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Upcoming 1.7 Endgame Improvements
Puremallace
Member Posts: 1,856
in Rift
Upcoming 1.7 Endgame Improvements
Evening Everyone,
As we mentioned in our December Q&A we have a number of changes incoming with our 1.7 patch focused at improving the overall experience for our high level players! Listed below are the highlights for what’s incoming to PTS, as each new change hits the test server we will be posting a more detailed thread on the topic for people to give feedback on!
As always this is just a portion of what we are currently working on for 1.7, so expect to see updates to features, patch notes, and forum posts as we get closer to releasing the patch!
Thanks!
- The Rift Team
Greater variety for expert dungeons!
In order to give our expert dungeon players a much larger variety of dungeon content, we will be combining both tiers of expert dungeons into a single “Expert Dungeon” Category. All expert dungeons will be similar difficulty to our existing Expert Tier 2 dungeons, and those dungeons that have gotten harder will have new upgraded loot added to them.
In addition we will be revisiting our existing “Entry Level 50” content such as Chronicles, Dungeons, and Rift content to ensure that the rewards earned will smoothly transition players into expert dungeon content, not only will these changes make early level 50 content more rewarding, but it will also help to smooth the progression for new level 50 players into harder PvP and PvE content!
Streamlining item progression!
Another big improvement incoming with 1.7 is addressing some of the frustration for a new level 50 who is trying to gear up to be competitive in PvE / PvP. Currently on live the jump in item power between content tiers is inconsistent. Early in their endgame experience players get smaller upgrades and as they progress the jump in item power gets significantly larger.
As a result we’ve decided to go back and even out the power curve for post level 50 players, giving them a cleaner progression through gear with more even increases in stat between one tier and the next.
Players currently in the top tier items from Hammerknell and Rank 8 PVP will see not change to their equipment, but players below this level will see an increase in item power as we even out the large gaps between our highest tiers of content.
PVP planar attunement & Prestige system revamp and more!
Last but definitely not least we have a number PVP improvements coming with this patch focused on improving a player’s PVP leveling experience while still keeping the matches as competitive as possible. New level 50 players who are placed in both ranked and non ranked matches will have their base stats automatically bolstered to a minimum level, allowing them to be more than just a speed bump for a higher level player.
^ THANKS STAR WARS!!!
For existing PVP players, Items purchased from the Prestige store will get the same improvements as the rest of the game, making sure that the jump in power between each set of items is more consistent. In addition we are removing the prestige rank requirements from many of the items, which will give players more freedom when choosing to purchase / upgrade PVP equipment.
Speaking of ranks we will be adjusting the Prestige Rank system to have significantly more ranks, players will have their old rank automatically mapped to the new rank. With these new Ranks come new rewards, including costume versions of PVP armor sets, Planar Attunement Points, and more.
Finally we will be doing away with our existing PVP Souls. Moving forward we want PVP players to be able to play the soul combination they want to play and not have to worry about sacrificing soul points to obtain PVP bonuses. Instead we have taken many of the popular bonuses & abilities from these soul trees and placed them in a NEW planar attunement tree specifically focused on PVP.
Producer
RIFT : Planes of Telara
Comments
This. Underlined and in red. Thank God something is finally going to be done about PvP balance. The PvP PA is also a sich idea, since (as a PvP'er) none of the other PA trees really appealed to my playstyle at all. Moving in the right direction, Trion.
Finally looks like they are on the right track with PA, however lower level people that used PvP souls kind of get screwed.
Given the way the development has turned out, they should have started the game as level 50 and made the existing zones lvl 50 zones with the content geared towards earning PA. If you are going to continually show the 1-49 PvE player is worthless to you, then do away with it completely.
This makes sense up to the point when you realize the pvp souls are only used at lvl 50. Shows you only played in BETA 12 months ago. You need ranks to unlock any of the abilities above break free.
Gersch linked this figuring people would make this wild association
We're making sure that "Break Free" is availible pre-50, since that was the single most popular reason to take a PVP soul pre-50
-Gersh
HA! riiight like that had everything to do with star wars. gimme a break. I'm sure other gaming co's have done that when they've run into the issue of pvp imbalance but what gets me is none of them are doing what is the simplest fix for ALL pvp balance issues, the separation of pvp and pve skills. That alone would 1: make it so pve players wouldn't have to relearn their class every week (AHEM WoW) 2: the balance could be hotfixed in faster updates for servers and one would never have to resort to sidekicking pvp in order to make it work tho sidekicking is a good idea so newer players can play with maxed players i do see the appeal.
And EQ2 adding public quests several years after WAR's release had nothing to do with Rift....
Trion has been separating pve and pvp skills since patch 1.2. Want me to link a few examples or just take my word here? Did you guys expect them to make a big deal when they started doing this?
Healing took a 5% nerf only in pvp
Pyros in 1.2 got a pve buff and pvp nerf in the exact same patch notes
Stormcaller got nerfed in pvp only
Warriors took one hell of a pvp nerf back in 1.4.5? while still remaining top dps in pve
You would think nerf is the solution, but gear is the problem not skills.
It took Trion all of 25 days? after TOR's release to see a good idea and implement it. I am giving TOR credit where credit is due because when Rift launched this idea sure as hell would not have flown with the pvp playerbase.
Trion is taking Biowares idea and putting it on steroids. TOR's bolster system stops at lvl 50. Trions system does not and if you a rank 1 match with a rank 8 how much you want to bet that rank 1 now stands a chance.
It is kind of funny because WAR did it, but now that a well received game is doing it its ok. Bt again, the eq2 example. WAR had PQs but the game was a flop. EQ2 added the PQs prior to Rift's release I think, but you can be damn sure it was because of that hot game in beta.
Here is a interesting question. Do you think if Blizzard had done this years and years ago when this issue frist cropped up that this genre would be completely different?
When people say Blizzard stagnated the genre it means when they were faced with issues instead of addressing them they avoided them and pretended like the issue is not there. Now they spend every other patch balancing around arenas and having to make new gear sets to keep up with the raid sets.
TOR just proved the mmorpg playerbase is ready for it. GW2 sure as hell proves pvp'rs are tired of gear = auto win