Test Discussion Episode 34: Supercharges, Artifacts, and Balance Changes

Good point. My comments were mostly directed at the low difficulty level of the elite raid and how precision dps removed the need of a controller. But the dps did use a might load out for the adds on 1st boss and used sodas and supply drops to burn through them, then switched to precision after that. I think it would be good to balance all the weapon attacks so there are multiple choices.
I think any healer (not just Celestial) using 4 man shields would have been fine for that run, it's actually easier to heal 4 people without a troll in most cases.

Anyone who thinks high end Leagues are beating Elite raids day one because of Flurry Shot are mistaken. Does it help? Absolutely. Does it need addressing? Hell yes it does. Is it the magical miracle that makes beating Elite on day one possible? No. Once both Elite raids on Test were buffed due to feedback my testing group provided, we were able to beat both Elite Raids with all Might DPS. Hopefully, that will address both concerns that it is only doable via Precision DPS and that the raids will need buffing after Launch. Although, I will say Shattered Gotham's last boss fight could use a little juicing up and hopefully this happens before it goes Live, but at least the first boss fight is no joke.

I guess it's good that people that run in premade groups are finding the raids better and more challenging but is anyone testing these the way the majority of people play them, i.e. through pugging roles. I am a decent player but part of a smaller league that isn't fortunate enough to have numerous end game players that like elite content. Are these doable in mostly competent pug groups?

Going to be hard to say. It's been stated a few times already but test server has wide skill gaps. You could get an elitist, an LFG-level player, or the level of player you get when you queue into a raid straight up and you have an ice tank that isn't running shields. Small and widely varied group.

Thanks for the response. I have never tested before so was just curious how people do it. I worry that these will be hard/impossible to finish since I pretty much always pug them. I guess we will see soon enough

The Event and Regular versions will be beatable by PUGs day one. Now doubt about it. However, unless you are part of a dedicated PUG, the Elite raids will not be. If your group consist of the ultra casual, "Oh noes, I died more than once so I can't beat this. I'm out." then no, that particular PUG will not beat the Elite raids on day one. They won't even get past the first boss in either raid. The Elite boss fights in this Episode will take time and dedication to conquer, as they should. That does not mean that PUGs can't beat it, they just can't expect to go in and brainlessly steam roll it.

When it comes to Elite instances especially, It's up to US to surround ourselves with likeminded folks, not for the Devs to keep it friendly enough to account for whoever may not. Not that i'm implying that this is what you're directly saying, i'm just pointing it out in general.

Pugs, league runs, friends, you said it yourself in your last sentence. If they're competent and playing as a team, nobody should be scared of a little difficulty. After all, this is what Elite content is intended to be all about, not another pug-friendly piece of content like its normal version-counterpart.

So yes, to answer your question: They're doable. Trial and error through pugging is to be expected, if that's the majority of runs you'll going to partake in.

If we go down this path of altering SCs then we have to balance all the moves. For example supercharge generators are weak moves that build SC and set PI. If you increase the cost of SCs increase the amount of damage and SC that SC generators produce. As an electric my SC generator sets Polorized . Polorized moves are very weak and many electric players run electrified instead. To justify this you would have to increase the damage of Polorized moves. You should also look into balancing out the orb artifact. The orb consumes a ton of power for healers. Maybe 200% heals at 200% power? If you alter SCs PLEASE alter everything to balance it out as a whole. I remember reading 1 of the purposes of stats revamp was to allow players to play their way. Players can’t honestly do that if not every move is effective in their arsenal.

These changes seem very unnecessary. Costing 10,000 is going to ruin the supercharge. That cost is simply to high and on top of it making the shield itself weaker.

Also if you want to be fair make it so celestial supercharge includes a shield for the healer that casts it. Currently it is the only SC shield that does not give self protection.

To be fair need to give nature a SC shield.

To be fair make it so water can use a SC shield with out higher tide.

Very nice of you to do this after we have paid for seals of completion and some metal. Well played we can see why 7 years on the game is still gaining massive population increases ever dlc. oh wait yeah so that's not a thing at all

like i said, its a double negative but they call it balancing.. id understand if they made the supercharge a 100% and left it at that. but no they had to go full nerf bat on it. like they've always done with all powers.. hmm 10000 sc cost and oh yea nerf the shield. either keep 5000 sc cost and dumb down shield or increase sc cost and keep shield strength. not both, i guess you failed to see that. hopefully this clarification helps.

Yep. All they needed to do was close the loophole with Dash Attack and other extremely fast & low cost supers that were being exploited to build supers.

This is overkill.

Do you not understand what the word quadruple means?

It's called CG. Sacrifice wouldn't be an actual sacrifice if you were protected >.>

The only main concern is this is going live and not ALL supercharges are balanced

Primal wolf form - 12s - 2500
insectoid form - 12s- 2500

....i mean whats stopping people from switching to nature and going in and out of the forms and still "abusing" anything

Form changes don't actually do any damage as Nature, Wolf has a burst crit upon transformation but its limited range. Form changes don't increase damage like neo venom, circuit breaker, berserk. All they do is increase the crit chances so its completely up to the player to have a rotation to maximize said crits and they are at the mercy of other DPS's supercharges killing the adds. Also the form change crits are limited duration so if they want to refresh the crits they would have to detransform and use it again, which becomes an issue in content that you continually wipe because it causes an unsustainable supercharge situation and Nature's human form damage is much lower than wolf or gorilla.

Completely separate how the supercharges work compared to all others.

The cost of a respec token which I believe is $10 US.

Thank you.

As is often the case, we're seeing an inappropriately oversized remedy for a small problem while the much more holistic issues get ignored.

It still unbelievable that the super charge regen from the eye of gemini is the problem here and nothing has been done to the artifact. The amount of effort that has went into changing everything around the artifact, but keeping the ability to say we did not touch the artifact has been hilarious.

Lmao "form charges don't increase like neo venom, Circuit breaker, or berserk" wow. Wolf is a 25%. The others are 50%. 2 wolf forms is equal or better than the others. Comparing a 25% to a 50% smh.
What about nature healers insectoid? Shields have been nerfed. 2 nature healers might be the new meta. 8 HoTs up and multiple 25% sc from heals. Or a nature healer in gorilla. Which is also a top dps.