Final Fantasy XII The Struggle for Freedom. Struggle for Freedom (SFF) is a difficulty/rebalancing mod for Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age (PC). Note that this patch is intended for English speakers. May 05, 2018  While your units will be much smaller than the over capped brigades (3.5k - 5k) with good positioning you can deal with them. The Legendary starts can be very punishing currently so if you are playing on that difficulty expect restarts.

1. Create Your Own Difficulty Rebalance Table
2. Create Your Own Difficulty Rebalance Back

Campagne said:“ stuff ”I was gonna post a mid-sized post, but most of it just turns into further BM indirectly.The only thing I will post from it that if you are going to look at stats, you have to look at all the stats or none; you can't ignore or make excuses for KPM when every single one of your weapons is low. You can't ignore the stats of every single weapon and just focus on the single one that you have good stats on, especially when that one weapon is class restricted to the very class we are arguing is in need of nerfs. You can't ignore overall general stats or claim it is simply because it is an old account, when shows it is very much the same level right now (compare that to and see that while some of his old weapon stats are pretty mediocre, his stats for newer weapons and sessions match the better stats).

TobiMK said:“ So the infiltrator?So the infiltrator?So the infiltrator?I fully agree. ”The Infiltrator does not win the battle. We need a sundy to start the battle.' .gets to the battle.parks sundy.sundy starts getting destroyed by a tank.

'Oh well. Nothing we can do about that. Let me just go pull another sundy.' The Infiltrator can't repair or defend the respawn point, revive their team, or the big tank to take out every enemy in their way.

Those things are most important to winning, so no. The Infiltrator is not the best tool in winning. If one side was only Infiltrators and the other side was only medics, the medics would most likely win.Just as an anecdote, there was a fight at one of the bases on Esamir, and it was literally a squad of medics.

We took 1 down, he got revived by the other medic. We took 2 down, they got revived by the other medics. It was insane.

The only reason we took them down was because everyone decided to funnel in from the sides and front and gang up on them, and we almost lost that too.If you want to win the battle and the continent, you wouldn't choose only Infiltrators. Lets take Infiltrator combat part by part.

Lets talk snipers first.So, lets say I am sniping, which I usually am. If I am within 100 meters, I have a whole lot more targets I can kill, but a whole lot more targets that can kill me. If I am a good enough shot, theoretically I can end all engagements and be at the top every time, but I am not and I don't. I wouldn't call myself a skilled player really, because I am super laggy and make dumb decisions, but I can sometimes get that flick headshot, albeit usually accidentally, and I usually try to hit the head when I am super close.

So within 100m, higher chance of kills, higher chance of death, decent contribution to the battle.Out at 200m, its more of actually sniping. You can get a decent amount of kills if you can hit your shots and are less likely to die, and that is probably your optimal range for contributing to the battle. You can get good vantage points without being too close, but after you make a few kills, you need to have a good sidearm to keep you alive, and then if someone gets close, you have to change position, unless you are confident enough to take them on. Then you can just stay put.

You have a lower chance to kill players because of the range, a lower chance of death, but optimal contribution to the battle. You are also 'safer'.Now, out at 300 meters, you are getting less kills, it is harder to hit your shots, you are less likely to die to infantry, excluding enemy snipers, and you are relatively safe. You aren't contributing much to the battle. You are only contributing to your personal stats.

When you get to 400 meters, AKA my Railjack territory, you are very safe, very low kills, very low deaths, and not contributing at all to the battle. You probably won't get 1 shot headshots from that range depending on what sniper you are using and you won't be getting 1 shotted unless the person shooting at you has a Railjack.

It is pointless to go out that far unless you are just playing for stats. That is pretty much long range sniping.Now, with CQC sniping, your likelihood of kills goes up, but your likelihood of dying increases as well. Say you have 50% headshot ratio with a 50% accuracy. You have a 25% chance to hit the head with your shots, a 25% chance to hit the body, and a 50% chance to miss all together. If all of their shots hit, you will die within a second. It takes 1.1 seconds for you to rechamber your rifle if you miss.

Lets say they also have the same accuracy and headshot ratio. It will now take over a second for them to kill you, meaning that if you miss, you have another shot. If you miss the first shot, rechamber, and hit a headshot, they are dead. If you miss the first shot, rechamber, and miss the second shot, you are dead. If you hit the first shot, rechamber, hit the second shot, they are dead.

Those are your options in that scenario. WE ARE EXCLUDING DODGING AND RUNNING!!! So basically, the weapon, in its most basic form, requires you to hit your shots and if you don't, you can't rechamber in time to kill them if they have greater than a 50%. This ends the sniper section.Lets talk Stalkers. As a stalker, you have to choose your targets wisely, usually when they are alone. Lets say you are using your default pistol.

You already will jump out on an unsuspecting player, so that gets you 1 or 2 extra shots on them, getting rid of their extra health. They have already lost the advantage. Lets say you are within 10 meters. It takes 5 shots with the Mag-Shot to kill in that range.

You have already shot them once or twice, meaning you need 3 or 4 more shots within that range. They are turning around to kill you. You now have a short window of time to kill them. You have 50% accuracy, and so do they.

