LONG POST WARNING: There's a TL;DR at the bottom
Right, gear. I'm going to attempt to explain my opinion on the matter by replying to specific passages that have come up so far in this thread; if I feel like something is missing after that, I'll add it at the very bottom of this post.
Gear has really turned Potterworld into an RPG sort of game, which is where the server said it wants to be heading. However, in my opinion, the gear itself has made Potterworld become less of a Harry Potter, magic centred server and more of something out of History (like many other RPG games).
I would simply argue that Potterworld adding a gameplay element does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. I see a lot of things in Potterworld that, for me, really define its gameplay but have nothing to do with Harry Potter (e.g. daily riddles, hidden chests). For me personally, it doesn't really matter if a gameplay element in PW doesn't have that much to do with Harry Potter, as long as the core of the server stays Harry Potter and I think that is still the case, even with gear added. You might argue that dueling itself has shifted away from HP and more towards the RPG thing, and with that I would have to agree; more on dueling later in this post.
I think that gear being so powerful and over powered, deciding the fate of any duel (ESPECIALLY between a level 80 and a low level player), is silly. I do like the idea of killing mobs and getting stuff which can train your magical ability, but unfortunately, I do not agree with the fact that gear gives people SO much health.
If I remember correctly, the given reasoning behind the increased health is because players that have played for a long time should be able to easily defeat players that have only just joined. And I think that there's some sort of logic in that; I understand that many players would not like this, but it is consistent with the RPG sort of game that PW is trying to move towards. I've personally never been very big on dueling, I was never really good at it and therefore don't really do it (dueling classes for me usually consist of me either running around as a polar bear or me trying to die asap) and so I can't really say to what extent gear really affects dueling, but I can very much say something about the way it has been affecting PVE. For me personally, it is much of an improvement compared to prevelius PVE. I can really feel the difference when getting better gear as fighting specific mobs becomes increasingly easier with every new gearpiece I put on. I personally experience that the health that comes with gear also plays a huge role in this, so removing great amounts of health for PVP would also heavily affect PVE, which I do not believe to be for the best. Feel free to disagree, but that's just how I'm seeing it now.
Though we all know that Potterworld is trying to become almost an independent thing with it's own systems, lore and builds, most of us have come to Potterworld for Harry Potter. Gear effecting health and duels in such a way as it does currently, is not what Harry Potter is like.
True fact: I joined PW for Harry Potter but stayed for the non-HP gameplay elements such as the earlier mentioned daily riddles and hidden chests. Or, different example, the writing classes that almost always have a creative writing option; real Harry Potter classes would not offer a creative writing option when giving out homework to students, but it is extremely enjoyable for me to sit in a class, listen about a topic (OK you got me there, I don't always pay attention throughout notes) and then just write some sort of silly story about the topic I just heard about. The point I'm making? I don't think PW HAS to be all about Harry Potter in order for it to be open to opportunities for enjoyable gameplay.
Here is what I wish gear would be like:
- Gear (like old talents) would give buffs for different spell types
- Gear would give debuffs to some other spell types, making you weigh up your options
- Some gear would give you a lot more damage for certain spell types.
- SOME gear would give health buffs, mainly very high level ones and the max could be somewhere from 30 to 50.
- SOME gear pieces would give special abilities (mainly focused on by the trinket), like quicker speed or higher jumps or being able to cast some spells (not offensive) on brooms.
- A hand piece would be more focused on offence than defence but would not allow 1 shots and would only give some spell trees maybe 1.5x more damage on certain spell types, stuff like that.
As I understand it and as you remark just after this, this is practically what gear already is but without the big amount of health and with more attention to what specific Gear Slots do. The problem I feel I have with the health thing is still PVE. One thing I definitely noticed was that, with lower gear, it became practically impossible to fight higher level mobs (ignoring the possibility to sit in a tree, I'm not a coward) as these mobs could one-shot you, killing you which you don't want as you'd have to pay REPAIR costs (more on that later). I believe the idea of the update was that players were discouraged from fighting mobs that are of a higher level than the gear a player is wearing. Without a big amount of health, how would you suggest this gameplay element is kept in-game? You can suggest removing that gameplay element altogether along with the big amount of health, but I would again have to disagree on that. The idea of the game is that players really have to work their way up in gear, which becomes very hard without all of that health as players would just be able to fight graduate mobs to get instant graduate gear.
In regards to what you mention about better mobility; I disagree with this. I think gear should be mainly focussed on PVP & PVE rather than mobility. It's already affecting mobility with reduced or increased charms cooldowns, and I simply already think this is crossing the line somewhat in terms of to what extent gear affects non-combat gameplay.
Of course, all but two of these things are already done. However, the health change is probably the biggest change that could happen to gear. This would mean that a really good level 30 could beat a really bad level 80, however it wouldn't ALL be skill as the level 80 would also have good gear buffs. Making gear just about buffs and debuffs does actually have quite a bit of relation to Harry Potter mainly in the form of enchantments put on horcruxes (e.g. Slytherins Locket makes people angry, Raven's Diadem makes people more intelligent, the Elder Wand makes people stronger)
Obviously, the new gear would need a big balance with mobs however, I think if higher up mobs were given more abilities (e.g. pull ability, ranged AOE, lingering effects), it would make sure that a low level couldn't kill them (especially seen as they wouldn't have the spells or spell points to do so).
