Vengeance

It no longer affects CC spell durations. That bites, sucks and blows all at the same time. =(

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Dark Age of Camelot

Test Version 1.70z Release Notes

June 8, 2004

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TEST SERVER CHANGES

- All relics have been reset to their home relic temples for testing.

- We have set the /level command to 29 to facilitate testing in Braemar, the level 25-29 Battleground.

NEW THINGS AND BUG FIXES

- (Pendragon Only) Sure Shot and Longshot effect icons are properly cleared when activating another archery ability.

- When an offensive proc buff expires, it no longer clears shapechanges.

- You can no longer cast a fatigue heal on yourself if you have over 90% fatigue.

NEW FRONTIERS

- All characters have been stripped of their realm abilities and their points refunded upon login.

- Players or pets targeting player enemies (or player pets) should now follow line of sight rules which Player to Player combat currently follows.

- Players who log out in upgraded keeps and log back in after they have been downgraded will no longer appear in the air or at an invalid location.

- If a player dies on an upgraded keep and leaves the region and then the keep is downgraded, their tombstone will now be lowered to the new height when they re-enter the region.

- When repairing a door or other object which comes under attack, the timer dialog should now disappear when your repair is cancelled.

- Neutral items, such as boats and siege, will no longer report that they are from an enemy realm when targetted on the PvE server.

New Frontiers Respecs

- As part of New Frontiers, we are providing players with the ability to obtain a full realm ability respec at a very low cost (10 silver). We introduce this system for testing on Pendragon today. Players wishing to respec their realm abilities can visit the merchants set up specifically for this purpose and purchase special respec stones - Sophist's Realmstone. **These special stones will only be available for one week on the live servers, then they will disappear.** During the time these new stones are available, the Respec NPCs will temporarily not accept the old realm stones. Once the merchants are gone, the Respec NPCs will once again accept the old stones. These are the merchants that will be selling the new, temporary respec stones:

Albion - Brandonne Chauncy in Camelot
Midgard - Frumdall Helmer in Jordheim
Hibernia - Gwinna Galbrath in Tir na Nog

- Please note that in order to use these stones, you must turn them in to the appropriate Respec NPC and then type '/respec realm' in front of your class trainer. The NPCs that accept these respec stones are listed below.

Albion - Paiton Hazlett in Camelot
Midgard - Haili in Jordheim
Hibernia - Bretta in Tir na Nog

Realm Ability Changes and Fixes

- The Toughness realm ability now correctly adds hit points to the Necromancer pet when summoning.

- Mastery of Concentration now correctly prevents the Necromancer's pet from being interrupted when the shade has Mastery of Concentration up.

- Mastery of Concentration debuffs necromancer pet spell effectiveness if active.

- The Cleric's unique realm ability, Retribution of the Faithful, now stacks with the Trial By Fire spell line.

- Realm abilities (such as Avoidance of Magic) no longer reduce the duration of crowd control spells (snare, stun, and mesmerize).

- The following realm abilities have been limited to characters that are level 40 and above. If the character is below level 40, the realm ability will not be shown in the class trainer's list.

Vehement Renewal
Ameliorating Melodies
Anger of the Gods
Wrath of Champions
Volcanic Pillar
Decimation Trap
Negative Maelstrom
Thornweed Field
Ichor of the Deep
Juggernaut
Toughness
Mastery of Focus
Divine Intervention

- You can no longer begin a ranged attack while Disarmed.

- The delve for the Assassinate realm ability now word wraps correctly.

Siege Changes

- Ram helpers can now exit a ram by clicking on the release button.

- Switching a catapult from special ammo back to default ammo should properly update the image of the ammo in the catapult.

- Targets hit by duration effects from siege equipment (such as the vial of noxious vapors) should no longer receive an odd description with "espec" at the end.

- Siege weapons created in Battleground zones will now automatically have their levels scaled down appropriately to make them attackable to players of that zone.

- The hitpoints on the cauldron of boiling oil have been reduced.

- Siegecraft - The weights of the diminutive ballista apparatus, gimbal, torsion cables, spring arms, and ballista trigger have been reduced.

CLASSIC CAMELOT WORLD NOTES

Respecs

- All classes in all realms now have access to the free full respec at level 5. Once you have been granted the respec by your trainer, please type /respec for information on how to use it.

Item Notes

- The Gloves of the Malignant and the Boots of the Malignant in Midgard are now set to the correct material.

