@gripnir78 Make it 85% at R12, so by R14 you get everything back if it has to be nerfed. The thing is, 99% of people won't have those items BECAUSE of the greater refinement stone requirements.
Anyways, I stand behind my words. Make Augments increase by 100% with every rank up (green 100%, blue 200%, purple 300%, legendary either 350% or 400%). People WILL debate which one to get 1st. Because they need solo abilities and that's where augment comes into play. But for group content, bondings are the way to go due to ACDCs and Pallies. And there you have it. Perfect balance. No need for this nerf. At ALL.
how about don't change anything from how it is right now. and just don't add any more percentage stats per level 13 and 14 add something else.
Or just make a realm-wide proclamation, that (now) a mighty Deity hates Bonding Stones, and have put a curse on them, never allowing them to go beyond rank 12, forever keeping them stuck in their progress!!! (insert evil laughter)
Exactly. It's definitely not a problem for them as they've proven by making weapon enchants R13 max and normal R14. Heck, make them 700 power instead of 840, just don't freakkin' nerf the %.
"Then comes the next problem the superior enchantment stones! Can only be obtained in chult dungeon...! Not everyone can run that dungeon.
I think its worth noting that someone in a rank 20 guild makes this observation. That is someone who has access to the highest levels of boons, and most likely a fairly large player base from his guild and/or alliance. No shade being thrown here at all.. just noting that even someone at very high levels whose actually playing this game can see the wrench this is throwing into people's gameplay.
Lol, yeah I can play the high end dungeons and that's not the point i'm making. I was talking about newer players that don't have that option. They are kinda screwed, since content even for some high level players can be kinda tough. So you would be fine with a couple of players selling those stones for the price they want?
and just because i'm a endgame player doesn't mean I can't see what it possibly would be like for others and then again lets just assume every endgame player couldn't care less if that's the point you are trying to bring across...
Having had more time to think about it a few quick comments. 1. It's great that you've listened and are keeping the uptime on bondings at 100%. 2. The big problem I feel is taking a backwards step and being expected to pay out bigtime to reach a lower level of power when at present there is good content, even with rank 12 bondings is hard. 3. There seems to be an assumption that things will balance out at r14 (although bondings will still be lower). Given the proposed cost I think only a tiny minority of players will reach rank 14s. As such you need to decrease the cost of upgrading enchants - please see my earlier proposal about introducing memory into the upgrades, so that with each preservation ward you use, your chance of upgrading increases by 1%. This would make it cheaper to upgrade and would balance out the cost of the new marks. It would overall reduce the impact of the bonding nerf also - as you would get a lower percentage of a higher amount. 4. However, even with that change the nerf seems to me to got a little bit too far. I would advise to reduce the level of nerf so that bondings give at r12 what you are currently proposing for r14, with 5% above that per stone for r13 and r14 each. At the same time increase the additional stat gain from eldricht by 5% each and give the other rune stones a bit more stat to compete (perhaps even taking it to the level that bondings give?). That would still be quite a nerf for bondings but it would create an incentive to try out other options and create flexibility.
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mamalion1234Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,415Arc User
Having had more time to think about it a few quick comments. 1. It's great that you've listened and are keeping the uptime on bondings at 100%. 2. The big problem I feel is taking a backwards step and being expected to pay out bigtime to reach a lower level of power when at present there is good content, even with rank 12 bondings is hard. 3. There seems to be an assumption that things will balance out at r14 (although bondings will still be lower). Given the proposed cost I think only a tiny minority of players will reach rank 14s. As such you need to decrease the cost of upgrading enchants - please see my earlier proposal about introducing memory into the upgrades, so that with each preservation ward you use, your chance of upgrading increases by 1%. This would make it cheaper to upgrade and would balance out the cost of the new marks. It would overall reduce the impact of the bonding nerf also - as you would get a lower percentage of a higher amount. 4. However, even with that change the nerf seems to me to got a little bit too far. I would advise to reduce the level of nerf so that bondings give at r12 what you are currently proposing for r14, with 5% above that per stone for r13 and r14 each. At the same time increase the additional stat gain from eldricht by 5% each and give the other rune stones a bit more stat to compete (perhaps even taking it to the level that bondings give?). That would still be quite a nerf for bondings but it would create an incentive to try out other options and create flexibility.
