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=DF= February 5th Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: Teacher and Student

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2/6/2021 4:33:13   
  Peachii
Clairvoyant!
quote:


Verlyrus:
Arena at the Edge of Time: Teacher and Student

Hey there, heroes!

This week's release is live! And there's a lot to cover!

First up, a new challenge has arrived at the Change of Heart board in the Inn at teh Edge of Time!



If you think you have what it takes, face off against Warlic, the Blue Mage, and Nythera, the Half Void Dragon!

Defeating them will reward you with some fancy new weapons with special effects.

  • The Creatioux Claw has a 33% chance on attack to increase foe's Health resist by 20.
  • Warlic's Gift has a 5% chance on hit to recover 8% of your MP.

    Click on the floating black portal above Falconreach to head over to the Inn at teh Edge of Time and test your might!


    Next, DragonByte Epoch testing has now begun!



    If you have the Draconic Glowtooth Artifact, you can now equip it along with Epoch to access DragonByte Epoch! This version of Epoch is all about burst.

  • DragonByte Epoch starts with two double turns.
  • "Final" is now "Hack", which gives you +4 double turns. Hack's cooldown is increased to 23, up from Final's 15.
  • "Timeshift" is now "Overdrive", which gives you 3 Momentum as well as +150 Boost for 2 turns, but -25 Boost for 4 turns after it wears off. Overdrive does not grant double turns.
  • "Chargeburst" does 150% base damage, up from 140%.
  • Dragonbyte Epoch can only gain 1 Momentum per action.

    As always with preliminary testing, numbers and effects are subject to change! But please enjoy, and we're always listening to feedback.


    Speaking of Epoch, some changes have been made to Corrupted Doom Epoch and Underworld Epoch.

    Corrupted Doom Epoch was underperforming slightly, while Underworld Epoch was a bit too powerful.
    • Underworld Epoch
      • "Timeshift" is now a 50% HP and MP heal, down from 100%. It now also purges you of any non-self afflicted effects.
      • Whenever Underworld Epoch uses a double turn, a stacking debuff is applied. (not cleansed by Timeshift).
      • These debuffs stack, and are applied one at a time, in order.
      • First, All res is reduced by 3.
      • Next, Boost is reduced by 3.
      • Finally, Avoidance is reduced by 6.
      • These debuffs will repeat and stack to a maximum of -30 All, -30 Boost, and -60 Avd.
      • For example, if you do 3 double turns, you'll get -3 All, -3 Boost, and -6 Avd. Next double turn, you'll have -6 All, -3 Boost, and -6 Avd.
    These changes are preliminary. For example, the stacking -All resist is something that we are particularly watching as being too impactful (may be reduced in the future to 2 or even 1 per double).
    • Corrupted Doom Epoch
      • Removed the self stun from Power Overload.
      • Defense, and Aim Overloads have had their durations increased by 1 turn.
      • Hex Overload durations have been increased by 1 turn.
      • Cooldown on Ultra Boost and Ultra Hex reduced to 15, down from 20.
      • "Soundblast" damage increased to 175% total.
      • "Shockwave" damage increased to 175% total.
    As always, numbers and effects are subject to change. Let us know what you think!


    And next, we have some general updates and bug fixes!
    • Stepwise exp has been adjusted.
      • From level 10 to level 20, there is no boost.
      • From level 20+, characters will receive 3x exp.
    • Many quests have had their experience caps increased to 50,000.
    • The "Fire" element sound has been reverted.
    • Fixed a bug where many monsters were not properly using their Bonus attribute. As a result, many monsters have gained a significant amount of Bonus.
    • Direct Hits and Critical Misses have been removed.
    • Maximum resistance from items + all resistance has been reduced to 95, down from 99.
      • Skills that increase ressitance above 95 will still cap at 99.
    • Ice Scythe: Duration reduced by 2, activation chance increased to 10%, up from 5%.
    • Blade of Destiny: Damage reduced to 3 hits of 75%. Now applies Weaken, -30 Light resistance for 5 turns. Activation chance increased to 20%.
    • Fixed a bug where selecting the quest "Under the Sea" from Yix in Popscprocket was not leading to the correct dialogue/quest.
    • Fixed a bug where the Dark Night Bombing quest was no longer available.
    • Fixed a bug where Book 1 Sunbreeze Grove would allow you to access Dragon Primal Training before growing your dragon.
    • (Other potential updates/fixes that I may have forgotten)
    Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything too important!


    Finally (at last!) the February Dragon Coin special is here! Dracelix has crafted the stylish Hive Ranger Gear cosmetic set, and it's available for this month only!



    Not only are these cosmetic items very pretty, but the Hive Ranger Halberd can be slotted as a special! The Hive Ranger Halberd has a 20% chance on attack to do 3 htis of 75% damage and apply Weaken, -30 Wind resistance to your foe, for 5 turns.

    If you're interested, make sure to pick them up before they leave at the end of the month!


    And that's all! That's everything (that I didn't forget)! As always, I want to personally thank you all for playing and supporting DragonFable. We wouldn't be able to do this without you.


    Having trouble with any fights? Have feedback about recent releases? Have any crazy theories or ideas? Want to discuss all things DragonFable?

    Join the discussion on the official forums!

    Want to play DragonFable without using an internet browser?

    Check out the Artix Games Launcher!

