Master's Blitz Feedback, round two

[Seljuck]

These comments are all funny to me -- the melee keeps acting like if you are good enough DPS the other players do not need to hold back...

Apparently they do not play with strong enough other players... in groups I am in, everyone has to hold back until they are stacked almost every time because the casters and insta killers and other melee could destroy all the mobs in a blink if the blitzer just activated. Also, insta killers and strong sorcs etc. Can destroy a whole room of trash mobs before the melee can close.

Melee Blitzing was fun solo. Blitzing was fun in a group feeding the blitzer... Blitzing was miserable the rest of the time due to the mechanic. My melee still has energy burst twisted, so I would use an energy burst to get 3-5 stacks after I activated and did not usually have issues. But we would constantly steal the moment from blitzers that did not warn us over voice they were activating lol...

There are a lot of reasonable solutions available....who knows why they are set on semi extreme... unless they went BIG and got complaints and now they are going SMALL and getting complaints and maybe they secretly were heading towards some middle we don't know about all along...lol

Like 2 days ago I was doing EE Lesson in Deception on my main Blitz build, currently at lv 26. In group we had 2 enchantment sorcerer, 1 shiradi wiz, 1 shuricen thrower, and one more melee dps, some bard hybrid. Everything dies instantly, (mass hold hold and Draconic burst) but I still manage to turn on Blitz and keep it charging through all quest. i was just faster and better then others. If u have issue with charge mechanic, try to learn how to use it first.

[EllisDee37]

So, I have a few videos currently uploading. I think I'm kinda getting turned around on this whole blitz melee power thing, you'll see why...

I did it on a pure paladin, equipped with the new shiny gear. And wow, it's a powerful toon. Defenses are amazing, I didn't miss evasion and shadow fade as much as I thought I would.

Pure pally...

Stay tuned for EE Breaking the ranks + EE WGU solo.

Spoiler:

EE WGU: 20 minutes 54 seconds.

yea...I don't know what to say to that, pally changes and glancing blows while twitching are counteracting the blitz nerf quite nicely.

I say keep it the way it is, at this point - I actually enjoyed playing the toon tonight. So, I changed my position on this for now.

Nice!

[Zoda]

These comments are all funny to me -- the melee keeps acting like if you are good enough DPS the other players do not need to hold back...

Apparently they do not play with strong enough other players... in groups I am in, everyone has to hold back until they are stacked almost every time because the casters and insta killers and other melee could destroy all the mobs in a blink if the blitzer just activated. Also, insta killers and strong sorcs etc. Can destroy a whole room of trash mobs before the melee can close.

Melee Blitzing was fun solo. Blitzing was fun in a group feeding the blitzer... Blitzing was miserable the rest of the time due to the mechanic.

That used to be true if you gave as much though about starting a blitz as a potato about the dirt surrounding it... If you blitz with a strong group, you zerg ahead invised or not and start when noone can disturb you. If everyone zergs along with you, you'll just end up completing faster or wiping, more fun either way. Alternatively, you can be a **** and whine to your party for kills.

If you are good at it, and still fail your blitz, and your toon is usless without it, it's probably reroll time.

[Eth]

Only question remaining if the toned down power is fun enough for non pally-thf builds

Just made an esos on my ranger last week. I'm prepared, lol.

[whereispowderedsilve]

Just made an esos on my ranger last week. I'm prepared, lol.

/slightly tongue in cheek:

Oh man/Eth, that sounds just so, SO wrong!(Going THF on a ranger? :P) Haha! Lolz! >><<! Sigh...

[Eth]

/slightly tongue in cheek:

Oh man/Eth, that sounds just so, SO wrong!(Going THF on a ranger? :P) Haha! Lolz! >><<! Sigh...

THF on a ranger? No.
On a pally? Hell, yes.

I have only really played pally builds on lamma, actually have to go back to my current live build and see how the changes work for him. The change to Dance of Death looks actually good, but the overall state of TWF looks really lacking.

[B0ltdrag0n]

THF on a ranger? No.
On a pally? Hell, yes.

I have only really played pally builds on lamma, actually have to go back to my current live build and see how the changes work for him. The change to Dance of Death looks actually good.

]Agreed it really does look good.


