The announced removal of Critical Mitigation will coincide with the conversion of Yellow and Red Crit Mit adornments into Health adornments. So why will the replacement adornments have less Health (less than 250 points each) than White health adornments? According to Omougi, it’s because the EQ2 team thinks we should have other viable choices, like DPS. Adornments should be about choice!

From Omougi on the EQ2 Forums:

Our goal with these adornment and spell conversions is to give you guys something in the place of nothing essentially. Before, you were playing a zero-sum game if you had enough crit mit. If you didn’t have enough crit mit, you couldn’t do the encounters — period. All these adornments and spells did is bring you up to a threshold. If you were past that threshold, it does nothing for you.

Now, [while] these adornments and spells actually do increase your survivability at all times – equating the amount of crit mit lost to an equivalent form of HP doesn’t really work out, because any amount of HP is infinitely better than a threshold stat with no use. If you were slotting your adornments for survivability before, you are still slotting them for survivability with HP – the only change is the adornments have been made more powerful in their actual effectiveness with crit mit out of the picture.

This change equates to a free survivability gain across the board, and we need to be very careful with numbers at first to ensure things do not get drastically easier. Changing the difficulty of content is not the goal here – changing the accessibility of content is.

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From Silius on the EQ2 Forums:

Just to clarify some confusion.

• Crit mit as a mechanic is being removed.
• NPC crit bonus was countered by crit mit and we are reducing crit bonus to 0 across the board.
• Critical avoidance is staying around. Critical avoidance is an NPCs way of contesting your chance to critically hit them.
• Replacing the adornments with HP is not to compensate for anything. Since the critical mitgiation stat is no longer useful we are converting to a stat that benefits all players.
• The goal is for this change to not change the difficulty of the encounters. This is why we ask that you all take some time to log on to test once we push it there. We plan on having this on test by the weekend.

Note: NPC crit bonus may be used in the future on a case by case bases and will be considered in the balance of the encounter so that crit mit is not required.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to PM me.

In what may go down as the best decision in EQ2 history, or a total overreaction to a problem that could have been solved with a 15-20% reduction across the board, Dave “SmokeJumper” Georgeson has announced that in the very near future, the Critical Mitigation stat will be COMPLETELY GOING AWAY.

First introduced in The Shadow Odyssey, greatly expanded in Sentinel’s Fate, and then becoming the most important stat within Destiny of Velious as an alternative form of progression to raising the level cap (which is technologically challenging), here’s the announcement of this revelation from the EQ2 Forums:

We’ve listened to all of your conversations since Critical Mitigation was originally introduced. The dev team has extensively debated about it internally. (Very extensively.) But ultimately, we decided that the right move for EQII is to remove Critical Mitigation entirely from the game.

Critical Mitigation initially seemed to do what it was designed for, but it has always suffered from a complete lack of intuitiveness for players, and it’s not a forward-extensible system. Ultimately, it doesn’t add any fun factor to the game.
So we’ve decided that a complete removal of it is by far the best solution for all concerned.

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A selection of Velious raid mobs have been doubling up on Area-of-Effect attacks since the expansion’s launch nearly one year ago. Atan (of Unrest) summed up the issues:

Condition 1: Modifieable timers line up such that a mob casts 2 different abilities simultaneously.

Condition 2: Ability that normally comes ever 40 seconds comes twice in a row with no delay.

Seems they are both bugs to me, but condition 1 is probably just a result of your design.

Maevianiu is getting serious about addressing the AoE double-casting by raid mobs in Velious raid zones and had these responses:

I cannot speak on Condition 1, I’ll leave that to the designers.

However, Condition 2 is definately a bug, and I’ve been chasing it for a while now and frankly. I cannot make it happen.

So I’m adding in some extra logging to try to pickup on when you guys make it happen and see if I can track it down from there. I’ll post in this thread later today with the zone(s) the logging has been activated in and you guys and post when it happens in those zones and hopefully we can find the cause and get it fixed.

And, if you guys can find a way to make it happen please post it here it will go a long way to getting this fixed.

and:

The logging is now active for any instances started after the time of this posting on the “Throne of Storms: Hall of Legends [Challenge]” zone.

Update:

Logging is also enabled in Foundations of Stone [Challenge]

Here are your Update Notes for January 31, 2012:

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where some characters wouldn’t show on character select.

ZONE PROGRESSION / POPULATION

Tower of Frozen Shadow (Raid)

• Tserrina’s spell “Wing Buffet” should no longer cause priests to become knocked back.

• Adds spawned from shadow doors should no longer spawn quite as quickly.

