Can we look into how we can make this change more ALT toon friendly? The changing of bondings from one character to another allowed for players to have more freedom in what they played in content. This is a HUGE step backward for players who want to play more than just one class. You already have boons that take a long time to get and now getting 10+ mythical companions or some decent number is going to essentially dry up having more than one toon you play in end game for most players.
Guild Leader: Under the Influence Yule (Barb): 72k : Siren (TR): 78k : Torun (DC): 73k : Siren OP (OP): 76k : Siren SW (SW): 78k : Modern (F): 80k : Cherry1 (CW) : 68k Siren HR (HR): 78k
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arazith07Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,719Arc User
Active Companion Bonus, essentially instead of only getting 100 iL from the Deepcrow's 8k Power, we will now get 400iL
0
adinosiiMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,294Arc User
I'm reserving judgement on this for now.....after several disappointments in a row (the implementation of the hunts and the pointless crafting upgrade in particular) I am only logging in for a few minutes per day to claim my daily VIP key.
Can we look into how we can make this change more ALT toon friendly? The changing of bondings from one character to another allowed for players to have more freedom in what they played in content. This is a HUGE step backward for players who want to play more than just one class. You already have boons that take a long time to get and now getting 10+ mythical companions or some decent number is going to essentially dry up having more than one toon you play in end game for most players.
THIS!!
What keeps me around the repetitive content is that I can at least do it with 7 other classes for variety in some way.
Can we look into how we can make this change more ALT toon friendly? The changing of bondings from one character to another allowed for players to have more freedom in what they played in content. This is a HUGE step backward for players who want to play more than just one class. You already have boons that take a long time to get and now getting 10+ mythical companions or some decent number is going to essentially dry up having more than one toon you play in end game for most players.
THIS!!
What keeps me around the repetitive content is that I can at least do it with 7 other classes for variety in some way.
+ this again, the hours and money i've spent to get multiple toons competitive. I'll be furious if I have to give up on 7 of them if it becomes just too unrealistic to keep them all up to speed following these changes.
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darthpotaterMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,261Arc User
edited November 2020
I hate to say this but the companion stuff is somehow "stucked" since long time ago. We need something to upgrade and the companion market is dead. Also, actual bonding status is bad for the game, new players feel overwhelmed when they need to buy 3xbonding 15 just to have "enough stats"
BUT:
- We need this change to be new player friendly. So they need to have enough stats with few epic companions to be competitive in most dungeons (not the last ones but most of them) - We need this change to be more alt friendly - We need this change to be done carefully in the stats we will lose, to have a full compensation in power and stats lost (including companion influence)
But if they do this right, we can get a better system when there is more than only augment companions, and where some players can push stats higher with a high investment.
Also, giving AD for the bonding is a good move, the first time I see this in the history of the game so kudos for this. We will buy back some of the stats lost
We will see.... I hope they dont do this like mount collars.... 4M AD for 1% critical severity? (epic to legendary) or much more for another 1%? thats insane.
Please devs, this can be a good change, crunch the numbers very well, and please be transparent and collaborate with the people that give feedback.
"Companions have had their item level increased. On Live, a companion at legendary rank has 100 Item Level. With our changes, that base item level of legendary will be 1000 and companions will grant stats at the same rate as other sources of item level. On top of that, we will be increasing bolster to where legendary rank adds 10% bolster. Bolster will also directly increase the item level of the companion, which in turn will increase the amount of stats it gives.
Augment companions will give 85% of their item level in combined rating and the remaining 15% is split across the 3 specific ratings granted by the given companion. Fighting companions will give 85% of their item level in combined rating, the rest of the rating is accounted for by the fact that they do damage."
So if im reading this right, the only transfer of stats from companion to player is Via the 85% of the summoned companions item level.
So what exactly is the function of companion gear and runestones? since if the transfer of stats to a player is based off the companions item level and not its stat pool, what is the benefit of companion gear or rune stones on an augment companion?
on the surface this is a HUGE nerf to augments. 15% combined rating of a 3000level companion is tiny. 450 stat points split over 3 unique stats is definately NOT equal to the damage output of a combat companion. And if companion gear and runestone stats are no longer transferred to the player through the augmentation bonus, they are effectively pointless, nerfing augments even more.
I put most of my investment of time into ranking up bonding runes so that all of my toons would at least be "playable" while my main could engage in some end-game content. With this downgrade all my alts will be nearly useless as I will no longer be able to boost their stats by swapping max rank bondings to them and then back to my main. Perhaps that is WAI.
I don't understand the reasoning behind this change, but it will chase me out of the game as I like playing different roles. With this change my only viable toon for any near end-game content will be my DPS "Sully" and my alts, healers and tanks will be non-viable for anything but legacy campaign content.
I also just added up my companions stats, to give an estimate of its current effective itemlevel and combined rating.
