Currently, Balance to me feels very under-appreciated and underused based on the fact that setting up attacks with it (especially in a solo setting such as a boss fight) becomes constantly annoying to do. I have three main things I personally find annoying and I'll give some of the fixes I think can be made for them.
1. There is no Balance prism. There is nothing more annoying than having to fight a boss where you are forced to only use a handful of spells to deal damage to a boss when you may want to use a particular one instead of it. This becomes even more annoying when you are fighting against regular balance enemies. Or, even worse, a balance boss with balance enemies. The first balance aoe spell that does not deal balance damage is Nested Fury which you unlock at level 108 and specifically requires a shadow pip to use (Which I haven't gotten to yet). Up until this point, the only way to effectively deal with balance mobs is to hit each of them one at a time, again, without using a good aoe like any other school can. Meanwhile, every other school can just mass prism and do the same process much faster, and deal more damage while they're at it.
2. Balance has no way of dealing with negative charms or enemy shields (tower shield specifically) without wasting blades or traps. Every school has the ability granted to them to get rid of something along the lines of a Weakness spell or Black Mantle simply by having their wand as a different school than their normal attack so they are able to get rid of these slight inconveniences. For balance, on the other hand, they are forced to just deal with it or restart their entire build up for damage (which most of the time is now ruined). It's not like they deal massive damage *cough* storm *cough* to begin with, right? The problem I have with Storm, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, is they're given things that Balance desperately needs and I've never seen a single person use the three, THREE spells given to them that help deal with these things. Disarm, Cleanse Charm, and Enfeeble. In all my time of playing this game, I have never seen a storm wizard actively use any of these spells in their deck, the closest being a pet having may cast enfeeble. Same thing goes with Myth with Pierce, Cleanse Ward, and Shatter. So, giving Balance wizards an equivalent to any of these, or just moving them to balance should have been what they were for in the first place. Because it's not like a balance wizard can just learn these quest given spells from two separate schools.
3. Balance just feels like a support school that struggles to compete on its own. One would think of life to be the support school with its vast amount of healing spells, even its scion heals players instead of damages enemies. With the two points above combined together, balance overall does less damage because of the items stated above. A further point forgotten is that they don't have their own trap. They have hex, which just benefits all of the other schools as well. Same thing applies to the earlier statement where a balance wizard gains a negative charm and cannot get rid of it without completely wiping all of the set up blades and traps. If this happened on a storm wizard, all they would have to do is use their different school wand and the problem is solved, while even damaging their enemy while doing so. The times I quest with other school wizards who are at the same point as me, it always just feels like I'm setting them up, even though I'm trying to stack my own spells. I think balance needs something that only it can use. Whether it's a blade, a trap, I don't really care what it is. It just needs something that other schools can't just take advantage of.
Hopefully some of these points resonate with more than just myself, Thanks.
No doubt, balance isn't a child's play school to use. It is difficult.
Many have advocated over the years for the following to be induced within the school's arsenal to aid in assisting the school fend off common challenges such as the ones you mentioned;
School Only Blade/Trap - Many have suggested balance obtain their own version of charms and wards called Sandblade and Sandtrap which boost only balance damage. This would of course aid greatly with the removal of negative charms and enemy shields.
Balance Prism - Of course, very commonly requested, a school prism that possible converts incoming balance damage to any three of the spiritual schools at random would work excellently.
Spiritual Attack - While the summer update provides an excellent 4 pip spiritual balance spell, it seems that obtaining the spell will prove extremely difficult. An alternative or actually a feasible way of obtaining the spell would be welcomed.
Unique spell that boosts against balance mobs - Perhaps a new AoE or something of similar effect or an enchant that can be placed on balance spells which converts the damage to something else greatly affecting opposing balance mobs.
Alternatives have been suggested. However, currently, the game's current focus is on well, "balancing the game." Not the school itself ironically.
Myth had to wait more than half a decade for a solid AoE before level 100.
So, sorcerers may have to wait quite a while for any improvement in this aspect unfortunately.
No doubt, balance isn't a child's play school to use. It is difficult.
Many have advocated over the years for the following to be induced within the school's arsenal to aid in assisting the school fend off common challenges such as the ones you mentioned;
School Only Blade/Trap - Many have suggested balance obtain their own version of charms and wards called Sandblade and Sandtrap which boost only balance damage. This would of course aid greatly with the removal of negative charms and enemy shields.
Balance Prism - Of course, very commonly requested, a school prism that possible converts incoming balance damage to any three of the spiritual schools at random would work excellently.
