Pre-Release Alpha Changes - A Krippendium

I didn't watch much of stream; does anyone know if GGG adjusted the group difficulty balance?

Though this begs the question... How much regen are we talking? If we use Vitality, is it 1.5% of our ES, or life? I don't want 8 life regen. If we're talking more like 100, it may be viable to use vitality then. And even then... That's about all we get! What life regen do you see next to the witch? Shadow? If current status effects work off of max life preCI and not ES, what would go against this? Is Blood Rage going to be based off our 1 life, our 500 fake life, or our 7k ES? Without any of these answered, we can't say too much yet about these changes. Though I can quickly say the ES regen node won't be terribly powerful. Vitality and Rejuv Totems are about the only thing that will work given the range of regen nodes.

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Hayrich wrote:

All this "we need chaos immunity because we use ES" argument is really weak.

Now the Devs have actually put in a node that regens ES, so there is really nothing to support that argument now.

It's not "because we use ES" (look at Templar), it's because "we choose to focus fully on ES", that's why 1 HP.

To counter Chaos, you need to focus on HP. It's entirely possible on Witch, but CI is a Keystone, a choice. You can forget about HP, but beware, there's only ES protecting you now.

It's simply a choice between two mechanics of damage buffer, liquid HP or cooldown-fastregen-ES.

HP-ES regen thingy is still-to-be-determined so I wouldn't worry about that too much - also, it really depends if the regeneration rate is based on your HP level or on ES level.

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dualestl wrote:

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anubite wrote:

Gonna post this again for everyone's benefit

No one on alpha has posted significant in-depth feedback on totem or CI changes yet. None of us has had the chance to properly play with them. Thus, we cannot offer concrete feedback to Qarl. Thus, until this happens, Qarl can't really do anything.

It is likely that Qarl will change something about CI/totems once he receives enough feedback. I agree they are over-nerfed. But the point is, we are testing on alpha. Regarding what you saw on Kripp's stream as a final alpha patch is nonsense. Totems and CI could be the same in 10 days as they are on beta, if Qarl decides they can't balance either just yet.

I still dont understand something,do you as well as other people who are in alpha get different builds of the game to test and send feedback only about certain things/aspects of the game on a weekly or a daily basis?
Im asking this because the CI and totem things are the only notable things changed in the game in alpha the way it looks.

There have been many, many, many notable changes to the game that Kripp did not discover or did not even notice while streaming. I don't think it's against the NDA to say this, since it's probably in the stream somewhere, but for instance, coral amulets were doubled. Their implicit regen is now 3-4 life/sec, from 1-1.5/sec. This makes them very strong early game. Other things were changed that Kripp has yet to notice and won't notice until he reaches maps.

We test all kinds of builds and give feedback on them. Most of us don't even test the "OP builds" that we already know are popular on beta. I imagine a lot of the changes you saw on Kripp's stream were more a result of Kripp whining to Chris. And Kripp's whining of CI/totems to Chris, was reflective largely of the beta forum's bias towards those abilities, as well. You guys, collectively, seem to think totems/CI are too strong, and so nerfs were recently introduced. No one on alpha decided to punish you guys. We don't arbitrarily suggest nerfs like we're evil gremlins or somethign.

Chris and Qarl's position on balance is that a skill "should not become 'essential'". If something becomes essential, they will work to make it so it is only a viable option, and not at all essential. This is why quicksilver exists and phase run does not.

You should nerf DECOY TOTEM - everybody use it in races. It is so OP becouse you have IMMUNITY TO ALMOST ALL DAMAGE SOURCESS FOR FEW SECONDS (becose all monsters attack totem not you) - better than immute call, granite flask etc OVERPOWERED! . more OP than CI or any other skill. But kripp and others probably would die more frequently if they woudnt have it so they dont wont to nerf it..

Patch 0.10.0 Full Notes

Long image, started typing but realised it would take too much time.

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kompostownik wrote:

You should nerf DECOY TOTEM - everybody use it in races. It is so OP becouse you have IMMUNITY TO ALMOST ALL DAMAGE SOURCESS FOR FEW SECONDS (becose all monsters attack totem not you) - better than immute call, granite flask etc OVERPOWERED! . more OP than CI or any other skill. but kripp probably would die more frequently if he woudnt have it so he dont wont to nerf it..

Decoy Totem was indirectly nerfed due to pack size changes.

For some reason it seems some the Alpha testers have become very defensive about the alpha realm asif they feel like criticism of the changes there is somehow offending them personally. Quite odd.

On another note, I understand alpha guys are essentially bug testers & are required to give feedback but I would hope that when it comes to balance issues GGG don't only take one individual's perspective on 'correct' balance and make adjustments based on that sole feedback. Hopefully the recent changes weren't just a direct result of Kripp's suggestions for instance & I would also hope that skills aren't being modified as "a result of whining to Chris".

i dont know how pack size affects decoy totem becouse if you stay near decoy totem you still have immunity to all damage sources regardless how many mobs are there. and always you can cast decoy totem and run away..without it it wouldnt be so easy. So if you want stay alive in hardcore you MUST use decoy totem, especially when you have tough situation.

Also it was said on stream that max skills points from quests are 21 (18 without bandit) so more then now.