Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Dull combat
Lord.Bachus
Member RarePosts: 9,686
I love everything about this game... Except the dull combat
its just plain boring, who would have expected that from the team that made such a great combat system in AoC..
somehow i keep hoping they will someday improve their combat system... The system with only 7 abillities from which most are very situational has no depth at all
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Comments
All-time fave : City of Heroes/Villains
Played and returning from time to time : GW2, Tera, CO
Played: Aion, Archeage, DCUO, FXIV:ARR, Rift, SWTOR, TSW, Vindictus, Wildstar
Playing atm : WoW, Hearthstone, Tera, GW2
You can have 7 active abilities at any given time, but if you're not in combat you can swap them out. Eventually, though, you find your groove with a build that makes you comfortable so you don't swap it much, sure. Then again, about any mmo only really has 3 to 7 abilities you use in a given combat, and in some for some situations you spam 1 or 2.
Mmo combat in general can be boring because it's repetitive, and even if you have to move around some, there's not a whole lot of variation in that either. I'm not going to particularly defend tsw combat but I'm not going to knock it either, because to me, it all becomes math and patterns.
The Secret World is one of my favorite mmorpg games but I just gave up on it after a couple of months due to the clunky combat and horrible looking animations. Its such a shame because it really ruined the experience for me.
If you dont mind the animations on the game and are thinking of buying this game then go for it, its still one of the best mmorpg games to play give or take a nit pick here or there.
You complained last year as well about the same thing.
MMORPG shill account.
what exactly is dull about it? I´ve assembled my abilities I like from the skill wheel and I find it pretty cool to change abiltiies on the fly, there are dozens and dozens of abilities you can assemble as you see fit.
I think the camera FX could use a little work to make it feel more dynamic, because it does nothing, but otherwise the combat is really solid
The problem I have with TSW combat is that it's too repetitive (and that comes from someone that loves the game).
For some examples, playing WoW playing my balance druid was completely different than playing a shadow priest or a warlock even if all basically did the same (ranged DPS). Same I can say about GW2 in my warrior, guardian or mesmer, just to name a few, in Age of Conan with a barbarian or a dark templar.
In TSW there's a great selection of weapons, plus combinations between them, yet at least in all the different builds and combinations I tried it all boiled to the same builder - builder - builder - builder - builder - finisher 1 - finisher 2 - repeat. I found much more fun creating and finding builds than I actually did with the combat.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
If you're finding the combat dull it's likely because you are questing in an area too low for your gear level. You're coasting along, not pushing yourself. Try moving to a higher level quest area where combat is really a matter of life and death. If you come out of each fight thinking "I only just made it" then you're in the right area.
I find the same issue in WoW, when I played it again recently (last expansion). I simply could not die, not matter how badly I played, due to the extremely easy combat in that game. It became so tedious, that I left and returned to TSW after a long absence. Now...I get killed on regular basis again, and it's always my fault for not playing it right.
Yeah, I have to say that I think I didn't really love the combat at the start, but I was too distracted by the Lovecraftian vibe of Kingsmouth to care. The dungeon bosses, though... Machine Tyrant is my second favorite fight and Hel is my favorite (I just wish it was available year-round). I'm the one in the dreads:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp-9HueFLiU
That fight looks pretty boring to me. Boss doesn't move, has really obvious tells, and a massive attack that you just stand behind a pillar to avoid. Was there any need to interrupt key abilities of the boss? Was there a tank taunting and you guys dpsing while getting healed and avoiding the circles on the floor by walking out of them? (trying to understand what is good about this).
Oh right, in most games the healers stand at the back in dresses, but hey I'm wearing a skirt, surely you can tell I'm healing BY dpsing. The vid is from a DPS perspective, but you can clearly see a tank in the center. Maybe you were watching the video small on low res. The healer (me) is healing the tank. Not sure why you'd think there wasn't one, you can clearly see the healthbars. Healthbars work by tracking how much health you have. When you're taking damage, they go down. When you're getting heals they go back up. You can see them in the video going down and up.
There's only 4 people visible in the fight because the fifth stood in the damage AoE as soon as it started. This fight, like most at this level has binary damage. If you stand in the wrong face half you die, if you stand in the wind you die. That's not entirely true, I found out later that I can heal someone standing in the wrong face, but then I overgeared this content last year. I can nearly solo it this year (and I failed because I had derpy hands - I'll try again). In TSW if you stand in the shit you die. NM content is very hard on people who fail the personal responsibility check. For reference, everyone I ever pugged with in 7 years of WoW would have failed this fight.
So. To explain in simple terms:
I guess it's not riding the back of a dragon, using gross tentacles to hold on with while it does barrel rolls... *shrug* Floors aren't for everyone.
I agree with you on the dull combat. People who love this game aren't raving about the combat so they must have found something they value.
Would changing the combat system be a good ROI? Would they lost current players? How many people would it bring to the game?
