didling ding ding ding ding ding ding

didling ding ding ding ding ding ding

Seeing as how HCS is based in Scotland, and the majority of Eldevin players may or may not be from the U.S., I'm not sure if a Thanksgiving event would make sense next week(Canadian Thanksgiving already happened a couple weeks ago, for instance).

We'll probably see a Winter/Christmas event, hopefully!

Still giving support for this! If cost is an issue, charge a fee in gold or EP to transmogrify gear.

I love the solo dungeons and would love to see more of them, but as others have mentioned, I am concerned with how much gold/exp can be gained from repeating Story Mode dungeons over and over.

There needs to be a fine balance struck between having an enjoyable, solo-mode alternative, and being too lucrative to pass up.

(Alternatively, overworld grinding rewards can be boosted to compensate).

I love the idea of level-locking and wish it was implemented in several other MMO's I've played. Sometimes, it's fun just seeing how beastly you can get a low leveled character. Was an all-time favorite thing to do for me in Atlantica Online, before they nerfed the heck out of it.

Just make sure that the on/off option explains very clearly that you will not gain any exp while locking is turned on. New players unfamiliar with the system might become unhappy if they turn it on by accident!

I also had this problem, and it has prevented me from logging in in the past.

Often times in group battles or large-scale battles(WB's in particular) there are multiple effects of the same type being applied by different players. Rupture, Boiling Blood, Envenom, are examples of debuffs and/or over-time effects applied to enemies. Some of these effects are auto-refreshed and don't need any kind of special system(Crushing Blow, Vicious Poison, Eagle Eye etc) but many do need to be refreshed and it's difficult at times to tell when to.

It gets quite confusing at times as to which debuff belongs to which player and that can affect skill rotation performance. Is there a way to apply an outline or border to debuff icons that YOU apply, or perhaps make debuffs applied by YOU appear at the front of the enemy debuff window?

I'm okay with the cooldown on Resurrection(where is that option in the poll?), but I think not being able to communicate at all while dead is problematic. Additionally, as mentioned earlier in the thread, if your resurrection is cancelled during the cast for whatever reason(such as moving or clicking), it should not activate the 5 minute cooldown.

I'm also curious to know if the cooldown timer is affected by Spell Haste. It should be, right?

I respecced to DPS weeks ago, Guthix! I've run all the dungeons as DPS that I've been interested in running in.

I'd respond with a longer post, and I had one written, but I think it is better simply to agree to disagree in this case.

Suffice to say, the point of debate is that: reducing potion cooldowns in dungeons will make players somewhat more survivable, and make DPS builds that are highly mana-dependant do more overall DPS over time.

As players, we can decide for ourselves whether that is a good or bad thing for gameplay.

I believe that it is a bad thing for gameplay, but that is the opinion of just this one player.

Decide for yourselves what you believe!

I like the potion cooldowns being as punishing as they are, as they limit the amount of reckless play in dungeons that can be survived just on potions alone(players can still be reckless! but they have to find more creative ways to stay alive).

I also like potion cooldowns for limiting the sheer amount of sustained DPS that can be put out by some classes; players must choose their skill rotations and talent builds more carefully for either burst or sustained DPS, or face the risk of running out of mana.

I would be okay with lowering potion cooldowns on the lower level instances to aid new players and/or players without experienced healers/tanks(Ohdar Scar and below).

Bleed effects are not affected by damage dealt % modifiers. Neither Vicious Poison nor Vindicated affect bleed damage.

I strongly believe this is working as intended. Bleed effects are strong enough as-is.

TL:DR version:

All they have to do for a quick fix is CHANGE THE LOOT TABLES. 

^ Incentivize use of current solo/smallman content by improving itemization of non-dungeon areas.

I agree that dailies are somewhat of a chore when they are required for progress in every aspect of the game. While I thought that the crafting dailies were an excellent boost, the dungeon daily/weekly quests, on the other hand, are something of a flawed fix for areas that have limited replay value.

The problem? Daily quests for dungeons actually further limit replay value, as now instead of players willing to run dungeons many times over until they acquire the necessary resources from them, they will now only run them when daily/weekly quests are available, as per the requirements to obtain rewards. This is not a good quest mechanic, however hindsight is 20/20.

