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Dark Age of Camelot
Test Version 1.62b Release Notes
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
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We realize that this will be one of the more controversial test patches that have been put on Pendragon. We are reducing the damage of Left Axe combat styles, which will lessen the damage done by Berserkers and Shadowblades ("Shadowzerks" - who rely on Left Axe damage) when they use those styles. Because of a series of past changes to the class, an imbalance was introduced where these combat styles do far, far too much damage. We do not make this change lightly. In general, we try to find ways around directly reducing the damage done by specific classes by introducing counters usable by other classes, but in this case the imbalance is just too great. We are seeing an RvR situation where the battlefield is being increasingly dominated by Berserkers and Shadowzerks who are using this increased damage to take over battles. As part of our ongoing focus to balance classes in RvR, we have to take steps to ensure that one ability (Left Axe) does not totally overwhelm every other class.
Also in 1.62b, we are taking steps to enhance Blademasters and Mercenaries, which addresses a longstanding set of complaints from players of those two classes. Additionally, we are making more tweaks and updates to Hibernia; in this case opening up some new class/race combos.
In future 1.62 test patches, we still plan to address some Archer issues, as well as possibly some more Hibernia spellcasting/hybrid class tweaks. Stay tuned to a future 1.62 test patch note for details.
Sodom: "some Archer issues?" You mean like the fact that their classes are universally acknowledged as being, in a word, shitty?[/color]
As always, the changes in these notes are for Pendragon testing, and we'll make tweaks and adjustments to them as appropriate.
THE LIGHT TANK EXPLAINED
Sodom: Or, How We Fucked Up[/color]
There's been a lot of discussion, controversy, and misunderstanding about light tanks in Dark Age of Camelot. One of the main requests we get is an explanation for what purpose a light tank serves in a group (both in PvE and RvR). In our definition, light tanks are Blademasters, Mercenaries, and Berserkers. There is a fuzzy line in some places (the Savage can also be considered a light tank) but for the purposes of this discussion, we're only talking about Blademasters, Mercenaries, and Berserkers.
The purpose the light tank was designed for was to be a damage dealer, but not have much defense. Because of this, they should not be a good one-on-one class, but they should be able to do a great amount of damage when not holding aggression from an enemy player or monster.
A way of illustrating this is that a Blademaster should not be able to go head to head (one on one) with an Armsman or Warrior (primary tank) and reliably win. However, a Blademaster and a Hero working together should be much more effective in dealing damage than two Heroes working together. The same holds true for the other Realms - A Mercenary should not be able to take on a Warrior head to head and win reliably, but a Mercenary/Armsman team should be quite effective. This is why the primary combat style chains for these light tanks are positional in nature - they assume that someone else is holding a monster or enemy player's aggression.
From reading this description, everyone familiar with these three classes will know that they deviate from the design goal in several different points. Berserkers do more damage, as they can (usually) go head to head with a same-level primary tank from an enemy realm and win. Those who play Blademasters and Mercenaries know that in RvR they can not only not go head-to-head with an enemy tank, but they are not even as effective as intended in tandem with another primary tank - two Armsmen or two Heroes are more effective than working with their Realm's light tank.
Sodom: It took you a whole year to realize this?[/color]
In light of this, we are making some changes in 1.62b to even the playing field. Mercenaries and Blademasters do less damage than they should, so in this update (1.62b), we are increasing substantially the bleed damage on their high-spec level styles that have a bleed component, as well increasing the damage on some other styles. In addition, we're making some changes to Blademaster and Mercenary special abilities in this version - check out the "Class Updates" section below, for more details.
Sodom: From what I've heard, they're upping the initially tic of bleed damage for high-end styles from 5 damage to a whopping 7. Whee![/color]
The Berserker being overpowered comes from the fact that Left Axe combat styles do too much damage overall, which makes them - as well as "Shadowzerks" - do more damage than they should. So, Left Axe style damage is being reduced. Even with the Left Axe reduction in damage, the Berserker will still be able to take on an enemy primary tank and win more often than not - which is a departure from the light tank concept, but is essential in keeping the spirit of the class that is familiar to those players who are longtime Left Axe users.
Sodom: Translation - Berzerkers are still the easiest tanks to play! Please don't cancel your accounts, fuckwits![/color]
When 1.62 goes live, we will offer a free single line respec to all Berserkers and Shadowblades because of the changes to Left Axe style damage.
