Forum discussions are now taking place on Discord. For all account questions and concerns, please continue to contact Customer Support directly.

Keep updated on Pirate101 on Twitter @Pirate101, Facebook, Discord, and @KI_Alerts!

unheroic heros

AuthorMessage
Ensign
Jul 18, 2010
3
It is interesting in which a game such as this is supposed to be of heroics of the class of pirate chosen by the player. It is understood this game is set as a co-operative game, but not every is able to reach out to find players in similar story line. This usually works best when a group of friends in Real Life play this game. Yet the game becomes overbearing for solo players.

A game this complex can be hard to balance: yet, I have seen these imbalances:

Yellow Names are supposed to be about equal to the level of the Pirate and crew. This is NOT so. The enemy tend to be 1/3 more powerful.

Epics are supposed to be the meat of this game, yet the enemy encountered have about 120% more chance of Epic hits compared to crew, especially crew without combat options. This causes the crew member to be useless after a round or two with those enemies of over-balanced Epic moves and Stacked epic moves.

The enemy of Yellow seem to have 3 Epics more than the max of Pirates Crew. This causes a BIG imbalance as their is no way to compensate this.

Healing in this game is abysmal to say the least. Even the Privateer greater heal ability is far below the ability when the players health points are well beyond the stated heal amount. And, since the ability requires a HIGH Mojo rating to affect the amount of boosted heal (ie. Epic) this doubly makes the heal less effective and useless in battle, especially since you have now created co-operative team up "KILL" with the enemy algorithms. Why the Privateer has healing (and low Mojo) is beyond logic. Also, this new method of Crew "Wake Up" is too limiting as the crew then becomes a liability as they die even quicker missing all t those health points and the "Doctor" is too prohibitively expensive to make him an asset.

Co-operative "kill" with the enemy is becoming a game imbalance. In example: I healed a crew member (El Toro for example) back to 3/4 health only to lose that crew member as he was hit by all living enemies, not only by being hit, but ALL four enemy had Epic hits, wiping out the crew member in the same round it was healed. This is NOT isolated, this is common.

Damage vs health in Yellow. No matter which pirate used, yellow enemy have better armor than can be countered by crew attack damage. Even when most points are placed in Weapon and Strength. The enemy can do 1/4 to 1/3 damage to the hero and the hero's crew members compared to the 1/8 to 1/3 damage the hero and hero's crew members can do, especially when the enemy do more epics and dodge more often then the hero and the hero's crew members.

This game frustrates me more than most games I have played online. Especially since I am an 85% solo player.

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
Corillan on Jan 19, 2015 wrote:
It is interesting in which a game such as this is supposed to be of heroics of the class of pirate chosen by the player. It is understood this game is set as a co-operative game, but not every is able to reach out to find players in similar story line. This usually works best when a group of friends in Real Life play this game. Yet the game becomes overbearing for solo players.

A game this complex can be hard to balance: yet, I have seen these imbalances:

Yellow Names are supposed to be about equal to the level of the Pirate and crew. This is NOT so. The enemy tend to be 1/3 more powerful.

Epics are supposed to be the meat of this game, yet the enemy encountered have about 120% more chance of Epic hits compared to crew, especially crew without combat options. This causes the crew member to be useless after a round or two with those enemies of over-balanced Epic moves and Stacked epic moves.

The enemy of Yellow seem to have 3 Epics more than the max of Pirates Crew. This causes a BIG imbalance as their is no way to compensate this.

Healing in this game is abysmal to say the least. Even the Privateer greater heal ability is far below the ability when the players health points are well beyond the stated heal amount. And, since the ability requires a HIGH Mojo rating to affect the amount of boosted heal (ie. Epic) this doubly makes the heal less effective and useless in battle, especially since you have now created co-operative team up "KILL" with the enemy algorithms. Why the Privateer has healing (and low Mojo) is beyond logic. Also, this new method of Crew "Wake Up" is too limiting as the crew then becomes a liability as they die even quicker missing all t those health points and the "Doctor" is too prohibitively expensive to make him an asset.

Co-operative "kill" with the enemy is becoming a game imbalance. In example: I healed a crew member (El Toro for example) back to 3/4 health only to lose that crew member as he was hit by all living enemies, not only by being hit, but ALL four enemy had Epic hits, wiping out the crew member in the same round it was healed. This is NOT isolated, this is common.

