Patch Message 6/27/01

[EZ_Squink McPoke]

June 27th, 3:00 am
------------------------------


** Gameplay Changes **

- Aggro Changes: We've made an adjustment to the way that NPCs choose their targets. It's a rather simple change, one that makes a lot of sense. But we want you to be aware of it so that it won't surprise you too much, and so that you won't think that it is a bug. NPCs are now much more aware of the vulnerability (or, more precisely, the invulnerability) of their targets. NPCs will now be very unlikely to waste their time attacking a target that they can't harm.

- Spell and Item Interruption: Ducking will now interrupt a spell instantly. You will no longer be able to sit while using items or casting spells. This will not affect bard songs, which will still work as they always have, but will affect all items, even those with song-like effects.


** Spell Changes **

- Skin Like Nature and Natureskin should stack with more spells now (though not with each other).

- Aegolism can now be clicked off.

- Imbue Ivory has had its casting level lowered to 29.

- Shard of the Core will be tradable now.

- Shroud of Hate and Visions of Grandeur should stack properly now.

- Several new Translocation spells have been added.

- Call of the Hero will no longer remove the target from NPCs' hatelists if the target is not summoned far enough.

- Egress will now work indoors.

- Wind of the North, Wind of the South, Markar's Relocation and Tishan's Relocation have had their additional restrictions removed, and can now be cast from any zone where other similar spells can be cast.

- Summon Companion can now be used by Necromancers, Shamans, Enchanters, Shadowknights in addition to Magicians.

- Deadeye should now stack with Dead Man Floating, but should not stack with Acumen.

- Plainsight will now stack with Dead Man Floating, but not with Acumen.

- The Great Divide portal spells are now 39th level instead of 44th level.

- Spirit of the Oak will no longer be overwritten by any beneficial spells.

- Paralyzing Poison spells should no longer be broken by direct damage spells.

- Hsagra's Wrath and Porlos' Fury now have a 5 second recast delay.


** Item Changes **

- The effect on the 10th ring should have fewer stacking conflicts with haste buffs.

- The effect of the Monk epic, Celestial Tranquility, will stack with the higher end haste spells. Keep in mind - the highest haste will always win out. This means that the spells will stack, the haste components will not.

- Speed of the Shissar has had its duration increased from 20 minutes to 30 minutes. This effect should no longer conflict with Call of Earth.

- Bone Ring of Condemnation will no longer be usable in the secondary slot, it will only be wearable on the finger.

- Druid Skyshrine Quest armor has had a color change so that it will look more unique.

- Circlet of Shadow will no longer drop in-game. The Circlet of Shadows, can now be found in its place. This item differs from the original only in that it has a five-second casting time. Existing Circlets of Shadow will retain the same functionality as before, though we may change existing Circlets at some future date.


** Quest Changes **

- King Tormax is now a little more particular about who he gives quests to.

- The Iksar Shaman 6th Skull/cudgel quest should be working now.

- Rumor has it that there is a new source for green dragon scales in Norrath.


** PvP Changes **

- If you go link dead on a PvP server and are killed you can still be looted.

- When a player becomes invisible (or hides successfully) every other player that had them targeted will lose their target. This is true for all servers, but has the greatest implications on PvP servers. The use of spells that allow you to see through invisibility will prevent you from losing your target if that target hides or goes invisible.

- Faction hits on Rallos Zek: Killing a person in one of his or her home cities will cause a faction hit with residents of that city.


** Miscellaneous **

- We've addressed a lot of spelling and grammatical errors over the past few weeks. For example we have corrected all misspellings of "deity" in messages to the player, changed Cantana to Cantata and others.

- The 'Fab Four' in Dagnor's Cauldron will no longer assist Undertow Skeletons.

- Instill Doubt/Intimidation can no longer be used while sitting, and sitting after starting it will cancel it.

