 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion Groups Platforms PCXboxPlayStationNintendoGames ActionStrategyRole Playing GamesSimulatorsSport Games |
Game Forum / Role Playing Games / EverQuest / December 2005EQL Halfling Hodgepodge 22-DEC 2005
EQL developers addressed a wide range of issues in the Halfling Hodgepodge Q & A on 22-DEC. Taken from http://tinyurl.com/dywkr ==== >Will druids and wizzys ever get an AA to stop them leaving their group >members behind when they evac? There is meant to be an inherit risk involved with most things in the game. Evac, by its nature, is removing risk from combat by allowing you to escape when you would have likely died instead. The chance of it leaving someone behind is very small, but its there to ensure that the ability isnt something you can rely on to work every time. We have to be very careful when making evac work more often since it directly affects the risk involved in combat. So, removing that small chance to leave someone behind isnt likely to happen. >Are there any plans to re-evaluate the racial exp penalty, or re-evaluate >the benifits/penalties that races have for the exp penalty? We dont have any plans to re-evaluate racial penalties at this time. >I very much enjoyed participating in the recent war events that began >before DoN release as well as speculating and discussing the lore >behind them. Will we see more major dynamic events such as these in >the future, and is it a possibility that we could see much smaller but >more frequent dynamic events also? Thanks. Weve enjoyed making them. We definitely expect to see more events of this type in the future. Whether they are large or small events really depends on what we are trying to do with that particular event. Some events, like the major wars themselves, are naturally suited to being large events while others, like the ones that lead up to the wars, work better as a series of smaller events. >What is the status on the changes/upgrades to fletching and tailoring. >For a long time now, there have been no viable skill up paths to 300 >for most classes. I know there are plans to address this, but will we >see these changes soon (tm)? In the recent weeks, we've spent some time looking at fletching and discussing what we'd like to do to correct the issues that you mentioned. Some of these corrections require some code changes, others require new recipes. In both cases, they're things that we've got on the plate to address, as time allows. Tailoring will require a little more of an in-depth review, but it is also on the list of things to look at. >With more and more of the racial only abilities becoming AA's, can we >all have an AA for forage and put everyone on a level playing field >for tradeskilling? While its something we might consider doing in the future, we dont have any plans to give out forage to everyone right now. >Will the Guktan Frogloks ever move out of the Rathe Mountains and into >a more suitible environment such as another swamp or someplace with >water? Yeah, its very likely that theyll get a true home city in the future. For now, though, be happy you arent sharing a shanty town with a bunch of dark elves like the last group who got booted out of Grobb. You got yourself a nice little tent city nestled away in some prime mountain real estate. >When is there going to be an upgrade to bring Lifeburn into parity >with cleric turn undead, mage 32k nukes, etc.? Theres no comparison between lifeburn and turn undead/summoned. They are different things entirely. Lifeburn already scales with the users life so we dont have any intention at this time to upgrade it. If we were to upgrade it, it would have to be subject to manaburn style limitations to prevent the same problems manaburn originally had. >Any chance of increasing the mana regen rate the same way you did HP >regen, where the longer you sit still, the higher your regen gets? Were looking at some ways to address downtime regeneration for both mana and endurance, although Im not sure the same mechanism that we used for hit points is appropriate in this case. >There was mention of DoN cultural drop compnets being changed due to >being too rare. Are these items going to still be replaced? This is something that we need to review on a case by case basis -- Some items will be replaced, while others will have their drop rates modified. Once we've made the changes and pushed them out to the test server, we'll let everyone know about the changes via the message boards. Currently, there is no ETA on when these changes will be made, but they are on the top of the list of things to do, as soon as time is available. >Why are there a lack of higher end any slot augments? The last >"hp/mana" one was the