Shackled Isles feedback

[i wanna die]

So finally this new and exciting awakening patch has launched together with a new pvp mode - the battle royale. Since I heard this wasn't a permanent feature for Blade & Soul I thought I'd make a post on the forums with some feedback that not only I but others can add. 

So I tried this battle royale quite a lot of times as a mixed pvp-pve player I have to say I really enjoyed it! 

So many people are queueing for battle royale when its available its insane compared to the wait times while the system is finding a match for you in arena 1v1, 3v3 or battlegrounds, I feel like people really like this new pvp mode even if they aren't necessary into pvp or are more on the pve player side. 

This new pvp mode has made easier access to tradeable materials for any player, new or old, because the stats are equalized and only skill counts to win, I feel like the stat equalization is giving many players a shot at having a chance at doing something or being good at something which Is honestly really awesome! finally we have a pvp mode that is new player friendly and veteran friendly! 

It would be a dream to see this pvp mode stay in the game for good as it is an alternative activity for many people whenever they get bored of pve dungeons or arena/battlegrounds. I really do think this game needs more activities such as this battle royale mode and the open world content that we now (finally) have in the moonlight refuge. 

Basically what I wanted to say here if anyone cares is keep up the good work ncsoft! 

I am truly impressed by how good this patch is, we got battle royale, new awakened skills, a new open world questing zone and many other things.. 

The reason why I made this post is yet again so that people could reply and give their feedback on this new battle royale so that it becomes  a permanent feature in the game!

[Featherine]

Yeah it's nice, except when you meet people that queue at the same time and then team up.

[Cyan]

Hey thanks for the feedback! We'll be sure to get this up to the dev team (among other things) as they've been curious to know how players over here have liked it. Please share whatever other feedback you all may have. 

[ElectricPotato]

Battle Royale probably needed an article explaining it, the powerups, etc.

 

Team battle royal exists, with its own special red powerups (default 9 key), you queue in pairs of two, I think its under the same ranking, dunno.  Duos take longer to fill because of lack of visibility for the mode and little patch explanantion.

 

Rankings for the clan menu list different ranks for players than their personal rankings.  ???

 

Solo Royale is a lot of fun.  I wouldn't mind it as a permanent mode (I might want it lowered it to 3 queue windows a day instead of 5 in that case).

Edited March 15, 2019 by ElectricPotato

[ElectricPotato]

Shackleford Flaw:

 

Summoner familiar tracking is very poor, with the cat getting stuck on terrain weirdly during the initial glide down, and uncontrallable/unusable/unfindable for the rest of the match.

 

Workaround: carefully watch familiar icon on map/minimap, if it gets stuck on something, land there and  make sure it comes with you.

Edited March 15, 2019 by ElectricPotato

[FeralStripes]

@cyan, make sure too check how many concurrent players are actually playing "Shackled Isles"(content is dead on arrival) I'm not gonna play it since all gear is equalized & I would like to use my max pvp gear I farmed hard for (Whirlwind Valley,Beluga,Novacore)....

[i wanna die]

4 hours ago, ElectricPotato said:

Shackleford Flaw:

 

Summoner familiar tracking is very poor, with the cat getting stuck on terrain weirdly during the initial glide down, and uncontrallable/unusable/unfindable for the rest of the match.

 

Workaround: carefully watch familiar icon on map/minimap, if it gets stuck on something, land there and  make sure it comes with you.

Yea thats a problem for me too sometimes! I hope it would get fixed since summoners cant use 90% of their cc if the cat isnt in range

 

[i wanna die]

4 hours ago, FeralStripes said:

@cyan, make sure too check how many concurrent players are actually playing "Shackled Isles"(content is dead on arrival) I'm not gonna play it since all gear is equalized & I would like to use my max pvp gear I farmed hard for (Whirlwind Valley,Beluga,Novacore)....

Finding a match for shackled isles is easier than finding a match for bg.. and i also farmed very hard for my pvp gear but if battle royale wasnt gear equalized it wouldnt be fair to new players who havent got the gear.. here in battle royale everyone can win no matter the gear all it takes is skill or seeing who finds the poison bomb buffs first.

if you dont want the gear you farmed hard for go to waste just do the regular bgs.. people are still doing them 

but dont force players with weak pvp gear go do unequalized oneshot pvp. 

Edited March 15, 2019 by i wanna die

[Jaspix]

Making it equalized gear was a great idea, but I feel the time frame to join is way too long. If you get to join like 10 mins left you'll hardly find enough people to start the game. probably 12 at max and they'll start leaving after 5 minutes completely wasting your time. 

[Lianako]

I think the BR was a great thing surprisingly, the only downside i've seen is that theres groups/clans that sabotage it by sticking together with 6 people and just trading wins when they bullied everyone else out, makes it a bit hard to pick your fight.

