More details on the New World gear reset?

 With the New World Public Test Realm (PTR) up and running with the Season 2 patch there are quite a few things that testers are finding that were not in the patch notes.  Some of them may hint towards the gear reset that is assumed to be coming.  Let's jump in and take a look at what's been found.

 The main piece that tester's stumbled across is the addition of Artisans crafting recipes (example: Artisans Round Shield).  These are guaranteed 600 GS weapons and gathering tools that anyone can craft and look to be positioned to allow anyone to jump directly into 600 GS items.  

 There are also multiple changes to gypsum casts.  The cooldown now appears to be weekly (7 days) instead of daily.  So players can craft up to 7x of each cast once per week.  Also each cast is awarding more expertise bumps which will reduce the total needed to level expertise to 600.

 Combined these two items may be an indicator that AGS is looking to help players accelerate the 500-600 expertise which supports the gear score increase announced on the road map; thus players can get into the new end gear progression faster.  This will be needed if, like other major updates, a large number of players come back to check the game out and the last thing AGS needs is them being stuck behind a significant grind.

 Another piece of the puzzle are a new type of gypsum cast that reward guaranteed legendary gear.  These cost gypsum orbs and umbral shards (as opposed to rewarding shards) and result in a roll at a legendary item.  This along with other changes such as awarding gear creates for PvP arenas and more legendary items on the PvP reward track are bringing more and more legendary gear to the fingertips of players.  And the more they give out legendary gear the more you have to wonder if that's because they are about to hit the big ole' reset button (i.e. they are buttering us up with freebies so we'll be less mad).

 A gear reset in New World seems very likely at this point and to soften the blow it looks we are getting some possible hand outs as well as faster paths for players looking to catch up.  We still don't know what an increase to max gear score looks like or what it means for our 625 gear but the pieces are starting to come together.

New (World) Ideas: Briars and Thorny Vines!

 New (World) Ideas is a series of posts in which I present small changes that New World could make that would improve the game.

 Heartrunes of Grasping Vines in New World require 1,000 thorny vines to upgrade meaning 3,000 thorny vines are needed in order to craft the three legendary heartrunes.  Thorny vines are gathered from briars which don't fall into any of the gathering skills so gathering rate is not influenced by gathering luck or yield increases (buffs, potions, etc).  So players gather one vine at a time.

 New idea: move briar (and any other "general" node) into a gathering profession.  This way gathering effects can make the activity of gathering briar for thorny vines more efficient and expedite the rate at which they can be gathered.  This is especially important if 1,000 of something are going to be needed to upgrade a heartrune!

Best OPR Ever + Bonus

 Had my best Outpost Rush (OPR) match ever in New World.  Crushed it with my heavy armor Flamethrower build (Fire Staff/Sword and Shield).  

And another bonus OPR scoreboard; our team steam rolled them but very rare I go 10-0 on kill/death!

New World Inventory and Storage Search!

 Hot sexy news straight out of the New World PTR.  The new inventory search feature is here and its better than expected!  Grab a peak from this Twitch streamer.

 The best part is that it accepts text searches so will not require a lot of clicking like the current TP.  In the stream you see it accepting searches for certain perks.  For example; [abyss] found items with perks that have the word abyss in them.  And [abyss] + [keen] found items with perks that match both (screenshot at right).  Also from other chatting it sounds like it can accept gear score searches such as [keen] > 600 to find gear over 600GS.  Sexy.

 And actually the best best part is that it supports searching storage and inventory.  Let's freaking go!

New (World) Ideas: Azoth Bottling

  New (World) Ideas is a series of posts in which I present small changes that New World could make that would improve the game.

 Azoth is supposedly what makes Aeternum the magical place that it is.  It is the essence that allows players, monsters, and animals to continually come back to life in New World.  It is used in all sorts of activities (fast travel, crafting, etc), but with a cap of 1,000 azoth at any one given time it is also a resource player's never seem to have enough of when it is needed most.

 Fortunately players can buy and sell Vials of Bottled Azoth which when salvaged grant 50 azoth. Unfortunately players do not do the actual bottling of the azoth.  Bottled azoth is randomly dropped from enemies or given as rewards for quests and opening various chests.

 New idea: let players bottle their own azoth.  When a player hits 1,000 azoth they start losing out on future azoth gains and for many players who don't craft there is little use for azoth so they end up hovering around 1,000 azoth.  Ideally players could bottle up that azoth and sell it.  Then the developers can remove vials from various drop tables and the main avenue is from players bottling azoth.

 Bonus idea: let players obtain a housing item that slowly bottles azoth out of thin air and they can get a little bonus for having a house and an azoth bottler.

Diablo IV Best Build for launch?

 Want the best build for Diablo IV for launch?  Then why are you here?  I'm not playing Diablo IV.

Reddit Digg-ing

 Remember Digg?  No? Remeber your answer to this question because in a few years I am going to ask if you remember Reddit.  They are playing the full Digg card.  The best quote from that thread (bold added by me).

