For those who are afraid of Thrall Rebalancing

At the time of this post, it’s still broken. From what I’ve read, the only easy way to access testlive is to launch the regular game and connect to testlive servers from there.

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Not quite. You have to opt in to the beta through steam’s game properties.

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Thanks for the correction. I hadn’t tried it, only tried the testlive client.

So the first time you ever played you just leveled to 60 on server alone with out knowing any of the info on what or where to go to get things or how to do things. Well great to you really. Many of us had to learn the game, maybe even die a time or two lose all the stuff have to go back and remake it all but I forget PVP has 4x so well guess easier on xp to start with but then again not every newbie has the skill. I just think we need to keep it fun and challenging also for new people who just purchase it or for casual players.

I have not had a chance either to test the new boss changes along with the new thrall hate list fixes if they are added yet , will as soon as test live is up and running.

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Yep, that’s the newbie experience. Trial by fire, learn by loss. Nobody came into this game instantly professional, we all were there once. You’re supposed to learn from your mistakes and improve, not linger on it. The game isn’t supposed to hold your hand through everything, it’s a barbarian survival game.

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Part of the newbie experience is to struggle, to learn how to solve the problems you face, to discover and test new things, it’s part of every game, a problem to solve and a reward for doing so.
In my first character i made to lvl 60 i had many experiences, with the world, thralls, and the building mechanics, i remember figuring out how to make round towers, and understanding how the stability system worked, even now i’m still learning a few things, that’s the fun of it.

I also remember the first time i went into Gallaman’s Tomb, a cave in the newbie river with brimestone and crocs… i was exploring the area without knowing what could i expect, torch and sword in hand i survived many crocs untill i found the croc boss and killed me so fast that i understood that i needed to be more prepared next time. With a bit of luck i captured a greater hyena, it was my first pet ever so i thought it was normal it had about 8k hp, went with it inside thinking that maybe i would have a chance now, and the hyena alone killed the croc in a matter of seconds… to be fair that boss is very weak, but nevertheless, it was so easy, that i thought that had to be something wrong, a bug? no, it was perfectly normal, Thralls and pets were OP, and they still are.

Is it fine? maybe in the short sight, a problem solved by capturing a greater pet, but any pet or thrall could have done it, well, maybe a deer not so much. In the long term, it was ridiculous, it was like playing Mario bros. with the star from the begining to the end, could be fun for a while but you take away almost every challenge from the game, i kinda enjoyed it, but always showed my discontent about the strenght of thralls and they only made them stronger.

To me thralls and pets are an important part of the game, necesary for the full conan exiles experience, but i don’t want them to do everything for me, now it’s about the thrall’s strenght in combat, the next thing i hope they include is the skill to be an expert crafter, i can imagine choosing a profesion from the character creation, for example blacksmith, to be able to craft and master the profesion to not rely on thralls for that particular skill.

Back to the topic, they just balanced bosses in relation to thrall power, i think that now it’s even easier than before, they still hit hard but with far less HP, i’m very happy about it, taking away those extra minutes of repeating the same thing over and over untill i killed the boss is great of the user experience.

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the pve people are the problem, this people want to rule the game in one month

Please don’t make blanket statements like this. PvE people, just like PvP people, are not a homogenous group with identical goals. If they were, balancing the game would be easy.

I’m currently testing an Exile Fighter I, bottom of the barrel. I caught her after she impressively survived a fight against three shalebacks (she didn’t kill them, she survived them to the point where I killed the three) and decided she was worth my effort.

You know, Exile Fighter I’s start with 0’s in all stats and low chances to raise them, except Survival, their favored stat. I equipped her with flawless non-Epic heavy armor, a flawless DLC (epic) spear, and a pot of gruel, and set her loose on various low-level enemies, such as crocodiles, rocknoses and Exile camps. She’s doing fine, even though she has a wimpy 384 hitpoints at level 4. (Admittedly, the gear isn’t low-level, but they’re there to compensate for the fact that she’s the worst possible thrall. I could’ve got an Exile Fighter III instead, they’re equally easily accessible for low-level players.) A T4 Exile fighter with similar gear, at level 6, takes apart gorillas and grey apes without really slowing down and taking minimal damage.

