Test Update January / 22 / 2009

[Spe]

<p>Test Update January / 22 / 2009 ACHIEVEMENTS Monk Mongoose Stance has changed to improve the trigger chance of the monk’s stances. ITEMS Cloak of the Overlord and Cloak of Antonia Bayle now have additional ranged bonuses. The proc text on Ripper’s Stiletto now more clearly states that it triggers only from attacks made with that weapon. Razhish’s Cloak of Flowing Power has had its proc replaced with Praetor’s Strike. A number of the Frostfell reward armors have been changed to create a more balanced stat progression. Drum of the Ethernaut Chronicler’s proc now functions on both spell and melee attacks. ITEMIZATION Many raid drops have been upgraded and or had effects added. SPELLS Guardian/Paladin/Monk The primary taunt lines have been adjusted to have no recovery, quicker reuse, and lower power to improve their efficiency versus the AOE based threat classes. Paladin The paladin’s heal spells will now generate additional hate for the paladin. UI The collection window should no longer sometimes disappear after resizing it. “/marketplace” now works in that same way that “/togglemarketplace does”. Players should be able to zoom in and out correctly again.</p>

[Vulkan_NTooki]

<p>Where did u find this info?</p>

[Tandy]

<p>Ok first thing I noticed...</p><p>In offensive stance....group taunt is NOT castable. For crusaders, thats our debuff....so that either needs fixed or added to another spell/CA.</p><p>Death March isnt usable in offensive stance....again....that needs fixed or something cause in an 'offensive' capacity I would use it a LOT.</p><p>I hope people are happy...I would rather have had de-taunts than to not have my group disease resist and Death March not usable in offensive...</p><p>So my vote is either fix those or go back to how it was.  No duo/trio is worth balancing for if you screw it up like that to try to fix for them.</p>

[Splater]

<p>ITEMIZATIONMany raid drops have been upgraded and or had effects added.</p><p>Guard TSO set is still missing the focus of legs and the bonus on shoulders that other classes have <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>can anyone give me a valid reason why guardians are as far as i know the only class missing these focuses.</p><p>this is the 2nd time TSO raid armour has been changed and the 2nd time guardians get shafted on missing focus to our legs</p>

[Spe]

<p><cite>Vulkan_NTooki wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Where did u find this info?</p></blockquote><p>Have clicked on update notes in launcher =)</p><p>Here is the thread with the screens of updated items. Sorry, but this is Russian official EQ2 forums, but all screens are in English. Enjoy!</p><p><a href="http://forums.akella-online.ru/showthread.php?t=25502" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forums.akella-online.ru/show...ead.php?t=25502</a></p>

[EvilAstroboy]

<p>This update sucks more than Paris Hiltons video.</p>

[Tandy]

<p><cite>EvilAstroboy wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>This update sucks more than Paris Hiltons video.</p></blockquote><p>At least when you watch those you can laugh at how sucky it is....this just makes me want to roast halfling babies.</p>

[Darkor]

<p><cite>Spetz@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Vulkan_NTooki wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Where did u find this info?</p></blockquote><p>Have clicked on update notes in launcher =)</p><p>Here is the thread with the screens of updated items. Sorry, but this is Russian official EQ2 forums, but all screens are in English. Enjoy!</p><p><a rel="nofollow" href="http://forums.akella-online.ru/showthread.php?t=25502" target="_blank">http://forums.akella-online.ru/show...ead.php?t=25502</a></p></blockquote><p>Thanks alot!</p>

[Illine]

<p><cite>Spetz@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Test Update January / 22 / 2009 ACHIEVEMENTSMonkMongoose Stance has changed to improve the trigger chance of the monk’s stances.</p></blockquote><p>what about the bruiser stance in EoF AAs ?</p>

[madha]

<p>Paladin The paladin’s heal spells will now generate additional hate for the paladin.</p><p>Not seeing this on test unless its a passie sort of thing. I have 0 faith in soe having passive not seen effects on spells for certain classes. If the spell itself doesnt says increase agro on it i doubt it realy increases agro.  And wouldnt heals that cause agro be a ae hate increase thus giving the pally more ae hate, removing them from their pigion hole as a single target tank. </p><p>sarcasim inc</p><p>IMO need to remove the ability of single target tansk to tab target while fighting a mob so they cant toss taunts around, you know realy pigion hole them and single target tanks.  Can pally also get their 9 AE abilities removed and replaces with single target stuff, cant have a single target tank with more ae's then anyone else.</p>

