Thread: 3.2 PvP: Feast Game Mode Discussion Thread.

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

...It also became clear to us that, because we were using a simple calculation based on max HP, healers and casters were gravitating towards a strategy of using vitality accessories to reduce the risk of being interrupted, even if it resulted in decreased attack and healing magic potency.

This is the case because getting those casts off are very well worth the hit to potency (in relation to just how potent the casted spells are, espesically from a perspective of WHM and BLM). I agree it shouldn't be so easily interrupted, but it shouldn't be so loose to the point that a melee can stay on you and still not meet the threshold to interrupt (which is frequently the case, doubly so with the defense buff)

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

PvP Ratings and Matchmaking


However, as this will increase matchmaking times, we are currently debating whether or not we should expand the range of eligible players if a given period of time passes without finding enough participants. At the moment, we do not wish to utilize this solution, as ideally we would like all matches to be held within the same tier. We are considering our options for Season Two, and would like to hear your thoughts on the matter.

There's no other way to say this; if you want ranks to actually mean anything (such as seasonal rewards), there has to be some form of restrictions to the match making. Even if it comes at the cost of cutting down queue pops...keep in mind that if we're talking ranked games, I'm sure the players are playing to win to increase and maintain their rank, not for fun.. High ranked players should not be able to gain a good amount of ratings from defeating lower rank players to overshoot the higher ranked ones, etc etc.

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Heavy Medal

[INDENT]With the release of patch 3.22, a stack of Heavy Medal went from increasing damage received by 10% to 15%─a change which many of you believed might have gone too far. Some on the dev team also thought it might be too high as well, as the flow of battle usually results in players filling their adrenaline gauges in the latter half of the match, which could place teams that gather medals early or midway through at a disadvantage, making it easy for their opponents to mount a last minute comeback.

The problem with this is that the tanks are frequently much too durable to be killed even at as high as a 50% damage reduction. This has always been the problem. Although this does address a little bit to how fragile how non-tanks can be when they are picking up medals.

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Job-specific Changes

Of course, the greatest amount of feedback we received related to various jobs and their abilities. We would like to thank you all for your many detailed suggestions.

With patch 3.26 we will be making the following adjustments:



Black Mage

• Sleep
  Duration: 15s → 12s (PvP only)
  
  
• Night Wing
  Duration: 10s → 8s (Enhanced Night Wing II: 15s → 12s)

Sleep is highly effective at turning the tide of battle, and players found it stressful to be repeatedly afflicted with sleep and unable to act. For players with Sleep Resistance, the duration will be halved (6s for Sleep and Enhanced Night Wing II, 4s for Night Wing).

White Mage

• Repose
  Duration: 15s → 8s
  Duration halved with successive uses (8s → 4s → 2s)

Fluid Aura followed by repeated Repose was judged to be overpowered, and so we decided to adjust Repose while leaving Fluid Aura as-is.

Most of the inherent problems in regards to WHM and BLM has broken through because of the interrupt changes. The sleep duration was (and probably still is at 12 seconds) still incredibly long. Even if you consider sleep resistance, it's 1 second in change. The inbalance is also in regards to what these jobs can do relative to their peers (BLM to SMN/MCH/BRD, and WHM to SCH/AST). The fact is, SCH and AST have very little, if any, forms of CC or self preserverence compared to WHM, especially when the latter has both a sleep and knockback+bind.

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Machinist

• Between the Eyes
  Potency: 150 → 120 (Enhanced Between the Eyes II: 180 → 150)

As touched upon in the 28th PLL, we determined that Machinist burst damage was a bit high.

A bit high relative to who? BRD, SMN and BLM? (which honestly where it should be compared for the most part, because you can't take a melee over a MCH in feast). This drops their potential potency from 540 to 450, that's a 90 difference. Compared to BRD who has 660 through empyreal barrage (albeit it can't crit), sidewinder, misery's end and farshot versus reassembled cleaner shot, ricochet, heart breaker and gauss round. This is also not taking into consideration that MCH's damage outside of burst can be really poor even compared to BRD, on top of having relatively weak self-preservation skills compared to their peers. On top of that, some changes also indirectly nerf MCH (again, relative to other ranged) and give BRD more of a utility advantage, which is more expanded later.

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Dark Knight

[*]Carnal Chill
Recast Time: 120s → 90s (Enhanced Carnal Chill: 90s → 60s)
Damage Penalty: 10% → 40% (Enhanced Carnal Chill III: 20% → 60%)
Duration: 20s → 6s

Carnal chill does it job through a debuff, meaning it can be cleansed such, trade off is that it only affects a single target and those around it. It does it's job well enouigh that a well placed chill can mitigate the opposing teams burst, but at the same time it has a counter play of it being cleansed, though the specific one I want to bring up is BRD's warden's peaen. This has always been something that BRD had over MCH as an edge, and with the changes to carnal chill, it gives them another layer of counterplay over what MCH has (again, in relation to the nerf specific to MCH burst, while on it's own wouldn't be too big, it does make it a little bit undesirable to other ranged dps in consideration of other changes)

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Ninja


[*]Fetter Ward
Can now be used by Thief / Ninja

Ninjas, like Warriors, possess a strong advantage in prolonged engagements due to their HP recovery debuff, and so we have decided to remove this component of their attack in PvP as well. However, compared to other melee DPS, it is more dangerous for them to utilize adrenaline rush, which is why we have decided to make Fetter Ward available to them.

One thing I need to bring up with fetter ward is that it makes it impossible for a MCH burst to go out for the duration that it's available (which can rule out bursting out the melee dps at the start of an engagement). Giving them fetter ward on the basis that it's dangerous for them to use adrenaline rush (which I really hope isn't their only line of reasoning) is incredibly short sighted for any balance change. Ninjas already have the benefit of being able to stealth to safely get first hits in (which honestly I think they need to make some more adjustments for it to be more influential in a PvP match, for the right reasons, more on that later).

There's also no mention of how ninjas can stealth with heavy medal. There is already a scarce amount of free-use AoE and stealth detection in PvP, which works to stealth's advantage. That being said though, the fact that a ninja can stealth while hoarding medals is a problem of it's own. Especially with how big the playing field is.

Originally Posted by Naoki_Yoshida

Summoner / Scholar

We received a tremendous amount of feedback from players regarding this very issue. After careful consideration, we decided that it was unacceptable that players could prevent the usage of an ability required for so many job actions.

If you're going to do this with aetherflow, then why not MCH procs and ammo? It's more core to their burst than people would think when they need two different buffs to be able to do so (cleaner shot which allows them to use a 180 potency hit, and reassemble to guaranteed a crit). Though I'm on the side of keeping it the way it is (and in response, buff SCH so they're not as so contingent on aetherflow for healing effectiveness) because it just makes something like 1-ilm even more niche than it already is (do we have a problem with a skill that's oriented to PvP to be working in PvP?)