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Pros and cons of MOD 20
jimmypdt
Member Posts: 121 Arc User
Mod 20 is on preview and launches next month for PC. Here are my Pros and Cons for this new MOD.
Pros:
-The new zone visually.
The new zone look really nice visually. While it is a little lacking with the forests and color fonts from what has been described in books and shown in art, it is still a beautiful looking zone. Plus we have not been able to see what the other 2 areas look like yet. Well done.
- Going back to Shanadar.
Its good to see that we are revisiting older zones and expanding on them. I'm liking the process here! Good job.
- A new dungeon.
While I have yet to run the new dungeon as it is currently not available on preview yet it is good to see more dungeons being adding into a Dungeons and Dragons game!!
-The new Stats system.
It good to see that you are changing up the way we had to calculate what stats you needed to be effective in combat. New players had no idea how the rating system worked unless they were told by someone or they found a guide like the one Rainer created. Now, being able to see your percentages can tell you quickly how effective you are. That being said, there are some cons that I will bring up later about this new stats system. But is is good to see improvements.
Cons:
-The new gear.
The new gear we can get from the zone is underwhelming. It has a higher item level but uses the same effects that we already have on other gear that's only from a MOD or 2 ago that people have already grinded out. Plus most of them are affecting the power stat again so many DPS will not bother with them since most can cap power without even really trying. I was hoping that we would move away from temp buffs to stats and move towards other random buffs to add in some dynamic gameplay like "killing a frozen enemy will cause icy terrain to appear for a few seconds" and stuff. All in all its underwhelming in my opinion.
-Removal of the old zone.
The removal of the old zone is a big problem for several reasons.
1) Guilds need a currency that can be farmed in old Sharandar in order to advance their guild.
2) New players will not be able to gain the boons points from old Sharandar that others will have which will give the older players a small advantage by having more boon points.
3) No longer able to craft keys for Malabogs Castle or master of the hunt so now there is 1 dungeon and 1 skirmish that will have one chest you can never open again without using "Dragon keys" which everyone will tell you is not worth it at all.
4) For those who play for the story, it will now not make any sense if you never got to experience the old Sharandar. (Grant you this is a very minor inconvenience compared to the other 3 issues).
The easiest way to solve these issues is to keep the old Sharandar zone.
-The new Stats system.
Oh boy... here we go.
Lets start with a new character. So I copied a new character from live to preview to test out the leveling experience. Well, I opened my character sheet before I even got my starting equipment and I had 5K item level (5012 item level since you get a shirt, pants and shoes right off the bat each giving 4 item level) making all my stats 45% (except 1 that was a little higher due to my racial bonus). This is unreal. Tying a player's stats to their item level really diminishes the progression aspect of a game that people enjoy feeling. Not only that but having a character start at 5K item level with out any gear (you do start with a shirt, pants and shoes), pets, mounts or anything is just straight up HAMSTER. After collecting my starting gear and equipping them my item level raised by 17 more points. The only thing this changed was my damage going from 601 to 603. A new player should be new and not at 45% stats like a level 80 mid tier play that just finished the Undermountain campaign. And this brings me to my next point.
Tying a player damage to their item level instead of their weapon damage is a bad idea in my opinion. A player will not feel the progression this way. Let me explain. Lets say I have 10K item level. So since damage is your item level divided by 10 your damage will be 1000 (DPS classes get 20% more damage and healers get 10% more). Now lets say I have a weapon that is giving me 500 Item level. That means the weapon is giving 50 damage to my character overall. Now if I get a shiny new weapon with an item level of say 525 then my overall item level just increase by 25 so my damage only increases by 2.5 giving me a total of 1002.5 damage (plus a minor increase with one or two stats and a small drop in the rest due to the stats on the new weapon and the combined rating. I will cover this point after). A new shiny weapon with such a small increase to damage that I would not notice. Its a 0.25% increase. Who would ever notice that while playing?
