Your cross-realm love: 1.62D

[Malison]

Lots and lots of stuff - read carefully. Remember, this is only a test:

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Dark Age of Camelot

Test Version 1.62d Release Notes

Thursday, May 1, 2003

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1.62d has many fixes, updates and tweaks. It has two major sections: one for Archer updates, and one for Pet Class updates. It also contains more Hibernian spell tweaks for various classes, as well as a lot of other bug fixes and balance adjustments.

NEW THINGS AND BUG FIXES

- Side Positional combat styles now will work an extra 15 degrees towards the rear of an opponent, and rear position styles work in a 60 degree arc rather than the original 90 degree standard. This change should even out the difficulty between side and rear positional combat styles, which have the same damage bonus. Please note that front positional styles are not affected by this change.

- Deaths from DOTs cast by players (including assassin poisons) after the casting player has died and released or quit will no longer result in an experience loss death.

- All Nearsight spells have had their duration reduced from 2 min to 1 min, and have the 1 minute immunity timer. This should help archers and casters to not be "blinded" for quite so long as before.

- (Classic Only) The new role-play clothes should now look correct on the Classic Client.

ARCHER NOTES

It's time to give Archer classes a bump in ability, as they have been somewhat left behind by the addition of many new abilities and spells in other classes. In version 1.62D, we attempt to bring the Archer back in line to be a fun to play class. However, it is not our intention to ever return the Archer to the sniping overpowered force that he was at Camelot's launch. These changes should make the Archer useful and fun, but not make him overpowered. Needless to say, these changes will need lots of testing on Pendragon, and we will make adjustments as necessary based on testing feedback.

By "Archer", we are referring to the Hunter, Ranger, and Scout.

Critical Shot Notes

- We've changed the way that aggression is calculated when Archers use Critical Shot against monsters. Now, aggro generated from damage done by a Critical Shot is divided among all group members of the Archer. Please note that the Archer will still get a fraction more damage than any other group member, but it will now be much easier to pull the monster off the Archer once it has been hit by a Critical Shot. This should make Archers one of the better monster "pullers" for any PvE group.

Arrows And Bladeturn

All three Archers now receive a new skill called "Penetrating Arrow", which allow them to penetrate, to some extent, Bladeturn spells. Here's the details:

- Penetrating Arrow will never go through Bladeturns (both pulsing and single-target) on the character that cast the spell. This means that a Warden who casts a bladeturn on himself will never have his own personal bladeturn penetrated.

- Bladeturns cast on group/realm mates can be pentrated. So a Hero that has a pulsing bladeturn (or single target) on him from a friendly Warden can have that bladeturn penetrated.

- Archers receive Penetrating Arrow based on their specialization in their particular Bow skill. They get Penetrating Arrow 1 at 30th spec, Penetrating Arrow 2 at 40th spec, and Penetrating Arrow 3 at 50th spec. Lower levels of PA do less damage by not fully penetrating the bladeturn. The highest level of PA does normal damage.

- Additionally, Longshot and Volley now penetrate ALL Bladeturns, regardless of who cast them.

- Please note that in this version we have made sure that self bladeturns will no longer be overwritten by other bladeturns.

Rapid Fire

The three Archers now also receive a new ability called "Rapid Fire", which allows them to release their bow shot before the normal bow timer. Here's the details:

- When an Archer has this skill, at any time after halfway through their normal bow timer they can release the shot.

- If you release the shot 75% through the normal timer, the shot (if it hits) does 75% of its normal damage. If you release 50% through the timer, you do 50% of the damage, and so forth - The faster the shot, the less damage it does.

- Rapid Fire shots takes the same endurance as a normal bow shot, but do less damage.

- Archers receive Rapid Fire 1 at 35 specialization level in their particular bow skill, and Rapid Fire 2 at spec level 45. The difference between the two is how much endurance they take - RF 2 takes less endurance than RF 1.

PET CLASS NOTES

In order to encourage pet casters to spec in their pet specialization spells, we are making many additions and tweaks to some of the pet casters in all three realms.

General Pet Notes

- You can now /face your pets.

