*** Combat Changes *** For the lazy -

[Ghaleon]

<DIV> <DIV> <P><STRONG><FONT color=#ffcc00>*** Combat Changes ***</FONT></STRONG></P> <P> </P> <P>NOTE: We are now beginning to test significant changes to the combat system. Our primary goal is to eliminate cases where some characters could make themselves virtually immune to attack through buff stacking. We also want to better delineate the tanking ability of the four archetypes: fighters should tank significantly better than scouts, scouts should tank better than priests, and priests should tank better than mages. In addition, we are smoothing out player and NPC progression so there are no longer sudden increases in difficulty around the class and subclass levels. Overall, the con color of your opponent should be a lot more meaningful and will better indicate the level of challenge you're about to undertake.</P> <P> </P> <P>Our intent is that the game feels and plays basically the way it always has for soloers and small group players. Groups and raid forces taking on powerful targets should find a greater level of challenge.</P> <P> </P> <P>These changes will be undergoing extensive evaluation and tweaking on Test server. Please understand that we will not release these changes to the live servers until we are confident that they have the desired effect, so they may not go to the live servers with Live Update #7. We appreciate hearing your feedback on the official forums.</P> <P> </P> <P><STRONG>Avoidance</STRONG></P> <P>- Your likelihood of avoiding an attack is now based on two primary factors:</P> <P><SPAN>  </SPAN>- The con color of the attacker.</P> <P><SPAN>  </SPAN>- The type of armor you are wearing. The heavier your armor, the lower your chances of avoiding an attack.</P> <P>- Increasing your Defense skill gives you a better chance of avoiding attacks, but there is now a cap on how much it can be buffed or debuffed.</P> <P>- Increasing your Agility improves your base chance of avoiding an attack, but it will not improve your likelihood of parrying, deflecting, or blocking with a shield.</P> <P>- There is now a cap on the effectiveness of Deflection buffs and debuffs.</P> <P>- Mages and Priests no longer receive the Parry skill. It temporarily still shows in the Skills window, but these archetypes will no longer have any chance to parry.</P> <P>- There is no longer any way to buff the Parry skill over your current skill cap, and there is a limit on how far it can be debuffed.</P> <P>- Shields now have the following base chances to Block: Tower (20%), Kite (19%), Round (5%), Buckler (3%). Your chances to Block scale up or down based on the con of your opponent. Shield buffs no longer have any effect.</P> <P> </P> <P><STRONG>Mitigation</STRONG></P> <P>- The base mitigation values of armor have been adjusted as follows: Heavy (35%), Medium (25%), Light (20%), Very Light (10%).</P> <P>- Mitigation values scale up or down based on the con color of your attacker.</P> <P>- There is now a cap on how much mitigation can be buffed or debuffed.</P> <P> </P> <P><STRONG>Damage</STRONG></P> <P>- Melee damage bonuses are now calculated based on the attacker's strength versus the defender's agility.</P> <P>- The damage output of both players and NPCs should now increase more smoothly rather than receiving a sharp boost at levels 10 and 20.</P></DIV> <P>===========================<BR>Moorgard<BR>EverQuest II Community Guy</P></DIV>

[AsheBail]

<P>Too many words!  I don't want to read all that.</P> <P>I thought you said 'lazy'?</P>

[Jezekie]

<div></div>Impossible really to pull anything meaningfull from the patch notes without actually having a character to test the changes, and without knowing the hard caps. /WTB character copy to test. <div></div><p>Message Edited by Jezekiell on <span class=date_text>04-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:58 PM</span>

[Opa]

<div></div>Indeed, it's hard to know how this is going to play. Indications are, though, that we're to soon have more of a monopoly on avoidence, which is as it should be, I think, in theory. Whether it turns out to make us more viable, I'm not sure. It may be another Shrug Off nerf. It might be a lot of things. EXCEPT THIS: "- There is no longer any way to buff the Parry skill over your current skill cap, and there is a limit on how far it can be debuffed." Battle Fury presently adds 10 or 11 to parry (11 because I blew a ruby on it, not knowing I was a nerf magnet). Does this mean Battle Fury's getting nerfed? <div></div><p>Message Edited by Opaki on <span class=date_text>04-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>05:11 AM</span>

[gd11]

<span><blockquote><hr>Opaki wrote:<div></div>Indeed, it's hard to know how this is going to play. Indications are, though, that we're to soon have more of a monopoly on avoidence, which is as it should be, I think, in theory. Whether it turns out to make us more viable, I'm not sure. It may be another Shrug Off nerf. It might be a lot of things. EXCEPT THIS: "- There is no longer any way to buff the Parry skill over your current skill cap, and there is a limit on how far it can be debuffed." Battle Fury presently adds 10 or 11 to parry (11 because I blew a ruby on it, not knowing I was a nerf magnet). Does this mean Battle Fury's getting nerfed? <div></div><p>Message Edited by Opaki on <span class="date_text">04-14-2005</span> <span class="time_text">05:11 AM</span></p><hr></blockquote>don't worry, you arent the only class getting a parry buff nerf</span><div></div>

