Grock wrote:th3gatekeeper wrote:The point would be, deciding between 1 tali slot between wounds or strength doesn't matter enough. The choice between using RR for stats vs something else like more crit, doesn't matter enough. We lack build choice. Even a tank rolling full strength, at the loss of wounds/tough/etc. Isn't breaking his archetype so there is less experimentation and less build diversity. Everyone stacks the same old sets. Etc. Gearing is far too linear.
I think Azarael actually wanted to remove build variants whatsoever(in terms of stats) to make it easier to balance.
But my memory could be failing me
th3gatekeeper wrote:Currency rate exchange from lower to higher tiers should be 2:1, not 5:1. Would encourage more to actually level via RvR and SCs so at t4 They can nearly insta buy merc and annihilater.
That makes sense actually
Transition from T3 to T4 is extremely punishing, even more so than in other tiers because there's much more vertical progression in T4.
Considering Merc/Anni are basically starting gear for T4 i dont see any problem making them easier to get.
After all you can already get them quite fast by exchanging conq meds, but i imagine those can be pretty hard to get for average PUGging T4 newcomer.
Yup, I believe Az did for the sake of balance purposes as it's easier to balance when you confine classes to essentially their archetype role but as with everything - pros vs cons.
From a balance and design perspective this is nice. From a player perspective, it sucks because there isn't much build choice or diversity. Players figure out the "meta" and build for it. This is why (for me) whether I get on my SnB chosen, or my 2H BG, my gear setup, my build, and probably even my renown are largely all similar to the guy standing next to me. Gone are the days of feeling like the way you spec/build matters, or that you could build more unique, etc. Gearing, building is FAR too linear in my opinion. X set is objectively better than Y set which ate both objectively worse than Z set. And at the end of the day, your choice to pick up a 2 pc of Ruin, rather than the 5th and 6th set bonus on Beastlord, really makes no difference to your character or build etc.
As for leveling. I am not a "gimme gimme now now" guy, but the prospect of leveling an alt and the sheer time it would take along with re-gearing to be competitive... just kills the desire. I don't understand the thought from the DEV team here. I have played many MMOs where you can hit max level in a day... others maybe 2-3 days. I used to love Alts in ROR in t2/t3 days because you could level quickly and getting things like a basic stalker set for t3 was easy. Now it's Ruin which is a little more work, but even then your several tiers below Cons or even Dominator. This is where we are too constrained to "sets". This is where imo stats are not valuable enough. Off pieces are not valuable enough...
I'll stop rambling but this entire leveling and gearing system pigeon holes you so hard in this game that it virtually removes flavor, choice, expiramenting and even desire TO get gear because it's so objective that X is better than Y for "all builds". The times I find myself doing some of the most mundane things (like farming low level PQs) is for the prospect that I will find a unique transmits that will make me standout... why not break from the "LIVE" formula here and apply that principle to gearing? Make like 4-5 sets for each TYPE of build (primary vs off role) meaning we get like 10+ difderent gear sets to choice from that are ALL "BIS tier" and then by also making stats more valuable... you'll see so many flavors of builds... all across the spectrum which allows players to build, expirament, and even play how they want rather than being confined to their archetype, meta gear, meta stats, role where everyone looks and feels and largely plays the same.....
