Letter From the Producer - Exarahn Badlands PvP Content Update - 23/08/2016



Date Posted: 23rd August 2016

Greetings Riders,

Last Thursday, the Exarahn Badlands update introduced a number of new PvP features (including large-scale PvP battles) within Riders of Icarus. We immediately wanted to gain feedback from our community, and through the survey and forums, we heard you loud and clear that the new PvP features we released need an immense amount of improvement. We fully agree with the concerns of our community, and starting this week we are going to begin introducing improvements to the PvP experience. Today, I wanted to share some of the results from the PvP survey. In addition, we are going to share details on the power relationships among the classes that may help you better understand and improve overall PvP strategies, as well as our plans for increasing accessibility of the Exarahn Badlands content.

What did the survey results reveal?


 * 1,632 players participated in the survey.
 * 73% were dissatisfied with the current state of PvP.
 * Players were particularly dissatisfied with the class balance, skill balance and visual lag.
 * 83% of the players feel that the classes are not properly balanced.

For overpowered classes and skills:


 * 36% of players identified Assassins as the most overpowered class. Players feel that their burst DPS is too high, and that their speed, combined with opponent snares, is a deadly combo that other classes cannot escape.
 * 25% of players identified Guardians as the second most overpowered class. Players feel that Guardian HP is too high, making them extremely hard to kill, especially when taking into account their damage absorption skills.
 * Players also thought that mounted skills such as Explosive Shot (combined with +20 Tempering Gear) were overpowered, making it possible to kill characters with a single shot.

For underpowered classes and skills:

57% of players felt that PvP was not pay to win. For those Riders who felt that it was pay to win, the main reasons were:
 * 39% of players identified Priests as the most underpowered class. With low defense and damage, many of you felt it was hard to survive in Exarahn as a Priest.
 * Tempering Stones were sold in Ellora's Shop, making it possible for players spending real money to reach Lv. 20 tempering faster than others.
 * Tempering Protection also allows players spending real money to reach Lv. 20 tempering faster.
 * Full health restore potions in Premium Service resulted in higher survivability for those who have those potions.

Additional feedback discovered in the survey includes:


 * Graphics lag and framerate issues are severe in the Exarahn Badlands; often to the point where normal gameplay is not possible.
 * Some guilds were monopolizing certain areas of the Exarahn Badlands, making it nearly impossible for other players to get marks and expand their collection. The Camara Mark was especially problematic due to the collection event that was going on at the same time.
 * Action Mode did not work properly during Manastone Battles.
 * Moreover, there was a general concern from players who do not want to participate in PvP or felt that they had to be a part of a large guild or alliance to complete their familiar collection.

What was the intended design for class balance?

Each class is meant to possess strengths and weaknesses against opposing classes, and there are attack multipliers assigned to each relationship. For example, Priests are supposed to be especially strong against Berserkers and Guardians, which is contrary to what players expressed in the survey. The chart below identifies how each class is expected to fair in battle when matched up against other classes with all factors being equal.



When it comes to a mounted player engaging in combat against a non-mounted player, their skill accuracy is intended to be reduced significantly. However, for wide range attacks like Explosive Shot, non-mounted players have a higher chance of getting hit, which led to many one-hit kills.

For the Tempering Stones sold in Ellora's Shop, the intent was to allow players who were not properly geared to catch up. Tempering Stones are commonly dropped in instance dungeons but were made available to purchase through Elluns in an effort to make them more accessible to all players. However, some players felt that the Ellun price was too high compared with the amount of Elluns they are able to earn in-game.

What are we doing to improve PvP?

We will be taking some immediate action in a game update currently scheduled for this week and making adjustments throughout the coming weeks to fine tune the PvP experience for the community. Here is a list of some of the more immediate actions that will be taking place:

PvP Balancing:


 * PvP will be rebalanced, with most of the PvP attack damage being lowered so that each character has a higher rate of survival.
 * The power relationship (as shown in the chart above) among the classes will become more pronounced. The following is related directly to the above table:
 * When a stronger class attacks the weaker class, the stronger class will deal between 84~103% of the damage they currently deal.
 * When similarly powered classes attack each other, they will deal between 63~78% of the damage they currently deal.
 * When a weaker class attacks the stronger class, the weaker class will deal between 39%~56% of the damage they currently deal.
 * Accuracy of the mounted player's attack against non-mounted player will be reduced by 75%.
 * Explosive Shot damage will be reduced by 40%.

Taming and Tempering Chances


 * The Facebook Likes Buff event will be extended to September 7th with the following added benefits:
 * +20% Taming Success
 * +20% Tempering Success
 * Shorter Respawn Time of Heroic Familiars
 * For a limited time only, Heroic Familiars will spawn 4 times faster:
 * Agnas: 60 minute spawn time reduced to 15 minutes
 * Karresh: 150 minute spawn time reduced to 37.5 minutes
 * Terror Kerav: 120 minute spawn time reduced to 30 minutes
 * Venomous Casper: 120 minute spawn time reduced to 30 minutes
 * For a limited time only, Raid Familiars will spawn 3 times faster:
 * Daveen: 120 minute spawn time reduced to 40 minutes
 * Dark Knight Ashuram: 300 minute spawn time reduced to 100 minutes
 * The Camara Mark will be given out through a special weekend event taking place August 27th and 28th.
 * The first week of the Special Familiar Collection event will be extended by one week. This will give players until August 31st to collect Camara. More details on this event extension will be provided soon.

Tempering Stones Availability


 * We will still continue to offer Tempering Stones in Ellora’s Shop for Elluns during promotional periods. However, based on player feedback, we will be fine tuning the purchase options (including price), taking into account the length of each sale period and the amount of Elluns that a player can potentially earn in-game during that period. As we continue to make adjustments, we will strive for a balance between accessibility and cost.

Quality Improvement and Bug Fixes


 * PvP region-specific Graphic Option settings will be added in the near future. If a player chooses to use this option, the graphic settings will be lowered in the Exarahn Badlands and restored when the player exits that region.
 * Action Mode will be fixed for Manastone Battles.

What are we doing to increase accessibility of PvP familiars to all?

For our community, having familiars that spawn exclusively in the Exarahn Badlands gave the impression that PvP was mandatory and not optional content. In addition, many of those who lead modestly sized guilds and alliances felt that they did not have a fighting chance to tame the rare familiars from the Badlands as the larger sized guilds and alliances control access to these familiars. We agree that PvP should be an option to all players, and that all players should be able to partake in our content.

To address this concern, we will be introducing the Lair of Ienos in a few weeks which is a personal instance-based dungeon where familiars of all grades will spawn at set rates. Players will first defeat the dungeon boss Ienos, then get a chance to tame a spawned familiar with the "Master Mark" drop. We’ll have more announcements regarding Lair of Ienos in the near future.

Improving PvP balance will be an ongoing process for the next few months, and each point mentioned above is only the beginning. We are committed to making Riders of Icarus better during the Open Beta testing process, and we will update all of you on a regular basis, continuing to gather your feedback and share potential changes.

Thank you once again for your support and feedback!

Han Sol Junger Producer, Riders of Icarus