Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Discussion in 'News and Announcements' started by Prathun, Feb 5, 2014.

  1. Deloehne Augur

    I imagine I'd just spend them again if you gave them back, as would any other ranger at or near the AA cap. I presume that is a relatively high proportion of the level 100's. Therefore, it's really a question for those in the mid ranges of AA's IMO.
  2. Bluejaye Elder

    I'm way late to the game here, 200 pages later. Get rid of the AA bonus before 4k. Autogranting takes its place. Don't make people choose between being and the bonus.
  3. Leeanni Elder

    Fenthen said:
    “I am hoping the proc rate/chance for Assassinate is much higher than that of Decapitate, since Rogues trigger from a backstab, Berzerkers trigger from a normal swing. There are quite a few more melee swings than there are backstabs in a typical fight. Rangers as well, assuming they are bowing, will have more chances to trigger since archery is faster than backstabs. Even if I /disc Frenzied Stabbing I'd be nowhere near 50% of the trigger chance for either of the other two chain classes.”

    Is it intentional to have rogues so far below the others or will there be adjustments to make them similar in trigger chances?
  4. rangergateexpert New Member

    Thought about now all day and decided that granting all those AAs to new players isn't such a bad idea. I hated getting them. 50+ levels of Cs/Ca is insanely boring. however since you are nerfing headshot to the point it will not be useful anymore cause i am not sure anything in the new content is humanoid. can you PLEASE make it on the same level as decap. let me headshot anything so i don't get passed up by groups for a zerker that can decap level 99 mobs. Also I am curious to know if you are giving people actual AAs to spend on what they want or they just magically fill up some of the older AA lines?
    deadone likes this.
  5. Deloehne Augur

    I vote to leave it as is and not bother with the activation bit. First and foremost, I think players should know their adversaries, including which summon and which do not. Second, there are other instant cast, cast on the run options to pull with, including at least one I can think of that's not on my original list, i.e. throwing.
  6. Deloehne Augur

    Run faster.
    Schadenfreude likes this.
  7. Xirtket Augur

    A big portion of the tags in these threads have the new member tag under their name, how many are bot accounts or accounts people made just to post their opinion twice?

    Would be nice to parse IP addresses and find out.
    Rezzurrektin and Schadenfreude like this.
  8. Shadva Del`Shai Augur

    This has been addressed before. Parsing IP addresses doesn't necessarily tell you if it's different people or not. Anyone on any type of shared network would show up as the same IP.

    As for myself, I openly admitted that I originally posted from one of my alt accounts but swapped to the account I use as my in-game main. Also, just because we may not have posted much, or at all, before doesn't mean we're new to EQ. It just means that we just weren't bothered by previous stuff enough to get involved.

    Now, back on topic. It's been asked by others before but not answered so I'll ask again. What will happen to the AA curve if this AA grant goes through as-is? Currently, the AA curve caps at 4K. With the grant, once people reach UF levels, they'll be at or past that amount and run into another daunting AA wall with nothing to lessen the shock.

    Also, why keep a cap on the number of banked AA's at all if you're wanting to lessen the psychological shock of the number of AA required to get to the current/future end game? You're talking about granting 4 - 7K (or more depending on class) AA's just in the first grant and then adding HoT AA's when a new expansion comes out. Wouldn't it be a lot smarter for someone taking advantage of the AA grant to just bank any AA's earned between grants?
  9. melemayhem Journeyman

    how about giving those that have done all the work themselves for there aa, maxing out the tears for alaris, thats a time sink of weeks and weeks that im sure most of us hate, way more painful than aa grinde if going be handing things out
  10. Khat_Nip Meow

    So for people getting autogrant AA you want a max Tear for your past AA efforts? What about us that already have a max Tear? What should we get?
  11. Eagleclaww Journeyman


    Try using jolt. (slang for aggro reduction "combat ability" for those wondering).
  12. Nightmares Augur

