Valheita
zOMG! Ring Tier Analysis + Ring Feedback
The premise of this thread, is a simple system to identify where each ring sits in a fairly arbitrary power system. This means that ring ratings should be taken with a grain of salt. Not only is there an over simplification (meaning that not all rings in a tier are created equal), but there's also an element of subjectiveness to each rating. I've attempted to overcome this subjectiveness by using community feedback to adjust the settings.
Before Continuing Any Further!
Using 8 "Good" tier rings won't guarantee you victory. Regardless of which tier your rings come from, you need to give your build thought and weight out which ones will suit your play style. Do not use this list as an absolute guide, because it is based on speculation and some observations, but your game experience will always differ.
If you do not read and understand the above, then do not read any further. I've no wish to ruin peoples gaming experience like that.
The tiers are defined as follows:
Good Rings - Rings that most players will benefit from in their ringset. These rings don't need fixing, and some of them may even require small nerfs.
Playable - These rings will work in some builds, but generally are outshone by Good rings. For the most part, these rings are well balanced. However, there are some of them which do need fixes and I'll address these case by case.
Poor Rings - Limited applications, may benefit from a buff. This doesn't say that they cannot be used succesfully however. These are rings who have poor implementation, or might benefit from a boost in power, and I shall address them in the second post.
WWY - An acronym for "Why Would You?". These rings are exceptionally limited in implementation, useful only in early levels of the game, or only useful as part of ring-sets. When it comes to bad rings, these rings redefine the standard, and they are not placed here lightly.
Other things you will find is:
(Preparing to move +) and (Preparing to move -), which means the a case has been made, you can choose to contest it. I may even include who make the case and where to find their post.
(Possible Move +) and (Possible Move -), which means that people have suggested the change, but there isn't necessarily enough to warrant a case. You can support or oppose this.
The order of rings in the tiers is NOT representative of their relative power. It is my belief that you cannot break ring balance down further than these tiers.
For the sake of discussion, I'm adding in tentative shifts based on updates. These are in no way based on facts, and are purely speculatory based on information presented in Qixter's thread.
The Ring Tiers
Good Rings.
Mantis - High DPS, stamina efficient. A staple of damage dealing builds and an A grade melee ring. Stays
Slash - Comparatively high DPS AoE effect, may be difficult to hit multiple targets with, but never the less a ring that will benefit most meleers. Stays
Dervish - Damage ain't the best, but it clears the area and is easy to use. Devastating when done in groups.Stays
Solar Rays - This ring has a balance of range and damage, as well as an instant effect. This makes it an A grade ranged ring. Stays
Hunter's Bow - High Range, speed debuff and a noteworthy combo with Gumshoe. (Moving to Good) Stays
Rock Armor - Do I need to explain this one? Stays - Maybe goes to Playable depending on usefulness of boost
Turtle - Or this one? Down to Playable
Divinity - Really? Stays
Meat - Near doubles your HP, especially handy now with the sleep effects kicking in properly. Stays
Bandage - Most efficient self-healing ring. Stays
Defibrilate - Self-Explanatory. Stays
Diagnose - Solid healing effect. Often all a crew needs in the way of healing. Stays
Playable Rings.
Shuriken - Handy accuracy debuff, reasonable DPS. Also part of the ninja set for added sexiness. Range is perhaps a tad limited however. Maybe a Good ring with AoE?
Guns Guns Guns - High DPS, but only average range, and knockback that causes conflict when combo'd with melee attacks. Stays
Ghost - Solid defensive buff, but lacks the sheer power of one like Rock Armor. Also part of the Ninja set, the only noteworthy set. Stays
Pot Lid - Unreliable, but still effective defense. Seems to lack protection against bosses however. Up to good
Teflon Spray - A dependable defensive buff, however it currently causes conflict with other Armour rings, and also is completely and utterly outshone by both Turtle and Rock Armor. Up to Good
Adrenaline - Equal to ghost numerically, but with quick cooldown, and multi-player targeting. Down to Poor or even WWY
Fitness - Offers a variety of low power buffs. A great space filler, but easily outshone by other rings in advanced ringsets. Stays
Coyote's Spirit - A reliable speed boost, but not the most noticable of boosts. Stays
My Density - When in crews, this ring is great for saving everyone the hassle of knockback, without requiring them to take up space with Fitness. Stays
Keen Aye - Very handy for players who like efficiency, as enemies seem to be able to dodge a fair amount now. Up to Good?
