Subtitle: If healers (and casters) are fragile butterflies that developers tiptoe around, it's because the developers design gear to make them that way
If any in the community reading this love to deep dive into theorycrafting, please consider researching the actual impact on damage taken numbers in game play. I don't have access to some of the tools and data that would be helpful for the discussion.
Currently, gear provides all roles with 3 stats that affect survivability: Vitality (for health points), Defense (reduce damage taken from physical attacks) and Magical Defense (reduce damage taken from magical attacks). Unfortunately, those stats are not made equal for every role.
Using the ilvl 700 Neo Kingdom gear, I come up with the following numbers for each gear set:
Fending - Vit 3797, Defense 6119, Magical Defense 6119
Maiming - Vit 3797, Defense 4284. Magical Defense 3369
Striking - Vit 3797, Defense 3369, Magical Defense 3369
Scouting - Vit 3797, Defense 3369, Magical Defense 3369
Aiming - Vit 3797, Defense 3369, Magical Defense 3369
Casting - Vit 3421, Defense 2449, Magical Defense 4284
Healing - Vit 3421, Defense 2449, Magical Defense 4284
Fending can be safely ignored for the rest of the discussion since their role is to grab enmity and survive the constant hits so the rest of the party can do their jobs.
But why are casters and healers getting shorted on Vitality compared to physical damage dealers? Why the disparity in Defense and Magical Defense between the various non-tank roles?
Encounter design has changed over the years. Mechanics not directed at the tanks now tend to hit the entire party more often instead of only targeting select party members. We're seeing a lot more physical damage AoEs against the entire party compared to the distant past when they were mostly limited to frontal cleaves and circular AoEs that only hit in melee range. We're seeing melee DPS getting hit by more magic damage as well.
Do the differences in Vitality, Defense and Magical Defense on non-tank gear serve a specific purpose in current design or are they just a holdover that the developers haven't thought about?
Do these differences make game play more interesting for players in any meaningful way?
I believe that the differences are causing problems in current design instead of creating more interesting game play. If healers were better able to survive incoming damage (to the same level as physical damage dealers), there could be less concern about healer deaths leading to party wipes because healers would be better able to survive compared to the current fragile butterfly state. There would be less need for the developers to keep giving more healing and mitigation utility to damage dealers and tanks.
Healers and casters having less health and less defense might have made sense in the distance past of MMOs but design has changed. Now it's detrimental to a good game experience.
Continue reading...
If any in the community reading this love to deep dive into theorycrafting, please consider researching the actual impact on damage taken numbers in game play. I don't have access to some of the tools and data that would be helpful for the discussion.
Currently, gear provides all roles with 3 stats that affect survivability: Vitality (for health points), Defense (reduce damage taken from physical attacks) and Magical Defense (reduce damage taken from magical attacks). Unfortunately, those stats are not made equal for every role.
Using the ilvl 700 Neo Kingdom gear, I come up with the following numbers for each gear set:
Fending - Vit 3797, Defense 6119, Magical Defense 6119
Maiming - Vit 3797, Defense 4284. Magical Defense 3369
Striking - Vit 3797, Defense 3369, Magical Defense 3369
Scouting - Vit 3797, Defense 3369, Magical Defense 3369
Aiming - Vit 3797, Defense 3369, Magical Defense 3369
Casting - Vit 3421, Defense 2449, Magical Defense 4284
Healing - Vit 3421, Defense 2449, Magical Defense 4284
Fending can be safely ignored for the rest of the discussion since their role is to grab enmity and survive the constant hits so the rest of the party can do their jobs.
But why are casters and healers getting shorted on Vitality compared to physical damage dealers? Why the disparity in Defense and Magical Defense between the various non-tank roles?
Encounter design has changed over the years. Mechanics not directed at the tanks now tend to hit the entire party more often instead of only targeting select party members. We're seeing a lot more physical damage AoEs against the entire party compared to the distant past when they were mostly limited to frontal cleaves and circular AoEs that only hit in melee range. We're seeing melee DPS getting hit by more magic damage as well.
Do the differences in Vitality, Defense and Magical Defense on non-tank gear serve a specific purpose in current design or are they just a holdover that the developers haven't thought about?
Do these differences make game play more interesting for players in any meaningful way?
I believe that the differences are causing problems in current design instead of creating more interesting game play. If healers were better able to survive incoming damage (to the same level as physical damage dealers), there could be less concern about healer deaths leading to party wipes because healers would be better able to survive compared to the current fragile butterfly state. There would be less need for the developers to keep giving more healing and mitigation utility to damage dealers and tanks.
Healers and casters having less health and less defense might have made sense in the distance past of MMOs but design has changed. Now it's detrimental to a good game experience.
Continue reading...