Concerns About Certain Controversial Issues...

[Alhuntrazeck]

Hey guys,

The last couple months have seen a lot of changes to AL, inevitably bringing rise to some concerns that will probably spark drama if stated. The intention of this thread is not to provoke anyone, but merely to attempt to bring light to some issues which many people are in the dark about. Bear in mind, this is a feedback thread.

1. Nekro

The Issue:

With the previous update, 2x fossil chance in Arena, Nekros are far more common than they once were. About 3 out of every 10 geared players have it now! (Endgame perspective). And while its slight overpoweredness was alright when it was rare, now, with such a vast number of players having it, it's pretty much game-changing, even more so than it was before. The team with Nekro on it, no matter how less skilled they are compared to the opposite team, has a nearly 100% chance of winning the clash if the other side does not have Nekro. Inevitably, this turns out to be one of the top PvP guilds thrashing the other side, even if the other side is more skilled than they are.

The Proposed Fix:

The huge advantage Nekro has over other pets (and its mythic counterpart, Scorch) is its amazing shield. It has the damage reduction capability of Blinky (40% incoming damage reduction) for as long as the shield takes to break, or until a certain time (15 seconds I believe, though I could be wrong). I don't propose to reduce this damage reduction; it is after all the pet's greatest asset. Instead, I propose reducing the time the shield lasts to a sane number like 10 seconds or lower. Bear in mind it is very difficult to break a Nekro shield in clashes, since a rogue's already high armor boosts the shield exponentially...forget warriors. I also suggest removing the panic. This seems a little "let's-throw-this-in-here-because-the-description-seems-too-short". There was no need for it lol. Of course, it mainly affects those rogues who don't use razor in clashes as mages and warriors both have essential immunity skills. Nonetheless, this seems pointless and unnecessary. These fixes could of course be only for PvP.

Alternatively, I suggest introducing a pet into PvP that removes buffs from the opponent team in range once activated. Perhaps Ironbite could have this, since it has returned this event.


2. Nilbog

The Issue:

Nilbog is a very good pet and useful in many situations. I applaud STG's ingenuity in introducing it. However, what has been bugging me is that the ratio of the duration of the Arcane Ability to its cooldown seems out of whack to me. 5 seconds AA to 20 seconds cooldown? Also, Nilbog's poison pool falls away from it which makes it annoying in solo fights.

The Proposed Fix:

This one's easy. Either reduce the cooldown to 15 seconds or increase the duration of the AA to around 7 to 8 seconds. Secondly, make Nilbog's pool fall under the pet as opposed to a little to the side.


3. The Warrior Buff in PvP

The Issue:

Controversial topic here -

I feel the warrior buff was meant to apply only to PvE and not PvP. Warriors were doing just fine before the buff in PvP. It is PvE where they are struggling. The -25% armor buff to ax was completely unnecessary for PvP. They are now (again) on top of the 1v1 triangle.

True, CTF is meant to be a team game, but how many of you (non-tanks) can claim to survive an ax followed by an Aimed-Nox-SP?

The Proposed Fix:

Make the armor nerf to what it was before. I really feel STS should first test these things out, maybe in their test server, before applying it here. -25% armor to any class is pretty much devastating. For an example of how devastating: the mage's mythic gun procs -25% armor, and this is a rare chance, not an assured occurrence every 7 seconds.

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Thoughts?

[SacredKnight]

Interesting...have yet to think of anything to add but I will do in time.
But one thing I noticed, you said "CTF is not meant to be a team game". CTF is supposed to be a team game, the core fundamentals of it when it was first introduced was have people go to get the flag, when enemies come rest of team fights them while the other flags. Sure strategy improves but this is the effective sense. All PvP modes are currently team based, "Ganging" originates from people complaining about being killed by a whole team while they're alone. Understandable if they really are alone but if they have allies on their team it's not ganging if half of red team kills you, it's teamwork.

[Serillia]

Interesting...have yet to think of anything to add but I will do in time.
But one thing I noticed, you said "CTF is not meant to be a team game". CTF is supposed to be a team game, the core fundamentals of it when it was first introduced was have people go to get the flag, when enemies come rest of team fights them while the other flags. Sure strategy improves but this is the effective sense. All PvP modes are currently team based, "Ganging" originates from people complaining about being killed by a whole team while they're alone. Understandable if they really are alone but if they have allies on their team it's not ganging if half of red team kills you, it's teamwork.

That was a typo, I think.

On topic, Nekro and the warrior axe buff needs to be addressed. Nekro is a huge game-changing pet and its becoming a bit common in most maps now and the above suggestion could make Nekro users try to play the game using brains rather than brawns . The axe buff should not have been applied to pvp as warriors were doing fine with the 10% armor reduction.

Nilbog is a newly introduced pet and it's AA placement definitely needs some looking at. Since its easy to avoid, OP's suggestion could be implemented to make the pet more viable.

Above statements are purely from a PvP point of view.

[Alhuntrazeck]

Yeah, I meant CTF is meant to be a team game. Lol. Worst typo ever, this coming from the guy who advocates fighting for flags every second of his PvP life.

[epicrrr]

Nah leave nekro as it is cause buff/nerf that pet is going to cause a major uproar esp that every dedicated lvl 41 has them.

Another doomsday scenario apart from para gem will be the season that Nekro populate low level pvp brackets.

