Feedback on Storm of Arrows and Fixes

[Edensia]

Hi,

 

Since im not that good at english there might be a few incorrect words in here, but I guess you will understand it.
I would like to give my opinion on the new patch "Storm of Arrows" and the 2  patches that came afterwards (1 will arrive next week) as feedback. I've been playing Blade & Soul since December 2012 (on the Korean server and switched to the EU server on EU release for better ping). I love this game and can not imagine ever stopping it, but the Patch Storm of Arrows has taken away my motivation to play because the progress is barely visible. I do not have much time to play because of my job and this patch is extremely against players with little time and against new players.
But enough with it ..

 

Let's start with my feedback: 

 

 

1. Changes to the Daily Challenge
The Daily Challenge is almost the most important element in Blade & Soul and has been badly damaged. However, with the patch on October 2, this will only partially be resolved. The rewards will be fine in the future, but the choice of dungeons under which we can choose is severely limited and some important content that made it easier to complete has been completely removed, such as: all PVP content, all solo dungeons, tower of infinity and Celestial Basin.
-> My Desired Change: The rewards we receive on October 2nd are okay, but the above mentioned content should be added back to the Daily Challenge and maybe even more to choose from, so players with less time and weaker equipment have a chance to complete the Daily Challenge.

 

 

2. Changes to the dungeons
This is my biggest problem with this patch. Dungeons are the most important element in Blade & Soul. Dungeons are essential to progress and should therefore be tackled by all types of players. With the change in Storm of Arrows we should get the easymode and the normal mode should have been removed. In addition, the HP should have be significantly reduced of the monsters in this dungeon to make the completion easier and faster. What we got, however, was the following. All Dungeons from Sandstorm Temple to at least the Starstone Mine are now with hardmode mechanics and have the HP of Normal Mode. This made the completion of these dungeons so many times harder than before in Normal mode. It seems we got a bugged version of the Korean build. Because in Korea it looks like this: All dungeons are in easy ; normal and hard-mode accessible and the normal and hardmode was not changed. The easymode in Korea also has veteran mode mechanics (but damage instead of wipe), but so significantly reduced HP that they can be mastered solo without any problems. However, completing easymode in Korea will reward you with far fewer rewards. This mode is actually for learning the mechanics and completing quests for people with little time or weaker equipment.
Even though the last patch notes stated that our build is not comparable to that of Korea, I am convinced that we only got a bugged version of this build because there is a lot of proof (even the mode selection in the Dungeons proof it, see picture) 
In addition, in older dungeons such as Naryu Foundary the drops were removed, which makes it impossible to farm costumes, etc. This should also be resolved as soon as possible!
-> My desired change: Our build should be the same as the Korean one with focus on the dungeon modes (see above)
-> Alternative Change: Reduce the beginner mode, so it is like in the Korean build, but do not introduce a normal and hard-mode anymore for the older dungeons.
-> Alternative Change 2: Roll back to the state as before the Patch Storm of Arrows (only in relation to the Dungeon difficulty level)

 

 

3. Cost and income
The rewards for the quests as well as the material chests have been reduced, although the upgrade cost has not been reduced. Instead, more upgradable items have been added (weapon and pet).
Less reward for harder dungeons makes absolutely no sense and should be changed back. Apart from that, the dungeon difficulty should be fixed first, then either the rewards should be raised again or the cost of all upgrades should be lowered.
-> My desired change: Reduce costs for the upgrades of all items so that they are adjusted by the percentage of the new rewards.

 

 

4. Moonlight refuge instead of Celestial Basin
The daily challenge ask you to collect 30 items from monsters that do not even have a 100% drop rate (more like 20-30% drop rate). This makes completing the Daily Challenge much harder than before. In addition, the merchant for moonshine buds has rather items on offer, which are hardly relevant anymore, and also way too expensive. The monsters in the moonshine refuge almost never  drop a material chest compared to the Celestial Basin.
At the end of the day.. it still makes more sense to farm in Celestial Basin.
-> My desired change: Increasing the drop rate in the Moonlight Refuge for Quest items to 100% or reducing the required items to 10 instead of 30. In addition, material chests should drop there more often than in the Celestial Basin and the Merchant should be reworked to offer better equipment there (so everyone has the opportunity to get this kind of equipment, if you invest enough time).

___

Those were the things that I noticed most, but there are certainly many more problems that Storm of Arrows brought up. I also can not understand how some people here are happy again after the announcement for the patch on October 2nd, as it is still worse than before and no further announcement was made as to whether there are still things getting fixed in the future.
In the current state it makes more sense to roll back to the state before the patch. Because even 2 weeks after the patch we still have a worse condition than before the patch.

We should not be happy with these changes since they give us a worse experience than we had before. Like many other already said here.. making 5 steps backward and only 2 steps forward, does not fix the problem!