I think was wrong to listen and keep the 100% uptime on bondings. With bonding at 50% uptime would made players to look and at the augment option(@ noworries isnt that your intention? ). After the revert augment and other runestones died again.
Your propose already happened by others for ruenstones to give stats and transfer trough companion like bonding but still i see @noworries to not answer to this feedback.
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
that wouldve just made augments the new meta.. really does it matter? who cares.. one meta or another.. something is always meta.
Frankly they discourage unique builds, because who the hell knows when they are claimed to be not working as intended (owlbear SW build) it wasnt nearly that powerful.. it wasnt game breaking really, but it was unique..
I think was wrong to listen and keep the 100% uptime on bondings. With bonding at 50% uptime would made players to look and at the augment option(@ noworries isnt that your intention? ). After the revert augment and other runestones died again.
Your propose already happened by others for ruenstones to give stats and transfer trough companion like bonding but still i see @noworries to not answer to this feedback.
I agree with your disagreement of listening to the bonding 100% up time. Stick with the original 50% or compromise a little and make the max up time 60-70%.
Nixon the TR
Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
that wouldve just made augments the new meta.. really does it matter? who cares.. one meta or another.. something is always meta.
Frankly they discourage unique builds, because who the hell knows when they are claimed to be not working as intended (owlbear SW build) it wasnt nearly that powerful.. it wasnt game breaking really, but it was unique..
its now gone..
non game breaking builds, should be allowed.
It wouldn't, you'd have to pick either one because augments don't benefit from power share, but bondings do. Augments get higher stats than bondings tho, but only in solo play, in group content, power share makes bondings better. It's really a decision which one you want to get 1st.
I don't know if these specific numbers have been posted; I haven't read every post in this thread, but they're extremely easy to calculate.
Currently 3 rank-12 bondings equals +285% to enchantment stat on your companion, so for a single-stat enchantment at rank 12 of 700, your companion gives you 1,995 per enchantment which, according to Cryptic, is overpowered and needs a reduction. With the new system in place, 3 rank-14 bonding stones give a +195% rating. The problem is (and I believe this is completely intentional) with max-rank bonding stones and new max-rank enchantments (single stat of 1000), your companion will be providing you with 1,950 per single-stat enchantment. In other words just a hair under 98% of what is currently being offered and is in such need of "balancing". This is basically stating that the premise of a balance is being used purely as a money ploy. Also, under the new system you can conveniently more than make up that 2% loss from current standards with a second legendary companion which, again conveniently, is most easily accomplished with companion packs attained via lockboxes.
I understand that Cryptic is a company and needs to make money, but this is blatant and fairly unethical. Does Samsung break into my house, steal my TV, and offer to sell it back to me? I honestly love this game but this is a bit extreme and not even well disguised.
Seriously tho... my daily play time went from several hours down to just 5 minutes. The only reason I'm still coming in is to pick up my bags and refine AD, so in case you actually do indeed undo the change, I don't lose anything. And, if you don't, I didn't waste any more time on it.
@noworries#8859 Is there an estimated release date for 12b? Does anyone know?
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silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
Not really guys.. the very top end players wouldve just carried both.. and before you argue that they wouldnt , I promise you.. players who use two 9 million ad enchants, wouldve just made both.
it would've been just YET another expense to most players.. because if you dont have all top end gear.. no one really wants you.
Game is too dependent on power selling.. that is the real truth.
Not really guys.. the very top end players wouldve just carried both.. and before you argue that they wouldnt , I promise you.. players who use two 9 million ad enchants, wouldve just made both.
it would've been just YET another expense to most players.. because if you dont have all top end gear.. no one really wants you.
