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Kevin Bacon posted:Does the game suddenly become harder at around level 35? I'm playing the tank class and I've kind of been breezing through the game from levels 10 through 36 with the help of my lovely companion cleric, but suddenly she dies like it's nothing, and I'm not all that durable myself, despite putting all my points and gear into defense based stats. I'm level 40 and I think my cleric is rank 15 or something, and I'm starting to have trouble with mobs that are 4 levels under me. It's not like I can't solo anymore, it's just so much slower, and I used to be able to round up several groups of mobs and take them out no worries, not even having to block. I'm on my first character so I don't know how accurate this is but around level 35 I saw a damage step up on my devoted cleric. I had to slow down and change my tactics a bit or else I was getting wrecked. It might be damage/hp gets a big step up between the zones for those levels.
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Dec 2, 2013 18:33
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Kevin Bacon posted:Does the game suddenly become harder at around level 35? I'm playing the tank class and I've kind of been breezing through the game from levels 10 through 36 with the help of my lovely companion cleric, but suddenly she dies like it's nothing, and I'm not all that durable myself, despite putting all my points and gear into defense based stats. I'm level 40 and I think my cleric is rank 15 or something, and I'm starting to have trouble with mobs that are 4 levels under me. It's not like I can't solo anymore, it's just so much slower, and I used to be able to round up several groups of mobs and take them out no worries, not even having to block. Your companion's "level" (to compare to your own / mob levels) is 2x their companion level. So your cleric is like a level 30 player. They're going to start getting their poo poo kicked in around now and it won't get much better. Expect to see them fold a few seconds into most fights. I don't know about difficulty curves, but some areas just seem to have more difficult mobs than others, but it's more due to gimmicks or abilities than the damage they can put out.
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Dec 2, 2013 18:48
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I'm quite astounded at the AD cost for keeping your companion worthwhile for another 10 levels of gameplay... 300k? Just to get it 5 more ranks? That means at best you're still sittin' at two weeks before you can make it to that point by normal means. More likely a month or more as it's rather difficult to hit the daily cap with a non-60. And by then, your toon's liable to gain the xp to outlevel it again before then. It seems to me that unless you have an AD rich toon to pass the wealth too, from level 35 to 60 and beyond for a while, you might as well not even HAVE the companion. 
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Dec 2, 2013 22:47
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Upgrading companions is hilariously overpriced and should never be done (the same applies to mount upgrades). Plus, at higher levels companions just tend to stand in red circles and get killed anyway, higher level companions just take a bit longer to die. Some of them are actually annoying because they knock back enemies, away from the magic lasers that were about to hit them(were-rat thief ).The cleric companion is useful anyway, even without upgrading her, because she'll heal you inbetween fights, and she heals for a flat percentage, so it never gets any better or worse.
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Dec 2, 2013 23:15
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Dilb posted:Upgrading companions is hilariously overpriced and should never be done (the same applies to mount upgrades). Plus, at higher levels companions just tend to stand in red circles and get killed anyway, higher level companions just take a bit longer to die. Some of them are actually annoying because they knock back enemies, away from the magic lasers that were about to hit them(were-rat thief Yeah, there was one boss fight I ran with my GF companion that was literally unwinnable while he was alive due to life drain. Fucker would get at least half his life back from him each time... learned right quick to just let him die, as post-fight revival was full HP, but mid-fight revival was only 25%. Good to know about the upgrades. Didn't even know you could upgrade mounts. I'm guessin' it's just better to buy a new one? And is the standard cleric still better than other companions for the whole "dumb as dogshit" AI?
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Dec 3, 2013 01:06
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With my CW, I just used the cleric companion (never upgraded) all the way to 60. Even at 60 doing dailies she's plenty good to keep my health topped up, and only dies in some boss fights (the ones with lots of AE that she's too dumb to move out of).
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Dec 3, 2013 01:48
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With Module 2 companions will give passive buffs as long as they are in your active slot. At level 60 you get 5 active slots and this adds up. There is some nice stuff there, like the Archons +5% damage to mobs below 30% health and other things.
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Dec 3, 2013 03:51
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Hammerstein posted:With Module 2 companions will give passive buffs as long as they are in your active slot. At level 60 you get 5 active slots and this adds up. There is some nice stuff there, like the Archons +5% damage to mobs below 30% health and other things. So active slots unlock now as you level, instead of for zen? Or am I misinterpreting this?
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Dec 3, 2013 04:28
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WebDO posted:So active slots unlock now as you level, instead of for zen? Or am I misinterpreting this? Yes, they are free now, unlocking as you level.
