Will There Ever Be Balance?

[dukereg]

Some alternatives:
[*] Only play the classes you like to play, forget about the other ones.
[*] Play on lower difficulties with less powerful classes and higher difficulties with more powerful classes, and forget about which difficulties you used for other classes.
[*] Don't use (or deliberately under-invest in) combos you think are overpowered.
[*] Treat each playthrough as if there were no other class options, treating the class's limitations as an inherent challenge of the game.

[HousePet]

eh?
Classes do get changed and rebalanced.

[Nori]

As someone said, you can't apply MP balance of say DOTA2 into a single player game.
Some classes are and should be easier to play with. Archmage is one of these. It is a early unlock that newer players can grab to ease themselves into the game.
I don't see it getting nerfed, nor should it.

Now as far as some classes needing love. I agree, but it is a slow process.

Since I've been playing ToME 4 (almost 5 years), the game has changed pretty drastically as far as balance and class talents go. I've seen pretty huge swings and sweeping changes for almost all of the classes. So yes, work has and will (probably) continue to be done on classes.

As far as you leaving the game because of balance... Keep in mind that this is a single player game with a huge number of classes. If balance issues with a few classes is a huge problem for you then don't play them. I'm sure that someday Bulwarks, Archers and others will be reworked, but until then, either try to enjoy them as is, or play one of the many other perfectly fine classes.

[ohioastro]

Buffing weaker classes, or at least making them interesting, is fine.

Crippling classes that are too strong is bizarre for a single player game and should be avoided.

[Micbran]

Actually, "crippling" or at least nerfing* some aspects of a class happens often in this game. After all, rares can use most of same talents as the player, just not to the same effectiveness. Mainly because they don't have the same intelligence as the player so they can't fully understand the utility that a class like archmage has.

*1.3 Chronomancer nerfs, recent Sawbutcher nerfs, recent addition of flat damage reduction scaling, though recently DarkGod has been opting for more of a "no_npc_use = true" line in the code.

[Pile_O_Gunz]

Balance is a boring modern obsession that stifles creativity it's only needed in a competitive multiplayer environment IMO. Even then it's still fun to play unbalanced underdog teams in Blood Bowl for example.