• The number of adds that spawn from shadow doors has been slightly reduced.

Tower of Frozen Shadow: Umbral Halls

• Demanti Sheda should no longer have issues resetting his encounter.

• Demanti Sheda’s spell “Paralyzing Fear” should now stun instead of fearing and has been reduced in duration.

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Raiders continue to wait for a fix to the double-casting of AoEs first reported shortly after the release of Game Update 61 in August 2011. This issue has been discussed here here and recently here. We got a We’ll look into it from Kander on October 27, 2011 but have received no further communication on the issue.

Meanwhile, there are a few tweaks coming to the difficulty of Drunder Raid Zones. These changes are currently on Test will likely go live next Tuesday.

ZONE PROGRESSION / POPULATION

Vallon’s Tower x4 (Tower of Tactics) [Challenge]

• Ambassador Grindstone will no longer reapply his Unbridled Fury of the Elements buff as soon as he has dispelled player debuffs, he waits a few seconds.

• Ambassador Grindstone no longer casts Crystalline Torrent Spell.

• Vallonite Sentinels no longer memwipe when they cast Sentinel’s Touch.

• Vallonite Sentinels no longer taunt lock players during the fight.

Tallon’s Stronghold [Challenge]

• During the Tallon Zek fight Deathbringer’s Touch is now cureable as a curse.

• Tallon Zek will warn players as he teleports and will not fire his arrow volley until 10 seconds after he changes his location.

• Fighters will not take as harsh a punishment if they turn their back on Tallon Zek as he is firing arrows.

Here are your update notes for January 10, 2012 from the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug where you would have to recast buffs on group members every time you zone.

• Fixed random lighting bugs on characters and environments.

• Players will now receive achievement credit for earning hall of fame status if they are offline when awards are processed.

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Sense of Urgency: Debone Bonewing should correctly update when defeating the zone boss in under 30 minutes from zone in.

DUNGEON MAKER

• Dungeon Maker creatures will no longer temporarily reappear when defeated while under the effect of a tier-adjusting object.

• Dungeon Maker adventurers should now show up in the Marketplace preview tab.

• Fixed a UI bug with the Dungeon Maker create window.

BEASTLORDS

• Fixed an issue that allowed “a drakonine guardian” to be tameable.

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Here are your Update Notes for December 20, 2011 from the EQ2 Forums:

DUNGEON / PLAYER HOUSING RATINGS

• The house and dungeon leaderboards have now been converted from the previous 5-star rating system to a new “Like” system.

• When visiting a house or completing a dungeon maker zone you now have the option to “Like” the zone in either of the two categories.

• The leaderboards are now based on the accumulation of likes.

• Awards continue to work as before and are given to the players at the top of the leaderboard.

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From the EQ2 Forums:

GENERAL

• Fixed a bug with the 48 hour grace period for trade for some no-trade and heirloom items.

• Magic Carpet guild hall amenity now has Fens of Nathsar as a destination.

• Fixed a bug where loading a profile from your Mirror of Reflected Achievements would reset your AAs instead of loading the profile.

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From the EQ2 Forums:

Age of Discovery is the eighth expansion of the groundbreaking EverQuest II franchise.

Age of Discovery offers never-seen-before features including user-generated content and the re-imagining of the Beastlord class from the original EverQuest release.  You can make your mark in-game by creating your very own Dungeon, hire some much needed help for your heroic battles, push tradeskilling research to new heights, customize your weapons at the forge, and of course, play as a Beastlord. There’s a lot to like about this expansion!

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From the EQ2 Forums:

• Fixed an issue with the 48 hour no-trade grace period.
• Fixed an animation issue with the Soga Human Female model riding on the Terrorbird mount.

With the first fix, it will, once again, be possible to simply collect all the loot during a group or raid and trade it to people at the end, or trade items within a group/raid (those who were present for the kill) in case of a looting mistake.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Challenge Mode NPCs

• Several challenge mode NPC effects that were incurable are now curable as curses.  These include Paralyzing Venom, Mesmerizing Web, and Corrosive Residue in the Aaranae Arcimae fight.  Combat Madness in the General Aakita fight.  Deathtouch in the Lichlord Skulldugger fight and several others.

• Cooperative Strike is no longer always fatal each tick, it does about half your max health in focus damage with each tick now.

Temple of Rallos Zek: Foundations of Stone [Challenge]

• Greater warboars during the statue of rallos zek fight have less maximum health.

