Simril feedback
The latest edition of the Simril event might have given the next Summer Festival event something to think about. Then again, chances are that we may end up doing the same ol' ball kicking, farming tickets for that less than 1% chance of getting a legendary mount, and too many flower petals to be spent. The thing with the most recent Simril event was that it has to be the most fruitful one I've ever had. However, let me first get the negative out from the closet.
Firstly, the lag was quite an epic deal. And this is considering the fact Simril and Summer Festival are the two likeliest suspects. If the devs had never done the new queuing system, chances are that any double seals event would still be equally bad. If even the fishing contest can hit a major lag at least 5 out of 10 times, you know the server is being pushed towards its limit.
Secondly, the loot drop rng has been nerfed. I was lucky enough to get an unbounded Gondhammer, but that doesn't deny the fact that unbounded loot now has a lower tendency to drop especially the epic ones. Incidentally, bounded drops did have a higher probability of dropping. Even if it may only be a case of slightly higher chances.
And now comes to the best part. Namely, why this year's Simril is actuallu a better deal than the previous ones. There's only one reason, but that reason is good enough to override the flaws stated above. The event is basically another double refinement points event. In fact, it's even better than double refinement points event. Assuming you're doing a gifting party involving five members with ten gifts each, the lumens dropped can easily result in any epic artifact gear reaching legendary. In fact, this was how I managed to max out Arylos' Aboleth set. If there's anything the gamers would like to have, it'd be having enough refinement points. And trust me when I say the next Simril will be the same story all over again. That is provided the devs stick with their guns concerning the new refinement system. Come to think of it, how many of us were actually quite pessimistic to say the least when the new refinement system was being mooted? For me, I was actually in 50-50 land.
A/N: Ironically, it's very likely that the best part of the deal was the reason behind the negative aspects listed here. With all the lumens and refinement points dropping from the sky, the devs had to make sure it won't result in the worst server overload in Neverwinter's history.
New year=new class?
Was Cryptic trolling us with a cryptic tweet last time round? The folks in Neverwinter: Unblogged actually tossed up an interesting article here. Given that the community manager has yet to make some noise (last time I checked, it's Julia “nitocris83 did a crisis” Fredrickson), I'm pretty sure this was Cryptic trolling via Twitter. Something like this below, perhaps?
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| Apparently, however, GRRM did join the internet. |
While it'd be good to see a new class, one of the greatest challenge in creating one lies in the gameplay balance. I don't know about the hunter ranger because I only started playing from mod 4, but scourge warlocks and oathbound paladins were known to be somewhat broken when they first came out. This is even more apparent for oathbound paladins where too many players were guilty of lagging the game via the infamous prism effect (something which would quite likely earn a riot act in any Tiamat raid). In fact, this is most likely the reason why the devs have yet to release a new class. Simply put, they don't want to waste too many resources trying to fix another oathbound paladin. Seriously, 35% jump in power upon triggering Divine Call? And to think people used to say hadouken and shoryuken are the cheapest moves one can ever afford.
So should we expect a new class coming anytime soon? The risk behind such a move lies in the possibility of a short-lived gimmick instead of something more sustainable in the longer run. Yes, using a wandering bard or a primal druid can be fun when it comes to messing around with the mechanics. The problem is, what can a new class afford in any five member raid? If it's heal-buff, you already got devoted clerics and temptation scourge warlocks. If it's a triple deal known as dps-buff-CC, you already got renegade control wizards and (quite possibly) combat hunter rangers. Pure dps? Well, we got plenty of them ranging from great weapon fighters to trickster rogues. The greatest challenge behind creating a new class is never about the mechanics. It is about ensuring the class being relevant on every level.
At the end of the day, I doubt a new class will be coming anytime soon. New race? Possible. New class? Not so possible. Unless the devs decide to do a 5 member raid format for normal dungeons with 7-15 members involved in any epic raids (apart from raiding that motherdragon temple due to 25 members involved instead of 25 members divided by 5).
But what if there's really a way?
