> @kreatyve said: > The problem wasn't that the bondings are too strong. It's that they have way outweighed anything else so much that there is no point in using a companion without them. To bring everything else up to the point where bondings are would cause even more balancing issues than are already in the game. The only option was to nerf them a bit.
A bit? How about a lot. And if they are still BiS, won't they still pretty much outweigh everything.
And how about players like me, who don't do speed runs but thinks 30 minutes is perfect for FBI and 40-60 for MSPC?
If they nerf bondings, shouldn't they tweak the existing dungeons down a bit so players won't feel a form of regression? Then build new dungeons that challenge. That's what would keep me interested and my wallet open.
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inyawayupdeepMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 206Arc User
Make all rune stones in the game two levels higher when you initiate mod 12b, then let things go from there. I get that bonding stones are overpowered, you were told several times in the forums that bondings didn't make sense because it made your pet be the most powerful thing about you. You chose not to fix the problem early, you overlooked it for years letting bonding stones become the meta, and you forced us to chase after them and the chase wasn't quick, easy or cheap.
Sadly I suspect it was done originally for profit, making us max out six more enchantments and three rune stones, and then improve our companions to legendary. Fix things now, it makes sense to fix it but just don't make us pay twice to be as powerful as we are now, especially when its a problem you created.
You should take the time now to do away with the wards and marks in the game and make chance of success 100% all the time, this would make your refining changes a positive thing not just another money grab. Find fun things or QOL things to get our money, we don't mind spending if it makes the game fun and easy, why not have an unbind scroll in the Zen market, or bring back the Mount training tombs, there are lots of other things you could make money on you need to let wards and marks go.
You need work at making this game fun again, not a pain in the behind to play, moral in the game which frankly is at an all time low. Players are angry to say the least. People are leaving.
I'm pretty sure that the bean counters have run the numbers and have let the mucky mucks know how much revenue came in from the last Zen sale and if I'm any kind of indicator of how things went I would say you had a huge shortfall. I was going to spend money on the game but decided not to. I don't want to spend money on a game that seems to be floundering. Several of my friends have moved on from the game in the last month and more are talking about quitting.
I've been playing the game over four years now, I have lived through mod 6 where the game was totally unplayable, the binding of the lockbox keys, removal of AD from leadership, had you nerf my high profit set, and my lostmouth set, lived through the removal of Coalescent wards from trade bare store the loss of Swordcoast and lots of others but have never seen people I play with leave like right now.
I agree that they waited far too long with them being very overpowered.
...ehhhhh.
That aside, you're saying that you want to minimize the difference between a player with and without bondings. And to that I say - complete HAMSTER. A player without bondings will NEVER be similar to one with. Besides, they're an item you PAY FOR. This is like making weapon enchantments HAMSTER because (and here I quote with a small adjustment for context) "they have way outweighed anything else so much that there is no point in using a weapon without them."
It really boggles my mind how you think that a 40% nerf outright and 30% nerf (after paying) is a small nerf.
Bondings weren't nerfed to rebalance stat allocations, they were nerfed because the company wanted to raise enchantments to rank 14, but realised that if they did it with bondings at 285% then characters would be too powerful.
This would mean an extra 5.4k stats via companions and they wouldn't be able to scale bondings to r14. (The other runestones are meant purely for augments, that's why nobody uses them.)
Therefore they were reduced to accommodate the increase in other enchantments. In a twisted way, you could call it a 'rebalance' but that was not the motive, bondings were a 'hindrance' to creating higher tiers of refinement.
On the subject of micro transactions, others are right that the item costs for this game are anything but micro. In a previous popular game that I played for many years, extra storage would cost $2, costume gear was typically $5, boosts were in the $1-$2 range etc. $1 to $5 prices are micro transactions.
When I first saw that this game charged $35 for a decent mount or companion I literally choked. I showed my wife the prices in the zen store, she had the same reaction. There's nothing micro about the costs here.
I would like to add that I understand the lack of further input from devs. They are most likely powerless to act, having been told by their management that this is going ahead and just coming on to repeat the 'party line' is pointless. For all we know they could actually agree with us, but employers expect their staff to be on the team and support the company's position.
Regulars here will know that once the devs stop commenting there's nothing more to be said.
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
I think the bonding change is a healthy choice, any serious gamer will admit they are too powerful and make the gap between new and BiS players far too wide.
But I do believe augments do need more buffs. companions vs augment should almost be the same, augment only with a slight stat contribution lower (since companions have access to protector's camaderie). That way, both are an option. With the current preview build bondings are still far superior than augments and nothing will change in that regard.
I'd suggest buffing all runestones to give +40% stats on top of whatever stats they give.
