Feedback Sands of Malice - test server

The items that you can buy with the new currency (bone coins) were nice until they removed the "orange" enchantment they had now they are just trash thats all i can say. However, I think overall its pretty good expansion.

 

So I got on the test server and saw my lvl 22 SM upped to lvl 50.
Now, when you guys do that, you should also throw in some resources like magic/exo/leg equipments or some of those WSF xmas presents.
How am I supposed to test something with a newborn lvl 50 with lvl 18-22 gear.
So I went to Stillwater Bay, the lowest lvl map for some "worthy opponents", and it took me around a minute to kill a monster. With a ~500 max damage on stats... duhh .
So I had a few green and blue presents from the WSF, and got a few lvl 50 items, most of them greens... and I luckily got an exo torso from the daily chest.
Tried again and still hard to kill monsters. ~700 max damage.
Went to the new maps and used blue ess, got some lvl 50 gear pretty hard, crafted a random and got a lvl 41 weapon, but got to ~1000 max dmg... Oops, I'm going into petty details, but they do make my previous point (testing wearing baby clothes).
I also did a few 1vs1 pvp matches, most of them against a lvl 55 2H DK, he pulverized me even tho I had ~10K HP... when he let me win I used all my skills (tesla, turret, shrapnel, armor break rocket) at the same time and it took me 1-2 minutes to kill him while he was standing still. I was doing ~300 dmg on a normal shot with a max dmg of 1000-1200.

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Okay, let's get to the "feedback" part.
I don't like the squeezed Atlantis&Helios regions on the map, you could have put the new continent on the spot from where you removed the PW and kept Atlantis bigger, it will be hard to click on those shrunk maps to teleport.

I got lvl 49 items on the new 50-55 maps .
And why are all the maps lvl 50-55? That's a big difference for equipment drops.

Converting old gems to new ones... I have only low gems, and it takes 1 Gem Refiner to convert a flawed gem and 2 to convert a splintered one... no higher gems in my possession .
About the new stats on items... They seem interesting and they do boost the defensive stats (armor, HP, res).
Tank builds will become crazy.... but then again, maybe not, because:
What's the deal with the nerfed and randomized block rate?
And tanks seem to be useless against the new boss and the infernal mode bosses.

We'll need a new list of min-max enchantments/lines on gear.

I see that the same type of gear and gems (as now) drop from Lor'tac downwards and PWs when you're under lvl 50, and the new type of gear and gems drop on the new continent and PWs when you're over lvl 50.

Also did some green to blue crafting and it looks like you get both the stats and the enchantment inherited but not exactly from the same item:







EDIT: I don't like the fact that the DPS on weapons is missing...
It's more important in comparing weapons than that useless CV.

 

So I got some time to reflect on the changes regarding the gems and truth be told, I was expecting it. I'm also not surprised to see Sapphires being affected. Let's see why I mean this.
1. Most gems offer flat bonuses. Armor, Resistances, Hit points, critical hit rate and damage are all flat values that can receive flat bonuses.
- The flat bonuses scale with level. This means that the higher the level, the less impactful are the gem bonuses.
- There is a small exception regarding rubies, cause by increased weapon % damage which amplified rubies. But then again, that bonus did not scale with level either.
2. The only gem with percentage bonus was the Sapphire. This means that Sapphires are just as relevant regardless of level. Attack speed also does not scale with level. Therefore sapphires were becoming the estranged sibling to the other gems.
3. None of the gems have levels per-se, and are not level dependent. This is a point where twinks are hated for instance, because very powerful gems on low levels are absurdly powerful. (but let's not start another twink discussion here, it's just a stats-discussion)

There were three ways I see to solve this:
- Transform all gem bonuses into percentage bonuses. That's quite a huge change and I can see plenty of cons regarding this approach, one of them being balance.
- Come up with a new level. Yeah right, since Royal gems are already so obnoxiously difficult to obtain, it would've been crazy to imagine this being practical. Sure, rescaling of prices could've been done, and maybe ensure that at higher difficulties you get a "tier-higher" gems dropped.
- Come up with rescaled bonuses on already existing gems. Of course changing already existing gems would've exacerbated the low level problem. So the natural way to go in this direction was to come up with new gems for higher levels.

The addition of runes as percentage bonuses makes me happy. Now we have a difference between how gems act on stats and how runes do. Gems give flat bonuses, while runes give percentage bonuses. Mathematically and balance-wise very correct.
One concern I have is regarding my hard-earned sapphires - I recently spent two jewels of enhancement to upgrade my sapphires to Sacred status. The removal of sapphires feels like a hit in the gut.

It also concerns me that runes are much more harder to obtain as compared to gems - and truth be told, I am not convinced their bonus is that impressive either. Remains to be seen what's with the new item stats though.

So I hope our already hard-earned sapphires will be transferred in a correct manner to the appropriate runes with the appropriate level instead of just being erased. Otherwise expect a lot of players to flip and leave the game simply because you have invalidated their hard work and spent andermant. It will be seen as and will feel like blatant thievery!

 

Why the Sapphires are being removed? I think at least we will keep the gems, or someone has lost his Sapphires? It's a big hit indeed..

will we get the gem change to the new One?

 

They were removed from the shop and from the drop too (i think), but the other types of gems (old and new) are still there.

No. Those who had some, still have them.

 

Wait, what? How can u delete my saphire gems? EDIT is wrong with you people, can u give back all the money we have spended on gems? In case that u will take off the gems i think this will be my last time that i write, omg. How can we still play if u r doing changes that afect only us(the players)...Only one thing to say, how in the bloody hell can we buy a new royal gem with your 1k-1,2k anders/hour, how? God im upset right now...

