First, I have 70 toons. So I haz no sympathy for anyone whining about having to rebuild and regear a few of their toons. I've also spent several million in acclaim on gear, farmed SL till my eyes bled, and lived on PTS for weeks at a time putting together my builds. Add in the fact that everything I know about optimizing builds is about to go out the window, and ya, I see a lot of downsides to the announced changes.
Yet, I'm really liking the announcement.
This is a major project for Cryptic and Champions. At the very least, this is proof positive that Cryptic has a long term plan for making Champs better. How can anyone who enjoys this game not see that as a good thing?
Beyond that, the thing I like most about Champs is how customize-able the game is, and how unique you can make your Champion (I didn't end up with 70 alts, with plans for more by making cookie cutters). The changes Ame posted and Crush talked about in chat sound like we'll be getting even more tools to make our characters our own. Not just the new superstat changes, but that what stats do will be affected by role and by character customization options. Sure, we need a lot more info on the details of what that means, but since they're talking 2-3 months to complete all this, I'm confident we'll get that info and then some.
The specific idea of one major and two minor superstats shouldn't take that much getting used to. I already think of the vast majority of my toons that way. I pick one stat that provides the most benefit to my toon, and it gets the most gear. The second gets a solid amount of support, and then I gear up a third for either energy or dps buffs. In fact, out of my 70 alts, only 5-6 are truly two stat toons, and tweaking them to be 3 stat isn't going to be hard at all.
The changes to gear...well, gear is kinda a PITA at the moment, so while this is easily going to represent major work on my part to get shiny new stuffs, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. I liked what happened when Ame changed PvP gear (at least for level 40 stuff...leveling up gear was way too expensive to justify ever bothering with since you'd outlevel it before you could even put together a full set). The only problem with PvP gear is that there just wasn't enough options. Well, Crush says he's hand making 1500+ pieces and plans for multiple options for earning gear (albeit with the caveat nothing has been decided on what that means).
That should be great. Maybe I'll never farm Serpent's Lantern again (downside...I'll never run an action pack again since none of them will have rewards anywhere worth the time at that point), and that won't break my heart. Crush also said PvP gear will have effects that are useful in PvP. I really like that. 'Course, I hope this isn't King of the Hill part II where the PvP crowd gives lots of feedback that all gets ignored which in turn produced garbage that no one wants much of anything to do with. But so far, Crush seems like he wants to make this work, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (even though he's a meaniehead who won't give me his watch).
Last, the announced changes all require changes to the underlying technology. I'm sure everyone has heard at least one dev talk about stuff they'd like to do, but that the current tech doesn't support. My hope is that since they have to change a bunch of that underlying tech anyway, they're going to open up some of the things they've wanted to. Maybe we'll finally get falling damage that makes sense. Maybe we'll get more options for setting emanation points on powers. Maybe we'll get the ability to use all weapon geos as costume bits, and that they'll draw to the same size and be able to be "drawn" when we go into combat. Lots of possibilities for stuff to get made better.
This was expressed on the free forums and generally I agree. The part in red very much so.
My main concern is if this goes badly, we've seen other things where it takes a turn against what we expected and basicly had our feedback ignore.
At the end of the day I play this game because I enjoy my friends company who play it. A badly handled transition causing peoples friendslist to empty out is what is often the kicker.
That said looking over this, seeing the devs cautious approach and willingness to talk to us throughout more then just the forums is giving me cautious hope. They have the capability to do this right. Im rooting for them. but lets not kid ourselves into thinking it will be all good.
The more we plug away at the changes and explore them the more we can help shape champions future in a way that will continue to be an enjoyable experience for all.
These changes NEED to be tested as throughly as people did during beta ages ago. If your here you can check them out once they show up, if someone is looking for details well theres a transcription of the proposed changes on the general forums.
It's supposed to solve the problem that munitions deals more damage than other sets' end builders. Surely this problem will be solved once they remove crit severity and change ego into a miniscule, soft capped diminishing ranged damage bonus. But hey, at least when i'm forced to put 40 of my previous ego into recovery i'll be able to fire off sniper without having to build energy first!
If they want to fix that it would be far easier to simply look at the munitions powers themselves.
To be honest I'm surprised this ISN'T another beta test in it's self, that said I think Cryptic has what it takes to pull it off so long as they keep communication lines open no matter how busy they get, especially with Tumerboy now in STO. The devs will need to talk a ton at each step to reassure the more excitable elements of the playerbase.
