#1.) ONLY Because you can do it today - Take Maggon off rotation right now until it can get a real fix. EVERYONE hates this map: specifically A.



#2.) Flow: aka, long transitions between animations cause for a significant lack of control over characters. This effects timings in melee greatly and is often precieved as lag & bad netcode even when it's neither. It's hard to explain without an example - a great one is the time it takes to recover from a roll and perform a Dbash, or a Dbash into something else, or a roll into sprint/motion. All of these have consequences, like getting caught in melee and not being able to get away, which compound the symptoms of imbalance.



You'll notice these video's are ancient at this point with a lot of outdated issues, but the point is to just watch the motions between the two. There are no gaps whatsoever in the flow of SM, which markedly speeds up melee along with everything else. The ferocity is half the animation, it's also the beautifully smooth transitions.













Another way to think about it is like the difference of handling between tanks. I want everyone to be as fluid and easy to control as a Wave Serpent. We're mostly sitting at the level of a Rhino. It's not as rediculous as a Trukk, but it's definitely still not quite post Alpha state either.



#3.) Standardize and rationalize melee. Weapon speeds, force, damage, reach, stun durations and pen vary widely between the races/classes/weapons. For some things it makes sense. A knife is definitely not an advantage against a claw. But why even have the RPS system if T1 weapons can't really do more than one move against a T4 weapon- against a class that will ignore the stun, and not have the fluidity to then flee. Basically all routes lead to one outcome unless an external factor occurs. Dbash is way too defensive. Players use clangs for parries, which is why nerfing knife durability didn't make sense. Dbash should just be Bash, used to turn the tide of RMB combat in your favor since that's already what it's doing. Meaning it needs to be faster - maybe with a red indicator like power attack. Have Power Attack have the gaurd against Dbash the way Dbash currently gaurds against RMB.



#4.) Expand. Yes. Expand as quickly as you can. If you thought balance was going to be top 5, you're wrong. Balance is already mostly here. Tweaks yes, but anything outright broken quickly gets dealt with because you have the data for it, so it's not worrying me. What worries me is the turbo button isn't smashed through the control pannel churning out more persistance, more maps orr at least enlargements to the current maps, larger realms, territories, more freedom from the lobby shooter, no timers, larger battles, ect. Where's an old school 8 hour Alterac Valley match where nobody leaves until one side wins? Combining maps? Raising the player cap? Anything? I'd make this priority #1 if #1 wasn't so easy and the other 2 things weren't so important to the core since they travel wherever you go.



#5.) Universally better communication systems. I cannot talk to: team mates, guildmates, other allies not in a match without having to use steam, TS, or discord. Forming War Parties is either a random process or is reliant on steam friends/recent in game contacts. Can't I search for the war party I want to like trying to find a match in DoW? I cannot schedule events or leave policies (like not to exploit tanks or use the Hunters mark when it was OP), inside the game. I cannot communicate with the Eldar community apart from the forums or my 3rd party website. Spotting is still funky in game, VOIP is nonexistent, and there is little reason to be in the game unless you're in a lobby killing stuff.

DoTs generally deliver their damage far too quickly, often stack their damage too slowly, and are capped too high. A better way is to half or even quarter the cap of most DoT bars so they fill almost instantly, and every hit thereafter merely extends the durration of a reasonable rate of damage. Most DoTs in most games aim to cripple and debuff in agonizing ways. Lighting people on fire in EC is deliciously horrific, the sound is terrifying. But alas, most victims die too quickly even to a single source of DoTs. Think as the Dark Eldar do when it comes to DoTs; long and agonizing deaths, and a vast amount of cases where players are left maimed and tortured beyond all repair - most should reduce the effectiveness of heals on the target. Even Teemo would weep tears of blood after being pumped full of toxins. That fucking mouse-panda.