Difficulty changes?

[Dark Lord]

Hello, fellow Exiles!

Since this latest and magnificent AoW update I found that the star metal wielding people are way harder than before. Maybe I'm just a ♥♥♥♥♥ (at least my character is a beautiful one), but I killed 2 of them a bunch of times without too much hassle. Currently I'm at Stargazer's Crest, where the 2 ladies (all nude and female mod) appear, and I used to farm only them. I'm playing mainly solo, so every time I have a companion besides me. She's a T3 Nordheimer bearer with 1k armor, a 67 damage legendary sword and a shield. She is lvl 11, and I give her the +vit meat. I'm at max lvl of course, have 64% dam. reduction with about 920 armor, a strong bow with bone arrows, and some weapons for melee. I mainly attack with my lowest dam. weapon which is hardened steel punching daggers, sometimes with bleed, but mainly without that. I'm doing these only for reasons to still become good with not-so-high-end weapons, so if I have a harder time, then I can just switch to my katana/other daggers/ancient javelin melee or the short sword. Yeah I know that I have many iron arrows and steel and now star metal ones too, but I'm challenging myself for that matter. Oh and I have heavy corruption with 307 health (when I'm sated), and 61 stamina - which is barely enough for 2-3 heavy shots from my bow. I try to use every aspect of my agi. build against all enemies. Also, I have max corr. vitality and 10 corr. authority.

So after this bunch of info... I ran into my first battle after the update. My 4k life bearer died, I also died, and each of those sm soldiers still lived. So question is: did they tweak the difficulty, too? Just didn't mention that? In the past they were not that big of a challenge.

What do you think, fellow lonely wanderers? Yeah yeah, it's not mainly a solo game, but come on! It's harsh sometimes. Sorry for my whining.

Edit: I made 2 successful runs since, with my companion at half hp, and I'm still breathing, too. It seems that the damage they do to companions was buffed up. Also, I can damage them way less than before. And ALSO, my bleeding stacks against them seems to be weaker.

[Estevan Valladares]

Perhaps there is a better question: What didnt they changed ?
The thrall damage and survival was diminished by applying diminishing returns to stats, so leveling doesnt do much, and armor was given dminished returns so heavy armoring also doesnt do much. While your own stats compensate as a player, thralls' do not, so everyone was changed but thralls are more affected because they did not had their "build" changed.
It is expected that Authority is a choice.

Meaning, if you build for authority, your thralls last longer, but you dont. If you build for your own stats, then your thralls are weaker.

The problem is it was too heavy handed, so speccing for authority build does not really gives them that much power.

Like the kids say these days, it is not the "meta" to build for authority.

[Dark Lord]

Originally posted by Estevan Valladares:

Perhaps there is a better question: What didnt they changed ?
The thrall damage and survival was diminished by applying diminishing returns to stats, so leveling doesnt do much, and armor was given dminished returns so heavy armoring also doesnt do much. While your own stats compensate as a player, thralls' do not, so everyone was changed but thralls are more affected because they did not had their "build" changed.
It is expected that Authority is a choice.

Meaning, if you build for authority, your thralls last longer, but you dont. If you build for your own stats, then your thralls are weaker.

The problem is it was too heavy handed, so speccing for authority build does not really gives them that much power.

Like the kids say these days, it is not the "meta" to build for authority.

I agree with you. Yes, if we specialize in companions or just ourselves, than the other option has to be weaker. I'm okay with that. But will not-so-Fun-com developers sleep better at night with thralls being weakened for solo guys? I don't get the 'WHY???' here. Some players felt the game too easy? Sure, then go for hard difficulty, or make a challenging server. I don't see the reason behind these nerfs. 'Balancing' they say... Sure, I always try to accomodate to the new changes every time, but they just don't listen to gamers, and getting used to the new changes became tiresome.

Meta? So that means that we cannot play as the builds we'd like to play? That's great news for a survival game! Or not...

Anyway, thanks for your answer! May Crom watch over all of us... at least better than some developers.

[Estevan Valladares]

You will get a field day if you mention that they change the whole game because PvP folk complain about something. But, in that case, what I do think Funcom does wrong is not to make it clear that if pvp folk want things differently, they should set up their server, not make everyone else theirs.

It is very simple for someone who wants "fair pvp" to set their servers accordingly. Hell, even funcom could just set theirs.

Me ? I mod my game, and have my thralls' builds. But folk in console cant. So they need to have to set their game and feel "cheating" because pvp folk cant live with the fact that maybe stronger and more experienced people SHOULD beat them.

https://youtu.be/inlchfWpSF0

[Jolie Rouge]

Originally posted by Estevan Valladares:

You will get a field day if you mention that they change the whole game because PvP folk complain about something. But, in that case, what I do think Funcom does wrong is not to make it clear that if pvp folk want things differently, they should set up their server, not make everyone else theirs.

It is very simple for someone who wants "fair pvp" to set their servers accordingly. Hell, even funcom could just set theirs.

Me ? I mod my game, and have my thralls' builds. But folk in console cant. So they need to have to set their game and feel "cheating" because pvp folk cant live with the fact that maybe stronger and more experienced people SHOULD beat them.

https://youtu.be/inlchfWpSF0

Love this vid and the slow motion scenes. Reminds me of 300....

[Dark Lord]

Originally posted by Estevan Valladares:

You will get a field day if you mention that they change the whole game because PvP folk complain about something. But, in that case, what I do think Funcom does wrong is not to make it clear that if pvp folk want things differently, they should set up their server, not make everyone else theirs.

It is very simple for someone who wants "fair pvp" to set their servers accordingly. Hell, even funcom could just set theirs.

Me ? I mod my game, and have my thralls' builds. But folk in console cant. So they need to have to set their game and feel "cheating" because pvp folk cant live with the fact that maybe stronger and more experienced people SHOULD beat them.

https://youtu.be/inlchfWpSF0

I don't know about PvP. Never did that, never wanted that. In multi I only play with my friend on a PvE server or coop. I didn't know the console thing. That zucks. :(

Mods, yeah. I also love them. They can transform the game in a nice way. I mainly use 8-9 fashion style/armor mods, and only 2-3 mods that really changes something interesting in the game.

Strange video though. I assume that's the 'better thralls' mod? Could you name the mod(s)? At the very least I read them, but if they really that good.... But that's also a little cheating, isn't it? I mean... that's not the intended way to play. But well... I understand you, hence my topic here. Also, I use at least one mod that gives something I didn't already have, so I stop here. :D

Mods are our savior - as some other folk wrote in my other topic, so have fun! ;)