I’ve made a thread earlier about the health of thralls and pets currently, mostly seeing how everyone felt about the buff. I came to the conclusion that most think the health is currently fine where it’s at and that it will more than likely not change.
This is fine as thralls are seemingly necessary to many PvErs who want a companion that won’t fall over in 2 hits. However, I’ve come across something that seems to be an issue when combined with their huge health pool. Thrall (not pet) damage, seems extremely high when it’s in regards to end-game/named thralls with end-game gear. This is almost SPECIFICALLY for PvP, as this is where the issue lies. Thralls are only needed in PvE for their health pool and ability to draw aggro, not their damage.
To give an idea of their damage, I am consistently hit for 60+ damage from higher-tier archers with POISON ARROWS (yes, these are 1 damage arrows) and I recently was chunked 40% of my health from a bearer thrall with a 60 damage greatsword, while I had 64% damage reduction. It seems a bit excessive that thralls can hit just as hard, if not harder, than 50 strength players. I don’t feel that thralls should be matching, or exceeding, player strengths, especially considering that there is no limit to how many one can have.
Before I make a suggestion thread about this, I want to gather the thoughts of the community on this. Is the damage higher than it should be, or is it fine where it’s at and why?
I’d be fine if thralls did less damage with weapons. And I’m a single-player who relies on thralls in PVE. The important thing is that they don’t die to a stiff breeze and that they feel like pulling their weight in battle, but I’d rather feel like I’m contributing to those fights, too.
Currently their damage output is tied to the same server setting as that of NPCs and monsters, but it has been suggested that the two should be separated. This would allow server admins to reduce thrall damage.
That’s not a good enough reason. Thralls aren’t meant to = players. If each player could only have a single thrall at max, then maybe this could be a good argument, but it’s limitless.
Players defend bases. Thralls are meant to support them, and they don’t need 2X the damage of a player to do this. Thralls that take 80 hits to kill (with an end-game greatsword) while killing you in potentially 3-4 hits is a bit overkill.
The issue here is you assume that thralls are meant to defend bases, when I personally don’t believe that should be the case. If thralls could singlehandedly defend bases, then raids would almost never be successful, especially against players who are online. This would be fine if each base only had around 5 thralls attempting to defend, but many strong bases have 50+ thralls that each take 80 hits to kill and each can kill you in 3-4. Trying to take on a single room with 10 of these thralls is extremely difficult, and that’s even when there’s not even a player online to support their thralls.
Like I said, I want players defending their bases and thralls supporting them. Currently, it’s the other way around. I’m not trying to take away their ability to defend, but to reduce their effectiveness as to not be so overpowering. I don’t want this becoming Ark 2.0 where dinos and turrets become the game and the players are just farming objects.
But you can take only one Thrall at a time with you, and you can easily avoid another players’ lands with their “Thrall armies”. Good Thralls are necessary for defending bases from offline Purges, so please do not nerf them!
Offline purges do not happen, as you need to be online before they can start. I’m not trying to completely remove their ability to defend, but eliminate them as the MAIN defense.
Are you SURE? Tons of bases had been destroyed by Purges on servers with their owners offline. Even with Purges caused by some other bases, 'cause they just were on the Purge’s path.
Offline purges do happen on servers. The requirement for purges to spawn on official servers is one player online on the server and then the server will run its script to spawn a set number of purges with a random variable on how many it spawns based on the entire playerbase database.
Since Funcom worked on the purge system at end of 2018 my clan has had two purge whilst we were online (back-to-back) and then two purges whilst we were offline.
Edit: but aside from purges, thralls in PvE do need to have some chance of holding their own against world bosses that get kited onto them or the random normal or corrupted npc spawns that can get kited into their vicinity.
Several times now I’ve gone to two bases to find my thralls have been killed in my absence without purge activity. I made a staircase from the highlands to the desert near a giant crocodile boss … if a player gets aggro from that and seeks refuge by running up my stairs then my thralls engage him and they die…doesn’t happen that often so I know I’m not being griefed… but enough that I know that are paper-canons.
Personally I find this absolutely fine that thralls have similar stats as players. Especially the named T4 ones. Its more “realistic”.
I am 90% sure this is false, and that purges CAN happen while you are offline. It has happened to me. Whether it is a bug or not I dont know. However, the purge meter doesn’t advance while you are offline to my knowledge, so you can sort of control when it happens.
I don’t read all the patch notes, but even if this is the case, purges are far too weak to do anything anyways. Like I said, I’m not trying to entirely remove their ability to defend, as they would still be able to effectively do so even if they were at a 1/4 of their current strength. The issue I have is when a single thrall can effectively defend against an entire purge, yet there is no limit to how many of these thralls one can have.
It depends on the biome I guess. I haven’t seen what its like in the north. I have my base in the desert mountains and the one purge that happened while I was online was laughably anticlimactic… I was able to 1-shot many of the mobs.
Even in terms of game balance, the thralls need to put up a fight vs players, since they are the only defense there is to pvp-ers attacking your base while you are offline.
Thralls should not be balanced based on offline players. If thralls could successfully defend bases on their own without the support of players, then imagine how impossible it would be to successfully raid when said players are online.
If thralls are going to be the main defense for a base, then remove the raid window, as it’s no longer needed since players aren’t the ones defending.
No way. When Purge meter fills to the first notch Purge will not start immediately. Our clan had Purge indicator full for some days but no Purge. It depends on the number of clans on the server. More clans - less chance to have Purge just now. So it can break out at any time after the first notch.
I don’t want to loose my base because of Purge and I can’t be online all day long to defend it. Your pvp is just a little part of this game, and nobody cares of it in SP or PVE servers.
Don’t be silly and watch Youtube. Purges of level 6 in the North break T3 bases with ease, and Thralls can not defend them entirely. Purge mechanics is meant to effectively tear down abandoned bases together with decay mechanics and it does it well.