Damage vs health in Yellow. No matter which pirate used, yellow enemy have better armor than can be countered by crew attack damage. Even when most points are placed in Weapon and Strength. The enemy can do 1/4 to 1/3 damage to the hero and the hero's crew members compared to the 1/8 to 1/3 damage the hero and hero's crew members can do, especially when the enemy do more epics and dodge more often then the hero and the hero's crew members.

This game frustrates me more than most games I have played online. Especially since I am an 85% solo player.
The enemy is yellow as compared to your level ( not your crew ).
What you have described sounds to me as if your crew are under-leveled for the battle encounters. The enemy are getting criticals because your companions have a low dodge, armor or resistance to their attacks.
The AI will always target the weakest companion or the one with the lowest health; that's one less enemy for them to worry about.

First Mate
Nov 01, 2012
434
Corillan on Jan 19, 2015 wrote:
It is interesting in which a game such as this is supposed to be of heroics of the class of pirate chosen by the player. It is understood this game is set as a co-operative game, but not every is able to reach out to find players in similar story line. This usually works best when a group of friends in Real Life play this game. Yet the game becomes overbearing for solo players.

A game this complex can be hard to balance: yet, I have seen these imbalances:

Yellow Names are supposed to be about equal to the level of the Pirate and crew. This is NOT so. The enemy tend to be 1/3 more powerful.

Epics are supposed to be the meat of this game, yet the enemy encountered have about 120% more chance of Epic hits compared to crew, especially crew without combat options. This causes the crew member to be useless after a round or two with those enemies of over-balanced Epic moves and Stacked epic moves.

The enemy of Yellow seem to have 3 Epics more than the max of Pirates Crew. This causes a BIG imbalance as their is no way to compensate this.

Healing in this game is abysmal to say the least. Even the Privateer greater heal ability is far below the ability when the players health points are well beyond the stated heal amount. And, since the ability requires a HIGH Mojo rating to affect the amount of boosted heal (ie. Epic) this doubly makes the heal less effective and useless in battle, especially since you have now created co-operative team up "KILL" with the enemy algorithms. Why the Privateer has healing (and low Mojo) is beyond logic. Also, this new method of Crew "Wake Up" is too limiting as the crew then becomes a liability as they die even quicker missing all t those health points and the "Doctor" is too prohibitively expensive to make him an asset.

Co-operative "kill" with the enemy is becoming a game imbalance. In example: I healed a crew member (El Toro for example) back to 3/4 health only to lose that crew member as he was hit by all living enemies, not only by being hit, but ALL four enemy had Epic hits, wiping out the crew member in the same round it was healed. This is NOT isolated, this is common.

Damage vs health in Yellow. No matter which pirate used, yellow enemy have better armor than can be countered by crew attack damage. Even when most points are placed in Weapon and Strength. The enemy can do 1/4 to 1/3 damage to the hero and the hero's crew members compared to the 1/8 to 1/3 damage the hero and hero's crew members can do, especially when the enemy do more epics and dodge more often then the hero and the hero's crew members.

This game frustrates me more than most games I have played online. Especially since I am an 85% solo player.
What are you talking about? I pretty much do everything solo and its not that hard. It just takes awhile. As a swashbuckler, you can just use walk in shadows/ darkness to hide if you have low health.

Fearless Finnagan lvl 52

Petty Officer
Dec 26, 2012
62
Same for me. As a swash, it isn't that hard to solo, but i guess sometimes my companions do die...just grind more for gold to get companion points

Careless Natalie Evans lvl 45

Admiral
Jul 07, 2013
1124
I read this and begin to wonder why you moved your companion to a spot where they could be surrounded....

Virtuous Dante Ramsey

Bosun
Feb 25, 2012
329
Improve your companions. If you improve someone's agility/strength/will, or ASW, then they are significantly less susceptible to criticals from attacks of those kind.

Heals in this game are not meant to be strong. as a privateer, however, you can buff up your will considerably to make a good chance for getting a critical heal.

your enemies will almost always target the enemy that they perceive to be the easiest to kill. that is not broken AI, that is good AI.