[Rysa]

12 hours ago, Cyan said:

Hey thanks for the feedback! We'll be sure to get this up to the dev team (among other things) as they've been curious to know how players over here have liked it. Please share whatever other feedback you all may have. 

Stop playing dead on the main thread and give us a proper compensation for the straight-up lies and communication mishaps. Thank you.

[Kasumi Rose]

Here's what I've determined while playing BR (I've played a lot btw: Top ~32):

 

- The powerups should not be determiners of the outcome of a fight; rather, they should ASSIST in the outcome of a fight. Right now, there are several things fundamentally unbalanced about some of the powerups. I believe some of them (like the paw hammer) should be entirely reworked, but if that's not an option, then I think some of the behaviors and stats of abilities should be adjusted. Here are some examples of the unbalanced abilities in BR and how they might be fixed:

 

- Paw hammer:

- It feels extremely bad when somebody just presses 7 in a small circle and activates the very quick hammer move that launches you hopelessly far out of bounds and guarantees a kill. Hammer can also be activated while falling, so somebody can come from off-screen and hit you within milliseconds, practically guaranteeing the hit. This isn't a matter of "Every player has access to the hammer; You can do it, too!" This is a matter of a plainly unfun ability that doesn't promote fun gameplay or skill when abused in small/final circles.

- A suggestion to fix the hammer is to adjust the start-up animation of it to make it more readable and counter-able. Alternative adjustments can, of course, be made. These are all just suggestions.

- Energy Sap (green bomb):

- It is bad for gameplay when somebody can stand out of sight, watch 2+ people fight, and then hold six to activate an energy sap bomb and instantly get multiple kills upon full charge without even being detected. (It should also be fixed that the animation of energy sap can be canceled/doesn't show sometimes. Not sure exactly what causes this though. I think it might have to do with going in and out of stealth.)

- One-hit kill (or one-combo kill) mechanics should be avoided as much as possible in PvP games, especially if they: don't require skill to pull off; have a quick startup (not saying energy sap has a quick startup); and/or can often be difficult or impossible to avoid (just use it while you're out of line of sight or while the opponent is in the air (summoners can abuse this quite well)). 

- Energy sap has a good, lengthy start-up animation, but it's just the nature of battle royale modes (people can be anywhere, sneaking up from behind a busy fight or coming in from the sky) that doesn't really allow for such a powerful one-hit mechanic. There are also rare times where you're in a big fight, so you're just out of mobility, CC, or I-frames, and you have to let your opponent slowly charge up your demise if you can't kill them in time, which again, feels bad.

Spoiler

("Feels bad" btw is a valid complaint in games. Blizzard changed one of their characters in Overwatch simply because of players complaining that a move "felt bad" to go up against... Games should feel fun and fair.)

 

- A suggestion to fix energy sap would be to just simply take a lot of that damage away, but perhaps keep (and maybe even lengthen and strengthen) the negative effects that it gives players (I  believe it gives lower regen, AP, etc. for a few seconds? I don't actually use the bomb myself because I know it's op and bad for gameplay, but I see it used all the time, so I know what it does, and I've read its description before.) And again, this isn't a "it's in the game, so why not use it?" kind of situation. It's an ability that takes what could be a fun, skill-based fight, and just abruptly ends it with little to no effort required from the user of the bomb.

- Catclaw:

- Simply increase the cooldown on it. Right now, it's far too spammable for free CC, and classes (some better than others) can abuse that for effortless wins.

- Shield (For 5 seconds I believe it gives 50k defense?):

- DISCLAIMER: The buff I'm going to suggest for this is made with the assumption that none of the above nerfs will be made, so, in BR's current state with the op offensive abilities:

- 5 seconds is not long enough to increase survivability by much, if any, in these fights. A simple air combo from most classes eats up that time and even causes it to expire just in time for you to still receive damage in most cases. Remember - this just increases defense; it doesn't even resist CC!

- I suggest you simply increase the amount of time you have the defense buff for. Even one second would help a lot.

- Cooldown reset

- This hasn't been much of an issue yet, but I know certain classes can go infinite with stun-lock by using CD reset.

- I'm not sure how this can be fixed without making the ability too weak or too unorthodox for the game.

 

If these things were changed, I think the remaining abilities (like the toxin ability that creates a small, damaging AOE around the user) would fall in line and become more balanced. Right now the toxin AOE is ever so slightly on the too powerful side when coupled with catclaw because catclaw can be spammed to pull people in and paralyze people too often. But with catclaw on a longer cooldown, that would be fixed. And the other changes I suggested would fix other things, too (like the shield being on the too weak side).

 

Feel free to leave your own suggestions or dispute these, but do it in a civil manner. And please read everything closely in every paragraph before replying just incase you misunderstand something by not carefully reading.

Edited April 6, 2019 by Kasumi Rose
Underlined "- Cooldown reset"