obviously swords and hammers aren’t the same kind of weapon, so the exact AoE range given by each type of weapon should vary, with larger weapons like two-handed swords holding the largest AoE, and smaller weapons like maces having smaller AoE.
2. Add splash damage to the magic orbs flung by staves and canes. Since Wizards have skills that allow them to be fairly adept at crowd control, the splash would not only allow them to kill slightly faster, but poke multiple enemies at once and draw them into a closer area (and without the need to be a Linker to forcibly drag enemies together, lol).
3. Allow Ranger’s auto-attack to pierce through up to two enemies, for a total maximum of three enemies hit per auto-attack. Not only does this give Rangers a bit more power with their basic attacks, but it also maintains their spot as the “Hard” base class, requiring you to strategically line up your shots to get the most out of your auto-attacks.
A few possible issues that could arise with these changes, and how to counter them:
- Wizard’s auto-attack is basically a smaller Energy Bolt now. The simple solution to that is to buff Energy Bolt, possibly either by changing it to an aimed skill with AoE, or even giving it the ability to pierce.
- Ranger’s auto-attack is similar to Full Draw now. Yet again, just buff Full Draw to create more of a distinction between the two. Full Draw’s Skew effect is a good bonus, but it could be taken farther. This part is a pretty wild idea, but what if Full Draw could bounce like Oblique Shot, and then the Ranger pulled a string attached to the arrow to gather the enemies together, similar to Linker’s skill, Hangman’s Knot? The SP cost would naturally have to be increased, but again, just a wild idea I had for it.
- Now that everyone can hit multiple enemies with auto-attack, enemies could start dying too fast. This can already become an issue if there’s more than one Swordsman in the party, groups are wiped out in the blink of an eye. A good way to fix this would be to implement a system to adjust the spawn rate in an area based on how fast enemies are dying. This would benefit both stronger and weaker players at the same time, as it allows the stronger players to grind at a comfortable speed with enemies spawning more frequently, and prevents weaker players from being overwhelmed by enemies spawning faster than they can kill (see: Tenet Chapel 2F altar areas without a strong AoE DPS controlling the rapid spawns).
Thoughts?
