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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
you can have combat that is tactical and fair, between people that have the same gear. who says you cant?
i should have clarified when i said fair in my post. i meant fair for newer players, or people who dont spend as much time in the game or if gear is too hard to acquire, so you could still have a chance to win if you have gear 1 tier below the other dude, but you also have the same buffs, food, etc and you are a better player.
if you both have the same gear, food, buffs, etc, the better player will usually win (assuming your class don't have a huge advantage on the other) and thats a fair fight, even if your gear matters a lot.
I just wanted to point out, that by time these massive spikes in gear gaps supposedly will happen (assuming no catchup vendor gear), the skill gap between vets and newer players will be insurmountable
Those of us that will pvp all the time since day1, will have learned the classes we play inside and out, as well as all the combos and skills from the other classes and have the experience to go with that knowledge of how to counterplay.
Can just look at older games like gw2, on jobs like mesmer or engineer or elementalist (weaver ele just got buffed too). It takes hundreds to thousands of hours of play for the people throwing out good 1vX videos to get to where they are. No one is coming in to the game with just a few dozen hours played and expect to compete. They usually play the meta OP classes that are fotm specifically because they can't compete with the skill the other jobs have. (Looking at gw2 necromancers for exampel)
What that means, or at least my interpretation, is these gear gaps are meant to be there for vets to have power gaps between other vets. Newer players CAN catch up eventually, after expacs (again, assuming catchup vendor gear), but then will find themselves progressing slower anyway due to the massive skillgap between them and the vets, and will remain behind them until they put in the time to learn all the things and get the experience the vets have.
This is quite well said.
To the veteran player, gear should provide an advantage over other veteran players. You should be striving to get better gear in order to gain this advantage, and also striving to prevent your rivals from getting this advantage.
This is literally what we PvP over.
If a veteran player (by extension, someone that knows the game mechanics inside out) can't see any real value in spending time fighting over an item upgrade, why would they fight over it? Some may say something like "to stop their rivals getting it", but if there is no value in the item for this veteran player, there is no value in it for their rival. This veteran player has no reason to try and prevent their rival from getting this item upgrade.
Without character progression, we are just fighting for the sake of fighting, rather than fighting to try and progress. Without character progression, fighting is meaningless - the game is meaningless.
Furthermore, if gear adds 50% power, that is a substantial boost. Because, that indicates white gear will give 50%, orange gear might give 75% power increase or more. We just don't know the numbers right now. Thus, it might be a misnomer to request 80% power increase at white level when orange level gives the same benefit. That would make orange gear with +14 enchantment to be +100% or more in power gain over a naked toon of the same level. That's like a 2vs1.
Characters currently have hundreds of thousands of HP (20 years of yearly expansions will do this), but there are no buffs that give 3000% to HP - at least not in the way you are probably thinking.
Like many games, EQ2 stats work off of a base, rather than the total. A character may have 100,000 HP, but of that only perhaps 1k would be the base. Thus, a theoretical buff that incrased HP by 3000% would add 3k HP to a character with 100,000 HP.
The numbers above are somewhat theoretical, but the point remains.
There are no buffs (or - were not buffs) in EQ2 that trippled a characters HP.
As with any game though, the actual numbers can be (and should be) totally ignored. A situation where you are fighting something with 10HP and are dealing 1 point of damage per attack is functionally identicle to a situation where you are fighting something with 100,000HP and are dealing 10,000 points of damage per attack. IMO you have this backwards.
There will be 1000%'s difference in power between a level 1 and a level 50. At level 1, we will probably have access to 2 or 3 abilities, and they will be weak.
At level 50, we will have access to dozens. This in itself is a massive increase in power - before we even factor in that abilities at level 50 will hit significantly harder. I mean, a level 1 character with access to every ability in their class would be rediculously overpowered - even if every ability is dealing level 1 damage.
However, we do still need to factor in the additional damage from leveling.
Then we also need to factor in those augments you mention. They will add more power, and since you are talking here about the difference in power between a level 1 and a level 50, these augments are indeed a part of that.
Then you have enchantment. In theoretical terms, sure, a level 1 may have access to enchanting. However, in practical terms, they will not. 99% of all enchanting will be something that players do at the level cap, once they have reasonable gear. That +14 levels of enchantment that you are talking about actually increase the gap in power between level 1 and level 50 characters. Without Steven clarifying (there is no point in him clarifying) these comments of his are meaningless.
Steven could well be talking about the difference in power between a newly made character and a level capped character being 50% gear based. That would mean gear provides more of a total power boost in Ashes than it does in any other game ever created (hyperbole, but only just - I have not played every game ever created to qualify that statement).
On the other hand, Steven could be talking about just level capped players - the difference being 50%. Even this isn't clear though. We can probably assume the top end of what he is talking about is a character with best in slot items - but we have no idea what it is he is comparing it to.