Game is too dependent on power selling.. that is the real truth.
While that is true, they want "variety" and "choices". The thing I suggested is infinitely better than this. What I suggested is selling power. What they're doing is re-selling power we had, but they took it.
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silvergryphMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 740Arc User
I don't know if these specific numbers have been posted; I haven't read every post in this thread, but they're extremely easy to calculate.
Currently 3 rank-12 bondings equals +285% to enchantment stat on your companion, so for a single-stat enchantment at rank 12 of 700, your companion gives you 1,995 per enchantment which, according to Cryptic, is overpowered and needs a reduction. With the new system in place, 3 rank-14 bonding stones give a +195% rating. The problem is (and I believe this is completely intentional) with max-rank bonding stones and new max-rank enchantments (single stat of 1000), your companion will be providing you with 1,950 per single-stat enchantment. In other words just a hair under 98% of what is currently being offered and is in such need of "balancing". This is basically stating that the premise of a balance is being used purely as a money ploy. Also, under the new system you can conveniently more than make up that 2% loss from current standards with a second legendary companion which, again conveniently, is most easily accomplished with companion packs attained via lockboxes.
I understand that Cryptic is a company and needs to make money, but this is blatant and fairly unethical. Does Samsung break into my house, steal my TV, and offer to sell it back to me? I honestly love this game but this is a bit extreme and not even well disguised.
Your argument proves their point. Right now, we get it all from one place. Getting that many stats will still be possible, but only by also investing in other places: Rank 13-14, additional Legendary companions, etc. So, they are balancing things so that Bondings are no longer sooo much better than everything else in that equation. While, as you point out, leaving the potential sum at the end of that equation about the same.
I currently have 3 Rank 12 bondings. And I actually agree that Bondings are too good as is. And I don't mean anything to do with power sharing. Even without that, just the stats are way too much to get from one source. Soloing with my HR I did not benefit from power sharing, but the difference in strength and survivability when I switched to Bondings was huge. It felt like at least the difference between level 60 and level 70. Hard content to solo became almost trivial instantly.
As far as selling something back to you goes, lets get real. Bondings do originate from cash. But, the only Bonding stones that get generated with cash are Lesser Bondings (Rank 7) and Bondings (Rank 8). Lesser Bondings come attached to companions or in helper packs. Bondings come from certain packs found in lockboxes. Lesser Bondings actually give you 30% in the new system up from 20%. Bondings stay the same at 35%. So, that which was purchased with cash will actually be the same or better. Anything you upgraded to past that point only cost anyone any cash as a convenience only by using wards. If the wards came from cash, that is. So they are not selling you back anything you already bought.
Incidentally, after the last Simril, there are also now thousands of Bondings out there that didn't cost anyone any cash at all.
And the argument that anything that costs cash should be inherently superior to anything that doesn't (made by others, not you) is a flatout request for pay-to-win. No thanks.
Yeah, I will have to re-do some builds and move some stats from my companions to my characters. So what. I have to do that every few months anyway.
Freemium games depend on pain to encourage spending money. Progress needs to be painfully slow to get you to spend money to alleviate the pain. Revenue must be down so they are turning up the pain. I am not sure why we fall for this kind of twisted game model. I am sure the gaming companies have all kinds of psych research on it. But I think this debacle may be enough to get me out. $400 is nothing compared to what the big spenders pay to this game. But $400 is way more than a normal AAA game would cost and it really isn't a fun game. I don't actually enjoy playing the content. I am just obsessed with building my character and I don't know why. Lol.
BTW, if you don't think they intentionally shift the meta to stimulate spending on new things, you are kidding yourself.
No they're not too good. You get less stats from bondings than you do from gear - someone already ran the calcs. Besides, you don't actually mind that they're literally RE-SELLING something that you already own? You also have a fear of money and wealth, is my best guess. Supporting these decisions is nothing short of a self-destructive personality disorder similar to that of Stockholm syndrome. There's no putting it other way. It's literally the "Bite the pillow" kind of deal.