Some people might not be old enough to remember when digg.com made a bunch of changes during the transition to v4. Digg was huge at the time. They thought they were literally unstoppable, but just like myspace and many companies before them, their names are unknown to many.

It will be weird transitioning away from Reddit like the companies before, but I guess, in the tech world it eventually becomes inevitable…

The most boring New World Season 1 challenge

 Finally done watching paint dry to complete the season 1 challenge for capping forts.

New (World) Ideas: Fort PvP Zones

 New (World) Ideas is a series of posts in which I present small changes that New World could make that would improve the game.

 There is nothing more annoying than running all the way out to a fort in the open world in New World and realizing you forgot to enable your PvP flag.  Back to town to set your flag, back to the fast travel point, and then the joy of running back to the fort (mounts please!).

 The new idea: how about the fort and the area around the fort is always PvP?  Upon entering players get a warning about being flagged automatically and can back out if they choose.  Otherwise after a few seconds they are flagged and go about their business of watching paint dry capping the fort.  If a player leaves the area they return to their previous flag or unflagged status.

New (World) Ideas: Upgrade Costs

 New (World) Ideas is a series of posts in which I present small changes that New World could make that would improve the game.

 For players that like playing a variety of builds in New World there are a couple barriers to switch too much.  First is acquiring gear; it can take years to get the right piece(s) of gear for a build with the random gear system.  Second; even if you have the gear it is prohibitive to have it all upgraded to 625 gear score via umbral shards.

 The good news is for those that like playing a lot of builds you don't need perfect 3-perk legendary gear.  You can get elite 2-perk gear that is more than sufficient for many builds.  The bad news is that 2-perk elite gear still costs the same to upgrade as legendary gear so it is a feel bad everytime you pump some precious umbral shards into a purple item.

 The idea for today: reduce the umbral shard cost to upgrade gear based on it's rarity.  Legendary gear stays the same as it is today but 2-perk purple gear could be reduced to 50% of the current cost and even blue/green gear could be reduced to something like 25%/10%.

 This would encourage players to try more builds and increase the use of the non-legendary items in the game.

Throne and Liberty bad?

 RIP Throne and Liberty.  It was good knowing you while you were just an exciting possibility.  I will still give it a try but the video from the beta test in Korea is not looking good.  The game looks like it plays like a decade old game with a fresh coat of current generation graphical paint.

Wayfinder Beta Day 1

 I can barely play this game with the damn watermark text spamming my screen.  I also can't talk about the game because its under NDA.

 But here is a video of someone that was allowed to share the first few minutes of the game:

Wayfinder beta?

 Wayfinder invited me to their closed beta today so will be giving it a go.

New World Paladin

 New World Paladin skins are available in the store!  Go go go!

Exciting New World News

 Big news from New World today! Season 2 is coming and with it a bunch of game changing features: transmog, cross-world OPR, new arena map, raid groups and content, seasonal event, and more!  New World is continuing to deliver on it's road map and make big exciting changes.

 Anyone that was doubting the commitment to New World after the recent Lord of the Rings MMO announcement should not have any lingering doubt.  This next season is jam packed with cool stuff and no doubt many other small tweaks and balance changes under the hood.  I am personally looking forward to this!

 Also hidden away in the announcement was a change that was not on the Road Map.  Some shenanigans will be afoot in First Light.

First Light Retraction

First Light has fallen to the might of Artemis and her Angry Earth horde! The Settlement, Fort, and Trading Post in First Light are now closed. A wall of thorns has erupted along the border, barring all access into the territory until further notice.

    All Housing related items will return to Storage and can be found under the “Old First Light” tab in any Storage shed.

    All Trading Post orders in First Light will eventually expire, but no new orders can be made in the territory.

    Companies controlling First Light at the time of Retraction will be refunded for their losses.

    First Light’s Faction Control Point (FCP) buff has been moved to Weaver’s Fen, and Weaver’s FCP buff has been discontinued for now.

We have big plans for the territory. This is only the first step. Stay tuned for more news about the future of “Old First Light.”

 They are basically wiping out First Light and all citizens housed therein.  This is a pretty big change not to have outlined in any sort of road map.  I am very curious to see where this goes!  Nothing shakes up the mundane like a full-fledged city in an MMORPG being taken out of play!

 There is so much in this update and probably much more hiding under the fine details such as balance tweaks and changes.  For a summary you can dive into the May developer update.

Farming Glyphs in New World

 What am I up to in New World?  Farming glyphs!  Specifically: Above Glyph Stone and Sun Glyph Stone.  Why?  So I can craft some Runeglass Case of Igniting?  Why? So I can make Runeglass Gems of Igniting for my heavy armor Flamethrower build!

 So if you need me I'll be solo inside "The Wall" or Solarium Khepri farming away.  As a note: I both dread the wall for being a maze but also for it's little escape rooms.  There is no feeling like opening the glyph doors, quaffing some potions, and rumbling with a few elites in a room that barely fits the chest you are about to loot.  The best part is when the door locks behind you and either you are leaving in body bag or with the loot.

