Release 38 Addendum: Combat Changes

Greetings Avatars,

We do everything we can to make sure our Release instructions are complete and comprehensive but sometimes some critical details do not make the list of changes. This is not fair to our players because it introduces surprises to your play styles. We are working hard to improve our process so this does happen going forward.

The following items are changes that are live in Release 38 that we failed to include in our R38 post.

• Fizzle changes: Several bugs had been reported with fizzle over the past few releases and we fixed all of them for this release. The result is that some players saw improvements in fizzle rates but most saw their fizzle rates get worse. The worst case will be people wielding 2-handed weapons while wearing heavy armor and trying to cast Air, Death, or Fire magic. Those cases might have seen their fizzle rates go up by as much as 25%.
  • Some bonuses were being applied before armor multipliers and others after. We consolidated the math so all gear bonuses and held items bonuses are applied before the armor multiplier for spells.
  • We fixed the long lingering bug that made 2-handed weapons give a 15% bonus of dual wielding or using a shield. 2-handed weapons are already more powerful than 1-handed and this just didn’t feel like a fair advantage for them.
  • While we were adjusting the logic we moved open hand fizzle bonus from 15% to 10%. Wands still grant 15% bonus and staves now grant 30% bonus. We expect to add other handheld focus items in the future that will also give bonuses.
• Targeting Changes: A long standing issue with auto attacking was addressed, the “feature” that players affectionately called "Bowdar". In previously releases, if you had auto attack enabled and there was any valid target, you attacked. Due to Novian bunnies being added to the endangered list we decided to change how this works.
  • With auto attack enabled, players will attack any valid target continuously but only if the target has agro’d on the player OR if the target has been manually selected through clicking or the select target key (defaults to ‘g’). This means to attack bunnies, hidden skeletons, or other players (stealthed or otherwise) with auto attack, you must now manually select them.
  • In build 544 and earlier, the toggle between free and auto attack is on the game options menu.
  • Starting in Build 545, all attack mode options will be removed from the menu and instead, the toggle auto attack key (defaults to ‘t’) will switch between free attack and auto attack.
• Elemental attack changes: Going forward, elemental attacks will do some melee damage in addition to their native elemental type. This was to relieve an exploit where players were using same type summoned Elementals to distract wild Elementals so they could then mine areas without any danger.
• Pickpocket: This skill can no longer be used during combat. This was being used along with a set of other skills in a series of exploits.

 

those changes appear to be balancing, thanks for your hard work.

 

some people are going to want it default to on and some off. will it remember the previous state?

 

Yeah so much this

 

Too much fizzle on longbows

 

2 things here. WILL you have the t key back to toggle between auto attack and the other one? we need that t key back.
also, for a long time, you said that earth eles were WORKING AS INTENDED. you cannot now say it was an exploit.
you should just say that its a change.

 

Thanks for the update Darkstarr.

All changes appear to be well thought out and have good reasoning behind them (I expected no less).

 

Was the fizzle chance on metal shields increased? If yes then the description should be changed to show this.

 

I don't have a 2h wep, but do have a shield (plus a wand) and some of my fizzle rates went up.

 

I can only add for a reality check that 2H weapons should be slightly less fizzy than dual wield (non-wand) options because you can hold a 2H in one hand while casting but you cannot hold two weapons or a weapon and shield in one hand while casting (effectively that is).

I would like to re-emphasize slightly less, not a lot less like in previous builds. Thank you for your consideration but I understand if the decision is already made. @Chris

 

Ok so the fizzle went up on the one handed weapon. All weapons should show fizzle chance like wands, staffs.

 

I thought part of the two handed fizzle is that they are made of metal or partially made of metal.

Bows have no metal and if you follow the two handed logic you would need to add the same fizzle to a two handed staff but instead it gets a bonus to fizzle reduction.

Please consider bows somewhere between a two handed melee and a two handed magic staff.

 

Please, consider decorative items (mugs, coconuts, canes, fans...) to have minimal impact on focus compared to bare hands. I hate the high fizzle especially since it is rather hard to switch weapons in combat mode. It is not like I can anyone hurt with mug or cane:/

 

And as the changes come in so should we. It may take different stats on our armor and other variable, not just wearing what we had before if it doesn't help improve the stats we need for the type of playstyle we want to play. It is a whole picture to balance all of this, try some things too. well imo.

 

So lol....

After months of ranting about how bad melee is... I was forced to make my char 50/50 earth and blunt. I was forced to be a mage. It actually worked fine. Sure I could not keep up and as usual got crushed by a full cookie cutter chain lightning / death shield PvP build but at least in PvE is was fine.

Now, not only have I taken a nurf on the already extremely weak melee skills... (2h blunt) I have to take a 25% fizzle on earth.

Ive also noticed that it looks like I have lost a bunch of STR on my character due to the crafting changes so Im even nurfed that much more since my melee and Earth are based on that. Im also down a lot of hit points.

This is insanity... why do you guys hate melee so much?

Prepare for endless rants on this again.

 

As a lover of the polearm, I agree with this sentiment. But as I didn't realize I was getting a bonus I probably wouldn't have noticed when I lost it.

 

Biggest issue I'm having since the release as a bow user is that the targeting reticle doesn't show up anymore until I'm way close to the mob. Either that, or it's on something other than what's in front of me most of the time. Can't figure out what it's doing. And hitting G seems to love selecting something behind me again now.

 

i thank you for putting the T key back in. plus, you made autoattack the default state.
MANY THANKS!

 

yea, it seems like the range(distance) works, but the locked on reticle doesn't show up until you get much closer than before...