Hello everyone, thanks for the feedbacks.
In order to explain the changes we made, I will break into several parts so you guys will get a clear overview whats the intentions behind it.
The overall concept of 1.7.4 balancing change is to make dual specialist more extreme, giving more build options, as well as keep the pvp fun to play without breaking the balance. Here are the major changes people talking about the most:
Ability Points changes:
- STR: Now gives 10 white power every 40 points past 650.
- DEX: Now gives 1% critical every 20 points past 530.
- WIS: Now gives the equivalent of 12 Nature Vigor every 20 points past 500.
- ENDU: Now gives 1% physical damage reduction every 20 points.
- LUCK: Now gives 1.4% Magic Accuracy for 10 points.
- WS/PS: Now gives an additional 1% Mana/Divine recovery every 10 points past 200 points.
We want to give other Duals more opportunities to play compare to the main steam builds: Paladin, Reven, Warsaint. Our thought on "hybrid priest" build is it should be an overall utility defense wise build, this dual should not out rank others on DPS matter. Hence we made STR and DEX getting more effect.
LUCK change was to compensate the BR cut from Wizard symbol, then adjust to Concentration value.
ENDU change was to balance the damage buff from STR and DEX.
WIS and PS buff is mainly for priest spell dealer build, I believe its a good start.
Features
- Added a new rare type : Armor Penetration, replacing the Weary rare. This rare will pierce through the Hardest rares of the opponent.
- Added a new rare type : Spell Penetration, replacing Bear rare. This rare will pierce through the opponent's shield white AC.
- Added a new rare type : Concentration, replacing Mana rare. This rare will increase spell accuracy, countering Evasion rare.
I think Penetration is a really fun rare, its completely situational. This rare encourage extreme offense build, which I dont see much in current meta, where most players are relay on fair amount of defense. I know it could break the balance, we made many changes already before GMSP release the patch.
About Concentration, its mainly for counter Evasion.
Legend Changes
- Legend set Bonus #1 is now G10 for all Duals.
- Legend set Bonus #2 is now G5 for all Duals.
- Legend set Bonus #2 now overlaps Blue rares (like Symbols), but will only be active if the Legend set the character is wearing matches his Dual.
- Wizard and Priests Legend staffs now give Physical stun immunity ONLY if the character is wearing the full Legend set.
Set bonus is the hardest changes Ive ever made, combine with the New rare and symbol rework. The purpose of Legend rework 2.0 are: Define each dual more specific, Make use of caster set, fix the conflict rare between piece and bonus. Based on this concept, I think same dual with same legend set should be more powerful than dual with different set, hence we made #2 bonus red rare only can archive with same dual, this change also fixed conflict rare issue players had all the time. I know its a questionable change players dont want to face, because they build their set and dont want to go that dual to active full bonus. I totally understand this, and I wish everyone could try it on Beta then give feedback of what you think in particular, so we can improve it.
About Staff, I believe giving it skill stun immunity is a good way to encourage casters make use of their set and enjoy with it. I dont like the idea to make white AC on it, it just turn it into another "shield". Also make it one hand seems not ideal either. I am neutral to make it give white magic damage, but it leaves priest quite awkward, and it already gives blue magic damage to wiz/
Balance
- Save from Danger physical damage reduction has been decreased from 40-50% to 30-40%.
- Authority of Greatest Luck is now a Priest only spell.
- Lethy's Authority physical damage reduction has been increased from 30-40% to 40-50%.
- Twinkle Star physical damage reduction has been increased from 40% to 50%.
- Blind curses no longer blackouts the player view. Instead it now reduces physical and magic attacks accuracy by 37%.
SFD nerf, I think its a reasonable nerf due to ENDU gives physical reduction, especially to warrior class.
Greatest luck limit to priest only mainly due to the reason I think priest dual hybrid should not have this supreme offense spell.
Lethy and TS buff is mainly due to SFD nerf and armor penetration impact to caster classes(which usually have AC on all the time).
Blind changes is to make non priest hybrid builds suffer less, thus make more popularity of them.
Conclusion:
This is the biggest balancing patch we ever had. I know its hard to accept so much gaming modify at once, I do believe they all necessary to change at once, to get the best result. We make a lot mistakes, thats why we keep updating new changes based on the players feedbacks. I honestly dont want to force you guys to not play in the "comfort zone", but our goal is to make the game more fun(meta shifting) and balance(everyone have a lot different builds instead of going to the "strongest" one). Hope you guys read our thoughts, and enjoy with it. I am listening all kinds of suggestions(for this patch), and will reply as much as I can, please feel free to harass me. Love you all.