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[Questra]

Ok, Berinda and I are now able to reveal some of the work we've accomplished so far in our discussions with the devs and other professionals.

First: FA - We pushed hard to make FA easier to land and there was opposition but there was a concession. The first bullet in each FA is going to have a lower defense check, making it a bit easier to get better FAs on evade profs, and at least "Flingshot" FAs on fixers and profs with CiB up.

Second: Increased weapon support - Better buffs and more support for more weapons. Also, we might be given access to Pistol Mastery. How do people feel about that? Yes please, no thanks, not too bothered?

Third: Perks - This is obviously what most of you are interested in. We will be getting a new perkline to replace Power Up. Perkline details:

At 220 with the line maxxed: Max HP 500, Body Dev 150, Max Reflected Damage 100

Perk 1 - HP drain. Hits for 2532-2532 and recovers 100% HP, taunts 8k, 40s recharge.
Perk 2 - DD perk. Hits for 3462-5027, 45s recharge.
Perk 3 - 10k taunt, 20s recharge.
Perk 4 - DD perk. Hits for 3848-6774, 45s recharge.

All perks have 35m range and are Attack Rating 100% vs Dodge 100%. All are 2s execution time except for Perk 3. My only big problem with this perkline is the lack of Stuns, and I've been asking the devs for Perk 3 to have a % chance stun attached to it. My idea for that perk would be a 10k taunt, 60s recharge time, 2s execution time, and a 30-40% chance of a 4s stun.

Fourth: Reflect cap - Funcom don't want very-high reflect-twinked or damage-to-nano setups to be possible anymore. No details on this yet but Berinda and I will make sure this doesn't affect soldiers using AMS5 + OFAB back. We will try to ensure that reflect bracers are still viable but no guarantees there. Please post your thoughts on this.

[Berinda]

We've been released to talk, so I'm making this thread to highlight some things that are happening for us in the future. Some things are minor changes, some things major. The point of this thread is stimulate conversation and get everyone's opinions - and if you don't like something, nothing is set in stone.

WEAPONRY

We will be recieving additional buffs for things like pistols and SMGs, and may even gain access to the Pistol Mastery line. Changes will also be made to make the first bullet in an FA land more easily, which should help with the reliability of the attack.

REFLECTS

Reflects will be hardcapped below 100%. Due to how few soldiers take advantage of that, I don't think it'll be much of a big deal. This will also affect things like coon, and finally make BRing traders killable.

NEMESIS NANOS

No hard information on these yet.

And finally:

A NEW PERK LINE

The devs recognize our plight with losing Power Up, and have made a first draft perk line, so don't be too hard on it. In it's most basic form, it adds 500 HP, 150 BD, two direct-damage perks that rely on AR, a taunt, and a health drain akin to Draw Blood that has an attached taunt. Keep in mind this is a ROUGH DRAFT of the perk line and the devs are working hard for us. If you dislike it, keep it civil and constructive - anything in it can be prone to change at any time.

Personally, my suggestion was they drop the 500 HP and give 500 BD so the new health drain and draw blood land more easily, add 50 add damage to the line, and drop the taunt perk in favor of a damage buff akin to Energize. Questra and I would really like everyone else's opinion on this.

EDIT: I initially forgot to mention that the new line will add some additional reflect damage.

[TheMekon]

Based on this information, I can see a lot of retired soldiers..

[Berinda]

Based on this information, I can see a lot of retired soldiers..

And why is that?

Be constructive instead of complaining.

[TheMekon]

I'm not complaining, other than that it feels as though we're being given a slap in the face with these proposals..

Do we 'need' more Hp? really? honestly? so they take away power up, which is our main DD perkline in most situations, and in return we get some more HP that we dont have any real use for.

Do we want to have ANOTHER weapon type that is 'okayish but not great'.
Can you imagine the price of Lust's the moment this happens? 500mil+ now, let soldiers have it, and people will be wanting 1bil each for these I swear.


I just dont get any feeling of 'this will be good for us', just a feeling of 'how could it be any worse'

[heartless888]

We've been released to talk, so I'm making this thread to highlight some things that are happening for us in the future. Some things are minor changes, some things major. The point of this thread is stimulate conversation and get everyone's opinions - and if you don't like something, nothing is set in stone.