- If you were far enough away from your pet for a long enough duration, sometimes your pet window would pick up another creature in the zone and start displaying its health. This will no longer happen - if you are too far away from your pet for too long, the pet's health meter will now disappear completely. When you move back in range of your pet, the health meter will reappear with the correct information.

Animist Changes

- Bombers now use the wisp model and will be visible at all times. Previously they used another effect that caused them to disappear in some cases.

- It is no longer be possible to summon turrets that cannot be attacked by melee attacks.

- Tangler turrets now cast increasing duration roots.

- Animists now have access to the RA Wild Minion.

- The Animist pet summoned by the Forestheart Ambusher Realm Ability have been increased to the proper amount of hitpoints for its level.

Spiritmaster/Runemaster Changes

- Added a L50 DD, Obsidian Strike, in the Darkness base list to make it more consistent with the base lists in other Realms.

Spiritmaster Changes

- Changed the Gift of the Fallen line to be realm castable with a 60 second duration. This means you can now cast it on friendly Realm members.

- Reduced casting time of the Dampen Lifeforce line to 2.5 seconds to make it consistent with other casters.

- Added a pet-only mez reduction buff, Tenacious Warrior Spirit at L35 and Indomitable Warrior Spirit at L45 in the Spirit Enhancement list, to help compensate for spirit warriors' lack of ranged attack.

35 Tenacious Warrior Spirit
45 Indomitable Warrior Spirit

- Spiritmaster pets, starting with the spirit soldier, now have a chance to take the melee attack for their controller. The chance increases up to the spirit champion. The caster must be standing close to the pet for this ability to be used.

- Added a pet-only attack speed buff to the Spirit Enhancement list.

10 Spirit of Melee
16 Spirit of Attack
21 Spirit of Combat
27 Spirit of Battle
34 Spirit of War
41 Spirit of Strife

- Added the Hinder Prey line to the Spirit Enhancement list, a pet-only offensive proc buff that gives the caster's pet a chance to ensnare a target for a short time. The speed reduction increases with higher levels, and it won't break in combat.

28 Hinder Prey
38 Snaring Blow
48 Hunter's Trap

Cabalist/Spiritmaster/Enchanter Changes

- Increased value on pet-only spec stat buffs to be equal to spec buff levels.

Cabalist Changes

- The Strengthen Golem and Hurry Golem lines should be checking the correct skill now.

- Added a line of pet-only runspeed enhancement buffs to the Vivification list.

25 Tracker Enhancement
35 Chaser Enhancement
45 Pursuer Enhancement

Enchanter Notes

- Changed Dazzling Flash line to a shout. This is an update to a change made in the 1.62 Pendragon series.

- The underhill zealot pet now will always cast the DD + debuff spell. Previously it also had a chance of casting a DD + Snare spell which was not as effective as the DD + Debuff.

- Added a pet-only buff to the Enchantment Mastery list that enhances the effectiveness of the pet's spells. Against targets higher level than the pet, this should reduce the chance of a full resist. If used against lower level targets, damage done will go up.

40 Beguiling Will
50 Insidious Will

- Added a pet-only buff to the Enchantment Mastery list that gives a chance of a self heal each time the pet is hit in melee.

29 Enchanted Armor
38 Shimmering Armor
49 Splendorous Armor

- Swapped the levels of the Enchanter Amplify Heat and Amplify Matter lines. Previously, Enchanters were doing high amounts of damage too easily by being able to debuff an extremely high level DD of the same element. With this change, Enchanters will still be able to use this strategy, but now the amount of damage they can inflict will be more variable.

New Heat Debuff
27 Amplify Heat
36 Endow Heat
49 Empower Heat

New Matter Debuff
23 Amplify Matter
33 Endow Matter
44 Empower Matter

Mentalist Changes

- Ghostly Enemy now adds undead to the list of monster types that can be charmed, and Dream Enemy can charm any type of creature.

SPELL/REALM ABILITY NOTES

- Self bladeturns will no longer be overwritten by other bladeturns.

- Changed the new Eldritch stat debuffs to be on seperate recast timers from spec debuffs. This update is to a previous 1.62 Pendragon feature.

- Increased damage on Runemaster Runes of Pain line to be commensurate with damage adds in the other realms.

- The Whip of Encouragement Realm Ability has had its reuse timer lowered to 10 minutes and
will no longer break in combat.

