Armor Up - Developer Diary #2

[maddong]

Either way, I don't think its a good idea to simply let blitz charge based on attacking something.

I agree. We shouldn't have 6 man groups full on blitzing.

[Ayseifn]

Blitz does need a nerf, it's pretty ridiculous.

I used to swap to different EDs if I was doing a quest with a lot of portals, but not anymore blitz from start to end in almost any quest.
I used to use different EDs on toons without cleaves because it was too tedious to charge, but since I can blitz the whole quest and will no longer need to charge why would I use anything else?
When grouping with other high DPS toons or instakillers I'd usually swap ED to something else as getting and keeping blitz was sometimes either too difficult or not enjoyable, but now I'll be able to keep charges just by swinging at things why think about swapping anymore?
If it only lasted 30 seconds and had a 3-5 min cooldown like every other epic moment it'd still be better than a lot of them.

Also as others have commented I don't get why all EDs are getting the exact same amount of melee power, crusader and fury don't need anywhere near as much as say shadowdancer.

[maddmatt70]

Why is not just removing blitz from DDO on the table and putting a different epic moment in place? Then buff all melee destinies. You do not get these balancing issues. Blitz has never been a good thing. I personally avoided blitz as long I could, but inevitably I had to take it in order to have effective melee characters. It is selfish not teamwork oriented what so ever. I played with Axer for years until I could not stand it anymore. Blitz is like having little Axers in your party every quest and they are not teamed oriented they are me oriented.

[Monkey_Archer]

Why is not just removing blitz from DDO on the table and putting a different epic moment in place? Then buff all melee destinies. You do not get these balancing issues. Blitz has never been a good thing. I personally avoided blitz as long I could, but inevitably I had to take it in order to have effective melee characters. It is selfish not teamwork oriented what so ever. I played with Axer for years until I could not stand it anymore. Blitz is like having little Axers in your party every quest and they are not teamed oriented they are me oriented.

lol. That sure is an interesting perspective

[maddmatt70]

lol. That sure is an interesting perspective

Axer was the person that talked the Devs into Blitz. I am not joking about this. The current Devs were not those Devs so hopefully they are receptive to this. I tried really hard on the forums to convince the Devs that blitz was bad for DDO, but it was too late by the time it got there because the Dev's minds had been made up.

[Aelonwy]

Axer was the person that talked the Devs into Blitz. I am not joking about this. The current Devs were not those Devs so hopefully they are receptive to this. I tried really hard on the forums to convince the Devs that blitz was bad for DDO, but it was too late by the time it got there because the Dev's minds had been made up.

Did not know that. Shade was really good at being the squeaky wheel. I miss his comments sometimes though, you know like how math never solves anything... =)

[Delacroix21]

Why is not just removing blitz from DDO on the table and putting a different epic moment in place? Then buff all melee destinies. You do not get these balancing issues. Blitz has never been a good thing. I personally avoided blitz as long I could, but inevitably I had to take it in order to have effective melee characters. It is selfish not teamwork oriented what so ever. I played with Axer for years until I could not stand it anymore. Blitz is like having little Axers in your party every quest and they are not teamed oriented they are me oriented.

How about NO.


Considering it takes MONTHS per destiny/PrE to be finished this would really stink.


Do the other EDs need a revision? Yes....
Will a broad melee buff help make them viable until a revision is made? Yes....
Would nerfing the damage boost (like Sev just did) make these EDs more viable dps compared to ranged/casters? NO!


Like I said earlier, its just plain dumb to ask for huge sweeping revisions of the game that DDO just doesnt have the resources to pull off anymore. The Devs working on this game are very few and barebones, we need minor changes that are easily implemented (like the ORIGINAL proposal) so Devs can go back to making CONTENT. No new content= bored players who LEAVE, and often dont return.

[Xaxx]

I am not arguing against it. I like the melee power plans. However, I was just explaining the viewpoint people would have in saying this is a nerf to blitz.

Staring up an elephants hindend is also a viewpoint, but not a good one, and not one most people ever in the lifetimes want to hear about so....

[moo_cow]

Based on player feedback and our own internal testing:

We are reducing the bonus to melee power from the Epic Destiny innate abilities and epic levels. We bumped up Master's Blitz a bit. With the changes to Master's Blitz it is now effective against long boss fights and it is much easier for multiple melees to all have it running.

Sev~

For a day I thought maybe I would switch my monk back to Gmof if melee's were getting a damage boost, but I guess it's back to LD(while it might have been over the top in the first place it would of provided some merit to other destiny's). Because there is 0 point in playing most of the destiny's. Are we still expecting a revamp of epic destiny's?

[Bingobong]

Yes.

Sev~

By changing the mechanic of blitzing to be much easier to achieve while keeping the max damage the same, you've basically given blitz a huge buff. The most powerful ED for melees just got even more powerful.

[BDog77]

How about NO.


Considering it takes MONTHS per destiny/PrE to be finished this would really stink.

I take it you are saying NO to removing Blitz (as an aside, I'd like to remove all EDs, but we could start with just taking blitz away). I'm just curious, how exactly does Blitz help you level other destinies and/or PREs?

[maddmatt70]

How about NO.


Considering it takes MONTHS per destiny/PrE to be finished this would really stink.


Do the other EDs need a revision? Yes....
Will a broad melee buff help make them viable until a revision is made? Yes....
Would nerfing the damage boost (like Sev just did) make these EDs more viable dps compared to ranged/casters? NO!