With that window of time, you can kill them. Now when they respawn, you have to watch out for them to come with a Darklight, so now you have to move. However, this time they are looking for you and are trying to face you straight on. They are going to be ready when you jump out, so you have to jump out from behind again, or else you are dead.

Lets say you don't, because you are cornered and they are coming right for you. Within 10 meters, it will take you 10 shots to end them if you have 50% accuracy. Let me just state now that i know that isn't how accuracy works. You aren't guaranteed to hit a shot then miss the next. You could hit every shot of that mag and miss the whole next mag or miss at other parts in your mag, but this is just for the sake of argument. The Mag Shot has a firerate roughly 360 shots per minute, which is 6 shots per second.

It will take you over a second to kill them. Lets say they are also using their faction default. You are already a shot down in this situation because of your health, so you are going to die in that situation. Again, no dodging. That concludes a basic Stalker rundown.Now lets talk SMG Infiltrators. This will not include Battle Rifle or Scout Rifle Infiltrators, because nobody complains about those anyway. The SMG Infiltrator can easily close the ground between you and another person.

Your downside, again, is being a shot down. Lets say you are using the faction higher damage SMG, such as the Cyclone. Theoretically, you will win every engagement because you can close the ground so quickly and end up behind them and ambush them. That is pretty much how it would work, but that doesn't always happen. In a head to head battle, however, you will most likely lose, so you avoid those. I don't really care to argue for SMG Infiltrators, because I don't want them in the game, but to win as an SMG Infiltrator, you have to play in their peripheral vision or behind them. You can only take on one target at a time, so you have to take on stragglers usually.

At least that is what I have seen. You have to also cloak as little as possible so as to not give off your position. If you cloak too much, the enemy turns to face you and you are then in a head-on battle. You are most likely going to die in that situation.

That is SMG Infiltrators in its most basic form.I don't think Infiltrators are OP. I am not looking to be right for these points. I am looking to be proven wrong. If anyone cares about the Infiltrator cloaks and tools, I will post those later if you force me to mention those.

TobiMK said:“ So the infiltrator?So the infiltrator?So the infiltrator?I fully agree. ” I can name 2 other classes that can kill way more, far faster than the Infiltrator. The Infiltrator is just fine. Give it a rest. It is like you just look for things to have them mess up.

Some of you spend way too much time on here to really be players of the game, but you know, I am going to give you the benefit of doubt. Practice will make even pure garbage seem like the best thing ever. It takes time and effort to red light, green light up to a crowd of people to get at them with the Light Dagger.

People who get those kills earned them. The few that you see on Youtube that rush in headlong and get kill after kill, are a very small percent of a lucky few. Most die horribly. I know because I kill more than my fair share of new players thinking: 'That B.R.A.S.P. 'So can I- Aaaaaaaaaaw.'

Infiltrators are an annoyance at times, but they are truly terrible fighting multiple people. Especially the ones that can truly stay hidden. You must hunt down and stalk your target, or be waaaaaaaaaay far away taking potshots at people hoping they stand there long enough to score that skull candy. Sobdude said:“ ”So to make this clear, the mere fact you sometimes see the Ghost/SAS-R/TSAR as a top 5 (sometimes not even in typ 20) in use weapon on these players means it is over-performing? Meanwhile, these players have kills in the several thousands more in many different LMGs + consistently get a higher KPH with their LMGs.As for most used weapon. You see plenty of different weapons per class and then the Ghost (and the rest) hover around top 5 (sometimes not even that).There's a big difference between being competitive/viable and over-performing.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of weapons out there that performs similarly or outperforms it. The main issue players seem to have (much like with shotguns etc) is the OHK capability. I can actually sympathise with that and I would much rather had seen scout rifles has the main weapon class for infiltrators (especially fully automatic scout rifles). Pnkdth said:“ So to make this clear, the mere fact you sometimes see the Ghost/SAS-R/TSAR as a top 5 (sometimes not even in typ 20) in use weapon on these players means it is over-performing?

Meanwhile, these players have kills in the several thousands more in many different LMGs + consistently get a higher KPH with their LMGs.As for most used weapon. You see plenty of different weapons per class and then the Ghost (and the rest) hover around top 5 (sometimes not even that).There's a big difference between being competitive/viable and over-performing. Meanwhile, there are plenty of weapons out there that performs similarly or outperforms it. The main issue players seem to have (much like with shotguns etc) is the OHK capability. I can actually sympathise with that and I would much rather had seen scout rifles has the main weapon class for infiltrators (especially fully automatic scout rifles). ”Uh excuse me sir, heavies take skill and finesse. Ladies, ladies, please, you're both pretty!

Joking aside, I would say that ALL infantry classes are viable and useful in their own correct situation. Infiltrators are wonderful at playing like a jerk, sneaking around, knifing guys in the back of the head who aren't looking, but after a certain amount of time, that stops being viable. You see those darklights come up, it's probably better to switch to harassing from a distance or swap to another class.You're expecting a knock down smash mouth punch the enemy right in the face brawl with lots of fatalities?

