Buffed Monsters

[Zero]

buffing enemies won't make things go well at all, rebalancing is going to make things go as they should, although ep 1 enemies are really weak compared to ep 2 and ep 4 enemies, and like you said larva, ep 4 is not quite played by most people, mostly just for hunts, but the quests that can get you rewards comes from ep 2, i saw most event items come from ep 2, so if ep 2 is going to be the hunting event episode, it is ok to have tougher enemies, but let's face it, hunter and rangers are in no way balanced, rangers have a complete advantage compared to hunters, DM+Cent Battle makes things go ridiculously fast, 930 ATP for a ranged weapon is something stupid, also DF compared to TJS is a joke, why bother hunting for a SJS if it is going to take all year to get one, better just wait for xmas event i bet you have better chances of finding a pgf and making it a xx/xx/xx/xx/50 DF, and SJS if it drops, it will almost always drop hitless, and TJS stock ATA is pretty low compared to DF 50 hit, TJS should be accessible to new players, since SJS is not an event item, since every event we got a really powerful new item, there is no point in making or hunting old items, Virus Armor could get a boost, nobody i know of nobody who actually has made one, Iron Faust is a good weapon but hunting one with good % and hit makes it worthless, DM has the upper hand against every ranger weapon, and is 2 in 1 gun, you have Rianov 5 penetrating ability and also a shot weapon, Rianov 5 and Iron Faust are worthless, Rianov 5 incredibly high rate of dropping one is one thing that discourages people in hunting it, also it is just mainly for bosses, while Iron Faust can be used against bosses and big hordes of enemies, still is no match for DM, also DM let's you fill the PB at an incredibly high rate, there are alot of items that went into oblivion, people give it a few trys and never gets one so they get discouraged by the fact that it is really tough getting one, buffing enemies more than they are is going to make tougher for newer players also hunting for new items is going to be a real pain in the ass for those people that doesn't have the right gear like the people that ask for tougher enemies, normal items like SJS/TJS could get a lower drop rate, so people can actually get one while they wait for events that usually comes with really OP items, Virus Armor Lafuteria and From the Depths could be changed to a boost when equipping both at the same time, like DB's equipment or Flowen's, making Virus armor and FTD like Kroe's for males, since both items are 150+ lvl requirement, eliminating FTD confuse status ailment, giving +10 ATA like Kroes and giving nice resistance, let's face it everyone that has been in ultima for at least a couple of years now use STA and RR, having 100+ res in EFR, EIC, ETH, and 80+ in EDK, ELT, Iron Faust has good ATP, what around 500-600 ATP?, Arrest Needle could be made just for human rangers, since i saw once that it boosts ATP by 500 or something like that, and DM could be 400-450 ATP, making players choose which weapon they want, i understand DM being like the ultimate Ranger weapon, but Dark weapons are so common now that it feels like the cheapest weapon in the game.

Clearly what Ultima needs is rebalancing and stop making OP items and buffing monsters, those things just make things for new players just tougher.

[Fyrewolf5]

I really don't think buffing monsters is the right way to go though. Ultimate difficulty is supposed to be for players of level 90-200, and that is a pretty big range. Balancing monsters around the strongest weapons on a maxed character (colorado wilson uses dark meteor / dark flow with 100% attributes all the time) is just going to make it completely unplayable for anyone in the 90-180 level range. It's already hard enough to start ultimate difficulty at 90; using any reasonable weapons one can get from very hard or lower one won't do very much damage at all, it's a pretty rough jump. Even in ep 1 I don't think it is possible to one hit monsters unless you use a DF special at close range so it hits 5 times, and regardless that is definitely not what the game should be balanced around.

If anything it only shows that dark weapons may be a little too good, but I think a better way to add challenge is to have new difficult quests. That way maxed players can do those difficult quests and have lots of challenge, without making it impossible to do ultimate difficulty for non-maxed players.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Fyrewolf5

[Armando]

man leave it how it is and re open crack fix that fucking dupe bug or w/e

[Izaya]

I think adding Crack Mode as 4.th Difficulty would be a good Solution. However, that already got suggested somewhere else and I think Lee already tried it and said it's impossible.

A Crack Mode Event with increased droprates and/or Exp from time to time would be cool/fun though.

[Saber +7]

I know you like to rag on me but in episode 1 I literally only use DM on Dragon, De Rol Lei and Vol Opt. Episode 2 I do use it quite a bit and episode 4 is a whole variety of weapons, my Dark Weapons happen to be all sphered so they seem OP when I do use them I guess.

I really don't think buffing monsters is the right way to go though. Ultimate difficulty is supposed to be for players of level 90-200, and that is a pretty big range. Balancing monsters around the strongest weapons on a maxed character (colorado wilson uses dark meteor / dark flow with 100% attributes all the time) is just going to make it completely unplayable for anyone in the 90-180 level range. It's already hard enough to start ultimate difficulty at 90; using any reasonable weapons one can get from very hard or lower one won't do very much damage at all, it's a pretty rough jump. Even in ep 1 I don't think it is possible to one hit monsters unless you use a DF special at close range so it hits 5 times, and regardless that is definitely not what the game should be balanced around.

If anything it only shows that dark weapons may be a little too good, but I think a better way to add challenge is to have new difficult quests. That way maxed players can do those difficult quests and have lots of challenge, without making it impossible to do ultimate difficulty for non-maxed players.

[Angeldust]

The point Saith was making is that anyone with powerful weapons is obviously going to think the game is easier. That's literally what it means to get stronger. Not all players coming into the fray need to face monsters any stronger than the ones already in place. Don't make it harder on the little guys just because you're a big tough guy and you think it's too easy.

If anything needs to be done, we need to go back and look at some of the "common rares" like Cross Scar and DB's or Flowens set and give them boosts so that they are used more commonly as liable equipment. A lot of the basic rares look amazing but quickly loose functionality and shine when pit against the power of Ultimate level monsters. They don't have enough ata and ATP to add up to the obviously superior dark weapons. So anyone with dark weapons would obviously think the game too easy. But this is what crack mode was made for (even if it's currently down) so honestly there is no point to this topic, as Armando said, the game is fine as it is.