Armor Up - Developer Diary #2

[Severlin]

Greetings,

To give insight to player about the changes involved with our Armor Up changes, Paladin buffs, and other balance changes we are writing a series of developer diaries to explain upcoming changes we have planned for the game.

In the last developer diary we discussed Physical Resistance Rating, Magical Resistance Rating, Melee Power, Ranged Power, and the mitigation that our heavier armors and shields will now provide. If you haven't read through it you can check it out here:

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...eloper-Diary-1


With this post we go into more depth about:
~ Using Melee Power to scale epic characters.
~ Melee in epic and Master's Blitz.
~ Changes to Two Handed Weapon feats.
~ Changes to Shield feats.


Melee Power, Epic Levels, and Epic Destinies
Before we talk about Paladins, their potential changes, and how they scale with Melee Power we wanted to talk about epic levels and Epic Destinies. This discussion will explain how Melee Power is distributed into the epic levels and throughout the Epic Destinies.

Currently on live an Epic Destiny power called Master's Blitz largely props up melee characters. Outside of some Druid builds that combine animal form with a convoluted combination of feats, enhancements and gear, most DPS heavy melee builds rely on Master's Blitz. To make things worse, there has been a great deal of player feedback indicating that Master's Blitz is also really annoying to use, to maintain, and to group with.

As we move forward with the armor revamp, we are examining the effect of Master's Blitz on Epic play. Although we like the new armor systems and how they interact thus far, the whole design and interaction with Master’s Blitz is problematic. We don't want to nerf melees in epic content. Instead we want to redistribute some of that damage into the Epic levels and the cores of melee Epic Destinies while at the same time making Master's Blitz more fun.


To summarize:

~ We hate the mechanic of spamming tactical powers 50 times to activate the power. Since the code doesn’t even require you to hit anything, this step is annoying and rather useless. We want to eliminate it.

~ We don’t like the group mechanic where melee has to try to convince other characters to not kill minions so they can build charges. We are discussing a system where this builds as the character hits opponents.

~ We don’t like that +250% damage is stacked into one tier 5 ability. Not only is this a poor leveling experience, but it overshadows the other melee oriented epic destinies.

We want to move some of this damage into the epic levels and core abilities so melee characters gradually build damage as you level them.

~ We want some other melee epic destinies to offer competitive DPS.

~ The dodge bonus goes against heavy armor, and adding a 50% dodge bonus that caps at the dodge cap is not only less than ideal, but it is too limited for characters wearing heavy armor.

~ We want to reduce the group scaling of hit points of bosses. This will reduce the hit points of bosses when you group, particularly on epic.

We want to roll some of the damage into the epic levels and the cores of the melee oriented Epic Destinies. In addition, with the changes to Master's Blitz, the ability will not only work better in groups but characters will be able to maintain the bonus of longer boss fights.

The plan is to convert the damage bonus of Master's Blitz to Melee Power and to roll some of that power into the epic levels and core abilities. Epic levels will provide 40 Melee Power, Epic Destiny innate abilities will provide 30 Melee Power, and Master's Blitz will provide 100 Melee Power when it builds up a full head of steam.


Here are our current changes for Master's Blitz and epic play for melee.

~ Master’s Blitz will be a multi-selector. You can choose the Dodge version which caps as it does today, or you can choose a version that adds 30 PRR and MRR as it builds up charges.

~ The requirement of spamming tactical abilities 50 times to activate the ability is removed.

~ When activated the ability builds as you hit enemies. You do not have to be the character who lands the killing blow. The rate that you build charges will be tweaked so it will build up at a decent rate.

~ Each epic level (from 21-28) will now provide a passive bonus of 5 Melee Power. This means that at level 28 characters will have an additional 40 Melee Power.

~ Legendary Dreadnaught will gain Melee Power in its innate abilities. Shrug Off Punishment, Action Hero, Unstoppable, Action Boost – Unmovable, Action Boost – Thick Skinned, and Combat Brute will each provide a passive and cumulative 5 Melee Power. This will provide an additional 30 Melee Power to characters when they complete the Epic Destiny.

Master's Blitz will now build up to 100 Melee Power through charges.

