Thread: Is the Affinity issue dead?

I have been unable/unwilling to play my 68 RK since they removed affinity control from my stone. Has everyone accepted this ridiculous way to set affinity? There has GOT to be a way to set it out of combat.

is it the best idea? probably not but its not a big deal at all. Love my RK now more then ever.

That's my sentiment too. Controlling affinity through skill use fells to me a lot smoother than having to flip stones to use a specific skill. All it takes is planning and thinking a bit further ahead than your next sill. The one gripe I do have is that I'm not able to change affinity out-of-combat.

In fact, not having to change stones all the time makes game play "safer" in that you don't loose skill time flipping stones about(*), you don't forget (or mis-click) to swap the original stone back(*) meaning you heal the last half of the instance with your DPS stone, and you don't have to carry about a lot of redundant junk only to be able to access DNFTx when/if needed.

Are there other solutions that might have been better? Probably. Was stone-swapping better? IM(H)O, no.

(*) Yes, I've tried keyboard macroing this but random lag can mess it up badly as there's no way for the macro to know when the UI is ready to accept the next key-stroke.

Actually the new affinity system works better in my opinion, it forces me to to think ahead and being able to hit 1 skill that damages or stuns to change my armor of X to what I want is actually much much quicker and easier than switching stones, hit skill, switch again.... a bit smoother too. it takes a little while to get used to it but once you do it works great.

I think both mechanices were/are clunky and not overly exciting, but hey ho...

"WoC to get my DNFtFrost, Scribe's Spark cause my Rune-Sign of Flame stinks, WoF for the Fall to X... Oh, it's time to heal again". But switching stones wasn't perfect either. I used to run around with vendor stones to cover all affinities, but it was imperfect as you always lose all stats of the old item before the stats of the new is applied.

Some QQ at our amount of skills. I wouldn't really mind having them all separated, tbh. Would make my life easier anyway. Macro keyboard ftw

On the whole, the new system is great and to me, easier than switching weapons mid fight. No chance of accidentally leaving the wrong weapon on and for me, much faster. The only problem I have is that you can end battle with an affinity you don't want, and you can't cast the Fall to X you want before the next battle. Not such a big deal when you are dpsing, and only slightly more annoying when you are healing. It would be great to be able to switch affinity out of combat, but even without that ability, it's a really a significant improvement on switching weapons every time.

Yes.

Would I complain about some way to set affinity out of combat? No.

Would I go back to hotswapping runestones? H-E-doublehockeysticks NO.

Originally Posted by Ruintheliel

I think both mechanices were/are clunky and not overly exciting...

/agree. I could do without it entirely.

Originally Posted by Ruintheliel

Some QQ at our amount of skills. I wouldn't really mind having them all separated, tbh. Would make my life easier anyway.

There are a number of skills that could be combined/eliminated to reduce our skill load. It will never happen though.

Move chisels/rifflers to be the offhand weapon.
Make an affinity class item.

Problem: solved.

Originally Posted by Lazlo_Hollyfeld

Move chisels/rifflers to be the offhand weapon.
Make an affinity class item.

Problem: solved.

Not quite. It turns back into the inelegant "equipment-swapping" problem we had before. It just doesn't affect weapon stats. The bottom line is that Turbine never intended for players to "change affinity" mid-combat or on-demand. They intended players to stick with an affinity for a long-term period of time.

It's an interesting mechanic, but it doesn't really affect enough skills to be very important anymore. The few skills that ARE affected by affinity could easily be modified not to need affinity. Seems like it's hanging around just for the sake of hanging around.

The issue isn't dead, but it also didn't kill my interest in having a Rune-keeper as my main.

I didn't like the old "gear swap" mechanic, and I don't like the current "last skill used" mechanic. It still grates on me every time I have to use a skill I don't want just to get the right affinity, like throwing Chilling Rhetoric on a Frost Grim to get Do Not Fall to Frost.