It is feasable that he is talking about the base quality of gear that a new level capped player has. It is feasable that he is talking about a naked level capped player. It is feasable that he is talking about the worst gear that a level capped player could have. It is feasable that he its talking about the gear that someone at the level cap could get with minimal effort.
All of these are feasable, and the results of each is vastly different.
This is why that statement means nothing.
Yes, I understand the difference between 1 move at level 1 and 200 at max level thanks to WoW. However, we are not talking about the difference between ability numbers, we are talking about the basic power gain from armour. Also, if you hover over the health in some EQ2 versions it will tell you the health buff is 3000% at max level (Currently 3040% health in some versions). That's the buff I referred to.
I never take Steven's word on anything. The combat devs will balance the systems. However, the basic concepts should be sound and you do not go adding 14 tiers on top of base tier to create thousands of % in difference. It would break the balance in sieges and pvp. Granted, most people in sieges will use the best equipment they can field but we have things like Siege Golems and such to give the differential challenges in power percentage.
However, Steven did play L2 and L2 had Olympians so perhaps there will be huge disparities between white level gear and orange gear at +14. Furthermore, I'm not sure how much power gain a PvP Augment will add from the Arena victories. Those augments could also create an Olympian type toon for a short time span. We have fixated on weapons and gear but there are many sources of potential power in Ashes.
When I played EQ2 there was nothing even close to that powerful - even taking in to account what I said above about the difference between base and total. Additionally, almost every effect that was percent based didn't get upgraded at all (if it is percent gain, there is no need to improve it).
Yeah, but we aren't talking thousands of percent. Since the comment was in relation to the percent of character power from gear, we literally can't be talking thousands of percent.
Looks like you'll be able to farm and enchant your way to the top without risk of literally destroying the item(s). So the case for player power from gear is just a matter of how much you farmed and were successful on the item enchant procs.... It's very similar to skill tree and abilities vs items. Just an illusive way to say the same thing.
In some ways it's very similar to wow... higher the level, more skill points to allocate... higher end gear boosts player power through stats.
Just get a 2-3 sets made at max level and enchant them all sequentially. Make sure you farm enough for repairs or pay for materials to do repairs. That way if one is temporarily useless( aka "destroyed") .. you got two back ups. Then just leap frog your gear quality to the top tier until you essentially have max gear.
You'll just hit that metaphorical plateau sooner or later. Literally same thing just different.
This is half accurate but well written. In truth, Over Enchanting runs the risk of permanent destruction and loss of items if the enchantment fails. You run the risk of loss every time you push higher. Still, the bdo tactic is the best method to push with.
permanent? nope look i thought it was too. but according to the wiki
https://ashes.wiki/Item_repair
Over-enchanting carries the risk of destroying that item[30], rendering it useless for use temporarily.[31]
"Look bro can I please just play the game?"
I see your reference and I raise you one sandal:
Over-enchanting items comes with a potential risk that the item decays or is destroyed if a safety margin is exceeded. This system is subject to testing.[8][9][10]
It's a progressive tier of risk. At lower levels you have opportunities to potentially lose out on the pluses instead of breaking the equipment. But when you reach a certain threshold, there is an opportunity to essentially destroy the equipment, where you get resources back. But that's a risk that the player takes.[8] – Steven Sharif
it still stands as is originally stated. Look at @NiKr post above.
I still believe Stevens quotes more than other quotes. I made a mistake and went with another half quote years ago and have found that the information gleaned was not accurate. Thus, I only go by direct and full quotes until Steven states otherwise.
Yeah I'm in the right. I've checked your reference and the reference is only half a reference. If you check enchantment ashes wiki then you will get the full story.
Based on what I've seen lately, what the goal of the game was vs now. I honestly don't know what to believe with each new dev update and the wiki.
Sad but true unfortunately.
Hate to say it like this but it could just be another MMORPG to me by the way things are progressing.
What you will find is a lot of people project what they think is the case, add plausible flavour and push for the paradigm to exist. However, you can often see Stevens quotes and know that Steven doesn't change his mind unless he directly states his mind is changed - a quote would be present for each component. While I do make requests and state my desires I try not to embellish the ideation.
It might be a lot of work to have and keep 3 sets of gear fully repaired.
Depends how much durability the gear will lose when you die and how scarce the resources will be.
If you have to import some resources through the caravan system from the other side of the map, you might have to play quite some time in a lower tier gear. You might equip the best gear only on special occasions, like during the siege of your own node.
Steven also said "Everything is subject to change" ... except some pillars.
If something doesn't work, he has to make it work before release, during testing.
Yes but the quotes will be there at the time. Steven doesn't do stealth changes lol.
Thank you.
Lol. I thought that when I saw the post.
Cause there are better ways to approach it that ensures people are on a tread mill that doesn't kill a game.
Seeing something from 20 years ago be applied to games and literarily not work shows that approach isn't good. There is 0 reason to not evolve it
I do agree that there are probably better ways of achieving the same thing, and I even proposed one a long time ago, but Steven gonna Steven