Feldon 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.
Elements of War [Heroic]
- Bosses in Elements of War are now immune to those with revive sickness.
Chelsith
- Creatures that stopped dropping items should once again be dropping loot.
The following zones no longer require critical mitigation to survive:
- Iceshard Keep Heroic
- Tower of Frozen Shadow: Shadowed Corridors
- Tower of Frozen Shadow: Umbral Halls
- Tower of Frozen Shadow: Haunt of Syl’Tor
- Forgotten Pools
- Hold of Rime: The Ascent
- Hold of Rime: The Fortress Spire
- Crystal Caverns: Collapse
TRADESKILLS
- Tradeskilled cloaks have had their original appearances restored.
- Power on Mastercrafted items has been bumped up some.
ITEMS
- The Talisman of the Ethernauts should once again allow the wearer to see hidden collectibles.
- Added wand drops to Velious raid/heroic dungeons.
- Mages and priests should now start with a wand.
- Gathered Orbs should once again be able to be added to the Gathered Orbs collection.
- A few collectible charms out of Lavastorm should be collectible once more.
- A few low level charms should be equipable once more.
- Charms that lost their equip slots should have them again.
QUESTS
- Quest rewards for the quest “Beardback’s Hit List” have been moved to the quest “The Ember Hive”.
- The Avatar of Valor in the quest “The Trials of the Truthbringer” should now present much more of a challenge!
- The charm rewards for the quest “The Fallen Swords: All Roads Lead To…” are now properly No Trade.
- Blood of Decorin Bonewing: The Blood of Decorin Bonewing should now properly remove itself from your inventory.
ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT
- Players below level 85 can no longer purchase Alternate Advancements in the Heroic Tree.
I’m a little disappointed at the changes to the DoV heroic zones, but the rest is pretty much just bug fixes and expanding upon the GU61 changes. It’ll be… interesting to see PUGlings trying to make it in ISK – crit mit or not, it’s still not a zone you can half-retarded button-mash through in PQ/quested gear.
I don’t know, I think a lot of the ‘difficulty’ of Keep was that it was the first significant crit mit check. “Dude, we cleared Ascent and Pools. We RULE! These DoV instances aren’t so hard. Let’s go spank Keep!”. SPLAT!
Now it will just become “Dude, we cleared Keep! We RULE! These Keal instances aren’t so hard. Let’s go spank Temple!” DOUBLE-SPLAT!!
At least raid wands are coming. Maybe spell attack will be worth it since they can get a wand worth using.
I willnever raid again HMin an expansion since they will just nerf it anyway
Taking crit mit ouf of those instances, well then you might as well remove crit mit from the overland zones as well.
I don’t understand the need to nerf those instances they were already semi-easy to moderate to run, and were very surviable if you had pq gear.
I never understood the idea of needing crit mit for the overland zones and the easy zones. I think it is fine for the KD and harder zones. I didnt do the tower zones. I didnt like the loot from them.
I agree Iset. There was some progression there at least, and it was something fairly easy to attain to begin with. PQ gear alone got you thru the majority of these instances. IMHO the only thing this change does is benifit those that, for whatever reason didnt/couldnt run a couple pqs. So now they skip right to rygorr. Which means even less need to run pqs. Which means the death of the much hyped pqs. So wtg, you’ve just pretty much negated a huge game aspect you spent so long implementing and fixing.
Meh, crit mit was a misbegotten mechanic to begin with. Remember, they tried the whole ‘mobs that crit’ thing once before, long ago. It went…poorly.
I’m convinced they’re just making it up as they go along now. ProTip: Adding a new level of Super Saiyan–er, loot tier is no substitute for good design.
This entire xpac was devoted to the need to have crit mit, so yes its like they have no clue what direction they want to take the game. Now I know you really did not need crit mit for SF but it was needed for Velious, now all the easy mode instances have it removed. You have to go why?
I personally don’t mind the use of crit mit as a progression tool. I wouldn’t even mind it being a hard check. At the begining of each fight have it insta kill anyone that doesn’t meet the min zone crit mit. If they want to make the first 8 zones easier, fine. Lower the cm needed instead of removing it.
