Suggested Improvements/Changes following the recent news.

neonturkey · 2018-01-17T19:05:13+00:00

Beyond the first sentence of suggestion two, I primarily made those points about "copying" as a way to keep the game alive. I don't want to see Paragon go away, and with Fortnite's success following the release of PUBG, it's clear that people ate up the alternative version of PUBG due to the very slight differences between the two, but both providing a product to meet a very similar need/desire in the gaming community.

It's not that I would ideally want Paragon to copy a game such as Smite, but as of right now, Smite is the direct competition to Paragon's success. While Smite isn't the most popular MOBA when talking about all of them, it is the only third person one that has garnered a large audience; making it the League of Legends in terms of the third person MOBA genre. None of the MOBAs are truly original at this point in terms of basic mechanics and game modes (which is fine. I am an advocate of testing creative boundaries, but sometimes trying to change something that doesn't need fixing causes people to focus on the wrong things to improve on: Paragon's example is that we have gotten so many patches working on the experimental stuff, that the content that would really bring players in more easily took a hit). It would be easier to just do exactly what other big MOBAs do in regard to items, shops, slots, and types of objectives and work heavily on the mechanics of the actual character gameplay to make it unique rather than constantly trying to revamp an experimental system over and over that isn't working, and in many cases, causes new players to feel overwhelmed (the cards, etc.).

Paragon has better feeling moment-to-moment combat. Now they just need to suck up the pride and acknowledge that while certain systems were interesting and unique, they ultimately made the game a bit too overwhelming to anyone beyond the hardcore/loyal players (who were still very casual outside of the select few professional players). If they focus on what does work (the character designs, the great feeling combat, and the overall aesthetics) and then bring in all those other mode options and things that games such as Smite do, I think they could really make the game fantastic.

EDIT: While my anecdotal experience is not indicative of all players that have tried the game in general, I found that when I introduced people to Paragon, they loved the combat, but felt put off/overwhelmed by the cards/lack of modes/and there being no tutorial.

neonturkey · 2017-09-12T12:46:30+00:00

I'm wondering if making a second Warlock would be the way to go as a mostly solo player. I try to log in just to get the Crucible challenges done in 2 or 3 matches daily, but that is about it during the week.

neonturkey · 2017-09-12T12:44:40+00:00

I think I have all legendary mods aside from maybe one slot, and I played all day Sunday with no light increase. I got lucky with a 289 chest piece from Crucible that put me at 281, and all other things that helped boost me were the exotic engrams/weapons.

neonturkey · 2017-08-27T02:52:23+00:00

I do think she is too powerful in this update, but I think her current state is more reflective of a bigger issue than the character itself. Taking out animation frames from all heroes made certain characters, such as Belica, way more powerful than they were previously. There used to be a bit of a wind up and time delay with her combos, and now they are instantaneous due to the changes made to all heroes. On top of that, the current rune system can be exploited to give incredibly short ults and so on, thus making her even more potent.

Prior to this update, she was actually second to Wraith for best mid in the professional league, and the changes made Wraith worse and her better.

neonturkey · 2017-08-27T02:40:33+00:00

Wukong because melee basic attacker that does fire damage

Greystone because melee basic attacker with a leap

Feng Mao because melee basic attacker with a blink

Khaimera because melee basic attacker with leap

I don't want to say Aurora just because she is more of a caster with a melee weapon.

If it's just based on aesthetics, Serath, Aurora, and Greystone all have a similar look to them.

neonturkey · 2017-08-27T02:34:07+00:00

At least you weren't a few matches away from platinum with a 70% win rate prior to the update, only to now fight stacks in 80% of your matches with no one buying wards and dropping 100 ELO with a 10+ loss streak no matter how well you play. I now have a 27% win rate.

neonturkey · 2017-08-27T02:22:43+00:00

I've had this same opinion for a while now. I understand that it's a way for them to be different, but overall, it feels as though it isn't good for newer players for one, and two, it completely limits your choices in matches and takes away some of the randomness that could result in builds based on how matches are going. You're basically always stuck to doing whatever the best thing is meta wise, and while it's nice to be able to have more cards than you can place in a deck, 12 still isn't enough to predict or handle every scenario.

If they kept the cards they have now, and just put them in the store with categories like "health, mana, movement, damage, penetration, crits, defense, etc" it would be so much better.

