E 3BC and Swashbuckler - First impression

[LordTigerDawn]

Starting with Swashbuckler...

It feels Paladin Sacred Defender in point spending... first time loading it up, i was at 50+ points spent; so it looks like if you are planning to multiclass it, plan ahead of time. I multiclassed with sorc and arti for rune arm and air savant adding to sonic spell power.

Made a strength Thrower - found a nightforge spike in the equip room...

discovered... Throwing crits are not working at all... spent an hour, tried various mobs... 0 crits confirmed??
I always rolled a 1 when confirming a crit. Throwing weapons crit range is still not fixed... aka. nightforge is 18-20 with the bard enhancement and imp crit throwing, so no actual change there.

at 28 if you take fatespinner (aria) you can have about 400 sonic spell power - if you are curious to know. (I am sure the min maxers can get higher)

There is a hit box issue with throwers, you miss half the time due to the throw being lost (registers a hit in combat log, but no dmg is done)

---

E 3BC is lvl 25 quests - the mobs are sparse (as noted by a Dev post).

I was unable to do much here due to the lack of playability of the swashbuckler with throwers. As noted above. The mobs do seem to be hitting a lot less dmg than I would expect, so I do not think they are balanced yet either.

---

SWF feats are 10% alacrity a lvl... I expect a druid wolf with one 1 weapon attached and those feats to be even more broken (I expect the twf feats will still apply as well, anyone test this??).

---

The airships are going to take some getting used to, and most of it will be out of my range on live since we have barely reached lvl 65 there...

---

So that filled my curiousity of this pack... it is first viewing and it only looks about half implemented mechancally... But It looks beautiful graphically.

Here is hoping for the improvement it needs over the next few weeks...

[Infiltraitor]

Confirmed.
Druids do not benefit from 200 percent stat to damage, but do get the measly Alacrity.

Keep in mind Druids suffer from:
No stat bonus to damage changes. Unkor's cleaver and Dwarven Con to damage is overridden.
No weapon base damage bonuses. 4[W] on thunder forge becomes 1d10.
No expanded Crit profile weapons and abilities. Balizarde becomes a standard khopesh. Celestial Champion, keen edge, swashbuckling all overridden.
No Adrenaline Overload autocrit.
No non-physical Damage types such as light Damage from Celestia.

You end up doing about 20 less Damage per hit and 30% less crit Damage.

[LordTigerDawn]

Well it is week 2 now...

Swashbuckler is still a 50+ ap tree... too many abilities that have 3 tiers and cost 2 points each.

Remade a str thrower, ranger 6, bard 10, arti 4

Discovered very happily THROWING CRITS ARE WORKING AGAIN.
Well, except improved crit throwing is not working on my nightforge spike, but at least it was worth playing this week.

The game is now playable.

---

So the Str thrower using brutal throw for hit. Well instead of the 50 dmg you get from your shuriken thrower you get 100 (76 str in test) dmg per throw with the thunderforged throwing axe. So using sniper shot + nightforged x6 mult you get about 600 point crits. 3k with fury shot. Not bad, for not slayer arrows. Be looking at 10k hits with slayer arrows. No many shot though.

The arti sonic dmg addition is underwhelming and going empty for the 10% doubleshot is looking more promising.

Sonic dmg additions do not appear to be getting modified by spell power, as 6d6 on crits * spell power is a lot higher than 18 dmg per (200 spell power) on a consistent basis.

But we are getting there.

I still suspect the halfing dex thrower with shurikens using bard will be competitive with the monk version, but I can wait till the bugs get fixed before trying that many versions out.

---

3BC is fun, and awesome and I do not want to spoil it... but I would consider buying it now, in case the price goes up.

---

Air ships are cute, but buggy... more work needed... Falling through the floors of your airship when zoning in makes certain ones not usable right now.


Overall, this is heads over heals better than last week as I was hoping for...

Looking forward to next week...

[Kamode_Corebasher]

Thanks for your update!

Well it is week 2 now...

Swashbuckler is still a 50+ ap tree... too many abilities that have 3 tiers and cost 2 points each.

Remade a str thrower, ranger 6, bard 10, arti 4

Discovered very happily THROWING CRITS ARE WORKING AGAIN.
Well, except improved crit throwing is not working on my nightforge spike, but at least it was worth playing this week.

The game is now playable.

---

So the Str thrower using brutal throw for hit. Well instead of the 50 dmg you get from your shuriken thrower you get 100 (76 str in test) dmg per throw with the thunderforged throwing axe. So using sniper shot + nightforged x6 mult you get about 600 point crits. 3k with fury shot. Not bad, for not slayer arrows. Be looking at 10k hits with slayer arrows. No many shot though.

The arti sonic dmg addition is underwhelming and going empty for the 10% doubleshot is looking more promising.