The color of your enemies names is a comparison of there level compared to YOU, not your team.

If companion revival was free, there would be no punishment for failing in battle. Remember, If a general goes to war, and everyone in his army dies EXCEPT for that same general, it is NOT success. If miracle mitch was cheap, then there would be less incentive for players to use tactics instead of just rushing.

Companion placement is crucial to tactical combat. If you just throw a companion at the enemy in a position where they are vulnerable, then (no offense intended) you deserve to lose that companion.

If you are having so much difficulty with soloing something, go to areas in the game heavily populated by high level players (Avery's Court, The Brawling Hall, The Morphing Tent, and the Sparring Hall all come to mind. also, you can make a topic requesting assistance here on the forum, and it is likely that someone will gladly come to your aid.

Finally, I will say this: Each class has fantastic offensive and defensive powers, with the exception of Privy, who has truly phenomenal defensive and buffing powers. Treat every battle, no matter what or where it is, as if you have one extra goal: Keep all companions alive at all costs.

Captain
Mar 24, 2013
732
I played solo every class, the difficulty varies depending on what class you played.I find as a Buccaneer and as a Swashbuckler playing solo not that hard, at least based on my gaming experince.The game for me is not that hard for these two class,compare to the olden days when the difficulties were even harder. Belive it or not playing pirates in the early days was challenging compare to today's difficulty, just ask any active veteran players, they have a story to tell. As a Musketeer and Privateer it's a bit more challenging, in my opinon these are recommended for intermediate players or players want a more tectical aporch to the battle. As a witchdoctor now this class in my opinon is recommended for advanced player or players want the ultimate challenge, unlike other class this class is unique it focus on more hoodoo power than physical powers.

I am used soloing for most part of the storyline,but some zones are hard for me to solo like Moo Manchu tower, the Hydra Cave and the smuggler's arena.If lucky ask a willing player to form a group or hire a henchman or two only if it's the last resort in my opinon. ( Henchman in pirates are very rear, use them wisely. )

Bosun
Sep 09, 2010
352
Pirate101 is really easy to me, if you have trobule with it read some guides.You can train your companions to your level and farm for good gear.

Petty Officer
Oct 31, 2012
91
I have soloed with all classes and never had much trouble. I will agree a Swashbuckler is probably the easiest to solo with.

Admiral
Jul 27, 2012
1196
Blixet on Jan 20, 2015 wrote:
Improve your companions. If you improve someone's agility/strength/will, or ASW, then they are significantly less susceptible to criticals from attacks of those kind.

Heals in this game are not meant to be strong. as a privateer, however, you can buff up your will considerably to make a good chance for getting a critical heal.

your enemies will almost always target the enemy that they perceive to be the easiest to kill. that is not broken AI, that is good AI.

The color of your enemies names is a comparison of there level compared to YOU, not your team.

If companion revival was free, there would be no punishment for failing in battle. Remember, If a general goes to war, and everyone in his army dies EXCEPT for that same general, it is NOT success. If miracle mitch was cheap, then there would be less incentive for players to use tactics instead of just rushing.

Companion placement is crucial to tactical combat. If you just throw a companion at the enemy in a position where they are vulnerable, then (no offense intended) you deserve to lose that companion.

If you are having so much difficulty with soloing something, go to areas in the game heavily populated by high level players (Avery's Court, The Brawling Hall, The Morphing Tent, and the Sparring Hall all come to mind. also, you can make a topic requesting assistance here on the forum, and it is likely that someone will gladly come to your aid.

Finally, I will say this: Each class has fantastic offensive and defensive powers, with the exception of Privy, who has truly phenomenal defensive and buffing powers. Treat every battle, no matter what or where it is, as if you have one extra goal: Keep all companions alive at all costs.
Oh, very well said Blixet! Very articulate and comprehensively useful!

Dread Pirate
Jun 17, 2013
2743
Corillan on Jan 19, 2015 wrote:
It is interesting in which a game such as this is supposed to be of heroics of the class of pirate chosen by the player. It is understood this game is set as a co-operative game, but not every is able to reach out to find players in similar story line. This usually works best when a group of friends in Real Life play this game. Yet the game becomes overbearing for solo players.

