So...Heartbound...

Discussion in 'General Gameplay Discussion' started by Lea Plath, Apr 28, 2016.

  1. Ixian Active Member

    Assuming a player is competent, the buff is capable of increasing their output by millions. Multiply that by x number of players in a raid. Do you think such a large number won't be accounted for when it comes to balancing encounters?
    -Soteria- likes this.
  2. Darkale New Member

    Agreed, 30% pot seems extreme. Seems like TLE was an after thought from the live 30% fever update.
    Livejazz likes this.
  3. Widem Active Member

    Stop beating around the Bush.

    This buff is 100% Pay to Win.

    This buff is 100% a combat buff.

    This buff has 0% role play or relationship value.

    Here is a fix to make everyone happy if they aren't just straight up lying about why they want this buff.

    Heartbound works if and only if you are grouped with your heartbound and them ONLY.

    Duoing with you heartbound = 30 fervor...Grouping with your heartbound = 0 Fervor....Raiding with your heartbound = 0 Fervor
    Xper, Onra, Entropy and 1 other person like this.
  4. -Soteria- Well-Known Member

    I haven't heard any raiders threaten to quit over heartbound... the pre-raid elopements are actually pretty hilarious. I have no idea how this topic became yet another "raiders vs casuals" issue... seems like some people just have a chip on their shoulder.

    The issue is, as has been eloquently expressed by others... a buff this significant means they will now have to actually balance encounters around players having heartbound fervor. Therefore, it becomes must-have and ultimately it's a wash. If anything, casuals who don't min/max actually come out behind on this, because anyone using heartbound as "intended" ... as in, as an expression of affection/friendship with another player, rather than as a stat buff from their alt account, has to interrupt their gameplay every 30 minutes to go re-click the buff.

    Plus, I've seen tons of casual players who don't seem to even know what it is, or care, because they simply aren't interested in going to the length of heartbounding somebody to optimize their stats.

    The ridiculousness of defending the sanctity of eq2 marriage isn't lost on me... lol... but the fact that RL couples heartbound other people when their s.o. isn't online kind of speaks to support the idea that it's a bigger buff then it needs to be.

    I'm not sure anybody's really calling for it to be nerfed... I mean, I actually see it as an advantage to min/maxers. I think everyone's just kinda saying... wow, that's not what anybody was expecting at all...But... It's kind of a funny element to joke around about, and I'm sure it's gonna end up creating some top notch relationship drama, which will be a delight.
  5. semisus Does not play this game

    Point is , this buff have nothing to do to with being heartbound to your loved one
    It will instead be a must have buff where everyone is heartbounding left and right to get the buff
    DoomDrake likes this.
  6. DoomDrake Well-Known Member

    The whole point - this have nothing to do with Love or even VR friendship - this is simply
    "a must have" buff for raiding new content (anyone who bothered check itemization especially stat called resolved will see that) if DB want us use this buff - why not create some alchemy portion or! even better idea create a plat sink for that. Say in your home town pay tribute of say 500 or 1000pp per hour and you all set
  7. -Soteria- Well-Known Member

    Apparently you missed the dozen or so threads where raiders have said over and over "wow, this hammer thing is stupid op and crazy rare... that doesn't seem right" ...even some of the people who actually HAVE it have basically said as much.

    Min/maxers are feeling some trepidation about all of the huge fervor buffs, because they actually understand how the stat works, they know it's ultimately bad for class balance, and they care about the game they spend a ton of time playing. It has nothing to do with hardcore raiders or epeens (however magnificent mine may be :p). Lots of fantastic players and knowledgeable min/maxers I enjoy chatting and grouping with either don't raid hardcore, or don't raid at all.
  8. Vunder Well-Known Member

    I read a few were raiders wanted it nerfed.

    What i seen more of was

    Honestly if it bugs people that much. Make it only work in group and have it auto disable when in a raid group.
  9. Entropy Well-Known Member

    That hammer is a rare drop from a one-shot raid mob that can easily go poof if people aren't paying attention to the script. Just ask the top end raid guilds how often they poof it... it's more than you would think (and embarrassingly so, for these guilds.) So, if a powerful item had to drop somewhere, that'd be an appropriate place for it. The last raid boss in the xpac would have also been appropriate.

    Also, plenty of raiders argued for the hammer to be decreased in power when it came out. That didn't happen, so they gave up trying.

    Stop perverting other people's perspective just to fit your narrative.

    "Vast majority?" I've only found two raiders with a hidden profile when I went to go look them up in recent months, and neither of them had it linked here either. How are you defining "vast majority"?


    It's not about feeling that we "need" the 30 fervor today. It's about next xpac, and the next one, etc, when all content has been balanced around everyone having that buff. A buff that is literally the most powerful one in the game. A buff that is literally free, requiring no epic questing or defeating hard encounters with your skill and rapier wits.

    It's not a super rare powerful item that shifts the balance of power for the lucky few to get it... those things exist in MMOs and, while sometimes irritating to some people, they're an accepted part of the game dynamic because they usually require a lot of effort to obtain. Risk vs Reward.

