Some Suggestions

dominemesis · May 2013

Some suggestions, based on what I am seeing, experiencing and reading.

1. Something needs to be done to address party balancing in the queue. I was no fan of tanks and healers getting instant queues in other games, but conversely, I just spent 45 mins trying to get a group of something other than rogues, great weapon fighters and control wizards. Although part of that problem is likely related to my next observations and suggestions.

2. Clerics need Righteousness gone and the aggro bug with how much threat they generate dealt with, because players are shelving them. I think this was why as mentioned above we had so much trouble finding a cleric for our party.

3. GF's need their guard meter quintupled or removed all together (flanking them, or attacking from behind still gets through) because it depleting with one or two hits is pointless. They also need a more solid way to generate threat and punish monsters...like a slow debuff and a dot against any marked target that isn't attacking the GF. Marks need to last until the mob hits the GF, but not fade on their own. I would also say up their threat, but that may fix itself if cleric threat gets addressed.

4. GWF's need to be dedicated to a role. Hybrids do badly in MMO's especially when boiled down to efficiency by players, and GWF's don't fill the tank or dps roles better than classes dedicated to those roles. Maybe replace the class entirely with either the Slayer from essentials who was much more of a stiker than a GWF is (they use defender mechanics, not striker). Or even just go all out and turn them into Rageblood Barbarians instead (full on 4E striker). Change their mechanic to Rage instead of Determination. Where they sit now, they are in limbo about the role they should fill.

5. Up the performance of Regen and Life Steal, make companions more reliable. We already have companions to help address not having a party when we are solo. Make them more valuable in dungeons so group composition makes Clerics and GF's less required (still fix them so they are desired though), thus allowing parties to proceed in almost any composition.

6. So more options for progression exist than just PVP and PVE Dungeons, how about making Foundry missions at level cap, or maybe Spotlighted ones, drop Drake/Unicorn coins for completion (The type of coin dropped determined by GS, if it would be high enough for an epic t1, drop Unicorn, if Epic t2, Drake). Motivation to play foundry coupled with slower but steadier progression option.

My thoughts and suggestions for now. Thanks.

noroblad · May 2013

I like most of this, but there is no way to change the game such that "any party makeup works" via companions, lifesteal, etc and still have people WANT to play tanks and healers or for groups to still want those in their party. It is the inverted effect: if you make this change, ALL parties would consist of raw dps classes and the few tanks and healers would never be welcome. There is simply no way to balance so that it works without tanks and healers but people still want the tanks and healers ... gamers are all about efficient groups that can farm the content for loot, the majority of gamers anyway. If the most efficient group is 3 TR and 2 GWF with cleric and tank companions, that is what groups will be formed. Currently the best group is double cleric + DPS, as you noted --- because it *works* best. Fix the underlying game mechanics until 1 of every class + 1 more is the "best" group makeup would be a huge start.

durenas · May 2013

dominemesis wrote: »

3. GF's need their guard meter quintupled or removed all together (flanking them, or attacking from behind still gets through) because it depleting with one or two hits is pointless. They also need a more solid way to generate threat and punish monsters...like a slow debuff and a dot against any marked target that isn't attacking the GF. Marks need to last until the mob hits the GF, but not fade on their own. I would also say up their threat, but that may fix itself if cleric threat gets addressed.

Speaking as someone who levelled a GF to 60, I agree that the guard meter is pretty flimsy. I also agree that GF threat could be increased, but I believe that fundamentally the problem with threat generation is getting aggro on the RIGHT targets at the right time. Right now, threat is so dicey, I find myself using my aoe taunt on cooldown, just to ensure that I have all the mobs' attention. This is a tool that should be kept available for when new adds come in, not something I should feel required to use on cooldown. Sometimes I'm able to time the cooldowns so that it becomes available just as new mobs come in. Other times I'm not so lucky.