Iron Will - Very very useful in later game areas to protect against CC effects. Stays
Wish - Limited use for healing classes, outshone by Diagnose. It is highly efficient however. Stays
Gumshoe - Combos with Hunter's Bow for a valuable combo. Also handy for ranging type builds. Stays?
Poor Rings.
Hack - A solid melee attack, but comparatively low DPS and the addition of knockback can make it challenging to combo, as well as devastating if misused. Stays or up to Playable if the damage is fixed
Bump - Efficient, and with a very nice amount of knockback. Good support for juggling and ranging builds. Stays, or up to Playable if damage is fixed
Fire Rain - Attack takes time to execute and deal damage, and damage is lackluster for it's stamina/cooldown. Up to Playable
Shark Attack - Poor range for a ranged ring, poor damage for a melee ring. This one is the worst of both worlds. It's knockback is useful in juggling builds however. Stays
Hot Foot - Unnoticable dodge debuff, damage is acceptable but I feel that if we have to wait for it, then it should be higher. Maybe up to Playable, replacing GGGuns?
Heavy Water Balloon - High stamina cost for an unnoticeable debuff and a fairly minor damage. Stays - Taunt effect = bad. Especially as this was a healer ring.
Hornet's Nest - Unless used with Quicksand has a potential to annoy with its CC effect, and has low damage for it's cost as per HWB. Maybe playable?
Knife Sharpen - As with Keen Aye, except that Accuracy isn't as valuable in crews, and as such I feel that this rings ability is lackluster. Stays, or maybe even WWY?
Fleet Feet - Short duration compared to cooldown. (Possible Move +) Playable
Duct Tape - Unreliable, especially against bosses where it's most useful. Limited applications in Hive World, but not often used by experienced crews now. Stays, unless Bosses are vulnerable
Scaredy Cat - Unreliable, especially against bosses where it's most useful. As with Duct Tape
WWY? Rings.
Healing Halo - Do I need to explain why this is here? Moving to Poor because of Weight boost?
Taunt - Only has use for Tanks, which are unnecessary roles in zOMG! This guy... would be moving down, if he could.
Contested Rings
These rings are hot topics of wildly differing opinions, and as such cannot be reliably rated.
- Improbability Sphere - Powerful effect, but not strong enough to warrant it truly being a crew only ring. Contested by OMFG Taylor
{Val's Note: Mine is now C.L. 10.0 and ready for testing baby biggrin }
Quicksand - Short Duration, and fairly high stamina cost, but has a number of useful applications... when combined with Iron Will.
The Ringset Tiers
Good Ringsets.
Ninja - A solid defensive boost, powerful rings and no real cost to running it. The best set, hands down. Down
Playable Ringsets.
Angel - A very nifty stat boost for those still trying to earn orbs, but it's rings kind of let it down, especially as said rings include HH, a current WWY ring. Down
Shaman - Has a very useful effect, and a couple of nice rings. It's synergy leaves a lot to be desired however, with Willpower only affecting 2/4, you need to take up more room with other Will based effects to get the most of this ringset. Down
Medic - Good rings are it's only saving grace, otherwise you've got a useless set bonus, and a wasted ring slot, since Bandage is outperformed by Wish. Up
Poor Ringsets.
