Dev Discussion Development Update: Weapons and Artifacts

MEPPS please answer.....i know Hybrid is not focus but you guys said it will help it....just need to know since i am Hybrid will i be able to split my skill points to get maximum damage from that playstyle or still choose between precision and might?

What on earth is the "money grab" here?

(I need to make up a macro for this question.)

I have little sympathy for those who used the P2W easy button. “You pays your money and you takes your chances!”

1. He has a missing cog of mageddon which is 2K extra base precision. That artifact alone is 2-3k dps missing. Hence why the fire dps switched out his eye of gemini for the tetra which is the might version of cog.

2. He's insta jump cancel'ing. You literally get more dps not jump cancel'ing at all than jump cancel'ing at the very start of the combo. Any experienced prec dps can eyeball it and tell he's cancel'ing too early. Almost half of his rotation damage is just range taps instead of the weapon mastery hits because jump cancel'ing cuts off Flurry ticks.

3. There's never been an earth, rage, or munitions keep up with a good precision dps on single target. 2 of those are bottom tier single target might-based powersets. Those 3 powersets keep up in total damage* because they smoke prec on adds by being in the top 5 best supercharges for adds.

What was the answer, for the others here

They ARE compensating people.

I have no sympathy for you either with your maxed out artifacts. Looks like you paid 2 win.

The P2W w

It seems we’ve reached a point where using the P2W easy button is so entrenched as the standard default that people are actually forgetting that there’s a grinding option.

I can't figure out what this means. If the other player was honest, you told him precision was bad? What?

If the other player were honest about what, where, when?

If the other player wasn't being honest, you didn't tell him whatever in the past? How would that work? Do you have a time machine?

(I'm guessing this is an English-as-a-second-language issue? I'm not trying to pick on the poster; I'm just trying to understand the meaning of this post.)

They are not compensating me for what I paid for which was the original weapon buff. Now, it's the only one getting a major nerf with tons of unbalance coming ahead. Might DPS FTW!

Exactly lol

Then don’t pay to upgrade and grind it out like the rest of us

The TOS is quite elaborately clear that Daybreak owes none of us anything. It's expressly explained at length, and everyone has to agree to the TOS to play.

Which doesn't mean anyone can't complain about any perceived unfairness, but they can't claim that Daybreak "owes" players any specific functionality of any sort. Which is to say, I'm agreeing with you.

a) you have no idea what the balance will be at the end of testing; none of us do, since it hasn't happened yet.

b) Daybreak doesn't owe you any compensation for anything. That's not how the contract that is the TOS works.

But you might try waiting at least until this hits the test server before you decide you're being deprived of anything.

My post was meant to imply that if he was being honest (not trying to deceive someone), he wouldn't be using an argument that was disproven when he made the original post elsewhere weeks/months ago. The precision dps in that video was not using precision near its fullest potential and lost to a fire dps. Given that statement, it would be inappropriate or deceitful to give feedback toward precision vs. might balance based on that specific situation.

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Thank you muchly for explaining your point much more clearly. I appreciate it. Thanks.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I have 3 different points to make.

Transparency
I think devs need to present more numbers in terms of where we are in regard to what's being adjusted, so we as a community can understand the process of what and why these things are getting nerfed/buffed:

- Is precision over performing, or under performing?
- if it's over performing, it would make sense to nerf VWD and not adjust weapon combos, since that's clearly a concern for the community
- if it's under performing, will weapon combos be adjusted accordingly?

- which artifacts are getting nerfed / buffed, and by how much?
- what metric is being used to determine what makes an artifact balanced? (I think this part might be concerning, as it's hard to compare a controller artifact with a healer artifact, etc.)
- knowing what artifacts are getting nerfed / buffed gives the community some insight on what's considered unbalanced by the devs. adjusting said artifacts without us knowing what's being adjusted can potentially cause backlash.


Venom Wrist Dispenser (VWD) inconsistency
Asides from presenting more numbers, I believe that another inconsistency with VWD and certain weapon masteries (WM) is that the VWD buff does not align with the Power weapon buff (i.e. warped reality for quantum), in terms of how long it lasts.

VWD lasts 6 seconds when using the weapon buff, but the weapon buff lasts 12 seconds. Someone has stated on this thread that VWD should last the full 12 seconds but have a smaller % buff, and I second that. Why?

Even if all WM combos have a completely balanced DPS, the VWD buff lasting 6 seconds won't apply a balanced buff.

For example, the Bow to Martial Arts (smoke bomb) WM is a very popular WM, as it's one of the fastest and strongest executable combo. Since it takes a short amount of time to execute, you could rotate through the combo at least twice during the duration of the VWD buff (if not twice, at least once, with more weapon attacks afterwards to benefit - the combo is literally a total of 3 weapon attacks).

However, a slow WM combo like Brawling to Two Handed (Home run) might not even fully benefit from the VWD buff once - if at least once, then definitely not close to twice like the smoke bomb mastery.

Essentially, majority of the damage in a WM combo rotation should be coming from the WM combo itself; so when the hardest hitting attack misses out from the VWD buff, the combo simply becomes weaker compared to other WM combos that can be executed faster while the VWD buff is active.

The (probable) easiest solution is to simply align the duration of the VWD buff with the Power weapon buff.


DPS inconsistency
One last note is this: any DPS rotation - whether it's might or precision - and assuming that ALL dps rotations are (unrealistically speaking,) balanced - that's lower in damage output but faster in executable speed, benefits more from buffs. On top of that, faster rotations are easier to execute and land than longer rotations, especially in a raid setting when there's 4 other dps in the group. This should be considered when balancing dps rotations: the lengthier rotations should be stronger than shorter ones, since it's also a form of risk for reward.

Just to present an example for the math. Lets say:

Rotation A does a consistent 10 damage per second.
Rotation B does 5 damage for 9 seconds, but 55 damage in the last second.
Each rotation does a total of 100 damage in 10 seconds, and an average of... 10 damage per second. That's what we call balanced. (Dare i say it....................... as all things should be)

If a buff doubles damage and lasts for 6 seconds:

Rotation A does (10dmg*2*6secs + 10dmg*4secs) = 280 damage, in 10 seconds.
Rotation B does (5dmg*2*6secs + 5dmg*3secs + 55*1sec) = 130 damage, in 10 seconds.
After the same exact buff is applied to both rotations, rotation A comes out more than double of rotation B.

This isn't an accurate representation of dps rotations in game (well it might, considering there's fast rotations i.e. precision smokebomb mastery, and slow rotations i.e. anything that involves quantum timebomb), but it's simply to prove that any rotation that's slow/lengthy should naturally be stronger than fast/short rotations.


Final thoughts
I just hope you guys read through all of this, I spent way too much time on this one post lol

Edit: I hope a dev replies with their thoughts. That'd be great.

Since the core focus seems to be balance, will Munitions ranged damage be looked at in the near future? No one talks about it because no one wants it to get nerfed.

Thank you for the update. I do however have one question or request. I continue to hear about how Controllers are needed less and less. Is it possible to come up with an artifact that is Controller exclusive that, at rank 200 gives Tanks 5% Defense, Healers 5% Crit heals. DPS 3% crit damage, and Controllers longer debuff durations/or 5% Power Crit?
Thus making it a true support role artifact.