Patch Notes 22/4/2017

[boog]

But the % the buff gives to reduced crit chance scales off the players chance to be crit already, granted it would further reduce their chance to be crit but if the DP is already stacking renown and gear to reduce their chance to be crit in the large scale wont do all that much, assuming it is at maximum capacity it will only scale it slightly.

So say the player has 7% chance to be crit. @ 90-100 hate and the 45% crit reduction, the 45% scales with the players 7% only reducing the players chance to be crit by 3.15%. So the lower the player has a chance to be crit the less it scales. I just tested it out on my BG who for the test had a 18.7 chance to be crit. Got 100 Hate, pop FoF for 45% and it reduced it by 8.41 giving me a 10.29% chance to be crit.

It may be that the character window shows it differently, which may further mean that it worked on the mythic server as you described it. The .getstats value shows what's coded on the server atm.
The last time i tested it was exactly three month ago (the screenshot is from 22.01.17).

Thank you for the clarification! In its current state I could see how it could become problematic. If it does work as the way you described perhaps lowering the % values would be an appropriate fix? Assuming it does become problematic and creates imbalance Perhaps something like:

30 Hate = 3 to 5% Crit Reduction
60 Hate = 8 to 10% Crit Reduction
90 Hate = 12 to 15% Crit Reduction

[Martok]

As always thanks for your efforts!

[wargrimnir]

"- Modified group XP distribution to scale based on the level of each person in the group - the lower your level the less XP you will receive per kill."

And there goes any future alt that I or 95% of my guild will ever make. That was really the last way to PL.

I honestly hope that this anti-lvling changes work for you guys and create a proper t2/3 experience. And even more so, I hope that people actually appreciate it. As for myself, and those I play with, we've had our fill of lowbie tiers w/ less than 3 tactics, and barely the abilities to do our classes job. Not to mention slow mounts...

50% mount is available at R16, maybe it's been a while since you had to purchase one.

What abilities are required to do your class job that you do not get in mid-tier? These can be adjusted downward with proper feedback. Some things would require client control of course, but in the end could be done. Something like Tactic slots unlocking every 8 levels instead of 10 (R8 T1, R16/24 T3, R32 T4). Swap Group Heal at R20 with Cleanse at R16 maybe? Challenge could be moved to 16 and swap with other tank abilities. DPS classes, at a cursory glance, have less defining abilities at 16 and 20.

[Valfaros]

Looks very intressting. I don't play my BG so often anymore and therefore hope that you also start making changes to other classes after you are happy with him. Dps zealot could use some love esp witchcraft mastery tree^^

[Dabbart]

I consider 50 mount slow:P I actually would ensure I had that 100g for a 60% before I rolled an alt... PLing on mobs helped with that also...

As for the abilities, every class lacks something quite important pre30. Whether it is in lack of mastery points, abilities, or tactics, You can't tell me that most classes plays even remotely the same at rank 20, as opposed to rank 40. Sure, DPS are doing damage, Tanks are trying to Guard/pressure backlines, and healers are healing. But the build, the rotation, what abilities you are forced to utilize; are all borked.

Classes balance out differently down there. You can run a Riposte build WH/WE very successfully, in low tiers. Those same WH/WE have to make a decision between healdebuff/KD+crit bonus till 35. You don't have the abilities to functionally melee heal as a DoK/Wp pre-30, Missing a lot of your survival abilities pre 21 for Z, and all of you functional heal tactics till 30/31 on that Z. Not mention Mara pull, SW CCs, WL Fetch, etc etc. Basically, all the stuff people used to bitch about, and try to con a way to resorting class abilities during the R32 cap and before.

Now, to rebalance the low tiers for abilities/tactics would open a can of worms that I don't want to go anywhere close to personally. I STILL think, that once the RR soft-cap gets removed/raised and AFTER the RR rollback, we will see the mid tier highly populated. It is, and will be, the BEST place to farm RR(since RR gains are doubled). Its just that no one cares to try to farm RR, cause it is so nerfed after 40, and that RR is going to be rolled back in a few months(?).

Edit; For the record, I'm really not trying to complain here... I understand the team has a priority in wanting to make the middle tier both active and Fun. I don't consider this a negative, it just simply doesn't interest me in any way, for reasons already stated. I LOVED T3 when 28 then 32 was the cap. Because it was all there was, and so "we" built our toons to our personal meta for a 32/40 game. But once the higher ranks are open, that is all pretty much useless theorycrafting that has no real meaning in T4.