Excluding power and hitpoints, my companion gives me 140,000 stats ( rounded up from 139567) which is the equal to 7000 item level. and 17500 combined rating. rank 15 bondings and it being an augment triple that to 54,250 combined rating.
Under the new system, my companion will be worth 850 combined rating, or 1700 IF i upgrade it to mythic with a 100% bolster. Thats a 52,250 combined rating deficit or about 60,000 item level deficit.
Even distributed between enchants, runestones, insignias and even gear, I have no idea how those stats are going to be clawed back.
we have 18 enchant slots, if they are upped to 500 item level, giving 10k stats each, thats about 7000 item level worth we have 15 insignia slots, if they are upped to 500 item level thats another 6300 item level we have 6 runestones, if they are upped to 500 item level thats another 2604 item level,
thats still only 15904 item level clawed back leaving about 44k item level unaccounted for and these examples are not exactly small boosts
"Companions have had their item level increased. On Live, a companion at legendary rank has 100 Item Level. With our changes, that base item level of legendary will be 1000 and companions will grant stats at the same rate as other sources of item level. On top of that, we will be increasing bolster to where legendary rank adds 10% bolster. Bolster will also directly increase the item level of the companion, which in turn will increase the amount of stats it gives.
Augment companions will give 85% of their item level in combined rating and the remaining 15% is split across the 3 specific ratings granted by the given companion. Fighting companions will give 85% of their item level in combined rating, the rest of the rating is accounted for by the fact that they do damage."
So if im reading this right, the only transfer of stats from companion to player is Via the 85% of the summoned companions item level.
So what exactly is the function of companion gear and runestones? since if the transfer of stats to a player is based off the companions item level and not its stat pool, what is the benefit of companion gear or rune stones on an augment companion?
on the surface this is a HUGE nerf to augments. 15% combined rating of a 3000level companion is tiny. 450 stat points split over 3 unique stats is definately NOT equal to the damage output of a combat companion. And if companion gear and runestone stats are no longer transferred to the player through the augmentation bonus, they are effectively pointless, nerfing augments even more.
Some Clarification would be nice please
This is in addition to the 100% transfer of stats that was stated later in the blog. This 85%/15% or damage thing is additional. We will be getting all the companion gear stats, base stats of the companion, the combined ratings mentioned above, and bolster bonus. The 3 stats thing is just an extension of what augments already have.
Augments and combat companions should be balanced more, as it stands before the changes augments are the only way to go (unless you are a healer/tank or are in low level content where the Xuna and chicken companions can murder stuff but those are getting nerfed).
@arazith07 Thanks Arazith, missed that bit, i guess its wait for it to hit preview server, but its looking like augments are effectively going to be useless, unless combat companions all hit like a wet noodle. I dont mind them being equaly viable, but flipping from one to the other is annoying
Yes, go ahead, redo everything that works well. You know how. Instead of adding an interesting storyline, get people to just upgrade 100 companions. Well done, keep it up. Your decisions simply defy my mind.
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arazith07Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,719Arc User
Yes, go ahead, redo everything that works well. You know how. Instead of adding an interesting storyline, get people to just upgrade 100 companions. Well done, keep it up. Your decisions simply defy my mind.
Scaling isn't working well in part because of bondings, hence why they are making changes, so they can scale us better. They are trying to bake the bondings into the companions so their iL ratios will work better. Is it the best way to do that...who knows, do we end up with a nerf...could be, but we just don't have all the info yet. But they put their reasoning into the dev blog.
The change is coming regardless of how much anyone dislikes it. Either you play the game or you don't. NONE of us know how this actually works (I know history of other things does not make it look good). Reality is maybe 5 out of 500 companions are useful in game. Hopefully with this change we will get more variety in our active companions.
I know console markets differ from PC but 2.6 million AD (hopefully it doesn't go down) per R15 seems reasonable, provided it is enough to buy your way back to the same stats.
As far as it being a "money grab" I really don't care. I put enough time into this game to throw a few dollars at it.
Froger - Barbarian - Original Main - The Freak Core - Xbone Jade - Cleric - Healer Main - The Freak Core - Xbone Magnus - Fighter - Tank for queues - The Freak Core - Xbone Loverboy - Ranger - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone Nomnomnommm - Wizard - Alt - Droppin Crits on Fools - Xbone I Am The Wall - Paladin - Alt - Droppin Crits on Fools - Xbone Xeros - Rogue - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone RIP bad name - Warlock - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone Bardholomew - Bard - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone Sirona - Cleric - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Just want to clarify: is this change going to be an IMPROVEMENT, NO NET CHANGE, or a NERF to existing characters?
In my personal case, with the following condition: -using an orange augment companion -3 R15 bonding runestones, with 1010 ilvl companion gear and R12-R15 stat runestones -15% bolster 5 orange companions in that class -60.5% companion influence from R15 dark enchants in utility slots, player stats, artifacts, insignias, etc.
