Air archon nerf

necromancehero

Hello everyone!
To begin with, I want to thank our valiant developers for nerfing the air archon, exactly after I raised this companion to a mythical state with my main character and twins.
THANKS!

Can you either finally nerf the rest of the companions that stand out in terms of damage, or stop nerfing those who are now inflicting any damage?

Since after I improved on all my characters, first a mercenary, and then an air archon, spending a huge amount of resources...
I don't want to do this anymore...
I have already spent a lot of funds, both real and in-game...
Be a little more loyal to your players, please.

I apologize for my level of English, but I hope the essence of my indignation is clear.

Thank you for your attention!

plasticbat

What is the nerf?

hanzohasashi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MlC-7-v1o8

mushellka

Lol.
The master of dummies in action again

pumpkin

I just upgraded mine to mythic yesterday, I'm super disappointed

rockster

Cryptic's idea of content to keep players engaged and playing... Let them all pay through the nose for something which is up around the best so they can compete fairly with others, work hard and grind grind grind to get it ranked to max thinking they're on their way to some standard they need and want... let them enjoy it for a while then nerf it into the ground so it's not close to BiS anymore and make something else stronger so they need to pay through the nose and buy that one to maintain competitiveness and grind grind grind to rank it up to max... rinse and repeat. Keep them chasing their tails by nerfing things and moving the goalposts. And yes, I agree with the guy in the video, Cold Iron Warrior will probably be next.

silente07

FFS
What possible reason was there for this. What magical companion can we buy in the Zen store that’s as good.
NONE

I worked hard getting the Merc to Mythic, but they used it to make Regis so nerf.

I don’t have the resources to keep doing this.

Stop it!
Lol

armadeonx

Air Archon wasn't even top of the damage board. It was a good option for those that couldn't afford the Cold Iron Warrior or Xuna.

Btw has anyone tested the damage output on the new companions? Drizzt, Regis etc.

agoraotro

So apparently we know Air Archon companion has been drastically nerfed after latest patch, resulting in doing half its damage while performing his spinning attack.

There was no mention on the patch notes.

What was the reason behind this? People are wasting their resources to maximise their toons overall DPS and you decide to randomly nerf things. How am I supposed to know which of my companions should I upgrade next if you would nerf it a week later?

What strikes me the most is you didn’t try to bring other companions in line when it comes to damage, but you just weakened the 2nd most powerful companion in single target environment, because… (?)

armadeonx

@nitocris83 you guys must know that the inevitable interpretation by players of nerfing a widely used companion is that it's done to force players to rank up a new companion: meaning more companion upgrade tokens.

If Cryptic are so short on cash, why not just put the best companions on the Zen market? In fact, just adjust all 5 of the Companions of the Hall upward to make them BiS for various roles:

Single target dps
Multi target dps
Tanking
Healing
Buff/Debuff

The one thing that is the biggest source of complaint in this game is that things get nerfed. Not across the board - just the things that are popular. I mean, if ALL companions were nerfed equally you could call that fair - but targeting things just because everyone uses them really loses Cryptic a lot of positive feeling from the player base.

callumf

rockster#6227 said:

Cryptic's idea of content to keep players engaged and playing... Let them all pay through the nose for something which is up around the best so they can compete fairly with others, work hard and grind grind grind to get it ranked to max thinking they're on their way to some standard they need and want... let them enjoy it for a while then nerf it into the ground so it's not close to BiS anymore and make something else stronger so they need to pay through the nose and buy that one to maintain competitiveness and grind grind grind to rank it up to max... rinse and repeat. Keep them chasing their tails by nerfing things and moving the goalposts. And yes, I agree with the guy in the video, Cold Iron Warrior will probably be next.

Agree 100%

The only way to combat this is to NOT play their game.

Stop chasing BiS as its all transitory, just enjoy the game and forget BiS,

BuT again, I have to feel sorry for those who get drawn into this cycle or who dont read the forums.

And yeah, Cold Iron Warrior will be next.

And I still think actually removing companions completely may very well happen one day... caveat emptor!

admiralwarlord

And then log back to the Era where pokemons will be nerfed over and over... nothing new.

admiralwarlord

armadeonx said:

Air Archon wasn't even top of the damage board. It was a good option for those that couldn't afford the Cold Iron Warrior or Xuna.

Btw has anyone tested the damage output on the new companions? Drizzt, Regis etc.

