So - a couple of things:
First, a salute to you all for being such good sports about all of these crazy changes! You guys took the high-road all weekend and kept discussions (here, in game and in PM) civil and constructive! We all appreciate having such a loyal and invested community :-)
Second, we are going to return to our old system of matchmaking. Far too many concerns about abandoning hard-won, expensive gear and no good way to fix that. This isn't to say there haven't been tons of great, creative ideas about how to equitably move players within brackets - but there are just too many exceptions in the way of old items, discontinued drops, etc. to make a really rock-solid upscale / downscale system possible.
Lastly, we are going to keep the behind-the-scenes arena modifiers we've been working on over the last few weeks. We were successful in adjusting balance at the highest 'tier' of the game, but had poor results at the teen and 20's (because the adjustments required to make 40 and 50+ gear feel right made the stuff under 30 feel really useless). Again, although these adjustments are set up in level-ranges they do not affect matchmaking; only the players themselves. We benefit from this by doing stuff like, the first 10 levels get no adjustment. All other groups of 5 levels get a 5% reduction to damage and healing... and certain problematic groups (should they arise) could get their own specific adjustments. This sets us up to respond to reports of balance problems in the future very quickly.
I expect this update to happen this week but can't commit to exactly when just yet.
Thanks again!
- Cinco
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