TRIALS OF ATLANTIS WORLD NOTES

New Artifacts

- (Pendragon Only) The researchers, apprentices, and Callia the sphinx will now really give out the information about the new artifacts. Information about the encounters can be heard from Callia as well as Scholar Ashton (Albion), Loremistress Brigha (Midgard), and Sage Lora (Hibernia). Information about the scrolls can be found on the following apprentices: Aegan (Albion), Yian (Midgard), and Garrad (Hibernia).

Item Notes

- The correct spells are now attached to the Astral Cloak of Heroes and the Astral Cloak of Whispers.

Having AoM reduce castable CC made about as much sense as PD reducing the duration of melee stuns and snares. I still think it's a great RA that most tanks will get level 5 in (hence why I'm going for MoM5).

Of course, it does make Determination pointless.

Though if I had to choose, I'd have PD reduce melee snares and stuns (not including poisons), and AoM reduce Cast-ed CC. Just get rid of Det totally.

Whether it made sense or not depends on your point of view, I suppose. This was not the incentive I was looking for to make me play my armsman again. Guess I'll stick with the minstrel for a bit.

"This was not the incentive I was looking for to make me play my armsman again."

Wait a minute. If you add capped resists to tier 2 resist buffs plus AoM 5, you're sitting on a total reduction of 70% (!) to all magic damage that's active all the time. My sorc's lifetap caps at 512 damage so, assuming I could cap on you with 0 resists, that'd mean you're now taking 153 damage per nuke with that setup. And you want this to affect my CC as well?

Are we talking about caster damage now? I didn't know that casters weren't doing enough damage. Besides, we were talking about CC spells and not damage.

CC spells will have a greater effect than they did before NF. I can see why you like this change. Can you see why I don't?

I told you guys this was coming, the intent of the RA was always to reduce magic damage and not CC(that's determination). It also reduces debuff duration which is why I think it's such a good RA to buy.

If they didn't do this, there would be no point to determination RA since AoM would be determination, plus reduce nuke/dot damage.

It will be interesting to see the net effects of this. If you had a full resist tank with aom5 against a MoM5 debuff caster, what would the fight look like assuming the tank was beating on someone else? 1 on 1 is irrelevant.

I'm trying to make the arguement that the RA is powerful enough as it is; it doesn't need to reduce CC also.

I don't understand why CC will be more powerful in NF? Did you forget about the free 25% CC reduction all non-magical tanks get at level 35? Or the fact that charge 3 is on a 1 minute timer and makes you completely immune to every type of CC? Or how about the fact all realms have access to SoS now? Or that everyone can buy determination? Or how about the reduced timer on purge?

Well, group purge for one thing. But also because determination in general is more expensive and does less for the cost; I think we'll see more purge and less det, which in general is probably a boost for CC. It certainly gives sorcs a better deal since you can mezz then root and have at least one of them work for more than a few seconds.

just cancel your accounts and we can start a d2 clan or something lol

I definatly need something to reduce the effect of CC.  As it is, I get mezz/rooted, then aoe nuked, 2 seconds later i'm dead.  All this when i start off with full hp.  

I don't know about the rest of you, but it seems CC and the aoe nukes do enough dmg as it is.

Determination has been nerfed. As it is now I can spend 22 points and get 75% reduction to cc duration. With NF I can spend 34 points and get a 34% reduction duration. Add in Stoicism and that brings us to 59%. It costs more in NF and is less effective. That change alone is making CC spells more effective. Do you disagree with that? As an Armsman you pretty much need Determination.

Charge - I don't believe Armsmen get charge, unless they changed something recently that I'm not aware of. In any case, 30 points for Charge3 and with Det5 that's 64 points which puts you at RR 7L4. Only high RR tanks will be getting both of those.

Purge - to get the insta effect you have to spend 15 points. It's 5 more points I have to spend than I do currently, but to use it every 15 minutes is an equitable trade-off, so I like this change. A merc with Det5, Charge3 and Purge3 will be RR 10L4. Very few will have all 3 RA's. Even if they don't max each of these abilities they will still need high RR and alot of Realm Skill Points.

SoS being diluted and handed out certainly doesn't help Albion's CC'ers, I agree with you on that.

As far as the added classes that get Determination, not many will be buying into level 5, but I do see some spending a few points in it. Axe may care to comment on whether Paladins will be buying Determination.

And back to AoM: The damage reduction is negated by MoM. Personally, as it stands now I simply can't afford it, but until I can afford, casters will be nuking me into the ground because it is a must have RA for them. Another 20k realm points and I'll be able to get Det5 and that's it. No purge, no IP. I'd probably forego IP and get Purge2, so I'll need 15 more points.

