I don’t think the Purges have been touched in quite a while. I have not had any Purges in 3.0 – full discloser, with the reports of how weak the thralls were, I turned off Purges completely so my sandstone base wouldn’t have to deal with them.
Once again, @Marcospt makes a good point. I have not tried Rockslides and yes, I have encountered them in the past with results similar to what you describe. I really wish you were wrong, but I’m forced to agree. If we keep thralls as they are now, Purges and base defense systems need some attention in the near future.
Its worth pointing out that solo, you can kill just about every boss in about 4 min or less depending on your gear. I killed the jungle hive queen naked with a stone club in a longer time and only got hit once.
I was just on testlive. With a brand new thrall, If you have the thrall line maxed and don’t go for the “two thrall” perk and instead go for “+thrall attributes”… You get +20 to all of your thralls abilities. Str, Agil, Vital, Grit
Essentially it gives your thrall a free 2k+ HP. At level 1. So, if you get a decent and go that route, he should have 6k+ hp at level 1. No armor, no levels, no perks.
Just a reminder. One run through a gremlin vault will gain your thrall about 10 levels on live server. Soooo, it’s really nothing to worry about.
Just don’t send a level 1 thrall naked into a pack of mobs.
We can still have decent, overpowered thralls.
Or we can have two decent, slightly less overpowered thralls.
It matters because your thrall is in no danger if you help. If you send your thrall in alone and sit back with popcorn and they arent geared maximally, yeah a cannibal brute will die. But if you help your thrall kill it, the thrall will be just fine.
Your guards will be fine except in pvp, but even before the nerf, you can kill thralls very easily. For those who love thralls, it just means double your guards. More thralls to love. 10 thralls can defend any purge. Also, you can equip them for agility with agility melee weapons and bows, so archers arent pointless. Add that you can respec your thralls thru sorcery and your guards are the least of your worries. Your follower on the other hand is either great, or you are great. Guards have strength in numbers.
Tested all of that thoroughly. Wasnt an issue if I helped. In pvp your thrall will likely get slaughtered tho.
Survived sobek purge with something like 7-8 dalinsias, no clanmates. Cimm purge was me, a non clan friend and his two ghetto zerks in hand me down armor from the mounds. Killed rockslide enough times that I wouldnt fear his purge based on the ease of the other purges. All purge difficulties were set to 6 during test and vanilla damage. Bases never got touched. Base defense is not the issue; trust me. Meat shield will do its thing.
There is a rationale I followed tho. Dalinsia had the best health out of the box and I wanted a lot of guards that I didnt need to level. RHTS had more health after leveling, so that became buddy thrall. All the others were the same at level 20 that dalinsia was at level 0. So I leaned on farming here for base defense meat shield due to test time limitations.
I told you exactly what I did. I’m not concerned about that purge precisely because I fought things just as hard. You can fret all you want but I’m telling you, it won’t be something youre proud of when you actually play it.
I think the nerf might be not as bad as we fear.
Since I can’t sleep after a heavy banquet I just did a little testing with a group of 8 level 20 thralls against purges at the mounts of the dead.
4 T4:Freya, Lissa o’ the longbow, Lian(though he spent most of his time being stuck in the ground), Janos
4 T3: 2 Nordheimer Fighter III, 1 Stygian Fighter III, 1 Relic Hunter Slave Taker III
All Thralls wore normal Cimmerian Heavy Armor, like the one you can loot from the mounts of the dead dwellers.
I placed 2 Thralls at every side of my square base.
So far they faced an undead und Cimmerian Beast-Tamer purge, six waves each. Vanilla settings. No one died, there was no need for me to intervene.
Took one of the Nordheimer III Fighters to Klael’s Stronghold. Only time I had to help was with the Arena Champion. All the other mobs he could handle alone with the boost from the authority perk.
OMFG you are whining about the wrong thing. Purges were easy. You just get more thralls which was a no brainer. If you want to talk about the real concern of the thrall nerf its this:
Before, you were strong and your thrall was strong. Your thrall could soak hits in a boss fight while you healed. NOW, you dont have that luxury. You are strong OR your thrall is strong. Not both! So if you want to be awesome in a fight, your follower is going to stink. THAT is something I can understand complaining about. THAT is what people lost thralls to in test. You are also forgetting that down but not out is in the works as stated in the dev stream. That ensures ina purge that YOUR THRALL WILL NOT DIE. I know its hard to remember all the details from all the streams, but before freaking out about something you havent played, when someone who HAS been playing it for a couple months, it would be wise not to dismiss their experience as a guess, especially when that player has years of CE context to draw on.
In PVP? Against a boss in the world with just one follower? YES, it will matter because down but not out will not be of any use when you try to pick up your thrall while getting killed. But in a purge, absolutely, unequivocally no, the nerf is not a problem. You just use MORE thralls, which anyone who loves thralls already should have no problem with.
I am aware… and I am aware that some purges are harder than others… but I’m also aware of the new ease of killing things. REMARKABLE ease. I get that some people won’t like the choice. But with the right gear, the player is a pve gawd. If your thrall dies its because you the player are not doing your job. You don’t even need a thrall a little bit outside the purge and then you have an army. If you are fighting right along side your thralls, you will have no problems whatsoever, and thats not even getting into all the corrupted perks which I am ignoring (which buff the crap out of you and your thralls). The crowd who potentially has something to fear is the pvp crowd. Your player is so much better that its not even funny in an open ground fight. Against an actual person, yeah that nerf hurts. I’m not a pvper but I tried a little with a buddy just having him sick his thralls (two follower combo) on me and his thralls were down but not out in a flash. So yeah, pvp players may have some complaints. And like I said, I can understand if someone is upset that their thrall is not a badass (like I always liked mine). They are weak yes. But that is only a problem if you dont help, or dont make common sense compensations.
For the last time, in a purge, you control the amount of thrall health pool you have. Less health; get more thralls. And the kicker there is more thralls means more attacks being delivered so purge is easier than before. I can’t explain it to you any better than that. Its as simple as it sounds and its one of those things that works just like you’d expect it to.
Were you in that closed beta group, or whatever it’s called? Because we’re talking about 3.0, and the only way I can think of anyone playing with the post-nerf Age of Sorcery thralls for months is if that someone was in that group.
If that’s the case, that would let me breathe easier.
