It'd be nice to see what exactly got tweaked? From Kevin's vlog, it appears that mobs have more health and critical more often. He also adds that it might simply mean you shield more often and that fights will take a bit longer, which is basically what people were asking for . . . a little bit more of a challenge.
I hope that in the future that KI will look at increasing challenge in a more creative way. "Creative" though usually means "more time consuming." To quote myself:
"And that's another question. How should KingsIsle make the fights more difficult if they do? I don't think it's as simple as adding 1,000 health to every mob. I think most of us would rather see a more interesting mechanic rather than just stacking health on the things we fight. Strange resists? Beserk on first round? More healing mobs? More but limited battle circle sizes? More difficult puzzles? What is it that could make this more interesting to the battle weary legendary wizards?"I have a sneaking suspicion that we're entirely too late in the game for many "interesting changes." You know?
The other change seems to be Level 70 henchmen got buffed and correspondingly became more expensive. Although I'm not sure if the price was just to discourage people from using them too much on the test realm, be carefully with the pricing, KI. If you raise that cost too much, people won't use them. Raising the difficulty of the world is great and will naturally make people look to henchmen more, but raising the cost of those henchmen at the same time might actually take money from your pocketbook. My gut is telling me that the cost of a hireling for one round should not equal the price of a hoard pack.
Also, what do you all think about the changes to Sirens and Dr. Von's Monster (no longer Dr. Katzenstein's Monster)? Looks like Sirens was nerfed a touch and Frankenstein is now adding a -25% healing debuff on the target. On the surface that seems like it could be useful in PvP. What do you think?
Thanks for reading and as always, let me know what I've forgotten or missed. It's appreciated. :)
Happy Dueling!
I think its great that they did make Zafaria tougher. If they didn't everyone would go through the world very quickly and about a few months everyone would be saying they are bored. I am also glad they made sirens a little less stronger than it is, can you imagine being hit by that in Pvp?!
ReplyDeleteI agree, I like the changes. It will make Zafaria a more interesting experience that we won't just breeze through. The only change I'd like now is to the new balance spell. Adding a dispel at the end, or a -45 strength to the next attack would be nice. It seems most of the other schools have gotten a nice side effect and I think, so should balance.
ReplyDeleteI, too, love the changes. I was a little worried when I realized I was coasting through Zafaria; it's not quite the same experience as having to actually spend time on a world and struggle with it a little. I had that experience with Celestia, and I actually felt more immersed into the world; having to concentrate harder on questing led me to concentrate more on the story. And the story was so strong, I ended up thoroughly enjoying Celestia. Zafaria is wonderful, but I'll admit, I wasn't getting the same feeling I'd gotten from Celestia. Hopefully KI making the world a little more difficult will change this. Congrats to KI on coming through for us once again!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Friendly, something ought to be added... some sort of mechanics that are different than the usual ones. I liked your post, and came up with a few ideas at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.swordroll.com/2011/11/challenge-ideas-test-realm-maintenance.html
As always, great blog post!
Still no charm or debuff for a little extra somehting on chimera? KI to me seems to be teasing the balance wizards. And the death spell's name was better before.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I don't get why they changed the spell from Dr. Katzenstein. It was a much better name.
ReplyDelete