- The Excited Frenzy Realm Ability has had its reuse timer lowered to 10 minutes and it should properly increase a pet's attack speed.

- Strength (and strength only) debuffs and disease spells should no longer reduce a player's encumberance below their unbuffed maximum. Debuffers were using the fact that you could reduce an enemy to 0 movement speed as an effective one minute total snare with no counter, which was not the intention of strength debuff spells.

LIGHT TANK NOTES

- Increased the duration (and decreased the frequency) of the new Mercenary/Blademaster bleeds. This fix is an update to a previous 1.62 Pendragon feature. As a result, the styles now do the increased damage they were supposed to in 1.62b.

- The Dual Wield combat style Dark Tendrils is now based off Parry for Mercenaries. Formerly it was based off Evade. Please note that Infiltrators will still have Evade as the opening for this style.

- Berserker Left Axe Snowsquall, Icy Brilliance, and Aurora Borealis have had their damage slightly increased for the the Berserker (only, this change will not affect the Shadowblade). Additionally, Aurora Borealis now chains off of Icy Brilliance and has a cold-based DD proc. In a 1.62b, we increased the damage for one select chain for both Dual Wield and Celtic Dual, and now we're doing the same for Left Axe. Please note that this "increased damage" is based off the new 1.62b damage values, so it will still do less damage that it currently does in the live game, but it does more than it did in 1.62b.

CLASSIC CAMELOT WORLD NOTES

With the /level command, a system has been added to equip the newly high leveled characters with some base equipment. The following NPCs will be able to assist you in obtaining these items.

Camelot: Hadreth, Assistant Wells, Galaris Pritchard, and Lucia Pritchard.

Tir na Nog: Carraent, Aetheonyc, Rhyryn, Gwucyn, Somyr, and Caryan

Jordheim: Gair and Kelleher

Monsters: Albion: The Fallen Warriors in Barrows are now set correctly to undead monsters.

Items

- Instances where objects that began with a vowel but were prefixed by the article "a" (a orb of animation) have been corrected.

- All cloaks can now have dyes and emblems applied.

- (Pendragon Only) The Gold Etched Wine Glass (Hibernia) should now be set to the appropriate level.

- Future drops of the Sleeves of Night Fire (Hibernia) should salvage for chitin strips as intended. Any drop previous to this patch will salvage for diamond bars.

SHROUDED ISLES WORLD NOTES

Midgard Quests

Stoneheart - The Runed Cloak of the Trolls and the Cloak of the Troll Fathers needed to complete this quest are no longer tradeable.

Monsters: Hibernia: Aroon the Urlamhai in Galladoria should not aggro through the walls anymore.

Monsters: Albion: Caer Sidi: Lich Lord Ilron should no longer reset his encounter when he is not supposed to.

Items

- The Vine Covered Scythe and Verdant Scythe from Galladoria have new weapon models and particle effects.

- The Verdant Recurve Bow and the Primal Windwalker's Bow from Galladoria now have new bow models.

- The Dreaded Frostbound Fang (Midgard) now has a particle effect.

- Anyone with a non-glowy version of Aroon's Ancient Staff or Aroon's Verdant Staff (Hibernia) should note that particle effects have been added.

- The Essence Shifted Flail and Essence Shifted Whip (Albion) should include their correct name in combat text (ex. You hit xxxx with your flail, You hit xxxx with your whip). Previously, the flail showed up as mace in combat text, while the whip showed up as flail.

- The Azure Silencer Fang and the Livid Silencer Fang (Albion) can now be dyed with the weapon enamels from Caer Sidi. Please note that using dye on these weapons will change only the hilt color.

- The Obsidian Doomspear (Midgard) should now proc as intended, and the +parry bonus has been changed to +stealth.

- Quillan's Reinforced Vest (Hibernia) should now be dyed with enamel dye instead of leather dye.

- The Shadowed Blackthorn Mace (Hibernia) will now repair for the correct cost.

[Malison]

The biggest changes and possible ramifications:
Archers can ignore BT if it isn't self cast. Archers using Longshot can ignore ALL bladeturns. This realm ability will turn them all into mage killers, combined with camo, thats 900 RP every 15 minutes or so. Not so bad for archers, bad for any caster who doesn't wait at the PK for his group to catch up.