Cipher of Veeshan at 30/30/30 compared to BiC >there is like no middle ground between either. There are various issues with any slot augmentations. Primarily, they allow a player to add an augmentation to any slot, even though those slots have an intended augment in mind. A good case of this is the type 4 augmentation slots on the epics. We was asked to add type4 augmentation slots to caster epics because they felt there was an inequality between melees and casters in terms of not having an additional slot. The slot is used only for procs for melees. However, for casters, they were able to bind an any-slot augmentation to their epic, which was not my intent. So no, we wont be introducing many, if any, any-slot augments. >Would it possible to change the Shinai of the Ancients and Crystal >Hilted Shinai into 1hblunt weapons? Don't you think its silly to be >punching with a blunt object? We have no intentions of modifying older weapons and are content with both being a hand to hand weapon. >Are the revisions to the Ranger ATK buffs completed? More >specifically, are there any plans to address the Strength of the >Hunter buff, which was the impetus for the revisions and which, >ironically, remains identical to its original form? We don't anticipate any further changes to the ranger buffs in the short term, so yes they're done for now. >Are Necromancers going to get a new pet model other than Spectres and >Skeletons? We dont have any plans at the moment to expand the necromancer pet repertoire beyond specters and skeletons. Adding some different pet models for all the pet classes is something wed definitely like to do, though. >Are there any plans to add another tradeskill "epic" quest, along the >lines of the Coldain Prayer Shawl and the Aid Grimmel Earring? This is something that's been discussed and is something that we would really like to do, but as of right now, there are no concrete plans or timeframe on when something like this would be added. >Will we see fabled Velious mobs for the 7th anniversary? If the past is a good map of the future, the frosty continent should be inundated with Fabled NPCs in a few months time. >What about giving pet handlers the ability to see their pets hit >points, stats, and gear? Being able to see more details about your pet is definitely something wed like to do in the future. >Ever consider giving the next Necro lich spell a new skeleton model >that shows equipment like a normal player model? I like role playing >aspect of being a skeleton but showing off a new robe might be nice >once in awhile. We'd love to make that kind of a change, but it really goes hand in hand with new player models. It's something we'd like to do, but it's not feasible in the short term. >Bard dot are extremely out of balanced compared to what they used to >be... any hope in raising cap on instruments to make these useful or >raise base dmg? Were looking at changing how bard caps work so the cap is on a per-spell basis instead of a global cap. That will allow us to raise the cap on spells where it is needed without overpowering other spells, which happen if we just raised the global cap right now. >Are there plans on adding recipes for Taelosian Wheat/mountain wheat? Yes, we will be adding recipes that use the Taelosian wheat in future recipes. >What's taking so long with the healing changes; that is the druid >stances and whatever with shamans? Many of the healing changes were made several months ago in the large batch of spell changes. Specific to the druid stances, thats always been planned as one of the last things we wanted to do. In order to balance the stances out properly, all the other pieces really need to be in place first. >Has the aggro thru the floor in Dreadspire Keep, namely in the west >guest wing and in Vule's room been dealt with yet? Weve identified and corrected a number of potential problems in Dreadspires pathing since launch and a few more changes went out with the patch on the 21st . The initial reports weve gotten have shown that the fixes are helping and were hoping that this latest batch of fixes corrects most of the remaining pathing issues that have come up in that zone >How do fizzles work? If you fizzle, do you then automatically continue >fizzling for a set time? Or is there an increased chance to fizzle if >you just fizzled the last cast? Fizzles are rolled each time you start casting a spell, so there's no connection between fizzling one spell and then fizzling another. Each fizzle is an independent event that has no thing to do with previous fizzles. >Is there going to be a reinstatement of the higher level Mistmoore so >we can use this quest drops you input into the game? We dont have any plans to reinstate that content at