QA August 2023

[Undone]

On the docket for this month but not guaranteed:

• Hunting Log
• New Quests
• New EV
• Combat Refinement
• Alchemy Prep (back end work)

(THE FOLLOWING POINTS ARE IN QA)

August 3rd:
Live Characters were copied to QA on August 3rd, 2023.

• Imbued* Arrows crafted with Raven feathers are now Feathered Crafted Arrows/Bolts with their own unique stats.
• Added pursue abilities (ranged attacks while out of melee distance) for Slagjacks, Muckrippers, and Terradiles.
• Increased ore spawn density in Southern Highland Hills
• Increased maximum armor weight for Defenders by +5.
• Reduced respawn rate of mobs with the Highland Hills Arborholm Nursery
• Fixed armor weight of smugglers cap to be 0
• Resists reduced on King's Guard Shield
• Gathering yields when skinning 2^ and 3^ animals has been increased. This is also true for 2^/3^ mandrakes, mangroves, and stonecoats.
• Fixed an issue where most heals were not interruptable. Only a few abilities were interruptable but the rate at which it occurred was too frequent. Reduced the initial interruption chance and reduced it to zero once execution is half complete.
  • Healing interruption has been re-enabled for the following skills:
    • First Aid (Ranks greater than I)
    • Triage
    • Patch
    • Overprovision
    • Rejuvenating Hymn
  • Reduced healing interruption chance on the following abilities:
    • Death's Door
    • Replenish
    • Treatment
    • First Aid (Rank I)

Hunting Log
This patch finally brings you the long awaited hunting log. The implementation you last experienced on QA had you unlocking titles. We expanded this tech to now also offer you stat bonuses against the specific creature.

The hunting log can be accessed via a new tab in the Log window. The list will show you which creature's you currently have a log for, how many kills into your current tier you are, and the total amount of kills. If you have any perks available to select that will be highlighted in blue to draw your attention to it. When selecting an individual entry the right window will show the creature name, total kills, and stat tally in the upper portion. In the lower portion you can see your progress through your current tier, and below that which tier perks you have chosen and are available. When a perk is available to choose a button will show allowing you to select one of the available options (which can be previewed via a tooltip).

Choices come in two flavors: stats and titles. Title's typically have you selecting between one of two available and are different for each tier. Specific creatures on the other hand, always offer the same stat choices which will allow you to focus on one stat, or get a little of each.

Finally, in order to "respec" your hunting log you can right click on any entry and select "Reset Perk", at which point you will be greeted with a friendly confirmation window:

Resetting to a specific perk will actually reset your tier progress to the previous tier. As an example, if you reset to the 250 tier your tier progress will be reset to 100 and you must "re-earn" your way back to the tier in question. We feel that this method of respeccing aligns with other mechanics in our game and forces you to think twice before hitting the yes button. Think of your total kill count as something tracked for fun, while you can think of your tier progress as your "experience" with a specific creature.

However, we have build the hunting log with a great deal of flexibility in mind. If we decide to change the tier or reward structure then we can easily increment the version of a specific creature, or the entire hunting log, which in turn will automatically refund your selections without resetting your tier progress. In other words: if any changes are made to the choices offered rest assured you will get a free respec.

Armor Weight Adjustments
Armor Weight has been globally shifted down while maintaining existing armor weight ratios. For most players this should yield individual pieces of armor offering less protection but you can now wear more pieces. With these changes we have assured that a level 50 would be able to wear specific armor sets:

• Warden/Brigand/Duelist/Warlord: Full Leather
• Berserker/Sentinel: Full Scale
• Juggernaut/Marshal: Full Half-Plate
• Knight: Full Full-Plate/Chitin

Gathering Material Update
Filled all gaps in gathering material progression. Previously, materials would skip 20 levels before being available again (i.e. a material introduced at level 10 would not be seen again until level 30). Now, all materials are available in a 10 level cadence (i.e. Tin is a level 10 material and can now be found for all tiers of player greater than 10). The goal is to allow players to have more freedom in material use and reward players who put in the effort of learning and identifying desired material combinations.

