Mod 16 Changes to Critical Strike

crimelord · March 2019

I am liking the concept and idea behind many of the changes happening in Mod 16. However, one in particular is really getting me down in the dumps. I've spent a lot of time and energy getting 3 different characters to 16k+ item level and gearing them up to 100% critical chance. I have even gone as far as to collect the Apocalypse artifact set (actual artifact required a ton of work during the GameMaster Event).

Before I begin I would really like to make it clear that I agree that combat needs to be slowed down a bit and needs to be more interactive. However, I do not think that this change to Critical Strike (along with Critical Avoidance) is going to be a huge problem solver in this regard. What it does do, unfortunately, is make a lot of time, effort, and in some cases REAL MONEY a very real LOSS. With multiple characters geared to hit 100% crit chance along with ranking up companions to maximize Critical Severity, along with the Apocalypse artifact set now being almost useless (it barely keeps at full stacks with 100% crit chance on a cleric debuff/buff build), has caused me to have grave concerns about any future purchases or time investment I may decide upon in the future of this game.

Please reconsider how you have decided to implement this part of the update, or at least make it possible to get something in place of what is being LOST to the players that have invested in this path.

My ranger, paladin, and cleric look forward to knowing if they have a future in Neverwinter.

Thanks for reading.

sandukutupu · March 2019

The quickest way to find out is to join us on Preview. Since Friday afternoon, I have been playing module 16 on Preview and it is a very alien system, please share with the developers and community how you feel the Critical stats have altered the game experience. I don't do much testing in the math area of the game, I basically run in rework a build and see if I am getting better game play out of the new system. Keep in mind this is the time to express concerns as the few weeks ahead will bring us closer to module 16 going Live.

To anyone interested in Preview;
https://www.arcgames.com/en/my/character/copy/nw

crimelord · March 2019

They have already shown us the math for how crits will work. Historically, you need 90% or higher crit chance for anything tied to crit to be consistent enough to be worthwhile. The new system, as proposed, entirely hoses that. The investment made in things tied to crit by a significant amount of players in the game is being brushed off unless those specific things are addressed prior to these changes.

crimelord · March 2019

Let me make this into an example that might be more easily understood.

If you play soccer you expect the goal to be in a certain point on the field. You pass the ball and shoot it towards that goal. It doesn't move somewhere else on the field. Expectations were put in place for how to invest time, effort, and financial resources for playing the game towards those goals. Now they are picking up the goals and moving them somewhere else on the field, making the entire strategy behind the game irrelevant in this case.

crimelord · March 2019

For the record. I believe the team who made these decisions had the best intentions for the game. I don't think they considered this point enough though, and it is already making people feel like they've wasted their time playing up until this point. That negativity is going to have a pretty significant backlash when a portion of the community here that actively participates in end-game content decides to pick up their ball and find a new field to play in.

sandukutupu · March 2019

I am not in disagreement, just if you do play test on Preview, or want to keep up with the new Rogue class stats, you should look at the Preview section here --> https://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1246321/official-m16-rogue
More than likely, as the developers are working on it now, this content and your concerns will get overlooked being here within current game feedback.

In my game (table top) rolling a 20 is a critical no matter what.
Me: "I sneak up behind them and toss a dagger at the biggest orc."
*rolls 20*
DM: "To your surprise you miss and the dagger flings about the room taking on a life of its own. It bounces and ricochets off walls and items in blur of pure carnage... they are all dead."
Something you can never do in any video game. LOL

wintersmoke · March 2019

crimelord#9269 said:
They have already shown us the math for how crits will work. Historically, you need 90% or higher crit chance for anything tied to crit to be consistent enough to be worthwhile. The new system, as proposed, entirely hoses that. The investment made in things tied to crit by a significant amount of players in the game is being brushed off unless those specific things are addressed prior to these changes.

That's okay, you will need those Azures in defense slots...

plasticbat · March 2019

For the "investment" part, if you don't like your current enchantment for mod 16, you can exchange that for something else. Of course, there is certain restriction. Everything will have a future. It just depends on how you want to deal with it.

therealprotex · March 2019

crimelord#9269 said:
Let me make this into an example that might be more easily understood.

If you play soccer you expect the goal to be in a certain point on the field. You pass the ball and shoot it towards that goal. It doesn't move somewhere else on the field. Expectations were put in place for how to invest time, effort, and financial resources for playing the game towards those goals. Now they are picking up the goals and moving them somewhere else on the field, making the entire strategy behind the game irrelevant in this case.

