Patch 1.7's impact on the Spy

by Shawn Schuster Mar 24th 2008 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, Patches, Tabula Rasa, Spy

If you're anything like most members of Tabula Rasa's Spy class, you were first intrigued by 2 things: the chance to scare noobs in Alia Das disguised as a Thrax, and the immense power of the blade. Seriously, does it get any better than that? In a recent announcement for patch 1.7, we're informed of a reduction in the blade's damage coming soon. It was inevitable that this would happen, as it is general knowledge that the blade is extremely overpowered. It is also inevitable that many people who play the spy would get upset about this change.

Fortunately, the good folks at Destination Games have offset the cons with some pros. For one, we have the wonderful new changes to most of the Spy's best abilities, as well as complete revamps of old, under-used abilities. Cloak Wave will now... well, it will now work. This includes the intriguing concept of the spy's entire squad actually being invisible to other players when in a PvP situation.

So will a high percentage of spies completely ignore the ability buffs and concentrate on the blade's damage reduction on this upcoming patch? Yes, probably, but not this spy. I look forward to the class being more about real stealth and strategy, and much less about hack and slash.

Tags: blade, destination-games, ncsoft, patch-1.7, spy, tabula-rasa, tr, tr-patch-1.7

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Vincent J. Murphy said on 7:58PM 3-24-2008

When will developers realize that invisibility + massive damage = overpowered? I've never seen a game that balances the pluses and minuses effectively.

In any PVP game, invisibility needs to have an extremely large negative to offset it. Reduced movement rate, perhaps. That being said, any ability that reduces movement rate (holds, snares, etc), is also problematic.

Nothing annoyed me more than in DAoC, when an invisible Lurikeen with a poisoned weaponed that slowed movement attacked. Whee, what fun.

tabulablogger said on 4:21AM 3-25-2008

Great to see the changes to this Teir I cannot welcome them enough.

In response to Vincent...

The New Spotter skill is the counter for the new stealth/invisibility, when organising PVP squads if you make sure you have a ranger/spy/sniper with this ability then your have the counter effect.

I think this is pretty balanced