IMC Games Wants To Fix Tree Of Savior's Class Balance Disparity

January 2, 2017 Matt Chelen Comments

Since practically the moment it was released, Tree of Savior has been well-known for having poorly balanced classes. That's part of what made it our Most Disappointing MMO of 2016. And Tree of Savior's class balance isn't just sort of poor; some classes are magnitudes more powerful than others. Some classes are even referred to as being "literally unplayable."

That being said, it seems that the developers are aware that there is a problem and are actively trying to fix it. In a post published at the end of last year, "the developer in charge of skill and class balancing" stated the following.

There are a good number of possible class trees that have allowed for some creative builds from players of TOS. As developers, we appreciate all the enthusiasm you’ve shown.

Unfortunately, we also understand that not all of our players are happy with their class trees and builds. Some classes show their true beauty the way we intended them to and are consequently loved by many, but some classes weren’t as lucky and have often been ignored…

They go on to say that there have been five class balance patches thus far, with two more planned, each of which has been made with the following goals in mind.

1. Each class should have its own characteristics and roles.

2. Adjustments should be carefully planned to avoid one class dominating its rank or being left out, and to achieve a fairly equal distribution of classes in each rank.

3. Rather than letting one class become too good to the point of self-reliance, we should devise a plan to encourage different types of classes to work together and develop new play strategies.

In working towards these goals, the sixth and seventh patches will address balance issues for the Barbarian, Cannonneer, Monk, and Rune Caster. The planned balance alterations are as follows.

1) Barbarian
- Our goal is to make Barbarian skills easier to use with other Swordsman skills.
- Upcoming patches will therefore focus on maximizing the potential synergy of Barbarian skills and Swordsman skills.
2) Rune Caster
- We plan to continue expanding the list of skills available when in the Rune of Giants state.
- After considering which classes are the most often used in a Rune Caster build, we will examine the skills of those classes and see which ones can be used alongside Rune of Giants without any problems.
3) Cannonneer
- We find that the Cannonneer is not fully living up to the promise of being the explosive AoE nuker it’s meant to be.
- That is why we intend to lengthen the Cannonneer’s range and improve the tactical use of this class.
- Also, we are figuring out ways to improve its performance by utilizing skills from other classes in the Archer tree.
4) Monk
- The most urgent problem with the Monk class, we find, is that the skills have too many restrictions.
- Removing these restrictions could have a huge ripple effect, however, so we’re proceeding with caution.
- Generally speaking, though, we want to improve the Monk’s go-to skills by changing certain restrictions and aspects of the skill system.