I was not aware of the Repelican. Thanks for the learnin.

Not sure on your thoughts about this: Heal Mastery, by returning this feature to its' former state, you could ideally turn on those abilities.



I agree, they should not have weaknesses.

Looking forward to anything new and hopefully the people testing it use a variety of gameplay to identify other issues normally missed when only thinking of DPS.

Thank you for the posts in this thread and others.

@ topic... since it has been discussed by Paul that there are those things available... I don't need to vote... but I would have voted Yes.

Perhaps it may be time to add new gear types that can be used as "stat buffs" so to speak. jewelry, more armor types, whatever. Part of the problem I was noticing before I quit playing (yes, it has been a while) was that with each new update, mobs were becoming more and more difficult. Yet I was not getting stronger. In group play, it translated to slightly longer runs. In solo play, it translated to several hours more per climb. Given not everyone has the time to dedicate to a full group climb, the largest miss to accessibility is the solo play factor.

So, with so much focus that has been given to mobs being so potentially powerful, yet it taking so MANY mobs to kill to get to a point where you can MQ, it might be a good thing that rather than having to try to get every single stat right on 3 primaries in order to succeed, perhaps the armor/charm/weapon/acc really SHOULD just be about ee level. Then perhaps a new piece or three that's stat focused, to help power up all of your primary kill/healing gear, as well as provide a few masteries, some lpk, that kind of thing, might be a good choice. This would neither be the first, nor the last RPG style game where the melee/cast/heal/defense element of the game was accessible to anyone, and it was rings/amulets/socks/hair things/whatever that gave the needed boosts to make someone a "specialist" in one form of battle or another. In such a system, you could also implement the ability to carry a standard weapon, heavy weapon, attack charm, heal charm, or hell, even charms of each different element, with hotkeys for each. There's certainly enough keys on a keyboard.

But the largest problem with such a variety of mobs is that combat becomes so situation-based that especially for the solo player, how exactly are you supposed to "do well"? It makes little sense, with the current limitations on things such as how many pieces of gear you can equip, inventory size, vault costs compared to shitty economy for items, etc.

It may well be time, with some of these changes being put forth regarding mob diversity and difficulty, to add to the player diversity and complexity as well. It's been several years since this game was the "simple hack and slash" of 2006. Rather than pretending it still is, why not expand it to achieve some of it's true potential?

Then again, maybe not. Merely a thought.

This post was edited by InsaneBobb on Sep 11 2014 11:52pm

I have another item type spec'd out, but have never been able to get it balanced. On top of that, I don't think more items is a solution, especially for new players. It's already extremely overwhelming to think that one could need potentially 33 items per MQ! This is cool to some people, but insanity to others. It's not something I'm ruling out, as I'd like to experiment first with another idea that also solves numerous other problems at the same time.

One other thing you pointed out, but only scratched the surface on was combat being situation-based. It's pretty much a random dice throw, though it's better than it was a year ago, and certainly better than years ago. It still has a ways to go though, until some decent strategy is actually possible, but again, that's another area I hope to continue to move forward as well.

The thought of expanding item types excites me. Or expanding on the amount of items tha given character can use at one time. I know at one time you had kicked around the idea of adding another tier of items only because one leaked into a patch. Have you given that another look?

Exciting thread.
Also, I think Paul just discovered the hyphen.

i love the idea of new types of items. or even a higher tier of item, Tier XV items would help a lot with that 16 lvl gap between final tier and mq. as long as the lvl for mq doesn't change, 1 1/2 to 3 hours is a lot to dedicate to a game in one sitting, and that's with a group. and lets say that its 150-250 mqs on avg to reset a ladder that is 225 minimum hours and 750 max hours to beat the game on average. i think raising the level cap for items would be a good idea but raising mq requirements a bad one. as is i know very few people willing to put 500+ hours into a game just to beat it. I guess you could say you beat the game when you masterquest, but to me the endgame is resetting the ladder, which i am fervently trying to do atm.

Also i believe to all those who would say nay to a new tier because their 55's would no longer be worth as much i say that it would be made up for way more in the surge of prices of lvl 60 gear being in such high demand, and that their lvl 55 gear would still be as good as it is now, just more options for improvement. also i would like to see a 300 ee item drop just once. If you are afraid you are going to lose money on that set of 100k gear you bought. Use the gear to climb and find some of the new gears that would more than make up for your losses. or you could just let them rot and whine about it. but your complaints shall fall on deaf ears as we gobble up the new things offered.

I personally have a lot of $$$ invested in this game, almost as much as a nexgen system would cost me, but i wouldn't mind taking a hit in my gear value if it meant more people more gear and faster clmbs/ladder resets.

in my fantasy dreamland a ladder should last no more than a couple months. that way people don't give up on the game every 2 months after ladder reset.

No, not because it'd make it more frustrating (though it will) but because it will make soloing even more difficult and this forcing us to group up. Soloing is already slow enough, why make it worse? Not everyone has the opportunity to group up all the time. That is one reason this game is so dead.

Bad suggestion.

Maybe it just needs a tweak? (constructive criticism)

Something to the effect of phasing in/out of the immunity, which would allow the caster to do damage at certain intervals. It would be a more difficult mob, but it's not like you hit them every wave.

I'm all for balancing the game, and the immunity idea makes it so casters aren't so overpowered as they are now, but I definitely see your point as well.

I think it would be cool if it phased immune, then after immunity bubble expired the enemy took 50% more damage.