Developer K has put up a new post.

Developer K’s Diary

Am I writing too much nowadays? This is because there are many important issues to address.

Before I dive into Labyrinth Part 2, I want to talk about the most defining content of Dragon Nest, the 8-man dragon raids.

Why is balancing endgame content so important?

• Do you ever feel like this: Even though 8-man dragon raids are supposed to be the most challenging content in the game, no matter how hard you try, they do not feel the least bit challenging. As you can see, the Tier system has increased the number of players with Legendary gear, and the number of players with Unique dragon gems, enhancement plates, and talismans has greatly increased. By the way, only one party has managed to clear Green Dragon Nest Time Attack this month with the 20% nerf, except they cleared before the nerf.

Excessive Clear Requirements

• To be honest, even if 8-man dragon raids are endgame content, they require extremely high stats to clear. When you calculate it, Green Dragon Nest Time Attack requires about 900 million DPS per person (based on the 30% nerfed version). Does it make sense that each member has to pull 900 million DPS while avoiding attacks? Why does this game require so much DPS?

What do you mean?

• Actually, I want to talk about Final Damage. When you think about Final Damage, the image that comes to mind is of endgame players, right? In fact, I am still very cautious about addressing the problem of Final Damage, as much as I am careful about discussing the gold problem. Please pay attention, since I have to watch my words and avoid spawning strange rumors.

Fate of Content Balance: Can we ignore Final Damage?

• At level 95, having Calypso Tier 2 +20 and high-end cash equipment gives you about 6000 FD. With all four Genesis accessories, you should have about 7000 FD. This is typical of advanced players, who have FD ranging from 15% to 20%. Although there are not that many of them in KDN, the difference in DPS between players with FD stackers and non-FD stackers is 180%. With this in mind, what happens if I disregard FD when I balance endgame content? Does it still retain its meaning as endgame content?

The existence of FD itself is not a problem.

• I believe that FD is an attractive and well-designed stat. There are stats like FD that have similar stat values, and it is worth it in terms of the endgame concept that involves putting in a lot of effort. However, I want to fix some problems.

Problems with Final Damage

Unique Growth Curve

• The first problem is the growth curve. If you look at the graph, at level 95, 500 FD gets you 1% FD, but later on as you stack more, the same amount gets you 3%. Max FD is 15000, and one-third of this value (5000) is 11%, rather than 30%. Due to the exponential nature of this graph, before purchasing a FD plate, you have to figure out if it even will gives you the expected boost. Level 95 plates with third-stat FD are about 20000 gold each, and I need to purchase 4-5 of them to begin feeling the exponential effect.
• In the end, even advanced players, knowing that they have to invest so much to stack FD, become uninterested in doing so. As such, only a few FD stackers exist. The concept of a unique space of endgame players seems great. However, as mentioned above, I cannot exclude FD when I balance endgame content. The only way that I know how to solve this problem is to flood these players with challenging content, but then it leads to something that I call “Stress from Stat Requirements.”

FD Farming Is Not Gameplay

• Suppose you have an advanced player who plays a lot. With Medea equipment, it is difficult to farm content everyday. If you save gold, you can maybe obtain Calypso Tier 2 +20, superb enhancements, rare talismans, and unique dragon gems. However, from that point on, there are only two ways to increase your stats: shell out 30000 gold for a Legendary Dragon Gem, or 20000 gold for a FD plate.
• I mentioned that “graduation” is a period of time where your stats remain stagnant. This is actually a graduation from gearing up, which can be played around with. (T/N: I’m sorry for the weird translation. 내가 졸업이라고 언급한 스펙 정체시기는 사실 플레이로 할 수 있는 성장의 졸업을 말하는거야.) I do not think that obtaining Legendary Dragon Gems and third-stat FD are part of the normal process of gearing up. To make this game better, I think that I need to improve Legendary Dragon Gems and third-stat FD and make them accessible to to the playerbase. Because these items are valuable, the time it takes to obtain these items is astronomical. However, I believe that we should avoid valuing stats that cannot be obtained through regular gameplay, regardless of the advantages that they provide.

Aren’t you the PD? Why aren’t you doing anything about this?

• Yes, as the PD, I carry a lot of responsibility. However, I think that it is impossible to fix FD, Legendary gear, and gold at the same time. I thought that I should pursue change while maintaining the flow of the game. Legendary gear, which has been around before 95 cap, has become more commonplace over the past six months. As a result, the current enhancement costs have been reduced to about a quarter of what they were before the Tier system was introduced. I believe that, like with Legendary gear, I can smoothly integrate more FD into the playerbase.

Final Damage Changes: March 8 Patch

Growth Curve Modification

• I have linearized the FD curve. 15000 is max FD, and FD will now increase by 1% per 150. This should increase FD for most players, except for those who have already reached max FD. 6300 FD should increase from 14% to 40% according to this formula.
• As such, regardless of your current FD, you can expect a 1% increase in damage for every 150 FD, making FD important for all players. There will no longer be a distinction between FD stackers and non-FD stackers.

Growth FD Plate Added: Rebellion Ultimate Enhancement (Unique)

• I have added a Growth FD Plate that can be enhanced with Enhancement Stones. As with other gear, you will need Enhancement Stones to enhance it. Enhancing it 10 times gives you 1200 FD, and each quest requires about 1000 Enhancement Stones. This figure shows the FTG for about a month of farming the Legendary Tier 2 difficulty level in Labyrinth, and I want you to understand that it is difficult to play this with the existing FD model. (T/N: I’m not sure if that previous sentence is a copy-and-paste from a future developer note. 이 수치는 약 1달간 모든 피로도를 라비린스 레전2티어 난이도를 풀 파밍했을때의 수급량이고, 기존 파뎀의 가치를 생각해서 하드한 플레이를 요구한다는 점을 이해해줬으면 좋겠어.)

Future FD Farming

• I will update the enhancement later and increase its max FD to 3000. At the moment, enhancing it only requires Upgrade Stones, but I will add additional requirements after level 10. As a result, you can probably earn about 70% of your FD through farming, and I will leave the remaining 30% to third stats to preserve the value of FD.

Standards for Content Balancing

• Since we assume that 70% of your FD will come from gear, and 30% from third stats, all of the content will be balanced to be clearable with 70% FD. I must admit that players who get the extra 30% will breeze their way through the challenging content.

Existing Third-Stat FD

• Since a level 95 plate with third-stat FD gives you about 3% FD, and I left 30% of your FD to third stats, I think that the demand for these types of plates will increase. You will need to equip about six of these, and the value of 90-95 third stat plates should increase. Unfortunately, there are currently 7 players with Korea with max FD, so I think they will have to discard some of their plates.

After the era of Legendary gear, is this now the era of FD?

• I do not want you to think about it this way. Although the spectrum of items in Dragon Nest was very wide, endgame stats were exclusive only to a few players. Legendary gear and FD were rare, so I have merely made them farmable. Dragon Nest was not exciting because only those people had Legendary gear and FD, which gave them access to exclusive content, turning Dragon Nest into a hardcore game.

Moving Forward

• I want you to feel motivated to play a game with fair gameplay, to feel rewarded without getting bogged down, and to feel a sense of accomplishment by cooperating with your friends and going on an adventure. These are very obvious goals, but they are difficult to pursue in a world with tens of thousands of active players.

Finally

• FD farming is a complex issue. Thank you for reading this to the end. This is not an issue that can be fixed with one patch, so I will monitor the situation and make modifications as needed. I hope to see positive feedback.