These formulas seem to break down damage dealing classes pretty well.
Now, my question is basically are these fair?
Now, at base levels this formula seems pretty fair to me. Each character has certain things it is useful for and things seem to even out nicely. Now what makes these unfair or how could one make them more fair? I am working up a diagram on how buffs and other factors cause great imbalances in the classes and will post that when it is done. In the meantime, I would like to see what other people's thoughts and ideas were on the subject...
i think your formulas can be generalized a bit, kudos for detail but this may be more to the point:
range = absurd damage
melee = insignificant damage
(and C5 path notes suggest that nukers and archers will be getting even "cooler", but thats for another thread)
its always seemed backwards to me for the ranged
(ie nukers & archers) to be the best dd classes
The problem lineage has is simple....if Mage/Nuker is Uber attack...Tank/Melee needs to be Uber defense....except they forgot to add the Uber defense to the melees and just went with Uber offense on the ranged chars.
The current defense of Melee and Tanks is pathetic. It relies too heavily on Shield blocks and buffs barely add anything to the equation. Yes, pdef is better than robes....but it's still wet tissue paper compared to Mobs patk.
I will consider defense 'balanced' when a Tank can solo just as many mobs at equal levels as a Nuker can before it has to rest. This 'only enough pdef to kill 3 mobs while spamming SS before resting/chugging Heal pots' is stupid. I could care less if it takes me 10x as long to kill each mob, so long as the defense of a tank has the same advantages as a Nukers Matk.
My balance motto for L2 is to boost Defensive classes not Nerf offensive ones!
also, i dont know if this is on topic of not, but some changes have combined to make the mage the mage even more uber: you cant drop your equipped weapon in PvE anymore + mages core skill (m att) is not effected by weapon grade = they can run around with a higher-grade weapon than they are supposed to use because the penalties effect p att and accuracy, not magic fail rate and m att. higher MEN, greater recharge from recharges, weapon SAs, and btm all give nukers more mana, which they dont need because they 1-2 shot mobs that take a non-nuker class a half hour to kill. and still, its FIGHTERS that cannot + their MEN stat >.< note that even if ranged fighters (archers) were able to increase their MEN stat, this would only allow them to use weapon SAs other than cheap shot, it would not drastically effect archers. archers will always be speed+range+damage = invulnerable to short-ranged anyhting. at least mages are slow runners...not that it matters.
I'd just like to correct one thing, when using my Human Wizard I had him try a weapon of higher grade than normal and his magic failure rate when through the roof. It was completely impossible to level with him.
Now that was a few Chronicles ago so they may have changed it by now.
As for the game formula question, it's more complicated than a few simple numbers can demonstrate. There are dozens of other factors at play, with some classes being skilled at things that other classes are not. I'm not saying that everything is perfectly balanced at all, but comparing a few sets of numbers isn't going to be a clear proof of imbalance either.