Now to my next point. Tying a character' stats to item level. So this is a little harder to explain properly so sorry in advance if this doesn't make sense. Your characters' stats are based off of your item level. An increase in item level will lower your stats. To counter this they have added in Combined rating. But this counter is only about 70% effective or so. Lets use an example: (numbers used are not accurate but used to point out the issue)
I have 10K Item level. I don't currently have a helm and I get a shiny 1K helm from a quest. It give 1K power and 750 combined rating. My power before putting the helm on is 50% and my other stats are 50% as well. I put the helm on and I now have 51% power but my other stats are now 49%. (This is an oversimplification of this system and is in no way accurate but using it more easily explain what happens) So what happens is My item level goes up. All stats will go down. Now since the helm is giving me power my power will increase somewhat but not much. Now by adding in the combined rating my stats will not drop as much as they would normally. So instead of a 2% drop in stats it's only a 1% drop in stats. So what combined rating is doing is keeping your stats from falling off a cliff by minimizing the drop so it's not too drastic to your character. Every time a player increases one or two of their stats their other stats will take a small hit (short and sweet version). This is used for 2 reasons: 1) to keep players from capping most of their stats (but significantly reduces the feeling of progression to leveling and mid game players.) and 2) Closes the gap between end game players and newer/mid tier players (there is still a gap but it is smaller, and this once again reduces the feeling of progression).
So, my main issue with all this is the loss of progression (or feel of progression). This is an important aspect of MMOs. If people don't feel they are getting more powerful why would they continue to play. Leveling up unlocks new powers and feats (feats really need to change or something because they are very lackluster at the moment) and getting new gear should make you more powerful, but a 0.25% increase in damage is something you will never feel.
I truly think you are getting somewhere with the new changes to item level and stats but how the new changes work is problematic. Base damage should be from weapons not item level. Stats should not decrease just because you have increased your item level. New characters should not start with 5K item level, 600 damage and 45% to all stats.
-The new combat system.
This one ended up in the cons since it now take 3 times longer to kill enemies than before. I made a previous post on this back in December about how the "time to kill" take much longer than before and when going back into older campaign zones it was still a long boring fight to kill things. Now, props to the increase in AP gain so we can use our Dailies more often but the other changes are just brutal.
So these are most of my pros and cons for the new MOD (I left out things like Forte and stuff to reduce the size of the post). Sorry that there is more cons than pros but there are issues that should be addressed before the new MOD launches. I hope you are all well and safe.
Pros:
-The new zone visually.
The new zone look really nice visually. While it is a little lacking with the forests and color fonts from what has been described in books and shown in art, it is still a beautiful looking zone. Plus we have not been able to see what the other 2 areas look like yet. Well done.
- Going back to Shanadar.
Its good to see that we are revisiting older zones and expanding on them. I'm liking the process here! Good job.
- A new dungeon.
While I have yet to run the new dungeon as it is currently not available on preview yet it is good to see more dungeons being adding into a Dungeons and Dragons game!!
-The new Stats system.
It good to see that you are changing up the way we had to calculate what stats you needed to be effective in combat. New players had no idea how the rating system worked unless they were told by someone or they found a guide like the one Rainer created. Now, being able to see your percentages can tell you quickly how effective you are. That being said, there are some cons that I will bring up later about this new stats system. But is is good to see improvements.
Cons:
-The new gear.
The new gear we can get from the zone is underwhelming. It has a higher item level but uses the same effects that we already have on other gear that's only from a MOD or 2 ago that people have already grinded out. Plus most of them are affecting the power stat again so many DPS will not bother with them since most can cap power without even really trying. I was hoping that we would move away from temp buffs to stats and move towards other random buffs to add in some dynamic gameplay like "killing a frozen enemy will cause icy terrain to appear for a few seconds" and stuff. All in all its underwhelming in my opinion.
-Removal of the old zone.
The removal of the old zone is a big problem for several reasons.
1) Guilds need a currency that can be farmed in old Sharandar in order to advance their guild.
2) New players will not be able to gain the boons points from old Sharandar that others will have which will give the older players a small advantage by having more boon points.
3) No longer able to craft keys for Malabogs Castle or master of the hunt so now there is 1 dungeon and 1 skirmish that will have one chest you can never open again without using "Dragon keys" which everyone will tell you is not worth it at all.
4) For those who play for the story, it will now not make any sense if you never got to experience the old Sharandar. (Grant you this is a very minor inconvenience compared to the other 3 issues).
