JuareZz JuareZz

Blood of the Fallen

Blood of the Fallen

Before killing me for another Balancing post, read this.

 

BotF is not overpowered favor item. For example for rook its very needed because of the tank playstyle. But I think Its another thing if LE, Sedna or UB get it. Lord Erebus hasd 80 health more, making him much harder to kill. I saw a few minion EBs, which had 6,5k life on lvl 10. Its not funny. I think Sedna has low health but high regen. This is designed so that shes vulnerable vs burst, but not vs DPS. UB has the highest standard Armor. Its made to make him protected vs DPS. But Blood of the Fallen destroys this Design I think. All in all HP Items are too strong, like everyone knows, or lets say DPs items and so on cant stand this. I mean when i play reg, and theres another reg in the enemy team, he has BotF and I have Poisened Dagger or any Damage Item else, hell fist me in any case. Now i swear you say "Poisened Dagger is better lategame". Maybe, thats right. but BotF for example complately absorbs one rain of ice IV. I dont play TB anymore.

92,702 views 44 replies
Reply #26 Top

Quoting JuareZz, reply 17

Compeltely ignored Mana & DPS items
End of JuareZz's quote

No! I did not meant that. There no way of ignoring mana items. I have no aim to overhelm by hp, i need to be much stronger than a fatty by having nearly-even hitpoints.. there are much awesome items that give hp-armor or hp-mana (sure u know them).. and about dps you are particulary right. I ignore dps in most cases playing a fast demi making damage by mana and abilities instead. but there are mostly teamplay builds.

Reply #27 Top

Quoting Maff86, reply 26

Quoting JuareZz, reply 17
Compeltely ignored Mana & DPS items
No! I did not meant that. There no way of ignoring mana items. I have no aim to overhelm by hp, i need to be much stronger than a fatty by having nearly-even hitpoints.. there are much awesome items that give hp-armor or hp-mana (sure u know them).. and about dps you are particulary right. I ignore dps in most cases playing a fast demi making damage by mana and abilities instead. but there are mostly teamplay builds.
End of Maff86's quote

 

I think the only DG where DPS items make sense is Reg, or lets say, DGs without any Range dont need a real DPS.

Reply #28 Top

Quoting JuareZz, reply 27

I think the only DG where DPS items make sense is Reg, or lets say, DGs without any Range dont need a real DPS.
End of JuareZz's quote

Regulus is a great DD but dps items also needed when enemy demigod got no armor or u have a need in fastkill ie ganking a sedna by a team.  It depends of situation course

Reply #29 Top

Quoting Maff86, reply 28

Quoting JuareZz, reply 27
I think the only DG where DPS items make sense is Reg, or lets say, DGs without any Range dont need a real DPS.
Regulus is a great DD but dps items also needed when enemy demigod got no armor or u have a need in fastkill ie ganking a sedna by a team.  It depends of situation course
End of Maff86's quote

 

Hey Maff i remembered i palyd vs you you were in a premade team

Reply #30 Top

Quoting JuareZz, reply 29

and you were in a premade team
End of JuareZz's quote

Yas i was. And i am in a sort of a team. Just wanna to play with people who knows how to play.. If u do not like my mates, we can play in a duel.. not matters.. but please do not force me to play with some badasses who asking how to throw a fireball

PS offtopic sorry

Reply #31 Top

Blood of the fallen works perfectly.

Its the useless favor items which make it see so OP = Buff the useless favour items to be just as useful.

Reply #32 Top

Quoting AmaZing_HerO,
Blood of the fallen works perfectly.

Its the useless favor items which make it see so OP = Buff the useless favour items to be just as useful.
End of AmaZing_HerO's quote

Exactly. Most favor items are just useless and need to be buffed. BoTF is good as it is now, just give it more usefull alternatives.

Reply #33 Top

Agreed. Something has to be done about the unused favor items.

Reply #34 Top

Quoting pseudomelon, reply 33
Agreed. Something has to be done about the unused favor items.
End of pseudomelon's quote

 

Thats what I wanted to tell the devs with the post. Thanks.

