WAR Community Poll: 1.3 and Stat Contribution

[Anglakhel]

In conjunction with WAR Vault, we present to you yet another WAR Community Poll. After you vote here at Warhammer Alliance, jump on over and look at WAR Vault's poll.

With public testing currently in full swing for Patch 1.3, we want to know what the community thinks about the proposed changes to Stats and Stat Contribution.

With 1.3, DPS Stats like Ballistic Skill/Intelligence/Strength will be altered to offer a percentage based bonus to your character's Abilities rather than a flat increase. Toughness will work in the same manner, directly opposed to the offensive Stats, canceling a percentage of bonus damage from these Stats rather than a flat amount.

Willpower will affect Healing in s similar manner providing constant percentage based bonuses to all Abilities rather than flat increases in Healing power.

What do you think of these proposed changes? Do you think these adjustments to Stats will have a positive impact upon your Career? On the balance between Archetypes? On the balance between Factions?

We especially want to hear about your experiences with the Stat changes on the PTS. Log in and kick the tires then let us know what you think.

[Kazran]

While I haven't tested the changes out on the PTS, I'm positive about the changes as they look on paper.

Overall it seems like the different stats will have a greater impact on your character, allowing for more versatile builds rather than some stats being the only ones worth stacking for most careers, which is a positive thing in my opinion. Allowing players to more accurately tailor their chosen career to better conform with a certain playstyle should always be encouraged from a game design point of view and it looks like the proposed statchanges will allow that to a certain degree.

I'm a bit apprehensive about how the changes will pan out from a greater perspective though though, especially with all the other stuff going on in terms of career re-balancing and shifting gameplay focus from AoE-centric to Direct Damage. At least it seems like it'll be difficult figuring out whether it's the stat changes or the changes to the careers themselves that have had an impact on how your character and general gameplay will function come post-1.3.

[Siberwulf]

I'm personally excited about the changes. My shaman would be able to get by without stacking any willpower. That isn't the case now. While that means I need to go do some hunting for better gear, coupling it with the de-warding of gear...it seems like a good thing.

And I love the push away from AoE towards Single Target damage and healing. AoE is such a cop out for free xp/rp and requires little-to-no skill. It will indeed incur the wrath of those characters who had an action bar made of 2 buttons, but hey, that's the breaks, imo.

And regarding the insane damage spikes now, I believe it is just a coefficient issue and is being worked on. I know there are at least a couple weeks left on testing and adjustments will most likely be coming down the pipe for this sorta thing.

Kudos!

[Bryc3]

The marauder changes were supposed to be a bit of a buff, but was overall a bit of a nerf instead.

But, our "love" was postponed for a 3rd time now, so even though that the nerf was being delayed, I voted negative.

[Seance]

may i laugh as a melee dok here?
very negative.

[Raine]

The stat changes going from how it is now to percentage base makes things a little easier to balance in the long term.

[Heavenfall]

As a tank I am curious what will happen if my toughness exceeds the strength/int of the one attacking me. While I can't get over 900 strength, I can easily max out toughness to 1050.

If toughness is higher than the attacker's str/int, it has to reduce damage below template damage. Otherwise people will just stack crit instead, and "toughness vs" will be pointless.

Voted neutral. Tank changes not yet on PTS.

[Anglakhel]

Originally Posted by Heavenfall

As a tank I am curious what will happen if my toughness exceeds the strength/int of the one attacking me. While I can't get over 900 strength, I can easily max out toughness to 1050.

If toughness is higher than the attacker's str/int, it has to reduce damage below template damage. Otherwise people will just stack crit instead, and "toughness vs" will be pointless.

Voted neutral. Tank changes not yet on PTS.

Adam clarified on the official forums saying that Toughness in excess of the relevant DPS Stat should give a negative damage bonus.

[Siberwulf]

Originally Posted by Seance

may i laugh as a melee dok here?
very negative.

You can laugh, if you want. The changes to the melee heal class outside of stat changes are the issue, not the actual stat changes themselves. Changes like SE regen, range on group heal changes and the cast timer on the group heal are all contributing factors to the "toning down" of DoKs and WPs. Stat changes actually will help the healing aspect of DoKs quite a bit, which is naturally what they're supposed to be doing. Damage is just a means to Healing, imo.

Though, if you're incessantly negative, you can lump that all together.

[Calelith]

Originally Posted by Bryc3

The marauder changes were supposed to be a bit of a buff, but was overall a bit of a nerf instead.

But, our "love" was postponed for a 3rd time now, so even though that the nerf was being delayed, I voted negative.

i feel your pain, i play a WL and 1.3 was supposed to be a WL fixing patch

[Dragnarr]

I have no idea why people think doing it percentage style instead of flat ammounts is going to add any type of versatility to their classes.

I'm playing a Chosen and so far have been specced for 2H Rending blade (As it's also good in tanking as our tanking tree is still subpar). The way I see it, every class including tanks will have to spec heavily for toughness to survive the upcoming buff on single target damage. And that makes stacking wounds useless, or only good at PVE.

Stats already have too great impact into who wins who IMO, but this percentage increase will widen the gap even more. Also I'm concerned that when you spec into a specific tree it will make other skills not in that tree even more obsolete as the gap is so wide between level 25 and level 40 attack already but with percentage added to it that calculates of the base damage the difference will be huge.

Feel free to correct me if you think there's something wrong with my logic, but atm. that's how I see the future changes.

[Yadad]

Originally Posted by Anglakhel

Willpower will affect Healing in a similar manner providing constant percentage based bonuses to all Abilities rather than flat increases in Healing power.

Stat change is kind of nice, atleast you won't see 250k damage/ 150k healing SC's from DK/WP anymore.

Big concern for AM's is with our big single heal being a fragile 2.5sec cast it's really going to hurt AM's with all the knockbacks where our aoe's aren't fragile and don't get pushed back as many times.

[Reaver330]

From what I have experienced on the PTS single target damage has risen, which is a positive in my eyes and AoE has become more of an itch that I can imagine would get worse on large groups but the balance is going in the right direction.

AoE is supposed to soften a group for team members to then focus.
Group Heals are supposed to recover this.
Single target heals are supposed to keep the focused target alive.

Thats how I see it atleast. My healing hasn't changed much at all on my shaman and with the class changes I have seen a huge increase in survivability.

[Kanithar]

Toughness becoming a flat % decrease in incoming damage is only going to hurt the game, imo.

The other stat changes/contribution fixes are dwarfed by the monster that is "new Toughness".

It's also baffling how Mythic are tinkering with the very own building blocks of the game more than half a year after release; "paying to play beta" springs to mind.

[Rok]

This change is good in that it will help the game scale well in the long term, but it will be bad for balance in the short term. Good class balance takes time and refinement, you just can't make a change this big without it affecting balance in a negative way.

Originally Posted by Kanithar

Toughness becoming a flat % decrease in incoming damage is only going to hurt the game, imo.

The other stat changes/contribution fixes are dwarfed by the monster that is "new Toughness".

I don't think you understand the new formula. The toughness modifier is subtracted from the damage stat modifier, so say you have your strength at 1050 (+112% damage for 212% damage total), an enemy with 936 Toughness (-100% damage) will make you do 112% of your base damage (212 - 100 = 112).
Also, no matter how low your damage stat is, toughness can't drop you below 50% of your base damage (resists and armor can drop it further).

Originally Posted by Kanithar

It's also baffling how Mythic are tinkering with the very own building blocks of the game more than half a year after release; "paying to play beta" springs to mind.

This I agree with. Something like this should be set in the design before release.