Also, my experience with dungeons has been a 'go go go' rush to the end. In part this is because this is how the players are doing it. As a tank, I like a fast dungeon run, but I feel like the dungeon environments are largely wasted, because nobody takes the time to explore, they're just 'shortest line to the end boss, gogogo'. Part of this is due to the fact that the dungeons feel too long, so people economize and work to get through them as fast as possible.

5. Up the performance of Regen and Life Steal, make companions more reliable. We already have companions to help address not having a party when we are solo. Make them more valuable in dungeons so group composition makes Clerics and GF's less required (still fix them so they are desired though), thus allowing parties to proceed in almost any composition.

I actually am opposed to the idea of companions in dungeons at all. I think they're a crutch. They're also quite stupid, and will die in fire, and anyone relying upon a companion healer(for instance) will be disappointed.

dominemesis · May 2013

The reason I suggested fixing the GF and Cleric is because there is a shortage of them compared to dps, partly because they don't seem to work quite right. If they were fixed more people would play them, and it would be easier to get them into parties.

Additionally I never felt like in Cryptic's CoH or Champions Online (I haven't played STO) that there were ever required classes to run group content. CoH had tankers and defenders too. They weren't left outta content for not being necessary,(although they were welcome and useful when present) and groups didn't have to compose a perfectly balanced party in order to run content, they took who they had, simple as that.

My suggestion is to make Clerics and Tanks better and more fun, and also not to make them, or any particular class, required for group content, thus allowing groups to complete a run with whomever they have. I suggest that Cryptic balance Neverwinter similarly to their previous titles by leveraging what they did really right in their other MMO's.

s1erra117x · May 2013

I can really only comment on 4 since I have really just started playing this week as a GWF. But I agree, When I made my GWF in my head I thought my Barbarian Type Dwarf would be able to tear down foes with ease. My first few taste has me VERY disappointed and in 3 matches I have 2 kills and countless deaths..

We have all heard the suggestions but from a long time gamer both table top, console, and pc alike my fix would be:

1. Nerf ranged characters AC and defense; How is it that as a dwarf GWF that clerics and rouges of equal level can have the same Armor class as me? I understand that Wizards and Rouges are damage dealers and i'm fine with that but when I do manage to get toe to toe with one I should be doing more then just taking away a milimeter of their health bar.

2. I need more stuns and snares if i can ever manage to do even average in pvp. When I do get close i can only manage to get in 1 or 2 swings in before being kited away by faster characters, the fact that it's very difficult to stay within melee range is very dis heartening. More stuns and snares would remedy that to an extent if used properly

3. Like in rift why can't I have separate builds for the same character? As a meele it's impossible to make a solid PvE and PvP with one build and why on earth would I want to have 2 GWF Dwarves just so i can not get slaughtered as bad in PvP. If I could just switch between 2 or even 3 separate builds I would have more of an infinity with my character and be more likely to spend money on improving him

noroblad · May 2013

You should be able to get rank 2 & 3 in enough skills to have both pvp and pve setups under 1 build, just swap in the skills for the build, at higher levels. Most tiers in the tree have 2 or 3 skills, 3 ranks each. To even get to the next tier, you need 5 points, so 2 of the 3 are at rank 2, regardless. Some tiers offer poorish skills, so you can backtrack to rank 3 something that was only 2 at a lower tier. By 60 anything even remotely worth using is rank 3 for most classes. If pvp is super important to you, the worst case scenario is you have a couple of rank 2 PVE only skills.

zeldainkneehighs · May 2013

As a GF, I get a dungeon group within probably 3 minutes (or less) of queuing. Same with my DC. My friend who plays a TR said he waits 30+ minutes. For a game that is designed around the principle of no "right group make-up" --- they sure as **** make it seem like GF's and DC's get groups faster than others.

Also, ya the GF guard meter is trash. Any dungeon I have been in basically breaks my meter from two hits. I can't "kite" the boss because I have to hold threat or my ****ty rank 15 healer will die in 1 shot. Eh, just a terrible flaw.

Some Suggestions

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