Note that with the Melee Power in epic levels, the melee power in the innate abilities, and Master's Blitz the character can build up to 250 Melee Power. That will provide a multiplier of 3.5 to weapon damage and effects that scale with Melee Power.

~ Shadowdancer also gains damage from its innate abilities. Shadow Training 1 through V and Shadow Mastery will each provide a passive and cumulative 5 Melee Power. This means Shadowdancer will gain 45 Melee Power from levels and 30 from innate abilities to keep it competitive.

~ Unyielding Sentinel also gains damage from its innate abilities. Vigor of Battle, Unbreakable, Stand Against the Tide, Stalwart Guardian, Heed No Pain, and Steadfast will each provide a passive and cumulative 5 Melee Power. This means Unyielding Sentinel will gain 45 Melee Power from levels and 30 from innate abilities to keep it competitive.

~ Primal Avatar also gains damage from its innate abilities. Strength of Spirit, Magic of Nature, Primal Travel, Mighty Amoung Spirits, Eternal Return, and Walk With Spirits will each provide a passive and cumulative 5 Melee Power. This means Primal Avatar will gain 45 Melee Power from levels and 30 from innate abilities to keep it competitive.

~ Fury of the Wild also gains damage from its innate abilities. Adrenaline, Brawn, Adrenaline II, Brawn II, Adrenaline III, and Adrenaline Overload will each provide a passive and cumulative 5 Melee Power. This means Fury of the Wild will gain 45 Melee Power from levels and 30 from innate abilities to keep it competitive.

~ Grandmaster of Flowers also gains damage from its innate abilities. Inner Focus, Centered Mind, Wholeness of Spirit, The Abiding Path, Ubiquity, and Balance in All Things will each provide a passive and cumulative 5 Melee Power. This means Grandmaster of Flowers will gain 45 Melee Power from levels and 30 from innate abilities to keep it competitive.

~ Divine Crusader also gains damage from its innate abilities. Just Cause, Aura of Purification, Extraordinary Virtue, No Remorse, Sword of Justice, and Zeal of the Righteousness will each provide a passive and cumulative 5 Melee Power. This means Divine Crusader will gain 45 Melee Power from levels and 30 from innate abilities to keep it competitive.

As we test these changes we can tweak individual Epic Destinies by changing the Melee Power provided by their innate abilities. If any particular Epic Destiny is doing too much melee damage we can dial back the Melee Power in the innates of that destiny.

What does this do for long term scaling? It means that we can change static abilities such as the Light damage that Paladins use to scale with Melee Power and increase substantially into the epic levels. As an example, the Knight of the Chalice ability Divine Light is fine in the earlier heroic levels but it is outscaled in the later levels.

By making it scale with 200% Melee Power an epic character with even the base 70 Melee Power from levels and innate abilities will see an increase from 18d6 to an equivalent of 43d6 damage.

This gives us long term tools to balance abilities.

Melee Power, Two Handed Fighting feats, and Shield Feats
To help further balance the system, some basic feats are being changed to add Melee Power as a passive bonus.

Two Handed Fighting adds 10 Melee Power while wielding a two handed weapon.
Improved Two Handed Fighting adds an additional 5 Melee Power while wielding a two handed weapon.
Greater Two Handed Fighting adds an additional 5 Melee Power while wielding a two handed weapon.

Shield Mastery adds 10 Melee Power while wielding a shield.
Improved Shield Mastery adds an additional 5 Melee Power while wielding a shield.
Improved Shield Bash adds an additional 5 Melee Power while wielding a shield.

In the next developer diary we will be talking about some of the Paladin improvements, including Knight of the Chalice changes, the redesign of Vorpal Weapon, and the increase in the duration of Zeal.

Sev~

[Ovrad]

After reading the whole write-up, I have to say I agree with your reasoning (Yeah blitz is just annoying and too powerful currently). Thanks for explaining it all. Two-handed fighting and the shield mastery feats also needed a buff, no complain there.

However, I'm not sure you got the scale right. +150% damage to all capped melees is an outrageous amount of damage. Can't we at least keep it to more reasonable levels? Say, half of that maybe?

