Gladiator

Hey there! Since there is an upcoming balance update, I would like to point out things in Paladin so hopefully devs at least consider changing them, in case it wasn't being worked on already. It's gonna be a bunch of changes for several skills, obviously I don't expect everything to be changed, but I guess I'll put it out there... I thought also of color-coding the importance of the changes, Red-Orange-Green for Essential-Average-Optional So here we go: 1. Inner Forces: - Add skill animation: Whether the skill remains as it is right now or not, please add animation or a buff icon to represent how many ''2%''s are being applied - Buff/Change mechanics: I think the skill is very underwhelming right now, I did some basic calculations, and here is a rough estimation of the effectiveness of the skill: It shows the effectiveness with an example of 1000 damage received and 8000 HP for Paladin, and as you can see, the total damage reduction is not impressive. Now granted, this is a passive, so this is a permanent damage reduction and this representation is not totally fair to assess the effectiveness of the skill, since the Paladin can heal/be healed and the longer the fight, the more benefit you get from the skill, so it's a bit more complicated. But still, personally I'm not a fan of the skill for another reason - it's too selfish, I don't play Paladin to be a tank. I like Paladin for support/utility, and this skill offers none. While only buffing the activation threshold or the amount of damage reduction will make it a better skill, I think the skill mechanics should change, So I suggest changing to maybe something similar to this: Whenever any party member drops below X% HP, they get a shield that reduces incoming damage by Y% for a specific amount of time; additionally, Paladin will get an ''Inner Force'' buff for a specific amount of time, when the Paladin collects 3 of those buffs, the Paladin gets a heal boost for the next heal use, and immediately cools down ''Heavenly Lights''. For example, at 4/4: whenever a party member drops below 30% HP, they get a 30% damage reduction buff for as long as they're below 30%, Paladin gets 1 ''Inner Force'' buff for 30 seconds. Then few moments later, the Paladin also drops below 30%, so he will get that 25% damage reduction buff and another ''Inner Force'' buff, and then lets say a third person drops as well, Paladin gets a 3rd ''Inner Force'' buff and gains a 50% healing boost and immediately cools down ''Heavenly Light''. Once the skill is used, Buffs go away, and collecting more Inner Force buffs will be blocked for a certain amount of time like 40 seconds or so. The catch is, this boost for heal skill is only applied in a party of 3+ people, because the Inner Force buffs will not apply if the same person heals up and drops below 30% HP again, then he will only get the damage reduction (maybe with a cooldown too) This way the skill has utility for Paladins in a party, and it's not super strong when the Paladin is alone. 2. Light Defense - Buff: Same problem here, it's too weak compared to other skills. 40% defense increase seems big but it is effectively 5-8% damage reduction since the defense has a diminishing return curve. I think it's just lazy generally, a skill like that is more like a basic skill. I think it needs an additional effect, maybe additional resistance, or additional offensive stats like accuracy/cooldown etc, of course then with less duration (would have to change the name too then, heh) I saw the argument being made somewhere that even 5% damage reduction on 5 people in the party that's like 25% reduction total. I think this very wrong. Most of the time you only have 1 or 2 people taking damage, in PvE most of the time only 1 is a tank. Even in PvP, people tend to focus damage on 1-2 targets in a small scale fight. So it's very misleading to think of it as 5% x 5. 3. Sun Seal - Change/Buff: The skill is basically damage dealer for magic users and part of a combo for shield users, it's never used for the life steal effect, because it is too weak. I think it's around 17% (?) at 4/4. The concept of the skill is not bad, it's just very hard to gain any value out of it, I think it needs a bit more utility. So maybe change to something like this: Deals damage to the selected target and puts the seal on them and casts a field around the target. Any damage dealt to enemies within that field will restore health. (Basically adding an AoE effect to the life steal effect) Duration: 3-4-5-7 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds. It can be adjusted as well. Radius: 5x5 Square around the target Damage can stay the same as it is Health restoration: 15%-20%-25%-35% of the damage dealt. So In summary, more potential for the life steal to be effective, Obviously in PvE scenarios the enemies die fast which is the main issue for this skill, so having the regeneration effect not tied to a single target but an area surrounding it greatly enhances the skill, also increased the % of life steal, since 17% at max level is way too low. For that, and for balance reasons, the duration would be greatly reduced. What that does is that skill give a big boost in a short time, instead of a weaker one