Global chat comments have shifted from:
“How do I raise food cap?”
to
“How do I get more than 2 spells?”
to
“How do I complete a dungeon before the game times out for inactivity?”
So far I personally haven’t had this issue as skulls just obliterate everything now, but I haven’t done a single non-daily related dungeon since 0.36 due to how much of a waste of time it is. Before could do around 12 max dungeons in an hour. Now it is closer to about 6 or so. Despite this only being around a 2x difference, it is around a 10x difference on ‘fun’. There is no additional challenge nor reward, they are just needlessly bulky to the point that anything other than gear with upscaling mechanics is pointless in dungeons. The lack of gear balance now is baffling. It was already horrible, but now it is nonexistent.
Provided that you have at least a minimum of a Legendary Weapon. Lower rarities still do much more damage than they used to but the jump in damage from Epic to Legendary is really exponential. People often ask, what should I spend gems on. If things remained as is, the answer would be Weapon Glyphs.
Personal take, I don’t believe they intend provide additional rewards for high-level dungeons until they have the balancing complete. My gut feeling on the situation based on the changes that were made in 0.36, is that completing the higher Difficulty dungeons requires power levels equivalent to having all full slate of kingdoms in GoW at Power 30/Level 20. In other words, a multiple-year grind to get there.
The fact that some players are still able to do clear Difficulty X iin 0.36 probably means that additional nerfs are probably incoming in the next update to emphasize locking the door on that for a long time.
There’s definitely a method to the madness, as far as I have been able to figure out. 100% sure of that at this point. Some of the methodology is rather obvious (base weapon damage rating), while other components, such as spell damage/effectiveness, are very obscure, have multiple moving components, and would probably never be found by the average player.
Much like the relic situation in 0.35, the gear system that is likely going to be final was put into place in 0.36 with the “tweaks” to it being added in 0.37.
While I’m on the this topic, this would be a good time to bring up that Citadel perks really, really need a balancing pass in 0.37.
As it very much looks like the name of the game going forward is increasing player stats to power levels far over 9000 over a very long-term grind, the limited citadel perks (50 points max per) are far too weak in 0.36 to make a difference.
A couple of quick examples:
The 2% unlimited Vitality boost is far more beneficial than the +0.1% limited Extra Health boost.
The 2% unlimited Power boost is far more beneficial than the +0.1% limited Extra Damage boost.
I’m sure this has been mentioned before, but how can you give me some purple gear and now I suck at the game. I just lost on a normal dungeon, which used to be called “easy”; how is that balance? You are supposed to get steadily better- progress, Not regress! So after 55 days and two months of VIP, I am no stronger than I was when I started my first character doing their first “Easy” dungeon. Please enlighten us with the thought process.
*Just played my Necro. She died 2 times on the first mob (Skullguard Keep) normal mode. I easily cleared the campaign before the update. Now I can only clear entry level dungeons on certain classes; 1 step forward, 2 steps back. Glad I didn’t spend real USD on an early release; yes I know.
I don’t know how new players can just finish story line. I can’t run “easy” dungeon or skirmish in chapter 13-15 with my 50lvl characters with epic gear. It’s absolutly imbalance. Yes, we needed to increase the difficulty, but not that much.
And now there is no sense to spend money, it won’t give you enough “power” to comfort playing any way.
Wow, so you literally cannot clear the story now until you get lucky or pour your bank account into this? What in the actual fermented shit y’all smoking over there, guys? The story shouldn’t be the thing you hold hostage like this, maybe the later difficulty runs yeah. But the main story, whose unlocks and Citadel you need for all the content you’re fixing to add? No!
I just got the ‘hey, here’s some things to help you’ message but IT DIDN’T HELP ME AT ALL I’M STILL STUCK IN THE SAME BATTLE. I just uninstalled Puzzle Quest 3 and until some major rebalances and buffs are done(SERIOUSLY BUFF SHAMAN AND ALL SPELL DAMAGE CALCULATIONS FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!) I will not be coming back. You cannot seriously expect peopel to literally either grind for hours at a time or pay out the ass for the ability to progress in your goddamn story. I don’t mind grinding, I don’t mind having an obstacle to go through. But when your obstacle is made of adamantium and you give someone stuff that equates to steel…when adamantium will cut right through steel…and they still can’t get anywhere? It shows how little amount of shit you actually give about people being able to play through the story you created and want people to experience. I may have been an ardent supporter of match-3 RPGs, but even I have my limits. I have the original Puzzle Quest, 2, Galactrix, Puzzle Chronicles, the Switch version of PQ1, Marvel Puzzle Quest, WWE Champions and whatever comes out in the future. Hell, I have a world first in the genre. I was your biggest fan.