Heavy is your guy, or medic to cert grind from the heavies in front of you who haven't learned how to dodge yet. Maybe, but if you don't have an engineer behind you, you're going to get nibbled to death. Any approach of a doorway means death by C4, so not that great in that setting. Infiltrators are RIGHT OUT, except for MAYBE if there is an exposed flank or some usefulness that can be gained from their motion tracker. But if all they manage to do is kill one guy in the back of the horde who wasn't even involved in the fight to begin with, they're not contributing enough dropped bodies to contribute to the battle, and they're not providing defense on the point.

Heck, more often than not, a light assault is going to spot them creeping around and give them a buckshot butt massage because they often fail to look up. So, infils are annoying when they get in and knife you in two hits, but I don't see them as overpowered per se.But I think we've lost sight of the real evil here: The concentrated HATRED that are Harasser drivers. Pondera said:“ Ladies, ladies, please, you're both pretty!

Joking aside, I would say that ALL infantry classes are viable and useful in their own correct situation. Infiltrators are wonderful at playing like a jerk, sneaking around, knifing guys in the back of the head who aren't looking, but after a certain amount of time, that stops being viable.

You see those darklights come up, it's probably better to switch to harassing from a distance or swap to another class.You're expecting a knock down smash mouth punch the enemy right in the face brawl with lots of fatalities? Heavy is your guy, or medic to cert grind from the heavies in front of you who haven't learned how to dodge yet. Maybe, but if you don't have an engineer behind you, you're going to get nibbled to death. Any approach of a doorway means death by C4, so not that great in that setting.

Infiltrators are RIGHT OUT, except for MAYBE if there is an exposed flank or some usefulness that can be gained from their motion tracker. But if all they manage to do is kill one guy in the back of the horde who wasn't even involved in the fight to begin with, they're not contributing enough dropped bodies to contribute to the battle, and they're not providing defense on the point. Heck, more often than not, a light assault is going to spot them creeping around and give them a buckshot butt massage because they often fail to look up. So, infils are annoying when they get in and knife you in two hits, but I don't see them as overpowered per se.But I think we've lost sight of the real evil here: The concentrated HATRED that are Harasser drivers. ”I like the way you worded that. Thank you for being relatable.

Sobdude said:“At another hour these BASRs may be even at 1-3 places. ”These are very small samples (from a limited time frame) and for some reason you are excluding NS weapons.

There are also not much difference between the Ghost than the other weapons below it. The Bruiser almost at the same level and PA shotguns are not exactly described as the hottest weapons out there.You got to look at the wider picture. Also, explain why it is suddenly not important to view top players stats when they, for the large majority, perform better with LMGs. We must also consider that top players or subscribers are testing out the waters by playing NSOs.I fully acknowledge the low magnification BASRs are really good weapons but I think it is unfair to single them out when they're not exactly blowing any other weapon class out the water. Somentine said:“ The only thing I will post from it that if you are going to look at stats, you have to look at all the stats or none; you can't ignore or make excuses for KPM when every single one of your weapons is low. You can't ignore the stats of every single weapon and just focus on the single one that you have good stats on, especially when that one weapon is class restricted to the very class we are arguing is in need of nerfs. You can't ignore overall general stats or claim it is simply because it is an old account, when shows it is very much the same level right now (compare that to and see that while some of his old weapon stats are pretty mediocre, his stats for newer weapons and sessions match the better stats).

”I don't agree, not all stats are relevant. For example I'm apparently very bad at landing headshots. With rocket launchers.

That's not exactly important. But for my KPM, does it not make sense, given that almost every one of my weapons has a fairly low KPM, even ones which generally favour a more aggressive playstyle?The claim of age was actually TMK's claim. I was simply stating my character is old too, older in fact. Yet the defense of age is only brought up for his character and not mine.

Somentine said:“ Hi, does that just fine. If you want I can PM you the reply I was going to post, but it mostly says the above just with more numbers. If you legitimately don't understand why almost every stat there is mediocre or worse, then I can help clear up some of the misunderstanding and maybe even help you improve them.

”PM if you want to, I'll not say no but I don't particularly have an interest in it. I can't even play the game right now thanks to the mouse input problems the DX11 patch brought, so I doubt it would actually help me much at all if ever it could. Thanks for the willingness to help though, I suppose.But why do you say this, when generally the worse grades I get according to the site are Cs for most weapons and Bs to As with most everything else? At worst I'm average in some stats and above average in others, with my favourite weapons being quite good and a few of my least favorite being what I would actually call fairly bad.I especially hate the Gladius, Promise, and EM1 as much of my post history may indicate, and yet I actually do fairly well on the bell curve in most areas. I just don't feel like your claims are very fair.

“ Actually I intentionally did not include my KPH because it would be pointless. I don't know about anyone else, but I spend a lot of time not immediately fighting. Lots of chatting with friends mostly, otherwise there'd be no point to this game being multiplayer.

