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Patch 1.02/1.03 Gameplay Changes Discussion Thread


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#1
AreleX

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[Updated and editted by Luke Barrett]
Now that the patch (and a full list of changes) is out/will be out soon, I think a discussion regarding the pros and cons of them is in order, so people can not only have a quick reference list, but also talk about what they like/don't like.

List taken from Rob Bartel's post in the PS3 section.

GAMEPLAY
- In many fights, enemies now move less quickly at the start of combat. This slower initial pace makes tactical positioning more useful and important.
- If the force of an enemy attack interrupts a party member's current action, the party member now resumes the action once he or she has recovered. This means, for example, that party members who have been instructed to consume a health potion will now do so as soon as they are able, and do not need to be told to consume a health potion again if they are interrupted.
- Enemies are now much less likely to explode into body parts upon death.
- Attacks that hit a stealthed assassin are now more likely to disrupt stealth.
- Abilities that apply a silence effect now also cancel the target's current action in addition to preventing the target from using further abilities.
- When an enemy wakes from a sleep effect due to suffering damage, other status effects that were applied by the same ability that caused the sleep effect are no longer removed at the same time.
- Items that bear the property "100% of basic attack damage vs. enemies that attack in melee" no longer harm the user when equipped in conjunction with abilities like Blood Magic or Sacrificial Frenzy that reduce the user's health.
- The items known as Final Thought, Sataareth, Sundering, and Trepanner's Gift now have damage types that
match their elemental damage bonuses.
- The items known as Allure's Crook, Corrupted Acolyte's Staff, Defender of the Wall, Void's Hammer,
and Volcanic Shield can now only be equipped by the appropriate classes.
- The high dragon's fireballs no longer track moving targets.
- Pride demons can no longer be affected by their own Crushing Prison spells.
- The size of the area affected by an ability is now explicitly described as diameter or radius (usually diameter).
- When a party member's armor changes after consummating a romance, runes inscribed on his or her old armor now carry over to the new armor.
- Using the Maker's Sigh potion on an archer no longer alters inventory capacity.
- It is no longer possible to create more than one Elixir of Heroism.
- It is no longer possible to simultaneously enable sustained modes that are supposed to be mutually exclusive.
- In some cases, enemies would freeze while entering combat. This no longer occurs.
- In some cases, saw traps or spike traps would throw party members back even when the trap was not visible. This no longer occurs.
- The Special Deliveries chest can no longer get into a state where it contains items but cannot be opened.
- The storage chest is now present in the Hawke estate after completing the main campaign.
- If the Black Emporium premium content is installed, the mabari hound now follows his master more reliably.
- Various character-corruption issues now correct themselves automatically when you load your game.
- Various minor gameplay issues no longer occur.

BALANCE
NOTE: Patch 1.03 introduces significant changes to the overall balance of the game, improving the
strategic elements and making combat and class progression more engaging and enjoyable for players. Here is a detailed summary of the balance-related improvements:

General Combat
- Enemies’ basic attacks now apply much less force, which means that party members’ actions are not interrupted as frequently.
- The secondary attribute requirement for equipping armor or shields (constitution for warriors, willpower for mages, and cunning for rogues) is now significantly smaller.
- The rate at which rogues regenerate stamina while performing basic attacks has been significantly increased.
- Traps no longer inflict injuries.
- Enemies now gain more health as the game progresses.
- Enemy assassins now have less health.
- Lieutenant-rank and boss-rank enemies now have less health.
- Lieutenant-rank enemies can no longer lose more than 40% of their health from a single hit, and boss-rank enemies cannot lose more than 20%.
- Enemy commanders now occasionally throw stun grenades while encouraging their troops to concentrate attacks against a single party member. Previously, this behavior was limited to nightmare difficulty.
- Values for armor and elemental resistances now cannot exceed 95%. The game displays values of up to 100%, but characters now suffer 5% damage from an attack even if they show 100% resistance.
- The DISORIENT effect now applies a 50% penalty to enemy defense, as described in the codex, instead of only 25%.
- The Rune of Valiance now provides a +2 bonus to all attributes instead of a variable bonus that could rise as high as +7. As well, equipping and unequipping multiple pieces of armor that each bear a Rune of
Valiance no longer results in incorrect attribute scores.
- Items that improve the Blood Magic cost ratio now provide 0.25 mana per point of health instead of 1 mana.
- On hard and nightmare difficulties, status effects now persist on enemies for a slightly longer duration.
- On nightmare difficulty, enemies now inflict more damage than before.
- On nightmare difficulty, party members no longer suffer friendly-fire damage from warriors’ basic attacks.
- On nightmare difficulty, party members can no longer suffer more than 75% of their health in damage from a single friendly-fire attack.