Will my total stats INCREASE, STAY THE SAME, or DECREASE after the change? Not ilvl, STATS- stats determine the character viability, not ilvl.
At this point, I do not see anything in the changes you have listed that is actually BETTER for players, unless the result of the changes is NO NET CHANGE or better. In fact, it sounds like an incredibly large NERF, and an effort to grab more cash.
Not that it should matter, but I've been playing since well before bonding runestones were first added, and I'm quite confident I fall into the "whale" category for zen purchases, so I think I'm justified saying that I'll feel seriously betrayed if you pull another mod6/mod16 fiasco.
current values w/ companion active: ilvl 35842 hp 729014 total stats: 903525
current values w/o companion active: ilvl 30264 hp 6787767 total stats: 407578
Companion stat total: 192292
I.e. if you subtract the without companion stats from with companion, and then subtract the companion stat total, it result6s in about 303655 stats added from bondings, bolster, and companion influence. Will the increases in enchants balance that out? With 15 enchantment slots, each would have to go up an average of 20k stats; i.e. a R15 radiant would need to go from 2400 power to 22400 power...
The change is coming regardless of how much anyone dislikes it. Either you play the game or you don't. NONE of us know how this actually works (I know history of other things does not make it look good). Reality is maybe 5 out of 500 companions are useful in game. Hopefully with this change we will get more variety in our active companions.
I know console markets differ from PC but 2.6 million AD (hopefully it doesn't go down) per R15 seems reasonable, provided it is enough to buy your way back to the same stats.
As far as it being a "money grab" I really don't care. I put enough time into this game to throw a few dollars at it.
This is simply not true as "useful companion" is totally subjective. There are uses outside of pure stat issues. Not everyone is a numbers chaser or BiS chaser. I have 30 toons and all of them have a different main companion and all of them have completely different companion stables. Keep in mind many people also can't get, due to financial/time issues, what the elite consider the best companions. And all of my main toons are over 30KIL and meet or surpass optimal stats with non augment companions and without level 20 guild boons. It just comes down to how you shuffle stuff around per character. And sadly how much you spend.
My worries is that there will be no way for me to catch up to where I am now if my stats dive after the update. That beings said, so far the devs are saying we won't see a stat dive/nerf. Only time will tell tho.
Bolster, currently, has no effect with an augment summoned. It helps fighter companions in combat. So my 1 brain cell that still exists queries what bolster will mean. Stats transfer via bolster from the summoned companion, augment or not, or a combined rating of IL that the companion has along with the bolster from various other unsummoned companions that are in the same type category.
It might help if we had this on preview to test, preferably before it gets thrown at us in a badly cobbled youtube by a desperate attention grabber
3
kalina311Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,082Arc User
edited November 2020
I have 25 legendary companions in all categories and still think somehow I will manage to be nerfed : D even after upgrading all of them to mystic ...
Are all of these changes supposed to be the devs knee jerk reaction to xuna and chicken companions being overpowered? are all combat companions going to be over powered now or all useless ..cause of these changes
some companions flat out have better powers/ combos compared to each other regardless.. are all companion powers being reworked to similar magnitudes as well now to make them equality as desirable ...?
Bolster, currently, has no effect with an augment summoned
Like other companions...bolster gives you more stats from the summoned companion.
My take on this...I returned after a 3 month leave to find my Tactical Enchantments r15 all needed to be replaced (a lot of various ranks r9+ on 7 alts too). So I spent my last 2k trade bars on 2x r15 darks...and a lot of AD on the other 3...this was 3 days ago! Now you're saying they'll be useless soon? I hope there will be an UNBOUND trade in to compensate. I stress UNBOUND because there's NO reason why I should have to trade my unbound enchantments and gain some back bound! I also have 2 sets of r15 bondings (one for main...one for alts to share). A lot of good that AD will do me since you're about to flood the servers with AD...inflation will run rampant more than it has.
When I left for my short break of only 3 months so much has changed. I'm barely able to keep up with my main and 1 alt...a 3rd toon is barely playable. trophy drops are horrendous at best...mount collars can drop in dungeon chest too? I run an average of 8 dungeon runs per day. In 2 weeks I've not seen 1 collar. I bet when I get one I have to start from white too...white shouldn't even exist anyway!
Bottom line...if there isn't a good compensation on the line that's not AD...I'm out for good...Just getting tired of playing catch up. This isn't good for newbies either. Bondings were tough enough...companions and upgrade will cost far more...or take 10x longer. Legacy weeklies don't give enough per currency to make much of a dent on the amount needed....but those new players will need that currency for marks anyway.
Ya might wanna give this some thought before you go ahead with it all.
