10-22-2009, 09:59 AM
There are always complaints about class design in RPG PvP games. Some of them, to my mind, conflict with each other.
* Classes don't have enough skills and are too boring to play (this was my complaint in L2), ala "1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2..."
* There is too much CC (this seems to be a complaint whenever there is any CC)
* Melees get kited
* Casters are too squishy
CC skills (snare, root, stun, sleep, knockdowns, knockbacks, etc) are usually a pretty important part of most characters and I'm not sure how you can avoid keeping the game and classes interesting if you took away CC. What would that leave them with? Damage and healing? Is there a way to make that interesting and tactical enough by itself? In a "real world" scenario the tactics come in your ability to use a sword but in an RPG, that's a "character skill", which means you, the player, have very little input with it (and games that make you physically swing the sword with your mouse have always been pretty terrible in my opinion). We have to come up with something for the brain behind the sword to be thinking about.
Melee vs ranged is a problem to solve as well. Usually ranged classes are squishy if you can actually reach them, and their goal is to prevent you from reaching them. It's a terribly fine line to try and walk that would let ranged classes use their advantage of range without always having a CC-breaking melee run straight at them to smash them, while also avoiding making melee classes always die during the approach or get kited to death.
So...
What basic classes would you invent?
What would make them interesting to play?
* Classes don't have enough skills and are too boring to play (this was my complaint in L2), ala "1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2..."
* There is too much CC (this seems to be a complaint whenever there is any CC)
* Melees get kited
* Casters are too squishy
CC skills (snare, root, stun, sleep, knockdowns, knockbacks, etc) are usually a pretty important part of most characters and I'm not sure how you can avoid keeping the game and classes interesting if you took away CC. What would that leave them with? Damage and healing? Is there a way to make that interesting and tactical enough by itself? In a "real world" scenario the tactics come in your ability to use a sword but in an RPG, that's a "character skill", which means you, the player, have very little input with it (and games that make you physically swing the sword with your mouse have always been pretty terrible in my opinion). We have to come up with something for the brain behind the sword to be thinking about.
Melee vs ranged is a problem to solve as well. Usually ranged classes are squishy if you can actually reach them, and their goal is to prevent you from reaching them. It's a terribly fine line to try and walk that would let ranged classes use their advantage of range without always having a CC-breaking melee run straight at them to smash them, while also avoiding making melee classes always die during the approach or get kited to death.
So...
What basic classes would you invent?
What would make them interesting to play?