As a result of this change skinning now rewards a random carcass type of the appropriate level. An additional effect of this change will be a greater stress on inventory, gathering bag, and stash space - this is something we are keenly aware of.

Ability Execution Adjustments
With the aim of improving the feels of combat without drastically changing the formula we have enhanced our execution pipeline to better support instant executions. Now that this improved tech is in place we have adjusted a number of ability execution times. We are still heavily iterating on these changes so feel free to chime in with your thoughts.

Abilities changed to Instant execution:

• Strike
• Fading Strike
• Provoke
• Roar
• Perforate
• Precision Strike
• Duel
• Pressure
• Pursuit
• Quick Strike
• Draw Fire
• Assault
• Chaotic Strike
• Hidden Strike
• Mark
• Stagger
• Venom Strike
• Sedation Dart
• Viperid Toxins
• Combined Strike
• Disengage
• Weaken
• Diversion
• Frightful Visage
• Bash

Abilities changed from 2s to 1s execution:

• Bleeding Strike
• Threatening Strike
• Advantage Strike
• Assailing Strike
• Collateral Damage
• Rip
• Smash
• Enraging Strike
• Sweep
• End-Around
• Balanced Strike
• Arc
• Pummel
• Assist
• Acid Strike
• Weak Point
• Hemo Strike
• Amputate
• Distract
• Open Wound
• Stifle
• Flinching Strike
• Execute
• Overpower
• Salvo
• Venom Shock
• Breach
• First Strike
• Crushing Blow

Another reminder that we are still in the process of iterating on these. NPC health & armor will receive a boost in the near future to compensate for the increased DPS as a result of these changes. Also note that we are working on animation improvements for some/all of these abilities as well.

August 8th:

• Fixed an issue where NPCs would back into you after being stunned.
• Removed a number of ladders
• Fixed some stuck spots in Dryfoot Stronghold
• Fixed an issue where the LOS check was failing for unconscious players in some locations. This should be far more reliable.
• Added tech to allow animation transitions to be bypassed for instant executions. This should clean up some anim issues when going from Idle directly into combat with an instant execution. We are still working on adjusting animations to fit these instant executions better.
• Execution Time Updates:
  • Updated execution times for self-buffs to be instant. This includes:
    • No Time To Die
    • Unstoppable
    • Brace
    • Revenge
    • Counter
    • Bulwark
    • Parry
    • Ready
    • Draw Fire
    • Fury
    • Followthrough
    • Guts
    • Windup
    • Eye of the Storm
    • Abet
    • From the Shadows
    • Ruse
    • Eagle Eye
    • Rockhide
    • Bolster Armor
    • Weaken
    • Rallying Call
  • Execution times on attacks have been adjusted to be a flat 1s reduction from the current live values. No abilities have jumped from 2s->0s as the previous QA patch (Perforate, Bash, Precision Strike, Pressure, Chaotic Strike, Hidden Strike, Combined Strike have all returned to 1s execution time)
• Difficult adjustments made to NPCs to compensate for execution time changes and general balance. Health, armor, and damage values of mobs have been increased. This is still being iterated on for balance and will likely result in some XP adjustments in the near future.
• Rat debuff "Festering Strike" no longer debuffs health regen.
• Grub Bat Ears are now stackable.
• New "Degrade" recipes have been added for gathering professions. These can be found at the respective gather profession recipe merchants. These allow you to take a higher tier material and convert it into a lower tier material. Hopefully this alleviates some stash issues as to not encourage holding on to lower level materials. If no lower tier material exists for a given material it instead returns material specific junk (ore scraps, torn fibers, etc)

August 10th:

• Fixed Lingering Strikes to have a 0s execution time
• Fixed Follow Through and Wild Strikes execution times for different tiers.
• Added notification when a hunting log perk is unlocked.
• Hunting log entries now show all potential stat contributions in the upper right (even if they are +0)
• Fixed an animation issue that would sometimes result in your character dropping into the ground or performing a flying kick for a moment.

