Player characters are way too powerful. All Heroic monsters need a buff.

[Nayus]

Epic is (almost) OK. Let's leave it aside.

You can tweak yourself for faster completion times and smoother runs but truth is: Any decent first life without tweaks from another account, full Auction House gear, without "top DPS" or "top immortality" build can solo most at level ELITE quests without dying, in all levels from 1 to 20, I don't even leave pots/wands in my main toolbar anymore.

This is really, really dumb I know epic is "the stuff" but some of us like the experience of leveling a character for fun. Trying new builds, new concepts. Turbine keeps making players stronger patch after patch, I like getting new abilities but the mobs aren't keeping up.

Unfortunately we have too many whiners to apply any "nerf" at this point, so why not buff everything up?

[Xianio]

Stop using ship buffs and bank items.

You'll find the game becomes significantly more challenging. That said, the learning curve is pretty light to start (depending on how soloable your class is). The issue isn't the content, it's that you're taking advantage of the numerous advantages you've gained from being a long-time player.

Those advantages are there to make the "grind" of a new toon faster. Not to be balanced around.

[Teh_Troll]

"Old" content is too easy. "New" stuff (say lordsmarch and attack on stormreach) feels about right.

But then again this is coming from the perspective of an over-geared vet who plays the game too much.

[DrakHar]

Old McDonald had a farm. Smelly elly oh's.

I had no idea you felt this way.

[Esmarelda]

Epic is (almost) OK. Let's leave it aside.

You can tweak yourself for faster completion times and smoother runs but truth is: Any decent first life without tweaks from another account, full Auction House gear, without "top DPS" or "top immortality" build can solo most at level ELITE quests without dying, in all levels from 1 to 20, I don't even leave pots/wands in my main toolbar anymore.

This is really, really dumb I know epic is "the stuff" but some of us like the experience of leveling a character for fun. Trying new builds, new concepts. Turbine keeps making players stronger patch after patch, I like getting new abilities but the mobs aren't keeping up.

Unfortunately we have too many whiners to apply any "nerf" at this point, so why not buff everything up?

Then apparently I don't know how to play the game. I am multi-TR, running a PM wizard without top-end gear and I find soloing at level elite to be dangerous if not deadly. I tried wiz-king at 14 elite, got my ass handed to me even with ship buffs.

If you are finding heroics to be too easy to solo, maybe you need to move your skillz of awesomeness into a new game instead of trying to make it harder on us 'normies' who still can't solo every dungeon on elite.

[Nayus]

Stop using ship buffs and bank items.

You'll find the game becomes significantly more challenging. That said, the learning curve is pretty light to start (depending on how soloable your class is). The issue isn't the content, it's that you're taking advantage of the numerous advantages you've gained from being a long-time player.

Those advantages are there to make the "grind" of a new toon faster. Not to be balanced around.

I already use nothing but my own gear and cheap wands. Ship buffs are nice but a Wand of Resist Energy lasts for just about forever and is cheap as hell, I'm saying actually buying them with the money you get from chests.
Unless I stop buying wands at all but it wouldn't be DDO by that point, all characters have easy and guided access to those right from Korthos Island (well, not wands but they sell pots, pretty much the same).

[Nayus]

Then apparently I don't know how to play the game. I am multi-TR, running a PM wizard without top-end gear and I find soloing at level elite to be dangerous if not deadly. I tried wiz-king at 14 elite, got my ass handed to me even with ship buffs.

If you're a caster then everything is dangerous regardless of gear, should monsters get close enough to you and you're dead.

And dangerous is part of it, you're still capable of completing a quest that was meant to be completed by 6 people, totally by yourself, without dying, I could bet you aren't even using hirelings in that quest.

If you are finding heroics to be too easy to solo, maybe you need to move your skillz of awesomeness into a new game instead of trying to make it harder on us 'normies' who still can't solo every dungeon on elite.

I said "most dungeons", some are harder than others, some are way harder.

[Algreg]

no, the difficulty is fine. With gear and past life tweaks from years of playing and - most important - in depth knowledge of the game system and of the quests themselves the game is quite easy. Which is quite natural, any task will become more easy with experience. New players do not have any of this. If the difficulty has to increase, which I am not even sure of, the game would need another difficulty tier past elite, not an adjustment of overall difficulty.

[Memnir]

Unfortunately we have too many whiners to apply any "nerf" at this point, so why not buff everything up?

Because many folks calling for changes to the game forget what it was/is like to be a new player - without years' worth of know how and gear to make the game easier. If we just buffed the hell out of everything, the game would become overly punitive for those new players - and they'd likely leave w/o looking back, as the barrier for entry would be nearly impossibly high for new folk. And, as much as long-time players hate to hear this, the game needs new players just as much (if not more) as it does vets.


