New World’s October Balance of Power update video is out, and in it, Creative Director David Verfaillie talks about PvE and PvP balance, how the Flail has been doing since the expansion launch, and other issues the team is aware of and keeping an eye on.
The update is significant since it follows the release of Rise of the Angry Earth and players being able to take everything for a good try on live servers. As for the expansion, the changes to the gearing system, including the introduction of artifacts, come up in this talk for good reason.
There’s overall satisfaction with the new, more simplified gearing system, without expertise and reliance on Umbral Shards. The intention is your activities and the difficulty determine the gear that you're getting, for the most part. That doesn't mean that some things don't need a little tuning. PvP gear, Outpost Rush caches and Arena were cited as things that could use a little work.
As far as gear speed goes, while faster gear upgrades are happening, they found that only about 3.2% of players have full 700 gear sets so the progression rate is still manageable but indeed a little faster.
Another positive lies in named item upgrades. Those have been well-received and the flexibility they offer helps, along with artifacts, to diversify build options. Artifacts themselves have also been working well, and there will be more on the way. In the most recent community Q&A, the team said that we can expect thematically tied new artifacts and more each season.
The team is still working on some things like the Ankh’s and they are monitoring certain artifacts to make sure they don't have too much impact on balance.
The Flail Feels very balanced and people are getting into use it so it's being used a lot in Expeditions and at the time of recording, was the most used weapon in expeditions.
As for the overall current balance in New World. Well, with the release of the first expansion, things haven't changed much yet. There's so many different options introduced that Verfaillie refers to the situation as “in flux” a couple of times. The next edition should have some more data and answers, Including answers to anything you might feel is overpowered or underpowered, as the team is actively still seeking feedback on all of that.
See more over at New World.