[Gungo]

<p><cite>Splater@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>ITEMIZATIONMany raid drops have been upgraded and or had effects added.</p><p>Guard TSO set is still missing the focus of legs and the bonus on shoulders that other classes have <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /></p><p>can anyone give me a valid reason why guardians are as far as i know the only class missing these focuses.</p><p>this is the 2nd time TSO raid armour has been changed and the 2nd time guardians get shafted on missing focus to our legs</p></blockquote><p>This was answered by a dev prior your effect is a % mitigation increase. Guards are not missing any additional effects.</p>

[Kordran]

<p><cite>Tandy wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>In offensive stance....group taunt is NOT castable. For crusaders, thats our debuff....so that either needs fixed or added to another spell/CA.</p></blockquote><p>Yeah, I have no problem with taunts not generating threat when in offensive, but in some cases there's debuffs tied to them, so just disabling them entirely isn't acceptable.</p>

[Couching]

<p><cite>Spetz@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Test Update January / 22 / 2009 ACHIEVEMENTS Monk Mongoose Stance has changed to improve the trigger chance of the monk’s stances.</p></blockquote><p>I have tested it on the test server. When you spent points on it, you get a self buff on your buff window. However, when you respec aa, this buff gets cancelled and you can't get it back again. Please fix it. I have /bug it on test server.</p>

[Splater]

<p>sorry i have to dissagree</p><p>EOF class legs: focus reinforcements</p><p>ROK legs: focus seperate</p><p>TSO Legs: nothing</p><p>not so botherred about the abilities most classes have on their set shoulders but there is something seriously wrong with Guardians being the only class that dosn't have a CA/Spell focus on their fable set leg armour</p><p>Example:</p><p>TSO assassin legs: focus Moon Blade</p><p>TSO zerker legs; Focus relentless Rage</p><p>TSO brigand legs: focus Enfeeblement</p><p>TSO Monk legs: focus Full Moon</p><p>TSO SK legs: focus Unholy Arms</p><p>the list goes on <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Guards shafted on their focus again please Address this issue before the TSO Raid armour is changed for the 3rd time</p>

[Kordran]

<p>Another side-effect of the change with taunts being disabled is that it can effectively prevent or significantly limit a fighter's ability to use HOs when soloing, because the second spell is always a "horn" spell (which are taunts, generally). For Paladins, this means they can only complete a solo HO when Verdict is up.</p><p>Why not simply change taunts so that if you're in offensive stance, their effectiveness is reduced by 90% or something like that?</p>

[Undorett]

<p><cite>Gungo wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Splater@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>ITEMIZATIONMany raid drops have been upgraded and or had effects added.</p><p>Guard TSO set is still missing the focus of legs and the bonus on shoulders that other classes have <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /></p><p>can anyone give me a valid reason why guardians are as far as i know the only class missing these focuses.</p><p>this is the 2nd time TSO raid armour has been changed and the 2nd time guardians get shafted on missing focus to our legs</p></blockquote><p>This was answered by a dev prior your effect is a % mitigation increase. Guards are not missing any additional effects.</p></blockquote><p>Yeah +2% and +3% armor effectiveness on the two items, and still missing the one thing we had on both the EOF and ROK sets that we did like.  The shoulders bonus is similar to other plate fighters (which isn't to say it is good), but the pants bonus is really weak.  Just wish we could swap the pants bonus for the -60s reuse on reinforcement (like the EOF legs and the ROK 2 set bonus). </p>

[Raidyen]

<p><cite>Kordran wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Another side-effect of the change with taunts being disabled is that it can effectively prevent or significantly limit a fighter's ability to use HOs when soloing, because the second spell is always a "horn" spell (which are taunts, generally). For Paladins, this means they can only complete a solo HO when Verdict is up.</p><p>Why not simply change taunts so that if you're in offensive stance, their effectiveness is reduced by 90% or something like that?</p></blockquote><p>Because that would actually make sense. </p>

