**Obsolete** Summary of GU51 Changes (As of Jan 27, 2009) - Image Heavy

[Xalmat]

<p>Here's a quick summary/run down of exactly what's being changed.</p><p>For the following images, the spells on the left are as they are on Live, and on the right are as they are on Test (as of Jan 27, 2009). There are a few minor discrepancies with the numbers, largely because my test copy and my live characters have slightly different gear.</p><p>Keep in mind that several spells are getting consolidated and removed altogether, but spells that get merged will take the higher of the ranks (except Master II). In other words, if you have War Fury Master I, but Rouse Adept III, the new Rouse will be Master I after the merge.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/abandoned-fury.png" /></p><p>Summary: Aggressive Nature + Berserker Rage + Abandoned Fury = New Abandoned Fury* DPS and Haste are upped for Berserk portion* Added +Base Damage for Berserk portion* Increased physical damage taken* Decreased Hate Gain* Cannot apply taunt effects (Direct taunts do 0 hate. Abilities that are both damage + taunt do not apply the taunt portion. Unknown by me if threat procs from gear are affected.)* Threat portion of Aggressive Defense is not applied* Aggressive Nature AA is not applied* Stance Mastery AA only removes the Defense penalty. It does not remove the hate decrease, damage increase, and taunt remover* Added a 5 second cool down (this is done to prevent quick switching to Defense stance)* With the new Rouse, if both berserks from both are up at the same time, Abandoned Fury berserk will overwrite.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/bellow.png" /></p><p>Summary:* Increased base casting time from 0.25s to 0.5s* Decreased base recast from 20s to 10s.* Significantly upped hate* Increased power cost</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/bloodshower.png" /></p><p>Summary:* Added a massive hate component</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/consummate-defender.png" />Summary: Instead of a percent gain, it's now a straight skill gain. This improves Defense, Parry, and Aggression on the defense stance.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/determined-will.png" /></p><p>Summary: Determined Will + Berserk Rage + Aggressive Defense  = New Determined Will* DPS and Haste from Berserk are reduced* Added hate gain to Berserk* Added base hate gain to the stance.* Aggressive Nature applies to defensive stance, and the threat amount is increased (approximately doubled)* Decreased Melee Damage Multiplier means your auto-attack does 30% less damage.* Damage portion of Aggressive Defense is reduced.* Stance Mastery only removes the Slashing, Piercing, and Crushing penalty. It does not remove the Melee Damage Multiplier decrease.* With the new Rouse, if both berserks are up, it will take the higher of the Haste and DPS mods, and not affect the hate mod.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/enhanced-bloodshower.png" />Summary: Since Bloodshower now taunts in addition to straight damage, the taunt portion gets modified by this AA as well.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/enhance-stances.png" />Summary: Since the self berserk has been merged into the stances, the corresponding AA now modifies the stances. No change in effectiveness.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/enhance-rouse.png" />Summary: Since Rouse and War Fury have been merged, the corresponding AA now adjusts the appropriate buff. No change in effectiveness.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/executioners-anger.png" />Summary: Picture says all. As of GU51 this will be one of the only ways to improve Taunt Critical Chance.