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| 0s | The intensity of the enemy VFX indicator in PVP - I think a couple of people have commented that it's very strong. |
|---|---|
| 7s | We are toning it down a little bit in this balance patch, which I think will help playability, especially in OPR and War. |
| 19s | Welcome to Forged in Aeternum where we talk about all-things New World. |
| 23s | Today we're going to be doing a Balance of Power episode where we dive deep on combat, the meta of New World, and the state of balance. |
| 30s | We're going to try a different format today where Michael asks the questions. |
| 33s | So Michael, take it away. |
| 35s | So overall, are you happy with the changes you made in Season One? |
| 40s | Overall, we're pretty happy with the changes. |
| 42s | Obviously, when you make this many changes, it's hard to be 100% happy with everything. |
| 47s | But in general, we're happy. |
| 49s | We think we have a good foundation with the fortifying and armor mitigation changes, with separating out CC imbalance and the grit change. |
| 58s | I think we've got a good balance upon which we can build now. |
| 61s | We're also seeing a pretty nice shift in meta. |
| 63s | We're seeing a lot more diversity in build, especially in Arenas. |
| 68s | I played a bunch of Arenas over the week and we're seeing a lot of diversity in builds and all those builds performing pretty well. |
| 74s | We're also seeing a lot more diversity now in Expeditions, which we really like. |
| 78s | Even in War, there's still a heavy bruiser element, but we are seeing a couple new builds sneak in as people are trying new strategies. |
| 86s | So that's all good. |
| 88s | On the sort of negative side, we are seeing a very heavy range meta in OPR, we think this is partially because of the scoring and the range - sorry, the the sort of the layout of the mode, but there's also some relative power there in those weapons that we're looking at. |
| 107s | And so what is the overall state of balance in New World now? |
| 111s | We're seeing a lot of strength in the magic weapons. |
| 114s | Both Fire Staff and Ice Gauntlet are heavily used in all of the PVP modes. |
| 120s | They're performing well. |
| 121s | They're being used a lot and their win rates are high. |
| 125s | We're also seeing a lot of usage of bow, especially in OPR. |
| 129s | However, it's win rates are not very high. |
| 131s | In fact, they're under 50%. |
| 133s | So we're seeing a lot of usage, but only strong performance in a sub-segment of the audience. |
| 138s | We're seeing melee underperform verse ranged, especially in OPR. |
| 143s | We think this is heavily related to the layout of the mode and the scoring systems, but there's also some relative underperformance there. |
| 151s | On a good note, we're seeing some nice clear rates and mutations. |
| 154s | Gen was recently mutated and it's it really sank, at first, in terms of completion rates. |
| 163s | But as people sort of adjusted to the meta and figured out how to play, those completion rates were nearly back to where they were pre-patch. |
| 170s | So we're seeing people catch up with the meta. |
| 173s | So then what is next for combat? |
| 175s | Like, what are the next steps? |
| 177s | So the next step sort of remain about what we talked about in episode one, high level: we want to do sort of larger balance patches every season. |
| 185s | So big balance patches with pneumatic balances and then we want to start doing monthly balance patches more frequently. |
| 193s | And, you know, these changes will be a little more just data-based. |
| 196s | We don't want to introduce a lot of risk here. |
| 198s | So currently we're working on that first balance patch. |
| 201s | We hope to release it sort of end of April, early May, and we're going to be talking a little bit more about that. |
| 207s | And then we're also working on the larger Season Two changes. |
| 210s | They're going to be composed of that sort of underpowered, underused ability pass that we're going to be doing. |
| 216s | And here, I just want to take a second and say thank you to everyone. |
| 219s | Like, a lot of great suggestions are in the thread last time. |
| 224s | So we really appreciate that. |
| 226s | Something else we're experimenting with for Season Two are some blocking changes. |
| 230s | We're testing with them internally and they're looking good. |
| 233s | And if they continue to look good, we'll probably test them in the PTR and potentially release them in Season Two. |
| 238s | Oh, awesome. |
| 239s | So let's dig into some specific areas now. |
| 242s | What are your thoughts on Fire Staff overall? |
| 246s | I think Fire Staff's a little bit oppressive, especially in OPR. |
| 250s | You know, it's a weapon that is on the easier side to use and its performance is really strong. |
| 256s | Because of that, we are looking at some potential nerfs for it. |
| 259s | What we are looking at, probably taking a look at flare, the cool down on pillar, and there's also a bug that's allowing extra empowerment stacks. |
| 268s | So we're thinking about making these changes and we think with these changes, Fire Staff will will probably be in a good place because it's not it's not showing super strengt here - just a little bit. |
| 279s | And how about the other strong magic weapon, the Ice Gauntlet? |
| 283s | So Ice Gauntlet is showing, you know, heavy usage in all of our modes and heavy win rates. |
| 289s | However, we don't see a clear issue here. |
| 293s | I think there's probably a little bit of strength with Arenas, but there's no smoking gun here. |
