Jump to content
  • Sign Up

How do you feel about the imminent balance patch, and why?


Poelala.2830

Recommended Posts

I watched and rewatched the WvW stream last night. I want to say I am pleased with the level of pre-patch dialogue with the community so far. Keep up the good work. I feel it is reasonable to expect that the game could be turned on it's head with these changes; this could easily be as "disruptive" as the addition of a new set of class specializations.

Has consideration been given to the impact on the economy and the presumed need to change gear?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 207
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

@Master Ketsu.4569 said:

@"Ben Phongluangtham.1065" said:It's going to be somewhat chaotic for a while. And I'm sure there will be overlooked things or unintentional problems. The number of changes is so large that all possible interactions are impossible to predict. Our goal is to be able to respond relatively quickly to issues that come up. And there will probably need to be a decent size follow-up release to continue to refine. Balance is a long term commitment, not a one release solution.

So at least one other person sat through Antichrist, I gather? Whew... I actually watched that and Dogtooth as a double feature one weekend. I haven't been right in the head since. :#

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:It's going to be somewhat chaotic for a while. And I'm sure there will be overlooked things or unintentional problems. The number of changes is so large that all possible interactions are impossible to predict. Our goal is to be able to respond relatively quickly to issues that come up. And there will probably need to be a decent size follow-up release to continue to refine. Balance is a long term commitment, not a one release solution.

Dunno man. You guys are hyping this thing, but did not give us any info to indicate how is this patch any big. This rarely ends up well.

Cmc mentioned on the WvW stream today. 800-900 objects have been changed so far. Just with the splits.

Quantity over quality. Looks like basic issues like class stacking or one sited matchups aren't even considered as a problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Sigmoid.7082 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:The volume of changes they hint at is the OPPOSITE of what they need to be doing

And what exactly should they be doing, according to you?

Its well known in the dev profession that small frequent changes work and large broad changes actually indicate an immature development pipeline.

An example of good practice would be to initially split all skills for pve and pve but keep both pve and pvp skills identical for that first drop. Patch that out first to live, test the split In Isolation without having to firefight new balance issues and lay the bones for quick future changes while getting past the heavy lifting.

2 weeks later patch in a small set of skill changes - low risk now, the heavy lifting has already been done, just tweaking numbers.

Same 2 weeks later

..

As things mature go to 1 week patches

And so on for ever with a model where you can react quickly. And incrementally clean up issues without the big bang high risk mess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only fear for me personally is massive changes to the game overall which originate in the competitive modes (Spvp and WvW) to spill into PvE and make classes less fun to play.

The toning down of power creep overall might be a good idea, but that automatically leads to certain content getting harder (say fractals, raids, instanced content overall). Raids, especially wing 1-4, have been the easiest they have ever been, yet the communities are dwindling (might not be challenge related) and players keep complaining about being unable to complete them.

I love WvW. Have gained over 2k ranks in less than a year. Love the game mode since DAoC and Warhammer Online. Still I personally believe that PvE is carrying this game financially. That doesn't mean everything needs to be sacrificed on the PvE altar, but when the 1 lone pvp guy in the back of the room dictates the balance changes, something might go boom.

I don't think balance overall is even the issue in spvp. If one follows the forums for an extended period of time, the one thing that becomes evident is:

  • there will always be whiners,
  • there will always be players who dislike certain classes from the bottom of their heart,
  • there will always be players defending their completely overpowered classes state.

What I personally think is: the competitive modes, Spvp especially, need expanding upon with new and more game modes starting at the very core of player count in games. 5v5 is completely out of place when you have 9 classes with 2 elite specs each. Some classes are bound to not find play.

Something similar goes for WvW, expand player choice and/or give players the tools they need to expand themselves. Make GvGs a thing or allow WvW players to work within a system to easier organize GvGs for example. Obviously WvW needs some work on population distribution as well. Tons of things can and need to be be done outside of balance changes which would go a long way to help competitive game modes

TL;DR:really hoping the rework and re-balance will result in a healthy game experience for all game modes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618" said:I feel massive dread.

I see something like an overall 50% damage reduction coming - and weaver even more. Ignoring for example that weaver is almost a pariah now. Thanks to revenenants and their instant cast masssive hammer damage COMBINED with massive boon output.

Instant cast massive hammer damage? Is this a Vengeful Hammers complaint, or are you just that unfamiliar with Revenant to think that the hammer is anywhere close to instant cast?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:It's going to be somewhat chaotic for a while. And I'm sure there will be overlooked things or unintentional problems. The number of changes is so large that all possible interactions are impossible to predict. Our goal is to be able to respond relatively quickly to issues that come up. And there will probably need to be a decent size follow-up release to continue to refine. Balance is a long term commitment, not a one release solution.

Do we have a rough ETA? preferably more specific than Q1.Thanks in advance

We don't have an announced date yet. But it won't be during this current season.

So we're looking at sometime after February 25th?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I tend to be the eternal optimist much to the chagrin of most people who have to deal with me on a daily basis. I can see why Anet wouldn't possibly be able to test a patch that size with any accuracy. Reason being is we are players will almost always break something. Meaning, we will do something unintended or find a loophole someplace in the changes. Its the nature of how we operate. Personally i'd love to find that something shifts so much that the meta has to change or that new builds are developed. We've also as a community been asking for change for so long I'm sure it will take some time to "catch up" to some degree. My rating: Cautiously optimistic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Mogwai.4015 said:

@"VAHNeunzehnsechundsiebzig.3618" said:I feel massive dread.