Well, the point is you are not playing soccer, you are playing a D&D-like game. And in D&D saving throws have always played a big role. The new concept of stat and counter-stat reflects that to a degree (fortunatly without the actual dice throw/RNG part). I like it.

plasticbat · March 2019

crimelord#9269 said:
Let me make this into an example that might be more easily understood.

If you play soccer you expect the goal to be in a certain point on the field. You pass the ball and shoot it towards that goal. It doesn't move somewhere else on the field. Expectations were put in place for how to invest time, effort, and financial resources for playing the game towards those goals. Now they are picking up the goals and moving them somewhere else on the field, making the entire strategy behind the game irrelevant in this case.

As mentioned, soccer game is a bad analogy. Since you talked about investment, may be a retirement plan is a better analogy. The path of investment is changed all the time. It can be the market. It can be the world. It can be the government policy/rules/law. It can be a natural disaster. It can be medical founding (you can live longer now and need more money for retirement). They are changed all the time and yes, changing the goal post.

zimxero · March 2019

No one mentioned the BIG unknown. The power of crit in the next mod depends on whether critical severity still stacks with the Combat Advantage pool. Since CA is going up slightly, crit will have even less effect... unless its now on an independent buffing pool. It should be.. to make it matter. If deflect can cut damage in half, then by all means... crit should be able to double our damage on a strike. If it still adds to the CA pool... then 100% crit severity will only increase damage by 50% on a succesful strike. 100% crit sev + 100% combat advantage + 100% base damage = 300% buffer. Same buffer is 200% without even getting a crit. In the end, you can have a million critical strike points.. and it will only raise your damage by 25% Abysmal. Thats why they need to get it out of the combat advantage buff pool.

athena · March 2019

I personally think the math equation for stats is scewed wrong. I have about 32k crit on my HR and with that i can only do 32% crit in the new area at 16000 stats for enemies. currently the equation is stat- counter stat all / 500. well the 500 is the problem imo. it should be 300 or at most 400. with 300 my crit will be 53% with 400 my crit will be 40% Now i had 100% crit before this so i should be getting to the cap with this mod. Also i think there should be ways to go over the crit cap in certain situtaions. LIke an artifact boosting crit by 5%, or helm or pet.... etc. The base stat method for new zones will then be acceptable and players can aim for the rare % boosters. i'd like to see a soft cap of 50% and a hard cap of 75% in place.

zimxero · March 2019

I believe the problem is there implemenation of constant equal stats for all enemies. If enemies had 0-200% of each of their present stats, then you would get 50% crit on some, 0% on some others. they need to stagger stats by creature name so that players with 5,000 stat in a category will have it matter sometimes. Otherwise our game is gonna go haywire, with everyone dumping every point into say crit & defense, or CA & deflect. low point values are wasted, and should not be that way. This will also add strategy and teamwork, cause each build will be better suited to handling different enemies.

cdnbison · March 2019

crimelord#9269 said:
Let me make this into an example that might be more easily understood.

If you play soccer you expect the goal to be in a certain point on the field. You pass the ball and shoot it towards that goal. It doesn't move somewhere else on the field. Expectations were put in place for how to invest time, effort, and financial resources for playing the game towards those goals. Now they are picking up the goals and moving them somewhere else on the field, making the entire strategy behind the game irrelevant in this case.

And then suddenly, Head Office says that QBs can now make forward passes, totally ruining team owners investment in players that could more easily break tackles in the backfield, while rewarding teams who only had skinny, fast guys. The nerve of them! They ruined football with those rules changes, I tell ya!

We're playing an MMO. Change isn't unexpected, it's a given. Yes, players will need to adjust. Yes, stats are changing. It doesn't automatically make it bad, though. Just different. I'm personally enjoying my Cleric over on Preview - I hit mobs, they fall down. I'm not one-shotting them, but I'm also not having any sort of survivability issues, either. I no longer have 100% crit, but I honestly haven't been noticing, or really caring, as I'm having fun. Simple as that.

dupeks · March 2019

It's also helpful to point out that certain builds have feats / powers that interact with critical hits. I think that crit will probably be more popular as a result, even if it's capped. But I bet at the high end certain CA-based builds will also perform, or good ole' fashion power stacking... since it has no counter stat.

Generally speaking, everyone will have at least some of each stat just because of combined ratings and incidental stats on otherwise desirable gear.

Since the feats have been largely flattened out and recovery + lifesteal are gone, this crit vs. CA vs. pure power is virtually the only consequential build decision left.

Mod 16 Changes to Critical Strike

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