When you know Necrom sales have dropped off...

pklemming · January 29

Herald of the Tome
Fatecarver: Reduced the damage done by this ability and its morphs by ~7% per tick.
Pragmatic Fatecarver (morph):
Reduced the potency of the damage shield this morph offers by ~16%.
Fixed an issue where the shield did not have a Max Health limit like other shields. The shield is now limited to 50% of your Max Health.

Same as usual. Make something that is overpowered. Apparently it is fine in initial QA, then if gets nerfed a few months later to what it should have been anyway. I really hate this way of operating and it has been done on multiple mythics prior to this. Release what it should be. Nerfing something most people play leaves a bitter taste, expect this time you targeted a class a lot of people moved to.

Either QA needs a talking to, or this was deliberate. Neither is a good option.

I notice the obvious omission in today's livestream...

Silaf · January 29

A malicious person would say zeny released the arcanist deliberatly unbalanced to sell more.

Still a nerf must be done at this point. Trials are completly filled by arcanists.
Classes should be balanced. Also is suspicious zeny took so long to figure out the arcanist is completly broken ^^

Bushido2513 · January 29

pklemming wrote: »

Herald of the Tome
Fatecarver: Reduced the damage done by this ability and its morphs by ~7% per tick.
Pragmatic Fatecarver (morph):
Reduced the potency of the damage shield this morph offers by ~16%.
Fixed an issue where the shield did not have a Max Health limit like other shields. The shield is now limited to 50% of your Max Health.

Same as usual. Make something that is overpowered. Apparently it is fine in initial QA, then if gets nerfed a few months later to what it should have been anyway. I really hate this way of operating and it has been done on multiple mythics prior to this. Release what it should be. Nerfing something most people play leaves a bitter taste, expect this time you targeted a class a lot of people moved to.

Either QA needs a talking to, or this was deliberate. Neither is a good option.

I notice the obvious omission in today's livestream...

They wouldn't keep doing it if it didn't work so well! But honestly there really isn't likely a better alternative with the budget and mandates that come from the top. If you come in with your hands out asking for development dollars you'll get laughed or booed out of the room.

Safe money is on releasing things you'll want to buy or even need to buy to compete. It comes in cycles, this one has been garbage but I at least look forward to the fixes even if they shouldn't have ever been needed. It will be nice to not have to straight up just avoid or run away from Procanist.

FluffyBird · January 29

Silaf wrote: »

A malicious person would say zeny released the arcanist deliberatly unbalanced to sell more.

Still a nerf must be done at this point. Trials are completly filled by arcanists.
Classes should be balanced. Also is suspicious zeny took so long to figure out the arcanist is completly broken ^^

Hi, I'm a malicious person

I mean, the pattern has been obvious for some time now

OtarTheMad · January 29

Arcanist need to look no further than Necromancer to see their future.

Somehow Necro got nerfed lol. See you in a few updates Arcanist.

ApoAlaia · January 29

FluffyBird wrote: »

Silaf wrote: »

A malicious person would say zeny released the arcanist deliberatly unbalanced to sell more.

Still a nerf must be done at this point. Trials are completly filled by arcanists.
Classes should be balanced. Also is suspicious zeny took so long to figure out the arcanist is completly broken ^^

Hi, I'm a malicious person
I mean, the pattern has been obvious for some time now

So it would be reasonable to expect the large hammer to come out when the new chapter and not-spellcrafting scribing is released?

Silaf · January 29

ApoAlaia wrote: »

FluffyBird wrote: »

Silaf wrote: »

A malicious person would say zeny released the arcanist deliberatly unbalanced to sell more.

Still a nerf must be done at this point. Trials are completly filled by arcanists.
Classes should be balanced. Also is suspicious zeny took so long to figure out the arcanist is completly broken ^^

Hi, I'm a malicious person
I mean, the pattern has been obvious for some time now

So it would be reasonable to expect the large hammer to come out when the new chapter and not-spellcrafting scribing is released?

Quite francly i was expecting the large hammer to come before for christmas.
To leave such an unbalanced class for so long is bad for the game.

Reginald_leBlem · January 29

Arcanist was released ridiculously OP for pve content. Like, their 2 best damage skills came with heals and shields.
Of course it was going to get nerfed. We knew it was going to be nerfed. I'm amazed it made it 6, almost 7 months.

Kavreiss · January 29

Silaf wrote: »

A malicious person would say zeny released the arcanist deliberatly unbalanced to sell more.

Still a nerf must be done at this point. Trials are completly filled by arcanists.
Classes should be balanced. Also is suspicious zeny took so long to figure out the arcanist is completly broken ^^

Not a malicious person but a person with an understanding of marketing strategies would say that

DrNukenstein · January 29

It's pretty standard in video games to release a new thing overtuned, and then nerf it to be within bounds.

It makes it easier to learn a new thing, generates hype around new thing, and stress tests the meta. Happens all the time in the dead genre of MOBAs.

It's a better alternative than releasing something weak and then buffing it into the meta, or releasing it within bounds but subject to the community's learning curve.

pklemming · January 30

This should have been changed in PTS, or week one, when we actually had these numbers. This was just a money grab and is not normal in firms that actually have integrity.

If we look at the likes of Ludeon studies. They will not introduce any kind of micro transactions. Obvious bugs get fixed as soon as they are aware of it. The players actually respect the devs. They don't even advertise their dlcs. They usually get a couple of days notice and people just buy them without any advertising needed.

Considering they literally do not advertise and sales is by word of mouth, they are actually higher than ESO in the Steam charts right now.

Then we have the guy who made Vampire survivors. A person that has been involved in gambling machines for most of their life making a game with all the addictiveness and dopamine rewards of a gambling game, but with no microtransactions. All the good stuff, none of the bad.

As I mentioned, I object to the way this was done, not the actual nerf. This should have been done on week one, not prolonged so they make more money. It just means I have zero loyalty and pretty much no respect for the people implementing these ideas. I most certainly do not trust them to act in the player's interest.

With Everquest, I was an avid tester. With Rimworld, I submit reports on bugs and exploits I find. With ZoS, I go parse numbers and don't feel obliged to be a free tester for them. They can buy testers with the money from the chapters and microtransactions.

The dungeons looked like asset reworks, while it seemed the houses actually had significant design work done on them.

I also don't think they understand why we do Maelstrom. It is necessity. What we don't really want it is this being put in to a dungeon. Yay, another umbrage....

I don't really follow the lore much, but this seemed comical. They 'forgot' about this super powerful item? Really?