My take on some of the U45 Balance changes

[FlavoredSoul]

So here is my take on the U45 balance changes currently on the Lammania forums, will not be touching Alchemist because that's something that I'll need to play around a lot with to get a good understanding of.

THF changes, Glacing blows & Strike through

Overall I really like how they're reworking glancing blows to be more powerful for dpsing small packs with strikethough letting you do full damage and doublestrike on 1 or 2 extra enemies, seemingly stealing the code from Dance of Death,will also make THF actually function in reaper because right now glancing blows do so little damage that after reaper reductions they can end up doing close to zero. Though there are some concerns that this actually decreases the AOE clear of THF on larger packs with 4 or more enemies. Personally I'd like to see some changes to cleaves to let them doublestrike and crit so that they become the cooldown locked big AOE for 4+ mobs while strike though is enough for 1-3 mob packs.

DoD changes seem totally unnecessary, moving it to the strikethrough system is fine but reducing the number of targets it can hit AND giving it a worse cooldown to uptime ratio at the same time is dumb, especially when you still get NOTHING if the first attack whiffs do to lag, I'd be willing to accept the reduced number of targets if it had the same cooldown/uptime and also was changed so it didn't need an attack to hit to get the buff (either removing the attack portion and making it a trance, or just make the buff independent from if the attack hits or not).

Ranged changes

Inquisitive doubleshot and lawdice nerf was well deserved and honestly I'm kinda impressed that they had some restraint and didn't totally murder the tree. While I don't particularly like the minor nerf to Gxbows via rapid reload as rogue mechanic is my favorite build if it's as small of a nerf as some devs had said (about 5% reduced fire rate) then I'm not going to get bothered by it, kinda sucks for repeaters to get dunked on too but oh well. IPS nerf kinda sucks though because now if you want optimal dps you'll need to toggle it over to archer's focus whenever you're only hitting one target because of that 20% damage loss, IPS is still going to be mandatory for pack clearing though. It's also going to make playing tall races as ranged even more painful as your IPS shots miss 50% of the time against short enemies and now you're eating a 20% dps hit even on the one enemy you hit, Halfling only ranged build meta incoming. Also RIP bow users, getting a tiny buff in deepwood stalker does not cancel out the 20% hit they're taking in IPS, and bow builds are even more reliant on IPS thank crossbow builds. New throwing support may be OP with alchemist but IDK.

Ship buffs

Honestly these should have gone a long time ago, they unbalance the first 6 or 7 levels of play making you nearly immune to most spells unless you're running R3+, they also invalidate resistances on gear for basically the entire 1-20 leveling process, only a handful of mid-high epic and legendary items have more than 30 or 40 resist on them anyways. Still I think they'd get a lot less pushback if they removed them together with a proper airship revamp, possibly reintroducing the resist buffs in a way that scaled with level to be less overwhelmingly OP in heroics and less useless at cap.

Still I don't like how much of the changes were framed as a balance decision for HC league, that was definitely a misstep as it alienates players who can't (premium&f2p) play HC or just don't like HC.

[cdbd3rd]

....

Still I don't like how much of the changes were framed as a balance decision for HC league, that was definitely a misstep as it alienates players who can't (premium&f2p) play HC or just don't like HC.

Or those of us who played and enjoyed HCL not realizing it was going to be used to cut our toes off afterwards.

[fatherpirate]

I do hope the next HCL is OPEN TO ALL.

I could understand why they limited it the first time.
They were not sure if they were going to have issues.
OK...the server works.

OPEN THE DOOR

[FuzzyDuck81]

I do hope the next HCL is OPEN TO ALL.

I could understand why they limited it the first time.
They were not sure if they were going to have issues.
OK...the server works.

OPEN THE DOOR

it'd be nice for sure, though I suspect what might happen is this time VIPs will get full access as before & there might be a new "hardcore league pass" which is basically all the VIP quest, class & race access but only applies to the hardcore server, at a reduced price vs. the normal VIP subscription.

[Stoner81]

Inquisitive doubleshot and lawdice nerf was well deserved and honestly I'm kinda impressed that they had some restraint and didn't totally murder the tree.

Wrong, they have murdered it.

IPS nerf kinda sucks though because now if you want optimal dps you'll need to toggle it over to archer's focus whenever you're only hitting one target because of that 20% damage loss, IPS is still going to be mandatory for pack clearing though. It's also going to make playing tall races as ranged even more painful as your IPS shots miss 50% of the time against short enemies and now you're eating a 20% dps hit even on the one enemy you hit, Halfling only ranged build meta incoming.