WEAPONRY

We will be recieving additional buffs for things like pistols and SMGs, and may even gain access to the Pistol Mastery line. Changes will also be made to make the first bullet in an FA land more easily, which should help with the reliability of the attack.

REFLECTS

Reflects will be hardcapped below 100%. Due to how few soldiers take advantage of that, I don't think it'll be much of a big deal. This will also affect things like coon, and finally make BRing traders killable.

NEMESIS NANOS

No hard information on these yet.

And finally:

A NEW PERK LINE

The devs recognize our plight with losing Power Up, and have made a first draft perk line, so don't be too hard on it. In it's most basic form, it adds 750 HP, 250 BD, two direct-damage perks that rely on AR, a taunt, and a health drain akin to Draw Blood that has an attached taunt. Keep in mind this is a ROUGH DRAFT of the perk line and the devs are working hard for us. If you dislike it, keep it civil and constructive - anything in it can be prone to change at any time.

Personally, my suggestion was they drop the 750 HP and give 500 BD so the new health drain and draw blood land more easily, add 50 add damage to the line, and drop the taunt perk in favor of a damage buff akin to Energize. Questra and I would really like everyone else's opinion on this.

ok lets see, new pistol buffs and pistol mastery seems really really nice, we will just be like advies, without the heal and defense, why be a soldier? but anyway i like the change, but i keep saying, if you guys wanna be using pistols or smgs, dont be a soldier, be a fixer or advy, the irony is id probably use that pistol on my sold right now if i had access to buffs and mastery.

i really dont get the reflect changes, if i get it right, you need to tell us how much reflect is the max we can get, if its too low, its a MAJOR soldier nerf as any pvp sold uses the aggression mid and reflect bracers, if its still too high, the trader wont die, easy fix is nerf BR itself, not our own reflects...wtf? all in all, bad

scratch both the hp mod and BD as BD dosnt give much HD and hp means higher caps, make it give AR/aao/HD, unless you are getting us AR from somewhere else, but you cant tell us, i cant comment on the perks, i dont know what they are like so its hard to give you an opinion, scartch the health drain perk and make it another DD perk? unless they are really strong but again, we dont know

as for nemesis, its pretty clear that if you make it only steal chem dmg, we will still have A weakness vs trader, not everyone else and if you make it so BR dosnt stack with rrfe, i predict BR will become a thing of the past in team pvp, a balanced BR would be -50% chem reflects, no buff from it, nothing else, just like 50% heal debuff from advy etc


all in all i wanted to know what was gonna happen to our AR and if the new perks we were getting were going to be strong and if BR was getting a nerf, none of these issues been adressed in your post sadly

last point, FA, only the first bullet? i think it should be the first 3, just like burst but thats just me

i want more info on the reflect hardcap, if by below 100 you mean 99, it wont change anything, if it actually nerfs soldiers, then something went wrong, just stressing this part a bit

[Kintaii]

For the most part I'm wanting to let the Professionals handle the dissemination of information with all of this, but there is one thing I want to chime in on, and something we've been a bit coy about overall in mentioning.

When we talk about rebalancing, we do mean rebalancing. We mean a complete, ground-up look over all the numbers in game - How much AAO professions can receive, what their overall nano-costs are for buffing, how much IP they have to spend to cast their nanos, ect. ect. ect.

When you guys see things like the perk docs, or receive information on the rebalancing, it's important to understand that we're not going to change one or two things - There are massive changes incoming to the overall balance of numbers that professions receive, to make them more viable across the board. What you may perceive as an issue with the announced changes will also more than likely be addressed as we go through and fix the overarching numbers spread for the entire game.

There's more to The Great Rebalancing than just tweaking a couple of items/perks/nanos. A whole lot more.

[Berinda]

I'm not complaining, other than that it feels as though we're being given a slap in the face with these proposals..

Do we 'need' more Hp? really? honestly?

As I went to great lengths to point out, that's not set in stone. What would you rather see than HP?

Additionally, if the HP is granted via BD instead of just straight-up HP, it makes landing draw blood and the new health drain far easier.

