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Author Topic: Nice EQ2 Stuff Hitting Test  (Read 4167 times)
Ozzu
Terracotta Army
Posts: 666


on: January 29, 2005, 01:19:48 AM

http://eqiiforums.station.sony.com/eq2/board/message?board.id=tup&message.id=13

Test Server Update Notes: January 27, 2005


*** Headlines ***
 
- Heroic Opportunities have been revamped!
- Lots of new armor looks have been added!
- New adventure areas have been unearthed!
- First round of advanced solo encounters added for soloers and small groups!
- Get your first glimpse at Vitality!
- DoT spells are now much more stackable!
- Tabbed chat windows make their long-awaited debut!
- See what your target is attacking with the new Implied Target window!
- Bankers now make change!
- Even more tradeskill bug fixes and improvements!
- Check out the more precice, informative AC value!
- New heritage quests: Golden Efreeti Boots and the Crown of King Tranix!
 

*** Heroic Opportunities ***
 
- Using a spell or art other than one needed to advance a starter chain will no longer break it.
- Once a chain has begun, it can be purposefully broken by using one of the archetype abilities that initiates a chain (Lucky Break, Arcane Augur, Divine Providence, and Fighting Chance).
- You now have 10 seconds to complete the Heroic Opportunity wheel instead of 30 seconds.
- Starter chains now properly report who broke the chain. It had been reporting that the the last person to advance the chain was the one who broke it.
- Opportunity shift can be used up to five times to choose a different opportunity.
- Heroic Opportunities have been given enhanced visual and sound effects.
- Players will receive a visual cue when an opportunity has been successfully completed.
- The duration of buff effects has increased from 3 minutes to 6 minutes.
- Heroic Opportunity effects now stack with class spell effects.
- All Heroic Opportunities that hit more than one target now have an area of effect radius of 25 meters.
- Removed the display ranking from Heroic Opportunity starters (Lucky Break, Arcane Augur, and Fighting Chance) since you can't upgrade them.
 
- The following new Heroic Opportunities have been added:
   Fighter, Scout, Mage, Priest: Tears of Luclin - Deals high damage to the target of the player that completes the Heroic Opportunity.
   Priest, Mage, Scout: Luminary Fate - Grants power regeneration over time.
   Scout, Fighter, Priest: Capricious Strike - Deals high damage to the target of the player that completes the Heroic Opportunity.
   Scout, Fighter, Mage Grand Proclamation - Increases the maximum power pool of all party members within range.
   Fighter, Mage, Priest: Arcane Salvation - Grants power to party members near the character that completes the Heroic Opportunity.
   Scout, Priest: Fervent Quickening - Increases defense by 10 and periodically grants power to the player that completes the Heroic Opportunity.
   Scout, Fighter: Ardent Challenge - Increases strength and agility by 10.
   Scout, Mage: Resonating Cascade - Grants minor power regeneration to the one who completes the Heroic Opportunity.
   Priest, Mage: Celestial Bloom - Grants additional instant healing on the target of the priest who completes the Heroic Opportunity.
   Fighter, Priest: Divine Nobility - Grants health regeneration over time to target of the priest who completes the Heroic Opportunity.
   Fighter, Mage: Arcane Aegis - Grants increased protection against crushing and magic attacks.
 
- The following Heroic Opportunities had their damage increased:
   Mage: Arcane Fury
   Mage: Arcane Storm
   Priest: Divine Judgement.
   Fighter, Mage: Storm of Ancients
   Fighter, Mage: Scholar's Insight
   Fighter, Priest: Divine Blade
   Mage, Priest: Suffocating Wrath (stifle effect was removed)
   Mage, Scout: Arcane Trickery
   Scout, Fighter: Luck's Bite
   Scout, Fighter: Raging Sword
   Scout, Priest: Piercing Faith
   Scout, Priest:  Divine Trickery
   Fighter, Priest, Mage: Archaic Ruin
   Fighter, Priest, Mage: Thunder Slash
   Scout, Fighter, Mage: Soldier's Gambit
   Scout, Fighter, Mage: Trinity Divide
   Scout, Priest, Mage: Breaking Faith
   Scout, Priest, Mage: Archaic Shackles
 

*** New Adventures Unearthed ***
 
- Doorways have been discovered in dangerous locations. Brave adventurers must defeat the nefarious forces that guard these entrances, after which access can be gained to the perils and treasures within. Expeditions report that these doorways may only be unsealed at certain times, so keep a watchful eye when exploring these dark lands!
 