The only time I ever saw T3 or lower tiers really active on Live(after launch obviously) was when RR cap was increased, and RR gains were increased. Players wanted a 30/60 to enter T4 with, and since the RR gains where awesome and the fights weren't against stupidly OP players(compared to you), it saw activity.

Sorry for wall of text..

Edit2: It's also possible that the XP reduction isn't a true kick-in-the-nuts type of Nerf, and that "we" will just have to PL an extra couple of hours to make for it. Testing is required.

[Dabbart]

- Removed sell prices from all Set Armor pieces, no more accidentally sold my important stuff.

That deserves it's own post imo. I didn't notice it at first.

THANK YOU SO **** MUCH!

You could always rebuy it, but the loss of Tali or if you didn't notice... Awesome QoL fix.

[Aurandilaz]

"- Modified group XP distribution to scale based on the level of each person in the group - the lower your level the less XP you will receive per kill."

And there goes any future alt that I or 95% of my guild will ever make. That was really the last way to PL.

I honestly hope that this anti-lvling changes work for you guys and create a proper t2/3 experience. And even more so, I hope that people actually appreciate it. As for myself, and those I play with, we've had our fill of lowbie tiers w/ less than 3 tactics, and barely the abilities to do our classes job. Not to mention slow mounts...

50% mount is available at R16, maybe it's been a while since you had to purchase one.

What abilities are required to do your class job that you do not get in mid-tier? These can be adjusted downward with proper feedback. Some things would require client control of course, but in the end could be done. Something like Tactic slots unlocking every 8 levels instead of 10 (R8 T1, R16/24 T3, R32 T4). Swap Group Heal at R20 with Cleanse at R16 maybe? Challenge could be moved to 16 and swap with other tank abilities. DPS classes, at a cursory glance, have less defining abilities at 16 and 20.

If you want feedback now, I'd say that at least for WE/WH the ability to "Agile Escape" or what the jump away from target is called for WH/WE, would be vital for surviving as a mdps due to lack of charge, and other mobility issues. It would not be gamebreaking to earn it at 20 instead of at 40.
Another thing would be mastery points.
I would make the argument that there is limited need to not hand them out sooner, if you want the Midtier experience to improve.
How about earning one MP per every rank between 10 to 35 (all 25 career MPs), then let the final 5 levels be about reaching 4th tactic slot. Lower level chars have it hard enough in T4 already, so why not make it slightly less hard?
Heck, I would even lower the RR-MP rewards from 40-50-60-70 to say 10-20-30-40; the extra renown you earn later could just be about buying new renown abilities/stats. (which is maybe more game defining than the last 1-2 hard grinded MPs at 60 and 70...)
This would not even affect all classes, as some reach their "cookie cutter" specs earlier due to lesser MP-demand, but would make other maybe currently weaker classes more tolerable without having to climb to +60rr or +70rr.

[CegeePegee]

Dabbart, don't forget that the mid tier maps are waaaaaaay smaller than t4 so that 50 mount will actually seem crazy fast

To clarify for those asking, this xp change will not be very noticeable for normal groups consisting of players that are within 5 levels of each other. The situation being targeted with this change is a level 40 pairing up with a lowbie, the 40 kills everything while the lowbie just stands there like a derp, soaking up xp that they didn't earn.

To reiterate, again, the mid tier is actually a pretty swift way to level (both your rank AND your renown) if you just make a wb and go out and do stuff. I've personally leveled several alts this way and each took less than 2 weeks of fairly casual play, 2-3 hours a few times during the week and maybe 6 hours on weekends. So to those who feel the mid tier is akin to some sort of death march, let me actually see you out there trying first and then we can discuss your concerns. I'm willing to bet it's more fun than you prefer to believe

[freshour]

The low tier maps are freaking amazing! I would love for t2/3 to pick back up now that my t4 character is pretty much done. Very interesting to see what a good BG can do with these changes Might replace my Dok/Chosen duo with a DoK/BG duo... I smell order blood!

[peterthepan3]

well-played BG/DPS DOK duo will be godmode in pug sc now