BradfordLee
Forgot to post this write-up a few weeks ago. There might be some incomplete info but I hope this is helpful.
Alright, I'm making this post to throw out a bunch of suggestions for season 2 of EA. This is in no particular order and is based on the assumption that the season 2 paradigm will be based on a solo/no grouping experience. Your experiences may be different so I would love to hear any feedback.
1.) Lvling
First, increasing the exp cap to 5k is a welcome change psychologically and more importantly it has a real impact on low lvl lvling. Which, is arguably, the least exciting point of the player experience. In fact, I would argue that it has no barrings on the later lvling experience. If it were me, I would keep this cap (or maybe lower it to 4k) and certainly would not return to a 2k cap. This is especially welcome in a solo experience since the bonus exp for grouping will not exist.
The next point on this matter is exp scaling. One of the more challenging points (of the leveling experience) on season 1 and then now in pre-season 2 has been the difficulty gap between Tier 3* NPCs and Tier 4** NPCs. This difficulty shift doesn't seem scaled with the experience gain of higher-level NPCs.
For example, I can start hunting Tier 3 units at something like lvl 20-40 (4-5 rounds of combat). Then, by lvl 50-80 I can take a 3 unit Tier 3 fight(4-8 rounds of combat). Lastly, by lvl 100+ I can easily take a 3 unit tier 3 fight (2-3 rounds of combat). But, by level 100 I still could potentially take a death from a Tier 4 unit or I might need 4+ extra rounds in a Tier 4 fight (especially if something goes wrong early).
The problem in lies with the exp scaling. Tier 3 units have a similar exp gain compared to Tier 4.
My 2 scaling suggestions:
1) +~4% exp for snow daemons and Flame Daemons. +~8% increase for devils, Kilrogs, Fury. +~10% King Kilrogs+. Don't adjust world boss exp upward.
2) - ~8% exp for Warriors, - ~4% exp for ogres/trolls (and maybe something else needs to be scaled back but I don't know because I mainly smacked ogres). +~5% King Kilrogs+. Adjust mid-tier world boss exp slightly lower.
Also, its worth considering bumping Rat Kings exp slightly and decreasing Ogre Patriarch (but I suspect Patraiarch's exp adjustment will be met if the ogre/troll change happens.)
*Tier 3 = Ogres/Warriors/Medusas/Lichs/low level bounty hunters/Cyclops
**Tier 4 = Devils, Furys, Kilrogs, King Kilrogs, (3.5= Deamons)
2) Wizzie lvling -
One of the biggest issues (in my opinion) with solo gameplay is that the grind for a wizzie is a significant amount longer than for a warrior. This is especially true at lower lvls. suggestion: make low lvl damage spells a bit stronger but not so strong that it negates the value of higher lvl damage-based spells.
Additions:
3) Short Swords -
I think there is an interesting opportunity for adjusting what short swords do. At this time, they are mostly obsolete weapons on this server but I feel like with creating a short sword weapon we could open up another type of character build.
Suggestion 1: A Short Sword that starts with an endurance bonus and the rare drops of the sword would be enchanted with an Immolation enchantment on it. Additionally, I think an adjustment to the "Dipriciating asset" paradigm of stat buffs would be desirable to entice people to use this build. I believe, the old paradigm is a +3 for first Endurance, Str, dex, etc. item, +2 for a second, +1 for third, and +0.5 for 4th. In this structure, I would suggest a +1 for the 4th. This would make BoNs more desirable for heavy dex builds and would open up a heavy endurance build.
I think this structure makes sense because it could open up the ability to make heavy endurance-based character that tries to utilize immo chanted gear. It also opens up wizzies to having a reason to hold a weapon. One potential downside is that this could increase wizzie power levels too high. But, it would be an interesting change to try out.
Suggestion 2: A short sword that starts with poison (or any other) Immolation and can also have rear drops that drop w/Immolation chants.
Similar to the first suggestion but this would mostly be only valuable to a heavy endurance build that tries to utilize immo chanted gear.
Note: I could also see a specialty shield instead of a Short Sword that does this type of design. It would open up an Endurance Warrior build that doesn't run a 2 multi-handed weapon.
4) EJ - With 150 lvls there will likely be more wizards/thieves with GM sorcery. It was a big investment to get GM sorcery at 100 lvls but at 150 and solo mode, GM sorcery has more appeal. I foresee a few reasonable builds that might want GM sorcery. For this reason, EJ (in its current state) is likely in a space where it could be relevant and beneficial to PVP. The obvious downfall to the current EJ spell, you do damage to yourself if you are a criminal, which makes the burden of casting the spell very high. Perhaps the biggest burden is that it takes a combat round to cast EJ. You don't just take damage from your own EJ when you cast it, the opponent gets a round to progress their strategy. For this reason, I think that EJ damage to self should be adjusted. However, adjusting it back to only hitting your opponent is far less desirable in a 150 lvl PVP setting.
If it were me, I would say EJ damage overall should drop 15-25%, and damage done to self adjusted a total of 30-40% (my damage adjustment is based on the damage output of EJ before the Season 1 nerf). It should be noted that an endurance heavy build might want this spell and thus trying out the short sword and EJ adjustments at once could further bolster an endurance-centric build.
4) World Bosses -
I think that spawning in larger clumps at a time is more beneficial toward spreading world boss kills out between players.
Other interesting things:
1) Skirts offer better AR than robes.