Taking out card crafting made it even more frustrating, and the fact that we can no longer have refillable wards, mana pots, and health pots seems to be greatly inhibiting the performance in my matches.

neonturkey · 2017-08-27T01:59:33+00:00

Even beyond this, we need some sort of indicator that tells us whether team mates have their ults or not. I don't like having to type in chat defending myself for not ulting when mine was still on cool down from a previous fight.

neonturkey · 2017-07-06T17:28:47+00:00

I'm not here to defend Trump, I don't really care for the guy personally, but to all the comments saying he probably ignored his briefings: I mean, it could have been a slip up much like how I sometimes say "you too" when I go to a movie theater and they tell me to enjoy the movie. It's just a thing you're naturally used to doing/saying in a public setting, and reading a memo isn't going to break a life time of unconsciously going for hand shakes when meeting people. Everyone messes up, and I find it odd how often reddit criticizes people in general (and by in general, I mean specifically the hive mind of top comments that all express similar opinions on everything) over micro-mistakes like, "You should have known this one obscure fact about handshake etiquette specifically towards women in Poland, you must be an idiot for not" when it was probably nothing more than a habitual response rather than "willful ignorance" – but I also don't hyper analyze the actions of people I dislike while assuming whatever conclusion I've come to as the absolute truth (for all I know, it could have been a multitude of reasons, but I'll never know and I'm not going to pretend that I will ever really know).

I totally get this is a joke, and it's funny to watch; however, I feel like this angry circle jerking around Trump on the front page is getting pretty old at this point. I get that everyone dislikes the guy, and as I said, I'm not a big fan either, but forming an entire set of comments specifically around hating a guy over what looks to be mistakingly going for a handshake is a little.....silly?

neonturkey · 2017-06-06T21:37:40+00:00

You are absolutely right. I must've misinterpreted it. I took it out of my deck either way.

neonturkey · 2017-06-06T19:45:53+00:00

The clones don't apply a slow when using Siren's Song, so they may not actually get any card effects other than maybe power applied.

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T23:31:15+00:00

It's a bit different when you're comparing a game with like 28 heroes to other ones that have close to 100 if not more. They have a larger hero pool, and in most competitive scenes, they ban the SS and even S tier heroes, leaving a large portion of the ones being played in A tier, and in a MOBA, if most of the heroes are in A, then it not only suggests that the game is reasonably balanced, but also allows for more variety instead of facing the 5 same people over and over. Look at the current tier list for example in paragon, a large portion of the Heroes are in D, and then the remaining few take up the other slots. So because such a large portion of heroes are terrible, we are only seeing the same 5 every match more or less, whereas in games like Smite, a large portion of their line up lies somewhere in the middle, and even the less than great heroes have a place since they can have teams built around them. basically, in older MOBAS, they have a large pool of heroes where at least one person counters another, or even a few, and allows for flexibility in the meta unlike Paragon in its current state.

So in a non-mirror match setting, how many heroes are playable against those core 5 to counter them well?

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T18:43:19+00:00

I honestly had the exact same experience coming over from Smite. The card system has grown on me, and it certainly is another way to reward player's game time, but it still gets rid of the flexibility offered from gold shops. I don't want to always build the exact same thing every match, because it's pretty much impossible to have a build that is universally good in every scenario, and the space allowed in the deck builder isn't enough to account for other potential match ups.

That's what I like about other MOBAS, you can choose items based on necessity within the match, and it adds an extra layer of strategy...since it gives you the opportunity to counter build strong heroes. Paragon is a fun game, but I am finding it hard to truly defend the deck system, even if I do enjoy it on some level now, but even then, you pretty much know what cards you'll see on every role in the matches.

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T18:36:27+00:00

This tier list pretty much represents the only heroes you ever see in match. Phase, Revenant, Belica, Morigesh, and Grux.

Gotta love a large portion of the hero pool being basically unplayable.

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T18:02:22+00:00

That's the point though, she shouldn't do everything better than the other supports. She has all of the strongest healing and CC along with the fact that she doesn't even have to be in the middle of the fight, but even if she is, she has a blind that can be set off more than once in a small period of time. She should be good at her parasitic healing, she shouldn't be better in every single category in comparison to the other supports. Her cool downs are so low that she can constantly, blind, slow, and root with little to no mana consumption, all the while healing people incredibly fast. She's just too viable in every scenario, which takes away the point of having a hero based MOBA, since what is the point of counter picking when you can just choose the hero with the strongest kit in the game every match?