Reply #35 Top

Exactly. Most favor items are just useless and need to be buffed. BoTF is good as it is now, just give it more usefull alternatives.
End of quote
No they're not.

You're really just underestimating the variety of favor items which get used already. These ones are used frequently:

 

  • Blood of the Fallen (surprise!)
  • Anklet of Speed
  • Blade of the Serpent
  • Staff of Renewal
  • Heaven's Wrath
  • Cloak of Night
  • Horn of Battle (yes I realize it's inactive atm)
  • Ring of Might (same deal as HoB)

 

Seriously that's not a bad variety at all.

 

These items get infrequent use:

 

  • Blood Soaked Wand
  • Amulet of Teleportation
  • Poisoned Dagger
  • Symbol of Purity
  • Cape of Plentiful Mana
  • Totem of Endurance

 

Does infrequent use mean bad/average players use them but experts don't or just that they have very specific niches? I don't know, but I have seen some of these items used to great effect.

The items that get no usage generally have very straightforward explanations:

  • Charm of Life - Shitty version of BotF
  • Sam-El's Cloak - Redundant with game mechanics implemented after its creation, ultimately a shitty version of the Anklet of Speed
  • Essence of Magic - Incredibly shitty version of BotS
  • Mard's Hammer - Not directly comparable in some ways, but still just a shitty version of BotS
  • Furious Blade - Characters which benefit from autoattack cap out on attack speed late in the game if they get the items they need anyway. Ultimately a shitty alternative to BotS or Poisoned Dagger
  • Totem of War - Shitty version fo Ring of Divine Might
  • Pendant of Grace - Not directly comparable but it's generally worse than the HoB

 

 

Pretty much all assassin favor items are viable and many of the items which aren't used aren't used because they're worse than other items with identical or similar effects, not BotF. I don't see a problem with favor items that are worse than each other so long as they're also cheaper than the item they're worse than. Just because people who play a lot cap out on favor points doesn't mean that having a price scale is a bad thing.

Favor items by and large are fine and I think the ideal way to increase variety is to add interesting new items rather than nerf the most popular ones.

End of quote

Reply #36 Top

There are 28 favor items summary (horn included).

There are 7 favor items imo are usefull (horn included, but they will probably nerf it too much, like they did with HoL). Maybe 2 or 3 additional items are, in some cases, worth considering (like Amulet of Teleportation on Mandala, Dominate game, but still why AoT has 45 sec cooldown when normal teleportation scroll has just 30 sec !? That's why I would probably not take AoT in this conditions anyway).

 

Well, maybe for you it's fine this way...

Reply #37 Top

There are 7 favor items imo are usefull (horn included, but they will probably nerf it too much, like they did with HoL).
End of quote

  1. Blood of the Fallen (surprise!)
  2. Anklet of Speed
  3. Blade of the Serpent
  4. Staff of Renewal
  5. Heaven's Wrath
  6. Cloak of Night
  7. Horn of Battle (yes I realize it's inactive atm)
  8. Ring of Might (same deal as HoB)

 

  1. Blood Soaked Wand
  2. Amulet of Teleportation
  3. Poisoned Dagger
  4. Symbol of Purity
  5. Cape of Plentiful Mana
  6. Totem of Endurance

Sorry if you don't like all those items, but there's 14 favor items which are quite usable, not seven.

Maybe 2 or 3 additional items are, in some cases, worth considering
End of quote
Not every favor item needs to be useful in every single situation. If they have their niches that's fine, for example the Cape of Plentiful Mana is excellent on Leviathan.

So half the favor items aren't good. It's not ideal, but it's not nearly as bad as you guys make it sound.

but still why AoT has 45 sec cooldown when normal teleportation scroll has just 30 sec !?
End of quote
Are you serious? Being able to use a teleport scroll for free every 30 seconds was probably just deemed too powerful. If you disagree that's fine, but you shouldn't pretend to outright not understand it.

Reply #38 Top

I tend to agree with Obscenitor's list here.  There are quite a few not so good items, but I do go back and forth with the items he listed based on character, team, etc. 