Epic Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAigCvelkhQ&list=PLo9FRw1AkDuQLEz7Gvvaz3ideB2NpFtT1
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos?&sort=-downloads&page=1
Kyleran: "Now there's the real trick, learning to accept and enjoy a game for what it offers rather than pass on what might be a great playing experience because it lacks a few features you prefer."
John Henry Newman: "A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault."
FreddyNoNose: "A good game needs no defense; a bad game has no defense." "Easily digested content is just as easily forgotten."
LacedOpium: "So the question that begs to be asked is, if you are not interested in the game mechanics that define the MMORPG genre, then why are you playing an MMORPG?"
No need to be nasty about it, I am just trying to understand what is interesting about it. From your description it seems that I was spot on: a tank was taunting with some others dpsing while getting healed and avoiding circles on the floor by walking out of them. There were no interrupts or any type of skilled plays other than avoiding some very obvious tells.
I can't understand how you can think that is an example of a good/exciting boss fight. Every dungeon in Tera is about a trillion times better than what I see here, as are all of the world bosses and BAMs, but each to their own I guess.
Let me see if I understand why you posted what you did.
Everything in TERA is better than this... let me ask you something, do you have a limit of 8 abilities in TERA? Because if not, that means you have your entire spellbook (or whatever) available at all times. Which means there's no reason not to have a boss throw everything at you. If they don't, that's just lazy bosses who should have forfeited and given you their loot.
Is TERA the one where you can't move and cast? No, I think that was RIFT... or something. Nevermind, if you can move and cast in TERA that's not relevant.
You asked some questions that had obvious answers, and I pointed out how obvious they were... and that was nasty? Ok, suit yourself.
I'm glad you're having fun in TERA. This fight is lots of fun but you're welcome to keep thinking whatever you like about TSW combat. Most people who complain about it never gave it a fair shake. It takes work to figure out what weapons suit your playstyle, it takes work to figure out a deck that works with those weapons. Not everyone puts in the work - most would rather have a class-based system that chooses for you.
I didn't see many videos that looked like boss fights in Tera so i don't know how representative this one is. I really don't see how this is superior in any way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0ShwgsSPnE
This is a video of the Machine tyrant fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FVfHuoqaNc
It is not the amount of combat commands that is the problem.
It is that someone else has chosen the limitation for me that bothers!
The combat itself doesn't bother me, it's the horribly clunky animations and stiff movement that accompanies them. They're even more horribly noticeable after playing GW2 and FFXIV for a bit before returning to the game, which I did (as both of those game have fantastic, fluid animations and movement).
If you can look past the above, however, the rest of the game is a gem.
I posted because you said the combat in secret world is great and showed us an example of your favourite boss fight. I found the fight to be incredibly boring so I thought there might have been something else going on that I wasn't aware of just from watching it. However, you confirmed that the fight did indeed play out as I assumed, which makes it one of the most uninspired boss fights I have seen in any mmo. If that is an example of the pinnacle of the combat experience in TSW then it confirms that combat is indeed not the game's strong point. Even fighting normal mobs in ESO is more engaging than what you showed us.
Nifelheim is a seasonal christmas event that is intended for fun and not to be terribly challenging. If you want to know that TSW's actual dungeons have the traditional MMO dungeon tropes, yes they have lots of them plus more. The nightmare Hell dungeons, Facility, Ankh, or other 1 boss fights like Corpse island or NYR stand out, not just mechanics but the variety of ways in which you can overcome them. The dungeons are generally regarded as well done. Which has absolutely nothing to do with the act of combat. Some people just don't like the rouge type combat, or get bent out of shape about the animations and can't get past it. let's not go overboard, I enjoyed ESO, but browsing this forum is more engaging than left-click, left-click, loot monster.
The problem with the combat in TSW is that there is just too much of it. Its like it is only there to slow you down a little in between quest lines. The perfectly spaced mobs just didn't do it for me.
The most fun I had with combat in this game was trying to find different ways of avoiding it.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
Wow, the little game known as The Secret World sure riled the jimmies of the ESO fans.
I wonder if the ESO devs put it in the notice of their launcher to come here and trash it.
Hmmm. I didn't see anything exciting in the video that other guy posted, but that is the only TSW boss fight video I have seen so I would assume there would be better ones if you say so. I was just surprised that was singled out as an example of something great and then watching it all I saw was tank, dps, heal walk out of circles. It looked ordinary in the extreme. I asked about it expecting that there was some mechanic in there that I was missing, but depressing the guy just confirmed it was as boring as it looked.
In what way are the dungeons regarded as well done, and do you have some examples of the variety of ways they can be overcome?
Three pages of a little known thread...and this amounts to riling of the "ESO fans"?
Well...as one of them...I have no clue what you are even talking about. I played TSW and it has weird and dull combat. Eso does not.....IMO
Care to try again?
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."