Overhaul Dev Blog #5
Boss Defense
Bosses will be changing after the overhaul. Since the overhaul provides a more slower style of combat the tactics of a boss will be changed around this. Before bosses did extremely high damage and had extremely high defense to counter-act the amount of damage players did and how fast they did it. After the overhaul bosses will change in various ways. These ways are explained below in detail.
- Armor - will be generalized for tier brackets. This means that armor will always be a certain amount in tier 1 level of content while being slightly increased with each higher tier.
- Affinity - Bosses of a certain element will have a affinity towards that element. For example, a fire elemental boss will have a very high resistance to Fire type damage(Players spells and procs). So using attacks of the same type against this boss will lower the overall damage done by that player. It can be bypassed some what with spell penetration however spell penetration will be a Enchant and Gem only stat.
- Simpler Tactics - The fights themselves will be slower paces compared to the extreme speeds currently on Unlimited. This doesn't mean it will be easier. This just means it gives players more time to react to something and less RNG of randomly being one-shotted or chain shotted with high damaging abilities.
- React or Die - Most bosses will have special abilities that require party members to react to them. Failure to do so will slow the encounter down or in a worse case cause you to wipe. Some examples include decursing, cleansing, moving, stop actions, feedback damage debuffs, and so on. Our goal is to make the fights straight forward and making it so players have to react or meet a certain requirement and failure to do so will punish you in some form. You do good, the fight goes smoothly. You tunnel herp derp, you and your group pay the price.
Due to the amount of time the Overhaul is taking we'll most likely release "basic" scripts and come back later and improve them the encounters with more tactics. Some times creating boss fights can take a really long time and we just don't have the time within the Overhaul Project to spend weeks on one boss or raid. Thankfully the scripting method we're using allows us to change/remove/add things without updates to the server or restarts.
Slower Combat
- Haste Lowered - Haste is being lowered for all classes. It will not be a main stat on all armor pieces for some classes anymore. You have the option to prioritize haste if you so choose but you will not have insane amounts of it to the point were it actually lowers your damage output. Gems, Enchants, and Procs will be your main source for haste.
- Spell/Armor Penetration - Will no longer be on any gear. You will still be able to use gems for it though. This removal is mainly done for PvE. Bosses will no longer have insane amounts of resist/armor to nerf player damage so we no longer need spell pen. Though having it on PvP gear and a couple gems in PvE is still viable. We'll have some restrictions on this though(Spell Pen). Once we decide what those are we will inform you.
- Crit Rating - Players will no longer instantly have crit cap. Like haste, this stat will have high restrictions on how much is given to players on their gear. These restrictions do not apply to gems, enchants or procs though.
These stats have lowered the pace of combat in pvp and pve after the Overhaul. We've moved away from these stats being considered a MUST HAVE and focuses on Attack Power and Spell Power being the source of Damage increases. These stats will still be useful but they're only bonuses and modifiers. We're doing this for balance reason as I am sure you all understand after playing Unlimited. While you wont get crazy amounts of these stats anymore you will still be able to do high damage and have decently high health pools. We also wanted to be able to make Gems and Enchants relevant again. As well as making useful procs and not stupidly broken ones.
Events
- Past Season Event Rewards - Season event rewards will no longer be considered rare. These items will have their stats generalized and set to somewhere between t5 and t6(New Tiers, not the current ones). This will make them the 2nd bis items on the launch of the overhaul, only behind T6 and Donors. This does not include Tabards and Shirt from past yearly events. These items will have generalized stats for balance sake but they will always be unique.
- New Event Rewards - With the Overhaul nerf to boss stats and gear stats it opens up the ability for us to make actual new content. Events being one of them. It allows us to add multiple brackets of event items that fit perfectly into our scaling system. These event rewards will be sold in a vendor with a special currency for events only. This currency will be earned in hosted events & seasonal events with the latter offering you a daily chance to earn the currency while they're active.
- New Variety of Events - With the ability to make new content without further screwing up balance we can create new pve events. These events can come in many different forms. For example; Invasion events. A group of npcs invade the mall(or any special zone we choose) for a week. Durning this invasion you can team up and do daily and weekly quest. Even defeat a event world boss. You will earn the new event currency you can then spend in the new event vendor on event special items. This vendor will always be spawned. Every event we host will offer this currency for you to spend in the vendor. These events can be Invasion Events, Bonus Loot Events, GM Hosted Events, Season Events, and much more. We will have the possibility to make all kinds of events and reward you guys for doing them with something you can save up and buy whenever you're able too.