I'd reverse it and have affinity-based skills swallow the next keypress (for a short period of time) to grab affinity from it, similar to Warden's Battle Preparation. So if my Do Not Fall's to Flame and I want it to be Frost, I press Do Not Fall and immediately follow it with a frost skill. If I want the same affinity I've already got, I can just press Do Not Fall twice, quickly. It works in and out of combat, and I don't have to *use* a skill I don't mean to use just for the sake of affinity. That would make me happy. The affinity change could be global, or this system would allow us to set affinity on a per-skill basis. That would make me VERY happy.

I almost switched my main to Lore-master or Minstrel over the affinity mess, but I must admit that the other changes to the class at the time made up for it. Any Writ, Any Time is marvelous; I never feel like I'm standing there with nothing to do because of my attunement. And now that the writ rifflers solve the annoying attunement decay issue, I have a very hard time choosing my gear! Affinity aside, it's a good time to be a Rune-keeper.

Originally Posted by PerfectApproach

It's an interesting mechanic, but it doesn't really affect enough skills to be very important anymore. The few skills that ARE affected by affinity could easily be modified not to need affinity. Seems like it's hanging around just for the sake of hanging around.

I came to a similar conclusion in the discussions right after release since we already manage attunement and no solution felt smooth. The truth is that I'd miss affinity. I can't describe the smug satisfaction I feel when a Frost Grim Lieutenant shows up; I lay down the Do Not Fall to Frost and laugh derisively in the face of my icy adversary and its "big finish" move.

Grab-the-next keypress addresses the issues of skill clutter and out-of-combat control. It adds flexibility if skills can keep their own attunements; I tend to want to enhance fire damage when fighting a frost-based enemy, so I think that's a natural desire. I'd prefer THAT, but I'd take removing affinity over leaving it the way it is.

Originally Posted by banhorn

...I tend to want to enhance fire damage when fighting a frost-based enemy...

You'd be surprised. One would think that Frost-based enemies would either be very strong against fire, or very weak against fire (one could argue either way). Surprisingly, Frost-based enemies have no special weakness OR strength against fire damage. The opposite (Fire-based enemies, frost damage) is also true. Oddly enough, fire damage is best used against Troll-kind and creatures of nature. Even more odd is that, despite this apparent advantage over trolls and creatures of nature, huorns/tree-kind do not appear to have any special weakness to fire, even though troll-kind supposed to be a Morgoth-made derivative/corruption of tree-kind. So Trolls and creatures of nature are weak against fire, but an enemy that combines creatures of nature and trolls is somehow not particularly affected by fire. Things that make you go hmm....

I approve of the new system over the old system.

The issue is that by default, everything is set to lightning. And this is more of a PvP issue than PvE so we all know that Turbine doesn't even care. Most RKs use lightning in the Moors but want the fire bubble and can't get it for 1v1s.

The new version is better for PvE but worse for PvP.

Also, the Improved Rune-Sign of X (or whatever it's called now) should not be a healing attuned skill. It is only a minor heal with a nice buff on it. Bring it back to neutral, the change wasn't enough to force it to being a 6 attuned healing skill.

I don't see it that way at all. I NEVER PvP but I just about always solo. I like to start with my long cast fire DOT and I always finish them off with lightning. All I want is to either set the default (for me Fire, for everyone else apparently lightning) and/or let me change out of combat.

Personally... I like the concept of affinity, but find both the previous and current methods clunky. My preference would be to de-couple affinity from live skill rotations. I'd prefer to have a simple toggle/skill that would allow you to LOCK your affinity. In most battles I want to pick an affinity for the battle ahead, and not have it randomly jumping about as I use complex multi-affinity skill rotations in battle. (This is particularly the case when healing tough runs/raids). If you don't wnat your affinity locked, then un-toggle the skill and run like we do today. And yes... we do need a method to toggle affinities out of combat. (Simply allow the affinity to toggle when you hit a combat skill out of combat.)

Now... having said that. I'm really happy with were the RK is now. Healing is really fun again. DPS is fun again. Thanks ZC for getting the RK straightened out again!

Way to necro!

All this doesn't really matter though. I don't think Zombie will be changing the RK for a while. I have a sneaky suspicion that RoR won't bring much for us. Hunters are next on the list, I think.

