Related: BDO KR Patch Notes April 19th - PvP balance and CC changes
On April 20th, Pearl Abyss released a dev letter regarding the recent class balance changes and warfare changes. Jaehee Kim, the lead producer of Black Desert Online, started the letter by apologizing for not communicating with the player-base enough before implementing the changes. Below are the details on Pearl Abyss’ explanations on the current problems of Black Desert Online, the goal that Pearl Abyss wants to reach, and the answers for the questions that a lot of players have been asking. Since there will be a lot of changes including class balance changes for the next 30 days, all players will get 30 days long Value Pack, Character Appearance Change, Merv’s Palette, Blessings of Kamasylve, Armstrong’s Skill Guide, and Cliff’s Skill Add-on Guide as compensation gifts. Also, all channels will get combat exp 100% and skill exp 20% boost from April 21st to May 21st.
Pearl Abyss stated that the biggest problem that BDO currently has is stagnation. Pearl Abyss said that they put a lot of resources in developing new classes and new regions, but could not work on the overall gameplay much. They felt that the gameplay was becoming more repetitive, and decided to implement some major changes like the Renown Score and Conquest War Season 5.
Repetitive PvP patterns, one-combo-kills, and grab dependence were the problems that Pearl Abyss wanted to fix. As one-combo-kills became more predominant, the players who would get killed could not enjoy PvP much. Also, classes that lack grab skills were not able to counter the opponent’s block/super armor and sometimes they were unable to win.
Keeping the original mechanics and adjusting the details could not solve the problem, so Pearl Abyss implemented the bonus DR and the CC changes on April 12th and April 19th. However, some of the necessary changes for each class were not implemented because of Arena of Arsha.
Pearl Abyss admitted that the PvP changes must be improved, and assured that they will focus on PvP balance for the next 30 days. They also mentioned that they are considering about opening a global forum so they can hear the opinions from players from all regions.
Pearl Abyss also stated that they want to add more fun to the game by encouraging progression, which is the core fun of MMORPG. However, currently, it takes months or even a year just to get 1 or 2 more AP. Stagnation would ruin the game’s fun, so in order to encourage progression and make progression easier, they added the Caphras Enhancement and increased the drop rate of some accessories. The Renown Score was added for the same purpose. It will give more rewards to the players who spent a lot of time and resources on upgrading their gear, and will prevent them from getting one-combo-killed by giving them bonus DR. Pearl Abyss apologized for making the GS gap bigger and assured the bonus DR based on Renown Score will be nerfed next week, and PvP balance will be adjusted and improved more starting from next week.
Regarding Conquest War Season 5, Pearl Abyss stated that they will temporarily discontinue the rehearsal, and will bring Season 5 back with revised rules after class balance has been improved. Details will be announced after Pearl Abyss has received enough feedback from the player-base.
Lastly, Pearl Abyss promised that they will enhance the process of testing a new content and adding it to the game, and will introduce the new content to the players first so they have enough time to receive feedback from the player-base. Pearl Abyss will try to have Focus Groups to test some of the new content if necessary and will monitor the tickets, in-game chat, and the community more closely.
Related: BDO KR Patch Notes April 12th - New Enhancement System, Node War changes
