[X] My Assistant

i just had CM and ET proc'd at the same time in my last GF. is that supposed to be happening now?

Yup, helps with mana regen on boss types (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The most important question would be if all existing gear would be worthless after the change if ADM/MDM gets pimped.

It would be retroactive if so.

Btw do you intend to give more monster lab's toys in the next release? (Namely the "upgrades" to skills and such)

Not in the next patch.

See, here's how it works: no matter what I add, there will always be someone who thinks I should have added something else instead. So you have one group who wants the monster upgrades, one group who wants the monster benefits, one group who rightfully believes that melee skills are long overdue, one group who wants something to spend their ability or aura points on, one group who wants more custom-coded encounters like Trio, and so on. Seeing as adding everything at once would mean that the next patch won't be out this year, I'm currently working on the second one.

Should be changed to:

When using STAFF
+ 0,5% Attack Damage
+ 0.5% Magic Accuracy
+ 3.0% Spell Damage

Hell no. Like I said before, magic already gets a damage boost through magic proficiency. If at some point magic proficiency stops contributing to damage, I'll reconsider it.

And I still think we should get a Crystal Refund since Monster training has become a lot easier now.

I said no, repeatedly. Stop asking. There will never be any refunds for anything, ever, unless the actual skill or training or whatever is removed.

Hell no. Like I said before, magic already gets a damage boost through magic proficiency. If at some point magic proficiency stops contributing to damage, I'll reconsider it.

It could be a temporarily fix until everything got rebalanced? Keep in mind we are doing MUCH less damage then we are supposed do.
But increasing the damage boost through magic prof would be better since I have already trained this (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

Keep in mind we are doing MUCH less damage then we are supposed do.

No you're not. You're now doing exactly the damage you're supposed to.

No you're not. You're now doing exactly the damage you're supposed to.

Have you forgotten that you nerfed Elemental Ratings because you were balancing around the error in damage calculation? And now you fixed that error?

How can you not realize that mages got screwed twice over now.

Edit: Oh wait, I remembered that you DO realize it. You're just "punishing" us for not realizing that there was a bug in the damage calculations which you never showed us.

This post has been edited by Rei-Tenshi: Jul 25 2011, 15:14

No you're not. You're now doing exactly the damage you're supposed to.

You was balancing around that EDB bug so we actually do way to less damage.
Just test it out. Create yourself a set of legendary EDB Phase and a Legendary Staff test it in a lvl300+ IW on BT (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I would not complain this much if it was just a small drawback.

Hell no. Like I said before, magic already gets a damage boost through magic proficiency. If at some point magic proficiency stops contributing to damage, I'll reconsider it.

Can you just straight remove the attack damage bonus from staff proficiency? Not change it into spell damage or anything, just remove it?

You was balancing around that EDB bug so we actually do way to less damage.

Was I really? I don't think I ever playtested with a full set of whatever elemental set since limiting yourself to a single damage type was never supposed to be a balanced and working approach to killing stuff. So no, I never balanced around this bug. Besides, the removal of ratings was already compensated for with the increased effect of the elemental damage modifiers.

Nor can I ever recall saying that you were supposed to be able to "facemelt" your way through Battletoads.

You might try to argue that you get less experience now, but with a) the vast increase in EXP from custom mobs, and b) the increase in experience factors from the Arena and Grindfest, you should be able to level faster than ever. And as for the pretty much unobtainable higher-quality equipment drops, I already said I'd address that at some point.

Can you just straight remove the attack damage bonus from staff proficiency? Not change it into spell damage or anything, just remove it?

I could, but then people would bitch and whine about staff only having two bonuses.

I think changing attack damage (re: attack damage on staffs: why? staffs hit for all of 50 damage with those specced to it/using them) to spell critical % for staffs would be more logical.

Not the same percentage points, obviously.

Also I want to throw acid to reduce piercing defense / rust to reduce slashing defense / concrete to reduce crushing defense gimme my melee spells plz

This post has been edited by Bunker Buster: Jul 25 2011, 16:41

I could, but then people would bitch and whine about staff only having two bonuses.

Do it. Right now, Staffs have 2 bonuses and 1 malus.

I could, but then people would bitch and whine about staff only having two bonuses.

I can't imagine that people could bitch and whine any more than they already do. Personally I'm A-OK with only two bonuses, especially when having a third bonus actively hurts my playstyle. With a 0mp magic missile, the only reason to hit something with a staff is to proc ET, and if you do more damage on staffwhack, you are more likely to kill your target than you are to proc the effect you want.

On a sort of related suggestion note, can we do anything about ET duration? I end up mashing defense after procing ET because you have to wait out the effect to get anything. There are two options I see for making this less painful without really changing the balance. 1, killing a monster than has an ET tap active should instantly give the mana remaining to be drained or 2, change duration to rank (ie 46% ether theft Rank II would give 2x the mana of Rank I rather than lasting twice as long) and make the mana transfer instant rather than drain over time.

