Log in to create a new thread
Codename Entertainment Forums > Shards of Titan > General Discussion > Patch Notes - 12/19/2014 - Class Balance Fixes
| Patch Notes - 12/19/2014 - Class Balance Fixes
| |
|
793 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 2:46 PM
Justin Stocks (CNE Dev)Last Edited December 19th 2014 at 2:47 PM Here are the changes in today's update!
New Features - Added a Chat Report dialog. Players can now click on an offending player in chat to report that player's chat behavior or character name. Reporting a player will automatically mute them as well. Balance Changes - MAJOR BALANCE CHANGES have been applied to all three classes to bring them more in line with each other so far as potential damage output goes. See the set of notes below this one for more details. - Smoothed out the gold production of the Town Hall between levels 13-20 so there's no longer a level where it produces less than the previous level. Bug Fixes/Misc - Adjusted the Skill Dialog tutorial so it no longer erroneously claims that you need premium currency to respec your skills (since Dec 16th's patch). - When selling equipment with a socketed gems the gems will automatically be put back into your inventory - Daily tasks should now reset correctly when playing over midnight PST - Ranger damage score no longer erroneously divides the player's AD and AP values by 2 A large balance patch has been applied, affecting (albeit smally in some cases) nearly every skill in the game. Prior to this patch wizards were potentially outdamaging rangers and warriors by up to 40%, and rangers lagged slightly behind warriors in terms of potential AOE damage. In general wizard damage has been reduced slightly (less than 10%) while other classes have had their damage increased (by up to 30%) to similar levels. Endurance/health, speed, luck/crit, and armor/mr stats have received no changes in this patch. As with all balance changes, we will be monitoring how these changes affected gameplay over the next few days, and make additional changes as necessary. One this especially important to note is that many enemies in the game use warrior and ranger skills for their attacks, and as such may have had their damage output slightly increased. Please feel free to report any fights you find where you believe the balance is now out of whack. General Notes: - Our intended balance for this patch is such that classes should be capable of damage numbers within ~5% of each other - To accomplish this, warriors and rangers were significantly buffed, and wizards were slightly nerfed - Auto attack skills have been adjusted so that your AA damage should be lower than skill damage at equal levels, encouraging more skill-based play - Many skills that scaled oddly now scale linearly from level 1-15 (for example whirlwind levels 2-3 are no longer less powerful than level 1) - There are some slight differences in Single Target/AOE damage potential of each class in order to very slightly differentiate them, however we'd like to stress that these are very slight - Warriors have average damage for both AOE and Single Target attacks - Rangers have slightly above average damage for Single Target attacks and slightly below average damage for AOE attacks - Rangers skills that do single target damage prefer AP over AD, while AOE attacks prefer AD over AP, allowing Rangers to specialize further based on their gear. - Wizards have slightly above average damage for AOE and slightly below average damage for Single Target attacks - Attacks that use rage/energy/mana now reliably do more damage than non rage powered attacks - The average amount of additional damage per point of rage spent should be more balanced across all skills - The numbers in the class specific notes below are average percentage differences with the previous damage levels at 5000 Class Attack Power (5000AD for warriors, 2500AD&AP for rangers, 5000AP for wizards). Some skill ranks were changed more and some were changed less. Warrior: - Auto attack damage increased by an average of 15% - Strike damage increased by an average of 20% - Cleave damage increased by an average of 27% - Whirlwind damage increased by an average of 28% - Impale damage increased by an average of 18% - Overpower damage increased by an average of 48% - Retaliate damage increased by an average of 130% - Strike's secondary effect now scales with AD instead of AP, but the percentage has been reduced from 50/100/150 to 10/20/30 - Cleave's secondary effect now scales with AD instead of AP, but the percentage has been reduced from 10/20/30 to 2/4/6 - Whirlwind's secondary effect has been completely refactored. Now has a 40% chance per enemy to cause 2 turn bleed for 5/10/15% of your AD - Overpower's main effect (damage reduction) now lasts for 2 turns instead of just 1 - Overpower's secondary effect has been completely refactored. Now the overpower effect also reduces the enemy's armor and MR by 10/20/30% for 2 turns - Retaliate's secondary effect now also leaves behind a 5/10/15% AD bleed for 2 turns from level 5 onward. Its prior secondary effect remains in place as well - Retaliate no longer has a 2 turn cooldown Ranger: - Auto attack damage increased by an average of 30% - Magic Arrow damage increased by an average of 25% - Scatter Shot damage increased by an average of 24% - Hail of Arrows damage increased by an average of 71% - Piercing Arrow damage increased by an average of 37% - Rapid Reload damage increased by an average of 76% - Pincushion damage increased by an average of 114% - Magic arrow's secondary effect now lasts for 2 turns instead of 1 - Magic arrow's secondary effect now also reduces magic resistance by 20/40/60% in addition to armor - Scattershot's secondary effect has been completely refactored. Now has a 20/40/60% chance for each target to receive the Pincushion debuff for 1 turn - Piercing Arrow's secondary effects have been buffed from a 10/20/30% bonus to a 20/40/60% bonus for Piercing targets affected by Pincushion Wizard: - Auto attack damage decreased by an average of 10% - Fireball damage increased by an average of 1% - Wall of Fire damage decreased by an average of 4% - Firestorm damage decreased by an average of 17% - Flame Laser damage decreased by an average of 5% - Freeze damage decreased by an average of 10% - Shock damage increased by an average of 12% - Wall of Fire's secondary effect now has a 33% chance per enemy, up from 20% - Firestorm's secondary effect now has a 33% chance per enemy, up from 20% - Firestorm's secondary effect now reduces magic resistance by 20/40/60% instead of speed |
|
35 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 3:06 PM
AvyctesIt's refreshing to see such care being given to balance, I'm pleasantly surprised.