Game balance is a difficult beast to tame, and sadly DDO has dug itself a hole with TR, Shared/TR banking, and ship buffs. Yeah, when you have all of that the game is certainly going to be easier. The knowledge of the quests and how to build more effective characters also plays a huge role in content being simpler. But, if we balance everything in the game against these, and forget newer players who have next to none of that, then the game will suffer as a result. sadly, I don't think today's Dev Team has a whole lot of options in keeping the game accessible to new players and keeping it challenging for vets, nor do they have the finesse needed to find the solutions to the messes they've made for themselves over the years.



Personal opinions only - your mileage may vary.

[slarden]

It doesn't make sense to make the content more difficult for newer players because a small percentage of players have extensive experience and powerful characters.

This is a content mastery game not a skill-based game. You've mastered the content like many vets.

[axel15810]

The only change I would like to see is to the Ship Resist Buffs. They should scale just like the resist spell. Having 30 electric resists at low levels makes content like water works trivial.

Aside from that I would be all for another difficulty teir above elite. However, it will never happen as it would require a TON of dev hours for a service that is only in demand from the relatively small number of hardcore players.

[Nayus]

It doesn't make sense to make the content more difficult for newer players because a small percentage of players have extensive experience and powerful characters.

This is a content mastery game not a skill-based game. You've mastered the content like many vets.

Today I died twice in Foundation of Discord because I didn't remember there were trapzz... then I died in the final final 2 more times because the traps broke my Wand of Resist Energy, I didn't have another one and Burning Blood by itself ran my Protection to 0 in a sec.
I'm not a veteran, just a normal working person who knows how to use the character planner. If anything I'm an advanced gimp.

And by the way, my guild only has 20 resist buffs.

[elraido]

Because many folks calling for changes to the game forget what it was/is like to be a new player - without years' worth of know how and gear to make the game easier. If we just buffed the hell out of everything, the game would become overly punitive for those new players - and they'd likely leave w/o looking back, as the barrier for entry would be nearly impossibly high for new folk. And, as much as long-time players hate to hear this, the game needs new players just as much (if not more) as it does vets.


Game balance is a difficult beast to tame, and sadly DDO has dug itself a hole with TR, Shared/TR banking, and ship buffs. Yeah, when you have all of that the game is certainly going to be easier. The knowledge of the quests and how to build more effective characters also plays a huge role in content being simpler. But, if we balance everything in the game against these, and forget newer players who have next to none of that, then the game will suffer as a result. sadly, I don't think today's Dev Team has a whole lot of options in keeping the game accessible to new players and keeping it challenging for vets, nor do they have the finesse needed to find the solutions to the messes they've made for themselves over the years.



Personal opinions only - your mileage may vary.

I agree with most of what you have said. I almost never TR. I actually have one TR toon that is currently level 16. Leveling him up is WAAAAAAY easier than any of my other toons. When I start a brand new toon, I normally don't give him any twink gear. Back in the day, before we could skip to level 7 right away, the only thing I would give my toon was the level 2 star of irian. When you start a toon with almost nothing but starter gear, the game does become a lot more difficult. You don't have money for potions, or hirelings, or scrolls. It is just you, a horrible weapon in your hands and a lot of running for the shrine. And don't get ship buffs, except for maybe the xp shrine if you feel like leveling quicker. Then you will realize it isn't as easy as you though. "oh shoot, I don't have any spells for resists, no money for resist pots, and I can't afford a hireling"

[Seikojin]

Because many folks calling for changes to the game forget what it was/is like to be a new player - without years' worth of know how and gear to make the game easier. If we just buffed the hell out of everything, the game would become overly punitive for those new players - and they'd likely leave w/o looking back, as the barrier for entry would be nearly impossibly high for new folk. And, as much as long-time players hate to hear this, the game needs new players just as much (if not more) as it does vets.

Game balance is a difficult beast to tame, and sadly DDO has dug itself a hole with TR, Shared/TR banking, and ship buffs. Yeah, when you have all of that the game is certainly going to be easier. The knowledge of the quests and how to build more effective characters also plays a huge role in content being simpler. But, if we balance everything in the game against these, and forget newer players who have next to none of that, then the game will suffer as a result. sadly, I don't think today's Dev Team has a whole lot of options in keeping the game accessible to new players and keeping it challenging for vets, nor do they have the finesse needed to find the solutions to the messes they've made for themselves over the years.

Personal opinions only - your mileage may vary.

For the most part, I completely agree.

