As I always do, I am going to preface this with a few words of wisdom I have learned in my journey called life. The first part of my post is directed to the community and the last will be for Justg and STS/G. A lot of thought has gone into this post as I was already working on an entire thread dedicated to point #1. If you are not committed to reading the entire post, please stop now and refrain from commenting/criticizing only exerts from within.
To begin...
I will keep this first part short. Ladies and Gentlemen, when responding to requests such as what STS/G is giving us the opportunity to be involved in, I implore you to take time in choosing your words carefully before just posting. When you make your suggestions, please understand there are multiple aspects to this game: PvE and PvP. Farming and leveling. Soloing and cooperative play. I mention this because some of the points made above would allow for a fix in one aspect of the game, however, destroy another. Also, simple statements such as "NERF!!" provide no true suggestion and, if I were thinking like a STS/G, could show why I show little attention/motivation into placing PL issues higher on the "to-do list." When creating your requests, answer the following questions: What? Why? How? Answering these "unasked" questions allow for your post to be more beneficial and more likely seen/taken seriously.
With that said, let me begin on what I would like to be seen.
1. A greater scaffolding of attributes when leveling.
For this point, I will use the bear class as an example as I am more knowledgeable and have them at every 5 levels of the game. The argument of bear inefficiency is not what I am striving for. That discussion is reserved for the Strength Gear Analysis thread tagged in my signature. What I would like to focus on, which would not only apply to bears, but all classes in PL, is the ineffectiveness of adding attribute points to increasing class attributes. Below is a picture of one of my level 5 bears and it's overall attributes with all points placed into strength.
And again at level 15 with all attribute points placed into strength:
Some gain in dodge, crit, and health with the greatest benefit in health. But, keep watching. Here is level 35, same full strength allocation:
After 100 additional attribute points into strength, there is a minute change in all attributes with the exception of health. Let's move on to level 50:
It's gotta get better, right? Yeah, endgame will do it:
See a pattern? With the exception of the health pool, adding strength (this classes "main" attribute) has little difference from low level to high level. As the game progresses in PL, mobs and bosses are stronger and hit much harder. However, the base stats of the character change by almost nothing. This means classes require strictly on gear to provide how strong/effective they are. My question is: Why do we even have attribute points? These points should add something more significant than just effecting one out of the ten attribute categories. Shouldn't all of the categories be effected and at a higher level? I can understand strength effecting the defensive stats (dodge, health, health regen, armor), dexterity effecting the offensive stats (hit, crit, damage), and intelligence being a mix of the two. However, ALL of the categories should be affected with the listed attributes having a greater overall impact. The attributes should determine class effectiveness, not the gear which is equipped. I am not saying gear should not have slight boosts as the levels increase, but they should not be the end-all.
To put this into a greater light, look at the following to pictures:
Both pics initially look the same. The stats are very close. However, unless you know me and the levels of the toons above, given I hide my attribute points, would you know the two pics come from a 50 and a 76? Shouldn't a 76 be MUCH more powerful in all categories wearing the same gear?
This brings me to my next point....
2. The "Skills" Argument.
So, many individuals have stated skills should be dropped back to 6 or 7. I disagree.
At 6 or 7, toons will have all 12 skills maxed at 72 leaving no room for improvement after this level. Also, it can be argued not all skills are beneficial depending on the class. Restore is not a "necessity" to birds and bears. Meditation is not needed for birds. By limiting skill allocation, we limit the ability for uniqueness. Everyone would have the same build and the difference between Taunt at level 6 and level 9 is 6 dodge, not a drastic improvement. (Yes, I know Taunt stacks. Bear with me.) Also, skills need to continue to increase to meet the demands of PvE. Too many of the suggestions above focus on PvP imbalance with ZERO consideration to how PvE will be affected. If mob/boss strength will continue to increase, we need the buffs/debuffs to be able to compete within this realm of the game. Instead of limiting the amount of points which can go into a skill, why don't we take a different approach?
Lower the stats of the skills.
Let's go back to the Taunt example. Taunt from level 1 to 9 looks like this: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14. Why not decrease this by half to require less focus on dodge. This applies to all skills. With a reduction in buff increase, and an increase in attribute point effectiveness, buffs can stay at a high level, yet not me so overwhelming in certain areas.
(While I am here, I would personally like to see points taken from mana regen and dodge, and placed into hit % for bears.)
3. Decrease in mob stats.
Since Nuri's, we have seen an exponential rise in the amount of armor, dodge, and damage mobs and bosses have. This has led to an equally exponential rise in elixir usage and a decline in "team." I am not saying a nerf similar to the recent changes in Nuri's is needed, however, by lowering how hard mobs/bosses hit, as well as the frequency of their dodge, the "team" concept could begin to be reimplemented and players could enjoy runs without worrying if they have an elixir is equipped before joining a game. As I have said a million other times, the game should be fun, not a chore.
I have a few more suggestions, but these are the three which I feel are most pertinent and fit within the requirements given by Gary.
Thank you for making the community feel like part of the game again.
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