Summary:The current Corruption system is extremely flawed and easy to exploit, with very few work arounds for legitimate consensual pvp encounters. Proposed are ways to revamp the Corruption System,
an addition of a "Soft Corruption" system, new systems to mitigate chances for griefing via mobs, and adding XP modifiers to flagged players in order to promote the ability to work off xp debt in competitive environments.
Additionally, classes lack synergetic playstyles. I've made detailed feedback of how to employ skill/item reworks to make them feel more team oriented and rework overpowered cc spam.
Consensual and Non-Consensual PvP:Issue: PvP is currently easy to exploit/bypass consensual PvP mechanics, allowing players or teams to quickly attack and CC targets, then allowing mobs to finish the job without penalty to attackers. Preventing time for the defender to react or flag.
Proposal:
Add a mechanic that prevents the trading of gear once it is corrupted. This aims to prevent situations where players might intentionally kill a friend or allow mobs to kill them, thereby clearing their Red status and losing valuable gear. Introduce a new "Soft-Corruption" state that does not directly corrupt the player. Instead, it introduces a potential risk for non-consensual PvP. Without clear flagging mechanics, defending players could retaliate against a "Soft-Corrupted" player, creating a risk for the attacker. This mechanic does not prevent team play or defending a "Soft-Corrupted" player; it simply adds a risk element. To trigger the gear drop penalty associated with "soft corruption," the victim must land the killing blow on the previous attacker. This encourages fair combat and prevents abuse of the system, ensuring the corruption penalty is only applied when the victim actively defeats the attacker.
Consensual PvP Flagging changes: No more short term flagging. Going hostile should keep you hostile until you have exited combat for the duration of the timer. Any damage or healing dealt or received, even PvE combat, should reset the timer.
When party/raid members flag, it should give a prompt and 45 seconds grace period, after which, it will flag the entire party if the player is still in the group and has not been removed. This will also occur if a party invites a flagged player. This will allow groups to not exploit or surprise flag on someone, and instead keep the entire team accountable for each other's actions - while still not directly forcing teams to accept people who willingly flag against the teams desire. The grace period will assure there is time to remove non-consensual pvpers from the group, and encourage groups to organize based on willingness to participate in pvp. This will also prevent "partial pvp" where 1 or two people are flagged in a group randomly causing trouble.
To keep up the competition of pvp over grind spots, being flagged should add a multiplier to XP debt reduction, making xp debt removed at a 15% faster rate. This is a risk vs reward system that will encourage active “protection” of a groups grind spot, as well as incentive for challengers to make a second attempt.
In this instance, a healer would still need to flag up to heal someone, but it would have the implications of flagging up the rest of the team also, after the grace period. The system notification would read: "[Player] has flagged for combat." And it would have the same countdown bar as loot rolls, making it clear to the group what is occurring.
Resurrecting a previously flagged player should flag you. Give the dead body a flag timer, if the body is resurrected before the timer expires, the person who revives will become flagged.
Non-Consensual PvP Flagging Changes:New SOFT CORRUPTION mechanic
Flagging and having a mob last hit someone who did not flag, will award the same penalty as killing them yourself and cause you to get a new
"Soft Corruption” mechanic.
If multiple people attack you and you don't attack back, and a mob kills you, it will apply this
Soft Corruption to all of them.
This
Soft Corruption is similar to regular Corruption, except the main difference being that
they will not appear red globally, and instead will be flagged purple like usual - but
Red to the player they collectively attacked. During this
Soft Corruption, a "last hit kill" from the previously killed player, will result in those players dropping
‘Corrupted Gear’ and accruing blight the same as going Red would. This would carry the same implications of being untradable/not sellable,
detailed further below.
This would prevent flagging to grief and training mobs to “finish the job.”.
This condition WOULD NOT APPLY in pvp zones such as the desert.
This condition could be called
"Spoiling Blood"
An in-lore description would read: "Growing corruption can only be quelled by a pure soul."
This
Soft Corruption state would remain
for an hour and mark all attackers to the player who was killed. The location of these players would also be shown to their party members. However, because these players are not fully Corrupted,
they would not show up globally to others. Players who have accumulated an excess of blight will also carry a very small chance of becoming fully Corrupted when this happens. My suggestion is 0.10% chance per blight, meaning 10 red kills would result in a 1% chance to turn red when griefing. This would help deter more mischievous repeat offenders.
Original CORRUPTION mechanics, revised. Previously Red players should be ineligible to be resurrected, and instead may ONLY spawn at their HOME emberspring. If no home is set, the default spawn remains Lionhold regardless of how far away it is.Corruption on Gear, and it’s status Removal:Gear from corrupted players cannot be traded or sold on the market, unless taken to a Black Market NPC, who will charge at a minimum, 5g worth of glint to cleanse the gear. And that amount will be multiplied by the amount of blight the player had on death.