They could just stop giving bondings like that for free, and keep them in comp packs. That way they don't lose money 'cause people quite often just outright buy VIP with zen bought via cash.
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treesclimberMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,161Arc User
You touched the most important point, if these runestones exist and have the same rank of bondings, why can i not use them? Are they here just to pass the butter?
The other content is done easily without bondings because it's much easier, lostmauth for example has like....20million HP maybe, and Storvard 1 billion or more....
It's a bit about "inverse power creep", if you notice the expected performance/price ratio has increased a lot with this update, compare the price of a future R12 to the price of a current R10 that will both be at ration of +/- 1,4 to the top enchantment. My FBI runs last 2 hours while there are people running it in 11 minutes, and why? because i get put into a random group that thinks the fact that their non bonding runestones are giving them enough IL to queue are good for the content, with this rework the acessibillity of new player to content more close to endgame has increased tremendously, power creepingis not fixed, but everyone will be a little bit closer to it, in fact i think from now on all runs will be much more pleasurable.
Would you be totally fine if the devs picked up eldritch and made it grant 75% stats and other runestones 4200 and raise their price to bondings price? So the amount of players running endgame would be even less and instead of a 2 hours run i would have no run at all. Or would you rather that they were increased in stats without any prices rework? Then a lot of people would cry " mine where more expensive".
@muckingfuppet You're wrong when you say nobody will get augments, take for example https://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Bulette_Pup, even if only granting 176,5% (no legendary bonus) against, let's say 190% from bondings (in a very good companion in a full run), it's a reliable full time bonus. While a DPS would have no doubt choosing for a tank on the other hand may want that reliability.
So this probably has been brought in 35 pages- but why not just leave bondings alone & increase the % on Eld, & stats on other runestones? If the goal is to have options- give some damn options, nerfing reduces options & creates artificial costs.
Bonding runestones were not adjusted due to power creep. They were adjusted due to being so far out of line with the rest of runestones/companions. It was something on our radar for a long time, and where it may have been easier to accept if it had happened sooner, it still needed to happen.
The refinement changes were something we already had plans for and were working on. With that coming down the line, we knew that any changes to bonding runestones needed to happen before players started investing in T13 and T14 bonding runestones and that is why these changes are all bundled together.
At this point we are still going forward with the bonding runestones as they are now. We realize there are other issues in the game and those are all things to be looked at independently of this. Bonding runestones do need to be brought closer in line with the rest of the companion system, and these changes still leave them out in front as the most powerful choice for most players.
Yah, because they give critical improvements to new 70s- you basically are saying; stop being creative at early 70s, nerfing viable builds which work to grind epics to get better gear, AD, etc. You are functionally dooming newly end-game players to buy things or be at the mercy of carry groups.
No one will EVER use augments. It's not about % of stats given, but about the fact that you don't get power share *3 billion when you use augments.
lol A] not even close to 3bil B] you need crit to build good dps against power curve, & C] they brought that on themselves w/ uncapped power (which i'm ok with) but if bodings + power share is a real concern, there are many ways to solve w/o nerfing them all together.
No one will EVER use augments. It's not about % of stats given, but about the fact that you don't get power share *3 billion when you use augments.
lol A] not even close to 3bil B] you need crit to build good dps against power curve, & C] they brought that on themselves w/ uncapped power (which i'm ok with) but if bodings + power share is a real concern, there are many ways to solve w/o nerfing them all together.
By gods you're ignorant. If you can't realize that 3 billion is an over the top extreme number that doesn't really carry a value but a meaning, I should just ignore you. But for the sake of argument, I'll continue.
1) No ofc it's not close to 3 billion. But I explained that already. 2) You can just build crit then. Solo content is getting a bit HAMSTER, sure, but group content is where it really matters, and for group content, you'll have a LOT of power share. So yeah. No augments. 3) Nerfing both is the way to lose your entire player base. No one will ever do random queues because they can possibly get something they can't do, they've nerfed everyone so even a lot of premades won't be able to do FBI and MSP, let alone TNG.
