page 3 [FOCUSED FEEDBACK] New Expanded +5 & Incarnate +6/+7 Difficulty Options

[Andreah]

16 minutes ago, Uncle Shags said:

Now I don't know what to think. I thought I needed to increase my defense, I just went back and tested and it made no difference. I thought +5s were way harder, I just went back and tested and now I can't even tell anymore. AFTER taking a pretty strong stance that it was waaay harder. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills...

 

Here's the relevant chart from the Attack Mechanics page in the wiki.

Notice that at +5 the ToHit modifier is the same as at +4. Only when the mob is SIX levels higher than you plus your level shifts, does it get more ToHit and thus raise the Soft-Cap for you. From even level up to +5, it is getting some incremental accuracy, but not to hit. It will be very slightly more able to hit you and do a little more damage when it does, but those will be hard to notice, unlike a higher softcap.

If a player were just barely softcapped at +45% defense, and then suddenly all the mobs got 5% more ToHit, they'd be (roughly) hitting you twice as often -- hitting you 10% of the time instead of 5% of the time. Not a big deal against one opponent, maybe, but if you are surrounded then having the incoming DPS, controls, and debuffs that land double up might hurt a bit more.

[macskull]

11 hours ago, Uncle Shags said:

All I can say is I hope they make it hard.

The way modifiers are affected by level differences means the critters themselves won’t really provide any meaningful additional challenge. The biggest problem to “solve” when fighting up-leveled enemies is ensuring you have enough acc/tohit to reliably land attacks because you’ll need to land a lot more of them to defeat a target.

 

Like you can see in the below image, the modifiers for higher-level critters attacking you don’t go up all that much as their level goes up, but your stats for attacking them drop like a rock.

 

[Troo]

1 hour ago, macskull said:

The biggest problem to “solve” when fighting up-leveled enemies is ensuring you have enough acc/tohit to reliably land attacks because you’ll need to land a lot more of them to defeat a target.

 

exactly.

[WindDemon21]

15 hours ago, Uncle Shags said:

Now I don't know what to think. I thought I needed to increase my defense, I just went back and tested and it made no difference. I thought +5s were way harder, I just went back and tested and now I can't even tell anymore. AFTER taking a pretty strong stance that it was waaay harder. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills...

 

The only thing that makes me feel somewhat sane is that I fought quite a few +6 bosses in my prior tests. Tonight I only found 1. Maybe that made a difference.

 

All I can say is I hope they make it hard.  

 

Please crank the +6 boss knob up to max!

 

I'm going to bed...

That's because the defense cap doesn't change regardless of the level you're fighting. What it DOES do according to the equation though is cap your chance on the equation for the to hit rolls, however, you have to understand that base accuracy plays a role in that, and the purple patch increases the accuracy (not to hit) of the power by the purple patch scalars. So against an even level 45% defense softcap means you're getting hit 5% of the time. But against a +4, that means that 5% chance, goes up based on the level, and rank too don't forget. So a +0 boss has a 7.5% chance to hit IIRC, and a +4 boss would have a 11.5%ish chance to hit when you're softcapped to the 45% defense. Now it's been FOREVER since i checked the accuracy tiers of level/rankings so don't quote me on those numbers, but i do know it works similar to that.

[WindDemon21]

I will chime in and also agree that it has always made more sense for the difficulty settings to be with the mission select area on the nav. So while it can be annoying to fight muscle memory, it does make more sense there.

 

Also, with these level changes, i think it's a perfect time to bring up the issue again with the +to hit procs in the accurate to hit debuff/defense debuff sets as they have been bugged since homecoming started so they're only lasting 5 seconds instead of the 10s they're supposed to.

[kelika2]

You know how "Devs choice" AE arcs give full exp?

How about only allowing +5 as an option to Devs Choice AE arcs?

[GM_GooglyMoogly]

Can't you already use the new settings in AE?  Honest question.  I haven't tried.

[ZamuelNow]

52 minutes ago, GM_GooglyMoogly said:

Can't you already use the new settings in AE?  Honest question.  I haven't tried.

 

There's different things in play.  Technically, once Page 3 comes out any author can raise the max level of their arc to 55.  The issue with Dev's Choice arcs is that once the award is given, the arc is effectively locked and any changes by the author causes it to lose Dev's Choice status.  To my understanding, back in the retail days an author could in game petition to be allowed to make a change (typo fix, fixing a broken enemy, etc) and have the Dev's Choice reinstated.  I planned to ask around after the Page drops officially.