The Thundering Steppes
- "A Pirate's Hidden Stash" is intended for groups in their low 20s.
- "The Rumbler Caves" is intended for groups in their mid-20s.
- "An Open Grave" is intended for groups in their high 20s and low 30s.
 
Zek, the Orcish Wastes
- "Tallon Hording Halls" is intended for groups in their low 30s.
- "Sullon Mines" is intended for groups in their mid-30s.
- "The Dark Den" is intended for groups in their high 30s and low 40s.
 
The Enchanted Lands
- "The Cave of Wonder" is intended for groups in their mid-30s.
- "Cavern of Tangled Weeds" is intended for groups in their high 30s and low 40s.
 

*** Vitality ***
 
- Vitality is a feature which augments the amount of XP you receive as you adventure or craft items.
- All characters gain a chunk of Vitality every hour, on the hour, and keep accumulating it until the maximum amount is saved up. It takes a week of real time to go from being completely empty to completely full.
- Each time characters gain experience, they use up a portion of their Vitality and receive a bit more experience than usual. When the character runs out of Vitality, he or she no longer receives bonus experience.
- There are two separate Vitality pools: one for adventure XP and one for tradeskill XP. Your Persona window now features a gauge next to each experience bar that shows how much Vitality you have left.
- NOTE: The Vitality gauges going in with this update are using placeholder artwork. We will be improving the presentation before updating the live servers.


*** Gameplay ***
 
- Clearer descriptions have been given to Traits and Tradition choices to better explain what they do.
- Encounters made up of multiple NPCs should no longer despawn while in the midst of combat with them.
- Using the eat/drink when hungry/thirsty option will now properly consume sustenance after recovering from a death.
- Characters can no longer access their shared bank while doing the Betrayal quest and a portion of the Bone Bladed Claymore quest.
- Personal status points will now carry over when you leave one guild and join another. Please note that you will not be able to spend your status points until you have joined a new guild.
- If a player visits a broker and attempts to purchase an item flagged as lore which they already possess, the buyer will be informed that they can't purchase another.
 