<img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/insolence.png" />Summary:* Hate is significantly increased. (5 position hate increase is due to the Mythical, and not part of the ability normally)</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/mock.png" />Summary: Dramatically upped the taunt amount (by about double)</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/offensive-prowess.png" />Instead of a percent gain to the skill bonuses to the fighter stance, it's now a straight numeral gain. This still only improves Crushing, Slashing, and Piercing.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/perseverance.png" />Summary:* You must now cast Perseverance, much like Reversal. It stays active until you die, and self refreshes after some time has passed.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/rouse.png" />Summary: Rouse + War Fury = New Rouse</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/trample.png" />Summary: Added a large threat component. This ability CAN be used in Offense stance, it just won't apply the hate portion.</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/war-pledge.png" />Summary: Slightly upped the threat amount, and gave it a spread.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Other noteworthy changes:</p><p>* Aggression now decreases resistability, and increases threat amount to taunts. The higher the Aggression, the better the resistability.</p><p>* If your Aggression is 10% higher than your target's, the taunt is unresistable.IE: A level 80 mob has 400 Aggression. If you have 440 Aggression, your taunt is unresistable to that mob.A level 88 mob has 440 Aggression. If you have 484 Aggression, your taunt is unresistable to that mob.</p><p>* According to the patch notes:* "<span>Hate gain mods will no longer affect taunt adjustments." I presume that means Hate gain mods do not affect taunts at all.* "</span><span>Area of effect spells and combat arts will no longer spread hate to encounter members when damage is applied." It means that damage to one mob in an encounter won't spread hate to the rest of the encounter recursively. It makes it harder to hold aggro, but it also means group members will have a harder time pulling aggro as well.</span></p><p>* Stances have a 5 second cool down. That means you can't instantly switch from O stance to D stance, you'll have to wait.</p><p>* Taunts can critical. You start out with a 1% chance to taunt, with the only current method to increase this being Executioner's Anger AA. In the future, Taunt Critical gear may be added, but not at this time.</p><p>* There is dynamic data in the UI for Taunt Amount Modifier. You can presume that in the future there will be +Taunt gear, much the same way that there is +Combat Art Damage gear.</p><p>* Just to re-emphasize, the WIS end ability ONLY removes the Slash/Pierce/Crush penalty from Defense stance, and ONLY the Defense penalty from Offense stance. It does not remove the melee modifier penalty, the hate gain penalty, and the damage penalty.</p><p>* Combative Rage M2 (the level 64 M2 choice) is more DPS than Relentless Rage Adept 3 (Level 73 spell).</p><p>* Master 2 choices are now: Frenzied Hits, Mock, Trample, Bloodshower.</p><p>* You can still dual wield in Defensive Stance; you are not locked into using a shield.</p><p>* A few spells have been moved around level wise.</p><p>* The mythical is unchanged.</p><p>* Concentration cost is altered. With all of our buffs going, we go from having 5 concentration slots used, to 3 concentration slots used. That leaves 2 slots open (specifically for items with clicky buffs that require concentration slots, like a few items out of Shard of Hate).</p><p>* Due to the buff mergers, rebuffing is significantly faster: Instead of having to cast 7+ buffs (not counting AAs), we only have to cast 4: Rouse, Relentless Rage, Blood Regeneration, and Offense/Defense stance.</p>