This must be glint ONLY, just like paying taxes. Meaning it is entirely on the person carrying the item to acquire the means of cleansing the gear.
This condition could be called
"Corrupted Blood."Gear that is picked up by the person who was killed by the red player, will be cleansed on pickup and can be traded and sold freely and immediately.
An in-lore description could read as "Corruption does not linger in pure souls. This item yearns to return to its owner. This item will be cleansed when found by the pure of heart, or taken to a Black Market and purged …for a fee."
Class Synergies:Issue: Current Archetypes skills lack synergies and the need for classes to work together in combat, and several extremely strong CC skills exist that allow players to easily exploit/bypass other game mechanics, not notably in pvp.
Proposal: Enhance the combat system by adding synergies, where combining certain skills or conditions rewards planning and organization. For example, using a specific skill after applying a particular debuff can strengthen that debuff or introduce extra mechanics to make it more powerful. Additionally, include multiple options to break free from crowd control (CC) spam, providing players with strategic alternatives.
There needs to be far more class-to-class synergies for group play, in order to provide more balance and
less ability for solo or small groups to cc lock or dominate players or grief. There needs to be reasons for classes to work together for added effects, and removal of completely unbalanced 10 second cc locks.
This would prevent cheesing people with dance/incapacitate in PvE non-combat situations and require them to actually initiate combat first to apply a precursor instead of just the cc itself.
Powerful debuffs would need precursors from class/weapon combos in order to use these extremely strong skills.
Skill changes and synergies:
Mesmerizing Dance applies a Physical/Magic Evasion debuff. If the target is dazed, apply dance CC. This would prevent the ability for players to cc lock/grief players suddenly and with no repercussions - in an attempt to steal resource nodes or when initiating non-consensual pvp. Slumber would need a similar mechanic.
Tripped: Dazed targets are knocked down for double the duration. Give us a reason to use maces or communicate with archers when applying daze.
Dazed: Newly applied shields are 50% effective if cast when dazed. Give Archers and maces a place to shine against casters. I’m still a big proponent of increasing daze spell cast time to 33%, if not -50%. 25% just simply is NOT enough to be impactful.
Rooted changes:
Root can be broken with a dodge roll but costs 50% more stamina. (75 cost)
All classes need more stamina Regen, or a larger stamina pool. Battles turn into walking simulators extremely fast. Fighters should be the kings of mobility, but all classes should have the ability to maneuver.
New Debuff:Deep Wounds: Applies a -25% healing debuff that stacks on top of Wounded. This specific debuff cannot be raised higher than 25%, but when combined with maximum Wounded stacks, sets heal reduction to -75%.
Only Fighters and Archers would have access to this debuff. The prerequisite to apply this debuff is to have max wound stacks on the target. If Wound stacks fall below max, this condition is lost.
Spell changes:Shielded (Spell effect) changes:
Cannot gain Dazed or gain additional wounded debuffs while magically spell-shielded.
Stat changes:
DEX should also give mild spell evasion also, allowing people to mix evasion strategies and Archers/fighters who invest in DEX to be highly evasive and mobile on the battlefield. Open up strategies for players to utilize DEX in creative ways.
Class Skill Changes:Archer changes:Issue:
Archer archetype lacks a clear purpose and feel awkward. They are outperformed in everything it does, by other classes.
Proposal: Rework skills to allow them to be Channeled, keeping the Archer mobile on the battlefield but still rewarding them for deliberate and planned attacks. Add additional ways for an Archer to control battlefield movement, and increase single target damage potential.
My understanding of Archers through extensive experimenting and testing, is that they control the battlefield and are supposed to be the king of single target ranged spike damage. While they fall extremely short of this right now, that’s how the skills read to me. Mana consumption is also very high with very little in returns of damage.
Skill reworks:Allow the majority of attack skills to be channeled, so that the archer does not give up its mobility, but still has the option to charge powerful attacks for spike damage. Progressively slow movement as the charge level increases.
Focus:
Weapon Combos increase Focus, Channeling Skills deplete focus. The longer the channel, the more is depleted.
Damage now applies to ALL damage not just skill damage. Power Shot: 0.3 second Activation. Deals additional damage if foe is casting a spell. If the target is dazed, interrupt the skill and deal additional damage and gain focus. If foe has max stacks of wounded, deal Deep Wound. Trips targets that have maximum stacks of Snared.
Raining Death:Now works like Fighters Whirlwind and expends focus to channel. (Up to 6 seconds) Roots snared targets and applies Wounded every second. Additional damage to Shocked Targets. DOES NOT SNARE ON ITS OWN.
Barrage:Is now a 6 second Buff that applies 25% increased attack speed.
Does not expend focus on basic attack hit.Lightning Reload:
Also refunds half of its energy when refreshing Thundering Shot.
