Gladiator

I don't mind a lot of what's being suggested, and agree with removing or redesigning the circular map. But I don't agree with cutting arena time in half. Blocking is part of the arena, and wasting the opponents time is how you win, you might not like it but I don't think removing time from the battles the solution, maybe enable players to leave the fight a bit earlier. And a big fat yes

I'd say classes are classified in tiers, and all classes in that tier are kinda balanced to an extent between each other. This would be my tier list for PvP (Arena mainly). And for fun, I also put them in order within the tier depending on strength in 1v1: S-Tier: Bladedancer, Druid, Shaman, Charmer, Necromancer, Paladin, Mage A-Tier: Ranger, Barbarian, Warlock, Priest B-Tier: Rogue, Deathknight, Hunter, Seeker C-Tier: Priest D-Tier: Seeker (These two can be very good in PvP, but it's so much harder to build them to be viable in Arena than the other A-B tier classes. So I put them here as an average build) F-Tier: Warden Dungeon/PvE tier list?

Yes the bow, sorry. Yeah high def is everywhere now, but you would rather hit low than get dodged all the time.

The staff on the far right after you kill the underwater boss and open the fake chest.

Depends on which build you have. If you have magic 2 handed then around 20% is enough, since most damage comes from Illumination and that skill doesn't miss at all. The accuracy is necessary for Banner and Harad Call though. If you're using 1 handed or physical damage builds, then try to get 30%+ The crit can still be above 30% with that much accuracy. Don't worry much about penetration since there is a buff that gives you 20% pene in the underwater part of the dungeon. So focus first on getting as much accuracy as you can and then crit.

Tab to show all active buffs on the character and how much they last for. Would be great quality of life change, especially if you have a lot of buffs like war buff, buffs from events, gp/ap pots. It gets hard to keep up with.

Drop rates in chests better be increased.

Yeah I can also, as a lvl30 full +10 Paladin, go in astral lab alone. Does that mean the game is not for group play? No, it just means that I became way stronger than the content. Now go try solo the new mermen dungeon or Octopus raid boss. That's where you can really test if it's about group play for your level. But yeah, of course at some point players will evolve to solo older content, but when Technopolis was new, it was balanced for group play at THAT time. And still is for players of that specific level and strength.

Nice pace of updates going on here, I like to see that!

What exactly is gonna be improved here?

New skills got the most attention in this update, doesn't undermine the fact, that the other new content coming looks very good. Looking forward for it.

What do you think?

Imagine being a Paladin paying 40k and investing 3 valuable skill points for a glorified CD book that any class can buy from events.

I know it's gonna be a bit of a controversial opinion, but I don't think it's unreasonable to consider so I'll put it out there with the explanation: Paladin should be able to use Sacred Shield on himself now. And since Devs are not planning to fix the new passive Inner Force, I think it would be only fair for Paladin to be able to use shield on himself, even if it's a bit weaker version (If used on himself) or for some sort of penalty, maybe only being able to use shield on himself if using shield + 1handed, since 2handed builds have a good amount of support and heal, and the shield build is more about tanking. Explanation: With all these debuffs and buffs Like Druid's and Shaman's new skills, and Warlock's/Necromancer's increased crowd control, the ability of Mage to remove and reduce duration of all buffs (Including Sacred Shield BTW), and increased damage for many classes like Barbarians with high attack speed, and now ability of Rogue to stun with already insane dodge, not to mention the ability of Barbarians, Mages, and Bladedancers to completely ignore debuffs. I think that the meta will shift towards pure damage vs defense/heal, Paladin's control skills will less effective than ever, and don't forget that Paladin's only advantage over all of these aforementioned classes is crowd controls and support, which is becoming less and less effective as explained. Truth of the matter is: In Arena and Team situations, it would be obviously disadvantageous for Paladins to use shield only for them, so it would only be helpful in 1v1 situations, but 1v1 situations are a big part of Arena, and in most situations, if a class is bad in 1v1, then it's also not great in Arena. In many Arena fights there will be a 1v1 battle at the end, and if the devs don't see that, they clearly don't play the game. And when the Paladin's allies are dead, there is nothing that the Paladin can do but eat up all the damage and die. On the other hand you have classes that have the potential to kill 2 players 1v2. What this change will do is instead of the Paladin dying in 10 seconds, he will die in 30 seconds, which to me it sounds like it goes towards balance. Like, Paladin will never be able to kill ranged characters that have insane damage, heal or control just because of this change, but it will at least give a chance, it will make it more balanced against melees (but still not overpowering, considering the other advantages other classes have). If I see comments about this game is not about 1v1, you clearly don't understand the game. 1v1 is a huge part of the game especially Arena whether you like it or not. And I don't think there should be 100% balance between classes in 1v1. Like I'm not saying that every classes needs the same amount of stuns, heals, and damage. But there should be some way to make 1v1 encounters more reasonable for all classes. Also if the game isn't about 1v1 and if making this change would make Paladin OP in 1v1, then what's your problem? By that logic, there should be also no reason not to give Paladins the abilty to use the shield on themselves. Checkmate 🙂

