Too many changes

I understand the desire to move the game closer to completion as fast as possible, but this release seems to have too many changes. Aside from my AOE spells dropping drastically in success rates, I now also have a interrupt rate that basically prevent me from using them at all without dying in many cases. Add to that new resistances by mobs, more changes to "encourage" certain modes of play, and the ever popular XP decays, and the game feels less like a game where I can choose my preferred style of play. I have already posted my opinion about recipe changes in another thread, so wont go into those change here, but they do add to the confusion about the direction the game is going.

The whole concept of different play modes have different XP and other bonuses is contrived and dangerous.
Now everyone who doenst want to PVP will feel like second class citizens. I normally play in friends when gathering resources because the LAG in collecting resources is much greater on my system when I am in multi mode. Maybe Portalarium should crank up the CPU power and on their cloud servers and the respawn rates for resources to make multi mode more playable, rather that trying to force everyone into multi by introducing what is basically a "caste system" into the game base of the mode and playstyle you choose.

I prefer to play mixed mode melee/mage, but now the interrupt rates and lowered success rates I have experienced make that nearly impossible. Health and focus regen is just too slow to manage playing alone when interrupts and increased casting difficulty are added to the mix.

Overall I feel this release is too much at one time for the devs to even sort out real problems and know which of the dozens of changes need to be tweaked. It's like tossing 20 different vegetables into a stew pot and then later tasting it and trying to figure out which caused it to taste so bad. With the holidays approaching I see this release as one that will leave a bad taste in player's mouths and instead of getting new players hooked on SOTA during holiday breaks, will instead drive em to buy/play other games that aren't so confused. It certainly is no incentive to play the game.

 

Are you using the Tranquility glyph in the Focus tree to decrease your interrupts? The skill was introduced in R35 for just that purpose.

 

I have been using chain suit with wands. I have not noticed any increase in fizzle rate in AOE spells. I mean I can still spam earthquake, chain lightning, fireballs without any issue.

I don't have any issue with getting interrupted even with 5-6 bandits trying to knock me down. I'm wondering if Tranquility play big factor here.

Couple things that affected me is the cast time increase in some spells and the restriction for dot damage stacked up to only 3. These changes are now mitigated by being able to cast arrows and range spells while moving around, which help me avoid getting hit.

 

We will get it figured out. I was quite enjoying the challenge to see what would would work in QA. Most combat changes can be tweaked but combat is going to be more challenging and force us to use strategies to do it. Many elements will be needed, like food, hopefully resting will come in play like it you are over tired your combat will show it, and picking your hits to use less focus hits when you are low and in the meantime allowing your focus to regen a little from buffs and choices you make during a combat with an enemy. I was fighting a skeleton in Ravensmoor and it was quite a satisfying and longer battle for me to try different things to see how things were affecting my battle. I was liking it. I of course will provide more thoughts as I try it out more, but feedback from us is important as always. I know that changes can be difficult and many times People do not like change, but this game definitely needs lots of changes, as well as tons of additions still. So grab a seat and get ready for the ride, well or weapon that is.

 

Yes. My skills are: Immolation: 81, Ring of Fire: 77, Earthquake: 47, Tranquility: 58

My casting success in my chain while moving (without the stillness bonus) is:

R35 R36 (patch 417)
Immolation 30% 23%
Ring of Fire 30% 8%
Earthquake 76% 74%

I just verified these again 5 mins ago. I have gained a level or two in earthquake to account for that differences, but the two fire spells have a noticable drop in the success rates. The tranquility skill I have seems to be giving me more interruptions than I had in R36 unless I got horrible RNG numbers, or unless the skill is just still too low to help with the interrrupts much. The combo was making me doubt any continuied future ability to play my char as a mixed melee/magic char.

Overall this release has too many changes in core systems to to clearly know what's happening and if it's intended or bugged.

 

Made a quick chart to show the differences (based on my current EXP table format).
Here i am basing on myself. Full Plate warrior w/ 2H sword.
Latest Patch is 419

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yj_-hpRX35SOKSgrUWF0rA-NHUz29ppzusjqCd_pFG8/edit?usp=sharing

It seems they've "nerfed" some major dmg/stuns by 5-10%; major "nerf" was Ring of Fire - 20%.
But i noticed, some skills actually became EASIER to cast. Now i don't have 100% fizzle on Shield of Air... went down to 89%. Some elementals have been SEVERELY changed though (Air went from 52% to 94% FAIL, while Lich came down by 20%).

This, including the feature that many skills now are casteable while moving, so still a HUGE advantage for mages, who will be wearing light armor, have Dash (ok, this was "nerfed a bit") and Sprint (no fizzle). I am still waiting until they throw a bone to melees, especially shield users (not that 2handed or offhand people don't need any attention). I am pretty much USELESS against ranged. Slow, slow, slow.. piercing shot, aimed shot... bolts, lightning... dead.

Minor changes, you may ignore because on live server my attunements are a bit higher.

Overall Balance: I don't see it as a problematic change. If you want to rely heavy on spellcast, you should use lighter armors.
PS: As a suggestion, make so that the "quarter" chest versions have less interruption chance than full chest. Now it is exactly the same as the full chest, so no real advantage to use it, unless you are trying to save material (and saving material is.. meh... for crafting).