I have a single TRing toon and a lot of stuff is a lot better specifically because of gear and higher stats. However, this is what it means to me:
1st life, you will want to group as much as possible. As you get gear, you can solo more, however, you will pretty much want a group because you have soo many vulnerabilities for the gear you are hunting for.
2nd life on can be a much smoother ride, much easier progression, only if you put time in your previous life to get the gear you need.

However, when you group 6 multi life, decently geared people together, difficulty becomes moot under EE. Your rogues abilities far surpass what is needed, your dps is super high for your level, etc. etc.

I think if dungeon scaling took into past lives, we would halt that problem. However it would become a lot like a big AC issue. Meaning you are missed entirely or you die instantly without continual healing.

However, if I was the one behind the machine, that is what I would do.

[elraido]

I think if dungeon scaling took into past lives, we would halt that problem. However it would become a lot like a big AC issue. Meaning you are missed entirely or you die instantly without continual healing.

However, if I was the one behind the machine, that is what I would do.

Then the question that comes into play is, why TR if you are going to end up exactly the same powerwise?

[darkly_dreaming]

I absolutely do not agree. As a multi-TR, well geared character yes - I can tear through most at level content even with the handicap of a full group giving full dungeon scaling. However, heroic content should NOT be balanced to be challenging to someone like me.

I pug a lot, I encounter a lot of relatively new players and they do indeed find the content challenging. These are the players that HEROIC content should be balanced for and in my opinion it's balanced just fine for them at the moment with just the right mix of somewhat-easy and challenging content.

Maybe others don't, but I remember having the dogs in 'Bringing the Light' eat me alive and having the ooze at the shrine in 'Butcher's Path' destroy everything I owned at the time. Making things harder for new players at those levels is not the way to go.

[hp1055cm]

Epic is (almost)
You can tweak yourself for faster completion times and smoother runs but truth is: Any decent first life without tweaks from another account, full Auction House gear, without "top DPS" or "top immortality" build can solo most at level ELITE quests without dying, in all levels from 1 to 20, I don't even leave pots/wands in my main toolbar anymore.

I for one like the benefit that my past experience and "tweaks" that allow me to cruise through levels 1-12 without much difficulty; and to a lesser extend 13-17. I can solo most content and don't have to wait on a group to forge ahead. I have already played the content multiple times and there aren't many surprises or even rewards that I haven't already earned. My enjoyment comes from my mastery of the content and seeing how fast I can complete, or creating as much chaos as possible and surviving it. That and getting closer to my long term goals and positioning myself for the higher level content.

"Buffing" the content at Heroic levels isn't going to provide much of a challenge for me - just for the newer, less experience players still "exploring" who might not adapt so easily.

Besides, isn't that the point of Epic to provide a fresh challenge? I mean what is Epic Gianthold anyway - just a tougher version of the same Heroic GH content for more powerful players.

There are some quests that I find difficult at level above level 12, but IMO they are just higher level content that are ranked lower than their actual content level - like In The Flesh.

[Chai]

Im fine with it. If the game is at all attempting to attract new players some of that old stuff the vets steamroll their way through will feel about right for them until they are overgeared and jaded too.

If you want more of a challenge as a vet, play stuff underlevel. Its no longer 2009 any more where we have to bank levels to ensure we have enough Xp to make it to 20. Playing quests at absolute level is more challenging than adding the +2 for elite. Von 3 is level 9. People play it on level 11 toons because the +2 for elite allows toons that are 2 levels higher. Play it with no one higher than level 9 and it will be more challenging.

[RavenAmazing]

I must be another one that doesn't know how to play this. The +30 ship buff does very little during an at level, WW elite, and then getting whacked for 400+ electrical damage from the Shaman. But I tend to work my toons from hard scratch. level 1, zero plat. I don't own the shared bank.

Unfortunately we have too many whiners to apply any "nerf" at this point, so why not buff everything up?

Because it is the "whiners" that have all the top gear, 16 toons on 4 servers and play 10-15 hours per day. I don't have that privilege, I get a few hours per week, but that's ok. I like this game, a lot, and I do my best to avoid the elitist crowd. You guys do your thing, I'll do mine, but, I promise, I have way more fun.

[nayozz]

Then apparently I don't know how to play the game. I am multi-TR, running a PM wizard without top-end gear and I find soloing at level elite to be dangerous if not deadly. I tried wiz-king at 14 elite, got my ass handed to me even with ship buffs.

If you are finding heroics to be too easy to solo, maybe you need to move your skillz of awesomeness into a new game instead of trying to make it harder on us 'normies' who still can't solo every dungeon on elite.

/signed

the whiner is just a troll or god, in disguise.