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Changes to Critical Hit and Critical Block system

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Aug 20, 2009
5
Eric Stormbringer on Nov 28, 2015 wrote:
I am in support of the new critical system. The old critical system was at it's breaking point with no room to grow particularly when it came to designing balanced PvE content. This new system allows us to continue to grow for at least a few updates at which point the system will need to be updated again. This new system also benefits the casual player far more than a continuation of the old system would have.
I'm sorry, but you are absolutely wrong. The new system does nothing but imbalance PvE. If you insist on saying that it is balanced, please tell us what you consider "balance" instead of just throwing that word randomly because it sounds pretty. Have you not read what others have said about the new system? It's adding extra frustration to PvE, not balance.

Explorer
Sep 26, 2012
59
Nordic Champion on Nov 27, 2015 wrote:
Just wanted to say that
A) I am glad to see KI is reading this thread
B) Tuscon Wiz's comments are great and I agree
C) I had to wonder why there are so many wizards who are REALLY mad (at KI) about "all the crowns and work to get gear or to level pets in anticipation of the new world". Whose fault is that? No one told you to spend all that time and effort on pet training or farming gear. You did that yourself. So if you are mad, be mad at yourself for time and money wasted. Maybe before the next big update you will just wait and see what KI comes out with like a lot of wizards do.
lol, really? wow!
sorry for playing then
sorry for buying stuff KI needs to sell to keep their company running and to have the means to maintain and improve their games!

I'm one of these wizards who farmed A LOT to get Darmoor gear, Morganthe's gear, etc, on almost all his wizards, who spent a lot of Crowns in packs, especially for the Critical wands (until I got one for each schools on 2 accounts!!!) because they're were meant for this : reach 100% Critical or more
so this update is obviously a big loss for involved players and deny the past 2 years about Crit/Block, that's a fact

though, I don't whine or ask for a refund, what happened is truly sad but KingsIsle deserves every dollar I could spend : for me, their game is the best I ever played and if that can help them to run it and let it grow, I'm glad

I understand that players who don't optimize their wizards and just equip the first gear they drop, won't see any differences : they never crit not block anyway or are just some very lucky fellows, lol
so keep it real
remember that they often rely on involved players to go through big dungeons, consuming farming or challenging quests and they hatch to get good pets from players who spend months, millions of Gold and tons of Crowns to create good ones

I'm also one of these players who grab unexperienced, Menu Chat or weak random wizards to run difficult instances, help them to survive and go through and I share my pets to help them if they're nice people
I'm mostly a PvE player and that's what I like in this game : PvE is all about team work

that's a lack of courtesy to tell involved players that it's their loss
they contribute to the game way more than just "wasting" Crowns and time

anyway, back to the topic, remember that these discussions aren't about picking the old or new system but let the community help KingsIsle to improve the system whatever it is
that's always how it worked

window.onbeforeunload = function() {}

Survivor
Aug 06, 2012
1
Hi All!

Maybe the new critical system as most have experienced (receiving five critical hits in a row by bosses and mobs and not being able to block any of the hits) was not intended! Maybe there is a glitch that needs to be fixed! I read that the critical heals were to be better but we weren't getting any critical heals. But this morning I didn't get hit by any criticals (helping someone with Hart's Tower) and my critical heal was almost three time normal! I was shocked!

There is hope! Keep trying!

Survivor
Nov 27, 2009
35
You did very dishonorable and disrespect move here by change critical and block system.
lot wizards not in favor of this new critical and block system. I hate to say this it need be said you have lost your trust with your players feedback right now. ask yourself here it was truly wise to transfer new critical and block system from test realm to live realm without thinking of possible backlash it would cause here. I highly suggest you listen to players feedbacks here lot us wizards want the older critical and block system back not this current new critical and block system is in current state is more broken then last one here in truth here.

I hope you notice error of move here king isle you want gain trust of your players again you have revert critical and block back to older ways. Please to players feedback here.