| 299s | So we're going to keep our eye on Ice Gauntlet. |
| 302s | No big changes planned for this balance patch but we're going to be keeping our eye on it. |
| 308s | And how about everyone's new favorite ranged weapon, the Bow? |
| 314s | Well, as I said before, Bow is seeing heavy usage in both Arenas and OPR, I think this is partially due to, you know, the Musket changes. |
| 323s | A lot less people are using Musket. |
| 326s | And I also think the, you know, the fortify and armor mitigation changes are allowing it to hit a little bit harder. |
| 331s | So what we're seeing is strength from this weapon, from people who really know how to utilize it and, you know, sort of get all of its power. |
| 338s | Because of that, we don't want to sort of nerf the overall power of the weapon. |
| 342s | Instead, we want to sort of try to eliminate some of the extremes here. |
| 347s | With that in mind, there are two changes that we're looking at for next balance patch. |
| 352s | One of them is to sort of add some damage fall off past certain ranges. |
| 356s | So, you know, people can't pull some of those extreme shots. |
| 359s | The second thing we're looking at is reducing the hitbox of the heavy and abilities. |
| 365s | So again, people can't sort of make some of those shots over the hill in some of the extreme shots. |
| 370s | And what about our poor melee friends? |
| 372s | Our melee friends are struggling a little bit, especially the medium and heavy users. |
| 376s | I think the survivability that they had is not quite making up for the lack of mobility that light has. |
| 382s | So we're seeing them struggle, especially versus light range. |
| 386s | Because of that, there's a couple - or actually, a few changes we're looking at. |
| 389s | One is we are going to increase the armor, the base armor, of medium and heavy armor. |
| 395s | I think this will not only give them a little inherent additional armor benefits, it will also make things, like fortify, stronger on that. |
| 403s | Second, we're going to be increasing the value of Shirking Fort to around 5%. |
| 408s | I think with the above changes, this will make Shirking Fort a very viable option for heavy and maybe melee also versus some of the aversion perks. |
| 417s | Third, we're going to be looking at the fortify, some of the perks and abilities give for some of the strength-based weapons like Warhammer, Great Axe and Sword & Shield. |
| 426s | We think these changes, combined with some of the Fire Staff and Bow changes we've talked about, will sort of even out the playing field. |
| 433s | Are there any further adjustments for the Musket? |
| 437s | So Musket is definitely seeing decreased usage after the changes and its performance is not very good. |
| 442s | So we are definitely looking at the Musket. |
| 446s | I think we want to take these changes slow. |
| 448s | We are working on a larger rework for the Musket. |
| 451s | We don't have a TBD yet on what time that Season, which Season that will happen in yet. |
| 455s | So we're going to be moving slow on the changes. |
| 458s | So with that said, there are two changes we're looking at. |
| 461s | I think we're going to decrease the amount of time for steady hands so players can get to that better accuracy quicker. |
| 467s | And we've also made some adjustments to the reticle animation so it better matches accuracy. |
| 474s | The weapon was actually quite a bit more accurate than the reticle was showing. |
| 477s | So I think that'll help. |
| 479s | So those changes will help, but I could see us making more changes in the next minor balance patch after this one. |
| 485s | And any other changes coming in the next balance patch that are worth mentioning? |
| 490s | Yeah, there's two interesting ones that I think people will enjoy. |
| 493s | One is the intensity of the enemy VFX indicator in PVP. |
| 499s | I think a couple of people have commented that it's very strong. |
| 502s | We are toning it down a little bit in this balance patch, which I think will help sort of playability, especially in OPR and War. |
| 509s | A second change that I'm pretty excited about is for Void Blade in the Void Gauntlet. |
| 514s | We did finally find the bug, which I think was affecting the homing of that. |
| 518s | So that'll be fixed in this balance pass and we hope that sort of opens up that as another sort of viable build to further increase build diversity. |
| 526s | So that is all the questions we have for today. |
| 530s | Community Question? |
| 530s | Oh, Community Question. |
| 532s | Yes. |
| 532s | So first of all, thanks again for your great responses to the last question. |
| 537s | So we wanted to do something similar. |
| 539s | In Season Three, we're also planning on doing a perk balance adjustment. |
| 543s | We did one of these and I think it was pretty successful. |
| 546s | We're doing it in Season Three when other gear changes happened, so it's not as impactful on build since there's a shakeup happen anyway. |
| 554s | So the question is, what perks do you think are underpowered or do you have a great idea to improve? |
| 559s | Please let us know. |
| 561s | Also, like and subscribe, let us know you're enjoying the program and we'll continue doing it. |
| 565s | Thanks for joining us. |
| 566s | See you in Aeternum. |
| 569s | I mean, what has been your impression of it as you've started writing stories in this world? |
| 573s | I like that the Corruption basically takes away your mind. |
| 577s | It's probably a lot like media in that respect. |
| 580s | Like the media. |
| 582s | Soul sucking media. |