August 11th:

• After feedback various gathering/crafting changes have been reverted. Here is the current state of things:
  • Skinning drops from hunting follow original sources and are no longer random.
  • Materials skip tiers again reducing the total count of unique resource types per level range.
  • Removed Raw Component Degrade recipes. Without a natural source of downgraded materials these recipes side-step normal progression and needed to be removed for now; they may return at a later date.
  • Characters have been copied over from Live as of 8.11.23 to avoid any confusion with the removed materials.
• Fixed mobs that have attacks that heal themselves should now only heal themselves if the original attack landed.
• Added missing blue color from some tiers of turquoise
• Ashen Mangrove damage shield reduced in damage.
• Mole bears are skinnable (rejoice)
• 2^ Mobs have had their HP increased from previous QA values
• 4^ Mobs have had their HP increased from previous QA values
• Added a new Ember Vein to the northern part of Highland Hills - not yet accessible by players but it will be ready by the end of the month.
• Reconfigured all weapon based ability animations to better align with the recent execution time changes. This should yield a greater variety of combat animations along with more consistent results. There are still a few lingering issues with non-weapon based animations that will be addressed next week.
• To compensate for the recent time-to-kill (TTK) increase for high level mobs we have reduced the amount of experience required per level at those higher levels. The reductions range from about 10% at level 25 to about 35% at level 49. The early part of the game remains largely unchanged.

August 14th:

• Humanoid NPC ability animation improvements.
• Further player ability animation improvements.
• Fixed an issue where guards were not helping against previously passive creatures.
• Fixed an issue where respeccing your hunting log did not remove a previously chosen title.
• Ashen creatures will now sound a bit different from their non-ashen counterparts
• Improved spawn location reliability in the Meadowlands oasis area. Through the wolf cave and up until you enter the spider cave you will respawn at the river north of the wolf cave. Anyone in the spider cave will respawn in the south east of the zone just north of the spider plateau entrance.

August 17th:

• Weapon abilities will no longer execute if your weapon is broken. It will instead notifiy you that it is broken.
• Upper right Log window icon will now momentarily highlight when a hunting log perk is unlocked.
• Fixed an issue with Target Dummy nameplates
• Leveling potions on QA will now down level you if your current level is above the potion level
• Coal and Graphite are no longer dropped as they are not used.
• Fixed typo in in Abandoned farms in Meadowlands interactable door.
• Fixed imbued outer armor weight to match recently adjusted values

August 22nd:

• Added /poi commands for all dungeons and EVs. Type "/poi" for a listing.
• Allow /poi command to move you between spots in the same zone.
• Renamed most Ember Veins to be more thematically appropriate when you enter.
• Added an "armory" behind the target dummy in the QA zone with itemization for levels 5-50. Each chest is marked with the appropriate level.
• Minor fixes to animation events.
• Fixed environmental issues in Redshore, Forgotten Depths, Northreach, Grimstone Canyon, and Highland Hills.
• Reduced the maximum size of a rock in Redshore that was allowing npcs to spawn inside of it.
• Fixed missing navigation from a different rock type in Redshore.
• Fixed NPC haste not always working correctly. This will mainly impact named mobs with elevated haste.

August 23rd:

• More environmental fixes in Grimstone Canyon and Northreach
• Fixed an issue where executing /poi to the same zone would fail on subsequent attempts. It will now spit out a "unauthorized to zone" notification but it can be ignored.
• Enabling a well travelled road heading south in Meadowlands
• Coal and graphite now drop again. Chance and count have been adjusted.
• The rope in Undercroft should be much easier to click.
• Performance improvements to Redshore Freehold and Redshore Ridge. These two areas share the same "zone" and hence were not culling props from the one the player was not in. Added some tech that essentially disables Ridge props when you are in Freehold, and disables Freehold props when you are in Ridge.
• Enabled new decal tech which allows the prevention of targeting reticles from rendering on players, weapons, and NPCs. If you find any spots of ground that do not show targeting reticles that you believe should please send in a /report!
• Utilizing the above mentioned decal tech we have added new visual effects to overland Ruptures and Ember Veins. There is a rendering bug preventing EV effects from covering the entire EV, so this will be improved in the future whenever unity gets around to fixing things.
• Removed /poi command for the new EV for now.

