I am surprised and a bit.... well disturbed that a discussion on current Balance derailled once again towards what Calians can and can not do. I think Calians clearly are not on the winning end of the stick for these changes. Some of you no doubt will put the label 'Whining Calian' on me, and if that makes you happy, by all means go ahead. The sole reason I write this post is to shed some light on how I think the changes are impacting us at this moment, since I think previous notes made some assumptions that are incorrect. I think it is too soon to draw definite conclusions on balance as Carnak is still in the process of changing things.Zhar wrote: ↑29 Mar 2021 05:49Have you been teaming with Calians recently? I'm pretty sure they're still on the top end of the DPS spectrum.Dan wrote: ↑28 Mar 2021 18:42with specials being only 15% of the damage now, the calians swarm aint halfway as good as it used to be plus it have always felt oddly capped compared to other specials.
With the neidar racehate bonus on top of white hits, i'm pretty sure they outdps AND outtank a calian anyday you choose a racehate target, so you're wrong on that point too kvator, that white hits are the bomb now, means that tanking guilds suddenly became the dps guild at the same time, so the lesser caid in the dps special means close to 0.
While their abilities may seem capped is because of the team bonuses (the more Calians there are, the better their abilities work). Why you don't see that many Calians around is because previously the game was mostly focused on big solo grind so Calia was pretty much just a stepping stone as it was the guild you could easily and safely grow up to myth in and then leave to join your intended guild where you can run solo.
Overall it's a pretty damn good guild with damage special, evasion and move behind. Not to mention the fact that since you're not so reliant on your specials so much might actually make them more viable solo.
I will start off by saying that some historically underpowered guilds got an uptick by recent changes that was well deserved. Rangers and Secret Society for instance. Some other guilds benefitted at a rate where I'll leave it up to the AoB to decide if that is within boundaries of balance or not.
Then on Calians. Yes swarm was and is a powerful special. Yes it does better with more Calians in the team. Dan's reasoning is correct though, due to the buff on white-damage, our special damage output is now less distinctive than it used to be. So yes, we are still relevant in the DPS department, yet the spectrum narrowed in general. I think that result was intended by the changes.
Calians have always been weak solo, and rightfully so. One of the reasons I have been a Calian for 27 years is the fact that our abilities encourage having to team. Zhar's suggestion about being less reliant on specials making us more viable solo however is plain WRONG. After the changes our glaring weakness did get bigger by a large margin. Tanking solo is next to impossible even with big stats. I am going to guess that effect was intended in general, however it seems to me we got hit harder in comparison. I'll leave it up to others to decide on that when all is said and done.
Move behind is for small Calians a life-saver, but it does not always work (there are sometimes reasons, if you want to find out - by all means come join us, contrary to what is claimed here it is not hard to do). And if move behind doesnot work, we take a lot of damage fast. Move behind is of course a great ability in teams, but to call it the best defensive special in current setting is pretty much spew. And of course, it doesnot contribute anything when solo.
The general effect here is that it is very hard to take smaller Calians out to do some stuff, unless of course, we find a tank elsewhere. Taking out Followers/Trainees to practise battle-tactics is including mb is a no-no unless I do not like the Trainee involved.
As the situation currently is, yes Calians will (as Kvator suggested) have to adapt and join different layman guilds. As is being a 10-link Blademaster is utterly useless in comparison to abilities that other layman guilds offer. And when you take into account the different requirements current environment warrants and in which Calians are lacking, it makes it a no-brainer to do so. Thornlin might be a viable layman for some Calians (I cannot join them), EW and perhaps Warlocks too. I will consider my options when the dust has settled after all changes are done.
Something to consider that is not specific for Calians: it is a lot of work to get to 10-link Blademasters. If one were to break ones chain, it basicly means you will never regain it to that level. I believe the ogres have a mechanism where you continue where you left if you rejoin them. I'd argue there might be some other guilds where that same mechanism should be applied, Blademasters being one of them.