Vanguard has a bit of a multiple personality disorder these days. Recently, a big patch was put into the game that increased the max level to 55 from the previous max of 50. Reports soon came in that the grind was very tedious and players either buckled down for the long push to 55 or began searching for greener pastures. The general consensus was that since the dev team was small, they had to put in a grind oriented level increase so that the majority of the players would take a few months to hit the new level cap and by that time perhaps some new high end content could be released. The logic made sense to me but like I said earlier the implementation rubbed long time max level players the wrong way. At Fanfaire, I talked to the dev team about the grindy nature of the new content and I didn’t see any sign that it would be changed. Imagine my suprise when I sat down in my office tonight with some great chinese take out and found the following Vanguard test server patch notes:
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o Modified the exp curve past 50 so getting to 55 will be much faster.
o Modified the respawn time on Pantheon population
o 2 dots have been unlocked
o Troll Coast mobs have been unlocked
o Forgotten peninsula mobs have been unlocked
o BOD mobs are no longer locked encounters
o Removed the knockback from Kreshnikara
o APW is now a 24 man dungeon (the difficulty has not been changed)
o Fengrot, Jagund, Nerksawl, and Soleq are all now 24 man encounters (their difficulty has not been altered)
o No fly zones have been removed
o Murderous cleave and other warrior dropped books from SOD are now tradeable
o Nerksawl’s spawn rate has been increased
o Guar should now drop his class only armor on a separate loot table
o Pantheon armor recipes have had their mat amounts reduced
o Fan faire attendees should now be able to claim their prize
o Faction Pegasus has been reduced in price
o Armor costs reduced
o Drop rate of echoes increased again
o Level 50s will be able to group with 55s
o Adding some tier 6 specific plant nodes to KDQ area
o Increased stack sizes for souls
o Increased stack sizes for slivers
o All enhancements are now tradeable
o A new veteran reward should be available for those who have returned and those who have been around for awhile.
o Ranged rangers now are the only class that have 0 range ranged attacks
o Form of precision now reduces melee attack damage by 10%
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The game that started off catering to the “core” gamer has now done a 180 degree turn and is now moving in a more casual friendly direction. I love the changes personally – since I’m older now with more real life responsibilities and was dreading the 51-55 push. Is Vanguard still a game for the hard core player or do market forces simply dictate that the game has to move in a more casual direction to survive? It’s an interesting question and the notes above honestly came out of left field smacking the forum trolls with a right hook that they were not expecting. Initial feedback has been positive for the most part. I’m very curious how this will turn out. Check out the thread here for more information and discussion.
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