BD is fine considering the amount of control Legions have now, it's ridiculous going in Arena against Warlocks, Hunters, and Shamans. Don't forget the uncounterable dodge

2 Handed magic paladins are already good enough, I like the idea that the skill gives more benefit to shield users.

Nice that they changed Necros totem graphics because everyone was demanding about such a change, but no change about Paladin's skill because who talked about any change?

How much speed and pene does new barb skill give btw?

I don't know man, I've seen a couple of Necros controlling the whole elf caravan by killing weak NPCs and players and making huge crowds and then dying and re-placing totems and repeat over and over again (For some reason Totems don't disappear if the Necro dies, which I believe should be changed). Not judging the skill yet though, I like the concept of it, and also agree with giving Necros a good skill. I just feel like it might take some limiting (Amount of skelies)

Follow-up question then, are they considered 'players'? Meaning AoE skills are limited on them?

Do Necros totem stack? Meaning if there are 4 totems on, does each make 1 skeleton for each dead character?

Yeah if they make it so that 1 resist buff every 5 seconds would still give 4 resists every 20, but at least you would have a way to work around it by 'wasting' 1 debuff so you can safely use your important ones. Like when dealing with barbs stone skin. 4 guaranteed resists at the beginning of the fight are just bad design. Also can we talk about Mages getting 2 powerful skills in 1? removing 3 buffs is on its own a very strong skill. But as if that's not enough, it also reduces the duration of all incoming buffs by 65% for 14 whopping secs on a 30 sec cd?! I mean both of these effects could have been their own *powerful* skills. Seriously, remove one of the effects.

How do you see it OP?

I think the cooldown bonus is bad and it's very hard to get an advantage out of it, it should be at least 30% bonus at max level and block maybe 8%. Only then I can see the skill viable in any form or way in PvP or PvE. As it stands you have to stay in 60% for a very long time to gain advantage of the cd buff, but even then 15% is low. I wanna hear any justification of nerfing it in the first place instead of actually making it stronger. I think some ways to fix it could be: - Bring HP threshold back to 70% and make it 8% block and 30% CD. Or keep thresold at 60% but give 10% block and 40% CD. - Add another bonus: it could be for example 15% resistance or 25% damage reduction or extra 20% healing power. Anything that helps the Paladin survive long enough to support and sustain without relying on Sacred Shield. Also it would be more reasonable to gain value out of the CD buff. - Change mechanism to increase bonus as the HP decreases. Minimum bonus from 100% HP and maximum at 20% HP Example: 100% HP: 10% CD, 5% Block 80% HP: 15% CD, 7% Block 60% HP: 20% CD, 9 Block 40% HP 25% CD, 11% Block 20% HP 30% CD, 13% Block - Completely change mechanism to activate when overall Party HP, falls below 60%, with different / additional bonus. At the end of the day that would make more sense for a support Paladin, since right now it is needed that the Paladin is the tank to gain value out of the skill, but in most scenarios, Paladin is not a tank but rather a support . I think it would be more fitting that way. Bonuses could include 20% CD for the Pala, 15% reduction to damage received to all party members (makes more sense than block> Pala is support), and maybe 15% additional healing power by paladin heal skills. Don't focus too much on the numbers, they are just examples. Now that Sacred Shield can be easily removed by Mages, and most classes have more control than before. Paladin will need something new to bring into the fight, since Paladin's controls and buffs are all indirectly nerfed.

So they already nerfed the skill that didn't need a nerf. What's the logic behind this? The skill was already underwhelming compared to most of the newly added skills. You might think activating at 70% HP is too much, but if you look at the added bonuses, it's really not game changing at all. Now I think 15% Cooldown has to be increased. Paladin will fall out of the meta in Arena very quickly, now that you have characters that remove debuffs (fetters and stuns) and characters that remove buffs (sacred shield), and characters that completely ignore debuffs (BD) I don't know what's left for Paladin to compete in Arena. I originally thought the skill was OK, but now you just made it worse for no reason.