Armor Up - Developer Diary #2

[jakeelala]

Let me discuss ranged Master's Blitz with the team. If it's bugged to work with ranged this might not be the time to fix it. We aren't looking to nerf builds. We could, for example, make Master's Blitz increase Ranged Power to match its current functionality.

Sev~

Yes please.

All destinies should offer something for ALL builds.

So all "Melee" destinies really need to be "Combat destiny's" as opposed to "casting" destinys. They all need ranged power, even if it's not as much as melee power since melee are behind.

But what the heck is a ranged character going to do in US right now?

Or GMoF?

Or LD after your changes?

[jalont]

I'd say this is the time to make the decision.

Right now on live, ranged builds typically either use blitz or fury. If you are dividing melee power into a 90/60/100 split between levels/destiny/blitz the only way to not nerf ranged blitzers is to make all 3 instances of melee power affect ranged as well. The issue with that, obviously, is that it would add +150 power to the already very strong fury of the wild builds.

I suppose there are band-aid solutions and arbitrary exceptions that could be added, but assuming you don't want to go that route, this would either result in a significant nerf to ranged blitz or a massive buff to ranged fury.

They could just add ranged power to Blitz only and leave Fury as is.

[jakeelala]

I'd say this is the time to make the decision.

Right now on live, ranged builds typically either use blitz or fury. If you are dividing melee power into a 90/60/100 split between levels/destiny/blitz the only way to not nerf ranged blitzers is to make all 3 instances of melee power affect ranged as well. The issue with that, obviously, is that it would add +150 power to the already very strong fury of the wild builds.

I suppose there are band-aid solutions and arbitrary exceptions that could be added, but assuming you don't want to go that route, this would either result in a significant nerf to ranged blitz or a massive buff to ranged fury.

HOLD UP!

Ranged as in BOW users generally use: Fury, LD, Shiradi, in that order. The rest are terrible, with Shiradi already being a questionable choice.
Throwing Characters use: Shiradi, SD, LD, DC also probably in that order. There are a few random ones that use Fury, but thye are rare.

These are two very important distinctions and as someone who pretty much only plays Thrower characters now, I want the Devs to do things with them in mind.

[B0ltdrag0n]

HOLD UP!

Ranged as in BOW users generally use: Fury, LD, Shiradi, in that order. The rest are terrible, with Shiradi already being a questionable choice.
Throwing Characters use: Shiradi, SD, LD, DC also probably in that order. There are a few random ones that use Fury, but thye are rare.

These are two very important distinctions and as someone who pretty much only plays Thrower characters now, I want the Devs to do things with them in mind.

No they don't.

LD, Fury, Shiradi = bow (fury is mostly just for raids not regular questing)
Throwers are LD, Shiradi, DC, SD depending on flavor of thrower and party composition Though arguably Shiradi can come before LD.

So I suppose we agree on the thrower part

[CaptainSpacePony]

On topic: depending on how the blitz charging on hit works, that would be an (unintended) nerf to 2HF as compared to SWF and TWF based on the the lower # of hits/time.

Preemptive off topic for diary 3: The biggest/bestest shield for S+B is the tower shield. It's a shame that currently paladins have to splash ftr to gain access to them (ignoring all the "you can just blow a feat" comments). Defender tree should grant this proficiency.

[Monkey_Archer]

They could just add ranged power to Blitz only and leave Fury as is.

How though? Blitz adds 100 melee power and 250 ranged power? I'd call that a bandaid.

[jalont]

How though? Blitz adds 100 melee power and 250 ranged power? I'd call that a bandaid.

I guess you could call that a bandaid. I understand your point. At the same time, Blitz isn't supposed to be working for ranged at all, so I'm not sure a whole redesign of their plans to compensate for an exploit is a better option.

[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

[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.

[luvirini]

So if I understand correctly blitz will become a melee only ability and we get a huge nerf to the best all around ranged destiny?

Today the blitz is a huge ranged damage boost, but if the damage multiplier is replaced by melee only bonus it means that many ranged toons get a huge nerf.