So by pretending to "help new players", they've managed to screw over everyone, including those new players. No one likes this. This is what made new players viable in harder content. This will just make them more unwanted than they are now. Gj Cryptic.
@muckingfuppet You're wrong when you say nobody will get augments, take for example https://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Bulette_Pup, even if only granting 176,5% (no legendary bonus) against, let's say 190% from bondings (in a very good companion in a full run), it's a reliable full time bonus. While a DPS would have no doubt choosing for a tank on the other hand may want that reliability.
I had a serious look at the Bulette Pup for my Paladin, thinking that 3x Empowered (96k HP) could be a nice touch - I actually bought one from the AH after the changes were announced. (20k AD bargain)
However, compared to my Bondings, the loss of the powersharing mechanic made it unviable. Would I consider one for my GF? Not really, I'd still be better off using a proper companion with defence slots and bonding stones. Doubling the effect of the gear on my companion plus power sharing from a DC? Stat wise bondings are the best choice even with the nerf.
If you disagree, please provide at least one example of a class that is statistically better off with an augment that they would be with a bonded companion
Please Do Not Feed The Trolls
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
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silvergryphMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 740Arc User
No they're not too good. You get less stats from bondings than you do from gear - someone already ran the calcs. Besides, you don't actually mind that they're literally RE-SELLING something that you already own? You also have a fear of money and wealth, is my best guess. Supporting these decisions is nothing short of a self-destructive personality disorder similar to that of Stockholm syndrome. There's no putting it other way. It's literally the "Bite the pillow" kind of deal.
They could just stop giving bondings like that for free, and keep them in comp packs. That way they don't lose money 'cause people quite often just outright buy VIP with zen bought via cash.
The fact that the stats from Bonding are less than the stats from all the other gear combined is hardly an argument that they are not overpowered.
And again, from my perspective they are not re-selling me something I already own. My actual cash purchases were for Rank 7 and Rank 8 Bondings, which would now be as good or better after the change. If I hadn't already upgraded them. Any wards I bought during the upgrade were merely for convenience. I bought the convenience, not the upgraded stones.
No one will EVER use augments. It's not about % of stats given, but about the fact that you don't get power share *3 billion when you use augments.
Incorrect. In fact, even though I have Rank 12 Bondings, I have characters that use augments right now. I use whatever available companion fits my concept for each character.
@silvergryph So you're telling me YOU can use augments, while the only class that could actually benefit MORE from the augments (paladins via health) probably won't use it due to other stats lost? Also, bs aside, you're literally saying that bondings aren't OP even tho they aren't even giving you the biggest fraction of your stats. I am pretty damn near BiS and my comp gives me about 35k stats. What that means is, bondings ain't op. Not even a bit.
The fact that you want to keep on going with the HAMSTER they're feeding you tells me something about you. That is, I should probably never, EVER get involved with you, as drugs are bad and should be avoided.
@silvergryph So you're telling me YOU can use augments, while the only class that could actually benefit MORE from the augments (paladins via health) probably won't use it due to other stats lost? Also, bs aside, you're literally saying that bondings aren't OP even tho they aren't even giving you the biggest fraction of your stats. I am pretty damn near BiS and my comp gives me about 35k stats. What that means is, bondings ain't op. Not even a bit.
The fact that you want to keep on going with the HAMSTER they're feeding you tells me something about you. That is, I should probably never, EVER get involved with you, as drugs are bad and should be avoided.
I can confirm as a +15k Paladin that even with the extra 96k HP I still have less power, even with the extra 9.6k Power from the HP. Fully investigated, everything calculated - I'm worse off.
Please Do Not Feed The Trolls
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
4
micky1p00Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,594Arc User
The fact that the stats from Bonding are less than the stats from all the other gear combined is hardly an argument that they are not overpowered.
