Changes with the February Update: Developer Updates

Elidroth / Piestro This thread is 100 pages and almost 2K posts , Can we get an updated Thread that states some finalization i.e. This IS what is being put in and these are what we are still looking for ideas and statistics on? Or are we not even to that point yet. You know I have been stressing since Tuesday on this and need some closure haha

Sorry but is that you're whinne about others over? - And the reason for my return reply was just to try and clarify exactly what a whinne was ? - Sorry but even the forum spell checker is having difficulties with it.

I'll mention them to the team.

Just one question......when can we expect all of the changes to happen??

That sounds about right.

The lag causing the 'snare' effect is not required for swarming. It just makes it easier. Without that lag you have to be more precise in your casting (mage beams are 1.5s cast), but on the plus side you can see where the mobs actually are instead of guessing it. So, a little more skill will be required after the changes. But EQ players are a very skillful bunch.

A longer killing phase (because it takes more casts to do the same damage, and even more because the discs will run out) will only shorten the AFK time between repops/pulls. But the xp per hour will still be just as huge as before. The mobs will still be dead faster than they repop. So it will remain the fastest xp in game by far. Just with more skill and more server CPU load.

Yes, I want a refund. What you're talking about changing it to is not worth 199 AA. Especially not if you're making it cost even MORE.

If assassinate wasn't restricted to humanoids it MIGHT break even with the current skills usefulness. But since you've made it clear you have no intention to do that then no, it's not worth it. At least before it was a leveling tool, now it's a cheesy gimmick for a literal handful of zones.

There might be people that want their AAs back to spend elsewhere (at least a couple in this thread have asked about it), so refunding them is probably a sound idea if its not much work for you. Personally I'll just buy them all back and the three new ranks. Thank you guys for your communication today and yesterday...I know some feel its too little or too late, but you're doing a fine job with what you have to work with. /tips hat

Elidroth you're asking us something that we have no idea what to expect as a final product would look like. I would want to know if I can still get exp from HS/Assassinate/Decap solo, what restrictions would be presented and if in a group setting on current contentish (lvl 99 mobs I think I read) would be a good option for dps for grouping.

The way it is now it's only good for minimal aa gain solo.

Would you vote for an option if you didn't know exactly how it affected you?

This will be my third and final post on the issue. as i have thought and thought about it go ahead and grant the AAs to new/returning players just give them those junk AAs that no one cares about anyways, like the innate stats. they get their AA boost and loose their AA curve genious. the problem i have is now with the nerfing of abilities, you have addressed them 1 bit, I can still take my lvl 100 toon go to a low lvl zone pull the entire zone lag the server and defeat all your changes and still live to brag about it. If by some miracle you happen to agree and see my point on this the only true fix to the problem is to limit the # of mobs that you can aggro to a finite amount, will leave that nnumber up to you to decide. otherwise the PL's/swarms will live on. I have a mage and I have a ranger. I have beamed and know that limiting the beam the way you want will not stop it from happening and believe me I think the beam pulling PLing is way way to powerful. when a toon can go from 1 to 100 with 10k AAs in a week something needs to change. Rangers/rogues are so limited with the places they can HS/Assassinate that it is not worth doing post 95 or 4k AAs. while i see zerkers going into almost any zone and crushing it cause they can decap anything. and the fact that it costs them only 27 AAs to do makes me sick. either nerf decap and increase AAs or unnnerf HS/Assassinte and reduce the AAs for it. SKs I could care less about but nerfing them won't bother me as I hate that class anyway to many SKs out there. wWould love to see Pally and warrior get a decent ability so they are useful of maybe grant them a huge XP bonus.

Since i am throwing out suggestions and you guys are looking for revenue gains anyway you can. might i suggest you make all class/race combos currently not available, available for purchase. there are a lot of people out there that would pay to play a DE ranger or Gnome zerker/beastlord. personally i want an ogre monk. OH and if people want to bypass all that leveling and AAs and don't want to earn it, make them buy it from Sony. a lot of people wouldn't mind paying a few bucks for it.

I hope this means also re-evaluating and raising the level cap on lower ranks so that leveling up in that rank you can still HS/Decap/Assass things while leveling up that are not gray as well? Or is this only going to affect the current end-game actually being able to decap relevant content for the current level 100 cap? Sorry if this has already been answered, it's just a lot of posts to keep track of and up to date with lol...

I asked about this at SoE Live...was told directly by the panel that there will be no changes to Dire Charm....ever.

I don't know about hundreds of NPCs in a zone, but as a bard I pull about the normal Feerrott temple pull (maybe bigger? I dont play a ranger) on a daily basis when I hunt in lower level zones. That's about 6-9 mobs per pull. I get 0 benefit from pulling them early, except that it saves pull time and keeps my songs up on my group.There isn't any one ability you can remove from me to stop me from doing this. You could remove my AOE mez, and I'll just use Bear Spirit/Convergence of Spirits/Spirit of Wood on my druid, along with fast cast heals and when I'm all used up I'll Forceful Rejuv for the next pull.

Mind you this is level 100 in level 90 content (and it's a tank merc holding aggro with druid defensives on him), but I do it regularly enough that if Headshot/Assassinate/Decap is causing a problem, then so am I. I doubt I'm the only one: The rabbit illusion from HoT and the big bags from VoA require enough work that others probably pull just like I do.

And just FYI, that AOE mez is the only thing I have as a bard that makes me feel as effective as a monk puller with Moving Mountains.

I am curious as to whether or not the EQ team has reached a final decision on this matter? If so could we get a finalized post and a date as to when this may happen? At this point in time many people are feeling like there is no point in playing until this is implemented. Any progress or AA additions are possibly wasted depending on the method of implementation for the AA grant.

Kinda like when they gave most classes a form of escape but left it so the rogues still had to spend the most aa's to get an ability that was their own to start with. It was something like 30 aa for rogues and 10 for others.

Rogue assassinate has always been a joke too, there's not enough mobs around that it works on and they are surrounded by non human mobs in a lot of the places too. Why do berzerkers get this added bonus of non humanoid?

No, thank you. First, you put out twice the arrows in a minute with a bow than by casting. Provided HS procs continue to fire off arrows hitting as it does now, more arrows means more procs, all other things equal.

Second, you base your suggestion on a false premise, to wit, that bows are the best way to pull. Right now

1. I can pull with a bowshot
2. I can pull with Nature's Entropy
3. I can pull with Entropy of Nature
4. I can pull with snare
5. I can pull with either Fluster or Blusterbolt under some cirucumstances
6. I can use Harmonious Arrow
7. I can pull with a DoT
8. I can pull with any nuke that won't drop HP enough to get into summoning mode

And that's not a complete list.
Second, I read your 'removes the variability of bow delays' to suggest that you have not yet camped either a Wind Saber or a Bow of the Destroyer. Both camps are highly character building, and I recommend either. What you are doing, perhaps inadvertently, is proposing yet another reduction in ranger capability for the very minor benefit of keeping item 1 on my list above intact for humanoid only pulls.

No, you will not be able to use it effectively past HoT as it is now. You cannot tank mobs, it's use as a soloing tool has been dropped to virtually useless.

no dev respone? how does this help server lag?

It's been clearly stated how it will be affected.

And then:

They cannot possibly please everyone in this. There are long time players who want this to happen also.