Im moderately happy with the changes mostly because
1.) Paladins become playable
2.) If you build was good before and didn't abuse blitz...It got better with the changes, period.

That sounds like good things to me.

[Arlathen]

You'll find no accurate numbering or Math in my feedback that follows.

At first, I looked at the updated release notes and thought "Wow, Master's Blitz seriously got the Nerf Bat". And smiled in that evil little way I do sometimes.

So, I rolled up a potential Half-Elf 15 Paladin/3 Ranger/2 Monk centered with Longswords build, using Legendary Dreadnought.

With test gear from the dojo (including TF Tier 3/Mortal Fear weapons and the new U23 Raid Loot), I was able to utterly destroy the Kobolds in bare seconds. In one particularly scenario, with activated Master's Blitz, Haste & Damage boost and full on GM Wind Stance/Zeal I literally tore up 8 test Kobolds in around 15 seconds.

I finished with just 7 stacks of Master Blitz, not even a full 'stack'.

So, off I went with a fellow colleague - Pal 15/Ranger 3/Fighter TWF Khopesh & Heavy Armour, Divine Crusader - into EE Lords of Dust.

Our DPS was simply phenemonal - for the first time in a very, very long time I felt the raw DPS on my Melee toon was enough to solo-smash through some EE mobs.

However, the fight with the Rhakshasa, 2 Deathguard and some cultists at the last altar proved an interesting encounter, and required a bit of kiting / pot chugging before carefully retraining to fray.

The Karas fight again also proved highly entertaining. The number of Skellies also meant again I had to be careful with positioning and aggro management, otherwise a series of 200pt damage hits would quickly slow down my 'awesome' DPS. Gnomon was a ***** cat, but Karas also difficult to fight due to the outstanding amount of damage he did per swing. At that point, I let my 120 PRR Heavy armoured companion draw aggro for 5 or seconds through Raw DPS and then I returned to the fight.

Net result for me?

• Melee is back to being highly competitive DPS
• Heavy Armour has a place in this game once again
• Master's Blitz is still a fun ability to use.

[Monkey_Archer]

Legendary Dreadnaught is the fighter destiny. Fighters do damage. But they also trip things, cleave things, and punch things in the face to momentarily disorient them...


Maybe something like each stack of blitz gives:

5 melee/ranged power

2.5% cooldown reduction to all tactic feats including Stunning fist/Blow, Cleave chain, Manyshot(Maybe?), etc, etc.

+1 unique seeker bonus

+1% bonus to tactic DCs(So this would bring a 70 stunning fist DC to a 77 when fully stacked)

AND

Killing a worthy enemy while blitzing would give +10 melee/ranged power which could be stacked up to 3 times with each stack lasting 15 seconds. This Melee/ranged power would stack with the primary melee/Ranged power from the stacks of blitz accumulated by simply hitting monsters.

AND

While you have 10 stacks of blitz, you have a 1% chance/Hit to regain one action boost.



So while questing/Soloing you would end up with somewhere between 50-80 Melee/Ranged power but during boss fights, it would be very difficult to get more than 50.


Just a thought

Interesting ideas. I think you're trying to add too much, but I like the idea of each blitz stack adding to tactical feat bonuses. That alone without all the other suggestions would be a really strong and fun addition to blitz.

Keeping the on-kill mechanic in addition to the 10% on hit, as a means of stacking blitz faster, is also a very interesting compromise.

[BDog77]

Blitz needed to be changed and I think the new way is better because Blitz wont be considered the obvious melee epic moment (even though its not a moment long) and it will reduce the unnecessary drama. a mechanic that relies on last hit kills is a poor mechanic.

When Lamm was up last time, I really enjoyed playing several different melee EDs (Fotw, DC, LD). This time, absolutely no contest, if I'm not Blitzing, I am not having ANY fun. I hated being in any destiny but LD, and I hated LD until Blitz was fully charged, then it became fun to play. The damage I was doing in any other ED was actually (somehow, although I have all my equipment on Live but not on Lamm, so maybe that was it) LESS than I am doing on Live right now (could that even be possible? I dunno, it certainly was not noticeably better). Absolutely anemic damage. Then that rush of Blitz hit my veins. Ahhhhh, all better now.

