Proposed ANB changes draft #1 [discussion]

[Blp88blue]

I'd say since the increase in trial difficulty that you guys should drop the celestial down to maybe trial 70 and 90. I've read on discord that not to many people even got above trial 100 this last anb.

Edit: ok so by the recent lb of gold 3 this last time. It shows just a little over 250 players made trial 100. Out of what? Maybe 5-6k people that did it. Mages barely had 50 that made trial 100.

Edit2: compared to silver 3 pre trial boost. At least 300 people made it to trial 120+

[Anjaeka]

There’s a fine line between “too easy” and “too hard”. The devs are constantly tinkering around trying to find that sweet spot. The problem is, that place is different for each player. It’s impossible to please everyone. Also, Celestial pieces were never meant to be easy to obtain. If you flood the game with celestial cubes, they lose their value. You should have to work to get them by improving your hero and your playing skills, not by merely showing up with your hand out or by paying $$$.

[Chosen]

There’s a fine line between “too easy” and “too hard”. The devs are constantly tinkering around trying to find that sweet spot. The problem is, that place is different for each player. It’s impossible to please everyone. Also, Celestial pieces were never meant to be easy to obtain. If you flood the game with celestial cubes, they lose their value. You should have to work to get them by improving your hero and your playing skills, not by merely showing up with your hand out or by paying $$$.

The whole point behind the difficulty change, was to make Celestials a reward for the best performances again, as they have been pretty much a participation award until now.
The fact that they are not limited to the top-X spots, but given to everyone who beats a certain TL, means that everyone has potential to get it, you just need to improve yourself.
And I say this as someone who finished at TL99 in the last ANB.

[Stusmith50]

If you put the celestials out if reach of the majority of players you are increasing the gap between the haves and have-nots. Reducto ad absurdium (??), only players with celestials, can get more celestials!

[zidrat]

One of the major issues that makes it impossible to fine tune the game and it's reward systems around "skill" is the huge disparity between mobile and PC. Probably should've either never released a PC variant, or given it a separate server and ruleset so that it didn't imbalance competition. At the least you could split the leaderboard/reward systems, or even just start with showing some icon/flag on the leaderboards indicating who was using the PC client clearly.

[Romme]

only players with celestials, can get more celestials!

This is not true...

anb is the only event you can get celestials and everyone basically starts on an even playing field. The difference are those who get to tl100+ every anb and earning both celestial rewards just have much more experience. They have learned for all their mistakes and have found a way to efficiently play through the event.

if you're having trouble ask any veteran player, they will be more than happy to give you advice. Or watch fendy's youtube anb guide.

[Avatar]

I just finished Fendy's videos a few hours ago and found them educational but very redundant.

And you are right about asking questions of veteran players. That is by far the biggest resource available. I have found scores of players who are both extremely friendly and knowledgeable. I only wish I had discovered that before I wasted weeks and over $100 in gems...

[Stusmith50]

Probably phrased that badly! Everyone has equal chance to earn a celestial, agreed. But they get earned by the better players, who use them to climb leaderboards and beat players without them (in season). As the players without slowly improve, they get to a point where they could earn celestials, but then the difficulty gets increased, putting them back out of reach. If this cycle repeats and repeats, the top players stay top of the league as they always have the lower players outgunned. I agree get gud is the correct answer, but does frustrate many. Making it harder for new players to catch up is frustrating to us.

[Romme]

I can agree with you here. Another problem is the lack of actual events to get celestials. I've been playing since last april and currently only have 1 75CT and 2 77CTs and that is with getting max rewards for every event. This also funnels you into playing just 1 character because why play another character with 0 celestials and have an even bigger disadvantage.

[Anjaeka]

Probably phrased that badly! Everyone has equal chance to earn a celestial, agreed. But they get earned by the better players, who use them to climb leaderboards and beat players without them (in season). As the players without slowly improve, they get to a point where they could earn celestials, but then the difficulty gets increased, putting them back out of reach. If this cycle repeats and repeats, the top players stay top of the league as they always have the lower players outgunned. I agree get gud is the correct answer, but does frustrate many. Making it harder for new players to catch up is frustrating to us.

The current work around for this by the developers is the item level cap increases. Celestial items held by top players eventually become obsolete and everyone has to grind for new gear. I’m not saying that I like or agree with this method of leveling the playing field, but there it is.

[mikiek20001]

One of the major issues that makes it impossible to fine tune the game and it's reward systems around "skill" is the huge disparity between mobile and PC. Probably should've either never released a PC variant, or given it a separate server and ruleset so that it didn't imbalance competition. At the least you could split the leaderboard/reward systems, or even just start with showing some icon/flag on the leaderboards indicating who was using the PC client clearly.

ESO struggles a bit as well with balance between PvP and PvE, but they haven't figured it out yet either. However, they do have separate servers and instances that separate pc's and consoles from each other. It's not quite the same as the disparity between pc & mobile here, but separating the two could help. I don't know how (im)possible that'd be.to do at this point.

