Test Update 07/20/15

July 20, 2015
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*** Highlights ***

- Added back a missing file MSVCR71.dll which was not being included from the patcher on Test only.
- The previously mentioned and missing new filter information for damage shields and environmental damage is now live on test.

*** Update to Critical Damage ***

- Note that some of the following changes are already on test.

The old way critical damage was handled was as follows:
- 0 meant no critical damage, 100 is "the same," anything over 100 is a bonus.
- Only the best modifier from AAs was added, and only the best modifier from spells was added.
- Black Wolf had a crit damage value of 200, which meant it added 100% to your critical damage if you had no AA modifiers. With AA modifiers, it would actually add 200%.

The new way critical damage is handled is as follows:
- 100% is the base inherent critical damage modifier. The new SPA is now strictly a modifier to this number.
- Values below 0 mean less critical damage, 0 is "the same," and anything above 0 is a bonus.
- All modifiers stack (assuming they are in different slots). This means you get the bonus from Fury of Magic added to Spell Casting Fury Mastery (and, with the upcoming test update, Spell Casting Fury). If you have multiple spells active, they add up as well.
- To compensate for the "extra" 100% that used to be added when you had both a spell and an AA modifier active, we have (now) added a 100% modifier to Spell Casting Fury.
- Black Wolf has a crit damage value of 100, which means it adds 100% to your critical damage. This can now stack with other active buffs, or you can time your buffs for maximum effect as you did before.

*** UI ***

- Added the ability to open an achievement in the achievements window when viewing a chat linked achievement by clicking "View Mine".

- Changed -
EQUI_AchievementWnd.xml

- The EverQuest Team

Good to see that is sorted. How about saying anything about the mage nerf being slipped in under the "reduced rain crit rate"?

seconded

I would very much like some explanation of this....

You wouldn't like there answer

Likely not, but any communication would be better than the one line (which wasn't even a full sentence) that we currently have...

I am bit confused by the explanation given.

Spell casting fury, fury of magic and I assume Spell casting fury mastery are nuke crit rate AA lines. Not nuke over crit mod lines like you seem to be implying. Did you mean to say that Destructive Fury the over crit nuke AA line will have 100% added to it to compensate for the loss of 100% from activated abilities?

This still leaves mages spire doing nothing or it now becomes something to use after stacking everything else enhancing their sustained.

If so you are also boosting nuking classes sustained a bit as that 100% went from activated for short periods of time to instead always being there.

Also what is the intent of this change? Are you guys looking to pull burstained back in some by making it more beneficial to stack stuff for burst help rather then staggered for sustained? Thus boosting burst some at the cost of sustained? Because the issue of using multiple black wolfs, Illusions of Grandeur etc still remain.

Since all critical damage will now stack both positive and negative, I predict new debuffs and zone effects will be utilized to limit casters damage potential.

I don't know if critical damage could be limited in this way, but debuffs that decreased spell damage by a certain % already existed.

Thats kind of what I am digging at. What is the need for this change 15 years after the fact?

They either want to fix burstained for burst casters. Or negate caster dps more for some events or named. Or they are just making it work this way because some influential people want everything to work the same for all casters despite massive differences in base spell power, casting times, crit rates, etc.

Talking about crit rates ...

It adds some more depth and choices on caster disc usage, and allows smaller boosts to be added to longer term buffs without being useless. Blow IoG and BW together or string them out for a longer duration burn? It also brings Cataclysm back into play for burns.

A +10% nuke overcrit clickie buff would be useful (and good!) now, instead of being useless junk because it would never do anything.

I see it as the same type of change to hundred hands effect; to give the devs more control and granularity.

I could be wrong, but the underlined is the most interesting point I saw in the notes.

To me it doesn't add any depth it just furthers the burstained issue. Burst fight you now stack on everything at once for improved burst numbers. Sustained fight and you parse out what works better: either doing the same as a burst fight or staggering out stuff if that works out to more of a sustained benefit for improved sustained numbers.

Either way nuking classes or at least one nuking class that didnt get their spire and primary spells nerfed just got better at doing everything when they already did everything better then everyone else. Because the devs are not addressing chaining stuff like BW or IoG back to back to back. And the devs continue to ignore how burst casting classes mana regen has gotten nuts during raids from a combination of 15 different factors. They simply don't run out of mana until well into sustained. Instead they nerfed the mana regen for the one casting class that it basically didn't matter for.

The reason there are so many nuke over crit mods was because they didn't stack. Fierce eye boosted nukes and not dots because its mod didnt stack, now it does. Mana charge worked for nukes and not dots because its mod didnt stack, now it does. Black wolf boosted nukes and not dots because its mods didn't stack, now it does. Illusions boosted nukes 250% compared to dots 110% because it didn't stack, now it does. I am sure there are others out there that previously had little to no use and now become very desired. You get to freely use all those abilities as desired for added benefit in every and any scenario even if they were all reduced from what they were prior. Its still a much higher number and level the even dot over crit which has been very carefully held back at times due to it stacking and yet this seems to be testing by throwing darts at a wall. Thats not depth its pure problems.

At this point I might start agreeing with brogett, songsa and slasher that melee need their base sustained tripled when under zero modifications and that they should be removed from adps stronghold. Basically become wizards who went from a burst class to a do everything class ,with no downsides or tradeoffs for all the fun.

Prior to the 100% nuke over crit being added back into passive over crit AA lines. Wizards could already hit 400K+ on test in a burn fight due to the new stacking over crit changes. Now I bet they can hit 450K+ burst. All while still being second only to necros in sustained and this sudden spike sooner is only going to push out when they can be caught out to 4 or 5 minutes and only when its a single target that long for necros to catch up.

breaks out his tin foil hat... evercast anyone? =P

That's going to have huge implications on progression servers.

IoG/black wolf residue go?

Also, the amount of times you post the term "burstained" is pretty impressive sir!

More black wolf please Illa!!

All of the above AA lines also had a critical damage modifier, but because crit damage effects did not stack, you did not get the benefit from them because Destructive Fury took precedence. Now they stack.

For reference: Spell Casting Fury Mastery (Wizards) is 24%. Fury of Magic (Everyone else) is 31%. And Spell Casting Fury (All Casters) is being given 100 to compensate for the loss of the 100 on buffs.

So to be clear nuking casters needed boosts to their dps as they were hurting in both burst and sustained? These are not minor boosts these are major when all factored in.

Adding 100% more passive over crit to nukers AA lines is going to boost their sustained.
Allowing them to stack all these short term nuke over crit mods is going to boost their burst.
The net effect to at least one of these classes is going to be untouchable unless you drastically reduce their self mods and abilities possible adjust the base damage of their nukes.

Adding all these procs firing at the same time is going to boost both burst and sustained.