Instead of teirs, have every instance have a progressively higher cm check. That way there is at least some progression there. You can pretty much do instance A from the start. Little bit of work and you can now do A and B. Little more work and you’ve got C ‘unlocked’. You have several options you can use to progress….quest gear, pqs, solo shard, and instance grinding. It adds back the constant feeling of always being thiiiiiiiiis close to the next achievement, something EQ used to have in abundance and the main reason it was once dubbed EverCrack…there was ALWAYS a new achivement right around the corner, soooooo close, making you want to continuasly play.
I think they should do away with crit mit in whole game. The game was best suited for players helping players like in the beginning. Now, it is very much so an us vs them or complete raiders playground. This is a good move. If someone (that has a life, wife, work and kids) who manages to spend 2-3hrs a day on a game, they should be able to see at least 70% of the content of that game. Especially since they CONTINUALLY pay for it. I remember when you could tank,, with skill mind you, tank Darathar with Ebon armor. Now,, the game relied more on skill then just insta splat and having to provide a friggin resume every time you want a group. This game is finally, after 3 years, starting to move in the right direction again! A skilled player with ornate armor could raid (just like in Deathtoll back in the day). As the game is NOW even after 6 months of 2-3hours a day doing the same instances over and over again, people just loose interested. finally they are at least opening things up a bit
PLEASE PLEASE DEVS… get rid of crit mit. Open the game up for all not just a raiders playground!
Did they ever give a reason for why they are removing the crit mit? I’d like to see it. They could have spent that time on all the broken gear out there instead of trying to fix something that isn’t broken.
Why remove the cm?? It forced people to actually earn the shards that they needed to GET the yellow adorns! And actually prove to others that they knew what they are doing. This tactic was learned in SF!!
Why make the game so dam easy, after only a couple of months?? Are you deliberately making this game WoW??
This game was suppose to make players actually T H I N K !
From what I read above, it sound like those who wanted the cm removed, are the solo players, who have:
1.) not earned the max AA,
2.) refuse to adorn their gear,
3.) refuse to check their respective class changes frequently
4.) refuse to play with others, to learn HOW their class reacts with other classes,
5.) have multiple toons, playing at the same time
6.) have not re-speced themselves, since probably SF
And if you inspect these players SOE, and research their history, you will probably find out that they have at least 4 of the 6 reasons above.
I kinda fail to see why making easy instances any easier will improve things. Slight crit mit adjustments of the harder stuff would have solved the problem of accessibility much better.
As it is now you can play 2-3 hours a WEEK and still see 90% of the game. So I don’t get the whole “us vs them” argument at all. Hell, with SLR (which I’d personally like done away with) you can spend a few hours a week and even be raid geared.
This whole “I pay for the game same as they do so I should be able to see everything too!!” mentality is a huge part of why everyone gets so bored with the game imo.
How bout we do this. Let’s get rid of all access requirements and set mob stats so that any zone can be done in any gear equal to or better than crafted. 2 weeks later, what the hell ya gonna have left to do? Congrats, your need for instant and total satisfaction has made the game pointless.
Like I said earlier EQ1 did it best because there was ALWAYS a new reward just within reach. And that game was hard. Making everything easier and easier just cause players want everything NOW may pacify the masses short term, but long term playability takes a huge hit.
Don’t make it easier….make it harder. And I agree, don’t waste time fixing the non issues when there is so much currently broken that needs attention.
I don’t care about the crit mit requirements… they were not what was stopping my progression as a small group. Instead, it’s the proliferation of scripting into group content (as in TSO and SF), which makes progression a huge PITA for small groups or duos unless significantly overpowered for the content.
“Instead, it’s the proliferation of scripting into group content (as in TSO and SF), which makes progression a huge PITA for small groups or duos unless significantly overpowered for the content.”
