Mobs still do staggers and knock backs. The change to grit moving to 300 con drastically affects str melee classes in pve.
I went into castrum victualis on ptr to gather up mobs as I do in live and was unable to fight them. I was staggered and knocked back nonstop. When switching to 300 con I was able to fight them… but it took a lot longer. I switched to light armor and it seems ok… you might need to think more about the changes effects on pve and dungeons.
You have made fighting clumps of mobs (the aoe style for great axe and hammer) in str (the stat line for hammer and great axe) impossible. This is not a good change.
I rarely used 300 str for PvE. I usually used 250 dex/200 strength and it was fine. Most abilities have grit, and DPS should be attacking the backs of the enemies, so you shouldn’t be getting hit anyway.
Yes in mutations I believe it may also be an issue. We will see at end of month I guess. Was not able to test this in ptr since I had neither or the ward gear nor the group to do it
My concern is I don’t think ags devs thought about this based on my time in the ptr.
its not going to be an issue in mutations, like Kipp said the dps are fighting behind them while the tank holds agro. That’s how it is now and it’s most likely going to stay like that. You don’t need grit.
for your open world shenanigans maybe pull less mobs if you’re worried about being staggered
As a light build with only 50 con I found this post a bit funny. Just play keep away and dodge the horde it’s fun, then pick off a straggler that leaves the pack or if you have a really heavy chain of attacks just let er rip into a big crowd. If you die you learn from your mistakes and get better. if you live you can stick with what works. Brimstone isn’t supposed to be easy, it’s supposed to be a meat grinder.
I wish people would stop making excuses for bad changes, on the basis it doesn’t impact their playstyle.
Exactly how do you pull less mobs when soloing malevolence? The next waves aggro on you the instant they spawn. It’s the same with entropy, and a few other fights.
I clear the corrupted camps solo on live , one pull for each area… I understand how to play and survive.
The issue is the buffs you get from both hammer and great axe tree are centered on aoe in large clumps. Bonus damage and bonus’s fortify when surrounded. That playstyle will become ineffective while using the str stat line these weapons are synchronized with… that is dumb.
Weakens don’t kill faster. I already rend the mods with shockwave… which I use in live too… and which does a lot less rend than it used to since now it only affects armor. And which skill now does almost no damage.
The point is why have hammer and great axe with whole skill trees focused on aoe fighting with appropriate buffs to encourage you to pull clumps and kill them… whose main attribute is strength… but if you go over 210 in that stat you can no longer attack those large clumps due to stagger and knock back?
It makes no sense… there is no longer any synergy in the strength weapons. The old devs understood that grit was an offensive perk, not a defensive perk. This change is nonsensical.
If they insist on this changes th ey should reduce mob damage to compensate for the fortify changes. They should remove most mobs staggers and knock backs.
If you are in a dungeon as a dps class then 300 str will be fine as the tank will have agro and you won’t get staggered. If you go to an elite zone then you are expected to have a tank in the group.
Is castrum victualis elite? I honestly don’t know… but on live I can pull 20 mobs and blender them. On ptr I can’t get even close to that.
We will see on the mutation stuff… I was not able to test it in ptr, due to no ward gear. But I do know I get hit in mutators… even though there is a tank and I am trying to stay “behind”mobs. When you are throwing gravs and maelstroms you will get hit. Looking forward to trying it… but things will certainly change due to the fort needs and the melee damage reduction. It may be melees have to go back to medium and maybe 100 con
I am interested to see how dungeons change with the patch to be honest, not that it will affect me as much as I mostly play with my usual 5 man and we all play heavy as we don’t care about the leaderboard, all we care about is guaranteed gold M10’s every time and having fun and joking around as we do it.
Yeah dungeons can be frustrating. I prefer medium armor, around 100-150 con. Then when things go south I can usually save h th e wipe… but some peole I run with want to “speed run” it and want light 50 or even 5 con and push for hatchets and spears… I have not gone below 50 con yet… gets too stressful. It’s funny to hear my friends… “oop I proc’d” every 2-3 minutes. (Referring to the hatchet invincible thing)
I can see why speed runs are appealing to some, get all 25 runs out of the way quicker, it just doesn’t match my playstyle or friends really. We like to hang out in discord, drink and do dungeons, wearing heavy gear is a lot more forgiving when you have had a few drinks lol. Also from my experience, light armor users tend to die often or very quickly which means the damage increase from being light is worthless, I would rather spend 30 mins in a dungeon with everyone in heavy and have 0 deaths and guarantee gold each time.
I’m not saying you can’t guarantee gold each time in light or anything, just that everyone has bad days and doesn’t always perform to the best of their abilities and connections to the servers are not always perfect etc so heavy can give you that little extra breathing room for whatever comes your way, also getting heavy ward gear is super easy as each dungeon/ elite zones has a heavy ward set.