If you missed Amazon creative director Dave Verfaillie on New World’s Forged in Aeternum earlier this week, don’t worry: He missed you too, and now he’s dropped his own solo Forged in Aeternum to make up for his absence. This episode homes in on the state of balance, combat, and the meta of the game.
Verfaillie says the team is overall happy with the alterations to CC, grit, and armor mitigation that it’s made, which has had an impact on player builds (and power for magic weapons), particularly in arena content and expeditions. However, he admits that bruisers still dominate War and Outpost Rush is still overrun with ranged builds (with poor performance for melee), which the studio is looking at now. Amusingly, he notes that while a lot of folks are using bow in OPR, its win rates are poor, so maybe some of y’all should switch.
Going forward, the team is still focused on large balance patches every season as well as monthly smaller balance patches; the next large balance patch is likely coming in early May, followed by a pass on underpowered abilities, potential nerfs for fire staff, fixes for extreme bow damage, buffs for medium and heavy armor and melee combos, and further off in the future, a large rework for the sad, sad musket.
