PvP Balancing Changes
In our State of PvP blog we discussed two PvP minigames: Last Man Standing and Bounty Hunter, as well as issues affecting PvP gameplay. Since then, the Last Man Standing rework was released last week, and the Bounty Hunter rework design is well under way with a follow up blog and poll just around the corner. We also implemented all the polled changes discussed in the blog.
The overpowered granite maul and Dinh’s bulwark were consistently raised in your PvP feedback. To remedy this, we acted on feedback and decided on the following changes:
The Granite Maul
Left, the standard granite maul with the new attachment and right, with both the granite clamp and new attachment fitted.
The granite maul was a powerful, low-cost special attack weapon with high KO potential given its ability to stack several hits simultaneously with other weapons. To stop an inexpensive weapon being so powerful, the granite maul’s special attack energy cost has been increased from 50% to 60%. This means the special attack cannot be used back-to-back.
To prevent the granite maul (and many accounts specifically built around it) becoming unviable, we would like to keep the high KO potential available, but at a higher cost, thus increasing the risk. A new upgrade item, the ornate maul handle, has been added to the Bounty Hunter shop for 1,250,000 BH points. When upgraded with this item, the energy cost of the maul’s special attack is reduced to 50%. When lost on death in PvP, the ornate maul handle will convert to 375,000 coins.
Dinh’s Bulwark
Dinh’s bulwark was considered to offer too much protection. When used in combination with black dragonhide, the bulwark made tanking and escaping from PvP situations far easier than intended. Initially we proposed reducing all the defensive stats of the item. After feedback, only the Magic defence bonus of the bulwark has been reduced – from 18 to 0.
Bind, Snare and Entangle
Another issue facing PvP is that the standard spellbook is underpowered compared to the Ancient spellbook. One example is the Ice Barrage spell, which deals high damage and freezes the target in place for 19.2 seconds. In comparison, the best spell for holding an opponent in place on the standard spellbook, Entangle, freezes the target for 14.4 seconds, deals no damage and has its duration halved if the opponent has the Protect from Magic prayer enabled. While the Ancient spells are balanced by their high requirements, we thought it would be beneficial to improve the Bind, Snare and Entangle spells by removing the duration limiting effect of Protect from Magic.
Another highly requested change was to make the Snare and Entangle spells available in free-to-play worlds. Due to concerns around it being overpowered in free-to-play PvP, Entangle remains members-only for now, but Snare is now available for all.
Last Man Standing
We’d like to thank everybody who has enjoyed playing the Last Man Standing rework. The following changes have been made based on your feedback:
- There smoke puff animation now has a matching sound when loot crates are opened.
- The messages at the end of a game have been reordered.
- The LMS reward shop menu’s click-zones have been expanded to include the pictures as well as the text. Pest Control’s reward menu has received this change too, for item rewards, and its text colours have been updated to match the clearer ones used in LMS.
- The description on the LMS coffer has been corrected.
- The Staff of Balance has had its missing special attack button restored.
- NPCs in LMS can now be targeted by members-only Ancient spells on F2P.
- Players may no longer go up vertical ladders in LMS if they have recently been in combat; this restriction previously applied at some points during a game, but now applies throughout it. The restriction does not stop players climbing down the LMS ladders and does not apply to the diagonal ladders of watchtowers either, since the upper level of those is visible from the ground.
- XP drops no longer overlap with the HUD.
- The number of LMS-enabled worlds has been adjusted now that the launch rush has settled down.