for a long period of time, which makes it hard to benefit from because only boss fights last long enough (and it mostly gets resisted there) that makes it very niche. The combo with shield strike wouldn't change anything, you would have to use shield strike on the same target that you used sun seal on. - Reverse: Give back the ability to focus banner damage on the target 4. Sacred Shield Oof, this is a big one isn't it... People are gonna hate me for this, but it has to be said... It's too weak, it need to be buffed. SIKE! Just kidding obviously Yeah, we all know it's too strong, but as it stands, it makes Paladin playable honestly, if other skills that I just mentioned get buffed the right way, I can justify a reasonable nerf for Sacred Shield, otherwise, Paladin will be at the bottom of the pile. But what I hate the most atm that whatever I'm doing, whatever build I use, whether it's 1handed, 2handed, PvE, PvP, Magic, Physical damage, you always gotta have 4/4 Sacred Shield, not because it's too good (well partially, it is) but rather there is no other options. So a nerf for the shield has to be accompanied by buffs to other skills. - Nerf/Mechanics Change: 100% of the HP is not too big considering the shield doesn't take defense into consideration, but when you consider that it casts 2 copies, that's when it becomes too much. So here is what I suggest: Power depends on the number of shields casted. For that to be feasible, I think it might be better if it was an area cast skill: Paladin places shields on players in a specific area (3x3 square), the total power of the shield(s) will always depend on the Paladin's max HP (80%-100%-120%-150%). Now here is the catch: If 1 person gets the shield, the shield will have 100% of its power, if 2 people get the shield it would be 50% - 50% of its max power, and so on... It would also be capped at 5 people, so at max you can get 5 people shielded and each would have 20% of the maximum power. Now the question is how much is 100%? It would have to be a number that is not too overpowered at 100% and not too little at 20%. So maybe something like 150% of the Paladin's HP, so that 5 people would have 30% HP shield. Another problem would be deciding who gets the shield if there are more than 5 people at that area, also does it count minions? I think party members should be prioritized, otherwise lowest HP allies I see how 150% HP shield on 1 person can be too much, but think about the disadvantage other party members would have not having any shields, so they would be a weaker target to kill first. And this way when casted on 2 people, each will get 75% HP shield, compared to 100% currently. I don't know, what do you think? Another thing, is you have to consider screen bugs/desync, so it would be harder to cast the shield, so it's not as simple as clicking 1 ally and getting 2 powerful shields. The only situation where the shield is 'buffed' is the ability to self cast or cast on 1 person. it would change the way you play the skill and I believe it makes it more dynamic and situational, the power can be discussed. 5. Light Aura - Buff: Not a huge deal, it is a basic skill at the end of the day, but I do think it's too niche. I'm thinking of adding an effect for those using physical damage classes. So it would buff healing effects for magic users/healers. But right now it does nothing for non-healer party members. I think it would be cool to have an effect for for BDs/Rangers/Seekers/etc.. What about a nice little ''Piercing Attack'' bonus or an ''Attack Strength'' bonus, or just simply increased damage from physical damage skills. Nothing too crazy, 1%-1.5% or something like that per level. More incentive to level it up every now and then. 6. Paladin's Prayer - Change: Right now it increases the max HP for 14 seconds and then you lose parts of it every 4 seconds, this makes the skill solely used as a heal skill, never as a skill to increase the max HP, since you lose the HP before you even get to get advantage of it. I think it would make more sense to increase max HP for 20 seconds and then after 20 seconds you lose the whole extra HP at once. 7. Harad's Call - Buff: Make the stun last longer with skill development, since the chance is not 100% in PvP even at max level, there is no reason to level it up. Also it would be a good counter for the bigger amount of AoE control the Legions have over Sentinels. To rap it up, IMO in a perfect world there should be no skill that is just not worth leveling up, because right now most if not all Paladin run the same skill set up, mainly with maxed Sacred Shield and Harad's Prayer, shield users use Shield Strike and 2 handed users go for Banner, all other skills are pretty much worthless. And I have only leveled up to experiment with. With those changes I think all skills would be a good choice to level up depending on the situations, it would definitely refresh Paladin and have multiple ways to play it, and changing skill set up every now and then is one of the best things I like to do with my spare gold, but right now, there is not many options... ___________________ So what do you think? What else would you think needs to be changed? And what do you think about what I suggested?

