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Big yikes at the anti-grind update
I've been enjoying Starmourn so far! Great game, fun community. But as a minmaxing grind-junkie nightmare player I'm eagerly anticipating whatever tweaks (reverts I hope) are in store regarding this latest update. The grind was already, well, a grind!
At level 50+, getting <0.8% per kill every 18 seconds or so on enemies in an area advertised as being in my range I was already boring. Getting 0.2% from killing mobs in the level bracket below it every 12 seconds is utterly mind-numbing. Those times don't factor in the time it costs to craft IEDs and heal between fights, either, and with the update in effect, I can't actually hunt the level 50-60 area because the beasties there suddenly have upwards of 60% damage resistance. And I'm squishy as heck.
As a Scoundrel, I'm yet to really appreciate any of the afflictions in PVE other than the standard DOTs, of which my class seems to have just one or two tucked behind a hefty lesson gate (GUNSLINGING WEAKENING (833 lessons) and IMPROVISATION SHRAPNEL (1207 lessons)). I'm only trans in one skill so far - gunslinging, and I don't have the lessons to see if the 8 second net balance cost of creating shrapnel bombs is worth it for a stack of bleed. Setting up for PUMMEL is a pain because you need to TRIP and BIND enemies, with both attacks dealing no damage and often having the bind shrugged off in a second or two, and even then pummel is an interruptable channel. FORCEFEED requires the same setup, with the added requirement of your target needing <=50% system damage. Neither option is particularly viable for PVE combos because lower leveled enemies die long before taking the required system damage, and higher leveled enemies just curbstomp a squishy scoundrel long before they're prepped.
The higher I level the more I recognise how levels are an enormous advantage in foot PVP with how weapon/armour power and stats per level scale up, and that makes me want even more to get leveled and geared up for that endgame content before I delve into PVP. This latest patch has slapped a towering nanosteel gate across any semblance of a comfortable advancement experience. It feels like an element of artificial difficulty that's going to really dissuade new players from bothering to get to a competitive level in PVP further down the track.
It's also going to encourage powerlevelling later, because high-leveled players can just drag low-leveled players around while they kill everything.
Now I'd be an ass to gripe and not offer anything constructive so here's my suggestions:
1) Expand the threshold for when damage reduction comes into effect. A level 50+ player ought to be able to hunt effectively in a level 50-60 zone.
2) Add more affliction combo alternatives!
3) Crank up XP gains for killing enemies close to your level?
I hope this doesn't come across as too scathing a criticism! I know the game's in beta. I'm sure this will be tweaked and prodded back to a balanced state.
Anyway I'm probably gonna go back to a much lower leveled area and see if carpet bombing it with AOEs is going to be any more rewarding than the slog I'm stuck in now. Apologies to anyone caught in the crossfires!
PS: I thought the lowbie 12-man hunting platoons looked like great fun. Make that viable again so we get to watch them all get squashed by AOEs pls.
At level 50+, getting <0.8% per kill every 18 seconds or so on enemies in an area advertised as being in my range I was already boring. Getting 0.2% from killing mobs in the level bracket below it every 12 seconds is utterly mind-numbing. Those times don't factor in the time it costs to craft IEDs and heal between fights, either, and with the update in effect, I can't actually hunt the level 50-60 area because the beasties there suddenly have upwards of 60% damage resistance. And I'm squishy as heck.
As a Scoundrel, I'm yet to really appreciate any of the afflictions in PVE other than the standard DOTs, of which my class seems to have just one or two tucked behind a hefty lesson gate (GUNSLINGING WEAKENING (833 lessons) and IMPROVISATION SHRAPNEL (1207 lessons)). I'm only trans in one skill so far - gunslinging, and I don't have the lessons to see if the 8 second net balance cost of creating shrapnel bombs is worth it for a stack of bleed. Setting up for PUMMEL is a pain because you need to TRIP and BIND enemies, with both attacks dealing no damage and often having the bind shrugged off in a second or two, and even then pummel is an interruptable channel. FORCEFEED requires the same setup, with the added requirement of your target needing <=50% system damage. Neither option is particularly viable for PVE combos because lower leveled enemies die long before taking the required system damage, and higher leveled enemies just curbstomp a squishy scoundrel long before they're prepped.
