Patch Notes 31/1/2017

[Akalukz]

So I haven't seen anythinig said about the benefits (defensive wise). It seems to me, that a 6 man or what have you could go in balls deep into a zerg and basically take 20% damage from all aoe. Couple that with guards / decreasers etc, doesn't this empower smaller groups?

maybe not against a full on 100 zerg, but 6 v 12/18/24 it should be a big bonus.

[CommissarG]

Making the game more 6-man oriented will not help the population imbalance and the side with the largest numbers capping the zone. The greater force will simply field the highest % of 6 mans or guild groups anyway and the same amount of exceptions will be made.

The removal of warband (zerg) play will cull your population and fast. It doesn't matter how much "better" 6 man combat is, it won't attract players if has such a focus on the elitist core groups only.

I may have the time to adapt to the skirmish style play you're aiming for, but the five friends I brought to the game with me won't. And when they leave because they can't compete with the hard-core, find a new game, and ask me to join them I likely will. (This is not a threat, I'm not trying to come across that my continued efforts into this game are dependant on me getting my way, I'm merely stating that I joined RoR primarily to play with my friends in glorious WAR like we did back in live)

And as a poster earlier mentioned battles will always be drawn to the BO's and keeps regardless of whether the game-play promotes large scale fights or not.

Many, many people actually like the "zerg" fighting as the clash of so many players is not only an aesthetical treat but rather thrilling to walk over dozens of dead goblins and the perfect level of frustrating when your own side is crushed to make you want to take revenge.

If population is indeed a big factor I would (as much as the word of a fan is worth) encourage you to hold off on making major changes until fortresses and cities are finally able to be added. It may seem shallow but people do need a goal for their efforts outside the fun of slaughtering their enemies. I recently learning that in Total War: Warhammer less than 5% of the playerbase has played one-off multiplayer battles in favour of the grand campaign, because it gives the battles a purpose and a context.

[Ugle]

Nice change. Kill the lag-zergfest. Hope it works as intended

[navis]

Aza, we still trying to understand what caused that patch ?

-Is it for countering zerging ?
No and it definelty won't. Zerging is about mentality/community and game desing issue which you never avoid.

-Is it countering blobbing ?
Basically we or order could bring 2-3 ST warband anytime like a real fat blob while sweeping everything front of us/them.

-Is it for increasing the survivability of small groups agaist warbands ?
For the beginning there will be difference agaist pure bomb groups but in there future they gonna get smashed by hybrid warbands. Badly.

-Is it for the make combats more longer ?
We tested it yesterday [ we feel the damage reduction from rdps classes-and hardly see the damage buff with non pug fights ] and without reworking morale damage + buffing defensive group buffs + buffing CC's the zerg fight gonna be always bursty and chaotic.

So far I see it hurting the smaller defense style warband (outnumbered defense) more than helping them.. In that underdog situation it is more important than ever to play with group setup, group healing, guard, etc. Not to jump around in in a circle dance. Good experiment, though.

[Martok]

I explained quite clearly that the intent is to break larger combats down into smaller scale ones by making mass a weakness rather than a strength.

I understand the context here, and for what it is worth agree with the ideal you are attempting to achieve. The basic mechanics of this game, to include factors such as utilizing terrain and movement to maximize abilities, favor and I always thought encouraged and rewarded the employment of tactics when engaging the enemy. Simply keeping the opposition unaware and guessing as to where you are and where you will next strike has obvious advantages over the simple zerg fest. However, as you have said, the zerg fest is easier and thus most often employed.

Therefore, again for what it is worth, I support what you are trying to do here. Small unit tactics should prevail, and I do not believe I am the only player in game to think so by any measure.

A few observations from yesterday's fighting and testing of the patch. But please note I freely acknowledge I am not as well versed in all the individual abilities and mechanics of all classes as other players may be. I am a Sword Master, to the core. I am also not as "down in the weeds" on all the applicable terminology. I just see what I see and comment on it. However:

I repecced to make use of Phoenix's Wing. As I stated earlier, the one obvious weakness of PW is its five foot range. However I did find when I was able to position myself appropriately and fire the effect I hit a lot of targets, in one case up to at least 15. I also saw the damage proc at ranges from 200 per target hit up to 600 plus. This may not seem like much, but given the SM ability to rapidly shift balance on one occasion I was able to fire a second PW hit before the numbers had faded from the first. This did achieve the result of breaking up the mob. The strength of the effect, it appears to me (and I intend to do more testing later today), is when an attack such as PW combines with some other AOE attack. Now this may sound simple, but I am not speaking directly to the random combination of attacks which occur in any fight. I am referring to the singular abilities an SM possesses to utilize in a fight. During one of the keep defenses which occurred yesterday in TM, I was able to fire PW and immediately follow it up with Raze. Talk about clearing out a room.

In addition the ability worked as advertised in regard to friendly targets. When employing PW if a friendly target was within the area of effect I could easily see the damage output decreased.

I have a couple of videos from yesterday's fighting I may put up just as an illustration of testing the patch. I will wait until I finish playing today to see, as I intend to continue testing exactly how effective the effects may be and might get something more illustrative.

Thanks for reading.

[Karast]

I think the concept of the new changes, but I think the damage and target increases will need balancing.

The 45% increase is just a beast for the already high dps slayers / choppers. For most Mdps the new changes are turning them into 1 button spammers, which is neither fun nor interesting game-play.

Personally I think reducing the damage to the 15-20% range and the targets down to the ~12 range would work much better.

[Grobbok]

how is it?
let's say, 6 ppl with aoe dps fight against warband, 6 vs 24, so aoe dps have - 5x15% to his dmg but + 17x15%, so he have +12x15% witch means he doing 180% more dmg?
is it correct?

[Daknallbomb]

how is it?
let's say, 6 ppl with aoe dps fight against warband, 6 vs 24, so aoe dps have - 5x15% to his dmg but + 17x15%, so he have +12x15% witch means he doing 180% more dmg?
is it correct?

Well for me its massiv to theoretical. When six ppl run Into a wb to Make aoe they are Instant dead If The wb is nit afk.. And they have to Hit rly all 24... Never will See that... And 180% dmg dont means that a 1k crit is 2,8k

[Bobbiom]

Just did some testing on my marauder with demolition ability.
With strength cap at 1050 and buffs up ( FA + MA) I hit for 4k (damage cap) crit damage on 20+ pve mobs.
Normal hit is at 2.2k damage.
15 mobs or so was around 2.7k crit damage with demolition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jJkdRaa04g

[NoRKaLKiLLa]

looking forward to seeing a warband, hitting ferocious assault, resolute defense 2, charge, mutated aggressor, M4, chosen M4 protecting me and demolition spam for 3200 damage per second. Good night warband