That said I REALLY hope to see some massive improvements to making teamming more accessible, and rewarding to pug, especially in regards to instances which are notorious for bad rewards solo or not with exception of a few rare drops to sell for money.
I also hope to see the UI streamlined alot, it's rather ad when you can double or triple your FPS just by turning off UI which is a ton for lower end computers and thus makes it more accessible to more people to even play.
And in my 'naive hope' category is I hope this lets them make power sets play and feel different more then just their debuff stat. That is the greatest thing I loved about CoX where each set had it's own gameplay style not just damage type and debuff. And hopefully this extends to pets too which really need love and possibly an ai reworking again.
But that's just all my hopeful ranting for the future, I don't expect it other then maybe down the line but... we'll see.
It's supposed to solve the problem that munitions deals more damage than other sets' end builders.
No, it appears to be intended to solve the problem of ego being useful. Once it's reduced to a crappy damage bonus to ranged abilities and a near-irrelevant bonus to hold resistance, people can safely ignore ego again.
No, it appears to be intended to solve the problem of ego being useful. Once it's reduced to a crappy damage bonus to ranged abilities and a near-irrelevant bonus to hold resistance, people can safely ignore ego again.
Or y'know, they can have it do something useful of its own now that it's no longer chained to crits.
Or y'know, they can have it do something useful of its own now that it's no longer chained to crits.
Too optimistic?
Well, sure, it could do something on its own, but the described benefit (equivalent to the strength bonus to melee) is pretty underwhelming. Strength would be a crap stat if it weren't for (a) enormous amounts of knock resistance, and (b) enrage scaling.
Well, sure, it could do something on its own, but the described benefit (equivalent to the strength bonus to melee) is pretty underwhelming. Strength would be a crap stat if it weren't for (a) enormous amounts of knock resistance, and (b) enrage scaling.
I'm still curious how my builds with Devour Essence and Epidemic or Hurricane and Dex/Int +Ego would look
with my current gear. Really sad that they rolled back the patch today
Well, sure, it could do something on its own, but the described benefit (equivalent to the strength bonus to melee) is pretty underwhelming. Strength would be a crap stat if it weren't for (a) enormous amounts of knock resistance, and (b) enrage scaling.
I know, I know. I was being kinda satirical because a complete stat rework that makes all the stats themselves balanced out better without needing funky scaling and too many specific synergies is something I've wanted for a very long time in CO, but I'm skeptical they can do it in a way that doesn't involve breaking pre-existing builds into a billion tiny irreparable parts.
It's not even that I question their ability to do a passably good job, as this is an area I'm doubtful I could come up with a better design myself. It's just a very complicated endeavor with a very large amount of delicate moving parts.
I'm not sure if I should be excited about this or completely dreading it.
I'm still curious how my builds with Devour Essence and Epidemic or Hurricane and Dex/Int +Ego would look
with my current gear. Really sad that they rolled back the patch today
I think it's a good thing they did.
Without the Other 2/3rds of the changes, less design minded people will freak out.
Honestly something of this level should have been a closed test with select invites.
But that is just my opinion.
Edit: Cooldowns across the board on the tier 1 or higher powers would bring balance to the forc... Game, too!
Without the Other 2/3rds of the changes, less design minded people will freak out.
Honestly something of this level should have been a closed test with select invites.
But that is just my opinion.
Edit: Cooldowns across the board on the tier 1 or higher powers would bring balance to the forc... Game, too!
People freak out much more on pure speculation what MIGHT could be than on actual facts at the moment.
Also the rollback was due to problems, so i hope we will get the update the next days.
And nobody is talking about cooldowns. If you want them ... play a monk in EQ2 there you have 25 skills with
different cooldowns, and in the end they are all just variatons on 3 actual skills. But its soo fun to have so much
hotbars so that you can't play with the keyboard and have to click always with the mouse
Personally i'd rather see them get rid of all the cooldowns in Archery, one of the main reasons that set
was never fun for me.
Edit: Cooldowns across the board on the tier 1 or higher powers would bring balance to the forc... Game, too!
As well as slow the game down and force a similar style of play as several other MMO's on the market. I'm not convinced that's the greatest idea considering many that do play and enjoy this game have continually expressed that they do so specifically because it is faster paced and different from the others.
People freak out much more on pure speculation what MIGHT could be than on actual facts at the moment.
Also the rollback was due to problems, so i hope we will get the update the next days.
