Alongside our changes to NPC templates, in our Combat and Progression Update we are also making some changes to the way we handle various aspects of combat. There are several goals for these changes:
- Provide more reasons for players to value defensive stats on their equipment at low levels, or when playing non-tank classes.
- Emphasize skill and equipment as a major factor in your character’s combat effectiveness, beyond your level.
- Add some additional dimensions to combat and to the equipment that players can currently obtain.
These changes will work together with the other changes to help make different aspects of character progression more meaningful, and combat with NPCs more engaging. They’ll also help with solo capability for all classes and will make it easier for groups of players to undertake meaningful challenges, even if they are missing certain classes or roles within the group.
Armor and Resistance Changes
One of the primary challenges we face with combat balance and loot in the game is deceptively simple: Defensive stats such as armor value and resistances simply do not make a big enough difference at low levels, and are especially unhelpful if you are not playing a tank class such as Warrior or Dire Lord. As a result, we see many players prioritizing equipment that boosts their offensive power at the expense of being able to handle incoming damage.
This not only makes it difficult for us to balance challenge levels effectively in group areas, but it also makes many of our drops and items throughout the game less desirable than they should be. It results in a great deal of feedback from players who feel that drops they are finding are “worthless” because those drops are not doing anything to directly boost their damage output. Finally, the focus on damage output is also incompatible with the NPC changes we are making. If we were to leave things in the same state they are in now, many classes would have little hope of being able to accomplish anything without a group.
To address these issues, in the Combat and Progression Update we are making the following changes:
- Damage mitigation from Armor and Resist stats will now include a level-based component. The amount of these stats you need to fully mitigate damage will scale based on your level and the level of your opponent.
- At low levels, you will see a greater benefit from upgrading armor or increasing resist scores than you do in the game currently.
- As you level up, you will need to upgrade equipment to achieve higher armor and resist values to mitigate the same percentage of incoming damage.
We believe that these changes will not only help make armor and resistance upgrades more meaningful to players at all levels, but they will also help improve everyone’s chances to successfully solo enemies under the new NPC templates.
Melee Hit and Damage Formula Changes
Our current hit calculation for both physical attacks and spells is based on the idea that if your skill is capped you have a base 95% chance to hit an even-leveled opponent, before any other bonuses from stats are factored in. However, that to-hit chance falls off very fast if your skill is lower than the desired amount for your opponent’s level. This has created a situation where equipment that increases your hit rating is generally only useful when fighting higher-level opponents, because you will almost always hit anything at your level or below. It also creates a situation where hit-rating equipment is nearly required for melee classes if they are fighting higher-level opponents, and the combination of these factors actively discourages players from trying to take on those fights.
To address these issues, we are adjusting the formula used for hit chance in combat:
- The base hit chance for an evenly matched opponent will be reduced.
- The amount of skill needed to reliably hit an even-level opponent at that base level will be reduced. Players will not need to have their skills completely capped to achieve that base hit rate.
- Players who invest in raising their skills above that minimum amount will experience an increased chance to hit their opponents. This means that high skill will allow you to more easily hit opponents that you would not have been able to hit under the old system without using hit rating bonuses from equipment.
- Players who have raised their skills beyond the base amount needed will also gain some damage bonuses from high skill.
Under this new approach, the value of your skill level for your primary weapon skills will be more noticeable, but players who are taking on higher level opponents will not be quite as penalized as they are today. Equipment that increases hit rating will also be useful and desirable in all situations, since the benefit it provides will be additive to your skill. Since fights will be more reliant on sustained damage and resource management under the new NPC changes, these changes to the hit calculation will provide a greater emphasis on skill progression and/or looking for equipment with hit rating bonuses at all levels of play.
As part of these changes, the Constitution attribute will no longer provide any benefit to hit rating. See below for more information on the new role of the Constitution attribute.
Critical Hits and Critical Damage Mitigation
In today’s gameplay, players have very little defense against an enemy that critically hits them. This has created a situation where we have had to deactivate critical hits on many NPC abilities since the damage from a critical hit is, by nature, very unpredictable. While this approach has worked, it has made combat against many NPCs a little too predictable and rote, which leads to a feeling of tedium when fighting large numbers of NPCs. We need to inject a little more unpredictability into combat, but players need tools to help mitigate and guard against it.
In the Combat and Progression Update we are adding a new stat for critical damage mitigation. This stat will work to help mitigate the additional damage from critical hits that you receive. Your Constitution score will contribute directly to this stat, and critical damage mitigation will be available on equipment as well. In addition, the Constitution attribute will contribute to your ability to acclimate to extreme climates, making it a very useful attribute for anyone interested in exploring these areas of Terminus.
As part of enabling mitigation versus critical damage for players, we are re-enabling a small possibility for critical hits on many NPC attacks. Certain NPCs may have a greater propensity for critical hits than others. This will mean that handling critical damage will become an important consideration in combat, and choosing equipment that helps with this may be of great benefit in certain areas or situations.
Tomorrow, we’ll be talking about changes to the way kill credit and loot rights are awarded that will also be coming in with the update.
Discuss this article on the New Official Pantheon Subreddit
Join the Official Pantheon Discord
More from the Combat & Progression Update Details Series