How do they decide how much mobility to give a class/spec?

In the past I used to think that mobility like leaps, dash, blinks etc. was mainly prioritized for melee builds/weapons.Hence we see many of the short-ranged melee weapons having mobility gap-closing skills (the only exception is Necro weapons having no mobility skills at all).Range weapons of 1200+ range and beyond generally had no mobility skill attached to it.Instead, Range weapons generally had a defensive mechanism to it that is not mobility related, like knockback, chill, push, immobilize etc.

This allowed melee builds to close the gap on range builds.And it allowed Range builds to defend itself when the melee got close.

Now, we have the longest range class with a Soulbeast spec that is also more mobile than every other classes' melee builds (except for thieves) due to the merge mechanics with Bird pets.And we have a long-range rifle wielding Deadeye with a spammable mobility skill on the weapon and also happens to already be one of the most mobile thief class.

So I was wondering...like...

• Why was Soulbeast given so much more mobility on like their 'Owl' pet when they also have the longest range attack? Shouldn't their mobility be kept at core-ranger levels because of their long-range attacks?
• Why was Deadeye given a spammable mobility skill on a long-range weapon when they already are the most mobile class? Shouldn't there be no mobility skills attached to a long-range weapon?

Do these classes not already have sufficient tools from their core skills/weapons to survive when a melee build gap-closes without being given even more mobility?

Am I wrong to think that mobility design was mainly dependent on the type of builds/weapons if it was melee, mid-range or long-range?Or do they decide how much mobility to give each spec base on the theme and flavor of the spec?

Edit: This post is from a WvW perspective. Posted there but it was moved here...

You've fallen into a Logic Trap. One of Mesmers lesser known abilities.Ranger and Thief always had lots of mobility.I don't think that initial design was 100% intentional, it probably just made sense.

It's quite obvious at this point that new specs are made to look good and add more powercreep. Balance is the least concern because 90% of the (paying) community is playing for fluff, not for competitiveness.

@steki.1478 said:It's quite obvious at this point that new specs are made to look good and add more powercreep. Balance is the least concern because 90% of the (paying) community is playing for fluff, not for competitiveness.

this, anet doesnt give a kitten about balancing just sales

@EremiteAngel.9765 said:

Same way all thoughtful people do1 Throw a dart on a wall with classes pictures sticked to it twice2 First hit nerff (try to aim for Thief)3 Second hit buff (try to aim for anything else)4 After you have finished first set of update changes repeat the process5 ???6 Profit

Anet threw mobility onto all of the elite specs outside of guard and necro (which didn't need it due to being so dominant anyways.) Like someone above said, it's all just powercreep and especs covering for weaknesses in core classes to allow for more powercreep.

The same reason they > @Ario.8964 said:

Anet threw mobility onto all of the elite specs outside of guard and necro (which didn't need it due to being so dominant anyways.)Necro got sand swell you know, a mobility skill that literally move entire zergs up cliffs that would otherwise force it to move around and unlike portal, is available on 50% of the zerg.

Selective claims of power creep is funny.

@Dawdler.8521 said:The same reason they > @Ario.8964 said:

Anet threw mobility onto all of the elite specs outside of guard and necro (which didn't need it due to being so dominant anyways.)Necro got sand swell you know, a mobility skill that literally move entire zergs up cliffs that would otherwise force it to move around and unlike portal, is available on 50% of the zerg.

That's right, forgot about sand swell. That just adds to my point really. Anet doesn't know what they're doing so they are just throwing out things like cc and mobility to every class with their especs. Sad to see the game go down that route when it could have been one of the best.

Call me crazy but ... it's theme based. That's also the reason people don't 'get it' or think Anet doesn't know what they are doing; theme-based determinations are literally Anet deciding what themes get things. People assume if that doesn't line up with their own ideas, Anet has no clue what they are doing. Just look at the post above mine.

@"Obtena.7952" said:Call me crazy but ... it's theme based. That's also the reason people don't 'get it' or think Anet doesn't know what they are doing; theme-based determinations are literally Anet deciding what themes get things. People assume if that doesn't line up with their own ideas, Anet has no clue what they are doing. Just look at the post above mine.

Theme doesn't mean shit when it destroys the balance of classes in a game. You know part of the reason why soulbeast is broken in ranked is it's nearly unparalleled mobility right? You realize that until every class had mobility that could compete with thief that thief was actually a good choice to bring for comps purely because of it's mobility advantage? You also realise that with this last round of especs EVERYONE got a mobility increase and more cc is present now than at the start of the game? It has nothing to do with "Theme", it has everything to do with anet powercreeping every class through the roof. So as per your invitation: you are crazy.

