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Critical/Block System Revision

AuthorMessage
Explorer
Dec 12, 2008
74
Hello I'd just like to say good job on Celestia, It definitely gave me a reason to resubscribe again. But onto more important matters PvP (a major endgame feature thats being neglected) and the Critical/Block System (from here on out now referred to as the CBS). While it is a very interesting game mechanic from what i've seen and done with the system i've come to the conclusion that it's not very well implemented and unbalances PvP quite a bit. For instance i've literally 1 shotted full health opponents 4th turn with just leviathan alone and i don't find that the least bit entertaining or gratifying. The system also rewards high end players far too much and penalizes the lower levels who do not possess celestian gear.

What i suggest is a revision or more so a complete overhaul of the current system. Why put it on celestian gear when it could be a character attribute based on your school and level alone.

First let's cover what needs to be removed for the new system to work.
- All Armor CBS Ratings
- All Weapon CBS Ratings
- The Aura Cards that Raise CBS Ratings

And secondly add a list factors that would affect the new system.

- Users can only Crit with their main school
- Crit chance raises with level to a cap of 25 rating (5% chance to crit)
- Defenses are generalized to cover all schools and cap at a rating of 50 (10% chance to block) with the exception of a users main spell school defense that would cap at 100 (15% chance to block).

What this basically does is opens the system up to all levels and gradually raises the ratings actively as you simply level up. It also levels the PvP playing field in that now everyone has a chance to utilize the system. On the other hand it makes criticals less frequent game changers and gives players a reasonably higher chance of blocking it and their own school in which lore wise there character specializes in. Personally i do not like the critical system but this in my opinion would fix the current state of it and enrich PvP gameplay making it a much fairer and more enjoyable experience.

Armiger
May 10, 2010
2080
No need to quote everything the author said.

What you are suggesting, just wont work! Characters pick and chose what they like, which keeps the game in balance. If you want criticals, you give up resists. There is always a trade off when picking your equipment. With your idea, nothing is traded, but also, you would be stuck with only your primary school. You could not critical heal then, only life could and how would that be fair. When you suggest one thing, you have to think on just how fair that is again, what sounds good in your head, when you analyze it, may not be as good as you think when all the problems come out.

The biggest problem here, and the only reason this is a problem, is because sometimes people that are 38 might face a legendary. They are high enough in rank and go during a slow time and the only one around to fight is a legendary, so it matches them up.

If you are lower level, then either wait to find a busier time to PvP, so that you can be matched up with people of your level, or level up. KI has told everyone how matches are determined, but people still want to complain instead of taking the time to level up.

Defender
Dec 04, 2010
121
Very bad idea. I only have critical for my primary school right now, but it simply is terrible. Life would have the advantage. Not only could it critical heal, but the critical would hurt the opponent severely. I know Death and Balance can use Sacrifice and Helping Hands, but Life gets all the heals, and if they critical attack, instant kill.

Also, the low levels would be feeling bad, but do you know how hard it is to Critical sometimes? And the level requirement? Only someone with a Vengeance treasure card or a Grandmaster with Critical gear could make a successful critical!

The high level players? They've earned it. They played the game and reached the goal. Sure, Storm can get 26% more accuracy and Fire can get 140 Critical with ebst Critical gear, but it takes a long time to even get from Level 50 to Level 58!

Explorer
Dec 12, 2008
74
To tell the truth I did think about it and in my opinion it's quite reasonable becuase originally we were not able to perform crits in the first place. On top of that, fighting a life wizard still had its difficulty in that they could utilize power pips to heal quicker and the revision would lower the chance to crit by quite a bit (so it wouldn't be something they could perform all the time.). And while I do beleive now that i should have suggested a far lower critical rating such as 25 which would cap the chance to crit at 5% ,any player can crit heals plus perform on par if not better in an all around sense than a life wizard. Yet by forcing Crit specialization and giving it to every level you bring PvP a little closer to what it originally was and the CBS is made into a combat mechanic and not a playstyle. Also in my opinion when you look at the benefits of choosing to Crit over having defenses, the lack there of defense is far outweighed by the chance to crit for the simple reason that most of the attacks a player receives on average aren't things he or she even has a defense against in the first place. So to me the trade off makes no difference, that and your getting defenses in 2 other spell schools. Unless of course your using the crafted gear which I would still use the previous response to account for.

The Issue is that KI threw the feature in and expected it to work, and while it did great in PvE, the CBS is gamebreaking in PvP and nobody can honestly say the current system is balanced in anyway even with the argument of choice. All it does is promote overpowered attacks and gives a very unfulfilling feel. It's like KingsIsle adopted WoWs habit of highly exaggerated gear stats and threw cards in the equation.

As a side note though I honestly don't like how this game handles open structure decks. With how the cards function and KI's habit of adding stronger spells and gear, the game will always be far more unbalanced than it has to be. This just seems to be a problem in PvE games that try to add PvP elements ...

Explorer
Dec 12, 2008
74
Tom5194 wrote:
Very bad idea. I only have critical for my primary school right now, but it simply is terrible. Life would have the advantage. Not only could it critical heal, but the critical would hurt the opponent severely. I know Death and Balance can use Sacrifice and Helping Hands, but Life gets all the heals, and if they critical attack, instant kill.

Also, the low levels would be feeling bad, but do you know how hard it is to Critical sometimes? And the level requirement? Only someone with a Vengeance treasure card or a Grandmaster with Critical gear could make a successful critical!

The high level players? They've earned it. They played the game and reached the goal. Sure, Storm can get 26% more accuracy and Fire can get 140 Critical with ebst Critical gear, but it takes a long time to even get from Level 50 to Level 58!


There's not need to respond to it all since i answered it it my previous post but as for leveling I have a 60 Diviner and i leveled from 50 to 58 in less than a day. Just grab the quests that have similar objectives such as defeating a specific enemy and repeat dungeons over and over. They give a little less exp each time but hey if its 16k exp the first time and 11 or 10 k the second it's totally worth it.

Delver
Dec 06, 2009
232
You know, I'm glad you started this topic. I completely agree with you on the Critical stuff. It's unfair.

- Oran Titanrider, Grandmaster Thaumaturgist

Explorer
Dec 12, 2008
74
Glad to see someone agrees, the CBS in it's current state totally ruined PvP in my opinion. Whats the point of being competitive when players can be overpowered and easily destroy one another. I look at it this way it's easy to win and easy to lose but it's not fun anymore. And I don't call struggling to survive with only a few hp trying to pull off an attack or for that matter being the one winning, a challenge. Thats simply a one sided battle because of the combat systems rigid nature stacked with the CBS incase anyone thinks thats good reason to pvp.