So, I just watched Firespark8’s new video on the upcoming changes to combat, and I’m pretty disappointed: TL;DR, bleeding in general and daggers in particular are about to nerfed hard.
Why? Seriously, it’s like every time you guys touch the combat, you make it worse and worse. When you first rolled CE out, we had a great Witcher 3-style roll, we had faster combat that felt intuitive and fun, and it’s like the company seems determined to turn combat into a dull slog.
From a design standpoint, I simply don’t get it. Daggers were one of the last fun, challenging and satisfying weapons left in the game after spears, greatswords, and others were ruined. For the love of Yog: we really don’t need the combat to be any slower/more boring for the sake of ‘realism’, okay?
Looks to me like they’re just trying to get away from people stacking bleed and then hanging back sipping a margarita for an extended period while your opponent bleeds out. Instead they want you to engage in the fight more.
The applicable changes for those that haven’t looked at the patch notes:
Healing Potions no longer remove Bleed effects.
Potion healing buff is now removed when non-bleed damage is received.
Reduced the base duration of bleed effects to 8s (down from 20s). This should allow bleed effects to be shed easily in PvP while still allowing for the same damage potential in PvE as long as the effect is maintained.
Bleed effects applied by special weapons will no longer stack with bleed effects from combos and will no longer stack up multiple times.
Just for some clarity on that last one, it means that if you heavy attack with grey one daggers, which have bleed as a special effect like all grey one weapons, you will apply a single stack of the special effect bleed and a stack of the normal dagger bleed. You can continue to stack the normal bleed effect as usual, but the additional special effect bleed will only ever apply one stack for a grand total of 21 bleed effects.
I honestly think they sit there and think “how can we possibly make this game worse?” Like when I first started playing it was fun and exciting and now they’re just nerfing everything into the ground and it makes NO sense, especially for pve. Games like this never separate the two so just just nerf both and they don’t care.
You honestly think so? You honestly think that a company actively spends R&D resources to make their product worse? I’m sure that does happen when the product is something that can be mass-produced, and cutting production costs by reducing quality would increase profit margins - but that hardly applies to a digital product.
I would also like to point out that a lot of the changes to game balance are done because of player feedback. Whether the solutions are what the player base intended is a different matter - but communication is always the responsibility of both parties involved. Can we, the players, communicate our wishes and requests in a way that Funcom can parse into meaningful feedback?
And there’s also the fact that the community is far from homogenous. Different people, with different playstyles, want different things. Some want DoT effects to be strong, others want more effective ways to counter them, and yet others want the DoT effects to be weak to begin with.
This one doesn’t seem that big of a deal to me. They added a suite of craftable high end bleed weapons with 2.4, its not surprising that bleed is being tweaked. The stack changes keep the grey ones weapons from overshadowing everything else. The reduction in DoT time is a direct answer to potions no longer removing bleed. I can’t imagine that this fundamentally changes the way in which daggers fight. The potion change will take some getting used to, but doesn’t seem overbearing. I can’t test on test-live though, so I could be missing something?
That’s why i told Firespark to stop making biased videos that encourages people to cry on forum.
You should read whole patch notes and see whole picture.
Cutting it from 20s to 8s duration is a bit extreme IMO. And I agree, this is likely an attempt to achieve what they call balance. But here’s the problem, that duration nerf applies to all weapons that apply bleed, and on both maps. I also wouldn’t be surprised if this makes bleed even more dangerous in PvP, you’re now going to have to out heal that bleed because its going to run its full course with no quick answer to counteract it.
DoT should not be the main damage when in combat of a Conan themed gaem. Unless I missed the story where conan stacked bleed then rolled out of range and ran in circles until the enemy died:/
I think you are right on that point, the margins for maintaining bleed with spears and axes will be much smaller now. Also, I think EL players will just have to come to terms with the game being balanced around IoS. It’s not fair, but likely the direction going forward. How difficult that “guaranteed” bleed dmg is to overcome in pvp will be the interesting question I think. No chance you are getting a bandage in.
This is Conan Exiles, last I checked. You are not playing Conan himself, just existing in Funcoms universe based loosely on the Conan IP. This has never, and will never, be a meaningful argument for or against anything introduced into this game.
I beg to differ. There is a reason they were rewarded the license. Staying true the lore is part of it. There will always be some creative freedom sure, but in Conans world using the blade to fight was prevelant, and notwithstanding, DoT in general drains from the combat mechanic and relegates 90% of weapons to rp only with how effective DoT and dodge are to just the PvE aspect.
There are plenty of examples of peoples in the world of the Hyborian Age favoring combat outside of the blade. The Shemites and Hyrkanian/Turanians favor archery for example. Zamorian assassins are well known for their use of underhanded tactics, such as deadly poisons. Funcom has done a great job IMO highlighting the differences of culture between people in the world of Conan, this is apparent too in their desire for combat diversity.
As for PVE the only reason DoT is strong is because NPC are hp sponges and have exploitable AI. I guess I don’t get the argument here though? If a person doesn’t like using them for PVE they don’t have to, swing a big sword like Conan if you prefer. The only thing forcing you to use DoT is your need to optimize your time over your fun. (In PVE specifically)
I think some people also don’t want PvE to be boring jump in stack bleeds and run thing, but there’s still a lot of balancing to do. In game You should always use best tools available to beat it, especially on PvP - you are forced to do it or You are in disadventage.
PVP 100% I agree. If you aren’t going full sweat mode, you will lose to the gals/guys that are. PVE I don’t care that you kill the boss a little faster than me bc you DoT and I don’t. PVE it doesn’t matter so long as not doing what’s meta isnt so inhibiting that it is unfun.
Right, I’m sure there were no rogues, thieves, assassins, and cutthroats in the Conan universe who used poison or inflicting critical injury as a means of dealing with their enemies.
Ever played AoC? Plenty of creative elaboration on the established Conan universe by Funcom. Ever read any of the books contained in the Age of Conan series? Plenty of creative elaboration on the established Conan universe by the authors. You are an avatar in the UNIVERSE Conan lives in. That universe encompasses many people with many cultures and many tactics.
So I repeat, has never and will never be a meaningful argument.
Maybe, but keep in mind that the damage per tick hasn’t changed at all, so “full course” now means that if you would currently get 2000 damage, you’d only get 800 after the change. Also, your opponent is now forced to get in there and hit you more often if he want’s that bleed to keep going. Conversely, if you don’t have a way of getting rid of the bleed, you don’t have to evade him for as long to let it expire and reset the number of stacks on you.
I get the theory, but heres the thing. You are now going to take that 800 damage no matter what. Short of bandaging, which will get you killed, you have no recourse. With potions now, create some distance and pop a potion taking only a fraction of that 2000 damage.
I think I’ll start stacking up firespark arrows now.
outside of bosses, I can with 30 str and axe kill all humanoid nocs in 5-6 swings. DoT is only useful against bosses. And as stated in the new 8s timer, if you stay engaged you can still keep a 20 stack. I am saying that is way more lore friendly than dagger 4 s, avoid for 20, repeat.
And I am 9nly talking of how DoT was overpowering most weapons, even bows. 514 damge over 20s is what Firespark posted, that is insane. COMBINE THAT WITH POISON AND YOU ARE BAS8CALLY doT fighting everything.