- Mastery of language skills now occurs at 100, not at 101. This was a problem for masters of a language, since language skills could not go over 100.

- The messages for eating and drinking now say "Chomp... Chomp," or "Glug... Glug..." so that they can't be copied with emotes.

- Helms on Barbarians, Trolls, and Ogres should no longer block the first person view when in combat.

- Sirens Grotto has been changed a bit. It should be a more interesting zone now.


** NOTE **

Boisterous shouts can be heard across the lands as carriers herald the arrival of the latest volume of their city's newspapers. Citizens rush to get a copy of these publications to read the featured articles, latest gossip, and community news for their home town.


- The EverQuest Team

[EZ_Halen]

That's one big spank-full of nerf "Halen is vile! VILE! He's the only reason I believed the bunny hood existed."
- Tarissa
60 Assassin
*Halen
[b]Ring Warden
Tholuxe Paells

[EZ_CazicKaacee]

Coh nerf=freaking lame. Sure wish Verant had a public forum so we could give them some feedback. I think the removal of the whineplay board and Verant's 'customer service' will be the single thing that makes me play DAOC. Edited by: CazicKaacee at: 6/27/01 6:42:18 am

[EZ_ThePoisoned]

Blaarg. Where's the mention of pickpocketing under pvp....*shakes a fist* "I read about the evils of drinking so i gave up on reading."- Henry Youngman

Aconite Darkeyes
Basketweaver of Bertoxx. Proud throat slitter of Malignant.

[EZ_Phaedra Phanatic]

Soooo.... the circlet of shadows got nerfed for the 98% of us who don't play on PvP, so that the 2% who do can't abuse it due to the now changed invis rules? Thanks... there goes the raid I had planned for my SK. Worthless piece of junk now. And I won't have the 10k+ to shell out for the newly hot commodity "Pre-nerf Circlet!"

[EZ_Cyricc S]

Reading this patch message give me the perfect motivation to go buy AO and at least give it a shot. Cyricc Strife
Assassain
Insidious Blood

[EZ_Karlek]

seems Sullon Zek is not going live today then?

ah, was about only thing to left to do in EQ before they hardcode Vallon Zek;
Ulthien of McKennitts'
SHANKS! Elder tribal Shaman
(reincarnated agnostic rake)[i]

[EZ_Squink McPoke]

Out of all that, the thing I wonder most is what they did to SG. Will be interesting to find out =)

[EZ_Z0ll]

Probably changed the succor landing spot to deep in the zone instead of next to Western Wastes. Someone at VI wasn't paying much attention to the outside world. Institute more nerfs on the day AO is supposed to become available seems like a bad idea to me.

-Zoll

[EZ_Snootay]

The only 'nerf' I saw was to the Circlet of Shadows. Everything else in there is positive, from what I can see. Heh. Wtf are you guys talking about?

[EZ_Mikar]

CoH is plain out nerfed - I dont presently see any good sides to this. It lost most useability for aggro management - and depending on range also for pulling.

Bane spells are nerfed - though that might not even have been needed with the CoH nerf.

DA/harmshield tanking was nerfed - though depending on how this was done it might have some good sides (ie, if DA clears the clerics hatelist = less chance he/she will be clawed to death after it wears). I assume its only the invuln spells/song that are changed - if auto riposte/dodge means it goes after someone else thats another story altogether. Mikar Vicarious
High Priest of Brell
The Companions
The Tribunal

[ShadowCross]

Auto Riposte/dodge are not invulnerabilities... you can still be hit from behind and by falling damage, spell damage etc... ShadowCross Bladesong
-Teir'dal Blackguard of the 59th Shadow, Ayonae Ro
- Agnostic Teir'dal Rogue, Solusek Ro
- Teir'dal Rogue of Bristlebane, Sullon Zek
- Opifex Clan Agent Level 5, AO Beta 4

Safehouse Moderator

[EZ_Gyorg]

I gotta say, HOLY @#%$! That CoH nerf Is HARD! I kinda feel like I"m licking my wounds going "what did I do wrong master?"

