Goonhub
08-02-2017, 02:30 PM
I have been seeing a lot more wizard rounds as of late, and it is starting to show how unbalanced they are in practice. There have been many, many threads about rebalancing wizards over time, and here I will be compiling my ideas on the subject
Now, the main problem I have seen with the way wizards are balanced is that they are balanced around the days where the moment an antagonist went loud, they would be immediately pursued by the entire security team, ten greyshirts, and three flamethrower-wielding scientists; and as wizards had no stealth powers they had to be able to take on groups of armed targets. Nowadays players tend to try to avoid antagonists rather than fight them, with it being rare for more than 2-3 well armed players to be going after antagonists. This makes it very difficult to take down a skilled wizard, as they can mass-stun groups of assailants, easily kill single targets, and quickly escape when threatened.
Problem Spells:
Here I will talk about individual spells that are easily abused.
Now, the main problem I have seen with the way wizards are balanced is that they are balanced around the days where the moment an antagonist went loud, they would be immediately pursued by the entire security team, ten greyshirts, and three flamethrower-wielding scientists; and as wizards had no stealth powers they had to be able to take on groups of armed targets. Nowadays players tend to try to avoid antagonists rather than fight them, with it being rare for more than 2-3 well armed players to be going after antagonists. This makes it very difficult to take down a skilled wizard, as they can mass-stun groups of assailants, easily kill single targets, and quickly escape when threatened.
Problem Spells:
Here I will talk about individual spells that are easily abused.
- Fireball: Was nerfed once, but still is one of the deadliest tools in the wizard arsenal. One direct hit can take a crew member from full health to crit, break any nearby windows, causing a hull breach, and stun and blow off the limbs of those caught in the blast, and all of this isn't taking into account the actual FIRE part of the attack. ESPECIALLY bad combined with spell shield to protect the caster from the blast. My idea for a nerf is to remove the explosive component altogether, just make it act like a high-damage laser shot that sets everything nearby on fire. May be too extreme of a nerf though.
- Polymorph: I have lots of complaints about this spell, and most of them can be summed up thusly: It is too easy to use, RNG can completely fuck the victim by turning them into a useless critter with no abilities and one inventory slot, there is no way to reverse it, and depending on what you get turned into the wizard can one or twoshot you with a followup attack. I have fixes for most of these: 1. Make it take a second or two where both you and the target have to hold still, 2. make it so it cannot be used while stunned like shocking touch, 3. make it so casting it without a staff always turns the target into one of the overpowered critters like space bears or adult ice spiders, 4. make it so a chaplain (or if there is no chaplain, anyone with a bible) can reverse it. The first two nerfs could also be applied to cluwning.
- Teleport: A simple one. Despite the fact there is a delay on it taking effect, there is no way to interrupt it once it starts, and it can be used while stunned too, making basically a "You will remember this day as the day you ALMOST caught the Necbromancer!" button. Make it so being attacked or stunned while casting it will interrupt the spell, and make it so casting it without a staff may cause you to leave a few things behind, like clothing, limbs, or vital organs.
- Rathen's Secret: Probably meant to be a gimmick spell, it turns out that it is actually up there with fireball in terms of deadliness. Depending on RNG, it can completely fuck you; I have heard horror stories of people who have had it used on them once and lost all four limbs from it. The short stun can be also used as a way to ensure that magic missile hits, which is a problem for obvious reasons when combined with certain spells. I would change the limb-removal element to only occur if the target is already missing an ass, and make the stun not take place without a staff.
- In general, we could probably apply to "Cannot be casted while stunned" restriction to a few more spells, because as far as I know the only spells with this restriction right now are shocking touch, any spells that require you be holding something, and any spells that require moving, when there are many spells that can be abused to punish anyone who tries to actually do something to a stunned wizard.
