I’ve been planning a large update to introduce “Talents” for sometime now, and am finally working to get it to you guys. It’s been delayed mostly because it’s such a large update, and I prefer to get updates out quicker. To address this, I’m going to release this update in many pieces: one talent (per spec) at a time.
Brief Explanation of Talents:
Talents will be like a spec for your spec. Each class specialization (ex: sniper, lightningmage, deathdealer) will have ~4 different talent choices. These talent choices will unlock at specific class ranks and will be replacing the bonuses you currently get from class ranks. Here’s my brainstorming sheet – feel free to comment with any talent ideas.
Why you get rid of class-rank bonuses?
Part of the motivation for this change is to make strategy more important than rank. Currently a max-rank player is about 400% as strong as a rank 0 player. This can be frustrating for new players trying to get into the game, and makes highscores only achievable in games with mostly high-rank players.
My goal is to get to a place where the average high-rank player is about 20% stronger than a brand new player, so that strategy matters more than time investment when trying to beat the higher Tiers
What Comes Next?
Potionmaster and Shockmage have already been removed from the game. Both of them will be back (with some slight alterations) as talent choices (for plaguedoctor and lightningmage, respectively).
I’ll start by adding in 1 talent per spec. This means you won’t initially have a choice of talent. However, I’ll then get to work on adding a 2nd talent option for each spec, and so on.
And then…?
After this update, I’m planning on decreasing the difference in power between a rank 0 and 60 gem. I’m also going to be changing the purpose of shards, and instead make gem ranks based on random drops (more to come on this).
I also have some big changes to make in terms of map progression. However, before I can get started, I need rank to matter less so strategy can matter more.