EDIT: how about also doing away with the companion categories since it's a pain in the butt to even find the right ones in AH (they don't say on them which category they fit in). This would also make it easier to play multi-role toons....ya know...those healers who don't always want to heal.
Alright, so time to address another thing. Since we are getting companion changes, how much will upgrading them to mythic cost? Because I just recently made all my bolsters 15% - and it was hell of a chore. Now I have to consider that I am using 1+5 active powers for single target, swapping 2 for AoE and possibly swapping defensive slot in case I need more defense and don't feel like getting another item swapped.
Let me do a bit of calculations here: Assuming that companion bolster stays split between 5 categories, and I keep Bulette Pup as main... 5 Creatures to upgrade, one being Deepcrow Hatchling and one being a Bulette Pup, 2 Beasts to upgrade, one being Tamed Velociraptor and the other being the Alpha Compy, 1 Invoker to upgrade, Batiri And 1 Fighter, which is a Minstrel. That's already 9 - and it's just the single target build!
With AoE thankfully we only add 1 Fighter - Slyblade Kobold - because Owlbear Cub is in fact a Creature.
And 1 Mystical in case Slime is needed - 11 total.
For soloing I might also have to upgrade 1 Fighter or 1 of 2 Invokers (Mercenary, Kenku Archer or Ghost for currently 4k power and 2k of other stat, which is better than Tamed when you have no group available).
Iron Golem is also a creature, which puts me at 4/5 necessary ones for bolster with another one being a free choice.
But what if meta shifts? I have Xuna, Quasit, Abyssal Chicken - all 3 at legendary too. But then I'll need to get more bolster again? Cost of upgrading a companion to legendary is already 1 million AD, if mythical is double of that that'll put me in a pretty... uncomfortable spot, considering that I already have to upgrade 10
I have several questions: 1- What will happen to the Dark Enchantments? Will they get a new stat? If yes, which stat will they give? Or will they be removed and we will be able of trading them for another enchantment or AD? If so, for how much AD? 2- What will happen to the Dominance Insignias? Will they get a new stat? If yes, which stat will they give? Or will they be removed and we will be able of trading them for another insignia or AD? If so, for how much AD? 3- What will happen to the Companion Influence boons? 4- What will happen to the Charisma Ability Score? 5- How much will cost to upgrade the companions to mythic in AD? And how much in companion upgrade tokens? 6- Will the Empowered Runestones be fixed and give HP on defensive slots as they are supposed to? If not, why not? Shouldn't they give another stat then? 7- About the 15% on the 3 specific stats of the augment companions that give HP, like the Rat Pup and the Black Dragon Ioun Stone, will they give us extra HP? If not, why not? Shouldn't they give another stat then? 8- When will this changes be implemented in the live servers?
And a suggestion: PLEASE MAKE THE BOLSTER BE UNIVERSAL TO ALL COMPANIONS AND NOT DIVIDED BY CATEGORIES. I don't want the meta to shift and I have to upgrade another 5 companions to mythic to have my bolster back. PLEASE CRYPTIC, do not make us have to expend a fortune putting weak companions with useless bonuses just to have a category bolster.
If you already predicted a Companion System Change(CSC) after the Mount System Change(MSC) ... then you know how to look forward!
After reading all 3 pages (so far) of comments on these responses to the new Blog ... I will gently point out a few topics that were never covered openly.
1) When the MSC was introduced with Collars that could be upgraded (expensively!) to Mythic for Mythic Mounts in stable, there was NO mention of being able to do the same for Companion Gear. My guess is that they will start it slowly like they did with Insignia and you can start finding Legendary Companion pieces in the next few lockboxes (another obvious cash grab), and then introduce being able to upgrade those in a few MODS once they have figured out how to balance them for increased Companion stats/ilvl/etc. Or maybe/hopefully craft them with a future update.
2) They aren't going to change or lower the AD exchange rate table they posted for Bonding Runestones. Why you might ask? Because it points to the biggest thing they have been trying the hardest to hide! A) They would rather let you choose if you would like to exchange it for an ENCH/RUNE you might WANT/NEED after the changes vs. choosing an AD exchange for it. Everyone has seen it coming and predicting it, and just looking at the ADZ backlog ... you can almost SMELL them waiting to pull the trigger and up ADZ to 1kAD/1Z (if not 1500AD/1Z) just to clear the backlog and reset the queues! I expect right before WINFEST starts. And that right there would cut any 'thought profit' out of trading Bonding for AD, since you'd maybe get 2/3 or 1/2 of the ZEN ... assuming you could cut the line and trade those AD for Zen immediately, instead of a 5 month backlog! And also encourage people to buy ZEN vs. trade for it at a newly considered loss of AD. C) If/When they increase exchange rate for Z ... maybe changing Bonding redemptions from AD to whatever current Z exchange rate is, might make a few non-bots happier by not having to wait months. Say they increase ADZ to 1k/Z ... just convert the table. If it's worth less than 1k, you get AD ... otherwise you can choose AD or ZEN, or always the newly upgraded ENCH/RUNE stones. Scaling of course to whatever new exchange rate they choose.