Do we want to have ANOTHER weapon type that is 'okayish but not great'

We aren't getting a new weapon type - we're getting support for further weapon types. Quite a few soldiers level using a SMG and Jobe pistol combo until endgame; this will help with lower level PvP and PvM for those people.

I just dont get any feeling of 'this will be good for us', just a feeling of 'how could it be any worse'

Then say what you want changed and how you want it changed. Now is the time to throw out any ideas you have.

[TheMekon]

I am going to hold my tongue for now, and wait until I have read more concrete information from various sources about how things are intended to interact across professions, rather than fly off the handle with a blinkered vision as I already am, however my first thoughts are not looking too good.


As soldiers, our survivability is always a problem, take away our AMS, and we are the biggest targets out there, we have no viable defense at that point. We cant cast omhh, we cant do much of anything, having something viable to address this, will be key. And right now, I don't see that we will, perhaps this will change as I learn more of what is going on.

Pistols, are just wrong for soldiers, end of story, I cannot get beyond that point..

I think I'll go troll in a corner for a while..

[Berinda]

ok lets see, new pistol buffs and pistol mastery seems really really nice, we will just be like advies, without the heal and defense, why be a soldier? but anyway i like the change, but i keep saying, if you guys wanna be using pistols or smgs, dont be a soldier, be a fixer or advy, the irony is id probably use that pistol on my sold right now if i had access to buffs and mastery.

More options at endgame aren't bad. Also, a lot of people level with pistols.

I think you're also forgetting a lot of real-world special forces soldiers who use pistols and SMGs... though I will admit they don't dual-wield.

i really dont get the reflect changes, if i get it right, you need to tell us how much reflect is the max we can get, if its too low, its a MAJOR soldier nerf as any pvp sold uses the aggression mid and reflect bracers, if its still too high, the trader wont die, easy fix is nerf BR itself, not our own reflects...wtf? all in all, bad

It's happening to coon and things like that, too. I'm going to push for a 95% cap - they haven't given us any numbers yet. Who knows, maybe it will vary by profession?

scratch both the hp mod and BD as BD dosnt give much HD and hp means higher caps, make it give AR/aao/HD, unless you are getting us AR from somewhere else, but you cant tell us, i cant comment on the perks, i dont know what they are like so its hard to give you an opinion, scartch the health drain perk and make it another DD perk? unless they are really strong but again, we dont know

I think I may have pulled a bad in giving solid numbers on the BD and HP, so I don't want to test my luck further. The two direct-damage perks, if they get their min damage raised, will be a very good substitute for the PU perks, though dropping the health drain in favor of a third direct damage perk probably wouldn't be a bad idea instead of that.

all in all i wanted to know what was gonna happen to our AR and if the new perks we were getting were going to be strong and if BR was getting a nerf, none of these issues been adressed in your post sadly

We know we'll be getting additional AR for non-assault rifles. Though the dialog on such things hasn't started, Questra and I both feel more assault rifle attack rating is in order. Both the DD perks presented were strong.

last point, FA, only the first bullet? i think it should be the first 3, just like burst but thats just me

I do too. The discussion hasn't started yet - I'm waiting on more information before I give a lot of my opinions - and nothing is set in stone.

i want more info on the reflect hardcap, if by below 100 you mean 99, it wont change anything, if it actually nerfs soldiers, then something went wrong, just stressing this part a bit

I also want more information on the hardcap - we'll have to wait and see.

[heartless888]

she needs to read my wall of text :P

another note i like your idea of a perk that buffs dmg like energize as it is needed seeing i think advies get more add dmg than us at this point sometimes, so a big one would be nice but make sure it dosnt SHOW any animation or we will be back to everyone knowing we are about to use our perks and thus they will all prepare for it


another small idea, instead of the drain perk how about a perk that gives 75-100 HD for 40 seconds with a recharge timer that matches our AMS cycles, i understand 75-100 might be too strong in some senarios but vs capping profs it wont mean too much, so its just an idea, a third hot seem a bit much, id much rather a great DD perk over all of the above anyway