August 25th:

• Fixing issues with new overworld rupture VFX not animating
• Added audio to rupture/EV VFX
• Randomized how frequently the rupture/EV pulses
• Fixed a stuck spot in Newhaven City
• Updated hunting log title choices. This also tests our versioning system - all perks should be automatically refunded when you log in.
• Adjust NPC navigation preferences. Animals will now be more likely to avoid paths.
• Death's Door can now be used on unconscious players.

 

[MarcusFromOz]

Very early impression of combat - bloody awesome.
Impression after 3 hours of testing - is it on the Live server yet, love the changes.

- If the combat change is all about the feels, why not just add time to the skills cooldowns equal to what was removed from the front end?
- I would suggest the following change to the hunting log tiers, I think the jump to 100 is too steep.

Yep, Crocodile Hunter, I'll use that.

 

[Shadowrunner70]

Lots of exciting things in here. I'd have been happy with every skill moved to 1 sec cast. Seeing some instant cast sounds interesting. It will make tank life a lot better at the start of fights with reduced cast times for provoke and pursuit etc. For warden, my biggest pain point was the cast time on viperid toxin so it's fantastic to see it insta cast.
Will animation times be sped up? For instance when Venom Strike was reduced to 1 sec recently the animation was sped up. I think it looked fantastic at a 1 sec speed.

 

[XerWolf]

Gathering yields when skinning 2^ and 3^ animals has been increased. This is also true for 2^/3^ mandrakes, mangroves, and stonecoats.

I tried this on 3 chevron wolves and I was getting 1 of the wolves type and 2 random ones. Is this intended? I like getting the random ones with the predetermined one. I would prefer if we got 2 of the type of the mob and 1 of the random type. Can certain animal types get specific carcass types as the guaranteed with the change with material level?

Hunting Log
This patch finally brings you the long awaited hunting log. The implementation you last experienced on QA had you unlocking titles. We expanded this tech to now also offer you stat bonuses against the specific creature.

The hunting log can be accessed via a new tab in the Log window. The list will show you which creature's you currently have a log for, how many kills into your current tier you are, and the total amount of kills. If you have any perks available to select that will be highlighted in blue to draw your attention to it. When selecting an individual entry the right window will show the creature name, total kills, and stat tally in the upper portion. In the lower portion you can see your progress through your current tier, and below that which tier perks you have chosen and are available. When a perk is available to choose a button will show allowing you to select one of the available options (which can be previewed via a tooltip).

Choices come in two flavors: stats and titles. Title's typically have you selecting between one of two available and are different for each tier. Specific creatures on the other hand, always offer the same stat choices which will allow you to focus on one stat, or get a little of each.

Finally, in order to "respec" your hunting log you can right click on any entry and select "Reset Perk", at which point you will be greeted with a friendly confirmation window:

Resetting to a specific perk will actually reset your tier progress to the previous tier. As an example, if you reset to the 250 tier your tier progress will be reset to 100 and you must "re-earn" your way back to the tier in question. We feel that this method of respeccing aligns with other mechanics in our game and forces you to think twice before hitting the yes button. Think of your total kill count as something tracked for fun, while you can think of your tier progress as your "experience" with a specific creature.

However, we have build the hunting log with a great deal of flexibility in mind. If we decide to change the tier or reward structure then we can easily increment the version of a specific creature, or the entire hunting log, which in turn will automatically refund your selections without resetting your tier progress. In other words: if any changes are made to the choices offered rest assured you will get a free respec.

I think these are fine but the titles being generic isn't that exciting. I would like to see some unique titles. Undone said there would be some at 3000 but would prefer if they were intersparsed throughout. I don't see the point in having 2 title choices per level here. I suggest weakening the stat increases and having a stat choice at every tier and a title at every tier. I dont like the costtassociated with the reset of the hunting log. I feel the price can be too high depending on where you reset to and think that if you are resetting it should be the same cost whether you go back one level or another. I would prefer a system that loses you a percentage of the total progress whenever you reset instead. This seems like a fairer method to allow respecs. I suggest 10% but up to 25% could work and it wont feel as punishing as losing all progress to change a selection made when you were on 10, 100, 250