Sonic dmg additions do not appear to be getting modified by spell power, as 6d6 on crits * spell power is a lot higher than 18 dmg per (200 spell power) on a consistent basis.

But we are getting there.

I still suspect the halfing dex thrower with shurikens using bard will be competitive with the monk version, but I can wait till the bugs get fixed before trying that many versions out.

---

3BC is fun, and awesome and I do not want to spoil it... but I would consider buying it now, in case the price goes up.

---

Air ships are cute, but buggy... more work needed... Falling through the floors of your airship when zoning in makes certain ones not usable right now.


Overall, this is heads over heals better than last week as I was hoping for...

Looking forward to next week...

[LordTigerDawn]

Third Week out -
As there is no significant changes to throwers this week, I decided to make a toon that is a copy of one I play on live. Or at least rebuild it for the better.

Toon on live:
2 ranger, 1 monk, 17 rogue - Assassin max int
It was made originally when the sneak speed stacked and it was a hoot to play. It was a one trick pony and hardly over powering, but being able to use corvette speed when going in and out assassinating was awesome fun.

So it hit 28, and I need to tr it on live... so I tried this out on lamma.

Toon on Lamma:
3 Bard, 1 cleric, 16 rogue - (morninglord, no +1 heart on live, so did not use one on lamma)

I figured "insults" -3 fort would make up for the bard lvls, and morning would make up for 1 cleric.

I did single weapon fighting, using bard to put int to dmg.

The net result -
SWF is easily overpowered right now, TWF always has that slow start to its attack... SWF does not have this, mobs were dropping on one/two hits on epic... red names, less than a haste boost (SWF + haste + haste boost is awesome) - Perfect SWF makes vorpals 19-20, so reign (from a twist in epic, and vorpal - manslayer ) go off all the time - put that with a mortal fear item and the mobs just drop with the attack speed you end up getting. Doublestrike just makes it ever more amusing.

Build Points:
Tier 5 was in assassin. (DC was 64, not including insults, but including measure). Insults does not break stealth (currently), (lasts 30+ seconds), i was worried it would, there is actually no animation what so ever for it, really nice that way.
There was room for improvement on the DC number.
Used empty hand for doublestrike, but I could see using the bard to be able to use orbs, and thus using the libram for +11 int.
Did use a +4 superior tome from store (have one on live)

Twists used:
Sense Weakness
Reign (woot, bard songs)
cocoon

Weapon:
thunderforged kukri - just cause, could have used a better one, but kukris need some respect

Fort Bypass:
Precision - Dragons Edge - Opportunist = 70% fort bypass

----

Took this toon around 3BC -
Had a hard time finding the quest precious cargo. Quest is labeled 42 mins in log but only takes 10 on EN. I could see it being a hoot on EE with a party. GL suriviving that one solo.

New Prove your worth, certainly lives up to its name again.

XP for these quests is low - there were always pretty bad, but with the revamp and them taking longer to do the xp needs to be looked at.

Balista Damage and Traps are obviously not balanced, as I was needing 80+ saves to evade them.

---

Storm the beaches is crazy now...
you used to just range the ballista, but now they fire back needing 80+ saves and doing crazy dmg. The options of quest method (spy etc.) are looking much better than storm the front gate option now. to put it in perspective, charging the gate with 6 ballista right next door needing 80+ reflex and doing crazy dmg... probably not the best idea ever. It will be worth watching the barbarian try and blow up "good". I expect it needs to be balanced like the other quests, but it was a hoot to run it on lamma with the extra dmg.

---

One major concern I do have about this going live is Druid as I guessed back in week 1, TWF and SWF are stacking for it. So the wolf form that was already a very awesome dps, is now even more ridiculous with +30% attack speed on top.
TWF and SWF also need to be exclusive, and for the instance where they multi ranger and druid, I would just make ranger exclusive of SWF as well. Not to hate on rangers, but they are the TWF and ranged toon specialists. Let the others have SWF options. aka. if the toon has SWF feats, the ranger trainer will not talk to them. tells them, "your kind is not needed here".

---

Gonna take a look at the guild ships next week, as most of the bugs seem to be with them, and fighting that many bugs is better off just not done...

[LordTigerDawn]

Bug Notes I took from E 3BC

two toed tobias - epic

treasure bags dropping, but cannot be picked up


slayer:

mobs not spawning
airships not appearing when you die and re-enter the area (mobs keep spawning, but ship is not firing on you, nor can be seen)

public area:

saga heroic - does not list quests
saga epic - just gives quest... no dialog to as expected for saga givers

ghost of a chance

hard quest - xp poor
end reward giving out lvl 3 stuff

prove your worth:

spikes kinda horribly unexpected
really poor xp
end reward giving out lvl 3 stuff

3bc epic chain rewards - heroic lvl 3 stuff

Was able to complete all quests...

Traps and Ballistas not balanced.