Solo and group content life expectancy can be increased exponentially by re-visiting itemization. Why did players grind for months and years on end in games like Diablo 2, Ragnarok Online, and the like? Because of the rarity of exceptionally good items as a real reason to grind. Eldevin has great potential for a robust itemization system:

-Item rolls on weapons are a fantastic start, but they are only available via dungeons, and the World Boss rolls are simply not competitive in most cases.

-Armor is extremely generic, as is stat distribution on all equipment. Make these more varied, more random, and more awesome, and suddenly you go from having exhausted current content to having people hungry to grind out the best rolls for the best gear. Most importantly, at least some of these new items should be available for solo players, and there shouldn't be only one best equipment option for each armor type.

-Jewelry suffers from the same issues of being craft-only, too generic, and too limited. Offer players a chance at finding super-rare jewelry that's at least competitive with the crafted option.

-As an incentive for crafters, give them an option to modify gear to an extent, with some limitations/risks.

Give players a reason to go out and grind world zones like Taranuka and Azraq, and all of a sudden you don't have to spend developer time on creating solo dungeons because you've made world zones better for solo players to enjoy and be rewarded for playing.

I don't have much time to play these days, but I agree wholeheartedly that the requirement to group in order to obtain content gear is obstructive and not so fun when the current dungeon mechanics greatly limit who is capable and/or willing to do certain dungeons, due to the limitations of daily/weekly dungeon quests and DPS requirements versus incentive.

However, rather than exhaust developer resources by making brand-new solo content, I suggest instead modifying existing content through good itemization changes and drop changes to make adventuring in existing zones worthwhile!

I really liked some of the points in the main post of this thread as well as some of the responses. I want to highlight one point, though:

This is a tricky one. We DO play the game, and while none of us have made it to top level on the life server, we have our own client and server which we use to test higher level content as best we can. However, the fact is we just do not have the time to play every single aspect of the game as thoroughly as we'd like, and players will always find new ways to approach things that we don't think of. Being a top level, dedicated MMORPG player is practically a full time job in itself and we all already work full-time (and then some).

It is absolutely essential(not recommended, not a nice thing that might be useful, but essential) to have at least one member of your development team that knows the ins and outs of the game as well as the top players do. I absolutely love HCS for how communicative, responsive and community-oriented they have been in the past, but I also notice that as your development cycles lengthen, the team's overall understanding of game mechanics and gameplay issues tends to fall by the wayside.

This is a crucial error of a lot of smaller game companies: the longer a game world exists, the less the developers have time to play it, therefore become less knowledgeable about the gameplay itself, and then players and developers alike become frustrated because the actions and reactions of each side make less and less sense to the other side.

I truly appreciate how hard you all work on making this game great. However, there are of course going to be things between developers and players that get lost in translation simply because the way players see the game and the way developers see the game do not necessarily mesh well. The way this communication gap is bridged is by having either a dedicated playtesting team(which your company is probably too small for) or by having someone play the hell out of Eldevin and become a real pro at it, so they can communicate via first-hand experience some of the issues players are having and how they might be fixed.

You're absolutely right that it takes an incredible amount of time to be as dedicated to MMOs as some of the hardcore MMO gamers, but unfortunately there's no substitute for game experience and putting in the time. How you manage to find that kind of time when you guys are this busy, though, well, there's the hard part.

Developer livestream for collecting live player feedback once the new client is released sounds like a good start though! Hint, hint.

Makes me wonder why they have skills in the game when they don't want them being used.

Ask Lahara about the epic triple serenity ASV enrage-o-rama run!

Anyway, yes, it would be very helpful to have a concise(and consistent) list of what Serenity can and cannot remove.

 

Note: this wont work if the dps formula is still a linear one.

This is the crux of the issue, unfortunately. It's difficult to make wide, sweeping changes to the attribute system given the current DPS formula relative to enemy HP and enrage timers/mechanics.

Ideally, the attribute system would be completely overhauled into a more complex formula as you suggested(perhaps even doing away with the current system entirely in favor of a six-orb system more in line with Eldevin lore!) but I think that given the current system to work with, a more simple approach is merited.

As much as I am iffy about the idea of diminishing returns(DPS doesn't really need any more nerfs with how high enemy HP is already at 45, and will scale to 50), it might be a possible solution.

Had some time to sit down and type for a bit this evening, so I thought I'd tackle one of the more interesting game mechanics issues from the past few months.

The topic for this post is attribute diversity and how it can be improved in Eldevin!