Rapid fire for archers, when you really really need to get that arrow off.  Probably great for interrupting casters.

Nearsight gets nerfed.  1 min duration (before resist) and a 1 minutes immunity timer.  The duration I'd be fine with, the immunity timer makes it a little rough, and means I'll be using it a lot less.  

Cabalist spirit spec buffs now buff like a cleric..weee.  And they get a pet only run speed buff.  I need to get on pendragon and test.  If it is as good as speed 5, he might actually be useful combined with resist debuffs.

Enchanters resist debuff moved to 49 spec.  The PBAOE enchanters didn't care.  Those light/mana hybrids (45 mana/30+ light) willl be the most affected.

Berserkers were brought up, so their rear position styles now do closer to normal damage.  DF is still nerfed, as well as SBs. Yay!

That's all that really caught my eye.

[Sodom]

The can make it so that self blade-turns don't get overwritten, but Pally chants still erase my buffs? Laaaaame.

The pet class loving for Midard and Hibernia would be insulting if they weren't bossting the lines that nobody specs in. However, I'd still like to see a comperable buff to the Cabalist spirit line.

[Malison]

In defense of my brethern pet classes...

Cabalists DO have the best pet buffs, with this patch, they got even better. The sad part is, they don't make a big difference in RvR, partly because all pets are blue cons and get hit like such.

EDIT: afer looking at the spritmaster and enchanter changes, i think they actually have really good pet based lines now.  Taking a hit for your master? priceless! having your spell not resisted, or getting a free heal? sheesh.

Damn I cant wait to see what a 46 spec spirit cabalist can do.

(Edited by Malison at 1:06 pm on May 1, 2003)

[Caohmin]

Hmm, no mention of the style fixes for Armsmen that the Armsmen TL hinted at on the Albion Fighter Boards.

Oh well, the archer fixes might bring back Sidd and I like the 'free equipment for the /level 20, 30 characters.'

[Zutroy]

'- We've changed the way that aggression is calculated when Archers use Critical Shot against monsters. Now, aggro generated from damage done by a Critical Shot is divided among all group members of the Archer. Please note that the Archer will still get a fraction more damage than any other group member, but it will now be much easier to pull the monster off the Archer once it has been hit by a Critical Shot. This should make Archers one of the better monster "pullers" for any PvE group.'

I guess this is supposed to make archers more desirable in PvE groups? I don't recall pulling with Crit shot ever being a problem (except at the pygmy hut). Hell it misses 95% of the time against purple mobs anyway.

'- Deaths from DOTs cast by players (including assassin poisons) after the casting player has died and released or quit will no longer result in an experience loss death.'

I reported this bug to a CSR over 6 months ago and they just now got around to fixing it?

'- All Nearsight spells have had their duration reduced from 2 min to 1 min, and have the 1 minute immunity timer. This should help archers and casters to not be "blinded" for quite so long as before.'

Probably the best change in the patch. If you've ever played a caster, you know how frustrating it is being chain nearsighted and not being able to do anything about it.

'- All three Archers now receive a new skill called "Penetrating Arrow", which allow them to penetrate, to some extent, Bladeturn spells.'

A long needed change that will help archers alot in keep standoffs or 8v8 fights.

'- Additionally, Longshot and Volley now penetrate ALL Bladeturns, regardless of who cast them.'

Good to see that RA respec stone I used wasn't a total waste. I found that volley was more or less worthless in keep sieges because of PBT. You'd usually get 3 "absorbed by a magical barrier" messages and maybe 1 hit every time you tried to volley the back row of casters.

'The three Archers now also receive a new ability called "Rapid Fire", which allows them to release their bow shot before the normal bow timer.'

Good for popping BT and stealing DS. With a group & TS you could prolly clear a full milegate in 30s.

I'm hoping this is just the start of archer changes, but more than likely we're considered balanced now. I'd still like to see scout melee issues addressed and for Mythic to do something with our stealth line.