[Pandir]

I understand the reasoning for the changes but I have a feeling the FOTM will swap back to melee heh.
Not that this is a bad thing but the balancing of these seems to be really tough to handle.

[Saekee]

I appreciate the writeup. Wrote on the other thread that I was not crazy about melee power, but now it makes more sense.

[jalont]

Love it.

[darthhento]

After reading the whole write-up, I have to say I agree with your reasoning (Yeah blitz is just annoying and too powerful currently). Thanks for explaining it all. Two-handed fighting and the shield mastery feats also needed a buff, no complain there.

However, I'm not sure you got the scale right. +150% damage to all capped melees is an outrageous amount of damage. Can't we at least keep it to more reasonable levels? Say, half of that maybe?

This pretty much sums up my opinion, +150% damage to all capped melee puts pure caster damage even further behind.

[Severlin]

This pretty much sums up my opinion, +150% damage to all capped melee puts pure caster damage even further behind.

The tops melee builds using Master's Blitz effectively won't actually see a DPS increase. These changes bring the builds lagging behind closer to the top melee builds.

Sev~

[tiamat1985]

The tops melee builds using Master's Blitz effectively won't actually see a DPS increase. These changes bring the builds lagging behind closer to the top melee builds.

Sev~

With the current system we can have only a person blitzing at the same time in a party. With your New System we will have 6 people doing that maxed dps in the same party (up to 12 in a raid). I think that will be a serious issue to the balance. Right now most of the EE quest are soloed by many people... i can solo most of them myself and i don't think i'm one of the best player. With those changes the dps of a full party will at least be x2 - x3 the one we have now. Are you sure this is a good idea in a game that is really easy right now? EE are not supposed to be soloed easily, not even in a party. There are EN and EH for that.
I hope you can clean my doubts.

P.s. sorry for my bad english

[Monkey_Archer]

With the current system we can have only a person blitzing at the same time in a party. With your New System we will have 6 people doing that maxed dps in the same party (up to 12 in a raid). I think that will be a serious issue to the balance. Right now most of the EE quest are soloed by many people... i can solo most of them myself and i don't think i'm one of the best player. With those changes the dps of a full party will at least be x2 - x3 the one we have now. Are you sure this is a good idea in a game that is really easy right now? EE are not supposed to be soloed easily, not even in a party. There are EN and EH for that.
I hope you can clean my doubts.

P.s. sorry for my bad english

Very good point.

Grouping for EE quests already feels like playing on casual to me. As such, I typically solo everything on intentionally gimped builds to keep my self interested. I really don't want to see this game get easier.

[Sethvir]

With the current system we can have only a person blitzing at the same time in a party. With your New System we will have 6 people doing that maxed dps in the same party (up to 12 in a raid). I think that will be a serious issue to the balance. Right now most of the EE quest are soloed by many people... i can solo most of them myself and i don't think i'm one of the best player. With those changes the dps of a full party will at least be x2 - x3 the one we have now. Are you sure this is a good idea in a game that is really easy right now? EE are not supposed to be soloed easily, not even in a party. There are EN and EH for that.
I hope you can clean my doubts.

P.s. sorry for my bad english

THATS a really good point, MORE powercreep. Things will be even more easier. gosh i just dont wanan think about a party of 6 blitzing ppl. seriously ***.

[Wipey]

With the current system we can have only a person blitzing at the same time in a party. With your New System we will have 6 people doing that maxed dps in the same party (up to 12 in a raid). I think that will be a serious issue to the balance. Right now most of the EE quest are soloed by many people... i can solo most of them myself and i don't think i'm one of the best player. With those changes the dps of a full party will at least be x2 - x3 the one we have now. Are you sure this is a good idea in a game that is really easy right now? EE are not supposed to be soloed easily, not even in a party. There are EN and EH for that.
I hope you can clean my doubts.

P.s. sorry for my bad english

What they said. Tone the uber power creep the heck down. Not Blitz like damage for everybody unless you wanna Hello Kitty difficulty.
We are soloing / shortmanning most things already.
90% of game is complete joke, all heroics, all epic hards, almost everything EE except raids and few high level ones.