The idea was to make Blitz the only useful melee damage boost at cap, right? Well done, promotions all around!!

[wiliamsane]

On live Master's Blitz is fairly useless on long boss fights.

If you have it charged before boss fight you can start with few stacks which goes away (if you dont need to zone somewhere ).. this is ok and i have never really have problem with this , or you can even swap destiny if you want to do your best - i used to swap to fury for raid like fot and i was still able to do good job even with LD

It is also fairly useless in larger groups unless people are holding back DPS to let the blitzer kill enemies

This is not so true .. I did have great group full of instakill casters , hold and burst casters , shiradis , monkchers etc and did not have much problems to charge it up . It needs a little timing and maybe taking a little risk too - like i need to throw myself into group of mobs ahead of others .. i might die like a fool but reward is totally worth it ! I loved this and i have newer whined if i did not get my charges up or expired blitz ... so what .. it is my fault and i keep roling without it and WITH MY MOUTH SHUT UP ! I would be ashamed if i shout at anyone about my blitz .

The version we are testing works well on boss fights, and works well in teams even with multiple blitzers.

Bosses ... ok , i agree . Multiple blitzers ... well , dont be greedy you can make quest much faster with rather two than one .. it have few IF .. if quest is ok for it , if other blitzer is not tragic etc etc you know you can even prepare few mobs for other blitzer with your going on ... it is called teamwork !

We are eager to hear some more feedback as players get to play with the new changes.

I did tryed previous 100MP version ant it was not my tea . And this ... 50MP .. really ?! this is garbage imho . And since you are leaving TWF behind i think it will be better to just switch to furry or divine crusader ... heck even now on live i am happy with them and with boost to them it will be even better and LD will be weaker and not so funny option .
You are boosting melee destinies .. good good , but in my opinion LD with blitz should be in range as it is on live - LD + epic levels + blitz = 250 melee and ranged power .. heck even 200 would be ok . This 120 or so is totaly "no, thank you"

We have player feedback that the previous incarnation was problematic and discouraged grouping. That's the top reason for the change in how it builds up.

Discouraged grouping? .. how ? Some whiner met a rude blitzer and here it goes ... people who are happy or ok with it keep their mouth shut and the rest cry loudly.

Last words : Yes i did played all destinies on live (epic completionist , no boxes) and Furry and Crusader were .. are great and fun to play ... also boosting weaker ones is great thing but on the other hand nerfing or drasticaly changing other one is bad step , also leaving ranged power for "later" is bad too

[Pescha]

So, I have a few videos currently uploading. I think I'm kinda getting turned around on this whole blitz melee power thing, you'll see why...

I did it on a pure paladin, equipped with the new shiny gear. And wow, it's a powerful toon. Defenses are amazing, I didn't miss evasion and shadow fade as much as I thought I would.

Pure pally...

Stay tuned for EE Breaking the ranks + EE WGU solo.

Spoiler:

EE WGU: 20 minutes 54 seconds.

yea...I don't know what to say to that, pally changes and glancing blows while twitching are counteracting the blitz nerf quite nicely.

I say keep it the way it is, at this point - I actually enjoyed playing the toon tonight. So, I changed my position on this for now.

I do not see any videos of you blitzing with 102 MP.

[Pescha]

If you have it charged before boss fight you can start with few stacks which goes away (if you dont need to zone somewhere ).. this is ok and i have never really have problem with this , or you can even swap destiny if you want to do your best - i used to swap to fury for raid like fot and i was still able to do good job even with LD


This is not so true .. I did have great group full of instakill casters , hold and burst casters , shiradis , monkchers etc and did not have much problems to charge it up . It needs a little timing and maybe taking a little risk too - like i need to throw myself into group of mobs ahead of others .. i might die like a fool but reward is totally worth it ! I loved this and i have newer whined if i did not get my charges up or expired blitz ... so what .. it is my fault and i keep roling without it and WITH MY MOUTH SHUT UP ! I would be ashamed if i shout at anyone about my blitz .

Bosses ... ok , i agree . Multiple blitzers ... well , dont be greedy you can make quest much faster with rather two than one .. it have few IF .. if quest is ok for it , if other blitzer is not tragic etc etc you know you can even prepare few mobs for other blitzer with your going on ... it is called teamwork !

