FYI: archery changes

So that you can plan accordingly, Thursday's update will include the following archery changes:

• Aimed Shot
  • Casting time increasing to 1.25 sec (from 1 sec).
  • Cooldown increasing to 8 sec (from 5 sec).
  • Focus cost increasing by +50% (is 50% correct?).
• Rapid Fire
  • Cooldown increasing to 20 sec (from 15 sec).
  • Focus cost is doubling!

[edit] Note that I didn't say nerf.

 

That doesn't sound too horrible. Though, I don't really use rapid fire anymore, so that may be why.

 

Did they even try this out on QA at all, or is it another blind untested "fix" to something that isn't broken?

 

It's on QA.

 

You should try them out on QA before rendering that verdict.

 

I don't come anywhere near your Breach partner's DPS, so yeah, I think it sucks.

 

Yes. It means that I have to run around auto-attacking, plink, plink, plink, while I wait for those skills to cool down enough to charge them up again. On live, I can cycle through charging my skills without too much dead time.

[edit] It will very likely bring your Breach partner's DPS closer to yours.

 

I just came back from QA ( SotA.QA.Win.64.1111.Date.12.11.20 ).

I consider myself as perhaps slightly above average, especially given the Spec in Air.
(My other spec is Taming, btw).

I've included my skill levels in both trees below:

I went to DR and used primarily Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire.

My perspective:

I can "live" with the Cast Time and Cooldowns if I have to, but the increase in Focus cost is excessive to be certain.

Focus has always been the "thorn in the side" of us archers, which was great when the Bards came in - but this Focus loss now is overdone, to say the least.

 

Wow, the nerf is really tough on focus. I don't mind that much about cooldown for I use a full dynamic deck.
Interesting how low resistance archers are now bound to have the same DPS as heavy armor melee characters while becoming a focus potion sink.
If this was aimed at PVP, then why nerf Rapid Fire, isn't Piercing Shot the current meta?

 

Chris said that he has another nerf coming for Aimed Shot on top of the casting time, cooldown time and focus costs.

[edit] The other change for Aimed Shot that Chris mentioned is supposed to be for PvP but I suspect that it will affect everyone. He didn't specify what that change would be. Here is the tweet.

 

At 120 Rapid Fire, the focus cost on live is 34. On QA it's 68. Chris made the focus cost benefit that you get for charging your skills a lot less some time back (probably a year ago).

 

Attempts to "balance" skills for PvP ALWAYS effects PvE - ALWAYS HAS, ALWAYS WILL.
It's one of the major reasons so many have left this game.......

 

That's the cost for single stack with no previous heat. Heat causes the cost to increase immensely. I'll test it later.

 

How can this be a PvP issue that needed this 'fix'? No one is pvping to any significance. This is just another example of a solution in search of a problem. Chris specifically said that this change was a result of him searching through the most used skills and making adjustments. My question is why? What does a skill being 'most used' have to do with whether there is a problem there or not? Every tree has it's 'most used' skills in it, should we expect those to get 'balanced' too? And once that is done, guess what, now other skills are the 'most used' skills, time for a balance(nerf) pass. Why @Chris? Why? You don't even play the game to a depth to even understand the impact of the changes you make. That's why 80% of what you do is 1 step forward and 2 steps backwards in relation to providing what your customers want.

And balanced against what? What exactly is out of balance that needs fixing? Every build (should) has its pros and cons, melee=slow strong tank (usually), mage = crowd control damage output, ranger=mobile but squishy DPS. They should all be strong in their strengths and mediocre in their weaknesses. It's not that hard to figure out. That's the problem with this type of mentality, instead of having a variety of builds that people can develop in deep and productive ways, we just get general mediocrity where everyone is equally useless. Add on top of that, that there is crappy loot and no emotional progress rewards, what's not to like? Again, the lead dev gives examples as to why this is one of the lowest populated MMO's in history. WTF, really?

You power creep with artifacts and then combined artifacts, new food buffs, hard and extreme zone buffs, potions with insane buffs, almost endless mod re-rolls for high end crafters, and then you somehow think something is out of balance, and come back and make the core skills of a tree prohibitive to use. Dude, it doesn't even make sense. All you are doing is destroying characters and classes trying to fix what you broke, and the worst part of it is, as I said, you don't even have the game experience to understand the impact of what you are doing. With actions like this, @Chris, you make it very hard to continue to support and play this game when we constantly get senseless 'fixes' like this.

I really really don't understand what you think makes this game attractive to players when you want no powerful characters, no solid quest system, no rewarding feelings for time and effort spent in the game, no fun, no loot, unfinished scenes introduced right behind previous unfinished scenes. Player numbers are at an all time low (they are always at an all time low, just getting lower by the day). WTF part of this makes sense to you?

 

Wait- this was a nerf because too many people were doing it? For reals?

I mean... I guess I'm not surprised. I just wonder, if it even occurred to him the other skills get might used less because the other skills aren't very good? "Nahhhh... it's gotta be this one is too good, I know what I'm doing."

I guess I'll see how it goes this weekend, maybe. I might not have time. My business makes too much money, I need to figure out how to nerf it.

 

Here are some Rapid Fire numbers for skill level 125.

No heat:

• 1 charge = 68 focus
  
• 2 charge = 62 focus
• 3 charge = 56 focus
• 4 charge = 51 focus
• 5 charge = 46 focus

Single charge:

• 1 heat = 78 focus
• 2 heat = 111 focus
• 3 heat = 164 focus
• 4 heat = 240 focus

More:

• 1 heat, 4 charge = 59 focus
• 2 heat, 3 charge = 91 focus
• 3 heat, 2 charge = 149 focus

 

It's the same logic as "Everyone is using the [ultimate reward for completing episode one and the game's namesake] Shroud of the Avatar; I'll add some debuffs to discourage it's use."

 

He mentioned several streams ago that he was going through and finding the most used skills and making adjustments.

 

Single charge damage for that skill is actually crap since I'm not using the absolute best gear. Charging it is the only way to get some juice out if it. Plus, even spamming it from an unlocked slot would drain focus pretty fast.

 

Agree with ya, @Grumpy Krabnevir