@Jeto The set isn’t held in high regard because of how much luck factors into it even working at all. A good example of this is the 2 set bonus giving haste for 1 turn which would probably be fine if it was guaranteed to work 100% of the time at mythic But instead it only works only 25% of the time. Which probably makes it the worst set bonus in the game.
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I actually really like the variant idea (I just wish this one was on Diraquine or Trarg) (Lightbringer definitely could use the help though), and all the new spells have been fantastic. The added value to the next season pass with the free mythic and legendary and guaranteed variant drops is greatly appreciated as well.
(Edit) - Would it be possible to see the 2 set bonus for the ancient dragon set. Just noticed its not in the patch notes, thanks.
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Ok, once I read this I could relax. I agree with @00h00m that using lightbringer as the base of the variant is a pretty bad decision. Season 1.5 is one of the very few I haven’t unlocked in the archive due to the gear being useless in my opinion. However, I do appreciate having changed the variant drops being only a small %, since that would have made me lose all my faith on the seasons. At least now we should be able to get the collection goals, it has been extremely dissapointing getting lots of dreamhold gear but just a few fae-touched (I have 2 accounts and in neither of then was able to get the 6 unique pieces of season 3.0). So even if I still regard the new season as something I am not specially looking forward too, at least it should feel a bit better than 3.0
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I appreciate your honesty here. It was something most of us already imagined, you have told us several times you are a small team and the new paradigm for seasons has “save time” all written over it. Taking into account they come together with the big reworks, I am not surprised by the decision. And up to a certain extent, I prefer it like this: less time spent on seasonal content and more time on making sure the reworks are well done. It is a pity we cannot get both, but the worse would be both being underwhelming due to not giving enough time to either of them.
The variant idea itself is not a bad one, it can be a good way of giving some past gear a bit of a push so they can be played again. However, if the base gear is too bad and the variant ability doesn’t compensate it then there won’t be any excitement into it. Maybe it would be a good idea to ask the players how they feel about the past seasonal gear? Which ones they like best, which ones they find interesting but are a bit on the weak side right now, which ones are completely unusable… That way it would be easier to get more exciting seasonal content. If the idea is to use all the 1st season gear as variants, then at least the remaining ones seem more interesting, I would be looking forward to Khazdhuli and Fallen variants.
As always, thank you for the time and hard work you all put into trying to do the most with what you have. Sometimes it may not be enough for us but at least there is a clear intent on hearing us out and trying to improve so that we can keep enjoying the game. Personally I am looking forward to the crafters rework, it seems like it will fix some of the messiest parts of the Gear Rework and make it much better.
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I really like the new minion buffs/debuffs. They get a bit more use and depth, and we get some ways to deal with the absurd 1hit KOs from spells and criticals that will surely become worse after the crafters rework.
Thank you!
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I know the whole team is under a ton of pressure. There have been really fantastic changes that we players don’t not comment on much and are the reason I keep playing and subscribing.
Executive summary: Inclusion of Legendary and Mythic awesome, Lightbringer too much garbage for variants to make it minimally desirable.
Longer Version:
I think the addition of the Legendary and Mythic pieces is very interesting. I believe new players will gravitate to the offer and be happy to get a jump start. I believe older players will love the option to fill a slot they are struggling to draw. However, I do have to separate the great inclusion of choice of Legenday or Mythic piece in future seasons from the set in this season.
I started in March 2023. I was excited to see the Lightbringer set, but as soon as I played for a month, I realized the set was terrible for play. The percent activation chances were just too low, even at Mythic, to be worth investing in. The items that granted bonuses on board state, did not offer enough of a reward to be worth running them.
I suspect the team has a database of what gear pieces and sets are being played at what level. From there, take the bottom third and accept they either need a full rework or need no development resources applied to them. Applying variations to sets that see no play will probably not boost them into the meta. And by this I mean they are something the players of all levels will not desire and then not chase.
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The crit PvP debuffs are decent for mid game players, but are insufficient for late players.
