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1st impression of New Combat Changes
burnahbros
Member Posts: 72 Arc User
I am pleasantly surprised so far. After reading the various forums across the internet I expected the worst and having low expectations is not necessarily a bad thing. I loaded into my main, which is a healer, and made no upgrades. I was in my dps loadout, which is in no way optimized being that heals is my focus, so not the best build by a long stretch. I decided to do a heroic in the stronghold to see how "bad" it would be but to my surprise I had no issue whatsoever. I then went to the Dread Ring to see if I could survive there after reading tales of players being slaughtered there. I easily completed quests and had no issue whatsoever. I then decided to step it up a notch and went to Avernus. I was able to kill mobs just as before the update.
This is a limited experience and just my first impression but it seems to me the Devs delivered on there promise when they said that you would be able to do everything you could do before without having to make any upgrades.
Of course I have yet to run a dungeon and we shall see how that goes. Also I have yet to check out my alts but after this initial experience with the new system I am much more hopeful that the game is moving in the right direction.
I'm not saying there's no flaws and that it's perfect, just saying that the sky isn't falling.
edit:grammar
This is a limited experience and just my first impression but it seems to me the Devs delivered on there promise when they said that you would be able to do everything you could do before without having to make any upgrades.
Of course I have yet to run a dungeon and we shall see how that goes. Also I have yet to check out my alts but after this initial experience with the new system I am much more hopeful that the game is moving in the right direction.
I'm not saying there's no flaws and that it's perfect, just saying that the sky isn't falling.
edit:grammar
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Pre patch was 31 k il, after 41k ranger warden . Mowed thru Avernus , same as before . Went to icespire peak to check dragon Methro out . I was all alone , enemies died fast like before . The dragon definitely has loads of HP now . Took me about 5 minutes to down him , I don’t even think I lost any health myself . Didn’t stand in the red though .
Than went to Barovia , did a few heroics etc . Ranged enemies actually damaged me at first . Once you took care of them , no sweat . I could see a weaker or unknowing player get in over their head quickly there . Killed some tree guys etc , never tried the vampires though . Barovia was more or less the same difficulty for my toon .
Took an alt wizard to Dread Ring , slightly longer to kill stuff but no more than a small bit of HP drained . Completed a Heroic , no problem. Basically the same difficulty as before patch .
Took second toon ( oathkeeper ) with a few friends to Vallindra’s Tower . Adds no problem. Shatter spine is a super long , boring fight . They buffed this dudes Hp a billion times . Way too long of a fight IMO. Vallindra was slightly tougher , as in now you have to shut those pods down or kill the extra mobs . Rewards were awful as usual . Not worth the extra time it takes now . They weren’t before patch either , lol
I really haven’t done much with any of my toons other than swap mount/comp powers around and guild boons .
I expected the worst , but I too am pleasantly impressed.
Downside is it’s going to be a lot of work to set my team of toons up .
Not really sure I’m going to spend a lot of time restructuring mods , comps etc to maximize all these stats etc . I think a new player may find it overwhelming, I know I do .
All in all , I think it’s going to be a lot of work to min max stats but after playing a few alts etc , I really don’t think I’ll need to be so optimized.
I am definitely not happy to be making 10 mythic comps , more than likely won’t even do 1 . I hope they have mythic account wide companions in the upcoming lock boxes, I know they’ll be in zen store
But thats just me.
All 3 ran solo content of varying difficulty with no real issues.
My DC is actually doing better on both DPS & Healer( I also ran him through CoDG/Valindra's Tower (hard mode) & ToS (easy mode) All Random Queue, all completed, no problems.
My HR took slightly longer to kill things but no biggie.
My Paladin Justicar took a LOT longer to kill things and took more damage (85% DR / 55% Awareness) especially in a minor HE in Ravenloft. In the HE I deliberately didn't use potions and watched out for CA but because the fight took so long I lost appx 75% of my HP by the end & had to fire Divine Protector (feated) to help out. Note that my Pally has the highest Comp/Mount bolster currently at around 60% on both.
I will run my other classes throughout the week but so far I think it's fair to say the Forte changes disproportionately impact tanks - especially the Pally tank as it has no DPS path option.
Edit: I'd like to add that swapping the Pally defensive Forte from Awareness to Deflect Severity was an absolutely dreadful move, especially as there are no good sources of Awareness available from mounts or companions. @noworries#8859
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
Need to ask for someone to look at zones for levels 1-60. I have a few low level alts. I find I need to go through my encounter powers three full rotations and pop 2 heal pots on my rogue and that is using my companion positioning for combat advantage while just fighting a standard group of 4 at level 20.
