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You say that you guys want people to have fun playing your game. With the new critical system, It isn't fun anymore, it was fine the way it was. Please change it back!

High Five Ghost on Nov 25, 2015 wrote:

Even with all of its drawbacks the most important aspect of a game is still there, at least in my opinion...
It's CHALLENGING and FUN, and that's what it's all about.

The key point here is "your opinion". The important aspects of this game to me were fun and family-friendly.

This game no longer offers either of those to me. They've taken families right out of it, and that's primarily the people I used to quest with. People like me who were playing the game with our kids.

Now our kids don't play. They're not master strategists. They make mistakes. And in the worlds past Zafaria, if you make a mistake, you're stupid and everybody hates you. Children have fragile enough self esteem as it is without thinking people hate them for not being perfect in a game... a GAME.

Wizard101 is no longer a game for children, and as such it is no longer a game for families, so KI should not be surprised that families are going to slowly disappear from their customer base.

If you love strong challenges, then fantastic! You're who they're building the game for. I wish you the best of luck. I hope those of you who remain will be able to financially support KI enough to continue to build the game you want.

The kid aspect does concern me in this family friendly mmorpg. Most posters on this & other forums re this issue seem to be older players, yet I would wager most players are kids whose voices aren't being heard directly. High Five Ghost is right re young kids: they don't strategize so much, & they don't play "the perfect game" (few players do). When a 10 yr old logs in, faces a changed game, and suddenly his wiz "doesn't work anymore", it's not just frustrating. Getting crit on constantly, not blocking, and dying all the time isn't fun, but it is reason to move on to a game that is. They don't care about the need for or reasons behind the changes, or whether there may be improvements later. Today matters, not next week; if wiz101 is a fail in the fun category today, & the kid can't make any progress in a game where progression in varied areas is the point, then tomorrow brings a different game.

Prior to changes I was a relatively adept, primarily solo Myth wiz that had gone through 100 lvls, adapting, learning, dealing with challenges each level & world brought, & having fun doing it. The Day the changes were implemented, fun factor declined. Now i'm crit on relentlessly by bosses and mobs, while my crit block is all but nonexistent. I can deal with a much lower crit rate, but not with spending every fight casting shields and heals instead of hits, after successive rounds of critical boss hits that I no longer block. I die repeatedly now, and have taken up perm residence in sardonyx, with little hope of making it thru. Being a noob exalt, I don't have my spell yet, and now little hope of going thru darkmoor (went x2 in the past few days, & "team up" brought no help in a place that used to be full of people. I've been told repeatedly "it's because of the changes", "people don't want to do it anymore). I don't want to quit the game, but it's more DysFunction than Fun now, and an exercise in frustration isn't my idea of enjoyment.

Dr Von on Nov 25, 2015 wrote:

hear, hear!

i have full darkmoor gear on one wizard; i have 2 others who need it, as well as a life wizard who is coming up on level 100, but i have no desire to attempt any of it with the new system in place.

i have no problem with a challenge; however, fact remains that it's far too late for this sort of change~ if the system "never was supposed to work that way", as various mods said, both during test and now in live, then it should have been fixed straight out of the starting gate. you can't expect to overhaul such a fundamental aspect of the game, 50 levels after the fact, without backlash.

i, and i'm sure others, have build entire setups around the old system, spent months farming or training pets, in anticipation of the next world, and our hard work and effort has been entirely negated. solo players are effectively dead, as are defensive builds and the casual/family aspect of this game. at this point, i'll be taking only one wizard (probably balance) into polaris~ storm is my favourite, but she won't be setting foot anywhere near it until the system is fixed; she simply doesn't have the health required to withstand all of those back-to-back criticals.

tucsonwiz, i have a great deal of respect for you, and we have agreed on many things in the past; unfortunately, this is not one of them.

-von

A good post. I find it ironic in the way they insist on fixing this issue, directly results in the outrage of the members. Even I, in my excessive ignorance, could find a way to make needed changes, without resulting in the ire of my paying customers. You would think at some point they would simply admit they screwed up, and seek a much more equitable resolution. I have seen many solutions proposed that seem to have merit, and yet they have all been ignored so far in favor of this current fiasco. Hopefully they can garner needed clarity on this issue, before the game is lost.

"There is no shame in being wrong. Shame is reserved for the ones who won't admit it, or worse deny it".
- Intrepidatius

Something needs to be done about Life critical heals. I feel like I have to justify myself again and again because this topic is so underrated and barely anyone seems to be aware of this problem or even care. You don't have to be Life to understand this matter. Seriously, I don't know how else to word my concern.

