heRO's Approach to Customizing Class Skills

[GM-Ayu]

heRO has stayed true to pre-renewal Ragnarok Online game play for 15 years. Even though we have a lot of custom equipment, custom monsters and even 2 custom regions, we have never touched the core game play until now. We may have equipment that augments and adds to the skill, but the base skill have always been the same ones that everyone has known for almost two decades.

So the main question on everyone's mind: how will heRO Test & Development team approach this very touchy topic of balancing the skills?

Here's our guidelines:


1. Skills are only buffed and never nerfed in comparison to their official pre-renewal versions.

If you take a build from a raw pre-renewal server and take it to heRO, your build will not decrease in power. A build may no longer be optimal in heRO due to the skill changes or new equipment, but we guarantee that all skills are the same recognizable ones that everyone have always known in its core. At a minimum, the skill will do the same amount of damage, if not more than before.

However, we may nerf a skill compare to our own changes. For example, if it turns out we overkilled a skill, we may tweak some numerical aspects to bring it down again, but it'll never be lower than the original.


2. No increase in skill point requirements

If you want to unlock a skill, the number of required skill points to unlock the skill will never increase. We may change the skill tree in the future, but we won't ever "delay" your access to a skill: if anything, we'll make skills more accessible by having a lower number of skill requirement.


3. Skills may have new effects, but never have their original effects removed.

Similar to how skills are only buffs, skills will always have their old effects on top of potential new ones. We want to retain the feel of all skills so even if we add new effects, the old skill effects will always remain.


4. Skills are changed to add class build diversity/options.

We want to boost skills that are often overlooked so that classes got different build options. These options may not necessarily be boosted to the point of being the new dominant build, but at least the gap of these skills and the class's dominant skill should be a lot closer now.

We've always done this via a lot of custom equipment, but sometimes there's only so much equipment can do. This is one of the main reason why we want to change certain skills to allow for more diversity in builds.


5. Quality of life changes

Sometimes skills got weird requirements for no reason, or are painfully short in duration/long cooldown where it impedes our gameplay. There's really no reason to keep these in anymore, so let's improve upon it.


6. Changes skills also mean updated old gears to accompany the changes

Builds require suitable gears and cards to accompany them in order for them to be truly usable. When the situation demands it or if the circumstances are right, we will also release new gears or update old obsolete gears to fit them for the skill changes. This will breath new life in overlooked class skills, but also in long forgotten equipment too.


7. Free Reset for Impacted Class

We do not want to punish players to be stuck with a "no longer good build" due to GM team's changes, or players feel that they have to pay a hefty zeny fee to try out the possible new builds. If we think that a class has multiple skills that are being changed or that a new build path is being promoted, we will provide ONE free reset for the impacted classes.



In order to contain the changes so that it's not as overwhelming for our players to adjust, we will focus on 1 or 2 classes at a time for main changes. Do not be disappointed that if your favorite classes are not being looked at by the GM team immediately in a release. Rest assured that in time, we will touch ALL classes. We have planned some of these changes as early as June/July, so we are taking a lot of time to make sure that we are getting it right.

As always, heRO GM and the Test & Development team are open to suggestions, critiques and feedback. Players have pointed out that some of our initiatives are a total flop, and we have taken these criticisms to heart to improve upon it, such as the changes to the Advanced Angelic set for Novices. Do not hesitate to give comments or talk to a GM if you got any suggestions for feedback!