Feldon
Selected quotes from EQ2 Forums: Last summer, at Fan Faire, we discussed making some changes to the Fighter classes, in order to bring them back in line with our original vision, where all fighters manage their own aggro, instead of relying on other group members to channel them some hate. We released the first part of these changes last year, and placed the second group of them out on our Test Server several weeks ago. The response has been tremendous, on both sides of the coin. The whole team has been taking feedback from you, both from our in-game...
Month: January 2009
UPDATE: I have stricken out all parts of the strategy which are no longer applicable as of July 14th hotfix. Venril Sathir, leader of the Sathirians, will challenge us in ways we have not had to deal with before. Venril Sathir is not a DPS fight. Venril Sathir does not hit very hard or require a lot of healing. Venril is just a totally different kind of fight than most of us have ever had to deal with before. What Venril Sathir does is require intense concentration by each and every player on what is going on with your...
This comes to us from EQ2Traders. As we mentioned last week, GU51 is getting a new HEIRLOOM tag. There were theories that this might be applied to The Proof in the Pudding quest combines (Master Sage/Jeweler/Woodworker/Carpenter/Armorer/etc.). We now have confirmation that this will in fact be the case. If you have a level 80 sage and level 80 carpenter and both are on (or have completed) the quest, you’ll be able to make the combine for your alt, put it in the shared bank, log out, log in, claim it, and update your quest. What we did not know...
Today (Jan 27th) at 3pm PST is Aeralik’s GU51 playtest over on the Test Server. This is the second one of these hate/agro playtests with developer involvement. These changes are espected to go live February 3rd according to this missive by Kiara: The estimated date for GU #51, Lucan’s Art of War, to go to the live servers is Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009.
Kander slipped an interesting comment into the raging TSO Stinks topic: FYI: Stay tuned for the Shard of the Day solo quest, with some additional solo content. Cannot say more, but keep your eyes peeled for GU52. The current plan is that it will take a time investment similar to that of running an entire instance. So there you have it folks, while people have found a variety of more or less legitimate ways (which not everyone else approved of) to load up on Void Shards, now there is going to be an official way to get 1 shard...
Looks like substantial changes are being made to agro control and hate generation on the Test server in response to the Topic I linked here. Aeralik has hosted one play test and is expected to host a second one tomorrow. Time will tell which classes benefit the most, which ones are the losers in all these changes, and whether this will really rewrite the book on tanking in EQ2.
The complaints about GU51 are rolling in. Even the biggest fanboys who usually cannot find fault with any of the EQ2 team’s well-intentioned changes are not happy with what seems to most to be a rushed, massive change to something that has taken 4 years to develop in its current form. The issue that many are bringing up is not only have fighter stances and taunts been changed dramatically, but most Hate transfer from Swashies, Assassin, Coercers, Rangers, and most other classes have been reduced dramatically or eliminated. It would probably have been wiser to make all the taunt...
Originally posted on EQ2 Forums (Heirloom Flagging) Looks like SoE have been listening to the overwhelming feedback from many gamers feel that the NO TRADE flag has been overused in The Shadow Odyssey. You’ll recall that TSO offers 20 closed (instance) dungeons and no open (contested) dungeons. As a result, all of the LEGENDARY and FABLED items that drop in these popular zones cannot be traded, even amongst character alts of the same account. This also includes the much vaunted Void Shards used to buy special Legendary armor. In a future update, some items will be changing tags from...
From WorthPlaying Sony Online Entertainment has signed a distribution agreement with Valve to bring its MMO titles to Steam, starting with the EverQuest and EverQuest II collections, as well as Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Pirates of the Burning Sea. “We are always looking for additional ways to introduce our great catalog of games to new audiences. It’s hard to think of a larger group of PC gamers interested in multiplayer games than those connecting to Steam,” said John Smedley, president of SOE. Inexplicably, old versions of EQ and EQ2 are being offered through Steam as well. Users have...
I was really surprised to see this item linked in open chat. Bjorn’s Whistle Summons Bjorn, Elder of the Western Wastes FABLED LORE NO TRADE Applies Summon Bjorn when Activated. Summons a mount to ride that increases your speed by 70% If level 80 or higher Increases Heal Crit Bonus of caster by 1.0% Increases Heal Crit Chance of caster by 3.0% Increases Max Power of caster by 350. \aITEM -329826907 573012519:Bjorn’s Whistle\/a DROPPED BY Gynok in Tomb of the Mad Crusader. There is also a Fighter bear whistle that drops from Anasthi Sul in Palace of the Ancient...
The fighter rebalance in GU51 is coming, whether we want it or not. There is a lot of “The Sky is Falling” responses about it both Pro and Con. Here are some useful quotes: Originally posted by Aeralik: Prior to this change, tanks relied heavily on hate transfers and hate gain/hate reduction while dpsing to gain aggro. Now the emphasis is more on the tank achieving this with their abilities… Originally posted by Flaye: NOBODY should be getting a “set it & forget it” hate transfer, if we’re ALL supposed to be playing more intelligently, paying more attention, &...
As scheduled, the Test Update #51 notes have been posted. Substantial changes to Tanking and Hate Generation are included. Test Update #51 is promised to run on the test server for 3+ weeks to allow adequate time for feedback. GAMEPLAY Taunts and detaunts can now critical similar to how melee and spell criticals work. Threat output and hate position changes will now be displayed to the chat windows. You can find it under Combat in the Hate Adjustment category. Hate gain mods will no longer affect taunt adjustments. Area of effect spells and combat arts will no longer spread...
According to Kirstie, Game Update #51 will be coming to the Test Servers on or around January 7th. [link] What should we expect in GU51? Here are some quotes from Aeralik: The focus of part 2 is looking at the different ways players gain ( or lose ) hate and putting more emphasis on player responsibility. You will likely see the numbers scale up on taunts a lot and hopefully fighters will start to look more at their threat per second while tanking and less so on the raw dps output we see now. With the changes offensive and...