The Balance Change post

[Severlin]

Greetings.

We've seen a lot of community feedback, both public and private, about our ongoing plans for balance. These are some changes we are considering to increase game balance.

As with any post that outlines power reductions (aka nerfs) I am sure there will be a lot of players looking for explanations and our thoughts and results on balance that led to these changes. I will be following up this post with more details that talk about why some of these changes are being implemented.

***

Holy Sword (Paladin)
This is now a spell that affects the paladin and buffs whatever melee weapon is being wielded in the main hand.
It no longer persists on your weapon but instead buffs the melee weapon you are holding in your main hand. (Yes, this buffs your two handed weapons.)
It no longer affects missile weapons.
It no longer can be used to buff off hand weapons or shields.
If you change weapons the spell will drop off the unequipped weapon and instead be applied to the newly equipped weapon.

Blood Strength (Barbarian Ravager)
The portion of this enhancement that heals the user when they kill an opponent now has a 1 second internal cooldown.

Critical Rage (Barbarian Ravager)
The bonus to critical threat range is now a competence bonus.

Two weapon fighting animations have been fixed so there is no longer a weird jump on the fourth animation. This has made the fourth attack slightly quicker.

Two Weapon Fighting no longer grants melee power.
Improved Two Weapon Fighting no longer grants melee power.
Greater Two Weapon Fighting no longer grants melee power.

Doubleshot values over 100% now have a chance of producing a third attack. The chance is equal to the amount the value exceeds 100. A doubleshot value of 130, for example, would always produce one extra shot and have a 30% chance to produce a third shot.

(Doublestrike will still cap at 100 for technical reasons.)

Repeating Crossbows and Doubleshot
Fixed a bug where Doubleshot was not being reduced for repeating crossbows. (Doubleshot chance is divided by 3 for repeating crossbows.)

Manyshot
This ability is being redesigned.
For the next 20 seconds you add your (base attack bonus * 4) to your Doubleshot and Ranged Power. This ability puts Ten Thousand Stars on a 30 second cooldown. Cooldown 2 minutes.
(This ability no longer gives a doubleshot penalty when activated.)

Ten Thousand Stars
This ability is being redesigned.
For the next 30 seconds you add your Wisdom ability score to your Ranged Power and you add your monk level * 5 to your Doubleshot. This ability puts Manyshot on a 30 second cooldown. Cooldown 1 minute.
(This ability no longer gives a doubleshot penalty when activated.)

Mechanical Reloader (Rogue Mechanic)
The alacrity for non-repeating crossbows is now 30%. (Was 40%)

Pulverizer (Legendary Dreadnought)
The bonus to critical threat range for bludgeoning weapons is now an Insight bonus.

Improved Critical
These feats now add a bonus to critical threat range based purely on weapon type.
* Adds +3 to critical threat range for falchion, kukri, rapier, and scimitar.
* Adds +2 to the critical threat range of bastard sword, dagger, great crossbow, greatsword, heavy crossbow, khopesh, light crossbow, long sword, repeating heavy crossbow, repeating light crossbow, short sword, and throwing dagger.
* Adds +1 to all other weapons.

Keen
This loot effect now add a bonus to critical threat range based purely on weapon type.
* Adds +3 to critical threat range for falchion, kukri, rapier, and scimitar.
* Adds +2 to the critical threat range of bastard sword, dagger, great crossbow, greatsword, heavy crossbow, khopesh, light crossbow, long sword, repeating heavy crossbow, repeating light crossbow, short sword, and throwing dagger.
* Adds +1 to all other weapons.

Armor Changes
The amount of Physical Resist Rating that armor provides has been changed.
* Heavy armor now increases Physical Resist Rating by (base attack bonus * 2) and no longer adds Magical Resist Rating.
* Medium armor now increases Physical Resist Rating by (base attack bonus * 1.5) and no longer adds Magical Resist Rating.
* Light Armor now increases Physical Resist Rating by (base attack bonus * 1) and no longer adds Magical Resist Rating.
Fixed a bug where players were getting Physical Resist Rating for armor with which they were not proficient.