Warrior Changes
- Aftershock upgrade to the Tremor talent now has a 30% chance to STAGGER normal enemies instead of 40%.
- Claymore upgrade to the Cleave talent now has a 10% chance to STAGGER normal enemies instead of 40%.
- Cleave talent now increases damage by 75% instead of 100%, while the cost has been increased from 20 stamina to 30 and cooldown from 20s to 25s.
- Shield Bash talent no longer automatically STAGGERS enemies within range of the attack who were not targeted directly. The primary target is still automatically STAGGERED, but other normal enemies within
range have a 40% chance to STAGGER.
- Shield Defense talent now increases threat generation by 100%.
- Sunder talent now has a 20% chance to STAGGER enemies on a critical hit instead of 50%. As well, the talent now only STAGGERS enemies if the warrior is wielding a two-handed weapon, as originally intended.
- The Berserker's Berserk talent now calculates the damage bonus differently, substantially increasing the ability's effectiveness.
- The Reaver's Blood Frenzy talent and Fenris's Veneer of Calm talent now provide a maximum bonus of +50% damage instead of +100%.

Rogue Changes
- Rogues now regain 1% of their stamina per hit with dual weapons or 2% per hit with a bow.
- The Ambush talent now functions as described.
- The Burst Shot talent now inflicts approximately 50% more damage (and 3x physical force instead of 2x).
- Brand talent now provides a 25% bonus to warriors' and mages' critical chance instead of 10%.
- Disorienting Shot upgrade to the Pinning Shot talent now always DISORIENTS the victim, regardless of whether the victim was pinned in place.
- The Inconspicuous talent now extends the reduced threat generation to other rogues and mages within a 10m diameter.
- The Lacerate talent now provides a 10% chance to re-apply the damage from any ability over 5s, instead of a chance to apply a fixed amount of damage.
- The Merciless Strike upgrade to the Explosive Strike talent now applies 300% damage vs. STAGGERED targets instead of 400%.
- The Pinning Shot talent now pins the victim for the correct duration.
- The Pinpoint Strikes talent now includes a 100% bonus to attack for the duration of the ability.
- The Assassin's Assassinate talent now has a 50s cooldown instead of 40s. The Annihilate upgrade now applies 200% damage vs. BRITTLE targets instead of 400%.
- The Shadow's Decoy talent and Sebastian's Guardian Angel talent now have a 45s cooldown instead of 30s.
- The Shadow's Disorienting Criticals talent now functions as described, and provides a 50% bonus to critical damage when obscured instead of 25%.
- The Shadow's Pinpoint Precision talent now provides a 50% bonus to critical damage instead of 25%.

Mage Changes
- Walking Bomb now inflicts damage equal to 50% of the victim's maximum health upon explosion, within a 4m radius, instead of 100%.
-  Arcane Wall upgrade to the Arcane Shield spell now continues to provide a 20% defense bonus to the mage, as described. Previously, the upgrade reduced the bonus to 15%. Other party members receive a 5% bonus.
- The Chain Reaction upgrade to the Chain Lightning spell now applies 300% damage vs. STAGGERED targets instead of 600%.
- Death Syphon spell now drains multiple corpses more quickly.
- Entropic Cloud spell now applies for 30s instead of 15s (against normal enemies), but the cost has been increased from 35 mana to 50 and the cooldown from 40s to 50s. The Death Cloud upgrade now applies damage every 2s instead of every 4s.
- Fireball and Firestorm spells now both inflict approximately 40% more damage and apply 3x elemental force instead of 2x.
- Misdirection Hex spell now applies for 15s instead of 10s (against normal enemies).
- Petrify spell now applies for 12s instead of 15s (against normal enemies).
- Sleep spell now applies for 15s instead of 10s (against normal enemies).
- Spirit Mastery skill now includes a 10% bonus to critical chance instead of 5%.
- The Spirit Strike upgrade to the Spirit Bolt spell now applies 300% damage vs. DISORIENTED targets instead of 200%.
- The Winter's Blast upgrade to the Winter's Grasp spell now notes that it affects nearby enemies.
- The Blood mage's Blood Magic spell and the spirit healer's Healing Aura spell are now mutually exclusive.
- The Blood mage's Blood Magic spell now reserves 70% of the mage's mana instead of 50%.
- The Blood mage's Blood Slave spell now enslaves the victim for a longer duration. As well, if the spell is ineffective, the victim's current action is now canceled. The Blood Spatter upgrade now inflicts damage
equal to 75% of the victim's maximum health upon explosion instead of 100%, within a 4m radius. As well, the spell description now displays this information.
- The Blood mage's Grave Robber spell now affects a 12m diameter instead of 6m in order to make the ability more useful.
- The Blood mage's One Foot In upgrade now inflicts 100% of the mage’s maximum health in damage instead of 10%.
- The Blood mage's Paralyzing Hemorrhage upgrade to the Hemorrhage spell now applies 500% damage vs. STAGGERED targets instead of 900%.
- The Force mage's Fist of the Maker spell now inflicts approximately 50% more damage. The Maker's Hammer upgrade now applies 600% damage vs. STAGGERED targets instead of 900%.
- The Force mage's Unshakable spell now provides a +50 bonus to fortitude instead of +100.
- The Spirit healer's Group Heal spell and Anders's Aid Allies spell now restore 25% of party members' health instead of 30%. When upgraded, Group Heal restores 40% of health instead of 50%.
- The Spirit healer's Healing Aura spell and Anders's Panacea spell now provide a +100 bonus to health regeneration instead of +50, and a +200 bonus when upgraded instead of +100. As well, the diameter of the spell has been increased from 6m to 10m, and from 8m to 15m when upgraded. In addition, a rare case
in which the spell previously provided an abnormally high rate of health regeneration no longer occurs.