[Ircosig]

I see a problem with ephemeral crafting;
If crafting is cheaper in season there is no need to craft outside of the season and no need for having a goog set of gear, cause you can just craft during season and you don't need to be high in Trials outside of the season vause there's no leaderboard

[Anjaeka]

I see a problem with ephemeral crafting;
If crafting is cheaper in season there is no need to craft outside of the season and no need for having a goog set of gear, cause you can just craft during season and you don't need to be high in Trials outside of the season vause there's no leaderboard

This isn’t about in season or out of season. This is specifically for the A New Beginning events.

[Ircosig]

Adrian said events and season is an event to. But if it is just for ANB than I'm down for it

[Anjaeka]

Ephemerals are exclusive to ANB. They would never be available outside of that specific event. If you ever see one on a regular hero, you need to report it to Travis or Liana directly.

[Ircosig]

I was just confuzed, because Adrian said events

[Avatar]

I have been waiting on the ANB to begin in order to start a new hero and craft quality set gear specific to his intended use afterwards. If everything being crafted is just going to dissappear, leaving him in nothing but his boxers when I keep him, that what is the point?

And for those of us who are honest players (and I would hope the overwhelming majority of us are...), and especially those of us with limited experience crafting anything more than junk to reach lvl 50, how do we know whether we have stumbled upon a bug VS just gotten lucky?

[Ubba Lothbrokson]

Relax. Unless they change the rules (which is not impossible, but I'd bet against it in this instance, since Adrian said upthread that they want to encourage crafting) anything you craft you will be able to keep. At worst, they will let players keep the best two or three pieces they craft.

In prior events only ephemeral items have gone away at the end of the event. These are special items awarded as part of the milestones for the event. There are enough to craft a full set of whatever gear set you want to use at Epic level, without costing anything in materials. You get to choose not only what gear piece to make, but your choice of attributes. They are very useful for getting close to the finish, but in past events, I have found it a good idea to craft my end-event pieces from scratch, so as to get Legendary gear.

And I generally wind up with a piece or two worth keeping. My best was a Level 76 Integralas Mantle.

[Coldet]

I have been waiting on the ANB to begin in order to start a new hero and craft quality set gear specific to his intended use afterwards. If everything being crafted is just going to dissappear, leaving him in nothing but his boxers when I keep him, that what is the point?

And for those of us who are honest players (and I would hope the overwhelming majority of us are...), and especially those of us with limited experience crafting anything more than junk to reach lvl 50, how do we know whether we have stumbled upon a bug VS just gotten lucky?

Point 1. It's FUN!
Point 2. Did I mention it's FUN!
Point 3. Unlocking all the inventory slots, Companion slots is a LOT cheaper.
Point 4. Exp Gain Is boosted.
Point 5. Plenty rewards.
Point 6. mmmm Have I forgotten it's FUN!

[Coldet]

Yea I would +1 on the BH advice for touch screen play. I do love the Mage but playing BH on the touch screen is easier on us old timers.

[.sad.soul.]

Well said Coldet.

[.sad.soul.]

I am in a very similar situation as you Avatar. I couldn't agree more about the game improving quality of life when you're struggling with chronic pain, severe disabilities, and for me, severe ptsd as well. You have my sincere and honest empathy. Rock on brother.

[Avatar]

I began reading posts on gear and the most advice is to go with all Assault or maybe 4Assault, 2 Stalker. What do you think? Also, what weapons & skills should I use with that setup?

[Stusmith50]

Assault is only good for gold farming. Stalker goes higher TL and faster. Assault used to be good before the rebalance last Summer.

[Avatar]

I'll keep that in mind and replace my current Stalker gear with Assault gear as I begin upgrading it.

[Romme]

No, you want stalker!!!! Dont replace with assault...

I guess as long as you're having fun it doesnt matter

[TheExorcist]

Any Havoc BH lovers out there?
i kind of like "Heatseekers" so much. Follow by the "Trap".
still at lower trials i'm afraid. I don't bother about the LB at all when playing Bounty Hunter
I want something which is in my perspective only -MORE FUN. Finally After all these years I choose "Havoc" till the end. Thank you

[MtDoom]

Yes. Havoc bombers are the most fun Eternium build I have played! And fun is the whole point of a game! I started Eternium with the Havoc set (once I was advanced enough to get a set) and kept with it as long as I could despite everyone else downplaying it. Eventually, it couldn't compete at high trial levels and I had to abandon for Stalker, which works better but is not as much fun. I hope that the developers give Havoc a little more power in the next balancing patch so it can be competitive in the end game.

[Ozymandius]

+1 Havoc BH is my favorite class and gear set. I have been a big fan of Explosive Shot since it was first introduced. Plus, Heatseekers are a fun way to make long distance attacks over walls and around other obstacles. I use Havoc set for running daily quests and gold runs. I have 2 Havoc BHs:

GIYE VIBA VOXA 4213 Havoc BH "Jack" Sparrow currently working Trial 103
NOKE SOMO BUDE 6716 Havoc BH "Elizabeth" Swann currently working Trial 107

[Avatar]

@Ozymanddius, I am using my Assault gear instead of one of the 3 Stalker sets I own because it has higher XP (currently @ about 725% unless I run a boister). What are the advantages of Havoc over the other 2? (I have 3-4 pair of each of the BH weapon sets in my stash as well.)