And nobody is talking about cooldowns. If you want them ... play a monk in EQ2 there you have 25 skills with
different cooldowns, and in the end they are all just variatons on 3 actual skills. But its soo fun to have so much
hotbars so that you can't play with the keyboard and have to click always with the mouse
Personally i'd rather see them get rid of all the cooldowns in Archery, one of the main reasons that set
was never fun for me.
Hey all I just decided to pop into forums then I saw this, my question... is this taking into account what Quarry will be doing? I mean I already see a Quarry Dex/Int/Ego build of any kind popping up everywhere, and AoPM will be a big thing aswell. Thinking about it, i may switch to my Quarry PTS build now...
Hey all I just decided to pop into forums then I saw this, my question... is this taking into account what Quarry will be doing? I mean I already see a Quarry Dex/Int/Ego build of any kind popping up everywhere, and AoPM will be a big thing aswell. Thinking about it, i may switch to my Quarry PTS build now...
Ame already said that the passives will be rebalanced around the new system, so while no doubt certain builds will become more powerful, we can't really know what those builds will be until we've seen all the changes.
While I like the idea that they are making some Under The Hood changes to the game, for reasons a lot of people covered already [i.e. falling damage, usefulness of stats, ad nausium.] I like the idea...
But, changing the Stats is FOOLISH.
Let me explain, no no.. at the risk of TLDR I'll sum up.
This is going to be a lot of work for what will probably be limited effects on builds and a giant pain on re-gearing for us, but more importantly retooling of all the gear for the Devs.
Since the biggest reason we've been given for a lot of quality of life and content gaps is we can't get some of the things we want is Dev time. Since this will be a HUGE time sink for little if any real gain, this is frankly stupidity of some sort.
I can only assume this was some very high ups idea to 'revolutionize' the game. Well CO is already revolutionary in it flexibility and character creation.
Please Stop this waste of Dev time and fix the broken stuff first and make us some new stuff to do after that.
Hey all I just decided to pop into forums then I saw this, my question... is this taking into account what Quarry will be doing? I mean I already see a Quarry Dex/Int/Ego build of any kind popping up everywhere, and AoPM will be a big thing aswell. Thinking about it, i may switch to my Quarry PTS build now...
Quarry will be changed, as well as aura of primal majesty.
Ame already said that the passives will be rebalanced around the new system, so while no doubt certain builds will become more powerful, we can't really know what those builds will be until we've seen all the changes.
While I like the idea that they are making some Under The Hood changes to the game, for reasons a lot of people covered already [i.e. falling damage, usefulness of stats, ad nausium.] I like the idea...
But, changing the Stats is FOOLISH.
Let me explain, no no.. at the risk of TLDR I'll sum up.
This is going to be a lot of work for what will probably be limited effects on builds and a giant pain on re-gearing for us, but more importantly retooling of all the gear for the Devs.
Since the biggest reason we've been given for a lot of quality of life and content gaps is we can't get some of the things we want is Dev time. Since this will be a HUGE time sink for little if any real gain, this is frankly stupidity of some sort.
I can only assume this was some very high ups idea to 'revolutionize' the game. Well CO is already revolutionary in it flexibility and character creation.
Please Stop this waste of Dev time and fix the broken stuff first and make us some new stuff to do after that.
Looking at what they're doing, and why they said they need to do it... it fits.
They need to make these changes so stats will scale higher.
So they're relying less on meta-stats that we have now (which hit DR really quick) and balancing with real stats and splitting up SS.
They can't add anything more to the game. Any more powerful equipment will hit DR. This means to move forward, they have to diversify builds more.
Looking at what they're doing, and why they said they need to do it... it fits.
They need to make these changes so stats will scale higher.
So they're relying less on meta-stats that we have now (which hit DR really quick) and balancing with real stats and splitting up SS.
They can't add anything more to the game. Any more powerful equipment will hit DR. This means to move forward, they have to diversify builds more.
Clearly I disagree and well, I'm going to lose on that I'm sure but I had to put my two cents in. And wait even longer for stuff people actually want, not reworking of crap we already have.
Clearly I disagree and well, I'm going to lose on that I'm sure but I had to put my two cents in. And wait even longer for stuff people actually want, not reworking of crap we already have.
Many players want the kind of changes that balance the roles and passives. That's what it looks like Cryptic is doing.
So since EGO is turning into the ranged version of STR, I wonder if this means there'll be a ranged version of DEX in the future.. or if Enrage is going to be clamped down to melee only with a ranged version based around EGO being forthcoming.