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Dec 3, 2013 04:50
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Cyntalan posted:I'm quite astounded at the AD cost for keeping your companion worthwhile for another 10 levels of gameplay... 300k? Just to get it 5 more ranks? That means at best you're still sittin' at two weeks before you can make it to that point by normal means. More likely a month or more as it's rather difficult to hit the daily cap with a non-60. And by then, your toon's liable to gain the xp to outlevel it again before then. It seems to me that unless you have an AD rich toon to pass the wealth too, from level 35 to 60 and beyond for a while, you might as well not even HAVE the companion. You aren't going to like the cost to get them up the next two ranks. Green to blue is 500k. Blue to Purple? 750k. Unless they changed it since I checked last but yeah upgrading companions hurts. On the other hand for some reason Phoeras were 250k on the auction house last I checked. They're a purple level companion, I'm not sure how useful they actually are for the regular game, but I presume having them for SCA could be a big asset.
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Dec 3, 2013 05:01
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Speaking of SCA, I haven't been following it too closely, but does anyone know what the rewards for that will be?
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Dec 3, 2013 18:20
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They took down the preview gateway, but the last version up was basically random enemy drops, plus a seal for beating the boss. It used to be it was based on your character's level, so you could always get some decent stuff, rank 3 and 4 enchants, random blue drops, a seal of the unicorn at the end. Then they changed it to depend on the level of the adventure dungeon. With 4 fully levelled white companions I could barely scrape though a dungeon to get rank 2 enchants and a seal of the manticore. Not very rewarding when my character was level 60.
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Dec 3, 2013 20:04
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Yeah that sounds pretty bad. Is there a cooldown on it or can you just adventure all day long?
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Dec 3, 2013 20:38
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Companions have stamina points, based on their level. Each adventure consumes some stamina points when you start it, and you get them back daily or something like that. Even white companions have enough stamina for a few adventures per day, and adventures take long enough that I was never wishing I had more stamina points.
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Dec 3, 2013 21:31
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Since I love to  about game mechanics, here's some accumulated wisdom concerning Module 2: Shadow MantleNew Class: Ranger! Rangers have two unique mechanics: 1) Tab switches between ranged powers and melee powers. All at-wills and encounters have melee and ranged versions, but not dailies. This gives you 6 encounters each with their own cooldown, plus 4 at-wills to use at any time. However, good ranged powers tend to have mediocre melee powers, and vice versa, so it's more like 3 good encounters plus a few extra abilities. 2) Grasping roots. Coming in a weak and strong version, certain powers will apply a rubber-band-like effect to enemies. Unfortunately, even while grasped enemies can still attack, including using ranged attacks and pouncing/teleporting attacks, and weak grasping roots are too weak to be noticeable most of the time. If you want to control enemies you're better off sticking with the stagger/prone powers, which are generally pretty good anyway. One thing to note is that Ranger's have a lot of armour penetration on most of their equipment, including all their best equipment, so to min-max your stats you should avoid STR and pump DEX and WIS. Artifacts Artifacts are equipment pieces that give you a power and stat bonuses. It's a weak power with a 2 minute long cooldown, but still. You have 1 active and 2 passive artifact slots. The active slot gives you the power and the stat bonuses, the passive slots just give you stat bonuses. The stat bonuses start out small, but artifacts can eventually be upgraded to give rather large bonuses. New refinement system Instead of fusing 4 identical enchantments together, you now cram any enchantment into whatever you want to upgrade. This adds refinement points (RP), and various bonuses apply depending on what is crammed into what. There are also items that are purely a source of RP. After shoving enough RP into what you want to upgrade, you then finish the upgrade with reagents and a roll to see if you succeed. If you fail you lose the reagents but keep the RP. If you succeed you still consume the reagent. Preservation wards preserve the reagents in case of failure, and coalescent wards guarantee a successful upgrade. It costs a relatively small amount of gold to remove enchantments from slots (rather than a ridiculous amount of AD), and you can upgrade enchantments while they're in your equipment. There are 5 types of reagents 1) An enchantment/runestone/shard of the same type. This only applies to epic enchantments and shards. and 4 types of a new item, marks 2) marks of potency 3) marks of power 4) marks of stability 5) marks of union Marks come in white (1->3), green(3->5), blue(5->7), and purple(7->10). Only marks of potency are used on enchantments/runestones, the remaining ones are used for artefacts. When solo-ing, green marks of all types can be found very rarely in skill nodes. I never actually tried epic dungeons, but apparently green and blue marks should be more common in dungeon skill nodes. They are also rare rewards from the daily Dread Ring campaign chests. Purple marks of potency should drop from epic bosses. The other purple marks are a guaranteed daily reward from the new Dread Ring campaign. All marks of potency can be purchased from the Wondrous Bazaar, for 25/500/25k/100k AD. That's kind of expensive, but ultimately not actually that bad compared to the old system, because you don't need nearly as many coalescent wards. Still, hopefully you won't need to buy them that often. The last time I tried I couldn't use purple marks of union/stability/power in place of blue or green marks of union/stability/power. Since I couldn't even buy the green marks I needed to upgrade my artefact, that meant I had a tonne of purple marks that were basically useless.
