0.9.12m Patch Notes

Like a lot of people in this thread, I used to believe that game companies should not nerf the most powerfull skills and instead should buff the weaker ones. It always seemed like a no brainer to me. I used to get so frustrated with game companies for nerfing skills.

However, Chris once explained in these forums why it's more complicated than you think to simply buff all skills that are perceived as weak. I had never looked at it from the developers perspective before that. Now I totally understand why game companies do it.

Here's the gist of what he explained:
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It's been explained before why it is better to "nerf" a skill that is overpowered than to buff every other skill instead. It creates much more work in the long run and means that we would have to go through many more patches before game balance is achieved. Heres why:

OPTION A:
- Leave an overpowered skill as it is.
- Buff all other skills in the game until they are comparable to the overpowered skill.
- Once all the other skills are buffed, realize that the game has become too easy.
- Overhaul all enemies in the game to make them stronger so that the game is challenging again.
- Players become frustrated and complain that suddenly the game has become twice as hard overnight.

OPTION B:
- Slightly nerf the overpowered skill to bring it in line with the rest of the skills in the game.

Anyone can see that it takes less time, less patches, and less overall impact on the playerbase if you simply go with option B.

I don't understand why people are complaining about minor nerfs and balances that are being tested its a beta they need to see what works the best for the best game play. just because a skill that you use most is being slightly nerfed doesnt make it unusable, so stop complaing because youre not as super OP as you used to be and just give normal feedback.

some kid said something about the character sniplets not being said enough when he runs out of mana, i think its fine the way it is for one, i really dont need my character to remind me when i run out of mana i can clearly see how much i have lol, so making them say it more would just be annoying, adding voice sniplets just adds personality to the game.

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I like the patch i think its good, there are a few things i would like to see in future patches, as follows:

#1 is there anyway we can change the color of filled diamond flasks? i dont like how they are the same green color as granite flasks

#2 It does seem like there is alot of a attention toward Totems, i know they are new but can we get some other skills besides totems? not everyone uses those and there is only 1 +totem passive and its by the templar...

#3 I would like to see a new support gem that increases bow damage, i know there is the faster projectiles which increases 10% projectile damage but i want to see something strictly for bow damage, considering they have gems like "Increased Physical damage" and "Increased physical damage on full life"

#4 Also I really liked dark forest the way it was before, it needs to be more wide open i felt like i was in a cave running through there.

#5 Someone else pointed out this and i liked the idea of knowing how much mana a gem will cost before leveling it.

#6 I would really like to see some kind of trading system implemented soon, even if it is a simple version of one,
Like if they could make it so that you could right click the players name in chat to bring up that menu and click a "trade" button to bring up a trading window between each other, this would be so convenient.

if anyone likes me ideas please say so =)

Also, there is one thing that I haven't seen anyone mention yet in regards to the groundslam nerf:

A few patches ago they increased the DPS of all slow weapons. Since groundslam ignores base weapon speed, almost everyone who uses groundslam picks the slowest possible 2handed maul to use with it. When they buffed the DPS of slow weapons, they did not tweak groundslam to compensate.

This means that groundslam was indirectly buffed in that patch. The recent nerf to groundslam isn't so much a nerf, as a tweak to compensate for the increased DPS of slow weapons.

Just something to think about.

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Flab wrote:

Yeah I didn't mention anything about the resistance penalties and the inevitable gear grind because it was just introduced and I don't consider the very first implementation of it with existing gear and drop rates to be indicative of what the intention is. Basically, I have no opinion on this yet.

Saying GS nerf isn't justified or doesn't make sense because of a few other really effective builds is just a bit too selective though, most skills simply weren't/aren't as effective. You don't ignore one problem on account of there being more problems. They will continue to nerf AND buff skills as they deem necessary. Their priorities aren't strictly tied to ours.

Can you explain why certain other builds aren't as effective? This nerf appears to be trying to make cleave and sweep more appealing. Not balancing it based on other non melee skills. Thats what the problem is. It's that this build was working fine compared to other builds, and a 1/5 nerf is a solid nerf.


@Axebane

Do you think balance should be based on exalted+ gear, or luck? Gear is supposed to make the game easier. If your a couple exalted into your gear, (a place most casual gamers will never reach) it should be easier. (I'm not saying this was your opinion just saying why I hope what you mentioned is not the case)

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Total wrote:

@Axebane

Do you think balance should be based on exalted+ gear, or luck? Gear is supposed to make the game easier. If your a couple exalted into your gear, (a place most casual gamers will never reach) it should be easier. (I'm not saying this was your opinion just saying why I hope what you mentioned is not the case)

I don't think I said a word about gear. I'm not sure what you are even getting at in relation to groundslam. Are you trying to argue that groundslam is useless now unless you have godly gear from using exalteds?? If that's the case... what about cleave?