The higher I level the more I recognise how levels are an enormous advantage in foot PVP with how weapon/armour power and stats per level scale up, and that makes me want even more to get leveled and geared up for that endgame content before I delve into PVP. This latest patch has slapped a towering nanosteel gate across any semblance of a comfortable advancement experience. It feels like an element of artificial difficulty that's going to really dissuade new players from bothering to get to a competitive level in PVP further down the track.
It's also going to encourage powerlevelling later, because high-leveled players can just drag low-leveled players around while they kill everything.
Now I'd be an ass to gripe and not offer anything constructive so here's my suggestions:
1) Expand the threshold for when damage reduction comes into effect. A level 50+ player ought to be able to hunt effectively in a level 50-60 zone.
2) Add more affliction combo alternatives!
3) Crank up XP gains for killing enemies close to your level?
I hope this doesn't come across as too scathing a criticism! I know the game's in beta. I'm sure this will be tweaked and prodded back to a balanced state.
Anyway I'm probably gonna go back to a much lower leveled area and see if carpet bombing it with AOEs is going to be any more rewarding than the slog I'm stuck in now. Apologies to anyone caught in the crossfires!
PS: I thought the lowbie 12-man hunting platoons looked like great fun. Make that viable again so we get to watch them all get squashed by AOEs pls.
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...but even if it does, that doesn't really help engineer when it got personally nerfed so hard... but I'd expected to see non-engineers here, at least...
Instead, in my opinion, the change should have been more along the lines of:
- Diminishing returns the more players in the room/crew
- Less damage the more players in the room/crew
- Higher NPC resistances with the more players in the room/crew
As it is now, as someone who is usually a solo or duo basher, this feels fairly obnoxious.
The huge problem is that direct HP damage is too common. Everything and EVeryone should have increased HP and/or reduced direct HP damage. THEN, more emphasis put into the myriad of awesome afflictions and combos with them to dispatch someone. Death by direct HP loss should be extremely rare. This should also be for NPCs as well. It should take much longer to kill NPCs, BUT the rewards should be increased per kill. That way, there's less of the GRINDY feel AND places are less likely to be overpopulated because there will be enough for everyone.
The reliance on HP damage is so bad that the only stat really worth spending points in is LIFEFORCE and some in regen. That's bad.
There should also be "minion" NPC mobs who's whole point is to be destroyed easily, just to make use of AOE skills.
TLDR, more quality over quantity. Majorly reduce direct HP damage. Slow down fights so that we can actually have fun with combos/finishers/afflications.
Yeah, definitely something that we'll be improving.
Yeah. If this is anything like other IRE games, most damage attacks deal a base amount plus a percentage of max damage, making them much more deadly against relatively low levels than they are at higher ones. Especially if we add any kind of tankiness via artifacts, damage just isn't really a thing 1v1 in the IRE games that I've seen; even damage kills usually involve disabling your opponent from being able to hinder you or heal out of the danger zone.
just thinking what my catch up is going to be like to be relevant in PVP when I can play again soon. Either way doesn’t matter, just preparing :-P
Hope everyone celebrating this week has a great time.
Damage kills might be much more prevalent here...
Very true; we'll have to see how damage scales compared to health and regen.
It still feels pretty restrictive that we can't do anything in a zone a single level bracket above ours. Maybe crank the range that the damage reduction kicks in up by 3-5 levels? Or better, make it scale less harshly?
My current options are Thait, which is on a low respawn timer and is constantly bashed out with just one person around, let alone two or more, which is often the case. Arrizuri Quarry isn't much better and the mobs there grant even less experience.
I think the grace needs expanding. Or another 60+ zone needs to be added, which I'm sure there is no time to do given all the other priorities that need attention first.