When your biggest fan is talking shit about your game to the extent that they are, it should be a gigantic red flag to any and all developers. I hate what this game has become in so quick of a timespan. You are the very people that created the match-3 RPG genre that I love. You have no idea what kind of megafan of this genre you turned me into.
And in the span of three patches and two hotfixes…you lost your biggest supporter.
You can try anything that’s in your power to win me back over. I welcome your attempts. But until something is drastically overhauled to better facilitate story progress(because I still want the Citadel), your pleas will fall on deafer ears than anyone who has to listen to Gong’s terribad songs.
Give Sirrian my regards. He didn’t deserve to lose someone who set a record in one of his games. I’m gonna go back to Gems of War. You clearly care more about balancing the monetary and actual playtime aspects in that than you do with Puzzle Quest 3.
So we are a week in now and I share @Hawx’s sentiment that any enthusiasm about the Events and availability of Relics has been essentially squashed by the changes to “balance”. Many people on this thread and elsewhere have already voiced their strong discontent with the changes. I agree with some things, I disagree with others; lots of ground there to cover and plenty others continue to give their feedback.
My main issue at the moment, much like the last update, is that too much of the outlook or vision that is clearly embedded in this update is left outspoken. Much like with 0.35, an entire overhaul of the game’s item progression system was introduced, but core components of the new system were entirely absent and that fact wasn’t clearly articulated leaving players to struggle to understand how to interpret the changes. Instead of being upfront about it (essentially evolutions will not occur, period), we got a bunch of fanfare about a great new evolution system to replace the older “less good” system.
I feel like this is deja vu. While there are certainly positive changes to the balance picture (better emphasis on weapons/physical damage, better clarity in enemy scaling), core elememts of the rebalance appear entirely absent (spell progression (more on this in a later thread), itemization devaluing, citadel stat nerf and no reset availability, etc). Instead of acknowledging this and clearly specifying what needs to be addressed, we are told things are different, and have fun!) Is it any wonder that there has been a massive wave of discontent and players exiting the game?
The players are one of your best resources for other player retention, testing, feedback, and future development. But handing us another half-implemented change and saying, “Just play it, have fun” is a serious fumble. Be clear about what you expect of the players (dont say “challenge” when you mean games just take massively longer and provide better context for the reasons behind it), and treat them with a bit more respect (after two months of a fundamentally broken system, be clear on the timeline players can expect to catch up to the new “challenge”, instead of simply saying we’ve tested it, the end).
There’s a bit too much PR in the communications and less focus on speaking directly to players. I was hoping this would improve based on the last exchanges but it seems nothing was gained from that experience. It is very hard to have some of your most engaged players just throwing up their hands in confusion and shrugging at others when they are asked, what should I do next? That’s not a good sign.
Our Kingdom, Knights Radiant, has lost 2/3rds of our most dedicated high level players after this update. Sadly I doubt they will be back.
The “no evolutions” month and a half drought was excruciating enough, then to get an update where upgrade materials are “available” but drip fed way way too slow was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Getting absolutely smashed in level-parity dungeons and content is also no fun.
Please please please perform more QA testing prior to release. What is the core gameplay loop, does it work, is it fun and rewarding? From the outside, it appears as though these fundamental questions are not getting asked before release.
One additional note: there are several positive additions to this update, and we look forward to seeing what they develop into (events, melee combat, storage space, additional weapon perks).
Yeah, my guild lost about 5, as well as the highest leveled person in the entire game at 180. He actually stopped a bit prior to the patch, but the patch definitely was the nail in the coffin.
The core gameplay loop hasn’t really changed from 0.35. The way players clear levels and defeat things hasn’t changed.
What has changed, though, is the numbers and stats of the game. To that extent, the patch notes are clear as mud about that. Even worse, the details on some numbers are very obfuscated in-game.
The short, short version:
EVERYTHING in-game is now all about the rarity of gear.