@Dawdler.8521 said:The same reason they > @Ario.8964 said:

Anet threw mobility onto all of the elite specs outside of guard and necro (which didn't need it due to being so dominant anyways.)Necro got sand swell you know, a mobility skill that literally move entire zergs up cliffs that would otherwise force it to move around and unlike portal, is available on 50% of the zerg.

You can achieve the same thing by using mesmer blink and portal. You can even do double portal with mesmer, that moves 40 and not just 20 people

@Ario.8964 said:

@"Obtena.7952" said:Call me crazy but ... it's theme based. That's also the reason people don't 'get it' or think Anet doesn't know what they are doing; theme-based determinations are literally Anet deciding what themes get things. People assume if that doesn't line up with their own ideas, Anet has no clue what they are doing. Just look at the post above mine.

Yet we have lots of examples where theme HAS been more important than class balance ... as well as what most people would say are unbalanced classes. Give that a think.

If you think what you say is true, you haven't been paying attention to the reasons Anet make some of the changes to the game. Maybe you think I've made up this crazy theory ... that's not the case. Give my sig a read if you don't think theme 'means kitten'.

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Call me crazy but ... it's theme based. That's also the reason people don't 'get it' or think Anet doesn't know what they are doing; theme-based determinations are literally Anet deciding what themes get things. People assume if that doesn't line up with their own ideas, Anet has no clue what they are doing. Just look at the post above mine.

Theme helps with the design and intention of skills yes. But creating imbalance for the sake of a theme shows a lack of understanding of game mechanics and proper balancing, meaning they don't know what they are doing which proves my point. What other people on the forum say is unbalanced is also basically just a tossup since players on this forum and just overall in this game will complain anything is op.

Where has theme been so important it destroys the balance of classes? Where has it been, not due to any lack of understanding or introduction of powercreeped mechanics, the sole reason a class has become/remained game breakingly OP?

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Call me crazy but ... it's theme based. That's also the reason people don't 'get it' or think Anet doesn't know what they are doing; theme-based determinations are literally Anet deciding what themes get things. People assume if that doesn't line up with their own ideas, Anet has no clue what they are doing. Just look at the post above mine.

That’s a very simplistic and narrowminded interpretation. If Anet decides to use theme as the primary reason to make changes to classes, that’s not wrong, it’s just different than what you expect … and objectively thinking here … there seems to be a number of logical reasons for that shift as well. Several are as follows:

1. Balancing class performance with all the complexities of all the choices available to players isn’t good return on effort for them or us, so why should they use performance as the primary reason to change the game? That makes no sense.
2. They’ve designed a game that doesn’t actually require tight performance balancing, so the idea they use performance as the primary reason to change the game isn’t sensible either.
3. MMO’s have a history of poor class performance balance; that’s an intrinsic problem with the MMO offering. Why would Anet make that the standard to which they change the game?

Again, if you want to see an example where theme has been used to make changes to classes, refer to my signature. There are also smaller ones like DH Piercing Light trait change and Mesmer phantasm changes. There are more, I’m not in the position to present them all. The point about what they are or how many they are isn't really relevant. The point is that Anet DOES change the game to align with their ideas of what the class theme is and more often than you might think or admit.

@Nimon.7840 said:

@Dawdler.8521 said:The same reason they > @Ario.8964 said:

Anet threw mobility onto all of the elite specs outside of guard and necro (which didn't need it due to being so dominant anyways.)Necro got sand swell you know, a mobility skill that literally move entire zergs up cliffs that would otherwise force it to move around and unlike portal, is available on 50% of the zerg.

If all 50 where thieves they wouldnt need any portal either, just sb 5 up there. I mean, 50 man thief zergs arent that uncommon. You just dont see them very often.

@Dawdler.8521 said:The same reason they > @Ario.8964 said:

Anet threw mobility onto all of the elite specs outside of guard and necro (which didn't need it due to being so dominant anyways.)Necro got sand swell you know, a mobility skill that literally move entire zergs up cliffs that would otherwise force it to move around and unlike portal, is available on 50% of the zerg.

Sand Swell is a meme, it's only use is for a bit of out of combat vertical mobility. The skill is almost slower than just running...Using Sand Swell as an example of power creep is just very funny

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Call me crazy but ... it's theme based. That's also the reason people don't 'get it' or think Anet doesn't know what they are doing; theme-based determinations are literally Anet deciding what themes get things. People assume if that doesn't line up with their own ideas, Anet has no clue what they are doing. Just look at the post above mine.

1. Balancing class performance with all the complexities of all the choices available to players isn’t good return on effort for them or us, so why should they use performance as the primary reason to change the game? That makes no sense.
2. They’ve designed a game that doesn’t actually require tight performance balancing, so the idea they use performance as the primary reason to change the game isn’t sensible either.
3. MMO’s have a history of poor class performance balance; that’s an intrinsic problem with the MMO offering. Why would Anet make that the standard to which they change the game?

