New World Talks Dropping Banes And Wards From MMO As Transmog Releases Today
In the most recent Forged in Aeternum video, the New World team talked about one of the biggest changes coming to the MMO: the removal of Bane and Wards from the game.
While it's been talked about since a June 2023 Q&A with the developer that Banes and Wards will be going away at some point, the most recent video talks about the how and why, as well as rebalancing the game world with the removal of these key endgame grinds.
Part of the reason why Wards and Banes are going away is to help facilitate more enjoyable, meaningful gear builds. Creative Director David Verfaillie states in the recent Forged in Aeternum that the goal is, at a high level, to make this more «aspirational.»
«I think, high level, we want people to be able to enjoy our gear system and really go for aspirational perks, and perks that change there build, » Verfaillie says. «Whereas this felt a little too much like a chore.»
The current system results in an environment where you were essentially required to have certain perks to be viable in activities such as mutated Expeditions, PvP, and so on.
As a result of trying to expand on the many types of builds players can create, the Ward and Bane system had to be reworked, or in this case, removed entirely.
As a result, gear players receive will be «a lot more exciting» according to Lead Seasons Designer Patrick Smedley.
«It's going to be a lot more exciting because there's going to be more viable perks on it and less perks that you don't really want to see on your gear.»
Some examples given are Indestructible, War, Reslient and more will be gone, with the devs removing perks they felt would never really be viable in New World.
With the removal of these perks, we're going to see a broad rebalance of existing perks
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