But I also end up AFK more often than I'd like to be and frequently spend time in menus or moving around, especially with my Longshot. Do you really think I spent over eight entire days staring through a scope? This is a trend you can actually see fairly consistently for me, I generally don't spend 100% of my time fighting. ”In the interest of comparison, why don't you make a new character then and snipe for a few sessions? I'm sure your other stats would stay the same if your KPM wasn't 'deflated' by spending so much time AFKing. “ Most other snipers aren't even going to hit me and anyone who gets close typically answers to my sidearm.

Mostly vehicles that get me when I have my rifle out because they do it instantly without a direct hit and a pistol isn't going to help in that situation either. ”You're making my point for me. Long-range sniping is a risk-free playstyle, and your stats reflect this perfectly. Sniping in close range and maintaining high KD and high accuracy is how you can evaluate an infiltrator's skill reliably. “ Hilariously, this isn't true.

All of your sniper rifles have much lower accuracy. Furthermore, as I said you were playing that character today. Some of my weapons have awful stats because I used them when I was very new to the game and ran with 15FPS. I didn't start with a Longshot and you didn't either. Even your Moonshot has much lower accuracy.

”This is also my first character which I used when I was new to the game? I also played with bad FPS for the first years.

Difference is that I've always been sniping under high-pressure CQC situations, no matter the type of sniper I'm using.In addition to that, my snipers nowadays (for example Daimyo on TobiMK (60% acc) and Ghost on LuckstaaaVS (64% acc)) are better than your Longshot accuracy, all while being played under far more difficult conditions. “ But regardless I'm getting signals lighting up from all across the board here. Your 'TobiMK' character, whom again you still play to this day, doesn't have nearly as good stats as these three.

Not only is there a suspicious consistency between the three, but there is a suspicious lack of consistency between TMK and those three. ”I created my XCarapacePlease characters at the end of 2017, and played them as my main characters for most of 2018. During that time all my old characters (including TobiMK) became pretty much inactive. I started playing on TobiMK again in late 2018, when I joined a new outfit. That's why virtually none of the guns on TobiMK resemble my high accuracy from my 3 Miller characters.

The GODSAW is the one closest to it, since I finished that aurax after coming back to the character. Similarly the Charger is also a gun I recently started./quote. TobiMK said:“ Unfortunately being convinced of your own argument doesn't magically make it correct.In the interest of comparison, why don't you make a new character then and snipe for a few sessions? I'm sure your other stats would stay the same if your KPM wasn't 'deflated' by spending so much time AFKing.You're making my point for me. Long-range sniping is a risk-free playstyle, and your stats reflect this perfectly. Sniping in close range and maintaining high KD and high accuracy is how you can evaluate an infiltrator's skill reliably.What?

The accuracy is so high precisely because long-range sniping inflates it. Being at no pressure or risk to quickly land a shot and having virtually unlimited time to line up and track your enemies will make your accuracy higher on paper than it would be under actual fighting conditions.This is also my first character which I used when I was new to the game? I also played with bad FPS for the first years. Difference is that I've always been sniping under high-pressure CQC situations, no matter the type of sniper I'm using.In addition to that, my snipers nowadays (for example Daimyo on TobiMK (60% acc) and Ghost on LuckstaaaVS (64% acc)) are better than your Longshot accuracy, all while being played under far more difficult conditions.Looks like the stats are deceiving, as they so often are for people reading them incorrectly.I'm fully aware that my accuracy on automatic guns is an outlier. I simply found a playstyle I enjoy (aiming slower than back in the day and playing with high trigger control).I created my XCarapacePlease characters at the end of 2017, and played them as my main characters for most of 2018. During that time all my old characters (including TobiMK) became pretty much inactive. I started playing on TobiMK again in late 2018, when I joined a new outfit.

That's why virtually none of the guns on TobiMK resemble my high accuracy from my 3 Miller characters. The GODSAW is the one closest to it, since I finished that aurax after coming back to the character. Similarly the Charger is also a gun I recently started.

”/quoteIf you play a class to its strengths, it will perform well. IF YOU PLAY AN INFILTRATOR IN LONG RANGE SNIPING, YOU WILL MOST LIKELY DO WELL!!! The thing is, the farther you go out, sure, the safer you are, but the less impact on the battle you have. I have already said this, but Planetside 2 is not an arena shooter. You can't say a class is unbalanced just because it kills well. Planetside 2 is a combined arms game.

Your goal is to lock the continent by capturing the most bases and winning alerts. Thats pretty much how you win. Lets take winning in a small part, say winning a battle. If the Infiltrator is truly unbalanced, it EASILY contributes THE MOST to the battle with very little detraction from the battle. In an optimal situation for the Infiltrator, you won't. You contribute very little to point holds, other than recon.

Your optimal place is sniping, that is, taking out high priority targets from long range. In a 24-48 battle on both sides, you can't kill everyone. You have to prioritize your targets, which will help contribute to the battle. That is why most of these noob snipers do nothing for battle. They only contribute to their personal stats, which mean nothing. TobiMK said:“ You're making my point for me.

Long-range sniping is a risk-free playstyle, and your stats reflect this perfectly. Sniping in close range and maintaining high KD and high accuracy is how you can evaluate an infiltrator's skill reliably. ”No, you are making an assumption of a playstyle and building an argument upon that assumption. As you say further down, a player can be aggressive with any kind of rifle, but you just automatically assume that because I have an almost universally low KPH I must only be playing in this one specific style. I'd say ask 'so and so' but I don't know of any common victims that still play this game.

