Completely agree. There’s no need to keep ruining the game just to paint over your previous mistakes.
1 Like
Balancing the game based on the damage that the top 1% are doing is probably not the best solution. The top builds are capable of putting out damage that far exceeds what is required to handle all PvE content. But as those 1%'er builds trickle into PvP it does tend to affect everyone. But as has been stated already, please do not balance PvE because of PvP. There are better ways to balance PvP. Pet changes are a fantastic solution and should continue to be the tool that provides the “difference” between PvE and PvP content.
I tend to agree with Lyrian’s analysis on the problems and potential paths to solution(s). There is no “easy” way to balance it all. It is going to take some real work.
There are so many mechanics available to put genuine challenge into the content without nerfs. Mechanics that are available right now but are underutilized on PvE content.
Where are the creatures with high natural Melee mitigation? Missile mitigation? Natural resists to Elemental damage? etc.
Introduce a “spell weakness” buff/debuff that can mitigate or increase spell damage.
Make a Medusa creature that we have to fight while permanently blinded.
Make creatures that “turn to stone” when stunned so they are impervious to melee or missile damage when stunned.
Look at the spells that are underused and figure out a way to make them valuable. (i.e. Create creatures that are severely weakened when terror is applied, but sturdy when not.)
Get creative with the mechanics that already exist.
Perhaps it is time to create some genuine uniqueness in the classes. Class specific spells are one of the most interesting parts of the game, but have been abandoned.
It is time for the dev team to get creative with the way encounters are configured to introduce new challenges that test the limits of the itemization that has been evolving steadily while the content has remained stagnant. This, I believe, is the reason there is so much frustration with continued updates that indicate that time is being spent in areas that are not advancing the content. Every “nerf” is a double-hit because it is an item nerf is an indication that time that could have been spent advancing the game was used on a nerf instead.
7 Likes
This change is going out today just before daily reset
I have passed on the follow-up comments to the team from this thread since my last comment here - there is some great feedback and really great suggestions!
4 Likes
This. So much, THIS.
In the quest for ever faster gameplay, much of the flavor of character classes has been abandoned at the altar of speedy battles.
IMO, the worst aspect of the crit situation is not the absurd damage numbers that can be outputted post-crafting update, but that ANY class can reach sufficient crit stats to one-shot all PvE (except KD dragon) content. This kills the flavor of each class. In this regard, all classes are essentially the same. Why play an Assassin or Mercenary, which one would expect to be skull crit oriented, when the healer/defensive (Shaman/Paladin) classes can reach similar damage levels? They might be not the tip of the damage meta, even the most non-crit oriented classes can output enough skull crit damage to be meaningfully close enough to the skull crit oriented classes for current content. <— That’s what needs to change, IMO.
They exist. Though realistically, damage numbers are so high that top-end players just punch right through any resistances (usually for enemy flavor more than anything) fairly trivially.
Remember waaaaaay back in the beta when Medusa could kill the player by petrifying them? Nerfed to oblivion quite awhile ago (used to be 25% of all speed per cast, cumulatively, for the rest of that run), but the old language is still in the spell help text box for Petrifying Gaze.
Once upon a time, enemies were planned with player skill and thought needed, and not just a stat stick for players to chew through.
/chefkiss
The only thing I want to add onto @00h00m 's comments is that there needs to be better/more effective ways for players to defend against incoming elemental damage. The resistance attributes are too weak and too spread out over five elements for any form of effective defense to be crafted. Likely, this was done to keep battles speedy and to prevent the PvE/PvP opponents from being too tanky. But that has led to the current situation where is not plausible to defend against multi-elemental high-damage high-leveled bosses and mini-bosses.
4 Likes
Apparently I’ve been spoiled from the game history of start mana bonuses (I still have my early access bone ring I’ve evolved all the way up!), and this being the first… anti bonus. The previous iteration could take me to effectively no starting mana despite having significant investment in citadel and multiple pact gears.
Like I said, spoiled, but, man I just do not want to struggle to fill up spells. So I’ll take the halved reduction, and hope there won’t be more. Or at least a way to counter the reduction with my minion instead.