Tallon’s Stronghold [Challenge]

• During the Lieutenant Klaatuus fight the aviak trooper adds have even less health, no longer have symbiotic aura, and players have more time to move the mysterious totem away from him before he will begin healing.

ITEMS

• Fixed missing red slots on some ranged weapons.

Tuesday’s update seems to have disabled the 48 hour grace period for trading loot/items between the members of a group or raid. This change was pushed straight to Live with no testing. And now it may be that the reasoning for this “fix” was to stop a low-priority “exploit”.

From Crismorn of Nagafen:

SoE tried to fix Contested Kael quest pieces from being traded between group members and thought it was so important and such a huge issue that breaking the entire ability to trade any type of dropped loot would be an acceptable loss, or they [did] just another half job as per usual.

Considering that Contested Kael Drakkel has been open for nearly 9 months and few people visit it these days except for Primal Velium Shards to get adornments, it’s odd that action is being taken now. You can see the update note that tells only half the story:

Kael Drakkel
All dropped quest items that were previously flagged no-trade now consume the dropped quest item once the quest has been taken.

The problem with such an unannounced change is that many raid guilds have migrated to running the zone and then splitting up and deciding loot AFTER the raid. With this change, guild leaders are now stuck holding all the loot from the entire raid and are unable to trade it. Customer Service reps are going to be awfully busy with Petitions.

UPDATE on November 4th from Customer Service Top Issues:

The recent update may have broke the ability to trade with those present at the kill for 48 hours.   Customer Service is happy to move the item to the  intended recipient providing it’s petitioned within those 48 hours, is not attuned and both were present for the kill.  This will be addressed in an upcoming hotfix.

Smokejumper responded to a thread from nine days ago on the EQ2 Forums asking for a clear answer to what exactly is Age of Discovery.  He basically said what we already knew about the content included in Age of Discovery.  Reading through it and some of his follow up posts, it looks as though the “expansion” will be coming out near the end of November but price and distribution information won’t be released until next week by the marketing folks.
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Here are your update notes for today, October 12, 2011:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

All Drunder x4 raid zones

• Sullon’s Spire, Tallon’s Stronghold, and Vallon’s Tower: The named boss NPCs do less damage and have slightly lower health.

Tallon’s Stronghold x4 raid zone [non-challenge]

• The banners that spawn during the Tyrax Terrolus fight now have less health.

Today’s update removes the need for Critical Mitigation from Velious overland zones, as well as Kael Drakkel: Throne of Storms and the Temple of Rallos Zek (non-challenge). From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Sullon, Tallon and Vallon x4 raid zones (challenge versions)

• Many of the adds in the boss encounters now have reduced health.

Sullon, Tallon and Vallon x4 raid zones (non-challenge versions)

• In the non-challenge instances of these raid zones NPC bosses now have less health and do somewhat less damage with their melee attacks and spells.

Temple of Rallos Zek: Foundations of Stone [Challenge]

• The damage from the breath weapons that the Statue of Rallos Zek uses is easier to mitigate. The statue of Rallos zek will wait a couple of seconds after it says its text before casting retaliation of zek on itself.

Tallon’s Stronghold [Challenge]

• General Aakita and Utehk have less maximum health.

Great Divide and Eastern Wastes

• Critbonus has been removed from all overland mobs. Critical mitigation is no longer required to survive.

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Here are your update notes for today, September 20th, 2011:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Fortress of Drunder: Citadel of V’uul (x2)

• Overall health of trash and boss encounters has been lowered.

PLAYER HOUSING

• Added a unique house ID number to saved house layout files. This can be used to identify a file from one house that has the same zone as another house.
• NOTE: Old version 5 files should still be loadable. New saved files will be version 6 and include the unique ID.

ITEMS

• Kingdom of Sky “Cloud Mount” questline rewards have had set bonuses re-added to them. This set bonus should work with the new and old quested items. Classes that cannot acquire the specific pieces have also been removed from each item.
• Elements of War weaponry should now have more lenient class restrictions.
• Son of Blades and Spreading Shadows should proc correctly.
• Brock’s Thermal Shocker is attainable in game once more. Players who have already completed the quest “Find Gingus” should be able to get the Thermal Shocker from the Shady Swashbuckler.
• The Soulshattering Band is no longer equipable by Fighters and Scouts.

QUESTS

• Quest Demonstration of Loyalty should now update properly in Nektulos Forest.

EQ2 Associate Producer Domino has started a new thread in the public Test forum regarding some changes to Pathing in EQ2. It’s not clear if these changes are intended to address the Issues With Mob Warping which we have discussed in the past.