[Obadiah]

<p>Very nice summary. I had missed quite a bit in my testing time obviously. Interesting about Perseverance. I'll have to look at that more closely. It will be rather annoying if it's too long a refresh time.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Yeah, I'm not sure on how often Perseverance refreshes. My guess though is that it won't be uber fast like it was early in TSO Beta (ie: instantaneous), but more like every 15-30 seconds.</p>

[TumpieBrell]

<p>Great summary, thanks!</p><p>I know it's been tossed around but I'm not sure I fully understand the spell mergers. If I have Berserk Rage M1 does that mean I'll have both Off and Def stance M1's after the merge?</p>

[Xalmat]

<p><cite>TumpieBrell wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>If I have Berserk Rage M1 does that mean I'll have both Off and Def stance M1's after the merge?</p></blockquote><p>Yes.</p>

[Bremer]

"Perserverance is now a buff and works in a similar fashion to Reversal with a hidden spell that can only trigger once every 15 seconds" So instead of a passive buff that refreshes every 15 seconds you cast it now (icon won't turn grey like all other buff icons if casted) then it's a permanent effect that can trigger every 15 seconds.

[Baug]

<p>Great post, thanks.   It looks pretty solid to me considering the amount of changes.</p><p>Since bloodshower is now fairly integral to our role, I'd like to see it's hit bonus go up to 40% from 25%.  We pretty much have the worst CA's as far as to-hit goes, so a bone here would be nice.</p><p>I'm also getting a 40ish% resist rate with aggressive nature vs. higher level mobs which is really annoying since it would actually be some decent AE synergy with provoking counterattack (you'd proc threat on blocks or on being hit).   It's resist rate is so high however, that it's probably not worth the 5 points.</p><p>I don't think anyone is going to take the consumate defender/offensive prowess AA's if all they are doing is adding 1 point to skills....</p><p>Perseverence looks more interesting now, I'll be checking that out.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>AoEs in general have a lower hit rate than single target attacks. This applies not only to Berserkers, but every fighter, mage, scout, and priest with an AoE attack or spell of some sort.</p><p>40% resist rate with aggressive nature should go away with sufficiently high Aggression, in theory.</p><p>I'd probably end up taking Consumate Defender, for lack of a better choice in that tree. More points in Parry/Defense also means I can focus my gear and buffs on it less. But also keep in mind that Consumate Defender adds 5 to Aggression (and Aggression gear seems pretty hard to come by), which not only decreases resists but also increases the raw taunt amount.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Here's how Aggression increases your taunt amount, using Mock (Master II).</p><p>400 Aggression - 4003-4892 Threat (Base)408 Aggression - 4166-5092 Threat (20.375-25 Threat/Aggression)416 Aggression - 4311-5269 Threat (19.25-23.5625 Threat/Aggression)421 Aggression - 4392-5368 Threat (18.52-22.66 Threat/Aggression)424 Aggression - 4437-5423 Threat (18.08-22.125 Threat/Aggression)429 Aggression - 4506-5507 Threat (17.34-21.21 Threat/Aggression)</p><p>So in other words, it's on a diminishing returns curve, presumably all the way up to 520 Aggression (the hard cap at level 80).</p><p>Also, having less than your levels Aggression does nothing to your taunt amount as far as lowering it goes. IE If you're level 80 and you have 399 Aggression, it should be the same taunt amount as having 400 Aggression. But having 401 Aggression will be more taunt amount than 400.</p>

[Airbornee]

<p><cite></cite></p><p>Anyone else appreciate the irony that Aeralik insists on buff merging to lower buff casting on death... then they turn a passive spell(Perserverance) into a buff? <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Xalmat]

<p><cite>Airbornee@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite></cite></p><p>Anyone else appreciate the irony that Aeralik insists on buff merging to lower buff casting on death... then they turn a passive spell(Perserverance) into a buff? <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>At least it's instant cast, instant recovery, instant recast! <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Baug]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>AoEs in general have a lower hit rate than single target attacks. This applies not only to Berserkers, but every fighter, mage, scout, and priest with an AoE attack or spell of some sort.</p><p>40% resist rate with aggressive nature should go away with sufficiently high Aggression, in theory.</p><p>I'd probably end up taking Consumate Defender, for lack of a better choice in that tree. More points in Parry/Defense also means I can focus my gear and buffs on it less. But also keep in mind that Consumate Defender adds 5 to Aggression (and Aggression gear seems pretty hard to come by), which not only decreases resists but also increases the raw taunt amount.</p></blockquote><p>I was more referring to the fact that, for example, Guardians have high hit rate single target attacks like Exact Strike (75% easier) and Decimate (100% easier).    I know two of their AE's (Siege and Slanderous Assault) are also at 40%.  I'm not sure where brawlers are in this regard, but 25% seems weak if they are attaching our threat to it, IMO.</p><p>Good point regarding aggression, it will be nice if it works that way with the proc taunts.</p>

[Ni]

<p>I wish Off Stance was more that +8% CA base damage. Zerks do maybe 30% of total damage from CAs (our yellows use autoattack damage) so this is really only a 2% damage buff while we lose 30% of autoattack damage (or about 20% of total damage) in Defensive.  I am not including the bonuses to slash/crush/pierce because we had that already.</p>

[Obadiah]

<p><cite>Airbornee@Crushbone wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite></cite></p><p>Anyone else appreciate the irony that Aeralik insists on buff merging to lower buff casting on death... then they turn a passive spell(Perserverance) into a buff? <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>I seriously considered posting something about that change making it take too long to buff, but he ignores me anyway. Why waste good sarcasm?</p>

[Samant]

<p>I knowticed that the adept 3 Abandoned Fury has better slashing, piercing and crushing (49) then the new master 1 spell does (48 ). I knowticed that on some of the T1 and T2 shard gear that the heroic set has some stats that are better then the champion set. Other then that I am glad to see that Aggressive Nature is used in both the defense and offense stances.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Aggressive Nature, the AA, is only used in the Defense stance. Aggressive Defense, the buff, is used in both, with tweaks depending on which stance: Offense only has damage, Defense has damage and threat.</p><p>I hadn't noticed the reduction in SCP myself, but it's relatively minor.</p>

[eidos]