Wow you're really gonna clickbait us like that?! In all seriousness though, I'm looking forward for this, hopefully it will be good. I really think balancing needs to happen more often though. Oh sure I will.. See you there soon

On the flip side, I totally believe playing your character with the right skill set up for PvP and PvE greatly increases the enjoyment of the game. For example as a Paladin, I could go the cheaper route and do just fine doing dungeons with my single PvP set up, but damn it's so much more fun when you have full PvE set up. And I think that is a good reason for devs to do it, even though it might not be the best business choice at first glance, but improving gameplay experience for your players at the cost of initial money loss might make you more money over time. For me personally, I change skills every month or so, it makes me play the character differently every time and it keeps it refreshing. So having a cheaper way to do that would be great.

Oh no that looks sick, keep it

It's a very ambitious suggestion, but I agree. It would be very helpful if devs were to add that. It will definitely cut the use of books so devs have to be generous with us here. If it makes it more likely, I would suggest 24hr cooldown to change between the saved setups. Otherwise you have to use a book if it's urgent.

I don't know if people realize this but I'll say it again: If Paladin has 10k HP, the shield will absorb 10k damage at 4/4 but it counts raw damage that has not been cut by defense and resilience. For example if a Blade dancer or a Rogue that hit 3k on 0 defense target (which is the norm if you consider ferocity), the shield will be gone with 3 hits. Now with taking the Paladin's defense and resilience into consideration, those enemies would hit Paladin around 1.5k.. 3 hits of 1.5k damage is 4.5k, so actually the shield doesn't block 10k damage. It's very misleading. It's basically half of what the HP tells you, considering a typical Paladin will run with a 50% overall damage reduction when counting everything (defense, resilience, ferocity, penetration, passives) I know 4.5k-5k ''real'' damage is still a lot relative to other shields, but the fact is, new classes and some old ones have new abilities that can deal insane amounts of damage in matter of few seconds, not to mention abilities that can remove buffs including shields, and classes that can fully control Paladins. It's not broken, if there are good counters against it, you just have to pick your teams better. Я не знаю, понимают ли люди это, но я скажу это еще раз: если у Паладина 10k HP, он будет поглощать 10k урона с коэффициентом 4/4, но он учитывает чистый урон, который не был сокращен защитой и стойкостью. Например, если танцор с клинками или разбойник, поразивший 3к по 0 цели защиты (что является нормой, если учесть свирепость), щит исчезнет с попаданиями. Теперь, с учетом защиты и устойчивости Паладина, эти враги будут поражать Паладина примерно на 1,5 тыс. .. 3 удара по 1,5 тыс. Урона составляет 4,5 тыс., Так что на самом деле щит не блокирует 10 тыс. Руб. Урона. Это очень вводит в заблуждение. Это в основном половина того, что говорит вам HP, учитывая, что типичный паладин будет бегать с 50% снижением общего урона при подсчете всего (защиты, устойчивости, свирепости, проникновения, пассивов). Я знаю, что «реальный» урон 4,5-5 тысяч по-прежнему много по сравнению с другими щитами, но факт в том, что новые классы и некоторые старые имеют новые способности, которые могут нанести безумный урон за несколько секунд, а не упомяните способности, которые могут снимать баффы, включая щиты, и классы, которые могут полностью контролировать паладинов. Он не сломан, если против него есть хорошие контратаки, просто нужно лучше подбирать свои команды.