Reply #39 Top

Well, the truth is everything depends from point of view. I used around 10 favor items at least few times (and I think they are quite fine, still I would change few of them just slightly). For me, there are chars with just 1 right favor choise (eg. beast). But that's my opinion of course. Sure some people will say they would take mana favor with beast, so they can spit opponents without buying mana items. Of course they are right (it will be usefull item to always have a lot of mana), but for me it's no sense to do this with this char. We are talking about BoTF here, because this item is so good (comparing to others), with some chars there are just no alternatives (again that's my/some other people opinion).

About being usefull. I have seen people who was claiming goggles are usefull favor item, and i'm not saying they are completely useless. You can see mines with them, so they are usefull if you really want to see those mines ! But for me, there is no sense to take them, because there are other, much better choices. You can take goggles and you will gain usefull ability, but other favor item would help you much more in game. I would like to see something like: additional passive +200 hp/mana and active 30s cooldown ability on goggles which sends 15 meters fake detonation signal which has 75% chance to detonate each mine. It could mark once revealed mines too for your allies to see them (like you see mines near your towers). And why don't we have favor items with chances to deal critical damage ? Eg. Mard's Hammer could have 15% chance to deal 1.5x critical damage. Mard's Hammer is good favor item, but imo it's just not good enought right now.

Still, even in your opinion, just 14 favor items are usefull, so don't need changes. Why do we have another 14 then ? I said most, because I believe (in my opinion !) most items need more of less changes (including almost all from the "infrequent use" list you quoted - eg. CoPM should have additional +4 mana/sec, to work on first levels without forcing you to buy mana helmet).

Reply #40 Top

and I think they are quite fine, still I would change few of them just slightly
End of quote

fair enough :)

Reply #41 Top

About being usefull. I have seen people who was claiming goggles are usefull favor item, and i'm not saying they are completely useless. You can see mines with them, so they are usefull if you really want to see those mines !
End of quote
Sure, but you've gotta admit I didn't add the Charm of Life to the list just because when you're oak on fortress mode on Cataract it's a fort busting tool with last stand, I listed items which have much, much broader usage than a gimmick like spotting reg's mines.

When I say some of those other items have a niche I mean things like the Cape of Plentiful Mana, which gives you 400% mana per second for 10 seconds on a 45 second cooldown... On Leviathan that's an AoE buff which gives more than 600 at level one and as the game goes on that can easily scale up to 1200 mana for 2-3 players at once. It has a legit niche on any flag with a mana regen flag and while that's currently only Leviathan and Exile, there will probably be more as more maps are added. That's not remotely comparable to the crazily narrow niche the goggles have.

On a sidenote though the goggles are actually fine if you assume eventually more stealth effects will be added to the game. I would wager that eventually a DG with limited stealth will be added or there will be items like invisbility potions/cloaks/etc. and there may be other unusual effects or abilities that make use of it like mines (you'll notice it still wasn't on my list because those don't exist yet though). /endtangent

I would like to see something like: additional passive +200 hp/mana and active 30s cooldown ability on goggles which sends 15 meters fake detonation signal which has 75% chance to detonate each mine.
End of quote
Two problems here. First the passive 200 hp/mana is just balls-out insane. If it were just 200 health or 200 mana per second it would be the absolute best favor item and virutally no others would get any usage. 200 health per second is a full BotF every four seconds and 200 mps is just outright infinite mana, not to mention any % mana effects would modify it (it already works with the HoL, you can get a full mana bar back in about 3 seconds with a plenor crown).

Now that may have been a typo, maybe you meant 20, which is much more reasonable for health but still overpowered for mana, but I have a greater issue with your second use effect... It takes what's wrong about the goggles and then just amplifies it in hopes that it'll become good. It's only useful against one DG using one specific build, that's the whole problem with goggles in the first place.

Why do we have another 14 then ?
End of quote
There's a few reasons. The most obvious one is that not all favor items are the same price. Some of them really are just meant to be filler items while you save up for the superior ones, take the Charm of Life for example, or the totem of war compared to the Ring of Divine Might. Because we all get capped out on favor points so quickly I think this is commonly overlooked. Not all cheap items are bad, but most are. The Anklets of Speed are good, but I would say that's because they're either too cheap or too strong.