also i had an idea about full auto, think about it, agg/def bar dosnt affect perkablity but helps vs reg hits and...yes...specials, how about we get a perk that debuffs agg/def bar by 100% for 15s or so, so people remain hard to perk but our specials might hit easier? this way it wont affect AS profs, high reg hitting classes still wont perk people like advies (MAs keepers etc) so it would really just almost help us

but keep in mind as long as iwin nanos like BR remain the way they are, its game over for soldier

the reason the person above me in this thread hates the pistol idea is that the new AS pistol is really REALLY good on certain profs, like advies so i assume we would do about the same or even a bit better, so solds might really go all out pistol, once again killing the assault rifle which we want to keep viable


edit: just anote to give you an idea of what im talking about, agent, at the cost of 6 perks gets 2 perks that do 5-6k to 10-12k dmg...thats not even assasinate or death strike...why is a class that can debuff inits by 1.4k, always cap 30% on any evader every 11s, gets 4 times more perk dmg than a soldier? i understand the heal nerf is coming but....seems a bit unfair to me personally

[Questra]

easy fix is nerf BR itself, not our own reflects...wtf? all in all, bad

Debuffs and nemesis nanos are all getting looked at, and BR is probably going to be changed. As soon as we recieve details of the proposed nano overhaul, we'll be pushing to make sure BR is nerfed at least as much as the general suggestions that 90% of us have posted in these threads.

Until then, we can't give you a definate answer, but keep expressing your views on BR because it shows the devs how badly that nano can ruin PvP for us.

scratch both the hp mod and BD as BD dosnt give much HD and hp means higher caps, make it give AR/aao/HD, unless you are getting us AR from somewhere else

At every opportunity I'm trying to make sure we get reliable AR, an that our AR goes up at least as much as any evades will in the future, but it's not an easy fight. As for Body Dev, we definately need as much of this as possible to make sure Draw Blood lands. Also, check the other thread for further details on the perkline.

as for nemesis, its pretty clear that if you make it only steal chem dmg

It's a very good suggestion, and I have that and a few others to add to a new wishlist. By tonight I will update our wishlist accordingly and see what people think.

last point, FA, only the first bullet? i think it should be the first 3, just like burst but thats just me

I will happily campaign for that, but I imagine the very most I'll be able to do is get 2 bullets, and that's doubtful. But I'll try my best.

[Berinda]

she needs to read my wall of text :P

I read and replied to your wall of text!

another note i like your idea of a perk that buffs dmg like energize as it is needed seeing i think advies get more add dmg than us at this point sometimes, so a big one would be nice but make sure it dosnt SHOW any animation or we will be back to everyone knowing we are about to use our perks and thus they will all prepare for it

Before LoX, a properly setup advy could OD an assault rifle soldier. It was crazy. I don't think the a new damage perk would need to not show an animation, as other perks wouldn't be chained to it - which is the problem with Power Up.

As a sidenote, with incoming SMG buffs, I think a Envy and Rapier setup might be PvP viable, but differently so, than assault rifles. It's all about options.

another small idea, instead of the drain perk how about a perk that gives 75-100 HD for 40 seconds with a recharge timer that matches our AMS cycles, i understand 75-100 might be too strong in some senarios but vs capping profs it wont mean too much, so its just an idea, a third hot seem a bit much, id much rather a great DD perk over all of the above anyway

The only potential problem I see with that are it would need a lockout so it isn't usable with AMS.

also i had an idea about full auto, think about it, agg/def bar dosnt affect perkablity but helps vs reg hits and...yes...specials, how about we get a perk that debuffs agg/def bar by 100% for 15s or so, so people remain hard to perk but out specials might hit easier? this way it wont affect AS profs, high reg hitting classes still wont perk people like advies (MAs keepers etc) so it would really just almost help us

The problem with that is, it not only debuffs the target for soldiers, but for everyone else shooting at the target. Fewer debuffs like that need to be ingame.

but keep in mind as long as iwin nanos like BR remain the way they are, its game over for soldier

Nemesis nanos are being looked at across the board.

the reason the person above me in this thread hates the pistol idea is that the new AS pistol is really REALLY good on certain profs, like advies so i assume we would do about the same or even a bit better, so solds might really go all out pistol, once again killing the assault rifle which want to keep viable

With the incoming nerfs to AS - such as 3s execution time and locking out FA - I sincerely doubt a soldier will prefer pistols - which they get less AR in than assault rifles - over an assault rifle. And if a soldier does go pistol at endgame, it'll be a different style instead of a superior one.