|
|
1 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 3:15 PM
ToyleQuite saddened with the dullness that ensues with the warrior class. One of the best parts was the ability to focus on AP rather than AD to give a little twist to the character. Right now everything is so equally balanced that it takes away from anything unique you might experience in the game.
Sometimes TOO much balance can be a bad thing. :-( Haven't we learned anything over the years? Or is this game really just focused on 12 year old teens that are too uneducated to be able to play anything that requires thought? |
|
793 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 3:29 PM
Justin Stocks (CNE Dev)Toyle - I appreciate that feedback, however as the basis for adding more fun stuff like that in the future, we want to make sure that the base set of skills and abilities don't feel punishing for people who don't think about stacking intellect on a warrior. We have lots of fun plans for skills and abilities in the future, and I think specializations like an AP warrior (a paladin?) or a AD mage (a battle mage?) would be really cool.
|
|
92 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 3:42 PM
DefiarThanks for the changes. They were well needed. I had scrambled very hard to keep up with the top wizzies for some time. When HoT came out, etc....they began to very quickly outpace in terms of damage. I went from being almost on par to being 1-2k damage per shot behind despite putting in greater efforts than ever before.
I'm not trying to start a flame war with the comment. It was just very disheartening over the past couple of weeks to work so hard and see another class pull so far away so quickly. |
|
232 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 5:08 PM
AndahoI really liked using auto attack...
It made the gameplay very relaxing - in a similar way to Bush Whacker... I do realise, of course, this is a very different game. I've had a little play around with different skill builds in the arena, and I can't find anything that works well for me :( With the requirement to use skills now, to be at a competitive level, the battle is too fast to target and select skills - especially at the beginning, or when you get a double attack from speed. Fights have gone from being relaxing, to being a panic of hitting buttons :( But even after playing around with a few skills... auto-attack still seems the best - except, now it's much worse :( Before the balance changes, I could see future potential in the warrior and ranger skills that buff the next attack (aim and furious) - particularly for using against the HoT bosses... Freeze for Mages isn't really useful as an equivalent to that... especially when it costs mana, when aim and furious are free (and particularly in HoT when you start the boss with no mana). I haven't tried yet, but I can't see any possible way to kill the troll now... but even if there is a setup that could kill him, having that setup would be a serious disadvantage on a build for killing other enemies - and free players have to wait 7 days to respec :S (I have VIP btw, but am thinking about the free players). From what I gather, the ranger, with it's specialisation in single targets (and aim skill), now has a massive advantage in the HoT... and with that advantage, comes the ability to earn more tokens every day, and buy more epic gear faster. Hmmm... :( Also, as a Wizard, I never liked using AOE, so it's of no consolation that the Wizard's AOE spells have... oh wait... they've gone down too :( |
|
92 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 5:55 PM
DefiarAndaho's comment about rangers comes from a discussion we had in PM I presume where I told him about the damage I could deliver using Aim and Pierce. What he is leaving out is that there is no advantage for Rangers. I specifically had to build up energy, die, respec, and still BARELY defeated troll because to do that kind of damage, you have to have very little life. Also, I had every guild potion on with the exception of Magic Resist.
The best all around ranger build still is 10 in healthy, 10 in dex, and 10 in magic arrow. The magic arrow and the wizard attack are now much more on par than they were before which is all reality makes us equivalent. Saying Rangers are overkill in HoT now is ludicrous. It is based on one Ranger (me). In the case of the wizards, there were a number of them blasting auto attacks at over 8k damage per shot. I have never seen another ranger close to my damage so my character is not a good comparison. |
|
232 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 6:08 PM
AndahoOh no, I wasn't using you as a comparison at all Def... I was just sitting down for more than an hour looking at all the skills, and analysing potential.
It does make me feel a little better that it was hard work for you to beat the troll... But even before the nerf, I've never been able to kill him, but believed in a few tactics that might get him... now I see no way at all to get him :S |
|
92 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 6:48 PM
DefiarAndaho - thanks for the explanation. I assume you are not using guild potions? Sil beat troll before and after troll was buffed. Sil was the first to beat him since the buff and he is a wiz. Just curious what the difference is because I have always felt you were one of the absolute strongest wizzies.
|
|
232 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 7:24 PM
AndahoLast Edited December 19th 2014 at 7:26 PM yeah, I use the guild pots more often than not... but notice very little difference.... infact, the times I pot up, I usually seem to get worse luck and die with the troll having more HP than when I have tried without.