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Dec 4, 2013 06:57
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Do the different marks bestow varying bonuses to the enchantments or do different enchantments just require different marks?
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Dec 4, 2013 07:20
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Everything just has a single upgrade path. Regular enchantments and runestones go rank 1 to rank 10, armour and weapon enchantments go shard->lesser->regular->greater->perfect. Artifacts are labelled as rank 1 to 100, but you only actually need reagents at rank 30, 60, and 90, so really they go green->blue->purple->orange. Each particular upgrade requires certain marks e.g.: Rank 6 enchantment/runestone to rank 7 enchantment/runestone needs 2 blue marks of potency. Vorpal shard to lesser vorpal enchantment needs 1 vorpal shard (so total that's 1 shard to upgrade plus 1 shard as a reagent). The artifact Waters of Elah-zad, green quality to blue quality needs 1 blue mark of potency + 2 green marks of union + 1 green mark of stability.
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Dec 4, 2013 09:12
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Dilb posted:Everything just has a single upgrade path. Regular enchantments and runestones go rank 1 to rank 10, armour and weapon enchantments go shard->lesser->regular->greater->perfect. Artifacts are labelled as rank 1 to 100, but you only actually need reagents at rank 30, 60, and 90, so really they go green->blue->purple->orange. Shards take 3 to upgrade. Once they become enchantments they only need 1 of the same rank. 
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Dec 4, 2013 11:06
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So it's sounding more and more like plunking down the AD for upgrading companions is no longer a foolish endeavor. That sound about right? For the Leadership profession... is there any reason at all to get the better equipment? Equipment just improves chances for higher tier rewards, but everything in leadership is Tier 1 only, so I don't exactly understand the point of them even HAVING more than one tier of equipment. Lastly, does anyone know how the random rolls work for Alchemy experimentation? Is it a static % chance for each rank, does it get progressively less likely, or is there a way to improve your chances?
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Dec 4, 2013 22:33
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Ah, good catch. The numbers for the refining system are likely to change anyway.Cyntalan posted:So it's sounding more and more like plunking down the AD for upgrading companions is no longer a foolish endeavor. That sound about right? No no, companions are a waste of AD. Buying high-quality companions from the Zen Store/Wondrous Bazaar/Tradebar Store is cheaper than upgrading your current companions, and they'll probably be more useful too. Leadership doesn't actually have high tier equipment. Green equipment sometimes drops from profession packs, but it doesn't do anything that white doesn't, and there's no blue or purple stuff. I think Alchemy is a flat chance. The best way to speed it up is to buy potions rather than make them yourself. All the healing potions should be available for gold, and the other ones should be pretty cheap on the AH. Or grab them from the guild bank, it's not like people want them for anything else.
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Dec 4, 2013 23:33
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How is that considered an improvement to the system for upgrading enchantments and runes? Sure, you don't need 4 of the same level starting item anymore, but you still need a bunch of stuff for refinement points and then some marks, which are themselves a rare drop commodity.
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Dec 4, 2013 23:41
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So they posted a preview of what companion bonuses you get from active companions that are ranked up sufficiently:quote:Aranea As someone that hasn't bothered much with the min/max game as yet I have no idea if the bonuses from the upgraded companions would justify the price it costs to upgrade them. Veterans, thoughts? WebDO fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Dec 5, 2013 |
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Dec 5, 2013 00:31
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WebDO posted:As someone that hasn't bothered much with the min/max game as yet I have no idea if the bonuses from the upgraded companions would justify the price it costs to upgrade them. Veterans, thoughts? At the endgame the NPC companions are a hassle regardless of how much they are upgraded. They unnecessarily grab aggro when trying to slip past things plus they don't mechanically help that much when you are in a functional party, and if your party sucks so much that your NPC is an asset then you have bigger problems. I would still use cat/ioun because the peripheral NPC bonuses don't really compete when it comes to min/maxing.
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Dec 5, 2013 03:58
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300 deflect, defense or regen is certainly something that cannot be dismissed. With 5 active companion slots these are another 1500 stat points.
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Dec 5, 2013 05:11
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Hammerstein posted:300 deflect, defense or regen is certainly something that cannot be dismissed. With 5 active companion slots these are another 1500 stat points. All this can be yours for a mere 8 MILLION AD! 