Thematically cheap items sucking is fine, and if you excuse the poor quality of inexpensive items you cut down the list of favor items in need of improvement dramatically. It makes sense in every other game I've played, it's fine in this one. Rather than buff cheap items like the Coin Pouch or the Brilliant Bauble it make more sense to me to take what you like about those items and build new items with superior stats which cost more, especially with how badly favor points overflow after a week or two of play.

The second reason why some items are bad is because they were fine when created and game mechanics have changed. For example there used to be an invisibility cloak at the shop in beta. The goggles probably made more sense in that context.

 

The only items which truly and unjustifiably suck are the Furious Blade, Wings of the Seraphim and the Essence of Magic/Mards hammer, which are both just shitty versions of Blade of the Serpent.

Reply #42 Top

Just a little correction. I never wrote 200 hp/mana per second. I meant just passive hp/mana increase (so item would help just a bit in close 1 vs 1 fight). 800 hp difference (BoTF and not) is a lot early game, when chars has 1400-1900 hp. Well, maybe BoTF should scale like lvl 1-9 400 hp, lvl 10-20 800 hp ? Or even more steps (400, 550, 700, 800 ?). I really would like to see scaling on some favor items (not only BoTF), depending from your level.

Another thing is, I don't really like hp scaling in this game, and hp flags don't helps here. Just check cataract map and hp stack UB (not only UB, that's just one of many examples - another are Ereb, Oak, Rook). With HP flag UB has like 8k HP, and still can be more at level 20. That's why I will always take BoTF with UB - it just gives a lot early and late game (late game with HP flag, then every single HP counts, because it's % increase). Imo HP flags should scale same as BoTF - so they should give static amount of HP depeding from lvl (like 200, 250, 325, 400 max). Right now HP flag can give you more than 1100 hp late game, and thats a lot ! Not mentioning, priests heals you with % amount, depending from your max HP (another reason why BoTF is imo the only right choice for some chars). So I think many things need a little tweak, not only favor items (% flags, % priests heals shouldn't be %, but some specific amount, based on your level).

Well that's my feelings. I played pantheon games, and I see why UB + Ereb combo is so hard to beat there - both of them has a lot of HP, especially using BoTF with captured HP flag.

PS: I made a little off topic here. Sorry about that.

Reply #43 Top

Just a little correction. I never wrote 200 hp/mana per second. I meant just passive hp/mana increase (so item would help just a bit in close 1 vs 1 fight).
End of quote
I read your post pretty late at night, I must not have been in my right mind, I apologize.
Well, maybe BoTF should scale like lvl 1-9 400 hp, lvl 10-20 800 hp ? Or even more steps (400, 550, 700, 800 ?). I really would like to see scaling on some favor items (not only BoTF), depending from your level.
End of quote
That just brings it so close to the Charm of Life, Staff of Renewal, and Totem of Endurance, those would have to be nerfed as well.
Imo HP flags should scale same as BoTF - so they should give static amount of HP depeding from lvl (like 200, 250, 325, 400 max). Right now HP flag can give you more than 1100 hp late game, and thats a lot ! Not mentioning, priests heals you with % amount, depending from your max HP (another reason why BoTF is imo the only right choice for some chars). So I think many things need a little tweak, not only favor items (% flags, % priests heals shouldn't be %, but some specific amount, based on your level).
End of quote
I like the importance of HP flags, unlike items you can fight over them and I like how they pull combatants together. Also I would think you'd be frustrated with the debilitating flag too if the HP flags are an issue.

Reply #44 Top

I think it's funny the way the metagame has shifted for a lot of folks.

Early:  Swift Anklet is great!  You move fast, and movement is evertyhing.

Mid:  Blood of the Fallen is great!  You get to outlast people, and against people focusing on speed you just stand there while they keep running away.

Now:  Cloak of Night is great!  You get to suprise people with movement.  It's like Swift but better!

 

Personally, I think Cloak ends up with the exact same problems as Swift in premade vs premade.  Unless priests scaling heals are ever changed, Blood is the best item for a general.  Blade of the Serpent is the only alternative for assassins (read: UB) in serious games.