EDIT: Unless of course CoH stops being a agro tool and turns into a Pulling tool... It's like sneak pulling, only better =P Edited by: Gyorg at: 6/27/01 9:06:59 am

[EZ_Dazzler Twodirks]

Heh anyone gonna try DUELING now?

**BLINK!**

Where'de she go?

BACKSTAB!!

Arrgg why you..

**BLINK!**

Wonder if this will work on NPCs too

[ShadowCross]

Quote: - Call of the Hero will no longer remove the target from NPCs' hatelists if the target is not summoned far enough.


Read the whole sentence folks. How can you know how bad the nerf is if you haven't even played with the changed spell yet?

How can you know what "far enough" is when the patch is just currently being done?

*sigh* You really need to cool off and wait until you have played.
This is just the same as the evade-nerf.. people whined and bitched and in reality it turned out far less severe than it sounded.

[EZ_TaoxekTrickyhands]

Read it carefully. What happens if during the 1o second cast the puller comes within "the range," now he still gets called, but aggro isn't cleared. Train city. Is the spell even worth the risk now? Taoxek Trickyhands51 Elementalist Solusek Ro

[EZ_Snootay]

<<DA/harmshield tanking was nerfed>>

Lemme go cry because people actually have to tank Yelinak and Tormax now.

And yeah, I guess they 'nerfed' the Bane spells. For some stupid reasons I always thought they had a ten second recast time, heh.

[EZ_Wolvinsbane]

Quote: When a player becomes invisible (or hides successfully) every other player that had them targeted will lose their target. This is true for all servers, but has the greatest implications on PvP servers. The use of spells that allow you to see through invisibility will prevent you from losing your target if that target hides or goes invisible.

IE -- If the caster has see invis up, they will not loose their target. I don't know about you, but PvP casters tend to have see-invis up whenever they can. Hell, melee has that up whenever they can.

I was under the impression that if you ever had see invis up, you'd loose your target but it's just much easier to retarget when you can see him.

/shrug

[EZ_marchand405]

Does losing target while you hide affect all servers, or only pvp servers?
got a Dr00d n War i need to get even with on a blue carebear server =<>

Marchand

[EZ_KalarieDevistation]

Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When a player becomes invisible (or hides successfully) every other player that had them targeted will lose their target. This is true for all servers, but has the greatest implications on PvP servers. The use of spells that allow you to see through invisibility will prevent you from losing your target if that target hides or goes invisible.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ok... so when a cleric has YOU targeted for a heal, and you evade, just as it lands does the cleric get a "you need a target to cast this spell" message? Can you imagine the havoc that will create? If you go third person during a fight you will see you do actually disappear if you evade. If you lose target you need to reaquire, so no matter how fast you evade you will still be off the charts for your healer probably when you need it most. All I can say is--

Wow! a challange! Woot!
Think positive folks... we are still too cool for school!


Edit: Please read our signature rules - ShadowCross

Edited by: Shadowcross at: 6/27/01 10:03:24 am

[EZ_Azrhei EbonStorm]

The way some of you people talk its like these nerfs are the end of the world. Same doomsday reaction when they nerfed evade. Same reaction when they nerfed cleric BP's. Etc..
CoH is like FD. Its a tool to assist (<-- Keyword) in pulling. Pulling doesn't come to an end because of the loss of one tool. It just means we have to think of new strategies. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and I know I've seen Verant do things I didn't agree with. But to you who complain I ask this; looking back on what the game was two years ago; can you honestly say that the game isn't 200% better overall for all of the changes they have made? Take things with a grain of salt, in the end it all balances out.. Azrhei EbonStorm, 53 DE RogueAzhrei Ebonstorm, 54 DE ClericFisdatin, 12 Gnome MageAzrhie, 17 Iks MonkAnonymous, 22 Woodie DruidPuhed, 8 Ogre WarTorinaz, 18 Barb RogueAbrim, 8 Stunty PaladinTorinal, 19 Ranger
Guild Leader, Transcendent Order
Mithaniel Marr Server

[EZ_CazicKaacee]

Did they actually fix the Giant's bane quest though?

