Hi Everyone,

As I am sure you are all curious we are hard at work on the upcoming Jungle area. It is taking us longer than we would have hoped, and part of that is learning what is needed to make a major update work in Shards. That includes making sure all the end game systems such as Heroics, The Paragon Brotherhood, and Hall of Trials upgrade properly to a new level cap, making sure the new content is balanced to be challenging and interesting for players of all power levels, while making sure that players who have decked themselves out still remain awesome by making sure that you have a way to upgrade and improve all that hard earned epic gear.

To that end we have some major systems and balance changes that we will be rolling out over the next couple of weeks to get us to where we need to be so we can release the Jungle.

*** All systems and functionality described here is subject to change. These are our current thoughts and prototypes. ***

Level Effectiveness - Differences in level will have an effect on the amount of damage you do to / take from monsters and players who are not the same level as you or your companions. This will result in monsters that are lower level than you taking more damage and monsters that are higher level than you taking less. Additionally equipment level will also be a factor making it more valuable to have equipment that is the same level as you are. We will be rebalancing the HoT around this as to not reduce the current amount of tokens you can earn each day there.

Improved Battle Rating - We have reworked the way battle rating is calculated to be more heavily weighted towards the amount of damage you can do, and how fast you do it. Currently the health component of the rating overshadows everything making the rating a poor indicator of your combat potential. The new rating calculation will be a combination of the Attack Rating (which includes speed, and crit), 10% of the health rating, your armor rating, and the new level effectiveness rating. This new rating should be a much more accurate indication of your combat potential. Skills and Luck withstanding.

Companion Equipment - Companions will be able to equip any equipment you have collected provided they meet the level requirements. This will be normal player equipment so it will be upgradable in the Blacksmith in the usual ways including gems and reforging. While it has always been our intention that companions not be as powerful as the main hero, it was never our intention that they be effectively "meat shields" as some players have described them. To that end being able to equip Rare and Epic gear on your companions should go a long way to making them effective members of your team. Companions will have the option to appear wearing their usual clothing, or appear in the equipment you have equipped on them.

Crafting Gear - To help fill in the blanks as you level up, and to help you fill out your companions gear Uncommon and Rare gear will soon be available for crafting at the blacksmith. The level of the crafted gear will be at the level of your Blacksmith or the level max of the recipe you have for it, so to go along with being able to craft gear your Blacksmith will now be upgradable. Upgrading the Blacksmith will most likely cost scrap.

There are a few other items in the pipe, including Heroic Multiplayer and an Upgrade System for Epic Gear. I will post more about those systems after the items above have been rolled out.

*** Again keep in mind all of this is in development and subject to change.***

Please post any questions, comments, or concerns and I will be happy to clarify what I can. We don't have a set release date, but I am hoping to have much of this ready to go in the next 5 to 7 days. So be on the lookout for these changes mid to late next week.

-David

Hi Cruz,

For the Hall of Trials, we are thinking of having the bosses more frequently so you can still earn the same number of tokens each day before hitting the level barrier.

The armor rating includes magic resistance.

The free slot on companions was set aside for a companion trinket, but we plan to just make it a ring slot.

The uncommon gear recipes will come unlocked, the rare gear recipes will be drops and mission rewards - or in the shardium store.

You will be able to craft gear for the other classes so you can craft for your companions.

Haven't decided what the heroic mp's will drop other than the upgrade tokens at this point.

-David

Thanks for the comments and feedback so far.

MrPT,
In regards to the starting balance for the jungle we will probably start with it balanced around needing all rare (blue) level gear, and then balance towards getting higher level gear that will be available in the Jungle as it progresses.

Higher level and quality of gems is certainly something we can consider putting as higher difficulty rewards.


Tsunkasa,
Companions being able to equip normal gear is going to be a huge improvement to their effectiveness regardless of reforging. We recognize some players are not entirely comfortable with the premiumness of the reforge system, but it is off topic for this discussion thread.

It is our intention to make the other class gear available in the HoT and Paragon so you can buy it for your companions.

In regards to crafting, rare gear (blue) is what you earn doing multiplayer instances so this offers an alternative way to get some of those items. Additionally with the new level effectiveness being able to replace an item with something closer to your level will also become useful. Obviously this loses its value when you get up to max level and are focused on getting epics, so having some items that you can craft that help with that is not a bad idea. Crafting is a system we have a lot of room to explore.

Annie,
It is intentionally that warriors have more armor than wizards. It's our intention that classes be as equal as possible but also different from each other - not just copies of skills and stats with different names and graphics - this, while a greater challenge for us, should make a less boring game for our players overall. Class balance will continue to evolve as we update and add more content. But we will continue to give wizards less armor because...... they are wizards!

-David

Hi Yackamary,

Obviously the reforging system is something that players have interest in and ideas for. This isn't a system we are focused on right now but I have made a note of the comments and concerns being voiced.

-David

Hi Elharith,

Class balance will continue to evolve as we update and add more content. I see the ranks but am not sure if this isn't a result of better multi-target damage or what, but we will get a change to look at it as we balance the Jungle.