We have made a change to the way pathing works in a few zones on Test server, and would like your feedback.Have you noticed anything different? Better or worse?

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From the EQ2 Forums:

Hello Troubadors!

We have finally completed the first draft of our Troubador revamp and would like to get your feedback on these ideas. Our primary goal is to give Troubadors more options during combat that can have a clear effect on the fight. Viewed individually, some of the changes may be considered minor, but we hope all these small and moderate changes will add up to a much more dynamic and interesting class.

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From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Plane of War

• Players may now enter the plane of war, once someone on the server has defeated all 3 demigods of war (Sullon, Vallon and Tallon Zek) in challenge mode.

Drunder x4 raid zones

• Players can now enter the challenge mode Drunder x4 raid zones without having killed the previous demi-god in challenge mode.

Sullon’s Spire x4 raid [Challenge Mode]

• Aaranae Acrimae: Her adds have less health. The rage devourer no longer casts the aoe multistrike.

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From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Kunark

• Creatures found within Kylong Plains, Kunzar Jungle, Fens of Nathsar and Jarsath Wastes are once again dropping items.

Stonebrunt Highlands

• Vreshana Kestral will no longer send characters to The Palace of Roehn Theer if they opt not to go.

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Tank and Spank vs. Complex Scripting vs. Fun

In recent years, I’ve seen numerous posts from people complaining about how the different group/raid encounters work.  A lot of the complaints say that they don’t want simple “Tank and Spank” encounters. But they also don’t want encounters with complex scripting, fail conditions, cure fests, etc. They want encounters that are fun and challenging without any of those things.

So it got me wondering, how do you do that? How do you make an encounter without complex scripting, fail conditions, cure fests, etc. without turning it into a tank and spank in the process?

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Here are your update notes for today, September 8, 2011. Of note, War Runes (red, raid-only adornments) are going Heirloom!

We’re not really sure what the removal of Crit Chance from lower level items is about — maybe it’s a typo and they meant Critical Mitigation. Considering they just went through and added Crit Bonus to thousands of items (which does nothing without its sister stat Crit Chance), removing Crit Chance would make no sense.

From the EQ2 Forums:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Silent City: The Delving Dead

• If you have completed all the collection quests for the Delving Dead, you can now find an explorer within the zone that will reward you for your efforts!

ITEMS

• Critical chance should no longer appear on items below level 80.
• Treasured items between 40 and 69 have been rebalanced.
• War Runes are now heirloom.
• Legslot items that did not have a valid appearance should now be less revealing.

QUESTS

• The Essence of Fear and the mass of iksar spirits necessary for the quest “The Name of Fear” should now be visible within the Shard of Fear.

Here are your September 7, 2011 EQ2 Patch Notes:

POPULATION / ZONE PROGRESSION

Pedestal of Sky

• Fixed the missing geometry in this zone.

Foundations of Stone [Challenge]

• The blink portion of Icy Snap AOE that the Statue of Rallos Zek casts will now only blink players a max of 2m, and will only affect players a certain distance away from the statue, not players close to it.

Sullon’s Spire x4 raid [Challenge Mode]

• Aaranae Acrimae: Her debuff to max health and mana is greatly reduced. Leechweb does less mana damage on its initial hit.

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Progression is a funny thing. Funnel players into too strict a progression path of gear, of levels, of dungeons, and you take away player choice and limit options. Provide too many options or no clear path, and you have player confusion about what they’re supposed to do next in the line of progression.

The Shadow Odyssey had a straightforward (if restricting for developers)  progression, with 3 and later 4 tiers of armor from Heroic through to x4 Raiding. This is not to mention the open-to-all Shard of Hate raid zone which had internal progression from a named encounter that almost any pickup could kill, to arguably the hardest raid mob in the game (Byzola). Sentinel’s Fate broke from the set bonuses of The Shadow Odyssey and scattered itemization throughout the zones. It also gradually increased the reliance on the Critical Mitigation survivability stat, at least in raid zones.

If Sentinel’s Fate had an overabundance of options, Destiny of Velious went the opposite way. The Velious group zones and even the overland solo zones all went on Progression lockdown, each requiring copious amounts of the Critical Mitigation survivability stat. Everything was put on a straight path with few diversions. Access quests also made a return to group dungeons, something unheard of since EQ2’s third expansion. Every Destiny of Velious raid zone has been offered in a Normal or “easy” (EM) and Challenge or “hard” (HM) mode. The reduced buff packages and easier scripts in the normal zones have allowed many guilds to participate in these raid encounters that would not normally have the gear, coordination, or skill to do so.

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