Update: Necros and Demos

[Mrbloodworth]

I do not have access to EU forums, but my homeland community will send me the exact text in a second. I can link the post - http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/show...131#post214131 for demo and http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/show...120#post214120 for Necro by Jayde.

UPDATE!

Hello fellow Age of Conan players!

As was mentioned yesterday, I wanted to take the time to inform you all as to what we are currently working on in regard to the Demonologist and Necromancer classes specifically. While we are still actively looking at other class adjustments on a regular basis, these two classes are the ones with the largest number of planned improvements.

We are currently aware that both classes are having difficulties at various levels, so this first round of improvements is intended to ease the leveling process in addition to increasing the general fun-factor of normal gameplay.

Please note, all these adjustments will be reviewed after testing to determine if additional alterations are needed. So, with that in mind, this list is subject to change.

Demonologists
The duration of Protection of Set will be substantially increased.
The maximum damage absorbed before Protection of Set fails will be increased to be more in line with damage dealt in leveling scenarios. Additional survivability increases are also being evaluated.
Players will gain a visible debuff to indicate when Protection of Set has run out of absorbable damage.
The base splash damage dealt by Fires of Gehenna, Hellfire Stream, Shockstrike, and Shock will be substantially increased.
The amount of damage dealt by most damage sources will be reevaluated.
The cooldown of Inferno of Ahmner and Shockblast will be reduced to 2.5 seconds to match the casting time of Fires of Gehenna and Shockstrike.
The Archmage feat will be moved to tier 2 instead of tier 3 in the Mage general tree to make it more easily accessible to varying builds.
All crowd control will have a significantly reduced chance to break from damage dealt by pets.
Fiery Torment (Rank 1) will be introduced at level 30 instead of level 45.
The casting time of certain long-duration buffs will be reduced.
The run speed of pets will be increased significantly.
Various bugfixes and alterations to existing feats and abilities; for example, decreasing the casting time of Detonation.

Necromancers
The duration of Runed Flesh will be substantially increased.
The maximum damage absorbed before Runed Flesh fails will be increased to be more in line with damage dealt in leveling scenarios. Additional survivability increases are also being evaluated.
Players will gain a visible debuff to indicate when Runed Flesh has run out of absorbable damage.
The mana cost of all ranks of spells will be significantly reduced.
The damage dealt by Necromancer nukes will be reviewed and the amount inflicted and duration may be increased on specific ranks and spells.
The base splash damage on core Necromancer single-target spells will be added or increased.
The amount of periodic damage affected by absorb shields in PvP will be reviewed.
All crowd control will have a significantly reduced chance to break from damage dealt by pets.
The Archmage feat will be moved to tier 2 instead of tier 3 in the Mage general tree to make it more easily accessible to varying builds.
The casting time of certain long-duration buffs will be reduced.
The run speed of pets will be increased significantly.
Some issues in regard to melee pets having difficulties following moving NPCs will be improved.
Various bugfixes and alterations to existing feats and abilities.
In addition to this list of changes, we are looking at the technical issues that currently limit pets from zoning with players. We are actively working on a solution to issue; however, it will be addressed in a future patch beyond the changes listed above. Additional changes in regard to the way periodic damage applies to breakable crowd control are also being evaluated.

Hopefully this gives you some insight into some of the many changes we have planned for the near future! We look forward to hearing your feedback on these changes and also the continued state of these and all other classes. As mentioned in my previous post, we regularly read the sticky feedback threads in all class forums and very much appreciate the reports of issues with the various classes.

Thanks for reading!

As a follow-up to these notes, I would like to also mention a significant change in the works as to how pets are introduced into the toolset and progression of the Necromancer class.

The balance and progression of the class is being altered to introduce 2 pet points every 5 levels after level 5, resulting in all 8 base pet points being available at level 20 instead of at level 70. Given the importance of pet damage in the overall design of the Necromancer class, we feel that this will introduce lower-level players to the nature of the class in a better way.

Due to this, all Necromancer damage spells will be completely rebalanced post-20 to consider the new percentage of damage intended to come from pets. We will also be making Despoil the Soul in the Nightfall tree available at a much earlier level for those who wish to shift focus somewhat from pet damage to direct damage.

Additionally, the Nightfall tree with receive significant structuring adjustments given this change to the introduction of more pet points at an earlier level.

These alterations will take place in a series of steps due to the large nature of the changes, with most due to be put in place gradually over the next week or two.
__________________
System Designer
Age of Conan

Link

[Wasted]

Some great changes there for Necro's.

