Equipment stats

[Tim]

Just curious to see.

[Jenlyn]

Taint and Poison are too expensive for what they do. I don't see very many people using them, at least not at the higher levels. From where I'm sitting, most people are using stun, dodge, accuracy, health gain, and straight damage. Fearless was using a ton of defense to good effect for awhile, but I don't know if he's stuck with it. So far, stun/speed and health gain seem to be the most effective routes. I am using mainly health, and I have trouble only with Fearless' mighty defense, and those who consistently double and triple attack me. I recently dropped some health gain in favor of greater damage, but I haven't dueled enough in the new gear to decide whether it was a good move, a poor move, or a lateral move. So far, it looks lateral.

If you would lower the point cost on Taint and Poison a bit, I bet more people would use them. Thanks for making spears a useful weapon and taking away the stupid self-damage from axes though--those were good moves. You are also doing well with the modifiers in that there is no one single strategy that defeats all others, and no one set of must have gear. You just haven't managed to include Taint and Poison in it, that's all.

[Tim]

Good input! Thanks Jenlyn!

I was trying to make it all balanced, and even though I obviously didn't succeed, I'm pretty happy with how well I did with my first stab at it. Mainly because there are multiple ways to go about it and all the weapons appear to be viable choices. Poison I likely made too expensive after the first issues of it being undervalued and taint I probably restrained a bit too much due to it being overpowered in previous versions. I do say that I did use both to decent success at lower levels, so perhaps I'm not too far off. I admittedly didn't play around with things much this last reset, as I spent more time coding then testing (thanks to all of you who helped out on the test site, btw!).

I'll likely make some minor tweaks to the stat costs in v3, but nothing too major. Balancing stats is a long and painful process (just look at WoW and how they are constantly changing class skills to keep try to balance things. Not that GoS is anywhere near that complicated...).

[Tintomara]

I use accuracy, speed, stun and damage, whichever of those I happen to find. Defense isn't my game, so I avoid that (with the exception of stun, if that counts as def)

[Jenlyn]

I used Poison effectively at a low level too, and Fearless drenched himself in Taint for a level or two and did alright, but neither strategy proved to be a lasting one. Poison was overpowered until Craig nicked it, that's for sure, but I didn't think Taint was too extreme. Malorian used it well, and I saw some wanderers, mine included, who laid the pain down with tons of small consecutive attacks that just stacked sick amounts of taint, and then win on their opponent's turn, but for melee, I never thought taint was that great. It saved all newbies after the breaking, though. That trolloc blade or axe and everything of ravens was tough to beat early on.

This way is better in that we can take different paths, and you'll figure out the right balance for taint and poison eventually. I don't think any of us mind if you tweak it back and forth a bit. Right now, what used to be agility and health gain are strongest, but not to an extreme, so I would leave them alone and just tighten up the other strategies a tad. *shrugs*

EDIT: And yeah, I think you've fixed the weapons. I've alternately used a sharpened stick (duh), a glaive, a pike, a quarter staff, a morning star, a tulwar, a combat axe, a hunter's bow, and weaves, and I've won and lost with each while seeing advantages and disadvantages to all. Good job!

[drizztcruce]

i really focused on trying to use my highest as test subjects. i have been/ still playing with accuracy, stun, recently trying to see about speed. i started this version utilizing as much damage as possible at early levels to discover that accurate/stun seems the best combos with a kicker of health. i tried dodge but i wasnt happy with results. it seems that to be effective you need accuracy for attacking successful but i think i might go back to spice it up with some dodge.

[rey]

Fearless's defense is still working pretty good for him, i pretty much lost the most battles against any one guy the whole reset to him this last day until i combined what i normally do with a +23 taint weapon.

[rey]

oh and in those battles that i lost i would hit all but one maybe two turns and get lucky to total 20 damage against him, but now with the taint he takes around 100+ per fight

[Jenlyn]

Jan 7, 2009 20:19:16 GMT -6 drizztcruce said:

i really focused on trying to use my highest as test subjects. i have been/ still playing with accuracy, stun, recently trying to see about speed. i started this version utilizing as much damage as possible at early levels to discover that accurate/stun seems the best combos with a kicker of health. i tried dodge but i wasnt happy with results. it seems that to be effective you need accuracy for attacking successful but i think i might go back to spice it up with some dodge.

I'm just guessing from knowing what I'm equipped with, and watching how the battles play out. I was using legendary knives and a hunter's bow for a bit, so I was fairly accurate, yet with some people, I wasn't getting the hits I expected, so I assumed they were dodging. I might be mistaken. Fearless grumbled about Dodge in clan chat, so maybe it is not that good. I wear a cadinsor, but that is all the dodge I have.

I noticed that you had added a bit of health, but I saw it after I switched from a real healthy hunter's bow to a hard smackin' weave. I still have the bow, so I guess I could equip it and hit you a few times. I was beating you pretty consistently before we both switched, but it's hard to tell who's alteration had more to do with the now more-balanced fights we have. Let me go string the bow again and experiment. I'll share the logs with you if you'd like--we're usually allied when we're both in our proper clans anyway.

Rey, you just hit so hard that I test you when I try new stuff, and then just go away and beat on the other guys.
Glad to hear that Fearless gave you a run for it at least. He's always been one of the White Tower's best.

[rey]

It was a nice change from winning about 200/205 of the last battles i had... *glares at mat*
but the problem is now with the taint i can lose battles to other people occasionally when it doesnt hit all because fearless is forcing me to not use my normal equips. so now i have to sit down and rethink it all ! To bad we can only have 3 equips... imagine the talisman combinations we could have if we had a helmet or something...

and Jenlyn you actually used a weave? each one i have tried using with different equip combinations turned out to a waste of points compared to what i could have in its place... and i was using the really hard hitting ones!

[rey]

just switched up for the third time today! lets see if this one lasts longer

[Jenlyn]

Yeah, I am using Earthquake right now, and it is *okay*
I can't beat Hugh with it, but I can beat him with the bow. It looks like I cannot beat Drizzt with the bow, however, but I can beat him with the weave. I can no longer beat Mat at all, but the battles are really close with either weapon. Maybe I should go with the bow and get better knives at next level when I will have some point room--I'm still using Legendary Throwing Knives of the Green Man, since like, level 25.

[rey]

i just dont think the modifiers on the weaves are worth the extra damage and points....

[Jenlyn]

Yeah, I was just looking at a bone splitter and saw that I have a quick talisman that will counter its speed deficit. Maybe I'll buy it.

[rey]

youd probably be better of going to cairhein and buying a bow...