Reuseable Shanghai tip

[CastleFre]

Just thought I'd share this with everyone, in case you haven't discovered it yet.Normally you'd stealth and then Shanghai to start a fight right?Well don't.Start the fight with something else, then the first thing you do when engaged in combat is use Smuggler's Talent.Then you can do Shanghai as many times as you like, with casting time obviously.You won't stealth until the end of the fight.I use this a lot and it really adds to your DPS and makes use of an otherwise crappy skill (Smugglers).

[Stig]

Its a bug I reckon, one of the few I actualyl hope thay wont fix too quickly (atleast let me get a taste!) hehe.-Stigma

[Exoro]

<DIV>good thing you made the devs aware of this. NERF</DIV>

[CastleFre]

Hmm, good point <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />well, I don't want to be selfish.Enjoy it while it lasts people.!

[Adam95G]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> CastleFreak wrote:<BR>Just thought I'd share this with everyone, in case you haven't discovered it yet.<BR>Normally you'd stealth and then Shanghai to start a fight right?<BR>Well don't.<BR>Start the fight with something else, then the first thing you do when engaged in combat is use Smuggler's Talent.<BR>Then you can do Shanghai as many times as you like, with casting time obviously.<BR>You won't stealth until the end of the fight.<BR>I use this a lot and it really adds to your DPS and makes use of an otherwise crappy skill (Smugglers).<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> Does this still work?

[CastleFre]

Yes, but keep it quiet <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Boushar]

I have a pretty awesome group. Most mobs we've been fighting lately don't last the 10 second recast time. In fact our wizard has been complaining lately because he almost never gets to use his usual set of starter spells since they take 5 seconds to cast. By that time, most mobs are dead.

[Nymh_the_Da]

<DIV>old news, heh</DIV>

[Adam95G]

<blockquote><hr>Nymh_the_Dark wrote:<DIV>old news, heh</DIV><hr></blockquote>Post count +1

[Cika]

<blockquote><hr>Adam95GTS wrote:<blockquote><hr>Nymh_the_Dark wrote:<DIV>old news, heh</DIV><hr></blockquote>Post count +1<hr></blockquote>And I take it your post is different?<p>Message Edited by Cikala on <span class=date_text>01-21-2005</span> <span class=time_text>12:50 PM</span>

[Crono1321]

Byebye sneak bug.Gotta wonder what is running through an idiot's minds when they post stuff like this in the wide open!

[Erasm]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Crono1321 wrote:<BR>Byebye sneak bug.<BR><BR>Gotta wonder what is running through an idiot's minds when they post stuff like this in the wide open!<BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> It gets found out regardless. I can almsot guarantee someone on the dev team plays a rogue subclass. You cant hide anything from the people who make ( and PLAY) the game. Its best to get it out in the open, let as many people as possible take advantage of the increased DPS. It probably wont get fixed any sooner. They are probably waiting until they fix the rest of our stuff before knocking down our DPS by removing this shanghai bug. I bet within 1-2 months our debuffs will start working, and this will be fixed ( they have started focusing a bit on balance).

[CastleFre]

Ta, That was my intention.Erasmus is right.But I hope they have more important things to worry about first <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Naggyba]

I don't see why it should get fixed. The other scout classes get an in combat sneak ability that they can pull off their sneak attack. Just fix it so that it breaks smuggler's is all.

[Anjuu]

<DIV>At level 33, you'll get Lie Low, a stealth that works in combat and lowers your hate.</DIV>

[Naggyba]

Yes, I got lie Low. I use it to remove hate. I save it for that purpose though because of the long recast timer.

[Erasm]

<DIV>Yeah, when they fix this, they need to give us a sneak with a 10 sec recast. Why have shanghai on a 10 sec timer, yet all the sneaks are on much longer timers. Doesnt make sense.</DIV>

[rioi]

Yall forget how broken RUSE is....may be that is why smuggler's talent exists?