Currently, there is very little incentive to invest attribute points in certain attributes, depending on class:

-Only Tank builds invest any significant points in Vitality

-Only Rangers(and some Mage builds) have any reason to invest any points in Focus

At level 45 (with 2 points in wild instincts, 3 in marksman, 3 in sleight of hand, 10% attack power buff, 10% attack potion)

 

pure 6/0 ranged -> +207.24 dps, 5.544% ranged haste, 6.16% ranged dodge -> more than 0/6 pure focus

pure 0/6 focus -> +31.944% crit chance, +59.268% accuracy -> more than 6/0 pure ranged

 

 

I found that the damage is almost the same, just either higher base damage, or more reliable crit. With full items, end game crit gear, talent bonuses to crit, crit buff, and 2 points into torrent talent, can get over 85% crit rate 50% of the time.

-Almost all DPS builds are forced to go 5/1 or 6/0 in their primary damage attribute to remain competitive

-Energy is almost never invested in, for any build, for any class

HCS has acknowledged the issue about stat allocation diversity in previous patches, including the haste/dodge nerf and the attack power scaling nerf in previous updates. Additional nerfs, however, would be most unwelcome. The general sentiment in previous months of the developers would suggest that making stats like Vitality and Energy more attractive, would be preferable:

PvE Balance

We're working towards a big game balance patch. This will be aimed at leveling the playing field between a number of classes. We're also looking to seriously reduce the amount of haste and dodge you gain from your primary attribute (melee / ranged / sorcery). We're also looking at mana costs and cooldowns for all high level abilities (15+) with a view to improving balance of these before we release the new content. We are currently looking at ways of making energy and vitality more valuable. We will be aiming to do this patch sometime next week and everyone's respec cooldown will be reset. 

 

The question is, what can be done to buff Vitality, Focus and Energy in a balanced way to make them more attractive to invest in, rather than seeing only one viable stat allocation for each class?

A few major points to consider:

Enrage Timers / Rumble-style DPS race mechanics are extremely limiting, in that they punish lower DPS builds to the point where only glass-cannon builds are viable for the content. HCS staff have mentioned before that they disliked players investing no points in vitality; however, implementing DPS race mechanics on boss fights and in dungeons reinforces the need to min-max DPS and reinforces a desire to make glass-cannon builds. I have always been against the notion of enrage timers for this reason; players are already punished for playing slowly(since it takes more time to complete things). They should not be double-punished.

Additional nerfs to Melee/Ranged/Sorcery are not a viable option because the primary damage attributes have already been severely watered-down from their original incarnation, and will continue to scale poorly to level 50(with attack power scaling less well with each character level). Rather than nerf the damage attributes more, I highly suggest buffing the other attributes to make them more competitive.

Synergies with talents and builds should be considered in that buffing Focus or Vitality too much without considering game balance could end up making Templars and Rangers too powerful. Rangers already get a competitive DPS build by using a Focus-oriented build, so tweaks to Focus should bear that in mind. Vitality, as the bread-and-butter survivability stat, is used almost exclusively by Templars, so any additional defensive power bonuses to Vitality may make Templars too tanky(as well as still not being attractive for DPS classes to invest in).

Energy needs a significant buff. This cannot be stressed enough. Even with the severe nerf to Enlighten in a previous patch, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to invest in Energy(in fact, the nerf to Enlighten made it even less viable to invest in Energy, as Enlighten is the only max mana percentage-based regeneration talent that requires no combat action).

Attribute allocation and itemization go hand in hand. It cannot be stressed enough that a large part of attribute allocation is tied to the stats players receive on gears. Having more diverse gear options opens up the possibility for more diverse stat allocation builds(for example, if I had a custom chestpiece with +Melee, +Vitality, +Vitality, it might make me consider investing in Focus or Energy to compensate). Equipment creativity is something that Eldevin has great potential for, and the opportunities to improve itemization are endless! This has already been discussed in several other threads, but it is essential to mention it again, as the two issues are very closely related.

So, what now?

Fortunately, the developers are receptive to suggestions and ideas, and there are certainly a few avenues for improvement. Some possibilities:

-Giving the non-damage stats damage. This is the simplest and possibly most useful fix. Give a certain amount of attack power(less than the primary stat, but enough to be useful) for investing in Vitality, Energy, or Focus. This gives more incentive for DPS classes to actually invest some points in something other than their primary stat, buffs Templar DPS(since they almost always must invest in Vitality for survivability) and makes Focus Ranger builds even more attractive(borderline overpowered). The downside to this is that it's difficult to determine how much attack power(and which attack power) to allocate to each stat.

