Official LU24a Test changes

[Deila]

<DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Okay, the Test LU24a patch notes are updated now, everyone back from E3, with the official word on changes. Here's the Necromancer digest, snipped from Blackguard's post.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Blackguard wrote:<BR> Here's an up-to-date list of the changes (primarily with control spells) currently on Test (or on shortly), courtesy of Lockeye:<BR><BR><FONT color=#ffcc00><B>Spells and Combat Arts</B></FONT><BR><BR>- Adjusted all Root, Stifle, Stun, Mesmerize, and Fear durations to have consistent linear progression in durations with level increase.<BR>- Swarm and Dumbfire pets had their inherent stat bonuses removed from contributing to their damage. This amounts to a 17.5% reduction in their overall damage.<BR><BR><B>Mage changes:</B><BR>- Wizard, Warlock, Conjurer, Necromancer: Root Spells:<BR>  * Has 15% overall break chance instead of 20%<BR>  * Only processes break chances when damage is received, not on any hostile act towards the target.<BR>  * Duration reduced.<BR>- Necromancer: Rat Swarm: Increased reuse time from 45 to 60s. Duration reduced to 45s on upgrades that were set to 60s.<BR>- Necromancer: Ghastly Stench: Increased reuse time from 45 to 60s.<BR>- Necromancer: Scout Pet: Removed DPS autoattack bonus.<BR>- Necromancer: Scout Pet: Reduced Damage on some of their combat arts.<BR>- Necromancer: Scout Pet: Acidity: Increased Reuse Timer to 90s.<BR>- Necromancer: Fighter Pet: Graven Frenzy: slightly reduced damage.<BR>- Necromancer: Aggression: Increased casting skill bonuses granted to pet.<BR>- Necromancer: Fear: Recast time increased to 45s from 30s. Overall break chance reduced to 30%.<BR>- Necromancer: Grasp: Lowered resistability, reduced casting time to 1.5s, increased reuse time to 45s.<BR>- Necromancer: Heal Minion: Casting time reduced to 1 second. Increased overall heal amount and duration reduced to 6 seconds.<BR>- Necromancer: Grisly Defense: Slightly improved reactive heal component.<BR><BR><FONT color=#ffcc00><B>Achievements</B></FONT><BR><BR>- Summoner: Sta 2: Shockwave: Upgrades affect the knockback stun duration.<BR>- Summoner: Wis 5: Animist Bond: Corrected amount of power that is drained from the pet when they receive damage.<BR> <HR> <BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>Read the full posted LU24a notes <A href="http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=testfeed&message.id=54833#M54833" target=_blank>here</A></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So, most of these changes are things I'd found already and reported to the community here, so not too many surprises. A few missed from the lower tier spells/stances, I was checking the high-end. Hadn't noticed decreases in swarm and dumbfire pet damage, but then again that isn't something listed in examine descriptions. Not sure if that change is one that's been on Test, or is patching in tonight (Test is currently down for a 1 hour update - some of these may be the 'currently on Test (or on shortly) that BG mentions.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I"ll see if I can figure out what's changed with Animist's Bond (end-line WIS achievement ability), as I do have that one. Not sure if it was taking too much or too little power as damage in the conversion - I hope it was taking too much, since it never lasted long in practice  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Shockwave changes, we've already talked about (i.e., someone who has the ability may need to note the stun durations per level now, and compare to what they look like post LU24).</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm going to be double-checking things like Heal Minion, to see if he meant just that spell, or our entire pet HoT line was converted. I expect it to be the full line, using Aggression as the example - I had noted the offensive skill increases in Howl of the Damned. I'll post what I find when I can get back on Test later tonight.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#66ff00>(Update: after logging in post-patch, Necrotic Reformation is still showing 2.0 second cast time, 6.0 second recast, 12.0 second duration, healing for 399 then 212 every 4 seconds. May have just been a change in Heal Minion then)</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Side note: from the full BG post, it appears that my guess about the pet buff hits affecting Conjurors came true. Many of their pet buffs were tweaked.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So, synopsis. In practice, we're doing less damage, but gameplay is pretty much the same as we've been doing. I haven't had to change much in my game plan since these changes went in on Test - we're still Necromancers, doing what Necromancers do, and in the way that Necromancers have always done it before. Slight shifts in how often we can fear/stun, but at the same time, I don't have to wait to send my assassin pet into the fight either, in group or raid. Don't really need to back her off periodically during the fight to prevent her from peeling aggro either, it seems. I'm still able to solo things I could solo before. The Sky is Not Falling [tm], in my opinion.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My personal assessment - if you were a Necromancer solely because you liked doing huge damage, you'll be upset. If you were a Necromancer because you liked the style of the class' gameplay, you'll still love being a Necromancer, as I'm not seeing any change to that with this update. Your personal mileage may vary, of course.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Edited for Lithium blowing out all formatting from the quote when adding the linky. Thanks again, Lithium.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <P>Message Edited by Deila on <SPAN class=date_text>05-17-2006</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>08:51 PM</SPAN></P><p>Message Edited by Deila on <span class=date_text>05-17-2006</span> <span class=time_text>09:19 PM</span>

