20 Nov 2005 at 17:04 - 1919
Hallo everyone. This is my first post, to let you you know how I feel about the 10th Nov patch. For that, I paste an e-mail I sent ANet a few days ago:
Dear Arena Net
With this update you decreased dramatically the usefulness of elementalists. Why should this class pay for "crimes" commited by the invicimonk build? If the objective was to cut down on farming, well, didn't work quite well. Monks can still farm, they are still able to make money. I don't have a monk, don't like the playing style. I used my elem to farm and get just enough money for my personal needs. Now I can't do it anymore. And, before, I didn't mass farm, like monks. I only took on 3 or 4 enemies at a time, unlike monks who took 10+ hydras (no, wait, I believe there's cases of 30-40 hydras). Is that so unfeasable? Isn´t an ascended lvl 20 elementalist supposed to take on and kill 3 enemies at a time? I don´t see what the problem is with elem AoE skills. Will you nerf a few skills every time someone comes up with a new, stronger than average build? Why don´t you just let us use the skills you created the best way we can? Everyone is on equal terms, everyone can use the same skills for whatever purposes. And on PvP there's always a counter build.
Why this discrimination against elems? Monks are your problem (and only that specific invicimonk build), not elems. I know that the objective is to stop the sale of gold and items on the internet (like on ebay). Most of those companies use asian players wich don't do anything else but farm all day. You just have to go to Augury Rock, at ANY time and you'll see the crowd of asian monks leaving town. I'm all for stopping their activities, but don't do this at the expense of legit players. If the intention was to stop this, I think it won't work because, now more than ever, people will buy gold online. And the prices won't fall because monks can still farm and there will be a steady constant flow of money. On the other hand, items will be more scarce, due to the decrease in farming and to cuts on item drops you made previously. It´s very dificult to get a good gold item nowadays. So, less items supply, demand still maintains, prices will rise. How am I going to get money now? Do I have to create a monk just for farming? That will be boring, and a game should be about fun. Buy gold on ebay?
You say that I can farm with other players. Well, it´s not easy finding players to do it, only on specific areas like FoW and the UW. Use henchmen? No, thank you, drops suck. I would do it if I wouldn´t have to share everything with henchies. I have a sugestion: make them mercenaries, we'll pay them a fee for their services, and don't share anything with them. This way would be enjoyable farming with them and would solve the problem of invicibuilds.
You say that the patch aims at making enemies smarter. Then go all the way. Make them run away from my Warrior when they are about to die under his axe. You say it's realistic to make them run when they feel the first "smell" from an AoE skill. Then why not make them run when they feel the first cut from a blade? It's logical, no? Then we'll have a battlefield full of fleeing enemies. Maybe then skills like Sprint and Charge would be useful in PvE, besides pro runners. It's not logical to make it about AoE skills or any other type of skill, for that matter. They should run, if they should run at all, when their health is low, not when they get the first damage from a certain type of skill.
You say that you want to make them smarter, behave in a more realistical way. Well, a game should be about fun, not realism. And tell me, how realistical is running around with swords, axes, hammers, casting spells, etc? How realistical is Sword and Sorcery? Isn't this called an Heroic-FANTASY game? How realistical is having a radar that warns you of the presence of enemies? How realistical is travelling instantaneously between towns? How realistical is the use of runes? This game isn´t supposed to be a simulation.
And isn´t standing your ground and fighting to the death also realistic? This monsters are supposed to be ruthless, fearless, not afraid to die. They are suposed to be more focused on killing, not on self preservation, and certainly not run away in the heat of battle like cowards. Players who do that in PvP are called runners and noobs by other players.
Is the patch aimed at making fights more challenging? I don't think so. It's easier now: enemies run away from us, giving time to regen. It was more dificult before when they kept attacking no matter what, giving us a hard time surviving. And now there's a bigger chance to land criticals on enemies because they will be running half the time, making figts easiear. So, now what, are you going to nerf criticals also? This is a never ending cycle. What the patch makes more challenging is farming, and more time consuming, that's all (and for my elementalist has made it impossible so far). Oh, and henchies are still as dumb as ever.
This patch doesn't make the enemies more "clever and canny and crafty in figuring out how to win". For instance, if I'm almost out of health and there's an enemie attacking me with full health, I just have to pop up an AoE skill and he runs away, waysting a good opportunity to kill me. How clever is that? In what way does that "bring the game back to more of a shared-experience feeling, rather than a feeling of having two entirely separate and different games" (PvE versus PvP)? By the way, what's the problem in having substancial differences between PvE and PvP? Everyone who bought the game understood that the two would play in different ways. And I'm glad there's differences, that only plays in favor of the game, everyone can choose what one wants to explore more.
So, what I think is that all the reasons you present to justify this patch are not valid, they're there to just disguise the real objective: another strong nerf on farming. But you forget that farming is another aspect that a LOT of people enjoyed about this game and this way you're just taking away a lot of their pleaure. I believe that you'll have a lot of discontent players on your hands that will think twice about buying any more chapters. What for? Having things contantly nerfed? I'm all for tweaking, not nerfing.
I think that the influence of farming in the game economy could be easilly solved if you really wanted to. All you have to do is to stop letting prices fluctuate. Why don't you do with runes, materials and weapons the same that you do with armor? Just put them available at traders at fix prices. This will cut player trade, sure, but I think that trade isn´t what this game is all about. I personally have no pleasure in trading with other players, it's the opposite. When I need to sale or buy something, I have to loose endless time, time wich I could better use for playing the game. There would still be trade between players, only at smaller prices than on traders. It would be good for the general economy. Please consider this seriously.
Another suggestion: consider implementing, on the next chapter, presets for skills, attributes and equipment, like you have now for weapons. It's such an asle changing between builds. And create more char slots.
Well, are my "comments of a constructive nature"? I hope so.This is my opinion about the patch and about some things that could be changed.
By the way, Arena Net, compare the number of pleople that complained about the price of items and the number of people that complain now about this update. What does that tell you?
Good going Arena Net. I think I'll try World of Warcraf now. I have a free trial for 2 weeks and if I like it I'll stay there. And this isn´t just childish blackmail, it's a fact. Best of luck.
PS: Oh, another thing. Just now, as I was browsing your site to try and send this message to you, I saw a news saying that a new profession has been revealed, the Assassin. But for us to learn more about this we have to buy Play Magazine.Nice to see how well you treat your players.