08-31-2021, 02:13 AM
Its been a good couple of weeks since the 2.49 version dropped onto Live and now that a decent portion of the builds have been developed and put into practice, let me just explain a lot of my frustrations and concerns I've had since all the changes dropped onto the test server.
I would very much like to make it clear that 2.49 has brought us a lot of beneficial changes as well, infact a majority of the update I am all a fan for, those being things like:
All of these changes here, without going into too much detail about them, have all been lovely. All of these changes will be overly helpful towards balancing the game and finally normalizing the power scale of the likes of Hexer and Tanky damage dealers.
But easily the biggest, most expansive and unfortunately the most flawed change of them all is the evasion system rebalance and overhaul. There is a huge slieu of areas to cover when addressing this update, but lets start with the benefits I wish to see preserved moving into any other system, those being:
-Avoidable Secondary Effects
-On-Evade effects proccing on glancing/evasion
These two effects should remain to some capacity, they've been two very beneficial bonuses that will serve to keep autohits in line no matter what system it is ultimately shifted to.
Now lets go into the flaws of the new system.
I would very much like to make it clear that 2.49 has brought us a lot of beneficial changes as well, infact a majority of the update I am all a fan for, those being things like:
-Weapon scaling adjustments/tags
-Stat readjustments, causing hit/evade builds to not rely on luck
-Stat readjustments, causing hit/evade builds to not rely on luck
-Accuracy/Evade normalization and rebalancing.
-Magic Gunner's mini-rework
-Avoidable secondary effects
-Basic Attack and Damage system overhaul
-Multi-hitting no longer being a nightmare to balance
All of these changes here, without going into too much detail about them, have all been lovely. All of these changes will be overly helpful towards balancing the game and finally normalizing the power scale of the likes of Hexer and Tanky damage dealers.
But easily the biggest, most expansive and unfortunately the most flawed change of them all is the evasion system rebalance and overhaul. There is a huge slieu of areas to cover when addressing this update, but lets start with the benefits I wish to see preserved moving into any other system, those being:
-Avoidable Secondary Effects
-On-Evade effects proccing on glancing/evasion
These two effects should remain to some capacity, they've been two very beneficial bonuses that will serve to keep autohits in line no matter what system it is ultimately shifted to.
Now lets go into the flaws of the new system.
Evade is too Good and Polarizing
Simply put, Evade is much too polarizing now to deal with, unless your role was very explicitly just a support that only relied on interacting with your allies, you will now be required to invest tons upon tons of hit to interact with your opponents with, otherwise you will hard lose a matchup simply because you were not allowed to hit them. This, to me is a very toxic gameplay pattern that will only detract from the game's longevity.
If you cannot hit your opponent, and do not have access to a reliable source of damage, you lose, end of the equation. And that feels really really bad, this is why I think that the current evade system is too toxic for the game.
Because evade is too good, the existing counter-play is to stack as much hit as humanly possible so that you can reliably hit your opponent, and in doing so I have felt very very bad for my opponents already because I simply will not play to the evade game in its current state, infact no one will, leading into my next point.
Simply put, Evade is much too polarizing now to deal with, unless your role was very explicitly just a support that only relied on interacting with your allies, you will now be required to invest tons upon tons of hit to interact with your opponents with, otherwise you will hard lose a matchup simply because you were not allowed to hit them. This, to me is a very toxic gameplay pattern that will only detract from the game's longevity.
If you cannot hit your opponent, and do not have access to a reliable source of damage, you lose, end of the equation. And that feels really really bad, this is why I think that the current evade system is too toxic for the game.
Because evade is too good, the existing counter-play is to stack as much hit as humanly possible so that you can reliably hit your opponent, and in doing so I have felt very very bad for my opponents already because I simply will not play to the evade game in its current state, infact no one will, leading into my next point.
The Actual Numbers
It feels weird to say, but the reason why Evade is weak, is because its simply too good. Because the counter-play to Evade is to stack hit as high as possible to reliably move past it, evade builds end up feeling weak because the counter-play is available to so many more builds now, practically everyone can stack hit, with blessed, Guile and various other easy-to-obtain hit mods being available to them on a whim, the best builds are just removing some of their other stats in favor of these ones. Granted this has taken down some defensive builds, but not all of them, leaving the best ones untouched.
Lets put one of my builds into light, a Verglas who, as a papilion, is allowed absurd SKI investment, but 60 scaled is not unreachable to other races either.
![[Image: GQ8xzrI.png]](https://i.imgur.com/GQ8xzrI.png)
To note, they are using a blessed weapon, so they're gaining 25 hit from blessed + divine sign, 10 hit for their fist from Trained fists, and up to 20 hit from FAO, the result?
![[Image: L4AoWIA.png]](https://i.imgur.com/L4AoWIA.png)
296% hit is my maximum, since flanking bonus ignores the cap but chivalry does not I'm showing my hit from the back here, this is a REALLY high number for this new system, like not a lot of people are getting this much easily, but its still there for those who scale from FAI (Such as FP intensive classes like MAs or summoners would be)
Putting another thing into view, this is evade as a comparison when I am fully stacked, Unarmored Body for +10, FAO +20, Hare Stance for +30, 26 evade torso.