The only way to make sense out of a potential new class would be playing around with the fundamentals. In any MMO (and RPGs as well for that matter, JRPG or no JRPG), the list of fundamental mechanics should look like this below:
Tanking
(Not as in what Johanna "the Duchess of Johannasburg" Konta will never do. At least I hope not)
Dps
(something like what you always do in your fave FPS)
Buffing
(Because everyone needs protein in addition to the carbo, no offence intended to PETA)
CC
(Hitting below the belt)
Healing
(Preventing people from dying)
AoE
(It's not about how far your ICBM can go, but rather the reach of impact)
Minions
(Cute yellow critters which I'd give to my future girlfriend... erm, I don't mean the babies)
Quite contrary to the somewhat popular misperception, being a specialist doesn't mean you're better than a generalist. Ranking ladders can be very misleading as in they do not give an accurate gauge on how good (or crappy for that matter) you are. In fact, I find the Stronghold events to be the most accurate barometer when it comes to character efficiency. While I've never taken part in Stronghold siege events (this was mainly due to personal experiences with people preventing me from enjoying PvP), the Marauders and Dragonflight events use only one ranking ladder. This ladder format does NOT judge the player on any given aspect. Rather, this ladder format judges the players on overall efficiency.
For example, the fact that you got the highest dps count doesn't mean a dime to the system. If the generalist is better than you, it means you can see easily from the table that you're not the better player.
Ofc this is not to say specialists don't have a place in any party. You still need such members in your party (most notably the tanks and dps). Rather, I'm just saying that generalists do have their advantage when it comes to vital support (albeit that depends on how good the build is).
To justify the existence of a new class means trying to play around with the seven fundamentals of MMO (I don't know if I've left any out, but you get the drift). Thankfully, not a lot of builds actually deal with more than two aspects. In fact, I think the most any generalist build can afford to do is three roles out of any of the mentioned seven.
Let's say for example the wandering bard needs to be relevant instead of redundant. Because Prince Andy likes bards, it means Prince Andy wants his bard to be dps based. Like a TR. Giving the WB the TR main-hand weapon with a lyre as off-hand implement should be a good start. In fact, the only other difference in the TR gear and WB gear should be giving the bard a cap instead of a mask (after all, not everybody can be Danilo Thann). The fundamentals should revolve around heal and dps with the CC and buffing being more prominent at higher levels.
Class mechanic? Bardsong. Auto-refill outside combat, but unable to refill during combat. The gauge should deplete much slower than, for example, a great weapon fighter's #UNSTOPPABRU!!!! or the TR stealth. Bardsong confers heal over time to allies within 15 feet radius.
As for paragon classes, it should be Voice of Thunder (direct damage and heal; triggering Bardsong results in party damage buff within 15 radius range) and Summer Rhymer (buff and heal; triggering Bardsong increases amount of HP healed from all sources including Bardsong).
Then you have the fact that WB should never be another TR. Three paragon trees available. One for CC-defensive buffing (Cunning), one for heal-offensive buffing (Exhort), the last one for dps-AoE heal (Valor).
Then take another example in the form of a primal druid. Arguably the chosen one via democracy and popular votes, the primal druid should be given the hunter ranger's gear format with the weapons being that of the oathbound paladin format. The dps should work more like the OP rather than the HR style. Proficient in self-healing and self-defensive buffs, the PD is one that deals elemental damage from point A to point Z, hence making this a certified nuker. As a nuker, however, the PD should be no match for fury scourge warlocks and thaumaturge control wizards. The fundamentals should revolve around magic damage and all sorts of self-defensive arts.
The class mechanic should work like guardian fighters in terms of variation. Also known as Wildshaping, the PD can transform into either one of the three animal forms: Bear, Wolf, and Panther. When in wild shape form, the PD cannot use any of his/her at-will, encounter, and daily powers. However, class features still can be used. Any artifact weapon bonus affecting at-will powers instead increases damage dealt while in wild shape form.
In bear form (left click for attack; right click to increase damage dealt for 5 seconds), the PD takes less damage and deals more damage. In wolf form (left click for attack; right click to increase critical hit chance for 10 seconds), the PD has a higher attacking speed, critical hit chance, and deflection chance. In panther form (left click for attack; right click to execute a pounce attack that will knock down upon hit), the PD has the same combat properties as the wolf.
