Day 1: New World Season 5

 New World Season 5 is here and there are a lot of changes to go with it.  Here are my Day 1 thoughts with a few of the changes.

 The major change is the rewrite of the combat code and animation system.  The good news is they didn't screw it up and anyone logging in today vs yesterday is not going to see anyproblems.  Combat feels snappier and more responsive.  After playing through an outpost rush (OPR) match all of my fears of this change going poorly were alleviated.  Well done AGS!

 Even outside of combat feels improved.  I tend to take the same route through the town of Ebonscale Reach which involves a lot of jumping and flying off edges using skills like Leaping Strike from my sword.  I have done these moves so many times they are ingrained in my memory and they feel so much better now with the changes.  I wish I had video to show the difference but alas I've not kept up my promising of recording video.

 Next are the armor weight balance changes; specifically looking at heavy armor.  My comments are formed off a single outpost rush match so take it with a passing grain of salt.  Through that match it... felt... the same.  I was tanky and did good damage and a solid K/D of 12/6.  Heavy melee, especially sword and shield/spear, were still dominant in the melee scrums.  I am sure the math works out that heavy damage is less but not sure it will feel that way for many.  I did see more heavy armor players get dropped though and at times I felt a little weaker defensively so we'll have to watch over time.

 One thing I didn't expect to talk about but sort of jumped right out at me is the PvP track reward updates.  As a PvP rank 200 player I am at the top end of the reward curve so I can't speak to the lower levels that get lower gearscore rewards now, but at least for me at 200 the item rewards are much more relevant.  My first track featured two 697 GS legendary swords and a 700 GS named amulet.  Also there is new PvP furniture for the house, which of course I bought immediately.  The high GS rewards were a nice change and I can see myself snagging some (which I did with the 700 GS amulet). 

There is a bug with item text but just some of the PvP track rewards for me today.

 

 

Nice rewards!

 Last we have mounts enabled in OPR and boy did it feel different!  I really, really like seeing a swarm of players on mounts ride into the central fort on the map and all come flying off as the first attacks start dismounting players.  Tossing a giant fireball from one side of the fort to the other and seeing multiple players get dismounted is awesome.

 As far as my single OPR match went the immediate changes noticed was that all forts were constantly under contention and I saw more points flip and more points get contested than I can remember in any OPR match.  I attribute this increased fort fighting due to less folks getting bogged down on the roads.

 There is some strategy as well to dismounting players in OPR since ranged attacks cause players to get dismounted. If you control the central fort and can put ranged on the wall they can really slow down mounted players trying to skirt the fort.

 The baroness fight (aka baron) also changed a good bit due to mounts.  I saw more players make it to the baron fight and in my OPR match we had three baron fights.  Each fight had both teams present and each time baron was "sniped" by the team with less players.  Baron or fort fights the key is mounts lets players get to the action faster and more reliably and that feels good! 

Resting in my new Champion's Canopy Bed!

 Up next for me in Season 5

1. New artifacts
2. 3v3 arenas where I'll get a better sense on balance changes
3. New season trial (not clear it was active yet)
4. Cooking changes (we'll see if I care enough to check them out)