PTS 6.3.3 XP Curve Graphed

silvereyes

Here's some perspective on how significant the CP leveling changes in PTS 6.3.3 were:


Here's the spreadsheet: https://1drv.ms/x/s!AqZYm4Ftdqz3a_JowzMgRpDbmXU?e=5ARqru

silvereyes

As a thought experiment, consider someone at CP 1000 on live today. They would have accumulated around 336m XP, assuming they leveled it all in the last couple years since the CP soft cap was frozen.

Pretend that ZOS had kept the curve from PTS 6.3.0, but applied their total accumulated XP to the new curve 1:1. That would have put them at CP 1147 after the patch. Assuming that they wanted to get to CP 1800, which is where vertical progression in CP 2.0 mostly ends, they would have still needed to grind out over 659 million more XP!

Now consider the change that ZOS just made in PTS 6.3.3, and is likely to go live with. The player stays at CP 1000, taking an effective deduction to total accumulated XP. Their history of accumulated XP is basically forgotten from before their current level, and they start grinding, but on a much flatter curve. Now, they have fewer than 286 million XP to go until the soft cap.

Your mileage may vary, but IMO, this was a much better change than even most people were asking for.

Kolzki

So my current XP at CP 1350 would have got me to CP 2123 if I gained it all next patch. Ouch. I didn't want to know that. It is good that newer players can progress faster though.

silvereyes

To be clear, I personally think that vertical progression shouldn't be ending at CP 1800. It should be about half that at most. But that is less a problem with the XP curve, and more a problem with the CP stars themselves.

It takes 194,933,875 XP to get to the vertical progression cap today, and IMO, it already takes plenty long. Grinding that same amount of XP after Update 29 goes live would get a new player to CP 901. Even with the very good change to the XP leveling curve in PTS 6.3.3, ZOS has still more than doubled the vertical progression grind. This is horrible for new players, and frustrating for veteran players that now essentially have to do the same leveling grind again with no new content to make the experience enjoyable.

silvereyes

Kolzki wrote: »

So my current XP at CP 1350 would have got me to CP 2123 if I gained it all next patch. Ouch. I didn't want to know that.

Well, look at it this way. As of yesterday, to get from your current CP 1350 to CP 1800 after the patch would have required you to grind 287,205,818 XP.

Today, that figure has been lowered to 178,866,429, an almost 38% reduction!

silvereyes

It's easy to look at these graphs and just want to draw a line from your spot on the current curve to the same XP spot on the new curve, but I don't think that makes much sense. There's a ton of new horizontal progression options in CP 2.0 that didn't exist in CP 1.0, and having them unlock automatically without any additional effort for a huge portion of the player base would undermine the entire point of having horizontal progression in the first place.

The more that ZOS flattens the XP curve, the worse that dilemma gets if they also offer free CP conversions.

IMO, the best use of effort at this point would be to focus on convincing ZOS to lower the vertical progression in CP by ripping out more warfare tree passives and buffing base stats. Continuing to beat the drum of CP conversions after ZOS has met us more than half way is probably a lost cause.

Ratzkifal

Love the change. As a player beyond 1200 CP I was already quite sad to hear that nothing would change for me in terms of CP gain, especially considering that there would be 3600 to spend and I'd need quite a lot more to reach acceptable levels of power. 1800 sounds like a number I can be happy with.

Kolzki

silvereyes wrote: »

Kolzki wrote: »

So my current XP at CP 1350 would have got me to CP 2123 if I gained it all next patch. Ouch. I didn't want to know that.

Well, look at it this way. As of yesterday, to get from your current CP 1350 to CP 1800 after the patch would have required you to grind 287,205,818 XP.

Today, that figure has been lowered to 178,866,429, an almost 38% reduction!

Yeah, that’s a good thing but I’m not in the “give me more CP now” camp. I hit max level at CP 660 with the horns of the reach DLC in 2017 and haven’t thought about the CP cap since. I’m long past caring about vertical progression, particularly when dps yo-yos by around 10% from one patch to the next. You will not find me grinding CP now.

On the other hand, it’s good that the lower CP members in my raid group can level up faster. Some have only just hit CP 810 or are just below. For now they will lose more damage and survivability than me when previously we had equivalent builds. At least the new xp curve will help the CP 810 players catch up again faster.