U56 Preview 3 Release Notes

[crowbr]

wow, I never thought I'd see two species going extinct at the same time...

I think SSG took the dinosaur theme very seriously and decided to do their own extinction event

R.I.P
Tieflings
Bards

[tapster]

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

This.

[crowbr]

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

+1

[drathdragon]

Base Attack Bonus is now capped at 25.

uhh.. ok,

mm.. sorry, wait .. whaat ? O_o

[Frezar14]

"Sonic blast is now properly single target (note: it will still continue to hit breakables in an AOE)"

Awesome, another caster nerf. Thanks! At least with FVS, aasimar, and tiefling it made preview one. This one feels like they are trying to sneak it in under bug fixes in preview 3, lol. I'll assume it was high priority on the known issues list after all these years.

I know you think the player base doesn't deserve one, and maybe we don't, but some kind of explanation would be great with all these nerfs this update:

Is it OP in your opinion?
Does it need balancing with new shiny?
Does it need balancing due to possible future content?

Well, I won't hold my breath, but I hope you listen to this feedback. There have been several good suggestions on other ways to tweak this spell.

[Caarb]

Balance, accuracy to the source material, bug fixing, monetisation, are all important aspects of the game but all must be put secondary to gameplay. I think the devs in this game have forgotten that making the game fun should be their number one priority.

[gravisrs]

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

Please consider one of:

1. Lower it's damage instead (separately for sorcereres - by excluding sonic spells from Air Servant cores maybe?)
2. Shrink AOE size instead.
3. Keep as-is for bards (separate version of the spell incl bard SLA).
4. Remove Daze effect if it's too OP instead.
5. Make other low-lvl DPS bards spells useful.
6. Make it single-target but decrease casting time, cooldown and mana cost (incl bard SLA).

Or this will make Spellsingers totally useless on low levels.

[Arjen]

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.

SSG Energy for this entire update:

[scut207]

Sonic blast nerf????? Seriously What the ____?

Nerfing worse than it was prior to you buffing it because bards needed some help?

How in the what?

Other ideas that would fit this level of logic:

• Barbs and fighters can't use 2HF till level 12.
• DBF&Fireball should be single target
• All Mass spells reduced to single target
• Lightning bolt reduced to touch range only
• clerics intercessed on entry of every zone until they shrine

[Zarick]

Snuck? lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=990BSql7bnk

This might help.

[merridyan]

I think the devs should hold off on making the change to sonic blast. The spell for it's level is overpowered. BUT bard doesn't have much more, 4 spells. 3 with very bad targeting mechanics, none long range. Come back to this change after adding additional spells to the bard.

[apocaladle]

With the change to Sonic Blast, please add Shocking Bolt to the bard spell list to give some alternate options.

[Propane]

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

If the concern is Sor/Wiz getting too much out of this - why not two spells?

Old Sonic Blast --> Sonic Pulse - Bard only
Single Target Sonic Blast --> for Sor/Wiz

Bards have so many less spells - they need this much more the Sor/Wiz.

[wwefreak1980]

[*]True Seeing, Mass: Cast True Seeing on yourself and your allies. Clr/Fvs 8[*]Freedom of Movement, Mass: Cast Freedom of Movement on yourself and your nearby allies. Clr/Fvs/Drd 7[/LIST]

Adding more spells but no extra spell slots again?

[Sowahh]

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

Or, you know, just fix the tooltip and call it a day. Grab a beer. Re-think the actual reason you had in mind when making this change. And look for a better fix to the initial problem.
This guts:
- Caster bards throughout heroics.
- Caster bards in Epics / Legendary
- Arcane casters in low heroics

Which of those you wanted to do in the first place by making this change?

[majster67]

[*]There are two new spells:

• True Seeing, Mass: Cast True Seeing on yourself and your allies. Clr/Fvs 8
• Freedom of Movement, Mass: Cast Freedom of Movement on yourself and your nearby allies. Clr/Fvs/Drd 7

How about adding a spelk Jump, Mass? I daresay it will be more helpful on many raids, especially e.g. for medics(and other characters with non-class jump skill), than e.g. True Seeing where those who need it usually have something with TS, and for casters to cast jump separately takes some time and sp. It would be good if this spell(jump, mass) wasn't on too high lvl, so that it would be useful on TS(but the second - Tempest Spine )or VoN5-6. Although I know that on lower levels because of less spells, other spells are more important, but scrolls are even sometimes helpful. Nevertheless, I think it would be a helpful spell.

And as for scrolls - since you've moved the skills from the old ED Tier5 and 6 to spells, I've yet to see a single scroll with those spells, either in chests or on AH/ASAH. I'm thinking of the likes of Arcane Tempest, Celestial Bombarment etc. Either introduce them into the drop or raise the chance of falling out. Because of the newly added spells only Rend the Soul I see often but of those from the old ED none.

[salmag]

Thanks SSG for making, yet again, another Mule for me. This time it's my Tielfing Scoundrel Bard.

I'll need it; especially, since you are NOT adding more Bank space. Which, coincidentally, is THE number one problem with the shared bank. Don't get me wrong, sorting, new tabs, etc. are much appreciated, BUT the MAIN issue is more space. You continually add more items, ingredients, etc. but fail to add SPACE.

As for Sonic Blast, this smells like the IPS nerf all over again. Something works fine since inception, you add a new shiny, and nerf the long standing, WORKING ability (player fun ceases). Instead, you should scale back on the new shiny (scalpel instead of axe). I wish I could be fly on the wall during that decision making process. Someone should get the 'axe.' <<< See what I did there.

Unfortunately, for the players, it is a done deal. They already did the work, so it's going forward.
Please prove me wrong.

[jackatthekilns]

I think the devs should hold off on making the change to sonic blast. The spell for it's level is overpowered. BUT bard doesn't have much more, 4 spells. 3 with very bad targeting mechanics, none long range. Come back to this change after adding additional spells to the bard.

I agree. As I said in an earlier post, if there is a problem please find a better fix.

There must be a better solution to this problem, if it is too late to implement now - hold off and wait until you can do that. I am willing to accept that some aspect of Sonic Blast needs to be adjusted, but this is not the way. Please find a way for it to retain its feel even if it needs to do less damage. As it stands you have taken away the aoe and not adjusted the damage. the "bolt" spells are 1d6+2. I for one would much rather you reduce the damage to 1d4+2 and reduce the aoe a little than make it single target. I think you will get significantly less push back (obviously not none there are some very angry people here) if you kept the aoe and nerfed the damage a bit. IT would still "feel" like Sonic Blast. I would say it just feels like a "bolt" spell now, but as I mentioned it does less damage.

I hope you see that in addition to the usual angry comments that come from any change whatsoever, there are a lot of us who do not normally post or complain that feel strongly about this. Much more than Assimar or even fvs.

If you must adjust sonic blast, find a better way.

[Zuldar]

Shocking grasp also needs to be buffed, shocking bolt has more range, more damage and a higher max caster level, effectively rendering it obsolete.

I'd make any touch spell take doublestrike into account with a chance to do double damage. They do technically count as melee touch attacks after all.

[mbartol]

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

Wow. How else can we limit the fun players have in the game?
I suppose Bards are truly meant to be buff-bots only.