08/03 Balance Patch, Patch cycle temporarily suspended
30 July 2023
Developer Notes
During this time, we have received various opinions about balance through the balance forum, from the community, 1:1 inquiries etc.
Along with the "Talk to Developer" event held at 07/22, we have directly listened to some of the adventurers' opinions.
We have gained a better understanding where balance was lacking.
Although it is physically impossible to reflect all the opinions right away, we have decided to reflect the aspects that can be incorporated now.
The execution of balance patches will be temporarily halted so that we could introduce changes in our work patterns and how the content is decided.
This balance patch is based on the play data from the Abyss Raid. It addresses "characters with low performance in terms of damage" and the characters that adventurers at the scene considered "most urgently in need of patching based on the Abyss Raid.".
After verifying some of these opinions, a part of them will be reflected immediately.
It's difficult to reflect all opinions in a single balance patch, so more changes suggested by player opinions will come in the next patch.
As mentioned on the "Talk to Developer" event, there will be changes in the balance patch interval in the future.
This is because we need to redefine the criteria for data reference in balance patches and ensure sufficient data collection. Moreover, we will consider a schedule for skill renewal, which is necessary to address fundamental character issues beyond simple numerical adjustments.
We seek adventurers' understanding in our efforts to improve the quality of balance patches.
Therefore, we would like to quickly guide you through the direction of the next balance patch.
We plan to add party effects for characters in DPS positions who lack them.
We will renew the skills of characters who are judged to have low performance in terms of skill assessment across the overall content.
We will implement reawakening for all characters - currently under review.
However, please understand that the upcoming balance patch updates mentioned above may not be done all at once, and updates may proceed sequentially for each character.
We will guide you through an advance notice as usual when any concrete changes are reviewed and confirmed.
Balance Patch Contents
For now, here are the contents of today's balance patch.
The list of changes can be found here: [LINK]
21 Comments
Or comment as a guest by providing a nickname.
PLEASE BRING BACK LUCIEL COMBINED STATS. YOU CAN NERF US ALL YOU WANT.
That revamp single handedly destroyed us as a character. It's been an uphill battle since that day almost a decade ago.
That OR just give us hitboxes that work. Hitboxes has the one thing that Luciel has struggled with. To the point the 3rd path literally confuses the the player and the opponent and not in a good way.
PLEASE BRING BACK LUCIEL COMBINED STATS. YOU CAN NERF US ALL YOU WANT.
I'm confused what you mean by this. We already have the ability to make Lu's stats apply to Ciel and vice-versa through the character window (we've had it for a long time), so I'm guessing you mean combining Lu's and Ciel's stats together, but I honestly don't remember that ever being a thing other HP, Attack, and Defense, and I'm not seeing anything on the wiki about that.
When the character was released they have it for a while. They removed it on the next month, cuz yeah, It was broken AF
Ah.
Yeah, I think what we have now is fine. At the very least, we're not being forced to gear up both of them up. And the option to give them separate stat builds is there, if that's what the player wants.
Combine stats might be too OP. You could be able to have multiple IB/accessory effects at once with that. Imagine the current 2 separate gear set on Luciel but without the separate stats and you can activate every effects without having to switch character.
I think even just the current "only HP share" is somewhat decent enough already. You can literally have 1.5 times more HP than basically any other characters without having to sacrifice anything other than your ED. Even my Innocent with only below average gears is having near 1m HP and 12k-ish pmdef with buffs along with the 40% red dmg, and I don't even have any HP stat on the representing character's equipment. I was basically unkillable by anything until all those lethal demon realm boss/raid attacks arrived. Even some of my friends complained about me not dying in PvP when fighting against me before.
About the hitbox bs, I can relate with just RoC alone. Weird skill with super dumb hitbox, and its traits are basically "choose between losing dmg on small targets and losing dmg on every other targets". Not to mention that it and another skill in the 3rd path even work in a way that can be called "f**k their very own selves" by literally pushing enemies tf out of their own hitboxes. Like bro wtf?
