[sadbot]

There are many walls of text in previous posts, so I'm not going to repeat everything that's been said previously just to add my two cents onto the end. What I will say is that I agree almost entirely with Crixius' talk on the current issues that exist and the potential solutions. My only difference in opinion is with the solution to the problem with current evasion mechanics where I'm of essentially the same mind as Fern, so I'll focus on that instead.

I've been vocal about my sort of 'dream solution' to the evasion problems now since the GR2 dust settled. Something to the effect of reverting the system to GR1 evasion, but with a higher evasion DR to support what was lackluster evade build survivability at the time. Secondary effect avoidance would also stick around in some capacity, to maintain a separate identity to tanking for dodge builds as Fern mentioned. This punishes people not choosing to dump skill while still making it a valid option, something very important for build diversity which is unfortunately entirely lost right now. The orbiting 'secondary parts' of the system such as evasion ignore and hit/evasion changing effects and their frequency and availability would of course be reverted/changed to better fit something similar to the GR1 system.

I'll explain now why I think this would be the best solution. I think that the current evade system is virtually impossible to balance effectively due to the sheer number of moving parts in this game. On top of this, even in a dream land where hit and evade are well balanced between all class and build options I think that the system is inherently unenjoyable to interact with. Forcing basically every build to hard dump skill is very unhealthy for build diversity for a start, and squeezing every last little bit of hit and/or evade out of your build only to lose that number roll anyway feels so bad for the loser, even if the odds were fairly balanced. Having something as major as almost all damage you deal be heavily mitigated or even nullified entirely by a numbers roll is also mechanical torture, as fights can be made or broken by which side gets lucky even when hit vs evade is well balanced, ESPECIALLY when it's well balanced. It takes control of the outcome out of player hands more than anything else of its kind by a large margin, such as status infliction rolls for example. The numbers stacking game also makes pvp even more noob unfriendly than it already was, making an unoptimized build essentially incapable of so much as touching any half decent evade build or triggering so much as a single glancing blow against any build with half decent hit, making for a very discouraging new player experience with pvp.


The best way I can paint a picture of how the current evasion system plays out in practice is with my verglas build. It's my only build that refuses to engage with evasion mechanics and crutches entirely on evasion ignore against evade builds while putting almost no points into skill. It's also my most fun build to make and play as a result. It has better build options and diversity than my other builds by far. It has a large amount of sanctity which is fun and thematic to build and play, something I've found almost unjustifiable even in small quantities on almost any other build post GR2. It also has enough free stats without paying the skill tax to have decent survivability without being forced to wear heavy armor and gouge armor as hard as skill, allowing me to play with some unarmored synergy without being forced to play evade or be some kind of no DR glass cannon.

This results in a very clear picture being painted every time I go against an evade build. Against non evade builds, I get to have the kind of build diversity I could never have on my other builds with the now required skill tax, while still getting the full flexible, mix and matching skills verglas playstyle. Against evasion however, the game plan shrinks down to essentially just 'initiate with icicle spear then hit them with something else while they're frozen', with a side of zoning people out with the threat of evasion ignoring setting sun. The most interesting thing that ever happens with this build against evasion is icicle spear into kadouha into face stomp, that's the one 'combo' I get to do if I'm lucky compared to the full flexibility and enjoyment of chimera style shenanigans. Now don't get me wrong, this is still incredibly effective and wins the match against evasion more often than not, but it's just not very fun and often repetitive due to the narrow playstyle. I'm sure that a lot of people can agree that icicle spear spam isn't very fun to play against on the flip side either. Not having to deal with all of my damage coming down to essentially just rig-able rng is very nice, but it comes at the cost of my playstyle being forced into being narrow and less fun against evasion. I tried every which way to make a version of this build that builds skill so I could play the fun way against evasion too. I mean come on, it's an ice focused class, if anything should be able to do it well you'd think it would be verglas. The unfortunate reality is that even taking every reasonable bit of hit I could (At heavy sacrifice to every aspect of the build), it would never be enough for the old icicle spear strategy to not just be the better and safer option against evasion regardless. This could be used as an argument for better numbers balance or evasion ignore nerfs, but as I mentioned above I think this system is just inherently unfun to interact with even in an imaginary world of decent balance due to its inherently random nature and the various negative effects it has on the landscape of pvp and build diversity.

TL;DR - Crix makes good points. I think GR2 evasion mechanics are virtually impossible to balance and inherently unfun to engage with even in a dream world where they are well balanced. I think skill tax annihilates build diversity to the point of making certain builds essentially 'unmakeable', and we'd all be better off with evasion mechanics akin to GR1 with buffs for evade.