[armus5]

<P>Can I betray now and say, become a whiny little [expletive haxx0red by Raijinn] of a wizard? </P> <P>Envy is a red-con epicx4</P>

[KBern]

<P>Yes please let me know how Animist's Bond turns out.</P> <P>I have that and it does seem to drain the power just as quick as the health, so I am hoping it was not converting the 100% health damage to 50% power and was doing a straight 1:1 conversion....I hope.</P>

[FTL]

<DIV>Nice work again Vyviel, i look forward to what u say more than i do me vodka (and thats saying something) but i would like to know the exact upgrade effects on the shockwave if possible i.e how long is the stun duration increased by per level in the AA</DIV>

[Cronostri]

Just 17.5 total DPS loss? bah is no big deal. So in other words if we were doing 500 dps a fight we now doing 400, sounds fine to me, looking foward to the next nerf next 2 patches or 3. 

[Deila]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> FTL wrote:<BR> <DIV>Nice work again Vyviel, i look forward to what u say more than i do me vodka (and thats saying something) but i would like to know the exact upgrade effects on the shockwave if possible i.e how long is the stun duration increased by per level in the AA</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Heheh, well, I'll strive to continue to provide information that's better than Vodka.  <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>As for Shockwave - might be tricky. In most respects, Test is just like any other play server. We don't get free /respecs or anything, all works the same way as on live. And.... I don't really <EM>wanna</EM> respec my achievements. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I like them where they are, for now, and just like on live servers, those respecs start to get very expensive progressively. Besides taking some personal responsibility for bug-hunting, and coming to let you guys know what's coming when potentially scary change happens, I still pay my subscription fees to play, same as anyone else.</P> <P><EM><FONT size=2>(But... never know, there might be a remote, outside chance that if I run into someone with the power to grant me those free achievement respecs, just to switch to the one line to check progression and then back again in the interest of testing/reporting, maybe then it'd be doable. Long shot, but you never know. No promises on that one.)</FONT></EM></P> <P> </P>

[quamdar]

<div></div>i am wondering if they mean that they are increasing the heal per tic slightly and cutting the tics in half or if they mean over the six seconds it will do more than it is currently doing in 12 seconds.  it does say overall so i am hoping that is what will happen and make it actually be more efficient health to pet health wise though i do have master 1 pet heal and master 2 of the transfer so that might be why transfer is more health and more efficient but still think that the pet heal should do more than it since it is over time and can only be done for pet despite the slight rank difference. also i am wondering if the plan on fixing the crit chance rate since i know it is not as high as it should be with max AA and mark of awakened.  hopefully they decide to give us atleast some useful AAs now that they are nerfing us. <div></div><p>Message Edited by quamdar on <span class=date_text>05-18-2006</span> <span class=time_text>11:37 PM</span>

[Truwen]

Awesome post! Thank you for your thorough analysis on test it is much appreciated. -Truwen<div></div>

[Deila]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> quamdar wrote:<BR> i am wondering if they mean that they are increasing the heal per tic slightly and cutting the tics in half or if they mean over the six seconds it will do more than it is currently doing in 12 seconds.<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>The way I read the pet heal change, it means that it'll be faster casting, heal a greater amount in total than it did before, and do so faster. In other words, get more health out to the pet quicker. If I'm right, that's a very good thing for tank pet survivability - so long as the health cost to us hasn't gone through the roof or something.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>Haven't had a chance to get back in game and take a look at that particular heal, nor do I remember off the top of my head what the old heal amounts and health costs were for comparison. Been a good long while since I used Heal Minion. When I looked at Necrotic Reformation, I didn't see a change to it - not sure if the switch is <EM>meant</EM> to be for the entire line, or just that first spell.</P> <P><FONT color=#66ff00>Edit:</FONT> Got a chance to get in game and look, and as of this moment, nothing's changed with Heal Minion either. Still 2 second cast, 6 second recast, 12 second duration. I'll poke QA about it when I get a chance - might mean that since the change hasn't gone in yet, the whole line is intended to be improved.</P> <P> </P> <P><SPAN class=time_text></SPAN> </P><p>Message Edited by Deila on <span class=date_text>05-19-2006</span> <span class=time_text>03:09 AM</span>

[Truwen]

