THE CYCLE OF DARK AND DARKER

[@xenird]

The 3 stages of DaD >Play with no gear fear >Play with no fear >Play with no gear

[@erich1380]

Lol for me it's play with no gear, Play with no gear even though I have a lot hoarded, wait until the end where I finally am ready to lose it all

[@YourBoyBlinn]

@@erich1380 came here to say exactly this! I've always preferred to play with no gear and try to use the shield to punch above my gear score.. but I also realize the shield largely enables this approach, since the shield can take damage off the table and gives me a chance to win PvP that dramatically outgears me. without the shield, I wouldn't stand a chance against stronger opponents (trying to using spacing and ducking alone). can't wait for the floodgates of gear that open at the end of wipe!!

[@vacc8069]

I legit have the most fun playing below the 25 gear score

[@aethil]

The devs said that when they implement arena mode in the game, they will be able to get more data about PvP and balance the game according to the results.

[@pokeymc]

I miss the cycle frontier i pray dark and darker doesn't meet a similar fate

[@leehector1653]

Warlock is very strong but has healthy counterplay from other classes. It's only problematic because the skill ceiling is low. Some design changes should be in order. I think hydra should only target enemies marked with curses or BoC. It shouldn't be free scouting vs rogues. Flat costs on torture mastery also stinks. 24health for hydra is devastating with 2magic healing but negligible with 14. Lifedrain has a similar issue, scales with damage AND knowledge. The mechanics need to be more punishing on scaling and have more flat base options available

[@Hansdaddyslim]

Great video dog, it does seem to be that there is a problem with meta abuse, I largely try and ignore the meta but there’s certain ways that playing a certain class just feels like trolling, Eg. slayer fighter basically being a worse bard and rogue in one. I’ve found that 25-124 lobbies are the limit for me atm, unless I want to play a meta class. Any more gear and the cracks in balance really start to show.

[@RustyGanks]

My friend group quit the game when they heard that balance is taking a backseat, especially with the state of warlock at the moment.

[@SomeKindaDog]

Hope you bois enjoy this one. Leave a comment to what you think could make PVP great in DnD

[@TheSpudHunter]

Some good points brought across mate

[@yothatsmanny7383]

Removing secondary movespeed rolls would bring classes more in line imo

[@TheRealHudo]

Nothing will top how op locust swarm was for those 2 days….

[@saint_snow]

But they ofc brought back uniques outside of the named weapons back to "entice" people to go to HR. When they removed it to tighten the gear gap in the first place. Crazy. Honestly the classes overall are fine, we had some nerfs to cleric and warlock could see some. But the rest are honestly fine lately. Hopefully this big matchmaking update coming will help things out so you don't have dead lobbies.

[@forgxd]

Bring back the cycle frontier and I’ll never complain again

[@YourBoyBlinn]

great take & view on the game! I can totally see what you mean as I transition out of the 'new player experience' and now actively seek PvP against geared players... and since I don't have any experience with any other game like this, it's good to hear your perspective as someone who's seen similar releases get over contorted and inevitably loose steam. fingers crossed IM doesn't get it twisted!

[@calvinbush8238]

Lmfao that Breaking Bad part was GENIUS

[@damjnet8751]

Honnestly there are a few ways to tackle this problem. Right now, a big problem is the "BIS", and the market. Anyone can farm 500g per run in normals, and buy a really good kit that you would probably not be able to build yourself. At least not in 10 minutes. So people can just buy broken builds super quick, farm other people for their gear, rince and repeat. The other flaw, is having the monsters be 2 to 3 times (if not more) tankier than players. Same with damage. So you obsiously need some kind of scaling for players to take them on. The problem is the scaling is applied in equal manner in PVE and PVP. My solutions would be to try two things, seperately : 1- Make an SSF season / mode. You can only use what you found in the dungeon. No trading. You can still drop stuff on the ground for your mates in the dungeon, but at least you risk it. No more +7 true phys and 50str kits built in 5minutes on the market. 2-Separate the PVE affixes from the PVP ones on gear. Make gear matter in PVE to farm harder content / have an easier time, but make the PVP impact minimal. Having played almost every PVP full Loot game of those last 20+ years, the gear based PVP has always had the same problems. It's probably the hardest shit to balance ever, and I don't think you can, because the design is just flawed. Everyone likes an easy win because of their gear, but no one likes to get gear checked. Paradox. People want to have skill expression in a competitive PVP game, and here in most cases skill is trivialiazed by BIS kit.

[@jackflash852]

Saw "the cycle" got hard, saw "dark and darker" got soft

[@Lowfei]

I saw THE CYCLE and Somekindadog and lowkey clicked instantly... I miss the old days..