 What are you up to in New World these days?

New World Arena Win

 Just sharing this sweet scoreboard from a 3v3 arena match in New World.  Playing as my Heavy Armor Flamethrower build.

Idea: Fix to balance New World range DPS in PvE?

New (World) Ideas is a series of posts in which I present small changes that New World could make that would improve the game.

 Ranged damage in New World end game PvE is a problem.  Here's an idea to fix it!

 New World recently changed the Bane perks on ranged weapons to do more % damage than the % damage increase bane gives on melee weapons.  This was meant to "fix" that ranged damage was under-powered compared to melee in PvE content.  This was a poor "fix".

 My idea for a true fix would be to nerf the crap out of melee.  Seriously!

 The reason melee is so good in PvE for the most part it hits multiple targets on normal attacks (light and heavy) while ranged does not.  Ranged hits a single target on normal attacks (yes there are a few upgrades where there is some splash but its not default like it is with most melee).

 It seems like the better approach for melee would be that it does high damage to the first target hit but reduced damage to any additional targets hit.  The game has the tech to do this; it already understands first vs additional targets hit for perks like Trenchant Recovery.  

 This would create more value for true area-of-effect abilities instead of the default melee attack being area of effect.  It would also balance damage between ranged and melee as they would both be primarily single target damage.

 And if this sort of approach was taken the response would be apocalyptic from the New World community. Good.  We need a little drama.  If this idea sounds as dumb as you think it does; leave a comment!

Start digging New World's grave?

 The studio behind New World has announced it is starting work on a new MMO set in the Lord of the Rings universe.  The natural question is: who's gonna start digging New World's grave?

 Amazon Games has announced it’s making a new massively multiplayer online game based on The Lord of the Rings. Development is being led by New World studio Amazon Games Orange County. This is an all-new production, separate from an earlier attempt to make a Lord of the Rings MMO that was canceled by Amazon in 2021.

 

 First I want to say my inner geek chafes when these announcements say "Lord of the Rings" when really the setting is Tolkien's Middle-earth.  If the announcement had read "Middle-earth MMO" my interest would have been doubly peaked.  So I am long term hoping

 Of course this announcement hit the New World community with many now jockeying for position to be the first one in line to get a shovel for the grave digging.  Clearly Amazon Game Studios is going to starve New World to focus on this new game.

 Combine this with the "gear reset" fears and we all should just stop playing New World I guess.

 RIP: New World 2021 - 2023

New World Gear Reset?

 New World can't stay out of the crosshairs of the content creators.  This time answers to a Discord Q&A are making the rounds (sorry don't know if/how I can link to Discord posts). Specifically comments regarding the Season 3 road map item around a gear score increase and what that means for player's current gear .  The answer was short and sweet, but lacked clarity on what it really meant so of course the community is taking it as "New World full gear reset! Stop playing now!".

If you want a larger summary of the Q&A along with the tidbit stoking the gear reset discussion watch the video I linked (embedded below as well).

 

The gear reset tidbit is screenshotted below (along with Jay Oddity's spectacular noggin top).

 As I said in the intro: short and sweet, but lacking clarity.  On one hand it is saying 625 (max gear level currently) gear is not upgradeable and then saying some sort of new system is coming for gear progression (which is assumed the Season 3 road map bullet item for "gear score increase).

 At face value a level-headed reader is walking away with "player's won't upgrade gear that is 625".  A less-than-level-headed reader walks away with "625 gear will be worthless! Don't waste time playing the game!".

 Unfortunately MMORPG history is sort of on the side of the less-than-level-headed readers here.  When World of Warcraft launched its first expansion many players (a lot who were brand new to MMORPGs) were shocked to find out that a green item from the expansion trumped some of the best gear gained in original World of Warcraft.  Every expansion since has reset gear in a similar manner so the assumption is this is where New World is headed.

 Personally I take the statement as an indication they are increasing gear score and coming up with a new system for adjusting gear score.  The key word I hit on there is "adjust".  That reads like gear may not be upgraded in the future and may have other methods for adjusting to meet gear score requirements.  I am hopeful this means a more horizontal approach than a strict vertical approach.  Or possibly automated scaling up and down based on other factors which would allow

 New World already has a gearing problem.  There is no real way to ensure you get the gear you need excepting for some farmable named gear sets that have niche use cases (such as the Harbringer gear sets for Angry Earth content; useless elsewhere).  If players want best in slot gear in New World it's basically a lottery system.  Either they get a drop from a high level mutation, an Outpost Rush crate, or through the mystic toilet that is crafting.

 Knowing that there is an underlying gearing problem I am hopeful this statement is AGS taking a good look at the problem and working towards new and exciting solutions instead of bandaid fixes over the top of what we have.  If this is intended to coincide with Season 3 then we are likely to find out more details a few months from now.  And months are like years in MMOs; so if you are questioning if you should play New World and upgrade your gear then all you need to ask yourself "are you having fun?".  If yes; then upgrade away.  If you answered no; stop being a troll and go somewhere else.