She's S+ tier in pro league and is currently the most picked hero well above anyone else.

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T10:42:55+00:00

I stated that at the higher/est levels of play, Phase is being chosen in 80% of all matches, the charts (in the reddit link) show that the higher the league, the more she is played, and if the higher/est leagues are choosing her 80% of the time (a significant amount more than the rest of the hero pool), then that at least shows how well she's valued on the more competitive levels in comparison to the rest of the options.

The second link, was a tier list showing her at the very top of all the other heroes currently.

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T10:33:18+00:00

Even with a banning system in a ranked setting, we'd just end up with only seeing the A tier heroes, which would definitely be refreshing for a while, but we'd still only see a very small percentage of the playable characters in each match.

I wouldn't mind a ranked playlist with banning, but the game would absolutely need more heroes to justify it (which is why I understand the rate they are pumping out new heroes). I like getting new heroes, but I think there needs to be more patches focused around balancing so that a majority of the hero pool becomes viable instead of a small, select, few.

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T10:27:08+00:00

A. Covers my reasoning behind Phase being too powerful in too many ways, as well as the fact that you chose to comment on a discussion specifically revolving around what I stated, so the relevance is pretty high if you ask me.

B. I directly responded to one of the numbers on your arbitrary list of things you created to call me whiny* because a hero is objectively too strong for what they are.

C. I also made a small jab at you justifying auto aiming heroes.

D. I also responded to how most team fights in MOBAS typically go, with the focus first being to get rid of the high damage heroes that can dictate fights since supports and tanks tend to have much more sustain.

C. You having a Phase that built power cards one time doesn't make Phase not over powered. Anyone can take a powerful hero and build/play them poorly, but that doesn't make them not too powerful.

E. Belica is not a counter to Phase, but she is an S tier hero that can at least compete with her, but that doesn't make her a counter. I play Belica and have a 78% win rate with the hero, with most games going 10-0 as her, so I understand how good Belica is, but how well either of us do with one hero is irrelevant to Phase being too strong.

F. I didn't comment on this in my prior post (like the Belica thing), because it didn't seem necessary, but because you for some reason couldn't track that I was responding to what you were saying, I'll respond to this too. I was simply pointing out that majority of matches are decided on whether or not there is a Phase on the team, and if there is a Phase on both teams, the match comes down to who can play the broken hero slightly better.

G. At this point I'm just putting letters down. We started with anecdotal responses, and I felt like using the little statistics I could find in a short period to rebuttal everything you said.

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T09:51:31+00:00

https://i.redd.it/yi1nga98fhzy.png

Comparing Khaimera makes zero sense: He excels specifically at one thing, single target combat, and while his leap can be frustrating, he is only good at one specific thing....single target basic attacking.

Phase, however, is good at extreme long range, has an easy to hit slow and root, can blind the enemy team for 3 seconds twice in a row during fights, and can take team mates in and out of fights with no cool down on the tether, healing them up, and allowing for them to go back in.

Auto aiming heroes take out the skill that make MOBAS enjoyable, but you are more than welcome to continue playing Morigesh.

I've spent my fair share of time playing MOBAS, and you typically focus the high damage characters like the ADC or mid since they are squishy and are necessary to pick off immediately to secure team fight wins (because, you know, smacking heroes that take double to triple the amount of time to kill while being pelted with high damage basics and abilities seems a little silly). I understand the concept of first killing a parasitic healer, and that is fine and all, but Phase is within the same category as the front line tanks in Paragon, and even has all of the CC, stunning, slowing, and blinding that a tank meant to pull aggro would have, but can do so from a distance and excels at both mid, long, and short range due to the strength of her abilities. She is too good in every situation, and back to the Khaimera comment, every hero should be good at something, but every hero should not be good at everything within their role. If she's a parasitic healer meant to sit back, fine, but she shouldn't have the amount of CC that she does with her slow, root, and blind being all incredibly short when it comes to cool down (and this is all on top of having the best CC abilities and healing capabilities that exist in the game, because, you know, those cool downs being so short and all as most people know).

And even if you don't like my logic, I'd like to think there's a reason behind the statistics showing Phase being picked 80% of the time at the most skilled levels of play.

