Skill Points: a real issue.

Well these days so many attacks are programmed to scale to our health rendering extra health useless more often than not which wasn't always the case. And I'm not even talking about actually one-shot mechanic attacks. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think even the self inflicted damage from Larnaa's (sp?) Amulet scales to health. Nowadays, extra health is more helpful as the base upon which some artifact/ally/etc mechanics are calculated.

But that's an issue for another thread.

The cold hard truth is that alot of current players didnt, and dont, play the same game we played. We needed sp to advance. They dont. Their whole approach is different. They had an event content. They didn't even truly grind their cr because they had vendor price reductions. The most you can hope for is that they love the game enough to grind up some sp's and allow themselves to see how more sp helps the character.

does skill points matter? yes to a certain degree. You will find a difference between maxing out your main stat or not. But once you max out your main stat, the rest is just fluff. Knowing your power and which load out to use is more effective. Which artifacts to use will also make a difference. I find artifacts and which power you use is more important than skill points. Not all powers are equal in damage.

Sp doesnt matter as much to the full-time dps (which is a whole nother thread to be made) but definitely matters to support roles.

that first 370 matter to a full time dps

True

I think it would be cool if you could unlock feats with exp like you level up at the beginnning of the game, but only get half the feat points or so for completing them that way, that way you can get some SP to get you started and if you want to get the full feat points you can try to complete them actively for the full points so the people that completed them that way don't feel ripped off

I have known way to many players casual and otherwise that jet from the game when they realize hitting that max out put chase will become a new career. I might love it, you might love it, but what about all those sweet sweet potentially paying customers that overwhelmingly vote with their wallet by skipping on down to hundreds of other games that you can hit the max out put without grinding feats like it's their new job. I don't think anyone is denying the sheer number of points available now or how long it takes to get them.

Here is a real life run through for you from one of my friends.

So in this game I need max gear, OK no problem.
I also need to max these augments... OK, no problem.
I also got to get artifacts to at least nearly max but preferably maxed out and I might need more than just three because of different areas... OK.
Oh, I need these allies too... yeah alright. Wait I got to max these to?
Seems like a lot of stuff I have to keep leveling up but whatever, at least after getting all that done I will be maxe...
...what do you mean there is more?
700 Skill points! Let me look at how long this will take...

Except you don't need max SP (700), preferably max out your main stats which you need less than 400. And we're not where we need to max out Allies yet.

Pre stat clamp I ran raids and alerts with nearly zero "drop outs" (people leaving) and never wiping in years.
After the stat Clamp just Sunday I ran the same Throne of the dead with over twenty different people because they kept getting mad and leaving. And then got to do it again and again. But wait maybe it's because Throne is hard...






I would agree, but it happens in everything. ALL Raids, Alerts, and even Duos. You get people who don't just ignore the polite description of what we need to do. You get people with no augs, no arts, no skill points, etc. and they are not remotely prepared. So you are there forever and frequently carrying the whole group, if just barely, because thanks to the stat clamp you can no longer carry a group of people. So you get the joy of wiping over and over and over in content you had out leveled and played hundreds of times years ago. Oh joy the fun.

400 instead of 700.
Well that just changes everything.

I think it’s an overly daunting task for any new or returning player to look up at roughly 700 SP worth of feats to earn that will only grow as time moves on. I’m a returning player, sitting at roughly 395 SP today, and think if I REALLY aimed for it I could probably get 425ish within a week or so. But I look at that feat list and just kind of laugh. There are just so many feats tied up in wildly grindy things or raids that don’t generally pop. And while I’m an advocate of including things to grind for and feats that probably shouldn’t be attainable with any old PUG, I think scaling the number of feats back in favor of some more consolidated, higher star feats is better than now. For example, in Patchwork Themyscira, instead of individual 10 pt feats for killing Murk, Athena, Ares, Kalibak, Hydra 10 and then 50 times, I’d prefer to see a 50 point feat for killing the bosses 150-200 times (lower count, higher reward)

Truly, my preference would be for them to stop adding feats for SP to the game entirely, and tie SP progression from X point on to some other means. XP from just playing the game preferably.

Once you max out your main stats, any extra SP gained gets thrown into a stat you may or may not want.
Controller (Vitalization, Health or Power): Might/Power or Vitalization depending on spec.
DPS (Might): Health or Precision (rarely).
DPS (Precision): Might or Health (rarely).
Healer (Restoration or Dominance): Might/Power, Restoration, Health or Dominance depending on spec.
Tank (Health or Dominance): Might/Power, Restoration, Health or Dominance depending on spec.

Well, for starters let's get rid of the meaningless 10 points. Feats should be a minimum of 25 points. I think that would be a good place to start.

The 10 pointers are usually easy and add up quickly.

That is true. I'm just not sure what incentive there is for casual players to earn SPs though. Maybe tying unique styles or materials for reaching each 100 point threshold? An unlocked capsule? We know the stick is the grind but what's the carrot aside of (rightly) developing your character? I mean, why grind all of that only to be carried by someone else?

I'm just trying to see it from the POV as a casual player who's interested in the playing the game but not investing the necessary time to play right.

Those patchwork feats do go up to 50 pointers if i remember correctly.

At 395 youre in a pretty good place. You presumably maxed your primary stat and are putting points into secondary, cool. Also at 395 you should have plenty of easy feats to do even if some of them will take some time.

Why? This seems rather arbitrary.

This benefits no one and would take time and resources. In fact, you’d be taking something away from a large segment of the endgame population…your longest and most loyal customers…so a big no.

I think people are forgetting this is a game. You say people look at 700 sp and it makes them not want to play. And for some that may very well be true. But my guess is those aren’t the kind of players that would have stuck around anyway. In any mmorpg or any rpg at all for that matter there will always be a mountain of skills/feats/trophies etc that is before you. RPG players relish this. We love the climb because we know when we put in the work the view from the top is extraordinary. If you don’t have experience in rpg or mmorpg and this fact deters you, it is what it is, go back to COD. You don’t need 700. You don’t even need 375 or whatever it is to max your main stat. You’ll be plenty effective just taking the time to learn your power and develop a play style rotation that is effective. You keep talking about beginning players, well they shouldn’t be worried about what they’ll need to be competitive at end game when they are strolling off the brainiac ship.

This thread is confusing.

Is this a boomer vs zoomer on skill points thread?
Is this a content difficulty thread?
Is this a skill point grind thread?
Is this a skill point diminishing returns thread?