Stats and Exams rebalancing

[fif0ka]

So after 2 and a half days of adding and refreshing friends I finally managed to get to Jounin rank. For context, I had an optimized stat point distribution following the guide as well as a few paid kinjutsu and gear, like Serene Mind and Tenson, and despite that it was an absolute purge. My concern is that this is not just difficult but physically impossible for a more casual player who isn't aware of the forum and guide and doesn't buy any of the kinjutsu.

There are 2 major problems in my opinion. First is stat balancing. It's weird how there are a total of 8 different stats you can put points into but only 3 of them are any good, HP CP & Agility. More than half the stats are essentially useless. Now it's fine to have some builds be better than others, there will always be a meta or optimal way to build your character, however the exams difficulty is so extreme that anything less than optimal stat distribution makes it literally unbeatable. And  that's the second problem, these exams are hard walls for progress, not an optional boss. If you reach them and realize it's unbeatable you can't just grind up a few extra levels and get extra stats. You could save up some tokens for the armor and Serene Mind but if your stats are too bad those aren't going to save you. A casual player who doesn't visit the forum will absolutely have lots of points put into strength or dodge, missing out on hundreds of HP points or tens of Agi points which will make him absolutely get destroyed in the exam and very likely to just uninstall and find another app to play. I managed to push through and get the Jounin rank so these rebalances aren't necessary for me anymore but I think it will really help player retention in the future.

So here are the proposed changes:

1) Stat Changes
The 8 stats definitely need to be closer in value to one another, having a stat building rpg mechanic where 5/8 choices are cursed and untouchable seems weird. What I propose is to increase the amount of stats you get per point in the 5 non-HP, CP and AGI stats while reducing the gain per point for HP CP and AGI. In exchange characters should get a baseline increase of HP CP and AGI just by leveling up, putting points into it is extra. This would make character building more interesting and diverse as you are no longer forced to dump everything into those 3 just to keep up with the enemies. If you want the extra tankiness and safety or the extra speed you can always get it by putting points in but if you choose to go for something else you are not so far behind everybody that you can't play any mission above level 10.

2) Stat Change Potion
With how important stat distribution is, locking the option to respec behind a 10$ price tag is pretty punishing for players. Grinding is slow and if you reach level 40 and realize your stats are crap it feels very crushing to choose between starting over with a new character or forking over the money, especially if a player is F2P, and it's quite likely they will move on to another app. I suggest to make stat reset potions purchasable with tokens, maybe 100 or 200. It's still not free and players who are willing to spend can still buy them, but others have the option at least of grinding up some tokens and buying them for free to try and improve their character.

3) Rebalanced Exams
I totally understand that there should be some challenge to bosses and we don't want a game where you can win by just hitting buttons at random but these fights feel way too punishing in my opinion, especially considering the fact that they directly block your character's progression. This sort of difficulty should be reserved for optional/end game content, like Hunt bosses you can farm, maybe some kind of weekly or daily activity for high power players. But fights that are part of the story and block you from progressing should be a lot easier. Like I said earlier, I struggled despite having optimized stats and premium jutsu. I think for story/exam fights the difficulty should be easy/medium for an optimized build and challenging but still doable with good strategy for someone with a non-optimized build. Many players can just find this app on the app store or through a friend and not necessarily join the forum to see the stat distribution guide so it's important to not lock those players away from progress or they will simply quit.

Any who, thanks for reading, and to anyone on the team I hope you don't take this the wrong way    This game brings so much nostalgia to me and I sincerely hope it grows a large playerbase and succeeds and I am simply sharing these thoughts to help it do so, not to insult anyone's work.

[lequinox]

#1 is too much of a stretch especially since we are not limited to one/two elements like the original game and its predecessors. However, I see your point and the best way to compromise for this is when a player levels up, every stat gets upgraded by half or less than half of the value it will have when you upgrade it with points.

#2 is valid since newbies indeed don't go straight away to the forum. But they can grind for 80 wins at the live PVP arena for a free stat reset potion along with some codes that contain stat resets and whatnot.

#3 is valid. I see your point. It takes quite some luck to pass those exams