From
William Hawk Grove max level balance wizard.

Explorer
Nov 17, 2013
99
Have you noticed no one does 4v4 practice pvp anymore? I have. Before this horrible update, matches were so quick to come by, but now? Extinct. Each match I did only lasted 3-4 minutes (I kept track of time). People kept landing on each other, with insane pierce and damage, with no block. This game is starting to become more based on ''luck'' than an actual strategy or plan.

I remember the days before Khrysalis, me and my friends would always do 4v4 because they were so fun. Each school was unique for its own thing, but with this horrible update, it's all based on who can critical, get a shadow pip, and get first.

PvP and PvE is 100% broken, and I can guarantee MOST players agree.
Kingsisle has done absolutely nothing to assist us and will face their backlash soon enough if nothing positive happens.

Survivor
Oct 01, 2014
41
MADISON461J on Nov 28, 2015 wrote:
Ok Peeps

Lets talk about the positive changes with the Critical Block and Critical Hits.

I been thinking about this allot lately.
At first i experienced total frustration and disgusted with the changes. ( I had spent allot of time and crowns trying to improve my wizards and pets, making them strong enough so that most quest were marginally difficult). and could be won with the help of marginal players.

Now what I am experiencing is that the players that were marginal in their skills must improve change or move on to other endeavors.

PvE and Pvp are not broken: It's more that we have developed friendships instead of alliances. Therefore expecting that all wizards should be able to quest in any area just because they have reached the require level.

I'm not sure if that is a correct statement or if that is the premise behind the change. I do feel that KI was only giving us a challenge to contend with. However, sometimes having the disappointment makes the completion of a quest more exciting even if its only sort lived.

I do wish there was more clarification on the changes and why they were implemented. Because right now I am reluctant about spending money for improvements of any kind to have things just turned in like a whimsical fashion.

Until the changes I never posted on the sites before. Now I feel it is my duty to try to at least open conversation from a different viewpoint. Hopefully there can be some open dialog from KI as well as other spiral peeps to this matter.

Things that I would ask from KI is:
Please let us fine wizards know of any major updates like the change in critical statuses well in advance. I'm sure this was not a last minute idea or add-on.
Other thought would be some idea of the direction the game is heading and why. ( again not when it happens).

Things sometimes are easier to deal with if there is a logical explanation.
A quote that fits our situation is: " The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, But Building the New," - Socrates

Ok Peeps it is up to us now, with some direction from KI.

If you read please commitment. That goes for the great people that has brought us Wizard 101.

Light it up peeps just like you do where ya quest.
I'm not sure about your statement that it is the marginal player needs to improve. How about a player that pretty much soloed the entire game. Do I fit in the marginal player you are talking about? Also if you can tell me why it is a better game to rely on luck to progress then skill. I'm all ears.

Explorer
Nov 17, 2013
99
May I also add, it is now even harder to get the badges: ''Elixir Vitae'' (1 million heal) and ''One In A Million'' (One million damage) because of this ridiculous and unwanted critical update.

They should have asked US before adding a new system because it affects us, not them. Bring back the old system.

Survivor
Apr 26, 2010
12
After much thinking and questioning I have begun to understand why the changes have been made. I believe they never planned for the exalted to be as powerful as they had became. If you are exalted and you have 100% critical then you leave no room for growth or expansion.Face it if you have already achieved 100% then you can no longer have any growth, so what by the time you are level 150 you are sitting at 150% critical ? You see where I am going with this they make the changes to leave room for potential growth as more levels are added and world are open to be explored. If you damage is already 128 then what by the time you are level 200 you are going to have 301 damage and start owning bosses with storm beetles? If the changes were not made it leaves absolutely no room for growth by this time bosses and mobs would need to have 100,000 health just to stay alive long enough for you to even realize you were in a fight..