<p>So here's a question for you since you've been doing so much research and checking out the AA trees (thanks a lot, by the way):</p><p>How do these canges effect the Berzerker AA Bulking line that ends with the 'clicky 'zerk'? I assume that most of it is the same, but the top/first enhancement is to the berzerk spell and the third is the group berzerk spell. With these being merged, how is that going to work? I assume the third one (group berzerk) will stick with the new merger, but the top/first one (berzerk) is being split instead. I guess it could be a buff to both stances instead, but I doubt that since that tree emphasizes on enhancing the spells/coombat arts individually.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>I believe the berserk enhancer AAs affect the appropriate buffs, but I'll doublecheck for you with exact details.</p><p>*EDIT* And here's your details (and it's been added to the first post)</p><p><img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/enhance-stances.png" width="560" height="141" />|<img src="http://www.mattcrews.com/images/eq2/zerker-gu51-changes/enhance-rouse.png" width="557" height="133" /></p><p>So yeah the appropriate buffs are being modified, and the AAs have been modified to match.</p><p>Effects are as follows.</p><p>Abandoned Fury, 0 AAs.100% chance to berserk on death blow.2.0 times/minute to berserk on any successful attack.</p><p>Abandoned Fury, 5 AAs.100% chance to berserk on death blow.3.0 times/minute to berserk on any successful attack.</p><p>Determined Will, 0 AAs30% chance to berserk on incoming damage.2.0 times/minute to berserk on any successful attack.</p><p>Determined Will, 5 AAs35% chance to berserk on incoming damage.3.0 times/minute to berserk on any successful attack.</p><p>Compared to Live, Berserk Rage, 5 AAs100% chance to berserk on death blow.35% chance to berserk on incoming damage.3.0 times/minute to berserk on any successful attack.</p><p>Rouse, 0 AAs5% chance to berserk on incoming damage.3.0 times/minute to berserk on any successful attack.50% chance to berserk on death blow.</p><p>Rouse, 3 AAs8% chance to berserk on incoming damage.3.6 times/minute to berserk on any successful attack.53% chance to berserk on death blow.</p><p>Compare to War Fury on Live, 3 AAs8% chance to berserk on incoming damage.3.6 times/minute to berserk on any successful attack.53% chance to berserk on death blow.</p>

[eidos]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I believe the berserk enhancer AAs affect the appropriate buffs, but I'll doublecheck for you with exact details.</p></blockquote><p>Thanks. I've just seen a lot of AA updates posted, which is great to know so I can plan accordingly. You're awesome.</p>

[JerronBlacksilver]

<p>Excellent post, thanks for all the great info <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>So...my Berserker is an alt, but I still love the class. And most of these changes look good to me. The one thing that would make it all good in my book would be if Zerkers had some way to mitigate the penalty to weapon skills. WTB Call to Arms, srsly. It makes no sense that the defensive tanks will have an easier time hitting mobs than the offensive tanks. </p>

[Xalmat]

<p><cite>Zebedee@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Excellent post, thanks for all the great info <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>So...my Berserker is an alt, but I still love the class. And most of these changes look good to me. The one thing that would make it all good in my book would be if Zerkers had some way to mitigate the penalty to weapon skills. WTB Call to Arms, srsly. It makes no sense that the defensive tanks will have an easier time hitting mobs than the offensive tanks. </p></blockquote><p>I agree 100%. But unless SOE changes their mind about the defensive stance penalties, that means we'll need to focus on +Slashing (or whichever weapon you use) a lot more than we have in the past. Two classes that can boost +Slashing are Wardens and Dirges. But considering weapon damage will no longer constitute the majority of our aggro (Taunts will) it's not <em>that</em> bad.</p>