[@TheSpudHunter]

Holy sht that 1 throwing axe death on jay is munted

[@SomeKindaDog]

@@TheSpudHunter that was a tough time to play the game. Almost made me quit

[@Warham359]

Gear, perks, and spells needs to be tuned for specific encounters just like how it is in world of warcraft. Every spell/perk/piece of gear should have its own specific stats for when it interacts with a player. Specifically tuned for PvP and not making you feel like a usless in PvE. Almost every spell/perk interacts differently in PvP in world of warcraft. It allows more leniency when balancing classes without affecting the core game.

[@Damood]

03:22 He's HIM

[@M4XIMU]

Now looking at it, ive played every class because at one point it was meta.

[@cagxplays9602]

Gotta love how cleric, warlock and bard are op, so they nerfed druid 4 times just in case that helped. Gotta love how druids a buggy, unfinished mess, but they've put everything aside to work on sorcerer. They really need to get their priorities straight and learn to finish what they started instead of leaving it in a terribly buggy, unfinished state because they decided to do something else halfway through. I've been saying for a while now that they need to increase the movement penalty for plate armour again OR reduce the armour rating/stats, and give everyone a base hp increase or a base damage reduction (balance mobs around the changes).

[@fakiAZer]

YOOOO Sick editing dawg !!

[@SomeKindaDog]

@@fakiAZer took a few days to cook this one lad

[@ItsDemolink]

iv not been having many problems with warlocks with my tanky longsword fighter. they either run away and wait for teammates or dont fight me, got alot of magic resistance

[@KrullKama]

I just wanna play a dnd style game with my buds. And meta always gets in the way of my fun. I’m a cleric. I do cleric stuff. Like put a bandaid with a holy symbol on it

[@Frantikplays]

This the dog videos I've missed.

[@womancrisisbigmac]

I really like the game and something is always going to be better than everything else, a really good player will still roll a lot of meta slaves, this game is very rewarding, the only thing I dislike is move speed checks I’d say

[@Vizixor72]

yeh cleric is still overtuned but nowthey do need to tune the warlock down in some aspect that doesnt make it worthless to use the demon form again so demon form is still an option.

[@baconshreds1772]

Picked up this game yesterday, played for 3 hours, died every time i played except once, sold all my things, made good money, now im actually scared because i have stuff now.

[@cagxplays9602]

If you cant fight the pve, dont take gear in. You should be playing with the intention to die, you expect to die until you suddenly stop dying to mobs when youve learned to fight them, now you can take gear in and actually bother to loot. For now, consider everything as cosmetic, looting doesnt matter, all that matters is fighting mobs.

[@baconshreds1772]

@cagxplays9602 that's actually helpful. Thank you. Lol

[@cagxplays9602]

@@baconshreds1772 no worries man, i tell all new players the same thing and it seems to help. The less you care about loot at the start, the less frustrating the experience will be.

[@nmpuppet1958]

dude i need more dnd vids now like

[@a1dan02]

For me it's just the rock paper scissors way of balancing things, I just wish they had balanced it where counters weren't so favoured before adding more classes to the game (Warlock and Druid) The playtests were way more enjoyable for me, warlock is probably the biggest annoyance personally due to the Hydra, healing and infinite spells.

[@Motionless01]

man, you miss The Cycle frontier I know I do.

[@SpookyLechuga]

I look forward to the other side of nerfs for warlocks. I can't stand I can get 3 tapped by bis curse spam. Sheessshhh

[@itsmoca9430]

Loved it, a lil guide like this is what I needed

[@brennanorr2]

Ngl u can quite literally make it as easy as gear only applies 25% or 50% towards pvp then everyone would be stronger to pve and have significantly less dmg in pvp but that would make any sort of 1v3 situation impossible ngl

[@jasmineclaraa]

Loved the video 👍🏽👍🏽

[@Minda999]

SomeKindaTarantino

[@Microchip__]

CYCLE REFERENCE!?!?

[@SomeKindaDog]

@@Microchip__ RAHHH 🦅

[@chelleydawn1974]

Enjoyed that 😂

[@gabelaughlin2104]

yea and it sucks even more when you cant learn the warlock meta

[@NINJAgamerpt]

I play HR and HR is fine and alive you find some ap farmers some chill dudes and a lot of juicers the normal cycle. at least in eu i cannot play normals to many rogue cheaters.

