We have been told the nerds up at VR have been toiling for a couple years now tweaking stat recipes to make them feel meaningful at each level. They have shown they care about this as they have stated, granted in a pre-alpha stance, that they don't want more that three stat bonuses on any piece of gear and all of the gear we have seen increase your stats by one or two points, never anything drastic like a set of haze panther gear from EQ1. We also have heard that stats for particular classes will not be as cut and dry asmost MMORPGs. A wizard may need high STR if they want to excel in fire damage, or a rogue may want high intelligence for applying their chemical related toolkits, as a couple made up examples. In any case, I don't envy that job at all. How do you make it feel great while simultaneously not making a level below you trivial and a level above you too hard to bring down?
Whatever the special sauce is, here is the list of stats as of the last time they were shared which was a couple years ago. We know that climbing has been reworked and it will have its own stat and so will sprint. There may be some more they have discussed that are not on this list. So, thoughts.
The thought of separating poison from chemical is interesting. When we get more info on toxic climates, it will be interesting which stat this pulls. Chemical may be a better identifier than poison. What else would you need chemical resistance for?
Again, separating nature into its own resist chance is also interesting. There are nature effects that don't involve the elements? Is that allergies? Sneezing affects casters ability to cast giving the same effect as a Silence?
One of the most annoying things for me personally about EQ1 was missing in combat. It seemed to be extremely prevalent as a human rogue. I tried many things to help with hit rate but it seemed the only thing that helped it was level. Having a hit rate and hit %, I'm curious to see whether there are things dps classes can do to increase their hit % outside of just being a higher level than the mob. It would be totally worth it to have gear that didnt increase str or dex and just increased hit%.
Finally, readiness has me very intrigued. So in many single player RPGs, there are chances of crits if you attack from behind or have sneak attacks. You can do it to others and they can do it to you. In MMORPGs, this only seems to show up as a Backstab damage modifier. Imagine if you get attacked while in a sitting position because a mob pops on top of you, the damage is multiplied. What about when rogues pop out of combat in the middle of a fight to enter stealth. If they're not in combat mode, could this give increased damage if you are hit while out of combat, making it much more dangerous to pull off that drop down backstab from stealth?
Love to hear some opinions on how these stats can be used to push the combat deeper.
The trend in MMOs is to start out more complicated and then dumb things down. Either to keep things more simple for the developers, for the players, or both.
Thus, more than one major MMO have had different statistics affecting many things for all classes and then gone to a model where for a fighter only strength matters, for a rogue only dexterity matters etc. This enormously simplifies itemization of weapons and armor among other things.
I would give extremely good odds that before release Pantheon will simplify significantly. But remain considerably more complex than almost any of the major MMOs.
I can see some stats working together to enhance others, serendipitously, allowing some customization for those classes lacking, For instance, Cut off the first column at Charisma, and Stamina and constitution, together, could enhance poison and disease resistance. Or Intellect and Stamina coupled with Endurance use, can increase spell power. The discovery of such or the manipulation of such can help in armor choices, oir make them more agonizing, lol. and so on and so on, I am sure a conspirists cats-cradle tangle of links could be imagined or discovered at some point.
Regarding the difference between poison and chemical damage, the difference will likely follow standard gaming misunderstandings of what those words mean. Poison damage will really be venom damage (toxins injected into the body from biting /stabbing) and not poison damage (toxins introduced into the body by eating it). Chemical damage will likely be limited to getting things on you and not the more scientific definition of a chemical being anything made up of atoms.
But I could be wrong. Perhaps the game will be super pedantic. Poison resistance may only help reduce damage from eating poisonous foods and chemical resistance may reduce all damage that isn't from subatomic particles.
As to my preference (regardless of how damage types are defined), I would like to see many types and resistances stack with diminishing returns. I want one source of damage to often be considered as multiple types, so that there's more nuance to it and less of a need to counter one specific type.
DagnyStout said: The downside of making too many of the core stats (strength, intelligence, wisdom, constitution, etc) matter too much to too many classes is the effect on demand for drops that have those stats.
As an optimist, I choose to believe that VR means it when they say they are trying to create enough variety in strengths/weaknesses in encounters to where there is not "a" min/max, but eventually a min/max for this encounter and a separate one for another. CP has mentioned before that if you are out adventuring deep somewhere, it would behoove you to bring more than one set of armor, or at least swappable pieces depending on what you are going to face. IF that is true, then demand for a specific piece of gear drops in favor of high demand for a lot of different gear, thereby spreading around the camping. Mix that with the ability to get gear of equal stats in different ways (quest/drop/craft) and ou alleviate issues like people waiting on lists for weeks to camp something becuase it is THE piece of gear.
Gintoki88 said: I'd rather have too many stats than everyone just sharing a single "Master" stat .
I totally agree with this. For at least two different reasons. The first was described by Benonai :
Benonai said: VR... says they are trying to create enough variety in strengths/weaknesses in encounters to where there is not "a" min/max... IF that is true, then demand for a specific piece of gear drops in favor of high demand for a lot of different gear, thereby spreading around the camping. Mix that with the ability to get gear of equal stats in different ways (quest/drop/craft) and ou alleviate issues like people waiting on lists for weeks to camp something becuase it is THE piece of gear.
The second is the larger affect on the whole 'min-max' concept. The greater variety of stats that can help different aspects/abilities of a character's performance in their group role, the more ways there are for that character to successfully fulfill their 'job'. And the greater the number of viable, even powerful builds that are possible for any given class. This is the foundation of not simple class identity within a role, but specific Character identity within their Class. By discovering which stat powers a particular ability, I might figure out how to make MY shaman (for example) out-perform most others in a particular set of circumstances, while still being viable in most group adventuring.
That sounds like a 'quest' well worth pursuing.