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Post by maarius81 on Jan 5, 2018 9:36:24 GMT -5
ahh that's cruel. Was it perhaps a bleeding-debuff? Sorry
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Post by maarius81 on Jan 2, 2018 7:16:55 GMT -5
update Fury Warrior Northrend level 68
It's quite challenging, I survive 3 mobs barely when I use all my cooldowns. The impact of not being allowed to wear rings, trinkets and the necklace is noticeable. I like it so far.
Losing all my green & blue gear at death will be a nightmare. It's a good thing that crafting can help you here, it would be nearly impossible if it wasn't. I tested the character with Ironman gear before I started questing and it's really not a good pacing, surviving each mob with about 5-10% health. And this is with using all my selfheal capabilities.
I can't test crafted gear on the PTR since it is way behind at the moment, but I think chances of surviving will be much higher.
First aid and cooking definitely have a purpose now.
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Post by maarius81 on Jan 1, 2018 18:51:04 GMT -5
I tested enough low level experience for the challenge, now on to a higher level character. Level 68 Fury Warrior in Borean Tundra.
It's a copy of one of my live characters who wears 10 pieces of level appropriate gear. To simulate the Soulsearcher Challenge I switch half of those items with grey/white gear. I'm curious how this turns out. I'm testing this with the possible changes from the last posts. I don't craft here, since it's quite far behind.
Edit: balance seems cool, definitely on the more challenging side... between Ironman and normal green gear only. Self healing classes are advised.
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 31, 2017 6:08:52 GMT -5
edit for the possible change: -) blues are excluded from the 1-from-8-rule -) 1-from-8 only for greens -) you can equip a blue (questitem, BoE) the moment you get it -) you can only wear 1 blue at a time
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 30, 2017 20:54:17 GMT -5
Interesting...
so -) 1 from 8 green questitems -) 1 from 8 blue questitems
I'm not sure about that. The choice would probably still be easy since your latest blue would be the best.
You're right though that rares will start dropping blue items sooner or later. This may become a problem. From current testing rare mobs aren't too dangerous except I just died and wear all white gear. I agree with you that quest-lines shouldn't become obsolete and you should be rewarded doing them including the final quest of the chain.
possible change: Maybe just allow only one blue item on you at any time. Want to equip a new one, destroy the old first. You may have an empty slot then, so choose wisely. Edit (forgot the most important part): blues are excluded from the 1-from-8 rule and can be equipped the moment you get them.
About the health potions... -) you gain an extra life -) you gain an extra life slot It's like you gain a health container in one of the Zelda/Metroid games. It's an empty slot though. You have to kill rare mobs to fill the slot. Killing a certain type of mobs (humanoids mostly) has an increased chance for those to drop. It depends on the zone, I've found that some zones have more drops of those than others. You don't have to go for it in each zone though, just take notes how many you got in each zone... you may want to come back later to farm more slots.
About the difficulty... At the moment I'm really torn, I want it to be a more difficult challenge but even though I had to start over with gearing a few times, I always got good enough stuff soon to make it easy again. I just hope it gets harder in later zones, otherwise I may get rid of crafting. It's the one thing in the challenge that gets you gear relatively fast which trivializes content.
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 30, 2017 6:11:33 GMT -5
next I'm trying to find out if it's a good thing to allow blue items. -) still easymode: At lv.31 my shaman's experience (even though I died a few times, but this was me being stupid mostly) feels too easy. I wear blue stuff from the "1-from-8-rule". -) easy choice: The "1-from-8-rule" should have the player to stand before a difficult choice. Having a blue amongst the greens equals an easy choice. -) blue BoE mobdrops could still be allowed. -) I don't know if later at higher levels the difficulty will rise considerably, considering the game rewards you with neckpieces, rings and trinkets then and probably is balanced around that stuff.
possible change: -) only green quest rewards are allowed
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 29, 2017 16:06:16 GMT -5
quick update on playing without visible player-health on the Shaman
I've configured the soundclues via the addon Weakauras on 50% and 35% player health and it works flawlessly. I finally take my eyes off the player healthbar and look for the mob animations, which is quite helpful when silencing casters or watching out for enemy special attacks.
I'm glad this issue is solved, playing without UI needs a bit getting used to, but you'll notice much more details of the world, mobs and their animations.