[@tomj0771]

i think the banlancing of this game need´s darvin award

[@SomeKindaDog]

were slowly gettin there

[@Lebraq]

Need this editing more thx

[@Leoshade99]

The pvp is OK rn, I play a lot of 124 bracket bc I feel like it’s more balanced and fun since you know ppl are sacrificing stats to be 124. I don’t think lock is super OP def annoying but they’d either have to rework them completely and make is like a shadow priest from wow or make it to where every 2-3 hydra casted applies a MS debuff to them making it hard to run.

[@cagxplays9602]

warlock is stronger at the higher gear scores, hence why you dont feel it as much in 124. D&d has a problem with scaling, where some classes tend to be weak with no gear and then suddenly strong with good gear.

[@Leoshade99]

@@cagxplays9602 true I do dodge most of the bs from playing in the lower bracket that’s why I enjoy it always good to blow some steam after the HR grind.

[@cagxplays9602]

@@Leoshade99 Honestly, i dont blame you though, the lower bracket pvp is significantly better.

[@Champuru2]

He back!

[@NeteruSolink]

Did you just say ''The Cycle''?

[@notnadie]

[@nmpuppet1958]

im letting yk rn i loved watching this video love u dude #fuckclerics

[@cantrash]

Metas will always exist in any game as people try to play the “best” build or strategy and people will find oversights the developers have made. The game when it first came out had EXTREMELY broken abilities and perks and ever since then Ironmace has slowly been toning things down (although it should have been quicker). We know for a fact that Ironmace themselves is split on balancing the game with Sdf kinda wanting things to be broken but Terry wants things to be toned down more. The recent interview showed to us that the recent balance changes that have been happening is primarily from Terry and the classes baseline I think is extremely balanced as a result (in under 24 lobbies and sorta in 25-124). Gear has definitely been the driving factor for balance since the beginning of the game, but I think we should be more fair to Ironmace when it comes to balance. I don’t think some classes themselves are broken but instead, gear is broken. While tweaks to certain abilities is definitely needed *cough* Cleric and Warlock *cough*, I like the idea of gear being PvE focused mainly. This would still keep the baseline of characters pretty similar so you still have honest fights with others but you’ll still feel stronger as you clear the dungeon of enemies or defeat a boss quicker than you wouldn’t have otherwise. Love the video man, keep up the good work!

[@AstralGang]

Banger

[@mangipower8283]

big fucking kapp, everyone is trying to bully timmies every game

[@mangipower8283]

to make their ego feel big cause they have little willys irl

[@canaandemers1184]

Maybe add a way to reroll 1 random stat on each item to give more players access to meta builds, this still allows for a decent roll on loot but also makes it a lot less hard. IDK just a thought. Sounds good on paper but might not work in-game.

[@Midwestemoisme]

4:08 at the very least the devs do change them

[@Midwestemoisme]

honestly ima chop it up to growing pains, i trust those devs to eventually get it right

[@SomeKindaDog]

@@Midwestemoisme I believe they will too.

[@Midwestemoisme]

@@SomeKindaDog i have to say tho this demon warlock meta is making we wanna pull teeth lmaooo

[@legrestti]

Good video,i think the meta it's really decent right now. Maybe they should buff the offmeta perks to make it better compared to best alternatives ( for ej helmet have +1true mag dmg,make base green 2 or 3 mag power ) so the alternative it's stronger. They def need to balance move speed...the move speed boots with ms shouldnt exist and double roll's boots. But it's seems fine i like the place where pvp it's right now and i LOVE normals becose pve just take a minor place compared to pvp that's that i love.

[@cagxplays9602]

"the move speed boots with ms shouldnt exist and double roll's boots." BASED

[@agrocreepers]

i feel like all you pvp sweat lords forget this is DnD firsts and that this game isn't about pvp you just make it about pvp

[@cagxplays9602]

Someone forgot to read the description. "unforgiving, hardcore fantasy PVPVE" notice the pvp in pvpve... that's because its a pvp game... We get it, you're still dying to mobs... we aren't.

[@agrocreepers]

Somebody didnt actually listen to what the dev said their game is or what I said it was. pvevp is not pvp and you should stop assuming this game is only pvp I get every youtuber makes it about pvp cause pvp sells but that's not what this game is or how it should be balanced entirely

[@cagxplays9602]

We dont die to pve anymore, you do, we dont care about pve changes, pve feels balanced, pvp does not. You're the one trying to argue for pve when the conversation is about pvp, you're the one not listening. You're just upset because you keep dying to pve and no one else does. PVP has balancing issues, pve does not, so why the hell do we give a shit about pve right now? Newsflash, we dont, youre just offended because we dont die to mobs anymore, so the only issue for us is the pvp.

