The Evolution of Combat: BETA discussion

[Urza285]

I can't help but think that there are so many "place holder" stats for these items. And yet because of that I feel we are still far off from going live.

[Alg]

They should have done what they do best, ignore them.

Not going to disagree. Most of the complaints were from people that didn't understand that the sets were boosted to level 75.

 

Also:

 

Combat Beta Events – Extended Schedule

 

1 day ago

Beta testers among you will know that, previously, thresholds would generate adrenaline. Now, they drain a percentage of your adrenaline bar. This is a change that we feel will encourage tactical usage of thresholds and basic abilities. We’d love to know what you think, so there has never been a better time to jump into the beta worlds and try it out. Don’t forget that all members can access the beta servers at weekends, so there's no reason not to try out this significant change to the ever-evolving combat system!

RuneScape members will recall that we are providing a Mad Scientist outfit at the end of the beta period to members who completed specific tasks in four previous beta weekend events.

We’ve been reading your feedback about this, and we’ve seen quite a few people say that they missed just one event and are hugely disappointed that they now don’t qualify for the outfit.

With this in mind, we have planned four future events. The first starts this weekend, from Friday 14 September, and then every other weekend through to 29 October.

If you missed out on any of the previous events, completing events from these new four will allow you to make up the difference. As long as you're a member and you complete at least four out of the eight events, you'll qualify for the Mad Scientist outfit!

We’ll let you know what each of the new events is and the unlock criteria nearer the time, but for now you’ll want to know what the coming weekend event is all about, and it’s nice and simple!

Just complete one duel at the Duel Arena. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose – just be there when the duel outcome is known!

The Duel Arena is a great place to try out the new adrenaline/threshold mechanic – and with the cool beta tester outfit up for grabs, this promises to be an unmissable combat-fuelled weekend.

See you in the beta!

The RuneScape Community Team

http://services.runescape.com/m=news/combat-beta-events--extended-schedule

[Sir_Squab]

Barrows should be weaker than GW gear. GW gear is a lot more expensive, and requires a lot more work. Without the other bonuses (like ranged attack, mage attack, mage % dmg, or str bonus) it becomes useless. It would have the same stats as the other armors and only value being non-degrade.

 

I liked when it was lv75 tier, it was nice to have all those tiers exist.

 

I agree, especially with the bolded part. Part of me wonders if barrows at 80, Nex at 90 might work, but I'd rather see new weapons/armour every 5 levels instead of every 10, especially at higher levels where leveling takes a lot longer.

 

Or a response to complaints about GWD armor being stronger than Barrows/close to Nex gear. Those were surprisingly common before.

 

Nex gear should have received a significant buff, as it was ridiculous that 30m a set gear was almost as good as 500m a set gear. Instead of choosing the obvious solution, Jagex brainstormed about the stupidest possible solution to the problem and rolled with that.

I dunno. I see no problem with Nex gear being 500m and only slightly better then a 30m set. Player with money will still pay a fortune for the best set.

 

To be honest tho, considering how hard Nex gear is to get, changing it to 90 probably wouldn't hurt.

 

So I tried to do God Wars for the first time at EoC. I died and lost full Torva, Fury, Zerker(i), and about 300k in pots, while getting my 10 killcount on Goblins. I am not sure if the Goblins are on 'roids or I am just terribad. After going back and getting my KC, I ended up getting Bandos boots.

 

I was using the various abilities based on their descriptions, for example, I would use the ability which stuns the enemy, then I would use the one which does additional damage to stunned enemies, then I would do DoT abilities, until I could do my best ability. I still did horrible.

 

Oh man. That's a harsh blow... Good luck getting that all back =/

 

ohwaititsbeta

[Estoc]

Or a response to complaints about GWD armor being stronger than Barrows/close to Nex gear. Those were surprisingly common before.

 

Nex gear should have received a significant buff, as it was ridiculous that 30m a set gear was almost as good as 500m a set gear. Instead of choosing the obvious solution, Jagex brainstormed about the stupidest possible solution to the problem and rolled with that.

 

I think the real problem here is that level 80 gear costs 500m.

[Quyneax]

Or a response to complaints about GWD armor being stronger than Barrows/close to Nex gear. Those were surprisingly common before.

