I know how the hirelings got fucked up - they tried to fix the old code (and much as we feared even the thought of them touching anything) and it basically lobotomized the hirelings.  Yeah, they're less likely to run through a trap and grab aggro on a crowd you haven't engaged yet...but they're also less likely to do anything else...like fucking heal.  The formerly good ones are less good now and the bad ones will just stand there and let a mob beat them to death.  Good job SSG!**

But I'm curious, just what were they trying to fix when they fucked up aggro six ways from Sunday?  What should be two or three different fights now has become one giant orgy of hireling beating.  I ran Misery's Peak for the first time in years and got mobbed by every caster in the giant cavern - including the ones that somehow teleported through an unopened door.  If new players still existed, this would be a real turn off to the game.

And why the fuck do dungeon alerts even fucking still exist?!!  It would be one thing if I was bringing them on myself, but they mostly just happen when 3 different mobs all get aggro when they shouldn't at the same time.  Getting a DA just for fucking standing there is kind of bullshit.

**How fucking hard is it to copy the good AIs from one hireling to another?!  You don't have to go in and fix anything geniuses, just duplicate.

Skoodge wrote on Jun 28^th, 2017 at 4:18pm:

Turns out, they're very anti-duping.

The questions continue - what the hell were they trying to fix when they broke the quest bar options of "Slay (X amount) of (Y monsters)"?  And why the hell haven't they fixed that yet?  I mean, even for their team that shouldn't be that hard.

Jeff_Stryker wrote on Jun 29^th, 2017 at 6:45am:


My understanding is they fucked aggro up so badly that it's all but killed pure Assassin builds, is that more or less correct?  What are the options for soloing a rogue now days?  Because I'm seriously considering just lesser TRing around level 19 to get get the rogue past life feats.

The aggro stuff just seems to keep cascading.  In response to Skoodge's original question, I can't even recall what they were trying to fix in the first place, it has been so long.  I suspect it had something to do with mobs not aggroing at all when being attacked from range.

Asheras wrote on Jun 29^th, 2017 at 3:10pm:


Sounds about right.  They're about like a faulty shower where it's always either too hot or too cold.

Flav wrote on Jun 29^th, 2017 at 5:01pm:


You probably know Flav, what happened to smiting and banishing weapons (or flametouched for that matter)?  Did they stop dropping them in chests?  There are so few in the AH I get the feeling they're just left-overs.

Skoodge wrote on Jun 29^th, 2017 at 11:51am:



Rogues were having a cowardly dev assault put on them a few years back especially when ToEE was implemented. Attack hit boxes were fucked so bad you'd assassinate and smash the box behind the mob in front of you. Abilities like shiv not applying right or at all and the ridiculous reach some mobs have like an ogre hitting a 1500 one shot from across a room. From there it only gets better.

When they fucked with the aggro mechanics it was a sweeping change to favor the game for a very specific kind of player style and certain classes. Mainly the pajama wearing chucker, sploit ranger, and of course the bore-locks but mainly for the new and improved dev favorite, artificers.

The changes were implemented regardless of how the game was structured years before. The stealth bonus for running claw? Never happening again. It's possible to still be a successful assassin, just not as good and soloing anything is a big middle finger. Once you assassinate, even the movement when you hit the button, you're lucky if it doesn't create instant aggro.

You might get one, but the days of double assassinate and moving on to the next mob is over. With a group getting aggro and a rogue with dire charge can still have a really high kill count, but self sufficiency and soloability was blatantly robbed so the artificer playing dev can feel uuber at the expense of a specific playstyle. another point is if the aggro mechanic wasn't there, instakillers like assassins would dominate reaper difficulty. But then where would bore-locks be? Can't have that now, can we?

If you ever get the chance to run with someone working for SSG, they can't make their artie stay alive without their godmode cheat bar. For devs on their artificers, it's just *pew pew pew*, I'm awesome, fuck everyone else. This is who the aggro change was for. Certainly not for balance.

Metal-Beast wrote on Jun 29^th, 2017 at 10:59pm:



A good example of your breakdown is Slavers. You leave an aggroed mob in the pit, you just bought yourself a red alert. You go to kill the orange name boss Karin and you got a dozen archers plinking you from the top of the cages.

The new aggro mechanic also demands an autistic level of tedium where you must kill most if not all enemies unless you want to deal with red alert or random mobs nowhere near related.