*** Quests ***
 
- Some items required to complete heritage quests have been moved from chests to standard corpse loot, thus allowing players who overmatch the encounter to complete these quests.
- The Lightbringer Wisp should now be seen more frequently.
- Those who have already completed certain quests should no longer cause triggered encounters to spawn.
- The Kleron Osana solo quest should now progress properly.
- Boss mobs in the Flowing Black Silk Sash quest can now be hit by more commonly available weapons. They have also been made more challenging.
- The final mace in the Screaming Mace heritage quest should remain long enough to allow everyone in the party to interact with it.
- Players should now be able to receive quests that were previously not offered if the player did not accept the prelude quest or if they deleted the quest itself. These quests should now be offered: Scattered Notes, A Paradise Dream World, A Tour of the Feerrott, and The Lost Idols of Modinthule.
- Several changes have been made to Gawar's behavior. He should no longer attack players who have completed certain quest stages.
- Bootstrutter's Guide to the Commonlands and Bootstrutter's Guide to Antonica can now be traded.
- The door to the menagerie in the Tobrin's Mystical Eyepatch quest will now bring the entire group over if everyone is on the proper stage of the quest.
- Players should now have more time to speak to the rescued women in the quest for the Short Sword of the Ykesha.
- Boulden and Slaughtergrott will now grant players the Feerrott access quest at level 32.
- Several fixes were applied to the Whispers of Fortune quest.
- Players level 16 and above should now be able to complete the Welcome to Qeynos quest.
- The Famer's Ring quest can now be completed.
- The Ill-Fated Cleric's Journal can now be obtained from Agony every time.
- Noxhil V'sek in Nektulos Forest should now grant players the fourth quest in his series.
- Rewards have been added to the following quests:
   Far Seas Requisition ENC0457
   Far Seas Requisition ENC0679
   Far Seas Requisition ENC0699
   Far Seas Requisition ENC0745
   Far Seas Requisition ENC0825
   Hail to the Derris Heroes
   Hail to the Sullon Heroes
   Hail to the Tallon Heroes
   Hail to the Vallon Heroes
   Mettle Testing
   Short Range Patrol
   The Tallon Plunder Chests
   Keys for Hammer
   Disrupting the Mining Operation
   Utilitarian Desires of the Protectors
   Utilitarian Desires of the Toilers
   Utilitarian Desires of the Miners
   Drodo's Goodies
   The Curse of the Bloody Shank
   A Menace to Berrybrook
   Give the Key to the Glademaster
   Give the Key to Captain Vulis
   Case of the Missing Person
   Case of the Poisoned Wine
   The Mysterious Dagger
   The Curious Augur's Three Meanings of Life
   The Wanderer's Three Meanings of Life
   A Message for Kitty
   Reliving the Past
   Desperately Seeking Butterflies!
   Desperately Seeking Moths!
   Desperately Seeking Ants!
   Granville Restaurant, Nektulos Forest
   Granville Restaurant, Thundering Steppes
 

*** Zones and Population ***
 
- A more challenging type of encounter is now available for soloers and small groups. This advanced solo content can be found in the Thundering Steppes, Nektulos Forest, and the Enchanted Lands. These solo encounters have an up arrow next to their name.
- Additional encounters have been added to the Commonlands and Nektulos Forest to support solo quests added in a previous update.
- Some bosses in Stormhold, Tower of the Drafling, Commonlands, and Maiden's Gulch have become more formidable.
- The reuse time of Feerrott boat bell has been slightly increased.
- Boss encounters now have a much greater chance to drop artifact quality items, rare tradeskill components, and additional spell scrolls.
- House pets should now wander more freely in five-room homes in Freeport and Qeynos.
- The sliding door in the dojo at Elddar Grove is now less likely to get stuck.
- Lava creeps and searing lurkers will now remain invisible until engaged in combat.
- Vengeful souls are now normal halfling size and wear more appropriate uniforms.
- Val'marr should now be more easily found in the Commonlands.
- The respawn rate of the farmers in the Commonlands has been adjusted.
- A centaur near the destroyed wagons in the Thundering Steppes has increased in size. Some badgers and wolves in that region will also be slightly larger.
- Lions and wolves in the Thundering Steppes have become more defensive of their territory.
- Fixed a door that was not working in the Obelisk of Lost Souls
- Windstalker Rumbler is now more likely to be found.
- Venekor's breath now causes less damage, but will affect all adventurers in its range rather than a single group.
- The item needed to access the Vestibule in the Obelisk of Lost Souls can now be more readily obtained.
 

*** Items ***
 
- The appearances of many types of armor have been updated to provide greater visual distinction to players. For example, crafted items of a certain armor type and level range should have a different look from dropped armor of that same type and level range.
- Shroud of the Manastone now has 12 slots instead of 4, and provides 14% weight reduction. In addition, players can now destroy the item if they wish.
- A canvas rug is no longer flagged as a wall item.
- An alder bookcase now has its proper appearance.
 