Well I like what you're saying... Bonding's were too powerful! Almost 10x more than any other Rune.
While I think it would be nice if other Rune's were perhaps boosted a little further, yet they made it clear wanting Bondings to maintain their BiS status. While Augments can now greatly expand augmentation with R14 Eldritch up to 25% for each Defensive Rune slot, by keeping almost a 5x advantage over other Runes it ensures they'd still highly desirable into the future. Now at least all Runes can offer some advantages if someone wanted to pair 2 Bonding with a Empowered, or other options depending on your Class, Feat Path, or Companion and yes expand options for Augments as well.
Some may not likely see it that way... But they need to get honest with themselves.
We can describe the problem all we like. Bonding stone is better than others or others are worse than bondings, Bonding is overperforming or the other ruins are under performing.
The real problem that us players are saying is that the proposed solutions don't have any real effect to either of those problems. Players will choose the way that brings them the most benefits and right now even with this change the bondings still give more (in most cases) and since they can pass the powershare from DC and OP are way better.
So if the "solution", isn't a real solution, shouldn't we examine other paths? If the bonding isn't overperforming as devs said then there should be no real problem bringing the other stones to similar if not the same level of utility. Why shouldn't all ruins offer similar behavior and stats and why lower bondings % when there isn't a problem with what the bonding offers in the first place. Why shouldn't every ruin offer % stat share? Arcane can offer stat share % and recovery, Eldritch can offer stat share % and armor pen and so on and let the people choose the stat they need? Every ruin now is equally useful and people will use them based on their class/build/need.
If you are worried that, because bonding is a payed item some people will have issues, I believe that none will oppose to a small compromise for the benefit of all players and the server if you change the other ruins to have similar effects.
I would understand as per devs example that its not a good idea when we have an item that high and others down low to increase the others, but clearly (and once again) as stated by the devs, the "high" is not the problem or an issue in the case of bonding.
But i do get why people stopped replying in general. The blazing rage is done.
Now people are ready to compromise and find rationalization for what will happen. We all know we are mostly powerless . We know the change will go . ( my post about it on like page 5 or something ) And now we are just waiting to see the final hammer hitting the nail.
On the side note i have a totally amazing plan of going noob after this amazing patch. I plan to have lots of fun with other noobs in leveling dungeons. It will be amazing, i tell ya. :P You are free to join me. I plan to do a lot of nakkid runs.
@araneax We are not powerless. As I mentioned few posts back we have a huge power. Our secret weapon is called wallet. And thats the most bizzare weapon around the globe. It is the most powerfull when it is not used:).
That is true. But that " power " takes time to work its point. That is why it is so frustrating. I am one of many in my guild who will not pay a dime once this mod comes out. Some will leave. Some will stay and troll like i will.
Until we get our characters back to what they where. We can suggest and say it is not fair. We can advise for them to not do this , we can beg , plead or joke around. But in the end it is not going to work.
Like it did not work in Coal wards thread or the key change thread or nerf AA thread.. or before that mod 6 thread. Before that , changes in mod 4 and before that... gods i forgot what that was , too much time passed.
Until enough time passes.. in the end... money income will drop , showed on the monthly basis, then they will have a three months review, and then 6 months review, after careful analysis they ll decide : " ups , we did it again " .
And then they will have " a serious reconstruction of the direction the game is going. " I did remember that quote, from long time ago.
Then suddenly some of the people , working on this game, will continue their journey , in other directions and will say their greetings to the ungrateful community. Or to say us.
That is true. But that " power " takes time to work its point. That is why it is so frustrating. I am one of many in my guild who will not pay a dime once this mod comes out. Some will leave. Some will stay and troll like i will.
Until we get our characters back to what they where. We can suggest and say it is not fair. We can advise for them to not do this , we can beg , plead or joke around. But in the end it is not going to work.
Like it did not work in Coal wards thread or the key change thread or nerf AA thread.. or before that mod 6 thread. Before that , changes in mod 4 and before that... gods i forgot what that was , too much time passed.
Until enough time passes.. in the end... money income will drop , showed on the monthly basis, then they will have a three months review, and then 6 months review, after careful analysis they ll decide : " ups , we did it again " .
And then they will have " a serious reconstruction of the direction the game is going. " I did remember that quote, from long time ago.
Then suddenly some of the people , working on this game, will continue their journey , in other directions and will say their greetings to the ungrateful community. Or to say us.
But i think.. this game will survive. Look how many hits it already passed. We who stayed / came back adapted to the changes.
People changed, devs changed, old players left, new players came in. I remember i switched 5 guilds back in mod 6. Duo to guilds deserting.