I did tryed previous 100MP version ant it was not my tea . And this ... 50MP .. really ?! this is garbage imho . And since you are leaving TWF behind i think it will be better to just switch to furry or divine crusader ... heck even now on live i am happy with them and with boost to them it will be even better and LD will be weaker and not so funny option .
You are boosting melee destinies .. good good , but in my opinion LD with blitz should be in range as it is on live - LD + epic levels + blitz = 250 melee and ranged power .. heck even 200 would be ok . This 120 or so is totaly "no, thank you"

Discouraged grouping? .. how ? Some whiner met a rude blitzer and here it goes ... people who are happy or ok with it keep their mouth shut and the rest cry loudly.

Last words : Yes i did played all destinies on live (epic completionist , no boxes) and Furry and Crusader were .. are great and fun to play ... also boosting weaker ones is great thing but on the other hand nerfing or drasticaly changing other one is bad step , also leaving ranged power for "later" is bad too

They are actually discouraging grouping for nerfing blitz into oblivion giving newbies a hard time to keep up with Elitists.

[Standal]

We made these changes based on both internal testing and a lot of feedback by players about what they were experiencing in the game on Lamannia.

On live Master's Blitz is fairly useless on long boss fights. It is also fairly useless in larger groups unless people are holding back DPS to let the blitzer kill enemies. The version we are testing works well on boss fights, and works well in teams even with multiple blitzers. Players who tested the ability felt that these advantages went a long way to making Master's Blitz powerful. The changes also remove some of the aspects of the ability that were less fun and discouraged grouping.

We are eager to hear some more feedback as players get to play with the new changes.

Sev~

I like the reduction on MP you've made with this Lama release. It's still a clear buff, but the game doesn't feel totally different from live today.

The proc rate for Master's Blitz is much too low for any difficulty besides EE. On live, you can't get a charge unless the party funnels kills to you. If you want Master's Blitz to be group friendly you need to upgrade the proc rate by at least another 10%, probably more if you want it to work in EN groups.

[Zoda]

THF on a ranger? No.
On a pally? Hell, yes.

I have only really played pally builds on lamma, actually have to go back to my current live build and see how the changes work for him. The change to Dance of Death looks actually good, but the overall state of TWF looks really lacking.

I think full INT based pure ranger with insightful reflex and the new Harper Agent tree is stronger than your live build now for a ranger, I'd try that if I wanted to test the power of a ranger. That capstone keeps tempting me to use it...

[Grailhawk]

THF on a ranger? No.
On a pally? Hell, yes.

I have only really played pally builds on lamma, actually have to go back to my current live build and see how the changes work for him. The change to Dance of Death looks actually good, but the overall state of TWF looks really lacking.

They need more things like Dance of Death (AoE attacks that work well TWF), and to tweak the range of one handed weapons while TWF its too small to be effective in the current more dynamic game (aka far less stand and hit a boss till it dies).

[Takllin]

I do not see any videos of you blitzing with 102 MP.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...o-Pure-Paladin

When he fixes the videos to be public, they are in that thread.

[Eth]

I think full INT based pure ranger with insightful reflex and the new Harper Agent tree is stronger than your live build now for a ranger, I'd try that if I wanted to test the power of a ranger. That capstone keeps tempting me to use it...

I fail to see how Int-based should be any better than Dex-based (other than you have to waste a feat and AP going Int-based that you really don't have) and Dex-Based vs. Str-Based Ranger debate is old.

Edit: Oh, guess due to that insight bonus to attack/damage from half your int-mod on top? Yea, might be worth a look.

[Pescha]

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...o-Pure-Paladin

When he fixes the videos to be public, they are in that thread.

ok

[Zoda]

I fail to see how Int-based should be any better than Dex-based (other than you have to waste a feat and AP going Int-based that you really don't have) and Dex-Based vs. Str-Based Ranger debate is old.

You get your "divine might" (know the angels) based on your main stat instead of your secondary, and you get INT to damage on your bow (you only get dex to damage on bow as elf otherwise). DEX based with INT secondary might actually be better, I'm not sure, but I don't see how STR based is better than either on a pure ranger.