Hello everyone!
This diary entry doesn’t need the baggage of the first one, so let me jump right into what we’ve been working on these days.
1. Shields
Our efforts to improve individual class assets or classes on the whole often focus on shields. Shields are a rather unrefined mechanic, to the point where Seraph armor sees limited popularity outside of unique affixes – which means its value doesn’t stem from its inherent focus on shields.
At the same time, our HC players need more assets to stay alive. Due to our lower player base producing fewer items and infrequent, but not absent, bugs and glitches, the HC ecosystem is very demanding.
These concerns all merge into a greater focus on shields. We’ve examined shield-based assets and are beginning to adjust them accordingly. You can thus expect some welcome changes and additions in this front.
2. Shields
No, that’s not an error - just a daft attempt at humor. Shields, from mighty bucklers to metal behemoths, don’t quite support Templars as well as they should. There are many ways to view this subject, so let’s clarify.
BMs have very little use for shields, which is thematically appropriate. However, they’re still Templars and should arguably have some use for them. Worse yet, Guardians don’t make stellar use of shields either. Shield builds are often sidelined in favor of Aura-heavy, or gun-based, or unorthodox (and fun) SoR/SoJ builds. While that’s a great sign of class depth, shields are too similar and ineffective to spearhead builds.
We’re thus working on a large shield revamp, in an effort to make shield builds purposeful, fun, and different from one another. This will take some time to complete, but we hope it will elevate the class to new heights.
3. Evasion
Still on the defensive side of things, Evasion is an elusive, underused property. It’s a very interesting mechanic that Global, um, tried to use, and it can help provide more variety and more substantive defensive builds.
We’re thus taking a closer look into the affix at a deeper level. We’re experimenting with it within existing assets, with the hope that it will address the above concerns.
4. Evokers
The class, yes. We’ve taken a closer look into the most frequent concerns and objections we’ve seen, and have been making some changes across the board.
These include streamlining sfx calculations among different skills of similar “shapes”, reevaluating base sfx strengths, and tweaking the damage and benefits/level of some skills to make them more desirable. We hope this will make the class even more enjoyable and potent.
5. Gear
As highlighted in the previous entry, we’ve been considering gear, from lv1 to 50, that can help the leveling curve and build progress of all classes.
With this in mind, we’re examining different builds that fail to perform before lv50, or take too long to take shape, or only work with very specific gear. coughOmerta/Voodoocough
At the same time, we want some alternative builds to remain fun, if not fully competitive by nature – say, Bladesaw Hunters. We’re thus digging through our item drafts, and hope to produce some mighty useful gear for those who need it most.
6. Quests
Finally, a personal concern that I’m sure many of you share. We’ve examined quest tags and structures, daily quests and their rewards, and barren areas where quests are scarce. Say, a place with stones.
However, a very practical concern with adding quests comes with practical limitations. For example, Covent Garden comes with so many simultaneous quests that players may pick up too many and lock some out. In turn, that affects completion order and may disrupt the flow of the game.
We’re thus taking a slow, careful approach with what quests need to achieve and where they should be. A particularly ambitious quest line we’ve been working on for a while faces similar issues, so we want to be absolutely sure it’s executed as well as possible.
So that should be it. We’re still withholding a few subjects and details for later entries, but this should be the bulk of what we’ve been up to. We hope the upcoming patch, in line with the above, will satisfy you as much as it’s been satisfying us.
All the best, and happy hunting.