this time. >Bards are often considered a "hybrid" class... it appears that 1/2 is >Rogue. What is the other half? Theyre definitely a hybrid, but not in the traditional sense of being a hybrid of two others classes. Bards are a bit of a mixing pot and have traits from most of the other classes in the game in addition to their own unique abilities. >Why do we see Life Sap on weapons since GoD release instead of >Serpent's Bite? Was this deemed to be too powerful since it is >unresistable? We are not too keen on unresistable procs of any type, regardless of their effect. Our calculations for DPS from procs usually assume a slight resist chance, which doesnt happen with spells like Serpents bite >Does Wurine Feeling Stone have any effect for bards? It lists the >Improved Dodge III portion as being a "Focus Effect" (and focus >effects do not work for bards), but every other Improved Dodge III >item lists it as "Effect" (which DOES work for bards). Thus there is >some confusion as to whether "Focus Effect" is a typo, and whether or >not the effect works on bards. Also, is there any chance that this >could be changed to Type: 7,8? This is a bug and has been fixed. The modification will go Live in the next full patch. >Since Berserkers and their throwing axes were originally introduced, >only 1 new axe has been added for the berserkers summon use... can we >expect to see an upgraded version of the Tainted Axe of Hatred to be >found soon? There will be more summoned throwing axes through spells in the future. Through items however, we may introduce more, but we believe that they should primarily be spell/skill upgrades. >Will slow and snare ever be added as effects to augs for weapons? No, you will not find augments that allow you to proc slow or snare. You wont even find new weapons with those effects. >When will run speed buffs be fixed so that Bard and Monk Run8 will not >be overwritten by FOE, SOE, Bih'Li, SOW etc...? This is how the system works, how it was originally coded. You get the innate run speed mods as long as you dont have any run speed buffs on yourself. It has been that way for as long as AAs that increase run speed have existed, but its coming up more now that people have faster ones. Its something well take a look at in the near future to see if we can do it a different way. Best regards, Tim == (substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk') _________________ Seeq Endestroi Paladin of Mithanial Marr, The Rathe http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=507035 Grave Wisdom / Grave Intentions - a Rathe Guild http://www.gravewisdom.com >>Will we see fabled Velious mobs for the 7th anniversary? >If the past is a good map of the future, the frosty continent should >be inundated with Fabled NPCs in a few months time. WOOT... How 'bout a Section of The Fabled Lodizal's Shell for use in a Fabled Lodizal Shell Shield quest? ...or The Fabled Helmet of Rallos Zek? ...would they do a Fabled Tunare who drops The Fabled Girdle of Living Thorns? The current Tunare can be taken easily by a 3-4 group raid if they all pull in the same direction, fewer peeps if they're really on their game. Fabled Tunare would get the point across if she was perhaps only a little more difficult than the OoW epic mobs, or some of the bosses in the OoW progression. The possibilities abound. /boggle >>Will slow and snare ever be added as effects to augs for weapons? >No, you will not find augments that allow you to proc slow or snare. >You wont even find new weapons with those effects. Hmph. I picked up an Anklesmasher in my early 40s for 35K PP and used it to fear-kite undead in various Dreadlands camps until 52. Then I sold it for what I paid for it. Looks like I should've sat on it and watched its value climb. /shrug >WOOT... > >How 'bout a Section of The Fabled Lodizal's Shell for use in a Fabled >Lodizal Shell Shield quest? [snip fabled suggestions] Or a fabled rusty dagger that is only fished, extremely rare and is 1/1 damage to delay with minimal or no other stats. A decent twink item for a low level toon.  