Armor Weight Adjustments
Armor Weight has been globally shifted down while maintaining existing armor weight ratios. For most players this should yield individual pieces of armor offering less protection but you can now wear more pieces. With these changes we have assured that a level 50 would be able to wear specific armor sets:

• Warden/Brigand/Duelist/Warlord: Full Leather
• Berserker/Sentinel: Full Scale
• Juggernaut/Marshal: Full Half-Plate
• Knight: Full Full-Plate/Chitin

The armor weight reduction changes around vambraces and greaves seem too much. They move too many pieces armor weights too close together. In addition it looks like one of the benefits of imbued crafting is nerfed by this change. The AC increases for materials were being calculated off the base item and now with the reduction in weight and ac class many of the higher vambraces, greaves, and pauldrons are heavily muted compared to what they were before. This degrades the benefits of crafting and I'm not a fan of the changes for those.

Gathering Material Update
Filled all gaps in gathering material progression. Previously, materials would skip 20 levels before being available again (i.e. a material introduced at level 10 would not be seen again until level 30). Now, all materials are available in a 10 level cadence (i.e. Tin is a level 10 material and can now be found for all tiers of player greater than 10). The goal is to allow players to have more freedom in material use and reward players who put in the effort of learning and identifying desired material combinations.

As a result of this change skinning now rewards a random carcass type of the appropriate level. An additional effect of this change will be a greater stress on inventory, gathering bag, and stash space - this is something we are keenly aware of.

I like the option of having various new materials to play with at new level ranges, but this isn't going to work without a large increase in ability to store these materials. I also am going to personally not be able to keep materials on hand to craft lower level items for people. My suggestion would be somehow to allow higher level materials to be degraded to allow the items to be crafted at appropriate levels while only needing to hold the level you can gather.

Ability Execution Adjustments
With the aim of improving the feels of combat without drastically changing the formula we have enhanced our execution pipeline to better support instant executions. Now that this improved tech is in place we have adjusted a number of ability execution times. We are still heavily iterating on these changes so feel free to chime in with your thoughts.

I think I agree with most of these besides Bleeding Strike. I would like to see it at 0s to encourage its use. It is weaker skill and think it being at 0s would offset some of its downsides.

 

[AdricLives]

I tried this on 3 chevron wolves and I was getting 1 of the wolves type and 2 random ones. Is this intended? I like getting the random ones with the predetermined one. I would prefer if we got 2 of the type of the mob and 1 of the random type. Can certain animal types get specific carcass types as the guaranteed with the change with material level?

Right now they are completely random. Having it partly random is a mixed bag as it still means solo players will be getting one or the other, and only 2^ or 3^ will net you a consistent source plus random. It might be a good compromise between the two systems though.

This degrades the benefits of crafting and I'm not a fan of the changes for those.

I would have to see specific examples to fully understand how it could be adjusted differently. Actually many flux increases to armor class were static increases now that might heavily favor crafted gear for larger armor class increases, while % based armor weight reductions and armor value increases obviously would appear less since the % remains the same.

My suggestion would be somehow to allow higher level materials to be degraded to allow the items to be crafted at appropriate levels while only needing to hold the level you can gather.

Yea this is on my todo list from discussions around it last night.

I think I agree with most of these besides Bleeding Strike. I would like to see it at 1s to encourage its use. It is weaker skill and think it being at 0s would offset some of its downsides.

Doing some testing now so let me throw out some numbers. Dual Wielding Daggers:

lvl 50 bleeding strike is 147 health damage and 22 armor damage for a total of 169 threat against an even level wolf.
lvl 50 advantage strike is 97 health damage and 46 armor damage for a total of 143 threat against an even level wolf.

Even for a 2H great axe with 30 or so positional bonus the result can be surprising:

lvl 50 bleeding strike 143 damage 23 abs
lvl 50 advantage strike 129 damage 68 abs

Of course once the target's armor is worn down that advantage will go away, but opening with bleeding strike is actually more damage than you think. But it's damage spread that bypasses armor with the bleed. dots bypassing armor is a pretty big deal.

 

[Undone]

dots bypassing armor is a pretty big deal.

Underrated is the word you are looking for!

