I was worried about the state of my alts going into the combat rework after reading horror tales across the internet. I have many alts of all classes at various levels of progress. Some of my weakest alts do not even have good gear or good guild boons because they are in a low level guild, unlike my main character.
I have tested out a wide range of my very weak alts across all classes and through out the adventure zones they previously could do quests in. To my great surprise I can do everything I did before without making any upgrades at all. On some characters I made some slight changes by shifting around a mount power or companion bonus but did not upgrade anything yet on my alts. Everything was fine and very doable. I then decided to try some even weaker alts without making even one single adjustment and of course without upgrading anything cause I really can't afford to waste resources on any character other than my main. Well guess what? All of my alts are fine and there is no need to upgrade anything at all. Making adjustments is a good idea but even without moving any stats around I could still complete quests.
It's nice to know that I don't need to upgrade unless I want to. And if I want to then I can but if I decide I want to save my resources and just optimize my main then all my alts will still be viable to do what ever I want to do with them without having to break my bank or wallet. Thank you very much Cryptic for keeping alts viable!!!
edit:grammar
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Comments
Before combat changes I had 8 toons I played on. Four of them were my mains, namely Wizard, Cleric, Paladin and Warlock and the other four alts that I made for Dread Ring only, because I have no time or patience lately. Those were Ranger, Rogue, Barbarian and Fighter. I used to run them during x2 Refining Stones event for maximum gain.
Now, after combat changes that numbers went down. I have 2 mains, Wizard and Warlock, 2-not-sure-how-to-call-them, and 4 more invoking alts that don't run Dread Ring anymore. Why? Let me put it this way, for each class:
Wizard: can handle anything in the game I believe (didn't run tomm or zariel after changes, had no problems with tomm before, zariel is zariel). It's ok, even though a little dull and boring. (51k IL)
Warlock: not as high IL as wizard and damage is still something I work on, but with having constant CA that class performs really well atm for me. (35k IL)
Cleric: well, here it goes. That class has no way to gain CA by itself, so I settled with more power and better items to help run stuff. Guess what? Unless I have luck with crits and no deflect from mobs, it takes longer to get stuff done than before. It works but feels tidious. That's why I don't run anything there atm. (34k IL)
Paladin: this one is not something I should talk about, but I'll do it anyway. It was never BiS, never really good. Nice class to play around and smash stuff with Smite. I had no problems before combat changes, now... That class has no CA by itself, has no power in Forte (thus I would have to upgrade a LOT more to get 90% cap in power alone) and divinity that runs out pretty quickly, because it can't kill stuff quick enough. Same problem as with cleric. Feels tidious for running solo. (33.5k IL)
Now, let me state that those mains worked well enough to do anything I wanted them to do. Could run dungeon, do campaign, do hunts or else. Never really a problem, Paladin sometimes took a little longer, but it was doable. Running stuff solo was nice and clean and pretty fast for most cases.
Ranger: I have no way of knowing that class completely, but had next-to no problem running Dread Ring before changes. Took a bit longer, but that's to be expected. It's an alt. Now, after those changes that toon of mine can do Dread Ring dungeons, yes. But from 2-3 minute per run it goes up to 7-9 minutes. Why? I have to do one group at the time and wait for hp and cooldowns to come back before I hit any other group. If I attack more than one group = dead. Tidious.
Rogue: in a bit better state than Ranger, have CA from stealth. Still, it takes way longer to kill stuff than before so situation is pretty much the same as it was with Ranger.
Barbarian: no CA by itself, rage mechanic helps a bit here, but the situations is the same; it takes too long to kill anything so it became tidious.
Fighter: let me put it this way; even before changes that class was never that great for me. I thought that maybe I do something wrong, or maybe it's the class mechanics that are somewhat broken. After the changes... no comment. Out of every toon I have this one takes the longest to do a simple run.
And all of that with somewhat decent pets (close to 30% bolster) and mount powers (60% bolster).
So in conclusion, yes it is doable. It just takes way longer to do. And jump from 2-3 minutes to have double (or even triple) that time... well, not enough reason for me to upgrade them just to get back to where they were.
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
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
I'm wondering if many people have stopped playing their tanks.
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
They should apply the enemy AI to get combat advantage to our active companions.
Caturday Survivor
Elemental Evil Survivor
Undermontain Survivor
Mod20 Combat rework Survivor
Mod22 Refinement rework Survivor
I do think there's a big drop in Pallys though - wouldn't surprise me if a lot of players are switching classes or dropping the game.
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, with mod 20 I did make a lot of other big changes that improved her damage output by a lot, increased her HP by about 40K and increased the damage output of her active companion by 52% (Chultan Tiger, purchased via zen with the 100% off coupon they gave us).
When I was making changes I was not even thinking about solo content as I was more concerned with getting her to be a functional tank in group content but the changes I did make had an overall positive effect on both aspects of it.
My only problem now is wanting to use her in group content which I do not want to do at this time.
My GF was my main , but, is going to be put away soon as well. Waiting for RC to get fixed to finish the progression and then done.
The GF is one of the lowest dps in the game and don’t have the resources or time to get the gear to make it better.
Doing anything solo takes forever and I just don’t have the time. Also, it’s not fun because now every battle is a slog, just getting to one place or the next is a game of don’t see me then oops you did and now I’m dead or that just suck 15 mins to just get from point A to B.
Only my DC is running HC content atm.
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
My cleric is next most fun to play, except when I have to wait on divinity, but he still kills things way faster than my similarly geared warlock dps. My wizard, well, he got thru the intro, and that's probably all he'll do...
I haven't done any random qs hardly at all since the combat rework. It's too slow, and tedious for the same rewards, and I find that unacceptable.
I'm still trying to decide which of my alts is gonna get the most attention for upgrades, since there are still broken comps, and I'm quite hesitant after pouring so much time and effort into my pally only to see him sit now as a bank cuz he's just not fun anymore...