[luvirini]

Melee Power does not affect ranged damage. Master's Blitz specifies melee damage in its current description on live.

I will have to test if it works with ranged on live and if so discuss it with the team.

Sev~

It works fine onm ranged damage on live and LDS is the best overall ranged epic destiny (fury has much better burst damage, but with most current quests having such huge numbers of trash mobs, blitz is much better overall, as you run out of adrenaline so fast)

[jalont]

So if I understand correctly blitz will become a melee only ability and we get a huge nerf to the best all around ranged destiny?

Today the blitz is a huge ranged damage boost, but if the damage multiplier is replaced by melee only bonus it means that many ranged toons get a huge nerf.

No one said. He said he would look into it. Second, Master's Blitz isn't supposed to effect ranged. People using obviously bugged abilities shouldn't get upset when they get fixed.

[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 ***.

[Sethvir]

Did just read diary 3, so much about worrying that the game goes down the spirale of utter power creep.

Holy Sword
Channels holy power to increase the effectiveness of your equipped weapons. Weapons you currently are wielding gain an additional +2 holy bonus to enhancement value. The spell also increases the threat range and critical weapon multiplier of these weapons by 1.


Now we have a lvl 4 spell, that mimics tier 5 enhancements ...........

I bet in about 12 months we see all classes now have at least 1 option to plain increase threat range and mult by 1 ....

[Atremus]

Can you just give Ranged power to everything that grants Melee power? That avoids nerfs.

[luvirini]

No one said. He said he would look into it. Second, Master's Blitz isn't supposed to effect ranged. People using obviously bugged abilities shouldn't get upset when they get fixed.

As more than a quarter of of all power descriptions in the game are wrong in some way, what is "obviously bugged" more than something else?

Blitz and advancing blow have worked for both melee and ranged ever since they were made, nerfing them now for some users is a big change, but I guess if the idea is that ranged characters should all be doing "pew pew" instead of damage.. then by all means nerf LS as proposed here and Fury as proposed by many others as "being a bug". But that will of course mean that there will be no serious bow users anymore... as all ranged will go to thrown shiradi builds and someone with a bow will be laughed out of epic groups.

[jalont]

As more than a quarter of of all power descriptions in the game are wrong in some way, what is "obviously bugged" more than something else?

Blitz and advancing blow have worked for both melee and ranged ever since they were made, nerfing them now for some users is a big change, but I guess if the idea is that ranged characters should all be doing "pew pew" instead of damage.. then by all means nerf LS as proposed here and Fury as proposed by many others as "being a bug". But that will of course mean that there will be no serious bow users anymore... as all ranged will go to thrown shiradi builds and someone with a bow will be laughed out of epic groups.

I have no problem seeing archers becoming less powerful. Of course, I have no problem seeing all players become less powerful. You're preaching to the wrong person here.

Still, the fact remains that these plans were designed around the descriptions, and apparently the ranged LD bug wasn't known about. We'll have to wait and see where it goes from here.

[BDog77]

Now we have a lvl 4 spell, that mimics tier 5 enhancements ...........

I bet in about 12 months we see all classes now have at least 1 option to plain increase threat range and mult by 1 ....

Yes, A Level 4 PALADIN spell. Never played one? Lemme spell that out for you, you could have ALL your tier 5 abilities LONG before you are able to cast this spell, so I'm not really sure what the problem is that you see here. Of course, if people wanna splash 14 levels of Paladin just for this spell, I think that would certainly fit in with Sev's stated plan to get deeper Pally splashes in the game....

[jakeelala]

No they don't.

LD, Fury, Shiradi = bow (fury is mostly just for raids not regular questing)
Throwers are LD, Shiradi, DC, SD depending on flavor of thrower and party composition Though arguably Shiradi can come before LD.

So I suppose we agree on the thrower part

Very few people run in LD with Bows (on Khyber) even if they should.

Even the ones who do run in Fury for raids most of the time.

I'm definitely right about Throwers.