Return of Reckoning

So let me start off with I had a great 11 months playing with RoR. I am happy I was able to relive some of the experiences I had with retail. It's awesome you guys started this project. When I first came to the server I was super hopeful in the direction that this game was going to take.

I find that I am playing this game less and less mainly due to the changes that have been implemented.
I disagree with the shaman/Am/magus/engineer changes which were implemented without the consent of the community. I don't use the experimental changes on the shaman I have because I dislike them but it looks like I may be forced to use them.
I don't like the change to fury of da green/Energy of vaul being changed to a group heal. I liked that fury of da green/energy of vaul was a large single target spike heal. I don't like how fury of da green/energy of vaul now uses mechanic points. I am unsure that they even used mechanic points on retail.
I disagree with the blackguard changes on the placement of none shall pass. None shall pass was able to be picked up by all 3 spec's of the blackguard now it isn't.
I disagree with the intense focus on 6 man play when most situations in this game are larger then 6 man. I think to focus on 6 man play is straight up way to small for a game that is based in RvR and mutiple groups interacting with each other.

The changes are just not fun for me anymore. I'd like to play AoR from roughly patch 1.3.3 with some minor tweaks, and I'd rather not see creative means on establishing RoR's version of balance. In my opinion the game was pretty balanced around patch 1.3.3.

For me the morale changes were too much. With the type of groups I like to run (which are racial), they are heavily dependant on the use of racial morales in order for them to even be slightly competitive. Even with the correct morale gain it is still a uphill challenge which suites me and the players I play with because we like the challenge. With the incorrect morale gain and nerfed morale gain tactics being likely a permanent edition to RoR, RoR has further crippled the groups I like to run. They have picked up the torch that mythic was doing on the slow distancing itself from racial groups except with RoR it is rapid. The correct morale gain rates and how the racial morale's synchronized were what gave the racial groups their unique competitive edge. I've been playing RoR with the hopes that eventually the correct morale gain would be re-established. This doesn't look like this is going to happen. Due to the way the balance discussions are organized I am not allowed to discuss racial groups as a valid arguing point.

There is also a persistent notion in this community that one of each archtype class are competing for slots within a 6 man group. Meaning a chosen needs to be taken and a BO or BG. Eventually RoR will change the game mechanics in this game to make this a viable option. When through my perspective the game balance wasn't set up for this mixed group perspective. It was set up for same race classes but alternating spec's. Such as taking 1 15 point corruption chosen and 1 15 point Discord chosen with 6 alternate complimenting aura's. If you force in alternate different race archtypes becoming viable your going to in the process kill the racial synergy. Which is what I'm all about exploring and is a fun portion of the game for me.

I had fun guys but I think I'm out. I've got too many good memories of this game and don't want to see it changed to fit a vision of this game that I don't agree with. I was hopeful on the direction that RoR was going to take, but with these changes I can see the direction they are going. I wish you guys luck in rebalancing the game from a mixed group perspective. You guys got a hell of a lot of work ahead of you going that direction. It would take a minimal amount of change to balance things from a racial perspective but thats not what RoR wants nor the community. Such a missed opportunity.

That's unfortunate. While I'm sure there will be people who would happily pop up to decry the Engineer/Magus/AM/Shaman changes, I hope you understand that you are the only person (and I mean the only person) in this community who believes that a) the game was balanced around racial warbands and b) that RoR should force racial warbands. If that hasn't caused you to rethink your stance, I don't think anything ever will, and perhaps this is for the best for you.

Laters.

I got about 20 people that I play with that agree with me azarael. Sorry but your wrong that I'm the only person. A lot of people never even go on the forums. But whats 20 players vs thousands.

I also never tried to force racial warbands. Its something that AoR supported at one time though. It was a different option of play. The RoR project leader doesn't value the idea of racial warbands so the option will die because of it.

Indeed. And even if those people could be proven to exist, the entire rest of the community posting on the forum (as well as all of the people who don't post on the forum) disagree with you.

When you hold a fringe opinion, you have to understand that you do not have the social capital required to push it to a vast majority that does not respect it. If you are unable to reconcile your difference of opinion with the community's, then I guess you don't have much choice but to leave.