I'm all for innovations in arena and new modes. But here it comes down to big alliances controlling who wins and who loses due to the fact that they'd have more players demanding. And I personally don't wanna spend 1-2 hours to get 25 daily wins, just because the opponents have more players demanding and I'm more likely to have their afk characters on my team than my own guild. The game already requires a lot of time to do the daily duties. And I do get the idea behind the new systems, but it's not really serving its purpose. For example: Timmy is an upcoming player who doesn't not belong to any alliance and want to get his hands on some PvP gear. (this is the demographic you're trying to help right?) Unfortunately, 2 guilds/alliances are fighting for the top spots in the season, which is usually the case all the time in all modes. So Timmy will always be put in with a bunch of greatness players, and most of the time, he will be weakening his own team to lose, there is just not enough Timmy's that can balance out the greatness players on both sides. Now this would have been fine and good if there was another Timmy on the other team, but the fact is, these Timmy's would rather make some sort of a deal with one of the fighting guilds to get their wins, it's not like the Timmy's are fighting each other and greatness players are fighting each other, which would also be a good outcome. The end result is a loophole for the fighting guilds to have their dummy characters sabotage the opponents team, and in my opinion, an abusable system isn't a good system. Especially that it's mostly abused, it's not like it's a rare occurrence, it happens more often than helping out weaker players. Solution(?): I don't know how hard that would be to implement, but I don't see other options other than some way to separate greatness and weak players. And maybe the simplest way to fix it would be to allow only fully made parties to match against other fully made parties. And if there are Timmy's out there that wanna fight they'd demand without a full party so they'd meet only the same type of people, basically a separate que. For example in 4v4, only a pre-made party of 4 people will meet a pre-made party of 4. These will probably be the top guilds fighting for the top spots (or the daily wins), and they would have an even fight that can't be sabotaged. And people that don't belong to the top guilds and/or don't have fleshed out arena gear would demand solo or with 1 or 2 other friends, but not a full party for that mode. These would fight for their daily wins if they wanna do that. That way top guilds would meet each other and Timmy's would fight each other. And it might lead to lesser fights in general due to separating the matchmaking, but at least even fights, quality over quantity, which is something the analytics can't tell. And to increase the amount of solo-demanding Timmy's, you just keep arena fresh for them with incentives, such as the daily wins. And your analytics might tell you that these modes are brought back to life, yes maybe you did that, because you basically monetized it better and gave more incentive for those who aren't interested in the top ranks. Which is great, but I don't think it's because of these weaker players getting a chance in the fights. Now what I suggested might not a be bulletproof system, and people are going to find ways to abuse every system, and I'm not asking for a perfect system in one blow, but more improvements over time, this is a system that's been going on for like what? 2 years now? And it's being abused more than used so maybe it's time to change it. P.S. I know the title was a bit exaggerated, I thought it'd generate attention and it kinda worked :) No one should be fired or anything.

I've been playing the game for a couple of years short of a decade now, and I've just came back from a break. After almost a year away from the game, I decided come back for a few days mainly for a little bit of Arena, because that's what I enjoyed the most about this game. But few days in and I remember exactly why I left: Stupid Arena system design. Who's the genius at AIGRIND that thought to himself it would be a good idea to make 5v5 4v4 and 3v3 modes and not let people que in with a full party of their own teammates? I really would like to have an insight on this dev's genius, maybe there is a bigger plan that my simple brain does not fathom, so please enlighten me. Most of the fights end up in uneven 5v2 or 4v2 fights, because you can't have more than parties of 2 and people of the opposing sides would let their friends and allies demand to get into the enemies team and then they outnumber them and easily win with no chance. If devs don't realize that this happens, they either are disconnected from the reality of their game or they're just fine with it and believe in this dumb design. And yes it's dumb, because it's not about who plays better, but about who can sabotage the enemies team with afk characters the best. FFS, The old 3v3 seal was the most fun mode and had the most intense fights that I've ever had, and you replaced it with a 4v2 mode. Congrats guys you're doing great. What's next? Only solo demands in 2v2? What's stopping you from ruining that too? I just wanna know what were they thinking? Who greenlit this? And please don't even try to tell me it's an attempt to balance team matchmaking, it doesn't work and it never did. I'm sorry but it's failed attempt that hasn't worked for years, and as far as balancing goes, it's the farthest you will ever be. And I know some people will say just deal with it and do the same thing, yeah we do. But what's the point in winning uneven fights? You can't tell me that's what PvP is about in AIGRIND's vision. If so, then I don't know what to tell you.

Well yeah, at some point we didn't have skills with constant energy consumption, it would be a new thing.

Hey there! I thought of a cool concept for a new type of skills, this could be taken and applied to other classes as well, but basically it's a passive skill that gains different active effects after filling certain conditions. Here is an example with Paladin: Paladin's Virtue Passive/Active Paladin gains a ''Virtue'' buff for every time the Paladin or allies in a party in a certain radius take damage from an auto attack. The radius (2 / 3 / 4 yards) and duration of the Virtue buffs increase with skill development. (10 / 15 / 20 / 30 seconds). Stacks up to 10 buffs. When the Paladin gets the 1st buff, the passive effect activates. When the Paladin gets the 4th buff, the active skill will be unlocked. When the Paladin gets the 7th buff, the active skill gains an additional effect. When the Paladin gets the 10th buff, the active skill gains the full potential effect. 1 / 2 / 3 Virtue Buffs: (Passive) Increases the ''Debuff Resistance'' of the Paladin's party members by 3% / 5% / 7% depending on the amount of Virtue buffs. This effect will carry on to the next stages, as long as the Paladin has Virtue Buffs. 4 / 5 / 6 Virtue Buffs: (Active) Allows Paladin to cast a ''Alacrity'' buff on the character or any ally, which increases the movement speed of the target for some time. Strength and duration depend on the amount of Virtue buffs (20% / 35% / 50%, and 5s / 7s / 10s). Range: 5 yards. Skill requires energy. 7 / 8 / 9 Virtue Buffs: (Active) Increases the movement speed of allies in a party in a specified area (3x3 square) for some time. Strength and duration of the effect depend on the amount of Virtue buffs (15% / 25% / 35%, and 4s / 5s / 6s). Range: 3 yards. Skill requires energy. 10 Virtue Buffs: (Active) Removes a certain amount of debuffs including control effects from allies in a party in a specified area (3x3 square), and increases their movement speed for some time (50% speed for 7 seconds). Amount of debuffs removed increases with skill development (2 / 3 / 4 debuffs) Range: 3 yards. Skill requires energy. After using any of the active versions of the skill, Virtue buffs will reset and the passive effect will be lost. The Paladin will have a cooldown before the next Virtue buff is applied. Cooldown - 40 seconds ---------------------------------- I know it's a bit too much, and it could be simplified, but you could just take it as a concept and run with it :) The idea is to have an option of not using the active skills at all and keeping the buffs for the passive effect, or using a specific version for different situations as they each would have pros and cons, or wait more by collecting all the buffs to have the full potiential of the skill, but run the risk of it being 'too late'.