The easiest way to solve these issues is to keep the old Sharandar zone.
-The new Stats system.
Oh boy... here we go.
Lets start with a new character. So I copied a new character from live to preview to test out the leveling experience. Well, I opened my character sheet before I even got my starting equipment and I had 5K item level (5012 item level since you get a shirt, pants and shoes right off the bat each giving 4 item level) making all my stats 45% (except 1 that was a little higher due to my racial bonus). This is unreal. Tying a player's stats to their item level really diminishes the progression aspect of a game that people enjoy feeling. Not only that but having a character start at 5K item level with out any gear (you do start with a shirt, pants and shoes), pets, mounts or anything is just straight up HAMSTER. After collecting my starting gear and equipping them my item level raised by 17 more points. The only thing this changed was my damage going from 601 to 603. A new player should be new and not at 45% stats like a level 80 mid tier play that just finished the Undermountain campaign. And this brings me to my next point.
Tying a player damage to their item level instead of their weapon damage is a bad idea in my opinion. A player will not feel the progression this way. Let me explain. Lets say I have 10K item level. So since damage is your item level divided by 10 your damage will be 1000 (DPS classes get 20% more damage and healers get 10% more). Now lets say I have a weapon that is giving me 500 Item level. That means the weapon is giving 50 damage to my character overall. Now if I get a shiny new weapon with an item level of say 525 then my overall item level just increase by 25 so my damage only increases by 2.5 giving me a total of 1002.5 damage (plus a minor increase with one or two stats and a small drop in the rest due to the stats on the new weapon and the combined rating. I will cover this point after). A new shiny weapon with such a small increase to damage that I would not notice. Its a 0.25% increase. Who would ever notice that while playing?
Now to my next point. Tying a character' stats to item level. So this is a little harder to explain properly so sorry in advance if this doesn't make sense. Your characters' stats are based off of your item level. An increase in item level will lower your stats. To counter this they have added in Combined rating. But this counter is only about 70% effective or so. Lets use an example: (numbers used are not accurate but used to point out the issue)
I have 10K Item level. I don't currently have a helm and I get a shiny 1K helm from a quest. It give 1K power and 750 combined rating. My power before putting the helm on is 50% and my other stats are 50% as well. I put the helm on and I now have 51% power but my other stats are now 49%. (This is an oversimplification of this system and is in no way accurate but using it more easily explain what happens) So what happens is My item level goes up. All stats will go down. Now since the helm is giving me power my power will increase somewhat but not much. Now by adding in the combined rating my stats will not drop as much as they would normally. So instead of a 2% drop in stats it's only a 1% drop in stats. So what combined rating is doing is keeping your stats from falling off a cliff by minimizing the drop so it's not too drastic to your character. Every time a player increases one or two of their stats their other stats will take a small hit (short and sweet version). This is used for 2 reasons: 1) to keep players from capping most of their stats (but significantly reduces the feeling of progression to leveling and mid game players.) and 2) Closes the gap between end game players and newer/mid tier players (there is still a gap but it is smaller, and this once again reduces the feeling of progression).
So, my main issue with all this is the loss of progression (or feel of progression). This is an important aspect of MMOs. If people don't feel they are getting more powerful why would they continue to play. Leveling up unlocks new powers and feats (feats really need to change or something because they are very lackluster at the moment) and getting new gear should make you more powerful, but a 0.25% increase in damage is something you will never feel.
I truly think you are getting somewhere with the new changes to item level and stats but how the new changes work is problematic. Base damage should be from weapons not item level. Stats should not decrease just because you have increased your item level. New characters should not start with 5K item level, 600 damage and 45% to all stats.
-The new combat system.
This one ended up in the cons since it now take 3 times longer to kill enemies than before. I made a previous post on this back in December about how the "time to kill" take much longer than before and when going back into older campaign zones it was still a long boring fight to kill things. Now, props to the increase in AP gain so we can use our Dailies more often but the other changes are just brutal.
So these are most of my pros and cons for the new MOD (I left out things like Forte and stuff to reduce the size of the post). Sorry that there is more cons than pros but there are issues that should be addressed before the new MOD launches. I hope you are all well and safe.
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