I use my mana up so fast I'm basically resting to full after every fight if the mobs are even con or so.  My mana regen is quick but it means if I get adds especially part way through a fight when I've already burned an aoe I always run out of mana.

Pets can lag so far behind especially if I am sprinting its a pain, and cutting down the time on rebuffing is pretty welcome too.

[Montague]

Wait. Buffs instead of nerfs? 

[Mrbloodworth]

Any EU Forum whores able to check the EU forums for this posting?

[Lakov_Sanite]

Sounds good, I've levelled my necro to 45 the hard way. The best thing in there to me is the longer duration runed flesh and the shorter buff cast time, those were killing me.

[schild]

Where's the "pets actually accrue hate" fix?

Right now, they don't.

[KallDrexx]

Where's the "pets actually accrue hate" fix?

Right now, they don't.

I think that's by design.

[Xeyi]

Any EU Forum whores able to check the EU forums for this posting?

Yep the post is as it appears on the EU boards.

I pulled this off the US boards, but it was linked to the EU boards, can someone confirm the links.

Demo    Necro


EDIT: My links were wrong.

Those two links are just from the day before and just say  "Just as a note, you guys can expect a roundup of incoming Necromancer changes sometime tomorrow. It will be posted in the 'Developer Announcements' section."




EDIT - The correct link to the above announcement is http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=233342&postcount=1

[Mrbloodworth]

Where's the "pets actually accrue hate" fix?

Right now, they don't.

Necromancers are not warlocks. 

Its is by design, but you can get a spell that makes them tank for a short time.Infact most Feats lession the hate they make. But Necromancers have misdirection  Pets will never be tanks in AoC. thank god.

And here is the US version

[Numtini]

Where's the "pets actually accrue hate" fix?

Right now, they don't.

Makes them even with guardians then! 

[Mazakiel]

Where's the "pets actually accrue hate" fix?

Right now, they don't.

Necromancers are not warlocks. 

Its is by design, but you can get a spell that makes them tank for a short time.Infact most Feats lession the hate they make. But Necromancers have misdirection  Pets will never be tanks in AoC. thank god.

And here is the US version

I dunno, SOME threat generation would be nice though.  I don't want them to tank a whole fight or anything, but it seems pretty weak that I don't even have to cast a spell and as soon as the pets hit something when I send them in, it charges me and ignores them. 

[Dtrain]

As a dude in a bathrobe with knives (read: mid-level assassin,) I find it a little offensive that they thought necromancers (and even demonologists) were the ones who needed the buff love FIRST.

Maybe it's one of those scenarios where you fix the things that are easiest to fix but will have the most positive impact. Yeah, that must be it... hoo boy.

[schild]

Necros did need buff love more.

Assassins can deal 3 times as much damage. If not 4. Also, if you're on a PVP server, sure - you're a soft target. Pick another class. if you're on a PVE server, you're doing it wrong.

[Mrbloodworth]

Updated first post with added info.

[Venkman]

I'm probably too young yet (14.5), so the patch didn't really affect my Demonologist too much as far as I can tell. The buff being longer is nice, but I don't have enough Feats to feel that love yet either.

[Lum]

Updated first post with added info.

That second note is... kinda huge.

[Mrbloodworth]

Updated first post with added info.

That second note is... kinda huge.

yes, its a definite rearrangement. However, it does mean fuckall for PvP, as everyone just goes for the necro anyway. But we know nothing of the root/stun changes right now, so maybe it will even out.

[Pennilenko]

Wait. Buffs instead of nerfs? 

I cant take it in. I dont know what to say.

[Draegan]

I'd like to add my continuing frustration on non-assassin love.

[Mrbloodworth]

could not think of a better place for it so..... Here ya go!

Jayde The new feat tree layout was not intended to be patched on Monday, but on Thursday instead. Therefore, a free feat reset and updated feat data (many feats have been adjusted) are not yet in place.

We should be performing a full feat reset for Necromancers on Thursday's patch.

[Brogarn]

Thank goodness. Still, though... amateur hour...

[cevik]

could not think of a better place for it so..... Here ya go!

Jayde The new feat tree layout was not intended to be patched on Monday, but on Thursday instead. Therefore, a free feat reset and updated feat data (many feats have been adjusted) are not yet in place.

We should be performing a full feat reset for Necromancers on Thursday's patch.

I wanted to respec, but I kept thinking "there is no way this was intentional, they are going to HAVE to refund our feats at some point".  I'm glad I held out.

[Morfiend]

I'd like to add my continuing frustration on non-assassin love.