*** Tradeskills ***
 
- Weaponsmiths and Armorers now both have the ability to refine metal bars. The recipe has been added to the appropriate Armorer book.
- The recipes for metal plates and metal rings had their skill requirements changed from weaponry to heavy armoring.
- The pristine versions of crafted cestii now note that they are leather. Icon discrepancies between the final product and the recipe icon have been corrected.
- Lavastorm Robusta Beans and Everfrost Ice Beans are now harvested from culinary sources, not foresting ones.
- Ginseng and Turnips can now be harvested.
- Corrected a typo in a Pristine Ruckas Portrait.
- The recipe for Generic Rough Linen Pattern now requires Stromeir Paper.
- The recipes for Fir Greatstaff and Briarwood Greatstaff now require Fir Stave and Briarwood Stave, respectively.
- The quality level of Boiled Straps will now be factored into recipes that use it as a primary component.
- Players now receive a congratulatory message and bonus tradeskill experience the first time they make a new type of pristine item.
- The following culinary recipes should be much easier to refine: white tea leaf, black tea leaf, oolong tea leaf, green tea leaf, pu-erh tea leaf, roasted carrot, roasted sweet onion, roasted cucumber, and roasted browncap mushroom.
- The recipes for Teak Short Bow and Cedar Short Bow now require Rough Linen Bowstring and Strengthened Cord.
- The recipe for Cedar Greatstaff now requires Rough Linen Fletching and Fulginate Shod.
- The recipes for Oak Greatstaff and Briarwood Greatstaff now require Broadcloth Fletching and Feyiron Shod.
- The recipes for Oak Short Bow and Briarwood Short Bow now require Broadcloth Bowstring and Etched Cord.
- The recipe for Fir Greatstaff now requires Canvas Fletching and Carbonite Shard.
- The recipes for Fir Short Bow and Ash Short bow now require Canvas Bowstring and Boiled Cord.
- Examination of pouches made by tradeskills will now indicate that these are used to hold shurikens.
- Fixed the naming of Murky Shining Elixir, Clouded Shining Elixir, Shining Elixir, and Translucent Shining Elixir. Also fixed the effect that the potion provides.
- Fixed the misspelling of "prsitine" in "pristine canvas rug," "pristine medium quaint maple table," and "pristine small ash dining table."
- The material type was missing from the names of a few furniture pieces, making it difficult to judge their rarity. Added fir to "pristine small double shelf," steel to "pristine sconce," and cedar to "pristine militia double shelf."
- Many morning star weapons that were displaying incorrectly now look like morning stars.
- Fixed the misspelling "curde" in "a crude ornate linen rug" and "a crude oval ash table."
- Changed the name of the recipe "ash oval table" to "oval ash table" to match the actual product being created.
– Adjusted all references to the item "cloth cloth" (currently "cloth thread") to "cloth swatch" to avoid a conflict with the existing item cloth thread. This includes the four quality levels of the item, and all the recipes that use it.
- Advanced Tailoring 41 had the following recipes added to it: Stretch of Augmented Leather, Linen Thread, Linen Cloth, Augmented Hide Plate, and Augmented Leather Strap.
– NPCs who assign tradeskill writs for the Ironforge Exchange and Coalition of Tradesfolke have relocated. Executor Adept Sal`ynelle and Merchant Elbow have moved from North Qeynos to to a cellar behind the Ironforge Estate. Commissioner Venilos and Merchant Juvena moved from being out in the open to a cellar behind the Coalition of Tradesfolke building in the West Freeport.
 

*** Spells ***
 
- Damage-over-time spells are now much more likely to stack with other DoT spells, unless using the same spell template.
- If two spells of the same type are applied to a target (i.e. stuns), the second spell will no longer drop when the first one does.
- Kraylith's Curse of the Toad will now change players into a less vocal toad.
- Kraylith's Minor Familiar now summons a less vocal toad.
 

*** Mechanics ***
 
- Huge differences (including buffs and debuffs) in stats such as Agility will no longer have as pronounced an effect in battle.
- The stat attributes of level 30 and higher NPCs have been increased.
 