Companion Specific Changes
- Anders's Swift Justice spell now reduces cooldowns to 90% of their normal duration instead of 80%.
- Aveline's Bodyguard talent no longer allows her to absorb the damage from Anders's Martyr spell.
- Aveline's Immovable talent now provides a stacking 8% bonus to damage resistance per hit instead of 2%.
- If Bethany or Carver rejoin the party near the end of the game, they now learn the Force Mage and Templar specializations, respectively. Existing save games from after the Deep Roads Expedition will not receive the benefit of this fix.
 

Сообщение изменено: AreleX, 30 Май 2011 - 05:10 .


#2
Luke Barrett

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I updated Rob's post a bit to put some better syntax and organization in to it in an attempt to make it look less overwhelming.

If anyone has any questions on any of the balance changes, feel free to ask and I will answer to the best of my ability and knowledge.

#3
Jack-Nader

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The only thing I can see that is truly retarded in this patch is this

Lieutenant-rank enemies can no longer lose more than 40% of their health from
a single hit, and boss-rank enemies cannot lose more than 20%.

It makes the brittle + assassinate ability absolutely pointless. With the boost to the shadow class it will be better to apply a +50% brittle and then autoattack.  Actually no, dishorientating criticals wipes the brittle effect.


*Questions - Is haste fixed?  Does that 75% max damage from friendly fire spells apply to the walking bomb explosion?

Сообщение изменено: Jack-Nader, 30 Май 2011 - 04:35 .


#4
Sabotin

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Well, generally the skill rebalances seem sensible, if a bit overbearing on the warrior side.

I'm more concerned about the general stuff, like the inability to 1hit higher ranks. I think that really blunts the teeth of rogue skills, even more so than their skill changes.

I like the thing that you're not forced to reload the odd times that someone wanders into your aoe at just the wrong time.

Wondering how that berserk works now also.

Eh really I can't say as a whole what is positive or negative, will need to try xD.

#5
Serenade

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Luke Barrett wrote...

I updated Rob's post a bit to put some better syntax and organization in to it in an attempt to make it look less overwhelming.

If anyone has any questions on any of the balance changes, feel free to ask and I will answer to the best of my ability and knowledge.


Could you confirm or decline if the "Skecthy on details" quest plot flag is fix in this patch? Because i have problems seeing it in the notes.

Сообщение изменено: Master Bandit, 30 Май 2011 - 04:39 .


#6
bleetman

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Luke Barrett wrote...

If anyone has any questions on any of the balance changes, feel free to ask and I will answer to the best of my ability and knowledge.


I do have one, actually.

The blood mage's Blood Magic spell now reserves 70% of the mage's mana instead of 50%.

Is that only to player Blood Magic, or has Blood of the First increased in cost as well? Not that I don't enjoy listening to Merrill go on about how sorry she is.

Сообщение изменено: bleetman, 30 Май 2011 - 04:37 .


#7
Luke Barrett

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For the damage caps, bosses already had this 20% cap since the game launched. As for the lieutenants the change was intended to remove your ability to 1-hit creatures that were intended to be an important aspect of an encounter.

For the Berserk change, I believe it now calculates the bonus on base damage instead of applying it afterward so you get the added advantages of other bonuses and abilities.