Combine this with a group of 4 monsters posted every 20 feet and I am exhausted after one quest.
My damage just seems way too low or mob resist is too high.
I just feel the content pre 80 should not be that challenging as most of us have been through it more than once.
As others have said my cleric is stuck in Icewind Dale quest with the Princess due to frost giant crashes so a speedy fix is appreciated.
Dungeons...I see what the team is trying to do and roles have a lot more importance. Team might want to look at powers for tanks on abilities that grab aggro. I had a hard time keeping aggro on my pally even when slotted with the threat generating powers. Also tanks were getting melted down fast In some cases where there were multiple numbers of mobs. I agree they need deflect, awareness and other stats were previously ignored but still thought they were going down fast.
In dungeon mechanics, I also die a lot more in Svard because they cannot break the ice fast enough so I think the mechanics of some dungeons need to be reviewed. Also Cradle we cannot burn down the lich in the last stage most of the time, maybe just had a bad 3 groups but doubtful or IL limits need a look for queueing. Maybe trials are intended to be super difficult unless everyone plays their role but if defeat is so certain then I feel people will not even attempt or quit playing alltogether.
> I've spent the weekend upgrading and running around on 3 of my 9 characters - full disclosure, I've just spent around 12 million AD upgrading them (mostly mount & companion upgrades).
>
> All 3 ran solo content of varying difficulty with no real issues.
> My DC is actually doing better on both DPS & Healer( I also ran him through CoDG/Valindra's Tower (hard mode) & ToS (easy mode) All Random Queue, all completed, no problems.
> My HR took slightly longer to kill things but no biggie.
> My Paladin Justicar took a LOT longer to kill things and took more damage (85% DR / 55% Awareness) especially in a minor HE in Ravenloft. In the HE I deliberately didn't use potions and watched out for CA but because the fight took so long I lost appx 75% of my HP by the end & had to fire Divine Protector (feated) to help out. Note that my Pally has the highest Comp/Mount bolster currently at around 60% on both.
>
> I will run my other classes throughout the week but so far I think it's fair to say the Forte changes disproportionately impact tanks - especially the Pally tank as it has no DPS path option.
>
> Edit: I'd like to add that swapping the Pally defensive Forte from Awareness to Deflect Severity was an absolutely dreadful move, especially as there are no good sources of Awareness available from mounts or companions. @noworries#8859
You spent 12 million to make the game playable again.
You shouldn’t HAVE to spend anything to play a game you’ve been playing.
All the low levels and midlevels can’t do that. Won’t do that.
Shouldn’t have to.
It’s expensive and difficult to try and balance or even just get the stats you need. Not to mention time consuming.
I’ve had so many guild and Alliance members give up. You didn’t make it easy, you didn’t give them any help except a you tube video.
Change is always needed to grow, but it wasn’t near this bad going from 15 to 16.
I ran some dungeons on my cleric and they were akin to a nightmare. ELOL was not too bad but the dps still play like before that patch and run ahead of the tank and make the healers job a living hell. But we did complete the dungeon and most of time I felt unneeded as a healer except when I was very needed and barely could keep some party members alive unless I spend all my divinity as fast as I could cast and then ended up with no divinity the rest of the fight. I know how to manage my divinity but Tanks need to have there aggro power buffed because when they lose aggro the dps get murdered fast and are much more squishy.
I also ran T9G and it made ELOL look like a walk in the park. Everything in T9G will kill you and will aggro to you and if the dps run past enemies then the healer is screwed big time because those enemies will follow the healer for the rest of the dungeon and kill them. Enemies no longer drop aggro ever. The Orcus fight was fine and so was the 2nd boss. But Ras Nsi was a shiftshow. It took 4 attempts to complete and our best dps left after the 3rd attempt. The mechanics are now crucial to completion but in a pug you get players who have no clue what the mechanics are at all. We did eventually get through it but it felt like the very first time I ran T9G and that is not good at all.
Haven't actually run with a pre-made group so I can't give a completely fair assessment of dungeons and trials. But Random Queues with pugs is not good. Trials with pugs are impossible. Pug Dungeons are doable but too difficult for little rewards. I really think that the only true fix is to have TIER's of dungeon and trials. This way a pug could do a TIER 1 dungeon but a pre-made group could do a TIER 2 or TIER 3 dungeon. Either way rewards need a buff.
