@katniss, @den, I keep seeing people pointing out how the thrall nerf affects followers. “With Authority it’s no problem”. You are missing the point. The point, for those of us who don’t take followers with us, is BASE DEFENSE!
Nerfed thralls that get killed when overwhelmed in a Cimmerian Army purge, or a Cult of Sobek purge are useless. That means I would have spent hours levelling thralls for no good reason, only to have them die.
Yes, I am referring to PvE. Why? Because PvE and PvP are two separate styles. If the base guards were too strong in PvP, there’s an adjustment in the settings of that server. Use it.
That doesn’t even cover when some jerk kites a boss to my base to use my thralls for his inability to kill it on his own.
“Use animals, they’re really strong.” I prefer the human variety. Putting a bejewelled bikini on a hyena just doesn’t have the same appeal.
Meh, already trade defense for stealth. If my bases and stores are discovered, it’s already over for me. Heck I view it as a failure if I’m spotted by another player. The risk is too great that I will be followed.
If you have leveled thralls in heavy epic armour as base defence they will not be killed by cimmerian army or sobek purges especially if you have more than 1 of them.
I am constantly seeing 6-7k Hp relic hunter treasure seekers with no authority when I level them on test live.
You want to know something, I have actual skin in the game. You can pick me up in the cave. I’m there to fight by your side, and obviously someone thinks I’m entertaining. HOWEVER, Barnes of Asura is at a .64 modifier?!
I think a very entertaining approach for me to take is to try and make do with myself. Let’s see how far my Tiny Dancer can take me!
Anyways. Lets talk about purges since that is a shared event on all types of play. Look I’m going to say it right now that purges are boring and produce nothing worth the work of organizing thralls for defense in that 10 minute window. However if you do decide to do it, the current thrall levels can tackle a purge pretty easily. You can defend with three level 20’s without breaking a sweat and if you wanted excitement you and your favorite thrall can go out and take on that invading army. Think about that. 3 of your thralls against an entire army of berserkers.,…and you can easily survive. I mean you actively have to work at not surviving it or in many cases, get greedy about knocking out thralls during the purge. By nerfing these guys down to a more reasonable level, you actually sweat a little and you should.
No the argument against the nerfing, IMHO, rests on the cultivation aspects that @Marcospt references (I have a clan member that does the same thing but he goes after certain physical characteristics regardless of tier level) and offline guards in PVP.
Okay so I just spawned 4 Relic Hunter Treasure seeks all had between 6200 and 6900 HP. Geared them out and then spawned 40 Cimmerian Berserkers. Treasure seekers killed them all. Lowest hp one of them got was 2200. This is what absolutely zero player interaction against the NPCS.
I think we’re okay!
Gear the Relic Hunters were using.
Aspect of the Wolf, Serpent Braces, Redeemed chest piece, Pictish legs, Frost Giant boots. Voidforge maces.
Again, point. You cannot keep bringing up a particular faction or specific thrall. Not all of them are Relic Hunters. The whole point of thralls is variety. They have different looks, hair styles, hair color, heights, skin tones, etc.
If I wanted an army of Lians, I’d have that army.
I have found thralls that I like their looks. Some are Exile I. They are good for decoration. I don’t use them for defense. By the same token, We have roughly half our limit placed around multiple locations. We don’t want 20 thralls milling around on on each side of the build. We are selective. We have also had four years to collect them. If we desired, we’d have 20 Dalinsias at each base. But that’s boring.
But, you seem determined to never get it, so this is also pointless.
Does food still heal at the rates in the wiki? I mean I see folks concerned that the HP has been halved but I’m trying to recall when my thrall got down to that low when I applied enhanced gruel to them…I can’t think of a time they ever lost 2K HP outside of PVP or I just got lazy and watched them kill the red mother.
Let’s point out one thing thou @Marcospt
The thralls you have been using - and are used to and now are slightly upset for potentially “losing” - were never needed in PvE… Anything with 2k hp and a decent set of armor / weapon can clear all PvE content… Heck… I’ve been defending purges with non-leveled stuff quite often… a simple T3 fighter fresh out of the wheel quickly leveled to like 5… or 7 in a set of heavy armor and a stack of gruel for healing can literally go up against a 3 skull world boss…
So yea I always found it very excessive how overpowered thralls are and I understand that people who picked up the game at release got used to that, but as an early access player I felt pretty much useless after they introduced follower thralls… Up to that point you only had crafter slaves and static defense ones, usually archers on the roof, nothing that can travel with you or carry your gear.
And I knew that they were coming, but when I saw them in action… I was like “seriously?.. what’s the point in me being there anymore?”
I’m just trying to point out that they have been a bit extremely overpowered from the getgo and it just wasn’t necessary…
Now for PvP, that’s obviously a different question… the thing about PvP is that it existed prior to thralls as well, and servers didn’t even have the option of restricting building damage and PvP was “fine” even then, but obviously as things change and get balanced people get used to the new stuff and adapt… While atm it may seem like a bit deal for PvP, I’m perfectly sure that people will adapt just like they did before and figure out a way to make it work.
To me so far it seems that thralls aren’t “nerfed to the ground”… they just lost the “excess weight” so to speak… the health pool that was almost never used in PvE cuz when they had 10k, nothing could dip them below 8 anyway…
Idk… it’s just how it seems to me, I always found thralls quite ridiculously overpowered
Hey, @den, thanks for offering more info about this!
Just out of curiosity, did any of those playthroughs include a purge?
These days I play solo on official servers, which means that I have to be prepared to face a purge without any other players, just in case. My typical strategy for those occasions is to place one or more thralls around my base, each covering a direction from which enemies might come. That way, in each wave I can deal with one group myself while the others are engaged in fighting my thralls, and when I’m done with that group I move onto the next one, until I’ve defeated the whole wave.
What worries me about this nerf is that the group engaging a thrall without my help might manage to kill that thrall before I can come to its rescue.
Is there anything you can share about how the post-nerf thralls perform in a purge?
It just really puzzles me that any T4 FIGHTER would have a damage multiplier below 1! o-o
Aren’t they super rare because they are good fighters and if they made a name for themselves, shouldn’t they know how to use a weapon properly?
Well maybe not the exiles tho they are all starved and some of them only wear loincloth. 0.8 or even lower would be cool for them I think.
FWIW, being a solo means that purges are pretty much optional for me and I just do them for fun. If I don’t want to have a purge, I can empty the meter without pausing for breath
But still, I would like to keep having fun with purges. I’m sure I’ll eventually work out a strategy for that, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ask Dennis when there’s a chance he might answer
Ill admit my concern is for PvE base defense too. Ive seen that active followers can still survive just fine if we help them, especially when complemented by authority perks.
But that leaves guard followers in the dust. If there was a revive system for all followers, that’d honestly fix it for me.
They really shouldnt carry as hard as they do but I hate seeing heavy casualties. Give me a solid chance to pull them off deaths door.
My last bit for this conversation, DBD should definitely be turned on for PvP servers. I havent played it for ages, PvP isnt really my thing nowdays anyways, but its obvious raids and offline raids in particular are way too easy.
they are all starved and some of them only wear loincloth. 0.8 or even lower would be cool for them I think.