Merrill's blood magic line is also 70%

Сообщение изменено: Luke Barrett, 30 Май 2011 - 04:42 .


#8
Jack-Nader

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Xebenkeck could always be brittle + assassinated in 1 hit. Is she not of the boss class?

#9
Luke Barrett

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Master Bandit wrote...

Could you confirm or decline if the "Skecthy quest" plot flag is fix in this patch? Because i have problems seeing it in the notes.


Afaik it is fixed and properly closed. Last I saw Sketchy still lingers around for no reason after it's turned in but aside from that it works fine and more importantly the flags correctly set for finishing it (this does not imply in anyway that it will ever be called, just that it could be if needed)

#10
Guilebrush

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The mage's Chain Reaction upgrade to the Chain Lightning spell now applies 300% damage vs. DISORIENTED targets instead of 600%.

Is this working as written in the change log? Not only is this a sizable nerf, but it completely changes the entire way to CCC with the ability. Just curious more than anything although this would leave just Crushing Prison I believe as the only way for Companion Mages to CCC off a STAGGER? Big big big change if this actually behaves as per the changelog.

I'll probably have more thoughts on the rebalancing later but 3 things immediately stuck out. The change above, the change Jack-Nader pointed out and the lack of "Decoy no longer destroys the Arishok's AI" or was this already fixed in a previous patch, I forget.

Сообщение изменено: Guilebrush, 30 Май 2011 - 04:43 .


#11
Luke Barrett

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Guilebrush wrote...

The mage's Chain Reaction upgrade to the Chain Lightning spell now applies 300% damage vs. DISORIENTED targets instead of 600%.

Is this working as written in the change log? Not only is this a sizable nerf, but it completely changes the entire way to CCC with the ability. Just curious more than anything although this would leave just Crushing Prison I believe as a way for Companion Mages to CCC off a STAGGER? Big big big change if this actually behaves as per the changelog.


No that's just a typo (the disorient). I'll edit it.

Jack-Nader wrote...
Is haste fixed?

Haste still stacks with itself. However, the magic resist reducing the duration it lasts has been fixed.

Jack-Nader wrote...

Does that 75% max damage from friendly fire spells apply to the walking bomb explosion?

Yes. This number is based off your max hp though and does not consider injuries.

Jack-Nader wrote...
Xebenkeck could always be brittle + assassinated in 1 hit. Is she not of the boss class?

I don't believe so, no. There are technically two designations for 'boss' characters of which only one had this effect placed on it previously (for bosses like ARW, High Dragon...etc)

Сообщение изменено: Luke Barrett, 30 Май 2011 - 04:50 .


#12
Guilebrush

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Thanks for the quick response Luke. Good to know that Primal still plays well with Warriors and at a probably more balanced degree now.

Quick follow up question do the elemental immunity caps affect enemies as well or just the players? The syntax used seems to allude to caps only applying to players... I was kind of looking forward to no longer having to rage at the thought of random enemies gaining random senseless immunities just because you dialed the difficulty to nightmare. Why are you immune to fire City Guard pretender?! Why?!

#13
Luke Barrett

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Guilebrush wrote...

Quick follow up question do the elemental immunity caps affect enemies as well or just the players? The syntax used seems to allude to caps only applying to players... I was kind of looking forward to no longer having to rage at the thought of random enemies gaining random senseless immunities just because you dialed the difficulty to nightmare. Why are you immune to fire City Guard pretender?! Why?!


Nope, just players. Enemies are still 100% immune to their specific type(s) on nightmare. A side note to this one: your resists will still show that they go up to 100% but I can assure you that they cap at 95.

#14
Guilebrush

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- The Rune of Valiance now provides a +2 bonus to all attributes instead
of a variable bonus that could rise as high as +7. As well, equipping
and unequipping multiple pieces of armor that each bear a Rune of
Valiance no longer results in incorrect attribute scores.

Another big change just wondering if this means that it's now possible to stack multiple Runes of Valiance accross different pieces of armor or will it remain as it is currently where only 1 Rune of Valiance will function accross your entire gear set? +7 definitely felt too powerful, I'm not sure if a +2 will feel "special enough" for a rune that you receive that late into the game, may have gone too far in the other direction for what essentially was the "capstone" armor rune.

#15
SuicidalBaby

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Entropic Cloud spell now applies for 30s instead of 15s (against normalenemies), but the cost has been increased from 35 mana to 50 and the cooldown from 40s to 50s. The Death Cloud upgrade now applies damage every 2s instead of every 4s.

Is this spell still single target only via tactics?
Does the animation effect last the entire duration in this version?
Did the cast time of 5 seconds change?

