akicks wrote:Things look to be just right. But don't trust me, try it out yourself
That's what we have all been doing. But anyone who observes change and adapts to it, especially over the short term, may not notice all the nuances of the change. In such instances, the wise problem solver will ask others for their opinions, evalute same, compare with their own observations and maybe adjust their own preliminary conclusions based upon others experiences.
For example, as I am primarily a pike user, it seems the cost of Hi QL pikes will be going down.
Axes / maces @ 20 % more damage and 10 % speed reduction means 8% more damage over time (120 % x 90 %= 108 %).
Pike @ 20 % less damage at 10% increased speed means 12 % less damage over time (80 % x 110 % = 88%).
And BTW, unless I am mixing weapons up in my head, my 250 QL pike was 552 @ 30 hpm is now 441 @ 31 hpm....80 % damage but not 10% speed increase.
It makes perfect sense that the relative properties of different weapons would have differnt damage and speed results but this change is such as to push peeps away from less effective weapons damage wise and into more effective weaps. The relative effectiveness of pikes to axes / maces is that a pike is now only 81% as effective as an axe / mace. And this is unfortunate to as the reach of a pike makes holding, for exampe, 3-4 ploderos clones on the meat shield a valuable team addition. However, less and less peeps will be working the pike skill tree so that when you get to 5* purple plods, there won't be many around.
And yes, I am aware that the pike user now takes, suppossedly, (I havent seen a noticeable difference) less damage this is of little significance in team fighting. Going back to the numbers (80 % x 110 % x 110 % = 96.8 %)...still significantly less than the 108 % change on the axes / maces..
As people start out of the 2h skill trees now, we will see a lot less peeps choosing pike as compared to the axe / mace. Good news for axe / mace crafters....bad news for pike crafters. To me anything that reduces the variety of what we see and experience is not for the better.
Over all, IMO, it was a good idea to get a bit more strategy into the game. But it didn't take into account human nature in that peeps will generally choose the weapon which produces the most damage. Just look at how many elementalists we have compared to all other classes.
Is it bad idea, the direction they went ?....no....it just needs just a tad of tweaking. One final coment, the stated reason of many of these changes was to make the melee class MORE effective.
The axe and mace melee player is 8% more effective; the pike user somewhat LESS effective. The increased absorption of armors however was smaller in the mellee class than in any other class.
LA went from 10% to 15 % (average), a 50 % increase
MA went from 25% to 30 % (average), a 20 % increase
HA went from 50% to 50 % (average), a 0 % increase
Based upon the above, I would say that, in these respects, nevrax "missed their stated goal" of making the melee class more effective.
Overall one thing I have noticed but am not yet prepared to comment fully on is that killing things takes a lot longer than it used to. Whether this is less than optimal stanza creation (time credits now needed to make most powerful spells) or whatever, non boss, hi level mob fights are to the point where I can whack a mob, go make some coffee, and come back in time to see him fall.
