86 replies to this topic

[Luke Barrett]

Abilities Under-Utilized; Now Become Super-Sized

 

The ultimate goal of all of our ability balance work is to ensure each ability is useful - at least in some situations. So, this week we’re looking at boosting some of the lesser used abilities.

 

Flashfire (Necromancer, Elementalist, Arcane Warrior)

• Damage increased from 300% to 400%

Fallback Plan (Hunter, Assassin, Duelist)

• Cooldown reduced from 32 seconds to 24 seconds.

Energy Bombardment (Energy Barrage Upgrade) (Keeper, Necromancer, Elementalist)

• Resistance debuff increased from 2% to 3%

Full Draw (Hunter, Archer)

• Cost reduced from 65 to 50
• Cooldown from 32 seconds to 24 seconds

 

Escort NPC; Increased Survivability

The poor NPC being escorted on the higher difficulties was getting absolutely wrecked by certain creatures (I’m coming for you in two paragraphs, Shadow.) and as such the Inquisitor has decided that all messengers being sent in to extremely hostile situations should be of at least a certain strength.

Escort NPC Level

• Threatening: Increased by 5
• Perilous: Increased by 10

 

Even Saints; Make Mistakes

After going over some numbers and playing a lot of games as Hall it feels like the other week’s Long Shot nerfs were a bit more than we had hoped. As such the ex-godtier ability will be getting turned ever so slightly back towards its original greatness.

Long Shot (Archer)

• Damage increased from 100% to 125%

 

Shadow Attacks; Less Dirt Naps

The Red Templar Shadow’s attack out of stealth has had its per hit damage drastically reduced. I bet some underleveled people will still get one-shot by this but hopefully it no longer guarantees death.

Red Templar Shadow

• Stealth Attack damage reduced from 150% to 75%

[Samkichawa]

YESSS! Stealth attack of Red Templar Shadow nerfed! Fianlly it will be easier to survive w/o barrier or guard (for all my ranger characters...)

[HeroicMass]

I guess even Luke forgets that the AW has flashfire.

 

interesting to see the shadow change.  I wonder how much of a chance you will have to get away if you miss seeing them creep up behind you?  

[Kalas Magnus]

now nothing can kill the mighty arcane warrior >: D

[ParthianShotX]

 

Shadow Attacks; Less Dirt Naps

The Red Templar Shadow’s attack out of stealth has had its per hit damage drastically reduced. I bet some underleveled people will still get one-shot by this but hopefully it no longer guarantees death.

Red Templar Shadow

• Stealth Attack damage reduced from 150% to 75%

 

 

Is it wrong that I'm a little saddened by this?  I guess as a hardcore assassin player, I prided myself on taking this huge threat out and thus doing good service for the team.  This guy was also one of the only things that could induce a bit of terror (besides the revenant which induces more than a bit).  Everything else is just stuff to manage.  I like a little terror every once in awhile so that when you've survived it you feel you've actually accomplished something.  But then, I also liked the Banshee's kiss . . . . terrifying.  

[Jpudify]

Coming next week (theory from stream):

 

Foot soldiers will no longer be able to block every single leaping shot arrow.

Zone 5 Door on FC will close once dragon lands.

 

Things not listed:

Leaderboard/prestige fixed so it should be accurate.

 

I'm done watching - gonna go play now

[Laforgus]

Is it wrong that I'm a little saddened by this?  I guess as a hardcore assassin player, I prided myself on taking this huge threat out and thus doing good service for the team.  This guy was also one of the only things that could induce a bit of terror (besides the revenant which induces more than a bit).  Everything else is just stuff to manage.  I like a little terror every once in awhile so that when you've survived it you feel you've actually accomplished something.  But then, I also liked the Banshee's kiss . . . . terrifying.  

 

No you are not wrong, because i am angry as well!

 

Shadow is an assassin and is suppose to kill from behind yes like Twin Fangs, with this Luke just ensure that all maps be steam rolled now.

[TormDK]

Is it wrong that I'm a little saddened by this?  I guess as a hardcore assassin player, I prided myself on taking this huge threat out and thus doing good service for the team.  This guy was also one of the only things that could induce a bit of terror (besides the revenant which induces more than a bit).  Everything else is just stuff to manage.  I like a little terror every once in awhile so that when you've survived it you feel you've actually accomplished something.  But then, I also liked the Banshee's kiss . . . . terrifying.  

 

Agreed. I am a bit worried St. Luke is making it a little bit too easy...

 

Hopefully he will bless us with a Nightmare mode worthy of the name soon™

[Luke Barrett]

Hopefully he will bless us with a Nightmare mode worthy of the name soon™

[MGW7]

The shadow is still able to lock you into animation and deal a tremendous amount of damage to the classes that sit back and fire from range. Not to mention the follow up slashes are still perfectly lethal.

 

Steamrolling already happens, shadow or not, as steamrollers kill everything so fast the shadow doesn't even get a chance to attack, or by the time it does everyone is standing waiting for it to reveal itself.

[Laforgus]

Steamrolling already happens, shadow or not, as steamrollers kill everything so fast the shadow doesn't even get a chance to attack, or by the time it does everyone is standing waiting for it to reveal itself.

 

Yup i know, but now its just worse.

 

The only Enemy unit who could rarely kill me,(not counting the Sniper Laser Shot) has been Nerfed.