Nub Pala

Make up your mind. First you complained that opposite alliances aren't fighting. Now crying about getting killed by opposite alliance.

Since you're new here, AIGRIND should tell you that you will see a lot of such players and reports. But yeah, you'll get used to it.

I wouldn't mind it if the mode wasn't as bad. If we can demand in full pt, I don't mind it.

Everything about reward changes is fine. But: Allow full pts to go in. What's the point of not allowing them? And this rotation thing seems bad, why not just replace it the normal 3v3 mode, it will add variations and different modes to play with in the arena, rather than removing a unique mode like seal. Now we have 2 boring 3v3 modes whose matchmaking will be abused due to now being able to demand in party, in addition to 5v5, 3 modes with the same abuse-able mechanics. Good job AiGrind...

Everything here is personal opinion

Welcome

I gotta say, I really like the dungeon boss mechanics, the bombs thing (Though I wish they were more punishing, as they are pretty easy to avoid), the teleport and then ranged shooting, it looks cool!

Great! Arena needs a rework for sure. My biggest concerns are: - Random/Solo demands in 3v3 and 5v5 are constantly being abused as mentioned in the original post. Make demands in party possible. - Castle teleport, cleanse and invisibility pots give unfair advantage to some classes over others (Other buffs are fine IMO, at least they don't give unfair advantage, for example you can't use cleanse on a fear/blind but you can on a fetter/roots) - Last but not least: Inactivity problems. I don't know how to solve, but I think cross-server arena would be the most optimal for the arena's sake, but I don't know how realistic it is for devs and what extent of caveats does that have, like having all servers compete in 1 bracket instead of individual ones (lose money?). and also somewhat general but also connected: option to save gear sets and to switch between them in 1 click, again, as mentioned above.

In other words: They wanna milk every last drop of money they can get out of lvl30 gear before moving on to lvl32.

Am I missing something here? It already works like that. Also fix the russian parts in the ''Fixes''

How is playing like that more efficient than landscape mode?

Ah I see a timely theme, I love it! Very nice graphics and art. I hope to see more depth to the theme than just aesthetics, like some ''infected'' areas where you need special equipment (masks ) to enter, or you'll receive poison damage; Poison damage is increase when there are nearby allies (social distancing ). Area effects kinda like the underwater. But nonetheless, great theme. But I gotta say, that skeleton in the picture needs to wear the mask over his nose! I love the idea of seasonal arena modes! Does that mean we will also see a special mode for Christmas every year? That would be great. But, I'm not a big fan of the fact that we can only apply solo. This already happens in current 5v5 and 3v3, where people of the opposite alliance put their afk characters on demand, so that they ruin the opponent's teams by having their own afk character, ending up in 3v2 or even 3v1. It just becomes a battle of who has more characters under his control. Just let the people have the option to demand in a full party. It's unnecessary, it's abusable and it's not serving its intended purpose of balancing out the teams.

Yeah, piercing is definitely not the answer for a Paladin. Only if using 2 handed weapons. And especially not if using magic weapons, obviously. However if you're using physical damage build, and you feel like your mana is doing fine, then a bit of piercing won't hurt. And then whether you want stun or CD on boots, it will depend on your other gear. For me, since I already have 24% CD, and since I use stun mace and enchant shield with stun, I do stun on boots. But it's totally up to you.