It’s part of a game’s evolution. Just look at PoE and how many times they revamped their base systems. They even redid the passive tree once, which rendered all builds unplayable overnight, which then had to be respeced in standard.
Not all change is bad. And I think that changing boss DR for this system is a good change.
I agree with the principle, but not all dungeons are alike in this. While Temporal Sanctum is a really cool mechanic with impact on the whole dungeon, Soulfire Bastion is just meh, where you collect souls and Lightless Arbor is downright disappointing, where you ignore it for the whole dungeon except to move floors and to access the real boss.
I wonder how much this new feature has been tested. I guess we’ll see when it’s implemented.
I hope they don’t make some big overreaching change to the game that removes good things about it. For example, imagine if GGG suddenly announced that, for the original PoE, they would remove the passive skill tree. That would fundamentally change how the game works and (IMO) make it less.
I think that for 1 we can assume they’ve tested it enough. Obviously things will always get out of control when you least expect them (re: 1.0 launch and balance issues) but they’re learning as they go and getting better.
Either way I think we can safely assume they didn’t simply decide to implement this and not even test it.
As for 2 I think that’s hyperbolic. Neither GGG, EHG or even Blizzard would do that. They might make massive changes, like the ones I mentioned GGG did for PoE, where the whole passive tree was redone and if you had a character in standard you’d have to respec it, but they wouldn’t simply scrape a fundamental part of their game.
Best example I can think of is the constant rework maps have had over the years in PoE. Adding atlas, watchstones, passive tree, etc.
I’ve kinda to disagree, for me and my friends Soulfire-Bastion is so far the best Dungeon plus reward, because we loved the concept of gathering Souls to use it for the gambler at the end. The only thing which i really don’t like about Soulfire Bastion, and i feel like that goes for pretty much all three Dungeons, that the Dungeon-Mechanic isn’t really utilized with the map itself. Like why is there only real “trap”-element and that’s fire? Why isn’t there anything for necrotic. Why is it just limited to the Enemies? And i feel like i’ve to point at something here/to specify more, which especially targets towards your second example with lightless arbor, but:
I adressed that point already (maybe i should’ve been a bit more specific). The Dungeons itself and their layout why i hope they get a rework. But that doesn’t ‘per se’ change that the Dungeon-Mechanic itself and the Reward is cool because it gives a twist to it.
Also to not just say ‘meh dungeon is bad’ and not give a suggestion/solution:
Lightless Arbor should in my opinion be more of an traditional ‘Dungeon’ a bit more streamlined and linear, but the amber mechanic build more into the enviroment. Maybe let burn down some trees in along the way, and maybe have some side-areas for little sidebosses and little loot. As you pointed out, there isn’t any real reason to exploring the map - you just check the edges.
Also another thing which (and maybe this really is just me) should be adressed is the Reward-System for Groupplay. It was quite demotivating for us as a group that only one person could cash out. Maybe make it so, if you go into it as a team that people have to take turns to pay into the vault, and than people get equally loot.
Again Soulfire-Bastion is in my opinion for the most part fine. I’d just wish that again the enviroment would have more to work with the dungeon mechanic outside of the burning grounds and enemies. Maybe generally the layout could be done a bit polished up, but the sandbox element for the most part works pretty well, because you want to get around and kill monsters for the souls. It’s the choice element where you decide between, do you want to risk it and maybe you die and lose all souls, or go into boss room and cash out with what you have.
Temporal Sanctum is also quite fine, and the 2nd Best here, but similiar to the Lightless Arbor you end up to often just checking the edges. I wouldn’t in particular streamline and make the map more linear because it would kinda counter the dungeon-mechanic with shifting the timelines, for that the sandbox-element works better, but we would needs something to give us a better reason to explore more of the map. Maybe like doors are being sealed and you need to kill the floor (mini)-monster or some lever type of thing, but it would be cool if there would be more neccessity to into the mid. /Edit: However i’d argue that the dungeon-mechanic itself is utilized best here.