-Giving the non-damage stats additional defensive ability(defense, dodge, status resistance). These would certainly help tanks out, and make investment more attractive. The obvious downside is that there's no damage(which is currently priority 1-A in the current game world) so all DPS classes will still give the stats little to no consideration.

-Adding talents that synergize with non-damage stats. This already exists to a minor extent with the Ranger talent Wild Instincts(and is a big reason why heavy Focus investment is only really viable with Ranger builds) and seeing more talents like this could make some builds opt for a different stat setup.

-Buff the heck out of Energy. Seriously this stat needs some love: you could honestly double or triple the mana increase from each point in Energy and it still might not be worth the points(although it could potentially open up some very interesting max mana builds).

Anyway, food for thought! Improving stat allocation diversity could really add an additional level of intrigue and customization to the current game system.

Disclaimer: Feedback from one test run(2+ hours). I'd like to do additional testing, but this is my initial feedback on the changes to Rumble's Grotto.

Really quick, as I have to go to bed soon for work tomorrow! Here are my major concerns with the revamped Rumble's Grotto(non-Ascended version, the Ascended version can be plenty hard and extra frustrating if you like):
 
-The 'totem' daily only gives the party member that destroyed the Kaur Totem credit for destroying the totem. This is a very party-unfriendly mechanic, and will definitely lead to ninja-toteming. I suggest changing this to a party-wide totem counter or adjusting it in another way.
 
-Granite boss: Purple koolaid AoE cloud damage is very strong, and has an enormous radius(despite the awesome name, Purple koolaid AoE clouds appear to work exactly like rocks....except there are three of them, with a large radius. This fight is very troublesome for undergeared or laggy characters, especially considering the tight confines of the fight allowing little to no dodging room from the splashes. Our healer pretty much had to go back to town, get a shield, and spend most of the fight keeping himself alive instead of the tank(wasn't too bad, would hate to be a pure tank in that fight though).

Edit: Reading around, it may seem that the splash damage is a reverse-rock; that is, it does less damage at the center than it does at the edge. I'll have to test this further. I'm still concerned about how the cloud damage areas overlap with one another, though.
 
-Trash packs and enemies in general: I haven't run RG much pre-patch in the last week, but the trash packs seem extremely, extremely slow to kill compared to before. I don't think their HP has been increased much, but perhaps a significant defense or damage reduction buff occurred to the monsters. It extended the dungeon time greatly(even with wipes to bosses while testing mechanics, it should never take almost as long to clear trash in non-ascended RG as it does to clear trash in ASV).
 
-Rumble: The new mechanics are interesting but do not actually fix the issues with the old Rumble.
 
The issues with the old Rumble:
- tedious, boring fight
- healing mechanic.
 
The issues with the new Rumble:
- first 50% of the fight is a tedious, boring fight
- healing mechanic not only still exists(he will auto-heal twice, although for less hp than previous) but is now made significantly worse with the healing crystal that heals for 50,000 per tick, and cannot be killed quickly by DPS unless they have exceptional gear (this is the real big one, and I am kinda sad that you guys took the mechanic that was the worst part of the Rumble fight and made it worse). I HIGHLY suggest limiting this mechanic to Ascended Rumble's Grotto.
- prison crystal and healing crystal spawn at the same time in 3rd phase
- Rumble can chain-CC the tank in 3rd phase with his stun followed by crystal prison, or in the 2nd and 3rd phase if the tank crystal is not killed immediately, because the cooldown on crystal prison is very low
- no crystal prison immunity(not an isolated problem to just Rumble).
 
-Bugs:
 
- The repeatable quest that requires the Kaur Bows(forgot the exact name) gives both the remnant and the flake reward instead of the option to choose one.
- Kaur Archers(and archer mobs in general) bug out heavily if you let them attack you and then run out of line of sight.
 
First attempt, went for 2+ hours, I had to go to sleep for work, healer had to log as well. It's kind of cool, but I feel the non-Ascended version needs tweaking, as casual parties are going to get absolutely murdered in there.
 
The dailies are cool! However, I do not want to do the dailies in lieu of running the actual dungeon(which can be accomplished by killing the trash, one spider, blowing up totems, and never actually bothering to kill Rumble ever, and then running BT in 25-35 minutes instead of RG in 1-3 hours).
 