[Agaxiq]

<p><cite>1/22 LU51 notes:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Razhish’s Cloak of Flowing Power has had its proc replaced with Praetor’s Strike.</p></blockquote><p>What was the point of this?  What does the Praetor of Phylactery from Kunark have to do with Ra'zhish?  I'm assuming just a nerf, why not nerf it to "Burning Affliction" like the Bone Clasped Girdle?</p><p>agressiv</p>

[Mentalep]

<p>I tested this on my lunch hour.</p><p>Offensive stance now disables all "pure" taunts and hate position increasers.  For guardians, that means Impede, Guard, Rescue, and Reinforcement.  These cannot be cast at all in offensive stance.  Damaging taunts, such as Infraction and the new Siege and Gut Kick, are still enabled, and according to the combat log, still function as taunts.</p><p><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">The problem with that, though, is that now our threat ceiling is <strong>lower </strong>than on live, because we've got large additional threat tied to our damaging combat arts.  I had the impression that part of the point of the update was to make it less of a headache to take two fighters in the same group by giving us a little more threat compression; the global taunt reversal was WAY overboard, but this change defeats that purpose entirely.  If I'm tanking, YES I want the extra threat from Lay Waste; if I'm not tanking, then NO, I don't want it.</span></p><p><em>EDIT: After analyzing this further, I'm thinking this isn't <strong>quite</strong> the case.  Whoever's tanking is also getting these threat bonuses, and with greater effectiveness no less (+20% or so for the tank vs. -10% for the non-tank), so I guess we do still end up ahead of where we are on live - higher threat relative to other dpsers, but lower threat relative to the tank, which is a double win in my opinion.  However, my next point I think is still valid.</em></p><p>It also defeats the purpose of making it undesirable to tank in offensive stance.  So what if I lose a couple of taunts?  Gut Kick and Siege / Lay Waste now have much greater threat components than Impede and Guard do on live.  Even with the -10% threat modifier, tanking in offensive stance might actually be <strong>easier </strong>in this build of GU51 than it currently is.</p><p>To repeat an earlier suggestion, just reduce taunt effectiveness by 80-90% or so.  That would leave us with around a third to half of the taunt strength we currently have on live, with a 10% hate reduction to boot.  Leave positionals alone, and don't disable any of our abilities.  Then you've got the best of every world - easier threat management for non-tanking fighters; holding aggro in offensive stance is more difficult than in defensive stance; duos don't completely sacrifice their taunt ability with the tank in offensive stance; and offtanks can snap aggro if they need to and <strong>THEN </strong>switch to defensive stance, which is a lot less awkward than doing it the other way around.</p>

[Gungo]

<p><cite>Undorett wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Gungo wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Splater@Splitpaw wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>ITEMIZATIONMany raid drops have been upgraded and or had effects added.</p><p>Guard TSO set is still missing the focus of legs and the bonus on shoulders that other classes have <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /></p><p>can anyone give me a valid reason why guardians are as far as i know the only class missing these focuses.</p><p>this is the 2nd time TSO raid armour has been changed and the 2nd time guardians get shafted on missing focus to our legs</p></blockquote><p>This was answered by a dev prior your effect is a % mitigation increase. Guards are not missing any additional effects.</p></blockquote><p>Yeah +2% and +3% armor effectiveness on the two items, and still missing the one thing we had on both the EOF and ROK sets that we did like.  The shoulders bonus is similar to other plate fighters (which isn't to say it is good), but the pants bonus is really weak.  Just wish we could swap the pants bonus for the -60s reuse on reinforcement (like the EOF legs and the ROK 2 set bonus). </p></blockquote><p>I completely agree, but that was the devs answer. He beleived 3% mit was worth it in his limited testing. </p>

[Gungo]