Now here is where they got it all wrong, The just threw the changes in our laps. They made the changes without tweaking the rest of the game without going back and changing how some of the bosses react in earlier worlds, without changes their critical and block rates and leaving things as is. They did not change any equipment to fit these new changes they left the game in its current state and said deal with it. We will fix it later. I dont know about you but if I ran a game I wouldnt say here play it broken hope you like it and then in 4-5 years say well this is not even how I intended my game to be played to begin with so I am changing it completely. If you dont want an uproar you make immediate changes before there is one. You dont let something become the normal, something people grow to depend on making their builds and then shoot it to the ground completely. I understand why this change was made probably alot more than most but I do not agree with it just thrown at me and then the rest of the game be left as is.

Defender
Nov 24, 2012
124
Nordic Champion on Nov 27, 2015 wrote:
Just wanted to say that
A) I am glad to see KI is reading this thread
B) Tuscon Wiz's comments are great and I agree
C) I had to wonder why there are so many wizards who are REALLY mad (at KI) about "all the crowns and work to get gear or to level pets in anticipation of the new world". Whose fault is that? No one told you to spend all that time and effort on pet training or farming gear. You did that yourself. So if you are mad, be mad at yourself for time and money wasted. Maybe before the next big update you will just wait and see what KI comes out with like a lot of wizards do.
Your post made me laugh.

"C) I had to wonder why there are so many wizards who are REALLY mad (at KI) about 'all the crowns and work to get gear or to level pets in anticipation of the new world.' Whose fault is that? No one told you to spend all that time and effort on pet training or farming. You did that yourself." Your post is a joke. What have you been doing all this time? Standing around all day in the Commons?

Your statement is full of ignorance, and you have little to no idea of what you speak of. Try going through the entire world of Polaris without gear and without a pet. Let me know how that turns out.

I noticed that all the players who are fine with the new system and don't understand why most players are complaining are the same players who had no critical/block to begin with and never even bothered farming for gear.

Survivor
Jun 22, 2009
1
This new critical and block system was made completely with PvP and Polaris in mind. With their disregard to lower worlds they have created an atrocity that needs to be fixed. Before the update, there was a gear balance that was perfectly fitted to the system, where people could choose high crit, high block, or medium crit and block. Now there is no point in having block as a stat, and critical is a rare occurrence at best. Darkmoor, before, was a difficult dungeon, but it was still possible and fluent with a strong team. Now, the bosses crit and block the exact same amount, but we have lowered values,drastically impacting the gameplay within the dungeon. Something needs to be done aboiut this system, whether is be a revert or a fix.

Edward Darkbringer
Level 100 Death

Survivor
Dec 22, 2010
15
cyrus plz just go back to the old system. wt was the point of the new one anyway? azteca is harder than ever now, even with a friend helping me. we were all fine with getting a new world, and its the beginning of a 3rd arc and introducing us to the awesome arcanum! switch it back to the old system! please!

Survivor
Oct 23, 2010
3
I am agreeing with multiple people, In that the change to the crit/block needs to be adjusted . My level 110 ice at 100 had multiple criticals and nearly 100% blocks. Now even wearing the same gear hardly blocks at all. Ice has it hard enough to balance strength and resist. It seems sad and difficult to feel like a failure when you have uniquely graduated and started a new school. The difference between the one shot dungeons when my ice did them at 100 and then today at 110 made me so upset, she never blocked the crits of the bosses. And the bosses constantly critical. Ice were made to be the tanks and I am not sure if I am going to take my other wizs beyond 100. Polaris is beautiful and interesting and the new spells also. I wish there had been more thought on the amount of critical and block though