 

[XerWolf]

Of course once the target's armor is worn down that advantage will go away, but opening with bleeding strike is actually more damage than you think. But it's damage spread that bypasses armor with the bleed. dots bypassing armor is a pretty big deal.

When fights last more than 20 seconds sure, but fighting 1 or 2 chev with 2 or 4 people respectively the mobs die fairly quickly. The execution times being less, this might be even more of a problem. Bleeding strike tends not to be an opener for warden. Even venom strikes doesn't feel right in the rotation. I'd say 95% of the time I try to lead with acid strike to strip armor, then assist to give the tank advantage, then advantage strike to do the damage, followed by fading strike in case I'm about to pull aggro. If I pull I might could get away with using bleeding or venom strikes, but that might upset the balance of aggro being built by the tank. Better to lead with acid, or advantage. Advantage having a 10s cd also means it can be used again pretty much in time for when the tank has pulled the aggro and we are all fighting it.

 

[AdricLives]

When fights last more than 20 seconds sure, but fighting 1 or 2 chev with 2 or 4 people respectively the mobs die fairly quickly. The execution times being less, this might be even more of a problem. Bleeding strike tends not to be an opener for warden. Even venom strikes doesn't feel right in the rotation. I'd say 95% of the time I try to lead with acid strike to strip armor, then assist to give the tank advantage, then advantage strike to do the damage, followed by fading strike in case I'm about to pull aggro. If I pull I might could get away with using bleeding or venom strikes, but that might upset the balance of aggro being built by the tank. Better to lead with acid, or advantage. Advantage having a 10s cd also means it can be used again pretty much in time for when the tank has pulled the aggro and we are all fighting it.

Moving bleeding strike to 0s addresses none of this though.

 

[Shadowrunner70]

Looking at dot length..bleeding is 12 secs....seems I need to start using this again..even over venom for shorth fights. Seems 1 sec or insta cast would work as the mob is coming in then acid when its static on tank.

 

[Shadowrunner70]

After testing a bunch on the warden: cast times feel real good. I like it a lot. Using bleeding again causes me skill selection issues but I'm ok with that.

After testing Marshal a little bit: faster halt is glorious, as is faster provoke, pursuit, and threatening strike.

Overall combat feels crisper. Overall I'd be fine with 1 sec cast across the board.

I prefer the existing armor weights etc. I like that you have to make choices and not just try to get a full suit. Not a big issue for me if the change goes ahead just prefer what it is now.

Hunting log is something that will happen as I play. Doesn't matter to me at all. I'm glad that any stat boost is against that type of mob only.

 

[Ruwyn]

Pretty disappointed that stats from hunting log are just for that mob type. With that plan, the hunting log is now pretty much useless fluff. As the game sits right now, you will never find yourself in a position where those stats are nice to have or help make things easier. Certainly not to the tune of attempting to kill 3000 of them. The titles being basic templates doesn't help either.

There is an opportunity here to make it worth something and impactful on gameplay. Especially when most of your time is spent fighting humanoids where you won't see any bonus. I would make the hunting log exciting by tweaking it....

1) Remove the final two tiers and have it cap at 2000. This provides room for 3 stat and 4 titles rewards.
2) One to One ratio of stat to mob type. There are currently 30 stats in your character screen. Tie one of them to each mob type. If there are more interesting mob types coming in the future, I would remove some of the more obscure mob types like frogs. I haven't fought a frog since level 20.
3) Make the stats permanently passive on your character forever. With reducing to 3 stat rewards you can make more useful stats like 1h rewards be 1, 1, 2. A total of 4 weapon dmg is a bump but not game breaking. Haste could be 1,2,2. Resists could be 1, 2, 3. Etc. This is like having an augment on...something most players do not maximize anyway.

Those minor permanent stat bumps are not going to ruin the game at the top of the level curve. You already plan on increasing difficulty there anyway. I would not increase the difficulty through the first 40 levels when reading the complaints about leveling etc. Let the permanent boosts from the hunting log speed up their progression slightly. This would be a win by making the log pertinent to ALL players no matter the level or content that is currently being done. It would make us revisit content. It would provide an added reward to farming places longer. Higher level players in the short term would run lower level content with lower levels. (think Bear cave or Bear beach as best spots for bears)

There is probably more benefits....but that's my spiel.

