Shattered Kingdoms

Can we please have it back to where being prone didn't reset your mood? Makes melee combat pretty much terrible and tanking successfully impossible. Currently playing a merc, swash, or barb is just suicide.

If it hasn't been changed by now, than the likely hood of it changing is pretty much null.

Dulrik might not be aware of the consensus among veterans that this was one of the worst changes ever, though. I've only ever heard it criticized, and I've never heard anyone defend the change, as far as I can remember. Maybe the problem is that a lot of veterans don't seem to use the official forums anymore, so the chances of their input being heard is slim.

From what I've heard, this change has made tank builds unplayable. Everyone now has to go second row behind a pet and try to maximize damage output because it's impossible to survive in the front row.

Pretty hard not to be aware after the stink that this has raised on numerous occasions, even by Ardith.

Over a year ago, I put up a poll begging Dulrik to change prone to not reset your stance to neutral, and 83% of the 29 votes agreed with me. At least one current IMM chimed in as a player voicing his total agreement with the idea. That thread was posted a year after the prone setting to neutral change and still had that positive of an agreement among the playerbase.

Here's the link.

The only change towards prone since that poll was to make it so that the accuracy penalty was lessened.

So, it isn't that Dulrik is unaware. If anything the IMMstaff has hinted that it's simply that Dulrik doesn't have a lot of time for coding. That said, I've noticed some ninja-code updates sneaking into the game here and there, which I presume will someday be compiled into an announcement update post. I suppose we can keep holding our breath that maybe prone will stop resetting your stance then.

when the change was implemented that getting knocked prone reset ur stance to neutral, pretty sure almost everyone was against it. that was before the forum purge and gd got shut down. nothing has changed since then.

it's still a bad change for two reasons. first, it rewards people that make the mistake of being in the front row in aggressive stance by actually putting them in a better stance, and second it punishes people that use defensive stance in the front row.

if dulrik is worried that people might be too tanky if the change is reverted, make it so that prone doesn't reset ur stance but ur stance determines the length ur character is prone. neutral would be no modifier, aggressive would slightly decrease the length of being prone (so there's still a reason to be aggressive) and defensive would slightly increase the length of time ur prone.

then it's actually a choice with consequences instead of everyone always wanting to sit defensive 24/7

Almost certain that in a 1v1 battle, the aggressive fighter will beat the defensive fighter.

Losing aggressive stance is one of the worst penalties that you can suffer given that you lose the accuracy and damage bonuses that go with it. Both of which you do not get in the defensive stance, and you lose 1 attack a round. Aggressive is a much more valuable stance to have given the most pronounced bonus of defensive is just a boost to armor protection, and this is only if you're capable of wearing a shield. The bonus to dodge in PvP is worthless. Which any player that doesn't really like using shields on their class can completely ignore the defensive stance as it will completely handicap your character.

SK actually was pretty good for a time, but it's right back to where it was when I started, glass cannon warriors that do massive damage with weapons and sorcerers scribing petrification scrolls to nuke other characters with low saves.

not sure there is a problem with aggressive being better than defensive in 1 vs 1. it is definitely not better in any sort of group setting unless ur sitting in the second or third rank using a polearm or bow. u have no option to even try to tank right now cuz one bash or trip and ur neutral stance until u hit the afterlife.

but also don't want to see the return of everyone sitting defensive stance 24/7, which is why putting slight modifiers on prone duration based on stance would make it a choice with pros and cons. if prone resetting stance is reverted w/o any other changes, there won't be any choices - it will be mood defensive all the time, unless ur using a polearm or bow.

also think that aggressive stance should be an option for casters too. right now neutral stance does nothing and mood defensive makes you cast a bit slower, with a little better defense. dulrik should make aggressive stance reduce cast time slightly in exchange for taking more dmg and having less defense in that stance.

I have 0 problems with people sitting in a turtle defense. While laymen may watch a boxing match or MMA match and get upset if someone isn't throwing haymakers every second, it's a legitimate strategy. It's how someone overcomes incredibly aggressive opponents like your Mike Tysons that go out and exert great energy at the start to get that KO. Outlast the opponent with superior cardio until they tire and then move in for the kill.

That's where skills like disarm, and kick (lulz) should come into play, but there's really no reason to do that when it's a better option to set aggressive and make a bash gamble. If successful, you remove the opponent's bonuses while retaining your own strategy of BRUTE FORCE, BRUTE FORCE, BRUTE FORCE. While thematically that makes sense for a barbarian character, it doesn't make sense at all for a mercenary, and even less for a swashbuckler. This one change destroyed a lot of nuance that the game was capable of. I think that a lot of players recognized bash as a top tier skill and I don't think anyone was arguing for a boost to it.

Now to appreciate combat in the front row you really have to play the 2 hybrid classes the paladin and the hellion. I don't think that anyone is going to argue that the paladin is the more viable of the two classes to play in the front, and that it's complete suicide to put a hellion character in the front (same with a heavy armor priest). Which makes no sense considering hellions have one of the highest HP bases and the best armors available to them. But conversely they excel in 2nd row support combat with the ability to wield some of the best weapons and having a great alpha opening attack that can be a OHKO. And since combat has pretty much gone to 2nd row it makes armor protection as an enchantment pretty much worthless. It's not about mitigating damage, it's about how much you can deal while avoiding being the focus of fire.

A couple of changes that would go a long way:

-stance shouldn't reset when knocked prone. Hedgehog, nor welverin stance are that awe-inspiring. Neither is kip-up.

-accuracy needs reassessed, the barbarian class specifically gets double buffs to damage because of this, once for the increase to accuracy, and second for the increase to raw damage. Same goes for mercenaries that can specialize in ranged weapons and completely overcome things like high wind speed with an overwhelming accuracy stat.

-on that note, bless should lose the bonus to accuracy. There are way too many buffs that come with +accuracy and they all stack.

-OHKO spells like petrification and finger of death need readjusted. Petrification is way too stronk in it's current incarnation. Finger of death is pretty strong too, but will fail to kill any race with innate magic resistance, like a deep-elf or halfling. That's a gross oversight in my opinion and gives a pretty good argument to the strengths of those races. Failing a save against finger of death should have the same consequences as failing a save against petrification: dying instantly. The only real application of the spell in the game is for leveling a character.

-word of recall should have a chance to fail. Like 1 in 4 casts won't succeed. Tension never runs high enough when you can hit the "well, it's time to go home" button.

-bounty hunter NPCs are a blight on a society of picket fences and well-to-do rich people. If you're a Sith Lord, why in the world are you going to care when Dog the bounty hunter shows up? You're not, especially when you're backed up by superior martial knowledge and arcane sorcery. Instead there should be groups of guards that patrol cities. It's also pretty stupid to go after a guy in a battalion, military formation, or whatever else. In the end, Dog wants to get paid, not die like a chump.

I agree with every single one of those points.

Except for kip up not being good, that skill is legit.