E
eleh
Guest
This is an opened letter to Mythic, really, I guess, so arguably there will be limited efficiency on these forums, but here goes anyway.
Too many changes (improvements/balances/etc) kill the game.
It takes an enormous amount of time, energy and careful planning to take a character to 50.
As a result, we develop an emotional attachment into our characters. We decide how and why we like them and how we want to play them. For example, as a darkness specced Spiritmaster rather than a suppression specced spiritmaster (or the other way around of course), because it suits better our playstyle, our understanding of the game...
We read the forums, we get to understand how our particular character works.. by the stage he is about level 20-25, I guess, we know how we want to play him.
Then starts the painful and frustrating grind to level 50, sticking to plan, so eventually we get to RvR with a character as we want him to be
We invest into a crafted armour, which we then have imbued according to how we want him to fight
We accumulate realm points, and we think long and hard on what to spend them on, that will be most efficient to helping our playstyle.
In the background of all this, Mythic looks and tweaks.
Minor changes are justified to try and bring balance to the game. I agree.
Sweeping changes into a class or a spec-line, basically change the whole balance - maybe not of the whole game - but of how the game can be played when you are a character that is being hit by those changes.
Some people are happy with adapting, of course. But the most blatant example is the latest change. 1.62 is a huge change throughout all 3 realms. I have only ever played in Midgard and I'll focus on that. A Shadowblade can only decently become a critblade now, to have any chance of doing whatever.
I do not want to enter the debate wether those changes to left axe are justified or not.
I can only say that I invested a lot of time into developing my character as a dual-wielder because I like it that way. Not for uberness reasons, for play style reasons.
I also invested a lot of money into weapons, armour and spellcrafting.
I invested into Realm Abilities.
All that is effectively wasted now, but it is also besides the point.
I can't believe I am the only one feeling I am being steamrolled into playing a character in a way I am not comfortable with. Again, nothing to do with 'nerf' or 'statistics'. I don't care much about that.
By making such strong changes into my character, Mythic effectively destroys the emotional attachment I had with it. He now reacts differently, plays differently, feels different.
He's not the character I grew and groomed.
On top of this, the multiplication of 'smaller' changes effectively affect the whole game over time. The increase of resists, particularly since the advent of spellcrafting, render many, many things next to useless in RvR: mezzes, combat styles...
My point, ultimately, is that there is such a thing as aiming for perfection. But basically, by trying to make the game better and better, there is a danger of effecitvely making it worse and I think Dark Age of Camelot is in 'clear and present danger' of reaching that point.
Mythic, please, please, I beg of you. You will never please everyone, as hard as you try. Just accept it and stop amending the game constantly. Give us new textures, new quests, new content but please leave the game mechanics as they are.
As imperfec as they are now, we can learn and leave with it. If one class has to be left gimped (such as mine now, I feel) then so be it. It would be a shame to see a class die out of the game because people stop playing it, but maybe it is inevitable and it still leaves plenty of choice.
I would prefer to abandon my shadowblade now and start an other character, if I knew I can rely on this character's abilities to stay the same over time. I have lost that confidence, and so have lost the motivation to invest the time in doing so.
With the game reaching maturity, many people's interest is starting to dwindle, understandably. This is not a bad thing. But constant changes in mechanics, far from helping, will only contribute to a dithering of interest.
At least I got it off my chest, for what it is worth. Thanks for listening.
Too many changes (improvements/balances/etc) kill the game.
It takes an enormous amount of time, energy and careful planning to take a character to 50.
As a result, we develop an emotional attachment into our characters. We decide how and why we like them and how we want to play them. For example, as a darkness specced Spiritmaster rather than a suppression specced spiritmaster (or the other way around of course), because it suits better our playstyle, our understanding of the game...
We read the forums, we get to understand how our particular character works.. by the stage he is about level 20-25, I guess, we know how we want to play him.
Then starts the painful and frustrating grind to level 50, sticking to plan, so eventually we get to RvR with a character as we want him to be
We invest into a crafted armour, which we then have imbued according to how we want him to fight
We accumulate realm points, and we think long and hard on what to spend them on, that will be most efficient to helping our playstyle.
In the background of all this, Mythic looks and tweaks.
Minor changes are justified to try and bring balance to the game. I agree.
Sweeping changes into a class or a spec-line, basically change the whole balance - maybe not of the whole game - but of how the game can be played when you are a character that is being hit by those changes.
Some people are happy with adapting, of course. But the most blatant example is the latest change. 1.62 is a huge change throughout all 3 realms. I have only ever played in Midgard and I'll focus on that. A Shadowblade can only decently become a critblade now, to have any chance of doing whatever.
I do not want to enter the debate wether those changes to left axe are justified or not.
I can only say that I invested a lot of time into developing my character as a dual-wielder because I like it that way. Not for uberness reasons, for play style reasons.
I also invested a lot of money into weapons, armour and spellcrafting.
I invested into Realm Abilities.
All that is effectively wasted now, but it is also besides the point.
I can't believe I am the only one feeling I am being steamrolled into playing a character in a way I am not comfortable with. Again, nothing to do with 'nerf' or 'statistics'. I don't care much about that.
By making such strong changes into my character, Mythic effectively destroys the emotional attachment I had with it. He now reacts differently, plays differently, feels different.
He's not the character I grew and groomed.
On top of this, the multiplication of 'smaller' changes effectively affect the whole game over time. The increase of resists, particularly since the advent of spellcrafting, render many, many things next to useless in RvR: mezzes, combat styles...
My point, ultimately, is that there is such a thing as aiming for perfection. But basically, by trying to make the game better and better, there is a danger of effecitvely making it worse and I think Dark Age of Camelot is in 'clear and present danger' of reaching that point.
Mythic, please, please, I beg of you. You will never please everyone, as hard as you try. Just accept it and stop amending the game constantly. Give us new textures, new quests, new content but please leave the game mechanics as they are.
As imperfec as they are now, we can learn and leave with it. If one class has to be left gimped (such as mine now, I feel) then so be it. It would be a shame to see a class die out of the game because people stop playing it, but maybe it is inevitable and it still leaves plenty of choice.
I would prefer to abandon my shadowblade now and start an other character, if I knew I can rely on this character's abilities to stay the same over time. I have lost that confidence, and so have lost the motivation to invest the time in doing so.
With the game reaching maturity, many people's interest is starting to dwindle, understandably. This is not a bad thing. But constant changes in mechanics, far from helping, will only contribute to a dithering of interest.
At least I got it off my chest, for what it is worth. Thanks for listening.