(Note: The Physical Resist Rating and Magical Resist Rating offered by shields remain unchanged.)

As a result of dialing back armor, some fighter only feats that will boost their effectiveness with armor and add to tactical DCs will also be included.

Tactical Training
Requires Fighter Level 4
You gain +2 to the DC of all tactical feats.

Tactical Combatant
Requires Fighter Level 8
You gain +4 to the DC of all tactical feats.

Tactical Mastery
Requires Fighter Level 12
You gain +6 to the DC of all tactical feats.

Tactical Supremacy
Requires Fighter Level 16
You gain +8 to the DC of all tactical feats.

Notes: All tactical feats stack for a total of +20. The lower level feats are not prerequisites for the higher level feats so a higher level fighter could save a feat if he/she wanted to skip Tactical Training and forego the +2 but still have access to Tatical Supremacy.

Heavy Armor Training
Requires Fighter Level 2
You gain +3 Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating while wearing heavy armor.

Heavy Armor Combatant
Requires Fighter Level 6
You gain +6 Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating while wearing heavy armor.

Heavy Armor Master
Requires Fighter Level 10
You gain +9 Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating while wearing heavy armor.

Heavy Armor Champion
Requires Fighter Level 14
You gain +12 Physical Resistance Rating and Magical Resistance Rating while wearing heavy armor.

Notes: All Heavy Armor feats stack for a total of +30. The lower level feats are not prerequisites for the higher level feats so a higher level fighter could save a feat if he/she wanted to skip Heavy Armor Training and forego the +3 and still have access to Heavy Armor Champion.


Divine Grace (Paladin)
Divine Grace now provides a maximum bonus equal to 2 + (Paladin level x 3).

Eldritch Blast and other enhancements (Warlock)
The spellpower scaling for Eldritch Blast and several enhancements has been reduced.

Spellpower scaling of Warlock Abilities

Ability	Old	New
Eldritch Blast	150%	130%
Eldritch Blast Cone	130%	130%
Eldritch Blast Chain	110%	95%
Eldritch Blast Aura	150%	130%
Stricken (Souleater)	150%	125%
Consume (Souleater)	150%	125%
Eldritch Burst (Enlightened Spirit)	120%	100%
Spirit Blast (Enlightened Spirit)	120%	100%

I will be following up this post with some details on our thoughts on balance and design.

Sev~

[Severlin]

(Edited: I apologize as I cut and paste the wrong draft into this post... Sev~)

Balance has been once of the top topics of conversation in the community for a while now, and we've said that we need to implement some balance changes, so I am writing this post to discuss our plans. We have seen feedback that players want more insight into our long-term balancing plans, and hear more about why we've been doing the things we've been doing. I've even had some players poke fun at my "over performing" terminology. Let's start by talking about our plans past and present, and how it fits into our long-term goals for balance and itemization.

Game and class balance is an ongoing process. Our goal is to have a more balanced game, but we understand this is a refining process that involves continual re-evaluation. That means if your favorite class is slightly behind (or in front) after a pass, we are fully capable and willing to tweak more. We expect designs will be fine-tuned based on player testing and observations.


***

Our current measure of melee effectiveness is Swashbuckler. Classes like Bard and Paladin have good spells, and strong class abilities. They can expect, if they build entirely towards melee, to deal out good melee DPS. Barbarian, Rogue and Ranger's basic class abilities aren't quite as strong, so characters built entirely toward melee will do a little more DPS. Fighter has very little basic class utility (their competitive advantage is extra feats, and they run out of strong feats) so we have our work cut out for us to balance fighters.

(Our only complaint about Swashbuckler is that Coup de Grace is too easy to pull off for a Bard, and it makes the ability really good for a class with great magical mitigation and Crowd Control. That's fairly low on our list of concerns, though, and Bard builds aren't dominating the playing field. It's more of a design nitpick.)