Nex gear should have received a significant buff, as it was ridiculous that 30m a set gear was almost as good as 500m a set gear. Instead of choosing the obvious solution, Jagex brainstormed about the stupidest possible solution to the problem and rolled with that.

I think the real problem here is that level 80 gear costs 500m.

It's based on the cost of hunting Nex and the drop rate. Only Jagex can change those things. I imagine that with the release of level 90 equipment, Nex will get a lot easier and cheaper and her drops will go down. 100-200m per set is a price jump comparable to that of Barrows/dragon to Bandos/Armadyl etc..

[Platinum_Myr]

Quyneax is right but forgot one other portion, it's also due to which players want Nex gear (supply and demand) supply is low because it's difficult to hunt nex, and the drops are rare. But if no one wanted it, it wouldn't be nearly as expensive simply because no one would buy it. If 90 lvl gear is released, nex will go down simply because people who have it will sell and buy the new gear (or sell and obtain the new gear if it's from something like player owned ports)

[Quyneax]

I think atm the bottleneck in the price is the supply, not the demand. That is, it's a seller's market, due to the low supply. There is little reason to Nex when QBD and Kiln are so much more rewarding. The main reason prices are the way they are is that the current balance is the lowest (fairly stable) point where people still bother.

 

In other news, sighted magic longbows are very badass in the beta right now. Not accurate (550 hit bonus, Zaryte has 800) and not so fast (average, Zaryte has fast) but a lot of damage (~2k damage, Zaryte has ~1500).

[Fallstar]

Or a response to complaints about GWD armor being stronger than Barrows/close to Nex gear. Those were surprisingly common before.

 

Nex gear should have received a significant buff, as it was ridiculous that 30m a set gear was almost as good as 500m a set gear. Instead of choosing the obvious solution, Jagex brainstormed about the stupidest possible solution to the problem and rolled with that.

 

I think the real problem here is that level 80 gear costs 500m.

 

That level 80 gear is the highest tier of gear currently available. Of course there's going to be huge demand for it. Once level 90 and 99 sets are made available, sure level 80 req gear should drop sharply. The best of anything is always going to be significantly more expensive.

[TheLastJoker]

Threshold comboing is so deadly because people can use thresholds from magic/range/melee. They weren't balanced for use like that. Making them cost adreneline only means you cant finish off with an ultimate.

[RU_Insane]

Kind of a stupid question, but if you die and lose your stuff in Beta, do you lose it in the real game too?

[Byzantus]

Kind of a stupid question, but if you die and lose your stuff in Beta, do you lose it in the real game too?

No.

Your real account and beta account don't interact in any way, nothing you do in the beta will change your real account.

[Estoc]

Or a response to complaints about GWD armor being stronger than Barrows/close to Nex gear. Those were surprisingly common before.

 

Nex gear should have received a significant buff, as it was ridiculous that 30m a set gear was almost as good as 500m a set gear. Instead of choosing the obvious solution, Jagex brainstormed about the stupidest possible solution to the problem and rolled with that.

 

I think the real problem here is that level 80 gear costs 500m.

 

That level 80 gear is the highest tier of gear currently available. Of course there's going to be huge demand for it. Once level 90 and 99 sets are made available, sure level 80 req gear should drop sharply. The best of anything is always going to be significantly more expensive.

Then they should release that gear instead of demoting gwd armor.

[Leon S]

Looks like they changed spell damage scaling. Spell damage now increases by two every level, and low level spells no longer deal more damage than high level spells. Good.

[Saradomin_Mage]

Looks like they changed spell damage scaling. Spell damage now increases by two every level, and low level spells no longer deal more damage than high level spells. Good.

Importantly, what does this mean for Divine Storm/SoA?

[Leon S]

Looks like they changed spell damage scaling. Spell damage now increases by two every level, and low level spells no longer deal more damage than high level spells. Good.

Importantly, what does this mean for Divine Storm/SoA?

 

Divine Storm is inferior to Air Wave. SoA is inferior to Polypore Strike. But SoA still does the most damage if you use the ABS for the 10% damage increase.

[Zerker_Jane]

Hope they make the displaying total level thing optional in the situations it's shown so you can have your combat level shown if you wish. What a dumb update if not.

