>But mages are weaker at the low levels and they reap the
>rewards of their work in the later ranks!
>
>No they aren't. An invoker can kill you with wall of fire from
>level 16 to 23 or so without much scare. I got beat by
>transmuters pretty regularly from 23 and up. So what you have
>is a melee class getting out melee'd by a mage, and THEN the
>mage gets protections and then you don't have a hope in hell
>of doing ANY damage to them at all.


I will tell you this much a lot of what I see in transmuter logs where people spam overpowered is just poor choice of tactics. Do I think that perhaps some of their stuff needs looking at? Maybe.. i think spell cost is a big down side of a transmuter.. Make them use up that mana they cant do much after that.


>Where do characters spend the majority of their life? At the
>hero ranks, and at that level is where it should be balanced.
>You HAVE to gang people now because that's the only way you
>can deal enough damage to kill anyone. It's sad. This used to
>be a fun game at hero. I'm beginning to remember why I quit
>playing.


In all honestly from what I am reading so far it sounds like you quit playing cause you suck and not because of the balance. I know that sounds a little harsh but eh it is what it is.


>And it doesn't matter what kind of mage you are. Conjurers
>with angels, elementals, aura, barrier, shield can rip through
>anyone. Invokers ABS + shields are unstoppable. Transmuters
>are unstoppable without another transmuter. At least the
>shapeshifters aren't the uber-ridiculously powerful zoo they
>were when I was Trewyn. They aren't far from that though.


Define anyone... I've killed tons of conjurers with angels and elementals, demons and elementals, devils and elementals... with my last warrior (Bhirerzu) I pretty much pwned any mage at will. Conjurers with archons give everyone trouble but thats how they are supposed to be. And you are on crack if you think that shapeshifters are weaker now than they used to be. Shapeshifters just got a HUGE boost and they are deadlier now than they have ever been in cf.


>So to combat this situation the imms have increased the amount
>of damage warriors do. Which screws ANYONE without damage
>reduction. Flurries can do 600 points of damage. And don't
>tell me they don't do that often. I haven't been hit for one
>that did less than 300 in a LONG time except by head hunters
>with one sword. I had one dish out 600 points of damage
>through aura and protection and possibly even shield I can't
>remember. If I didn't have those protections it would have
>killed me outright from full health. It DID kill me anyways. I
>went from 100 hp less than full to 26 hp. Dagger spec bleeding
>can cause over 100 hps of bleeding per round for 6-8 rounds.
>At least the leader of battle can cause that much. That's a
>LOT of damage. I remember the gripe-fest people made when that
>bug caused impale damage to deal a demolish every round when I
>was trewyn. Oh how I understand that now.


So now we went from a mags are overpowerd to sword spec and dagger specs are over powered rant. Again I am begining to see a pattern in this post. Anything that kills you must be overpowered... hmmm right then. What about assassins taht can kill you without even hiting you? Rangers that can do 600 hp ambushes over powered? Shaman rot overpowered? Paladin 2hdr with 3 strikes connecting? AP with a buff unholy weapon? Necro with sleep? You see where I am going with this? Bard with fiend? My point is it at any given point on any given day there is someone or something out there that has your number thats cf thats how its designed to be. The opposite is also true when playing a specific class/race/cabal there is always someone out there that has your number.


>
>Another thing that irritates me are the "you can't beat me"
>situations. If you can't beat someone 100% of the time in a
>certain situation, then that is NOT balanced. Balanced is you
>win around half the time, and in a positive situation, you win
>better than half, but not more than three fourths. It's a
>GAME, not Real Life, not even an imitation of real life and it
>should be balanced at all levels, not the power swing system
>in place now.

I could'nt beat Cabdru with my lich a 100% of the time and I was an effin lich. Does that mean aps are overpowered? Or does that mean Nepenthe is...I'm leaning towards nep on this one. Balance isnt flipping a coin and deciding hey half the time I win half the time other guy wins.

>The game was fun back when an unspeakable damage was only
>possible from a backstab or the occasional ambush or when you
>broke heartseeker the unbreakable dagger in someone's chest. I
>can't say all the changes have been bad, the game is
>definately different and unique. But in my humble opinion, it
>was a lot more fun in the second and third ages. I prefer less
>of the easter egg hunt and more of the run and gun bash splash
>blood, whoops I died get some basic gear and get back with it
>attitude that was in place then.


Wow all I can say about this is that we probably were'nt playing the same game back then. I sure as #### remember a hella lot of unspeaks flying by my screen back then too.


>I'm just curious if I'm the ONLY one that feels ABS is ####. I
>would LOVE to hear an Imm's opinion on this.



This subject has been hashed and rehashed so many times its not even funny. I would be thoroughly surprised if an imm responds to this. I think they are about as sick of responding to it as most players are hearing about it.


>To combat this if you feel it's NECESSARY to keep ABS, then I
>suggest some simple changes.
>
>Make it so melee classes get a BIGGER boost to HP, 1-2 per
>level. Then make it so giant classes get an additional 1-5 hp
>per level, regardless of class. Make it so that the average
>player has 1000 hp at hero and a high HP class having 2000 hp.
>And then you can add something like fast healing II for
>warriors but call it something catchy.


Its called equipment if you want more hps wear hp eq. Thats one of the things about cf it is completely customizable. Do you really think that giving someone like Hunsobo 2000 base hps would have made this game any more fair?


>On top of this, have the number of unspeaks possible drop or
>make it so they can't cast the spells so fast. As it stands,
>most ranger spells except for entangle can be cast once for
>two of every mage class spells. Make it so fights last more
>than 8 rounds.


I am not even sure what you are trying to say here so I won't even bothr trying to respond.


>Another way to combat this is make spells fail just like
>skills, or not so often. That to me would balance the game out
>a LOT. Make it possible to simply miss with that fireball, or
>that lightning bolt and wall of fire at least.

Graatch has hashed and rehashed this multiple times.Go back and read up on what he said and immortal response it makes a lot of sense.


>Give shield to rangers like they used to have. OR just give it
>to the animists. They get screwed on the combat and their mage
>spells hardly make up for it. It easily fits within the role
>play.

This is a specific change to your character, a change you think is required to make the char more competetive. Cf doesnt work like that there is shield available in game to rangers. Use it.


>OR Give warriors some way to stop spell casting other than
>dagger specs. Maybe have evasion work for spells. You duck
>behind your tower shield and absorb the blast from XXX's
>fireball.

Warriors have multiple ways to stop casting and a lot of use it with a fair amount of success. I personally think that duration on hurl throat is completely bunk all it does it put an end to the fighting. A lot of what you are suggesting for warriors already exists in the form of battleragers. But you seem to be one of those have your cake and eat it too types. If you are so antimagic roll a rager and slap them around ive seen it done repeatedly.


>So now that I'm done venting and being frustrated, I want to
>hear some other opinions on what ever about Game Balance.

A lot of what you are complaining about frustrations about your characters sucking. I've been here before MANY MANY times but instead of taking it out on the game I just admit the fact that the char im playing is not turning out the way I had hoped. You can do one of two things delete and make something else or keep trucking and hope things start rolling in your direction.