Survivor
Jul 06, 2012
7
As the majority of players have stated, the new system is a complete and utter failure. Simply doing waterworks at level 103 I only got 1 critical which was blocked. Out of the 4 players (2 exalted one 1 archmage and 1 legendary) only the archmage blocked a critical. How does 119 block rating block when 233 does not? this isn't 'making it more enjoyable for players' all that it has done is cause for all quests past level 60 to become either twice as long or twice as difficult. In no way is the majority of your players being annoyed or upset at the ''improvement'' while not responding or tweaking gameplay to include their feedback considered taking them into account or reading and caring about their feedback. If indeed any of your employees actually read these forums as you state I would like to see some response in which you address the concerns and comments which have been made. By this I mean actually accepting and replying to the majority who have repeatedly stated that this update is by no means an update or 'fix' rather a downgrade instead of simply stating that players enjoy it. As it stands now what used to be 100%+ critical chance (at roughly 500 critical rating) is now 56% at 103 and the percentage goes down by 1 by every level increased leaving it to be 49% at level 110. In my view this is a huge letdown especially to the players who have bought the packs and gear which you have marketed to 'aid' them which now has hardly any impact on their stats. If this update was due to pvp issues then simply use it for PvP not for mob fights in which the old system was more helpful and enjoyable for all players.

Astrologist
Dec 16, 2009
1035
Mindy GoldenHeart on Nov 28, 2015 wrote:
I am. And for Eric about the part where it helps casual players, it doesn't. They had a chance to block before, but now their gear would give them no chance to either block or critical. Every aspect of this annoying system has a huge negativity.
The truly casual player, the player with no crafted gear, no dungeon gear, no farmed gear etc had almost no chance to block under the old system. It was similarly impossible for them to critical.on mobs or bosses. This new system gives the truly casual player the potential to do just that.

Astrologist
Dec 16, 2009
1035
rocket030 on Nov 28, 2015 wrote:
Just wondering how does it help the casual player other then the chance of getting a critical through. I have seen a lot more criticals come through to me then ones I cast make it through to them. I was also having more make it through at least on the mobs before. Also how do you grow if you still can get critical or block to 100%?
Their chance to get a critical through helps the truly casual player player. The absolute chance of blocking also helps. If you quest through Polaris you will notice that dropped auctionable gear(the kind casual players tend to use) offers huge block- improving their net chance to block criticals. 100% critical and block is still achievable but not without sacrifices in other areas.

Astrologist
Dec 16, 2009
1035
Tyler Dream on Nov 29, 2015 wrote:
And it also completely breaks 50-68 PvP, arguably the most popular level range PvP is played at. Even though it obviously isn't that important to everyone, it still needs to be taken into consideration.
If it does indeed break that lvl range- then that can be an in system fix. Offer arena gear with higher block or up the block on current sets.

Astrologist
Dec 16, 2009
1035
GFoeBreeze on Nov 29, 2015 wrote:
I'm sorry, but you are absolutely wrong. The new system does nothing but imbalance PvE. If you insist on saying that it is balanced, please tell us what you consider "balance" instead of just throwing that word randomly because it sounds pretty. Have you not read what others have said about the new system? It's adding extra frustration to PvE, not balance.
The old system was fast heading to where players would have 100% critical and 100% block simultaneously. In order to offer bosses to challenge said players we would see bosses with stats approaching similar levels. Bosses would have to have higher health pools, more disruptive utilities etc. The casual player simply would not have been able to exist in this type of environment.

Survivor
Feb 14, 2011
1
With the randomness of a critical hit and the almost certainty of no critical block this game has lost the my enjoyment. I used to love the strategy in attacking bosses but now it's just a matter of time when entering a dungeon how long it will take you to die. It's funny how I am max level with over 500 critical and 300 critical block and very very rarely do either. NOT HAPPY WITH THE CHANGE!!!!

Survivor
May 01, 2012
7
The system as it was before...most definitely needed to change . I was at enough block to never get critically hit by anything...and my critical hits would just about always get blocked by everything Azteca and higher . There should also NEVER be any way possible to attain a 100% critical chance as that...really...is just game breaking overpowered...

Now there definitely needs to be a lot of re-balancing done to older worlds , as the critical numbers and block are just not working for players at all and causing enemies to be massively overpowered at the moment for lower characters .