Athlete - Semi-useful Ability, but packing a WWY? ring like Taunt on top of a space-filling ring such as Fitness really kicks this ringset to the backburner. Stays
Space Trooper - The rings are good, however the class ability is completely outshone by it's own ring, My Density, so this ringset gets a fail grade. Stays
Demon - Mildly useful ability, but poor ring options means you're much better off just packing Divinity, unless you planned to use the rings anyway. Up
Pirate - The speed boost is unnoticeable. The rings vary greatly in power, two good rings, one poor and one contested, which makes this set iffy at best. Stays
WWY? Ringsets.
Chef Set - Where to begin? The rings conflict, the ringset's bonus is overwritten by the rings. The only redeeming feature is Meat. Up to Poor
Prankster - A variety of poor rings, for a near useless ability boost that is quite likely outshone by Fitness. Up - Maybe to Playable?
A Note to Remember
I've heard a lot of people claim that the rings are balanced, and that it's purely a lack of skill that makes the easier to use rings appear better.
This is in part true. Numerically, the rings are indeed balanced. However, ease of use is also an important factor in determining balance and effectiveness. Mantis, for example, is much easier to use to kill things with than say Heavy Water Balloon.
This effectiveness is what the tiers attempt to model and suggest fixes too, and for RPG terms, this is what power is. To use a real world example, a shotgun is stronger than a katana, because it's more effective at killing. That's not to say that there's no conceivable situation where the katana is more desirable, but lets face it. Shotgun kills more effectively.
Before I would consider the game balanced, every ring should be in the top 2 tiers, and likely as not, it should be roughly a 50/50 split between them. Different people have different ideas of balance though.
Valheita
Ring Feedback // Suggestions
Good Rings
Rock Armor
The age old "NERF ROCK ARMOR" debate. While it's certainly powerful, I feel that it's imbalance isn't so much caused by it's power as by the overwhelming ability to rely on it. I feel that a better fix would be to introduce attacks that can only be avoided with dodge/deflection.
Playable Rings
Armor Rings
Teflon Spray, Pot Lid, Ghost. These rings are effective, but heavily outshone by Rock Armour. The aforementioned attack variety fix should address this outshining, but these rings may still benefit from a small buff.
Also, Teflon Spray has a number of conflicts with other Armor rings which need to be addressed, but the Devs know this already.
Also, Teflon Spray has a number of conflicts with other Armor rings which need to be addressed, but the Devs know this already.
Adrenaline
The ring provides an awesome effect, but for a Ally-Only ring it's effect is lackluster. Needs a boost to the level of dodge provided.
My Density
While rated "Playable", I still feel this ring leaves a bit to be desired. To this end, I'm going to dredge up this idea from my old thread:
Suggestion: Make having a high weight increase the knockback distance and damage of melee knockback type rings (slightly).
zOMG! Suggestion Buffet
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Weight System Revamp
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Weight System Revamp
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Suggestion: Make having a high weight increase the knockback distance and damage of melee knockback type rings (slightly).
Poor Rings
Hack
Restoring the damage to it's former glory works. Alternatively, make it's RR4 flashy, and add a minute chance of instant death to it.
Heavy Water Balloon
While I realise that this is a ranged AoE, the benefit of hitting multiple animated at range is really blown apart by the exhorbitant stamina cost. Two ways I could consider fixing this ring would be:
1) Reducing Stamina Cost
2) Making it so that raging it drastically increases it's damage
1) Reducing Stamina Cost
2) Making it so that raging it drastically increases it's damage
Quicksand
While I'm not overly knowledgable on the playability of Quicksand, gataka provided this very succint summary of the ring and it's fixes
gataka
It's very powerful (hold down whole HORDES and negate pushback), but inconvenient (Mouse aimed (which I like)= unclear range), unreliable (CC, splash AoE: the further they are from the center, the lower the effect, I believe) and costly (10.10.10!? D : ) I love this ring. All this makes it look ugly, but it really is that good and fun. But it still needs improvements. Seriously.
