Combat challenge 'feel' for release 54 (melee-chain-sword)

..Well, i'm a bit frustrated to be honest. I was looking forward to the new features, and i'm sure I will enjoy many of them, But sometimes it feels like each patch is 2 steps forward 1 step back for me, at least as far as combat is concerned.

This time, with my chain and sword melee build, I have definitely regressed - without a doubt. I'm guessing I've gone backwards around half a dozen levels, maybe slightly less. I think the health regen of the mobs seems to have been seriously ramped up. I'm pretty sure its this, rather than my dps moved down, as I can see the mobs health bar seemingly stuck and occasionally starting to fill up again, which is quite a disheartening sight.

I've tested myself against orange-yellow mobs that were tough for me 4 or 5 levels ago but with care I could yesterday solo fairly comfortably if I avoided adds. Since the patch i'm swigging imbued health potions against the ferocious red spider just to stay in the fight and against 2-3 yellow mobs in Ulfheim I'm screwed completely. The orange mobs in the hut which I could solo both in a visit, I am now killed fairly comfortably by one. Same buffs, same pots. I can take out one yellow mob, maybe two with stun and switching targets, in Ulfheim now if I'm careful, but it takes for ever as the health bar keeps refilling.

Further thought - all this said, if its the same for everyone, all builds I mean, and is intended, then ok. If its a level playing field fine. I had assumed the extra tiers from 5-10 were to ramp difficulty however.

I'm also getting a distracting stutter-like lag mid combat now, that I have never noticed so pronounced before - new sounds?.

 

I agree my avatar pic cant be more true now than ever … Full plate, shield, defensive stance, block, fortify defense, glancing blow, parry all on my main bar and I get HAMMERED …

Are you guys SURE you done whatever behind the scenes melee math correct? I feel like im naked ...OooOOO00oo0o0oOO00OO

PS Have yall tested this? If so did a melee loving person test this or was it a cloth wearing mage tester … testing … melee builds …

67DR full plate and shield 83 Avoidance … what happened to "THE TANK" ? … it tankED

 

If you are using blades, now more than ever, Rend + Fstering death poison is what you need. And ofc, Coup de Grace for two-three last hits.

True that some mobs hp regen is higher now, tested with high level ones and bosses (not sure about low-mid level mobs).

 

Was this talked about in documentation? Why do things just continually get harder? Why don't they just introduce harder scenes and harder mobs in them instead of bending over EVERYONE in EVERY single release like this?! I am noticing a trend over the last couple of releases, and it is likely sending players packing... These nerfs and "adjustments" that keep making everyone weaker need to stop!

 

Yes they have upped the difficulty of most tier MOBS. And I am very happy they did, as the game was just too easy. With AL65 I finished my shroud, and most tier5 scenes I could slash through without a lot of problems.

 

I didn't read about this, did I miss it? An universal increase in health regen on all mobs is a huge change, especially for new players. Rada indicates this needs to be varified in terms of whether it applies to all levels, but I'm pretty sure I see increased health regen on fairly low (green) wolf mobs, and it's significant on T5 creatures and humanoids making them much tougher.

I read all I can from the Devs, I've read about mixing up the low tier zones with some higher level spawns, adding higher tier zones, adjusting existing to higher, making random encounters waves, all great stuff in my view, but I'm sure I read nowhere about an universal and significant increase in challenge of current level 1-5 mobs.

If this is the case, and increasing health regen should make it a level playing field, then it would be cool to have a blog or thread for this pointed out.

 

I wonder if mob DR was multiplied somewhere? I noticed elsewhere in a siege scene that my blunt attacks that did 75 to the green enemies did 7 to the orange ones. I suppose my playstyle is invalid or maybe it's a bug.

 

as i said in bug forum... i killed several ancient obsidian bear, All the trolls except Gorun and the satyrs in Ruined Keep by myself, alone the life regeneration is ok but when someone join you it increase so much, and it seems to scale according how many members the party have.

I don´t know if healing modifiers debuffs are buffing or is related to how many party members are playing but i´m sure there is a bug.

For me as a fire mage, is easier to kill mobs alone than in 4 party members because the same mobs have 300hp life regen/second

 

I've noticed the mob regen; it does seem different than previous releases. Also, sometimes there seems like there is a weird lag that wasn't there before. Like lag between my hit and a mob taking damage. Sometimes it also seems like a mob will appear with a zero health bar that fills up as it approaches. It feels like all these things are related somehow.

 

Absolutely right! I've been bothered by this since yesterday, and been toying for an hour or five whether to bother the very busy Devs with this but now, I can't help myself, it may all be linked...

- When I 'hit' a fresh mob, its health bar now visibly fills from empty to full..
- The health bar seems to lag (Im not certain on this), but it seems then to catch up, then it seems to start healing...
- Some mobs seem to drop as before the patch, others (same species) remain stubbornly strong. This was so apparent last night I kept adjusting my range as I thought I was missing them (I wasn't). I put it down to some rng on how tenaceous the mob was behaving, or the lie of the land, or something I didn't understand...
- One further weirdness, have you seen this @mass ? Towards the end of conflict, with about 10-15% life left, many mobs went 'poof' dead. This was way to frequent to be a crit strike every time.

Sorry forgot, also..there is a general laggyness during combat Ive never seen before the new combat sound effects.

 

I haven't noticed that, but for me, between my DOTs with halberd specialization and fire, once I get a regular mob down to 5 or 10%, the DOT typically does the rest.

 

could be a dot, youre right, never thought of that. but could be a delay (lag) between combat hit and mob life.

 

Is it possible to have a rough outline of intended challenge ratings? For example, what Adventure Levels should expect a reasonable challenge from a Tier 4 mob vs a Tier 5 mob.

I am VERY concerned that the thoughts of this game being too easy are grounded in highly optimized builds. This worries me because I am not playing Math: The Video Game like a lot of other players. I am playing an RPG. I set my character to a concept at the start and really have not veered away from it.

A larger spread of zone difficulty, by introducing T6+ zones could certainly be a reasonable solution. If that is your intent, I could support it. If you are meaning that T5 zones should be more difficult than they are then I am very concerned. I did the Path of the Oracle quest-line at around Adv Level 78. It was difficult and full of death. I had to have someone help me with Grannus Colossus because it was impossible to solo the second place where you are trapped in the doors. Maybe Adv Level 78 was too early? Everything was Yellow until reaching the high level barbarians at the end, which were easy enough to avoid most of and high-tail it for the chamber.

By and large I am okay with new zones I'll never be able to solo. But I'm not really okay with making existing content more difficult. It is already pretty challenging for people who haven't ground out Adv Level 100 with highly optimized combinations. I do not think the game is too easy. I think people have had too long to advance and grind.

 

Really appreciate your work, Chris. I sometimes feel that your contributions, while lauded, aren't lauded enough! I agree with you that the game is still easy and can use some hardening up.

 

If you are a sword user, I have heard wonderful things about Reposte this release. I would try it with a build that includes Parry and Coupe de Grace.

As a bludgeon and magic user, I have found this release quite rewarding in terms of finding things at my level. There are definitely things way too difficult for me, but I've been able to find a niche where I am capable of doing well.

I think that something that would be helpful for these kinds of posts is to post your deck perhaps, or your items, so people can judge?