Hello all!
The new patch is out and many things are changed. I like the changes, others don´t...
... find out for yourself and before you start whining, try to change your playstyle and use the new possibilites the patch offers!
Note: Please consider, that I am not a skilled player and don´t care about my K/D, if you are skilled, some of the suggestions and hints may be worthless for you.
I. Hotkeys
Q = voice command menu, currently only "whistle" is fully implemented, "attack", "follow me" and others are text only
P = assign yourself to a battalion
F1 = Set/move the flag for your battalion
C = Level up your character ingame - yes you don´t need to relog - you can spend attribute / skill and wpp´s ingame
x = switch betwenn primary and secondary weapon mode
II. This is new
II.1. xp and gold
- you receive xp and gold every 1min ingame, even if you are dead and your team is not annihilated
- you don´t get xp and gold for killing someone
- you are not forced to stay near the fight to receive xp and gold - feel free to play ninja style and get full xp and gold
- every time your team wins, the multiplier for gold and xp increases by 1 (5 is maximum)
- even if the map changes, you don´t loose your "old" xp and gold multiplier
- if the own team lost a round the multiplier for the next round is 1 (multiplier reset to basic =1)
Hint: Because you are not forced to stay by the growd (to receive gold and xp), you can use flanking tactics, set up ambushes etc.II.2. upkeep for items
- every time your team lost the round,
there is a chance that one or more items you weared during the battle were damaged
Hint: Your team can lose the round and you don´t have any repaircosts several times, and sometimes your team loss the round and you have to pay for 4 items...- damaged items can be repaired on the website, or you can choose "repair items automaticly" on the website
- you are not forced to repair a damaged item, you can still use it, but the stats of the item are decreased
- repairing one items costs around 25% of the buying price
- buying prices for all high tier items is drastically increased
- horses can decrade too
- every equipped item can decrade if your team lost the round, even those you didn´t used during the battle
Hint: So think twice if you want to equip 3 stacks of throwing lances...- you don´t pay upkeep for weapons you looted on the battlefield, and you can use them the next round if you don´t die
Hint1: If you run out of money, loot a good and expensive weapon from the battlefield and try to survive this round
Hint2: Dropping weapons for teammates if the round starts. is a good way to help out friends/teammates who are forced to use low tier items...BUG: This morning the upkeep costs for horses was bugged, no upkeep, no decrading
Facts:
1. You neither have to pay repair/upkeep costs after every single team loss nor you have to pay repair/upkeep costs for every single item equipped!
But their is a chance you have to pay.
2. It seems, that high tier equipment can take "more damage" till decrading one level, at least this is my experience.
I had to repair my light leather 5 times, my khergit boots 4 times but my scale gauntlets only 1 time ( gametime 4 hours).
3. You can still use your high tier equipment, but not all the time or at least not all high tier stuff at the same time! If you want a balance between gold gain and possible upkeep/repair costs, mix low tier equipment with high tier equipment. You use a long awlpike against cav as secondary weapon? buy a pike, its cheaper (=less repair/upkeep costs) and stops cav too. You don´t play cav, so why not wearing black khergit boots together with your black armor...
Suggestion: Create 3 equipment sets for your character:
set 1 <10k gold ==> grinding set ==>
use this one for grinding gold and xp only,
or your full combat support isn´t needed to win the next round (your team is clearly dominating),
or the enemy team is clearly dominating and better equipment will not change this.
set 2 <25k gold ==> casual play set ==>
use this always in the first round on a new map if your multiplier isn´t high and to analyze the team balance,
if the balance is fine, keep this set,
if a little more force is needed to win the next round and you think with better equipment you can help to achieve this, switch to set 3,
if the enemy clearly dominates your team, and even with better equipment you can´t change the result, switch to set1
set 3 no limit: emergency / high multiplier play set:
if your multiplier is high (4 or 5) and both teams are well balanced, it can be reasonable to wear the good stuff and ensure one more victory and a higher / or keeping the highest multiplier one more round. (if you think, that you can be deceisive in better equipment)
if your team dominates the other clearly, you can use set3 for fun too, but even if the possibility to die and to pay for repairs is low, luck is unpredictable...
if both teams are well balanced and you think you can ensure to help winning the next round with better equipment.
Take your time to create these sets, it´s worth the effort in gold
Conclusion: Wearing high tier equipment is now a tactical choice, because the upkeep costs (if you must pay them) are very high. If your xp and gold multiplier is (high 4 or 5), it seems a good idea to increase your lifespan and the winning chance of your team to keep/increase the multiplier.
II.3. "Friendly Fire" for "horse charge"
- It´s not a good idea to charge with your destrier in your teammates, because since the new patch your teammates will receive the full horse charge damage...
- This is very important if the round starts, if you are cav and the spawn is full of infantry, wait till the path is clear...
... otherwise you will receive some kick polls, throwing shit and arrows in the back!
III. Other gameplay changes - general
III.1 Leveling
- more xp required to reach level 31 and beyond, it´s still possible but needs a lot of time / xp
- leveling till level 30 is a piece of cake, with the new xp and gold system you should be able to reach level 30 in 2 or 3 days, if you play more than 4 hours a day, you don´t need this long.
III.2 Retirement
- no wpp bonus for retired characters
- all other boni are still active, like xp and gold bonus for generation level and heirlooming an item
Hint: Even without the wpp bonus, retiring is still usefull, especially the heirloomed items...- I am not sure about this... retirement is for free
Note: Currently you can´t retire your character, it´s not implemented on the website yet
III.3 WPP/WPF
- wpp costs are increased ==> result: reaching more than 160 wpp´s requires weapon master level 9 ..
Hint: Wearing a complete set of heavy armor drastically decreases your wpp and combat speed, but it offers real protection, because you will hardly find anyone with PS 10 or above and arrows do now cut damage.- wpp in throwing and xbow increases shooting/throwing speed and accuracy
Hint: you can still use xbows without spending wpps but you will benefit from spending, same goes for throwingIII.4 Archery
- shooting / reloading animation speed for archers is decreased
- arrows do now cut damage (pre-patch pierce)
- shield force field is drastically reduced (i am not sure if completly disabled, but i don´t think so)
Hint: Hitting the unprotected bodyparts with arrows/bolts/throwing weapons is now possible... Aim for the legs or head - requirements for many items and heirloomed items are decreased to fit the new "soft level cap"
- 1 point in riding needs only 3 agility points, but the requirements for horses are increases by 1 point ==> Sumpter Horse needs now 2 points in riding
Feel free to add changes, bugs, hints and suggestions I missed. Hope this little summary helped.
VaeVictis over and out!