I feel like the way you describe it here would devalue gear pieces a lot in terms of how useful it is. Are people really going to put a lot of time and effort into getting good gear when it would only give a player a few buffs that don't greatly alter the outcome of a duel? I personally don't believe so. I've felt that, since the release of revelius, people have
really been motivated to get good gear and grind for it, which I feel was exactly the aim of this; making gear as you describe it here would remove that motivation in my opinion.
Furthermore, you mention a "big balance" with mobs, but I'd say this would have to be a gigantic balance; practically everything about them would have to change, their health, their attacks and I don't know how efficient that would prove to be.
Edit: I also believe it shouldn't be called gear as gear is a very Unmagical Medieval name
Do you have an idea for a fitting alternative?
Edit: Legendaries should also be made more consistent in usefulness
Idk about this either. Yes, some gear pieces are more useful than others but that's only because there are more people focussing on curses rather than healing, therefore making legendary gear pieces that give increased curse damage more valuable than legendary gear pieces that give increased healing. I don't necessarily think this makes those gear pieces less worthy of being a legendary gear piece, but rather gives room for customisation.
Right now I kill most mobs in max 4 shots. I literally only have 1 lvl 79 common hand piece and starter gear. This is ridiculous, please change gears
What exactly is the problem here, do you feel like your gear is too unbalanced?
Personally I just wish they would disable gear and spell points in dueling, I think a lot of issues would be solved. Then again I am not much of a duelist so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
This is in my opinion the better solution if one is looking for a way to make dueling more fair while also keeping all of the coherent gameplay that I've mentioned so far. I don't think your opinion should be taken with a grain of salt but should rather be seriously looked at, in my opinion.
Armour Durability also needs to go as constant gear repair costs can really start to add up.
Gear repair is a small but very annoying thing to do with gear. So yes, I agree, REMOVE IT
I feel like there is several things going on here that cause the annoyance at gear repair that I'm also experiencing myself:
- The removal of a lot of convenient ways of earning gold (parkour, daily riddle, hidden chests)
- The addition of a lot of ways to spend your gold (crafting new gear or a broom, repairing gear)
Because those 2 have been done in such an extreme way during the update I feel like the economy is slightly unbalanced at this point, as players have to spend a lot of gold that they can barely earn back when they have no quests left to do. Idk, gear repair could work when players can earn a lot of gold very easily, but as long as that's not the case, I agree that it doesn't really fit within the current gameplay.
To be honest this new update is no where near polished and feels rushed. The warpkey being replaced is... moronic.. to say the least, as it limits new and returning players (like me) from being able to do anything. The mobs are scuffed and the gear is broken.
I feel like this is a bit of an overstatement, to be frank. I completely agree with your first sentence that the new update feels no where near done and also feels rushed, as I've noticed quite a lot of things that were promised throughout the 3 months leading up to the update were not actually included. However, one should note that gameplay such as gear requires actual testing on a huge scale, especially when said gear includes over 1000 original gearpieces. I don't think it was ever possible for the staff team to fully test this so there were always going to be unbalanced aspects to this newly released feature, so I don't really think it's justified to attack the update itself based on something that needed polishing through the experience of players.
I don't think the new warpkey bag limits anyone from doing anything, it just makes it harder to do. However, I have found that with the right resources it is possible to still do whatever you want in matter of minutes at the very maximum.
I'm dirt poor because I'm constantly having to repair my gear and buy floo powder because i can't warp anywhere and mobs that are under my level are overpowered. I love the spell trees because it actually gives me, a third year, a chance to fight things. Which leads back to OP mobs... Not much was done right with them. Designs are beautiful, especially in a little block world. But the attacks are hard to read and seem like they track your inputs, and (with little to no gear) are one hit kills even if their level is under you (most the time). My main example of this is the Threstys which can one-shot me, as a level 21 with no gear. I hope this dev team actually reads forum posts and takes suggestions into account. Leveling also seems to be a big problem. I grinded for two hours today as a level 18 to get level 19 and looked like i got close but needed to grind for another hour and a half. I'm now grinding out mods to trying and be eligible for the third year quests and I already know that after that quest is done and dusted I'll need to grind for a day and a half just to be able to do the next one. EXP gain in this server is so horrendous and you barely get any from grinding mobs you can handle with broken gear.
First of all: you don't necessarily
have to use fire dust in order to get around; you can easily walk to places, it just takes a bit longer. Furthermore, I don't necessarily think there is much wrong with the stuff you are describing here. Yes, it takes a while for you to get better gear as you really need to grind for it, but I think that's what this update has been all about: really giving players a reason to grind the game. I remember before the update, the only reason I would ever go to the wilderness to fight mobs was if I either:
1. Needed a specific mob drop for professions that was not on the market (but once I completed all professions, that just went away)
2. Wanted to do the mob hunt daily activities (but this barely happened)
Right now however you really have a reason for fighting mobs; their general drops allow you to craft new and better gear or a broom and mob drops are, as far as I've seen so far, currently the quickest way of earning gold. I personally think it's much better that it takes a while for you to play through the game rather than be able to play through it within several days, because it really gives you a reason for playing and for staying on the server.
TL;DR
I think that gear in itself is a good system for PVE, but I understand that it causes dissatisfaction among duelists. I personally feel like the best way of fixing that would be to have gear and spell points not influence duels, just like luckiestblock suggested. Furthermore, I feel like gear repair does not really fit well into the server right now, given that so many ways of earning gold have been removed.