    Follow us on Twitter for sneak peeks and updates (and feel free to tweet us your fan art and feedback too!)

    Verlyrus Twitter

    Tomix Twitter

    Tags: Verlyrus


    • < Message edited by Peachii -- 2/6/2021 4:34:26 >
    DF AQW  Post #: 1
    2/6/2021 4:58:46   
    Solanaceae
    Legendary Nightshade


    		 Really glad to see the UWE changes! It was way too dominant for how safe and easy it was to use. I'll need more time to play around with the nerfs, but it's definitely more in line with other Epochs in terms of power now. My only gripe is with the -All, not so much for the extra damage you take, but because you're left vulnerable to monster stuns.

    I also like that there's a bit of synergy present between the new debuffs and the Final, since you can use it to prevent the debuffs from growing for a few turns. It adds a bit more strategy to a class that was previously pretty straightforward.
    DF  Post #: 2
    2/6/2021 5:16:35   
    AstralCodex
    Member

    		It's quite late where I am, so I'm going to leave some initial comments and come back in a later post for more detailed ones.

    quote:

    Corrupted Doom Epoch was underperforming slightly, while Underworld Epoch was a bit too powerful.

    First, I'd like to say that the UWE adjustment is both deserved and also very mechanically interesting. UWE has been trivializing Inn fights left and right since it finished testing in early 2020, and it's cool that it received such a mechanically unique debuff. It's also really cool how the final can be used to mitigate a few turns of the debuff. The timeshift adjustment is fine as well. That being said, I do think the numbers need to be tuned a bit - the -30 all combined with -mpm means you're incredibly vulnerable to stuns you can't reliably shield, adding an unwelcome amount of variance to fights.

    My main suggestion there is to either reduce the -all stacking, or make it -all +immo instead. I also think the interaction between the final and UWE's debuff can be increased - for example, perhaps using the Final could "turn off" the debuff for a fixed number of turns or purge a set number of stacks. This would increase the skill cap and make the timing of the final more interesting in my experience.

    Secondly, I also think the CDE buffs are welcome, though it seems they've been rolled back to some extent. The live version seems to have 1 turn 75 boost on Power Boost Overload, which I think is a decent number. The removal of the self stun and the high uptime +MPM greatly improve its survivability in the long run, and ultra aim hex's longer duration helps with surviving while timeshift is down. I do think that the duration reduction on Ultra Hex/Boost is not that useful though, since both are still only usable once per timeshift. I think a more impactful CD reduction would be on timeshift instead, though there's a chance that a substantial CD reduction on timeshift would make the class too good.

    quote:

    Stepwise exp has been adjusted.
    From level 10 to level 20, there is no boost.
    From level 20+, characters will receive 3x exp.


    I think these numbers are both more intuitive and also better tuned than the previous stepwise exp gain system. Bravo!

    quote:

    Fixed a bug where many monsters were not properly using their Bonus attribute. As a result, many monsters have gained a significant amount of Bonus.
    Direct Hits and Critical Misses have been removed.


    It seems like a lot of inn bosses got +30 bonus from this change, which ends up greatly reducing the effectiveness of MPM stack and -bonus moves. I'm not sure how to feel about this, as I feel many classes were balanced around previous bonus levels.

    I might also be in the minority, but outside of Life and Death I feel like I quite like the direct hit system - as it was a tiny chance your shield would fail, it discouraged stalling forever and encouraged more dynamic gameplay. I think the older system where most bosses had 27 or 18 bonus had more viable classes for most fights, though I'll need to test more to get a better sense of how bad classes like Pirate or Ninja are affected by this change.

    quote:

    Ice Scythe: Duration reduced by 2, activation chance increased to 10%, up from 5%.


    I have a lot of opinions on this change which I'll try to write up tomorrow, but this is neither a nerf nor a buff - it merely makes ice scythe a more consistent, albeit smaller effect, which is a type of change I'm generally happy with.

    quote:

    Blade of Destiny: Damage reduced to 3 hits of 75%. Now applies Weaken, -30 Light resistance for 5 turns. Activation chance increased to 20%.

    I like this change, as it means on attack spam classes like ranger can now fish for BoD procs instead of just VIK. Variety and choice are good, and Light is an element with better stats weapons than Ice does.
    DF  Post #: 3
    2/6/2021 5:19:24   
    Kyrion
    Member

    		I have a few stuff to say regarding this release

    1. The Epoch adjustments look pretty nice, UWE got drawbacks now and CDE gets stronger. All i do want for UWE though is that it still stays really good while having risks to play with. Like not old CDE bad, just balanced is what i would like to say. The new timeshift heal is what i prefer more than the old one, with a status cure and a more acceptable heal. However my gripe with the UWE nerf is that it makes you more vulnerable to stuns, sometimes rng can really be not in your favor and just get punished because of luck alone. I do hope that this can be mitigated or fixed in the future though.


    2. The new inn challenge is great, it served as a pretty decent introductory or "easy mode" version of IE. Both warlic and nythera shared similarities with the IE Dragons, with Warlic being the offensive one while Nythera is the Defensive one. So to those who have not cleared IE yet, this is a decent appetizer or challenge to know what IE is gonna work. Even though it does not have the same mechanics as IE, it still is a decent representation of it.

