1.0.0 Balance Changes

Everything sounds pretty good. I hope there will really be more drops if you have no MF.

Anyway, when will we be able to download the patch? My internet speed is pretty slow, so I'm already expecting to miss the first 3-4 hours of the new races. :(


EDIT: Also to the staff dude, a divine orb can only roll the physical mod in its bracket, so if it's 50-59 for example it can only go at best to 59, not more.

Given that the Scion class will be able to choose a defense mechanism that suits their play style, will you also make it easier to roll off-colour sockets on any given item?

I currently find it frustrating that I can not go LighningStrike-Multistrike-Melee-MeleeOnFullLife on my ES/EV claw shadow.

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chris:
can we expect more affixes and suffixes in the future?

i was under the impression that these things never get changed based on your principles (never destroy the level or item achievements a player got).

i would rather have expected "tyrannical" to get a boost in value, being available at an earlier itemlevel or have a greater chance to be rolled.

I'd have preferred a bit more aggressive stance towards nerfing MF stats, so I could viably start off the new leagues without a summoner/sporker. Oh well.

Rest sounds good though, especially the aura changes that should create some nice tension with the Mana Shield passive.

The approach of encouraging people to farm bosses instead of farming maps is concerning.

Maps, due to their mods and randomness, provide the most exciting content by far. I can't see how encouraging people to farm bosses instead is a good idea.

GGG, please consider making maps more enticing and accessible instead.

NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL NEWS

I love all the changes except aura changes. Yua are making life based chars and solo players struggle even more (exactly opposite than you intended).

I explain why: I am lvl 91 and I already struggle to get any xp, even I got lvl 71 map pool. Also investing currency in maps as solo player is VERY expensive.. Now when you change auras ( I currently run 6 auras: 3 offensive blood magic, 3 defensive) After change I will be forced to drop 3 offensive auras, because on HC priority is to survive. My DPS drops from 7 500 to like 4500. I will struggle even more to clear the maps as solo player.. On the other hands CI party groups will benefit from all auras and with 10 000 energy shield, they will be unstoppable. Is this your class diversity that you want GGG? This is terrible change, dont do that.

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I think the balancing of the game is too top tier heavy at times. In my mind the auras are used for compensating gear choices (especially if you want to use uniques) or bad gear in general.

They feel mandatory because the game will kill you instantly if your resists are not 80 (i.e multiple projectiles docksdogs) or your armorvalues are too low (i.e Brother of Brutus ground slam). Yes, you can avoid those things if lag wasn't an issue and the hit boxes always made sense.

They feel necessary if you want to have significant damage (i.e regenerating and leeching rares). Sometimes it can take forever and by the end of it you have lost all will to live in this world and converted to buddhisme.

Gear in general can have really good properties and it seems common when looking in trade chat, but everyone who has spent any amount of time on the game knows they sell for 20 exalteds for a reason. There are basically three ways to get rich enough for that stuff.

A) Your part of a group that does high level maps (The cycle: in which you get high itemlevel loot you can sell as whites to the general public and profit for more maps) or

B) Your lucky enough to get a trendy unique to drop (Shavronnes wrappings) or

C) FOR SOME REASON KNOWN ONLY TO THE GODS you find a Mirror of kalandra.

The fourth way is so slow that its almost not worth mentioning, but you can of course farm currency for the rest of your natural life.

To me difficulty seems more like a patience game then anything else. You could dot a boss down and run around or take risks and do more damage (key to any boss fight? viper strike/poison arrow/bear trap/fire trap). If you do anything else your taking (bigger balls) risks. You could skip rare monster with mods that are too hard, but that mob COULD be the one holding all the loot you want and you'd have to really think about it to let it go.

Now you might say planning a character is important and to that I say "spell damage". If you create something with spell damage you can skip anything that has to do with damage in the tree. The few nodes that are spell damage related in the tree are so overpowered that you don't need many of them for it to become significant.

For anything else you will have to balance it out and the game hates it when you don't take something health related. While saying that I have to point out that the game currently also hates health. You could get away with 7-8 points in energy shield related nodes (basically the only good ones, but they are really good), but if your tree isn't just health nodes your screwed on life, and even if you go full retard on health in the skill tree, the base is almost impossible to get high enough for it to be viable. In fact if your health isn't top rolled on your equipment its trash. Lets say your armor has three good resists and high armor, if it has 12 life on it, its not usefull at all (compared to ES).

The trade off will most likely show it self more when ES users can't compensate fully with auras, but they still can roll so high numbers, that its more than worth it (and with a couple of uniques you can become immune to certain things, i.e DREAMFRAKKINGMENTS and SHAVRONNIANS WRAP etc.).

I understand that the game has to take into account that some players are really dedicated or really lucky, but it seems that us, the others, the bottomfish, are the only ones suffering these changes. The wealthy and established will barely feel it (be a little less overpowered) and the rest of us will have to deal with being oneshotted by even looking at the eternal machine. You might say that we can also go through the same hardships that they have gone through, but that would require a team, because thats the only way you are getting passed the hurdles without being bored or competetive. Yes, its boring when positive reinforcement of an exalted or a special unique is 300 hours apart and all you get are alchshards and the plant that makes things MAGIC (blue).

I will suck it up, because im a sucker for lotteries, but I don't appreciate the extra hurdles. That being said, these changes might make it better, but it doesn't seem that way by comparing the change log to my experience so far. It just seems like everything will take more time.

More positive reinforcement please! :)