Had like 4 to 5 month breaks, when i got too upset about the " direction " the game was going. Starting with when they removed a thing with portals in PE.
You got a thingy in the lockbox and when you used it a portal opened somewhere in PE. You ran to it, grinded 40 to 50 k AD from it. I loved it. But so did bots. lol So it was removed. I do not remember what the name was of that thingy... idk..But it is not important any more.
Now the new players are BiS , and are outraged with this changes. But we have seen all of this happen before. The game itself survived. Got sold, got new " support " , new developers , new management.
It is still here. So i do have faith in it not dying. I love NW. I really do. It is a game i spent years on. Breaks or no breaks. I am glad it is still here , no matter how angry i get on the people running it. I met amazing people here, guildies who spent years on this game with me, chatting away on TS while we ran dungeons together. I do not wish them to leave. But i can not stop them as well. Just as i can not stop devs, from doing what they intended in the first place.
But i think.. this game will survive. Look how many hits it already passed. We who stayed / came back adapted to the changes.
People changed, devs changed, old players left, new players came in. I remember i switched 5 guilds back in mod 6. Duo to guilds deserting.
Had like 4 to 5 month breaks, when i got too upset about the " direction " the game was going. Starting with when they removed a thing with portals in PE.
You got a thingy in the lockbox and when you used it a portal opened somewhere in PE. You ran to it, grinded 40 to 50 k AD from it. I loved it. But so did bots. lol So it was removed. I do not remember what the name was of that thingy... idk..But it is not important any more.
Now the new players are BiS , and are outraged with this changes. But we have seen all of this happen before. The game itself survived. Got sold, got new " support " , new developers , new management.
It is still here. So i do have faith in it not dying. I love NW. I really do. It is a game i spent years on. Breaks or no breaks. I am glad it is still here , no matter how angry i get on the people running it. I met amazing people here, guildies who spent years on this game with me, chatting away on TS while we ran dungeons together. I do not wish them to leave. But i can not stop them as well. Just as i can not stop devs, from doing what they intended in the first place.
This is not about the survival of the game. We will do what we did, but we'll do it slower. No big deal. Eventually some will recover a big part of their "loss" and later on others will follow too.
Its not about what we can take. For me it has to do with WHY should we go down a road when it clearly doesn't offer a solution to the problem that is stated. Why isn't there an honest discussion with the devs to address the whys and tell us why they think our solutions / suggestions are bad or not adequate. At the end as most of us can see ,it seems like a loop. Nerf and "pay" to be back to where you were. Are we wrong? believe me I will be glad to be wrong but show us how and why.
Its not my fault to assume if there is no counter dialog, its not my fault we don't have the clear and entire picture of the changes to come and its not my fault we get the changes at a rate that is annoying to say the least. First armor pen changes... ok shuffle enchants and /or insignia and artifacts. Now...re shuffle again to get back important stat such as armor pen and crit again. We will re shuffle again when (and if) we go to r14s. We got gears and build our chars based to what we know and that "what we know" keep changes every 3 months or so. All I know is when I move to a new house (state of game) I move all rooms (changes) at once. Not one room every 3 months that will make me change the previous rooms (previous changes) every time.
And what if we find a way to make other ruins work only for the company to come after few months and say.. "It wasn't intended" and nerf it again?. Why the definition of WHAT is intended, always changes in this game? Why in most cases its not clear even when we ask the devs straight? Thing is that most of the aspects of a computer game are pretty predictable so you cant call "accident" on the bondings state, specially after all this time.
I think for those and few other reasons is why people are upset, and not losing some stats. At the end If you are 30% better than me now you will be after the change too. Nothing big.
But i think.. this game will survive. Look how many hits it already passed. We who stayed / came back adapted to the changes.
People changed, devs changed, old players left, new players came in. I remember i switched 5 guilds back in mod 6. Duo to guilds deserting.
Had like 4 to 5 month breaks, when i got too upset about the " direction " the game was going. Starting with when they removed a thing with portals in PE.
You got a thingy in the lockbox and when you used it a portal opened somewhere in PE. You ran to it, grinded 40 to 50 k AD from it. I loved it. But so did bots. lol So it was removed. I do not remember what the name was of that thingy... idk..But it is not important any more.
Now the new players are BiS , and are outraged with this changes. But we have seen all of this happen before. The game itself survived. Got sold, got new " support " , new developers , new management.
It is still here. So i do have faith in it not dying. I love NW. I really do. It is a game i spent years on. Breaks or no breaks. I am glad it is still here , no matter how angry i get on the people running it. I met amazing people here, guildies who spent years on this game with me, chatting away on TS while we ran dungeons together. I do not wish them to leave. But i can not stop them as well. Just as i can not stop devs, from doing what they intended in the first place.