As I said, I love this game, but I currently lack the motivation to play it if the game is so badly damaged.
I hope you take these words serious and pass it on to the devs.

Thank you very much for your attention
A loyal but angry player!

Edited September 28, 2019 by Edensia

[Grimoir]

I agree with you on #1 and #3.

 

On Point #2:

I think its fine with the 2 modes we have, since you dont really need more. The mechanics yes, should not cause wipes and prepare you for hard mode, but i dont see a point in reducing the HP, as hard mode you shouldnt solo, so learning should also not be able to be done solo but in a group.

As for the costumes, they shouldnt return the drop, but just add them to achievement merchant or clothing merchant for the older dungeons at least.

 

#4:

I am all for better equipment there but definetely not right of the bat. So whenever a new tier accessory comes out only the old tiers are available not the new ones.

And yes either add material chest drops, or even add material pouches to the npc for purchase or change the zone to not be open PVP so everyone can kill and get mat chests.

 

 

[Gravedigger]

1) I think that adding things such as basin back to the daily stuff is superfluous because back when we had to do 3 dungeons, doing basin as an automatic go to really meant you only needed to do 2. In other words, if you intended to do basin as a daily, it's the same as removing it from the dailies and making the requirement 2 dungeons. I'd only see it as a good  thing if it will populate basin and maybe people will kill field bosses which will put more evo stones back onto the market. The fact that things like solo dungeons are no longer a part of daily rotations is healthy for the game in my opinion. Again, if you intended to do solo dungeons in the first place, you should be doing them anyway whether it be for the gold or the upgrade materials. Making people do dungeons in f8 is wonderful for new players or alts. I've had a much easier time finding parties for things like HH, which previously was a dead dungeon. Now, more people are doing party dungeons AND are less inclined to kick people. I mean, A3+ for SSM, HH, heck even up to ST? Are you serious? But with my R3 I can find parties without getting kicked. It's just nice. I would however, agree that adding PvP back would be healthy as well since it would promote more players to do that. Most people don't intend on doing PvP, but just maybe completing a quest might make them try it out. 

2) We have 2 modes regardless of what you call them. easy, normal, whatever. I personally like doing mechanics and it would be terribly boring if every dungeon became a punching bag. That being said, I don't see why they removed ALL hard modes. If dungeons were simplified to one mode, why reduce their gold cost under the context that it's to prepare us for hard mode? Where? I certainly don't see hard mode ST on the list. I liked RT mechs, but now no one has to go into SS anymore and the boss hardly does any damage when you are supposed to wipe. Changing the dungeons so that they present a challenge is good for players since it adds to the game. I'm not saying I agree with making it super hard, but something like TSM did it right. The person that gets the curse mark, if it isn't done correctly will die. It doesn't punish EVERYONE with an instant death, but it also shows the players that are learning that something around that part of mechanics needs to be worked on for later runs. It really is a good example of practice for hard mode. The other part about no drops in lower dungeons is wack though. That needs to be addressed. 
3)I agree

4) Moon refuge is made in a way that a player will complete Zavana's zeal about 2 times before finishing the actual quest. This way, players can trade for about 2 boxes at the merchant which rewards buds, exp charms, and maybe some gold coins (worth 5g each). If a player so chooses to, they can grind for all 4 boxes a day. Also, moon buds can be exchanged for some useful items, a personal favorite of mine is the eminence exp charm. Sub HM 14, they're 1mil exp at the cost of 30 buds which is nothing. For new players, refuge not only gets you to HM 15 really quickly, but you can also get some useful equipment. Panda cache village in refuge is also 10 times better for materials than basin. While farming in basin, mobs have a chance to drop a treasure chest (albeit at a decent rate), while in refuge sometimes a raccoon will spawn if you kill a mob. Killing will earn you a treasure chest, but may also go to panda village. I often walk out of panda village with 20+ chests in less time than it takes to run a couple of dungeons. That amount of material is insanely good, and happens WAY more frequently when more people are killing mobs to increase frequency of panda village. Although if too many players are there then people kill each other for more chests....point is, refuge, while time consuming, is still a good place and is not irrelevant. 

[Edensia]

10 hours ago, Gravedigger said:

1) I think that adding things such as basin back to the daily stuff is superfluous because back when we had to do 3 dungeons, doing basin as an automatic go to really meant you only needed to do 2. In other words, if you intended to do basin as a daily, it's the same as removing it from the dailies and making the requirement 2 dungeons. I'd only see it as a good  thing if it will populate basin and maybe people will kill field bosses which will put more evo stones back onto the market. The fact that things like solo dungeons are no longer a part of daily rotations is healthy for the game in my opinion. Again, if you intended to do solo dungeons in the first place, you should be doing them anyway whether it be for the gold or the upgrade materials. Making people do dungeons in f8 is wonderful for new players or alts. I've had a much easier time finding parties for things like HH, which previously was a dead dungeon. Now, more people are doing party dungeons AND are less inclined to kick people. I mean, A3+ for SSM, HH, heck even up to ST? Are you serious? But with my R3 I can find parties without getting kicked. It's just nice. I would however, agree that adding PvP back would be healthy as well since it would promote more players to do that. Most people don't intend on doing PvP, but just maybe completing a quest might make them try it out. 

