Equipment Rebalance: Next Steps
We’d like to apologise for the recent silence on the issue of Equipment Rebalancing. We know it’s something many of you are still thinking about, and work has continued on the project behind-the-scenes - so it’s definitely time to get the conversation going again!
As we’ve discussed more than once on these pages, a Rebalance is clearly needed in order to curb any risk of powercreep and to ensure the long-term health of the game – which is something that’s really important for all of us. But we do realise that our previous approach had its problems, and thanks to your plentiful feedback, we’ve reflected on those.
So today we’re going to talk about how we’re ‘rebalancing’ our approach to get this all moving again.
OUT WITH THE OLD...
When we first pitched Equipment Rebalance, our plan was to zip through the required changes in one fell swoop.
We were keen to get Combat Achievements up and running and knew that the rebalancing was needed first, so we packed all of the buffs and nerfs together. In retrospect, it's clear that this was a mistake, and ultimately ended up lengthening the feedback process. There were so many individual moving parts to consider, but the entire discussion was essentially consumed by a small number of key equipment changes.
Additionally, while we promised to fill the equipment gaps created by the changes eventually, nerfing items without making clear when they would be replaced understandably made some players nervous. That’s totally fair. By trying to deliver everything in one batch, our approach became a little ‘all or nothing’ and some important considerations were missed.
We also think our Rebalance surveys were too broad. When we ask the community about very general concepts, the feedback doesn't really reflect how you all feel about more specific problems. And when it comes down to it, the specifics are what counts, right?
We should have also shared more of the data used for rebalancing calculations, which we think would have inspired more confidence in the project. And it’s essential that you to feel confident in us and believe that we’re striving to improve your experiences in the wonderful world of Gielinor – because that’s never not the case.
...AND IN WITH THE NEW
So, onwards? Here’s how we’re now approaching the Rebalance, step by step:
Release schedule
We’ll be splitting equipment rebalancing into four releases, allowing each aspect of the project a bit more room to breathe. This should give us all a bit more thinking space and allow all of us the time needed to talk things through and get them right.
Changes Coming Soon!
Many of our proposed changes were well received and we want to release them as soon as possible – within the next month, to be exact. These will be unpolled but are as they were were originally outlined:
- Rebalancing of plate armour, spears, maces, hastae and warhammers.
- Basilisk Knights losing the special attack, although it will be retained by the Sentinals where it will no longer being broken by auto-retaliate.
- Removing the Prayer bonus from the Twisted Bow.
- Dragonbone Necklace/Bonecrusher Necklace changes (tweaked stats, new equip requirements and removal of the activation delay).
Ranged Meta Changes
We want to tackle this issue before Combat Achievements is released, which we hope will be by the end of June. Crucially, this stage includes the proposed changes to the Toxic Blowpipe and Crystal armour.
This time around we’re going to come at things from a different angle, with more focus on your feedback as we fine-tune the plan. There are definitely issues with the current meta, and together we’ll figure out a solution for these.
Look out for a blog in the near future!
PvP Changes
This is something for later in the year as part of our upcoming Wilderness changes project, which is expected to be released sometime in July. It will include adjustments to the Dragonhide armour and the Dinh's Bulwark.
In the coming weeks we’ll be sending out a series of Wilderness and PvP related surveys to help us understand how you feel regarding various issues we’d like to tackle in the Wilderness Changes project, so keep an eye on your Message Centre, the news section of the website, and our social media platforms for more information!
Tier Rebalancing
Tiers will be addressed last, though we do still intend for it to happen this year. Although there was a lot of community support for this work, and it's something the team feel passionately about, there is currently no clear solution for pure accounts built specifically with the tier 75 meta in mind - aside from introducing new weapons in the gaps created. We want to get this right, but this is not as urgent as some of the other problems.
Player Suggestions
Lastly, we're aware there were many other ideas for buffs or nerfs which our previous Equipment Rebalancing plans did not address. We definitely want to re-open the floor for discussion, and that's something we'll aim for once we've got through this initial batch of changes. If there’s one thing we found the first time around, it’s that having too many discussion points at once is not the best approach and we'd like to spend the time to properly consider your feedback on any further changes!
We hope this all sounds promising! As always, let us know what you think via the official forums, on the 2007Scape Reddit, or the community-led OSRS Discord in the #gameupdate channel.
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The Old School Team