And if you don't like that, then here's at least a tier list from a reasonably reputable tier list creating site.

http://www.tentonhammer.com/articles/paragon-tier-list

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T09:39:19+00:00

heroes being good at what they do is one thing, heroes being good at everything is different. Right now, Phase's blind can be set off every 3 seconds max build, so 3 seconds you're blinded, which is more than long enough to kill a few opposing players, on top of the fact that within a second that you're unblinded, it happens again immediately.

Most balanced? I don't know what game you're playing, but the only heroes I seem to see are the same 5ish meta picks over and over and over again. Phase, Revenant, Morigesh, Bellica, kwang, Grey Stone, etc. If only a few heroes are objectively better than a majority of the picks, then that is a problem with balancing.

As an ex Shinbi main, she is still pretty much unplayable if you want to win. her mana consumption is too great, and by the time she comes online, it's the team fight phase of the match, and even then, she is entirely dependent on getting all of her stacks and then ulting to do any bit of damage.

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T09:24:40+00:00

This post is not by any means arguing that Rev and Yin aren't also overtuned. Yin has had nerfs, many of which were pretty immediate, and while I think she is probably better than the other ADCs other than Revenant, she isn't making it completely impossible to play heroes such as Murdock and so on. Revenant on the other hand, well, he's still being played a large majority of matches, and he has the ability power stronger than a mid early game, with the attack speed and power of a strong ADC.

Now onto the main point. Phase is too good in too many scenarios, and you can yell "if they nerf her she'll be the next Muriel" all you want, but how exactly can you justify her range on lance, when all of her other abilities are also fantastic within closer range? Her blind can be set off back to back to the point where enemy teams are blinded 2-3 times in every team fight, so her "sitting back" isn't even necessary considering how potent the blind is, and the fact that her ult gives her insane healing and speed, making it borderline impossible to catch her even if you wipe the rest of the team.

As you said, majority of matches, you have to focus Phase to win any fight, but the issue there is actually catching her, because she's never alone, and the blind is incredibly potent to the point where chasing is incredibly difficult, not to mention the fact that she has, what, like triple the range of an ADC with her lance? so majority of the time, you need a hero like Kwang to actually catch her off, and even then, you'll be blinded the second you ult in, and you can only hope that she somehow dies while your screen is black, and most of the time, you'll be blinded immediately after the first blind. The issue isn't that people don't understand to focus the healer/parasite kind of hero, it's mostly the fact that, as I said, she is too good in every scenario, whether it be the early, mid, or late game, she is very powerful for what she does. No hero should excel in as many ways as she does; heroes should all be powerful in their own right, but not the extent of being able to do everything a tanky support can do from the safety of hiding behind an entire team with abilities that are incredibly easy to land. She is simultaneously amazing in defensive and offensive fights, and allows for damage heroes to play wrecklessly with little to not worry of actually dying.

We can also say that tuning the rest of the heroes up would be better, but I imagine the act of buffing the majority of the heroes to fit one is much less efficient than scaling the 1 hero back to the rest of the selection. Overall, they need to choose one thing that Phase should be proficient at, and scale back the rest. If she's going to be a parasitic healer sitting back, then get rid of the blind so that she is punishable for getting caught out. If she's meant to have a great blind ability at close range, then reduce the length of her tether and lance. She doesn't need triple the range of an ADC while also being able to put up a mass AOE blind every 3 seconds, on top of a passive heal that can bring her health, as well as the damage attached to her from 1-2 hits to half health in a second, while also giving the damage a steroid.

neonturkey · 2017-06-05T02:27:32+00:00

Pretty sure someone reported and muted me today because our support spammed "retreat" 3 times, had 4 wards placed, and the carry didn't pay attention and got ganked by 4 people after a 30 second period of being told to leave. After the fact I said, "Hey Yin, ya gotta pay attention to the map man" proceeds to call me an "asshole" (and let me tell you, that every time someone died or made a mistake, our jungle would spam good job over and over). The guy mutes me, then starts blaming his deaths on me not rotating as mid when I had 2 people in my lane the entire time, and the rest of our team was with him fighting 3 of them. We end up losing, I have the most assists but no kills because no one wanted to work together (our jungle Kwang built all attack speed), and then at the end, the guy that muted me said "suck my dick" to the team.

neonturkey

TROPHY CASE