2) We have 2 modes regardless of what you call them. easy, normal, whatever. I personally like doing mechanics and it would be terribly boring if every dungeon became a punching bag. That being said, I don't see why they removed ALL hard modes. If dungeons were simplified to one mode, why reduce their gold cost under the context that it's to prepare us for hard mode? Where? I certainly don't see hard mode ST on the list. I liked RT mechs, but now no one has to go into SS anymore and the boss hardly does any damage when you are supposed to wipe. Changing the dungeons so that they present a challenge is good for players since it adds to the game. I'm not saying I agree with making it super hard, but something like TSM did it right. The person that gets the curse mark, if it isn't done correctly will die. It doesn't punish EVERYONE with an instant death, but it also shows the players that are learning that something around that part of mechanics needs to be worked on for later runs. It really is a good example of practice for hard mode. The other part about no drops in lower dungeons is wack though. That needs to be addressed. 
3)I agree

4) Moon refuge is made in a way that a player will complete Zavana's zeal about 2 times before finishing the actual quest. This way, players can trade for about 2 boxes at the merchant which rewards buds, exp charms, and maybe some gold coins (worth 5g each). If a player so chooses to, they can grind for all 4 boxes a day. Also, moon buds can be exchanged for some useful items, a personal favorite of mine is the eminence exp charm. Sub HM 14, they're 1mil exp at the cost of 30 buds which is nothing. For new players, refuge not only gets you to HM 15 really quickly, but you can also get some useful equipment. Panda cache village in refuge is also 10 times better for materials than basin. While farming in basin, mobs have a chance to drop a treasure chest (albeit at a decent rate), while in refuge sometimes a raccoon will spawn if you kill a mob. Killing will earn you a treasure chest, but may also go to panda village. I often walk out of panda village with 20+ chests in less time than it takes to run a couple of dungeons. That amount of material is insanely good, and happens WAY more frequently when more people are killing mobs to increase frequency of panda village. Although if too many players are there then people kill each other for more chests....point is, refuge, while time consuming, is still a good place and is not irrelevant. 

#1 Thanks for your point of view on that one.

 

#2 Thats why I want more modes.. not everyone likes to do these mechs and just wants to finish their quest. The Problem with Blade & Soul is that the mechs are nowhere explained in the game. Lets take TSM here as an example. I did this dungeon with my new Archer a few days ago and got the mark.. now what do I have to do? I went to the black puddle because it was the only visual thing that caught my attention.. I died. The game punishes you for trying to do it right, but doesnt explain how to do it right even in "easymode" (for exmaple with a message on screen "move next to the puddle" or something like that). I like to take FF14 as an example which is really noob friendly.. it has mechanics, but it explains it somehow while in the fight with better visuals. Since its not possible to communicate in B&S via voicechat with a random party... (thanks for that ncwest) since they took it off in our region, you have to look up for guides in the web before doing the dungeon. Most of the time the mechs are so complicated that you forget some things until you do the dungeon. 

Thats why I want the real "easymode" .. in addition to normal mode/hardmode. Or they should give us the damn ingame voice chat or better explain the mechs in the fights in easymode

Edited September 29, 2019 by Edensia

[i wanna die]

1 hour ago, Edensia said:

#1 Thanks for your point of view on that one.

 

#2 Thats why I want more modes.. not everyone likes to do these mechs and just wants to finish their quest. The Problem with Blade & Soul is that the mechs are nowhere explained in the game. Lets take TSM here as an example. I did this dungeon with my new Archer a few days ago and got the mark.. now what do I have to do? I went to the black puddle because it was the only visual thing that caught my attention.. I died. The game punishes you for trying to do it right, but doesnt explain how to do it right even in "easymode" (for exmaple with a message on screen "move next to the puddle" or something like that). I like to take FF14 as an example which is really noob friendly.. it has mechanics, but it explains it somehow while in the fight with better visuals. Since its not possible to communicate in B&S via voicechat with a random party... (thanks for that ncwest) since they took it off in our region, you have to look up for guides in the web before doing the dungeon. Most of the time the mechs are so complicated that you forget some things until you do the dungeon. 

Thats why I want the real "easymode" .. in addition to normal mode/hardmode. Or they should give us the damn ingame voice chat or better explain the mechs in the fights in easymode

Im all for it, when i was new in bns a few years ago i didnt even knew what mechanics are or that they existed and wiped my party too many times x). People sayd “look up the mechs” and i had no idea what “mechs” mean.

so it would be nice to have like an in-game journal where all the guides for the dungeons are stored.