Swashbuckler was already finished when I came aboard, and it was very popular. We decided that other than some bugs revolving around Single Weapon Fighting that Swashbuckler would be the default level of power we would strive for with our passes. Part of it was that it gave melee equal footing with the Manyshot ranged builds and casters, and part of it was that players felt at the time that melee was not competitive.

The other things that players communicated to us when we started talking about class updates:

• Armored characters were well behind Evasion builds.
• Shields didn't offer enough benefits to offset the loss of DPS.
• On-hit effects were “useless” at end game because they didn't scale.

There were also some design considerations we had:

• There were few important DPS stats except for crit.
• There was no good way to give characters an incremental increase in magic damage mitigation. Saving throws offer binary protection (you either make your Saving Throw or you don't), and are subject to bad luck.
• Spellpower was an excellent tool for gradual increase in power, and melee and ranged had no equivalent.
• There was no good way for abilities to scale into epic levels as a default.
• Temporary hit point abilities were considered "terrible".

Our overall design was to introduce some powerful stats that allowed a solid foundation for incremental power increase for both class balance and itemization. We introduced the melee and ranged equivalent to Spell Power since a similar stat already existed in game. We introduced the magic equivalent to Physical Resistance Rating since a similar stat already existed in-game. We tied on-hit damage scaling to these new stats so on-hit effects would scale into epic levels. We used these new stats to provide a gradual level-based scale for epic levels that could be used to scale various abilities.

When we look at the bigger picture, we've tried to pretty much keep to that design when working through character passes.

Here are our current goals and design challenges:

• Two Weapon Fighting builds are dealing too much DPS. This is generally because on-hit effects now scale with melee power, and we've relaxed many internal cooldown limits on to-hit effects. We expected Two Weapon Fighting builds to scale quickly when we changed on-hit effects, and balanced the fighting style feats to compensate, but that was a world before Assassin and Tempest were updated, and players largely equated Two Weapon Fighting to those trees. Now that those are updated we can look at re-adjusting the two weapon fighting feats.
• We have a problem with 14 Paladin hybrids being better than other options due to Holy Sword, yet a severe nerf to Holy Sword would drag down Two Handed Fighting and Vanguard paladins a little too much.
• Ravager barbarians have too much self healing for the DPS they are capable of.
• Basic armor offers too much mitigation for its cost. While we are happy that armored characters are relevant again, we want to cut back on it a bit.

Essentially the changes we've posted above are bug fixes and balance changes that not only continue this plan, but also address concerns, both public and private, of the player base about game balance and difficulty.

In the changes above we have also added a number of fighter only feats that will give them some powerful options for both active mitigation through tactical feats and abilities, and passive mitigation through the use of armor. This is not meant to replace the fighter pass.

We look forward to your feedback.

Sev~

[JOTMON]

Holy Sword (Paladin)
This is now a spell that affects the paladin and buffs whatever melee weapon is being wielded in the main hand.
It no longer persists on your weapon but instead buffs the melee weapon you are holding in your main hand. (Yes, this buffs your two handed weapons.)
It no longer affects missile weapons.
It no longer can be used to buff off hand weapons or shields.
If you change weapons the spell will drop off the unequipped weapon and instead be applied to the newly equipped weapon.

Why.

Seems to me this would benefit 2HF and SWF more than S&B and 2WF builds.
Will twf be able to swap and buff alternate weapons or is this intended to only affect main hand weapons.... or a screw over to twf paladins.

Why not missile weapons.. I am assuming by missile weapons you mean assorted bows/xbows and not throwers. Paladins cant be holy archers?..
and what about throwers?

[CheeseMilk]

What "type" of bonus are Improved Critical and Keen?

[Severlin]

What "type" of bonus are Improved Critical and Keen?

They are unique bonuses, but programmed to not stack with each other.

Sev~

[JOTMON]

Two Weapon Fighting no longer grants melee power.
Improved Two Weapon Fighting no longer grants melee power.
Greater Two Weapon Fighting no longer grants melee power.

