PBAE spells on test now only hit a max of 30 mobs

Mildly annoying for me, as I usually use a druid to PL but I'll just have to do smaller, more frequent pulls. Not sure if the big AE PLers will stick to smaller pulls or decide it isn't worth it anymore.

30 seems like a safe number for most raid purposes. Can anyone think of one where this will pose an issue?

Looks like its definitely designed to hit mass PL situations, and maybe lag in some way.

Doorstep of War (Lceanium) has some pretty massive packs of sarnaks that are intended to be AE stunned, although I don't remember exactly how many come in at once.

Claiming Felbane the Dragon Slayer (SoD Kurn's) has some huge add packs that are typically AE mezzed. I think the total number you get just depends on how long you take to kill the other stuff.

Queen Malarian (SoD) can also have a ton of mezzable adds, although these are avoidable if you do the mechanics right.

Those are the ones that come to mind for me.

bloodfeaster in txevu, overwhelming numbers in frostcrypt. several others mentioned above. most of us can think of examples.

This was fun while it lasted. When they made the Enchanter long duration targeted ae mez infinite targets during Coirnav's Velious it became possible.

It would limit the PL teams to 30 mob pulls.

Yeah, as I said then it will barely makes a dent in that particular problem (which seems to be the singular reason for introducing such a limit at all).

Anything to try and stop the insane aoe spam 24/7 is an a+ in my book. Anyone whos mad just enjoys exploits.

I am more surprised it toke this long then I am that they did it. Not the 1st time they have put limits on ae spells.

Why this change now though? Is some encounter in latest expansion made cheesy due to PBAE?

Not surprised at this, I do not think the ability to pull all the mobs in an entire zone and kill them all at once was intended game play or part of the Vision.

They did it to SK's, Bards, Enchanter Stuns... you had to know any spell that could affect unlimited mobs would be in their sights.

That is how the PB AE have worked for over 24 years though and some parts of the game have been specifically engineered with that functionality in mind.
The real problem is not the spells, but the fact that those that are unashamedly abusing them and repeatedly causing zone disruptions are being allowed to do so without even the slightest of consequences.

There's two problems - the one you mentioned and the absymal XP rates. If XP wasn't such a pita to get (especially with insane AA costs), then there would be less demand for PLs.

back in VOA I think it was they did the same thing to the beam type aes. It was done cause the those with beam ae spells would round up 1/2 the mobs in the zones and ae them down. It would cause the whole zone to lag out. I would expect this change is for the same reasons. To stop people form lagging out whole zones with to many mobs in one spot.

But they are able to abuse it because of bad spell design? It's an egg or the chicken scenario. Is the problem the spell or the action used with the spell? I'd argue the ability that allows for abusive behavior is the culprit, not the people taking advantage of questionable game mechanics.

Indeed, but the difference being that the Beam AEs had only been in the game for a short while when they limited them - PB AEs have been in the game over 24 years now.

You are exactly right. People were beaming the heck out of COB

That's like arguing that sharp knives are a bad design because rotten people use them to hurt other people with.
However, IRL there are laws prohibiting that and agencies assigned to punishing those that break those laws ... both of which are noticably missing in EverQuest these days.

I understand that. But I would guess this is part of their effert to combat the lag and other stuff form upgrading form dx9 to dx11.

Heh, so far upgrading to dx11 have brought nothing but bad things to EverQuest (that I have noticed anyway).