U56 Preview 3 Release Notes

[hale99]

This update is probably the worse update I've seen in a LONG TIME. So many bad changes coming out and just like old times they're actively ignoring the community that plays the game (since they don't apparently) and refuse to make adjustments based off of feedback. I don't know if it's new interns or what's going on, maybe something in the water?

What makes a this game fun and great is the diversity and they're actively taking that away. Forcing players to play one race to foe casters is completely bogus.

I find it so sad that there's no communication with the community about these massive changes as well. The devs seems to be totally silent other than releaseing more notes with worse and worse things on them.

I'd implore the devs to look at other games and see how they handle balance changes and go from there. This isn't the way to go about it for sure. This is the way to run the game Into the ground.

[Reilia]

Sonic blast was a bug?!? Why did you have to fix it? Can we get a higher level one that works the same as the bugged first level?

[die]

Its been a few years, thinking about coming back. Wow I lived in this game for 13 years wow. Great game.

[Seph1roth5]

Sonic blast change is pure garbage. Dev transparency has been nonexistent for a long time now. They just give vague reasons behind nerfs, such as things "overperforming" or my new favorite, "is now properly___" Though I guess that's the one they used to remove the old elemental resist shrines.

Stormsinger'snew song adds a 20% chance to proc the archetype's lightning strike, and both have a sonic blast SLA. If the spell were OP like holy smite supposedly was, they could've easily changed the damage dice or MCL (like people had mentioned). This nerf is super obviously just meant to counterbalance stormsinger. Instead of trying to finagle stormsinger itself to be balanced, they slap a "done!" sticker on it and then look at what else can be changed so it's where they want it.

[Reilia]

I can see that Sonic Blast is OP for a level 1 spell. I'm still using it on a level 23 sorc in epic reaper quests and still frequently stunning mobs without heighten. Making this change in the middle of HC season would be unfair to the large population of people running spellsinger bard on that server (and maybe a few air sorcs). I also know that the devs view this as a bug but it has been that way for a very long time. I will miss it very much.

[Seph1roth5]

• The XP Bar on the character sheet has been removed to facilitate Archetype and Class Displays. If you would like to view your character's total level progress, you may rotate through available XP bars by pressing the XP Bar Toggle at the bottom left hand corner of your screen, next to the & symbol.

Yeah, I mean, I always open up the character sheet to check on my class and archetype. XP isn't something that changes constantly for 32 levels or anything.

[Archfae]

Yeah, I mean, I always open up the character sheet to check on my class and archetype. XP isn't something that changes constantly for 32 levels or anything.

Holy, I didn't see that change. Thats a huge change thats going to negatively impact quality of life for leveling.

[Aelonwy]

[*]Sonic blast is now properly single target (note: it will still continue to hit breakables in an AOE)[/LIST]

Cow from orbit again? Is this to reinforce that the only spell dps-ing bard MUST be the new archetype? Shame on us for having older bards that are not the NEW thing, have to nerf that to make the NEW thing the best way. Sorry but that's how this "bug" fix reads to me.

Between this^ and the nerf(s) to divine casters, and the nerf to Aasimar, and the nerf to Tiefling, and the nerf to druid... well what I'm primarily seeing from this update is nerfs. I think I have a ranger that isn't getting hit this update, why don't you find something last minute so all my characters can feel equally bad about themselves?

Looks like the ONLY things to really look forward to in this update are the bank changes. Well thanks for that anyway.

[SWCarter]

Between this^ and the nerf(s) to divine casters, and the nerf to Aasimar, and the nerf to Tiefling, and the nerf to druid... well what I'm primarily seeing from this update is nerfs.

Yeah, this whole update is just feeling icky to me. Nerfs upon nerfs for things that have been around for many, many years. Even the ToEE "rework" appears to be going backwards.

I'm enthusiastic about the bank update for sure, but even that gets a shadow cast on it when we now learn that it's debuting with no new storage except for a 595-point-cost upgrade for 20 additional bank slots when many people need a lot more than that.