I understand there is then a certain set of people who would want to get rid of dungeons completly and get straight to the boss(which i’m not gonna lie, not being a big fan… despite how much love i had for diablo 2 - one of my most hated things in the online-community was the boss-runs which pretty much killed my mood to play online), however for that they could introduced similiar to the memorial key or how its called from the arena - maybe craftable, where you can get straight to the bosses(for soulfire bastion they would need to find a solution for the souls tho).
I have to admit I wasn’t considering the fire/necro shield. That was also a nice mechanic. But I find picking up the souls to be lackluster.
As long as it’s only to uncover profitable side areas. If it impedes progress and you have to stop and wait for a few seconds every time you want to progress, then it becomes annoying.
I’d more realistically see it as each doing their own instances of the loot choice and each would see their own chests.
But I’m pretty sure the reason behind this was to prevent group play from being optimal (and thus almost mandatory for dungeons) where you only need one key for multiple rewards.
So even more realistically, I’d see a loot chest like the ones from monos for whoever didn’t use the key.
EDIT: another option would also be to have each member use a key and then each could use the rewards individually.
You only check the edges because you know the doors are on the edges and that nothing else in the dungeon really matters. Much like you only go straight to the objective in echoes for spires/guardians.
There are many things that could be done, but the truth of the matter is that people mostly only run dungeons for the boss/rewards. So anything that makes getting to it more cumbersome won’t have a good reception. It’s already annoying enough to have paths randomly blocked.
Personally, I’d like to see dungeons change into something more interactive/interesting, where the dungeon itself is a reward. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Happy to finally see all the new stuff. New faction , new items , new lore , and new mechanics to try. I don’t care much about evade , but thats OK , I’m sure some people will be happy with it.
A couple of questions, I don’t think I have seen answered:
-Are we getting some new loot filter options? Sounds or color beams would be great
-Are you keeping the same amount of XP to advance ranks on CoF? Found the grind to levels 9 and 10 a little excessive.
Such nice design decisions! It’s this high standard that I learned to expect from EGH through out beta. I always said that the game would be even more great the more time this guys had to add and balance things. And there it is, first big post launch updated and things look sooo exciting. I was going to wait for the new story chapter to come back to play (yes I’m that kind of guy :B), seems like I’ll be coming back early!
As always! Congrats on such a good job designing this awesome game! In EGH we trust!
As for ward mechanic on bosses, from the screenshot, I cannot understand one moment: 43% of ward from boss maximum health, so base value of ward equals to boss hp; or 43% of ward from somehow calculated value that has its own measure on HP bar. How ward is calculated?
How much legendary potential Nemesis can add to unique item through empower system: only one or may be two, three or even 4?
I must say lads. I am impressed. Yall managed to take feedback into consideration and made nemesis a system for all to enjoy, even before end game. This is very good, and brings me back a lot of confidence in your abilities. Well done EHG
The one thing i do not like is being forced to farm the mobs across different timeliness as it is going to be a huge pain in the rear. Can we ammend that as its to much grinding. Otherwise, not bad.
I want to see these ballance changes be fast, hard and aggressive.
Nothing like adding a worthless unique yet again to marksman. Dark Quiver is all but useless, and stacking dodge on marks worthless when you cant max it.
In the current implementation it is 75% of the boss max health if a threshold is triggered. This is subject to change and not set in stone.
And I am sure EHG will be very open to feedback.
The new system is very good and leaves much room for fine tuning (amount of ward and the Decay formula can both be tweaked very easily)
Dark Quiver is not super popular among some players, but it most definitely is not useless. Trasochi also confirmed that Dark Quiver will receive some overhaul in the future.
Also Dodge is far from useless.
You don’t need to “max” it to be useful… It is just one of many defensive layers that you can invest in and it has a lot of diminishing return anyway, so “just” getting 40-60% usually is more effective then trying to reach 70%+
Glyph of Envy explains “Existing sealed affixes can not be changed”.
So, If I get sealed T6, T7 affix items from nemesis, can I use Glyph of envy for changing subclass of the items, while keeping the sealed exalted affix?
I really hope they’re sneaking in some hidden bases that can’t drop but can only be obtained by using the Glyph of Envy. Or at least put the bases that can normally only be uniques in the mix, though I don’t know how good those are.
