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High end magicka PvE gear in Horns of the Reach
seedubsrun
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Let me start with this: I'm on console and can't PTS so all I could really know so far is what I've read and heard. I'm also mostly speaking of the DPS role with being most familiar with sorcs. I do play magblade, magwarden, and magplar though as well. I rarely play stam and am unfamiliar with the impacts to that playstyle though I'd love to hear how it may be effected.
From what I've come across so far it's sounding like monster sets, vMA/vDSA weapons, and trials gear are really going to lose a lot of their worth in PvE with Horns of the Reach. Some of the highest DPS testing is coming from 2 5-piece sets with a monster shoulder and crafted staves (MS+Julianos is a big one). I've seen many other ideas all involving a similar set up. If that's the way we're headed for the next update then these high end items that many have spent hundreds of hours trying to get really aren't all that important anymore.
Most monster sets are being nerfed, some heavily. This is pretty well understood to be a move to appease primary PvP players. Not a big deal, balance requires sacrifice. The impact to PvE seems pretty minimal there. The only problem being now it seems you can get very similar damage parses with or without the sets. Where is the incentive to hunt for these sets if in fact that's true? Where does that put the new monster sets that are at the heart of the DLC that brings these changes?
Similar to the monster sets, I'm hearing of damage parses that pull similar or even better numbers with crafted staves over vMA/vDSA staves. These seem more situational but overall it's starting to sound like non vMA/vDSA staves are going to get more use. Again, where is the incentive to get these? vDSA especially has been rough gear-wise for awhile now.
As far as trials gear goes, I haven't heard a ton of speculation on this. I only wonder because I see more builds using the jewelry only or jewelry+staff and not as often the full 5 piece. I'm sure there will still be many that go MD/IA + 5 piece + Monster set but I'd be willing to bet that if things play out the way they seem to be headed there wont be as many for sure if 5+5+1 becomes the meta.
Does this create better diversity or make it worse? Is a large portion of this game about to be no longer relevant anymore? Have we spent all this time fighting through some of the toughest material the game has to offer for it to just not matter now? Or is it just nothing to worry about?
Thought? Comments? Trolling and disdain?
From what I've come across so far it's sounding like monster sets, vMA/vDSA weapons, and trials gear are really going to lose a lot of their worth in PvE with Horns of the Reach. Some of the highest DPS testing is coming from 2 5-piece sets with a monster shoulder and crafted staves (MS+Julianos is a big one). I've seen many other ideas all involving a similar set up. If that's the way we're headed for the next update then these high end items that many have spent hundreds of hours trying to get really aren't all that important anymore.
Most monster sets are being nerfed, some heavily. This is pretty well understood to be a move to appease primary PvP players. Not a big deal, balance requires sacrifice. The impact to PvE seems pretty minimal there. The only problem being now it seems you can get very similar damage parses with or without the sets. Where is the incentive to hunt for these sets if in fact that's true? Where does that put the new monster sets that are at the heart of the DLC that brings these changes?
Similar to the monster sets, I'm hearing of damage parses that pull similar or even better numbers with crafted staves over vMA/vDSA staves. These seem more situational but overall it's starting to sound like non vMA/vDSA staves are going to get more use. Again, where is the incentive to get these? vDSA especially has been rough gear-wise for awhile now.
As far as trials gear goes, I haven't heard a ton of speculation on this. I only wonder because I see more builds using the jewelry only or jewelry+staff and not as often the full 5 piece. I'm sure there will still be many that go MD/IA + 5 piece + Monster set but I'd be willing to bet that if things play out the way they seem to be headed there wont be as many for sure if 5+5+1 becomes the meta.
Does this create better diversity or make it worse? Is a large portion of this game about to be no longer relevant anymore? Have we spent all this time fighting through some of the toughest material the game has to offer for it to just not matter now? Or is it just nothing to worry about?
Thought? Comments? Trolling and disdain?
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theamazingx✭✭✭✭Simply put, no one runs vMoL hardmode for the gear drops. Loot from trials lost most value to trial guilds when they made every single drop bound. The only impact in terms of amount of content run this will have is less normal trial zone pugs in favor for more normal dungeon zone pugs. Not a real loss there.
Edit: You'll see people running vMA less, but only the people who didn't want to run it in the first place. It's solo content, so less people wanting to run it won't have a negative impact on those who still do.
As for 5/5/1 being better than the current maelstrom/minor slayer/monster setups, that's yet to be seen. No one is raiding on the pts, so all the theorycrafting is coming from speculation (informed speculation, sure) based on skeleton parses. It's too early to say one setup is BiS. That said, we can be sure the gap between relatively easy to acquire gear and the golden gifts of the rng gods has diminished significantly, and I think that's a good thing. Player skill already heavily outweighed gear choice, but pushing even further in that direction won't hurt. We will see more diversity, simply because we'll see less grinding. Traits, mundus's, set configurations, now all so much closer to eachother that whether the rng gods granted you an infused ia staff, a precise maelstrom staff, or an infused mothers sorrow staff, you can make it work without a significant loss. Additionally, you'll see higher end players changing up gear fight by fight (at least on pc where this is feasible in a score run).Edited by theamazingx on August 9, 2017 1:42PM2 -
seedubsrun✭✭✭✭theamazingx wrote: »Simply put, no one runs vMoL hardmode for the gear drops. Loot from trials lost most value to trial guilds when they made every single drop bound. The only impact in terms of amount of content run this will have is less normal trial zone pugs in favor for more normal dungeon zone pugs. Not a real loss there.
Edit: You'll see people running vMA less, but only the people who didn't want to run it in the first place. It's solo content, so less people wanting to run it won't have a negative impact on those who still do.
As for 5/5/1 being better than the current maelstrom/minor slayer/monster setups, that's yet to be seen. No one is raiding on the pts, so all the theorycrafting is coming from speculation (informed speculation, sure) based on skeleton parses. It's too early to say one setup is BiS. That said, we can be sure the gap between relatively easy to acquire gear and the golden gifts of the rng gods has diminished significantly, and I think that's a good thing. Player skill already heavily outweighed gear choice, but pushing even further in that direction won't hurt. We will see more diversity, simply because we'll see less grinding. Traits, mundus's, set configurations, now all so much closer to eachother that whether the rng gods granted you an infused ia staff, a precise maelstrom staff, or an infused mothers sorrow staff, you can make it work without a significant loss. Additionally, you'll see higher end players changing up gear fight by fight (at least on pc where this is feasible in a score run).
That's just the comments I was looking for. Thanks. I'm torn a bit myself. I really like the trait changes and see a lot of opportunity for people to try new things without worrying about a big DPS loss or being kicked from groups. I think if 5+5+1 becomes a thing that could see some fun new builds and as someone who likes to experiment it would be nice to see some different things become viable. I also think that this could give players struggling to be better a chance to get gear that helps them out more without needing to trial or vMA/vDSA for it. On the other side of that coin though, should players that can't complete that content get to have BiS builds?
My only real concern is gear that is supposed to be the best in the game overnight becoming just decent. Some people build up their toons and get gud just to be able to run the content that gets them this high end gear. I don't mind it taking a back seat for a bit to give other stuff a chance to shine but I wonder if they'll make adjustments to it in the future if it turns out to not be some of the best gear anymore. Seems like if they do then we'll be right back where we started here and if they don't then eventually this content will be pointless to play.
Obviously there's a lot of wait and see still so I don't want to get too ahead of myself. Just curious to hear where others are at on this or if anyone has really thought about it0