[heartless888]

we dont need more BD questra, may i remind you that starting next patch NR def check perks wont gain help from add all def

meaning people NEED far over 3k NR to dodge draw blood, which last time i checked, other than the rare NR2 agent and enf, nobody will have


i am starting to like my agg def debuff perk idea alot though, is it even doable with the current mechanics? im thinking about items like flurry of blows etc etc, im just wonering if its even possible

people who *work* (lol 12 man and towers) on being hard to perk should remain hard to perk but soldiers with 3.7k AR should be hitting...at all...i just love it how with 3.2k AR and -700 dodge running on an NR i can often hit anywhere from 0 yes 0 to 3 bullets full autos, in fact when i fight MAs and fixers i often suprise myself noticing im not even pressing FA anymore, because the best ill ever hit with is 1 bullet, so just keeping hitting with reg hits and burst often does more dmg than FAIng, missing, reloading.....zzzzzzz, missing FA makes the reload time such a nightmare

[heartless888]

to be very honest i hate the idea of dual weapons using dual perklines, now you tell us we are about to get new smg buffs, then i ask you this, why the HELL would we be AR if we can go SMG and keep almost the same AR, a stun, use the new perks that will likely use attack rating and not assault rifle, better dmg buff (270) without the need to use it to use all new improved smg perks, keep PU for even more add dmg and energize and all those high perks with chances of stun?

with all of this not only will it make us retardedly OP against low evaders, bringing more whinning from everyone else, but it makes sure AR stays gimped and soon will be forgotten.....


small lil note, isnt FA getting a 3s attack time too?

[zakarix]

Agree with first point
Good think will be possibility to rise reflects after ams down making soldier not free. perk only working after ams or smt ...

[Berinda]

with all of this not only will it make us retardedly OP against low evaders, bringing more whinning from everyone else, but it makes sure AR stays gimped and soon will be forgotten.....

Do you have any ideas for assault rifles that don't nerf other setups? So far the only solution I've seen to the problem is "throw more AR at it".

small lil note, isnt FA getting a 3s attack time too?

No.

[heartless888]

Do you have any ideas for assault rifles that don't nerf other setups? So far the only solution I've seen to the problem is "throw more AR at it".




No.

yes do you know why? the advantage of being assault rifle is we can perk people, with other weapons getting buffs etc and AR remianing the same, which is crap right now, means we lost that advantage, why do you think so many are smg these days, because AR cant perk people well anymore, so *throw more AR at it* is actually good

also clearly it should have stronger DD perks than smg or RE, because it is a single weapon, not 2

assault rifle needs to have a stronger offense, also, much higher reg hits would help, right now 1 handed weapons can do 1k dmg min in pvp just like AR, no advantage there


a +500 full auto proc/mod on the anger would also make sure the ARs full auto is better than smg etc etc etc, things like that to make AR stronger than dual pvm setups to kill non evaders...

[Armus]

My own personal ideas. I don't think it's asking too much.

Nano changes:

BR changed. -50% reflect and no positive buff for the trader (no negative either).

Military Hacker Firewall - New nano.
Nano resist 1 pt per level.
Run speed 1 pt per level.
Root and snare reducing aura.
Low reqs, low ncu, castable at tl1.

Make RRFE stack higher than the best aura.


Perk Changes:

New prof perkline, 8 perks. Add similar hp as the generic line and 2 decent dmg perks. First one available at tl5. Also similar dmg add to power up.
IF other profs get more aad or evades also put some aao in ere.

Shanx.

[Questra]

So, what do people think about a % chance stun added to the perkline, similar to what we currently have with PU?

Personally I believe that we'll still need at least one decent % chance stun perk of at least 3 to 4 seconds to have a decent chance at killing healing professions in the future.

Would you guys like to keep at least 1 semi-decent stun?