I have been thinking a lot about class balance in pvp games lately. In most mmorpgs that have a strong pvp or conflict element the balance between classes of opposing sides is almost too apparent. In World of Warcraft, Blizzard chose to forgo any attempt at balancing different classes and gave everyone the classic ‘Warrior, mage, priest, etc’ layout with one class being different on each side. It wasn’t long before they tore down the barriers and allowed each side full access to all classes. An easily balanced system free from many problems that arise from a more complex system, but boring.
In Dark Age of Camelot there were completely unique classes on each realm. They all shared a common theme (Tank, caster, support, healer) but found a way to make each one slightly different from the other. There were three types of music classes: Bard, Skald, and Minstrel – but they all played differently. The casters of each realm all brought a slightly different style to the battle. There were dozens and dozens of different skills in play at one time coming from dozens of characters. This lead to a very frustrating balancing act. It felt like every month one class was being completely changed because someone found a way to exploit the strengths of their character beyond the line of balance. Mythic was constantly playing catchup with the balance issues. FOTM (Flavor of the Month) had true meaning in DOAC.
It made it tough for Mythic, I’m sure, to add content to the game regularly. The result was an onslaught of nerfs and changes. New Frontiers expansion gave everyone access to the same realm abilities. ToA introduced a shift away from skill based to gear based. As time went on diversification was lessened and as a result so was dynamic pvp. Dark Age of Camelot was a lot of fun because it was the most dynamic pvp I have ever experienced. World of Warcraft pvp was fun for about a month before I really couldn’t handle the complete lack of dynamic gameplay.
There has to be a balance somewhere. Dynamic PvP should not have to suffer because it’s difficult to balance.
Turning to Warhammer Online now I think they have, in theory, a mixed bag of balance and dynamic gameplay. I haven’t played the game so I can’t say for sure whether or not it works in implementation. Using purely the information that Mythic has released, I can see three strong support systems in place for a balanced system with dynamic gameplay: Career Mastery, Tactics, and the number of different classes. WAR is taking a path similar to DAOC with the diversity of classes. Each race has a set of classes that are different but remain similar in the roles they fulfill. Each class is further diversified yet managed (like WoW) with career mastery choices (1 of 3 branches) and a choice of tactics to earn and slot which can make each character that much more unique.
In theory this system sounds even more diversified than Dark Age of Camelot. Players are being given a lot of wiggle room for dynamic gameplay yet still on a leash which will allow for the system to be balanced. With all this talk of balance though, I think it’s important to remember that some form of imbalance can be good if you create an environment that facilitates ingenuity and options to counteract the imbalance. Josh Drescher explains WAR’s class balance best in this podcast:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=aR5adZptjOY[/youtube]
Archetype –> Nemesis
Tank –> Ranged DPS
Ranged DPS –> Melee DPS
Melee DPS –> Tank
Healers are broken up into melee or ranged dps.
So technically while some classes are unbalanced against others, the system as a whole comes full circle (ying and yang). Playing smart and choosing your opponents wisely will allow you to take full advantage of the system. Toss in the benefits of RvR Tactics that can be slotted to increase resistances, damage dealt, healing done, etc, and some of this archetypal imbalance can be overcome.
What system do you prefer? A fairly simple to balance system like WoW or a more complex and admittedly tougher to balance system like DAOC? I prefer the complexity and accept the consequences. Balance at the cost of Dynamic PvP is not worth it. But I think that soon we can have our cake and eat it too.
I think most people are fine with being strong vs. some classes and weak vs. others, no matter how much they might vocally complain about how X class trampled over me (failing to mention how you just rolled over Y and Z classes on the way). The valid complaints come when one class has no great weakness vs. another class — the (perhaps mythical) uberclass. Checks and balances are a necessarily evil for PvP, and as long as I have a shot at surviving and/or killing a guy, I’m okay with getting killed. As long as I get my day in the sun once in a while.
Well, in theory a great class diversity is the best. But, I’ve yet to see a balanced one so I’ll take balance over diversity. I already have alt-itis, I don’t need a true FOTM as DAOC had to help convince me to switch classes.
I really never minded the limited classes WoW had. No matter what role you wanted to fill, there was a class that could do that.
It’s alright for some classes/factions/etc to be stronger than others, as long as they’re presented as such from the beginning.
One of the mistakes of SWG was that it took the lop-sided power in the Star Wars lore (the Empire was much stronger than the Rebellion) and flattened it. I might have played as a Rebel if they had truly been underdogs.
Different players don’t have to have the same experiences or play at the same difficulty level.
In the one vs. one world of WAR, things will balance the rock-paper-scissors way, which is fine with me.
Overall though, WAR is designed as a many vs. many RvR experience. This means things should balance out if you’re in a well-designed group because you can make up for your individual weaknesses.
“What system do you prefer? A fairly simple to balance system like WoW or a more complex and admittedly tougher to balance system like DAOC?”
As far as PvP goes WoW and Planetside is as far as it goes for me. So I’m very curious how “Dynamic PvP” will play out, I just hope for someone new to the concept its not to frustrating to learn before I can have fun.
It’s not tough to learn at all since it’s more of a byproduct of the design than it is really player-skill.
Dynamic PvP is a more diverse, ever-changing, quasi-each encounter is very different type experience becuase the game has so many variables entered into the equation.
Although eventually you’ll learn everything that every class can possibly bring to the table, by having a level of customization like career masteries, RvR Tactics, etc, it keeps many of the variables forever keeping you on your toes.
You need to have a balance of, well, balanced vs. dynamic pvp. I’m hopeful that mythic will be able to take their lessons learned from DAoC and provide a more balanced system out of the box. Classes are always going to continue to be rebalanced in an MMORPG — WoW is still doing it, and even EQ2 which has virtually no pvp is still doing it.
As long as a player knows that they can enter the field of battle and have a chance at victory in an even number encounter a reasonable amount of the time, I’d call that balanced. Early DAoC pvp would be a prime example of how NOT to do that — hib group enters the frontier, mid group aoe stuns/mezs them, mid group butchers helpless group, moves on.
A good system also has dynamics that aren’t bound to player decisions. That ensures that gameplay is always fresh regardless of player knowledge.
Environmental effects are one example, but my favorite example is something from the original Darkfall Online design (it might still be in there, but I stopped paying attention to that game long ago… until it’s released). One race, the Alfar, received their magic through their god-king (a god who chose to rule his creations as a temporal king). The god is insane. As a result, the magical energy his people (players) receive from him is unpredictable. Sometimes it will explode with tremendous energy, and sometimes it will sputter and fail.
Now that’s what I call a fun and interesting dynamic. 🙂