Get a couple realm ranks you say? It was long road just to get to RR4L3. No one wants an armsman until they have high Det, so I struggled in crappy pick up groups until I finally did get Det to a high level. It was frustrating. Now I have to gain more realm ranks to get to where I am now, only I won't be able to get to where I am now because Det has been nerfed. And all the while where I'm trying to gain RR's, I'm cc'd for longer periods.

Have you noticed we never have any tanks in our guild groups? They're not much fun until you have a few realm ranks under your belt. NF will make it harder for tanks to get those few realm ranks.

The only thing that's been nerfed is determination and there were other changes that offset it. Can you honestly say it was fair that tanks could pretty much be immune to CC for 22 points?

"Get a couple realm ranks you say? It was long road just to get to RR4L3"

My sorc is only RR4L3 and guess what I have to waste all my points on? Add in to that the fact that I'm generally the first (and sometimes the only) person to die. RPs aren't exactly rolling in for us CC'ers either.

"And all the while where I'm trying to gain RR's, I'm cc'd for longer periods. "

Well last I checked, you still get full RPs while CC'd but you don't get them while dead.

"The only thing that's been nerfed is determination and there were other changes that offset it."

Not for my Armsman. Increased cost and decreased effectiveness. I hope you're not referring to Snapshot. =)

"Can you honestly say it was fair that tanks could pretty much be immune to CC for 22 points?"

'Immune' is an exaggeration. I have never been immune. Determination is our defense against CC spells. 'Fair' is a matter of perspective. I can honestly say I remember when there was no Determination. Mez'd full duration; group picked off one by one.

With NF's version of Det5 on a main tank, your 80 second single-target mez will last 32.8 seconds; the sorc's spec 44 aoe mez will last about 30 seconds; your single-target root will last for 30 seconds. Can a group's support be killed in 30 seconds? Hell yeah it can.

"RPs aren't exactly rolling in for us CC'ers either."

Um, it took me almost 9 months of pickup groups, when I could get a group, to get to 4L3. How long did it take you? The thing is, you were an effective group member at 50 in your epic. I was not effective until I got a few levels of Det and on top of that a Sorc can get a group where a low realm rank tank has problems.

"Well last I checked, you still get full RPs while CC'd but you don't get them while dead."

You miss the point entirely. Armsman are ineffective tanks until they get a few levels of determination. So, in NF my effectiveness is reduced regarding CC spells because of the Det nerf, I won't have IP or Purge and on top of that I need 3 more realm ranks to offset the MoM that every caster will be getting. So, between now and 3 more realm ranks, I'm caster fodder. No thanks.

Here's a link to a thread on the Fighter Boards. Bitaken chimes in and says he's going to be playing his cleric. A lot of tanks feel the same way I do.

http://vnboards.ign.com/Albion_Fighter_Professions/b20902/70191270/p1/

I can see how NF is going to be a boon to casters. Can you see why many players are shelving their tanks?

snapshot pwns you!

(Edited by Lifesbane at 10:10 pm on June 10, 2004)

How's that Aug Healer working out, LB?

I think the removal of Group Purge will help out vs. Hibs a little bit since you'll actually be able to CC them during fights now.  I think we're a little more screwed against Mids now, but what's new, lol.

tons of fun cao. he's 49.7 right now and im just questing to get him to 50, as well as get gear for his SC. all in all ive found mid to be a lot of fun to play, partially because its new (things get old in albland after 3 years) but more importantly because its so easy to field a decend group in mid:
get a healer (not too hard) and a shaman (or someone's shambot, which everyone has) and you have 6 (or 7) slots to fill with anything you want - and it'll work.

healer has CC (AE mez and AE stun), basebuffs, crack, heals (and if your aug like me, runspeed, haste, celerity).
shammy has spec buffs, AE root, end regen, friggs (like a heal over time kind of, good for bots PLing lowbees because it doesnt take xp), backup heals, damage add, damage shield, desease, bolt, DD, DOT.

right there you have all the support you need in a group, aswell as some offensive spells on the shaman and celerity pwns for tanks.

what alb group can have 6 tanks and still be fully functional? or 6 supp SM's (pbae) for that matter...AE stun pwns.

if anyone wants to play over there a little for fun i'd be happy to roll a new toon and play with ya, and i know Dreadless (kirins and my guild over there) has an open invite for anyone in vengeance...there good peeps, even if there all canadian ;)

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(Edited by Lifesbane at 2:27 pm on June 11, 2004)