[ShadowCross]

KalarieDevistation, spells that were started before the caster lost the target will still be completed successfully.

So there won't be ANY healer that is going to miss a spell on you because you are evading.

[EZ_geliel]

Are rune type spells considered invulnerable? That will certainly save chanters a ton of cash if they are. No more chain rune casting.

[EZ_Saevan JNoir]

"ok... so when a cleric has YOU targeted for a heal, and you evade, just as it lands does the cleric get a "you need a target to cast this spell" message?"

As I understand it, spells cast on a target that hides, will resolve normally.

In PVP this means you can't wait for a caster to start casting then hide, and on all servers that you won't 'avoid' a heal. Saevan J'Noir
Wrath of Innoruuk

[EZ_Kuurus]

People will learn to adjust. They always do. Once people get a feel for the range of CoH clearing aggro, it won't be a problem. Worried about getting too close before the spell completes? Try running the OTHER WAY away from the mage to ensure it clears aggro. Certainly not the end of the world.

This change is obviously in direct response to part of what Verant thought was an exploit against the fourth warder. Staying within healing range, but being CoH'd to wipe aggro on the healer will no longer work.

I doubt it will have a huge affect on pulling. CoH is definitely a nice tool, but we managed to pull Planes without any lvl 55 mages pre-Kunark. This will not devestate us any more than the supposed apocalypse that was being brought on by the "nerf" (and I use that term loosely), to Evade did.

As Shadowcross said, at least wait until you use it to complain about it being the end of civilization as we know it, sheesh.

Personally, I'm damn happy with the patch. Being able to port to EJ or SF from anywhere in Norrath rather than that wretched "port to DL, run to Karnors, evac to EJ/SF", is a true blessing.

It eliminates what I think we all hate about certain aspects of this game - wasting time getting to where you are hunting, rather than spending it hunting, for no discernible purpose. Kuurus IceBear
Level 59 Blackguard
Cry of War

[EZ_TaoxekTrickyhands]

The problem i see with the COtH nerf isn't that pulling is now impossible, but that it was one of the only things magicians were used for on big raids. Also it destroys the ability for the mage to call themselves to clear aggro after a pathing bug takes the pet on a trip around the zone. The worst thing is, unless they have made the range really small, is that it won't even fix the exploit. Taoxek Trickyhands51 Elementalist Solusek Ro

[EZ_Prodigious]

I'm worried about the CoTH thing....because, getting out of range of a mob doesn't clear agro totally. get within about 250 range again, and they will rush at you. I wonder if it really will clear agro if you are out of a reasonable range, or if it will just do like you normally do getting out of range of a mob (approx 250 distance).

but some nice changes with the patch, some of which prolly had to be done. the interrupt by crouching rules.

[EZ_Hyarth]

Lack of DA tanking worries me. It seemed like a creative use of a spell, I'm not sure why it warranted thid nerf.

[freonsmurf]

No Sullon Zek? Rodcet Nife Ring Warden

Wixramiablo Sneakypants
"Nicotine is not addictive" Tobacco Industry
"Rogues are a balanced class"-Gordon
My Sigs

[EZ_Wuhh]

what hyrath said... -----------------------------------------
Wuhh
60th Barbarian Blackguard
Ascent - Rodcet Nife

[EZ_Kinthaf]

I know 99% of you don't care, but how do faction hits on RZ make any sense? When is anyone going to kill a troll in their hometown?? But on the other hand how often do you have to kill someone in GF...all the time. What could Verant possibly imagine this change would add to the game? Roleplay? hahahah, and ha.