Sodom: But no respecs for Mercs and BMs to take advantage of the "improved" DW & CD styles? Ooh, that's a mistake.[/color]
MERCENARY AND BLADEMASTER UPDATES
Sodom: Where, rather than fixing the DW and CD styles in general, so they scale based on the base class you've chosen, we fix a few style chains based on your profession. See definition: half-assed.[/color]
Blademaster Changes
- The Blademaster Triple Wield special ability has been updated. It is now on a 7 minute re-use timer (it was previously set to 30 minutes). It now will stack properly with other damage adds - it will always increase damage no matter what other buffs or damage adds are currently affecting the Blademaster. Triple Wield also now makes Blademasters immune to critical melee damage.
Sodom: Hopefully, they mean while TW is running.[/color]
- The Ice Storm -> Tempest -> Supernova chain has been modified for Blademasters only (i.e. Rangers and Nightshades are not affected by this). The damage for each has been increased, and Ice Storm now has a short stun component.
- Increased bleed damage for Celtic Dual combat styles Tempest and Twin Star. This is a Blademaster ONLY change - other classes that receive Celtic Dual will not see increased bleed effects on these styles.
Mercenary Changes
- The Mercenary Dirty Tricks special ability is now on a 7 minute re-use timer (it was previously set to 30 minutes), and has changed in effect. It now activates a 30 second offensive proc effect on the Mercenary that applies a 10 second debuff on the Mercenary's target every time it is hit. This debuff gives the target a 50% chance to fumble all their melee attacks while under the debuff's effect.
Sodom: Actually, this kicks ass. It means that you'll be able to effect multiple opponents with one "cast," assuming you can A) hit multiple opponents, and B) proc on each of them. I'd like to see some hard data on the proc rate of this ability, and if it's still considered a lvl 20 "spell" for purposes of resists.[/color]
- The damage for both styles in the Flank -> Shadow's Rain combat style chain has been increased for Mercenaries only (Infiltrators are not affected).
- Increased bleed damage for Dual Wield combat styles Dark Tendrils and Dual Shadows. This is a Mercenary ONLY change - other classes that receive Dual Wield will not see increased bleed effects on these styles.
Left Axe Changes
- Reduced the damage done by Left Axe Combat Styles. This will affect both classes that can specialize in Left Axe (Berserkers and Shadowblades).
Sodom: Amen.[/color]
CLASS NOTES
- Hibernia: Celts can now be Nightshades.
Sodom: This is going to piss off a lot of NS's[/color]
- Hibernia: Elves can now be Blademasters.
Sodom: Avalonian Mercs will now have a Hib counterpart. Go skinnies![/color]
SPELL NOTES
- Increased range of the Animist Dancing Spark line to 1500.
- Changed the Shaman Minor Earth Invigoration line (fatigue regeneration buff) to take significantly fewer concentration points. This is a Pendragon-only adjustment.
Sodom: Which says to me that Mythic has acknowledged that RvR is meant to be fought only by fully-buffed toons.[/color]
ITEM NOTES
Sodom: Blah, blah, I could have clipped this useless stuff[/color]
- Shrouded Isles only: The model for the Dreaded Frost bound Fang has been changed to better reflect the area it comes from.
- Shrouded Isles only: The Mayor's Ruby Ring (Midgard) can now be equipped in the ring slot.
- Shrouded Isles only: The Griffon Slicer, Dark Weaved Vest, and Dark Weaved Leggings (Midgard) now have a proc chance set.
- Camelot Classic: Most of the boss mob loot in the frontier dungeons has been upgraded. The old stats were compared to SI's boss mob imbue points and brought up to par. The only items that were not increased were already equal to or above equivalent SI boss mob loot in bonuses. In addition, a few new items were added for the Reaver, Necromancer, Animist, Valewalker, Savage and Bonedancer.
So, using your single-line respec to put all those LA points into parry, Zut?
Poor Zut :(
At least zerks lived the high life for this long. They jacked smite clerics in late June/early July.
Berserker - 2 hits
Savage - 2 hits
Warior - 2 to 3 hits
Hib tank - 3 hits
Assassin 1 to 2 hits
Archer - 2 to 3 hits
Caster - 3 hits
Me on a mage- 30 seconds, 11 ticks of my 2 dots
Me on a tank - not going to happen unless he's solo.
I play now because there's nothing else out there worth spending my cash on.