As for paragon classes, the choice should read like Guardian of the Living Gate (buff spec) and Keeper of the Hidden Flame (dps spec).
As for the paragon trees, they should read like Summon-buffing (Tamer), Melee-Wildshape (Rage), and CC-heal (Guardian).
Last part: Respec token spam
Hopefully, I can end this one soon. My dad is now switching on his fave streaming programme. He's definitely smart enough to use a tablet PC, but I'm not sure whether he's smart enough to know his own son's problem.
Now the most recent Simril has given me a licence to experiment in the same way the code 007 gave James Bond a licence to kill. By the time the event was over, I was left with... like maybe 4-5 respec tokens for Arylos. The reason why being that most of the respec tokens dropped were bind on pick up. As a result, I experimented with a pathfinder build. Just a few notes here.
1. Pathfinders are good for trappers and archers. Surprisingly good. All I need to say this was imagining how a pathfinder would play under either paragon tree. So yeah, I never used pathfinder on archery and trapper.
2. However, pathfinders do have a fast attacking game (apart from Ambush and Bear Trap). The single target firing rate is top notch since Hunter's Teamwork and Careful Attack are meant as CC-dps support. In other words, just spam Rapid Shot. You can easily empty your magazine in a matter of seconds and I mean it in a good way.
3. To use pathfinders properly, try to unlock Aspect of the Pack where your off-hand artifact weapon is concerned. The dumb thing about this paragon class is a lack of damage when it comes to the class features. The not-so-dumb thing would be having an easier time planning the dps aspect of your class features. I'm not kidding here. How difficult do you think it would be if you're a pathfinder archer? I just need to chuck in Aspect of the Pack and Aspect of the Falcon. Problem solved. Just make sure you got Stillness of the Forest feat at max rank.
4. Using a pathfinder means you'll need to focus more on the offensive where the gear is concerned. This is the direct opposite when it comes to using a stormwarden. Also, this part is referring to those crazy enough to choose the combat tree. Incidentally, I happened to be crazy enough to do just that.
5. You see that Pathfinder's Action tooltip? Yeah, just use it if you don't want to waste one encounter power slot on Marauder's Rush. Do take note, however, that this approach works better only if you have two direct damage encounters with low cooldown plus Plant Growth. Anything apart from that and... well, you get where this is going.
6. Despite messing around with this experimental build, Arylos actually got into the top 5 of every Marauders event. That's really guano loco if you're to ask me considering there were surely other alliance mates having a better AoE and dps game.
7. After some time in deliberation, I decided to switch back to the original Sanders. It's not that I hate using pathfinders. Geared and used properly, this paragon class can pack a real punch despite having only defensive or utility paragon class features. The catch with the whole deal lies in the need to unlearn every single thing I've learnt so far as a stormwarden HR. And that's NOT what I'm out to do as a gamer.
Closing note: Back to Zero
Yep, it's back to zero. Well, sorta. I just want to close this post with a reminder on how awesome Skirmisher's Gambit can be. If you're a stormwarden combat spec, you better get this feat maxed out. Dumbing down the critical chance may look... well, dumb. However, the fact that Clear the Ground is a burst attack means the crit chance penalty getting some semblance of mitigation. Assuming you're using CtG as your default at-will plus having a crit chance of 45% or so, SG can fetch you a handsome sum of damage. Quite contrary to whatever intuitive opinions from the gamers, vorpal isn't the only bet in exploiting a maxed out SG. With a 45% crit chance (or somewhere around that), lightning can be a very good option as well. The cooldown reduction is always a must for any combat HR due to the Blade Hurricane feat. Once you upgraded the lightning enchantment to pure, a 100% chance to chain proc thrice means a higher frequency to proc flurry. Coupled with CtG and setting this at-will as your off-hand artifact weapon power choice, you can be assured the fireworks involved may well be more spectacular than Guy Fawkes blowing up the whole of Westminster.
Note: Guy Fawkes blowing up the whole of Westminster should be seen as #fakenews fyi. Seriously, the Gunpowder Plot was actually declared an epic fail.
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