Late game PvP players already field crit rates in excess of 100% and crit damage bonuses in excess of 1000%. So, these debuffs won’t move the needle on that in any meaningful way…
… unless there are some adjustments coming to balance this in 3.1.5? There has to be for sanity’s sake?
If so, Jeto surely can’t be allowed to discuss these changes ahead of their release.
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Going forward in seasons I think this does add great value and is a very attractive addition. It is just a pity that the Lightbringer gear set is the one that was chosen to unveil this tremendous value to us.
Perhaps it would be quick and easy enough to enhance the Lightbringer set effects during this season to make them a bit more palatable.
Looking towards seasons 3.2 - 3.5 are we going to see variants on the remainder of season 1.x sets?
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I completely disagree. I just analized the top 10 opponents of Open Champion League. 6 of them had less than 69% crit chance, so even 2 epic pussbags would make them unable to crit. The rest 4 would see their crit reduced from 100% to less than 25% with a couple of legendary pussbags. Those surely are meaningful debuffs in my opinion, which will surely help more players being able to challenge them.
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I hope this fixes the zoom issue, but I fear that it won’t for areas where there is a path choice to make.
Would it be possible to add something in settings that makes all maps default to zoomed-out? Or perhaps a button on the map screen?
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Why couldn’t this have happened for the Fae-touched gear? The amount of 1.3 stuff I got was insane.
Called it: Prediction: 3.1 gear is 1.5 variants - #4 by Jeto
When do they get released?
Completely agree.
The work being done to improve the game is well worth taking a hit in terms on new content, I like the idea of variant gear.
But, the fact that 1.3 gear also dropped from 3.0 was kind of a slap in the face. I see from the notes that this has been rectified for 3.1, but we could really use some sort of compensation for the wasted time in 3.0 dungeons, and all the resources spent on the season caches.
Getting an Amulet of the First without being Fae-touched was especially annoying for a lot of players. Perhaps if you replaced everyone’s amulet with a Fae-touched one, and a couple of Dreamhold relics, people might be a bit happier?
Did you check their stats in-match? They are often quite different from what is displayed on a player’s personal Top 10 list.
Literally the very first opponent I fought today in Open:
And unless there are some restrictions being put into place, mechanically it is possible as of 3.1.5 to obtain starting values of 180% crit chance and 1800% crit damage bonus before applying in-match gear effects.
With those starting values and in-game gear effects, the end result is the same as now, if not even worse. Would even a handcrafted gear set that applied double 80% damage reduction (96% in total) be enough to avoid being one-shotted? It is trivial already to one-shot players now through 80% block damage reduction already.
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I took into account gear and set bonuses that increase crit chance, of course. In your example, a couple of legendary pussbag and your enemy’s crit chance would go down to 16%. That is less than 1 crit every 6 attacks, if a player cannot deal with that then the issue is that they are not strong enough yet. We are talking about the big leagues, winning against the strongest should be a challenge, not a walk in the park as it was before.
Mechanically it is possible, but there is no sense to it: once you hit 100% there is no reason to go further. For example, once I get enough aim attributes to get a crit chance around 100% I will remove my bloodfang twinblade for another weapon, so my crit chance won’t go much higher than that. If any player tries to get those numbers you say only to avoid the minion debuff then they are just wasting resources on something that won’t give them any benefit (since winning your defenses doesn’t give you any real value at the highest league).
@Jeto I’m curious if this is the actual minion rework we’ve all been wondering about or if there is more of it to come?
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No, this is not the minion rework - that will be it’s own thing sometime in the future & have probably it’s own blog explaining it.
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It always makes me happy when my spell gets a critical hit. Am I correct in thinking that the 5% chance of this and the variable strength per player are not affected by the minion (cunning) debuff/reduce?
Will enemy minions work the same as your own in PvP?
If they will, they cancel each other out or not?
Or they just give different buff?
And, suggestion: cunning can be designed to reduce critical chance and critical damage taken directly, by percentage, not reduce enemy stats, just like how resilience works in World of Warcraft.
They will work the same, so their minion’s might/speed/cunning do the same to you as you do to them
And its just weapon critical hit chance that cunning minions lower right, not spell critical chance?