    3. The weapons are honestly pretty nice. We got a new void weapon that provides more health resistance than the average inn weapon. And Warlics Gift is a great weapon to get, its pretty much better than the quadstaff in my opinion. I'd consider it as BiS as it replaced threadcutter for fire, and quadstaff for the mp regen. However im not really a fan for how small nytheras weapon was and the way certain classes holding it differently.

    4. The new monthly weapon is a surprise for me, Albeit it does not replace ice in any form (in the form of soulforged ice + Ice Scythe/Vanilla Ice). Its highly refreshing to see another element variant that is not ice to be given the same treatment. Its better to be used on classes such as ranger for attack spam though. Maybe eventually we will get a wind variant of ice scythe? probably not.

    5. The stepwise EXP adjustment may look bad at first but honestly, 0-20 having no boosts while 20+ having x3 is pretty much a good settlement. It was shown that people who were at 20-50 were levelling way too fast and cant keep up with weapon levels. This xp multipliers didnt really affect anyone beyond level 50 but it does sure tone down the speed it takes to level up to lv 50.

    6. I wanna talk about Ice Scythe. I dont find this one as a nerf or a buff at all. Its a great readjustment that makes the effect more reliable to be triggered. Id say its a good addition for high hitters who only has a few turns to burst down.

    7. Lastly, the BoD buff is something that i never seen coming. This basically means that we now have 3 elements that gives -30 resist. Im starting to like the weapon variety tbh.

    Overall. With an inn challenge that serves as an appetizer for IE, an inn weapon that gives and MP regen + BiS, Epochs being balanced so far, and the new monthly weapon. This week is pretty great!

    < Message edited by Kyrion -- 2/6/2021 8:10:57 >
    DF AQW  Post #: 4
    2/6/2021 5:34:46   
    Dratomos
    Helpful!


    		 Very nice release! Change of Heart, like Displaced Fates and Lost Fables is becoming a favourite of mine, as seeing old enemies and friends with new animations and artwork. I didn't expect Nythera and Warlic, but then again, this isn't the first time we face Warlic. His lightning attack made me remember how bad it was when I first saw it 12 years ago. Their mechanics were really interesting and Warlic is one of the few enemies who punishes gear-swapping.

    As for the Epoch changes, they are a welcome addition. CDE finally feels so much better, I even defeated Warlic with it on my first try. As for the UWE changes, they were needed. Since Epoch is my main class, I almost every time used UWE and without any difficulty defeated most of the challenges. UWE could defeat any almost every duo without extra potions or thinking mechanics. And that new debuff it has reminds us how close to Death we are which is nice mechanic. Now I'm just waiting for my 2021 calendar to test DragonByte Epoch.

    But hey, at least this debuff on UWE made me remember how good of a class Eternal Epoch is, since I haven't used it on Arena after UWE's release.
    DF AQW  Post #: 5
    2/6/2021 5:42:04   
    Marthe
    Member
     

    		 This week's release had a ton of stuff in it, and I haven't had the chance to fully unpack it all. That said, everything in it is really cool, and I've got some initial thoughts about a lot of the stuff.

    The Epoch changes were well deserved. UWE was heavily over-performing for how easy and risk-free it was to use, and I think the changes here are a pretty interesting way to bring it into line. It's still pretty early, so I can't say for sure how the stacking debuffs does in practice, but I think it was a good idea. I do agree with Sol that the stun vulnerability feels iffy, not because UWE doesn't deserve to be nerfed, but because the RNG aspect is often unpleasant. As far as CDE goes, while I was never a big CDE player, I appreciate that it was also buffed into line with the other artifact variants. From initial viewings of how people have been doing with it, it seems pretty strong now.

    I'm not sure how I feel about the new Dragonbyte Epoch. Its art is lovely, of course. Dove's art never disappoints, and the color customization on this one is quite interesting. I've already seen some impressive fashion creations - I'd go as far as to say that I think this is the prettiest Epoch so far. Its current, first-day mechanics leave me with some mixed feelings, though. It suffers from the old CDE problem of using all its resources and then sitting around for a long time being effectively half a class, since Epoch CDs and effects are balanced around double turns.

    Not every Epoch has to be great at bossing, of course, but the downtime feels bad to play. Trying to boost with single turns is aggravating, for instance. However, taking into the perspective that it's meant to be more of a questing Epoch, this is less of a concern - I'm more worried about the problems Epoch has always had when trying to quest. Its animations are long, especially for the skills that would be relevant when running through quests, like the multi (which repeats for each enemy) or Gunburst (which just has a very long animation, though it is a pretty one). While I'm loathe to compare every questing class to Chaosweaver, the current double turn start with Overdrive's existence does feel a bit like Chw's EGambit start, except it costs significantly more mana to kill mobs and takes significantly longer. I'm unsure of the Epoch shell's viability in questing on a general basis, considering the base class is inherently a setup nuker.

    The other thing that feels strange to me is the fact that the extra turns are on the Final. It feels like the class wants to set up a quick burst Final, but it's just not possible to stack up all your buffs/debuffs and get a full powered Final without taking a lot of single turns to finagle your momentum. I'm also not quite sure what you're meant to do with the double turns after Final (where you probably have -25 boost after the Overdrive.) All in all, it feels odd to play and its identity is disjointed. However, I'm sure that over the testing cycle, it will become a fun and viable class.