So since EGO is turning into the ranged version of STR, I wonder if this means there'll be a ranged version of DEX in the future.. or if Enrage is going to be clamped down to melee only with a ranged version based around EGO being forthcoming.
You mean ranged forms/focus stacks ? Since Dex always worked on range
Ego Blades was always the exception. Its damage scaled on Ego, and I dobut this will change.
Yes but currently on live Ego synergizes greatly with Ego Blades due to the crit severity that it gives. After the stat changes it will be worthless as far as stats goes for a melee. Sure it will still be good for the ranged Ego players since it will still boost ranged knocks (or I'm assuming this will still be true) and ranged damage, but again since Ego bladers are melee, this will do nothing for them.
To be stuck having to rely on a stat that adds no secondary benefits would frankly suck. I'm thinking that they will need to change the current melee scaling for Ego bladers over to something more useful.
Yes but currently on live Ego synergizes greatly with Ego Blades due to the crit severity that it gives. After the stat changes it will be worthless as far as stats goes for a melee. Sure it will still be good for the ranged Ego players since it will still boost ranged knocks (or I'm assuming this will still be true) and ranged damage, but again since Ego bladers are melee, this will do nothing for them.
To be stuck having to rely on a stat that adds no secondary benefits would frankly suck. I'm thinking that they will need to change the current melee scaling for Ego bladers over to something more useful.
A lot MA builds still take 70 str just for the damage bonus .. so why shouldn't ego blader take still 70 ego for the same reason ?
You can pick the same stat for your primary and secondary superstat.
Steps to reproduce: Use your forced retcon on PtS. Pick a primary superstat. Pick a secondary superstat that's the same as your Primary. I tried it with Presence.
AoPM still works like the old way, and is not getting any bonuses from secondary stats. not sure if intended or not(because as it is now it's a 50% nerf.)
Comments
This was expressed on the free forums and generally I agree. The part in red very much so.
My main concern is if this goes badly, we've seen other things where it takes a turn against what we expected and basicly had our feedback ignore.
At the end of the day I play this game because I enjoy my friends company who play it. A badly handled transition causing peoples friendslist to empty out is what is often the kicker.
That said looking over this, seeing the devs cautious approach and willingness to talk to us throughout more then just the forums is giving me cautious hope. They have the capability to do this right. Im rooting for them. but lets not kid ourselves into thinking it will be all good.
The more we plug away at the changes and explore them the more we can help shape champions future in a way that will continue to be an enjoyable experience for all.
These changes NEED to be tested as throughly as people did during beta ages ago. If your here you can check them out once they show up, if someone is looking for details well theres a transcription of the proposed changes on the general forums.
If they want to fix that it would be far easier to simply look at the munitions powers themselves.
That said I REALLY hope to see some massive improvements to making teamming more accessible, and rewarding to pug, especially in regards to instances which are notorious for bad rewards solo or not with exception of a few rare drops to sell for money.
I also hope to see the UI streamlined alot, it's rather ad when you can double or triple your FPS just by turning off UI which is a ton for lower end computers and thus makes it more accessible to more people to even play.
And in my 'naive hope' category is I hope this lets them make power sets play and feel different more then just their debuff stat. That is the greatest thing I loved about CoX where each set had it's own gameplay style not just damage type and debuff. And hopefully this extends to pets too which really need love and possibly an ai reworking again.
But that's just all my hopeful ranting for the future, I don't expect it other then maybe down the line but... we'll see.
Ha! Good one! Needed that laugh.
Or y'know, they can have it do something useful of its own now that it's no longer chained to crits.
Too optimistic?
I'm still curious how my builds with Devour Essence and Epidemic or Hurricane and Dex/Int +Ego would look
with my current gear. Really sad that they rolled back the patch today
I know, I know. I was being kinda satirical because a complete stat rework that makes all the stats themselves balanced out better without needing funky scaling and too many specific synergies is something I've wanted for a very long time in CO, but I'm skeptical they can do it in a way that doesn't involve breaking pre-existing builds into a billion tiny irreparable parts.
It's not even that I question their ability to do a passably good job, as this is an area I'm doubtful I could come up with a better design myself. It's just a very complicated endeavor with a very large amount of delicate moving parts.
I'm not sure if I should be excited about this or completely dreading it.
I wish to see more of these upcoming revisions.
I think it's a good thing they did.
Without the Other 2/3rds of the changes, less design minded people will freak out.
Honestly something of this level should have been a closed test with select invites.
But that is just my opinion.
Edit: Cooldowns across the board on the tier 1 or higher powers would bring balance to the forc... Game, too!
