Mod 19 - the good, the bad and the so-and-so

adinosii

I am not commenting on the trial, which is the biggest part of the mod, as I have not completed that yet. However, here are my comments on some of the other changes.

The Good

• Mythic mounts. This was expected - I think I have a post somewhere saying that the 3xLeg pack was pretty much a certain sign that Mythic mounts would be coming in the next mod. However, what was unexpected was that there is no speed increase - they are still only 140% - I had really expected 150%, and this makes the legendary mounts less desirable than otherwise. Another surprise is that the mythic mount is account-wide - I really expected lockboxes to only drop "single character" mounts. Still, the stat boost from +10.000 to +15.000 makes mythic mounts worth using - assuming, of course that the stats boosted are the stats you need.
  
• Avernus Treasure maps. The treasure maps seem to be the way to get the "second best" weapon set, the IL 1150 Legion guard set. Seems fair enough to me, and a viable way for people looking to get an upgrade from the Alabaster or Burnished sets.
  
• Insignia upgrades. The upgrades are not cheap. Basically you need to convert the equivalence of 10 insignia of green/blue/purple quality to upgrade one insignia of that same quality - however, (and that is what I like) this gives you something to do with all the character-bound insignia that drop here and there.
  
• Jubilee updates. We are getting one new companion (and of course it is a chicken), a vanity pet, a throne and 9 fashion items. Looks like a busy time.
  

The So-and-so

• Trade bar store. You can now buy enchantments and bonding runestones up to rank 15 in the Trade bar store. That's fine, except there is one very curious and annoying omission - you cannot buy other runestones (Empowered etc). I see no sensible reason for that limitation. Also, one problem with this is that it makes the game look slightly more "pay-to-win" than before.
  
• New companions. We get 3 new companions, Skyblaze, Spined Devil and Flaming Skull - fine for collectors, ut none of them seem "must-have".
  
• Sword of Zariel Artifact set. It is just...meh. Not the best stats, not the best set bonus, but not horribly bad either.
  

The Bad

• Celestial Set. The Celestial set will be the highest IL set in the game, so why do I list it at the top of the "bad" changes? The reason is not that the stats are bad (they are great), or that it is too hard to obtain (it is probably fine). The reason is that the set bonus is so blatantly unfair. If the set bonus was just plain bad, that would be OK - we have seen that before, and that's fine. The issue is that the set bonus is blatantly unfair.....it is OK for some classes, but utterly useless for others. As this is the only weapon set of this IL, players don't really have a choice - they cannot go after a different equally-high IL set, with a different bonus that suits their class better. The Celestial set favours classes that can spam encounters, while some other classes will not benefit from the bonus at all. To make it clear - I am very unhappy with this bonus - it looks like it was designed by someone who doesn't know the game, and certainly does not play all classes - and a fiasco like this is why it would have neen good to get some player input at an earlier stage and actually LISTEN to that input.
  
• Healing changes. There are significant changes to healing, and healing-related items. Tactical enchants and companions giving healing bonuses are getting a huge nerf. On the other hand, healing seems to be made simpler, and it feels like the intention is to reduce the difference between "good" and "bad" healers. Some people are going to love those changes (it may be easier to find healers who can do the job) - others will absolutely hate them (as their investment in healing companions and other this is, well...wasted). Me, I don't care - my cleric stays DPS 99% of the time, and the only effect on me is that my Rusted Iron Leggings may not be viable any more, as I can no longer compensate for the -25% healing penalty with a set of Tactical Enchants. The reason I list those changes as bad is that they feel rushed - designed with a questionable goal in mind, and while players that need healers may be fine with them, I seriously question how popular they will be with the actual healers.
  
• New armor pieces. There is a number of IL 1230/1240 armor pieces, but in general their bonuses are not really interesting. They do seem somewhat "unfinished", however - for example, almost all the items show up as category "Feet" armor, and there seems to be a bit too much cut-n-paste - in particular, there are 4 pieces of every type (Head/Armor/Arms/Feet) and in some cases, 3 of the 4 items have the same equip bonus - they really should have different bonuses to give players more of a choice and make them more interesting, or at the very least, no more than 2 of the 4 items should have the same equip bonus.
  

rikitaki

adinosii said:

however, (and that is what I like) this gives you something to do with all the character-bound insignia that drop here and there.

Fair enough. However, some people used those - or even bought stacs of green insignias - for guild coffer donations. The gem donations will suffer now.

Healing changes.
Healing changes went from AoE to targeted. That means heals only for the tank as not many people are skilled enough to hit a separate target in a crowd.
/sarcasm on
It would be interesting to see how the devs rewrote the whole game and removed all the splash damage. It must be a massive change to mechanics indeed - even the cleanse could be omitted now...
I guess the healing became just a voluntary spice to some parties if they have too much of dps?
/sarcasm off

Celestial Set
is in terms of damage at least 10% above any other set before counting in the bonuses. While the bonus itself surely might be more beneficial to some classes, the set will end up as a mandatory item for the trial run anyway. (raid organiser item check)
Sure, the set bonus should be less discriminatory, but the IL should be decreased by a fair amount as well, because 10% base damage is a lot. Like - a lot lot.
... I suspect this was caused by the TOMM. Many players omitted it for various reasons. So, how to motivate more people to do end game challenge? Put there a bound must have item! ...well, IMO it will only end with higher discriminatory factor in the new trial, with tighter pact between people admitted to the runs. The group of players that gave up on the shiny rewards will only grow. Just my guess.