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Dec 5, 2013 05:45
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Hammerstein posted:300 deflect, defense or regen is certainly something that cannot be dismissed. With 5 active companion slots these are another 1500 stat points. That's more of what I was talking about, these bonuses are active for companions in your active slots, regardless if they are summoned if I understand things correctly. I just didn't know how significant these bonuses were relative to say, enchantments.
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Dec 5, 2013 06:24
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Unless you have the ability to churn out loads of AD with crafting from abusing the Neverdeath exploit before it was fixed, have loads of real life disposable income, abused auction house negative AD bidding and didn't get affected by the caturday rollback, or run Castle Never 8 times a day and get that lucky greed roll a few times then enchantments are a better use of your time.
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Dec 5, 2013 08:22
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So. How about that GWF tanking? I don't know the game well enough to judge based on the patch notes. Are there any pundits with some evaluations?
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Dec 5, 2013 15:33
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Here are the patch notes for the currently ongoing patch. So much stuff to read! None of it seems particularly drastic in terms of mechanics and/or class balance. We'll have to see how it plays out.Hawgh posted:So. How about that GWF tanking? It's not too bad! You do have to make some choices between doing damage and tanking but it's not very hard to keep yourself alive. The real issue is generating threat, which it looks like they're working on fixing.
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Dec 5, 2013 18:13
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Semisponge posted:Here are the patch notes for the currently ongoing patch. So much stuff to read! None of it seems particularly drastic in terms of mechanics and/or class balance. We'll have to see how it plays out. Wait wait wait... the way you're saying this makes it sound like GWF no longer sucks. This true? Did cleric just get passed up? 
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Dec 5, 2013 18:30
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Is now a good time to convert my ZEN back into AD?
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Dec 5, 2013 21:29
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So the gateway is now in Portuguese for me, and my characters are level 0, and options are grey randomly. Great patch, Cryptic!
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Dec 5, 2013 21:46
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Yeah, the gateway got it pretty rough in this patch.
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Dec 5, 2013 21:52
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Anyone know how to set the language to English? Cryptics's "helpfulness" is really loving me over.
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Dec 5, 2013 22:15
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Is a GF still going to be ridiculed in dungeons for not being able to just face smash everything with DPS because tanking isn't required?
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Dec 5, 2013 22:28
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So, I spent a good 6 hours yesterday (via Gateway) to get my Alchemy from rank 2 to 3. Completely unsuccessful. Am I missin' something here, or is my luck just that lovely?
Cyntalan fucked around with this message at 00:07 on Dec 6, 2013 |
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Dec 5, 2013 23:59
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Stanley Pain posted:Is now a good time to convert my ZEN back into AD? Yes, this is my favorite part about the new class, Profit. I bought my zen for like just over 300 and i sold it for 460. I don't think it will get much higher than ranger drop day.
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Dec 6, 2013 03:32
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Gravity Works posted:Yes, this is my favorite part about the new class, Profit. I bought my zen for like just over 300 and i sold it for 460. I don't think it will get much higher than ranger drop day. Sold all mine today too. Didn't buy quite as cheap as you did, and didn't have a huge amount of AD, but I did end up with 1.3m AD. I sold too cheap though,at 465 I thought it would sit, but it almost immediately started moving and sold out (2730 zen) in about 90 seconds.
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Dec 6, 2013 04:03
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Didn't really have time to start levelling the Ranger seriously. Guess after today's maintenance I should finally get around to do that. Also the Hawk from the ranger packs seems interesting, because of the damage bonus it gives for shooting from max range. Update: Just check the AH this morning and it seems my runestone scheme paid off. I have something like 5-600 indomitable, serene and tranquil runestones which I bought for 20-25k AD a piece over the last weeks. Now they are worth around 50-70k and upwards, so with a profit margin of 40k AD a piece that's 24 mill AD I have sitting in enchants now *laughing like an idiot on my way to the bank* In other news: the new Thayan packs are great since they give an epic weapon which levels with you, also if you are lucky and get a ranger bow you can try and sell these now for a few hundred thousand AD. If you are currently levelling another class you can get such a weapon cheap in the 7-10k AD range. Hammerstein fucked around with this message at 09:36 on Dec 6, 2013 |
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Dec 6, 2013 07:21
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Any word on when Sword Coast Adventures will be playable through the Gateway? Also I've noticed they've added in new items to that seem to have the same stats as the old ones, e.g Ornate Cloth Trousers, Tunic. Is there any difference between them and the pants and shirt?
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Dec 6, 2013 14:30
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