A simplified 10-point survival guide for the combat changes

adinosii

There are ways to adjust to the new combat system - and here are 10 things to consider to minimize the negative impact.

• Your Percentages. In scaled content your percentages are what matter - not your absolute stats. It may be better in some content to remove certain pieces of gear (such as mount collars) as that will decrease your TIL (total item level) but increase your percentages. In unscaled content, your TIL is what determines your base damage, so there you you want to keep your TIL as high as you can, while also keeping your percentages balanced. Confusing? Yes, but understanding this is critical.
  
• Bonding runestones. Here you have a choice - you can either exchange them for an enchant/runestone pack or for AD. If you really need some additional high rank runestones (like Indomitable) fine, get that, otherwise AD is a safe option.
  
• Maxing stats. Depending on your class and role, there are different priorities for your stats - check out some class-specific guides. The important thing is that you should not try to max your stats out of combat. The goal is to max the important stats when you need them - in combat, when all your temporary buffs (Forger's Box, Food/Drink, potions, flasks, gear bonuses etc) are active. If you exceed the cap during combat (percentages show as orange), you are wasting stats you should be using elsewhere.
  
• Solo play: Tactics and playstyle. You are no longer invincible - and mobs will seem to do more damage and be harder to kill at first. One key issue is that you have to be fully aware of the issue of combat advantage now. On one hand this means that you have to me careful not to let your enemies get CA against you. Use positioning and move around as needed. On the other hand, you have to maintain CA over your enemies. This is why an Augment companion is less suitable for solo play now. The extra stats it gives are less important than losing CA
  
• Group play: Tactics and playstyle. A group actually has to play as a group. If you think you can run ahead of the group and kill everything solo - sorry, you are going to die painfully, over and over. Work together - tanks need to tank and healers need to heal to survive even content that previously was considered trivial.
  
• Augments vs. Active Summoned Companions. I mentioned before that Augments were no good for solo play, but I still recommend them for healers. The extra stats are still more valuable than the damage they do. For DPSers, there are situations where active summoned companions are a hassle - they can get killed or aggro the "wrong" mobs, but generally for them, active summoned companions are the way to go.
  
• Radiant enchants in Offensive slots. There is a temporary exchange for radiant enchants offered, but you might not want to bother with it, as the drawback of getting bound enchants might outweigh the benefit from adjustment. If your power is excessive, consider first switching out guild power bonuses, mount equip power bonuses or power-granting passive companions.
  
• Empowered Runestones. If you are a healer, or using an augment companion loadout, you might want to keep these - otherwise you probably want to switch them for Indomitable ones.
  
• Mounts. Your long-term goal will be to get 10 mythic mounts for unscaled content (as that gives you 100% mount bolster) and a nice increase to your TIL. If you have some spare AD (maybe after getting rid of your bonding runestones), then maybe you can pick up a nice legendary mount or two.
  
• Companions. Again, your long-term goal will be to get 10 mythic companions for unscaled content. The short-term goal is to decide which companions you want and work on improving those. I mentioned primary companions before, but whether to get an augment, or an active summoned companion depends on a number of other things). As for the passive companions, well, not much changes for healers - they can continue to focus on companions that give +Outgoing Healing. For others, well, it depends - the easiest way is to focus on companions that give boosts to stats you need. For example, for my DPS loadout, I use Staldorf for a 7.5% CA boost and the Black Dragon Ioun Stone for a 7.5% Critical chance boost.
  

maxzius

First of all, this will help a lot of people and I wanted to thank you for taking the time to do that.


More importantly:

adinosii said:

There are ways to adjust to the new combat system - and here are 10 things to consider to minimize the negative impact.

• Your Percentages. In scaled content your percentages are what matter - not your absolute stats. It may be better in some content to remove certain pieces of gear (such as mount collars) as that will decrease your TIL (total item level) but increase your percentages. In unscaled content, your TIL is what determines your base damage, so there you you want to keep your TIL as high as you can, while also keeping your percentages balanced. Confusing? Yes, but understanding this is critical.
  

This isn't just confusing. This is the reason the game is broken. It's HAMSTER stupid and goes against all MMO rules. It needs to be changed. In no world should taking off equipment make your character better.

idthrennion

adinosii said:

There are ways to adjust to the new combat system - and here are 10 things to consider to minimize the negative impact.

• Your Percentages. In scaled content your percentages are what matter - not your absolute stats. It may be better in some content to remove certain pieces of gear (such as mount collars) as that will decrease your TIL (total item level) but increase your percentages. In unscaled content, your TIL is what determines your base damage, so there you you want to keep your TIL as high as you can, while also keeping your percentages balanced. Confusing? Yes, but understanding this is critical.
  
  ...
  
  
• Maxing stats. Depending on your class and role, there are different priorities for your stats - check out some class-specific guides. The important thing is that you should not try to max your stats out of combat. The goal is to max the important stats when you need them - in combat, when all your temporary buffs (Forger's Box, Food/Drink, potions, flasks, gear bonuses etc) are active. If you exceed the cap during combat (percentages show as orange), you are wasting stats you should be using elsewhere.
  
  _________________________________________________________
  Thank you for writing what what you did, I agree that it will help a lot of people if their mind hasn't yet cleared up from the smokescreen that exploded in our faces to allow quiet focus on the solution, not the problem, yet.
  
  That being said. I'm going to do just the opposite and focus on the problem to gripe about.
  
  What are we supposed to do with some of these rings and other pieces of equipment that almost serve no purpose anymore except headaches. What served a valid purpose, doesn't.
  
  For me atleast, most of my gear and buff items had to be replaced for gear and items that weren't based around the collective idea of power gain associated by how many enemies you're facing in combat.
  My characters biography that has been the root of her storyline is...was... (to put simply), she acquires strength, confidence and POWER when the odds are not in her favor--growing stronger when faced with overwhelming odds, but weaker and more vulnerable when facing only one--which required a special helm and a ring finally acquired that fed power into her when facing a single boss.
  
  Yes, it might sound cheesy and cliche when I simplify it, but thats not the point. The point is that these changes have killed the entire bio of this character and not sure what i can do to fix it since power is now capped to TiL.
  
  When already capped, or near cap on power, the majority of the armor that we find in Juma bags and collected / collect from MEs and WEs are unusable without skyrocketing over the powercap. I had to remove my rings even, (the gold forsaken and the fallen +5's) and equip a gold +5 ring that I do actually enjoy ... +10% dmg vs undead--and drop my other ring down to one of the epic rings again until i get a hold of of other 1k+ rings.
  
  I shouldn't have to do this. And yes, with the cap on power, it screws up my characters entire purpose. lol. i can't just rewrite her and change her entire character history because they capped her.
  
  oh well, i guess i will make it work. i have to, right?
  No need to comment. I just really really really needed to vent because i can't wear half the stuff that i want to or used to wear and im supposed to be O.K. with that.
  
  

cfears

P.S. if you are a Tank. Good luck capping your Awareness at 90%. Don't worry. I heard they will increase our aggro soon.


Guide is right on point. I felt really weird taking my mount collars off. You would think when they did the math for this they knew what they were doing.

penybont

Absolutely garbage new combat system has ruined this game can’t even do new sharandar.