And again, from my perspective they are not re-selling me something I already own. My actual cash purchases were for Rank 7 and Rank 8 Bondings, which would now be as good or better after the change. If I hadn't already upgraded them. Any wards I bought during the upgrade were merely for convenience. I bought the convenience, not the upgraded stones.
Your time is worthless to you ? AD is not valueless currency, it represents time, and to most it has value.
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treesclimberMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,161Arc User
So this probably has been brought in 35 pages- but why not just leave bondings alone & increase the % on Eld, & stats on other runestones? If the goal is to have options- give some damn options, nerfing reduces options & creates artificial costs.
Remember on the stream when rgutsheradev said something similar to "if there is something really out of line with other things, instead of bringing all others up we rather bring the one that is out of line and if needed bring the other a bit up", that and the problems of IL that it's an absolute need to be reworked since with these changes it's accuracy has just improved over 3000pts, there may be other plans that devs have, lets wait maybe there are more reasons.
@muckingfuppet You're wrong when you say nobody will get augments, take for example https://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Bulette_Pup, even if only granting 176,5% (no legendary bonus) against, let's say 190% from bondings (in a very good companion in a full run), it's a reliable full time bonus. While a DPS would have no doubt choosing for a tank on the other hand may want that reliability.
I had a serious look at the Bulette Pup for my Paladin, thinking that 3x Empowered (96k HP) could be a nice touch - I actually bought one from the AH after the changes were announced. (20k AD bargain)
However, compared to my Bondings, the loss of the powersharing mechanic made it unviable. Would I consider one for my GF? Not really, I'd still be better off using a proper companion with defence slots and bonding stones. Doubling the effect of the gear on my companion plus power sharing from a DC? Stat wise bondings are the best choice even with the nerf.
If you disagree, please provide at least one example of a class that is statistically better off with an augment that they would be with a bonded companion
I Agree bondings are better, but if you ask someplayers "do you prefeer take less 80% damage all the time or less 40% 10% of time and less 100% 90% of time, some players will go with reliabillity, some tanks in my alliance are seriouslly taking augments in consideration"
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silvergryphMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 740Arc User
The fact that the stats from Bonding are less than the stats from all the other gear combined is hardly an argument that they are not overpowered.
And again, from my perspective they are not re-selling me something I already own. My actual cash purchases were for Rank 7 and Rank 8 Bondings, which would now be as good or better after the change. If I hadn't already upgraded them. Any wards I bought during the upgrade were merely for convenience. I bought the convenience, not the upgraded stones.
Your time is worthless to you ? AD is not valueless currency, it represents time, and to most it has value.
On the contrary, my time is precious. That's why I only worry about having fun when I'm playing a game. As much as possible, I only do the things I want to do. I only grind until it starts to not be fun. Then I switch characters or go play something else. When things change, as they are expected to do in an MMO (often drastically), I stay if the game is still fun. I take a break if it isn't fun. The bottom line is that even if my character is weakened I will stay as long as there is still enough content I can actually play and have fun. Time spent in a game is for fun, and as long as I have fun then my time was never wasted. It's exactly because my time is precious that I don't take the game so seriously it becomes a job. I've already got one of those.
@treesclimber Yea. Augments don't get affected by it, but bondings do. Even 3x lesser bondings will give you more power from power share than a legendary augment. Augments will never match bondings. Not even with this nerf. What makes this nerf redundant and stupid.
Comments
and just because i'm a endgame player doesn't mean I can't see what it possibly would be like for others and then again lets just assume every endgame player couldn't care less if that's the point you are trying to bring across...
1. It's great that you've listened and are keeping the uptime on bondings at 100%.
2. The big problem I feel is taking a backwards step and being expected to pay out bigtime to reach a lower level of power when at present there is good content, even with rank 12 bondings is hard.