This is not about the survival of the game. We will do what we did, but we'll do it slower. No big deal. Eventually some will recover a big part of their "loss" and later on others will follow too.
Its not about what we can take. For me it has to do with WHY should we go down a road when it clearly doesn't offer a solution to the problem that is stated. Why isn't there an honest discussion with the devs to address the whys and tell us why they think our solutions / suggestions are bad or not adequate. At the end as most of us can see ,it seems like a loop. Nerf and "pay" to be back to where you were. Are we wrong? believe me I will be glad to be wrong but show us how and why.
Its not my fault to assume if there is no counter dialog, its not my fault we don't have the clear and entire picture of the changes to come and its not my fault we get the changes at a rate that is annoying to say the least. First armor pen changes... ok shuffle enchants and /or insignia and artifacts. Now...re shuffle again to get back important stat such as armor pen and crit again. We will re shuffle again when (and if) we go to r14s. We got gears and build our chars based to what we know and that "what we know" keep changes every 3 months or so. All I know is when I move to a new house (state of game) I move all rooms (changes) at once. Not one room every 3 months that will make me change the previous rooms (previous changes) every time.
And what if we find a way to make other ruins work only for the company to come after few months and say.. "It wasn't intended" and nerf it again?. Why the definition of WHAT is intended always changes in this game?. Thing is that most of the aspects of a computer game are pretty predictable so you cant call "accident" on the bondings state, specially after all this time.
I think for those and few other reasons is why people are upset, and not losing some stats. At the end If you are 30% better than me now you will be after the change too. Nothing big.
I agree with you Oria. Completely.
But i do not remember a time when our question why was ever answered.
It always goes with : " it was not intended " , " we are reworking the game " and " this new change will help the new players progress " and we ask, every freaking time, we ask them for the reason. To explain to us , why the change . Why are they so focused on doing this that particular way. Are not our suggestions better then their current plan of attack.
But i seriously do not remember a time when we got a straight, honest , answer about the reasons.
The thing is MMOs market changed a lot. My avater comes from a game I loved most. But it came down to wrong menagement who actually bring its population down and dvindle income to the point that it was not bringing profits any more. And it was closed. Back then you had just a few games around to pick from. And you had to pay monthly fee to play them. So players had very limited options if they wanted to play mmos.
Trick is, games market looks so much different now. You have lots of games to choose from. Sure none of them is attached to D&D, but its not that important any more. You are a customer. And it works like with any other thing. If some one gona HAMSTER you off you wont buy from him any more. Almost every month brings new options.
After MOD 6 console release was what saved this game. Now console player base is aware what gona hit them soon. We old PC players are already aware what Cryptic is capable of. We can even say that we are used to that (witch is wrong, as it only encourage them to treat us like that). Console community is angry same as we are, so where they gona find a new player base to replace losses?
Bonding nerf in my opinion has double purpose. First - money grabbing. Its obvious. But second is more elusive. I belive Crytpic at this point is simply unable to create a chelenging end game content. It would take lot of time,money, skills and effort to rework this game to a balanced level. It would force devs to reach a game roots, and lots of rework. So instead of putting extra resources on that they simply decided to nerf all players arcoss a board to make current content harder or gated behind sea of grind and/or mounts of real cash. If its gona be hard enaugh you wont need new one even harder content right? Sure, big spenders gona close a gap in no time, but for majority of player base its just adding months of sailing trough a see of grind.
That seems not to smart move right? I depends. If that is all - its not a smart move.
But there is another option. Its going to be a hard reset to the player base. Only strong will survive and those gona have lots of work to bring their toons to current level. They gona use this time to bring new mod and I suspect even 2 more classes. It will take so much time that current shitstorm gona be forgotten, and then they gona hit with "huge amount of new content including long expected new classes" what gona bring back some players and atract new one, and possibly create another huge influx of money for them. All they need to know is - if those who gona stay gona pay enaugh money to reach that point.
Regulars here will know that once the devs stop commenting there's nothing more to be said.
This comment sums it up pretty well I think. Sad, but as @armadeonx stated above this quote, the devs may well agree with us but they have bosses and must, at least for appearance sake, agree with the company. Sad but that's the way it is. We can either quit or suck it up and keep going in spite of the hindrances put in our way.
I aim to misbehave
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treesclimberMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,161Arc User
Worse things are going to come, i agree completly that power share through companions is absurd, but so is the way of powershare, for example a paladin making people damage up to 50% more (than raw damage) while for example martir's blood is a chance to debut target by 10% applied after other damage debuffs if they exist. Builds? No way skipping aura gifts is not a good choice, but that is a problem to be adressed later on.