[EZ_Pearll]

Shadowcross, that's true but there still is a problem with that change.

There is a small chance (but still a chance, even it's for a split second) that you will evade between the time that the healer selects you and casts the heal spell.

Personally, I don't see it happening enough that it causes problems, but there will be that rare occasion for an unlucky rogue. You have been slain by Pearll.
LOADING, PLEASE WAIT...

[EZ_Emile Heskey]

- Paralyzing Poison spells should no longer be broken by direct damage spells.

Correct me if i am wrong, but isnt this a huge boost to any raid taking on tough magic immune mobs? and a major upgrade to rogue poison?

This reads to me like rogues will be able to slow mobs like Vindicator, CT, etc more effectively now.

[berael]

Quote: seems Sullon Zek is not going live today then?I believe it had been said that the official Sullon Zek launch would not be announced, in order to prevent 20,000 people from jumping on to the server simultaneously. ;p They'll probably just quietly put it onto the server selection screen and wait for people to notice it.

[EZ_Shaderick]

I'm not going to comment on the Call of the Hero thing, since I'm not of a level to do so.

OTOH, the Circlet of Shadow had it coming. Was I the ONLY one who thought that instant cast invis seemed a bit much? (Of course, knowing Verant, the new version has a 15 second casting time, but we can always hope they just adjusted it to the same deal as ordinary invis.)

I'm also rather suprised to see no one commenting on this:

> Paralyzing Poison spells should no longer be broken by direct
> damage spells.

This is like having pre-nerf root in a bottle. Sounds like a pretty powerful toy to me.

[EZ_Cylant]

MUWHAHAHAHAHA.
I really like this patch

By the way.. to the person complaining about the invisibility change.. evade dosn't actually hide you.

As for the people complaining about the circlet of shadows -- the item is unbalancing on pvp servers, it should have been changed long ago. With the new invisibility change, it's even more unbalancing. Since see invis items for melees on sullon zek will be very rare for a long time, the circlet of shadows had to be changed to avoid insane exploiting.
Edited by: Cylant at: 6/27/01 2:07:22 pm

[EZ_Snootay]

<<There is a small chance (but still a chance, even it's for a split second) that you will evade between the time that the healer selects you and casts the heal spell.>>

And? If your healer is too stupid to notice "You need to select a target to cast this spell" then you need a new group.

[EZ_Vangard]

Evade DOES hide you - go to a 3rd person view and watch. Vangard Shadowsoul
Assassin of the Sanguine Blade
Bristlebane Server

[EZ_Cylant]

When you were a newbie, and you failed hide, it still made you disappear in 3rd person mode. If you've ever grouped with a rogue you'll notice that they never disappear..

This just in: Sullon Zek is on the charachter selection screen, but it's locked.

[EZ_Theiven]

Man, SKs with Circlet of Shadows are now going to be so powerful, even more than before. We shall see how long before something gets changed and the circlet is no longer instant invis. They made it so it wont drop anymore, but still people will be whining like crazy when they have to keep clicking on the person before they can attack. =)

Sad to hear abot the CotH nerf, although my mage only made it to lvl 52, then i pretty much quit him. In the post 50 game, Mages had 2 big things going for them IMO: Bad ass pets and CotH. Now with the nerf of Coth i can only imagine how hard it may be to find a group/raid. At least we still got our pets. =)

The helm fix in first person for the big races is a good thing, and something that has been needing done for a LONG time. I remember playing a barb/shaman and that helm always showing up in your face just got plain annoying.

Good patch? probly... for most. We shall wait and see the viability of the "new" CotH. Hopefully its still somewhat important and necessary.


Theiven, 49 Rogue of the Nameless. (retired)
Teenyraven, 52 Mage of Tholluxe Paells (semi-retired)
Ravennous, 30 Warrior of Tholluxe Paells (semi-retired)
Ravennous, upcoming Monk of Vallon Zek

[EZ_Vermintide]

It looks to me like alot of bug fixes and removals of exploits.