While I love the "idea" behind this game. Funcom is making it very hard to stick with the game. So much of the core game is still broken. Some classes are just so unbalanced. Demos are still pretty much horrible, and assassins. My god, assassins suck. I stood toe to toe with a level 40 assassin on my HoX at level 31, and killed him. I have done the same with my lowbie PoM and my Barb. Ether the people who play assassins really suck, or something is wrong with the class.

[Draegan]

Assassins get pretty good at level 70 with a few feats.  I can one shot a Clothie if he doesn't move. Heh.

[schild]

A feat reset just for necromancers isn't enough. They should just do the entire playerbase and be done with it.

[cevik]

A feat reset just for necromancers isn't enough. They should just do the entire playerbase and be done with it.

Well they painted themselves into the corner with Necros.  They HAD to give a feat reset, because when they moved stuff around, it made it possible to have otherwise impossible builds that were clearly outside of the realm of what would be considered "balanced".

I hope that they will begin to be a little more lenient about things like free respecs as they realize they are going to eventually have to drastically overhaul each class (just like Blizzard did for the first year of WoW's release).

[Nerf]

My 52 PoM took out a pair of 57 assassins who got the jump on me.  Twice.

It was great fun, I never fell below about 80% HPs

[Threash]

My 52 PoM took out a pair of 57 assassins who got the jump on me.  Twice.

It was great fun, I never fell below about 80% HPs

If they really had gotten the jump on you i really dont see how you could live through two stealth attacks.

[schild]

Post 50, the PoM has massive melee reduction. It's almost tanklike with it's autoregen. However, there's no way he had Fist of Mitra up. And there's absolutely no way they both got to him before he nailed a potion. Nerf's definition of Getting a Jump on Him is flawed, obviously. But it doesn't negate the fact PoM is still totally OP, especially compared to a shit class like assassin.

[Miasma]

In MMOs it's almost always the ranger type class or the most offensive caster that is overpowered, since I usually play a healer I've never been OP before.

I LIKE IT.

[Draegan]

I've never played an OP class before, but this time I wanted too.  So I picked assassins since most of the time stealth classes usually get the good stuff.  Oh I was wrong, oh so very wrong.  :(

The shitty thing is that I usually play a healer/caster.  Damnit.

[Brogarn]

I've never played an OP class before, but this time I wanted too.  So I picked assassins since most of the time stealth classes usually get the good stuff.  Oh I was wrong, oh so very wrong.  :(

The shitty thing is that I usually play a healer/caster.  Damnit.

You got took!

[Lakov_Sanite]

Here's my story.

Necromancers, to me are fucking cool. I love the concept, I love the design, I made a kickass stygian and prepared to go all the way to 80 with. Around level 51 though I really started to feel it, struggling to kill things i would see other classes raping. Having trouble finding quests, being out dps'ed in groups by the priests. So i decided to take a break, rolled up on the unofficial rp server(sup thou?) and made a priest of mitra.

It was night and day, even at low levels i could tell the difference. Troubling taking on two-three mobs turned into me chain pulling, gathering up large groups and aoe blasting. at level 40 i wanted to death taxi so i can into a group of nemedians of same level, i got to about half health and decided to see if i could kill them. i got a 7 chain combo off that. these are things my necro could never even DREAM of doing.

Thing is, i played a priest in wow, i didnt really want to play a pom, what i really wanted to play and still do was my necro but they are so horribly broken in comparison that it's just not fun for me. So once i got my pom to 52 i realized that this game wasn't for me, at least right now. The playstyle and look i wanted this game was just not supporting(evil necromantic army) so i cancelled my sub and am just going to let it run out on the 23rd without bothering to log on.

Now you might say that well, just play another class but really i want to play a necro. same as some people that dont like sci fi or dont like fantasy, when you want to play a certain style that's what you want. Anyways conan looks gorgeous to me but the game itself isnt just unpolished, its sandpaper, abrasive.

In closing necros still suck, game still broken, come back in 6 months if wow/war having sunk their claws in yet

[Venkman]

I'm seeing more and more Necros these days. Today I saw one trailing what looked like four zombies and some Beholder analog. I have no idea how scary they are to fight, but I sure as heck gave them a wide berth. My PoM knockback has too long a refresh timer for that noise

[cevik]

I'm seeing more and more Necros these days. Today I saw one trailing what looked like four zombies and some Beholder analog. I have no idea how scary they are to fight, but I sure as heck gave them a wide berth. My PoM knockback has too long a refresh timer for that noise

You should have killed him, he's an idiot.  The "beholder" analog is a necrotic bomb and is totally worthless, if he had one out he sucks.

Just make sure to keep your HoTs up and you'll be fine.