Hotfix Update - 5/2/23

[Celean 3]

Patch Notes:

 

Goals and Outline: The goals of this patch are simple: Increase time-to-kill/durability across PvP, trim damage off of defensive masteries to prevent them from being as much of a dominant choice, and improve the prospects of pure offensive masteries such as Fire, Middle Kenjutsu, and Lightning.

 

The increase in durability undoubtedly amounts to a substantial buff to the already powerful Senju and Left Ken masteries, and the decent Medical-healing mastery as well. The aim is that trimming a large amount of the damage from Left Ken and Senju keeps those two masteries from continuing to dominate the meta despite this inherent buff. Many ultimate jutsu will be receiving a slight buff to reduce the impact of the resilience change on the damage they deal.

 

In many ways this is just a shake-up so that players of all skill levels get to press their buttons a bit more before they perish, in an attempt to keep Alpha PvP fun and fresh as we ride towards Beta, needless to say some changes might not pan out as envisaged.

General

266 Resilience has been added to every non-cosmetic Head slot item. This might necessitate some buffs to the crit items in-game, as resilience still reduces crit damage (but not crit chance). Something to look at for the future.

Expertise added to the following haste weapons: Rooster (+40 per hand), Monkey (+60 per hand), and Rabbit (+80 per hand)

With a means of countering it in-game, the defense rating on Goat weapons was buffed to 40 per hand.

General Techniques

Precise Kunai AP scaling nerfed slightly

Fire Ninjutsu Techniques

Fire’s damage is currently relatively bursty and dependent on Flame Dart Scrolls. These changes aim to flatten Fire’s damage profile, reward CC without having to commit to casting Flamebreath, and bring fire’s overall dps up to cope with the durability increases, while reducing its burst potential.

Flame Dart initial damage scaling nerfed, ground-patch SP scaling buffed considerably.

Phoenix Flower initial damage scaling nerfed, DoT effect buffed.

Fire Tornado scaling buffed (Especially the SP scaling on the initial damage)

Dragonflame Jutsu DoT scaling buffed slightly

Fiery Havoc scaling buffed slightly

 

 

Earth Ninjutsu Techniques

 

Water Ninjutsu Techniques

Water Prison damage component scaling nerfed

Rising Geyser damage buffed slightly

 

Wind Ninjutsu Techniques

Lightning Ninjutsu Techniques

Lightning has an uphill battle due to its propensity fo proc Will to Endure. In testing with resilience changes, it was practically being outhealed by Will to Endure. It’s receiving some small buffs across the board to put it in a better spot as a pure offensive mastery.

Lightning Style: Static Cutter scalings buffed slightly

Lightning Style Weapon Chakra Flow scalings buffed slightly

Lightning Style Chidori: SP scaling buffed slightly

Swordsmanship Techniques

Dance of Flocking Birds nerfed significantly

Guillotine Killing Technique scaling buffed slightly

Silent Killing scaling buffed slightly

 

Medical Ninjutsu Techniques

The resilience change risks bringing back med meta in its full glory, but having more med players on the server is good for PvE. Pulse is the target for nerf should it prove overwhelming, but it’s going untouched for now.

Taijutsu Techniques

Scaling on Strongfist is currently a bit high, it’s punching up there with some ultimates. Understanding that it is carrying the entire damage profile of taijutsu, it’s receiving a tiny nerf to bring it more in line with “strongest basic ability”, not “weakest ultimate ability”

Strongfist Punch scaling nerfed slightly

 

Sarutobi Clan Bloodline

 

Burning Ash technique initial damage AP scaling reduced slightly. (It was a bit broken, waaay off the mark if built full AP.)

Senju Clan Bloodline

 

Deep Forest Emergence damage component nerfed.

Emerging Spikes damage and healing component nerfed

Senju: Heavenly Crushing Punch AP scaling nerfed

 

Uzumaki Clan Bloodline

 

Ice Combination Ninjutsu Techniques

Frozen Senbon Strike scalings buffed

 

Lava Combination Ninjutsu Techniques

Lava Style: Magma Barrage scalings buffed very slightly

 

As always,

 

Thanks for playing Shinobi Story!

[mastery reset enjoyer 4]

Pretty good changes, however the survivability of Senju/Medical is still far too much. I am playing those masteries + Left Ken and it makes for an unfun experience for both me and my opponent. Time to kill was way too low, if my 3 masteries were not present I think this new balance would be in a really good sweet spot. However a handful of people like me playing these disgusting masteries will throw a wrench into the entire balance. 

 

I think these will remain as chronic problems due to the nature of medical tree as a whole. The only solution I see is splitting up the components of abilities like "Pulse" and "Healing Palm" into multiple separate spells that fulfill components of the current 2 spells functions. Similar to how unlocking the final point in Earth awards you with two separate abilities, purchasing Palm and Pulse should give you 3 and 2 abilities per each. Currently a single palm functionally is like using Healing Touch, Regrowth and Rejuvenation at the same time as a Druid (the class Shinobi uses as a base). It should be split into these seperate functions. Not only for balancing reasons but to make healer more engaging than pressing 11111.

I can heal via Pulse for more damage than an Ultimate does to me, on a 20 second cooldown, instant cast, with little chakra cost and no damage output reduction. This is not fun for the healer or the person fighting the healer. Similarly dividing pulse into Riptide/Healing Rain-esq ability(s) will allow the abilities to remain relevant in PVE while dismantling the faceroll aspects that are applied in PVP. If someone wants to heal they should be forced to stand still to hard cast a large heal and only be able to apply instant cast/HoTs with low effectiveness while moving. Considering both movement charges/smoke bombs/other tree CC provided this is more than enough mobility for healers without making their main ability casted while moving. This would allow for greater counterplay to 2 button spam in PVP without effecting PVE balance. The Great Medical Seal is in a great spot because its literally just healing tide. Pulse is currently a 5x stronger Healing Tide that moves with you on 1/4th the cool down. 

 

I hope the GMs/DEVs doing balancing are allowed in the near future to make meaningful changes to spell functions instead of just minutely tweaking scaling. Tweaking scaling is only a bandaid to larger design problems.