boddole

*reads Karok notes*
Why not just remove the class if you are going to take away the most fun ability from it? Holy Christ....as if doubling the cool down wouldn't have been enough...

"How much balance can I sacrifice for say crit and maintain decent DPS?"
Puppy, let me say a few things at this point:

-Since the Add. Dmg. changes, I think there is a strong case for … (more)saying Crit>Bal once over 50% of your damage comes from Add. Dmg. (so +13 weapon, 10/10 gear, maybe even 9/9 gear/12/8 and other such combinations). Whether or not it is 'as easy' or practical to get more Crit. or Bal. depends on your own situation and I can't answer that for you.

-As far as 'the math' for Bal. goes, duracellhase and myself have given you pretty much all you need to know to do a decent job calculating that.

-As far as 'the math' for Crit. goes, a simple rule of thumb would be to use: +/- points of change in Crit. * 0.95 * % of attacks you use that -can Crit.- [this last part gets forgotten a lot]. Compare and contrast this with Bal.

-Don't ask about Attack Speed, its very difficult to pin down how much benefit in damage there is for a given change in AS.

If your goal is to min/max to try and 'compete' with higher + users than yourself I'd honestly advise you not to bother, the gaps are just too large. If you are doing it just for fun, then take AS if you find that fun, if not, if more than 50% of your damage is from Add. Dmg, go for Crit., if less than 50%, take whichever stat (Bal./Crit.) you can get more of (in terms of realized damage) - or even AS for that matter for the 'fun factor'. (less)

@lumix345
-Now that's a post! I'd like to continue on some of your points that I'm paraphrasing here, 'it gets pretty old for someone to carry you through everything, especially if you … (more)played WAY better than them but skill is meaningless in front of an average player that can steamroll through things based on stats alone'.

With the S3 boss HP buff due to group size changes, +10's are notably less effective, which isn't the worst thing in the world by itself, however all my fancy scrolls, max Bal, stacking AS / Crit, etc. are now basically pointless when it comes to doing damage compared to Add. Dmg.

That said, I'm more worried about new players and how they will experience these changes since they'll notice that they are doing minimal damage during the end game battles. I'd imagine some will feel useless and just stop playing, others will just get lazy because they end up being carried through everything, and for those that want to progress I'd guess their experience will be something like:

How do can I be more useful (do more damage)?
->Get highly enhanced gear.
How do I do that?
->Get extremely lucky or open the bank vaults and spend on runes (and if they realize what the odds are, they probably won't be too enthusiastic to do so).

So if they don't want to spend ,they are basically stuck waiting for events that give runes as prizes which can be few and far between (especially for the quantity you need at higher levels), creating big gaps of waiting at which point they'll probably just stop playing. Not to mention at this point they are basically playing the Enhancement system more than the game, and it's a battle you lose (a lot).

-Btw, anyone know how the update is going over in Korea / China? (less)

Hello everyone, I've certainly got my thoughts on the recent changes to Additional Damage (which I'll enumerate though momentarily), but I'd also like to hear your thoughts on the issue.… (more)

Some Math:
Using the relevant portion of the damage formula (10.9k Eff. Att. * 0.95 Bal + Add. Dmg. * 6.25) which omits the final ability multiplier, we can compare relative 'output' for individual weapon enhancement levels both against themselves and other brackets. I've chosen +10 (probably where most people are able to achieve), 13 (first level with no 'safety items' on failure (is the true now?) ), and of course +15 as comparison points [feel free to ask about the math if you want, I'm omitting it for now to reduce post size].

Change in 'Output' from a Given Enhancement Level (Old to New):
+10: up ~29.8%
+13: ~94.8%
+15: ~138%

Change in Relative 'Output' between Enhancement Levels:
13 vs 10 was: ~5.6% is now: ~58.5%
15 vs 10 was: ~10.1% is now: ~101.8%
15 vs 13 was: ~4.2% is now: ~27.3%

Percentage of 'Output' Accounted for by Additional Damage per Enhancement Level:
10 was: ~6.7% is now: ~28.1%
13 was: ~11.7% is now: ~54.7%
15 was: ~15.3% is now: ~64.4%

So before, there was always a noticeable 'gap' between 'average' and 'maxed' players due to enhancement (which I think is fine), but now the distance is almost from one planet to the next. Good luck 'staying close' to someone with that much more damage output, and forget it if they have similarly enhanced armor. To me this is what I would scientifically describe as being "bonkers", making the 'new meta' smashing enhancement level and attack speed to the moon at the expense of everything else (until you hit 13 to 15 anyway...).

Short Version: Gotta get dem rune $$'s!!. (less)

I would guess they won't fix it, the event will end, they will ignore any references to it, wait until next year, try to bring it back, have a panic attack...