I suggest lowered cost (~7), longer lasting effect (Now RR4 is ~30 sec. if I remember correctly. Make it a whole minute at RR4 >: D ) and make it non-splash AoE. The "inconvenience" has its own bonuses, I don't believe it needs a change. CC rings are hard to balance >.>
I suggest lowered cost (~7), longer lasting effect (Now RR4 is ~30 sec. if I remember correctly. Make it a whole minute at RR4 >: D ) and make it non-splash AoE. The "inconvenience" has its own bonuses, I don't believe it needs a change. CC rings are hard to balance >.>
Hornet's Nest
The point and click system makes this ring unwieldy in the heat of battle, and it's high stamina cost leaves something to be desired. Suggestion would be, increase the chance of CC slightly, and reduce the stamina cost slightly.
Hot Foot + Fire Rain
The biggest issue for these rings is that we have to wait for the damage to tally up, and it just isn't flashy enough to warrant that. Especially when Solar Rays does about equal damage, at better range and does it all at once (in the case of Hot Foot). Suggestion would be to increase the damage done so that it's worth waiting for.
Iron Will
Oh, blocking enemy CC effects is -nice-, but lets face it, not many do it, and only a few of those that do are really that dangerous. My suggestion would be to make willpower affect your DoT effects.
This means that Iron Will both fits into the Demon Set better, and has a use outside of CC effects, which at current are limited.
This means that Iron Will both fits into the Demon Set better, and has a use outside of CC effects, which at current are limited.
Crowd Control Rings - Duct Tape + Scaredy Cat
These rings cannot be used against the enemies that require them most. The main suggestion is to remove the boss immunities to CC rings. That way we can use Willpower boosts to make them at least slightly playable.
An alternative suggestion by Divine_Malevolence is:
Now.... These rings, within themselves, are far too powerful to be able to be balanced well. The ability to stop an enemies attack entirely is far too much.
So I'm thinking the logic behind these two rings need to be changed some.
Scardey cat, if I'm correct, was made off of the idea of watching the enemy run away. I figure that there's.... A better way to go about it. Make it a knockback attack the likes of which gaia hasn't seen before. And don't base it off of weight, but off of willpower, so that it'll have some use against large enemies. Don't take their ability to attack away, though, as that would make it.... Too powerful.
(Val's Alternative: Make it so that the Animated will avoid the player that used the fear effect. Allies that aren't close to the player are fair game, and Animated with ranged attacks will use them.)
Duct tape would also need to be reworked somewhat. I think it might fare better to slow down the enemies attacks, rather then stop it. At R1, have it attack once in the period of time that it would attack twice otherwise. At R2, once for every three times before. At R3, once for every four times it would attack before.
An alternative suggestion by Divine_Malevolence is:
Divine_Malevolence
Now.... These rings, within themselves, are far too powerful to be able to be balanced well. The ability to stop an enemies attack entirely is far too much.
So I'm thinking the logic behind these two rings need to be changed some.
Scardey cat, if I'm correct, was made off of the idea of watching the enemy run away. I figure that there's.... A better way to go about it. Make it a knockback attack the likes of which gaia hasn't seen before. And don't base it off of weight, but off of willpower, so that it'll have some use against large enemies. Don't take their ability to attack away, though, as that would make it.... Too powerful.
(Val's Alternative: Make it so that the Animated will avoid the player that used the fear effect. Allies that aren't close to the player are fair game, and Animated with ranged attacks will use them.)
Duct tape would also need to be reworked somewhat. I think it might fare better to slow down the enemies attacks, rather then stop it. At R1, have it attack once in the period of time that it would attack twice otherwise. At R2, once for every three times before. At R3, once for every four times it would attack before.
Fleet Feet
The duration is simply too short, and the cooldown too long. Suggested changes include shortening the cooldown, to make this a bursting type ring. You can use it to get sudden speed boosts to outrun Animated. Alternatively, increase duration to turn it into a buff more akin to Divinity.
(Val's Note: I may have misjudged this ring. Will get back to you on this one.)
(Val's Note: I may have misjudged this ring. Will get back to you on this one.)