[Seph1roth5]

Bank update, free completionist, and whirlwind attack changes. Put those 3 in and send everything else back to the drawing board. Even bug fixes!

[Kielbasa]

The sonic blast change is terrible. You need to introduce some new sonic ranged aoe spells for bards at higher spell levels. Tweak the master of music feat to include them and make sure fatesinger works with those new spells before this goes live. If you cannot do that then push this change until after all that has been addressed.

[Assassination]

These nerfs to aasimar are really garbage. Who does this hurt, melee. Nice job SSG. This whole update, with the exception of the bank, which should have been done 10 years ago, is a real stinker. Changes to Toee sound like

trash, gear is trash.

Archetypes seem like another huge waste of time, fix the existing trees!!!! Fix all the things you have broken lately. Fix the garbage epic destiny that is Shadow"Caster". Time for someone in management to realize what the

players want, and start acting on that. Direction of the last 2 years is really disappointing.

[Feyrabrand]

[*]Elemental Forms (Both Sorcerer and Druid)[/LIST][/LIST]

Thank you! Ive been wanting to see cosmetics on my fire sorc for a while. xD

[Wizard1406]

Please don't nerf sonic blast. Sonic casters need this to do blast radius AOE. There are no other proper sonic AOE blast radius spells, only cone. It's also not too strong of a spell either and it helps low level arcanes a lot. Literally no one complained about sonic blast , so why nerf it?

[Hashrabal]

Everything seen on the preview server, Lamannia, is not final and is subject to change or removal before live release.

But not subject to change based on feedback from the players.

Greetings! Preview 3 of Update 56 is opening with The Temple of Elemental Evil improvements, as well as any bug fixes

Please be honest enough to at least say it as it is. It's nerfs, tons and tons of nerfs.

and changes to features

You changed one feature, the bank. It does not offer more storage, it does not help with the current problems. I give you this: it might be the basis (behind-the-scenes work) for solving it in the future. But currently all you are really doing is slapping a new UI on the same problem. I have around 40ish bank toons in U55, I will continue to have around 40ish bank toons in U56. Nothing has changed for me or for every player that gathered gear for longer then a few months. Things like this make me wonder if you devs have any plan of the realities of how we players actually play this game. I mean, ofc you never have to deal with bank toons - when testing you just cheat the gear in, right.. I mean, hey, it's literally free to take on Lamaland.

Let me be honest... this is the first time in the history of DDO where the game would profit from you just rolling back to the last update (U55) and throwing everything you worked on away. Harsh, but that really is how bad this update is. After U56 this will be a far worse game. I would rather keep playing on U55 forever, then having U56. You won't have fixed any problems, but added a lot of dead classes, leading to even fewer things you can play. You might think that you "breathed a fresh wind" into these archetypes and "gave players something new and exciting" to play with. Let me be very clear. YOU DID THE OPPOSITE!

Classes need to be, you know, actually good to be played. You cannot nerf everything into the ground and expect people to still play them (for more then the novelty which lasts a couple weeks at best). Your changes killed bard, fvs and (to an extend) cleric this update. That is a solid 3 classes gone from the pool of playable classes for the 1-20 grind. And that list was short before!

U55 the list was:
- Caster Druid
- Caster Cleric
- Warlock
- Elemental Sorc
- Caster Alchemist
- Caster FvS
- Caster Bard

Yes, that is not a long list. But it is the god damned reality of the game you made! You NEED STRONG AOE TO LEVEL! It is not optional! And you need immunity bypasses. I know you hate them, but they are freaking necessary! Nobody in their right mind plays classes without them, not for long, because they see that they are an active detriment to every party they join. Because they are! We need MORE good, fast levelers, not less and less each patch! Hate the players advancing through your "content" fast as much as you want, it is the only way to succeed in the game you created! As long as you keep adding more and more power in past lives (9 new ones only in this patch, and powerful ones at that...) people will need classes to grind them out. And that is the casters you hate so much, because you refuse to hand good AoE to the melee classes; since you see AoE as a problem. It is a solution. The solution to the problem of you filling (especially newer) quests with WAY TOO MANY MOBS to kill single-target, which again was created by you.