[rioi]

ack,btw, brigands can ruse...which is a Feign Death attack that does very large amounts of damage. It is currently broken according to brigands.....therefore may be smuggler's talent was meant to allow us to do this?

[Syrano]

Shanghai is probably on a 10 second timer because they didn't intend you to be able to use it more than once a fight. It counterbalanced by the fact that you can't hide quickly. Smugglers talent is a bug, if you can't see that and think it's meant to be able to give you the "stealth" icon while in combat you're having a bout of wishful thinking.For crying out loud, when the combat ends you suddenly pop into stealth mode. Why do you think so many people are silent about it? They *know* there's something wrong with it. It's skills like "lie low" that are meant to place us into stealth while in combat.Now. The devs may very well have left this exploit in place until they fix other aspects of our class, like our debuffs and our poisons because frankly, it doesn't really boost your DPS in a 1 minute fight that much. You still have to eat the 5 seconds it takes to get into smugglers talent (no attacks occur while that casting time is going). And then whatever stealth attack you choose doesn't do huge amounts of damage over other abilities you have. You may eek up your DPS a bit, but nothing that makes us overpowering. It's completely unnecessary at later levels to even use this trick.

[Naggyba]

Actually, unless you had a really powerful backstab, the DPS would still even out or go lower by going into sneak during a fight, as a swashbuckler, because the parsers that figure DPS are based on start combat time and end combat time and that 5 seconds you are not doing anything lowers your DPS. You would have to have a really nice backstab to overcome the DPS loss. That's why I no longer go into sneak during a fight. It's a waste of time, that I can be getting off other skills that do as much, if not more than my sneak attack.I agree with Erasmus, we need a combat sneak. If ST is broken, then fix it and change one of our sneaks to be able to fire during combat and a low timer like the other scout classes.I'm not going to waste Lie Low on a sneak attack. I use it for when I need to get agro off me and back onto tank. If I use it for a 200-300 or so damage sneak attack and then mob turns on me before the LONG recycle time, that's just wasting more mana for the healer having to heal yet another person.<p>Message Edited by Naggybait on <span class=date_text>01-27-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:32 PM</span>

[Syrano]

Naggybait, I don't know. I don't want a sneak attack beyond what we have. "Swashbuckler" does not sound like someone who runs off and hides and attacks from stealth. I can understand how I might be alone in that opinion though. I won't argue against a more powerful main attack. Heck it would be in line with our other abilities if we were the only "scout" class that got a heavy hitting frontal attack. Doesn't have to be 800+ pts, but another independant timer attack that did as much as Flurry of Arms does woulnd't go amiss... I think we do enough damage as it is though. Or at least, I'll worry about it once they fix poisons.

[Naggyba]

I feel the same way. I would rather have another high damage attack rather than a stealth one but, since we already got one, I was just saying I wish they would fix it so that it worked like the others.

[AestusX]

This is for really for half elf swashbucklers only... I'm not sure if this ability is a class ability or racial ability, but you get this ability by selecting it, when the green box appears. I forgot what it's called exactly, but it's called quick stealth or something. Anyways, it is pretty much useless when it comes to actually stealthing from mobs, but what it does do is put you in stealth in a second. It's faster than any other stealth. The refresh on this ability is about the same as shanghai too, so every 10 seconds, I can LEGITLY shanghai the mob. I hit quickstealth then immediately hit ~ to stop my attack then immediatly hit my hot key for shanghai. I have quick stealth on 1, and shanghai on 2. So every ten seconds I press 1, ~, then 2 for shanghai. If you missed the opportunity to select this skill as one of you abilities, you may be out of luck. But those who have it, enjoy your in combat quick stealth. They can fix the bug hehe. I don't care since I can legitly shanghai a mob every time it refreshes anyways.

