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New mechanical acuity...cool idea, bad implementation

Jman100582
Jman100582
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"Mechanical Acuity: This item now grants a stack of Mechanical Acuity for 4 seconds whenever you deal non-Critical Damage, granting you 20% Critical Chance per stack, up to once every half second. After this effect ends or reaches 5 stacks, it cannot occur again for 25 seconds."


This is more or less a "pity mechanic." You are more likely to crit if you haven't done critical dmg recently. That idea in of itself is good, but the way it's introduced here is bad for two reasons:

1. The ramp is TOO RAPID. Having each stack give 20% crit is still a lot. Each individual stack is full of a lot of power, and as such the set needs a long cooldown to balance out that power
2. The cooldown is TOO LONG. Who wants to wait 25 seconds to be able to use their set again? The set that ensures that they start to rapidly build up burst? During that downtime there is a substantial decrees in power



Here is my solution:
1. Change the way it stacks. For starters, greatly reduce the amount of crit chance each stack gives. Then increase the number of stacks. Lets say, whenever you deal non-critical dmg, you get a stack of acuity. A stack of acuity gives you...4% crit chance. This effect can stack up to 25 times. With this variation, because the ramp up is much slower for a lot of builds that aren't pumping out lots of constant dps the stacks should last infinitely as long as you are in combat
2. Now then, because the set slowly ramps up more, I feel the way it should "unramp" should be changed with this variation. Once you deal a critical hit/critically heal you should lose ALL your stacks. Then there should be either no cooldown for when you should be able to gain stacks again, or a very short window of maybe 3-5 seconds

The wording would be something like this: "This item now grants a stack of acuity whenever you deal non-critical damage, granting you 4% critical chance per stack. This effect can stack up to 25 times. Once you deal a critical strike you lose all your stacks"

Now there could be some cooldowns somewhere in there. Maybe keep the half second cooldown per stack in order to ensure it can ramp efficiently and you don't just gain like 15% crit chance after a small series of moves (such as aoe dots being able to hit multiple things) don't crit. That would be reasonable. And then the before-mention introduction of a small cooldown on the stacks after losing them. I'd rather not have the last one, because what if you miraculously crit once you gain a single stack because the RNG gods blessed you? You could also add critical healing to the set effect, that way the defensive power of the set is kept in check
  • DrSlaughtr
    DrSlaughtr
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    It's a very weird implementation to fix a set that did need adjustment. I even use it this patch because of what they did to crit %. But with this current pts set up I'm not sure why anyone would run it over flat damage or a crit % set.
    Edited by DrSlaughtr on October 17, 2021 3:19AM
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  • master_vanargand
    master_vanargand
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    Old Mechanical Acuity set was too strong in PvP.
  • divnyi
    divnyi
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    It's a very weird implementation to fix a set that did need adjustment. I even use it this patch because of what they did to crit %. But with this current pts set up I'm not sure why anyone would run it over flat damage or a crit % set.

    PvP templars might continue running it. Bit longer cooldown but functionally it's good old acuity when we speak about Jabs.
  • DrSlaughtr
    DrSlaughtr
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    divnyi wrote: »
    It's a very weird implementation to fix a set that did need adjustment. I even use it this patch because of what they did to crit %. But with this current pts set up I'm not sure why anyone would run it over flat damage or a crit % set.

    PvP templars might continue running it. Bit longer cooldown but functionally it's good old acuity when we speak about Jabs.

    I could see that but 25 seconds is rough.
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  • Fhritz
    Fhritz
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    Nah, the main advantage of MA is that it allows you to have short periods with 100% crit, for burst mainly. Sure, the 25 sec cooldown kill the set but your version is literally worse than this one. With your version, a character with 20% crit will have less than 3% chance to reach only 50% chance for one single hit (7 consecutive non-crit) . No burst, and a meh utility, et this point a raw crit set is better.

    I think the only change needed for the new MA is that the cooldown should start whenever you gain a stack, so if you gain more stack you have a lower cooldown (and also a 2s cooldown between each stack)
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  • Tivnael
    Tivnael
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    How long does one stack persist?
    Bcs if you have 39,9% crit chance, after 3 stacks you would reach 99,9%, then you will never lose your stacks (bcs they dont reach 5)
  • EF321
    EF321
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    Tivnael wrote: »
    How long does one stack persist?
    Bcs if you have 39,9% crit chance, after 3 stacks you would reach 99,9%, then you will never lose your stacks (bcs they dont reach 5)

    "This item now grants a stack of Mechanical Acuity for 4 seconds"
  • Tivnael
    Tivnael
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    EF321 wrote: »
    Tivnael wrote: »
    How long does one stack persist?
    Bcs if you have 39,9% crit chance, after 3 stacks you would reach 99,9%, then you will never lose your stacks (bcs they dont reach 5)

    "This item now grants a stack of Mechanical Acuity for 4 seconds"

    :#

    I did not test it yet, but i think i would prefer fast burst over low Cooldown...

    So, the change is not that big for anyone who deals many Hits per second on its target? Because in few seconds you build up 5 stacks, they last some seconds and then again Cooldown?
    So it is worse for Gankers and direct damage ultis?
  • universal_wrath
    universal_wrath
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    Tivnael wrote: »
    EF321 wrote: »
    Tivnael wrote: »
    How long does one stack persist?
    Bcs if you have 39,9% crit chance, after 3 stacks you would reach 99,9%, then you will never lose your stacks (bcs they dont reach 5)

    "This item now grants a stack of Mechanical Acuity for 4 seconds"

    :#

    I did not test it yet, but i think i would prefer fast burst over low Cooldown...

    So, the change is not that big for anyone who deals many Hits per second on its target? Because in few seconds you build up 5 stacks, they last some seconds and then again Cooldown?
    So it is worse for Gankers and direct damage ultis?

    Yes, gankers mostly rely on crit, but this change also hurt other playstyles because of the longer cooldown more than the stacking itself. If you are lucky enough you can get the full stacks of acuity in 2 secs or 3 max and that is enough time to burst people down if you can survive long enough, but for squishier players it might not be a great opt now.
  • DrSlaughtr
    DrSlaughtr
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    I'll just go back to full damage and pen and when I crit it's gravy. I've already been testing a set up for 8k damage and 12k pen. But they did take this set from easy mode to I don't anyone would run it. Probably unintentionally.
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  • divnyi
    divnyi
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    Because those stacks weren't really needed. They had to delay trigger so gankers can't use it, or do something like "+15% crit chance each second for 7 seconds, 25s cooldown".

    Right now those stacks are janky and random, you can extend duration by additional 4s at the last second being lucky at 80% chance (getting regular hit). No wonder people would prefer more consistent sets.
  • ZeroDPS
    ZeroDPS
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    divnyi wrote: »
    Because those stacks weren't really needed. They had to delay trigger so gankers can't use it, or do something like "+15% crit chance each second for 7 seconds, 25s cooldown".

    Right now those stacks are janky and random, you can extend duration by additional 4s at the last second being lucky at 80% chance (getting regular hit). No wonder people would prefer more consistent sets.

    Can you tell me please why you want to remove ganking playstyle from this game? It is fun, you can play it also
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