I know this request is likely hopium/copium but I have seen zero CM/Dev responses regarding all the Rowen faction imbalance issues aside from “we’ll forward this to the developers”. While I understand that this is generally the most a CM can do for these kinds of things that developers don’t want to address. Please let us know if there are any plans to at least attempt to balance Rowen a little in our NA/EU version.
For some background information, I read that in KR and the other regions that have had Rowen for a long time, Rowen is essentially a failed experiment by the developers which had led it to become a dead continent (players barely interact with it anymore). This of course leads many, including myself, to believe that the developers have simply given up attempting to address the issues with Rowen and just sent NA/EU regions the continent “as is” with no forewarning or even the slightest of adjustments.
However, since Rowen is still fairly fresh, the developers have a unique opportunity to address the issues they couldn’t in other regions before the vast majority of the players have given up on it. So I request that the developers at least acknowledge the issues in Rowen and provide an updated answer to the question: “Are we getting any adjustments for Rowen balance?”
I will summarize my current grievances in Rowen and hope/cope that the developers have some plans for at least some of them:
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Factions cannot communicate with each other
I understand that lore-wise this is possibly intended but it is more of a nuisance to players. Players are not red or blue and should be able to communicate things like “hey I’m just here for the Mokoko seed”, “I’m just passing through”, “the wandering merchant is at ___”. Please consider removing this communication restriction! -
Liebertain has far more support than Preigelli
The red team has far more players than the blue team on pretty much every server I have checked. This makes the weekly co-op events very difficult if not impossible for the blue team. While both teams get faction points and credit regardless of the victor, the winner gets more points (leaving blue players with slower progression). Not to mention it isn’t fun always being on the losing side! Please find some way to incentivize players to join the weaker team! -
Repeatedly chain-dying isn’t fun
There have been many times I find my corpse isolated after the opposing side has steamrolled my team which leaves me with a difficult choice: resurrect on the spot or respawn back at base. The base unfortunately is very far from the action and since the opposing side generally controls the 3 middle waypoints, it’s far quicker to just resurrect on the spot. However, with no immunity whatsoever, it is possible to have zero control of your character and instantly die again (especially if there are 5+ opposing players lurking around your corpse). Please grant brief invincibility or something upon resurrection to prevent this chain-death issue! -
Repeatedly being juggled/comboed isn’t fun
I know there are some CC effect limits where a player becomes temporarily immune after being stunned/juggled/etc. for a few seconds. However, with the large damage output from some players, this immunity kicks in way too late (or not at all with juggling). While some CC effects should still be okay, the duration should be shorter and be limited to one effect or knockdown before full immunity is conferred. Consumable items like Clay Grenades also last a very long time and severely limit mobility for many classes. Classes with Enhanced Shield engravings also ignore most of these issues while many others are left to be locked in place for a long time. Please consider adjusting CC effects in Rowen! -
Some players are unkillable to most opponents
While I understand that Destroyers can build themselves to be extremely tanky, no player should be unkillable. Healing seems to be the primary issue here since if a full-combo from one player cannot kill another player, the defending player uses a health potion and completely negates the damage. Perhaps healing limits can be imposed where a player needs to return to base to “recharge” healing items or something so that tanky players can’t just roam the map all day with impunity. Please consider adjusting healing mechanisms in Rowen! -
Some classes are very dangerous to most opponents
The most common complaint is around Summoners and their Phoenix attack which has exceptionally long range and hits a wide area for very high damage. This attack from a well-geared Summoner will 1-shot most classes if it hits. This essentially makes combat impossible for more modestly-geared players with less range. Other notable 1-shot attacks come from Strikers, Soulfists, Artillerists, and a few other big-burst attack classes. One idea might be to impose a 3 second rule where a player cannot die for 3 seconds if they are at 50% or more health (they can be brought down to 1 but cannot die right away). Please consider adjusting damage scaling in Rowen!
This is my list of gripes and grievances as a Preigelli player but these issues can also occur for Liebertain players too in rare situations. My fear is that the new 96-player battlefield will be a complete mess due to the issues I outlined above. There aren’t even enough Preigelli players to match up with possibly a third of the Liebertain players (are 2/3rds of Liebertain just going to miss out on the event?).
I know that fixing all of these issues is a monumental task to get just right so I won’t be expecting much (at least points 3 through 6 on my list). But at the very least, and simplest to implement, points 1 and 2 should be feasible I think. Please keep us informed about developer decisions (or lack thereof) regarding Rowen!
Thank you for reading.