 

And just one question.... where is Zahra? I dont have that NPC in town so I didnt get quest from her.

 

They are not removing them (deleting) ... the right expression would be "discontinued".
You can use them in the upcoming 1-2 years ... when supposedly they should become inferior to the new runes.

She fled from Hiraja with the first wave of "refugees" to Europe
Just kidding. You have to find her in the other maps and free her from captivity.
http://drakensangonline.wikia.com/wiki/Maiden_in_Need

 

Well, im still upset... After i pay for royals and lose them after 1-2 years its almoust the same. Why don't u change them to runes? Why do i have to lose my gems? Change them and i will be glad to play, but if the gems r inferior after spending 300€ on each gems only for bp fun, well i will buy new gems u know when right? It could happen to all the gems in the future, u will change them and tell us that u evolve game...
How dificul is to change the saphire to runes?

 

What about Q5 ( khalys ) and Q6 ( mortis ) ?
Some new uniques available from drop ?

 

But you don't lose them ... you can use them after the expansion.

Don't wish something you might regret

So far no new unique items there.

 

And I'd love for DKs to get an offensive offhand item.

 

185 When is the update date?

What is the result of the combination of items?
Example 1) There is no tier. + Tier 1 + Tier 1 + Tier 1 = Tier 1 ??
Example 2) There is no tier. + Tier 1 + Tier 1 + Tier 1 = Tier 0 ??

I am a steam engineer. Weapon Attack Power 316.46% Weapon.
There is a lot of waste in creating new things.

 

After creating a new char on test server,just to try the missing of sapphires, seriously people. How can someone that just made a char to be able to play when he has 0 speed gems to buy or to drop? So far I didn't find any item to give me attack speed, and over on my 50 lvl char, so far only crap for attack speed. Only runes for speed exist. Yeah ok, and how Einsteins a low level can get the glover? He can't. Further more, he levels up to get the daily quest lines for a glover. How he can go for a PvP match, while everyone has from older times sapphires etc? Plus that with the runes the Sigri's set for a SW will be even more OP. -and don't start that the set is crap or useless with the new levels etc, because you talk rubbish. PvP for a new chars will be so bad, that you need to be sadomaso in order to go there.

To carry on, the new gems are much better than the old ones. Runes are fine too, same as the slots for all those gems. The only problem that exist, as I said before too, is the sapphires and how can be able to increase the speed someone that just started the game after the release, or even he plays before that, but never got enough.

Probably, I will come back to write more, after some more tests.

PS: It is so selfish on my eyes, that people who knew,for plenty reasons, what is coming, didn't say anything to the rest of us about the fact that sapphires will not exist anymore, so we could get some more gems when it was 50% discount, and that they used the knowledge only for their profit and of course for the really few chosen ones as well. -S(h)ame old story-

 

I have to agree about DPS on weapons. There are several aspects of a weapon that go into determining DPS that are not apparent when looking at weapon aspects individually. If it is a space issue since there is now space allocated for 2 sets of sockets, maybe share the algorithm so we can determine DPS on our own.

 

Since i don't have lvl50 char in TS,i would like to ask one question.
what happen if i craft a lvl2 green item with lvl3 green item? or lvl2 green item with no lvl(50 or under) green item?
Can i do that ? And what comes out?

 

Not sure if I am understanding your question but I'll give you an example of something I did today.

Test: to determine if items below lvl 50 were compatible with lvl 50 and up items when crafting.

Items used: 2x lvl 45 blue rings from the Stillwater and 2x lvl 50 blue rings from the Great Desert.

Result: It worked The exo ring that was crafted was lvl 47 as expected. Enchantment lines transferred as expected (lucky lucky me the CHR lines from the lvl 45's transferred and bumped up a bit with the lvl increase ) Slots came out as expected.

The unexpected The random white stat lines from the lvl 50 rings also transferred to the new lvl 47 ring.
That's correct folks. I now have a lvl 47 ring that has the extra white stat lines that come on a lvl 50 item.

This is fantastic news (if they keep this mechanic) since it validates my decision to stop crafting while I waited for this release. It means my old lvl 50 ingredient items are still very useful for future crafting. Ofc, if you currently have a finished lvl 50 toon this does not mean much since you will most likely just use that build to move up to level 55. My main is still has 2 exo ingredient items equipped (dmg torso* and weapon) so I was a bit concerned that I would not be able to continue to tinker with these up to a 3/4 legendary. This should also be great news for any relatively new lvl 50 player that has a lot of 'work in progress' items.

Back to @wangwang's question; if it was, "does crafting still work as before with different level ingredients below and above lvl 50?" then the answer is yes

Luck be with ye,
Mikey,
Tegan

*Just in case anyone is wondering the random line generated during the exo craft was a 3rd %dmg line. Pretty decent at 7.5%

 

Yes you can do that ... you get random tier from those items put at the workbench.

Yep you can transfer your enchantments from your current items into new ones.

Are you referring to me?
Do I look that stupid ... so i would spend 1.2M andermants on obsolete gems ... if i knew about those tectonic shifts?
Ah yes I like throwing my andermant in wind
Don't put your finger at me ... put it at BP.

 

Traki. do you see your name there in my post? Of course not as its not there.So, you assume that I am talking for you, but that doesn't mean it's the truth. Plus, is well known the Omertá that exist if somebody is part of BP -like admins , board admins,mods etc.
There are people who do know and behave as I said on the other post. Its not really a secrete, even though they try to keep it like that. Anyway...
All my fingers goes to BP as well.

 

I thought you were pointing at me