    I feel like the Bonus change and the Direct Hit change may be related, but even if they're not, they're a similar topic, so I'll talk about them together. I greatly appreciate the Direct Hit change, because in most cases the mechanic largely didn't matter, except on things like Reaver and Drahr'Dolaas where you could just lose a coinflip and the fight through no fault of your own. The global Bonus change (though it's not working yet, I'll talk about the impacts if the numbers are applied properly) feels iffy to me. I don't agree with Astral's thoughts on Direct Hit, but I do agree with him about the Bonus. Classes and fights were balanced around the previous amount of Bonus, and the amount of additional Bonus a lot of monsters got is quite a lot. This depowers many blinds, some to the point of uselessness (Paladin's -25, for instance, does nothing when everything gets 30 or so more base Bonus). It also affects lower value shields, though not to the same extent. I think that this bugfix would have a large impact on the overall balance of fights and classes, which I'm not certain was the intention, especially since it would hit the already weaker classes disproportionately. (For instance, Pirate's blinds and its extra damage when the enemy has <0 Bonus would suddenly become much worse, but something like KAA with its 255 MPM shield wouldn't care.)

    Weapon specials - I might be in the minority, but I don't have a particular opinion on the Ice Scythe change. For me, at least, it's now more convenient in some ways and less convenient in others, though I do believe that it is an overall buff. I'm glad for the Blade of Destiny change, which is a good step towards lessening Ice's dominance as an element.

    In the same vein, I want to like the new monthly weapon special, which does the same as the newly changed BoD but for Wind, but I can't help but worry about unique and useful weapon specials going rare. I hope this is the start of a trend that provides similar options as Ice has for a suite of other elements. Aesthetically, the monthly items are quite pretty, though they're definitely not my style. (I bought them all, of course.)

    Oh, and from what I've seen of the EXP curve from last week, I definitely agree that the new stepwise 3x is better.

    Thank you to Verlyrus and Dove for an excellent release!

    Edit: Just realized I totally forgot to talk about the new Inn challenge. In my defense, it's almost 3 AM. I'll post my thoughts on that tomorrow.

    < Message edited by Marthe -- 2/6/2021 5:47:54 >
    DF  Post #: 6
    2/6/2021 7:06:33   
    ChronoEye
    Member

    		This time, there will be no compliments from my side regarding this week's release.

    Not only I hate the new Calendar Class "system" in form of one class getting changes in artifacts (that I can ignore), it happens on the week of the most hated week of the month of mine a.k.a the Inn Challenge week. Which already are the releases that I can skip anyways on - this comment won't be regarding those ones.

    But the one that made me comment is the fact that first the developers gave us hopes up in form of the nice levelling method ( the nerf is fine though and understandable ) but what I will never be forgiving is the fact that first we got the Fire Element sound back, and now it was taken away.

    What I hate the most on this game ( that has reduced my amount of time I play drastically ) is the sounds. There is absolutely no good "new" sounds at all, only Water and Metal at the moment as well as that last week's Fire Element. I have dropped playing the game down only to the main story releases and wars ( yes, I've began to skip side stories as well as 95% of Reimagined Releases as well ) , does the developers want me to drop the rest of the game, too? I guess so.
    Post #: 7
    2/6/2021 7:09:02   
    aryc0110
    Member

    		I'm really happy with almost all of the underlying system changes. Direct hit removal is pretty nice, as I like it when gameplay doesn't punish me at random, but I'm especially happy that critical misses were removed. Even though they were statistically insignificant in almost every scenario, there's really very little that feels quite as awful as missing one of the big hits on your rotation through no fault of your own. I like Ice Scythe being made more consistent but being required to keep slotted more consistently in order to benefit from its effect. I didn't have an opinion before on a maximum of 99 res from gear, but my eyes bulged when I realized how much that actually probably needed changing because taking 1% of damage from any enemy is kind of ridiculous unless you're doing it with a skill designed for that purpose specifically.

    Ice scythe and Vanilla Ice Katana no longer being the only meta-defining -res special weapons is a big boon in my book. It'd be nice for some on-hits to parallel it in the future, finally usurping Ice as the best element in the game and allowing for element variety.

    The challenge rewards are also fantastic specials! An on-attack way to increase health res of your enemies on any class makes more classes competitive through weapon specials, which I always love to see.

    Finally, onto the star of this release: The Epochs.
    Corrupted Doom Epoch's buff has been a long time coming. I had a moment while using it against the new challenge where I realized that I actually enjoyed playing it. It feels as though I'm playing Epoch but with an impenetrable wall up on an incredibly bursty two turns, as opposed to spreading my damage out like on other Epochs. Its "burst and turtle" style is really engaging considering the class has very little to turtle with after you get off your damage. It feels so good for the class to be usable after so long being considered worse than Base Epoch.

    Underworld Epoch was in massive need of a nerf, and this is probably the most engaging nerf I've ever seen. The perfect looping double turns come with consequences, a decay relevant to its theme, and though I haven't gotten much chance to test it in its newest form yet I'm eager to do so tomorrow. The immobility problem mentioned by others might need some looking into, but otherwise this looks really fun and like equipping your Eraglass is finally not just the objectively best option to go into any new Inn challenge.