I think what I've seen so far in the new RG will make for a very cool and challenging Ascended version, though, and I look forward to trying that out when I have time! For the non-Ascended version, though, I think that the dungeon is much less attractive to run as it was previously as it currently stands(and is now significantly worse than BT, whereas before it was equally fine, minus Rumble). I think it can certainly be adjusted properly to be fun again, though!

Thank you for the additional clarification! I'd like to add one thing:

When you do a ranged/magic ability only the DPS from the weapon in the ranged slot applies.

Magic and Ranged abilities are ranged slot type exclusive: that is to say that the DPS from the weapon in the ranged slot will only apply if it is the correct DPS type.

Spells will only include the DPS from the weapon in the ranged slot if it is an Essence. Equipping a crossbow, bow, or throwing weapon in the ranged slot does not improve the DPS of magic abilities.

It's unknown whether or not Essences could potentially affect the DPS of Ranged abilities(other than basic ranged attack) because all Ranged abilities require a specific ranged slot weapon(archery weapon, or throwing weapon in the case of Jolt).

I think what he means huhbum is warriors can successfully use their throwing weapon as well as their primary effectively while the rangers and mages can not (due to rangers not meleeing with dual wielding or sword +shield and mages not being able to effectively use a staff as it can only be used for melee combat.) 

Warriors can only successfully use their throwing weapon with Jolt, which, ironically, requires a throwing weapon but doesn't actually use the throwing weapon(durability decreases on equipped melee weapons and not the throwing weapon).

Aside from Jolt, Warriors are equally impaired at using a Throwing Weapon as any other non-ranged class, as throwing weapons outside of Jolt use Ranged DPS calculations.

Point being that all offensive items for melee classes are melee dps. Not true for mages, prophets, rangers.

Throwing weapons, an offensive weapon for melee classes, are not melee dps.

This has been requested before but I am posting it again because I have never seen a response by staff as to why they have not done this.

 

Please change the mage/prophet staff melee DPS to sorcery.

Templars, Warriors, Assassins, and Rangers all get weapon DPS (melee or ranged) as well as a side item that gives melee or ranged DPS. Only Mages and Prophets get an essence for sorcery but a melee DPS staff.

Please fix this.

As well as fixing the loot table for staffs, please set up a schedule for Cow personnel to be at the ec fountain where we can trade our existing staffs for the new ones with sorcery (instead of melee) DPS. People can submit tickets to indicate they request a replacement so staff will know how many need a replacement (and what kind of staff).

Errr....

Throwing weapons may state that they do Melee DPS sometimes, but they in fact do Ranged DPS. There is one ranged skill(Jolt) that is a ranged attack that actually does do Melee DPS, on a 30s cooldown.

Ranger one-handed weapons do Melee DPS, and not Ranged DPS.

Edit: Follow-up information clarified by Cygnus in a later post. I was slightly off in how DPS is calculated(wrong idea, right conclusion) and his post better explains the interaction.

hhmm is both time in combat and hits taken or just hits taken?

I think it's a combination of both, however precisely how it works is still a mystery to me.

idk seems to me we are over complicating it....

 

Durability loss isn't by hits taken it's by time in combat

The durability formula has since been changed. It now registers hits in combat, but the overall durability loss is less than it was during the first couple of months in the game.

This change happened sometime around the double weapon durability loss hotfix.

yeah okay you guys are really about to complain when a single gem you get sells for over 50g

Don't worry about ol' LSD. He just dropped a bit too much and went AWOL from his brain.

Repairs versus loot income has always been a difficult balance point in the game. Note that Supporters get a bonus to vendor sell prices, so consider making friends with a Supporter to sell your loot for you.

The bonus is ~25-35% or so, so can go a long way to recouping losses from repairs, and yes, I find it unbalanced, and yes, there's threads on it! But in the meantime, at least there's a F2P workaround if you have a Supporter buddy.

In the old days, when repair costs were even higher(yes, they were even higher!), I used to fight weapons only, no armor, to save on repairs. Nowadays, it should be possible to break even or make profit in full gear, as long as you are careful to not die too much.

I do like how the game punishes players for being reckless with their lives! Although it is an adjustment from typical MMO's that throw money at you, for sure(with the exception of early-release FFXIV, where money was extremely scarce at first as well).