So, how does the list of valid classes look after your horror patch?
- Caster Druid
- Sorc
- Warlock
- Alchemist

And let me be real with you, these classes work fine. You can totally do everything you need to do with them. You can farm past lives well with them. Then why am I complaining so much? Because I am ****ING SICK AND TIRED of playing the same three to four classes over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again because every time you slightly expand the list of viable classes, you nerf it into the ground mere months later again. Give me one good reason*1 to keep playing, if I can play fewer and fewer things every awful patch..

I am waiting.




*1 Addendum:
You might be tempted to say "the exciting new quests". Stop lying to yourselves! NOBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND plays your new quests for leveling. We play your new content once for the gear (if it is actually good*2), then never look at it again. I haven't even bothered to play saltmarsh yet, even though I have it, because it is literally not worth my time. Your game is a reincarnation-simulator. 90% of the content in this game is farming xp, as fast as possible. That is not achieved by going to your new quests, where mobs literally have three times the hp, defenses (and often damage) compared to older quests that are faster AND provide more xp. Oh, and aren't in some god forsaken wilderness zone I gotta ride through (and be dismounted three times along the way) either. For the last few years, new quests amounted to nothing more then loot pinatas. You hit them until they drop their loot, then forget they exist and go run Gianthold for the 90est time. That is the reality of the game you created. You could solve that, easily even, but you are not willing to make new quests have significantly higher xp then existing ones, let alone giving them equal xp. Why should I run quests that take significantly longer and provide me with less xp? Even if I did it, for **** and giggles, think anyone would join that lfm? That is just not a realistic expectation. Instead we all keep continue running VoN1-4 each live, run TBC each live and try not to vomit.

*2 To give you an idea, the last gear that was worth farming for was Feywild. And I am talking Feywild HEROIC, not legendary (or epic now, I guess). Farming at cap is a fools game, since you power creep every new update, so that gear is pointless before you have played most farmed sets. Currently, I am bothering (thanks to the really awesome bank...) with the following sets each live:
1-4: random CC crafted stuff and some borderlands
5-9: Feywild ~10 pieces
10-14: Ravenloft 3 piece, Ravenloft 5 piece, Feywild 2-3 pieces
15-30: Sharn 3 piece, fill up with Ravenloft. If I only go to 20, I don't bother with Sharn, since getting it from bank toons is really not worth the time for just 15-20.

There is really no space for saltmarsh (3) or isle (7) gear in there. I don't even bother with slavers (8). But instead of looking at the obvious gap in the gear available, you keep making gear according to the formula "low level heroic and a legendary version". We now have more set items at around 30ish then 1-28 right now. You do know leveling exists between 15 and 28, right? Right?

[Lamassut]

Don't make the change to sonic blast. Revert the damage per hit die change back to what it was originally. The original spell has worked for 15 years, and hasn't given any problems, so the problems (if there are problems) are with your most recent changes. Leave the spell as it was originally conceived. And put the current sonic blast as a level 3 version. Fixed. You devs should play more, to understand why your nerfs are so inadequate.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the tiefling nerf is absurd. The only thing that is achieved with that is that the dragonborn remains as a single race suitable for nukers, and many people hate it for its aesthetics. You should give us more options, not take away options.

The nerf to aasimar is also a mistake. There are more offensive races, others more defensive. The aasimar as conceived has its niche in the second group. You are going to make it a useless race.

Seriously, devs, you need to stop these nerfs, which are only creating a lot of discontent, and learn to use a scalpel instead of an atomic bomb when a nerf is really needed. And many nerfs have not been needed. The IPS nerf was as bad an idea as the ones in this update.