I see something like an overall 50% damage reduction coming - and weaver even more. Ignoring for example that weaver is almost a pariah now. Thanks to revenenants and their instant cast masssive hammer damage COMBINED with massive boon output.

Instant cast massive hammer damage? Is this a Vengeful Hammers complaint, or are you just that unfamiliar with Revenant to think that the hammer is anywhere close to instant cast?

you can get two high damage skills off in the time it needs to cast one meteor shower. And alsmost finished a third one. What was your point again?

I played rev. Rev is easy class.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Sigmoid.7082 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:The volume of changes they hint at is the OPPOSITE of what they need to be doing

And what exactly should they be doing, according to you?

Somehow me knowing exactly what they should be doing is an indication of knowing what they shouldn't be? Some bad logic right there.

Judging by your tone, you believe that introducing so many changes at the same time is the correct path? Tell me, what makes you think that's going to work for them THIS TIME, considering in all the balance patches in the past, they demonstrate they struggle to achieve with the few changes they make? Didn't I just read they made HUNDREDS of changes in splits? Are you honestly going to sit there and tell me you think I'm wrong? I guess you REALLY want me to come back and call you out after the patch or something?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Obtena.7952 said:

@Obtena.7952 said:The volume of changes they hint at is the OPPOSITE of what they need to be doing

And what exactly should they be doing, according to you?

I dunno ... why do you think it's relevant to make this into an argument?

Hardly making it an argument though you are free to assume my tone as much as you want. I asked the question because I want to know what you think they should be doing instead of what hey have planned. Otherwise its just a sweeping statement without a lot of substance. i.e I want to know more about your opinion besides "this is wrong".

Somehow me knowing exactly what they should be doing is an indication of knowing what they shouldn't be? Some bad logic right there..snip..I guess you REALLY want me to come back and call you out after the patch or something?

No, it means what's you take on it. Absolutely no need to be so aggressive when I am just asking you for more detail on you opinion..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Cyninja.2954 said:The only fear for me personally is massive changes to the game overall which originate in the competitive modes (Spvp and WvW) to spill into PvE and make classes less fun to play.

The toning down of power creep overall might be a good idea, but that automatically leads to certain content getting harder (say fractals, raids, instanced content overall). Raids, especially wing 1-4, have been the easiest they have ever been, yet the communities are dwindling (might not be challenge related) and players keep complaining about being unable to complete them.

I love WvW. Have gained over 2k ranks in less than a year. Love the game mode since DAoC and Warhammer Online. Still I personally believe that PvE is carrying this game financially. That doesn't mean everything needs to be sacrificed on the PvE altar, but when the 1 lone pvp guy in the back of the room dictates the balance changes, something might go boom.

I don't think balance overall is even the issue in spvp. If one follows the forums for an extended period of time, the one thing that becomes evident is:

  • there will always be whiners,
  • there will always be players who dislike certain classes from the bottom of their heart,
  • there will always be players defending their completely overpowered classes state.

What I personally think is: the competitive modes, Spvp especially, need expanding upon with new and more game modes starting at the very core of player count in games. 5v5 is completely out of place when you have 9 classes with 2 elite specs each. Some classes are bound to not find play.

Something similar goes for WvW, expand player choice and/or give players the tools they need to expand themselves. Make GvGs a thing or allow WvW players to work within a system to easier organize GvGs for example. Obviously WvW needs some work on population distribution as well. Tons of things can and need to be be done outside of balance changes which would go a long way to help competitive game modes

TL;DR:really hoping the rework and re-balance will result in a healthy game experience for all game modes.

Just to point it out, its already been said that many of the changes are splits between the modes. This is something that has sorely been needed as PvE has bled into WvW/sPvP far too much and the power creep has very much hurt the PvP.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:It's going to be somewhat chaotic for a while. And I'm sure there will be overlooked things or unintentional problems. The number of changes is so large that all possible interactions are impossible to predict. Our goal is to be able to respond relatively quickly to issues that come up. And there will probably need to be a decent size follow-up release to continue to refine. Balance is a long term commitment, not a one release solution.

You keep talking about the size being really big but how big is it compared to a pretty normal balance pass like this?

He did say every skill and trait has been reviewed. Should give some idea about scope and size.

Reviewed but not necessarily changed.

He said the amount of changes will be hard to even put out on a note. Does that explain it better?

How is writing patch notes hard? You just type them. If I was typing patch notes instead of my own post I'd be doing it right now. Think about that.

Typing up the notes itself isn't the problem. For the splits alone, the list is finished. We're discussing how to present the notes a digestible way and in a way that makes it easier on us to follow feedback conversations.

HIT US LIKE A TIDAL WAVE

and then lock the forums for 24 hours.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:It's going to be somewhat chaotic for a while. And I'm sure there will be overlooked things or unintentional problems. The number of changes is so large that all possible interactions are impossible to predict. Our goal is to be able to respond relatively quickly to issues that come up. And there will probably need to be a decent size follow-up release to continue to refine. Balance is a long term commitment, not a one release solution.

fix chrono

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@RlyOsim.2497 said:

@Ben Phongluangtham.1065 said:It's going to be somewhat chaotic for a while. And I'm sure there will be overlooked things or unintentional problems. The number of changes is so large that all possible interactions are impossible to predict. Our goal is to be able to respond relatively quickly to issues that come up. And there will probably need to be a decent size follow-up release to continue to refine. Balance is a long term commitment, not a one release solution.

fix chrono

Delete Mesmer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...