tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814591084344141656.post4811550425840729917..comments2022-04-11T20:34:56.519-07:00Comments on Gamer By Design: Party Progression ProblemsTalarianhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17684944568000522986noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814591084344141656.post-6079901045670299282015-09-16T20:09:33.264-07:002015-09-16T20:09:33.264-07:00Yeah, I had some friends wanting me to pick up RoS...Yeah, I had some friends wanting me to pick up RoS and this exact problem wound up completely killing my interest. They were playing Hardcore characters but I said I wanted to level a seasonal "normal" character first so I'd know the new stuff in RoS. Started on Master and worked my way up to Torment 4 at level 60 (I got like 15 Paragon levels at 60 before actually buying RoS), then insisted on punishing myself by making it to 70 without dropping down from Torment 4. Gradually got all yellow items and a few legendaries at 70 and Torment 4 become more than reasonable, was thinking about bumping it up to Torment 5.<br /><br />But before I did that I made a Hardcore character to play with those two friends. They power leveled me to 70 and up to like Paragon like 50 in something like 30-60 minutes -- which didn't bother me since I had literally just done that "the long way." Wound up even having legendaries in most slots and I had something like 30% more damage and 20% more survivability than my non-hardcore character. Okay, great. So then I actually start to try contributing on Torment 8 or maybe 9, forget.<br /><br />I do jack shit to enemies. I can survive reasonably and don't die (good trait for a HC character), but it takes ages to kill even the weakest mobs. Like I kill 2-3 low health weak mobs in 60 seconds...while my two friends clear out the entire map in those 60 seconds. It wasn't a matter of "Well, I've focused my gear/abilities/etc too much on defense, need to shift some of that to offense to get 50% more damage"...it was "Well, I'd need to more than triple my damage for this to be half reasonable and my friends seem to be more than tripling what THAT damage would be."<br /><br />And it all came down to using specific set bonuses with specific abilities with insane power. Things like X ability does 8000% more damage. Eight. Thousand. I was expecting something more like WoW -- that I'd get better "tiers" of yellow/legendary drops with more stats from higher Torment levels and that would be the main source of power increase, with some set bonuses giving the equivalent of oh, 5-15% damage each. Maybe even a little more. But nope. Kind of felt like seeing a Shadow Priest set bonus that said "Your Mind Vision spell now does 1000% of your spellpower each second that you channel it on your main target."<br /><br />I get the idea of set bonuses giving a larger bonus to weaker/less used abilities to encourage variety and multiple viable builds. I don't get the idea of set bonuses promoting using a few specific abilities and launching those abilities to truly insane heights. Again, I managed to make my way to 70 on Torment 4 with only a handful of random legendaries and a few Paragon levels I scrounged up at 60. I think that's proof my build was quite solid. And it didn't matter, I had to use the item sets and other specific abilities to have a prayer of doing the highest Torment difficulties.<br /><br />"Oh, you completed a set bonus? You just quadrupled your damage, have fun!"Balkothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12425374556730828853noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814591084344141656.post-12581893270881793192015-09-15T11:50:31.418-07:002015-09-15T11:50:31.418-07:00That's an excellent point. A couple lucky drop...That's an excellent point. A couple lucky drops and your power level explodes exponentially. Hard to account or balance for that.Talarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17684944568000522986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814591084344141656.post-71739739479264753792015-09-15T11:49:31.250-07:002015-09-15T11:49:31.250-07:00Seems similar to WoW's Timewalking. You end up...Seems similar to WoW's Timewalking. You end up with more tools so you're still technically more powerful than intended despite each tool putting out the same numbers as other abilities. Synergy as good design works against the designers here.<br /><br />I wonder if they could just scale damage across the cannons down based on expected number. ie: I have a tier 5 ship in tier 3 combat, maybe scale the damage of the cannons down so the average DPS is similar to a tier 3 ship? But that might feel crappy still, because those extra cannons might be hurting you rather than helping as you'd expect (especially if something has set value damage resistance per-hit).Talarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17684944568000522986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814591084344141656.post-15440661409502735392015-09-15T11:46:02.554-07:002015-09-15T11:46:02.554-07:00Yeah, the skill question can be even more awkward ...Yeah, the skill question can be even more awkward at times, though if you want to just hang out and play together, at least you have non-ranked as an option on occasion?Talarianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17684944568000522986noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814591084344141656.post-91410279787640277372015-09-15T06:22:31.534-07:002015-09-15T06:22:31.534-07:00Yeah in D3 it's all about the build coming tog...Yeah in D3 it's all about the build coming together. There is no gradual, predictable increase in power, you just go from where you are now to where your friend is, when you finally complete a few vital set bonuses. Suddenly, what was a challenge to stay alive through is almost insta-gibbed - which is great as a personal reward system, but sucks when party members have had different levels of RNG success and are sorted into those who have the bonuses that bring the numbers, and those who don't.Dahakhahttp://starfiredbeef.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814591084344141656.post-929485762059078722015-09-15T02:10:14.906-07:002015-09-15T02:10:14.906-07:00Star Trek Online 'solves" the problem wit...Star Trek Online 'solves" the problem with lowering your level (and your damage accordingly) but not by removing skills, which means you're still more powerful, but not unreasonably so, at least in ground combat. In space combat, your damage may be nerfed, but high level ships have a ton more cannons, so you basically obliterate enemies.....Helistarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01435861741164342377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814591084344141656.post-72535483882188765872015-09-15T00:54:24.097-07:002015-09-15T00:54:24.097-07:00I've had similar problems in games like League...I've had similar problems in games like League of Legends, and have been on both sides of the coin. Being told someone doesn't want to play with you because you aren't as good at the game (this being subjective, but true to an extent with skill levels varying based on a number of factors) sucks, but is a necessary drawback if you want to get anywhere in the rankings. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13540719333462909279noreply@blogger.com