1) Balance mages vs. melee

there's a balancing problem at low/mid ranks since melee damage is basically a function of your eq, while mage damage is a function of the level. This means there will always be problems balancing the game since the power range of characters becomes very big. Easy fix for this:

Make eq work like weapons, so that if you are level 20 wearing a level 50 piece of eq, then all stats from that eq piece is modified by (MIN(char_level/eq_level), 1)..

So the formula for all eq stats would become ROUNDUP(eq_stat*MIN(char_level/eq_level, 1))

It would probably suck for my lowbie ragers from a powergaming POV, but it would also make things more fun if mages tried to fight back instead of teleport when a melee guy shows up on where.

It will also have a side effect of reducing the incentive to cheating eq to lowbie chars (good) and to full loot decked heros as a lowbie (i don't care about this.. but i know others do.. so good i suppose as it might reduce churn).

Side note: I used roundup because it's boring if eq starts giving no stats at all.

2) Mage power vs. Invisibility

At low level fights are usually over quicker than at hero. Especially if it is between a warrior and a mage since the mage has neither defenses nor damage reduction. And warriors do not do *that* much less damage. This means that mages will usually choose to go invisible rather than to fight.

Solution: Move all parry/dodge/shield block/shield spell to pre-10 levels. Move invisibility to level 25. (This change coupled with the above might actually make mages too strong.. I think one strong reason mages generally get their asses kicked at low/mid ranks is that they just try to avoid PK and power level. Which means ####ty gear, no preps, and low skill percentages. As well as often being caught unawares (since they teleport when they see an enemy otherwise).

3) Class specific adjustments:

Some classes have no or just one decent skill and crappy melee at the low ranks. This means no tactical diversity. Try to ensure that all classes have a decent number of options as soon as pk starts. Pre-form shapeshifters have nothing, and 1st tier form is usually sucky for its level.
Invokers have only a couple of damage spells and no real tactics.
Pre-familiar conjurers have only magic missile. With familiar they might be able to fight, but still not well enough.

4) Incentives:

4a) Take away level requirement for edges. Will give you an incentive to explore / PK / RP early.

4b) Challenges (a new thing): You can choose from a selection of challenges from your guildmaster that you can try to complete before hitting levels 10,20,30,40,51. If you complete the challenge before reaching that level, you get a couple of edge points. Challenges could be:

Challenge of perfection: Master 5 skills
Challenge of blood: PK 5 different people
Challenge of commerce: Trade goods to a value of 100 gold.
Challenge of crime: Become wanted
Challenge of exploration: Find 5 exploration points.
Challenge of questiness: Complete 5 quests.
Challenge of masochism: Die 3 times
Challenge of glory: Defeat 3 different opponents in the arena
etc...

You can choose the same challenge as many times as you want, but the
threshold increases every time if you do.

4c) (Thought about this quite late, but I really like it) The first death you suffer at each level doesn't cost you any CON.

4d) (I really like this one too) You age slower (in years per RL hour) at lower ranks.

To explain 4c) and 4d): The most time efficient strategy for maximizing your hero rank power is to power level and then do explore/obs/commerce XP and PK for edge points. This aims to subsidize doing stuff at lower ranks.