Spell balancing suggestions
(if any of this has been addressed already let me know :P)
while i love the solomon games in general, the balance of power has a huge gap from basically anything except for frost jet, due to the massive attack range and immunity to melee/archers with chill wind.
in pretty much any game where an ice mage is offered i choose that anyways simply because their control/aoe is generally higher then other options, but the other specializations are still a viable choice, in SB (and SK?) thats really not an option, as the arrows are too accurate and eventually you cant even stutter step to throw the archers off just due to the constant volley being fired at you, so your basically forced to chose frost if you want to progress past level 20 (i know you can just constantly kite with magic missile, or get hurricane 2+(3+?) and survive, but that takes a LOT more work)
so to counter this imbalance, i would either:
1. nerf archers, by reducing 1 stat by a large amount, or all stats by a smaller amount, damage, fire rate, accuracy (distance based? short range high acc long range low?) and also remove chill winds arrow knockback ability
2. keep archers the same, still remove chill winds arrow knockback, but add some way to combat arrows through secondary skills, like for X seconds after using fire wave, gain an aura of flame that incinerates arrows before they make contact that surrounds you, acid cloud, disintegrates arrows that pass through it, frost nova gains a thick layer of ice that blocks projectiles for X seconds ect..
3. add some way to combat arrows to all of the elements, like for fire, change embers into burning trail or something (embers was useless VS bosses and ghosts) that leaves a trail of fire that lasts for 1/2/4 (as it levels) seconds when you cast fireball that damages enemies (to replace the lost damage from embers) and burns arrows that try to pass through it,
for lightning incorporate magnetism into one of the secondaries, probably stun, to deflect arrows using magnetism (having them bounce away slightly at level 1, and increasing the bounce distance as it levels, allowing the arrows to damage enemies)
as for magic missile, i have no idea how to incorporate it into a secondary skill, so maybe just add all these as a third skill for each element? but whenever they are struck by an arrow they phase out for 2/3/5 seconds so all arrows pass through them
and if you add a third skill to all the classes, for ice since they dont need an arrow deflection, could get frozen trail or something, they leave a trail of ice on the ground where they walk for X seconds that increases there movement speed when they travel back on it, perhaps freezing enemies at a low chance when they walk over it
any other suggestions from people?
i know some/most of these probably wouldnt be able to be added to the revamped SK just because of the extra coding and such you would have to do, but maybe keep them in mind when you come back to make son of solomon?
Comments
But they aren't that hard to dodge. If he were to nerf them I would suggest this: It seems like there is math being done to predict the player position and shooting to a spot where you would collide with the arrow. My only suggestion with arrow nerfing would be to make it just a tiiinnyyyy bit worse at prediction. If you are running full speed perpendicular to an archers fire then he will normally miss you by just a tiny bit. Im suggesting make that tiny bit like 1.5x as big. Or perhaps make all predictions based on a non-modified running speed (or if its slower) That way you could sacrifice a ring slot or level to get a quicker running speed, therefore dodging arrows more easily.