Proposed Balance changes, implemented through tentative PTS periods
Hello all, I hope you are well. Being an avid player, I feel as if Wizard101 could benefit from periodic rebalancing of spells to benefit schools that are overperforming and underperforming severely. In MMO’s and MOBAs, abilities are constantly tuned/reworked or edited around current metas and whether or not they are OP or useless. Usually, these patches of balance happen every few weeks. As Wizard is approaching 11 years, I feel like now is a time more than ever for some QOL updates and feedback-encouraged tuning. It is important to note that sometimes changes are made because they 'feel bad' to the player, regardless of data analysis showing expected or satisfactory performance. Sometimes things just need a little love in order to be loved in return. As certain spells have spent years with shortcomings, I see no reason why we can’t as a community try out some changes for balance reasons. If things are broken or require more testing, the updates don’t have to ever come to live until they are agreed upon, or can be patched quickly afterwards. I have a few spells that I propose to have altered, based on years of playtime and other player experience as well as community sentiment. LIFE - Wings of Fate should deal a flat amount of damage ( single hit) as opposed to overtime. 600 damage over time is realistically 200 a round, or 300 if enchanted with an epic. Late game, even if running a large amount of damage sets, a life wizard is better off using forest lord or ratatoskr’s spin. As a shadow spell, it falls extremely short of where it should be in terms of power. - Proposed changes: o 525 damage/3 rounds increased to 750 damage in a single strike. Healing should remain an overtime, but have a separate value of 200-300 what is not reliant on damage dealt but instead the wizard’s healing % stats. o Reasoning: Wings of Fate falls extremely short of every other shadow spell in the game, and even Life’s other Aoe’s. Using Wings of Fate over literally any other spell is considered a waste of rounds and a spell deck setup. I have been playing since 2011, and never seen this spell past Polaris’s initial release. As life is a healing-centric school, adding to their damage arsenal should not be as big an issue as it has. Perhaps it will return Life to a pleasant state in regards to playerbase perception as well. - Life Scion Is a heal outclassed by any and every other heal in the game. Whilst Life’s role as the healer is a staple of the game’s design, Robbing them of another damaging spell was a blow to their late-game viability as anything other than heal spam bot. Mathematically, Scion is 3x as expensive as Satyr( 4 pips versus 12) and rewards the player with just a tiny bit more doubled healing than 3 satyr’s would provide to a single target, assuming no healing buffs at all. o Pigsie also outclasses this spell in healing power by a factor of 3. For 12 pips, that provides the player 3 casts of Pigsie. At 550 AOE healing, that is 1650 AOE healing for the same cost as a Life scion’s single target 1100/2200 and 300 AOE to team. Rebirth Also provides better healing output per pip and comes with a bonus 400 damage mitigation for all allies. - Proposed Changes; o Life scion now deals 900 damage to a single target. If the wizard has over 80% outgoing healing, damage is doubled. Regardless of doubling, Scion will heal back 20% of the damage dealt to the teammate with the lowest amount of health. o Reasoning: 6/7 Scion spells are useful boss killers that do a great amount of damage provided their conditions are met. Life does not have this tool in their belt, and have an unpopular and unused spell in their collection. Even if the developers truly believe this spell is paramount for life, players are unsatisfied with it and a tentative change may yield community approval. Life is in a poor spot balance-wise and adding some extra damage to them would likely impress upon life players and make them more independent, especially for solo play. STORM - Glow Bug Squall o Glowbug Squall is frankly the most powerful AOE attack in the game. At 1120 damage unenchanted and 1420 with epic, late game Storm Wizards will deal around 9000 damage with this spell assuming they critical ( a stat storm excels with). Glowbug Squall greatly limits gameplay variety as well as Damage dealing viability in the game, with both Myth and Fire having AOE shadow spells that pale in comparison to most if not of all of Storm’s options. Glowbug Squall is wildly overtuned in terms of damage, and decreasing the base damage by a tad will make Fire and Myth less undesirable Damage Dealers as a result. - Proposed Change: o Glowbug Squall has had its damaged reduced from 1120>970 ( 1420>1270). This keeps Glowbug Squall as the strongest AOE in the game ( Barring a full pip tempest or Snowball Barrage) while also making Mystic colossus ( 880/1180) and Raging Bull ( 775&900/1075-1200) much more comparable whilst not buffing both Myth and Fire. As Fire and Storm ( and to a lesser extent Myth) all lie in the same damage realm, the damage dealt would be a lot less of a gap. MYTH - Earthquake o Earthquake has been lauded as Myth’s main crippling feature for a literal decade. The damage is lackluster, and the gameplay mechanic leaves many sour. This is one of the most reviled spells in the entire game, and public sentiment confirms that. However, Myth also has an iconic attack in Earthquake and the animation is different to any other attack. I believe that Earthquake can be reworked and retain its use while also being a less frustrating aspect of gameplay throughout the spiral. - Proposed Changes o Damage Increased from 310>510, or 310>550 making the damage per pip value more in line with its 6-pip cost. Enchanted, Earthquake will deal 810/850 damage making the spell viable as an alternative to Humongofrog Spam which bogs down myth questing and general progression/ enthusiasm to persue the late-game attack of Mystic Colossus. o Enfeeble effect removed, Shatter still applied. Allied traps are no longer removed from the targets struck by earthquake. § Enfeeble is most notably a Storm related effect, as Sirens, Leviathan, Enfeeble, Catch of the Day, and Glowbug squall retain this debuff. Myth only sees an enfeeble on this one spell, and is rarely utilized. § Whilst Enfeeble is recognized as an aspect of Storm, Shatter is an Iconic ability of Myth and Earthquakes main usage. As multiple Myth spells take advantage of a shield-bypass effect ( Mystic Colossus, Minotaur, Orthrus, King Artorius, Shatter and Basilisk) it only makes sense for Earthquake to retain this functionality. § Friendly traps are no longer removed from the enemy. In making Earthquake a true ‘shatter’ and no longer a reset button, A lot of frustration directed at the unintended removal of allied traps by Earthquake’s deletion will be mitigated, especially in situations where a myth wizard could ruin a team boss situation by using Earthquake in their adventures
I have more Ideas if y'all are interested. Obviously they aren't perfect suggestions, but I feel in general periodic balance changes would be welcome by the community so long as certain spells aren't nerfed into the ground due to dislike by the more vocal player base. Pip cost, accuracy, damage and debuffs should all be considered when balancing spells especially those with distinct uses. I would also like to stress that just because something thematically 'fits' with a School's repertoire does not mean it can't be changed, especially when there has been a large amount of dissatisfaction regarding current stats of things. If changes are made, they should be monitored over a period of time to determine if the change was worth it, and whether it needs to be pushed further or reworked until a better solution has been found. Thank you all for reading! I'm open to suggestions as I am not a game developer lol, I just feel like more can be done to bring the game to a healthier state especially with some schools falling short of everyone else. Stay well everyone!
