Original post on Reddit: HERE

Many games struggle with balance. This is an unavoidable fate that having 22 classes with multiple specializations is inevitably going to produce. MMORPG's can amplify this feeling of imbalance, because, unlike a MOBA, you can’t simply put down the class you’ve invested time and money on and pick up whatever is the flavor of the month without making major sacrifices. These sacrifices come in many forms. Monetarily, the cost to swap to another class is a substantial amount if you feel the need to grab weight for potions or desire anonymity with a ghillie. Most players consider these to be necessities. In the form of time, hours a player has spent on a class could eventually net them an extremely unrewarding experience in terms of end-game PVP. Throughout the history of BDO, especially in Siege or Node War, there has always reigned a “top dog.” Ranger’s descending current, Wizard’s meatball, Witch’s kit post-protection overhaul, Guardian’s succession 100% spam, and Berserker’s succession 200% spam were all considered to be the driving forces in large scale PVP at the top level. While varying in duration, all these metas eventually came to pass due to nerfs, buffs, or complete mechanic changes so far. Except for one.

The top 4 guilds in NA’s Siege/Nodewar scene all consist of above 50% of their members either maining or tagging a Wizard to utilize its succession. Many of you probably watch a few streamers who have joined, or are in, a siege guild that has tagged a Wizard simply out of necessity. Class diversity has never been lower in the history of this game if you look at end-game PVP. Prior to Wizard’s succession, you could argue that awakened Witch or Wizard was just as sought after. Those classes were significantly weaker in every form of PVP outside of largescale. The meta has reached the point where Wizard with its succession no longer has an exploitable weakness where its predecessor once did.

For nearly an entire year, the Wizard’s succession has reigned supreme in end-game group PVP content. This is due to various reasons. The first I’ll discuss is the big PVP damage rebalance patch that Pearl Abyss put on Global Labs shortly after Guardian’s release. The initial patch was basically a blanket reduction in damage for many of the most oppressive classes, with Wizard’s succession being one of the hardest hit by it. Public outcry led to Pearl Abyss walking the patch back and instead buffing the damage of classes and producing the one-shot meta that we’ve had since. This damage issue was only magnified even further by the class-to-class ratio changes that were introduced later. The damaging problem unsurprisingly got even worse once they allowed every class to put whatever armor-piercing concoction of add-ons they could come up with on any skill they wanted. This resulted in the meta that has allowed Wizard’s succession to sit comfortably at the top for nearly 12 months consecutively. Pearl Abyss has stated they don’t intend to nerf Wizard’s succession but instead bring other classes up to that level. This is mechanically impossible, and I’ll explain why.

The potency of ranged damage was never the complaint in large-scale PVP after the brief stint Archer had before being nerfed into obscurity. Sacha, GM of BlackRose, was well known for his awakened Witch Sage’s Teleport Meteor engages. The purpose of this was to CC a large group of people and have his guild play off his CC. Inevitably, Sacha would be trading his life for the engagement. Therein lied the tradeoff. The issue with Wizard’s succession currently is largely rooted in their ranged skills, with meteor being the biggest offender. Not only do they have CC and protection on nearly every ranged skill they cycle, but they also do such an immense amount of damage that the class can be played almost completely ranged with great success. There isn’t a tradeoff.

Introducing split teleport to the mix is where the class truly ascends to tomfoolery. Once the gaps been closed by most melee classes a Wizard will iframe away (if the servers allow it.) The melee then must close the gap once again while most likely having caught a slow by any of Wizard’s lightning skills. At this point, the Wizard can use any combination of Magical evasion, Earthquake, and Earth’s response to buy time for one of their teleports to come up again. Split teleport is also used for the most potent large-scale engagement in the game currently. Teleporting forward, casting a meteor, and then following up on their own meteor with a melee range burst comparable to that of the strongest melee class in the game is something old awakened mages only dreamt of. It probably should’ve stayed a dream.

