The recent implementation of patch 1.3.2 brought some changes to the way Action Points work, so Combat and Careers Team Lead Nate Levy has taken the time to answer some questions about the bug fixes that affected AP regeneration.

Basically, the team needed to address a couple of bugs that were causing many players to have infinite AP. The fixes corresponded with patch 1.3.2, which is why some players have noticed a difference in their AP regeneration. "Right now, Action Point recovery works exactly as it was designed: You gain 25 AP per second (and we fixed the issue which heavily tied AP rates to server performance, so that fixes the second bug and means AP will be more consistent), and you do not gain AP while you're in the middle of a combat action (which fixes the first bug)," Levy said.

Levy feels this change should actually have a positive affect on game balance since it should increase the amount of time players can survive in RvR and makes AP efficiency a factor in ability decisions. You can read Levy's full letter after the jump.

So Nate, something seems different with the way my Action Points Regenerate since 1.3.2.

Nate: As most of you know, we fixed some bugs relating to Action Point regeneration recently, correcting a problem which had temporarily led to many people having "infinite AP."  Action Points are a core combat mechanic in WAR, and the bugs which prevented a character's AP from being correctly paced lead to undesirable reductions in kill times, making combat less about tactics, timing, and coordination, and more about simply slamming a single ability as fast as possible.  These bug fixes will create a much better game-play experience for everyone, and we realize that many of you have concerns and questions, so we wanted to take a moment and address some of them.

What were the bugs that we fixed, and how did they affect game-play?
               
Nate: Since 1.3.1 went live, we discovered two major bugs relating to Action Point regeneration.  The first was causing Action Points to regenerate during the Global Cooldown in certain situations, but unfortunately, it was very difficult to detect because the second issue masked the first.  This second issue was a bug which caused server performance and load to drastically impact AP regeneration rates—so, while Action Points would sometimes be regenerating when they weren't supposed to, the AP-regen rates were also slower all-around, especially in high-stress situations such as Keep captures.  The combination of these two factors essentially resulted in a wash, with AP on the whole being no faster or slower than intended overall.

However, patch 1.3.1 brought significant performance improvements to the game, and we began getting reports of players with "infinite AP"; it was the investigation of these reports which resulted in the discovery of both issues.  Due to the severity of the issues,  we wanted to get them corrected as quickly as possible, which meant that we aimed to get the fixes pushed to the Live game as soon as they passed internal testing. That ultimately corresponded with patch 1.3.2.  It is important to note that these bugs were largely affecting players who were constantly within the Global Cooldown, while players who were primarily using abilities with buildup times or channel times were not affected, since AP regen was properly paused at those times.

How does Action Point recovery work in version 1.3.2?
               
Nate: Right now, Action Point recovery works exactly as it was designed:  You gain 25 AP per second (and we fixed the issue which heavily tied AP rates to server performance, so that fixes the second bug and means AP will be more consistent), and you do not gain AP while you're in the middle of a combat action (which fixes the first bug).  Specifically, "combat actions" include building up abilities, channeling abilities, and being within the Global Cooldown.  In essence, if you're using abilities back-to-back without pause, then your AP will go down, while if you stop for a brief moment, your AP will go up.

How does this affect my game experience?
               
Nate: Fundamentally, these fixes affect everyone, since nearly every action that you can perform uses AP.  However, the biggest personal impact will be felt by anyone who strongly relied on constantly using instant-cast abilities without pause, which put them constantly within the Global Cooldown.  This is because those players were previously gaining the most from the occasional recovery of Action Points during the Global Cooldown.  Since AP regeneration was already correctly pausing during buildup and channel times, anyone who was primarily using those types of abilities should see minimal-to-no impact.

How does this impact the overall game balance?
               
Nate: These changes touch on several aspects of the game, and many of which are very positive!  The areas of impact include the following:

• Increasing the amount of time that you survive in RvR, since some enemy attackers were previously churning through instant-cast attacks virtually without end.  These bug-fixes mean that someone who "bursts" a rapid string of instant-cast attacks will bottom out their AP correspondingly quickly.
• Increasing the value of Action Point-modifying abilities and Tactics, both beneficial and hostile.  Managing your own Action Points is a more important issue to pay attention to, and effects which deny AP to your enemies will once again be impactful and worthwhile.
• Making AP efficiency a factor in ability decisions.  A high-cost ability should be, literally, exactly that - the cost to use it should be noticeably high, and the choice of when to consume a larger chunk of AP is an important decision to make.  Previously, these bugs resulted in somewhat of a "cost doesn't matter" feeling for some players, whereas in truth, an ability's damage is simply one aspect, and its AP cost, cooldown time, etc. are also all factors which can not simply be ignored.

So, where will we go from here?

Nate: These fixes allow us to get the game back on track where we expect it to be, letting us move forward with continued adjustment and balance.  In particular, the fixes will let us take a good overall look at AP-related abilities, which were otherwise very difficult to tune when the underlying system was not working correctly.  As with every facet of an MMO, remember that nothing is set in stone.  We're going to be monitoring the results of all of our 1.3.2 adjustments, including the corrected AP regeneration, and if anything needs to be adjusted, we'll work those tweaks into future patches. 

As always, your constructive feedback is welcomed and appreciated!