Polygon article says release by the end of the year

In the grand scheme of things I don't think Riposte does anything "good" in the current system. I know it does "something" but it doesn't do what double slash does. So when you have a choice between parry and double slash and riposte, you want to pick double slash every time because it does the most DPS. So now if you put a lot of points into Riposte and Parry you're wasting them. At least that's how I see it.

Now let's say that Riposte actually did something other than damage and increased damage on the following attack. Let's say that we attempt to break out of the DPS cycle.

What if Riposte prevented your opponent from using Double Slash for the next 30 seconds? What now DPS min/maxer?

See, that's more advantageous to me (as a pvper) than whatever Riposte is doing now. I just came up with that off the top of my head, and I'm not saying that's the answer. But it sure beats the DPS mentality all these skills and spells have right now.

 

I'm sure that's true but I'm usually too busy watching my glyphs or my health to associate drops in health with an individual attack and whether or not my riposte buff is up or not.

 

Riposte definitely is an important part of blades combat as it is if you're fighting against a competitive enemy. Read my post on light armor tactics.

 

I never see anyone use it in pvp. Ever. Maybe not even since PVP was introduced.

 

I haven't played PvP so I can't say... but its helped me a lot in PvE.

It helps a lot less once you become so much more skilled than the enemies you're facing that you don't need to rely on it as much... but its good for leveling the playing field.

 

It's pretty moot for me right now since I burn through all of my attacks so fast I usually just hit whatever pops up unless I feel I have a reason to wait for it. I keep armor defenses locked so they're always available. The rest is random but my card draw is fast and I've reduced my focus cost by as much as it will go. It basically works out that cards draw almost as fast as I use them now.. but I use them so fast there's not really any strategy involved.

 

Yeah, I'd say having played both PVE and PVP extensively there's a huge gap between the two.

The combat system for PVE is ok.

The combat system for PVP is horrible.

On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd rate the PVE combat about a 6. The PVP combat is about a 2.

 

It doesn't take long to figure out PVP combat is really bad. Just go out and fight someone, duel anyone. Goto a Shardfall.

I posted videos of Envy crushing me. It doesn't mean anything. Just give it a try. Experiment a bit. Try it with full plate and a pole arm and then try it with leather armor and a sword. It's unreal how stupidly balanced it currently is.

 

Stupidly balanced is another way of saying it's unbalanced. The question is.. when are they planning to work on balancing it?

 

I actually like the combat system and think it is fun. But fun as it is i would personally like a more standard method of skill bar with block and counters. I like the rotating deck method but after playing for a duration now, i feel it will not appeal to competitive players as much as there is too much reliance on chance. Yes i know the deck building gives you a confidence of what cards will appear, but it still leaves a lot in the air. Fun though, and i like the combos.
In UO i liked being able to see and have time to react to someones spells, which i miss in SoTa. It seems you are expected to just play the cards you are given and not care less about what the opponent is casting/doing to you. Its kind of solo pvp, basically the more dps wins.
I would like stances and abilities to protect against various forms of damage as permanent when activated. Counters to spells, with indicators of what someone is doing and the time to react, if i know you are casting A i can cast G to compensate or null. If you make combat more reactive to what your opponent is doing it will automatically slow the pace of the combat down, which from what i gather with the new stillness bonus is their intention to maybe cut down on combat lag.
I do enjoy the combat but i do think too much emphasis is placed on reacting to what your deck has given you rather than reacting to what your opponent is doing.

 

I'm sure they have every intention of balancing it when they can.

My concern is that they're a small team, and they have a lot of priorities that push pvp and combat to the back burner. I never worry if they're smart enough or talented enough to make a great combat system.

 

Baron drocis you have turned this thread into another one of your combat complaint threads.....that's unfortunate.

What I see is systems that are in that are functional but not at all polished. The content is going to take a lot of work to complete and time. NPC's schedules haven't really put in place for all the NPC's. That with most of the cities not even in yet. There is mountain level of content not developed or in game yet....early 2016 is the best estimate I could give for this to be completed to a starting standard.

 

These forums are not designed well for complex discussion. I'm not trying to derail a thread, just to give feedback and discuss my point of view. Anyone is free to get the conversation back on point at anytime.

 

Even if you don't like it, as a system I think it is implemented. If you think some skills should be added / removed / substituted for others, buffs / rebuffs modified, etc... those are all what I would consider polish and balance. If you're expecting a completely different implementation of combat, I would hazard to guess you'll be unhappy. At least as far as EP1 goes.

 

Ok, I can see that. Yes the core "system" is implemented. PVP holistically though, that's about 10% complete in my book.

 

My PvP experiences have consisted of me getting griefed for the most part so I'd agree with you =)

I'm not too keen on the surprise attacks, but sure its gameplay. The repeated slaughter by folks far above my level... well I could do without.

The worst were the griefers camping shardfall. A few of us had to run interference so that our low level guildies could finish the hat quest. They just wouldn't lay off.

 

This whole conversation is irrelevant and to claim that this is true would only result in "dumming down" of the games content even more. It's a fear based assumption but I think having all the players there to rip it apart would improve it's quality.

That said, Richard has every right to hold on to certain plot nuggets, for as long as he can do so. I have some belief that later on there will be some strange obscure "switch" found in a dungeon that nobody ever saw because it was completely a non-visible switch that nobody ever found..

And that said, hopefully the team will make some actual dungeons which aren't just 1 or 2 levels deep. If not our only hope remaining is from the community content - which is not being supported ATM.

 

it seems like it doesnt really matter what the title of a thread is anymore... almost everything I look at, by the time I see it, has devolved into another PvP thread.

 

PvP isn't too bad so far, but in the end it comes down to level, gear, and build. There isn't much left for strategy. As much as I desire armor, leveling, and builds, I'd prefer the opposite extreme over the current one (that being something like this, where the entire game comes down to player skill and technical ability with no room for level and armor). As much as old-school UO players hate post-AoS UO, I liked the balance they struck between player skill, build, levels, and strategy, and in some ways, prefer it to the older purely skill-based UO (not that I don't love old UO).

 

It has been like that since the third month really.