[Ookami-san]

<P>>It gets found out regardless. I can almsot guarantee someone on the dev team plays a rogue subclass. </P> <P>>You cant hide anything from the people who make ( and PLAY) the game.</P> <P>LOL!  You think a DEV actually PLAYS a swashbuckler?!  LOL!  If any of them played a swashbuckler, don't you think SOME of our abilities would have been fixed? If nothing else, just the poison over level 40.  </P> <P>Nah... they know better than to play swashbucklers....</P>

[Syrano]

<blockquote><hr>LOL! You think a DEV actually PLAYS a swashbuckler?! LOL! If any of them played a swashbuckler, don't you think SOME of our abilities would have been fixed? If nothing else, just the poison over level 40. Nah... they know better than to play swashbucklers....<hr></blockquote>Cup half empty lately? Thought so. First, poisons are not just a swashy problem and it's highly unlikely no one on the dev team plays a scout. Secondly, it's highly unlikely many devs have toons legitamately over level 40. Devs get less time to play then the die hards of the game (believe it or not those guys work 12-14 hour days pretty regularly). Also, most Devs don't get a "free ride" to lvl 50 except on their internal test servers. Where they don't get to play around much because they pay testers for that.Also, they are very much aware of which abilities work and don't work. At the end of the day it's a question of priorities for them. Lastly, what's so "wrong" with swashbucklers? If you continue to play one after you hate the class that sounds like your problem. We do decent DPS (compared to other scouts), have a good set of utilities and damnit we "Swash" and we "Buckle"! We need some love, so does every class in EQII at the moment in one way or another. But we aren't as troubled as Wizards and Warlocks are at the moment. So things could be worse.

[CastleFre]

What would stop a dev from programatically creating a high level character?I would.They probably have some kind of character generating tool, that they can set to a specific level so that they can test easier.Well, it makes sense to me.If any devs are reading this can they answer, just out of interest.

[Syrano]

Progammatically I'm sure a dev can, and probably does, to unit test something they implement. However historically speaking from EQ1 and other MMORPG's, most of the 60+ person dev team raises characters legitimately on the live servers just like everyone else. However they get less time to play on the whole because, in the development world, free time is a premium. I remember when it was discovered that most of the devs in EQ1 (in the first 2 years) didn't have level 50/60 toons. Oh the outcry was huge.Testers are responsible for testing the content at various level ranges and reporting bugs. Devs rely pretty heavily on tester feedback and player feedback to truly understand the game at all level ranges. I'd be interested to know the demographic breakdown of the dev team versus characters and levels too but I don't think that information will do the devs much good <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Historically when that information gets revealed people use it against the dev team with arguments like "Only %10 of the dev team plays my class, of course we suck" or "Nearly %50 of the dev team plays X class, that's their favorite!". In EQLive when it was discovered the lead designer played a Ranger, there was a lot of angst saying "Rangers are favorites". Then when said lead designer left the company, there were arguments saying Rangers were now hated etc.It's a lose-lose situation for the devs to reveal how often they play, what they play and at what level etc. Best to leave the public fight for balance up to someone like Moorgard. And leave the devs to implementations <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Erasm]

<P><BR>Yeah, I dont wanna know what all the devs play. But I do now that they have legit characters as well as test ones ( for the ones that test). The internal test servers are generally to test specific things, like does x animation work and what not. Stuff that doesnt need to be tested on a larger scale. And I know a few of the devs have talked about playing with legit groups, just to grind exp. </P> <P> </P> <P>In all honesty, there is nothing *MAJOR* wrong with our class now that 200 skill poisons work. Balance issues? of course. Bugs? Absolutely. But they are being worked out. Hell I didnt expect 200 skill poisons to work for a LONG time, but they are fixed now <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Im relatively happy with the dev team fixing stuff, although im not happy at some of the things that never should have been broken to begin with ( in release). <BR></P>

[Kirik]

<DIV>The comment about sneaks being on longer timers then shanghai doesn't track with me.  I just use different sneaks, they are on different timers.</DIV>