MMO-Champion BlueTracker - Boars & Charge. The (now lost?) FUN Factor.

2008-08-18 15:23:49

Boars & Charge. The (now lost?) FUN Factor.

Pardon me if this has been broadly discussed, but I didn't have any luck with the search.

My wife and I just got into th Beta... and our favorite pets, our Boars, have been destroyed.

Yes, destroyed.

Some are bound to argue that the new Dash/Gore combo is as good or better, statistically, but that isn't really my point. This is about the FUN of launching your Boar at a target and all but seeing the turf fly from beneath his charging hooves as he rips across the landscape to slam into your target. It's gone. Dead. Deceased. Defunct.

Why?

We are talking about THE signature attack for boars. Boars were enjoyed by those who love them BECAUSE of Charge, at least to a goodly portion. To take Charge away from the Boar family is a move that will DIRECTLY hinder the enjoyment of the game by Hunters who have loved their pet piggies for years. Do what you have to do, but you are making a hurtful, mistaken move to implement the new Pet Talent Trees without Boars having Charge.

Dash/Gore doesn't cut it. It's not the same thing. Not when it comes to FUN... and I thought that was the point.

Galathir!

2008-08-18 18:39:35

Re: Boars & Charge. The (now lost?) FUN Facto

We actually debated this issue quite a bit. In the end it came down to a call about whether it was more fitting to boars to keep Charge or whether it was more fitting for the boar to be a tanking pet. The tanking pets were all going to get Intervene instead of Charge, since it let them be more useful as an OT, and we didn't think it was worth the cost of making changes or exceptions to that design just to preserve boars Charging.

In the end, we decided that boars are feared because they are tough. They have leathery skin, a stubborn disposition and had a reputation for fighting on long after their wounds should have killed them. In short, they felt like a tank. We tried to keep the feeling of the old Charge with the bonus component to Gore.

It was very difficult to come up with a whole new system for pets without losing any aspect of the old system that might be important to players. We are genuinely sorry though if there is a change you don't like.

Ghostcrawler

2008-08-20 13:57:24

Re: Boars & Charge. The (now lost?) FUN Facto

It's not a game balance issue really. We wanted to make the tanking pets feel different from the DPS pets by having one Charge and one Intervene.

It might make sense to swap Dash / Dive with Charge / Swoop though for tanking pets. They might have to be on the same cooldown....

We'll think about it.

Ghostcrawler

2008-08-22 16:47:11

Re: Boars & Charge. The (now lost?) FUN Facto

Next patch Tenacity pets will lose Dash and gain Charge. See how that feels.

We'll switch the Boar back to benefiting from Charge as well.

Ghostcrawler

2008-08-22 18:35:08

Re: Boars & Charge. The (now lost?) FUN Facto

We're not pulling Charge from Ferocity.

The ideas is that Charge is generally better than Dash, but is deeper in the tree. Under this new change, for Tenacity Intervene is better and deeper.

Ghostcrawler