When I took a look at the new level 70 Gear, I knew right away that many people wouldn't be pleased. It was just a matter of time before the complaints started to pour in on the forum.
As I talked to friends, it seemed the general consensus was that this gear was one giant Fizzle! In fact, I haven't talked to a single person who was excited to wear their new gear.
The most notable features (or lack of) are the decrease in global resistance, as well as a huge downgrade in damage %. Damage and Resist are the 2 defining factors that make a person want any gear set. Nobody, by choice, will sacrifice their damage and resist just for a few more Critical points.
At first glance, it appears that each Professor randomly picked school names out of a hat to determine what their gear will resist against. To have resistance against Myth, Life, and Fire (as an example) is just plain confusing. The reasons behind the seemingly random resist choices are something I cannot explain..
In the beginning I was totally on the "I hate the new Gear" bandwagon... but after some thought, I think I may understand KI's method to this madness.
Here is my theory:
With the release of WW Gear, every class got to see a significant increase in both damage and global resist. We were all happy, all powerful.
Now, let's take a look at Storm as an example. (note: im not picking on storm! this is simply to state a point of view) I realize that all wizards are different, and that stats can vary slightly. But, just to make things easy, lets just say the average for Storm was 80% damage boost..
Ok, 80% at lvl 60.. So, what should it have been for lvl 70? 90%? Perhaps, 95-100% at lvl 80?
See where I'm going with this..?
The WW gear was a mistake as much as we don't want to admit that. Our stats were out of control at level 60. C'mon guys, I was doing over 1500 damage with a vampire..
If we are that powerful at 60, how is KI supposed to make 70, and even 80 gear without being completely ridiculous??
We all had our fun at 60 for a while. It was a good ride. But it was an overlooked mistake, regardless. What KI is doing, is trying to bring us back down to earth, and to once again have reasonable stats. We may not like it, but it was necessary in order to keep the future of this game in balance.
Once again, I repeat: If we all expected our new gear to be an upgraded version of WW, imagine our stats at lvl 80, 90... 100.
Death had about 70% damage at lvl 60 (as another example). So should they now get 80% with the new gear? Then maybe 90% down the road..?
See, when you put the gear into perspective in this way, you can see how our "stats on steroids" would be a big problem in future levels.
Basically, you now have 2 choices. Either conform, and get the new gear and accept your new abilities, or... keep wearing your lvl 60 WW gear forever.
By now a lot of you are thinking I'm a huge nerd for suggesting too much power can be bad, but think about it - we have to balance our wants with the real dynamic of the game. And I'm sry to say this guys, but a WW upgrade is not keeping things in check.
It's a big shock to many ppl, but it's time we all come back to earth a little. For the future of the game, we need to.
When I took a look at the new level 70 Gear, I knew right away that many people wouldn't be pleased. It was just a matter of time before the complaints started to pour in on the forum.
As I talked to friends, it seemed the general consensus was that this gear was one giant Fizzle! In fact, I haven't talked to a single person who was excited to wear their new gear.
The most notable features (or lack of) are the decrease in global resistance, as well as a huge downgrade in damage %. Damage and Resist are the 2 defining factors that make a person want any gear set. Nobody, by choice, will sacrifice their damage and resist just for a few more Critical points.
At first glance, it appears that each Professor randomly picked school names out of a hat to determine what their gear will resist against. To have resistance against Myth, Life, and Fire (as an example) is just plain confusing. The reasons behind the seemingly random resist choices are something I cannot explain..
In the beginning I was totally on the "I hate the new Gear" bandwagon... but after some thought, I think I may understand KI's method to this madness.
Here is my theory:
With the release of WW Gear, every class got to see a significant increase in both damage and global resist. We were all happy, all powerful.
Now, let's take a look at Storm as an example. (note: im not picking on storm! this is simply to state a point of view) I realize that all wizards are different, and that stats can vary slightly. But, just to make things easy, lets just say the average for Storm was 80% damage boost..
Ok, 80% at lvl 60.. So, what should it have been for lvl 70? 90%? Perhaps, 95-100% at lvl 80?
See where I'm going with this..?
The WW gear was a mistake as much as we don't want to admit that. Our stats were out of control at level 60. C'mon guys, I was doing over 1500 damage with a vampire..