Why?
TWF takes multiple feats to advance. and is needed to increase offhand attack proc's.
Why are you not also taking melee power away from 2HF and SWF.. they are just as powerful.

[Severlin]

Why.

Seems to me this would benefit 2HF and SWF more than S&B and 2WF builds.
Will twf be able to swap and buff alternate weapons or is this intended to only affect main hand weapons.... or a screw over to twf paladins.

Why not missile weapons.. I am assuming by missile weapons you mean assorted bows/xbows and not throwers. Paladins cant be holy archers?..
and what about throwers?

The changes are designed to cut back on the power of two weapon fighting Paladins, Vanguards, and fix the fact that Paladin 14 hybrids are by many players' estimation the best missile characters. Throwing weapons are not affected by Holy Sword.

Sev~

[Severlin]

Why?
TWF takes multiple feats to advance. and is needed to increase offhand attack proc's.
Why are you not also taking melee power away from 2HF and SWF.. they are just as powerful.

Two reasons:

~ Two Weapon Fighting is well out pacing the other styles in classes not specifically designed to use that style.
~ The animation change to Two Weapon Fighting that makes it look better also gave it a slight DPS boost.

Sev~

[barecm]

Addressing only the double shot proposed change, I think it is a good thing only if going over 100% is actually obtainable without being pigeon holed into running on Divine Crusader. There will be a need for more stacking sources.

[UurlockYgmeov]

interesting...

seems well thought out, and well communicated.

When can we expect to see these changes on Lamannia? Are these all targeted to be rolled out at once? So, ie when?

Set in stone - or willing to listen to players?

Since update to manyshot / 10KS - can / will artificial ranged alacrity cap be removed?

Most I like - but will have to try on Lamannia to be sure.

[JOTMON]

Improved Critical
These feats now add a bonus to critical threat range based purely on weapon type.
* Adds +3 to critical threat range for falchion, kukri, rapier, and scimitar.
* Adds +2 to the critical threat range of bastard sword, dagger, great crossbow, greatsword, heavy crossbow, khopesh, light crossbow, long sword, repeating heavy crossbow, repeating light crossbow, short sword, and throwing dagger.
* Adds +1 to all other weapons.

Keen
This loot effect now add a bonus to critical threat range based purely on weapon type.
* Adds +3 to critical threat range for falchion, kukri, rapier, and scimitar.
* Adds +2 to the critical threat range of bastard sword, dagger, great crossbow, greatsword, heavy crossbow, khopesh, light crossbow, long sword, repeating heavy crossbow, repeating light crossbow, short sword, and throwing dagger.
* Adds +1 to all other weapons.

Why ?

are you intentionally trying to screw over 'other weapons'. like light hammers, maces, maul.. .. the weapons that need more help..
why not just delete these from the game.. if that's the case

you are giving high threat range weapons like falchions a huge improvement of critical threat range for weapons that already have a good threat range and screwing ones that don't

I would rather see this reversed to even up weapons of choice not make them weaker.
* Adds +1 to critical threat range for falchion, kukri, rapier, and scimitar.
* Adds +2 to the critical threat range of bastard sword, dagger, great crossbow, greatsword, heavy crossbow, khopesh, light crossbow, long sword, repeating heavy crossbow, repeating light crossbow, short sword, and throwing dagger.
* Adds +3 to all other weapons.

[Hoglum]

~ Two Weapon Fighting is well out pacing the other styles in classes not specifically designed to use that style.


Sev~

Shouldn't we be designing our characters? That's why we get feats. Why should 2wf be limited somehow to a class "specifically designed to use that style"?

Is it going to be like this now:

Rangers; may use 2wf.

Paladins: aren't allowed without being gimped.

Is that where you plan on taking the game?

[dunklezhan]

Interesting. Dialling back on the MRR on armour. I approve, but speaking as someone who runs without a whole lot of that on many characters that I should really try harder with, I was expecting to see a corresponding decrease in monster spellpower (I wasn't expecting a big decrease, but its pretty brutal out there with no MMR)

[Severlin]

interesting...

seems well thought out, and well communicated.