[eidos]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Zebedee@Antonia Bayle wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Excellent post, thanks for all the great info <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>So...my Berserker is an alt, but I still love the class. And most of these changes look good to me. The one thing that would make it all good in my book would be if Zerkers had some way to mitigate the penalty to weapon skills. WTB Call to Arms, srsly. It makes no sense that the defensive tanks will have an easier time hitting mobs than the offensive tanks. </p></blockquote><p>I agree 100%. But unless SOE changes their mind about the defensive stance penalties, that means we'll need to focus on +Slashing (or whichever weapon you use) a lot more than we have in the past. Two classes that can boost +Slashing are Wardens and Dirges. But considering weapon damage will no longer constitute the majority of our aggro (Taunts will) it's not <em>that</em> bad.</p></blockquote><p>True. I think it's more of a style change really, but I do kind of feel like they are trying to make all fighters do specific things in order to tank. On the other hand though, it will make some tanks I know better because they will need to do these specific things in order to do their job and make some other classes more concerned about hate management than before. I know that the better players always have, but from my experience, there's a lot of folks that need help because they have an idea of what they think to do and don't like listening to anybody tell them otherwise. I'm hoping all the improved and added threat modifiers to our skills will make up for the damage decrease. Personally, I have had to go all out defensive before due to the group/mob mix and had little trouble keeping hate.</p><p>I'm starting to see why Saving Grace (Warrior- Increasing Rescue Threat priority)  could be more useful than it was before. If you're in offensive stance, you're probably really low on the threat list due to the hate decrease, etc. If you pop off the stance (which has a reuse timer to pop on defensive stance), you need to grab threat priority pronto and in a raid, you could be a fair amount down. It seems as though they were planning on this mechanic when they were creating the new TSO AA tree. The wording for some of the enhancements as well such as "increase the skills in _ stance" and adding CA damage to Rouse since that isn't effected by the Auto Attack debuff in defensive stance (you still get the buff that you give to the group, right?). Also, their move to 'block = hate increase' buffs as well. Out of curiosity, 'block' is a shield mechanic, but does parry, etc. also count as 'block' ?</p>

[Grimmly]

<p>Thank Xalmat for taking the time to gather this information and posting to one location.</p>

[Samant]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Aggressive Nature, the AA, is only used in the Defense stance. Aggressive Defense, the buff, is used in both, with tweaks depending on which stance: Offense only has damage, Defense has damage and threat.</p><p>I hadn't noticed the reduction in SCP myself, but it's relatively minor.</p></blockquote><p>I just read what I wrote and I was a tool, I ment to say Aggressive Defense is in both stances. I think I took the Aggressive Nature + Berserker Rage + Abandoned Fury = New Abandoned Fury. I was looking at your post when I was writing and said nature by mistake.</p>

[Zanshen]

<p><cite>Selura@Unrest wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I knowticed that the adept 3 Abandoned Fury has better slashing, piercing and crushing (49) then the new master 1 spell does (48 ).</p></blockquote><p>It gets worse.  The original M1 Abandoned Fury is 56 SPC compared to the new 48 =/</p>

[Gortesh]

<p>I looked around and it's been mentioned but why doesn't our end ability in the Wisdom AA Line not take away ALL PENALTIES in our stances like it says it does?</p>

[Obadiah]

<p>So I'm curious. Obviously I suck at playing my class as it is "not uncommon" for Berserkers to hit 12K in Caverns.</p><p><a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?start=510&topic_id=441439�" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/...39�</a></p><p>Show of hands.... Who is running groups on Test and holding aggro in Offensive Stance?</p><p>I'd like to see those parses too since we are the best AE DPS class except for Warlocks.</p>

[Elanjar]

<p>I cannot hold agro in offensive, unless its a duo/trio with one healer and an undergeared dps class.</p><p>With an equivalently geared swashy I could not hold agro off him even with his "new swarthy" on me.</p>

[Bremer]

<p><cite>Kurgan@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I'd like to see those parses too since we are the best AE DPS class except for Warlocks.</p></blockquote><p>I'r rather say that SKs are the best Ae class except warlocks ^^</p>

[Aull]

<p><cite>Bremer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Kurgan@Everfrost wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I'd like to see those parses too since we are the best AE DPS class except for Warlocks.</p></blockquote><p>I'r rather say that SKs are the best Ae class except warlocks ^^</p></blockquote><p>If the zerker doesn't have the mythical then yes sk's are the best fighter at aoe as far as having more ca's that do ae damage.</p>

[Bremer]

Lol, they nerfed the ridicolous overpowered 8 % CA dmg bonus from the off stance to 4.8 %. This was bonus was good for at least 50 DPS, it just had to be nerfed. And they changed the wording from the Beserk proc from "on any successfull attack" to "on any succuessfull combat or spell attack". No idea what that meas. The rest: as horrible as it was before from what I can tell.