Remember, it’s the 20k hitpoint Dalinsias and Volcano thralls that are getting the biggest nerfs. Remember, it’s the same 20k hitpoint thrall that was, during testing, determined to be an error that shouldn’t happen, but apparently it went through to live anyway.

The problem isn’t that thralls are getting nerfed into oblivion. The problem is that we got too strong thralls, who are now getting brought back to the level where they were meant to be, but we already got used to the “too good to be true” versions.

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I have to agree with @Cyryus on this one. It’s really not any different. They lowered thralls then lowered bosses. It’s pretty much right back where it was with just smaller numbers. TBH I think if they give players a small buff to HP and DMG they will have hit the sweet spot.
And also GO TEST IT!!! Please they need people helping to test, giving feedback, and reporting bugs. The more people that help the more stable the patch will be when it drops.

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I’d consider this a buff by reduction. The nerf of both bosses and thralls make the player stronger by comparison. If they buff players, it’ll mess with the rest of the game, as you’ll be able to cakewalk everything including non-boss enemies.

As someone who has tested the new bosses and can solo almost every boss in the game in under 3 minutes without the top gear, I don’t think a buff is necessary.

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I hope to post tonight my test run on curretn testlive build. And for posterity puroses, i used things that are easily recognizable as far as wepaons and armor. My thinking is, if i did not research about legendary, what thrall, or best this or that. I uese recipes that show up in the craft stations.
So hardened steel weapons
Heavy exceptional armor (not flawless.
Haunch
Healing arrows
Janos from new Asagarth. all would be things that a newer player who hit 60 would have interacted with easily. Named thralls are common sense, because when you fight the NPC, there is noticeable difference in the DMG, and also the gold bar should tell any gamer, hey i am special.

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Exactly. This strategy of nerfing thralls and bosses will leave player vs. hyena, player vs. rhino, player vs. Black Hand Captain and player vs. grey ape the same as it was, but makes thralls less effective against mobs. Similarly, players will have a slightly easier time killing bosses and thralls (ie. it’s an indirect buff to players) whereas thralls are as strong against bosses as before.

Indeed. Also, as I said above, test non-named thralls too. I’ve seen some people suggest that thrall damage and hitpoints should be on par with players. To them I say - it’s already there! Go “recruit” an Exile T1 thrall, they have something like 360 hitpoints and hit like pillows. Test them and see if that’s the level of thrall you want, then adjust your suggestions accordingly.

(Minor spoiler: an Exile Fighter I can handle most things around Noob River, and can survive rocknoses with good gear, but I’d be scared to take her against any serious opposition - and worst of all, I could easily kill her accidentally if I try to help her. So far, empirical evidence suggests that 360 hitpoints would be insufficient for a late-game thrall.)

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Agreed. A T3 fighter from Sep/North is still going to be a lot better than a T4 from newb river. In most of my playthroughs, a random T3 from Set City is my primary follower up until I can find a T3-4 bearer thrall. Then I’ll usually just trade between those two depending on if I’m farming or fighting. If I find a T4 then sometimes might bring him back home with me, but I’m usually not too worried about it. They make the boss fights take longer, but they still get the job done.

I’m not sure which one heals more/faster, but I think you could probably add Cooked Abysmal Flesh to the list of what a newb has access to. It’s basically like the low level version of aloe soup. Can be made in a simple campfire without needing the stove. I think it would probably take a Soloplayer longer to discover than someone on a server, but it is generally regarded as the lowest level dungeon. And both the Abysmal Remnant and Thrall pathing/porting seem to be working properly on the teslive server.
It just occurred to me, the haunch is probably food for the thrall, not the player. Carry on. :grin:

I agree with this, but I know some others don’t.

As I have mentioned before, the game needs a combat system rework. The system we have is not compatible with the game complexity anymore. Purges, bosses, elite monsters, thrall combat, mob packs, solo play, team play, PvP… Players still trade in blows with their targets but the game has evolved a lot since launch, there is only so much you can do with with a simplistic system like we have now.