> @silente07#2597 I made zero upgrades and spent zero AD on any of my dps characters and they range from 50k to 22k. None of these characters had a BiS build before the changes and I made no adjustments to them before running around adventure zone to test out what all the complaining was about. I had zero issue on any character at all and was able to complete quests with no problem, even on my worst character that have pathetic gear and <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> weapons that drop of the ground from minions in any zone. I can play through adventure zones just like before the update with no issue as if the update never even happened. Idk maybe I just always balanced my stats even when everyone else was building exclusively for power like a bunch of lemmings.
I applaud you on not having to spend ANYTHING to play your character unlike 99% of the rest of us.
Must be nice. I really don’t play dps. I do all the support classes and spent a good 200 gold just moving gear and enchants around just to be able to do regular content and still haven’t got the synergy I want.
The rest of the time I have been trying to help guild mates not rage quit.
The game is now stressful and a time sink.
I’m glad you enjoy it, you may be one of the handful left playing.
ape was simple, everyone calls for it, you can do it with a small group of hdps, small rewards
devil siege seems so long and boring and the rewards seems to be the same or even if it's 100 chaotic writings, it is still not worth the trouble
i used to join any redq/rtq, farm epic dungeons with shty rewards, now they're still giving shty rewards but longer and more 'challenging'? it was okay to receive 1 black opal after lomm, but after these rework, it's not anymore, at least give a guaranteed 2 companion upgrade token on any freaking dungeon, then maybe i'd have the reason to play as much as before the changes
Btw , tip for CN , kill the zombies in the dark rooms as most likely one group member will die running the green balls . If you don’t kill them , the resurrected group member will most likely die trying to catch up .
As per levels 1-60 ; as a new player , I understand your frustration. I cannot test it but I can only imagine the hardship via our alliance chat .
And the whole no cap on power was kind of unrealistic too. And it caused such over pricing in the AH because if it gave power it was worth so much more. So, yes, I can get behind more balanced stats. The percentage thing is fine, too. It really does not matter how you express the stats and maybe it helps people see where their character needs balancing. When the new system went into place I checked all my characters and they had most of their main stats in the 40-49% range. So that was fine.
Then I started looking at how to improve on the "Other" component of the stats. Now I start to see some problems. Ability scores... not every ability score contributes to a stat. I think we are going to see a lot of very Charismatic toons. Then there's the companion slots... we might need a lot more than 5 slots... unless you put everything at mythic. Of course, then you will have to spend a lot of AD and/or Zen to get all those companions and all those mounts to Mythic. But wait--- BOONS!
I say that with a lot of sarcasm. Before the release I worked really hard to get my 5 viable characters through ALL the campaigns. Yep-- 75 boons on all 6 of them. Lots of time and effort. Now I find out that 5 boons = 1% on the 40% I need to max something out??? WHAAAT? But all I have to do is take my companions all to Mythic and I can get 3.75% on each of TWO stats? Not very nice.
And then there's the scaling...
I first started seeing the scaling problems long before this release-- in Acquisitions, Inc. basement run to be specific. My well-geared cleric nearly died until I learned to use a real companion. The companion had higher stats than my level 80 cleric who had finished all the campaigns.
I worked hard for my gear and to get the stuff to get my stats up like refining. I do feel that in group play it might be important to either match players better or do some scaling because there are always players that feel the need to run through everything and leave weaker players behind to die. So, putting the brakes on some of that is probably worthwhile. It would be nice to explore the epic dungeons and get a chance to breath during the skirmishes.
But, since the changes have gone live I am seeing a trend-- the really powerful players with mythic gear, companions, and mounts. are doing fine. The ones at the other end, just starting out, are also doing OK. But the ones in the middle are being hurt pretty badly. Almost everything I have played was reminiscent of the first time I had to do it. It is like all the progress I have made on my characters is gone. I used to love the Sybella quests because I could go back to areas, see how much I had improved, and help out other players who might be having a bit of trouble because it was their first time through. And I was saving my Sybella currency, slowly but surely, to upgrade my companions "some day". Well, it is just not very much fun anymore.
And that's the bottom line.
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
And, on that subject-- risk vs. reward. Scaling should go both ways.
> Yes. Boons are hard to earn. Which is why they should be worth something. If you want to pour money in and fast track, fine. If you don't, then work for it. I cannot tell you how many time I have run the lairs in Dread Ring hoping for a MOP Rank 4. I do get them, but it takes time.
>
> And, on that subject-- risk vs. reward. Scaling should go both ways.
I agree , BOONS need to be Doubled in %