Balancing is Half the Battle (11/19/2010)

One area of focus for the November 24 version update is battle balancing.

From The Lodestone: One area of focus for the November 24 version update is battle balancing. Among the many adjustments being made are changes to the accuracy of physical and magic attacks, enmity rates, actions for all classes, and reductions to the amount of skill points needed to rank up, and more.

Discuss in the ZAM Forums...

Read on for details!

  • Character Progression
    • Accuracy
      • The accuracy rates for actions in general, both physical and magic, have been increased, making it easier for players to land attacks. This will, subsequently, result in more skill points.The accuracy rates for actions in general, both physical and magic, have been increased, making it easier for players to land attacks. This will, subsequently, result in more skill points.
    • Skill Points in Parties
      • Skill points earned in battle are now awarded after an enemy is defeated. Additionally, discrepancies in the amount of skill points awarded to party members have been reduced. Together with these changes, the overall number of skill points awarded has also been increased, making progression easier even in smaller parties.
The above changes will serve to increase the tempo of battle, and also allow players to obtain more skill points than was previously possible. To further facilitate the process of ranking up, the amount of skill points required to attain ranks 11 through 31 has been reduced. The reductions are most significant for the rank range of 11 through 20, as we would like to enable players the ability to engage in more goal-oriented content, such as the hunting of notorious monsters, at an earlier stage of play. Further information regarding these changes will be released in the version update details Topics post of November 24.
  • Balancing Adjustments to Actions
    • In order to improve the uniqueness and flavor of each class in party battle, we have made a number of adjustments to the effects, durations, execution costs, and enmity generation rates of a number of actions. Below is a sampling of these changes.
    • Pugilist
      • Featherfoot
        • Active duration increased from 15 to 30 seconds.
        • Evasion rate increased.
    • Gladiator
      • Luminous Spire
        • MP cost reduced from 20 to 10.
    • Marauder
      • Foresight
        • Stamina cost reduced from 5 to 3.5.
        • Active duration increased from 15 to 30 seconds.
        • Parry rate increased.
      • Bloodbath
        • Stamina cost reduced from 6 to 3.5.
    • Archer
      • Trifurcate
        • MP cost reduced from 30 to 15.
    • Lancer
      • Speed Surge, Life Surge
        • Active duration increased from 120 to 180 seconds.
    • Conjurer
      • Cure, Cure II, Cure III
        • Emnity generation adjusted.
    • Thaumaturge
      • Scourge
        • Amount of damage dealt increased.
      • Sacrifice, Sacrifice II, Sacrifice III
        • Emnity generation adjusted.
        • Amount of HP healed increased.

Comments

Post Comment
Hmm.
# Nov 20 2010 at 1:52 AM Rating: Decent
Makes you wonder if we as players should still lev up in a party now. Or wait till update. Great game tho. Having a great time playing it.
Cool
# Nov 19 2010 at 8:16 PM Rating: Good
Lancer
Speed Surge, Life Surge
Active duration increased from 120 to 180 seconds.

i like this change ^_^
Excited
# Nov 19 2010 at 2:24 PM Rating: Good
I'm looking forward to more acc. As a gladiator I have been Dex heavy to land attacks and proc parry for sp. Maybe now I can focus more on str and vit
Excited
# Nov 19 2010 at 11:02 AM Rating: Decent
*
101 posts
Wow... I really couldn't ask for much more in this version update. The changes to the SP system and accuracy boosts will be very welcome and the changes to the skills may actually make it so each class excels at certain tasks. I'm excited.
Excited
# Nov 19 2010 at 12:34 PM Rating: Decent
This article does not mention more SP for DoL or DoH. I wonder if we can assume that these will also be implemented for DoL and DoH too since this article's intention is obviously intended to cover DoW only.
Excited
# Nov 19 2010 at 1:03 PM Rating: Good
16 posts
Really?

If you're having trouble ranking up as a gatherer or crafter, I don't know what to tell you... it's the easy train by far. Every gathering or synthesis action guarantees SP gain - success or fail - every time. *shrug*
Excited
# Nov 22 2010 at 11:39 AM Rating: Decent
*
59 posts
Ummm, sorry, but the easiest thing to level up is DoW/DoM. It costs basically no gil, except for repairs, and you just get a group of 15 people and spam 2 buttons for hours on end.

I agree that the SP gains are far too random, but people that are having trouble leveling up, simply don't know how to play, or make parties correctly. It is so easy.

Crafting is much more difficult (from a resource and cost stand point), as you are actually limited in resources (shards) and each craft is basically costing you thousands of gil. At 28, I am using 12-16 shards per craft, which is easily 3k-6k gil PER craft in shard costs alone. It is way more resource intensive compared to getting a weapon repaired for 5-10k every few hours.

The SP changes look good, but I wonder how it will work for classes that level shield as well? But the balance changes look pretty lack luster to me, unless they are not ALL included. I know the few classes I have to 20ish-30+ have many more bugged abilities and broken enmity generation than what they have listed. But accuracy and SP gain changes ... two thumbs up.

Edited, Nov 22nd 2010 12:54pm by MattVid6
Post Comment

Free account required to post

You must log in or create an account to post messages.