If one absolutely needs a visual clue, Weakauras has those as well. A small red dot (or whatever you choose) on your character when you drop below 50% health is quite helpful as well.
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 29, 2017 8:03:58 GMT -5
Pandaren run update
I wonder if someone has tried to play without character-healthbars yet. In my first runs on the Paladin it worked quite well, but now on my Shaman I'm not sure if this would work. (On the PTR I only use some addons, for testing purpose of the gearing mostly). Health goes up and down pretty frequently and I think this could be too difficult.
NPC/mobs without visible healthbars on the other hand should work fine. I think this is my next focus, working on this issue.
Edit: Without the soundclues from Weakauras it's very scary... the standard clue (red borders) when on low health comes much too late. Having no healthbar when being used to it is also scary, especially on classes with low armor.
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 28, 2017 5:47:57 GMT -5
Edit to OP:
Added graphical updates for easier reading/learning
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 27, 2017 20:50:46 GMT -5
Hm maybe I should look at crafted gear as pure filler gear which helps me fill holes in my gearing.
When I die I lose all my gear but white/grey stuff. Even outleveled crafted gear would be a welcome upgrade then. It would feel rewarding enough. Does it get too easy that way - not if I'm not allowed to buy mats on the auction house (which I am not) and have to collect it by myself.
I'll give a few changes a try in my next testing hours: -) free crafting with no crafting token (crafting in the original state) -) 4 mobdrop BoEs (I can't use) = unlock riding for that zone -) back to the 1 questitem from 8 rule (because 1 from 6 felt a bit too powerful lately, forgot to mention this)
Let's see how this turns out.
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 27, 2017 20:21:08 GMT -5
What about required level to equip? I was comparing required level. iLvl for iLvl, the quest gear wins, but if you compare level obtainable, that's when crafted gear is better. Spritescale Epaulets have a required level of 22. Hmm ok another comparison about required level: Not sure which one's the winner here. Looking at the armor value, the crafted item seems to be ahead, statswise they're about the same. Hmm
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 27, 2017 19:49:35 GMT -5
Now I'm curious how quest gear and crafted gear compare on the PTR. If you could craft gear that has a requirement of your exact level, and you compared that item to a quest item of the same slot type, how do they compare? Is it just to the point where a major overhaul of the profession system needs to happen? an example on the PTR: The Questgear (scaled gear) is better. Imho too powerful.
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 27, 2017 10:57:24 GMT -5
I wonder how many people would bother crafting gear alongside questing, maybe it wouldn't be too bad to just allow it in its original state. -) BoEs could get a different purpose - like: 4 mobdrops you can't use --> unlocks zone riding -) I doubt that crafted gear comes to a point when it's better than your current questrewards/mobdrops -) death could have you delete 50% of all crafting materials as well
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 27, 2017 5:29:01 GMT -5
Right now I'm not sure if I should remove the crafting token rule altogether, even disallow crafting BoE gear or allow crafting in it's original state
Pro for removing the crafting token rule -) the challenge gets easier to do - one rule less -) you'd craft more
Contra for removing the rule -) you lose the excitement when BoEs which you can't use drop -) you might get stronger/too strong which diminishes the challenge -) death penalty won't seem that scary anymore
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Post by maarius81 on Dec 26, 2017 21:32:14 GMT -5
update on Pandaren run:
I'm in the middle of questing in Hillsbrad Foothills and crafting doesn't feel very rewarding at all at the moment. I went out of my way and farmed some leather for a while, got my skill up to a level where I could finally use my cape-crafting token and craft a upgrade: a nice cape. It took me quite a while to farm the mats, return to the leather trainer in Undercity (I'm not sure if this was the nearest one, one in Brill had only low level stuff) and craft it.
I wore the cape for about 10 minutes when I suddenly got a mobdrop: another cape with much better stats.
I never felt it was worth it. Maybe on my next death?!
It isn't any one of my rules which made crafting unsatisfying. I didn't need any token for an upgrade since the limited questgear I wore was already superior to the stuff I could craft at that time. Maybe I'd need to invest much more time in crafting, but it looks like getting gear through "BoE-mobdrops" and "1-from-6-questitems" is the much faster way. Especially since I can target rare mobs when I'm lucky enough to find some.
Sure, I could go back to the itemlevel requirement to make crafting more viable again, but I don't think that would be fun for the challenge.
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