Like I said earlier, its just plain dumb to ask for huge sweeping revisions of the game that DDO just doesnt have the resources to pull off anymore. The Devs working on this game are very few and barebones, we need minor changes that are easily implemented (like the ORIGINAL proposal) so Devs can go back to making CONTENT. No new content= bored players who LEAVE, and often dont return.

It would not take months to change the Blitz epic moment to something more fun and the devs have been talking about some easy buff to all destinies called melee power which could be uniformly applied and would not cost much dev time. Without Blitz this buff gets even easier. Blitz is such a terrible concept where you do not kill mobs so the blitzer can get more stacks thus doing more dps. At a certain point the non blitzers should stop even playing because it gets that bad to kill and that trivial from a dps standpoint. You as a bard make sure to buff the blitzer, but other party members do not count, the instakillers stop instakilling because the blitz could lose stacks or the moment. This is one of the most unteam friendly things ever put into DDO and DDO would be a 100% better without it. The current devs should be able to move on from the mistakes of their predecessors to a better a game and remove blitz.

[droid327]

Still don't understand how giving every melee +75% damage across the board is not power creep of the most absurd order, or why its even necessary, or helps make added-damage effects more attractive.

[Cetus]

Why is not just removing blitz from DDO on the table and putting a different epic moment in place? Then buff all melee destinies. You do not get these balancing issues. Blitz has never been a good thing. I personally avoided blitz as long I could, but inevitably I had to take it in order to have effective melee characters. It is selfish not teamwork oriented what so ever. I played with Axer for years until I could not stand it anymore. Blitz is like having little Axers in your party every quest and they are not teamed oriented they are me oriented.

This is a rather extremist point of view, don't you think?

I feel quite a bit less effective on my melee when he isn't blitzing versus my sorcerer. This is an honest sentiment. Without blitz, I'm simply not doing enough damage to keep up. Even my 200-250 non crit per attack isn't going to keep melee competitive, even if an occasional adrenaline is thrown in there.

[Damian]

Any chance of repairing Master Blitz to not remove itself when porting in dungeons (or using a dimension door)?

[Talonaise]

Axer was the person that talked the Devs into Blitz. I am not joking about this. The current Devs were not those Devs so hopefully they are receptive to this. I tried really hard on the forums to convince the Devs that blitz was bad for DDO, but it was too late by the time it got there because the Dev's minds had been made up.

I don't think it has been "bad for ddo". Prior to this, it was all about the casters, now we have Monchers, mele blitzers, and nukers all fighting for the top spots. To me this seems more balanced then it has been in the past, before that it was just run behind the sorc. Now we have classes in all types that are able to keep up. It may mean that people's pet build may not be able to keep up with the min-maxers, but frankly that will always be the case. Every build is not equal. I find would guess only around the top 2% of players can even play a blitzing mele that well. Most just lose the blitz and whine.

[Delacroix21]

It would not take months to change the Blitz epic moment to something more fun and the devs have been talking about some easy buff to all destinies called melee power which could be uniformly applied and would not cost much dev time. Without Blitz this buff gets even easier. Blitz is such a terrible concept where you do not kill mobs so the blitzer can get more stacks thus doing more dps. At a certain point the non blitzers should stop even playing because it gets that bad to kill and that trivial from a dps standpoint. You as a bard make sure to buff the blitzer, but other party members do not count, the instakillers stop instakilling because the blitz could lose stacks or the moment. This is one of the most unteam friendly things ever put into DDO and DDO would be a 100% better without it. The current devs should be able to move on from the mistakes of their predecessors to a better a game and remove blitz.

The thing you seem to be forgetting is the whole reason for these changes isn't because blitz is the ultimate dps god mode, but rather it's the only thing that keeps Melee dps COMPETITIVE with casters and ranged.


So yes, if you remove blitz then Melee will be so far behind casters and ranged that there will be little point in bringing them.


Maybe you and many other don't play EE often (or if you do in a group in which case ANY class can be carried through) but Melee dps is WAY behind ranged/casters without blitz. Heck even most blitzing Melee are a joke compared to a competent casters/ranged. I was running a lot of PuG shadow raids and always thought Melee blitzing trash was a waste as I could kill trash faster than a fully stacked Melee. And who dps'd the boss down? The non blitzing Melee? Don't make me laugh! It's the casters and ranged doing the vast majority of the dps while Melee scratch at her.



Is this how I want ddo to be? No. But like I said with HUGE changes across the board and a bunch of nerfs to other classes it can't be done. Simply bringing Melee up to an equal power level is the easiest and quickest fix.

[EllisDee37]

Good adjustment to ensure that LD is the only viable choice for melee. That was the intent, right?

[B0ltdrag0n]

Yes.

Sev~

SO the Paladin light damage in teh KotC tree (which is one of the reasons you made this system...) will continue to suffer and be not very useful.

I should have seen this coming.

[redoubt]

Based on player feedback and our own internal testing:

We are reducing the bonus to melee power from the Epic Destiny innate abilities and epic levels. We bumped up Master's Blitz a bit. With the changes to Master's Blitz it is now effective against long boss fights and it is much easier for multiple melees to all have it running.

Sev~

Reduced. Sorry. I said dropping meaning "dropping the overall melee power bonus" but what I wrote isn't clear.

Each epic level gives 5, each innate gives 5 for a total of 75 Melee Power.

Sev~

I am sad to hear this. I, as other were, was actually excited by this change. I fells a bit like you are caving in to the uber-elites who want blitz to continue to be the only "truly effective" way to melee at end game. When you said that EDs like shadowdancer would get a good boost.

Now as you cut that boost in half, its just doesn't seem as cool. Please reconsider.