25% Damage Nerf: Bug Or Stealth Change?

Last week the relentless theorycrafter and tester thefabricant aka Sharpedge reported that powers seem to exactly do 25% less damage against certain mobs. So far the verified affected content includes:

  • All level 73 mobs
  • Demonic Heroic Encounter
  • Castle Never
  • Dragonflight Dragons

The lack of an official response (in Crypticland no response often equals to stealth change, nothing to see here, move on) and the selection of affected mobs lead to the conclusion that this might indeed be an intended buff to the upper tier of endgame content. This could also simply be a bug, but while pondering about the topic we remembered one particular quote from the State of the Game post:

[su_quote cite=”Executive Producer Rob Overmeyer” url=”http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/9811113″]Perhaps we looked too far ahead at how things like stats, XP, and difficulty might be shaped down the road.[/su_quote]

It could indicate that the original design was better suited for the current state of the game/progression, but since they had to reverse it because it didn’t fit the lower levels, here comes the 25% hammer. The ensuing  assumption is that the 25% more or less represent the difference between the old system and the new one. This linear fix also fits the approach of the devs, who normally want quick solutions instead of a more robust global redesign.

If this holds up, it could mean content in Icewind Dale and the Well of Dragons, including all solo lairs and general questing, are back at the difficulty everyone was complaining about at the start of Module 6. Also don’t forget IWD still has the problem of bugged HE-toughness mobs that are randomly spawning.

It’s not initially evident what should be accomplished with the change. It raises the threshold for everyone to participate in certain content while it does not actually fix the problem of presenting a real challenge to those that already trash it.

The consequences of the change might not fully hit until the announced changes to the classes and Lostmauth Artifact set anyway, which are set to alter the landscape of PVE by a lot.

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