This post has been edited by marcho: Jul 25 2011, 17:17

Was I really? I don't think I ever playtested with a full set of whatever elemental set since limiting yourself to a single damage type was never supposed to be a balanced and working approach to killing stuff. So no, I never balanced around this bug. Besides, the removal of ratings was already compensated for with the increased effect of the elemental damage modifiers.

Nor can I ever recall saying that you were supposed to be able to "facemelt" your way through Battletoads.

You might try to argue that you get less experience now, but with a) the vast increase in EXP from custom mobs, and (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) the increase in experience factors from the Arena and Grindfest, you should be able to level faster than ever. And as for the pretty much unobtainable higher-quality equipment drops, I already said I'd address that at some point.

It was only compensated for EDB Users while Elementalists suffered greatly from it.

And I never said I want to facemelt battletoads but the ability to somehow do it. Its not only the decrease in damage that made it impossible but this and the change to haste.
Before this patch we was a bit faster (change to haste) so we had a chance to strike twice which enabled us to kill most of them.
Now you can cast once and get hit by a large number of mobs. On BT this means heavy damage to your spirit bar.
While it is OK in the Arena because you can refill your Spirit and Mana it is does not work in long Item Worlds.
In round 200+ an attempt at ET or Spirit leeching is suicide and Elixirs will run out to fast.
This is what the small change to Haste did.

Now we do less damage we get hit even more so we will run out of Mana and Spirit even faster.

The Action Speed Problem could possibly be solved if we gain the Ability to add AGI to our Mage Gear.
Damage Problem... well once Ratings are gone it will hopefully be a bit better. A small increase would enable somewhat normal gameplay again and would shut us up (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif) Why not just test it out for a day. There are people here who will give a honest opinion.

Experience? I actually think it is to much EXP for Normal Difficulty.
Also once you reached lvl 300 all you want is more power so you can do higher Difficulty Settings to find better gear.
It had always worked out fine. You started on normal, then some good drops later you was able to play hard until you find even better gear and climb up another step. For example despite my really good gear and damage perks I was only able to clear Heroic on Facemelting speed since Custom Mobs alone slowed us down a lot.



And Staff Bonuses? I agree with the other guys here. More melee damage means we will often kill them instead of procing ET.

And as for the pretty much unobtainable higher-quality equipment drops, I already said I'd address that at some point.

I expect them to be renamed to unobtainium grade. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)

marcho, you're like the little voice inside me that everyone ignored a month or two ago.


Namely, I also rallied for a change in staff proficiency bonus and ET change. My suggestion was to change the melee attack bonus to magical accuracy bonus. Everyone ignored it because most mages already had 100% accuracy back then, but not anymore, eh? (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/tongue.gif)

I also want to see Tenboro address the ether theft issue.


edit: by ether theft issue, I mean specifically the problem of having to wait for ET to wear off.

This post has been edited by dkplee: Jul 25 2011, 19:51

I also want to see Tenboro address the ether theft issue.

If you need to ET, then play on a difficulty where you can't kill things by hitting them with a stick. Otherwise, use pots.

This post has been edited by hitokiri84: Jul 25 2011, 19:34

Earlier he said the AP effect would negate physical damage mitigation. So instead of a 10% to 150% increase in damage depending on enemy type and their shield rating, it'd be more like 25(if enemy has 20% mit) to 66%(if enemy has 40% mit).

I hope we can erode monster crushing/slashing/piercing defenses through melee "spell" abilities as well.

I know, but I will rather bet that will be fixed const -x% to all physical mitigations.
Not that would be bad, but with so vast recode I see dark clouds balance-wise as dual rapiers wielder.

And skills waited long time, and will wait some more, I suppose. (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)

If you need to ET, then play on a difficulty where you can't kill things by hitting them with a stick. Otherwise, use pots.

My problem isn't killing them, but having to defend while waiting for ET to wear off. Basically the same problem as marcho described.

Sorry, I should've been a little more clear.

This post has been edited by dkplee: Jul 25 2011, 19:49

My problem isn't killing them, but having to defend while waiting for ET to wear off. Basically the same problem as marcho described.

Sorry, I should've been a little more clear.

I don't see how that's an issue. Mocking an agitated monster for several turns to steal MP is an inherent risk.

I don't see how that's an issue. Mocking an agitated monster for several turns to steal MP is an inherent risk.

The issue is that defending for 3-5 turns while draining MP is just an unnecessary waste of time.

More specifically a waste of your running buffs, meaning I have to recast those buffs sooner, using up more mana. Kinda counter-intuitive, I think.