I haven't tested Overdrive myself, but I agree that it's not enough to a fair tradeoff by itself (if I get down to 10% health, I'm basically dead already). I will say, though, given the monetary cost of caramels, I'd be perfectly fine with balance changes that give me the relief of not having to have caramels not quite reaching the efficiency of them. Chalice is its own issue, and imo it shouldn't be a high priority change. Here's some things I think should/could be changed to make bashing compensate for the elimination of Caramels:
Remove xp loss at the very least from PVE. So much time is lost, especially once you get into the 180's and 190's from deaths.
Wholesale delete grapples, if not all writhe-inducing moves, from high end bashing zones. It's actual Russian Roulette and is 90% of the reason I die anymore. Maybe exceptions for areas like Wel-to which seem to be intentionally balanced to be a group zone.
Redistribute the crit table. A while ago, they redistributed the crit ratio for the various crits to reduce DPS across the board. I think tweaking this to put more weight into heavier crits could make a massive difference. Most of the major DPS increase on average comes from Annihilating crits, so I think those would have to be increased (maybe doubled--which sounds extreme, but they only really proc like 1% of the time (I think, maybe 1.5%, I haven't saved my numbers).
Hey just maybe boost bashing DPS on classes.
Maybe change overdrive so you can also proc it manually after taking some arbitrary amount of damage, or give us another limit break of some kind. Like "every 300% of your health pool of damage you take, you can use a skill that gives you a guaranteed Annihilating critical." or something idk. Lots of ways to do it.
In all honesty, I'm looking at this less as a boost to bashing to replace caramels (even though that's the explicit purpose), it seems like a way to make Shock Kinda Neat and make lowbie bashing hopefully less horrific. I agree that it's not enough, but it's encouraging to me to see something come this quickly. Just hope we see more.
I will be honest and say that all the chocolates changes feels like a kick in the teeth. All those who powered to level 200 using these chocolates had it good, the rest of us presently bashing up will now have a disadvantage and need to work harder. I guess you just want to slow down the climb for whatever reason, not very fair to the rest.
@Rasani, @Kalena, Allegra, @Isia, @Xavin, @Roux, @Velheima, @Rihrin, @Elwyn, @Damariel, @Aloli, @Benedicto, Annerissa, @Ayastia, @Aeryx (sorry if I missed any others!) - Y'all have been so awesome to RP with and have been instrumental in helping change Enorian for the better. I could go on with this list and name literally most of the city, but these key players have been so involved and I just appreciate all of you so much. Thanks for being there for me on the stressful days, and encouraging me to keep on with trying to make the city a better, more inviting place for everyone.
@Whirran, @Elene, @Almol, @Callidora, @Tiana - Thank you all for being wonderful examples of villains in how diverse you all are from one another, and how much you bring to the game's overall atmosphere.
And of course, much love to the Pools and all the Celani, Coders, Producers and Mortal Builders. Y'all have been so amazing in turning this game around and building it up to be something we all can be proud of, and I can see the attention to detail and love being poured into this game in each event, each new area, each orgreq completed, and the random, unscripted stuff that makes the world feel so alive.
Bard is looking more and more like a dex/int class with a focus on an aff kit to kill. It looks very much like it has a lot of good utility to take advantage of, and I'm looking forward to both aspects of the class!
I like to throw out the occasional esteem for this, but still wanted to say:
No idea who's playing gods right now but homies you're doing spectacular. I have enjoyed every single interaction with a god for the past, like, half-year (however long since I started playing Eaku again), short or long, antagonistic or friendly or neutral. You're doing a great job portraying the characters as well as their role as Divine.