Dat player turnover rate. TobiMK said:“ What? The accuracy is so high precisely because long-range sniping inflates it. Being at no pressure or risk to quickly land a shot and having virtually unlimited time to line up and track your enemies will make your accuracy higher on paper than it would be under actual fighting conditions.

”Again, if anyone could achieve this level of accuracy over this numbers of shots, I would not be in the top 0.125% of all players. Play as carefully or not as one wishes, he isn't going to get the same level of accuracy automatically. TobiMK said:“ In addition to that, my snipers nowadays (for example Daimyo on TobiMK (60% acc) and Ghost on LuckstaaaVS (64% acc)) are better than your Longshot accuracy, all while being played under far more difficult conditions. ”If anything, it shows these close-range conditions are less difficult.

Because a long-range rifle on average has a much lower accuracy, it suggests that firing at long ranges is more difficult. Your 60% and 64% are M+ and M respectively, though each have far fewer shots fired and in the case of the Ghost hasn't even reached 1000 kills yet. A higher accuracy is considered lower on the bell curve with short-ranged weapons over long-ranged ones, suggesting that many more people achieve a higher accuracy in 'high-risk' situations than 'low-risk' ones with range. TobiMK said:“ I created my XCarapacePlease characters at the end of 2017, and played them as my main characters for most of 2018. During that time all my old characters (including TobiMK) became pretty much inactive.

Create Your Own Difficulty Rebalance Table

I started playing on TobiMK again in late 2018, when I joined a new outfit. That's why virtually none of the guns on TobiMK resemble my high accuracy from my 3 Miller characters.

The GODSAW is the one closest to it, since I finished that aurax after coming back to the character. Similarly the Charger is also a gun I recently started. ”Makin' me work for this one! That was four seconds of my life wasted with that copy-paste.Again, this is not really indicative of anything. The more a weapon is used the more the stats tend to average out. A new weapon like your Charger has much higher stats because it has a much much lower usage.

Once it goes on up into the thousands it'll be much less of an anomaly to the point of total uniformity, one would imagine. Sobdude said:“ Special for you. Another time, same picture:Because to their kills numbers contribute all three factions. You can divide these number by 3 or even 4.Or you can add all 3 types of close-range BASRs and then compare to NS weapons.

I thought this is so clear to understand.Multi-class weapon vs. Single-class weapon. Still doesn't ring a bell?Because top players have a little influence on my (and not only mine) perception of the game, short range BASRs PLAGUE in its turn do have. ”I notice the lack of evidence but do go on and twist stats/cherry pick. It becomes me convincing every time. Promise.Let's say the Bruiser is used by less than optimal classes buuuuuut it still performs on a similar level. I guess it needs to be nerfed because some of the classes over-perform.

Create Your Own Difficulty Rebalance Back

Do I have any evidence for this? Nope but apparently I don't need any of that. I'll just project my own feelings about the game because feelings facts, right?

Lament’s dmg NEEDS to be buffed or some other buffReasoning is if you look at the primary element of each class and the mythics associated with that, the difference is quite a lot.Cata (thunder is assassin’s prime element) no need to say much about this boiStrati (air is archer’s prime element) no need to say much eitherAlka or Apoc (earth and fire are warrior’s prime elements) holy crap these two weapons nearly broke the gameAs you can see lament which is water and that is mage’s prime element needs to match the other mythics mentioned but it clearly does not. It needs a buff of some sort. Lament’s dmg NEEDS to be buffed or some other buffReasoning is if you look at the primary element of each class and the mythics associated with that, the difference is quite a lot.Cata (thunder is assassin’s prime element) no need to say much about this boiStrati (air is archer’s prime element) no need to say much eitherAlka or Apoc (earth and fire are warrior’s prime elements) holy crap these two weapons nearly broke the gameAs you can see lament which is water and that is mage’s prime element needs to match the other mythics mentioned but it clearly does not. It needs a buff of some sort. Click to expand.When I'm disagreeing with an argument to buff Lament you know something is wrong1, Classes don't have 'prime' elements, sure most people will wanna use water mage/fire earth warrior/air archer/thunder assassin, but classes are just as effective with other elements (except maybe water warrior and fire archer)2, these arguments are subjective, alkatraz never 'broke the game'Buff Lament, but make better arguments telling why it actually needs a buff than comparing it to mythics that have no similarities or have anything to do with itEdit: surprised you didnt mention Guardian here. When I'm disagreeing with an argument to buff Lament you know something is wrong1, Classes don't have 'prime' elements, sure most people will wanna use water mage/fire earth warrior/air archer/thunder assassin, but classes are just as effective with other elements (except maybe water warrior and fire archer)2, these arguments are subjective, alkatraz never 'broke the game'Buff Lament, but make better arguments telling why it actually needs a buff than comparing it to mythics that have no similarities or have anything to do with itEdit: surprised you didnt mention Guardian here.

