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Explanation and update on balancing efforts for R74 and Q1

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Chris, Jan 23, 2020.

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  1. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    Is Aimed Shot really the problem or is it Piercing Shot that all the PvPers are complaining about?
     
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  2. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    I like the idea of AEs affecting friendly players but why would anybody do one of these scenes?
     
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  3. DavidDC

    DavidDC Programmer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    So if i take half of what fire ring does, which mine is about 1m20 6x charge, should be 40sec at 6x charge right? but its more like a 60-70% fire ring time nerf, since it count from the base, and boosting 13.5 second from 27 second make a huge difference in term of stacking to 6x.
     
  4. DavidDC

    DavidDC Programmer Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Oh and we mentioned fire, and AOE, and Aimed shot.

    What about puncture? Which has been OP way before fire even get that strong, which we claimed for over a year and a half that it was one shoting everything in pvp and killing boss like non sense. Is that protected tree gonna taste it too soon? It should have been first.
     
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  5. Antrax Artek

    Antrax Artek Avatar

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    With puncture you have atleast to come close to hit the target, but yeah i agree, piercing mechanic needs a revisit imho.

    Everything with a counter is not that big problem for experienced PVPers, you're right, piercing is one of the magic things that can't be countered in any way, piercies without problems a full plate+heavy spec player from 30-40 yards doing 1000-1500+ damage crit.

    Aimed Shot and Charged shots are some of the easiest things to counter in PVP btw.

    PS: I still wonder if there is a specific reason for which maybe the only weapon able to damage through armor in real (maces) is the only weapon tree without a piercing skill? Blade=rend, Polearm=puncture, Bow= Piercing shot.

    Break armor helps but still need to be applied 2 times, this typically involves in giving the chance to the opponent to try different 6x piercing shot/puncture attempts until the oneshot crit. And of course break armor doesn't make you ignore 100% of DR like the rest.
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2020
  6. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    Then why does @Chris continue to target these for nerfs?
     
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  7. Antrax Artek

    Antrax Artek Avatar

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    I don't know to be honest, probably cause they're very good in PVE.
    I'm pretty sure PVP is not involved in any of the changes mentioned in the main post.

    Atm the imbalance of PVP is mostly caused by puncture, piercing shot and fireball, i can't see any of these called in the balance pass, so i really think everything is just releated to PVE balance.
     
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  8. Vladamir Begemot

    Vladamir Begemot Avatar

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    If PvP is ever going to be mainstream here, a skill CAP is not what is needed. Setting the skills to a certain level, meaning boosting them UP if they are below, and DOWN if they are above, is required.

    IE, an even playing field.

    Do a search for the most popular PvP games, and you will find that none of them require 100 hours, let alone any hours, of grinding before you can step into an evenly matched fight.

    That's it, make it even, even for the new player that just arrived at the Outskirts. Until then it will be just for a small group of dedicated.

    If that is the goal, PvP for a few, then just keep it like it is. If popular PvP that may one day bring people in is the goal, then no amount of XP grinding can be required.
     
  9. Antrax Artek

    Antrax Artek Avatar

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    If this will also be applied as regards the imbalance of PVP zones compared to Safe zones, it would be a great step forward.
     
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  10. Arkah EMPstrike

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    Break armor stacks twice and can do like -26 damage resist on your target, it does even more if your a specialist but i dunno by how much. But a guy in full meteoric chainmail all pieces, with a polearm and shield gets like 40 damage resistance.

    My strategy in PvP doesnt involve being alive logn enough to use it, but in PvE the effect is incredibly noticable withotu specialization. really softens stuff up
     
  11. Antrax Artek

    Antrax Artek Avatar

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    120-130 Damage resist can be reached by an heavy armor specialist, break armor even if applied twice can't debuff even half of that DR while puncture and rend can ignore 100% of it and piercing shot can ignore it from 30-40 yards without the need of any debuff application.
     
  12. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    I was just listening to Cris' latest stream and he even admits that these skill nerfs are because items have become so powerful. Having to load-up on all the best gear in order to be viable is not really the game I want to play.
     
  13. Numa

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    Neither do I. Never liked to play the min-max way. Taking the long slow road to levelling and it's paid off. Avoided a lot of dead-end builds due to skill changes or nerfs. And there's a lot more content now plus the skill trees are much improved.
     
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  14. Lazlo

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    Making AE hit friendly targets is an interesting idea, but I think it would be more of a nerf to melee than mages. Melee are the ones that would have to stand in it to deal damage to mobs, so they would become less desirable in groups.

    Nerfing combat focus regen would also be a lot more of a hit to builds that aren't super strong right now. AE magery isn't very focus intense at all (and still won't be after the changes), while a lot of builds that aren't as powerful are more reliant on spam.

    I agree with most of the OP, but I just think a lot of these ideas aren't going to have the desired effect.

    edit: Why not something like a focus drain component to persistent AEs?
     
  15. Numa

    Numa Avatar

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    Agree wholeheartedly with this idea. Amount of focus drain could also be linked to the intensity and surface area covered by the AoE.
     
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  16. Vladamir Begemot

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    Maybe shield wall would finally be useful. 3 Melee blocking a hallway, cast fire on the other side of the shield wall.
     
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  17. Anpu

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    That’s very concerning. If this entire combat adjustment is because of the incredibly overpowered artifacts he keeps adding, why isn’t he..... then fixing that? Like dual wielding 2 Vex wands....

    First and foremost, this should be skill a based game, not an artifact based game....
     
  18. Restless

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    Now think about when he adds the next 2 artifact levels... Things like this really should've been thought about before just adding in artifact levels. It's easy to see the game was made for adv level 100 and below. He is now shifting the game to be for 120+ and leaving new and casual players in the dust.

    IMO artifact levels should've been left for episode 2 - creating an actual expansion feeling. Dripping out stuff like this and trying to make ep1 backwards compatible really isn't a good design and will leave ep2 feeling like, well, just another release.
     
  19. Numa

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    Amen to that. The moment this game becomes all about how many artifacts you have on your avatar is the moment I quit the game.

    My dual dagger build uses a Shard of Night & a beautiful magical dagger made by Fzol. If that build ever requires two Shards of Night then it will be a very bad sign gamewise for me.
     
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  20. Numa

    Numa Avatar

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    duplicate
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2020
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