[@agrocreepers]

@@cagxplays9602 I like how much you've failed to perceive my points it's fine though we each have our own way of playing the game you prioritize pvp as the sole reason you play where as I'm playing in a way more true to the games roots also love how you assume I die to pve lol

[@cagxplays9602]

@@agrocreepers Bro, youre literally talking nonsense. YOU ALONE are the only person talking about pve, there is LITERALLY NO REASON to talk about pve, pve is balanced, pvp is not. You are just offended that people care about pvp and you clearly dont. Go get offended somewhere else, everything you are talking about is irrelevant, you havent made a single suggestion or point, you are just complaining for the sake of complaining.

[@Constrict0r]

They need to tone down warlock severely. They shouldn't be soloing every boss in the game and be the best melee and caster as well. It's really really busted.

[@Cheezer3089]

👶

[@ThePapicito]

I think gear in its state is good, not EVERYONE will be able to make / buy meta kits, thats usually how it is. However they just need to tune certain classes, buff specific ones. I personally like how often they patch the game and change stuff for a quick little 1 week test or so. Eventually the "meta" will be nerfed, eventually. The only issue i see is, what do you balance for? 3s? or solo? Thats kind of a big issue cause while rogue is very strong, its also pretty weak in terms of hp/PDR, and it takes a decently skilled player to be successful ofc. I think gearscore/Normal/HR need to be tuned a bit more to give a equal playing field. I think GS needs to depend on the rolls on the item (ex True damage giving more GS than just armor for ex). However it might cuck the super juiced lobbies. I would like to see more done about cheats/teaming.

[@ThePapicito]

But im personally looking forward to dungeonborne :D

[@NinesIng]

@@ThePapicito same. Gave DnD multiple shots and it just doesn't feel fun to play at all. Dungeonborne clicked right away. Maybe its more noob friendly, not sure.

[@ThePapicito]

@@NinesIng I like DaD alot, but for some reason DB was HELLA fun to play, felt rewarding and active i guess idk

[@laranja3]

The Cycle Frontier was better

[@mangipower8283]

fuck this game

[@saiko1271]

As someone who has played the game for almost 3k hours mostly in trio I can say that balance feels good beat it ever has the gap between a 3-5k kit and a 20-30k kit is very small compared to past wipes my only wants are not being able to play three of the same class in a comp and cleric nerfs

[@SomeKindaDog]

a 5K kit is quite expensive, those who do play trios have a much easier time farmin gold than someone who might play solo for example. As a solo enjoyer who used to do solo series, i had never been able to grind the unique type gear or be able to use a insane kit all the time. id say balance varies a lot once u compare how they play between solo,duo,trio its just another layer to how complicated it is to balance.

[@saiko1271]

@@SomeKindaDog that is true I should’ve specified that trios is what I was more referring too

[@ayevee6327]

give rat more health D:

[@browningcm]

Personally im over the pvp meta… fk warlock fk druid im just so over it. They need to drop more content and things to do in the dungeon. They also gotta nix druid. No class should be able to zip across a whole room in 0.2 seconds and then merk you as a cat with the fastest attack speed..

[@cagxplays9602]

If youre still dying to druid after he has been nerfed into the ground, thats just a huge skill issue on your part.

[@browningcm]

@@cagxplays9602 i havent been playing. Like i said, im over it

[@cagxplays9602]

@@browningcm why you complaining then? Lowkey just sounds like youre bad at pvp.

[@LordShvttle]

cleric spammer like soda crying about a slight pdr cleric nerf, bruh gtfo, I d rather play against warlock than get 2 hit by a tanky pdr cleric xdd

[@nsz1050]

I think the primary issue most people don't realize is that IronMace only has 2 people on balancing: Terry (CEO) and SDF (lead dev). There's no way in hell either of these two have enough time to PLAY their game enough to understand what changes need to be made. It's only becoming increasingly evident with each patch as to how out of touch they are with the intricacies of PvP and balancing. The IronMace "classic" is always 1 step forward and 2 steps back, because they're seeing the results of bad balance but don't know enough about how the game is played to be able to address the causes. Which leads to some insane sweeping change that does nothing to address the real issue(s), and only creates new problems.

[@notnadie]

[@cagxplays9602]

Not only that, but terry and sdf completely disagree with eachother, so we just get a tug of war between their ideas.

[@rdbtheranger]

Gear should only be pve focused. It may be a little boring but it's the only way this game will survive

[@cagxplays9602]

So getting gear is pointless then? You can already do all of the pve in base gear and increasing their health and damage wouldnt change this in the slightest. Pve is predictable and the least of your worries in a game. It's a pvp focused game, you can avoid pve all you want, but you cant avoid pvp (unless youre a druid or rogue)