*** Controls, Commands, and UI ***
 
- You can now combine multiple chat windows into a single window with subject tabs by dragging one window onto another. The window being added needs to be no larger than the parent window. To separate the combined windows, drag one of the tabs to an open section of the screen.
- The /clearchat command will clear the visible contents of the chat window. Your log file will be unaffected.
- The way we calculate the AC value on the Persona window has been changed. The new number better reflects the overall defensive capabilities of your character, including armor, skills, stats, buffs, Parry, and Deflection. The defensive capabilities themselves have not changed, only the value that is displayed. For futher details, please refer to this post on our official forums.
- You can now withdraw amounts of copper, silver, and gold that are larger than what you have in the bank as long as you don't exceed your total funds. For example, if you have 1 platinum, 0 gold, 10 silver, 20 copper in the bank, you can withdraw 90 silver. Afterward, you will have 0 platinum, 99 gold, 20 silver, 20 copper in the bank.
- You can now make notes next to the names on your Friends and Ignore lists.
- You can now add labels to your bags via the right click menu.
- Fixed a bug causing items with multiple buff stats from being occluded from searches by special type in the Broker/Market window.
- Dragging an equipped item onto an inventory bag should no longer bug the item.
- Fixed an issue caused by pasting in text with a partial link and receiving text with broken links.
- The examine window for recipe books now uses a single alphabetized column.
- Added a "Recipes" button to the tradeskill progess window.
- When completing a step of a quest, the Quest Journal text area should now expand to show what you've accomplished.
- The current and total status columns in the society UI have been combined into a single "Status"' column.
- Text entered following the /p command (for party) will be seen by your party members, just as with /g.
- The following characters can be used on the chat line in place of the corresponding slash command:
   : = /emote
   ' = /say
   ! = /shout
   @ = /guildsay
   # = /raidsay
   $ = /auction
   % = /groupsay
 

*** Art ***
 
- Characters using the Gathering ability should no longer slide if they move before the animation is complete.
- Fixed the timing of the scimitar strike effect, as seen in Radiant Strike and other priest spells.
- Added result effects for Wrannstad's Flaming Wind, Sweltering Sands, Conflagration, and Jerzeel's Blazing Sky.
- Optimized sparkling swords in spells such as Bloom and Bloodlust.
 

*** Audio ***
 
- Footstep sounds made by someone wearing chain armor should no longer sound as if they are wearing plate.
- Creatures that would occasionally sound like human males should now sound like their own species.
- Qeynos tradeskill zones now have music in them.
- Distinct audio cues now play when characters on your friends list log in or out.
Aenovae
Terracotta Army
Posts: 131


Reply #1 on: January 29, 2005, 02:11:02 AM

So awesome.

I remember how much it sucked waiting for DAoC combat revamp patches that went through 100 iterations before finally being pushed onto live servers like botched surgery.  

Now if SOE could just figure out how to make bag windows remember their position between games.  They also need to make encounter mob HP display when using implied targeting.  And take out trivial loot code plzkthx.
Strazos
Greetings from the Slave Coast
Posts: 15542

The World's Worst Game: Curry or Covid


Reply #2 on: January 30, 2005, 05:33:21 PM

Heh, HO's are now going from almost pointless to uber.

Fear the Backstab!
"Plato said the virtuous man is at all times ready for a grammar snake attack." - we are lesion
"Hell is other people." -Sartre
shiznitz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268

the plural of mangina


Reply #3 on: January 31, 2005, 07:41:15 AM

Which means mobs are going to balanced for them - so learn how to do them or die to bosses.

I have never played WoW.
Sobelius
Terracotta Army
Posts: 761


Reply #4 on: January 31, 2005, 08:30:11 AM

Friend of mine who plays a coercer likes the spell changes -- he said he won't have to keep doing mental gymnastics to remember which mobs have which version of a mezz.

Cheers for increased damage from HOs -- most of my groups tended to ignore damage HOs in favor of buff HOs.

And big cheers for changing the way starter chains work.

"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -- Voltaire
"A world without Vin Diesel is sad." -- me
Alkiera
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1556

The best part of SWG was the easy account cancellation process.


Reply #5 on: January 31, 2005, 02:32:12 PM

Quote from: Sobelius
Cheers for increased damage from HOs -- most of my groups tended to ignore damage HOs in favor of buff HOs.