SignatureWhen you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it's already too late. - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX Spam block in place, no emil reply is expected at all. >Or a fabled rusty dagger that is only fished, extremely rare and is >1/1 damage to delay with minimal or no other stats. A decent twink >item for a low level toon. Interesting, but I think that the endgame's the thing. /mourn the 1999 game world. <seeq@nospam.co.uk> wrote: > >Or a fabled rusty dagger that is only fished, extremely rare and is > >1/1 damage to delay with minimal or no other stats. A decent twink [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > /mourn the 1999 game world. I'm "endgame" and I'd love to equip a few twinks with a 1.0 ratio fabled rusty dagger. =) >Or a fabled rusty dagger that is only fished, extremely rare and is >1/1 damage to delay with minimal or no other stats. A decent twink >item for a low level toon. Heh. I say put it in a special place, and make it a no-drop but still able to be passed one time between toons on any given account. Can ya imagine the line of Anguish-geared peeps jockeying for a fishing spot next to the Final Arbiter? Or how 'bout the blood pool on the 5th floor of ToFS? /chuckle > >With more and more of the racial only abilities becoming AA's, can we > >all have an AA for forage and put everyone on a level playing field > >for tradeskilling? > > While it’s something we might consider doing in the future, we don’t > have any plans to give out forage to everyone right now. I've always thought having forage as a racial skill was dumb, because it is a skill that, in real life, any human can easily learn. So, what is it about foraging in Norrath that makes it so some races can do it and some cannot? In general, anything that a typical Earth boy scout would have no trouble learning should be available to everyone in Norrath, if it is available at all. A level 1 character in EQ has presumably been training for years to be ready to go out into the dangerous world on their own, and would have picked up all the basic outdoorsmen skills, regardless of their race and class. ... > >Any chance of increasing the mana regen rate the same way you did HP > >regen, where the longer you sit still, the higher your regen gets? > > We’re looking at some ways to address downtime regeneration for both > mana and endurance, although I’m not sure the same mechanism that we > used for hit points is appropriate in this case. I got email from Sony a week or two ago, telling me that they've reactivated my account for 21 daya. Looks like they are trying to lure people back. So I copied EQ back from my backup drive, launched it, patched (took about 30 minutes), and did a little running around. Killed a couple greens. Sat down to get mana back. Wow! Compared to the other MMORPGs I play or have played (DAoC, CoH, WoW, EQ2), the downtime in EQ was just amazingly long. They definitely need to do something about this, if they want to attract and keep new players. (Looks like there's been some nerfage since I last played. My Staff of Temperate Flux has a recast time of 12 seconds now, and it says my Fishbone Earring requires a fish scale. It used to be an effect, not a spell, so was always on and required no component). ... > >How do fizzles work? If you fizzle, do you then automatically continue > >fizzling for a set time? Or is there an increased chance to fizzle if [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > fizzle is an independent event that has no thing to do with previous > fizzles. I wonder when they changed this? The way it used to work is that they were not independent events. When you fizzled, it increased the probability that the next spell would fizzle. This was *proven* when a statistician set up a macro to cast a spell repeatedly, and then analyzed the resultant 25000 casts. He also analyzed the random number generator via /random, and found that it was fair. Here were the results: Overall chance of fizzle: 6% Chance of 2nd fizzle given 1 fizzle: 20% Chance of 3rd fizzle given 2 fizzles: 41% Chance of 4th fizzle given 3 fizzles: 53% Chance of 5th fizzle given 4 fizzles: 61% Signature--Tim Smith >A level 1 character in EQ has presumably been >training for years to be ready to go out into the dangerous world on >their own, and would have picked up all the basic outdoorsmen skills, >regardless of their race and class. Well, druids, maybe, and Vah Shir... But certainly not High Elves. One thing that's always really bugged me is why shamans don't get track. > >A level 1 character in EQ has presumably been > >training for years to be ready to go out into the dangerous world on > >their own, and would have picked up all the basic outdoorsmen skills, > >regardless of their race and class. > > Well, druids, maybe, and Vah Shir... But certainly not High Elves. Well, they would either have outdoorsmen skills, or some racial equivalent. E.g., instead of foraging, they'd have a summon food/summon water racial ability. Signature--Tim Smith >Well, they would either have outdoorsmen skills, or some racial >equivalent. E.g., instead of foraging, they'd have a summon food/summon >water racial ability. Why? If High Elves had summon anything as a race, I'd think maybe... Summon Afternoon Tea... > Well, druids, maybe, and Vah Shir... But certainly not High Elves. > > One thing that's always