Now you've got me wondering, how exactly do the shared stats work when using a representing character? Since the other character's gear isn't taken into account, are HP/Attack/Defense increases from costumes/accessories treated as if both characters have them, or is there something else going on?
Kinda like that. For example, I use Lu to represent stats, so any stats on all costumes/accessories equipped on Ciel will not counted into stats, as if he's naked. Except for HP, which is an exception, somehow it will still get added into your stats even when it is on the non-representing character. Idk if Attack and Defense also work the same way but HP is the most obvious one.
I put everything except HP on Lu and nothing but HP on Ciel, and have Lu as representing character. And my character stat is as said in the previous comment. Literally the same build and stats as the usual DPS build except that i got a bunch more HP.
Okay, kinda think you misunderstood me, but that's probably my bad.
The way I understood it before was that when Lu and Ciel have separate stats, they would still combine any HP, Attack, and Defense increases, except for Attack and Defense from Set Effects. This was based on what Elwiki said about how their stats work.
What I meant by "treated as if both characters have them" was that any HP/Attack/Defense increases from the representing character's equipment would be treated the same way as they would be if both characters had the exact same increases with separated stats, effectively doubling any HP/Attack/Defense increases from the representing character's costume other than Set Effect Attack/Defense increases.
That being said, I do understand what you're saying, and it is kinda weird that it works like that. Not only does it make it almost flat-out better to have a character representing, but I honestly think it would make a lot more sense to have it work the way I just described it (at least that way, we'd be able to draw out their "full" potential with just one set of costumes/accessories).
Too OP now? No. If you can accept Laby and Noah and all the 4th paths, then you can accept the old luciel now. You're thinking of when they were OP BACK THEN but now it would just be bringing them up to the same tier as everyone else. As of now, the utility we used to have is a crutch since we lack the output.
I think there are better ways (like overhauling the skills, passives, etc.) than to reintroduce this double stat mess. Would be hard to adjust again.
Agreed.
"We will implement reawakening for all characters - currently under review." I didn't catch this until just now. Funny how they're saying this now when they said it was impossible in their Offline Conference just a few days ago (in relation to when this patch notice was posted).
Ain Awakening Mode Before: Attack Power Increase according to Stage Stage 1: 5% Stage 2: 10% Stage 3: 15%
After: Attack Power Increase according to Stage Stage 1: 30% Stage 2: 30% Stage 3: 30%
I'm... slightly confused on what this means. Does it mean Ain now flat-out gains a 30% attack increase, or does it mean Ain now gains the same attack increase as other characters (meaning 20% when non-Trans)? I want to say it's the latter (mostly because I think 30% non-Trans isn't fair to the other chars who only get 20% non-Trans), but the "before" shows the values from non-Trans, so...
that 5/10/15% attack power was without trans
... Yeah, I know. As I said, the "before" shows the values from non-Trans, which is why the 30% stated in the "after" is confusing me the way it is!
Let me clarify. I'm confused as to whether the 30% Attack Power Increase stated in the "after" section of the change is meant to be Trans or pre-Trans, as with the other characters, they get a 20% Attack Power Increase pre-Trans, which is increased to 30% upon achieving Trans, but the "before" section of this change shows the current pre-Trans values rather than the current Trans values.
In other words, I am not asking about the 5%/10%/15%, as I already know what those are. I am asking about the 30%, and only the 30%.
I don't think they have the slightest idea what to do with classes that give HP and MP to the party. Since instead of setting a good base so that anyone can use these classes, they put nerf after nerf like everything is ok
Then they go there and buff Noah.
Omg Ignite force nerf, finally… It’s been suggested for years…
FP FINALLY GETTING HIS SSS BUFF BACK LETS FOCKEN JOEEEEE
Its time
Finally, awk dmg for my loved ain