First impressions with the update

[Cynaidh]

So we have had it for a couple of days now, whats everyone's first impression with the update?

For me by specialty i'd say:

Theatrics - So many options! I wish I had more of them to try out the various builds, it seems like every time i fight a theatrics they are a different build.

Offensive warrior - BOOM i jumped on your head! Haha that about says it all, they do look to be a lot of fun if you can keep them from passing out from the new weight of heavy armor.

Defensive warrior - OMG Scum are back! Already have seen 100 round fights between 2 scum, cant wait for challenges... me and Prinny will be going for a 20 minute fight as our first goal.... a stare off.

Rage - Still working on this one. I run a lot of rages and am not sure how i feel yet as massive strategy changes are needed with this update for rages, Adrenaline Rush is an amazing replacement for last stand (until surprise ending steals your buff anyways!), the new endurance rules are interesting to say the least, and these new scum warriors are very tough nuts to crack open.

[Kreegan]

these new scum warriors are very tough nuts to crack open.

Sunder Armour + Called Shot + Rampage could get you there easier than expected. Especially the two-handers.

[oedi]

Im very happy with the update, especially the impact on when to use the different activity settings. I now run gladiators using the whole scale, where i used only from 6-10 before and usually only avery small difference between the various triggers. Im mostly happy with my own decissions with a few theatrics and war that look really good. Im sad to say that i made a terrible mistake with 011, and she is now totally out. Hopefully ill be able to repair the damage when we can start to retrain again.

[Cynaidh]

Im sad to say that i made a terrible mistake with 011, and she is now totally out.

I know others have done this too, Nate is there any chance of maybe like 1 redo per stable allowed for us that made errors?

[Dainoji]

I'm very happy with the update, like Oedi I find myself using the entire spectrum of options now. Where I used to go full tilt berserk with my rage glads I now use all of the fighting styles in combination with a wide range of activity levels and blood lust. Personally I hate defensive war builds who sole purpose is to make the other glad pass out as the fights are rather boring, but they are a great addition to the game because it adds another dimension that wasn't really there previously and it causes everyone to take notice and build something into their strategy to handle them. Each tree has great skills and I found myself really torn when doing the respec because there were just so many cool skills. It's too early to see how balanced everything is, but so far it looks to me like it's balanced fairly well based on my fights.

Bottom line, I think the update just added a ton of new options and depth in a way that made everything feel new yet familiar.

[sevenseas]

I'm still undecided, My rages are really needing some help. I was just starting to get the hang of things too....but my theatrics seem to be doing much better than before, and i'm not even trying with them yet.

Yeah Oedi, i was wondering what happened with 011, i expected her to still be dominate...now Snot Rocket can eat her alive....what do you think you did wrong?

[Lunarion199]

I am happy that my wars have started defeating ragers based on damage rather than tiring them out! But my ragers are still not having luck with berserk and kill shot yet

War vs war is now taking about 40-50 rounds but I personally don't like gladiators fighting like, "hi, please let's fight carefully ok?" I wish the enforcer or the crowd hit one killing blow to such a 'fighter' if it is too much or declared the fight as over with nobody getting the win... well, can't this be appropriate?

Overall it seems the new update has indeed more options and more chances of witnessing more varying builds compared to the previous one. I would just like to see in future how good could hybridization prove to be a viable option in the game.

[Narol]

Sorry Nate but I won't join the concert of praise, so far I am quite unhappy with the changes.

My feeling is that defense got too much of a boost and that often makes fights long, boring and in the end frustrating...

I'm also under the impression that the previous rock/paper/scissors mechanics between styles got even dramatically accentuated... Theatrics especially had already a hard time against defensive warriors before, but it got even worse as they hardly land any hits on them anymore... To make the game interesting all styles must have a chance against each others...

The fact that 7/10 of the Top 10 of Primus are now war style, almost all of them being tanks, quite confirms those first impressions and make me think that game balance is currently quite broken...

On the positive side, some new skills are very fun and nice, especially Adrenaline Crush and Surprise Ending...

[Cynaidh]

Sorry Nate but I won't join the concert of praise, so far I am quite unhappy with the changes.

My feeling is that defense got too much of a boost and that often makes fights long, boring and in the end frustrating...

I'm also under the impression that the previous rock/paper/scissors mechanics between styles got even dramatically accentuated... Theatrics especially had already a hard time against defensive warriors before, but it got even worse as they hardly land any hits on them anymore... To make the game interesting all styles must have a chance against each others...

The fact that 7/10 of the Top 10 of Primus are now war style, almost all of them being tanks, quite confirms those first impressions and make me think that game balance is currently quite broken...

On the positive side, some new skills are very fun and nice, especially Adrenaline Crush and Surprise Ending...

I agreed with what your saying threw the first couple of days of the update, but now I am beginning to believe it is more balanced. Part of the problem was that the "tank" or "scum" spec for warriors is very straight forward, it's an "easy" spec to plan out. So a lot of people, myself included, jumped on it cause it was clear it was going to be effective. Another part was that they game changed so much that all our existing strategies where now not nearly as effective, this hit rages especially hard i believe. So on day 1 and 2 these glads where hurting as we tried to find strategies that somewhat worked on them and they bombed down the ranks as they lost time and time again, I know i am still struggling to find good overall strategies for my rages, but some of them are turning around i believe or at least hope. Theatrics where the same way, they have so many options now its hard to even get a grasp on them. But I am becoming a fan of the tier 5 talent and a bleed spec, my bleeder is even getting these scum warriors to bleed out with success now. Subject31 is in the top 5 and has a crushing 10 point lead in the BG, so he is showing us all how to get it done as a bleeder theatrics. Again looking at the top 5 you got Prinny, The Returned, Beltank, and Valnoar showing that yes the tank warrior can work.... are they going to stay there, I don't think so personally, they just got to rocket up while rage, theatrics and offensive warriors are figuring out whats going on right now. I know my rage sitting in 4th place has beaten i believe all of them that aren't in his stable already and is getting more and more regular at beating these tank warriors (ironically he is one of the rages i have who doesn't Adrenaline Rush, maybe its overrated). Then if you want to look at offensive warriors Belca, Alpha III, and good old Laharl are all right there in the top 15ish pushing up to the top 10.

The fact is all the specialties changed so much I am not surprised that as it was put yesterday a "low hanging fruit" the tank warrior spec was jumped on so fast and has become dominate. But as the rest figure out their new strategies I'll be surprised if they stay at the top.

Heck right now there is 5 defensive warriors, 4 rages and 1 theatric in the primus top 10, the defensive warriors are already starting to fall out some.

[Apoca1ypse]

I'm liking everything about the update so far especially the changes to defense actually being viable. i dont run any defensive glads (yay rage stable!) but i think it is healthy for the game to have it.

my only bit of annoyance is how surprise ending also crosses over buffs/debuffs and injuries. I dont have issues with damage being swapped, even if it a 1000pt rampage as that is the whole idea of the skill, but the other interactions piss me off, especially because some just dont make sense.