<p><cite>Mentalepsy wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I tested this on my lunch hour.</p><p>Offensive stance now disables all "pure" taunts and hate position increasers.  For guardians, that means Impede, Guard, Rescue, and Reinforcement.  These cannot be cast at all in offensive stance.  Damaging taunts, such as Infraction and the new Siege and Gut Kick, are still enabled, and according to the combat log, still function as taunts.</p><p><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">The problem with that, though, is that now our threat ceiling is <strong>lower </strong>than on live, because we've got large additional threat tied to our damaging combat arts.  I had the impression that part of the point of the update was to make it less of a headache to take two fighters in the same group by giving us a little more threat compression; the global taunt reversal was WAY overboard, but this change defeats that purpose entirely.  If I'm tanking, YES I want the extra threat from Lay Waste; if I'm not tanking, then NO, I don't want it.</span></p><p><em>EDIT: After analyzing this further, I'm thinking this isn't <strong>quite</strong> the case.  Whoever's tanking is also getting these threat bonuses, and with greater effectiveness no less (+20% or so for the tank vs. -10% for the non-tank), so I guess we do still end up ahead of where we are on live - higher threat relative to other dpsers, but lower threat relative to the tank, which is a double win in my opinion.  However, my next point I think is still valid.</em></p><p>It also defeats the purpose of making it undesirable to tank in offensive stance.  So what if I lose a couple of taunts?  Gut Kick and Siege / Lay Waste now have much greater threat components than Impede and Guard do on live.  Even with the -10% threat modifier, tanking in offensive stance might actually be <strong>easier </strong>in this build of GU51 than it currently is.</p><p>To repeat an earlier suggestion, just reduce taunt effectiveness by 80-90% or so.  That would leave us with around a third to half of the taunt strength we currently have on live, with a 10% hate reduction to boot.  Leave positionals alone, and don't disable any of our abilities.  Then you've got the best of every world - easier threat management for non-tanking fighters; holding aggro in offensive stance is more difficult than in defensive stance; duos don't completely sacrifice their taunt ability with the tank in offensive stance; and offtanks can snap aggro if they need to and <strong>THEN </strong>switch to defensive stance, which is a lot less awkward than doing it the other way around.</p></blockquote><p>The taunts on atks do not work. The pure taunts were greyed out to "help us" not cast taunts that do nothing in the next test build we will be able to cast the taunts but they are effectively 0 hate gain. So they are only good to complete HO or thier debuff/dps components.</p>

[Mentalep]

<p><cite>Gungo wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>The taunts on atks do not work. The pure taunts were greyed out to "help us" not cast taunts that do nothing in the next test build we will be able to cast the taunts but they are effectively 0 hate gain. So they are only good to complete HO or thier debuff/dps components.</blockquote><p>Thanks for the info.  I looked up Aeralik's recent posts, and I saw where he said he would revert the taunt lockout next build.  However, how do you know the taunts on attacks aren't working?  The tooltips, combat log and heads-up display all indicate a hate increase:</p><p>"Your Infraction critically increases your hate with a drachnid hunter by 4,468."</p><p>...or some such.</p><p>Did Aeralik confirm that this is a bug?</p>

[Cherrylime]

<p><cite>Spetz@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Test Update January / 22 / 2009 ITEMS Cloak of the Overlord and Cloak of Antonia Bayle now have additional ranged bonuses. The proc text on Ripper’s Stiletto now more clearly states that it triggers only from attacks made with that weapon. Razhish’s Cloak of Flowing Power has had its proc replaced with Praetor’s Strike. A number of the Frostfell reward armors have been changed to create a more balanced stat progression. Drum of the Ethernaut Chronicler’s proc now functions on both spell and melee attacks.</p></blockquote><p>I know the issues with the new fighter changes are a lot more important atm but gotta ask anyway.... If the Drum is being changed to proc off hostile spells and melee and the cloaks are getting a ranged bonus to help fix the lack of useful rewards for rangers...is there ANY plan to give melee priests something similar to the drum changes on say the censer or some melee or DA bonus on the heal crit cloak? Proc off hostile spells only = suck! Heal crit only with spell crit = suck!</p>

[Mentalep]