<div><blockquote><hr>Deila wrote:<div></div> <div></div> <div></div> <blockquote> <hr> quamdar wrote: <div></div>i am wondering if they mean that they are increasing the heal per tic slightly and cutting the tics in half or if they mean over the six seconds it will do more than it is currently doing in 12 seconds. <hr> </blockquote> <p>The way I read the pet heal change, it means that it'll be faster casting, heal a greater amount in total than it did before, and do so faster. In other words, get more health out to the pet quicker. If I'm right, that's a very good thing for tank pet survivability - so long as the health cost to us hasn't gone through the roof or something.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p> <p>Haven't had a chance to get back in game and take a look at that particular heal, nor do I remember off the top of my head what the old heal amounts and health costs were for comparison. Been a good long while since I used Heal Minion. When I looked at Necrotic Reformation, I didn't see a change to it - not sure if the switch is <em>meant</em> to be for the entire line, or just that first spell.</p> <p><font color="#66ff00">Edit:</font> Got a chance to get in game and look, and as of this moment, nothing's changed with Heal Minion either. Still 2 second cast, 6 second recast, 12 second duration. I'll poke QA about it when I get a chance - might mean that since the change hasn't gone in yet, the whole line is intended to be improved.</p> <p><span class="time_text"></span> </p><p>Message Edited by Deila on <span class="date_text">05-19-2006</span> <span class="time_text">03:09 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote>If they make it take more health from us to heal our pets more I would imagine they would slightly improve our life tap line...hmm wishful thinking =) -Ganab</div>

[Deila]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <P></P> <HR> Truwen wrote: <P>If they make it take more health from us to heal our pets more I would imagine they would slightly improve our life tap line...hmm wishful thinking =)<BR><BR><BR></P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>My assumption is that it won't cost more health. I do remember what Heal Minion was like before getting that first lifetap at 20 when I rerolled here on Test, and it was <EM>murder</EM>.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>No, I think the idea is for this to be a little helper for us for soloing, with so many damage reductions happening with our pets. If things change the way I've interpreted it, we'll be able to get health out to pets more quickly, which will help us keep tank pets up a bit better.</P> <P>Let's break this down, the way I'm interpreting things, for the benefit of any who may be confused:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr> <P><FONT color=#66ff00>- Necromancer: Heal Minion: Casting time reduced to 1 second. Increased overall heal amount and duration reduced to 6 seconds.</FONT></P> <P><FONT color=#66ff00>Casting time reduced to 1 second</FONT> - Allows us to start the healing process quicker in reaction to something beating the snot out of our tank pets.</P> <P><FONT color=#66ff00>Increased overall heal amount</FONT> - Okay, using my Necrotic Reformation adept III as the example, it currently heals for 399 instantly, then 212 every 4 seconds over 12 seconds, for a total of 399 + (212 * 3 ticks [at the 4, 8 and 12 second marks]) = 1035 total heal amount. So, say that goes up to 1100 or 1200 (or whatever). More total healing from the spell, then</P> <P><FONT color=#66ff00>Duration reduced to 6 seconds</FONT> - means that the above mentioned increased heal amount of 1100 or 1200 (or whatever) only takes 6 seconds to deliver the full amount, rather than 1035 healing that takes 12 seconds for the pet to get in full.</P> <P>In other words - we cast the heal quicker, heal for more, and the full heal amount gets to the pet in half the current time. Not a bad deal. Really good deal, in fact, assuming my interpretation is correct.</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Really, not too bad a way to throw us a bone if you think about it, without really affecting general grouping utility or damage output balances one way or the other, since our HoT is just for our pets.</P> <P>But yeah, that's why I also want to be watching the health costs on these too. If duration is reduced to half, that means we only pay half the health cost in recurring ticks - unless the tick duration is also adjusted. Say, rather than it counting 4 second ticks (which won't go evenly into a 6 second duration anyway) it also halves the tick time to every 2 seconds. In that case, we'd end up still paying the same health cost total - just faster, but have the advantage of getting heals out to pets faster as well. A good trade, I think. Just watch it if you're spamming HoTs to your pet faster than your lifetap reuse timer's going.  <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> I'd be okay with that. What I wouldn't want to see is an increased health cost per tick, to where we lose ground on the health to heal ratio.</P> <P>One good thing about this particular change not being on Test yet, and having you guys asking questions about it - it did give me a chance to screenie all the HoT line of spells before the changes so I can do another comparison similar to those in my other LU24 threads if needed.</P> <P> </P>

[cainen76]

Well im pretty happy with all of that coulda been alot worse, cant see us being alot different from this, i mean it was nice topping the parse in my groups, yes our dps is lessened but i love playing my necro, always have since day dot, in EQ1 and EQ2, great post BTW VyvielCainen 70 necro of Nektulos<div></div>

[Sir Alex]

it says the overall break chance on fear is reduced to 30% now i have the master 1 version and it says 15% to break if target takes damage or recives a hostile act am i missing something here