[Opa]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> <P>gd1107 wrote:</P> <P><SPAN>don't worry, you arent the only class getting a parry buff nerf<BR></SPAN><BR></P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Oh, this I know. But the company in potential nerfage doesn't really make me feel any better. Unless one of those berzerkers will give me my ruby back. That would make me feel better.</DIV>

[Propagator]

Seems that good things will come from this, as for battle fury-no idea, I have master 1 and I really hope they dont nerf it like they did Shrug off. All we can do is hope for the best :<span>:smileyindifferent:</span> Everyone cross your fingers! Maphia 45 Bruiser/43 Alchemist Guild Leader of Forsaken Myth Grobb Server<div></div>

[Kylins]

<DIV>Looks like all tanks are going to be taking many more hits... Bad news for advoidance tanks, At 44 with about 4100 buffed hps in the average group I can nearly die from 3 combat arts from an even con ^^ mob,1400 dmg crushing blow give or take 200, and the same for barrage, maybe 900 a piece with heavy scarring on, but can be used only once every 4 or 5 fights.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I sure hope we get some more Hps if we are gonna be taking more hits lol. I really seems strange to me that the ones wearing the plate armor have more hps, when the ones in light armor are taking the hits on the chin instead of a face shield. Seems like the ones in the heavy armor wouldnt be quite as physically tough as the light armor.</DIV>

[QQ-Fatman]

<DIV>"The heavier your armor, the lower your chances of avoiding an attack." So probably we will not see guardians have the same chance to aviod as we do anymore <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>

[SageMarrow]

<P>lol, yeah like that matters- but in a raid you will see it...</P> <P>otherwise, </P> <P>i think spike damage is going out of the window with this change as well. and some buffs are being changed around to add bonuses to other areas, particularly the ones that increased parry..</P>

[Jezekie]

The thing is, this change could make HP that much more important then  it already is, which doesn't help us one bit when guardians still have the most +hp avaliable in their buffs. <div></div>

[Bo]

Fully raid buffed on test I have around 50% avoidance,  our main tank (guardian of course) has 41%,  casters have around 8%.  This seems to me like this hurts us more then anyone else, we lost 25% avoidance, guardians lost 10% while still retaining higher hitpoints and roughly twice the mitigation value.  So while we lost a third of our avoidance they only lost a fifth.   Against raid mobs it was a pretty big difference, fights went from boringly easy to very challenging, and thats with the guardian tanking.  I seriously doubt you will see a brawler tanking high end raid encounters if the changes that are currently on test go live.  We simply do not have the hitpoints or mitigation to be hit as much as we would be getting hit.  I have not had the chance to test the changes on regular exp mobs. Just an update as to whats going on on test...  I could be pesimistic, most of my guild thinks that the changes some how benifit me, but unless Im missing something that needs to be explained to me I dont see how this is a good thing in any way whatso ever.  Although its too early to freak out that we are doomed, if things dont change it will suck. <div></div>

[Jezekie]

Boxr I'm curious as to what your level, agility, mitigation values are? And what type of gear you are raiding in. <div></div>

[KetMali]

Rangers are cool!

[SageMarrow]

<P>Jez, there is a post from a level 45+ guardian saying the same thing in the guardian COMBAT CHANGES thread. Check his out= hes level 45. </P> <P>Armor doesnt matter much anymore.... Thats a portion of this that is coming to light.</P>

[Jezekie]

Yea just read that post, it doesn't sound terribly kewl. I can't see the point in not being able to solo group mobs that are grey to you. Not like they give any reward. <div></div>

[Bo]

sorry for the delay in the reply, kind of forgot about this thread... I'm level 50, mostly t5 rare leather,  one or two fabled pieces.  Im an ogre and have been focusing on stamina instead of agility, so Ive only got around 115 agility on test. <div></div>

[Jezekie]

Alright. Any idea how much of an impact Agility currently has on our avoidance on test? 'bout the same as now? .ie not a whole lot? <div></div>

[Bo]

to be honest I didnt check, though I would imagine its effects have been scaled down to prevent it from being too powerful, Ill check later tonight when I get some free time if I remember. <div></div>

[Bo]

Well oddly enough agility doesnt seem to have any impact on avoidance right now on test.  I went from 116 agility and 52.0% avoidance and stripped all the way down to like 50 agility and still had 52.0% avoidance. Im not sure if this is intended, or even if it means that agility doesnt effect avoidance on test..  but thats what it says according to my character information so take it for what you will. <div></div>

[SageMarrow]

<DIV>ack... that sounds like we have another useless stat.</DIV>

[Jezekie]

Yah, more the fear that Sta/Hp will be king, mitigation/agility sharing a 2nd place due to caps. <div></div>