Shattered Kingdoms

Your storebought had to have at least had a simple buff, then... and you beat the 1:2 odds of it hitting you instead.

I also remember that I'm not the one coming to the forums and complaining about a build I am completely ravaging.

That'd be like me coming here and going. Holy crap, Dulrik! I spam killed Syn's character Carelia! She then reincarnated like eight times. That makes Carelia completely overpowering!

When an MR barb starts ravaging people with aura of negation, maybe I'll change my mind. But you guys are coming to the forums making the MR barb sound like it is some kind of solo beast that worships raptor jesus, and has sex with super models every day.

I don't think the grass is actually as green as it is made out to be.

This.

I actually don't think MR barbarians have been around long enough for us to really make an accurate judgment as to whether they are really that good or not. Give them a little time.

They fear me, because I havent rage deleted yet and dont plan to. Its like a glitch in the matrix.

Invis > MR barb

I think this argument sort of obfuscates things by implying that the current lot is getting owned due to build rather than difference in ability. It's of course all a thought experiment until someone gets around to proving they're broken.

Still, that isn't really my issue - in the here/now, in the griffon case (see note 1 below), it significantly empowers the "haha, only a flesh wound!" mentality in players who are getting totally owned 5x a day. That's just not fun and I'm sort of in principle against code changes that lower the skill gap, though I do like the notion that buffs should be harder to come by. We shouldn't be striving to turn this game into modern warfare where you just respawn.

note 1: It should be fair game to discuss the actual impact on the game of all changes to MR barbarians in terms of their affect on griffon barbs and griffon barbs only. Until it becomes something that is actually done that is just as much of a thought experiment as complaining about builds that are losing. I don't see non-griffon MR barbs ever being a thing that is done unless something happens to give them flight, whereas there's frequently an MR barb or two around and has been since MR barbs were introduced.

Seriously? What skill gap? There is very little skill involved in SK PK. It is 90% preparation via buffs, enchants, vials, scrolls, wands, staves, etc. - all of which takes place before combat. Aura of negation is actually a step in the right direction - making the game less about prep and more about active input during combat.

The next step should logically be a revamp to enchant armor and itemization.

I wouldn't agree on that 90% deal. Being able to make the right moves in SK is just as important as having the right buffs and EQ. You can have all the EQ in the world but if you spend your time panicking or brandishing a chill touch staff during combat you're still pretty useless.

Aura of Negation is still an uneccessary and hurtful change on an OOC level. Adding Aura of Negation just says "Hey, all you guys who trained MR and suck because you can't use buffs before a fight? We're going to give you a feature that only screws over your enemies who have actually put in the proper time and effort to have those buffs. Congratulations for rolling a character who is good for nothing but making other players' time less useful." MR barbarians were already very good against hellions, priests, paladins and maybe sorcs, adding AoN just made them even better against those classes even with zero prep, and still at best puts them on even footing with normal melee classes without changing any of the frustrating PvE problems with the build.

On an IC level, the entire reasoning for MR in the very first place was that in the helpfiles it's stated that most barbarians abhor magic. Well, Dulrik went out of his way to actually say that AoN would actually be made more useful if you have MR enchantments on your gear. So now, to be a fully effective MR barb, you have to... use magic. That's unbelievably dumb. There isn't going to be a single MR barb who says "Hey, don't cast heal on me, because I hate magic." They're going to say "Hey, please cast enchant my armor for MR and MP, and please cast heal on me because it still heals me, and please give me mistletoe herbs so I can heal myself with them, you know, through magic. Man I hate magic so much!"

And honestly, it's actually more valid to argue MR from purely a griffarb perspective, because not a single person playing SK wants to spend their time leveling and gearing up a crappy barbarian who has to actually put more time into prep to get buffs, and who still can probably be avoided just by casting invis and laughing. MR is still only an option for playing a character you know is going to die a lot and be crappy overall, and griffons fit the bill perfectly. Playing a non-MR griffon would just be an exercise in frustration, because if you want to be good you're going to have to use magic anyway, which nullifies even the supposedly cool RP style of "I hates magic lolol"

Except we're not actually sure any of what you're saying is what's happening, and we can wait to see for a month or two more to see just exactly how impactful it is and if there's any reasonable countermeasure before anyone makes a kneejerk change either way.