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M18 - the good and the not-so-great

adinosiiadinosii Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,294 Arc User
I have in the past posted a "the good and the bad" list for new mods.

My Mod 16 thread
My Mod 17 thread

Here is my take on Mod 18:

The good

  • Like Mod 17 (but unlike Mod 16), this one is in a pretty good shape. There are a few minor bugs, and there is some “tuning” required for the dungeon (the last two bosses in particular), but apart from that,Mod 18 works just fine.
  • The campaign is not too “grindy” - you do not have to repeat the same boring quests over and over and over,like in the AI campaign for example. It only takes a few hours per week to reach the weekly maximum of the campaign currency.
  • The HEs and some mobs have a chance to drop pretty decent items - some of which seem close to BiS for certain builds and roles.
  • The dungeon is supposed to be a bit easier than ToMM, and thus doable by a larger part of the playerbase. This might not be the case right now, but will hopefully get to that point before the January release.
  • Unlike Mod 17, the campaign allows you to earn boon points.

The not-so-great

  • Mod 18 is small, and might not be sufficient to keep players busy until Mod 19 is released, possibly resulting in a decrease in interest and player numbers.
  • Mod 18 does not introduce many “must-have” items. In particular, the main rewards from the dungeon are not highly desirable for everyone, which will reduce the motivation to “farm” the dungeon.
  • Mod 18 does not do anything to make Masterwork crafting viable, meaning that crafters will be sitting this mod out as well.
  • Mod 18 does not solve the issue of larger guilds with all structures maxed out not being able to give their members a common goal to work towards.
In other words, there is nothing bad in what Mod 18 adds - what is bad is what it does not add.

Now, in addition, there are two other points worth noting.

The first is that there is currently a significant difference between the various DPS classes/paragons. This currently makes certain paragons simply “not wanted” for group content. Anyone who currently has a hard time being invited into ToMM because of a class/paragon choice knows what I am talking about. Mod 18 made some last-minute changes to address this issue, after players simply said that it was not acceptable to wait until mod 19/20 for a full rebalance (see, the devs do listen....occasionally). The problem is that while the changes are a step in the right direction, they may not have a significant impact. In my own case, as an Arbiter, my build does not use three of the powers/feats that were changed, and the remaining two contribute only minimally to my DPS ... so I expect the changes to maybe amount to a 1% increase for me ... which does not close the gap significantly. In other words, the changes might be insufficient to change the perception of a performance gap, so people that have felt unwelcome in ToMM might still face the same issue in Mod 18 (if they have not given up on the game already).

The second issue is the nerf to the Orcus set. It was inevitable it would happen sooner or later, but I am quite disappointed that they did not introduce a viable alternative....if the main reward from the new dungeon had for example been a set with a lower bonus (say, 5% on the average, but significantly higher stats), people would have seen a point in farming the new dungeon for that. I see this as a lost opportunity to keep the players motivated.
Hoping for improvements...

Comments

  • thefiresidecatthefiresidecat Member Posts: 4,486 Arc User
    i'm actually ok with the orcus nerf. so ready to see the end of that set. at least the other sets are more or less equal. maybe no big damage replacement but at least we don't have to use it anymore x) the rest though. meh. really want more content. very disappoint about no MW update.
  • ecrana#2080 ecrana Member Posts: 1,654 Arc User
    As a long-time console player, pretty much everything you wrote under "Not So Great" is everything most of the people I play with have feared.

    This is starting to look like a too little, too late scenario if it's the best they can offer up as far as amount of content goes.
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