People freak out much more on pure speculation what MIGHT could be than on actual facts at the moment.
Also the rollback was due to problems, so i hope we will get the update the next days.
And nobody is talking about cooldowns. If you want them ... play a monk in EQ2 there you have 25 skills with
different cooldowns, and in the end they are all just variatons on 3 actual skills. But its soo fun to have so much
hotbars so that you can't play with the keyboard and have to click always with the mouse
Personally i'd rather see them get rid of all the cooldowns in Archery, one of the main reasons that set
was never fun for me.
As well as slow the game down and force a similar style of play as several other MMO's on the market. I'm not convinced that's the greatest idea considering many that do play and enjoy this game have continually expressed that they do so specifically because it is faster paced and different from the others.
This summary of EQ2 is quite accurate.
Ame already said that the passives will be rebalanced around the new system, so while no doubt certain builds will become more powerful, we can't really know what those builds will be until we've seen all the changes.
But, changing the Stats is FOOLISH.
Let me explain, no no.. at the risk of TLDR I'll sum up.
This is going to be a lot of work for what will probably be limited effects on builds and a giant pain on re-gearing for us, but more importantly retooling of all the gear for the Devs.
Since the biggest reason we've been given for a lot of quality of life and content gaps is we can't get some of the things we want is Dev time. Since this will be a HUGE time sink for little if any real gain, this is frankly stupidity of some sort.
I can only assume this was some very high ups idea to 'revolutionize' the game. Well CO is already revolutionary in it flexibility and character creation.
Please Stop this waste of Dev time and fix the broken stuff first and make us some new stuff to do after that.
Quarry will be changed, as well as aura of primal majesty.
You can bet on it, like passenger 57.
Anything with PFF.
Looking at what they're doing, and why they said they need to do it... it fits.
They need to make these changes so stats will scale higher.
So they're relying less on meta-stats that we have now (which hit DR really quick) and balancing with real stats and splitting up SS.
They can't add anything more to the game. Any more powerful equipment will hit DR. This means to move forward, they have to diversify builds more.
Ego Blades will need to be changed as well since Ego will be worthless for all melee.
Clearly I disagree and well, I'm going to lose on that I'm sure but I had to put my two cents in. And wait even longer for stuff people actually want, not reworking of crap we already have.
Many players want the kind of changes that balance the roles and passives. That's what it looks like Cryptic is doing.
Hmm none of that required changes to all the stats and gear. And as much as I want that to, I've played MMO's for a looooong time.
They will never make the players happy. It's impossible.
This is just extra work for no gain.
Similar effect in changes have been tweaked all along, this is.. well why the stats?
Oh forget it.
Ego Blades was always the exception. Its damage scaled on Ego, and I dobut this will change.
I certainly hope not. The segregation of melee and ranged buffs is already annoying.
You mean ranged forms/focus stacks ? Since Dex always worked on range
Yes but currently on live Ego synergizes greatly with Ego Blades due to the crit severity that it gives. After the stat changes it will be worthless as far as stats goes for a melee. Sure it will still be good for the ranged Ego players since it will still boost ranged knocks (or I'm assuming this will still be true) and ranged damage, but again since Ego bladers are melee, this will do nothing for them.
To be stuck having to rely on a stat that adds no secondary benefits would frankly suck. I'm thinking that they will need to change the current melee scaling for Ego bladers over to something more useful.
A lot MA builds still take 70 str just for the damage bonus .. so why shouldn't ego blader take still 70 ego for the same reason ?
We're working on a fix for this build, and will test it shortly.
Stay tuned!
Ummm...hell to the OOOOOHHHHHHHH! Please send that tweak to Live like yesterday.
Now this made me all warm and fuzzy. I'm pretty stoked about all the other stuff too. I love change. :rolleyes:
Edit: I shall never again be screwed by the dreaded Curb of Doom!
Any more updates?
Are you still tuned?
*Tunes in*
If you can, please avoid under water exploration. This includes Lemuria, you may not find your way back to solid ground.
*gets lost in Ren Cen foutain*
You can pick the same stat for your primary and secondary superstat.
Steps to reproduce: Use your forced retcon on PtS. Pick a primary superstat. Pick a secondary superstat that's the same as your Primary. I tried it with Presence.
Everywhere?
If you fly too high off the ground a grey fog covers everything below you.
Suggestion:
Could you mark the Secondary Super Stats as a different color on gear? because currently its not marking those stats at all anymore