Braker3 SlotsSlow Attack Speed600-750 Neutral DamageLevel 99-100 Spell Damage (70-130)10 Strength SP (3-13)77% Exploding (23-100)-20% Speed (14-26)-1750 Health Bonus (1225-2275)20% Earth Defense (14-26)20% Thunder Defense (14-26)20% Water Defense (14-26)20% Fire Defense (14-26)20% Air Defense (14-26)Reasoning: Braker was dubbed 'basically hive spear but bad' for a long time. The revamp massively increased its base damage (as you can see if you compare it to old braker) and gave it massive negative spell damage to encourage melee builds. The reason why we chose to increase the base damage and reduce spell instead of just add melee damage on it is so that, with enough investment, you can counter the negative spell damage for an interesting effect and surprisingly high spell damage as well, but we'll leave you guys to figure out how to optimize it.

The elemental damage is also replaced by elemental defenses to give an extra leg up for survivability. Issues: Beetle Aegis needs an extra powder slot to be viable for glassy earth builds.Justifications:Beetle Aegis is fine in terms of identifications and overall benefits, but the lack of a powder slot really harms its attempt at a superglass earth chestplate.

Since rage stacks and your rage damage increases with each% you have, you end up losing a fair amount of damage in certain builds such as glass gma, even though Beetle Aegis has such amazing identifications.I think that Beetle Aegis needs an extra powder slot in order to be viable in one of the build styles it attempts to push. To balance this, higher -elem defenses could be added to solidify the idea of a glassy thunder-earth chestplate. Issues: Not rewarding enough when compared to its heavy drawbacks.Also, Alkatraz makes my eyes hurt.

Why does it have to be cluttered with a ton of useless IDs.Justifications:Yes, I know it can do the highest melee DPS in the game. But there are several drawbacks to the weapon:- Its immensely high strength requirement limits your build options. On top of this, the -agility makes tier-stacking builds much glassier than they would be on a different weapon.-Lack of any powder specials. Quake Alkatraz would be stupid powerful, but the lack of courage or curse means that Alkatraz isn't actually that powerful compared to other melee-oriented items.-Negative walk speed also makes you really glassy. Being lethargic prevents you from easily dodging projectiles, forcing you to tank them.While the drawbacks are fine in theory, Alkatraz simply doesn't give enough to justify them IMO. The high requirement ensures that the user has great difficulty setting up a tank build. A build with sufficient survivability is very often matched by other builds, as despite Alkatraz having excellent raw melee output, it can often be rivaled by other weapons through the use of powder specials.In terms of spells, Alkatraz suffers from all of its drawbacks while lacking any special abilities.

Its spell output is powerful, but can easily be challenged by other mythic spears with builds that lack the intense lethargy and restrictiveness that plague Alkatraz spell builds. Alkatraz is clearly made to be a melee weapon, but its strict requirements only combine with its lackluster spell performance to create a weapon that feels lacking and boring.The only real outstanding option for Alkatraz is the super glassy melee stacking option. 25k+ melee DPS is undeniably powerful, but it comes with a hefty cost. All the drawbacks mentioned above play a role in weakening this option.Agility and -walkspeed discourage tier stacking and make the weapon extremely glassy. Without any reliable stunlocking options due to the nature of melee builds and spell warrior, tier-stacked Alkatraz is immensely glassy, far too much to be viable.I was really hoping that items like Rekkr and the revamped Warchief would make Alkatraz builds far more rewarding. To an extent, they did, but not enough to make Alkatraz worth using at the mythic level.

If Alkatraz is to remain the highly restrictive, highly costly weapon it is right now, it needs something to make it worth the effort needed to set it up and use it. Its damage is dampened by the lack of a powder special, which makes it less impressive than many might think. Lament’s dmg NEEDS to be buffed or some other buffReasoning is if you look at the primary element of each class and the mythics associated with that, the difference is quite a lot.Cata (thunder is assassin’s prime element) no need to say much about this boiStrati (air is archer’s prime element) no need to say much eitherAlka or Apoc (earth and fire are warrior’s prime elements) holy crap these two weapons nearly broke the gameAs you can see lament which is water and that is mage’s prime element needs to match the other mythics mentioned but it clearly does not. It needs a buff of some sort. Issues: Beetle Aegis needs an extra powder slot to be viable for glassy earth builds.Justifications:Beetle Aegis is fine in terms of identifications and overall benefits, but the lack of a powder slot really harms its attempt at a superglass earth chestplate.

Since rage stacks and your rage damage increases with each% you have, you end up losing a fair amount of damage in certain builds such as glass gma, even though Beetle Aegis has such amazing identifications.I think that Beetle Aegis needs an extra powder slot in order to be viable in one of the build styles it attempts to push. To balance this, higher -elem defenses could be added to solidify the idea of a glassy thunder-earth chestplate.

Issues: Not rewarding enough when compared to its heavy drawbacks.Also, Alkatraz makes my eyes hurt. Why does it have to be cluttered with a ton of useless IDs.Justifications:Yes, I know it can do the highest melee DPS in the game.