From what I saw Regis is a good option in AoE, ST it was bad.

admiralwarlord

When they make these changes, do they have the idea that they lessen the incentive for players to play their game? I myself plan not to invest in my secondary characters anymore, since keeping 1 character is already difficult, imagine 3 as I have. But my congratulations to the Pokemons and those who clamored for their return!

jules

It's hilarious because the Air Archon was actually doing good for a while (better than Xuna with M21) AND because it was BIS in the past (as active, not summoned) and I still had it from a time when I cared. The secret to NW is to buy everything when it is trash and then wait.

jules

Everything they do lately is a cash grab. Let's face it. There is no other interaction anymore. They don't do anything community related. They just release Zen store cash grabs.
What else would you call the Moonelf/Uglyborn race reroll without having to buy a pack, and the repainted versions of weap/arm enchs that end up bound... Or varying accidental bound status changes that cannot be changed ... and apparently were not tested before going live

I mean, it would be wise to not just copy paste cash shop items or content from more successful games. Why not actually try to implement better ways of interacting with your playerbase?

admiralwarlord

jules#6770 said:

It's hilarious because the Air Archon was actually doing good for a while (better than Xuna with M21) AND because it was BIS in the past (as active, not summoned) and I still had it from a time when I cared. The secret to NW is to buy everything when it is trash and then wait.

He was only better than Xuna in ST damage, in AoE damage Xuna is the best in the game. This one probably won't be nerfed, as it comes from something that involves Zen, all normal so far.

jules

admiralwarlord#3792 said:

jules#6770 said:

It's hilarious because the Air Archon was actually doing good for a while (better than Xuna with M21) AND because it was BIS in the past (as active, not summoned) and I still had it from a time when I cared. The secret to NW is to buy everything when it is trash and then wait.

He was only better than Xuna in ST damage, in AoE damage Xuna is the best in the game. This one probably won't be nerfed, as it comes from something that involves Zen, all normal so far.

Yeah AoE damage... the thing we didn't need for a hundred years until vos - and thats when I stopped playing, my bad
Xuna is another good example on why it pays off to only play NW sometimes - I got it from an event that I halfassed like I halfass most events
NW is more rewarding if you do not play it, in the end. If you play every mod and want to be BiS (not just good enough, but really shiny) and upgrade all the HAMSTER that is BiS each mod, you will need to either play a lot or insert coin. Before I stopped playing, there was a really strong influx of cash shop kids. Thats not good for a game - not a good message to get across to a playerbase. "Pay us money or you will be a filthy casual next mod " Yeah no, let's just skip a bunch of mods and get flithy rich instead.

admiralwarlord

jules#6770 said:

admiralwarlord#3792 said:

jules#6770 said:

It's hilarious because the Air Archon was actually doing good for a while (better than Xuna with M21) AND because it was BIS in the past (as active, not summoned) and I still had it from a time when I cared. The secret to NW is to buy everything when it is trash and then wait.

He was only better than Xuna in ST damage, in AoE damage Xuna is the best in the game. This one probably won't be nerfed, as it comes from something that involves Zen, all normal so far.

Yeah AoE damage... the thing we didn't need for a hundred years until vos - and thats when I stopped playing, my bad
Xuna is another good example on why it pays off to only play NW sometimes - I got it from an event that I halfassed like I halfass most events
NW is more rewarding if you do not play it, in the end. If you play every mod and want to be BiS (not just good enough, but really shiny) and upgrade all the HAMSTER that is BiS each mod, you will need to either play a lot or insert coin. Before I stopped playing, there was a really strong influx of cash shop kids. Thats not good for a game - not a good message to get across to a playerbase. "Pay us money or you will be a filthy casual next mod " Yeah no, let's just skip a bunch of mods and get flithy rich instead.

Yes, right now I'm almost 1 week just to refine the AD. I'm not going to kill myself making 500 VoS HC to gain something that will quickly lose its potential over time, as in this game, what happened to Air Archon is common. I remembered that I already had Death Slaad, Fire Archon, Tiger among others that were BIS and that today are in my backpack just as a memory of the glory achieved by my effort, because today they are just the same garbage the youngest on the list, the Air Archon.

armadeonx

Me too, I haven't actually run any dungeons since they changed the ERQ list - I've just been refining through all of the free AD I got from completed intro stuff from the last few weeks (9 toons) and I still have about a week and a half of that.

I'm really not happy about the air archon though, I have it at mythic on 5 toons. I've just bought Regis from the AH as I expect it's price is about to skyrocket. I already bought Drizzt for the stats but I'm not overly impressed with his performance on my first tryout in Barovia - I'd just got him to mythic on my Bard and used him instead of his mythic air archon.

Purely anecdotal, but I didn't see any serious damage coming from him.

You'd think they'd make Zen market companions the best to incentivise people to go for them - especially Drizzt!

mentinmindmaker

Air archon wasn't THAT good, was he? I mean, he was good and did deserve a spot as active companion, but he was not bugged-level good compared to Xuna? He did not seriously mess up game balance since there are other better AE companions?

