Respawn Rate / Links / Crowd Control - adjustments incoming?

[ChiefCurrahee]

(repost from battle mechanics forums for an attempt at a more lively discussion)

Respawn Rate / Links / Crowd Control - adjustments incoming?

While we still have a little bit of time to learn how the new battle system works out. Right now these are my main concerns with EXP parties:

1)The number of Linked mobs.

2)The lack of access to early crowd control.

3)The respawn reset timers.

While the above were a minimal issue in 1.19 (especially at higher levels) because of the abundance of AOE skills, however with 1.20 things really change.

First and foremost:

1)The lack of early access to crowd control.

This really makes it difficult to manage a link or an add from a respawn.

Mages don't get sleep until Con: 50 and THm: 42. Why so late in the game? Those skills should be around low to mid 20's when EXP parties start to become more popular over Leve Quests.

Gla does not have reliable multi mob hate managment until 48 when flash becomes AOE. Wardrum which is a reactive ability is learned at 38 but is of no use when hate is pulled away from you or an add is introduced and you have to wait on a block. Rampart has a 120 sec cooldown and seems to be a skill to pop to secure hate in long 1 vs 1 fights after the GLa has enmity on everything being fought. Flash is decent as a lv 14 skill for single target (until 48)

Pug doesn't learn Taunt until 42! So again lack of early hate management

and Mar Provoke lv 14 is decent.

So this leads me to the Link algorhythm:

2) Number of linked mobs

I thought it was supposed to be based off party strength. It seems to be based of Party size.

As a lv 50 If I agro a lv 20 mob that mob should CFH like there was no tomorrow and bring the whole zone down on me. yet It doesn't CFH.

Now, if I were in a party of lv 15's I agro'd a lv 20 mob with 2-3 other close mobs, I would brign back to the group 3-4 mobs total. That alone is too much for any low level party to handle, even if in a full PT 8/8. Especially with the hate managment tools and crowd control available at that level.

3) Respawn Reset Rate:

Pre 1.20 AOE skills made links and the rapid reset of respawns a non issue especially at higher levels. Now post 1.20 most melee AOE is non existant or on such a long cool down (80 seconds for whirlwind and wide volley.) That Damage dealing AOE skills aren't effective when they are needed the most.

When you combine the above 3 situations, it creates a frustrating game experience.

So devs I'm curious; Will there be any adjustment to when the Crowd Control & Hate Managment skills are learned?

Are there any plans to adjust the number of linkable mobs?

Will Mobs have independant respawn timers or will some zones see a increased timer for reset?

[Jennestia]

1)The number of Linked mobs.

The link system as a whole was already commented on that they'll be adjusting this in due time since a lot of patch 1.18 - 1.20 were foundation patches and adjustments would always come later.

3)The respawn reset timers.

I believe this was done this way purely because people complained about low respawn timers (and complained that NMs shouldn't have long respawn timers...) so I think is this likely a permanent change.

Though the party situation in general they did say will be further adjusted.

[Xoo]

War Drum should be learned around Lv15.

[Bahn]

War Drum should be learned around Lv15.

And it shouldn't be tied to blocking. Makes no sense for a skill that's solely to generate enmity and nothing else. :/

[Griss]

As far as war drum being linked to blocking I am sort of on the fence. Yes it sort of does suck that one of glads hate tools is locked in this fashion. On the other hand they turned it into a pretty nifty aoe shield bash (minus the stun).

[Xoo]

As far as war drum being linked to blocking I am sort of on the fence. Yes it sort of does suck that one of glads hate tools is locked in this fashion. On the other hand they turned it into a pretty nifty aoe shield bash (minus the stun).

You got my money yet, Galka??

[Griss]

Xoo, you are 475% less funny then you think you are.

contribute to the topic or move along.

[Xoo]

Xoo, you are 475% less funny then you think you are.

contribute to the topic or move along.

But, but! I'm 1000% funnier to myself, which is all that matters. I have contributed, so don't be a dick.

By the way, since when did you hit Moderator status? Nobody likes an out of uniform cop!

[ChiefCurrahee]

This is my opinion but I think maybe making mob respawns independent of each-other would go a long way to alleviate the link system.

as it stands now, every 2 minutes all mobs respawn if dead. So that means that if a mob you killed 30 seconds ago is at the end of that 2 min window, it will respawn very quickly. This is a huge problem with the plack of AOE and early crowd control. How many times has this happened to you:
Fighting a pack of 8 mobs you down 5 with ease but the last 3 are proving a little more difficult (because of timers or low damage output) and all of a sudden those 5 mobs you killed are all at once back on you?

If a mob that you killed 30 seconds ago will respawn in 2 min from the time of defeat I think it would lead to more positive gameplay. It will allow players to progress through w/o worry of mass respawn to wipe their PT.

With independent respawns, you will still have the challenge of taking on 8 mobs at once, it's just their respawn will be staggered upon time of defeat. Example

(time to kill are factitious to keep in a 120 second respawn window)

If you have mob A B C D E F G & H fighting at once.
Mob A dies in 30 sec (2:00 timer starts)
Mob B dies 15 sec later (2:00timer starts, time for mob A pop 1:45)
Mob C dies 20 sec after that (2:00; A 1:25; B 1:40)
Mob D dies 20 sec later (2:00, A 1:05; B 1:20 C: 1:40)
Mob E dies 15 sec later (2:00; A :50; B 1:05; C 1:25; D 1:45)
Mob F dies 20 sec later (2:00; A :30; B :45; C 1:05; D 1:25; E 1:40)
****UNDER CURRENT CONDITIONS MOBS ABCDE ALL RESPAWN NOW!****
Mob G dies 15 sec later (2:00; A :15; B :30; C :50; D 1:10; E 1:25; F 1:45)
Mob H dies 15 sec later (2:00; B :15; C 35; D :55; E 1:10; F 1:30 G 1:45)
--- MOB A RESPAWNS NOW (under independent spawn timer) ---

With the lack of constant AOE or crowd control taking on 8 mobs (even at high levels) is a significant challenge. Fights dont even go as quickly as what i've described above currently. Depending on set up with current classes maybe we would get through ~5 mobs before respawn.

The difficulty is made even more apparent pre level 40.