[Gya]

Meh, as someone who sucks at this game, I'd say I'm pretty happy with St Bluke's shadow nerf. 1 or 2 shadows, perfectly manageable. But in zone 4 of FC where they stealth out of LoS and 3 or 4 pop up to murder your entire party while all the visual and sound effects mean it's nearly impossible to spot them? No thanks. But that's what the new difficulty will be for. I'll be slumming it out in perilous/threatening with the rest of the scrubs.

Edit: @St Bluke

Also, no matter how much you increase the damage from flashfire, I still won't use it

[Jaden Erius]

Since we are on the topic of crazy one shot kills, perhaps a nerf to the archer's insane take two steps forward turn around and melt your face attack would be nice. I would think buffing their long draw attacks to more closely match our own would be better (and make more physical sense) than that melee killer attack that they have.

[OutlawJT]

As a player who heavily favors the Archer, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! I missed my uber longshot soooo much!!

 

Most of these adjustments look spot on to me. The one oddity for me is Full Draw. The cooldown and stamina cost is not the reason most players skip it. Most people ignore full draw because it is a painfully long animation which leaves you extremely vulnerable. It's fine on the hunter who can full draw out of stealth. For the archer, though, full draw was practically useless. For one, the extra damage bonus almost never gets used unless you are running ahead of your party (again, fine for the hunter with stealth and fallback but deadly for the archer) since everything has been hit by the time the full draw animation is over and it fires. Actually, that pretty much covers everything. This buff might bring full draw back into a lot of people's hunter builds but it is still a terrible ability for the archer.

 

As to the Shadow, they needed the nerf. They were completely OP on Perilous and unfairly lethal on Threatening. Luke might have gotten just a pinch carried away with their nerf but the Shadow had it coming. The other assassin enemies, however, need a buff as they are rarely more than an annoyance.

 

I am surprised by the absence of Isabella nerfs in this update. As much as I love it, Broadsides is a worse offender in terms of god-powers than longshot ever was. You can hit an entire group with knockdown and 4500 damage a head with a high level rare dagger. Don't even need the high level uniques like red birth and dagger of the dragon. It's a little more situational than longshot but it is unmatched for it's ability to flatten groups.

[Black Mambo]

Even at 400% I'm sure no one will use it(Flashfire), because of way better AoE/Single target spells on both Necro & Ele, and taking this Spell on AW doesn't make sense.
Just increasing Damage of a spell doesn't necessarily make it better. You might want to make it like -
One target that gets hit with Flashfire will get a DoT of some sorts(not sure if it already has it), and anyone near the target -- let's say in 5 meters gets Fear, including the target. Maybe then one might consider using it.

[BadgerladDK]

Nice changes, although I feel like I still need to do this:

 

[P51Mus7ang]

Thank god on the Templar adjustment, I have a week in and pounding the hours to get leveled up and half decent gear but that guy is insane, I would take two dragons over his (old) abilities:)

[Lil Mantis]

Things not listed:

Leaderboard/prestige fixed so it should be accurate.

I just checked the leader board on https://hq.dragonage.comand my prestige is still off.  When I get home and able to login to the game, I will check again.

[Luke Barrett]

I just checked the leader board on https://hq.dragonage.comand my prestige is still off.  When I get home and able to login to the game, I will check again.

 

As far as I know you need to log in once for it to correct itself.

[Pee Jae]

Shadow nerf?   Luke, I... I love you, man. 

[Lil Mantis]

Luke, I figured as much.  Thanks again for the fix.  

[Drasca]

Since the primary effect of Flashfire, Panic, will be interrupted within 1.5 seconds of damage, FF needs to be a low mana cost spammable spell like Immolate-- because FF's primary utility panic will be interrupted in practice. It is also not AoE. You'd need to reduce it down to at least 8 sec cooldown total, and 35 mana or less, because FF will be interrupted. It is especially less useful against the hordes of enemies in the new FC map.

 

FF is only good in test platforms because no one else is in lobby trying to sling damage, and interrupt FF's primary utility. Firewall, as a persistent spell, is far superior to FF because it will refresh panic AND it stays on the map, matching the the cooldown with its utility. FW's primary downfall is the damage is a burning DoT that will prevent Fire Mine's DoT, but is otherwise good.

[Hellsteeth30]

Shadow nerf = happy camper.

[Drasca]

FF is also fine for a single player skill because there are fewer enemies and the relative effect is useful. It can take out 1 of 3 enemies. It is near useless on MP against one of 10 or 20 enemies, and the biggest single target threats are immune to panic (Dagger Rogues, Treasure Room Elite bosses, Bosses), and most MP enemies will not last more than 5 seconds of player dps (unless something is wrong, like Despair Demon imbalanced dancing away from melee).

[Innarra]

Buffing the initial damage for Flashfire is a nice step in the right direction, but I don't think what you've done here will cause the DAMP community to start using it. Maybe buff it with some additional effects. Perhaps give it a DOT that Immolate has, around 100-150% weapon damage per tick. The single target cc is nice, and it's damage is better than Winter's Grasp, that's for sure. But there's other spells that are still better. I'd rather freeze something in place with WG and watch my teammates detonate it, than have it be wandering around in a panic.

 

I can't see giving up any of my Elementalist's spells for Flashfire. Usually run Immolate, Wall of Fire, Firestorm, and Barrier. If I was to sub any other spells out, Stonefist would be the one.

 

I could maybe see using Flashfire on Necro, but why single target fear, when you can use Horror and aoe fear? Suppose you'd then need to take the Pyromancer passive, wasting yet another point to try and make Flashfire better.....