Fear effects : Build 95
I hope this is the appropriate forumn for commentary on new game content. So far I am not impressed with the implementation of player fearing by a.i. mobs.

Up to this point, this game has been a balancing act. Its a scissors-paper-stone solution: use the right tool for the job and most difficult situation's can be over come. Its a balancing act because if I want to have poison resist say, I have to equip gear with that stat on it, and that might mean i have to give up some agility for higher hit percentage and ranged dmg, or i might have to give up endurance and hit points. So its a trade off and the player is left to weigh what is most important them in their scales of balance. If hit points or strength are more important to me then i may be willing to give up resistance pieces in exchange for items which grant the stat(s) i hold most important.

As you move through a dungeon you basically move from encounter to encounter by confronting a group of monsters - kill them and move on to the next group. After being feared by every f-ing group i encountered in sequence, I must say I am NOT pleased with the implementation of the fear factor.

I bought the bravery passive ability, engaged it in the spell tray and the result was - that as soon as the fear immunity wore off - i was consistently hit with fear again - read my lips - c o n s i s t e n t l y . Not "alot of the time" or pretty much or "most of the time", EVERY TIME. So lets see...

You balanced the game by giving me a 35 percent chance to avoid this fear factor. Which means you "b a l a n c e d" the game by giving mobs a 65 percent chance to succeed. Please hand me your paycheck and give me a 65 percent change to remove 50 percent of your income and share with me how you feel about balance.

Do I get a 65 percent chance to succeed on ranged shots - melee hits or spell casts ? No - i get now to roll each and every time against significantly lower odds of success. So if i don't get a 65 percent chance to succeed then how is giving one to the a.i. an implementation of balance ?

I am frustrated. If you implement an a.i. capability it is reasonable to anticipate that a player usable counter is available - and there is absolutely NO point in giving up a spell tray slot for this useless 35 percent chance to avoid this new f*ck factor. Higher levels have available to them higher percentages of fear resistance which or may not be effective but by starting the lower end of the scale at a 2 out of three chance of failure your basically saying anyone under level "x" is basically screwed. If you cant get better odds than a one in three chance to succeed , after paying the hefty premium of giving up a spell slot then you can keep your useless bravery passive ability.

I play strategy games and rpg's to figure out how to build an effective character. I do not pay for the priveledge of being purposelessly frustrated. I pay to have a contest with a well designed artificial intelligence on a level playing field; sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you. A purposefully designed encounter with a 2 of 3 chance to fail is not a level playing field, nor is it a contest.

An encounter- presented as a "challenge " which does not represent a reasonable chance or opportunity for success is an abuse of the concept and is not in fact a challenge . What it actually is , is defeat by design. If you can't design a coherent artificial reality with a reasonable chance for success at each level - what point is there in paying to encounter it ?

I didnt read all of it but I can understand its annoying. Wondering what mob it is you are talking about. This was the good section by the way, np with that.
You might try fighting in another place? Often other parts of the dungeon contain other sort of mobs, This is for yourself. But it doesnt solve the problem, just saying

Much of what you say makes sense, but all-in-all, it doesn't really matter to me. I don't mind being affected by fear, even in HDoL. I'm ok with the fact that certain mobs might be able to fear me on a regular basis. It's just part of playing, to me.

It may come down to that - this is some people's cup of tea, and for other's its not. I think what I object to is such a despicably low counter fear chance at the hefty price of a spell bar slot - for now I just dont bother loading it, its not worth the limited spell bar real estate. And I do my best to avoid encounters with fearing mobs.

I think possibly the mechanics might be adjusted differently between pvp use (which is very handy) and PVE ; i think anyone who gives up a spell slot to mount a passive counter to fear (in a PVE) is entitled to a minimum of a 50/50 chance to beat the roll.

I thought your suggestion to choose hunting grounds without this element was a good one since I loathe, hate and despise its current implementation.

I didn't find a single level of the frump's "chain" of levels and subdungeon's that didn't have these fearing a-holes in them.

So it appears its going to be crammed down the throat of all players whether its content we care for or not.

What exactly was this supposed to enhance again, beside player aggravation ?

Oh it doesnt enhance anything ? Great addition ! What a contribution.

I'll definitely be thinking about continuing to pay for this.

I'm just wondering if those finding the fear changes a pain are mages/rangers. Because as a fighter I don't find it a great pain.

To me its just another way the mobs have of reducing my dps. It is no more annoying than being stunned or knocked over.

But I was thinking that maybe the problem in that the rangers and mages have a lot less HP than fighters and so losing control and eating a wall for a few seconds could cause great grief to them. Especially if during that time you got stunned.

One thing I like about online games is that they continually change and I have to adapt to the changes. Sometimes I hate the changes, but that just makes me more determined to get a strategy that minimises the effect of the change.

Or as they say in the formus for another game I play, adapt or go and play WoW.