    Ok, just a few questions about the SK changes for clarification.
    1. Some are incoming hits, while some are hits dealt by the owner. Can you give a better explanation of how this works?
    2. If I am not mistaken the Leechcurse disc says it will do a melee style lifetap ( when you attack with melee you will receive a portion of the damage dealt back as hit points). So the SK would have to hit the mob in order to have that disc actually be used and return hp. So whats this incoming hits?(Sometimes mobs summon adds that are grey and these would use up incoming hits and waste the effect, like mob healer pets and such).
    3. Epic effect, both BP effects, they are worded so that any hit dealt by the owner lowers the counters / charges, so in essence they work like all other normal counter buffs, so that's easy to understand. Will their timers remain the same or will they be changed along with these changes?(also, was this issue considered when evaluating amount of charges to give?)
    4. Due to Spell extension, as well as max haste: 225% ( I have a box bard and I have bard friends I normally travel with), this also brings up the issue of are these numbers in line with those scenarios?
    5. Ok, I have never known, I haven't found reliable information on this, ever. What does Mortal Residue actually do? As in, whats is it's effect?
    6. Depending on answer for number 5, we come back to incoming hits again for Mortal Coil. Mortal Coil procs at a 25% rate for Light blue cons and above. Its Normal effects are a large AC increase and melee dmg lifetap. My question is, How does this work when you say incoming hits? Wouldn't it be: I need to hit the mob, either by me actively attacking, or reposting, to do melee damage so I get the lifetap heal / melee damage returned as hp?
    7. Now that MC will fade after certain conditions are met, Is there a chance to break up the effect into 2 different buffs: 1 for the AC component and another for the lifetap? I do find myself relying on that AC a lot when dealing with chain pulling grps in SL, I do like to try to protect myself when I can and keeping an old spell like Theft of Agony for additional AC is a waste of spell slots.
    8. Are the AA Lifetap proc spells / abilities being affected at all? (Touch of the Cursed I think is one) Or any of the normal Self buff spells that add lifetap procs affected?
    As for the Cleric, Druid, and Shaman changes, they are much better numbers and I personally thank you for the cleric changes, will help me to keep both my clerics happy.

    As for Wizards. I think people's issue with this is that Mage have pets to keep mobs off the Mage when using these spells and wizards do not, so makes for a more stable and predictable environment for the Mage. That being the case, if you keep ther present drawbacks, maybe lessen them slightly to help fall in line with this difference would ease tension as well as help balance these two classes a tab bit better? I basically use my Wiz for ports only and don't really do much else with her ever, so i don't know fully what the entire issue is, or at least I don't have the data or experience firsthand to know.

    Now, Last but not least, Rangers.I know HS doesn't work with Hail of Arrows line, it used to and that was nerfed( a long time ago if I remember correctly) so that HS would only hit your target. I have also heard that its hit or miss most of the time (if not all the time depending on whom I've asked). how about instead of hit or miss like that you give each arrow its own change to hit or miss?(If this is already in place and I was wrongly informed, please negate this question and inform me of such). And maybe up the targeting not to 12, but maybe even just 6. This opens up some possibilities and makes the spell more flexible to suit more situations.

    These would help me understand in a much better depth what is going on and just exactly how you plan to work the mechanics for things.
    So please please please respond to this, I am sure there are others out there that have similar questions, at least in part.
  13. Deloehne Augur

    I finally got to what is for now, the end of the thread. It's time to hit the rack, but before I go, I'd like to express my thanks for this process.