My Exalted Life wizard achieved a critical of 94% in the old system. Now his critical has decreased and will continue to decrease as he levels up. As a Life wizard, I never had a hard time finding a group in dungeons, PvP, or PvE—but something tells me that might change. Next time you're looking for a healer, you don't have to look for a Life wizard. Deciding whether to have a Life or a nonlife wizard with a life mastery amulet as your healer won't make much difference because now anyone can heal just as well as Life wizards. I, like many Life wizards, rely heavily on critical heals to heal teammates. Asking KingsIsle to revert the system to the way it was in the past is out of the question because I know it won't happen. So I now advice KingsIsle that the Life critical heal (or heals in general) calculation should be different than the critical damage calculations without nerfing our critical heal calculations. Keep the critical heal percentage the same it was in the old system. Example: my critical heal percentage will stay at 94% but my critical damage will be different. That way Life can heal effectively.

Hopefully, KingsIsle doesn't have to see a million posts about this issue to realize what the new system has done to Life.

For those interested in how the system works supported by testing.

Critical System

For those interested in how you can utilize the new system to your advantage.

Balanced Sets

Critical Farming Sets

this new system is terrible. it is almost impossible to solo anything without buying henchmen constantly. i will get crit on constantly and will almost NEVER block a critical. not only do you need to change the block but LOWER the bosses and minions critical as well. now the critical, unless you are storm you are going to have a very hard time trying to critical. even with my 380 critical on my fire it is almost useless now. the last system was completely fine and i have no idea why you guys have changed this.

Christopher Storm on Nov 25, 2015 wrote:

I have something to say about the new system, and I think it should be heard.

Honestly, I am appalled at it. I understand KingsIsle wants the game to be more challenging for us, and I accept that. I enjoy a challenge. But however, I've noticed Darkmoor is not possible now.

My storm first off when Darkmoor was released had no block whatsoever. I was dying a lot in there and that's because I had no gear. After I got all my Darkmoor gear, terror hoard pack wand, etc. I ended up maintaining a 85% critical, to 70% block ratio. Now, in Darkmoor you need conviction if you have below 70%. I feel like it's true. After I started using conviction in Darkmoor when I had no block on my storm, I'd block everything. Now my storm is sitting at 37% critical, with 40% block. (Only because I now use the darkmoor hood rather than the hood of desert rains.) But this is besides the point. Why am I complaining about Darkmoor and tying it with this example.

My myth recently hit 100, almost a month ago actually. And ever since the update. I have 27% critical and block on a exalted Myth. That shouldn't. No. How is Darkmoor even doable at this point? KingsIsle, you nerfed conviction which was the most reliable critical block spell in the game. It was at 90% block, and then you took it down to 20%? And not only this, but how are jades supposed to be defensive now when they can be hit with a critical? I understand you want the game to be more challenging. And I love a challenge. But I'd rather Polaris have minions with a lot of health, and can block my storm a lot than have no chance of even blocking Rasputin. I strongly feel like a change needs to happen. And I'm not the only one who agrees. My friend Dakota Storm, level 82. He only has 13% block and is in Azteca. A storm with that much block in Azteca is doomed. Please listen KI, and change this.. It's made the game unenjoyable.

Conviction was never 90% block it was +90 block rating. 20% block on the new Conviction is lower block for players under level 93 and higher block for players over 102 than the old +90 was. Under the old +90 rating, <lvl52 = 25% block, 53-62 = 24%, 63-72 = 23%, 73-82 = 22%, 83-92 = 21% 93-100 = 20%. Now everyone gets 20% instead of under the old Conviction where 103+ would have been 19% and continuing downward as new levels are added.

I have played this game longer than my "Joined" date says, this is only one of my newest accounts. I've been playing this game for about 5 years now, and I've really enjoyed it. There have been times where I have taken long breaks from it, but I still came back every time because of how much fun this game was for me. However, I've never seen such a poor decision done by KI in my entire time of playing. The Polaris update looks beautiful, wonderful graphics, amazing story and dialogue, but why in the world would you change critical and critical block?! In my opinion the old system was perfect, higher critical goes through lower block, and higher block stops lower criticals. How was this system bad or broken?! Yeah, I understand that people complain about being crit on in PvP and PvE while they had high block, but that doesn't make it broken, that's just the chance of you blocking or not!

Clearly I'm not alone in my decision of the old system being better, there are a ton of people on here just repeating eachother over and over and over again, stating the same point every time. Blaze and Blue from YouTube even talk about how difficult this makes Azteca, Khrysalis, Darkmoor, and Polaris in their "Road to 110" series with their Life and Myth characters. I understand the people at KI don't want to revert the system, but you guys need to do something to fix this critical block issue, because it's just starting to become way less fun to play, and all it's causing me is stress after repeated deaths.