 

[Pelirow]

On the docket for this month but not guaranteed:

• Alchemy Prep (back end work)

 

[lambasted]

Went poke around a little bit (few mobs on 50 marshal, few on 24 warden) on test....

Here's my thoughts

Combat - Felt jarringly different...In a good way. The changes do feel more drastic than I was expecting TBH. Would take testing with a 5-6 man group in Drolsc to get a real idea on 3c, but after killing a few 1c and 2c I do think some mob HP increases will be warranted. Perhaps not so much on 1c as they are generally fodder anyways, but I have a feeling 3c will melt a bit faster than you want. 1s cast time across the board with a few select skills for each role and each specialization being 0s might actually simplify everything moving forward. Something like all defenders get 0s Provoke, other defender abilities at 1s. Marshals get 0s Pursuit and Quick strike, everything else 1s... Would maintain a baseline moving forward for all balancing/etc.

Skinning Changes - I didnt really mess with it on test, but I feel like the specific types of hides should still come from the specific animals. Maybe just randomize the carcass models spread around and give them a chance to yield 1-3 similar to randomness of other node types? Sounds like a simple solution to allow some randomness but still allow players to focus on a specific type if they are grinding that out.

Armor weight changes - Overall I am a fan...will certainly mix things up a bit. I spent a few minutes mathing up the stuff in my stash and my head started hurting trying to min/max it. So I'd say you succeeded there

Other comments about gear in general - I'm not sure where it sits in the pipeline, but clearly defined loot tables and availability need to happen to ever make this loot system feel super great. In the end, gear IS the carrot on the stick for 95% of the players of any MMO - regardless of what any feel good things that can be said about progression. From lvl 30 and each tier onward there needs to be matching sets of armor and good weaponry options for each role that are attainable. Any by attainable I do NOT mean a 1 in 50 chance of seeing it drop off a rare spawn. Keep a few super rare chase items in each tier of course. Months we have been in Drolsc EV and last night for the first time we got Topaz's 3rd drop. I get wanting scarcity for really powerful items, but if it takes me two months of farming to obtain, it really should be something special that sets my character apart from the rest.

Hunting Log - didn't test... I will be grinding everything to 3000 anyways so, make it whatever.

TL;DR - good stuff, bump mob hp a bit, give my polearm a frontal damage positional, give me my 1h dmg rings back

<3 Diab

 

[belarios]

OK, fine. Knight will be top mitigation and Jugg will be top dps with the best defensive CD and Marshal will be mediocre at both with the worst CD but have crowd control.

But why is Brigand going to be top dps and also crowd control?

Berserker is now the Sentinel of strikers? The offtank that no one ever needs? With horribly inefficient dps that used to be bursty but will now be the same burstiness as brig and warden, and a set of AE skills that get used once per month if you're lucky?

If I understand the changes, then Berserker used to be able to use a 1s attack every 1s global CD, but it cost them double the stamina. But now Brigs will have instant and 1s casting time skills, they have tons of them, so there are plenty to cycle through with their long CDs, but at half the stamina cost of Berserker? With several of those skills hitting for more?

What is a Berkerker now without the dps of brigand, without the crowd control of Brigand, and without the heal/rez, run speed and soloing/gathering ability of Warden?

Any reason to play Berserker now?

 

[Korraz]

The hunting log only providing stats against the specific mob makes it entirely worthless/trivial and entirely removes any/all drive to even engage in that system.

I just went from being excited to have new grind goals/ways to improve my character to now being massively disappointed and feeling like it's wasted dev time....
Hopefully this gets changed before making it to live.

 

[MarcusFromOz]

OK, fine. Knight will be top mitigation and Jugg will be top dps with the best defensive CD and Marshal will be mediocre at both with the worst CD but have crowd control.

But why is Brigand going to be top dps and also crowd control?

Berserker is now the Sentinel of strikers? The offtank that no one ever needs? With horribly inefficient dps that used to be bursty but will now be the same burstiness as brig and warden, and a set of AE skills that get used once per month if you're lucky?

