Review of the Balance Update - Player perspective

General Feedback
#1

So the balance update was sorely needed, we can all agree to that. The problem comes down to how strongly it was implemented with no time for everything else to be balanced around it. Below are examples of this based around current playing a non force user, because of how the play is I decided to make a new char post update to get a real feel for a char that isn’t heavy in a lot of gear and trying to make it through nor in force powers.

  1. AC is far too low for players.

Getting AC is nearly impossible, and what you can get crafted for you at appropriate levels is a joke. Currently I am wearing full plate made by a player to the best I can wear which is level 26 full plate. I get 17 AC yet the only place left I get XP is in the Mandolorian Base, which requires about 25 AC to be sustainable. In trying to reduce the AC players could get, AC for lower level players has officially been 100% crippled. Monsters in the server have not been updated with this in consideration. 15-17 AC is the norm around 26 Heavy Armor, I can only imagine what its like for anyone using robes or light armor who get a lot less. This needs to be fixed.

  1. Guild Rewards

Frankly, when I first heard guilds had their own shop, I figured this was to encourage players by putting things in all shop levels that would encourage them to do the quests, have a bit better armor since what can be made for them this early on is laughable AC wise until they get a lot more levels. I was sadly mistaken, the shops are a joke. The armor offered in them, are a joke. Woo I can name the bags…not worth my time or investment, rings in T3 shop? Great for them, I need armor to survive. I’m sorry but this needs a heavy review to actually be worth the time of investing into the guild, getting jacked until your in top ranks of the guild, isn’t worth the time or effort. Its actually quite the letdown for all the fuss of having to get to get past the first level to actually access the shop.

  1. Grouping monsters

Since the AI update, some of the grouping has been taken into account, but a lot isn’t. In the Mando base for instance, each room is a min of 3 per room, sometimes as many as 6. You attack one, anything in their range comes running and realistically, at that many thats not survivable for someone with 17 AC. I have actually died close to 8x just trying to survive to get XP so I can get more AC and such. This needs to be reviewed for balance.

All that said and done, a lot of the updates were very good and very needed, force powers have well been brought back in line as they were needed to be. There is a lot to still be done, this isn’t a post to bitch and gripe so please don’t flame me or the staff. This is more an area to look at what might not be working as intended and how the server can improve, got more suggestions? Please add them. Gonna come and whine and complain how I am not doing it right…please don’t waste our collective times.

@zunath

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#2

Heavy armor is made to utilize DR/DI

Light armor is made for AC it has the most yellow slots if you are not using them it will be harder yes.

Force Armor is made for using force powers more often
Force armor should be using force powers to augment their ac, you have both speed and insight (this option is open to everyone but for sake of arguement we will ignore that)

If the guild shop items are even better it will hurt the crafters ability to sell armor by giving you even better options for them to compete with, just basic tiered armor is fine.

Mando base should come after you finish valley now, Mando base is not after wildwoods anymore.

#3

  1. Clearly this doesn’t work when survivable requires AC

  2. At this point, craftable armor at LOW levels is a JOKE, even with people crafting AC into armor, still only capping out at 17 which is not survivable. Guilds should not be catering only to high tier rewards.

  3. Quests do not take you that way, and the beasts out there are not much better when you have shit AC. Currently AC is NOT survivable

#4

I have not seen anyone else with this complaint, you just need to utilize your resources.

What do you mean crafting into AC armor?
AC is only going to be from legacy resources and should be phased out mostly by now.
Unless you use your yellow slots your AC will suck

Yes they do… there literally quests that point you in that direction, and they are available before the mando base quest if you do all the quests as they come up.

#5

  1. Most people are playing higher end chars, very few are playing low tiered save for select few.

  2. There are still items that give AC, just not as high.

  3. not much better when you have shit AC. Currently AC is NOT survivable - you seemed to miss that this part remains valid.

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#6

There are a lot of new pcs, I am not sure what you mean.

These are high end and I seriously doubt most people have access to them, they are like tier 3 armor guild and 1 ac per enhancement.

It is, no other new people have expressed this to my knowledge. I have done fine, and as far as I know the other new people have done fine.

#7

Also just because I am the only one to voice the concern, doesn’t mean there are not others struggling, I think you just like to come on these posts to argue.