3) And lastly, I expect there to also be a new way to refine Runestones beyond R15 to R16 (eventually). Because why just upgrade companions and NOT include some means to upgrade either their gear or their runestones? Just Bolster? We'll all see how their 'plan' pans forward!
4) And other thoughts I'm keeping ... for now!
TY if you read thru all of that! ... Gonna go play for awhile and see what happens!
Elsill Killya - Neverguild
PS. Neverwinter is the BEST drinking MMORPG ever!
4
arazith07Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,719Arc User
I have several questions: 1- What will happen to the Dark Enchantments? Will they get a new stat? If yes, which stat will they give? Or will they be removed and we will be able of trading them for another enchantment or AD? If so, for how much AD? 2- What will happen to the Dominance Insignias? Will they get a new stat? If yes, which stat will they give? Or will they be removed and we will be able of trading them for another insignia or AD? If so, for how much AD? 3- What will happen to the Companion Influence boons? 4- What will happen to the Charisma Ability Score? 5- How much will cost to upgrade the companions to mythic in AD? And how much in companion upgrade tokens? 6- Will the Empowered Runestones be fixed and give HP on defensive slots as they are supposed to? If not, why not? Shouldn't they give another stat then? 7- About the 15% on the 3 specific stats of the augment companions that give HP, like the Rat Pup and the Black Dragon Ioun Stone, will they give us extra HP? If not, why not? Shouldn't they give another stat then? 8- When will this changes be implemented in the live servers?
And a suggestion: PLEASE MAKE THE BOLSTER BE UNIVERSAL TO ALL COMPANIONS AND NOT DIVIDED BY CATEGORIES. I don't want the meta to shift and I have to upgrade another 5 companions to mythic to have my bolster back. PLEASE CRYPTIC, do not make us have to expend a fortune putting weak companions with useless bonuses just to have a category bolster.
1. Yes, they don't know yet. There is still 2-3 weeks of development left before this hits preview. We will likely be able to trade stuff like in M16 when they did remove stats. 2-4 same as above 5. We don't know, values will likely change. My guess would 1.5mil or 200 tokens. 6. Empowered Runestones were never meant to give players HP as noted in their tooltips. It is solely for the companion itself. 7. This will likely work the same as augments that have HP as a part of their enhancement bonus do now. 8. Has not been announced, we won't even get this on preview until December.
Yes, go ahead, redo everything that works well. You know how. Instead of adding an interesting storyline, get people to just upgrade 100 companions. Well done, keep it up. Your decisions simply defy my mind.
Scaling isn't working well in part because of bondings, hence why they are making changes, so they can scale us better. They are trying to bake the bondings into the companions so their iL ratios will work better. Is it the best way to do that...who knows, do we end up with a nerf...could be, but we just don't have all the info yet. But they put their reasoning into the dev blog.
more like forcing end game players to play with newbs isnt working well and they refuse to scale up older content with better rewards for end game players.... that is the problem, not the bondings, not %dmg, its their view on the whole thing. City of Heroes had an interesting system where you could sidekick/scale up a newb friend to tag along with whatever you were doing.
1
arazith07Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,719Arc User
Yes, go ahead, redo everything that works well. You know how. Instead of adding an interesting storyline, get people to just upgrade 100 companions. Well done, keep it up. Your decisions simply defy my mind.
Scaling isn't working well in part because of bondings, hence why they are making changes, so they can scale us better. They are trying to bake the bondings into the companions so their iL ratios will work better. Is it the best way to do that...who knows, do we end up with a nerf...could be, but we just don't have all the info yet. But they put their reasoning into the dev blog.
more like forcing end game players to play with newbs isnt working well and they refuse to scale up older content with better rewards for end game players.... that is the problem, not the bondings, not %dmg, its their view on the whole thing
New players being left on their own caused dungeon queues that would never start...which is really bad for the health of a MMO. Even without dungeons, there are still events that are open to a variety of levels that would need scaling. Even if they scaled players up, they want to be able to do it properly and not end up like in M16 where a level 1-79 player could outdps endgame players.
You do it again. In every single of the last Updates you hit the Paladin hardest. Tactical destroyed for Paladin Tank. Incoming and Outgoing Healing Companion Passives destroyed for Tank and Healer. Now you destroy Companion Influence (Charisma) what Paladin is best in. Now we switched to Dark Enchantment and you destroy it again.
This is the best drinking game if by that you mean best to push you towards alcoholism @erikanudan
Anyways I'm still waiting for a response.
If I move from a beast type companion to a fighter, does that mean I need to make all new mythical fighter comps?