[Lifesbane]

im definetly happy about rapid fire and penetrating arrow...as zut said melee/stealth still need to be adressed, as well as the scout class getting looked at specificly

[Axecleaver]

This one is pretty big:
- Added a L50 DD, Obsidian Strike, in the Darkness base list [SM & runies] to make it more consistent with the base lists in other Realms

This combined with the 46 RC spec gives them enchanter-like debuff/nuking power, which til now they didn't have. If you had one or two runies (maybe a dark and RC runie) and a pac healer stunning that'd be pretty uber.

Albion is now the only realm without a nuker capable of debuffing his own level 50 DD.

[Durandana]

Like i said in other post, if Stealth issues are not resolved My scout will still be mainly retired and If it isnt changed i will probably cancel outa frustration soon.

enough said

[Bolldar Bloodaxe]

Im not impressed by the penetrating abilities for archers and all the love for other realm casters especially enchanters who needed to go in the opposite direction.  Survival as a Albion caster was already hard enough and this is just gonna make it a lot harder. Im really at a loss why classes which seemed to be doing well seem to be getting so much more loving than those which need it.

[Mchagen]

Time to play your arms Boll?

[Amberryl]

sorcs need body debuff ><

[Amberryl]

and sorcs can debuff matter, but the debuffs are in the body spec. So in order for a matter sorc to debuff his own attacks, he would have to do half body and half matter... that would be interesting... I'd try it out if anyone's willing to give me free respec stone = /

[Lifesbane]

quick question: how meny casters run around without their BT up? i know i dont. now, with PBT no longer overriding self BT casters though still always have their self BT up...therefor, NOTHING HAS CHANGED for most casters, unless you run around without BT...in which case what the h3ll is the problem anyway? i think most casters are over acting about these changes, nevermind the fact that we will be doing less damage and dont even have the ability to pop a bt if we wanted to anymore (example would be a group of archers /assisting eachother...that tactic has now lost its effectiveness, and with 3 or 4 archers in the group its actually less effective then it was before..as far as percentages go)

ALSO, if you still consider this a caster nerf, the casters of midgard and hibernia are much worse off then alb casters (as far as this "nerf" goes) because rangers and hunters have both have an extra line to spec in over scouts, resulting in most of them only speccing to 39 or 40 bow, as aposed to scouts who can more viably spec 45 or 50 bow

/rant off

[Malison]

Assuming we do keep our personal bladeturns up during a fight, this affects all casters equally Life.  First, the spec lines:

A scout can spec:
weapon
shield
stealth
bow

A ranger can spec:
weapon
celtic dual
pathfinding
stealth
bow

a hunter will spec:
spear
beastcraft
bow
stealth

So only the ranger has one more path to spec to be fully effective.  That path being CD, which they can just leave at 1% and still have a 25% chance to swing both weapons.  Hunters get a pet that destroys even those with Nearsight.  Rangers get speed, damage adds, self dex/quick buffs, and armor factor buffs.   I'd say that archers have equal tools to destroy their targets, with scouts perhaps being the worse off due to lack of utility spells.

Second, Penetrating Arrow only works on PBT or bladeturn cast by someone else.  With the new changes, i'm going to make sure i always have BT up.  Considering most of Albion only has 10s PBT, I could cast 3 of my self bladeturns in that time!  If i needed a pulse of a bladeturn , i wouldnt stand around for 10s, i'd quickcast one.   The fate of lone casters is still up to the gods who make you guys miss.  Penetrating arrow means you still hit, for most likely 75% damage, interrupt the caster, and most likely contribute to killing him if he's in a fight with a group.

I think they should make penetrating arrow a special shot though or allow a toggle.  I believe you should be able to drop the BT altogether, allowing archers to coordinate fire.

I think most archers who have a respec available will use it to take bow to at least 40 for the Penetrating arrow 2, and some probably all the way to 50.  Before, there was little advantage in specing bow past 39 as the return on damage was minimal.

And of course, those with Longshot are still going to be popping our butts for some serious damage.

Amerasu, once you see how much damage bolts are doing, I hope you won't begrudge the scouts their love.  On pendragon runies are hitting for 500 easily against studded, and thats without crits.  One guy got hit for 750 or so yesterday.  You will be 2 shotting them (1 bolt, 1 bolt) quite often...thats assuming you arent interrupted by their longshot.