    Dragonbyte Epoch looks phenomenal. The way Dove got the colors to interact so beautifully is honestly haunting. It's probably the most visually breathtaking class in the game, especially when paired with Epochs already gorgeous animations. You can really feel Dove's Cyberpunk inspiration in every vector and animation. Unfortunately, despite its stellar appearance, at this time it doesn't really do anything particularly well. It doesn't have the first-turn burst required to be the questing class it was designed to be, and it isn't good enough overall to be a stellar bossing class. It currently occupies the sad middleground where Corrupted Doom Epoch sat before the buff. This is fine, though, that's what testing is for! I'm sure the kinks will be ironed out as the discussion continues!

    Overall I loved this release! It was tons of fun seeing all the new changes and I haven't even gotten to messing around with most of them!
    Post #: 8
    2/6/2021 7:55:54   
    arcanum37
    Member

    		@ChronoEye

    First I gotta start by saying I find your attitude annoying. Do you realise that DF is currently handled by only 2 full-time developers? The time and effort required to create from scratch new calendar classes would be too much for them, so they had to make a compromise by only making one base class with artifacts to modify it. As for you not liking Inn challenges, that's fine, different people play the game for different reasons, so I'm not gonna criticize you on that.

    Regarding the fire element sound reversion, I don't know why you feel so strongly about this. Maybe it's nostalgia, I also felt nostalgic about it since I started playing this game in 2006, but even then, I have to admit that it has not aged well at all. The sound quality is so poor that I'm glad that it's been returned to the new state.

    That's all I have to say.
    AQ DF  Post #: 9
    2/6/2021 8:35:24   
    Dratomos
    Helpful!


    		 I too find @ChronoEye's comment very odd and tbh hard to take seriously.

    I can understand why one wouldn't like Inn challenges. As for the Calendar Class, the change was made because having Dove and Verly work on one new class every year which some of the players cannot/won't get and that will go Rare at some point with new animations, skills, mechanics, etc was a lot. So having one class that receives one artifact a year makes it a lot easier to them to work on other projects.

    But that sound comment. That is so odd. Because of elemental sounds you hate this game and want to quit it? And cannot forgive that the old fire element sound with poor quality was dropped in favor of a newer one? The sounds that can be turned off? Like seriously?

    Maybe we will get an option in the future to switch between element sounds. Hard to say how difficult it would be to have such option.

    DF AQW  Post #: 10
    2/6/2021 8:55:42   
    Vikken101
    Member

    		Wow, just like last week, this was a great release from the gameplay side of things. I’ll run down some points of interest:

    Corrupted Doom Epoch

    As someone that uses the class a lot, this was a welcome change. It’s defenses after nuking has been approved a lot with the shortening of ultra hexes cooldowns. Ultra defense hex that was very difficult to use before, is finally useable which I appreciate. Recharge, while not the biggest problem I had with the class is removed, though ultra boost was only buffed a bit of time, before being turned back to how it was before (if they really wanted to buff it a bit offensively though, they could give ultra offense boost 85%, since it was the double ultra offense turn that was the real overpowered bit, but hey thats just me). I think my biggest issue with the class currently is Shockwave. I have said it before, and it especially holds true after the release of DBE as a questing epoch, but I simply don’t see the point of the skill as it now exists on an offensive epoch. Firstly, now that dbe is for questing, you will most likely be using cde on content that has super high immo anyhow. Secondly, its mana guzzling is very high, even higher than its primary stun move, Punch. And even higher than Lazer Blades, in addition to having a higher cooldown then it to use. It’s a defensive move given to an offensive class, while taking away Lazer blade, an overall more offensive move because of its dot. In general, I feel the class is a bit to reliant on your dragon for a dot while handling deathproof. At the very least, I feel the move should be altered to synergize better with an offensive epoch. Besides that, the changes are really nice.

    DragonByte Epoch

    Rather then going into its technical aspects since I have not played it a lot, I’ll just talk about it from a questing epoch perspective(though I do see its mana consumption problem for questing, even more so then CDE). Some of its animations are a bit too long to function as an effective questing class, ideally, Gunburst’s animation should always use its low momentum animation (I would be fine with it just being a big 1 hit nuke move). Chargeburst should also probably be changed so that it only performs its animation once to hit multiple enemies for speed’s sake. Personally, with how good the other 3 epoch variations are at the inn of time, I would be fine with the class focusing a 100% on big upfront damage and speed, I don’t really think it needs to be Inn of Time viable. From an art and fashion perspective, the class is stellar, and seem to look good with different gear and colors no matter what. Great Job Dove!

    Underworld Epoch

    Not much to say technically, since I have not used it a lot. Besides that, it has dominated the Inn of Time for almost a year, so it getting nerfed is a welcome change. Overall, it seems more balanced to use now, while still being strong for Inn content.

    Miscellaneous

    Direct hits and misses are finally gone, which is great in my opinion. The Balance Dragons’s, nukes as well as Reaver’s direct hit purge, in addition to missing while warring has been a great annoyance for a while now. So, I’m happy they are gone.
    Ice Scythe might have been buffed? Its not like high hit content classes have a problem getting the effect out, it makes it more consistent, even though its duration is shorter. I’m fine with the change. Blade of Destiny and the new monthly wep special having light and wind res is a nice thing, so Ice Scythe/VIK don’t dominate as much as they have. Lastly, I don't play enough classes that are impacted by the res cap change or res stacking in general to give an informed option on it.