As far as adjusting the critical numbers overall...I would have to say it does need some work...example : My old crafted hat has me at 373 for only 19% critical chance? and then switching into the Majoris "BIS" polaris hat puts me at 321 for a weak 9% chance??? Switching in another 78 critical rating on the other hand...takes me to 35% critical chance...that is a massive gain when it should be a smoother increase curve to a certain extent...not climbing up a very steep hill for gains...

You should use a system of Diminishing Returns...to boost the lower critical ratings to something decent , yet keep anyone from ever reaching a critical every attack...Adjust the rating to obtain the first 10%-15% at normal gain , then at that point start a Diminishing Return on the critical stat...where you start to gain critical rating at a diminishing scale . I would go as far as make it completely impossible to ever gain even a 50% chance...without completely ignoring your other needed statistics...this should be applied to Block as well .

Astrologist
Dec 26, 2013
1124
Maybe it's just incredibly good luck on my part... or maybe it's just wishful thinking... but I spent the entire weekend trying to hammer my exalted wiz through Khrysalis so I can go to Polaris and it seems to me that the critical/block system has been tweaked for the better over the last several days. I found myself going critical and even blocking on occasion. Definitely not like I used to but more than I had immediately following the update. Again, maybe I'm seeing what I want to see... but I tried this on several of my wizards and they all had better luck. I'm sincerely hoping this wasn't just a random run of good fortune but a genuine attempt by KI to bring things around to normalcy. Anyone else notice any improvements?

Survivor
Dec 25, 2011
4
I noticed the change and it is so significant that if it does not change to improve my chance of blocking, I will cancel both my memberships and quit the game. I hope a thousand other members feel this way and respond accordingly so you will make the game enjoyable to play. I don't want it to be so hard it's not any fun. If you don't want to greatly improve my chance of blocking then lower the chance of the enemy rolling a critical. I have almost 200 critical blocking and can't get it very much higher for now. With this level, I am not blocking hardly at all but the enemy is rolling a critical almost every attack. This is unacceptable, I will not continue to play this game like this. I hope you change it soon.

Survivor
Jul 23, 2010
2
I am very upset and hardly play the game as well now, in fact I am thinking of not playing at all anymore! I have spent countless hours farming for gear, I spent a fortune on packs and gauntlets to get gear. I feel like KI just smacked me in the face with this update! Why did I spend all this money and time? So you can take it away from me? I quit pvping for the same reason! This games was awesome, you did not need to fix it! Many games do not make it because the owner of the game thinks they need to fix what is not broken.

I too cannot quest alone now, I never block the bosses crits and I hardly ever crit myself. The cards are never friendly either, what you need is never in hand! Also why did you feel it necessary to take the block down to 25% on the conviction card? If all of this is because of pvp then restrict the gear and cards they can use when pvping, but do not ruin it for the game players!

I will not play much nor will I spend any more money on crowns until this is fixed. Very disappointed in KI's decision right now!

Survivor
Oct 01, 2014
41
Eric Stormbringer on Nov 30, 2015 wrote:
Their chance to get a critical through helps the truly casual player player. The absolute chance of blocking also helps. If you quest through Polaris you will notice that dropped auctionable gear(the kind casual players tend to use) offers huge block- improving their net chance to block criticals. 100% critical and block is still achievable but not without sacrifices in other areas.
I've seen and won Polaris gear. Except for some of the things like decks, amulets, etc it's pretty much just auction gear as you said. And you give up all other stats for that block. Also previous worlds have better usable gear. If you want something to sell you can just go to halfang. And what about the previous worlds? You seem to be trying to stretch it on the benefits to a "casual" player.

Survivor
Oct 01, 2014
41
Isabella0215 on Nov 29, 2015 wrote:
After much thinking and questioning I have begun to understand why the changes have been made. I believe they never planned for the exalted to be as powerful as they had became. If you are exalted and you have 100% critical then you leave no room for growth or expansion.Face it if you have already achieved 100% then you can no longer have any growth, so what by the time you are level 150 you are sitting at 150% critical ? You see where I am going with this they make the changes to leave room for potential growth as more levels are added and world are open to be explored. If you damage is already 128 then what by the time you are level 200 you are going to have 301 damage and start owning bosses with storm beetles? If the changes were not made it leaves absolutely no room for growth by this time bosses and mobs would need to have 100,000 health just to stay alive long enough for you to even realize you were in a fight..