So why antagonize your customers by nerfing him?

rockster

I remember when all the archons acted together to have an ascending buff but I forget what it was. Many people used to use them together all the time as a sort of set. Didn't they nerf that feature as well a while back?

plasticbat

rockster#6227 said:

I remember when all the archons acted together to have an ascending buff but I forget what it was. Many people used to use them together all the time as a sort of set. Didn't they nerf that feature as well a while back?

They did not nerf that. They remove that when they changed companion mechanism. However, nobody cared because everybody was using augment pet.

rockster

OK, well removing something which made it less useful/powerful is actually still classified as a nerf when the item is still in existence regardless of what caused it. But I'm sure a lot of people still did care. At least those who had it as part of their set-up. I don't know how long before the companion changes it was I used to hear all the constant talk in PE about 'having to have this setup as BiS' but many people had this set-up. I wasn't one of them, but I know many others were. I was just commenting more or less that it's essentially been nerfed already so this makes it twice on the same companion.

plasticbat

rockster#6227 said:

OK, well removing something which made it less useful/powerful is actually still classified as a nerf when the item is still in existence regardless of what caused it. But I'm sure a lot of people still did care. At least those who had it as part of their set-up. I don't know how long before the companion changes it was I used to hear all the constant talk in PE about 'having to have this setup as BiS' but many people had this set-up. I wasn't one of them, but I know many others were. I was just commenting more or less that it's essentially been nerfed already so this makes it twice on the same companion.

Well, they changed the whole companion mechanism. Archon is only one of many buried in that change for limited few who was still using active companion when most were using augment for years before that change.

jules

It was augment meta, then shortly before the Tiger and with the tiger until M15/16 it was tiger (remember electrum necklace? lmao) + archons (except for water) + siegemaster and the likes.
Air Archon had "Increases your damage against targets not at full health by +2/3/5%. Each additional active Archon increases this bonus by .5%
Applies to you as long as this companion is active."
Air Archon was the first "big" investment for me when I started playing, thats why I remember it Around 1 mil AD. Then the Tiger, around 1.5-2 mil at the time. Something like that. Then people bought the electrum necklace for their Gravestriker wearing Tiger dude who had 2 ring and 1 neck slot, and then there was M16 and everything was HAMSTER

hexngone

I am reminded of the sage words of a Fey Pixie:

".... none of this matters ...
The new shall replace the old, an the old shall mourn the new.
It never ends. "

--- My Fae Lady quest in Stronghold

We were all warned in the game.

rockster

jules#6770 said:

It was augment meta, then shortly before the Tiger and with the tiger until M15/16 it was tiger (remember electrum necklace? lmao) + archons (except for water) + siegemaster and the likes.
Air Archon had "Increases your damage against targets not at full health by +2/3/5%. Each additional active Archon increases this bonus by .5%
Applies to you as long as this companion is active."
Air Archon was the first "big" investment for me when I started playing, thats why I remember it Around 1 mil AD. Then the Tiger, around 1.5-2 mil at the time. Something like that. Then people bought the electrum necklace for their Gravestriker wearing Tiger dude who had 2 ring and 1 neck slot, and then there was M16 and everything was HAMSTER

That was it, thanks. :-)

autumnwitch

Keep in mind these cash grabs are NOT the results of the devs sitting around trying to find ways to gouge us. These decisions come mainly from suits at Cryptic & PWE (PWE more so than people really know) that have very little interaction with the player base at all. Please don't take your anger out on the devs they are just doing their jobs and following marching orders.

If you (we) want to affect any change at NW the only thing that will get their attention is if we stop spending. They won't take us seriously until that happens. Moaning and whinging here or other places doesn't make a difference.

If you want things to change, talk to your guild/alliance members and stop spending. Until we can do this as a player base, we are at their mercy.

onodrain

armadeonx said:

Me too, I haven't actually run any dungeons since they changed the ERQ list - I've just been refining through all of the free AD I got from completed intro stuff from the last few weeks (9 toons) and I still have about a week and a half of that.

I'm really not happy about the air archon though, I have it at mythic on 5 toons. I've just bought Regis from the AH as I expect it's price is about to skyrocket. I already bought Drizzt for the stats but I'm not overly impressed with his performance on my first tryout in Barovia - I'd just got him to mythic on my Bard and used him instead of his mythic air archon.

Purely anecdotal, but I didn't see any serious damage coming from him.

You'd think they'd make Zen market companions the best to incentivise people to go for them - especially Drizzt!

Aragon has tested many of the companions for single target DPS, including many of the latest ones (all the Companions of the Hall). You can look on his YouTube channel to view the list.

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