If so, please let me know so I know that I don't have to give you a darn penny this black Friday. I'd recommend pushing early version to preview so people know what they're getting into.
As a business model, your big-wigs should know that investing in something you know nothing about is a risk. No one will take that risk in a damn game
This is the best drinking game if by that you mean best to push you towards alcoholism @erikanudan
Anyways I'm still waiting for a response.
If I move from a beast type companion to a fighter, does that mean I need to make all new mythical fighter comps?
If so, please let me know so I know that I don't have to give you a darn penny this black Friday. I'd recommend pushing early version to preview so people know what they're getting into.
As a business model, your big-wigs should know that investing in something you know nothing about is a risk. No one will take that risk in a damn game
we already know what we are getting into, it will be a system similar to the one we got with the mounts rework...
"... we will be increasing bolster to where legendary rank adds 10% bolster. Bolster will also directly increase the item level of the companion, which in turn will increase the amount of stats it gives."
Comments
Yule (Barb): 72k : Siren (TR): 78k : Torun (DC): 73k : Siren OP (OP): 76k : Siren SW (SW): 78k : Modern (F): 80k : Cherry1 (CW) : 68k Siren HR (HR): 78k
So...waiting for now...
What keeps me around the repetitive content is that I can at least do it with 7 other classes for variety in some way.
BUT:
- We need this change to be new player friendly. So they need to have enough stats with few epic companions to be competitive in most dungeons (not the last ones but most of them)
- We need this change to be more alt friendly
- We need this change to be done carefully in the stats we will lose, to have a full compensation in power and stats lost (including companion influence)
But if they do this right, we can get a better system when there is more than only augment companions, and where some players can push stats higher with a high investment.
Also, giving AD for the bonding is a good move, the first time I see this in the history of the game so kudos for this. We will buy back some of the stats lost
We will see.... I hope they dont do this like mount collars.... 4M AD for 1% critical severity? (epic to legendary) or much more for another 1%? thats insane.
Please devs, this can be a good change, crunch the numbers very well, and please be transparent and collaborate with the people that give feedback.
Edit: grammar
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Augment companions will give 85% of their item level in combined rating and the remaining 15% is split across the 3 specific ratings granted by the given companion. Fighting companions will give 85% of their item level in combined rating, the rest of the rating is accounted for by the fact that they do damage."
So if im reading this right, the only transfer of stats from companion to player is Via the 85% of the summoned companions item level.
So what exactly is the function of companion gear and runestones? since if the transfer of stats to a player is based off the companions item level and not its stat pool, what is the benefit of companion gear or rune stones on an augment companion?
on the surface this is a HUGE nerf to augments. 15% combined rating of a 3000level companion is tiny. 450 stat points split over 3 unique stats is definately NOT equal to the damage output of a combat companion.
And if companion gear and runestone stats are no longer transferred to the player through the augmentation bonus, they are effectively pointless, nerfing augments even more.
Some Clarification would be nice please
I don't understand the reasoning behind this change, but it will chase me out of the game as I like playing different roles. With this change my only viable toon for any near end-game content will be my DPS "Sully" and my alts, healers and tanks will be non-viable for anything but legacy campaign content.
RIP NW on my HD.
Well played Cryptic, well played.
Excluding power and hitpoints, my companion gives me 140,000 stats ( rounded up from 139567)
which is the equal to 7000 item level. and 17500 combined rating.
rank 15 bondings and it being an augment triple that to 54,250 combined rating.
Under the new system, my companion will be worth 850 combined rating, or 1700 IF i upgrade it to mythic with a 100% bolster.
Thats a 52,250 combined rating deficit or about 60,000 item level deficit.
Even distributed between enchants, runestones, insignias and even gear, I have no idea how those stats are going to be clawed back.
we have 18 enchant slots, if they are upped to 500 item level, giving 10k stats each, thats about 7000 item level worth
we have 15 insignia slots, if they are upped to 500 item level thats another 6300 item level
we have 6 runestones, if they are upped to 500 item level thats another 2604 item level,
thats still only 15904 item level clawed back leaving about 44k item level unaccounted for and these examples are not exactly small boosts
Dark - Control Resist
Domination - Control
Both of these stats are nearly worthless right now
Augments and combat companions should be balanced more, as it stands before the changes augments are the only way to go (unless you are a healer/tank or are in low level content where the Xuna and chicken companions can murder stuff but those are getting nerfed).
Thanks Arazith, missed that bit, i guess its wait for it to hit preview server, but its looking like augments are effectively going to be useless, unless combat companions all hit like a wet noodle.
I dont mind them being equaly viable, but flipping from one to the other is annoying
I know console markets differ from PC but 2.6 million AD (hopefully it doesn't go down) per R15 seems reasonable, provided it is enough to buy your way back to the same stats.
As far as it being a "money grab" I really don't care. I put enough time into this game to throw a few dollars at it.