    Teacher and Student

    I would say the challenge is a bit on the easier side, since both Warlic and Nythera are fairly easy to nuke down. But they are at least fairly mechanically complex (Warlic seem reminiscent of the Professor gameplay wise), which is nice. I do feel its been a bit since a challenge to really wrack my mind around, so I hope the next challenge, which I assume is from the Chaos Board can change my perspective of it next month. With something difficult. The challenge rewards are both nice, I’m sure Creatious Claw is gonna have its uses, and the mana regen on Warlic’s gift is really nice in addition to being the new bis fire wep.

    Overall, all it was a great release. Great Job Dove and Verly!!!


    < Message edited by Vikken101 -- 2/6/2021 9:08:13 >
    Post #: 11
    2/6/2021 11:08:01   
      DemonicDarkwraith

    ArchKnight DragonFable


    		 Oh boy I have a lot of things to talk about this update:

    Corrupted Doom Epoch
    I really have a lot of fun with it! Despite the fact that I missed out on many updates related to it, I managed to get it as well as the other calendars in order to get used to it. Playing CDE before this update wasn't that fun as you don't have sustain. With this update, CDE managed to get some extra sustain and offense with Hex and Boost changes since you have an extra duration with them. If there is one thing I would critic about, it is that Shockwave is still useless since DragonByte Epoch focuses more on questing and that many Inn monsters have 300+ Immo.

    Underworld Epoch
    As this was my first calendar that I have ordered, the nerfs to it is a welcome change since it has been dominating Inn challenges left and right without any tradeoffs whatsoever. If there is one thing that I don't like about the nerf, it is that you will get stunned more easily.

    DragonByte Epoch
    I'm not sure feel about it. I felt that there is an identity crisis going on as it does not have sustain and that it is not very satisfying to use for questing. Epoch is already mana consuming and that its animations are very long. However, the aesthetics are pretty since it is CC, which what I was miss about UWE. Also, the animation for Hack is pretty crisp. Honestly, it's fine because not every class needs to excel on Inn, but it desperately need some buffs.

    Teacher and Student and that February cosmetics shop
    What a fun duo as they have some interesting mechanics with it. The real star of the show, however, are the weapons as we finally have a +10 All Fire wep outside of SoulForged which is really good for Ascendant and a non rare/SO 90 ??? wep albeit its stats are not good like the infamous Gloom Glaive and that its usability aside from Pyro's Enkindle and its special is null and void since Hamsters got neutered in Inn one week earlier and SoulForged (the BiS ??? wep outside of rares) properly shows your chosen element now. They both have a special that fills on a specific niche as Creatioux Claw's +Health debuff have a use for low hitcount classes like Ranger and Warlic's Gift's MP regen is good for grindy quests like Zeclem and Exaltia. As for Hive Ranger, the items are really good for fashion, but the weapon is once again the star of the show as its special is essentially a Wind version of Vanilla Ice Katana, which is good for low hitcount classes like Ranger and that it supports Sea Chicken's Conquest.

    The other little things
    The exp changes are a nice change since EXP gain in the low levels was a little bit too fast and in the mid levels, it was a bit too much, but I'll reserve my thoughts on the current EXP gain another day. I'm really glad that Direct Hits and Crit Misses are gone because it was too much for the monsters side of things like Reaver and Dolaas. Speaking of Crit Misses, I also find this change good for warring as well. The buffs to Ice Scythe and Blade of Destiny are really nice as there are more chances to proc Ice Scythe's debuff and that BoD have become essentially a Light VIK, which is good since weapons like UOK and Destiny weps are a thing. On the negative side of things, I disagree with res stacking change as it does not affect other sources of +Res like FC and Aya trinket and that it only affects with three elements (read: Fire/Light/Darkness) as they are the only elements that go up to 99 Res hardcap.

    Overall, this was a good release. I hope that Dove and Verly get some rest as they worked so hard for it!

    < Message edited by DemonicDarkwraith -- 2/6/2021 17:47:33 >
    DF  Post #: 12
    2/6/2021 13:04:27   
    Kurtz96
    Member

    		So the ??? weapon only activates on the attack button right? And the Warlic staff can activate on any hit like blade of awe?

    I like the updates to CDE but I'm still not sure what to do with it. Having 2 stun skills is not that useful since most Inn enemies have stun resistance. So effectively you have 13 skills (plus trinket) as opposed to 14 skills (plus trinket). Would probably just keep using Eternal.

    Same with DBE. Is isn't as good in the Inn as other versions of Epoch and it isn't a good storyline class. Honestly if you are trying to plow through story as fast as possible to get to the lore/drops, just use DmK V1 or Chaosweaver.

    Haven't had a chance to play around with UWE yet but does the -all resist end immediately when you stop double turns?

    On these fights, they are OK. Not too hard, not too easy. But at least the mana attacks of some classes finally has a use.

    < Message edited by Kurtz96 -- 2/6/2021 13:05:33 >
    AQ DF MQ  Post #: 13
    2/6/2021 17:32:57   
      DemonicDarkwraith

    ArchKnight DragonFable
    quote:

    So the ??? weapon only activates on the attack button right? And the Warlic staff can activate on any hit like blade of awe?

    Yes and yes.

    quote:

    Haven't had a chance to play around with UWE yet but does the -all resist end immediately when you stop double turns?

    No, it has a duration of 99 turns, but most battles end before it lol
    DF  Post #: 14
    2/6/2021 18:14:49   
    Marthe
    Member
     

    		 New day, new post. This time about the new Inn Challenge, because I totally forgot to talk about it in my sleep deprived haze last night.

