One-week "Resistance Penalty Testing" Hardcore Ladder Race

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wiggin wrote:

I already use gear, flasks, passive tree and I do make the choice with bandits. So the change for me means that I will need to drop some aura for purity, I guess.

Edit2: oops my math :) I forgot about endurance charges. But I use those already as well.

If you are already using: resist gear, resist flasks, passive tree resists, bandit quest & endurance charges...

You are in luck! You wont have to change a single aspect of your playstyle at all. You will probably have more resists than you will ever need. Vaal has even had his elemental damage reduced so you won't even have to run that purity aura for him.

And you said I was the one exaggerating...

When leveling a character you use all those mentioned tactics already, I agree it was cheap to attack the number 9. It really doesn't matter how many tactics are there. (But Axe, it still feels kinda cheap to say: tactic 1 - grinding for gear, tactic 2 - using that gear.)

Despite the fact that in endgame most of them are obsolete because you pick perfect gear they are used before you reach that point even now, without the penalties. You simply don't bother finding better gear because you toss it away in few levels anyway.

But now be honest, how often do you find your new character reaching merciles Twilight strand with 75% all? How often do you change rings for Vaal? Never? I do that every time I face him. Recetly I even faced him without maxed lightning resist, and I tried to get it. But then again, if I tried harder I would have it.

I didn't want to denounce the reasons behind the change. They seem to be valid when talking about endgame. But I'm afraid the planned implementation is awkwardly clumsy.

This won't be proved or disproved in the event, the only thing we will see is the final balance; when the game is being balanced around those clumsy penalties which are trying to balance badly implemented resist system. It would be a lot better to simply balance the existing system. Nerf the gear mods, adjust monster damage... Oh well, I guess those penalties are just d2 echoes.

Also note I'm not complaining about 'my playstyles'. I will as always simply adapt to the change. Take more Kraityn's, sink the passives in those stupid resist nodes etc. But all the great meaningful choices being brought by this cheap change are so overrated. By Chris anyway.

Edit: as always

Can we has increased map drop rates in time for the race?

<3

Still swimming in maps here.

Did 3 runs where 0 drop and then 1 where 5 drop.

Seems working fine to me, I rarely actually *have* to run a 60.

Also in addition to my other already added concerns thoughts/it seems a bit harsh for a level 55 char to get worse exp leveling with a 65 than he/she would otherwise get soloing.

There are lots of times when friends are lower level, and I understand there needs to be some balance to it, but it just seems wrong to penalize lower level players so hard...makes it tough for friends to level together without being around the same level and that isn't fun either.

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TEBird wrote:

Also in addition to my other already added concerns thoughts/it seems a bit harsh for a level 55 char to get worse exp leveling with a 65 than he/she would otherwise get soloing.

There are lots of times when friends are lower level, and I understand there needs to be some balance to it, but it just seems wrong to penalize lower level players so hard...makes it tough for friends to level together without being around the same level and that isn't fun either.

How do you fix this issue? I agree it's an issue and make it less likely for players to want to group up.

Even with the "boosted player" tactics in party its pretty much a solo person with 1+ other in the zone not playing near them is the best way.

Right now only thing a true party is good for is +% to MF. Is that enough? I'm not sure its enough, heck in hardcore (I cant say for softcore) grouping in a party is very risky due to 1 death = reroll. I never seen public parties and I believe its for this reason and the FFA looting.

I think before they nerf the party exp, a good system has to come up to give a bonus to parties. Also give a reason to solo vs party. Not stacking all the favor to 1 side or the other.

Right now solo has exp advantage and the no worry of loot being stolen.
Boosted party has the advantage is exp, increased items, little worry of loot being stolen.
Party has progressing faster, increased items.

All in all, its pretty even but each can be exploited and I'm pretty sure we will see "boosted party" being done soon a lot and solo players will be upset when it starts to make its way into races.

What I'm talking about when I say "boosted party" is I'm talking about me and 5 buddies are in a party, 5 of them stand at the start of the zone, I run around killing every mob in the zone.
I get 425% exp while the monsters only have 350% HP. I also get increased item drops.
The 5 extra people do not need to skill anything, nor be of a special level. So it can be my AFK friends, or 5 extra accounts, or whatever.

Imo, with this update should come a buff of resistance flasks. They're completely useless as is because their duration is so low. Upping their duration to 10 seconds might be a good idea - OR make it so that at least putting them in your belt raises that resist passively.

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MrDDT wrote:

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TEBird wrote:

Also in addition to my other already added concerns thoughts/it seems a bit harsh for a level 55 char to get worse exp leveling with a 65 than he/she would otherwise get soloing.

There are lots of times when friends are lower level, and I understand there needs to be some balance to it, but it just seems wrong to penalize lower level players so hard...makes it tough for friends to level together without being around the same level and that isn't fun either.

How do you fix this issue? I agree it's an issue and make it less likely for players to want to group up.

Even with the "boosted player" tactics in party its pretty much a solo person with 1+ other in the zone not playing near them is the best way.

Right now only thing a true party is good for is +% to MF. Is that enough? I'm not sure its enough, heck in hardcore (I cant say for softcore) grouping in a party is very risky due to 1 death = reroll. I never seen public parties and I believe its for this reason and the FFA looting.

I think before they nerf the party exp, a good system has to come up to give a bonus to parties. Also give a reason to solo vs party. Not stacking all the favor to 1 side or the other.

Right now solo has exp advantage and the no worry of loot being stolen.
Boosted party has the advantage is exp, increased items, little worry of loot being stolen.
Party has progressing faster, increased items.

All in all, its pretty even but each can be exploited and I'm pretty sure we will see "boosted party" being done soon a lot and solo players will be upset when it starts to make its way into races.

What I'm talking about when I say "boosted party" is I'm talking about me and 5 buddies are in a party, 5 of them stand at the start of the zone, I run around killing every mob in the zone.
I get 425% exp while the monsters only have 350% HP. I also get increased item drops.
The 5 extra people do not need to skill anything, nor be of a special level. So it can be my AFK friends, or 5 extra accounts, or whatever.

In regard to what to do to fix the issue with getting worse exp in a party when you are lower level, just make it so that there is a minimum xp cap as long as you are within 10 levels of the highest party member. I.E. party xp cannot be worse than solo xp. Problem solved.

For example if you are getting 10% of a lvl per map solo. You shouldn't get less than 10% of a lvl per map in a 2 player group just beacause your buddy is 5 levels higher level higher than you are.



As to the other issues you mentioned. They are real issues, but I addressed these already with a proposed solution back 1-2 pages ago.

^_^

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Chris wrote:

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faerwin2 wrote:

This really really need to be done in softcore Chris.

If not, it's gonna be nearly impossible to test accurately how big the changes are (one death = bye bye testing).

Maybe have characters moved to a separate softcore league (in which the penalties still apply) at the very least.

I like the idea of moving the dead characters back to an alternate default league that also has the penalty.

^ :P agreed

this is gonna be an awesome event. i think the penalty is gonna add some challenge and different build ideas