Now it realy bothers me! Balance between Melee and Casting

[lariva]

Casting is much better then melee in a group - when you have a healer behind you; soloing with elemental sucks.

I like these stories. I dont doubt their true. I would like to read some more of them, but from a melee point of view.

I realy want to here from someone that has both melee and casting up. Just to see if its worth it or, if its better with high levels in both trees.

Casting is far better than melee. If it were reversed I would feel the same as the people posting above and not want to change it.

I dont realy want this game to end up like alll the rest do you? The same pigion hole cast system. Come on, wouldnt you like to see your char have the chance to become more than the cookie cutter, eq your a this so, you do that, type of char.

The thought that I would have to be a, stand there and take the hits while the caster casts and the healer heals, meleetank. Just kind of puts this game on the shelf next to all the rest.

But I dont beleive that. This game is differant. Id like to see the roles mix up a bit.

[jackmor]

You neglected to mention how high his fighting skills are. A 136 caster with a fighting skill somewhere near 100 will generally have a lot more hp than a 136 caster with a fighting skill around 30.

Thats a good question. Im not sure. I think its 70 but may be higher. last I saw he was trying to get it higher.

This brings up a good point. Im not sure if its good or bad. A caster can raise melee making him able to take more hits. What can a melee do to make himself better without armor or weapons.

Heres a story.

At a hair salon mens hair cuts were cheaper than womens. When the women complained. The owner didnt charge the women less. He increased the price of mens hair cuts.

I dont want somthing like that to happen in this situation. Just the opposite. I would like to see the melee able to change a bit. Not the caster made weaker.

[jackmor]

It'd be nice to have an option, for warriors, to also be able to get into the "take more damage, deal more damage" tactic. It would put more variety into the game and I don't see why we have to go by the book so much on this.

Similarly, perhaps some magic-users would be interested in non-healing magic to use on their teammates.

Now thats a good idea.

[lariva]

No thanks.

Now thats a good idea.

[jackmor]

Heh, how about this:

lvl 200 elemental mage
vs 3 scowling gingoes (lvl 30 mob?)

shoot kill one - 300 hp/sap is gone
try to shoot - interrupted - 300 hp/sap gone
try to shoot - blinded, failed 300hp/sap gone
now I'm at 600 hp and have 2 shots if no gingo hits me
shoot - kill one
get a view from above because the 3d one hit me twice.

my lvl 140 fighter comes about - kills 6 without any issues whatsoever.

At 200 casting dont you have a bomb that would flaten three scowling gingos?

[lariva]

Yes i do have a bomb, and no it doesnt level them - for one thing, casting a bomb is way to expensive. Without a bomb I end up using 308 hp / sap per cast for a maximum dmg.
I tried using a bomb and every time i did, i failed having more chances to kill it one by one.

At 200 casting dont you have a bomb that would flaten three scowling gingos?

[predzz]

If they make it so elemental mages cant cast while being hit, or get disrupted a lot more, thus making them useless as a melee it would be a lot more balanced.
Mages should have as hard a time attacking while close to the mob, than melees will have a hard time casting spells in a heavy armor from ranged...

[aylwyne]

I don't want all skills to end up being equal. That makes it boring and removes any advantage of specializing.

Let's say they increased the damage output of a melee warrior to equal the damage output of a mage. At that point, melee would have a big advantage because they could dish out the same damage as well as absorb way more damage than a mage.

At this point, mages will scream that they want more defense. Well, assuming the devs were crazy enough to have listened to those complaining about melee damage needing to be higher, they'd probably listen to the mages wanting more defense too.

So now they go and give mages defense equivalent to a melee fighter....

If we start down this road, we'll end up with everyone being a cookie cutter of everyone else. A mage and a melee fighter would be the same thing but with different graphics.

As it stands right now, both types of fighter have distinct advantages and disadvantages over the other and this is a good thing, in my opinion.

[madnak]

In FFXI rangers, monks, and thieves could all deal some heavy damage. The big problem here isn't that tanks can be tanks, it's that elemental mages are the only damage-dealing class there is. We also need more classes with some healing abilities.

[lariva]

Roflmao - Here is a recommendation, go get magery, and try to attack a mob without melee at all. You will quckly find that you will die a LOT more often then a figher.

If they make it so elemental mages cant cast while being hit, or get disrupted a lot more, thus making them useless as a melee it would be a lot more balanced.
Mages should have as hard a time attacking while close to the mob, than melees will have a hard time casting spells in a heavy armor from ranged...