[Zakharov]

The tops melee builds using Master's Blitz effectively won't actually see a DPS increase. These changes bring the builds lagging behind closer to the top melee builds.

Sev~

Isn't this a backwards way of balancing things? If 1 ability is more powerful than all others then fix that 1 ability, don't change everything else in the game.

[Severlin]

Isn't this a backwards way of balancing things? If 1 ability is more powerful than all others then fix that 1 ability, don't change everything else in the game.

Our main goal isn't "fixing" Master's Blitz. The main goal of these changes is to allow static damage abilities to scale at later levels.

We also like that leveling after 20 gives additional benefit.

Sev~

[Severlin]

After reading the whole write-up, I have to say I agree with your reasoning (Yeah blitz is just annoying and too powerful currently). Thanks for explaining it all. Two-handed fighting and the shield mastery feats also needed a buff, no complain there.

However, I'm not sure you got the scale right. +150% damage to all capped melees is an outrageous amount of damage. Can't we at least keep it to more reasonable levels? Say, half of that maybe?

Top melees using Master's Blitz won't see any increase. These changes should just help off builds catch up a bit.

Will that +150% only apply to specific things like the new paladin light damage, or will it be applied to all effects (weapon effects, sneak attack damage, frenzy damage, venomed blades, etc..). Personally I think it should apply to all effects to keep scaling for all class abilities equal. That said, the number (especially if it boosts other effects) is way too high. Half that like what has already been suggested is a good target in my opinion.

The Paladin light damage will scale with Melee Power. We are looking at a timetable to adding Melee Power scaling to other abilities as we examine the balance of other classes and trees.

Sev~

[Grailhawk]

Does Melee Power interact with weapon proc effects such as Crippling Flame?

How does Melee Power interact with Sneak Attack?

[gwonbush]

What about other effects that boost damage by a set percent? Chant of Power, Damage Boosts, Zeal of the Righteous, Adrenaline, etc. Will these be changed to add to Melee/Ranged Power?

[jakeelala]

BUT THEN RANGED CHARACTERS CANT USE MASTERS BLITZ


This is a horrible change.

They also don't gain any power from any of the other destinies you are going to kit out for Melee Power.

Please so not pigeon hole ranged characters or you will lose so many players.

I run in SD and LD with my Shuriken thrower constantly.

[Munkenmo]

Please grant a small portion of melee power to Fatesinger. It's not a bad destiny for melee bards, it's always just been well implemented (read no stupidly over powered abilities)

Failing to give Fatesinger a bit of a boost at the same time as most of the other melee based ED's will just leave it to rot.

[droid327]

Beyond just ranged Blitzing...are you going to add Ranged Power to Epic levels or any EDs? The only viable way to get decent DPS in Epic with ranged is FotW. Its just as restrictive and just as much of a crutch as Blitz is for melee right now. Aside from Monkchers, there really isn't any overpowered archer builds to worry about.

Melee can already outdamage ranged. If the "Ranged Power Pass" doesn't follow shortly after Melee, I'm worried that Ranged will end back up where it was long ago, completely underpowered and untenable for endgame.

Also, I'm worried you're introducing a *whole lot* more statistics to an already numerically-heavy game, which makes it even harder to learn and understand. Its D&D, so numbers are going to be central - but why do we need another two Spellpowers (and another Resistance)? Why cant things just scale based on your Epic Level + Epic Destiny Tier, since that's almost what you're doing anyway? Why not consolidate your various Damage Bonus sources (Deadly, Stat-to-dmg, PA, etc. etc.) into the Melee Power system, just have one unified stat that boosts your damage?

More stats just mean more power creep, ultimately, and letting Ranged+Melee Power affect regular attacks, and not just special attacks, kinda reeks of power creep. They also mean that 80% of the gear that came out in the "before time" ends up obsolete because only a handful of new items offer the new must-have stat.

[Jasparion]

Before I spend any time thinking about any of this I have a single question:

How willing are you to listen to the players when they start to show you evidence of the numbers (both for PRR/MRR and also the DPS) of these changes, and then use that evidence to modify your changes to ensure that some semblance of balance is provide which will allow players the option to actually play different types of styles in EE content and not feel like they are are piking and dragging down the group?

Thanks.