[Kriticality]

Hey guys,

The Proposed Fix:

The huge advantage Nekro has over other pets (and its mythic counterpart, Scorch) is its amazing shield. It has the damage reduction capability of Blinky (40% incoming damage reduction) for as long as the shield takes to break, or until a certain time (15 seconds I believe, though I could be wrong). I don't propose to reduce this damage reduction; it is after all the pet's greatest asset. Instead, I propose reducing the time the shield lasts to a sane number like 10 seconds or lower. Bear in mind it is very difficult to break a Nekro shield in clashes, since a rogue's already high armor boosts the shield exponentially...forget warriors. I also suggest removing the panic. This seems a little "let's-throw-this-in-here-because-the-description-seems-too-short". There was no need for it lol. Of course, it mainly affects those rogues who don't use razor in clashes as mages and warriors both have essential immunity skills. Nonetheless, this seems pointless and unnecessary. These fixes could of course be only for PvP.

Thoughts?

The speed last ~5 seconds and the shield last ~10 if untouched.

lvl 41: (((259+703)*1.1)+(2.5*41)) = 1160.7 This is the protection from the new formula.

It has 10% chance to stun passive at 41 and 50% chance to terrify with AA. The terrify can be quite handy with multiple nekros to potentially stun during a rj or an extended clash. Most tanks have to jugg either early in clash or at the end of nekro shield to survive. Mages pretty much the same with shield. I know that shield seems longer than 10 seconds but it's right at 10. I love the pet and love playing against it. It addresses an element to the clashes when both sides have a nekro, of the snipes and one shots and encourages more strategy and teamwork. I wasn't around for when Sam was released, but I've heard it was similar. By the time I started, there were 3-5 Sams a side often enough. Let it run it's course. It's good the game is being more populated with them.

[Kingofninjas]

The speed last ~5 seconds and the shield last ~10 if untouched.

lvl 41: (((259+703)*1.1)+(2.5*41)) = 1160.7 This is the protection from the new formula.

It has 10% chance to stun passive at 41 and 50% chance to terrify with AA. The terrify can be quite handy with multiple nekros to potentially stun during a rj or an extended clash. Most tanks have to jugg either early in clash or at the end of nekro shield to survive. Mages pretty much the same with shield. I know that shield seems longer than 10 seconds but it's right at 10. I love the pet and love playing against it. It addresses an element to the clashes when both sides have a nekro, of the snipes and one shots and encourages more strategy and teamwork. I wasn't around for when Sam was released, but I've heard it was similar. By the time I started, there were 3-5 Sams a side often enough. Let it run it's course. It's good the game is being more populated with them.

I agree that more nekros are good, but as it stands now, there is the exact wrong number of nekros. There are not enough that there will almost always be one per side, as is the case with Sam, but there are enough to PvP a living hell for those without it. Nekro is ridiculously overpowered.

Additionally, for some reason is doesn't seem to follow the regular debuff buff system. While a player has the nekro speed boost, blinky aa will not override it and slow. Instead blinkys slow effect will be nullified and hence made useless. However, when one has the speed boost from kettle, blinkys aa slows us and nullifies the speed boost. This needs to be addressed to provide uniformity across all pets with speed increasing aa's

[Kriticality]

Nekro aa was specifically designed to remove all movement impairing effects and provide immunity to them for 5 secs. That was a big part of the aa in line with it being the defense pet to sns offense. It was designed to "save your butt" as carapace put it. It prevents stun/panic/terrify but not remove it. There was big discussion with Cara about it. These things were intentional and unique to nekro. I'll try and dig up the thread.

It is at a strange number of nekros atm. I'm sure Sam went through it as well. In forums, there are numerous fossils and nekros for sale and even more in game. It will even out. I end up being matched against nekros often and obviously in every clash we have. Both sides usually have at least two.

[extrapayah]

wow nekro can stun with its passive at l41? @_@

[Jazzi]

This is turning into discussion about Nekro. I agree with ll the points of the OP in regard to all 3 concerns.

Further to add my 2 cents about Nekro. It really is OP and I followed the original buff thread, where the same people were never happy with the proposed buffs and pressed and pressed for more... The result is a highly op pet, which breaks the game in many ways.

If you play TDM with random people when only one team has Nekro the whole other team leaves. Currently due to the amount of Nekros present (as someone said exactly the wrong number) it is the case most of the times and I am rarely see a game that finishes (20 kills for one of the teams). I don't see how this is fun for anyone.

[Wazakesy]

Nekro problem >= Warriors problem.

I hate the warrior's axe debuff in PvP. The buff was 100% meant to be for PVE and not PVP. The sole reason of the buff was to increase the usefulness of warriors & allow them to get into parties easier, since this is the highest debuff than rogues aimed shot, this allows them to be welcomed as rogues will b able to damage targets more, so would mages be able to damage the boss/mobs as well.

[Tatman]

A major problem in this game is, that a buff/nerf in pvp, even if it's necessary (which is rarely the case imo), almost always affects pve in a bad way. And vice versa.

1. Nekro -> Owners were unhappy with its stats and AA, called it a vanity pet, said it was worse than Blinky and, shocker, it got ridiculously buffed. The reasoning behind the buff - "to counter SnS in pvp". Ok, cool, but problem is it doesn't counter SnS. It counters everything. And on top of this, it basically grants you god mode in pve too. I doubt all this was intended.

2. Nilbog -> Someone cried about the short cooldown, which may or may not have been an issue in pvp (nobody can prove it was a big issue, since nobody had enough time to test properly), and the quick nerf (yes, an obvious nerf, not a "fix") practically ruined the pet for pve. Not cool.

3. Warrior axe buff -> Was intended for pve, somehow sneaked into pvp too.

Same happened to Breeze and a lot of other things in this game.