Jade - Cleric - Healer Main - The Freak Core - Xbone
Magnus - Fighter - Tank for queues - The Freak Core - Xbone
Loverboy - Ranger - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Nomnomnommm - Wizard - Alt - Droppin Crits on Fools - Xbone
I Am The Wall - Paladin - Alt - Droppin Crits on Fools - Xbone
Xeros - Rogue - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
RIP bad name - Warlock - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Bardholomew - Bard - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Sirona - Cleric - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Jade - DC - Shadows of Gauntlgrym - PC
In my personal case, with the following condition:
-using an orange augment companion
-3 R15 bonding runestones, with 1010 ilvl companion gear and R12-R15 stat runestones
-15% bolster 5 orange companions in that class
-60.5% companion influence from R15 dark enchants in utility slots, player stats, artifacts, insignias, etc.
Will my total stats INCREASE, STAY THE SAME, or DECREASE after the change? Not ilvl, STATS- stats determine the character viability, not ilvl.
At this point, I do not see anything in the changes you have listed that is actually BETTER for players, unless the result of the changes is NO NET CHANGE or better. In fact, it sounds like an incredibly large NERF, and an effort to grab more cash.
Not that it should matter, but I've been playing since well before bonding runestones were first added, and I'm quite confident I fall into the "whale" category for zen purchases, so I think I'm justified saying that I'll feel seriously betrayed if you pull another mod6/mod16 fiasco.
current values w/ companion active:
ilvl 35842
hp 729014
total stats: 903525
current values w/o companion active:
ilvl 30264
hp 6787767
total stats: 407578
Companion stat total:
192292
I.e. if you subtract the without companion stats from with companion, and then subtract the companion stat total, it result6s in about 303655 stats added from bondings, bolster, and companion influence. Will the increases in enchants balance that out? With 15 enchantment slots, each would have to go up an average of 20k stats; i.e. a R15 radiant would need to go from 2400 power to 22400 power...
My worries is that there will be no way for me to catch up to where I am now if my stats dive after the update. That beings said, so far the devs are saying we won't see a stat dive/nerf. Only time will tell tho.
It might help if we had this on preview to test, preferably before it gets thrown at us in a badly cobbled youtube by a desperate attention grabber
Are all of these changes supposed to be the devs knee jerk reaction to xuna and chicken companions being overpowered?
are all combat companions going to be over powered now or all useless ..cause of these changes
some companions flat out have better powers/ combos compared to each other regardless.. are all companion powers being reworked to similar magnitudes as well now to make them equality as desirable ...?
My take on this...I returned after a 3 month leave to find my Tactical Enchantments r15 all needed to be replaced (a lot of various ranks r9+ on 7 alts too). So I spent my last 2k trade bars on 2x r15 darks...and a lot of AD on the other 3...this was 3 days ago! Now you're saying they'll be useless soon? I hope there will be an UNBOUND trade in to compensate. I stress UNBOUND because there's NO reason why I should have to trade my unbound enchantments and gain some back bound! I also have 2 sets of r15 bondings (one for main...one for alts to share). A lot of good that AD will do me since you're about to flood the servers with AD...inflation will run rampant more than it has.
When I left for my short break of only 3 months so much has changed. I'm barely able to keep up with my main and 1 alt...a 3rd toon is barely playable. trophy drops are horrendous at best...mount collars can drop in dungeon chest too? I run an average of 8 dungeon runs per day. In 2 weeks I've not seen 1 collar. I bet when I get one I have to start from white too...white shouldn't even exist anyway!
Bottom line...if there isn't a good compensation on the line that's not AD...I'm out for good...Just getting tired of playing catch up. This isn't good for newbies either. Bondings were tough enough...companions and upgrade will cost far more...or take 10x longer. Legacy weeklies don't give enough per currency to make much of a dent on the amount needed....but those new players will need that currency for marks anyway.
Ya might wanna give this some thought before you go ahead with it all.
EDIT: how about also doing away with the companion categories since it's a pain in the butt to even find the right ones in AH (they don't say on them which category they fit in). This would also make it easier to play multi-role toons....ya know...those healers who don't always want to heal.
Let me do a bit of calculations here:
Assuming that companion bolster stays split between 5 categories, and I keep Bulette Pup as main...
5 Creatures to upgrade, one being Deepcrow Hatchling and one being a Bulette Pup,
2 Beasts to upgrade, one being Tamed Velociraptor and the other being the Alpha Compy,
1 Invoker to upgrade, Batiri
And 1 Fighter, which is a Minstrel.
That's already 9 - and it's just the single target build!
With AoE thankfully we only add 1 Fighter - Slyblade Kobold - because Owlbear Cub is in fact a Creature.
And 1 Mystical in case Slime is needed - 11 total.