However... I literally just fought the troll... using 10hp/10int/10fireball... planning to save up mana for a revive... But by some miracle of luck, now hitting the troll for only 7.5k (with fireball now rather than auto) rather than about 9k (that I used to do with auto)... I had the most lucky win it was possible to have... He bopped my companions about 3 times, used slash (or whatever it's called) on me (alone on my own line) a few times, went beserk twice, but killed both my companions with it, only when they only had a fraction of HP left... but I still thought I was a gonner when I was up against him 1v1 with about the same % HP... but then I did 2 critical hits, and won! (with a 5.5% crit chance) ^^ I still can't believe that just happened! LOL (it's like the dreams I've been having recently). But with that build, I got destroyed on the first mobs in level 41 (twice - with the revive). But that miracle win doesn't change my thoughts from above... I thought the devs were joking about nerfing the wizards... I was expecting them to raise the auto attack of the other classes to match... and perhaps raise some AOE of the other classes too. The claimed 10% reduction in auto attack, somehow translates into a 9k hit on the troll, turning into a fireball hit (higher damage than auto attack) on the troll of 7.5k :S On another note: The HoT spiders are now stupidly easy... their bleed only does 10% of what it used to do, and I beat them with almost full HP. Urg, I'm going to bed. |
|
232 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 19th 2014 at 7:31 PM
AndahoLast Edited December 20th 2014 at 4:45 AM Hall of Trials is the main feature in the game... it's where to get the best items...
I appreciate that the devs are trying to distinguish the classes by having the warrior as all-round, the ranger with an advantage towards single target, and the wizard with an advantage to AOE... but with the HoT being build around mostly 1v1 fights with the bosses, the logic of having wizards good in AOE makes them the worst class for HoT. And in general, the apparent need to respec for certain fights, gives the free players a massive disadvantage when they can only respec once a week. |
|
91 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 20th 2014 at 12:58 AM
shikitenshiLast Edited December 20th 2014 at 1:16 AM I told you they will probably just break the wizards. I didn't ponder and didn't try anything yet so can't comment for warrior. impale was much stronger, auto attack almost the same .also last patch broke the blacksmith I think. all items including hoodie and shards are showing o_o.blacksmith is fixed now :D.
|
|
52 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 20th 2014 at 6:20 AM
AnnieAuto attack - nerfed, flamelaser - nerfed massively , firestorm - nerfed beyond fubar... You devs were always saying you wouldn't nerf wizards but would bring other classes up to the pew pew power - that was obviously all just a magic smoke that, when cleared, revealed a massive injustice, as this is not the kind of game I signed up for.
Is freeze actually supposed to do something? Because the 'stun' has never worked for me. I think this is all just one big Xmas bs, and hope you reconsider restoring glory of the wizards. By nerfing everything and increasing fireball by 1% (LMAO), not only you have stepped away from the concept you were claiming to have for wizards - that they have the most pew pew in the game, you have also broken my heart. Speaking of chance to kill the troll in HoT - it's a joke. How do you plan to re-balance the game when there could be a mass exodus of wizards from the game... |
|
92 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 20th 2014 at 6:59 AM
DefiarBased on Andaho's post above, I only know of 3 players to beat the troll since they did the changes to HoT. 2 of them are wizards. 1 ranger. No warriors.
That doesn't sound to broken to me. |
|
52 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 20th 2014 at 7:00 AM
AnnieDidn't die kill the troll?
|
|
23 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 20th 2014 at 7:34 AM
Eliza BennetI strongly agree with Annie, this "balancing" has totally destroyed the wizards. I am, however, glad that my ranger can actually win fights now. Maybe this is a dumb question, but why couldn't you boost the other classes without nerfing the wizards?
I'd respec to coordinate with the new wizard disabilities, but I'm not really seeing a way to make my wizard less crippled. This is great for rangers, but really sucks for wizards. |
|
25 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 20th 2014 at 8:26 AM
Ortopsy Mizayes Die has beaten the troll =)
|
|
92 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 20th 2014 at 8:39 AM
DefiarOh cool. Didn't know Die did it since the change in HoT.
|
|
273 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 20th 2014 at 10:21 AM
TsukasaWMLast Edited December 20th 2014 at 10:21 AM I don't know, I've never paid much attention to the numbers, and haven't spent much time in the arena yet but I seem like I've been killing things in the same number of attacks using auto-attack as a wizard. That's just me though.
|
|
35 Posts |
Link to post
- Posted December 20th 2014 at 1:44 PM
AvyctesPlaying in the arena today as a wizard (newly minted 30 without epic gear) I get the impression that while the autoattack wizard is now nerfed the autoattack ranger has simply taken its place.
Also while I like developers tweaking balance when needed I don't like my chosen class being pushed into a certain play style or build. This is what you're trying to do here. I play a wizard but I don't like AoE skills, does that mean I will never crack the top 10 in the arena now? Remains to be seen but I have a bad feeling. |