The phantasm change wasn't for the "theme" of mesmer, it was to address the fluidity issues of summoning their phantasms and managing them during fights, which was a balance complaint for many mesmers whose damage was getting hurt by the rampant AoE and lack of phantasm consistency/reliability. Using theme as a basis for change isn't wrong, like you said. However, it is rarely ever the SOLE reason for doing so. My point is that regardless of it being based in a desire to fit a theme or not, anet has done a poor job with managing balance within the game as many classes have become powercreeped for the sake of powercreep. Many of the themes of the classes would still be perfectly intact with the design anet intended them to have if they had a little less mobility, damage, sustain, etc. Now to address your points:1) Not right away, but over time having a substantial pvp playerbase (which could be acquired in this game with better class balance and new game modes) opens up the possibility of marketing to the pvp gaming community which can expand the game through streams, competitions, etc. It is a time investment and despite the fact that the game will most likely never go esports again, it could've seen major benefits from utilizing the esport market. (reason it dropped out was bunker meta, a situation created through terrible balancing, was a bore to watch and to play. Nobody enjoyed it and the game has never recovered from that)2) I'll be honest I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this (I may just be too tired). Would you mind explaining this a little more?3) A history of doing something poorly isn't a free excuse to keep doing something poorly. If you play basketball, and you have a history of missing all your free throws, what team is going to look at you and say "Oh, he's got a history of bad free throws, it's okay"? They will all make you improve or change the way you are doing things because it's obvious that the current way you are doing things is unsatisfactory. Anet ideally would do the same with this game's balance but again, they have no idea how to balance for pvp.

@"Obtena.7952" said:

3. MMO’s have a history of poor class performance balance; that’s an intrinsic problem with the MMO offering. Why would Anet make that the standard to which they change the game?

Actually I'd say originally Anet did go against the typical MMORPG pattern of "balancing".

Pre-HoT in contrast to pretty much every themepark MMORPG they balanced virtually entirely around one game mode - PvP, rather than the clusterkitten you get in most MMORPGs (and now this one) where they try and balance for PvE & PvP.

And whilst you had "themes" back then it actually helped balance, because the devs (who now mostly work at Amazon) understood classes should have weaknesses as well as strengths and the "theme" was in part the basis for that. Ironically I'd say the "theme" has actually been watered down with the obnoxious powercreep in this game where every class can do so much, there is less distinction between "themes" than there once was and not just balance has suffered for that, but the quality of the combat / gameplay itself.

What you might not know about nerfing Owl Swoop is there are alternative pets that can do very similar or for some preferred abilities.Fern hound, for example, has an 800 distance leap and it also has knockdown and stun abilities.Rock Gazelle also has a 1200 range disengage ability except it has a stun attached to it and again comes with more knockdowns and higher DPS and there are many more.

Necromancers specialize in AOE abilities, rangers and deadeyes specialize in long range abilities.I think it should stay that way, otherwise, just make 1 profession and give it all the abilities then things will be balanced.

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Call me crazy but ... it's theme based. That's also the reason people don't 'get it' or think Anet doesn't know what they are doing; theme-based determinations are literally Anet deciding what themes get things. People assume if that doesn't line up with their own ideas, Anet has no clue what they are doing. Just look at the post above mine.

1. Balancing class performance with all the complexities of all the choices available to players isn’t good return on effort for them or us, so why should they use performance as the primary reason to change the game? That makes no sense.
2. They’ve designed a game that doesn’t actually require tight performance balancing, so the idea they use performance as the primary reason to change the game isn’t sensible either.
3. MMO’s have a history of poor class performance balance; that’s an intrinsic problem with the MMO offering. Why would Anet make that the standard to which they change the game?

This doesn't change my point really. See, the problem is that you have come here and imposed your ideas about what is right or wrong on Anet's concept of an MMO. That doesn't make sense. It's not wrong that Anet has decided to use their own ideas to design the game and for the devs to work within that framework to deliver the game as they see fit. The debate over whatever those factors are is moot; I'm simply suggesting Anet placed strong emphasis on theme when they decide to change classes in the game. Whether or not you agree with that doesn't change the fact that it's irrelevant what we think the game SHOULD be based on. The only difference here is that my ideas are based on observing the game. Yours are based on some rules you imagined that you think Anet is breaking.

In otherwords, the idea that the game is primarily balanced on 'theme' is WAY more realistic than the idea the game is primarily balanced on performance. You should give some thought to that.

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Call me crazy but ... it's theme based. That's also the reason people don't 'get it' or think Anet doesn't know what they are doing; theme-based determinations are literally Anet deciding what themes get things. People assume if that doesn't line up with their own ideas, Anet has no clue what they are doing. Just look at the post above mine.