[LygerT]

<p>i never paid attention but i suppose that is to help it proc more off of casters as well, even though for the most part they don't need the buffs it would help keep the group proc active. to be honest, i doubt you will even notice a change to that.</p><p>i honestly have no idea why berserk even needs attention, may as well make it a permanent buff or change it to something completely different and make adrenaline work full time, considering the penalty is harsh e****ing nough.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Seems to me like "on any successful attack" is just too confusing, especially when many procs are worded like "on a successful attack." See what I mean? So they clarified it.</p>

[Obadiah]

<p><cite>Bremer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Lol, they nerfed the ridicolous overpowered 8 % CA dmg bonus from the off stance to 4.8 %. This was bonus was good for at least 50 DPS, it just had to be nerfed. And they changed the wording from the Beserk proc from "on any successfull attack" to "on any succuessfull combat or spell attack". No idea what that meas. The rest: as horrible as it was before from what I can tell.</blockquote><p>In addition to nerfing the "ridiculous overpowered" Off Stance (very nice, btw) they also nerfed all of our taunts.</p><p>Remember the line in the update:</p><p><em><strong><span>Cyclone will now improve threat instead of reducing resistibility.</span></strong></em></p><p>Well, it increases the taunt amounts by 5%. Hey ... guess what. Some were first DECREASED by as much as 18% (some as little as 3%, like Mock, which is already the lowest ST taunt in the game) so that you are forced to take the Cyclone line to get taunts back as high as they were on Test yesterday, and oh by the way they are 5% more likely to be resisted since that part of the AA is gone and our Aggression (as masters of unbridled aggression) remains lower than everyone else's. The Adrenaline AA that adds hate on a melee attack was nerfed 12%.</p><p>Other than that and nerfing the blue AoEs though, yeah, same old. Someone elsewhere said they reduced the autoattack multiplier penalty, which would be smart unless they want everyone to macro every ability they have on one button. But no. Same deal. Time to roll that Assassin I guess if I want to keep my raid spot.</p>

[LygerT]

<p>the changes are dumb. i doubt anything i say will be heard after what happened in beta.</p>

[Obadiah]

<p>So the blue AoEs....</p><p>Intrusion goes from 1483-2624 on Live to 1116-1674 on Test. 32% overall reduction, 36% reduction to the top end.</p><p>Bloodshower goes from 742-2063 on Live to 653-1214 on Test. 33% overall reduction, 70% reduction to the top end.</p>

[Bremer]

Hey, you can improve with AA!! Awesome. Finally a reason to spend points on them.

[Obadiah]

<p><cite>Bremer wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>Hey, you can improve with AA!! Awesome. Finally a reason to spend points on them.</blockquote><p>lol. BTW both the Live and Test numbers are with that AA maxed. You have to spend AA points to get to the Cyclone end ability to get your taunts so that they are only SLIGHTLY lower than those of every other Fighter instead of a lot lower. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Bremer]

<p>Yeah, but fortunately our weaker taunts are balanced by the fact that they cost more power than single target tanks taunts.</p>

[LygerT]

<p>they really are turning this class into a joke.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>So wait, my AoE auto-attack with Mythical still does more damage than the blue AoEs?</p>

[Bremer]

<p>Yeah, that's the best part of it. The damage of our AEs is allready so low and their cast time so long that I don't even bother casting them except in Outer Stronghold and they even make them worse.</p>

[Xalmat]

<p>Well, <em>this</em> thread just became Obsolete. And here I was looking forward to the stance mergers (to save me some plat on buying some missing Masters <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> )</p>

[Elanjar]

<p><cite>Xalmat wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Well, <em>this</em> thread just became Obsolete. And here I was looking forward to the stance mergers (to save me some plat on buying some missing Masters <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" /> )</p></blockquote><p>lol me too <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[LygerT]

<p>i'd rather spend the 20plat for a master than have seen those changes go through.</p><p>i'm sure it hurt more than a few people not seeing it happen but hopefully the direction changes to give more choice to the changes.</p>

[Hasad]

<p>Those playing fighters who were looking forward to the changes, may for the most part have legitimate issues that were helped by the propoesed changes. I hope they still get their issues resolved, but I'm relieved it wasn't at the expense of others.</p><p>As a general direction I'm hoping Sony continues to look at balance but with solutions that broaden playstyles rather then narrowing them. Tip of the cap to all involved (whatever the degree) in getting Sony to reconsider their fighter changes. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" /></p>