Nerfing IPS is flat out dumb, stupid and short sighted!

The ONLY things they needed to do for balancing Inquisitive is to move the Law Dice round so they weren't as heavily loaded maybe put them in the cores or something like that. That way once they get to epics they have their full damage where it's needed most due to inflated stats of mobs.

Meanwhile Sorcs can still walk round casting 2 spells and clearing an entire room.

Still I don't like how much of the changes were framed as a balance decision for HC league, that was definitely a misstep as it alienates players who can't (premium&f2p) play HC or just don't like HC.

THEY SHOULDN'T BE BALANCING AROUND HARDCORE AT ALL! Changes made to HCL should be kept away from the live servers but that means more work for them.

Stoner81.

[SirValentine]

Ship buffs

Honestly these should have gone a long time ago, they unbalance the first 6 or 7 levels of play making you nearly immune to most spells

What about all the other ship buffs they are taking away? Is the Dwarven Battlemaster or Scholar of the Twelve unbalancing play?

If they have specific balance reasons for nerfing resists in particular, then do that. But they're throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

[Xgya]

Unless they change it so Strikethrough works with special attacks, the nerf to Dance of Death is even more prevalent.
Not being able to move, not triggering all special attacks' effects on all targets, reduced number of targets...

The overall single target DPS nerf is real too. Losing glancing blows on the main target will hurt.
Losing glancing blows on groups of monsters larger than 3 will hurt too, but less so - though clearing two or three mobs at a time SHOULD be faster.


I agree about ship buffs. They're legacy buffs that should have been faded out a long time ago, but weren't.
I also begrudgingly agree about Inq nerfs and their overall direction. As someone that played the tree in various iterations INTENSIVELY, I can safely say it was much more powerful than any other crossbow build I tried before (though GXB Fusilade Rogues came decently close)
Begrudgingly because, well, losing fun toys isn't fun. I understand why it's happening though.

[Kutalp]

I believe what DDO needs is re- defining rules by Developers/Dungeon masters themselves.


Eberron Fighter/Barbarian/Rogue (Not new class for sake): Uses energy arms (not magic but technology) and armors which does not have to be ranged weapons; not metallic medieval style when Eberron has airships and artificers and technology. Each setting shall has its own bonuses and penalites for every single setting and different zone.

UMD: Different scrolls and magical items aswell as advanced or basic technologies unlocked or locked at each setting.

Arcane casters: can and can not cast certain spells at different settings. Casting speed and power has variations at each setting.

Divine casters: Certain deities are more powerfull when others are very weak or blocked (even followers punished) at different settings. Healing also has different values.

Technological bonuses and penalties: Certain classes get bonuses or limitations aswell as certain specialities are blocked. (Artificer-Eberron)

Nature casters: Similar rules with divines.

Ranger racial enemies: Different racial enemies bonuses and penalties for each setting.

Races: Penalties or bonuses to different races through optional dialogues at different settings.


Frontliners: Make fighter, barbarian, rogue, battle medic and battle caster shine once more. Scientist like classes should not be frontliners but support (which can also mean the brain guy as a positive approach. Brain guy makes plans and gives advices and support. Muscle guys rush for the heat of the combat. Professor Rambo is truly disattractive please understand this. This makes the game lose more blood than it summons fresh blood)


Effect of nature and supernatural at different realms defines the equipment used. The logic behind using different type of equipment for each setting, zone, quest. (Alot more strategy and fun)


Settings we have at DDO:

Eberron, Forgotten realms, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Mystara.


Thanks for reading.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqHGf_cZMJE

[barecm]

Wrong, they have murdered it.



Nerfing IPS is flat out dumb, stupid and short sighted!

The ONLY things they needed to do for balancing Inquisitive is to move the Law Dice round so they weren't as heavily loaded maybe put them in the cores or something like that. That way once they get to epics they have their full damage where it's needed most due to inflated stats of mobs.

Meanwhile Sorcs can still walk round casting 2 spells and clearing an entire room.



THEY SHOULDN'T BE BALANCING AROUND HARDCORE AT ALL! Changes made to HCL should be kept away from the live servers but that means more work for them.

Stoner81.

Yes, yes, and yes.

The game suddenly feels not fun anymore.