    This new challenge is great. The fight itself isn't particularly difficult, but their mechanics are very interesting and the rewards extremely welcome. I personally don't see how it's reminiscent of IE (it reminded me more of Roirr and Mislav), but Warlic's situational nuke and Nythera's phases are cool bits of tech that you have to play around a bit. Warlic's Gift is a double whammy of a proper easily available BiS fire weapon that we've been needing, and a great weapon special that finally kicks an old rare way down the scale of importance. The Creatioux Claw being ??? is nice because the Soulforged element bug just got fixed, and the special is pretty spicy. I've never considered the need for an on-attack Health res special before, but it's a cool niche. Both weapons also look amazing, as always (though most classes hold the claw a bit oddly).

    Warlic and Nythera on the Change of Heart board feels slightly odd, I have to admit. Nythera makes sense, but Warlic never really fought against us. (Also, it's very funny to me that this is the third time we've fought Warlic, because Wargoth and The Professor are a duo in Displaced Fates. When are we getting a Warlic Warlic Warlic trio?) Now excuse me, I have to go get a funny screenshot of Nythera killing herself.
    DF  Post #: 15
    2/6/2021 18:29:41   
    Dratomos
    Helpful!
    quote:

    but Warlic never really fought against us.


    Well we have fought against him twice. Once as Alexander in Swordhaven and also during Save Lymcrest -questline in Xan's Fortress.
    DF AQW  Post #: 16
    2/6/2021 19:48:31   
    aryc0110
    Member

    		@ChronoEye has takes that really irk me. The Epoch artifacts change the way the class plays so much that each one is practically a different class with a lot of the same animations, but a few new ones and a whole art change to make them stand out, and the class they modify is also a very good class. It's like getting two classes for the price of one and it saves on developer time that can be used to work on more important things like story releases, challenges, game tweaks, and the long-awaited Fleshweaver.

    I also really don't understand the love for the old fire sound compared to the new one. You could get higher audio quality than the original fire sound by using a cassette recorder next to a real-world explosion. The sound file is so compressed it sounds like it comes out of AQW's 16 kbps music tracks, directly contrasting the entirety of the game's remaining sound quality. Even beyond its compression that it sounds more muffled than a scream into a pillow from the room next door. As an audiophile, it downright horrified me, and I'm glad that when people complained about it it was rightfully reverted to the newer, crisper sound, a sound that feels like "fire". There might have been a decent sound lying beneath the compression and muffling but it has been mutilated beyond all hope of recognition.

    As for the newer sounds, I think they all sound pretty good. Light has that muffled quality of old fire, but it's a marked improvement from the previous high-pitched shrieking noise that accompanied the element, and I'm not a fan of the metal sound he seems so fond of. It's a really generic "hit" sound and seems to more correlate to bludgeoning force than any form of metal. I also don't like the wind sound, and feel it should be something closer to the sound of actual wind.

    My highlight sounds are Silver, Evil, Water, Ice, Void, Fire, and Bacon, in no particular order.

    Post #: 17
    2/7/2021 1:06:19   
    dragon_master
    Member

    		Why is the emphasis on doompoch,uwpoch, whatever-epoch so substantial? How about revamping the story armors that actually need revamping? Is our feedback on these issues even relevant anymore? This hurts to watch, because I like DF so much, but I can't be bothered with things like calendar classes, which only a few specific people play with. @Verly and/or @Dove please, can we 'least get an answer if there are plans to revamp Ascended ChickenCow? I'd be so grateful if we received one.

    The challenges - they are ok, the weapons however, not as much, as we already have BoA and many armors to limit healing. To be frank, I was expecting Chaos Lords... but it's ok.

    Regardless, looking forward to the main story updates.
    DF  Post #: 18
    2/7/2021 3:30:44   
    TFS
    Helpful!


    		 ^Just making/revamping a class on a whim is how garbage classes come to be in the first place. Like Ascended Chickencow. Verlyrus and Dove release content at their own pace, and when they do the quality is always impeccable. Spamming multiple threads with the same complaint is not going to change the developers' schedule, and if it actually theoretically did then a rushed release would likely not be satisfying regardless.
    It has been said in the past that there are plans to re-animate Ascended Chickencow, which would only logically be released alongside skill changes, but this is not likely to happen in the immediate future because of the time it would take to do it right. This class was released (and remains) in such a poor state BECAUSE so many people kept demanding more quick-release half-baked classes/revamps of the previous development team, and if the current one abandoned current projects for trivial nonsense they'd just be falling into the same trap. Which is why they don't. It will be released when or if Verlyrus sees fit; and as years and years of precedent would indicate, the way he sees fit is the best it can possibly be. You really don't need to be so aggressive with the topic, it's not in your best interest nor anyone else's.

    Warlic's Gift is actually really amazing; it heals twice as much MP as the Blade of Awe, making it a suitable replacement for the rare Warlic's Staff. It's the best weapon you could slot on an MP-hungry class such as Entropy (or Ascended Chickencow) as well as being the best weapon to help in longer quests or dungeons. It's also the new best Fire weapon, if you like using classes like Ascendant. Try it out!

