Living Dead: Problem List

[Lyth]

If you wanted to make Living Dead into a 'fun concept', you would need to actually design the action appropriately. Guild Wars 2 has a 'downed' mechanic in which a player hits zero health and has to fight for their life to survive. The screen effect changes, your actions change, and you get a gauge that drains down to signal your impending demise. And while others can intervene to help you out and save you, you do retain a degree of personal control over whether you survive. But they've clearly designed for the mechanic from the ground up.

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I think that game developers overall tend to be the most receptive to feedback when pre-orders are still up. We've seen this before, most notably during Stormblood. But once you get into the first raid tier and the initial tuning changes are made, most proposed changes tend to be kicked back to the next expansion. I think that if people sat around during the Stormblood Media Tour and gave Shake it Off the benefit of the doubt, we'd still have the ability in its original form. So if you have something to be said, it's probably best to say it now, or hold your peace for another two years, maybe more.

If this develops a bit of momentum by the time the embargo lifts, that's probably the ideal time to speak out about DRK's issues.

[Mekhana]

If you wanted to make Living Dead into a 'fun concept', you would need to actually design the action appropriately. Guild Wars 2 has a 'downed' mechanic in which a player hits zero health and has to fight for their life to survive. The screen effect changes, your actions change, and you get a gauge that drains down to signal your impending demise. And while others can intervene to help you out and save you, you do retain a degree of personal control over whether you survive. But they've clearly designed for the mechanic from the ground up.

--

I think that game developers overall tend to be the most receptive to feedback when pre-orders are still up. We've seen this before, most notably during Stormblood. But once you get into the first raid tier and the initial tuning changes are made, most proposed changes tend to be kicked back to the next expansion. I think that if people sat around during the Stormblood Media Tour and gave Shake it Off the benefit of the doubt, we'd still have the ability in its original form. So if you have something to be said, it's probably best to say it now, or hold your peace for another two years, maybe more.

If this develops a bit of momentum by the time the embargo lifts, that's probably the ideal time to speak out about DRK's issues.

That'd be a neat idea to combine LD with the old Sole Survivor. Get a heal/mp restore for killing something while in Walking Dead status. It wouldn't do much for prog most of the time, but would make roulettes more enjoyable at least.

[Absurdity]

That'd be a neat idea to combine LD with the old Sole Survivor. Get a heal/mp restore for killing something while in Walking Dead status. It wouldn't do much for prog most of the time, but would make roulettes more enjoyable at least.

Only issue is that you rarely need to use LD during roulettes in the first place. Don't get me wrong I like the idea, but it doesn't solve the problem with LD in the content where you consistently notice how bad the ability is.

[Derio]

Its sad that it wasnt fixed or adjusted to be more new player friendly or just remove the death penalty completely. Hopefully people who participated in the media tour can voice their concerns but it blood weapon isnt fixed then I wouldnt hold your breath.

[Agner]

Thanks for the thread, Lyth! Here's to hoping the last occurrence wasn't just the triennial visit from anyone important who ever visits these threads. :)

With that said, I'm honestly pretty impressed the team hasn't come up with a change for this ability despite endless recommendations and ample time. This invuln is a massive gap in any safety net DRK has, and you'd think they would've had a solution after, what... 6 years? It received a change once that was only a bug fix from my knowledge, then forgotten.

I'll confess to the sin of not adamantly doing extremes and raids as much (mostly did ARR things with consistent groups), but using Living Dead is never fun in savage or extreme. I can't tell if my healers suddenly become deaf, blind, or both whenever I use it. It genuinely feels like I'm pointing a gun to my foot and daring the boss to hit me, because by god if they do, I'll shoot myself and it won't be pleasant!

[Cabalabob]

So has anyone seen the skill leaks? I don’t want to go into too much detail cause spoilers, but… I’m in denial that the DRK changes are unfinished… and living dead is of course, untouched. Because if there’s one constant left in the universe it’s the effect of living dead.

[WhyAmIHere]

even saying the verboten is liable to get the thread nuked.

Please reconsider your terminology.

[ArthurATDayne]

So this is what I did to make playing Dark Knight and current Living Dead skill tolerable:

Look at your Hotbars, if you see Living Dead, REMOVE ASAP and don't have that Trash anywhere visible on screen ever. Yeah, that's what I did with my Dark Knight, I don't ever want to see that Trash on my character and risk accidentally using that Trash skill.

The OP's suggestion is pretty brilliant and just works, I like it. Upon fatal damage the Dark Knight still has 1 HP and continues fighting for 10 seconds, not bad at all. If I was going to die anyway, an automatic extra 10 seconds of life to spite the enemy is a Quality of Life improvement. Would be nice to survive after getting healed a bit too.

[AC9Breaker]

I like Living Dead. I think its fine.

[Videra]

I like Living Dead. I think its fine.

Allow me to illustrate, from the PoV of a longtime tank, why Living Dead is garbage:

Living Dead is a black hole for other resources, as it requires a full HP heal so that the Dark Knight can keep standing. There are a few ways one could resolve this; reducing it to a 50% HP heal, instead of 100%. Living Dead sucks up resources where Superbolide, Hallowed Ground, and Holmgang don't - and that, in my opinion at any rate, - is a terrible thing. While I'd prefer a full rework of the skill, if they wanted to keep it in theme with what it currently is? My prior suggestion would likely be the best option.