1. Balancing class performance with all the complexities of all the choices available to players isn’t good return on effort for them or us, so why should they use performance as the primary reason to change the game? That makes no sense.
2. They’ve designed a game that doesn’t actually require tight performance balancing, so the idea they use performance as the primary reason to change the game isn’t sensible either.
3. MMO’s have a history of poor class performance balance; that’s an intrinsic problem with the MMO offering. Why would Anet make that the standard to which they change the game?

It has nothing to do with my view of what is "right and wrong", it's just simple common sense that literally every game designer in the world (except apparently the ones at anet) will tell you is the truth. Your simple suggestion, as you put it, is wrong. Class DESIGN, of course, is created around a theme. The idea that BALANCE of that specific class is because of theme is ludicrous. There is no theme that would justify making classes more and more powerful with every expansion. Anet even said the intention of the system wasn't to serve as upgrades to current specs so if we are going based off of theme, it looks to me like they still have no idea what they're doing since they can't even fit into their own theme of elite specs in general.

@Dawdler.8521 said:The same reason they > @Ario.8964 said:

Anet threw mobility onto all of the elite specs outside of guard and necro (which didn't need it due to being so dominant anyways.)Necro got sand swell you know, a mobility skill that literally move entire zergs up cliffs that would otherwise force it to move around and unlike portal, is available on 50% of the zerg.

But the scourge lost the base mobility in shroud as a trade off for this utility skill. Which basically mean that the scourge don't have more mobility than the core necromancer or the reaper. Sand swell isn't the best example ever to use as a mobility powercreep for a profession. On anpther hand, rangers gaining access to their pet's mobility skill can be seen as mobility powercreep because this new mobility isn't a mobility moved from one place to another. If for a reason or another a necromancer elite spec ended up with new mobility skills in both weapon skills and shroud skill then you could say that there is mobility power creep.

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Ario.8964 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:Call me crazy but ... it's theme based. That's also the reason people don't 'get it' or think Anet doesn't know what they are doing; theme-based determinations are literally Anet deciding what themes get things. People assume if that doesn't line up with their own ideas, Anet has no clue what they are doing. Just look at the post above mine.

1. Balancing class performance with all the complexities of all the choices available to players isn’t good return on effort for them or us, so why should they use performance as the primary reason to change the game? That makes no sense.
2. They’ve designed a game that doesn’t actually require tight performance balancing, so the idea they use performance as the primary reason to change the game isn’t sensible either.
3. MMO’s have a history of poor class performance balance; that’s an intrinsic problem with the MMO offering. Why would Anet make that the standard to which they change the game?

You didn't understood my response. Again, you are coming in with this discussion with the concept that there is only one fundamental approach for how Anet should change classes in the game, based on some how MMO's do it (poorly as well, as I already mentioned). Anet has designed the game to so that there is no need for them to conform to what you are describing, within reason. It's not right or wrong, it's just different ... and despite the negative spin you put on it, at worst, it doesn't impact most players so negatively that they decide they won't support the game financially to make this a sustainable business. The business works, even with Anet's approach to class changes, so arguing that the way they do it is 'ludicrious' isn't compelling to change it or a relevant frame of mind to discuss it. If you can't think beyond the narrow approach that you have adopted from other MMO's, you don't get what this game delivers to it's players or why.

You should try looking at the game for what it is, not for what you want it to be.

I agree in part with Obtena (above). There is no essential rhyme or reason w/r/t balancing other than an ambiguous "theme" that only the developers really have access to. We can sort of guess at what their intent may have been on a per profession basis (with some evidence from interviews, etc.), and we'll never know exactly how that theme has changed over time, other than the obvious "moar powah!!" we have seen.

The balance (as such) really only matters in competitive modes anyway--or pseudo-competitive modes, such as raiding--because these modes test you against other players (in raiding, you are "tested" for a spot on the roster against other players before the actual contest begins). Unfortunately, since theme > balance, people will experience these modes as inherently unfair experiences, and slowly become jaded/cynical/toxic. The players running the more "overtuned" specs will believe that their superior game knowledge, skill, and inherent greatness entitle them to run oppressive builds, and they respond to any negative comments with something that, at the core, is equivalent to "git gud". The other saps--like me--enjoy the artistic/aesthetic experience that the devs probably intended, but eventually get pwned by one or more of the aforementioned "git gud" fellows, and the fun is instantly perverted to fury. And then the cycle just repeats with the "balance" patches.

@Yannir.4132 said:You've fallen into a Logic Trap. One of Mesmers lesser known abilities.Ranger and Thief always had lots of mobility.I don't think that initial design was 100% intentional, it probably just made sense.

Yup, and considering how mobile mesmer has always been with greatsword, it's never really been a perfect correlation between melee and mobility anyways.