But there are several drawbacks to the weapon:- Its immensely high strength requirement limits your build options. On top of this, the -agility makes tier-stacking builds much glassier than they would be on a different weapon.-Lack of any powder specials. Quake Alkatraz would be stupid powerful, but the lack of courage or curse means that Alkatraz isn't actually that powerful compared to other melee-oriented items.-Negative walk speed also makes you really glassy. Being lethargic prevents you from easily dodging projectiles, forcing you to tank them.While the drawbacks are fine in theory, Alkatraz simply doesn't give enough to justify them IMO. The high requirement ensures that the user has great difficulty setting up a tank build.

A build with sufficient survivability is very often matched by other builds, as despite Alkatraz having excellent raw melee output, it can often be rivaled by other weapons through the use of powder specials.In terms of spells, Alkatraz suffers from all of its drawbacks while lacking any special abilities. Its spell output is powerful, but can easily be challenged by other mythic spears with builds that lack the intense lethargy and restrictiveness that plague Alkatraz spell builds. Alkatraz is clearly made to be a melee weapon, but its strict requirements only combine with its lackluster spell performance to create a weapon that feels lacking and boring.The only real outstanding option for Alkatraz is the super glassy melee stacking option. 25k+ melee DPS is undeniably powerful, but it comes with a hefty cost.

All the drawbacks mentioned above play a role in weakening this option.Agility and -walkspeed discourage tier stacking and make the weapon extremely glassy. Without any reliable stunlocking options due to the nature of melee builds and spell warrior, tier-stacked Alkatraz is immensely glassy, far too much to be viable.I was really hoping that items like Rekkr and the revamped Warchief would make Alkatraz builds far more rewarding. To an extent, they did, but not enough to make Alkatraz worth using at the mythic level. If Alkatraz is to remain the highly restrictive, highly costly weapon it is right now, it needs something to make it worth the effort needed to set it up and use it. Its damage is dampened by the lack of a powder special, which makes it less impressive than many might think.

Lament’s dmg NEEDS to be buffed or some other buffReasoning is if you look at the primary element of each class and the mythics associated with that, the difference is quite a lot.Cata (thunder is assassin’s prime element) no need to say much about this boiStrati (air is archer’s prime element) no need to say much eitherAlka or Apoc (earth and fire are warrior’s prime elements) holy crap these two weapons nearly broke the gameAs you can see lament which is water and that is mage’s prime element needs to match the other mythics mentioned but it clearly does not. It needs a buff of some sort. Click to expand.So speaking of this change when are we going to remove the negative WS on Grandmother? It just doesn't make any sense with the weapons design, Grandmothers biggest weakness is the high req and negative health regen making it harder to use with builds that don't specialize in earth and hard to use consistently as main weapon; the negative WS just gives it too many weaknesses. Cataclysm and Grandmother are very similar weapons in their gimmicks, they offer high damage while sacrificing survivability, if Cataclysm doesn't have negative WS I don't believe GMA should either.

So speaking of this change when are we going to remove the negative WS on Grandmother? It just doesn't make any sense with the weapons design, Grandmothers biggest weakness is the high req and negative health regen making it harder to use with builds that don't specialize in earth and hard to use consistently as main weapon; the negative WS just gives it too many weaknesses. Cataclysm and Grandmother are very similar weapons in their gimmicks, they offer high damage while sacrificing survivability, if Cataclysm doesn't have negative WS I don't believe GMA should either. Click to expand.Cataclysm is thunder element which is fast while grandmother is earth element is slow.In general these weapons have a glassy design which is lowers survivability in exchange of big damage. The negatives are not uncounterable as well, but requires sacrificing some of your builds for them.ws makes more sense in gma since it is themed to be slow and big damage in contrast of archer which is fast in nature. Elemental traits and class of the weapons are also something we consider when designing and rebalancing the items.

Cataclysm is thunder element which is fast while grandmother is earth element is slow.In general these weapons have a glassy design which is lowers survivability in exchange of big damage. The negatives are not uncounterable as well, but requires sacrificing some of your builds for them.ws makes more sense in gma since it is themed to be slow and big damage in contrast of archer which is fast in nature.

Elemental traits and class of the weapons are also something we consider when designing and rebalancing the items. Click to expand.Well maybe there is a bit of miscommunication on what the cata change means.

While the -ws on cata change is thematic and not related to balance, but that doesn't mean a thematic trait can't be part of balance as well. The -ws on gma have both balance and thematic implications, for the amount of damage gma gets, -ws and -hpr is crucial to the core of balance since that's why they're there.Gma actually does more damage than it should be, even for a mythic, that's why there are ws and hpr double negatives on it. If you ask me I think the core issue of gma is that it is more unpleasant to use than it is actually imbalance due to the double negatives.hpr is good for comboing with rage and -ws is easy to counter as an archer if you run agility with it.

Tho if we see more issues with gma in the future we'll be sure to take a further look at it!Thank you so much for your feedback! Issues: Beetle Aegis needs an extra powder slot to be viable for glassy earth builds.Justifications:Beetle Aegis is fine in terms of identifications and overall benefits, but the lack of a powder slot really harms its attempt at a superglass earth chestplate. Since rage stacks and your rage damage increases with each% you have, you end up losing a fair amount of damage in certain builds such as glass gma, even though Beetle Aegis has such amazing identifications.I think that Beetle Aegis needs an extra powder slot in order to be viable in one of the build styles it attempts to push.