> @kreatyve said: > The problem wasn't that the bondings are too strong. It's that they have way outweighed anything else so much that there is no point in using a companion without them. To bring everything else up to the point where bondings are would cause even more balancing issues than are already in the game. The only option was to nerf them a bit.
bull, buff other enchants to match bondings don't nerf, but this is like smashing your head against a brick wall, YOU NERF BONDINGS BUT RANK THEM UP TO 14 WHICH WITH ALL THE BUFFS TO THE OTHER ENCHANTS TAKES US BACK TO WHERE WE ARE NOW
SO ONCE AGAIN WE WILL BE CLASSED AS OVER POWERED AND BE NERFED AGAIN?.
hope this sinks in this time with the caps
everyone sees through your scam no matter what way you try justify it
But i think.. this game will survive. Look how many hits it already passed. We who stayed / came back adapted to the changes.
Of course it will survive - Dragon Age Inquisition Multiplayer was abandoned by their devs over a year and a half ago - but I can still go in, start a match and end up with a full group of 3 other players by the end of the match. There will always be hangers on... Or people that pop back in to see what's kicking.
That doesn't mean it will remain financially lucrative. Though I expect it will. Primarily on the PC, the console crew is a fickle bunch and they will dump a game quickly if they feel wronged.
This is how Cryptic seems to be working currently: Dev 1: Hey guys I have a really good idea that will make the player base so excited! (more bag space, simplifying refinement, random queue ability, making augments viable options, ability to make something that cuts an alt’s campaign time by 50%) Dev 2: GREAT now lets find a way to make it HAMSTER them all off!
Founding Member of "Wrong Side of the Stronghold" Ravenskya - TR / Krisha Chaos - OP / Waffles - GF / Dex Domitor - HR Becky the trendy GWF - GWF / Too Toasty - SW / Falcor - DC / Morrigan - CW / Sir Didymus - OP
Tbh this time it's other way around. If anyone's gonna stop, it's PC players. Because there aren't as many free mmorpgs on consoles. But due to release of other games, this one will slow down on PC. On preview I've spent about 5.6 million AD in marks alone to make my toon actually viable in high tier dungeons. I have to say, I failed.
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beckylunaticMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 14,231Arc User
Had like 4 to 5 month breaks, when i got too upset about the " direction " the game was going. Starting with when they removed a thing with portals in PE.
You got a thingy in the lockbox and when you used it a portal opened somewhere in PE. You ran to it, grinded 40 to 50 k AD from it. I loved it. But so did bots. lol So it was removed. I do not remember what the name was of that thingy... idk..But it is not important any more.
I have no idea if there were bots involved in the Resonator exploit, but it did involve many accounts effectively printing money. I was bummed that it culminated in permanently removing not only Planar Idols for Resonators but also the Jeweled Idol from Nightmare boxes that you straight up traded for AD, but as far as I know, none of it had to do with botting anything.
@noworries#8859 Bonding changes are coming and that is fine. What I want to know is will the dungeons (HP of bosses) be adjusted with this change also or do we have to wait 6 months for those?
Bonding changes are coming and that is fine. What I want to know is will the dungeons (HP of bosses) be adjusted with this change also or do we have to wait 6 months for those?
Exactly this. They're making buffs and debuffs even more mandatory. Right now it's hard to do TNG without 2x DC, in the future, it will literally be impossible.
Had like 4 to 5 month breaks, when i got too upset about the " direction " the game was going. Starting with when they removed a thing with portals in PE.
You got a thingy in the lockbox and when you used it a portal opened somewhere in PE. You ran to it, grinded 40 to 50 k AD from it. I loved it. But so did bots. lol So it was removed. I do not remember what the name was of that thingy... idk..But it is not important any more.
I have no idea if there were bots involved in the Resonator exploit, but it did involve many accounts effectively printing money. I was bummed that it culminated in permanently removing not only Planar Idols for Resonators but also the Jeweled Idol from Nightmare boxes that you straight up traded for AD, but as far as I know, none of it had to do with botting anything.
Selective memory is a hamster.
I totally forgot their names. I am glad someone remembers. I know it was removed cos of exploit . I kinda miss it sometimes. I remember the happiness when i got one.
-Bondings got cheaper, which is nothing surprising, insignias costed a lot at the beginning. -Other runestones are still no option other than augments, there isn't a reason to use them on a sidekick, they really need a buff. -Players have less stats, which is a disapointment for people that take the game more of a chill place than a challenge place so somehow players should get back their stats even if that is not through bondings without having to pay more for it;
I would appreciate you to not read my signature, now that you did, dont do it again.