And quite a few good improvements.

Bottem line is, all the 'nerfs' were implimented because people were abusing things and VI simply fixed them so they couldn't be.

[EZ_Arafain]

Two things worry me about this patch...

1. I'm somewhat frightened at the question of how far VI considers "far enough" to be acceptable for an aggro-wipe COH. Smart people would think, 'out of normal spell range', but I can't help but shudder at the possibility that you might have to get halfway across the zone from your target to wipe aggro. The Z-axis thing worries me too.

2. The invulnerable-target nerf. At first I just thought it would only affect DA, but according to another poster, the nerf was badly coded, and works like, 'If target's hp not going down, switch to new target'. As nearly anyone can see, this would be devastating to all manner of things, from Rune to Nimble to a random string of successful ripostes. I'm not too keen on the idea of mobs turning to chew on my cleric just because I got lucky and dodged a bunch of hits. That's lame. But, to be fair, I haven't seen any of this myself, just heard about it from people who apparently don't have to work the same hours I do. -- Arafain Entreri, 57 Blackguard
-- Arafein Soulstriker, 53 Champion...err, 52, die Vox!
-- Requiem of Souls
-- Formerly of The Rathe Server, now of Zebuxoruk
"Every step on the path you take is paved with the corpses of your enemies....and their souls will haunt you for eternity...." -- Metal Gear Solid[i]

[EZ_Thaelin]

I disagree. If the invulnerability change actually encompasses things like nimble and, more to the point, rune - then VI just handed us the best aggro management tool we could have dreamed of (while it lasts.) Just rune anybody you don't want to have taking hits.

I seriously doubt they could be that stupid, but then again it is VI we're talking about.

Edit: Darn, just saw what Kendrik replied in the thread on Velk's Lab. Sure would have been nice though. Edited by: Thaelin at: 6/27/01 5:12:19 pm

[EZ_Windup Birdie]

When I evade, little brackets flash around my name (I have a perm see invs device). That would mean I am hiding. I don't foresee this really causing a problem though. Runes are a form of Invulnerability?

[EZ_Prodigious]

you see yourself hiding, always. same as elves who start with 50 hide skill, they will always see themself hidden, or their names in brackets if they have see invis. you gotta ask other people to see if you're really hidden though (or con something, not sure if it works anymore tho)

[EZ_Windup Birdie]

I was falling off the target list of other players when I evaded. Which I think was the point of the conversation. Also my dark elf enchanter fell off the targeted list when he hid to break charm.

[EZ_Arafain]

just give your cleric see invis. -- Arafain Entreri, 57 Blackguard
-- Arafein Soulstriker, 53 Champion...err, 52, die Vox!
-- Requiem of Souls
-- Formerly of The Rathe Server, now of Zebuxoruk
"Every step on the path you take is paved with the corpses of your enemies....and their souls will haunt you for eternity...." -- Metal Gear Solid[i]

[EZ_Rohaise]

>Evade DOES hide you - go to a 3rd person view and watch.

Wrong.

3rd Person view has never been reliable. Ever.

Those of us with two machines and 2 accounts can confirm that you are not really hidden.

Just ask other people in your group. Easy enough for you to test.

This little idiosyncrasy used to get me killed while pulling in Howling Stones a long time ago before I realized the problem. I would "hide" right before the fight was over to go pull another mob, but since I had the current mob we were fighting targeted when I hit hide I really wasn't hidden.

Moral is don't have any mobs targeted when you go to hide yourself, in case you've been flagged with aggro. Target self or clear target first and it's fine.

[EZ_Kuurus]

Heh, done that many times Rohaise. A harsh lesson =)

It's second nature now for me to hit esc before hiding, even if I don't currently have a target. Kuurus IceBear
Level 59 Blackguard
Cry of War