The way it works in tactics implies it sources from a target rather than an area of effect being sustained throughout the time described.
Can I assumed the effects linger beyond an enemy's presence in the cloud, whatever the duration?
Can the effect re-apply if the target was removed from the area via force then re-entered the area?

Сообщение изменено: SuicidialBaby, 30 Май 2011 - 05:20 .


#16
Luke Barrett

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It is actually a single target skill which propogates its effects to all enemies around the target. SO the duration and the like will be based on what target you cast it on initially. Since the effect eminates from the target it will follow them around and therefore persistantly affect any enemies near the target.

As for the cast time, it's still the same but I wouldn't say it's 5 whole seconds, feels more like 3.5 :)

Сообщение изменено: Luke Barrett, 30 Май 2011 - 05:33 .


#17
Sabotin

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- Abilities that apply a silence effect now also cancel the target's current action in addition to preventing the target from using further abilities.
This also works for interrupting assassins while they are in their stealthing animation, thus negating their invulnerability during it?

#18
Luke Barrett

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Sabotin wrote...

- Abilities that apply a silence effect now also cancel the target's current action in addition to preventing the target from using further abilities.
This also works for interrupting assassins while they are in their stealthing animation, thus negating their invulnerability during it?


That seems unlikely since Assassins are godly but perhaps. I'll try to set up a test case for it to double check some time today (no promises though).

Сообщение изменено: Luke Barrett, 30 Май 2011 - 05:34 .


#19
SuicidalBaby

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- Items that improve the Blood Magic cost ratio now provide 0.25 mana per point of health instead of 1 mana.

still in awe of the degree of change to this.

#20
Sabotin

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Ah, I thought maybe you'd know off-hand. I'm assuming it doesn't work that way, since it sais "in addition".

Btw, was the weird damage resistance bonus on upgraded shield defense a concious decision (since it wasn't touched); +25% from front and 50% from the back...

#21
Luke Barrett

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I believe they are both 50% when it's upgraded and it's just worded poorly. I'll double check.

#22
jbblue05

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Rogue type enemies, blood mages and serebas are going to be an even bigger pain in the ass.
Xebenkeck might be impossible now

cross-class combos are somewhat useless because they are needed to take out elite dangerous enemies quickly. I guess it depends o how much health certain enemies have now


Should make nightmare a lot harder

#23
AreleX

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I initially was going through and addressing things that stuck out to me one by one, but my desire to even post about this game has plummeted. I tried hard not to be reactionary and give it a chance, but a lot of  these changes, I just don't get. Maybe someone can explain.

Who thought Warriors were too strong? If ANYTHING AT ALL, they weren't strong enough, and now they've suffered a 75% damage loss across the board, in addition to having their go-to crowd-clearer nerfed (STAGGER -> Chain Lightning). Cleave nerfs? Sacrificial Frenzy nerfs? Why? Someone said Rogues were underpowered, and Warriors were too good? Who? Because that statement is patently false, if you're playing the game the right way.

Why is Shadow so strong now? It was stronger (and better) than Duelist before, but not enough to make it totally obsolete, which is exactly what has been done now. Actually, Rogue changes in general, I don't get. The only way you could say they were 'weak' was if you didn't know what you were doing. Flat out. I also am not fond of the changes to Assassinate, since its huge single target spike damage output was one of the main draws, to me

Walking Bomb got nerfed into obscurity, both by damage, and not being able to resist the explosion. Does the 75% friendly fire damage change apply to WB?

bah i don't even want to talk about this any more, i just hope it plays better than it sounds

edit: so it is clear, there are many things about this patch that i am very happy with, but they are kind of being overshadowed by all the things i take issue with right now

Сообщение изменено: AreleX, 30 Май 2011 - 06:04 .


#24
AreleX

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i also don't understand nerfing assassin's health, instead of changing the thing that really made them obnoxious: that you cannot interrupt their stealth, which reeks of arbitrary difficulty

#25
Iosev

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I'm taking a guess since I only play on Nightmare, but perhaps warriors were too strong on the lower difficulties (Hard and lower). My brother played a warrior on normal and he kept telling me how incredibly easy the game was since he could mow through groups of enemies with his warrior, with the rest of his group finishing off any surviving enemies with stagger combos.  When I watched him play, all I saw were entire groups of enemies exploding in mere seconds (very different from when I played my mage on Nightmare).

If anything, this patch will ultimately just make Nightmare more difficult, which I eagerly welcome.

Сообщение изменено: arcelonious, 30 Май 2011 - 06:23 .