To balance this, higher -elem defenses could be added to solidify the idea of a glassy thunder-earth chestplate. Issues: Not rewarding enough when compared to its heavy drawbacks.Also, Alkatraz makes my eyes hurt. Why does it have to be cluttered with a ton of useless IDs.Justifications:Yes, I know it can do the highest melee DPS in the game. But there are several drawbacks to the weapon:- Its immensely high strength requirement limits your build options. On top of this, the -agility makes tier-stacking builds much glassier than they would be on a different weapon.-Lack of any powder specials.

Quake Alkatraz would be stupid powerful, but the lack of courage or curse means that Alkatraz isn't actually that powerful compared to other melee-oriented items.-Negative walk speed also makes you really glassy. Being lethargic prevents you from easily dodging projectiles, forcing you to tank them.While the drawbacks are fine in theory, Alkatraz simply doesn't give enough to justify them IMO. The high requirement ensures that the user has great difficulty setting up a tank build. A build with sufficient survivability is very often matched by other builds, as despite Alkatraz having excellent raw melee output, it can often be rivaled by other weapons through the use of powder specials.In terms of spells, Alkatraz suffers from all of its drawbacks while lacking any special abilities. Its spell output is powerful, but can easily be challenged by other mythic spears with builds that lack the intense lethargy and restrictiveness that plague Alkatraz spell builds. Alkatraz is clearly made to be a melee weapon, but its strict requirements only combine with its lackluster spell performance to create a weapon that feels lacking and boring.The only real outstanding option for Alkatraz is the super glassy melee stacking option. 25k+ melee DPS is undeniably powerful, but it comes with a hefty cost.

All the drawbacks mentioned above play a role in weakening this option.Agility and -walkspeed discourage tier stacking and make the weapon extremely glassy. Without any reliable stunlocking options due to the nature of melee builds and spell warrior, tier-stacked Alkatraz is immensely glassy, far too much to be viable.I was really hoping that items like Rekkr and the revamped Warchief would make Alkatraz builds far more rewarding.

To an extent, they did, but not enough to make Alkatraz worth using at the mythic level. If Alkatraz is to remain the highly restrictive, highly costly weapon it is right now, it needs something to make it worth the effort needed to set it up and use it. Its damage is dampened by the lack of a powder special, which makes it less impressive than many might think. Click to expand.Thanks for your feedbacks!For beetle aegis:So the design principle behind beetle aegis is the lack of access to powder special, which is vital to its identity and gives it more room for power. The design itself is glass cannon (go figures) and well, it is a weird predicament because both cardiac and bete noire exists as endgame earth/thunder chestplates, it would seem we have more than enough options. While both cardiac and bete gives superior damage, they both give negative attack speeds and hpr, which makes beetle aegis the safer option as it does not have the two restrictions in exchange for slightly less power. I have actually tried to add a powder slot to it in the past in exchange for less power but at the end the team agrees that it would actually took away a portion of what makes the item special.For Alkatraz:I guess one thing that we can already agree on is alka doesnt really suffers from performance issues as you already kinda implied.

Alkatraz, by its name and design, is to trap and constrict the player to a very specific playstyle, which in this case is represented by no slots, high requirement and stereotypical earth traits of negative ws and agility (agi counters str). In a way, alka's damage and negatives are less extreme than what you can find on some other mythics if you think about it, but that is also what makes it reliable too. As you have already suggested, it can perform well not only in glassy melee (which, you dont really need to be glassy if you sacrifice some dps) and even in spell builds, which most earth weapons only lend itself to melee. The only real option that alka is bad at is heavy melee (the irony lmao) due to loss of access to powder slots, but other than that, alka itself offers quite a diverse playstyle.Rebut me if you will, but I think the negatives on alka is actually kinda, well, not that severe when compare to what you get from other glass type mythics.

For the most part, the walk speed naturally gets countered half of the time if you tier stack it, the negative agility is the 'real' downside which is only 10 point at the minimum, which is actually kinda relevant to balance out the 25k insane dps that it is getting.High damage on alkatraz doesn't have to make alkatraz builds do the best damage, the negatives are manageable by countered with building less offensively and more defensively while the high damage on alka itself can compensate for the gap. If you build less dps you can easily find yourself countering the negatives on alka, much tankier, and with plenty of damage to spare. If someone can make a tank alka build I am sure that is quite something, but the idea that 'tank alka' might actually be within the realm of possibility is one of the ways why alkatraz is rewarding if you dabble in tinkering how to optimise it for the best for your own playstyle.Is it really not rewarding enough and is the drawbacks really that severe? I think there are rooms for some thinking here.the following is my personal opinion.

I think alka is quite a fantastic oddball of mythics as it is kinda gimmicky but it is not extreme, it hits that sweet spot. My personal favourite is spell alka with galleon but I actually use alka tier stack with 2 kaze which gives the build very good mobility and I have fun mowing down mobs (not so for bosses but its not exactly a boss build).