The power of any piece of gear is exponential based upon it’s rarity.
Weapon damage is obvious and is known.
Spell damage is now based on rarity of gear AND having the correct element color of gear that matches the spells the player has equipped. Off-element colors = zero contribution to damage/effect (outside of incidental Power attribute addition if the piece has Strong as an attribute).
Attribute bonuses are no longer linear and scale exponentially with rarity of gear.
Element mastery bonuses are no longer linear and scale exponentially with rarity of gear.
High difficulty (Difficulty [number]) missions have been balanced against having potentially hundreds of Citadel levels boosting stats.
So, some light numbers:
Spell Mastery per correct colored piece of gear, per rarity (full set of 12 gear pieces):
Mythic: ??? (???)
Legendary: 80 (960)
Epic: 36 (432)
Rare 16 (192)
Common/Uncommon → No Element → 0
Now, multiply that number against very long-term Citadel element bonus of 50%, 100% or even higher. Elemental masteries then can reach into the multiple thousands.
That’s why spell damage appears to be so weak. Players are likely attacking high difficulty dungeons with 200-400 element mastery in their attacking element, whereas the enemies are balanced against players having 2000 element mastery or higher (in addition to appropriately high defensive stats to survive those massive auto attack / spell hits).
I concur with this. I have been putting together similar stats and those mastery numbers agree to what I’ve observed. I’ll be putting out a table of comparative stat gains that I think does demonstrate that there is a realizable curve for spell progression, however it locks in the concept of mono-color spell outfitting, at least in terms of dmg spells (utility spells such as %'s or X creates are not upgraded on the same power/mastery track). This means that obtaining a fully mono-color gear set is a fundamental part of “progression” as it’s currently designed. Guess it’s a good thing we have extra gear space. Gonna need even more if you want to play multiple characters at high levels.
What hurts about this is it is limiting certain gear sets completely out of the game. Any set that is based around multi color gear or spells is fundamentally worse than before.
Mana gain was a stealth nerf that has also gone far in making the game a longer slog than before
Thanks Lyrian for your thoughts. Yes I agree that the core gameplay loop hasn’t changed from 0.35. What I was referring to however is that the core gameplay loop was fundamentally broken in 0.35, and is STILL broken in 0.36.
I can understand the higher level dungeons being designed for high Citadel players. What doesn’t make sense however are level 50 dungeons absolutely smashing my lvl 50 (22) Paladin. From what I hear, completing the story is now way way harder than before.
If gear is intended to be the primary contributor to power, I want to be able to spend an hour or so a day, and get roughly 1-2% stronger. Is that too much to ask??
Maybe this ability is already available and I’m just playing the game wrong…
Grinding XP for Citadel levels is the method for becoming a little bit stronger each day (of course, players have to actually obtain access to the Citadel, which got placed behind a very steep progression wall for players that did not already gain access to it in 0.35).
Gear upgrades appear to be heading down one of two routes: The “hope you get lucky” F2P route of hoping each day that the upgrade parts you need appear in the shop or daily challenges. The faster route, of course, is going to involve Flash Offers and other direct purchases that will be coming down the road shortly (Flash Offers were mentioned in the update notes).
The business model here likely is one that hopes that a player gets tired of waiting for the right upgrade parts to show up randomly over a long period of time and will simply buy them from Flash Offers or equivalents when offered to advance in the game.
You’ve been right on the money with this topic all weekend.
And deeper wallets. Coveted useful gear pieces, such as Dwarven Necklaces, now need multiple copies in multiple different elements… and multiple extra relics… and then there the Glyph issue as well… /shudder
It might as well just be better to specialize in one or two classes for the sake of sanity and the restriction that very scarce upgrading resources (like Glyphs) are just not going to allow for a player to optimize all five current (and pending future) character classes.
I’m not happy with the balances changes in general.
The massive stat increases on hero and enemy, seem somewhat thought out. BUT! Nobody bothered to look at all of the existing gear/spell/citadel buffs and adjust them to the new reality.
The mana cost increases on spells really feel as if numbers were picked from a hat. And why oh WHY would they add a nerf to mana gained at the same time as they exponentially raise mana cost? Did someone fail to notice the very small gem matching board? It is now the rare exception when I can cast a spell before my ultimate is full.