This is because most of the solo HO's, like the fighter sword->horn, or the mage bolt->bolt, priest hammer->hammer, etc, were doing more damage than the ones which required multiple classes.

Quote from: Sobelius

And big cheers for changing the way starter chains work.


This is the other reason people avoided using HOs.  We'll have to re-evaluate their usefulness now.

Alkiera

"[I could] become the world's preeminent MMO class action attorney.  I could be the lawyer EVEN AMBULANCE CHASERS LAUGH AT. " --Triforcer

Welcome to the internet. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used as evidence against you in a character assassination on Slashdot.
kaid
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3113


Reply #6 on: February 02, 2005, 07:42:37 AM

This actually hit the live servers yesterday pretty fast turn around for this many changes. The home vault stuff is really sweet for a crafter btw. If you go into your apartment for me just the noob one and click on the door when inside you can access your homes vault. For the freebie appartment it works like 2 more bank slots. I stuck 2 big 10 slot boxes in there so I can now hold stuff for selling on the broker and take it out as needed.


kaid
Aenovae
Terracotta Army
Posts: 131


Reply #7 on: February 02, 2005, 11:56:17 AM

Before the patch, hardly anyone used Heroic Opportunities.  It was impossible to coordinate in pickup groups (you had to get everyone to stop using spells and arts for a few seconds while the chain was built), and extremely difficult to coordinate even with friends over TeamSpeak.  Worse, you were not rewarded for your efforts.  The HO effect was always piss-poor (low-damage DD or weak 2 minute buff), and you had to stop using your abilities for about five seconds just to make the HO possible.  

The new Heroic Opportunities are uber.

Using a spell or art other than one needed to advance a starter chain will no longer break it.
Now that regular spells and arts don’t break starter chains, it’s stupidly easy to start a wheel.  We were completing about five or six wheels per encounter last night (organized guild group, not pickup group).  Also, trying to start a wheel no longer lowers your efficiency (you don’t have to stop casting).

Once a chain has begun, it can be purposefully broken by using one of the archetype abilities that initiates a chain (Lucky Break, Arcane Augur, Divine Providence, and Fighting Chance).
Not a big deal.  Affects strategy in a positive way, but mildly.

You now have 10 seconds to complete the Heroic Opportunity wheel instead of 30 seconds.
This one is excellent.  10 seconds is a very short window for multiple people to coordinate and cast their spells.  Finishing a two-class wheel is easy for all groups.  Finishing a three-class wheel was a bit of a challenge for us last night.  Finishing a four-class wheel will be a real challenge for well-organized groups.  Assuming the big wheels are much more powerful than small wheels, organized groups will be kicking major ass.

Starter chains now properly report who broke the chain. It had been reporting that the last person to advance the chain was the one who broke it.
Ok, now how about properly reporting who COMPLETED the wheel, jackass!  Right now it reports “PlayerX completes Effect 69” when in fact PlayerX was the one who RAISED the wheel, not the one who completed it.  Knowing who completed the wheel is crucially important now that they generate so much aggro (more on this below).

Opportunity shift now has a much better chance of switching to a different opportunity.
How about making it 100%?  I don’t see the point here.

Heroic Opportunities have been given enhanced visual and sound effects.
These are badass.  The very old-school warrior-taunt-into-lightning-bolt was removed long ago and replaced with a barely noticeable spark that appears on the mob on impact.  The new HOs are much better.  The effects are spectacular and reflect what the resulting effect is.  We saw huge blue spheres of death, magical green rain, etc.  Also, many of these are new effects that were not in the game previously.

Players will receive a visual cue when an opportunity has been successfully completed.
I assume this is talking about on the wheel itself.  They still need to work on improving feedback on that thing.

The duration of buff effects has increased from 3 minutes to 6 minutes.
This is excellent, it makes the buffs actually useful now.  What they don’t mention is that the DDs have been significantly improved, the buff effects were increased, and regen amounts were increased.  Basically, HOs are not only easier to pull off, but they are a lot more powerful too.  This means that you really want to be using them often and that, ideally, players will be rewarded for completing the hard ones.