Comments
> The problem wasn't that the bondings are too strong. It's that they have way outweighed anything else so much that there is no point in using a companion without them. To bring everything else up to the point where bondings are would cause even more balancing issues than are already in the game. The only option was to nerf them a bit.
A bit? How about a lot. And if they are still BiS, won't they still pretty much outweigh everything.
And how about players like me, who don't do speed runs but thinks 30 minutes is perfect for FBI and 40-60 for MSPC?
If they nerf bondings, shouldn't they tweak the existing dungeons down a bit so players won't feel a form of regression? Then build new dungeons that challenge. That's what would keep me interested and my wallet open.
Sadly I suspect it was done originally for profit, making us max out six more enchantments and three rune stones, and then improve our companions to legendary.
Fix things now, it makes sense to fix it but just don't make us pay twice to be as powerful as we are now, especially when its a problem you created.
You should take the time now to do away with the wards and marks in the game and make chance of success 100% all the time, this would make your refining changes a positive thing not just another money grab. Find fun things or QOL things to get our money, we don't mind spending if it makes the game fun and easy, why not have an unbind scroll in the Zen market, or bring back the Mount training tombs, there are lots of other things you could make money on you need to let wards and marks go.
You need work at making this game fun again, not a pain in the behind to play, moral in the game which frankly is at an all time low. Players are angry to say the least. People are leaving.
I'm pretty sure that the bean counters have run the numbers and have let the mucky mucks know how much revenue came in from the last Zen sale and if I'm any kind of indicator of how things went I would say you had a huge shortfall.
I was going to spend money on the game but decided not to. I don't want to spend money on a game that seems to be floundering. Several of my friends have moved on from the game in the last month and more are talking about quitting.
I've been playing the game over four years now, I have lived through mod 6 where the game was totally unplayable, the binding of the lockbox keys, removal of AD from leadership, had you nerf my high profit set, and my lostmouth set, lived through the removal of Coalescent wards from trade bare store the loss of Swordcoast and lots of others but have never seen people I play with leave like right now.
...ehhhhh.
That aside, you're saying that you want to minimize the difference between a player with and without bondings. And to that I say - complete HAMSTER. A player without bondings will NEVER be similar to one with. Besides, they're an item you PAY FOR.
This is like making weapon enchantments HAMSTER because (and here I quote with a small adjustment for context) "they have way outweighed anything else so much that there is no point in using a weapon without them."
It really boggles my mind how you think that a 40% nerf outright and 30% nerf (after paying) is a small nerf.
This would mean an extra 5.4k stats via companions and they wouldn't be able to scale bondings to r14. (The other runestones are meant purely for augments, that's why nobody uses them.)
Therefore they were reduced to accommodate the increase in other enchantments. In a twisted way, you could call it a 'rebalance' but that was not the motive, bondings were a 'hindrance' to creating higher tiers of refinement.
On the subject of micro transactions, others are right that the item costs for this game are anything but micro. In a previous popular game that I played for many years, extra storage would cost $2, costume gear was typically $5, boosts were in the $1-$2 range etc. $1 to $5 prices are micro transactions.
When I first saw that this game charged $35 for a decent mount or companion I literally choked. I showed my wife the prices in the zen store, she had the same reaction. There's nothing micro about the costs here.
I would like to add that I understand the lack of further input from devs. They are most likely powerless to act, having been told by their management that this is going ahead and just coming on to repeat the 'party line' is pointless. For all we know they could actually agree with us, but employers expect their staff to be on the team and support the company's position.
Regulars here will know that once the devs stop commenting there's nothing more to be said.
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
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While I think it would be nice if other Rune's were perhaps boosted a little further, yet they made it clear wanting Bondings to maintain their BiS status. While Augments can now greatly expand augmentation with R14 Eldritch up to 25% for each Defensive Rune slot, by keeping almost a 5x advantage over other Runes it ensures they'd still highly desirable into the future. Now at least all Runes can offer some advantages if someone wanted to pair 2 Bonding with a Empowered, or other options depending on your Class, Feat Path, or Companion and yes expand options for Augments as well.
Some may not likely see it that way... But they need to get honest with themselves.
The real problem that us players are saying is that the proposed solutions don't have any real effect to either of those problems. Players will choose the way that brings them the most benefits and right now even with this change the bondings still give more (in most cases) and since they can pass the powershare from DC and OP are way better.