For soloing I might also have to upgrade 1 Fighter or 1 of 2 Invokers (Mercenary, Kenku Archer or Ghost for currently 4k power and 2k of other stat, which is better than Tamed when you have no group available).
Iron Golem is also a creature, which puts me at 4/5 necessary ones for bolster with another one being a free choice.
But what if meta shifts? I have Xuna, Quasit, Abyssal Chicken - all 3 at legendary too. But then I'll need to get more bolster again? Cost of upgrading a companion to legendary is already 1 million AD, if mythical is double of that that'll put me in a pretty... uncomfortable spot, considering that I already have to upgrade 10
1- What will happen to the Dark Enchantments? Will they get a new stat? If yes, which stat will they give? Or will they be removed and we will be able of trading them for another enchantment or AD? If so, for how much AD?
2- What will happen to the Dominance Insignias? Will they get a new stat? If yes, which stat will they give? Or will they be removed and we will be able of trading them for another insignia or AD? If so, for how much AD?
3- What will happen to the Companion Influence boons?
4- What will happen to the Charisma Ability Score?
5- How much will cost to upgrade the companions to mythic in AD? And how much in companion upgrade tokens?
6- Will the Empowered Runestones be fixed and give HP on defensive slots as they are supposed to? If not, why not? Shouldn't they give another stat then?
7- About the 15% on the 3 specific stats of the augment companions that give HP, like the Rat Pup and the Black Dragon Ioun Stone, will they give us extra HP? If not, why not? Shouldn't they give another stat then?
8- When will this changes be implemented in the live servers?
And a suggestion: PLEASE MAKE THE BOLSTER BE UNIVERSAL TO ALL COMPANIONS AND NOT DIVIDED BY CATEGORIES.
I don't want the meta to shift and I have to upgrade another 5 companions to mythic to have my bolster back.
PLEASE CRYPTIC, do not make us have to expend a fortune putting weak companions with useless bonuses just to have a category bolster.
After reading all 3 pages (so far) of comments on these responses to the new Blog ... I will gently point out a few topics that were never covered openly.
1) When the MSC was introduced with Collars that could be upgraded (expensively!) to Mythic for Mythic Mounts in stable, there was NO mention of being able to do the same for Companion Gear. My guess is that they will start it slowly like they did with Insignia and you can start finding Legendary Companion pieces in the next few lockboxes (another obvious cash grab), and then introduce being able to upgrade those in a few MODS once they have figured out how to balance them for increased Companion stats/ilvl/etc. Or maybe/hopefully craft them with a future update.
2) They aren't going to change or lower the AD exchange rate table they posted for Bonding Runestones. Why you might ask? Because it points to the biggest thing they have been trying the hardest to hide!
A) They would rather let you choose if you would like to exchange it for an ENCH/RUNE you might WANT/NEED after the changes vs. choosing an AD exchange for it.
C) If/When they increase exchange rate for Z ... maybe changing Bonding redemptions from AD to whatever current Z exchange rate is, might make a few non-bots happier by not having to wait months. Say they increase ADZ to 1k/Z ... just convert the table. If it's worth less than 1k, you get AD ... otherwise you can choose AD or ZEN, or always the newly upgraded ENCH/RUNE stones. Scaling of course to whatever new exchange rate they choose.
3) And lastly, I expect there to also be a new way to refine Runestones beyond R15 to R16 (eventually). Because why just upgrade companions and NOT include some means to upgrade either their gear or their runestones? Just Bolster? We'll all see how their 'plan' pans forward!
4) And other thoughts I'm keeping ... for now!
TY if you read thru all of that! ... Gonna go play for awhile and see what happens!
Elsill Killya - Neverguild
PS. Neverwinter is the BEST drinking MMORPG ever!
2-4 same as above
5. We don't know, values will likely change. My guess would 1.5mil or 200 tokens.
6. Empowered Runestones were never meant to give players HP as noted in their tooltips. It is solely for the companion itself.
7. This will likely work the same as augments that have HP as a part of their enhancement bonus do now.
8. Has not been announced, we won't even get this on preview until December.
Reward rework for dungeons is coming later btw.
Tactical destroyed for Paladin Tank.
Incoming and Outgoing Healing Companion Passives destroyed for Tank and Healer.
Now you destroy Companion Influence (Charisma) what Paladin is best in.
Now we switched to Dark Enchantment and you destroy it again.
???????
Anyways I'm still waiting for a response.
If I move from a beast type companion to a fighter, does that mean I need to make all new mythical fighter comps?
If so, please let me know so I know that I don't have to give you a darn penny this black Friday. I'd recommend pushing early version to preview so people know what they're getting into.
As a business model, your big-wigs should know that investing in something you know nothing about is a risk. No one will take that risk in a damn game
"... we will be increasing bolster to where legendary rank adds 10% bolster. Bolster will also directly increase the item level of the companion, which in turn will increase the amount of stats it gives."