I mean, one of the ideas I had sounds similer to that. Where you cannot get mainstats from enchants. Meaning all your defence/Power would be only obtained via armorsets.
And then by reducing the effectivness of substat enchants, it could push for some more diversity, if more efforts were made to make substats better. As with that one idea alone, it would just move the problem and not fix it.
So really my one idea requires more to be in play for it to hypothetically work
I mean, that could work! I never considered it, and if I did I forgort. But wouldnt that kinda move the problem in theory?
Metal with the speed of light, light with the size of metal.
Where magics just hyper invest into the stats they dont have as we do currently?
but if its handled correctly. that definetly could work!
tbf the increase in speed/size with low affinity should be lower than the decrease from high speed/size but it really only means that it would be more efficient for a high size build to invest into size because it takes less points to make a difference (except it won’t be because attack speed is broken and way better than attack size and everyone treats it like it requires any more “skill” than attack size)
its honestly way more infuriating to deal with than an agility spaz or an aoe farter in an organized pvp setting.
Being able to reduce your window of vulnerability and making it easier to take advantage of small opportunities all in one stat is so cracked in a games pvp that revolves around punishing mistakes made.
Ideally, it should’ve really only affected projectile speed and cooldown. At minimum, just projectile speed.
why are yall acting like speed makes attacks unpunishable and undodgeable
I’m STILL firmly of the belief that this armor-weighted stat system is a mistake. Armor should’ve just been a mix of Power, Defense, Negative Agility (heavy armors), and Regen. With maybe certain boss items giving special stats.
Instead, we should’ve gotten a versatile, meaningful skill tree. And while I like a lot of the revamps of the Release, the armor system seriously needed to be put into the chopping block.
Because it effectively does.
Being able to sling out your entire moveset in under a second before a player can even understand whats going on is kinda absurd.
And, as long as you move before you spam. If you wear Energy regen Gems. all you have to do is just “dont get hit” and spam/nuke until you win
Even then. every build is the exact same. And thats a problem, and the entirety of the game is screaming a universal message via how we play:
“this system isnt working”
every. Single build is Atk speed, Power, and Defense.
unless you’re nuke spamming then you just chop somthing off a little for Atk size.
And every single “best build” is the exact same. Sunken warrior (or somthing with Sunken warrior adjacent stats) + some accesories to get more speed/power/defence
So, kind of what I said as my “Nucular suggestion?”
Make main stats unable to be enchanted on, and mainstats only come from armor sets, and reduce how much substats are given by enchants
(ontop of making substats better overall (resilience, AP, Regen)
Yes and no—I’d cut most of the substats completely. There’s no solution for Size and Speed as they are now. They will always be basically required for a build, and I personally think they are not a good design at all.
I like the equipment system. Playing around with max stat builds is fun, throwing giant snowballs, being able to spam moves that normally have a long cooldown, shooting really fast, and I’m fairly confident that accuracy will have some fun uses. Combat-wise, I see a decent variety of builds, I myself am experimenting with a high Intensity set on my main, and my Snow/Poison mage uses normal affliction jewels to good effect.
My question is, what will all these ideas of how to fix the “problem” do to prevent the problem from coming up, rather than it just taking a new form? People will find the optimal build no matter what. People will still try and get their preferred stats of “dealing more damage” and “be able to take more damage”.
not really tho
anyone skilled enough can block and parry speed users, and the startup & endlag reduction is barely even there in my experience.
yes, it is. because that isn’t what happens.
sunkens are some of the best items in the game ep wise, most builds are gonna have them in some capacity 
There will always be a “Meta build.” Thats garenteed
but the problem is. theres only one meta build in AO, with 2 varients. And thats just if or if not you have attack size.
If you want to play competitive. Sunken Warrior is the only awnser, for all builds are just glass cannon adjacent, all you have to do is decide how much defence you want. And put that defence into either power, or attack speed.
you’re either going as fast as you can with as much damage as possible,
or you’re nuking with as much damage as fast as possible.
