[X] My Assistant

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)

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

I don't think so. We have great status now, and if we didn't had the 0.4.8 resistance bug, we probably do around the same dmg, get same or more credits, and definitely more exp before stamina was introduced.

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.

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 prefer to defend in the first place, and I have no issues having more adm, plus I have 280 OC which means I already do ~1.45x physical dmg than a "regular" mage.
But I like the sound of instant ET, and the staffs ET stat stopped being "ET turns", but a multiplier mana draining.
(Lol this sounds like a mana lech weapon, just being the difference of CM must be proc'ed first.

... I like the sound of instant ET, and the staffs ET stat stopped being "ET turns", but a multiplier mana draining.
(Lol this sounds like a mana lech weapon, just being the difference of CM must be proc'ed first.

Yeah, mana leach with an interesting twist. Ether theft duration as a gameplay mechanic only really made sense as a window to proc channeling. As channeling is now independent, the sole purpose of ether theft is mana leaching, and requiring the player to stand around inactive while a passive tap runs is not particularly interesting. Drain over time taps only make sense if the player is actively maintaining the tap or the tap works well in concert with something else active the player can do (ie tossing spells to try to pric channling, in HVs case)

Besides, the removal of ratings was already compensated for with the increased effect of the elemental damage modifiers.

I would hardly call that being compensated. In order to even make up for the ratings we would need a full set of top notch EDB gear that only boosts one element. Barring the fact that all other elemental damages have been reduced as a result, trying to compensate for lost ratings by wearing one type of EDB gear would bring us back to what you don't want us to do:

limiting yourself to a single damage type was never supposed to be a balanced and working approach to killing stuff.

Also, you have never addressed or always avoided the issue of Soul whenever we mention that there's nothing to compensate for the lost 32% ratings that we had.

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.

I'm in the Skills group, followed by the group that wants monster promotions before anything else is added to the lab. "Normal" class monsters that are stronger than ye olde minibosses, minus the HP bonus, is dumb. Since the Skills are gonna take a long ass time, I'd prefer the second since its a more pressing matter.

So much fucking wherna, I don't understand...

Also, you have never addressed or always avoided the issue of Soul whenever we mention that there's nothing to compensate for the lost 32% ratings that we had.

Uh hello, he made void weapons duh (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Uh hello, he made void weapons duh (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

Uh hello, he was talking about the Soul spells duh (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

The only thing I've found the staff proficiency ADM bonus useful for is killing the last mob standing after I've proc-ed channeling so I can save it to facemelt the next round.

With the channeling change, ET's pretty much a boss-fight only stat now. Though I guess with the rate mana pots are being burned through now, an improvement might be nice (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I've been maging since level 1, and before ~40 it was painful on Normal. I wonder if it's almost impossible after this patch to do that. Anyone know?

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

QFT i didn't understand why elementalist stuff has not been improved the same as edb bonuses. I remember tenboro saying something about elementalist mages having an advantage facing customs monsters over mages with phase gear because you could use their weaknesses but was this advantage enough when almost every high level mage player wear phase gear already?

QFT i didn't understand why elementalist stuff has not been improved the same as edb bonuses. I remember tenboro saying something about elementalist mages having an advantage facing customs monsters over mages with phase gear because you could use their weaknesses but was this advantage enough when almost every high level mage player wear phase gear already?

Don't forget that you can't USE weaknesses vs gigantic mobs without subsequently dying as a mage. At least for me, I take and deal massive amounts of damage, so scanning every enemy in the battlefield would be beyond stupid.

Don't forget that you can't USE weaknesses vs gigantic mobs without subsequently dying as a mage. At least for me, I take and deal massive amounts of damage, so scanning every enemy in the battlefield would be beyond stupid.

There is no need to scan since 90% of tham are Giants (IMG:[invalid] style_emoticons/default/heh.gif)

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

why not remove a lot of the detritus from HV like cotton and leather. giving these gears more suffixes or tweaking them slightly is like putting lipstick on a pig, it wont make them any more desirable...or useful.

why not remove a lot of the detritus from HV like cotton and leather. giving these gears more suffixes or tweaking them slightly is like putting lipstick on a pig, it wont make them any more desirable...or useful.

As much as I hate Cotton and leather drops they have to stay. Without them we would have good gear to fast and have nothing left to do :/

As much as I hate Cotton and leather drops they have to stay. Without them we would have good gear to fast and have nothing left to do :/

Not really. Remove the shitty stuff like Cotton/Leather and add godly gears.
That way, everything is useful, and the fun part would be hunting for the godly gear.

Not really. Remove the shitty stuff like Cotton/Leather and add godly gears.
That way, everything is useful, and the fun part would be hunting for the godly gear.

...and in some six or ten months we will have a lot of posts like this one:

why not remove a lot of the detritus from HV like dragon, kevlar and shade. giving these gears more suffixes or tweaking them slightly is like putting lipstick on a pig, it wont make them any more desirable...or useful.

Yeah, just like that.
Yeah, I am a prophetess.

Anybody realize that cotton and leathers are there for balancing?
It's pointless to play a game where everyone can easily get useful gears.

Yes, they are there so you cannot get good gears. At least you can get a few bucks from them.
Tenboro can easily remove all those shitty things and lower the drop rate to 1/10 of its current value.
But then we're going to lose more bucks.

Anybody realize that cotton and leathers are there for balancing?
It's pointless to play a game where everyone can easily get useful gears.

Yes, they are there so you cannot get good gears. At least you can get a few bucks from them.
Tenboro can easily remove all those shitty things and lower the drop rate to 1/10 of its current value.
But then we're going to lose more bucks.

that few bucks is negligible, nearly all of my creds have come from RoB clears. i was piss poor until lvl 50. remember that Heimdall Cap i sold to you awhile back? yeah, it will be a cold one before i ever get a drop like that again. that is the one and only drop i ever got that was worth using or selling. hell, i just got my second elementalist armor drop ever tonight, i didnt know whether to laugh or cry.

This post has been edited by PSPhreak: Jul 26 2011, 12:05

It's easy to balance the removal of Cloth/Leather by creating even stronger monsters and more challenges/obstacles.

The problem right now is everybody is feeling really weak after that massive nerf, which sucks all the fun out of playing. Instead of new challenges appearing, people just get nerfed over and over everytime somebody accomplishes something.
Result: People end up feeling that reaching new heights in this game ends with you getting screwed over.

Take for example the accuracy nerf. Instead of making high-level people miss again, Tenboro could have just made certain monsters have the ability to lower people's accuracy for several turns with the same % chance. These monsters could be minibosses, or maybe these certain monsters appear only at around lvl 250. People still remain strong, but now have additional challenges to face. But no, nerfing is always the easiest way to balance things.

Depending on how the materials are going to be used, I would favour the ability to SCRAP the useless equipment into base parts.