3. There seems to be an assumption that things will balance out at r14 (although bondings will still be lower). Given the proposed cost I think only a tiny minority of players will reach rank 14s. As such you need to decrease the cost of upgrading enchants - please see my earlier proposal about introducing memory into the upgrades, so that with each preservation ward you use, your chance of upgrading increases by 1%. This would make it cheaper to upgrade and would balance out the cost of the new marks. It would overall reduce the impact of the bonding nerf also - as you would get a lower percentage of a higher amount.
4. However, even with that change the nerf seems to me to got a little bit too far. I would advise to reduce the level of nerf so that bondings give at r12 what you are currently proposing for r14, with 5% above that per stone for r13 and r14 each. At the same time increase the additional stat gain from eldricht by 5% each and give the other rune stones a bit more stat to compete (perhaps even taking it to the level that bondings give?). That would still be quite a nerf for bondings but it would create an incentive to try out other options and create flexibility.
Your propose already happened by others for ruenstones to give stats and transfer trough companion like bonding but still i see @noworries to not answer to this feedback.
Frankly they discourage unique builds, because who the hell knows when they are claimed to be not working as intended (owlbear SW build) it wasnt nearly that powerful.. it wasnt game breaking really, but it was unique..
its now gone..
non game breaking builds, should be allowed.
Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Currently 3 rank-12 bondings equals +285% to enchantment stat on your companion, so for a single-stat enchantment at rank 12 of 700, your companion gives you 1,995 per enchantment which, according to Cryptic, is overpowered and needs a reduction. With the new system in place, 3 rank-14 bonding stones give a +195% rating. The problem is (and I believe this is completely intentional) with max-rank bonding stones and new max-rank enchantments (single stat of 1000), your companion will be providing you with 1,950 per single-stat enchantment. In other words just a hair under 98% of what is currently being offered and is in such need of "balancing". This is basically stating that the premise of a balance is being used purely as a money ploy. Also, under the new system you can conveniently more than make up that 2% loss from current standards with a second legendary companion which, again conveniently, is most easily accomplished with companion packs attained via lockboxes.
I understand that Cryptic is a company and needs to make money, but this is blatant and fairly unethical. Does Samsung break into my house, steal my TV, and offer to sell it back to me? I honestly love this game but this is a bit extreme and not even well disguised.
it would've been just YET another expense to most players.. because if you dont have all top end gear.. no one really wants you.
Game is too dependent on power selling.. that is the real truth.
I currently have 3 Rank 12 bondings. And I actually agree that Bondings are too good as is. And I don't mean anything to do with power sharing. Even without that, just the stats are way too much to get from one source. Soloing with my HR I did not benefit from power sharing, but the difference in strength and survivability when I switched to Bondings was huge. It felt like at least the difference between level 60 and level 70. Hard content to solo became almost trivial instantly.
As far as selling something back to you goes, lets get real. Bondings do originate from cash. But, the only Bonding stones that get generated with cash are Lesser Bondings (Rank 7) and Bondings (Rank 8). Lesser Bondings come attached to companions or in helper packs. Bondings come from certain packs found in lockboxes. Lesser Bondings actually give you 30% in the new system up from 20%. Bondings stay the same at 35%. So, that which was purchased with cash will actually be the same or better. Anything you upgraded to past that point only cost anyone any cash as a convenience only by using wards. If the wards came from cash, that is. So they are not selling you back anything you already bought.
Incidentally, after the last Simril, there are also now thousands of Bondings out there that didn't cost anyone any cash at all.
And the argument that anything that costs cash should be inherently superior to anything that doesn't (made by others, not you) is a flatout request for pay-to-win. No thanks.
Yeah, I will have to re-do some builds and move some stats from my companions to my characters. So what. I have to do that every few months anyway.
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BTW, if you don't think they intentionally shift the meta to stimulate spending on new things, you are kidding yourself.