Ok, I’ll admit it. I almost took this for a serious post. Nice one.
i cant stand systems like this, requiring a certain ammount of a stat to even attempt something. its poor sloppy progrmaming. itemization has gone completely out the window as they are just throwing stats at us now so they slap a “you need to be this tall to ride” bs on what they consider the harder zones. EQ1 was about skill, not just time invested, and this game is going the exact opposite. mindless stupid easy zones that you are forced to farm to be able to even attempt the others.
if i am a skilled player that knows my class in and out, and what my role is, why can i not even attempt something “harder”? if i step foot in those zones without the CM requirement there is nothing that my skills, or years of experience can do to survive.
Well said Froak!!!
I see your point Froak, but the fact is it always has been stat based. Either hps, resists, dps, mitigation, etc. My idea of using crit mit as a hard indicator is more for a means of progression, instead of flagging or access quests.
I’m all for skill being the underlying ‘stat’. That’s my whole argument tbh. My idea of how to use crit mit is to make it the overriding indicator of what zones are possible. In other words, the min crit mit for each zone is just that…the min. Ideally that would mean that it would indicate that at zone min you are probably geared enough (other statwise) to handle the zone…but just barely and only if your are extremely skilled. If you don’t meet the min value then there is no way you’d be able to do the zone, no matter how skilled, even if you could try. It just sets an entrance level for you to rely on.
Its already there to some degree. My opinion is it needs to be refined and used to its max potential. Its still way too easy for a complete moron, as far as skill goes, to be carried thru most zones by others. Make it harder. Make it so it takes a full 6 man group of skilled players to progress. Eq1 did it, at least up to the point I quit, so why can’t eq2?
Wow, and still no dungeon finder…
Way to exclude new people SOE, seems like they never want a new player joining the game, ever.
stat based yes, outside of raiding tho it has never been stat required. RL often causes me to be in and out of the game, sometimes for a month or more, and even tho i was behind friends/guildies slightly on gear i could keep up because i knew my class and i could play it well. now because i dont have enough crit chance/crit mit, i am useless as a healer. forcing me to grind out a few “beginner” zones just to catch up. its what i call artifical content. something thats not necessarily enjoyable to play but it forces you to waste time on it.
i have no issue with a low/high need for stats, thats what the game pretty much has always been – with so much stats you can complete any zone with the right makeup and people, and the better your gear the faster it goes. i just dont like a hard requirement tier system. its far too linear and borring.
There has always been a certain amount of some stat or combination of stats a group has needed to survive a zone. With crit mit it’s just not a secret anymore, doesn’t need a difficult formula and actually balances the classes. Maybe they should have just hid crit mit and led everyone to believe it was all about their skill.
Someone asked why they changed this. Here’s my opinion of why.
Many people have claimed that in order to get the gear to meet the crit mit check to clear Iceshard Keep (110% prior to this patch), you needed to do one of the following:
A) Equip the crappy gear from the earlier zones that had higher crit mit (not sure even that would get you to 110%)
B) Farm the first few nameds in Iceshard Keep for the gems to get the Ry’Gor armor
C) Buy either the gems for Ry’Gor armor or gear off someone selling loot rights in channels
D) Run the PQs and then buy crit mit adorns (PQ gear only gets you to 95%)
These same people claimed that the only reason they had to do any of these things was because SOE screwed up the loot progression in the first place. They also believed that it was silly to set up the progression so that for group zones, you had to farm the first few nameds to gear up. You rarely see things like “Iceshard Keep first few named farm group LFM. We won’t be clearing it. PST”. They believed that if a zone contains the gear you need to progress, you should be able to clear it with the gear you got in previous zones if you have the right skill. They believed that farming the first few nameds in a zone in order to progress was something that should be reserved for raid zones. Same with crit adorns.
In my opinion, SOE agreed and removed the crit mit check from Iceshard Keep and below.
(Yes, Iceshard keep can be done without having to do what I mentioned above, I did it myself, but that doesn’t change the fact that it took a bit of farming.)
But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong. 🙂
monday’s wednesday’s and fridays will be crit mit days tues thur and sat will be no crit mit days and sundays will be battle grounds on if there should be crit mit in game fair enough?