really bugged me is why shamans don't >get track. Or all Vah Shir get track for that matter??? Cats are excellent tracker and hunter so why not all Vah Shir? SignatureWhen you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it's already too late. - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX Spam block in place, no emil reply is expected at all. >Or all Vah Shir get track for that matter??? Cats are excellent >tracker and hunter so why not all Vah Shir? Cats dont' actually track their prey, like canines. They hunt by sight from ambush, or locate hidden prey by sound. However, Vah Shir *should* get ultravision... >(Looks like there's been some nerfage since I last played. My Staff of >Temperate Flux has a recast time of 12 seconds now, and it says my >Fishbone Earring requires a fish scale. It used to be an effect, not a >spell, so was always on and required no component). It doesn't, it's just a side effect of SoE cut and pasting spell descriptions directly onto item effects. Rune proccing weapons also proclaim they require the same reagent as the spell even when they actually don't. As for the Staff I do remember it being used as a mana free kiting tool which was perhaps not what was originally intended. Signatureschaden_freude@hotmail.com > As for the Staff I do remember it being used as a mana free kiting > tool which was perhaps not what was originally intended. Yeah, it was useful for that. Here are the things I used to do with mine, from the serious to the amusing, in no particular order. 1. Target someone's pet and repeatedly click my staff. It would not actually cast on the pet as the pet is a friendly target, put it would make the spell effect. It would sometimes greatly puzzle or even scare the crap out of someone when their pet suddenly would start erupting continuous spell effects. :-) 2. Taunting things. Target mob, and hit staff 10 or 20 times over the course of a couple seconds, and it comes. This was useful in newbie zones if I came across, say, a Warrior in trouble. I could get the mob onto me and keep it there while the newbie killed it, saving the newbie without taking his kill away. 3. Pulling. For example, consider the wyverns in Cobalt Scar. In particular, consider the ones that stand in the little room in the tower around the portal back to Skyshrine. I'd go up there, with a levitation spell on. The stupid things are spaced just far enough apart that my snare, which is an AOE snare, only gets one at a time, so I can't do the obvious thing of snaring a bunch and running back down the stairs or out the window. So what I would do is cast a stun on one, then step back out the window, target another, use the staff, and, while still backing up, target another and hit the staff on it, then turn and run. The stun wears off the first, and he joins the other two in chasing me. I'd swing back over the land area, get them bunched up, and then use my snare to snare them, and then kite them. (I have jboots, so can get enough distance between me and them to cast the snare). (Note that I bunch them up before snaring. This is what makes Wizard kiting a bit more exciting than Druid kiting. Wizard snare takes a lot more mana than Druid snare, and lasts only about 20% as long, but is AOE. So, unlike Druids, who can snare first, then bunch up the mobs, and snare again if for some reason the kite is taking too long, Wizards on a tight mana budget only want to cast one snare, so have to do the bunching with unsnared mobs). I'd use the staff for pretty much any situation where I was going to kite more than one mob, so I could aggro them on the run. 4. Making big trains. It was fun to run around West Commons and see how many mobs I could get at once. My record is something like 30. That was quite an amusing screenshot. I was careful to never take these show trains near anyone that they would aggro on. They were just for fun. Signature--Tim Smith >4. Making big trains. It was fun to run around West Commons and see how >many mobs I could get at once. My record is something like 30. That >was quite an amusing screenshot. I was careful to never take these show >trains near anyone that they would aggro on. They were just for fun. I think 30 is the max anyone can train. I have a screenshot of Halloween event 2004 where about 30 skellies were chasing a poor level 70 necro out of EC. It may be possible to get 60 if you can get pet to tag 30 and you aggro 30 more then use /pet hold to stop pet from any more attacks so it can live and train 30 along side yours. SignatureWhen you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it's already too late. - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX Spam block in place, no emil reply is expected at