When can we expect to see these changes on Lamannia? Are these all targeted to be rolled out at once? So, ie when?

Set in stone - or willing to listen to players?

Since update to manyshot / 10KS - can / will artificial ranged alacrity cap be removed?

Most I like - but will have to try on Lamannia to be sure.

Soon.
Yes.
Willing to listen.
Ranged Alacrity "cap" is built into the animation system and unlikely to change, at least for this update.

As an aside, we added larger kobold dummies to the basement of Lamannia's test dojo to help players test DPS changes. The new DPS kobolds have five times the hit points of the old ones we dropped into the test dojo so it should help normalize the test and using burst abilities a bit more.

Sev~

[Augon]

Lots to take in and it will affect some of my characters positively, some negatively.

Thank you for a very concise and thorough explanation. I much prefer this over a piecemeal approach to information.

Thanks

[Axeyu]

Why ?

are you intentionally trying to screw over 'other weapons'. like light hammers, maces, maul.. .. the weapons that need more help..
why not just delete these from the game.. if that's the case

you are giving falchions a huge improvement of critical threat range for weapons that already have a good threat range and screwing ones that don't

I would rather see this reversed to even up weapons of choice not make them weaker.
* Adds +1 to critical threat range for falchion, kukri, rapier, and scimitar.
* Adds +2 to the critical threat range of bastard sword, dagger, great crossbow, greatsword, heavy crossbow, khopesh, light crossbow, long sword, repeating heavy crossbow, repeating light crossbow, short sword, and throwing dagger.
* Adds +3 to all other weapons.

No weapon type is getting screwed over. It's basically just a rephrasing of the current improved critical feats.
The purpose of the change is (as far as I can see) to stop buffs to crit range from being multiplied.

[dunklezhan]

changes re Keen and imp crit - been a long time coming, and should bring things more under control. I'll probably be highly unpopular for saying that. Ah well.

I take it interactions of Imp Crit [type] with weapons which already have an inherent expanded crit range (e.g. whirlwind) will be unchanged (i.e. they will still stack)?

[Severlin]

Shouldn't we be designing our characters? That's why we get feats. Why should 2wf be limited somehow to a class "specifically designed to use that style"?

Is it going to be like this now:

Rangers; may use 2wf.

Paladins: aren't allowed without being gimped.

Is that where you plan on taking the game?

Two weapon paladins are still doing better DPS than Paladins using two handed weapons or single weapon fighting by a good margin. But by all means, we'd love to see some test numbers from Lamannia! We added some bigger DPS kobolds in the test dojo to help players test.

Sev~

[UurlockYgmeov]

Soon.
Yes.
Willing to listen.
Ranged Alacrity "cap" is built into the animation system and unlikely to change, at least for this update.

As an aside, we added larger kobold dummies to the basement of Lamannia's test dojo to help players test DPS changes. The new DPS kobolds have five times the hit points of the old ones we dropped into the test dojo so it should help normalize the test and using burst abilities a bit more.

Sev~

all good answers.

OOOhhh!!! Shiney! Players going to eat fresh rat tonight!

Wait - why does everyone think of Kobold when they see me post?

[slarden]

So you are nerfing alot of warlock abilities but not eldritch wave which is the highest burst dps in all the trees. Everyone will now be running tier 5 souleater - why run anything else.

Not to mention Warlock dps is too high at heroic levels and by level 28 it is simply on par with paladin, barbarian and others. What you are doing is making a global fix to a heroic problem - I don't get it.

The divine grace change is as bad now as it was when originally proposed. You are making it so that being a high level paladin is the only way to get good saves. You are not following through on your previous statement that you were going to offer save bonuses for non-paladins that didn't stack with divine grace so good saves would be possible without being a paladin.

Alot of these change demonstrate a lack of understanding of what makes FOTM builds powerful. For the most part these changes make me want to take a break from the game. The whole balance attempts seem like a game of whack a mole.