While having the most powerful offensive kit in the game, Wizard’s succession still retains all the support spells its less overloaded predecessor had. Rabam heal, Healing lighthouse, and Protected area have been the staples of support throughout BDO’s history. Many considered the recent nerf to Protected area to be significant nerf to Wizard’s succession. It turns out it was the complete opposite. The class which can set up its own engage and then follow up on it benefits greatly from the opposing ball not being to give themselves 999 DP as a counter. Melee super-armor classes relied heavily on Protected area as the only viable way to play melee in Siege and Nodes above 50v50.

The ranged meta is currently painfully unrewarding to play in as any melee class for anything outside of the small scale. I hope that Pearl Abyss can look at the state of end-game PVP and try to give up on achieving the impossible task that is bringing classes strength up to Wizard’s succession. With 22 beautifully crafted kits being in the game, it’ll be a day-long overdue when everyone can finally go back to the class they mained before this balance nightmare began.

I think that perhaps the fault in having a balanced wizard is found in resource managment.

Mana cost of spells is too little. I suggest they add extra mana expense to most moves. 

As it stands, mana is irrelevant becuase the supply eclipses the demand, players do not need to mind the mana pool. 

Really?  Mana?

Bruh.  Gotta love the forums.

EDIT:  OK, you started with "I think" so sorry, but yeah, you might just not be knowledgable, which is fine.  Thanks for starting with "I think".  Mana is far from the issue lmao.  Infinite pot, even regular pots are more than sufficient.  Where the class' overbearance lay is in this:

I learned this from a well-respected, skilled and knowledgable PVP streamer.  He goes by the name of Rilok and plays Succ Ranger (a class that can actually deal with Succ Wiz quite well, BTW).   Even he sees the nagative side-effects of this singular class' influence on the META, and that Succ Wiz just has too much.

In BDO's PVP, what matters are your class' ability to:

1) Do damage

2) Survive

3) Move around

Succ Wiz excels in ALL of these aspects, when most classes only do 2, or even just one of these aspects.  For example:  Succ Ranger - low survivability, low mobility, very, very high damage.

1) Damage - We've all felt this.  Wiz is well-known for being one of the burstiest classes in game.

2) Survive - Heals on top of heals, SA/FG rotation while being at range and PA

3) Mobility - Split TP

And, as an added bonus, Casters have a fourth category -->

4) Utility - Casters are the best support class, hands down, Shai - our little stationary bongo beater and giver of buffs - can only dream of healing allies as effectively as casters do.

So, Succ Wiz not only has great damage, great survivability, great mobility, but also great utility on top of that.

You need trade offs.  As it stands, Succ Wiz doesn't have many trade-offs.  People may argue his 1v1 ability is low, but I disagree -- you've never seen a skilled Succ Wiz before.  This class can 1v1 just fine.  ESPECIALLY against non-grab classes, or classes than can't get to his back quickly during his cast animation.  A good start to fixing this class, IMO, is to nerf his protection on some ranged abilities.  It is 100% beyond me that Meteor, a high range, high damage, high CC ability, is fully protected from start to finish (charge is SA, cast is FG)...I mean, it's ranged.

Here's one of the most skilled Succ Wiz I've ever seen play.  "Succ Wiz is bad in 1v1" -- uh huh, you can think that if it helps you sleep at night buddy.

WIzzard nerfs whenn?

I get the feeling that one of the lead designers has a vision in their mind like, "On a fantasy battlefield, of course a wizard who can drop a meteor and summon a blizzard and cast a wide-range healing spell is going to be tremendously valuable and impactful compared to 1 guy with a sword or even a dozen guys with swords." 

I think that is all well and good to have that vision as part of the core fantasies of the game, but if you're going to make casters be so dominant in wide-area offensive,defensive and utility magic that can shape and impact a large battlefield so easily, can you at least strip away some of their protections and make them far more vulnerable to assassins and direct 1v1 confrontations?