They add mechanics like “crit mit requirements” and “insanely massive power drain mechanics” and “fail conditions” imo to mob encounters because they just plain can’t figure out how to make an encounter challenging and fun without being retarded and stupid.
If I was in charge at SOE I’d fire every single one of the programmers (and the people telling them what to do) and hire people that actually know wtf they’re doing.
Fail conditions and power drain mechanics and all that can be overcome by skill (and the right classes, to some extent). Crit mit requirements that one-shot people cannot.
Any game design that forces a skilled player to sit out sucks. Even if he does only 10% of total damage being woefully undergeared (and is “carried”) he still contributes, and doesn’t hinder the group, as would a one-shotted player simply being short of crit mit. As a tank (and to a lesser extent, a healer; but here you simply take two), or not passing a DPS check as a group is another issue, there it would be reasonable to replace the undergeared player.
Originally written by Fedupwithstupid:
Having Critical Mitigation proves that you know what you’re doing? Since when?
It’s a stat and like any stat you can stock up on it. It has nothing to do with player skill. And the amounts needed for Pools, Ascent, etc. were so low that anyone could meet them in solo quest and PQ gear. Heck with the Reitemization revamp, you can stock up on Crit Mit from 80’s trash drops.
Originally written by Fedupwithstupid:
Critical Mitigation REPLACES player skill and thinking with a survival stat that you MUST have to even consider running a dungeon. In TSO and to a lesser extent SF, if you were low on Crit Mit, you could still find alternative techniques and means of survival. Maybe more debuffs, more buffs, better healing, jousting further, etc.
One of the worst things I heard from a developer after Velious was, “Why would you put anything in Yellow adornment slots other than Critical Mitigation?” Gee thanks for the choice and player customization there. I didn’t realize every level 90 player was supposed to wear 6 Crit Mit adorns.
Critical Mitigation says F*** You — No matter how good a player you are, unless you have a certain value of this stat, you will be instantly killed in this zone, no matter what, so don’t even try.
Very good points Feldon. Know just to get the Divs to read this!!!
using Crit chance to limit dps and healing in a zone and making it harder that way is better (I think) then using Crit Mit to say “Just go home since you dont stand a chance.” that is one thing that the Drunder X4’s did better then the release X4’s, if you can meet the CC of the zone you are not concerned about the CM.
The way I see it, CM is a gear check, plain and simple (ok ok…I know adorns give crit, but its primarily gear based). Crappy gear has crappy cm, decent gear has decent cm, great gear has great cm (again a disclaimer, I know that isnt ALWAYS the case, especially with the jacked itemization, but its generally true).
“This is how bad a** the mobs are in this zone. Here, we’ll even give ya a specific number on the mob so there is no guessing. If you dont have cm at least close to this, then you probably dont have gear good enough to do the mobs without either exceptional skill or exceptional luck. In other words we’re giving you a heads up that you’ll more than likely waste your time, and your groups time, by trying it and you probably need to work on advancing your character further first. And hey, to help weed out the week-old players trying to sponge off a really good group, we’ll make it somewhat of a fail condition for that player that isnt even close to the cm value.”
I really do get alot of the points others are making, and I absolutely agree there are players skilled enough to do content above their ‘stats’ level. But I also kinda think thats a small majority. The skilled players are gonna have the gear anyway more than likely (as even Feldon pointed out, even solo/pq gear gets ya thru many of the instances in debate) so thats pretty much a moot point. What cm check does more than anything, imo, is weed out the 2 week old/slacker/goofball/etc that think “Wowz!! That Keal l00tz looks ph4t!! Hey, theres a keal group lfm! Heck yeah I’ll join. Hmmmm….now wheres Keal? Ive only been to Gfay, Crush, Clefts, and Seb. hmmmmm..’Hey…can I get a CoVs?’ SWEET!!” GROUPFAIL!!!!!!! lol
FWIW, Im a mainly solo player, in a very casual family guild thats just now playing around with ToFS x2, and if ya ask anyone that knows me I am sure you’ll find I am not the most overly skilled player around. In other words, Im not some leet raider trying to keep the masses down.
Course, thats just my 2 coppers worth. Spend as ya like.