(Edited by Malison at 8:20 am on April 24, 2003)
(btw I'm basing these on the assumption you have maxed melee/spell resists)
Berserker - 2 hits
In vendo, I can 2 shot a caster if their BT is down. If it's up, 3. Without vendo (which I rarely use on non-MoC monkey casters) it will take 4 styled attacks to put the average SC'd caster down that isn't recieving heals. After the next patch, it'll probably take my whole end bar to do it.
Savage - 2 hits
Unlike zerkers, savage damage isn't all front loaded so their initial hit that gets negated by BT doesn't hurt them that much. However their styled damage is much lower than zerkers and I think the only chance a savage has of 2 shotting you is if they get 2 quad hits in a row.
Warior - 2 to 3 hits
First hit: slam. After that it really depends on spec. Sword spec could probably kill you in 2 ragnaroks (level 50 back positional). Axe would take at least 3 because the front positional chain is slightly lower level and hammer would be about the same as Axe (only it uses the back positional chain instead).
Hib tank - 3 hits
Are we forgetting the back positional 9s stun style called "Anihilation" that all hib LW users get? I'm thinking it's closer to 2 if you ignore the BT hit. If I'm unbuffed, champs can 3 shot my zerker with this one :P
Assassin 1 to 2 hits
PF/CD must suck as a caster. Thank god I've never seriously played one beyond BG3.
Archer - 2 to 3 hits
You wanna test this sometime mal? 100g says I can't kill you in 2 crits _without_ BT up.
Caster - 3 hits
Same thing happens to everyone I think. Don't quite get why it's ok for a class with a baseline stun to do 600+ damage on ranged nukes every 2.6s but me doing 500 on a 4.0 delay axe every 7 mins is bad?
Me on a mage- 30 seconds, 11 ticks of my 2 dots
Me on a tank - not going to happen unless he's solo.
I'm curious, what's your spec Mal? It seems to me you should have at least 1/2 to 3/4 spec in body with +items and RR and that'd put your lifetaps at a very low variance. Granted they may not be the most damaging nukes in the game, they can help compliment your DoT somewhat.
Edit - Fixed some misspellings and whatnot. I'm not trying to be confrontational about this or say that you aren't unbelievable gimped, I'm just stuck in class bored out of my mind so I thought I'd post this to kill some time. :P
(Edited by Zutroy at 8:55 am on April 24, 2003)
Also, why would you use tranq -> wyvern instead of the garrote chain?
My spec is 46 matter, 28 body, 4 spirit.
My nuke does 250 damage against yellow cons, returns around 140 in life. Against a buffed opponent (which is everyone i normally see in RvR), I hit for around 125 to 140 damage. Of course, if i sit and try to cast 3 spells, im usually dead because an enemy tank, caster, sb, or archer will always go for me. So I move around dot, move dot, move and pray that i can outrun the tanks.
I wasn't counting bladeturn in the number of hits it takes to kill someone. But if i dont' know you there, say if im busy trying to cast on your ally, or running along and you jump out of stealth, the advantage of BT is pretty much gone. You can counter by saying "you should be be prepared for people to rush you" and i can say yes, i can just spend the entire fight running back towards the pk, because if you assume im not going to cast, you assume im pretty useless. Maybe i "wait" for the tank to rush me. Maybe he brings a skald/bard with him and that lone root/aoe disease i just cast did me a damn bit of good.
You can also say, target, quickcast nearsight. Hey neat trick. it goes like this when i go out in the frontier:
"hey your BT just dropped"
"me: wth"
spin around to try and find my target (f12 doesnt target last attacker if BT was up)
try to click on my target
Hit by arrow for 500+ damage
/quickcast nearsight
begin casting
nearsight lands
Hit by arrow for 500+ damage
You have been killed by archer who didn't happen to fumble or miss!
yeah, I know you guys miss like crazy. I've seen it happen. But I also know that the last few times i've gone into the frontier and an archer attacked, he DIDN'T MISS a single shot. What's worse is the hunters. they aim, summon pet on me, arrow pops bt, pet hits for 200 dmg, i nearsight them (if im lucky) his arrow hits, his pet hits, im dead. Yeah, THEY needed loving im sure.
Its like I said a long time ago. I'd rather you guys hit consistenly for 350 damage than hit 50% of the time for 700. The difference versus a cabalist would be, i get time to get the nearsight off and send pet. You guys get to know your going to do some damage to your opponent (great for group situations)
Lets face it, im just pissed. EVERYONE is gunning for the casters and the EZ RP, and most of us just have to sit and take it (not enchanters, eldrtiches, runies though) without in turn being able to earn some rp.
In case your wondering, im bored too.