![[Image: ZIctsoE.png]](https://i.imgur.com/ZIctsoE.png)
Evade doesn't even come remotely close to the bonuses you can get for hit.
It feels weird to say, but the reason why Evade is weak, is because its simply too good. Because the counter-play to Evade is to stack hit as high as possible to reliably move past it, evade builds end up feeling weak because the counter-play is available to so many more builds now, practically everyone can stack hit, with blessed, Guile and various other easy-to-obtain hit mods being available to them on a whim, the best builds are just removing some of their other stats in favor of these ones. Granted this has taken down some defensive builds, but not all of them, leaving the best ones untouched.
Lets put one of my builds into light, a Verglas who, as a papilion, is allowed absurd SKI investment, but 60 scaled is not unreachable to other races either.
To note, they are using a blessed weapon, so they're gaining 25 hit from blessed + divine sign, 10 hit for their fist from Trained fists, and up to 20 hit from FAO, the result?
296% hit is my maximum, since flanking bonus ignores the cap but chivalry does not I'm showing my hit from the back here, this is a REALLY high number for this new system, like not a lot of people are getting this much easily, but its still there for those who scale from FAI (Such as FP intensive classes like MAs or summoners would be)
Putting another thing into view, this is evade as a comparison when I am fully stacked, Unarmored Body for +10, FAO +20, Hare Stance for +30, 26 evade torso.
Evade doesn't even come remotely close to the bonuses you can get for hit.
No One Wants to Deal with it
Since no one wants to be the 150-200 hit Andy who just gets evade walled and dies because they can't hit anyone, the current flock of builds are gravitating towards the high end of the hit spectrum, or they're relying entirely on evasion-ignoring mechanics to just bypass the need entirely.
Putting a few into example are excel-crash fire mages spamming Fir/Explosion, Firebirds utilizing the best parts of their kit or throwing bombs/grenades on repeat until the target dies, of course a lot of this is met with various other forms of counter-play, but the mass result is your evade build is invalidated by all of the above most of the time.
Because the general populace does not want to get evade-walled and for very very good reason, evade ends up weak, and tank ends up being safer as a result, turning us right back to square one when people end up deciding their builds.
Another thing that I can note, is that in the current landscape of builds, if you are playing as an evade build, you die in like 3-6 hits unlike before, where evasion would at least keep you in the game for a reliable amount of time, especially since 80% of the populace wasn't just hitting you through your mechanic.
Since no one wants to be the 150-200 hit Andy who just gets evade walled and dies because they can't hit anyone, the current flock of builds are gravitating towards the high end of the hit spectrum, or they're relying entirely on evasion-ignoring mechanics to just bypass the need entirely.
Putting a few into example are excel-crash fire mages spamming Fir/Explosion, Firebirds utilizing the best parts of their kit or throwing bombs/grenades on repeat until the target dies, of course a lot of this is met with various other forms of counter-play, but the mass result is your evade build is invalidated by all of the above most of the time.
Because the general populace does not want to get evade-walled and for very very good reason, evade ends up weak, and tank ends up being safer as a result, turning us right back to square one when people end up deciding their builds.
Another thing that I can note, is that in the current landscape of builds, if you are playing as an evade build, you die in like 3-6 hits unlike before, where evasion would at least keep you in the game for a reliable amount of time, especially since 80% of the populace wasn't just hitting you through your mechanic.
Conclusion
In conclusion here, there are a lot of frustrations to be had with the new evade system, and I encourage many more people to share their own thoughts on the matter, because I am of the opinion that if none of this changes, evasion is gonna detract so, so much from the game.
My opinion is that I preferred the old, more reliable evade system, but I am also a fan of some of the changes that were made, such as avoidable secondary effects and the hit/evade caps, I would like to see Evade being higher as a base (such as through buffing torso items) with the trade-off that you cannot truly evade autohits anymore, with the reduction being as high as 45% with no additional modifiers and further segregate who and who can't evade.
I think that 45-50% reduction would be fair if the stat was more reliable, especially if it procs on-miss effects still, which allows the likes of Duelist, Kensei and Martial Artist to thrive from those effects.
In conclusion here, there are a lot of frustrations to be had with the new evade system, and I encourage many more people to share their own thoughts on the matter, because I am of the opinion that if none of this changes, evasion is gonna detract so, so much from the game.
My opinion is that I preferred the old, more reliable evade system, but I am also a fan of some of the changes that were made, such as avoidable secondary effects and the hit/evade caps, I would like to see Evade being higher as a base (such as through buffing torso items) with the trade-off that you cannot truly evade autohits anymore, with the reduction being as high as 45% with no additional modifiers and further segregate who and who can't evade.
I think that 45-50% reduction would be fair if the stat was more reliable, especially if it procs on-miss effects still, which allows the likes of Duelist, Kensei and Martial Artist to thrive from those effects.
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