Originally Posted by deeman25845601

The issue is that by default, everything is set to lightning. And this is more of a PvP issue than PvE so we all know that Turbine doesn't even care. Most RKs use lightning in the Moors but want the fire bubble and can't get it for 1v1s.

The new version is better for PvE but worse for PvP.

Also, the Improved Rune-Sign of X (or whatever it's called now) should not be a healing attuned skill. It is only a minor heal with a nice buff on it. Bring it back to neutral, the change wasn't enough to force it to being a 6 attuned healing skill.

+1

My thoughts exactly

Originally Posted by Wisp7011

Personally... I like the concept of affinity, but find both the previous and current methods clunky. My preference would be to de-couple affinity from live skill rotations. I'd prefer to have a simple toggle/skill that would allow you to LOCK your affinity. In most battles I want to pick an affinity for the battle ahead, and not have it randomly jumping about as I use complex multi-affinity skill rotations in battle. (This is particularly the case when healing tough runs/raids). If you don't wnat your affinity locked, then un-toggle the skill and run like we do today. And yes... we do need a method to toggle affinities out of combat. (Simply allow the affinity to toggle when you hit a combat skill out of combat.)

Now... having said that. I'm really happy with were the RK is now. Healing is really fun again. DPS is fun again. Thanks ZC for getting the RK straightened out again!

I like the idea of having it be a toggle skill. My thoughts for the system would be to make it a toggle skill similar to the captains shield brother, blade and song brother. Something that can be changed in combat depending on the situation. I find it really annoying when I kill something with a random writ of cold or something else which makes my next combat rotation wrong. Instead of starting with a fall to flame, I have to use a fire power then attune one back neutral with my fall to flame before I can start dpsing my fire again. I would like to be able to switch affinity in combat like you currently can, but it needs to be something more easily controlled than depending on what the last power you used was.

My RK is not yet max level but maybe if you could toggle affinity like a stance of sorts, like the guardian stances, that would give people greater control. Lightning could be a default, perhaps, when you don't have another affinity selected.

The main problem with stances is that it involves the creation of at least 2 skills... at a time when RK's have a LOT of skills to slot. Also, I'm not sure I like the idea of making the RK "like Guardians, Champs, Wardens, Burglars..." etc, etc. I like the unique-ness of the class, and RK's have been drifting away from their unique position, towards being like every other class.

I've been playing with my lowbie warden, and I'm starting to warm up to the idea of a "skill sponge" like battle prep. I wouldn't want it to JUST be a skill sponge though; I think I'd want it to have a separate function in combat vs out of combat. Seems a little kludgey for just affinity though; I'd probably want some kind of bonus associated with it.

Fire affinity: power consumption bonus, Tact. Mastery bonus, extra DoT application, etc.
Lightning affinity: crit bonus, % to stun for 1 sec, etc.
Cold affinity: armor bonus, % to reflect damage, etc.

In fact, in the interest of reducing the number of skills without reducing functionality, this whole thing could be tied in with the Armor Of XXX skill so that the passive affinity bonus is a somewhat-reduced-but-continuous version of Armor of XXX.

Just an idea to kick around.

Originally Posted by PerfectApproach

I've been playing with my lowbie warden, and I'm starting to warm up to the idea of a "skill sponge" like battle prep.

I've advocated something like Battle Prep for affinity for some time now, and I think it takes one of two paths:

(1) A separate "Set Affinity" skill that absorbs the next skill's affinity and sets that for all affinity-bases skills.

(2) Every affinity-based skill is a "sponge". It can absorb affinity from itself, so a quick double-tap means "use the current affinity of this skill".

I've been debating about Option 2 for some time now. I often want different defensive versus offensive affinities; this would allow setting affinity on a per-skill basis, so I can have Do Not Fall to Frost and Fall to Flame pre-set. Setting affinity out of combat isn't quite as smooth since the skill will activate, but it's faster with the double-tap keep-current-affinity method, and changing it in combat is no more cumbersome than the current method.

For the separate skill, it would be nice if there were some minor passive buffs and visual effects changes based on the current setting, but it's not critical.