Thanks for reading my thoughts on the system, and KI, if you read this, please do something to fix this amazing game from this choice of changing critical and critical block. We should never have to have lower critical or critical block when we need it so badly in a game where that can change a battle in a second.

Kenneth FireBlade (Level 101)

TucsonWizard on Nov 25, 2015 wrote:

First off, thanks(?) to all who insisted on arguing the validity of my opinion. Most of you have opinions that differ from mine and that's fine. This forum is all about good healthy discussion so it is doing its job.
Many think that KI is turning a deaf ear to the issues being brought up here. I don't. I'm definitely not trying to be their apologist but I do think they listen. I won't go into a long detailed list of issues that have been addressed throughout the growth of this game, everyone who's played for a while knows that they pay attention and make adjustments. A company with the ultimate goal of making money does not purposely alienate its core customer base. Unfortunately with a million members come a million differing opinions as to how things should work.
At the end of the day this is a game. Entertainment. A pastime offered up to those who wish to partake. If it's no longer fun for you then, by all means, adios, sayonara, ciao, auf wiedersehen, catch you on the flip side. Sorry to see any of you go but if you feel strongly enough about this issue, or any issue for that matter, then there's obviously no reason to stick around. I choose the glass half full approach and intend to keep playing. There is so much that's good in the game I'm not going to let something like this spoil it for me.
When it's no longer fun I'll walk away but until then, I'm in.

A specific retort to Angel of Solitude:
-I am also a paying player and this is my voice. I referenced my statements as being from the viewpoint of a "weak and vulnerable" Life wizard. But I also have Fire, Death, Myth and Balance wizards who have relied heavily on critical hit and block. Obviously they've been negatively affected in different ways by this update. And yes, I've farmed for gear for ALL of these wizards... I'd wager to say as much as if not more than most. I'm no happier about the recent changes than anyone else is but it still doesn't have me running for the hills.

I agree with you. I think they do listen, and I think they are addressing the issue.

I probably haven't been following this as closely as some others, but I'm pretty certain one of my characters last week had 3% crit block, and without changing any gear this week had a double digit crit block. Still under 20%, but he also blocked a number of critical attacks too.

But as I said before, unfortunately it's not just this issue that pushed me away. It's been something that's been piling up for a long time. This was a tiny, almost insignificant issue in the grand scheme of things, it just happened to be that tiny, insignificant event that started the avalanche.

There are a lot of really great things about the game that I'm going to miss, but much like the critical/block system that needed to be changed to work the way it was intended, the game has been building on certain fundamental principles for a number of years that take it in a direction that doesn't appeal to me. Unlike the tweaks and changes that could improve the new critical/block system, I really don't see any way for KI to get the game back to what I used to enjoy. The massive overhaul to take it back to its roots may be possible, but is totally unrealistic at this point. I've just finally decided to accept that instead of living in denial.

Ok peeps

I have been reading all I can about the changes in the Critical system. Knowing that KI only wants the best for its players and paying customers. I am interested in hearing all the positive stuff that has happened since the change.

Peeps: I have made more friends just hanging out now and instead of questing.
Also I was to complete Avalon without dying.

Please lets hear all the positives so KI can see that there decision was a great one.

MADISON461J on Nov 26, 2015 wrote:

Ok peeps

I have been reading all I can about the changes in the Critical system. Knowing that KI only wants the best for its players and paying customers. I am interested in hearing all the positive stuff that has happened since the change.

Peeps: I have made more friends just hanging out now and instead of questing.
Also I was to complete Avalon without dying.

Please lets hear all the positives so KI can see that there decision was a great one.

todd071, what's causing most of us to freak out is we all had a very good Critical/Block system already an old adage is if it isn't broken don't mess with it KI idea was to help improve PvP I really don't have a problem with that but I do when I spend tons of crowns and hours of crafting and waiting for my timers to reset. I'm very sorry but I can't say anything good about the new Critical/Block but the rest of the update they done an awesome job with it in this post you will find only one positive out of 6 pages.

MADISON461J on Nov 26, 2015 wrote:

Ok peeps

I have been reading all I can about the changes in the Critical system. Knowing that KI only wants the best for its players and paying customers. I am interested in hearing all the positive stuff that has happened since the change.

Peeps: I have made more friends just hanging out now and instead of questing.
Also I was to complete Avalon without dying.

Please lets hear all the positives so KI can see that there decision was a great one.

TBH unless you are a level 100+ questing only in Polaris and not going back to earlier worlds wouldn't effect you as much. Know if I were a high critical pvp'er who now can make it through blocks, I'd love it. And would be trying to figure out some way to keep this like it is. Can't think of much else on the positive side.