So if the "solution", isn't a real solution, shouldn't we examine other paths? If the bonding isn't overperforming as devs said then there should be no real problem bringing the other stones to similar if not the same level of utility. Why shouldn't all ruins offer similar behavior and stats and why lower bondings % when there isn't a problem with what the bonding offers in the first place. Why shouldn't every ruin offer % stat share? Arcane can offer stat share % and recovery, Eldritch can offer stat share % and armor pen and so on and let the people choose the stat they need? Every ruin now is equally useful and people will use them based on their class/build/need.
If you are worried that, because bonding is a payed item some people will have issues, I believe that none will oppose to a small compromise for the benefit of all players and the server if you change the other ruins to have similar effects.
I would understand as per devs example that its not a good idea when we have an item that high and others down low to increase the others, but clearly (and once again) as stated by the devs, the "high" is not the problem or an issue in the case of bonding.
Unless.... that's not the real reason
HEY... i am sane ! ( mostly ) :P
But i do get why people stopped replying in general.
The blazing rage is done.
Now people are ready to compromise and find rationalization for what will happen.
We all know we are mostly powerless . We know the change will go . ( my post about it on like page 5 or something )
And now we are just waiting to see the final hammer hitting the nail.
On the side note i have a totally amazing plan of going noob after this amazing patch. I plan to have lots of fun with other noobs in leveling dungeons. It will be amazing, i tell ya. :P
You are free to join me. I plan to do a lot of nakkid runs.
That is true. But that " power " takes time to work its point.
That is why it is so frustrating.
I am one of many in my guild who will not pay a dime once this mod comes out.
Some will leave. Some will stay and troll like i will.
Until we get our characters back to what they where.
We can suggest and say it is not fair.
We can advise for them to not do this , we can beg , plead or joke around.
But in the end it is not going to work.
Like it did not work in Coal wards thread or the key change thread or nerf AA thread.. or before that mod 6 thread.
Before that , changes in mod 4 and before that... gods i forgot what that was , too much time passed.
Until enough time passes.. in the end... money income will drop , showed on the monthly basis, then they will have a three months review, and then 6 months review, after careful analysis they ll decide : " ups , we did it again " .
And then they will have " a serious reconstruction of the direction the game is going. " I did remember that quote, from long time ago.
Then suddenly some of the people , working on this game, will continue their journey , in other directions and will say their greetings to the ungrateful community. Or to say us.
But i think.. this game will survive.
Look how many hits it already passed. We who stayed / came back adapted to the changes.
People changed, devs changed, old players left, new players came in.
I remember i switched 5 guilds back in mod 6. Duo to guilds deserting.
Had like 4 to 5 month breaks, when i got too upset about the " direction " the game was going.
Starting with when they removed a thing with portals in PE.
You got a thingy in the lockbox and when you used it a portal opened somewhere in PE.
You ran to it, grinded 40 to 50 k AD from it. I loved it. But so did bots. lol So it was removed.
I do not remember what the name was of that thingy... idk..But it is not important any more.
Now the new players are BiS , and are outraged with this changes.
But we have seen all of this happen before.
The game itself survived. Got sold, got new " support " , new developers , new management.
It is still here.
So i do have faith in it not dying. I love NW. I really do. It is a game i spent years on. Breaks or no breaks.
I am glad it is still here , no matter how angry i get on the people running it.
I met amazing people here, guildies who spent years on this game with me, chatting away on TS while we ran dungeons together. I do not wish them to leave. But i can not stop them as well. Just as i can not stop devs, from doing what they intended in the first place.
Its not about what we can take. For me it has to do with WHY should we go down a road when it clearly doesn't offer a solution to the problem that is stated. Why isn't there an honest discussion with the devs to address the whys and tell us why they think our solutions / suggestions are bad or not adequate. At the end as most of us can see ,it seems like a loop. Nerf and "pay" to be back to where you were. Are we wrong? believe me I will be glad to be wrong but show us how and why.
Its not my fault to assume if there is no counter dialog, its not my fault we don't have the clear and entire picture of the changes to come and its not my fault we get the changes at a rate that is annoying to say the least. First armor pen changes... ok shuffle enchants and /or insignia and artifacts. Now...re shuffle again to get back important stat such as armor pen and crit again. We will re shuffle again when (and if) we go to r14s. We got gears and build our chars based to what we know and that "what we know" keep changes every 3 months or so. All I know is when I move to a new house (state of game) I move all rooms (changes) at once. Not one room every 3 months that will make me change the previous rooms (previous changes) every time.
And what if we find a way to make other ruins work only for the company to come after few months and say.. "It wasn't intended" and nerf it again?. Why the definition of WHAT is intended, always changes in this game? Why in most cases its not clear even when we ask the devs straight? Thing is that most of the aspects of a computer game are pretty predictable so you cant call "accident" on the bondings state, specially after all this time.