all. <impmon@digi.mon> wrote: > >4. Making big trains. It was fun to run around West Commons and see how > >many mobs I could get at once. My record is something like 30. That [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > aggro 30 more then use /pet hold to stop pet from any more attacks so > it can live and train 30 along side yours. There's a trick. Don't get "direct" aggro and you can train as many as you can find to aggro (direct aggro includes getting hit by the mob). I've had easily 100+ mobs chasing me at a time before. =) >>>With more and more of the racial only abilities becoming AA's, can we >>>all have an AA for forage and put everyone on a level playing field [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > it about foraging in Norrath that makes it so some races can do it and > some cannot? Although I agree in general with your complaint, this particular aspect of it doesn't quite wash. Forage isn't a racial skill, rather, its a class skill, like hide. It just so happens that certain races get universal access to forage, just as certain races get access to Hide even for members who don't happen to be rogues. > In general, anything that a typical Earth boy scout would have no > trouble learning should be available to everyone in Norrath, if it is > available at all. A level 1 character in EQ has presumably been > training for years to be ready to go out into the dangerous world on > their own, and would have picked up all the basic outdoorsmen skills, > regardless of their race and class. On Earth we don't have classes in the Norrath way, if anything we have AD&D style class structure which lets us multiclass, but even better would be something along the lines of GURPS where you simply learn whatever you want to apply energy to, willy nilly... but if you want a job, it will help if you spend a significant part of that energy learning job related things. The rigid class structure of EQ means that you simply can't learn certain skills unless you are a member of a class which teaches them... unless you're a member of a race where everyone learns that skill. Even then, you'll never be GOOD at that skill unless your class gives you better access to it; the skill cap for most racial skills is a whopping 50! Lance >> >With more and more of the racial only abilities becoming AA's, can we >> >all have an AA for forage and put everyone on a level playing field [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] >their own, and would have picked up all the basic outdoorsmen skills, >regardless of their race and class. Yeah,Yeah. We should also all get Kei(Caster) and Haste(Melee) from the day of birth. This is a ROLE playing game,Characters need something to be distinguished from each other. >> >Any chance of increasing the mana regen rate the same way you did HP >> >regen, where the longer you sit still, the higher your regen gets? >...snip... and did a little running around. >Killed a couple greens. Sat down to get mana back. >Wow! Compared to the other MMORPGs I play or have played (DAoC, CoH, >WoW, EQ2), the downtime in EQ was just amazingly long. They definitely >need to do something about this, if they want to attract and keep new >players. Maybe you played another game,are you sure it was EQ? Really suprises me,that you as a long time EQ player does not know how to avoid downtime.So instead of re-thinking your strategy you decided its better to cry for all handed to you on a silver plate by SOE,nice,I really have no sympathy. >(Looks like there's been some nerfage since I last played. My Staff of >Temperate Flux has a recast time of 12 seconds now, and it says my >Fishbone Earring requires a fish scale. It used to be an effect, not a >spell, so was always on and required no component). So you have this nice Staff,but no idea how to avoid downtime,weird. Guess I read to much the SOE boards lately(sadly not much traffic here the last year(s)),but all this whining there for give me this give me that,but dont dare to take away anything from my class made me somewhat annoyed. Meldur > >Killed a couple greens. Sat down to get mana back. > >Wow! Compared to the other MMORPGs I play or have played (DAoC, CoH, [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > decided its better to cry for all handed to you on a silver plate by > SOE,nice,I really have no sympathy. As I said, I haven't played for a long time. A year or two, I think. Have they added something to massively increase mana regen rates? Back when I played, the best you could do as a casual player was KEI and maybe one or two FT1 items. Without KEI, after a normal fight, it took about 10 minutes to get mana back. Signature--Tim Smith >> >Killed a couple greens. Sat down to get mana