Go big or go home

[Arionthe]

It would seem simpler, for that purpose, to have normal attacks critically hit, but not skills.

I think that change might incite even more howls of outrage. But it will be a step in the right direction.

"So true. I have been down that path. I like his point about how overemphasized Critical Damage and that removing it would change the game in a way that we would have to find other means to increase our damage output and have the room in our gear and CP's to put it in. Right now as it stands, Critical Damage is still Critical to have in the highest value you can."

This is one of the consequence of the change I proposed. Although it wasn't my original aim. I consider it a real benefit (one of the biggest), creating room in the stat budget for other things.

The ultimate goal is to reduce "must have" stats. Because if a stat is a must have, everyone stacks it, leading to less room for other things. Imagine there are 4 must have stats, guess what. Everyone's gear will be exactly the same. What's the variety in that? Essentially any flat rate stat has the potential to be a must have stat since diminishing return doesn't affect it.

Lastly I actually think moving critical dmg factor to the monster instead of the player is a long term plus. A simple armor rating for monsters fail to capture all the variabilities combat should have. For example a merlock wearing plate armor should have high armor, but if you get in a lucky shot, slits its throat through the crevices, merlock's soft skin should provide little resistance. That's a big critical hit. The same plate armor on a skeleton knight should offer far less of a critical hit (if any) even if you get in a lucky shot. This adds depth.

So more trade offs to consider, which as I have argued in other posts, is the key to build variety. No trade off, no build diversity.

[Purple Potato]

Critical Damage is still Critical to have

I see what you did there.

[Jose Sarmento]

It would seem simpler, for that purpose, to have normal attacks critically hit, but not skills.

[mattks1]

Hey, hey, don't take that away from him, he was so happy when this idea came into his head. Pay some respect and gratitude here peeps.

So true. I have been down that path. I like his point about how overemphasized Critical Damage and that removing it would change the game in a way that we would have to find other means to increase our damage output and have the room in our gear and CP's to put it in. Right now as it stands, Critical Damage is still Critical to have in the highest value you can.

[Jose Sarmento]

Ideas are fine and all, but he forgets:

a) there is already a stat called ARMOR that makes some enemies more immune to damage than others
b) critical hits are fun
c) development cost vs. practical benefit

[RiseOfAbyss]

Hey, hey, don't take that away from him, he was so happy when this idea came into his head. Pay some respect and gratitude here peeps.

[Rytrik]

Go home. I like big crits. I like having equal chances to crit on ANYTHING. I'm a fucking mage who can command the elements, teleport to another spacial location, and bend time. I SHOULD be able to crit equally on anything.

[Primus]

I would rather go home in this one.

[Jose Sarmento]

Do not smoke the event flowers!!!

[Arionthe]

Might as well bring up a really wacky, but beneficial idea for the @developers to consider.

Take out critical damage the stat from the game entirely. Replace it with a monster attribute that is critical weakness.

For example a merlock might have a critical weakness of 3, a Reverent might have a critical weakness of 0 (immune to critical).

When a hit is considered a critical hit, its damage is multiplied by that critical weakness rating + 1 of the target monster.

This has a number of benefits.

1. You still have distinction between a normal strike and a critical strike, but now have distinction amongst different monster classes. Certain squishy monsters should be more vulnerable to critical hits. Things like Evil Eye (big eye ball on a plant stalk), the Merlocks. Then there are monsters that should be less affected by critical hits such as Reverent or any undead (doh, they are already dead!), or mechanical beasts. You now create variation. Classes that focus on Critical Hit will be more effective against certain monsters and less so vs others, making the classes more distinct. The current CR and CD mechanics simply resolve into a multiplier to the damage number. It might as well just be power as CR and CD adds nothing fundamentally different to the game.

2. You free up an entire stat slot. CD is considered a must have stat in the game. You stack it everywhere you can. By removing it entirely, you now have more stat budget to go around. Making room for more interesting stats like Multi Strike, Ability Power etc

3. Making your normal attacks feel less like a feather duster. Since current CD can easily x15 times your normal damage, the monster HP had to scale accordingly in order to maintain challenge. This has the side effect of making all my non critical attacks feel like wet paper bag. Only critical hits count, the rest might as well not exist. I remember reading that a long time ago, you can build 100% CR, so everything crits. This was nerfed since Devs want to make critical hits special. I understand that. Currently situation is also perverse, non critical hits are completely unimportant.

4. Which means player damage is more controlled. Developers should be more willing to offer hard hitting specials and not worry as much about 15x CD making the game a cakewalk.

Pro: making all my attacks count, not just the crits, more class distinction (BH has innate bonus to CR instead of CD), more monster variety in terms of gameplay challenge. The biggest one is freeing up 25% of your current stat budget to devote into something else entirely.
Con: redo your gear. Hey you will always be redoing your gear anyway.