Fleeb the Mad, on 17 February 2018 - 06:42 PM, said:
The better question is still if they have someone doing balance 'full time' why patches spaced months apart contain fairly trivial changes.
I'm still fairly convinced that the metrics PGI uses to determine balance changes are weighted heavily toward the 'average' player due to the sheer mass of possible data, where distinctions between mechs and weapons aren't nearly as clear as they are in the competitive levels.
As strange as it seems, it might be that balance at the top is purposefully left out of whack for the sake of the middle.
Funny you say that because I heard that Paul said that he can't buff LRMs to be good at the top level because the bottom level will be obliterated by them, to paraphrase. I didn't hear what he said himself because I can only listen to sooo much butt kissing and Phil lays it on super THICC.
I've already said in another thread that disappeared that I don't think you can effectively balance from the top down without taking into consideration the middle and the bottom. However I do think you need to weigh the balance MORE at the top than in most other places.
I've long decided that the metrics they're using are hot garbage and don't represent the actual status of things.
For goodness sake I heard Chris said the TBR was still a very high tier mech, while I don't think it is a complete dumpster fire I think it was dethroned long ago.
When the vast majority of your players can't build mechs and can't play FPSs it sets up a poor metric to balance by. There are a lot of players that are worse than me, and I'm not very good.
I say let Chris make the changes, let the community help, TTK be damned, double armor again if we have to. I say don't be afraid to dial back changes, don't be afraid to test server the major changes.
The Unfunning of MWO really began with nerf to jump jets, maybe even further back. The rescale and the engine desync were just giant nails in the coffin.