    We're trying to argue that this free buff essentially just becomes the new expected baseline, thus, you have an implied task to go rekindle it every 30 minutes in order to progress through content appropriately. That is... a terrible game design decision. This was supposed to be a fun and reasonably useful fluff buff, not a flat 30% power boost for everyone.
    DoomDrake likes this.
  10. Rainmare Well-Known Member

    And I disagree. I don't think at all that this will be a baseline for future content balance, precisely because they won't assume everyone has it. just like they aren't basing things around people having the uber hammer, or ethereal runes. Some people will have it, others will not. some will want to get heartbound, other's won't. I got a friend that wouldn't heartbound someone just for that buff even if you actually paid them. if they got heartbound, it'd be to someone they enjoy the company of, or are in a relationship with RL, or have known for years at the least.

    This is meant to be, and probably always will be, a 'super buff' for the ones that enjoy the idea/aspect of being 'married' in Norrath. if you have it great. if your entire raidforce heartbounds eachother or buys and pays for other accounts to do it, great. if not...still great. no problems.

    I don't think they put this out there without considering it's effects, but they probably consider it more like the uber hammer. not everyone will have it(or have it in the same amount since 15% is for sub only, 5% for non subbed), thus they aren't going to make it a 'baseline'.
  11. Mermut Well-Known Member

    The main difference is that everybody CAN be heartbound, if they wish. Not doing so is a choice. That is not the case with the hammer. The connection between those two is extremely tenuous, at best.
    Livejazz, Entropy and -Soteria- like this.
  12. Entropy Well-Known Member


    He tried to compare the rarest piece of raid gear in the xpac to something that you can get by clicking a house item... "extremely tenuous" is far more polite than I would have been :)
    DoomDrake, Livejazz, Xillean and 2 others like this.
  13. Estal Well-Known Member

    From a mage alt of someone who hasn't raided for 5+ years:

    [IMG]

    And thats wearing nothing but average ToT heroic gear and a grand total of three pieces of Gu100 gear...

    If you can't see the problem I can't help you.
  14. Krov Active Member

    This has no place on the TLE . My vote is remove it entirely from TLE.
    Livejazz likes this.
  15. Arandar Well-Known Member

    Agreed, this has no business being on the TLE server in any shape or form. And the way it's designed for the standard server is just ... annoying? Something like a 5% buff for 12 hours would have been much better.
    Livejazz likes this.
  16. RedBB Active Member

    And there lies the ultimate problem... Thanks estal. It isn't the 39% fervor. It's the stupid scaling on gear. A mix of visionary and innovated gets you 1900 pot and 1600 CB. Fervor is the least of the problem. Those numbers shot up to 3500 and 1900 with 1 piece of gu100 and the modded SIG ring. And I'm still plugging away at the ToT armor hoping one day to see some DPS chain drop. Add on 2 relic now and it's getting absurd. Seriously 15 and 30fervor is nothing in the grand scheme of things
  17. Kari Well-Known Member


    I really like this idea. As someone who did actually meet their spouse in the game, it would have been nice to have a silly, fluffy buff - like the erollisi day spell where you can send heart emotes to someone.

    At a minimum I would like to see this buff disabled in raid zones. If a raid can improve their dps and heals by 30% when they take on a challenging new boss, they are going to have to do so. Daybreak is going to see the more serious guilds dps/heals improve by 30% and the raid mechanics will start to require it. Otherwise every dps check mob will become worthless.

    It is going to make raiding a lot more tedious with people calling back to the guild hall every half hour, then the slow people having a hard time making it back and people sitting around waiting on one or two people that decided now was a good time for a bio, or who got bored and wandered off.
  18. RedBB Active Member

    Not opposed to limiting it to duo's if it can function with mercs. It has no purpose in advanced solo seeing as you can one shot most of the content. But again that's only if they address the stupid amount of CB and potency that was handed out with gu100.
  19. Faelfreeblood Active Member

    How so if your not interested in a character for that character? Just give me a npc selection, all I ask, I am a altaholic.
  20. Entropy Well-Known Member

    CB, POT, and Fervor are all multiplicative.

    Fervor is by far the hardest to come by - until this GU it was basically limited to 15 from the status necklace group proc and 4 from your belt. Some people had the extra couple from duck hat. A rare few with myth hammer or ethereal rune get the occasional spike for 6 seconds. For your average raider though, 19 fervor has been the expected baseline. You can probably drop that down to 4 for most heroic groups, unless it's a static group of friends where someone is using the status necklace. It'll be set at 4 for the majority of Soloers.

    So, with that perspective, does everyone see why giving your entire player base the option to get 30 "free" fervor might be a bit too much power creep? Who in their right mind wouldn't go out of their way a bit to get and maintain that buff?

    Yes, potency saw a decent jump as well with the new items. Two points there though. The legendary versions don't have enough Resolve to be useful for new raid content. Also, potency levels for raiders were already pretty high with TOT gear - upwards of 8k with everything running in combat for me before this GU.

    Add in doublecast/flurry/etc as easily cap-able stats now, and the crazy amounts of Abilty Mod, and there has been a ton of power inflation from this new itemization. It'll be most starkly felt by heroic groups, who have now completely trivialized TOT content (and oh btw, no one wants much gear from TOT heroics anymore after GU100 anyway.). TOT raids are also now mostly trivial, with raiders able to swap in low-Resolve Zek gear and experience huge gains. What's there left to do - one new "challenging" Heroic zone and a single Zek raid zone?

    Next Xpac can't come fast enough. /sigh
    Livejazz likes this.