If we are that powerful at 60, how is KI supposed to make 70, and even 80 gear without being completely ridiculous??
We all had our fun at 60 for a while. It was a good ride. But it was an overlooked mistake, regardless. What KI is doing, is trying to bring us back down to earth, and to once again have reasonable stats. We may not like it, but it was necessary in order to keep the future of this game in balance.
Once again, I repeat: If we all expected our new gear to be an upgraded version of WW, imagine our stats at lvl 80, 90... 100.
Death had about 70% damage at lvl 60 (as another example). So should they now get 80% with the new gear? Then maybe 90% down the road..?
See, when you put the gear into perspective in this way, you can see how our "stats on steroids" would be a big problem in future levels.
Basically, you now have 2 choices. Either conform, and get the new gear and accept your new abilities, or... keep wearing your lvl 60 WW gear forever.
By now a lot of you are thinking I'm a huge nerd for suggesting too much power can be bad, but think about it - we have to balance our wants with the real dynamic of the game. And I'm sry to say this guys, but a WW upgrade is not keeping things in check.
It's a big shock to many ppl, but it's time we all come back to earth a little. For the future of the game, we need to.
The thing is, they need to do some give and take, and while the new gear takes away plenty, it doesn't give jack. I'd have been quite happy to trade damage boost, or crit rating on the scale of WW gear for some real pierce percentage (ie. more than the 4% to 10% given), heck i'd have dumped crit boost all together for 20% to 25% pierce, as even trash mobs have good crit block these days, and pierce would help me break through the resist of both PvE and PvP opponents.
Also not one peace of this new gear has any accuracy, or power pip boost at all, that's a pretty hard blow, when you stop to think that ZF has an estimated world background reduction of roughly -20% to both stats, and that the worlds that will be coming after will be even higher.
In fact the only set that holds any value at all is the Splendid Attire, and that's only because of the extra 45 gardening/pet points, so that maintaining a large garden of picky plants, and training your pets doesn't have to be a one or the other thing.
This is like saying we should stop using treasure cards. A person may say hey you should stop using them. They may be right in saying that, but everyone else is going to use them. Thats it. So you can go into a game "pure" and not use them, but you will lose most of the time to people who use them. Same thing here. Whats done is done and Waterworks is part of the game. If you ask will I be using the level 60 WW gear forever. Hopefully not, but until something more powerful comes along. . . why wouldn't I.
I agree, and I think that the waterworks gear should have a level range from 60-79, so the level 80's will be able to defeat the level 70's with their new spells and gear.
I was unimpressed with the stats of the new level 70 crowns gear. I was even more disappointed with the fact that the outfits used to be exclusive to farming bosses in Mooshu.
There are many wizards who prode ourselves on having made the effort to earn the elegant outfit from hard work and perseverance. It was a good reward that a wizard could proudly display as a sign of good taste and dedication to the game.
It seems a shame that such rare and unique clothing is now easily available to the more wealthy wizards who will never know the pleasure and discipline of farming for days, weeks, and months to attain a lovely, stylish reward.
Makes me sad and a little frustrated for my wizards who have worked hard and persevered for the sake of elegance.
This is like saying we should stop using treasure cards. A person may say hey you should stop using them. They may be right in saying that, but everyone else is going to use them. Thats it. So you can go into a game "pure" and not use them, but you will lose most of the time to people who use them. Same thing here. Whats done is done and Waterworks is part of the game. If you ask will I be using the level 60 WW gear forever. Hopefully not, but until something more powerful comes along. . . why wouldn't I.
I agree Temperest.
And I will say one more thing about the WW gear. If it gets downgraded in any way, I am done. It takes a lot of work in some cases to get that gear and I will use it until something better comes along.
As for the multi resists on the ZF gear, IMO, it is a waste. Most of my wizards have shields trained for all schools so this just isn't what I am looking for in gear.
I undertand the over increase in damage at level sixty but to make it more satisfactory make it have the same damage just with some more resistance to other schools and maybe a higher power pip chance along with critical block. i am a storm wizard and with a lightning bat i could do 500+ damage i was satisfied with this and it was a good actually great thing because then i could use more of my lower rank spells and not just 6+ pip spells to fight from dragonspyre on.