Snipe:
In addition to current effects, give exponentially more damage if the player is camouflage and allow the skill to be channeled.
Salvo:
Salvo currently expends ALL shots on use, even if the enemy dies or moves out of range.
Shots should stop when either of these two things happen. Players should also be able to cancel this skill by using it a second time while it is active, or just make this another channeled ability.Air Strike:
Add a guaranteed chance to critically hit.
Class Skill Changes:Fighter changes:Issue: Melee suffers tremendously from CC spam lock and has very few sustainable counters and is often left unable to effectively participate on the front lines.
Proposal: Add move movement and CC evasion to fighters. Add newly proposed synergies to the Fighters armament.
Skill reworks:Form of Celerity: In addition to movement speed, allow this skill to instead of mana, to increase stamina regen by up to 15% based on momentum, and double the players magical and physical Evasion when they are not attacking.
Form of Fluidity: Additionally grants immunity to Deep Wound.
Form of Ferocity: Apply Deep Wound on Extended Deadly Finishers.
Item functionality changes:Issue: Shields do apply significant tangible benefit, and have no attached skill tree.
Proposal: Add ways for players to increase their defenses via a skill-tree for shields.
Shield Item changes:
Shields still need to provide a much larger benefit, either increased block rates or additional damage reduction values.
They seem to have very minimal effectiveness, especially in large scale pvp. They should be a valuable tool to anyone looking to stay alive longer, and able to make enough of a difference in an off-hand slot to forgo bringing a power boosting weapon or focus. Even when paired with Ward, they feel lackluster. Having a skill tree for shields would be greatly beneficial. Skill tree coil have allocations for reduction in spell or physical damage, disable resistance and health bonuses. Instead of Finishers, effects kick in when a player loses x amount of health suddenly.
Example of these top-skill-tree allocations:
Left side:
Fortitude: Constitution and magic resist is increased by 5%
Aegis: When losing more than 30% of your life in 1 second, gain an additional 10% chance to block for 3 seconds.
Paragon: Shield effects apply to group members in a 35m radius when activated.
Right side:
Evading Blows: Blocking reduces disable duration on you by 50% for 3 seconds.
Resilient Soul: Constitution and magic resist is increased by 5%
Reflecting Blows: Small chance to apply snare to nearby enemies when hit by physical damage.
Middle:
Strong Arms: Block mitigation increased by 10%
Tactician: Disable evasion increased by 10%
Middle node Specific Skills:Phalanx: No movement penalty while blocking, but unable to dodge roll.
(Maybe even allow us to sprint...?)Agile Defense: Cannot Raise Shield, but chance to block is increased by 15%.
Stalwart: 15% chance to gain passive health regeneration for 5 seconds after a successful block.
Lesser node skills:
Speed to Raise Shield increased by 10% per node.
Healing Received increased by 3% per node.
Critical Avoidance increased by 5% per node.
Armor increased by 3% per node.
Block Mitigation increased by 3% per node.
Magic Resist increased by3% per node.
Disabling effect duration reduced by 3% per node.
End of tree Specific Skills:Shield Riposte: Skills or finishers after a successful block have a 10% increased chance to critically hit.
Cautious Defense: 5% increased chance to block.
Adaptive Defense: Blocking a hit while below 5% energy will trigger energy regeneration for 10 seconds.
Wand Item Changes:Issue: Energy Wand skill Echo does not function properly with physical skills, and Perfect Timing does not offer enough of a benefit between the need to use auto attacks between skill cooldowns.
Proposal: Fix Echo functionality, rework Perfect Timing functionality to provide a flat reduction percentage based on skill points invested.
Energy Wand Feedback:Echo does not currently seem to work with physical skills. Perfect timing feels lackluster, and even with max investment you will seldom reach full stacks between skill uses.
Energy Wand Essence Harvest should give physical power.Perfect Timing:Reduce skill cooldown by flat percentage instead of 5 seconds, so that it is more viable for larger skills and helps with sustain for smaller skills. The justification for this is because most of the game relies upon skill use and not auto attacks.
An example:
Extra stacking: Uninvested, 4% cooldown reduction.
Each point allocated is 1 additional stack, and +4% reduced cooldown per stack.
(4)+4+4+4
16% per stack, at maximum stack skill. Full stack is 64% cooldown on the next skill.
Other notes:Penetration does not appear to affect PvE enemies.
Enemies need more density, to make luring/tanking mobs more difficult. Instead of beefing up health bars so much, add more enemy volume and variety to spawn locations.
Give them armor/magic resist values so that people need to think about using penetration as a stat instead of just crit and power. Penetration seems to only work in pvp.
In conclusion, thanks for the wonderful opportunities to continue to test. It's taken me a lot of time to really hammer into these things and come up with viable solutions and ways to improve them. Looking forward to seeing everyone's thoughts.