If I understand the changes, then Berserker used to be able to use a 1s attack every 1s global CD, but it cost them double the stamina. But now Brigs will have instant and 1s casting time skills, they have tons of them, so there are plenty to cycle through with their long CDs, but at half the stamina cost of Berserker? With several of those skills hitting for more?

What is a Berkerker now without the dps of brigand, without the crowd control of Brigand, and without the heal/rez, run speed and soloing/gathering ability of Warden?

Any reason to play Berserker now?

I have a suggestion for this.

Imagine an Action has 3 stages:
A) Execute, B) Animation time and C) Cooldown.

On QA we have seen A) removed, so we have B) + C), i.e. the animation time plus the cooldown

I suggest that for most classes A) is added to C), so you have B + (C+A) i.e. the animation time, then a cooldown time which is the sum of the previous cooldown time and the old execution time

However, for a berserker, don't add A) to C), if it exists then remove it entirely.
So for a berserker you have simply B) + C)

You therefore have a point of difference.

Berserkers react quickly and can react again quickly, they go berserk and burn through their stamina pool.
A Brig however, reacts quickly, but then has to wait a while longer before reusing their skills.

It feels right to me that a berserker goes into hulk smash mode and is only limited by stam, whereas a brig can still burn through the actions on his toolbar, but has to wait to reuse those same skills again.

I'd suggest that most classes are similar to the brig in terms of using B + (C + A), would it only be a berserker that uses B) + C), but I'm not sure.
Anyway, I've let that one brew for a few hours, what do you think?

 

[XerWolf]

The hunting log only providing stats against the specific mob makes it entirely worthless/trivial and entirely removes any/all drive to even engage in that system.

I just went from being excited to have new grind goals/ways to improve my character to now being massively disappointed and feeling like it's wasted dev time....
Hopefully this gets changed before making it to live.

I disagree. Implementing a system that requires you to kill 3000 of each of these mob types to minmax your character is a terrible design. Current Implementation walks the line between being useful, worthless, and too much. I would rather the system be just titles and nothing more, but would be opposed to any system that gives universal bonuses.

 

[XerWolf]

Can you separate elk and stags? They are pretty distinct in what they drop and where they spawn.

 

[Korraz]

I disagree. Implementing a system that requires you to kill 3000 of each of these mob types to minmax your character is a terrible design. Current Implementation walks the line between being useful, worthless, and too much. I would rather the system be just titles and nothing more, but would be opposed to any system that gives universal bonuses.

I'd really rather it be titles only because I didn't "want" to grind 3k of every animal but would've done so if it meant meaningful buff to my character. But as is it's entirely worthless. Boring titles and trivial buffs that will not feel good or noticeable at all

 

[Ruwyn]

I disagree. Implementing a system that requires you to kill 3000 of each of these mob types to minmax your character is a terrible design. Current Implementation walks the line between being useful, worthless, and too much. I would rather the system be just titles and nothing more, but would be opposed to any system that gives universal bonuses.

Do you currently have all crafting professions leveled so that you can wear all augments? Same thing. Review my suggestion above. 3k is too many. Reduce to 2k (still probably too high for most)

1) Remove the final two tiers and have it cap at 2000. This provides room for 3 stat and 4 titles rewards.
2) One to One ratio of stat to mob type. There are currently 30 stats in your character screen. Tie one of them to each mob type. If there are more interesting mob types coming in the future, I would remove some of the more obscure mob types like frogs. I haven't fought a frog since level 20.
3) Make the stats permanently passive on your character forever. With reducing to 3 stat rewards you can make more useful stats like 1h rewards be 1, 1, 2. A total of 4 weapon dmg is a bump but not game breaking. Haste could be 1,2,2. Resists could be 1, 2, 3. Etc. This is like having an augment on...something most players do not maximize anyway.


offensive stats like having a kings potion on. defensive stats, not breaking anything. Mob HP/Armor being increased anyway. Mob dmg could see a 2-3% increase as well. Absolutely no reason to ever open the hunting log with out this....and sure as hell not getting anyone to return to grind it out when fights/encounters aren't any better with it.