Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 339 - 348 Oathbreaker

Chapter 339: Chapter 348 Oathbreaker

Instructor Ding’s team had dejectedly given up on pioneering the Tier 5 group dungeon; obviously, given the current situation, it’s not just about scraping by with the T5 group dungeon anymore—it’s even questionable whether they could still clear the normally stable Tier 4 group dungeons.

While the tank and healer professions hadn’t changed much and their strength remained the same as before, the DPS had been significantly nerfed.

Compared to before, the team’s DPS had dropped by at least 40%.

DPS is always the scarcest thing in a raid team; most of the time, the main reason for failing to defeat bosses is simply not having enough DPS.

The tank isn’t holding up? You can directly beef up their gear, and once it’s sufficiently upgraded, they’ll eventually hold up.

The healers can’t keep up? You can bring one or two more healers; generally speaking, it’s relatively easy to solve that problem.

But if there’s not enough DPS, then you’re truly short, no matter what you try.

If the DPS could increase by 50%, then the skills the boss would normally release in the later stages might not even come out, easing the pressure on healers and tanks, greatly reducing the likelihood of team casualties, and lessening the need for movement.

Now, with such a significant drop in the team’s DPS, it was undeniably a matter of great frustration for everyone.

Members had been furiously venting at Nitiandang in the guild chat for over an hour, and some had even taken to the internet and forums to rant.

But after the ranting, what next?

Now, the only options before everyone were either to quit the game out of frustration or to accept the new reality, switch to another build (BD), and then continue to pioneer the Tier 4 dungeons.

Some with a more relaxed view were advising others in the guild chat.

"It’s okay, we just got one BD nerfed. The Biased Elementalist BD was just too much, and although we say it’s fine, deep down we all knew it needed fixing sooner or later.

"Getting nerfed now is much better than after we’ve settled into T5 with full gear; a small ship is easier to turn around, and we have less sunk cost.

"Now no one is forced to play the Biased Elementalist just because it’s so strong; you can play whatever you want now."

But such words couldn’t comfort most people. After all, hadn’t Shengjing Group done the same thing back in the day?

Many players chose a third path: continue searching for other strong builds in the game!

They were reluctant to give up just like that, but they were even less willing to switch to those BDs with mediocre damage.

If they could find an equally powerful replacement build, maybe it would be enough to retain some players...

With the raid activities canceled, everyone had no choice but to return to the main city and stare blankly on their own.

Instructor Ding, too, opened the skill and talent window, idly examining the details of skills and talents, as well as the descriptions of the new version’s special glyphs, waiting in vain like one guarding a stump waiting for rabbits, hoping for some unexpected gains.

Just then, someone in the guild asked, "May I ask the experts, I followed your advice and put together a Little Black build, but why is there no damage at all?"

Being the guild leader, Instructor Ding naturally felt obliged to be the first to answer such a newbie question, "Have you switched into Dark Form?"

The newbie quickly responded, "Of course I switched."

Instructor Ding then asked, "What about talents?"

Newbie: "Uh... I guess I picked them all, aren’t they just those talents that increase dark damage?"

Once these words were spoken, Instructor Ding instantly understood his problem, "No, no, no, you’ve got it wrong, it’s not about picking skills and talents that increase dark damage – those are for the Warlock build.

"Little Black refers to the Dark Form, which is a Priest talent. It isn’t reliant on dark damage increase but instead on the light damage increase, which is then converted to dark damage through talents.

"Because light-based talents have more damage amplification and aren’t subject to any resistance reductions, so when converted into dark damage, the output is much higher."

Newbie: "Ah! I got it, I’ll give it a try!"

Having casually saved another confused newbie, Instructor Ding felt very satisfied.

This so-called "Little Black" is actually a build derived from the original "Dark Priest" profession.

In many games, a similar setting exists where light and darkness are two sides of the same coin, and the two can be transformed into each other. Once a priest abandons their faith in brightness, they become a Shadow Priest, whose characteristics include torment, life-stealing, and sustained damage output.

In "Shadow World," there is a similar setting; the Dark Priest is also considered a mature build from version 60, although it is relatively niche, there are still quite a few players who play it.

Just as Instructor Ding said, the skills of the Light Series don’t deal high damage, but they have a particular trait: there’s usually no corresponding resistance from the enemy, so nearly all the damage dealt is true damage.

Like other spell damage, such as elemental damage from fire or frost, or even Dark Damage, there are corresponding resistances or protective skills. The higher the resistance, the less painful the skill hits feel.

But in this game, there is no such thing as Holy Resistance.

Therefore, by stacking Holy Damage through skills and talents and then transforming it into Shadow Damage, you can also bypass the enemy’s resistance and deal significant damage.

Previously, a group of newbies in the guild blindly followed the trend and chose the Biased Elementalist build, but now that this build has been nerfed, they naturally started seeking other options, trying to see if the mature builds from the earlier version 60 could still perform outstandingly in the new version.

Soon after, new complaints emerged in the guild.

"Damn! Nitiandang is truly inhuman, they didn’t just nerf the Biased Elementalist’s damage, they put a cap on all Elemental Damage!"

"Is this something a person would do???"

"So does that mean I can’t play as a Frost Mage anymore? Elemental Quail can’t be played either!"

It was just bad news after bad news.

After the Biased Elementalist build was nerfed into the ground, most players thought about switching to other magic systems.

After all, they were all wearing magic damage gear, so switching directly to physical was definitely unrealistic. If they could convert to a Frost Mage or an Elemental Druid type of build, they might still manage to play.

But players soon found out that Nitiandang didn’t just nerf the Biased Elementalist build, but all Elemental Damage in general!

Elemental Damage was something that could be normally stacked high and was even easier to stack than all other types of damage.

But now, while Elemental Damage could still be stacked normally at lower levels, once it exceeded a certain threshold, even though the stats continued to increase, the actual damage did not improve at all.

This also caused other builds that utilized Elemental Damage to be unjustifiably nerfed!

Take the Frost Mage, for example, a conventional, balanced build that could normally deal around 12,000 DPS. Although not as high as the Biased Elementalist’s 18,000, it was still barely playable compared to other builds.

But now, the Biased Elementalist dropped to 8,000, and the Frost Mage fared even worse, plummeting directly to 6,000.

What the hell is there to play now!

Elemental Damage implicated too many builds, such as Water Element affecting Frost Mages, Fire Element affecting Pyromancers and Destruction Warlocks, and Earth Wind Element affecting Druids and other Nature Series professions...

No wonder some people started to delve into the Dark Series skills and talents, which must be one of the few builds not completely halved by this draconian nerf.

Instructor Ding also felt helpless as his gaze landed on a key talent of the Dark Priest build.

This talent was called "Oathbreaker."

Its description was somewhat vague: "Forsake your faith, be reborn."