Now here is where they got it all wrong, The just threw the changes in our laps. They made the changes without tweaking the rest of the game without going back and changing how some of the bosses react in earlier worlds, without changes their critical and block rates and leaving things as is. They did not change any equipment to fit these new changes they left the game in its current state and said deal with it. We will fix it later. I dont know about you but if I ran a game I wouldnt say here play it broken hope you like it and then in 4-5 years say well this is not even how I intended my game to be played to begin with so I am changing it completely. If you dont want an uproar you make immediate changes before there is one. You dont let something become the normal, something people grow to depend on making their builds and then shoot it to the ground completely. I understand why this change was made probably alot more than most but I do not agree with it just thrown at me and then the rest of the game be left as is.
Right now with the new system you can have 100% critical or block. So it didn't fix that. All the change has done is put more random in for people who don't have 100%. The people with 100% critical are still criticaling every spell, those that have 100% block are still blocking every critical spell. So no growth left there.

Survivor
Aug 21, 2010
17
Isabella0215 on Nov 29, 2015 wrote:
After much thinking and questioning I have begun to understand why the changes have been made. I believe they never planned for the exalted to be as powerful as they had became. If you are exalted and you have 100% critical then you leave no room for growth or expansion.Face it if you have already achieved 100% then you can no longer have any growth, so what by the time you are level 150 you are sitting at 150% critical ? You see where I am going with this they make the changes to leave room for potential growth as more levels are added and world are open to be explored. If you damage is already 128 then what by the time you are level 200 you are going to have 301 damage and start owning bosses with storm beetles? If the changes were not made it leaves absolutely no room for growth by this time bosses and mobs would need to have 100,000 health just to stay alive long enough for you to even realize you were in a fight..

Now here is where they got it all wrong, The just threw the changes in our laps. They made the changes without tweaking the rest of the game without going back and changing how some of the bosses react in earlier worlds, without changes their critical and block rates and leaving things as is. They did not change any equipment to fit these new changes they left the game in its current state and said deal with it. We will fix it later. I dont know about you but if I ran a game I wouldnt say here play it broken hope you like it and then in 4-5 years say well this is not even how I intended my game to be played to begin with so I am changing it completely. If you dont want an uproar you make immediate changes before there is one. You dont let something become the normal, something people grow to depend on making their builds and then shoot it to the ground completely. I understand why this change was made probably alot more than most but I do not agree with it just thrown at me and then the rest of the game be left as is.
"Now here is where they got it all wrong, The just threw the changes in our laps. They made the changes without tweaking the rest of the game without going back and changing how some of the bosses react in earlier worlds, without changes their critical and block rates and leaving things as is. They did not change any equipment to fit these new changes they left the game in its current state and said deal with it. We will fix it later. I dont know about you but if I ran a game I wouldnt say here play it broken hope you like it and then in 4-5 years say well this is not even how I intended my game to be played to begin with so I am changing it completely. If you dont want an uproar you make immediate changes before there is one. You dont let something become the normal, something people grow to depend on making their builds and then shoot it to the ground completely. I understand why this change was made probably alot more than most but I do not agree with it just thrown at me and then the rest of the game be left as is."

Now this is what i am talking about. You pinned the tail on the donkey with this one Isabella. I agree with this. The pre Polaris worlds need to be fixed as well. When I battle in Polaris the crit changes work there, but any world before that we wizards get roasted alive because we are not able to block any critical hits. I am not talking about just bosses either. The minions need overhauled as well. So KI let me ask a question. Was any of the worlds before Polaris by way of minions and bosses revamped for this change as well? Just wondering because most wizards are not seeing it here.