Aside from all the mayhem from War of Emperium, I've noticed there have been some drastic changes that have come included with all of the new content. Here's a short list of what I've noticed so far, which may not include everything.
1 - Can no longer see or target traps in dungeons
2 - Can no longer move during cast animations such as Grand Cross (knight)
3 - Enemy Names and health bars remain visible even after death
Now as I mentioned before, I believe the intentions behind these changes were well placed. However, I believe that the impact of these changes have an overall negative effect on the game by indirectly nerfing certain classes and creating some unplanned for inconveniences. I'll go into my reasoning for each change to explain why.
1) So as many of you know, before the recent changes it was possible to target and view traps in dungeons thus giving experienced players the opportunity to preemptively avoid or destroy traps that would spawn extra mobs. While I am aware that this may have been unintentional on the part of the game developers, It was actually a very convenient element of the game. Even though it was slight, it added an extra element of skill and knowledge to playing the game. If it was your first time going into a dungeon, you may not know where the traps are and accidentally trigger them, thus making for a harder run through the dungeon. However, play through the dungeon a few times, and you could learn where traps were and disarm them through knowledge, skill, and group dynamics. Eliminating the ability to see and target traps just adds an extra annoyance through dungeon runs. It essentially takes out another portion of skill in the game making it so that the game leans closer to players relying solely on gear rather than skill. I mean don't get me wrong, any kind of RPG should make it imperative to get better gear, but having elements in an RPG that depend on the skill of the player make it a more rewarding experience to play the game. It makes it feel like I am leveling up as a player in terms of skill alongside my character with gear and stats.
2)So I'm sure not everyone knows this one, but before the recent changes it was possible to move during casting animations. I did not test this with every character but I at least know it was possible to do so as a knight, priest, and sorcerer. For example, say you are a priest and you're trying to cast heal. Well, there's a casting time for it where a nice yellow bar fills up and then you cast the spell. Well, if you move while the yellow bar is moving then the spell stops, as it should. But if you move while you are in the midst of your casting animation then you can still move while casting. Now some of you may be thinking that it's not really that useful of a skill. Well for pvp, at least for these classes, it wasn't really that useful. It's the PvE where it really mattered.
Okay So My main is a knight. Arguably knights are better utilized as Off tanks. What does that mean? Well if a Boss spawns adds, some other big mean dude, or a combination of the two (big mean dude and adds), it's the knight's job to pick 'em up. Reason being their ability to generate AoE threat is freakin' boss! Okay how does that relate at all to what I was talking about earlier? Well, knights have a move called grand cross. It's an instant cast move. Hell yeah, right? Well one major draw back about it is that it has a super long casting animation. I mean the knight wind's up like he/she is about to pull Excalibur out of the stone and then has a dragon ball esque power up sequence. You want to know the saving grace in all of this? what made knights great Off tanks Despite all of this? You guessed it! Knights used to be able to move while using grand cross. For PvE this is kind of clutch in a multitude of situations. You may need to kite some adds you already have, while running over to grab some more adds. You may have to GTFO when you're grand crossing some meanies when a boss decided to drop some kind of hurt smash AoE. You may even need to create some initial threat on some enemies in something as simple as an RHD OBB run so that enemies stick to you when a priest decides to scratch your back since you're scratching their's by throwing on a nice little reno you're way. Hell, the list goes on but essentially what i'm trying to say is this change is a huge nerf for knights. It may have been completely unintentional and indirect, but it's kind of game breaking to the point where I wonder why be a knight anymore? I could just go be a warrior. I mean hell I might have some great spot methods of damage reduction but at least warriors can still move while Off tanking. This is another example of taking some element of skill out of the game and making it so that the game inches closer to being purely gear based. Instead of relying on the skill and relexes of the knight to move in time to avoid an AoE or move while kiting adds so as to only get hit a few times while maintaining threat, you gotta stand there and spam grand cross (i.e. no skill involved just gear). This applied to healers as well. A Decently skilled healer could time their heals and movement to avoid attacks and AoEs by moving while casting with good timing. Now it's just gear... I mean what weeds out the players that buy accounts or get power leveled all the way to 50 without ever having really played the game? Skill right?
3) So this one is just kinda personally irksome. It's not as huge to me as the previous two changes, it's just kind of annoying. I don't know if enemies make some kind of sound when they die or whatever (since I listen to music while I play this game) but the way I would tell what was going on was by structuring my UI so that most of the important elements could be visually focused on in one location. One of those elements being the health bar and name of the enemy. The visual representation of the enemy dying by having their name and health bar disappear was convenient. Why do i need to still see their name and health bar if they're dead?
Yeah, I know it was a long rant. Thanks for sticking through with it if you did. Like I said before. I know the game developers aren't necessarily just twiddling their thumbs. I respect that this is a free to play MMORPG, and honestly one of the best free to play's I've ever experienced. I see that the intention behind these changes was well placed. I just think that they could be changed back or tweaked for an over all better experience for everyone involved. If you agree with me or have something of your own to say, please comment. Maybe with enough attention we could all help this be an even better game!
Edited by misterapple, 11 July 2013 - 09:22 AM.