Heroic Opportunity effects now stack with class spell effects.
Yep, more powerful.

All Heroic Opportunities that hit more than one target now have an area of effect radius of 25 meters.
This freaked me out when I read it at first.  A guildie explained that they probably mean “limited to the current encounter, of course.”   You wouldn’t want your AOE HOs to be aggroing nearby mobs withing a 25m radius!

Problems:

Here’s our first impressions of the new HOs from playing in Runnyeye last night:

Ok, so you’re pulling off HOs all the time, even without trying.  If someone triggers the starter, it’s almost guaranteed that it will be completed since everyone’s just spamming their spells and arts in combat anyway (unless someone presses another starter or lets the wheel time out without completing it).  Also, the HOs are a lot more powerful than before – you really want to complete them to get the DD and buffs.

The problem is that the increased power of HOs brought with them increased aggro generation.  If you participate in a wheel and use your ability last, you will be the one who does the damage/gets the buff/activates the heal/etc.  You will also be the one who pisses off the monsters as a result of the affects.  These new opportunities generate A LOT of aggro.  This is a major problem since the only one we want to have aggro is the tank.

Since everyone’s spamming their spells and arts, they can easily complete a wheel by accident and inadvertently draw aggro.  For example, let’s say you finish a starter chain and bring up a wheel that has Fighter Scout and Priest on it.  Fighter, Scout, and Priest can be executed at any time.  If the priest just happens to be unlucky enough to be the last to cast her spell (often the case since fighters and scouts spam their arts constantly), the game will consider her as the one who completed the wheel.  If said wheel was something like Nature’s Regrowth, the healer just accidentally taunted every single mob in the encounter off the tank and onto herself.

So now we have a new dynamic in combat.  HOs are happening left and right, but there is a danger.  If you complete the wrong one, or complete it in the wrong order, you can really screw yourself.  That’s not such a bad thing in itself, but I wonder if this situation is SOE’s intention.  I don’t think they realized the impact increased HO aggro would have for everyday combat.
HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42628

the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring


WWW
Reply #8 on: February 02, 2005, 12:04:27 PM

Given that the typical SOE (and really, most DikuMUD type games) mantra for increasing difficulty of encounters is to add in some wack-ass form of aggro management, I'd say it was probably intentional.

Sobelius
Terracotta Army
Posts: 761


Reply #9 on: February 02, 2005, 12:04:59 PM

Looking forward to trying out the new HOs. Thanks for the tip about aggro generation.

"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." -- Voltaire
"A world without Vin Diesel is sad." -- me
kaid
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3113


Reply #10 on: February 03, 2005, 08:24:04 AM

Frankly I think the agro generation thing is a good idea. It forces people to actually think a bit on the any icon in any order powers. In a good group you will try to get your more burly folks to hit the last item. In a random pickup group at least you can get HO's fired off now. In a well trained close knit group you can use them even more because you will be better at controlling the agro.

Now that you can fire off the ho's pretty much as desired in a big group you can much more easily control the pacing of the HO's that are used.

Agro used to be an issue in the old system but it was so spastic to get the HO's off that only rarely could you get yourself into troubles. Now it is like anything else timing and pacing for best effect and least splat value.


Edit

Also with the new system it is MUCH more perdictable of what HO you will get at which time. Once you learn them you can pick certain ones depending on if somebody has really grabbed agro or not. Also since HO do not go off by accident now if the agro situation is getting to frisky just chill out and hold off on the group HO for a bit. Maybe just focus on warrior specific HO so they can regain solid agro.

kaid
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Reply #11 on: February 03, 2005, 01:06:36 PM

As a Brigand, I usually just spammed my solo HO in between everyone else's ability...was the most efficient use....quick damage and no one had to do anything.

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kaid
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Reply #12 on: February 08, 2005, 07:36:44 AM

I tend to do that with the mage DD ones as well. If nobody else is looking to do a big HO the mage single target DD one for me hits for like 170 or so damage which is really nice when just going up against a single mob.

kaid
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