One thing i do think could be better is if critical block was an inherited trait that increased and started at level 25 at 1% but the enemies do not start using or earning criticals till celestia. Also maybe accuraccy should be a spell proficiency as you level up so do your spells maybe like if i was using insane bolt after twenty five kills on enemies one earns a proficincy like insane accuracy and it increase the chances of it hitting the enemy instead of killing you.
Or maybe wiz101 could respond to the lowering of attack bosts and criticals by making certain enemies non immune to stun or not as agressive as they are. My friend Zack stopped playing this game because he couldnt beat the ice boss to get his snow angel. I found it shocking when the boss was stun immune, the reason was when i fought my boss a couple months before there was no stun immune. STUN IMMUNE WAS A WASTE AND ITS ANNOYING.
please if anyone wants wiz101 to change this just post this over and over again maybe they will realize they are making some errors and they need to fix it
In one of the posts written by wizard101 staff, they seemed to distaste any kind of 'nerfing' in this game.
I don't think anything will be downgraded, uniform wise. But then again ... after the Siren nerf, who knows, really.
I also don't think that increasing level caps more and more is not the right way to go in the future. Hmmm. Who knows what kind of things KingsIsle comes up with.
In one of the posts written by wizard101 staff, they seemed to distaste any kind of 'nerfing' in this game.
I don't think anything will be downgraded, uniform wise. But then again ... after the Siren nerf, who knows, really.
I also don't think that increasing level caps more and more is not the right way to go in the future. Hmmm. Who knows what kind of things KingsIsle comes up with.
The difference in Sirens was that the change was fairly recent after the test server trials. So it was still in an "acceptable" window. Nerfing something that has been out nearly a year is a little harder to do.
I totally agree, and the gear isn't just a nerf either. We have some awesome new cards, more health, and allot more critical. I would always prefer x2 damage (aka. critical) to 30% resist.
Great post and thread - thanks so much for sharing your thoughts.
I wanted to pitch in with my own comments on this.
I believe the only way to make level 70 gear in any way shape or form desirable, is to ensure that the new enemies we will face, in whatever new world KI are working on next, will be tough enough for us to need it.
You'll remember the elephant in Mirror Lake with a -90% damage shield? If more enemies were to cast this type of shield (or similar protection) then the pierce ability would start to outweigh the benefit of critical increase gear.
Another way to change it would be to have more enemies blocking critical attacks. This would remove or reduce the benefit of critical attack gear in the new world.
With the new gear providing defense against fir, ice, and myth - i.e. non related schools of magic - it might make sense for the new world enemies to produce mixed class magical attacks - similar to balance magic but with elemental and spirit attacks all mixed in.
This approach will also allow for a natural progression of spell development across all schools of magic. If each school would gain the ability to learn mixed attacks (at low pip and high pip levels) it would allow KI to produce new spells without the need to always produce bigger and better spells for each class.
These spells might be gained from related schools in Wysteria or other new game trainers. I share a quick example for thought - what if Myth school learnt a new spell called, "Hades" (in Greek law, he is the brother of Zeus and ruler of the underworld). Perhaps the new spell might then produce an attack spell that does base damage of 400 Myth to each opponent, 305 Death, and 275 Storm for each round over three rounds.
This kind of evolution would allow players to produce mixed attacks that make the need and/or desire for mixed defense attributes provided by level 70 gear worthwhile.
Improving the critical attack rating of new enemies will also motivate players to turn in old WW gear in favor of higher critical blocks against those enemies capable of doing serious damage.
Anyway - I hope these thoughts are helpful and that someone at KI might find them a good jumping off point in considering the overall developmental arch of the game.
Also not one peace of this new gear has any accuracy, or power pip boost at all, that's a pretty hard blow, when you stop to think that ZF has an estimated world background reduction of roughly -20% to both stats, and that the worlds that will be coming after will be even higher.
Remember the Shide Staff came out when zafaria did. It works well with the new gear. I currently am using it with the new zafaria crafted gear and feel this combination is better for some of my wizards than waterworks gear.
My only problem is that they didn't just cut damage - I could deal with that. They also cut accuracy, shielding, power pip chance, and critical, while making the enemies we're fighting against even stronger. There's a give and take here - you can't make the enemies stronger and make us even weaker. It's not feasible, and it's not fun.