Spiritual Attack - While the summer update provides an excellent 4 pip spiritual balance spell, it seems that obtaining the spell will prove extremely difficult. An alternative or actually a feasible way of obtaining the spell would be welcomed.
Unique spell that boosts against balance mobs - Perhaps a new AoE or something of similar effect or an enchant that can be placed on balance spells which converts the damage to something else greatly affecting opposing balance mobs.
Alternatives have been suggested. However, currently, the game's current focus is on well, "balancing the game." Not the school itself ironically.
Myth had to wait more than half a decade for a solid AoE before level 100.
So, sorcerers may have to wait quite a while for any improvement in this aspect unfortunately.
Arthur Weathersfield use to say “It’s more advanced than the other schools, and harder to master, but its power is unbelievable!”
Your spot on! You have to wait to get to the higher levels to earn the good stuff! I feel like it’s rewarding. Even with the changes, Balance can still hold its own. IMO.
To be honest, I have to agree. Balance has the problem of being too weak. The benefit of getting around all non-tower, non-absorb shields is not enough to outweigh the damage options (or lack thereof). just the ability to get a prism that utilizes either elemental trap or spirit trap (or maybe one of each?) would be wonderful. Either way, to play balance, you NEED a secondary school or another person as of right now. Unfortunate...
Balance having no prism, and its blade being universal, were conscious choices the devs made early in the game's history. Not a mistake. It gives the game itself some uniqueness, and removing that uniqueness to make all the classes more samey is not a good idea.
Balance having no prism, and its blade being universal, were conscious choices the devs made early in the game's history. Not a mistake. It gives the game itself some uniqueness, and removing that uniqueness to make all the classes more samey is not a good idea.
It's not removing the uniqueness that I'm worried about; I agree that it is quite unique in that sense. I'm not talking about removing it's universal balance blades either, really anywhere in the points I've made. It's definitely a good thing to have very unique things in a game to make it more interesting, but with just getting my balance into Khrysalis I feel more of a support than any other school that I've done team ups with. Even life/ice wizards have more of an offensive use than balance I feel (even though their dpp is 2 less than balance). Having done tartarus twice now, during the second run I got paired with two fire and a storm wizard, so I didn't even try to attack. I just give others blades the whole time because I know it would have taken multiple extra rounds to match their damage, which means the bosses would've just been defeated by that point. No, I'm not saying that fire and storm are too powerful, of course there has to be a more powerful school than others, etc. What I am saying, though, is in any fight (where I mostly see this) against a balance, fire or other school with a similar spell to efreet or ra, balance shouldn't even try to attack. In a team fight, I don't try to do anything on the offense, I just give my blades to someone else after they clear the charm off of themselves with their wand attack. Your point of the fact that the game did it on purpose makes almost no sense when you consider how much KI changes over time to begin with. They literally just did an overhaul on almost all spells past 7 pips, some of which have been in the game for a LONG time. Heck, they brought spells in Life DOWN a pip to make it more balanced, and made orthrus an aoe for myth, which in case you're wondering, is the level 48 myth spell. What difference does it make then if that's how the game has been for balance since release date? I'm not asking that KI gives them their own special 105% blade or some stupid idea like that, I literally just want the ability to clear negative charms without having to rely on treasure cards, and the ability to actually deal with balance aoe before level 108. Maybe that's with a prism or a sandblade, or a new aura solely for balance that converts outgoing damage to another school, or a sandhex/trap, or really any idea on the same page as this. So, some more food for thought.
I know their is a lot going on but please rebalance balance. I have noticed since the update that as a balance wizard I am flat out outpaced for the same cost spells in all the school including life. It feels too weak and bosses I could once solo at level, now at max kick me six ways to Sunday. Damage was reduced to make way for utility. However, balance has flexibility, I remember that being its thing, a jack of all trades and a master of none. I as well as many others I'm sure would really apricate another look into balance. I agree with the comments that at the higher levels balance feel like support only, blades just get handed over to other players, spell are week the only thing that stands out the ability to break auras and which not all bosses especially high level use. As well as reshuffle if we can survive long enough to use it.
As Rest said "To be honest, balance has the problem of being to weak. the benefit of getting around all non-tower, non-absorb shields is not enough to outweigh the damage opitions(or lack of thereof). To play balance a secondary school is needed or another person. Apex SkyShadow makes excellent points.
In my personal opinion as a gamer from the start for balance to continue hitting so low it need better utility or a better ability to boost . Balance isn't meant to be the hardest hitter, the best healer , but we please settle for the jack of all trades with the ability to just hold their own