No they're not too good. You get less stats from bondings than you do from gear - someone already ran the calcs. Besides, you don't actually mind that they're literally RE-SELLING something that you already own? You also have a fear of money and wealth, is my best guess. Supporting these decisions is nothing short of a self-destructive personality disorder similar to that of Stockholm syndrome. There's no putting it other way. It's literally the "Bite the pillow" kind of deal.
They could just stop giving bondings like that for free, and keep them in comp packs. That way they don't lose money 'cause people quite often just outright buy VIP with zen bought via cash.
You touched the most important point, if these runestones exist and have the same rank of bondings, why can i not use them? Are they here just to pass the butter?
The other content is done easily without bondings because it's much easier, lostmauth for example has like....20million HP maybe, and Storvard 1 billion or more....
It's a bit about "inverse power creep", if you notice the expected performance/price ratio has increased a lot with this update, compare the price of a future R12 to the price of a current R10 that will both be at ration of +/- 1,4 to the top enchantment.
My FBI runs last 2 hours while there are people running it in 11 minutes, and why? because i get put into a random group that thinks the fact that their non bonding runestones are giving them enough IL to queue are good for the content, with this rework the acessibillity of new player to content more close to endgame has increased tremendously, power creepingis not fixed, but everyone will be a little bit closer to it, in fact i think from now on all runs will be much more pleasurable.
Would you be totally fine if the devs picked up eldritch and made it grant 75% stats and other runestones 4200 and raise their price to bondings price? So the amount of players running endgame would be even less and instead of a 2 hours run i would have no run at all.
Or would you rather that they were increased in stats without any prices rework? Then a lot of people would cry " mine where more expensive".
@muckingfuppet
You're wrong when you say nobody will get augments, take for example https://neverwinter.gamepedia.com/Bulette_Pup, even if only granting 176,5% (no legendary bonus) against, let's say 190% from bondings (in a very good companion in a full run), it's a reliable full time bonus. While a DPS would have no doubt choosing for a tank on the other hand may want that reliability.
1) No ofc it's not close to 3 billion. But I explained that already.
2) You can just build crit then. Solo content is getting a bit HAMSTER, sure, but group content is where it really matters, and for group content, you'll have a LOT of power share. So yeah. No augments.
3) Nerfing both is the way to lose your entire player base. No one will ever do random queues because they can possibly get something they can't do, they've nerfed everyone so even a lot of premades won't be able to do FBI and MSP, let alone TNG.
So by pretending to "help new players", they've managed to screw over everyone, including those new players. No one likes this. This is what made new players viable in harder content. This will just make them more unwanted than they are now. Gj Cryptic.
However, compared to my Bondings, the loss of the powersharing mechanic made it unviable. Would I consider one for my GF? Not really, I'd still be better off using a proper companion with defence slots and bonding stones. Doubling the effect of the gear on my companion plus power sharing from a DC? Stat wise bondings are the best choice even with the nerf.
If you disagree, please provide at least one example of a class that is statistically better off with an augment that they would be with a bonded companion
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
And again, from my perspective they are not re-selling me something I already own. My actual cash purchases were for Rank 7 and Rank 8 Bondings, which would now be as good or better after the change. If I hadn't already upgraded them. Any wards I bought during the upgrade were merely for convenience. I bought the convenience, not the upgraded stones.
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So you're telling me YOU can use augments, while the only class that could actually benefit MORE from the augments (paladins via health) probably won't use it due to other stats lost?
Also, bs aside, you're literally saying that bondings aren't OP even tho they aren't even giving you the biggest fraction of your stats. I am pretty damn near BiS and my comp gives me about 35k stats. What that means is, bondings ain't op. Not even a bit.
The fact that you want to keep on going with the HAMSTER they're feeding you tells me something about you. That is, I should probably never, EVER get involved with you, as drugs are bad and should be avoided.
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
AD is not valueless currency, it represents time, and to most it has value.
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Yea. Augments don't get affected by it, but bondings do. Even 3x lesser bondings will give you more power from power share than a legendary augment. Augments will never match bondings. Not even with this nerf. What makes this nerf redundant and stupid.