    < Message edited by TFS -- 2/7/2021 4:07:31 >
    DF  Post #: 19
    2/7/2021 8:08:26   
    dragon_master
    Member

    		^ Not being aggressive at all, just a bit disappointed that ACCL is not getting the light it deserves. Very well, I'll trust you on this. All I was asking for, is an up-to-date reply.

    Regarding the weapon - I am not sure if this really has that much of an effect. You can just as well just take 5 potions and Pierogi for the same effect.

    One thing I should mention, though -
    is there any chance that endurance fights could be removed from AARGH? They require very specific playstyles, which in my book doesn't qualify as "Random".
    Emperor of SC and most notably, Sinnocence, just don't belong there. These fights take up to 1 hour or even longer. Not fun at all.

    < Message edited by dragon_master -- 2/7/2021 8:10:18 >
    DF  Post #: 20
    2/7/2021 9:19:34   
    Kyrion
    Member

    quote:

    ^ Not being aggressive at all, just a bit disappointed that ACCL is not getting the light it deserves. Very well, I'll trust you on this. All I was asking for, is an up-to-date reply.


    Aside from the ACCL thing, i do understand the frustration but its better to wait than get it half baked. For now i assume that its at low priority considering the current circumstances of the game.

    quote:

    One thing I should mention, though -
    is there any chance that endurance fights could be removed from AARGH? They require very specific playstyles, which in my book doesn't qualify as "Random".
    Emperor of SC and most notably, Sinnocence, just don't belong there. These fights take up to 1 hour or even longer. Not fun at all.


    The weapon does have an effect, it saves pots and food is the point. Youre not supposed to spend them willy nilly and try to be resourceful.

    quote:

    is there any chance that endurance fights could be removed from AARGH? They require very specific playstyles, which in my book doesn't qualify as "Random".
    Emperor of SC and most notably, Sinnocence, just don't belong there. These fights take up to 1 hour or even longer. Not fun at all.


    I dont think that they are getting removed, they are unnecessary but its not that difficult to just reroll unless if youre poor on gold.
    DF AQW  Post #: 21
    2/7/2021 19:11:20   
    joglaze
    Member

    		I agree that UW Epoch needed something to tone down its power level, but what I'm not a fan of is the hidden changes that happen that come along with it. I read the design notes, and yes, the debuff stacking is something that I was expecting, but not the nerf to the Slice Skill stacking to only -15 All, instead of the -45 All. While I agree to some extent with all of the changes, a little more transparency from the staff is appreciated.

    UW Epoch is already getting a -30 Boost, personally, I don't understand the change from -45 to -15, I think -30 to match the debuff would be better, but that's just my opinion.
    AQ DF AQW  Post #: 22
    2/7/2021 19:48:35   
    Vikken101
    Member

    		^^^Joglaze, -15 slice is a bug thats getting fixed, its only intended on dragonbyte epoch.
    Post #: 23
    2/7/2021 22:41:33   
    joglaze
    Member

    		Ah, ok now I understand. Thank you for the clarification.



    < Message edited by joglaze -- 2/7/2021 22:44:28 >
    AQ DF AQW  Post #: 24
    2/8/2021 1:14:54   
    aryc0110
    Member

    quote:

    Regarding the weapon - I am not sure if this really has that much of an effect. You can just as well just take 5 potions and Pierogi for the same effect.

    Generally speaking, food and extra potions are considered crutches, and are designed to be that way. The vast, vast majority challenges are designed to be beaten without any DC/Special Offer (Heromart/Doomknight) classes or items, using no extra potions or food and without guest usage. However, weapon specials (and, despite being designed to be beaten without them, those DC/Special Offer classes I mentioned) are considered in balanced gameplay and are consistently adjusted to be usable in challenges without skewing the fights too heavily towards the player's favor in terms of their difficulty. If you're running in without guests, extra potions, or food, as the fights were intended to be engaged with, that staff special suddenly becomes incredibly useful on mana-hungry classes.
    Moreover, you're not going to realistically be bothering to buy extra potions before you go into every long quest or maze, let alone spending a Defender Medal on food, but the new staff provides enough mana regen for sustainability in these if slotted on a multi-hit class like Chaosweaver.

    quote:

    Why is the emphasis on doompoch,uwpoch, whatever-epoch so substantial? How about revamping the story armors that actually need revamping? Is our feedback on these issues even relevant anymore? This hurts to watch, because I like DF so much, but I can't be bothered with things like calendar classes, which only a few specific people play with

    Verly takes our discussions on what needs to be done with both story and other classes very seriously. He's currently looking into a Deathknight adjustment of some measure, and previously has made Technomancer into one of the best classes in the game and reworked the much-neglected Pyromancer and Guardian classes. He's also made bug fixes and adjustments to many classes over the past year, like when he changed every skill that was changing bonus-to-hit to a flat number so that they instead added bonus, as they were initially intended to do, or when he changed Dragonlord's shield from Block/Parry/Dodge to Melee/Pierce/Magic at the request of the players. The reason that the Epochs are so heavily modified is because a lot of players, and I do mean a lot of players, use Epochs and the discussion around how good of a class each of the variants is has been a huge topic of discussion, with Doompoch underperforming massively, being generally considered to be worse than Epoch is without an artifact equipped, and Underworld Epoch being so good it trivialized nearly every challenge it was put up against. These changes were necessary to make every artifact modern and usable, without being blatantly overpowered.
    Post #: 25
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