Knife Sharpen
While efficiency is all very important for solo players, I would suggest that for a crew it's somewhat less valuable. My suggestion would be to have a higher accuracy mean you hit more often in the higher end of the damage range of a ring. A kind of, fudging the roll if you will.
Why-Would-You-Use-This Ring
Taunt
This ring fulfills the role of every other ring in the game. To generate aggro. You're spending stamina to achieve something that you can do while beating the Animated up. The only advantage is that you're doing it more than other players. This is only of value to Tanks however, and in my experience, crews with specialisation tend to be less reliable.
A suggestion by gataka is:
Or alternatively, The Undead Suitor suggests:
A suggestion by gataka is:
gataka
Anyway, the "give Taunt the ability to bypass the chaining" stills holds. Actually, we could even push that even further: Taunt is a CC ring and thus it is based on Will and has a duration (very long, currently). Make it such that while the target is under the effect, it attacks only the ring user, ignoring all others. It would completely bypass the aggro system. To make it even better, it could even force the target to attack directly* (So no "fetch the mob" sentinels or any similar scripting thing.)
Or alternatively, The Undead Suitor suggests:
The Undead Suitor
Taunt could be saved by adding an extra effect to it. Either by debuffing def or accuracy of the monster. (Kind of like a "Blind Rage" effect, the hate generated by the ring consumes the monster and he goes into a blind fury, flailing around like a madman hoping to just hit you, it's accuracy drops and since the monsters so focused on you its defenses are dropped.)
Healing Halo
This ring simply doesn't heal enough to warrant it's stamina use. At best it's handy outside of battle. I have no ideas how fix this.
Malignant Virus
How about making Healing Halo a heal-received multiplier? Say, at all CL's {much like divinity..},
RR1 would multiply heal-received by 1.2
RR2 would multiply heal-received by 1.25
RR3 would multiply heal-received by 1.3
RR4 would multiply heal-received by 1.4
Meaning that people targeted by the ring, when healed, gets the amount healed multiplied. Also having the same cooldown/effect time as Divinity. It could also be just a regular surround AoE, just like it is now.
Val's Amendment: To make the change less drastic, just make this effect in addition to it's normal HP Regen Boost.
RR1 would multiply heal-received by 1.2
RR2 would multiply heal-received by 1.25
RR3 would multiply heal-received by 1.3
RR4 would multiply heal-received by 1.4
Meaning that people targeted by the ring, when healed, gets the amount healed multiplied. Also having the same cooldown/effect time as Divinity. It could also be just a regular surround AoE, just like it is now.
Val's Amendment: To make the change less drastic, just make this effect in addition to it's normal HP Regen Boost.
Contested Rings
Ring-Sets
Athlete
I think the only real issue is the quality of rings for this one
Chef
Conflicts galore, but the failings of this set will hopefully be repaired with the Armour system update that's due.
Demon
While improving the rings will help this set, we felt its ability also left a bit to be desired, as Divinity is quite frankly sufficient and better. A suggestion made is that killing things while wearing this set could either restore Stamina + Health (as you absorb their soul) OR you could make it increase the damage of rings temporarily, then change the Angel Set to regain stamina/health while defeating enemies.
Medic
HP regeneration doesn't qualify wasting 2 slots on healing rings (even for dedicated support/healers). My suggestion would be to make it so that healing rings become cheaper or more effective when used in conjunction with the set.
Pirate
The Pirate set... the rings work fine, but the bonus leaves a lot to be desired. I would suggest either:
1) Increase the speed boost
2) Change the speed boost into a gold earned boost.
1) Increase the speed boost
2) Change the speed boost into a gold earned boost.
Prankster
I'll be frank. I have no idea how to save this ringset. Poor rings, poor ability. There's no desirable reason to play it.
Space Trooper
The set bonus is outshone by My Density, a ring included IN THE SET. Rafakun Morry had the idea to change it to a Deflection/Reflection effect instead, which sounds good to me, and makes sense thematically as a form of personal shield.
For the sake of interest