<p>Just noticed that Recapture is not usable in offensive stance, which doesn't make any sense.</p><p>Aeralik said that taunts and positionals would be reenabled in the next build, but just wouldn't have any effect.  How is this going to affect Recapture?  Recapture doesn't do anything to our own hate; it only affects other fighters.  This is not a skill I use often while tanking, but if I'm not the main tank, it sees a LOT more use.  I can use it to shake unwanted mobs back onto the tank, or help him recover if he loses aggro while stunned or if the mage in the back overnukes.</p><p>It's an interesting support ability, but the thing is, with the new stances the way they are, when am I ever going to use it?  If I'm in defensive stance, I'm probably tanking, and thus don't need it (usually there are no other fighters in the group at all).  Any time I want to use it, I'm almost certainly going to be in offensive stance - but it's locked there and I can't use it.  Given that Recapture is the closest thing to a detaunt that guardians have right now, what's the reasoning behind making it unusable in our dps/non-tanking stance?</p><p>Please let us have Recapture in offensive stance.  I sent /feedback on this as well.</p>

[denmom]

<p><cite>Tandy wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Ok first thing I noticed...</p><p>In offensive stance....group taunt is NOT castable. For crusaders, thats our debuff....so that either needs fixed or added to another spell/CA.</p><p>Death March isnt usable in offensive stance....again....that needs fixed or something cause in an 'offensive' capacity I would use it a LOT.</p><p>I hope people are happy...I would rather have had de-taunts than to not have my group disease resist and Death March not usable in offensive...</p><p>So my vote is either fix those or go back to how it was.  No duo/trio is worth balancing for if you screw it up like that to try to fix for them.</p></blockquote><p>I hear ya.</p><p>Screw it, looks like Pheep runs in def stance <em><strong>as Aeralik wants</strong></em>.</p><p>Hope he's happy...he's broken everything just to get his way.</p><p>Yes, that's a cheap shot...but I'm frustrated, disappointed, annoyed, and just plain weary of it all.</p><p>Bottom line, this whole thing is just a forcing of fighters into one type: defensive stance only...to fight and tank the way one dev sees them as being.</p><p>I know I was one who argued for duo/trio, but now it's getting to be a case of "the needs of the many" vs "the needs of the few".  This is becoming unacceptable, truly is.</p><p>The stance recast cool down of <em><strong>five seconds</strong></em> to prevent fast flipping between stances, as confirmed by Aeralik.  The taunts being greyed out in offensive stance.  The snap taunts being greyed out in offensive stance.</p><p>Everything that's being done, everything so far has done nothing to but prove to myself and all that Aeralik wants fighters to be in one stance and do one thing: <em><strong>defensive stance</strong></em> and <em><strong>holding aggro only</strong></em></p><p>Where's the <strong><em>fun</em></strong> in that?</p><p>Incredibly boring.</p><p>GU51: the EQ2 NGE, where fun died.</p>

[Eugam]

<p><cite>Gungo wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>The taunts on atks do not work. The pure taunts were greyed out to "help us" not cast taunts that do nothing in the next test build we will be able to cast the taunts but they are effectively 0 hate gain. So they are only good to complete HO or thier debuff/dps components.</p></blockquote><p>The pure taunts better do gain hate when going live. How is my monk supposed to taunt and OT when the plate tank is going down ? The squishies are dead till i changed stance. It also prevents me from peeling a mob from a mage or healer.</p><p>DEV's is this true and your intention ? We are not all playing in highly organized raid guilds. There is a multitude of strats out there. We do roll groups for heroic content with two brawlers in group. We do roll groups without enchanter. Taunts and change of stance are a vital part of the game.</p>

[Calain80]

<p><cite>Spetz@Runnyeye wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Test Update January / 22 / 2009 ITEMS Drum of the Ethernaut Chronicler’s proc now functions on both spell and melee attacks.</p></blockquote><p>Could this also be applied to <span >Censer of the Ethernaut Priest? I'm shure all the melee speced healers would love this change. <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></span></p>

[Siphar]

<p><cite>Agaxim@Unrest wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>1/22 LU51 notes:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Razhish’s Cloak of Flowing Power has had its proc replaced with Praetor’s Strike.</p></blockquote><p>What was the point of this?  What does the Praetor of Phylactery from Kunark have to do with Ra'zhish?  I'm assuming just a nerf, why not nerf it to "Burning Affliction" like the Bone Clasped Girdle?</p><p>agressiv</p></blockquote><p>I have to completely agree with this.</p><p>If you have to nerf greater afflection, and I have no idea why! then at least make it greater preators strike /sigh</p>