I feel the game wont ever feel immersive, challenging, or balanced until they make the combat system much more complex than it currently is… it should not be just a matter of how much HP, armor and weapon you have, but how good you can actually play, unfortunately there is just no room for that with this basic click and hit system.

Funcom should consider this for their next steps.

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I disagree with this assessment. IMO, it’s complex enough if you explore it fully. Weapon and armor proficiency comes from the player, from the “pilot”. You can chain different attacks together to yield different results. The different armor weights affect your movement. I typically wear the vanilla light armor and employ a “dodge or die” defensive strategy. For this playstyle, less armor is better. I often wield a 2H sword. My favorite attack sequence with it is light, light, heavy, heavy. I like how quickly the first 2 light attacks fire off and can usually stagger mobs before they get the chance to stagger me - following quickly into the last 2 heavy attacks that give me hyperarmor, a large radius of attack, and good damage. Successfully landing all 5 attacks (the 3rd heavy attack is 2 quick attacks in sequence) will yield 3 cripple effects. If I were instead to use a longsword with a shield, I can chain 4 heavy attacks together that allow me to travel a considerable distance, stacks cripple on the enemy, and finishes with a knockdown. If my aim is bad when executing this maneuver, then I can easily pass by my opponent, leaving them undamaged, and leaving my backside vulnerable to them and looking like a fool. With the same sword, but without a shield, then I don’t cover near the distance and I can’t force the enemy to retreat nearly as far as with a shield. If I am using a 1H axe and executing a heavy combo, without a shield, the 2nd hit will add one cripple, but with a shield, does a shield punch which is good for armor pen but adds no debuffs.

Each weapon has its own attack patterns. They can be chained up to 4 in sequence, substituting light or heavy attacks in any place in the sequence for different attack speeds, different debuffs, different stages of hyperarmor. Each weight of armor affects player movement, player speed, dodge speed, stamina usage. Proficiency comes from the player, not from the equipment. Rocknoses are who first taught me that wearing heavy armor is still not enough to survive the fight. So I learned to “dodge or die”.

If this is the case you and I both already know that in its standard form the game is already a cakewalk. Thralls can still decimate people in PVP and still feel like the hero. This is the issue they were trying to correct but haven’t really done so. This whole change while making the bosses a tiny bit faster to bring down really did not change much at all. A small buff to the player would allow for them to stand toe to toe with a thrall a bit easier in PVP. And if it ends up being an issue where other things non-boss wise feel a bit easy afterward they can give them a small buff.
I think they are getting close to where they want to be just not quite there yet and I don’t think it will be doable without a player buff because they can’t nerf the thralls too much more without changing the AI to be more adaptive. I can tell you I don’t envy them though because balancing a game is a massive pita.

Yup the whole issue here is end game thralls. The low hp and getting murdered easy is why they buffed them in the past. I actually did a whole video about this to show people why it was not a good idea to bring the thralls down to the level of the player and a much better idea to give the player a little boost. How much of a boost I can’t say. But I would love to test it to help them dial it in.
Their other option would be to work on the AI some more and get it to the point where it can stand to a boss with lower HP and not die instantly. However, I don’t look for this to happen.

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Here is a link to my “new” player run through of Warmaker. I still have to upload the full length, but youtube says it is too long? ( I am not a premium member, so maybe that is it?)

Side note, understand there is a big difference in organic game play and playing only to test features and critique. I play the game way more than I purposely test it. And i have done all of 4 youtube videos on it, and they are in this link. Definitely still feels like their is no PVE combat i need to partake in (other than to speed the DPS up to save time) once I have a decent follower. Buffing the player just seems like i could tank and not even use a roll. BTW, the only thing that killed me was the Champion…it will be in the final run through. I purposely made a rookie mistake and put myself in harms way, then did not full bail as I would normally do if me or my thrall was getting owned by her. I normally just skip her, as the scraps aren’t worth the time to beat her.

Level 20 Thralls are one shot killing level 60 players in legendary armor. Sorry but that is a balance issue that needs resolved.

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