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#8

Considering AC goes on helms and chest +17 is heaps. That’s +34 in total with 10 base and whatever dex you have. So without Dex and just +AC that’s 44 AC right There but you will likely need about 50 in your armor skill for that which is again another +5 making it 49 now. 49 AC will make you survive tattooine so… It’s a matter of how much energy you wanna put in. You can harvest to try and get gems for +AC enchantments so you can put it on your heavy armour and get more AC. There’s always options.

#9

Keep this civil and don’t argue with each other. Have an issue bring it up offer solutions and be willing to help implement them. If you keep bickering the thread will be locked.

2 Likes
#10

There are not +ac gems, +ac comes from a high level armor guild enhancement.

#11

I donno why that would be taken out of the rotation considering how important AC is for progression

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#12

Because if they exist you need to balance content around having four of them at max level, meaning you must have them for later content.
It makes it easier to balance enemy ab.

#13

Low AC is not so great on non-powerbuilt PCs, or those that do not have a quick time to kill. My newest PC is fairly well built, and struggles on Mandalorians as AC is rare without a pocket Asmith. As he gets higher dexterity from crafting, etc, this will become not a issue. Starting is rough, though. And yes, you are pointed to the Mandalorians before the valley.

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#14

But that is basically how ac is being handled currently, as gate keeper to content. Not all builds use Dex and will rely on +AC to survive certain areas. Cutting them off from that for progression just hurts them massively.

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#15

This, thank you very much, and that is the current issue.

#16

The re-balance was designed to remove AC from be able to be added to gear except for Yellow Mod Slots. Yes I can understand how you feel this is bad design, but we also added passive ways to gain armor outside of gear.

Force:
Force armor was intended to be used for caster type characters, ones that used primarily force to kill targets. They have lower survival capability but hit hard.

Force users that focus towards melee and around that that don’t need larger FP pools can use light or heavy armor with little detriment.

Light:
This is supposed to be the AC class, offering more yellow slots in the gear innately then heavy and force. According to my math I did during testing they should always have the highest ac amounts.

Heavy:
Heavy offers some protection in the form of AC, but it’s primary survival is from the Damage Immunity, Damage Reduction, and Damage resistance. This really cuts down on the damage they take.

The armor rework was designed in mind to stop a 1 person wins all gameplay. If you are having issues going to do content the idea was to team with others, it will create RP and that was the goal. This is also what our content be released soon will encourage. It is not meant to be done with 1 person but in small groups.

Heavy people really could use a medic/force heal and they should really get their survival up. Light shouldn’t be trying to tank all the damage but have the protection as they draw aggro. A Heavy should be using their abilities to take aggro from the group. Force should be supporting in the back the saber throw or debuff/buffing during this.

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#17

The problem with this…is its forcing people to be cookie cutters or die…which is boring. Its not encouraging grouping, it really isn’t, if people wanna group they will, all this does is say “Make this exact mold of the char, or your gonna suck LOL”

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#18

The problem is that content wasn’t designed with this in mind. Damage scales up and force can’t keep up with armor scaling. So force armor lags behind leaving people who would need + AC on items the most (casters) behind. Same can be said about heavy armour as damage reduction doesn’t help when your still constantly taking damage. That leaves light armor as the objective king.

The whole idea of a modular system like this was to make a build you want and use items to iron things out but when you limit the options without making the content go with it, it hurts everyone.

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#19

So what builds does this discourage? other then heavy armor/force powers.
You can do damage fine as a caster, but if you have no downsides for your force armor why would people use the others?

#20

Becuase other armor has inherent strengths like force armor has some inherent strengths. But it discourages any melee build that wants to use heavy armour, it discourages any caster build as they need force armor and it even discourages those who wish to use heavy armour for range builds. (They still exist)

The whole point is to again be modular with how you build but you can’t right now with armor since you -need- AC. People should not be punsihed going through content for using any armor skill if 2 of the 3 cannot get them through content. And especially of they are required to get a specific stat that goes against their builds.

To do non Cala safely you would need about +34 AC from items or Dex. Which means you need about 4 +17 Dex items or 2 +17 AC items if you have no Dex. And mon Cala isn’t the end game yet, so considering that monsters are still gonna go up in AB then yeah, this is just gonna keep being a problem if people cannot get access to +AC

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