    • Thanks for the AA grant. I get the reasoning for it in terms of new folks entering the game, and I appreciate that even though my principal bots/alts are all at or above 4000 AA's, they will all get at least some benefit from the grant.
    • Thanks for the option to turn off the autogrant feature. My 65 hobby group will or already has reached max for level, and I'm glad they can keep on doing what they have been. They all say thanks for the Glyph of ??? reward. The only one that got any pleasure out of the ritual sacrifices was the necro, and he's not all that popular in the group.
    • Thanks for the give and take on the chain class specialty skills. While I fully expect there to be disparities in the real world proc rates of the three classes, it will be something that can be adjusted over time if problems do develop.
    • Thanks for the fix to swarming. I don't recall ever being hit by the lag, but I certainly know folks who were and while I get that there will remain some fine-tuning, I think the path forward is now well-marked.
    Most of all, thanks for the openness and patience displayed by the members of the development team and community relations. Change is never easy, but this process has, I think, made it clearer and more understandable.
    Shimmerleaf and Gyurika Godofwar like this.
  14. airforce60 Journeyman

    I THINK IT'S DONE. HAVEN'T SEEN A DEV POST FOR A WHILE.

    MY 3 GOLD ACCOUNTS (SINCE OCT 2002) SAY THANK YOU SONY FOR THE AA'S.

    I THINK I HAVE EARNED THEM.

    JINGURORM

    MASTER POISONCRAFTER, MASTER JEWELER, MASTER SMITH, JOURNEYMAN FLETCHER
    Gyurika Godofwar likes this.
  15. Harabakc Augur

    I want to lay this out in another way.

    As it stands now, when you complete the level 90 hotzones and even the 85. During AA bonus you get 30 AAs and some remaining real exp. After this give away you will get 12 AAs per hotzone and no real exp. Pretending like making your AA bonus go away is meaningless is ignoring reality.

    You can respond "so don't turn it on." Fine, but isn't the entire point to make catching up easier? How are you making it easier if people aren't using it? And if you're making it "easier" you're making gaining AA HARDER after 85.

    If you want to make catching up easier, increase the AA bonus, don't give away free AAs no one in their right mind takes until they're almost maxed anyway.
    Yinla and Pirouette like this.
  16. Coldmouth Elder


    The patch isn't for 2 weeks.. You can get like 1k AAs easy by then with your bonus.. Shouldnt be a problem. Don't spend any AAs you get in the meantime on anything less than level 85 AAs.

    Getting 4k AAs far outweighs losing the bonus. Not to mention your character will be much more powerful and thus kill faster, die less, with hardly any downtime.

    And no its' not making gaining AA harder, fact is most level 85s right now are not maxed AA and are lacking a lot of AAs, even important ones.. Hell, my 96 mage has no Combat Stability, hardly any Mental Clarity AAs, etc just to name a few. That's not how it should be, and people who didn't quit would have gotten those AAs, whereas returners who are leveling up probably skipped them.. This makes these 4k AAs amazingly helpful. You have an exp bonus for a reason, and a level 85 should not have it, because you should have X amount of AAs by then if you weren't playing catch up.
    Shimmerleaf and Gyurika Godofwar like this.
  17. Pirouette Augur


    I already mentioned that solution in reply to Hara earlier. The point is, new/returning players that this is INTENDED to help aren't going to get that advice. They're going to opt in right away and use up their entire XP bonus without knowing better. And if they DO know better? They're going to be gimped 51-95 (let's just assume that they aren't crazy enough to go to 100) while they pick and choose frugally so they CAN use their XP bonus on HoT+ AAs
  18. Vitr New Member

    Decapitate is 179k hate.

    Jarring Crush is -8k hate and is on a shared timer.

    We will be PC versions of the Worker Sledgemallet.
  19. Harabakc Augur

    My necro is 92 and has all the main AAs he needs and is at around 1600. Yes, I'm neglecting pets and a few other things that aren't necessary for leveling to level faster. I'm taking advantage of the AA bonus to get the actual stuff that matters. I gain more power gaining levels then I will getting a bunch of Heroic stats or innates.

    Sure the first 5k will become free, the next 5000 just got slower than they already are. How does that help people catch up?
  20. Gildor New Member

    Hi,

    What happen if you claim the auto AA then stop being a gold members?


    Sorry if it was already asked but I couldnt go through the 110+ pages

    Gildor