[Hashrabal]

Don't make the change to sonic blast. Revert the damage per hit die change back to what it was originally. The original spell has worked for 15 years, and hasn't given any problems, so the problems (if there are problems) are with your most recent changes. Leave the spell as it was originally conceived. And put the current sonic blast as a level 3 version. Fixed. You devs should play more, to understand why your nerfs are so inadequate.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the tiefling nerf is absurd. The only thing that is achieved with that is that the dragonborn remains as a single race suitable for nukers, and many people hate it for its aesthetics. You should give us more options, not take away options.

The nerf to aasimar is also a mistake. There are more offensive races, others more defensive. The aasimar as conceived has its niche in the second group. You are going to make it a useless race.

Seriously, devs, you need to stop these nerfs, which are only creating a lot of discontent, and learn to use a scalpel instead of an atomic bomb when a nerf is really needed. And many nerfs have not been needed. The IPS nerf was as bad an idea as the ones in this update.

It is rare that I can say that (for any post), but you are just 100% correct. Nothing to add here.

[Lamassut]

oh, and 75 shards for the reaper bonus is still too much. Although it is an improvement, but they are still too many.

[Jerevth]

Changing sonic blast- a long standing spell that was viewed as fine up until now- has a certain dev's modus operandi.
It's the same solution as the Inquisitor/IPS change.

Why does SSG think it's better change to an ability that affects several classes, when a new shiny is introduced that causes a potential OP issue?
It makes no sense- the newest coding should be the easiest to adjust, with the least impact on the game.
Yet, time and again, the broader change is pushed through with potential, unknown repercussions. Wands (Useless though they are), first level CC for a first level caster with exceptional squish, etc.

The attitude of this method- broad change to existing classes in order to support a new "Shiny"- indicates a blatant disregard for the enjoyment of the game.

Seriously- you, SSG, made the Storm Singer, and discovered that there's the potential of too much power so the Storm Singer is what needs to be adjusted. Not a long standing first level spell that was fine up until now.
It's almost as if a certain dev is trolling those who play casters.
Dude, seriously, if you want to work on a different game then polish your resume and go to EA or Sega, and give Lynn the reins; Lynn makes the least disruptive changes, fixes long standing bugs you ignored for years and tries to keep the game fun.

Tolero, fix this attitude some of the devs have. With a game as old and venerable as DDO, I'd be doing my utmost to keep players playing, not letting one of my Devs whittle the player population down with nerfs like this. Even if it's only one or two players who drop off for a break- you don't know if they're coming back again.

Heck, I've been looking for an alternative these last few weeks because it doesn't take a genius to see where DDO is headed: no advertising, a dwindling playerbase, and the callous attitude- you can't NOT be aware of the upset some of the nerfs, and the way they are employed, will cause. Yet still the broad changes to reduce power in a certain combat system (Ranged, melee, caster) and blithely move on.

If the new shiny introduces a potential power issue, then does it not make sense to change the new shiny, rather than make the entire game conform to the shiny? What happens when the next shiny is ready for release... again and again, until the game breaks, or half the population says, "Screw it, I'm done". With that, how will the resume look when trawling for a new job?
"Wait, SSG... didn't they tank their player base with some nerf, recently?"

~*The sonic "blast" won't break the player base, but the inability to apply logic when discussing a change, and how and where it should be applied, eventually will.*~

[Mindos]

When the in game store changed, we lost the shopping cart. We complained. We were told it would be looked into. Nothing ever changed.
When items in the store had(HAVE) a wrong description, such as BTC when really BTA, etc, we pointed it out. And nothing ever changed. A simple text fix is ignored.

Now, DDO as a whole seems to be sadly following this pattern. Complaints are ignored. Questions about why (Aasimar?) are ignored.

I've long advocated that sometimes you musts ignore the customer, especially with loot and power. But lately it seems DDO is on a blind path to it's own "homebrew" game. One that apparently brooks no discussion. No give and take. Why be engaged? (You're seeing posts like this just now with the sonic blast nerf)

What changed recently DDO? Why are you like this now? Keep making bully homebrew nerf DDO and you devs might be the only ones playing it.