Stobo DarkSky
09-09-2005, 01:47 PM
<DIV>With Live Update #13, we are introducing significant changes to the way combat works and how spells <BR>behave. The main goal of these changes is to increase the fun and challenge of EverQuest II. Some of <BR>the ways we are going to accomplish this goal include:</DIV> <DIV>Adjusting spells and combat arts to ensure that damage, healing, and utility are more proportionate <BR>among the classes. <BR> <BR>Making spell upgrades more meaningful and satisfying by adding new spells and arts to better fill <BR>out character progression and put the emphasis on distinctiveness at the subclass level.</DIV> <DIV><BR>Addressing cases where some characters could be made virtually immune to attack through buff stacking.<BR>Our intent is that the game feels and plays basically the way it always has for soloers and small <BR>group players. Individual players of any class or level should be able to defeat level-appropriate <BR>solo encounters.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Character Attributes</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Avoidance</DIV> <DIV>Your likelihood of avoiding an attack is now based on two primary factors: the con color of the <BR>attacker and the type of armor you are wearing. The heavier your armor, the lower your chances of <BR>avoiding an attack. </DIV> <DIV>Increasing your Defense, Parry, and Deflection skills give you a better chance of avoiding attacks, but <BR>there is now a cap on how much these skills can be buffed or debuffed. </DIV> <DIV>Increasing your Agility improves your base chance of avoiding an attack, but it will not improve your <BR>likelihood of parrying, deflecting, or blocking with a shield.</DIV> <DIV>Mages and Priests no longer receive the Parry skill.</DIV> <DIV>Shields now have the following base chances to Block: Tower (15%), Kite (15%), Round (5%), Buckler (3%).<BR> <BR>Your chances to Block scale up or down based on the con of your opponent. Shield buffs no longer have any <BR>effect. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Mitigation</DIV> <DIV>The base mitigation values of armor against an opponent of your level have been adjusted as follows: <BR>Heavy (38%), Medium (30%), Light (22%), Very Light (16%).</DIV> <DIV>The con of the target is now the primary determiner of your chance to hit or defend against attacks instead <BR>of skill. Skill buffs still have an effect, but they are treated more like a buff rather than the primary <BR>determiner.<BR> <BR>Mages and Priests now gain 5 points per level in their offensive melee skills.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Stats</DIV> <DIV>Higher Strength increases your bonus to melee damage. <BR>Increasing your Agility improves your chance to avoid an attack. <BR>Higher Intelligence increases your bonus to spell damage. <BR>Increasing your Wisdom improves your resistances to arcane damage types (Heat, Cold, Poison, Disease, Magic, <BR>Divine, and Mental). <BR>The effectiveness of Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Wisdom buffs has been increased. The effective cap <BR>is set at 10 times the character's level. For example, a level 30 fighter will receive an increasing melee <BR>damage bonus up to 300 Strength, while a level 40 wizard will receive an increasing bonus to spell damage up <BR>to 400 Intelligence.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Resists, Fizzles, and Interrupts</DIV> <DIV>Only beneficial spells cast in combat now have a chance to fizzle.<BR> <BR>Your chance to fizzle is affected by the skill level of the player's casting technique used by the spell <BR>(Ministration, Ordination, etc.) and spell quality (Apprentice II, Adept I, etc.). <BR>The Spell Avoidance skill is no longer used and has been removed. Items with a Spell Avoidance buff have <BR>been modified.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Healing</DIV> <DIV>Overall healing potency should be better balanced among the Priest professions. <BR>Healing spells generate less hate when healing someone who is not currently the opponent's main target.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Training Spells and Racial Traits</DIV> <DIV>Every ten levels (level 14, 24, 34, 44, and 54) you are presented with a list of four spells or arts. You may <BR>choose one of them, which will then be upgraded to Master II quality. <BR>This replaces the previous Training abilities, which have been removed from your Knowledge book. <BR>The descriptions of Racial Traits that increase resistances now more clearly indicate that the percentage <BR>gained is against a target of the character's level.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Items</DIV> <DIV>Mitigation values have been spread more evenly across armor slots. Chest and leg slots still provide slightly <BR>greater mitigation, though less than they did before. This should make it more beneficial to wear <BR>high-mitigation armor in every slot. <BR>The mitigation provided by accessories (ear, neck, ring, wrist, and belt) has been reduced by 50%. <BR>Arcane resist values (Heat, Cold, Poison, Disease, Magic, Divine, and Mental) on all items have been reduced <BR>by 50% to make the effects of resist buffs more meaningful.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Priest Changes</DIV> <DIV>Priests now have increased damage capability. <BR>Priests can resurrect players outside their group. <BR>Group healing has been improved in efficiency and potency. <BR>Group cures have been removed from Training options and are now distributed among the Priest subclasses. <BR>Shamans now receive the Great Spear skill. <BR>Direct heals (both single-target and group) now have more differentiation among subclasses. Each subclass of <BR>Priest has different advantages: </DIV> <DIV>Inquisitor: Slightly higher efficiency than most instant heals, best repeat spell healing amount for instant <BR>heals, fastest reuse timers. <BR>Templar: Larger heal for increased power cost, less time consumed spent casting heals. <BR>Warden: Highest efficiency of all heals, best repeat spell healing amount (regen effects from all lines stack). <BR>Fury: Fastest healer, strong initial burst healing. <BR>Mystic: Same efficiency as the Inquisitor but slightly longer reuse timers; each heal adds a minor max health <BR>increase which allows "overflow" health for the target (health increase from all lines stack). <BR>Defiler: Matches the potency of Templar heals, but sacrifices some health to defray the overall power cost.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now that the Class Defining abilities AND the PARRY Skill have been removed from Templar how about giving us something in return? You want to give our Class away so we want in return:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The abilty to equip ANY type of shield.</DIV> <DIV>Greater DEFENSE skills.</DIV> <DIV>Leveling HEALTH and POWER among ALL Healers.</DIV> <DIV>One single Target and One Group Target Water Breathing Spell ONLY</DIV> <DIV>New Class Defining Skills or Abilities<BR></DIV>