I think for those and few other reasons is why people are upset, and not losing some stats. At the end If you are 30% better than me now you will be after the change too. Nothing big.
But i do not remember a time when our question why was ever answered.
It always goes with : " it was not intended " , " we are reworking the game " and " this new change will help the new players progress " and we ask, every freaking time, we ask them for the reason. To explain to us , why the change .
Why are they so focused on doing this that particular way. Are not our suggestions better then their current plan of attack.
But i seriously do not remember a time when we got a straight, honest , answer about the reasons.
The thing is MMOs market changed a lot. My avater comes from a game I loved most. But it came down to wrong menagement who actually bring its population down and dvindle income to the point that it was not bringing profits any more. And it was closed. Back then you had just a few games around to pick from. And you had to pay monthly fee to play them. So players had very limited options if they wanted to play mmos.
Trick is, games market looks so much different now. You have lots of games to choose from. Sure none of them is attached to D&D, but its not that important any more. You are a customer. And it works like with any other thing. If some one gona HAMSTER you off you wont buy from him any more. Almost every month brings new options.
After MOD 6 console release was what saved this game. Now console player base is aware what gona hit them soon. We old PC players are already aware what Cryptic is capable of. We can even say that we are used to that (witch is wrong, as it only encourage them to treat us like that). Console community is angry same as we are, so where they gona find a new player base to replace losses?
Bonding nerf in my opinion has double purpose. First - money grabbing. Its obvious. But second is more elusive.
I belive Crytpic at this point is simply unable to create a chelenging end game content. It would take lot of time,money, skills and effort to rework this game to a balanced level. It would force devs to reach a game roots, and lots of rework. So instead of putting extra resources on that they simply decided to nerf all players arcoss a board to make current content harder or gated behind sea of grind and/or mounts of real cash. If its gona be hard enaugh you wont need new one even harder content right? Sure, big spenders gona close a gap in no time, but for majority of player base its just adding months of sailing trough a see of grind.
That seems not to smart move right? I depends. If that is all - its not a smart move.
But there is another option. Its going to be a hard reset to the player base. Only strong will survive and those gona have lots of work to bring their toons to current level. They gona use this time to bring new mod and I suspect even 2 more classes. It will take so much time that current shitstorm gona be forgotten, and then they gona hit with "huge amount of new content including long expected new classes" what gona bring back some players and atract new one, and possibly create another huge influx of money for them. All they need to know is - if those who gona stay gona pay enaugh money to reach that point.
Sounds both sinister and familiar, isn't it?
> The problem wasn't that the bondings are too strong. It's that they have way outweighed anything else so much that there is no point in using a companion without them. To bring everything else up to the point where bondings are would cause even more balancing issues than are already in the game. The only option was to nerf them a bit.
bull, buff other enchants to match bondings don't nerf, but this is like smashing your head against a brick wall, YOU NERF BONDINGS BUT RANK THEM UP TO 14 WHICH WITH ALL THE BUFFS TO THE OTHER ENCHANTS TAKES US BACK TO WHERE WE ARE NOW
SO ONCE AGAIN WE WILL BE CLASSED AS OVER POWERED AND BE NERFED AGAIN?.
hope this sinks in this time with the caps
everyone sees through your scam no matter what way you try justify it
That doesn't mean it will remain financially lucrative. Though I expect it will. Primarily on the PC, the console crew is a fickle bunch and they will dump a game quickly if they feel wronged.
This is how Cryptic seems to be working currently:
Dev 1: Hey guys I have a really good idea that will make the player base so excited! (more bag space, simplifying refinement, random queue ability, making augments viable options, ability to make something that cuts an alt’s campaign time by 50%)
Dev 2: GREAT now lets find a way to make it HAMSTER them all off!
Ravenskya - TR / Krisha Chaos - OP / Waffles - GF / Dex Domitor - HR
Becky the trendy GWF - GWF / Too Toasty - SW / Falcor - DC / Morrigan - CW / Sir Didymus - OP
Selective memory is a hamster.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Bonding changes are coming and that is fine. What I want to know is will the dungeons (HP of bosses) be adjusted with this change also or do we have to wait 6 months for those?
I know it was removed cos of exploit . I kinda miss it sometimes. I remember the happiness when i got one.
-Bondings got cheaper, which is nothing surprising, insignias costed a lot at the beginning.
-Other runestones are still no option other than augments, there isn't a reason to use them on a sidekick, they really need a buff.
-Players have less stats, which is a disapointment for people that take the game more of a chill place than a challenge place so somehow players should get back their stats even if that is not through bondings without having to pay more for it;