A game this complex can be hard to balance: yet, I have seen these imbalances:

Yellow Names are supposed to be about equal to the level of the Pirate and crew. This is NOT so. The enemy tend to be 1/3 more powerful.

Epics are supposed to be the meat of this game, yet the enemy encountered have about 120% more chance of Epic hits compared to crew, especially crew without combat options. This causes the crew member to be useless after a round or two with those enemies of over-balanced Epic moves and Stacked epic moves.

The enemy of Yellow seem to have 3 Epics more than the max of Pirates Crew. This causes a BIG imbalance as their is no way to compensate this.

Healing in this game is abysmal to say the least. Even the Privateer greater heal ability is far below the ability when the players health points are well beyond the stated heal amount. And, since the ability requires a HIGH Mojo rating to affect the amount of boosted heal (ie. Epic) this doubly makes the heal less effective and useless in battle, especially since you have now created co-operative team up "KILL" with the enemy algorithms. Why the Privateer has healing (and low Mojo) is beyond logic. Also, this new method of Crew "Wake Up" is too limiting as the crew then becomes a liability as they die even quicker missing all t those health points and the "Doctor" is too prohibitively expensive to make him an asset.

Co-operative "kill" with the enemy is becoming a game imbalance. In example: I healed a crew member (El Toro for example) back to 3/4 health only to lose that crew member as he was hit by all living enemies, not only by being hit, but ALL four enemy had Epic hits, wiping out the crew member in the same round it was healed. This is NOT isolated, this is common.

Damage vs health in Yellow. No matter which pirate used, yellow enemy have better armor than can be countered by crew attack damage. Even when most points are placed in Weapon and Strength. The enemy can do 1/4 to 1/3 damage to the hero and the hero's crew members compared to the 1/8 to 1/3 damage the hero and hero's crew members can do, especially when the enemy do more epics and dodge more often then the hero and the hero's crew members.

This game frustrates me more than most games I have played online. Especially since I am an 85% solo player.
Also, the programming is "designed" (but not necessarily by design) so that each class can take advantage of a "player induced cheats"-- they're not really cheats at all, it's just knowing what to look for, recognizing programming tendencies and patterns, and using what you learn to your advantage.

Take for example Musketeers. I started a Musket just recently and have leveled him up to level 14. So far, My Musket and my crew have only been touched in a couple of battles...and just barely and usually just one crew member sustaining very insignificant damage. In probably 85-90% (just a wild, yet observant guess) of the battles so far, my crew as a whole has sustained zero damage per battle. One thing that really helped was paying attention to how the AI, or enemies traverse across the board-- particularly their first turn in battle...or should I say "First Step".

As a low level musket you have access to Claw Trap and also Louis le Bisque who also has Claw Trap. These traps will kill, or reduce to very little health, just about any lower level enemy. But of course you need them to "stumble into" the traps. Well, by watching enemy movement, and first turn movement again being key, you will notice that the AI and programming is extremely predictable-- or at least it provides you with a great idea of what the AI will do. Almost all enemies move in 1 of 3 ways on their first turn. Either 1st step diagonally up, then horizontal..1st step diagonally down, then horizontal..or just horizontal towards your crew. The majority of the time though, it is a diagonal step heading in the direction of your crew. So, if the enemy is near the top of the battle board, the enemy will move diagonally down one move, then horizontal the remaining 2 or 3 moves. If the enemy is towards the bottom of the board they will first step, diagonally upward, then horizontal. Sometimes they just come straight across but it's pretty rare actually. So, using that knowledge of the enemie's first step is sooooooo useful as a Musketeer and in general. Putting that Claw Trap in the "right" diagonal spot, pretty much removes 2 enemies from the board in the first round. Then your crew mops the other ones up before they can even reach your blazin' guns.

Each and every class can take advantage of the AI's predictability and the programming as well. You just have to watch for it and use it. That's why so many people enjoy PvP so much, because the enemies there aren't as predictable and it presents greater challenges and thus a greater sense of accomplishment. Beating a predictable group of AI enemies is one thing, but beating an intelligent human being is more impressive...if that is your sort of thing. Which in my case it is not, I just simply notice things and try to learn from them. Just clicking on powers and buttons won't guarantee success, but using strategy and understanding (and noticing) predictable program behavior, will more than likely lead to success-- on most occasions.