My cleave does 1200 DPS at lvl 71. Groundslam could easily reach 2500 DPS at lvl 71, but it reaches much farther (It's basically a ranged attack), does more damage, and has an increased chance to stun. Heck, my single target skill (Dual Strike) only does 2200 DPS, and it's actually a melee attack, not a ranged attack that pretends to be a melee attack.

If you don't see the reason this was totally unbalanced, I'm just glad you aren't on the development team making balance decisions.

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Axebane wrote:

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Total wrote:

@Axebane

Do you think balance should be based on exalted+ gear, or luck? Gear is supposed to make the game easier. If your a couple exalted into your gear, (a place most casual gamers will never reach) it should be easier. (I'm not saying this was your opinion just saying why I hope what you mentioned is not the case)

I don't think I said a word about gear. I'm not sure what you are even getting at in relation to groundslam. Are you trying to argue that groundslam is useless now unless you have godly gear from using exalteds?? If that's the case... what about cleave?

My cleave does 1200 DPS at lvl 71. Groundslam could easily reach 2500 DPS at lvl 71, but it reaches much farther (It's basically a ranged attack), does more damage, and has an increased chance to stun. Heck, my single target skill (Dual Strike) only does 2200 DPS, and it's actually a melee attack, not a ranged attack that pretends to be a melee attack.

If you don't see the reason this was totally unbalanced, I'm just glad you aren't on the development team making balance decisions.

I was talking about you mentioning the 2 handed weapon change. 2 handed weapons are gear. And no I am saying that if they nerfed it based on the fact someone could get a rlly high dps slow weapon (That costs a few exalted or luck), would that be a good way to balance according to what you mentioned?

I already said cleave needs a buff. Even now it needs it.

I'm saying that ground slam was working great with the other builds. Not that ground slam was not the best choice for a melee marauder.

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Total wrote:

I was talking about you mentioning the 2 handed weapon change. 2 handed weapons are gear. And no I am saying that if they nerfed it based on the fact someone could get a rlly high dps slow weapon (That costs a few exalted or luck), would that be a good way to balance according to what you mentioned?

oh ok, well I don't see what exalted have to do with the base DPS of all slow weapons being increased. You don't have to use a single exalted to benefit from all slow 2-handed mauls receiving a DPS boost.

And yes, I do think they should have considered the impact that increasing slow weapon DPS was going to have on a skill that ignores weapon speed. I'm not saying they nerfed groundslam because of the slow weapon DPS buff, I was just mentioning it as something to consider.

It's all about perspective. Most marauders are screaming and crying about the groundslam nerf, yet the slow weapons people use with groundslam deal more DPS than they used to, so is it really a nerf?

A buff + a nerf = no real change.

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Axebane wrote:

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Total wrote:

I was talking about you mentioning the 2 handed weapon change. 2 handed weapons are gear. And no I am saying that if they nerfed it based on the fact someone could get a rlly high dps slow weapon (That costs a few exalted or luck), would that be a good way to balance according to what you mentioned?

oh ok, well I don't see what exalted have to do with the base DPS of all slow weapons being increased. You don't have to use a single exalted to benefit from all slow 2-handed mauls receiving a DPS boost.

And yes, I do think they should have considered the impact that increasing slow weapon DPS was going to have on a skill that ignores weapon speed. I'm not saying they nerfed groundslam because of the slow weapon DPS buff, I was just mentioning it as something to consider.

It's all about perspective. Most marauders are screaming and crying about the groundslam nerf, yet the slow weapons people use with groundslam deal more DPS than they used to, so is it really a nerf?

A buff + a nerf = no real change.

Yea all I was trying to point out was to get some of those higher dps mauls requires to either trade for it (a pretty good amount of orbs depending on the other stats), or get lucky enough to find/roll one. Yea like I said I knew you just mentioned it for something to consider. I just was discussing it further and trying to figure out if that could really be the case.

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Total wrote:

Yea all I was trying to point out was to get some of those higher dps mauls requires to either trade for it (a pretty good amount of orbs depending on the other stats), or get lucky enough to find/roll one. Yea like I said I knew you just mentioned it for something to consider. I just was discussing it further and trying to figure out if that could really be the case.

Well honestly the same can be said for other melee skills too. In order to get a 1200 DPS Cleave and a 2200 DPS Dual Strike, I had to trade/craft swords like these:

Just curious, how are you only doing 2.2k dps at lvl 71 with duel strike?

Im level 40 doing 1.6k