[MotherBrainII]

Looks like they changed spell damage scaling. Spell damage now increases by two every level, and low level spells no longer deal more damage than high level spells. Good.

Importantly, what does this mean for Divine Storm/SoA?

 

Divine Storm is inferior to Air Wave. SoA is inferior to Polypore Strike. But SoA still does the most damage if you use the ABS for the 10% damage increase.

 

How does the DPS compare between SoA with the Armadyl Battlestaff and SoA with the Virtus wand and book?

[Den]

Hope they make the displaying total level thing optional in the situations it's shown so you can have your combat level shown if you wish. What a dumb update if not.

If your weapon is not sheathed, you will display your combat. If it is sheathed, you will display your total level.

Combat level is displayed upon entering combat if total level is shown before entering combat.

[Zerker_Jane]

Hope they make the displaying total level thing optional in the situations it's shown so you can have your combat level shown if you wish. What a dumb update if not.

If your weapon is not sheathed, you will display your combat. If it is sheathed, you will display your total level.

Combat level is displayed upon entering combat if total level is shown before entering combat.

 

I know, "in the situations it's shown" I said.

[Sy_Accursed]

Hope they make the displaying total level thing optional in the situations it's shown so you can have your combat level shown if you wish. What a dumb update if not.

If your weapon is not sheathed, you will display your combat. If it is sheathed, you will display your total level.

Combat level is displayed upon entering combat if total level is shown before entering combat.

 

I know, "in the situations it's shown" I said.

 

If you don't want total shown just unsheathe your weapon. Problem solved.

 

I don't see why so many people some how think it's bad to show total opposed to combat outside of combat context. I mean combat level is like the most of irrelevant bit of information about your character ever when you aren't fighting something; heck even in pvm it's kinda meaningless because no-one *needs* to know it other than you about the only circumstance it really is truly vital is pvp.

[Estoc]

It's ironic that level 3 skillers will now have to draw their weapons to retain any of their "prestige".

[Leon S]

Looks like they changed spell damage scaling. Spell damage now increases by two every level, and low level spells no longer deal more damage than high level spells. Good.

Importantly, what does this mean for Divine Storm/SoA?

 

Divine Storm is inferior to Air Wave. SoA is inferior to Polypore Strike. But SoA still does the most damage if you use the ABS for the 10% damage increase.

 

How does the DPS compare between SoA with the Armadyl Battlestaff and SoA with the Virtus wand and book?

 

Using a staff would be 110% more damage. Dual casting sucks, right now.

[Zerker_Jane]

Hope they make the displaying total level thing optional in the situations it's shown so you can have your combat level shown if you wish. What a dumb update if not.

If your weapon is not sheathed, you will display your combat. If it is sheathed, you will display your total level.

Combat level is displayed upon entering combat if total level is shown before entering combat.

 

I know, "in the situations it's shown" I said.

 

If you don't want total shown just unsheathe your weapon. Problem solved.

 

I don't see why so many people some how think it's bad to show total opposed to combat outside of combat context. I mean combat level is like the most of irrelevant bit of information about your character ever when you aren't fighting something; heck even in pvm it's kinda meaningless because no-one *needs* to know it other than you about the only circumstance it really is truly vital is pvp.

 

Yeah but my outfit looks better with sheathed weapons >.>.

 

It's not bad at all, it's a good idea, as long as it's optional.

[MotherBrainII]

Sorry for all the annoying questions, but I've just had another thought... if other armour no longer provides offensive bonuses and void/Barrows sets are keeping their effects, isn't Void strictly the best gear now unless you need the defense? In particular, void magic's 30% accuracy boost might be worth it for the loss of HP even compared to Virtus. Same might be true of void range to a lesser extent, although that's already amazing.

[Kimberly]

On September 23rd, Jagex is doing another livestream event - this time it's about the EoC. (Read more here. )

 

We figured we'd reach out to Mod SteveW who works with the fansites to give him our questions. It's not a guarantee they'll be answered because of how busy he and those running the livestream are, but we figured it's worth a shot.

 

So if you have any questions that you'd like to be sent to Mod SteveW for the EOC Live Stream session next Sunday, please post them here! Probably looking to send him an email Wednesday at the latest.

 

Try to be as specific as you can!