There is no verity in the “best build” as the best build is doing as much damage as fast as possible. We need build diversity thats viable
you can go for a max intensity build.
However: Attack speed would just do that better as you can sling out two attacks, and as you’re slinging another two your first two will already be refreshed. Unless its somthing with a longer timer. But even then, spell spamming is just better than intensity.
You cant do gimmicks because power and speed does it better. All gimmicks is just damage
and the intensity “rework” to me has just been a complete nerf in all honesty.
@Gamehero14 While I never played WOM in its prime, I do know that attack speed was turned into about 2 stats. So doing that in AO could help. I have no comment on the effectiveness of this as again, never played WOM in its prime.
Also, there is one hypothetical fix to attack size.
make it work exactly like our spells ie: Bigger spell = less damage. If you want to do max damage, dont touch size. But if you wanna be a nuke that does 10 damage, go all size.
Will this fix it? no, but itll at least help.. maybe
Most of this community are casual players.
I know blocking and parrying exist. But when the expectation is to be capable of out parrying your opponents from the very start of the game. Then we’re just developing Deepwoken combat, and that isnt fun.
I know theres nuance to high attack speed builds. But. Every build is an attack speed build.
Light users go max atk speed power, and so does metal.
So will warriors, and so will mages.
I understand the Sunken sets are supposed to be really good.
But they embody every single issue with this game’s meta, as they are the embodiments of the meta.
if a build isnt using a sunken set, theyre using a subsitute for the sunken set. Because the sunken set is how you wanna build
Everyone is either building a sunken Iron, or a sunken warrior. And if you have the sunken sets. You are just better.
Also, in regards to
this can cause a chain effect, where if you arent the best player. you cannot play, as you will be abused every second you play.
so then this causes an Oroborus effect where the elietes become even more elietests.
And anyone who tries to step in will be oblitereated by them.
And because the entire game is now full of elitests, elites can only fight elietes. So they start to die down.
And they already chased off the new players. So now its just them, and theyre leaving.
this is being resolved with the official pvp toggle. But I think that Pvp toggle is screaming “I cant fix the problem, so im adding this bandaid adjacent fix”
hi there i am casual players
i can block and parry speed users just fine
warriors are a dying breed these days
i agree, the barrier for entry of ao pvp is quite insane and should really be lowered, especially because it’s so fun.
the full dense strength weapon size leglord in question:
also i hate to be “that guy” but the way to get better at pvp and stuff involving pvp (such as parrying) is just to pvp (if you ever want to run 1s slide me a dm 
)
Not really the answer, as that’d just make Size bad in general. And it’s already beaten by Speed in higher tier PVP.
Again, I firmly believe it needs to go, along with speed. There isn’t any balancing possible for stats that fundamentally change the framedata and hitboxes of everything you do.
Would love to! I wanna engage with this game’s pvp. But its phsycially impossible. Expessily with how Elysiam is pretty much gate kept. If there was a tab for Elysiym servers. that would help casuals be able to dabble in the pvp much easier.
But most of the problem im trying to theorize fixes for is this game’s lack of build diversity. And how absurdly busted they are to fight against if you’re a new player without the sunken set, or somthing similer.
Ironiclly, ive myself been doing my best to learn blocking and parrying with AI. And for them I can do it with relitive ease. But, this issue hasnt happened much recently, or I havent noticed it. But I have my mouse bound to the G key, and half the times it feels like itll not register it. I dont think its happened at all recently so maybe its fixed
@Gamehero14 Honestly, yeah. I kinda agree. there mayy be a fix, but the awnser is either absurdly difficult. Or would require a complete overhaul of the entire game from the base up. Which would take months of reworking
though, my general awnser if attack speed were to stay. Would be to punish spam.
which is what im hoping the energy rework does. Like, imagine trying to play the current meta without energy regen. Id be impossible, or be insanely difficult. Which is one of the reasons (to me) as to why attack speed is just. required. Because theres no downside.
What do you guys think of Placed explosions when it comes to size builds?
YES.