"I've been lurking and posting a bit in the balance forums since I first started playing HoN, and I've been a longtime fan of competitive gaming. A common point of discussion here is that S2 should not "balance for the competitive scene" or something to that effect, implying that by making balance changes based on the results of high-level games, the balance of the game for the majority of the playerbase will be negatively impacted.
Without flaming anyone, I want to respond to this point in the hopes that people will stop using it in various balance arguments on here.
First, it is worth noting that other highly competitive games like StarCraft, Counter-Strike and Street Fighter are primarily balanced on high-level play. It stands to reason that games which have been around for 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years (iterations of Street Fighter II are still regularly played for money at tournaments worldwide) have stood the test of time, and if they had poor balance, they would not have endured. However, I understand that "other good games do this" doesn't convince some people, so that brings me to my next point.
A common issue brought up with competitive balancing is that a particular hero, ability, item or tactic may be effectively used or countered by players at a higher skill level, but ineffectively used or countered by player at a lower level. This complaint potentially has merit, but only if the balance issue in question is so significantly far out of the realm of a typical player's ability that it require an unreasonable amount of time to master. Is this really the case with many supposed balance issues in HoN?
To illustrate this point, here's a comparison of two potential balance issues in other competitive games. One would be the AWP in Counter-Strike. The AWP is a weapon that kills its target in one hit, guaranteed. Many Counter-Strike players consider this to be an overpowered or 'cheap' weapon. However, it is not banned in Counter-Strike tournaments. This is because there are significant penalties to using the AWP (it is heavy, fires only one shot at the time, has no crosshair when it is not zoomed, zooming leaves the user vulnerable, etc.) and all players can in theory use it.
Another issue is "roll-canceling" in the game Capcom vs. SNK 2. Roll-canceling is an exploitable glitch wherein any character with a "roll" type move can essentially transform that move into any other move that their character has while still maintaining the properties of the original move. This gives any character with a roll an incredible advantage, as their special moves effectively become invincible. Early in the game's competitive life, U.S. players (who did not use the glitch) matched up against Japanese players (who had mastered it) and were completely dominated. It is very difficult if not impossible to compete in CVSNK2 without using roll-canceling, which is only available to a handful of characters, and even then requires unimaginably precise timing to execute. Roll-canceling was removed in a port of the game and is considered to be an obviously broken mechanic.
Why is the AWP fine, but roll-canceling is not? Primarily because while the former is accessible to any player in almost any situation, the latter is universally better than virtually all other options, and it carries an incredible 'time tax'. A time tax refers to the fact that certain basic mechanics necessary to high-level play in competitive games require that the player invest a certain amount of time into mastery.
Some games, like Chess, do not have a time tax. A novice player has access to every single option that a grandmaster has, though their decisions on when to use these options will invariably be worse. Conversely, many fighting games have high time taxes (memorizing special moves, combos, frame data, etc.), and specific ones, like CVSNK2, have clearly ridiculous ones. The original StarCraft had a major time tax - micromanagement. This did not affect its status as a great game, but is an acknowledged issue that Blizzard has attempted to address in the sequel.
You might be asking what the point of this discussion is, so I'll get back on topic: HoN is a game that has very few time taxes, and those it does are generally minor. The biggest of them is the requirement of memorizing the abilities of every hero and the effect of every item. If you do not recognize that Predator is using Stone Skin, or that Succubus can hold you for 4 seconds, that Marchers are necessary to increasing movement speed, or Night Hound becomes invisible at level 6, you cannot compete. It takes dozens of games (and even some external research) before any player can be expected to have mastered this 'mechanic' of HoN. If a player said, "I didn't know you could stun me - that's unfair!" would anyone accept this as a valid complaint?
Another time tax is last-hitting. This is a very minor one, and most players can pick up the concept of last-hitting quickly, getting to a competent level within a reasonable amount of time. Again, nobody would accept a complaint that "I don't know how to last-hit, it's overpowered" is legitimate. Then there is the targeting and usage of hero skills. Compared to the multitude of twitch-based games out there, aiming Pyromancer or Witch Slayer's stun is incredibly easy (think about the coordination required to achieve a headshot on a running opponent in Counter-Strike, yet this is a skill any CS player has become at least competent at.) So, in sum, HoN's time taxes are fairly inconsequential.
When you watch a competitive HoN games, the players obviously have a very thorough knowledge of every hero and item. They are excellent at last-hitting and denying. They can land their stuns accurately. But these are not skills that require an enormous time tax to master, or at least become proficient. The difference between a 1900 player and a 1600 player has less to do with their ability to last hit, or their knowledge of what hero does what, and more to do with their strategic decision making - when to use a given skill, when to farm, when to gank, where to gank, and so on.
However, the difference between a 1600 player and a 1300 player has a LOT to do with their ability to last hit, and their knowledge of what hero does what. How many times have you seen an inexperienced pub player die to Blood Hunter's ult? How many people would say Blood Hunter (or his ult) are thus overpowered? The average PSR of HoN is, by definition, 1500. At this level (and certainly below it), many players have not yet mastered the mechanics necessary to playing HoN at a competitive level, despite the fact that these mechanics require a relatively minimal time tax.
It should then be self-evident that it makes sense for game designers to balance their games based on the assumption that people have mastered the requisite mechanics of the game to play it at a competitive level. (Note that this is different than assuming players have the tactical knowledge or predictive skills necessary to play at a competitive level.) If pub players die consistently to Blood Hunter's ult, is it because Blood Hunter is overpowered, or because they don't know the effects of his ult? If pub players are losing consistently to Tempest, is it because Tempest is overpowered, or because they aren't aware of the various counters to him (Vindicator, Tablet of Command, etc.)?
A possible argument against this point might be a hero or item that is very hard to master or counter, and everyone at a competitive level has mastered it (and its counter), but it is infeasible for most people to complete the time tax required to get to that level. My response to this would be NOT to mindlessly nerf the hero/item in question (which would throw off balance once people DO learn it), but rather to simply make it easier to achieve that level of mastery. Making it easier to learn, play or counter a hero or a particular item does not affect high-level balance, but it does help lower-level balance, and there is little reason not to use this approach in situations where the issue in question is simply requiring a large time tax."
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Original post here:
http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?100136-Why-Balancing-for-High-Level-Players-is-OK