Skoodge wrote on Jun 29^th, 2017 at 5:32pm:



Feathered and Ghostbanned, like the rest of that time... They were all tucked into a single category IIRC along with Disruptors and the Bane weapons that work the same way.
Since the DC sucks ( even the improved one ) they are mostly pointless.

Skoodge wrote on Jun 28^th, 2017 at 10:45pm:


Disruption is almost entirely removed as well.  You can still find it on Star of Day and Mutineer's Blade, but good luck getting it in heroics.

5 Foot Step wrote on Jun 29^th, 2017 at 1:53pm:


FTFY.  The DPS you can get with assassin doesn't touch a mechanic with a great crossbow.

Revaulting wrote on Jun 30^th, 2017 at 4:20am:

Skrilla wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2017 at 6:07pm:



It seems to be the new SSG rhetoric after Turbine. Before it was a smooth pitch bait and switch much like how they fucked players over when nerfing shit, rolling out unfinished content and the retched bille-choking excuse for killing their customer support.


"On Monday, June 6th we will be expanding our online and in-game support services as part of our efforts to provide speedier and higher quality responses to help requests. As a result, phone support will no longer be available..."

If this doesn't have 1+1=3 written all over it, time to get another sock to defend the lack of customer service for the last goddamn year.

Now in this new meta and paradigm they just don't give a shit. Whatever doesn't work for their agenda, well, it was just broken. It was OP. It wasn't WAI, etc, etc, etc. Just like Steelshit here trying to explain changes to spell resistance, then doubling down getting caught in his own arrogant stupidity.

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/487632-Spell-Resistance-change

Originally Posted by Cantor
    My guess is they never intended for non-SR races to hit no fail values easily.
   


Steelstar



This is correct. Non-SR races should not have been able to hit no fail values easily. Regardless of the change to Drow and Deep Gnome: The values that were set on Loot (both named and crafted) starting in Update 29 were too high. That is being corrected.

    In addition, and separately, we are making the Racial Spell Resistance stack.

    The math that we have run now puts a fully-geared character with no Racial SR, playing Elite at-level, within striking distance of Spell Resistance's usability. It doesn't necessarily do so for Reaper, where enemy Spell Penetration fluctuates. That difficulty is meant to be significantly harder. With Racial SR, a fully-geared character can (and should) hold up better in lower Reaper difficulties, but even they are probably going to run into difficulty making it when you get into top-end skulls. This is intended.

    Non-Racial-SR characters should be able to achieve a viable (but not no-fail) value of Spell Resistance playing Elite at-level in most (if not all) level ranges. I can't stress that enough, because I keep seeing posts claiming otherwise, which is entirely false.

    We're flexible to altering the exact numbers of this change (specifically with hard numbers and Lamannia play data backing it up), but are unlikely to alter the overall structure at this time.

    We'll be taking a look at monsters with racial Spell Resistance to make sure that they're not more difficult as a result of this change - That would not be intended.



Originally Posted by EllisDee37
You guys understand that racial spell resistance is greater than 20, and that spell pen rolls are a single d20, right?

That means when you balance content for racial spell pen (which your comment is clearly saying you are), spell resistance may as well not even exist for every other race in the game.

You get that, right?




Steelstar

Yes, we understand the math behind it. We built it.

No, that isn't what I said about how we balance content.


Posted by EllisDee37

Actually, yes it is what you said:

Quote Originally Posted by Steelstar View Post

The math that we have run now [...] With Racial SR, a fully-geared character can (and should) hold up better in lower Reaper difficulties, but even they are probably going to run into difficulty making it when you get into top-end skulls. This is intended.


Posted by EllisDee37

I see no way to parse that statement other than you balancing spell resistance around racial spell resistance. Which means for everyone else -- who is by definition 20 behind by level 10 -- spell resistance may as well not even exist.


Steelstar can't even play the game. Can't even back up his own shit while trying to maintain that new chip on his shoulder and justifying his diplomacy that stands at n/a because all the devs got now is high bluff & intim. When that can't work, no concentration checks because that shit doesn't work anyway. And why bother to haggle when you can just move silently and that new SSG hide score is off the fucking charts.

5 Foot Step wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2017 at 7:20pm:


God damn you. I just snarfed an Oreo milkshake.   

5 Foot Step wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2017 at 7:20pm:

SRRR tomes incoming