As teased earlier this week, Amazon creative director David Verfaillie has helmed a new “balance of power” video on New World’s combat, during which he politely answers player questions, some of which are insulting and passive-aggressive (seems to be an uncomfortable trend lately in these videos, and folks, it’s not making the gamers asking them look clever or mature). Here are the highlights:
- Amazon still wants to buff some underperforming weapons and doesn’t think it went far enough (the animation budget is part of the problem).
- The studio is content with the blocking changes on the PTR, although damage mitigation might be too high. “Overall, this is the direction we want to move in.”
- Fire Staff’s pushback is being swapped to stagger.
- Rapier also needs more; Amazon is adding grip to flurry.
- Life Staff will see buffed Splash of Light, Light’s Embrace, and Orb of Protection.
- Bow is getting more buffing too: reduced duration for Rending Headshot, buffed damage on Poison Shot, and faster Rain of Arrows.
- The new heartrune, the studio says, feels underwhelming to players and to the devs and will also see some love.
As for the meta on the PTR, Verfaillie says they’re seeing a shift to melee, but it wants a balance, so don’t expect that to last; at the moment, the devs are tweaking sword and shield and the greatsword to calm their potency down.
Verfaillie concludes by noting that while there is an unannounced weapon coming later this year, the team is prototyping ideas for the one after that, so the team is soliciting feedback on what players want to see.
