what am I missing ?

[Sheremetev]

i am just curious, but wont that make problems. with what will rangers fight when they throw all javelins? will option to take next from stash work during battle or take some other weapon or rangers will just die when they wont have javelins left, which will make javelins useless.
Bye the way, the rest of your message is very informative 

The "really nice thing" in this case is that atleast we don't die with the speed of light (actually with the speed of light, but not in vacuum). After Round 20 javelins' damage (both minimum and maximum) are reduced to 50%. Which is not that bad, because now I have to consider my dexterity too, so that I kill any group of opponents before Round 20 (I have a feeling this will become a very common expression). However, now I have a good reason to devise a merc-based strategy.

P.S: If agility will bonus only evade-rate, I will reconsider some of my other plans too. Thanks for the heads-up Xaoc (now I really need the emoticons from GW forum to express myself better)

[thomason]

There will be some twinkling of all characters, some things will be changed tomorrow (for example agility will no longer increase block rate...). A lot of things will change in the item bonuses as well. Do not forget that none of the monster special skills are working... this will quite change the picture, so it is too soon to decide whether one character or another is overpowered. (also I just last week realized we have forgotten to implement the limited shots on the javelins, which made them way too powerful... a lot of monsters will have native resistance to particular weapons, so the usefulness of one weapon or another will change depending on enemy..)

About strength - this is the ONLY attribute/skill that increases minimum damage from the mastery skills.. (ignore armor and piercing shot are limited due to their concrete effect), so in the later stages will be very useful - if we increase anymore its power it may turn out that a fury warrior can kill its enemies with a single hit, which.... (critical hits although very powerful increase maximum damage only... against heavily armored targets may not be as strong)

Xaoc...will there be in the near future some kind of tutorial, that will tell, what kind of enemy we are dealing? For example:
marauder is strong, fight with, his bonuses are...
This will help us, and future players to choose best strategy against specific enemy. And not trying, loosing, trying, loosing, winning Almost each lost battle changes into 10hours resting

[Sheremetev]

Actually there are some really nice amulets and rings for HP restoration. Equipping items with bad combat use, but with good Vit+ bonusse also help significantly increase your HP recovery rate.

[Xaoc]

Yes, we really should do a better job informing about changes - they happen daily... about the Mystics - they are by design support characters - they are strong in a party, not by themselves. Basically they should fight by themselves up until they specialize... after that none of their new skills are for fighting but for mass weakening/strengthening foes and friends.. so to those who play rpg this should be familiar as classic healer/buffer type of a support hero - very valuable for parties but harder to play solo.. perhaps we will add an additional chance to be skipped during battle, so enemies will pick them even less than now. (whether mercs or other players)

[IrishFairy]

Yes, we really should do a better job informing about changes - they happen daily... about the Mystics - they are by design support characters - they are strong in a party, not by themselves. Basically they should fight by themselves up until they specialize... after that none of their new skills are for fighting but for mass weakening/strengthening foes and friends.. so to those who play rpg this should be familiar as classic healer/buffer type of a support hero - very valuable for parties but harder to play solo.. perhaps we will add an additional chance to be skipped during battle, so enemies will pick them even less than now. (whether mercs or other players)

This is nice to know, but the next question is: when you are going to open PARTY option?

[thomason]

Actually there are some really nice amulets and rings for HP restoration. Equipping items with bad combat use, but with good Vit+ bonusse also help significantly increase your HP recovery rate.

I know, I know . I have recover rate at about 121HP/h but still if You lose, you have to wait about 10h for total recovery...

The whirlwind ability is quite nice on level 2. I Do now about 240damage in one round if it is used and thanks to that I have two rounds of battle less made by 1 whirlwind. 3 times whirlwind = -6 rounds

[Polymeron]

a lot of monsters will have native resistance to particular weapons, so the usefulness of one weapon or another will change depending on enemy..

It is very important then that we'll have some way of getting at least a rough, qualitative appreciation of which weapons are better against which foes - for instance, after getting enough kills, or the bonuses appearing in the battle itself, if not beforehand.

About strength - this is the ONLY attribute/skill that increases minimum damage from the mastery skills.. (ignore armor and piercing shot are limited due to their concrete effect), so in the later stages will be very useful - if we increase anymore its power it may turn out that a fury warrior can kill its enemies with a single hit, which.... (critical hits although very powerful increase maximum damage only... against heavily armored targets may not be as strong)

That's a nice argument, but I don't see any realistic scenario for it. A Fury Warrior with 200 Strength has +50% damage (how much damage lost to simple misses?), whereas a Ranger with 200 Dexterity has +20% criticals and always hits. Who here has a better chance for a "one shot, one kill"?

As for armor... Something tells me that if you're fighting an enemy so heavily armored that, not only do you do your minimum damage every round, but even criticals (3x max damage) are significantly reduced, then you don't stand a chance either way. In that case, no amount of Strength would save you - the only thing that could is if you always hit and your opponent hits 25% minus block, and only Agility will take you there.