(Just in case anyone comments about me "speaking for the community" - do you want us to start balancing things so racial warbands and groups are superior? Didn't think so.)

Also, you seriously weakened your position by complaining about Energy of Vaul and Fury of Da Green. I mean, really? Those abilities were garbage. You just looked like you were complaining not because the change was bad, but because they were changed at all - as they were not weakened for the sake of implementing the group heal. If that's the case then, well... I've dealt with people like that before and they're better off gone. Sorry.

I see that most of this community see's the world as flat. I see the world as round. Your right I lack the social capital to be accepted by the masses. Mathematician's that stated the world was round also lacked the social capital to challenge the masses. Which eventually got them killed by thier difference in opinion. Your right that the majority of people will think my perspective is wrong. That doesn't make my perspective wrong. Thats a bandwagon logical flaw argument.

There is something called group think. Group think is what allows humans to be controlled by propaganda. Sometimes propaganda is not controlled by a malicious force with a agenda and is just controlled by habit/ritual's. Group think is extremely important to the survival of human beings. We would have died a LONG time ago without group think. It also comes at a price.

I don't think energy of vaul/fury of da green spent mechanic points like it does on RoR. I wrote a bug report on this. You could use chop fasta with fury of da green. Get your mechanic points to 5 and have the choppa hit chop fasta. This allows Fury of da green to be spammed for 20 sec's and if your heavy damage/intel build fury of da green hits like a truck which also basically gives a single target immunity from damage due to fury of da green spam.

The same can be done with 2 hoeth SM with alternating whisper winds but is not tied to a 2 minute cooldown but requires your SM's to maintain constant conflict/melee distance. Hoeth SM's are also AoE/ST reducing spirit resist all around them so the energy of vaul hits even harder.

In addition when Energy of vaul/Fury of da green didn't spend mechanic points it allowed you to provide a large single target heal every 5 sec's. Which Energy of vaul/Fury of da green turns into the largest single target heal available to the AM/Shaman every 5 sec's that was conditional. You don't need to face your target to cast Energy of Vaul/Fury of da green which meant you could kite while using the ability since it didn't spend mechanic points and you maintained your mechanic at 5 through hot healing.

Nice a strat that's only viable on destro every 2 mins




And on order when you run 2 SM

Basically.."joke groups"

The client confirms (through lighting up the icons for FoDG and EoV and modifying their cast time in the tooltip and on the bar) that both consume mechanic points and benefit from the mechanic, so if that's the basis for your point, I think you should withdraw it.

You still had a Large single target spike heal every 5 sec's if you kept your mechanic at 5 and didn't use any other damaging abilities besides fury of da green/energy of vaul that can be conducted completely on the move repeatably if you were able to maintain your mechanic at 5 which you could with hots. It just goes crazy when you use winds/chop fasta with those abilities along with it.

@Azarael
Do we have video of those abilities using mechanic points on retail?

We don't need any videos. Any skill on AM/Shaman which increases effectiveness with mechanic points or has a reduced cast time consumes mechanic. That's how their mechanic works. We know it consumes mechanic because the client has authority over the cast bar, and it shows decreasing cast time with higher mechanic points.

EoV / FoDG have the same absolute heal value with greater reliability, wider radius, and a massive boost when using mechanic points in .ex. You have no room to complain about it at all, because it heals each member of your entire GROUP for MORE than its original single target spike heal value.

While I do not believe that the original developers intended racial warbands at any point after alpha I do sympathise with the frustration of holding a minority point of view in an mmo community. I also do not really understand how these changes have made what you are trying to achieve any less viable, unless the objection is that the changes were not specifically designed to shift the meta to racially homogenous groups? You have no reason to quit unless you were already unhappy before the changes and that is a pity.

footpatrol2 wrote:I don't think energy of vaul/fury of da green spent mechanic points like it does on RoR.

The RoR devs are not able to change the wording of ingame tooltips at this time. The tooltip on this ability says that it builds force and tranquility reduces the cast time, which sounds familiar from my AM alt on live. Unless you are suggesting bugged behaviour on live which is always a possibility

As an olive branch, the one and only interview that I am aware of where racial synergy is touched on (may have to scroll past a lot of WP propaganda): http://www.gamespot.com/articles/warham ... 0-6167469/