back. >> >Wow! Compared to the other MMORPGs I play or have played (DAoC, CoH, [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >when I played, the best you could do as a casual player was KEI and >maybe one or two FT1 items. Hm,2 years ago I was doing Ldons with my mid fifty cleric,I think he had FT4 or FT5 maybe at this time,usual group composition was me some melees and other dps classes,very rarely a slower,I remember doing BB Ldons just cause we had a Necro which at least could slow the undead mobs. I never bought Kei in PoK(its the bane of EQ besides Virtue IMHO). Mostly I was pulling with Pacify,cause it was absolutly necessary to get singles without slower or crowd control. Even from this time I have no memories of needing medbreaks,and the usual time to finish a Ldon was something between 45m to 60m. Maybe your view of the mana regeneration problem has something to do with that you are playing a Wizard,thats how life is for a Wizard,you nuke once or twice a fight and sit and med the rest of the time. We have some Wizards in guild for whom this was exactly the reason they decided to play a Wizard,they like the so called downtime,gives them time to chat,no joke. What are you expecting,chain nuking for 15k ? :) Try a Bard or Shammy,people asking me whats up with me when I play these alts,usually I am very chatty,but these classes keep me busy full time,I like to get the best out of the Chars I play. I wouldnt say there was a "massive" increase in mana regeneration rate,but FT gear is much eaiser to come by nowadays,especially since DoN(FT2 Aug for 5 Missions oppesed to 29 in Ldon). There are other more indirect changes which speeded up the gameplay like Heals on Hybrids were massively updated,from 428 to 1044 in the case of Rangers or the "Puma"-line of spells for Shammies which add a proc to weapons;I just came from 2 Ldons with my 53 Shaman,at 51 they get a "Puma" spell which adds a 154 damage proc to melees,and its not the usual proc rate,its more like the proc rate from the Cleric summoned hammers,firing for about 10 times a minute,this causes *huge* increases in dps,its not worth any longer to slow the mobs,they die in 30 seconds with 2 melees beating on them.Oh,and the proc is unresistable like the Cleric version,at least I never saw it happen. All in all I have to say,its enough for now with speeding up the gameplay,they wont get any WoW players by that but make oldtimers like me leave if they stay on this path. Mheldur >There are other more indirect changes which speeded up the gameplay >like Heals on Hybrids were massively updated,from 428 to 1044 in the >case of Rangers He he yeah I've noticed those massive 1K ranger heals speeding up gameplay, come on, guy :-) that's what a 7% heal for a normal tank? They HAD to boost those heals to make them at all useful even for patching casters... >All in all I have to say,its enough for now with speeding up the >gameplay, The one thing I've never liked about EQ is it can be so boring. I don't mind "slow" gameplay, i.e., doing things that take a long time. But so much of EQ is doing NOTHING (medding, sitting and healing, waiting for spawns...) for a long time... >>>Killed a couple greens. Sat down to get mana back. >>>Wow! Compared to the other MMORPGs I play or have played (DAoC, CoH, [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Without KEI, after a normal fight, it took about 10 minutes to get mana > back. Ten minutes? TEN MINUTES? OK, dude, as a soloing cleric before the existence of KEI and FT items, one who -wanted- the downtime so I could do household chores in between kills, I still had no more than 4 minutes between kills, more likely two minutes. If you're taking 10 minutes, you A) have an outlandishly large mana pool and must have deliberately taken AAs and gear to raise that pool while eschewing FT or B) you're really going out of your way to hunt things that are inefficient for you. B1) could be ignorance, you think that killing bigger mobs means more exp, which is true per kill but not necessarily per hour B2) or it could be greed, you may be killing mobs that are technically inefficient, but which are dropping some kind of valuable loot. B2a) however its likely that you'd be better off leveling up a bit more, or gearing up a bit better, before taking on those mobs, so you can clear them more efficiently. B2ai) Sadly, taking this to its logical conclusion leads to people killing deeply green mobs for money making purposes Lance ps yes, you can now buy potions which give KEI like effects, and use tribute for FTlike effects. And the situation is even more dramatically improved for soloing melee types, because their sitting hp regen rate is better and gets dramatically better as they continue to sit, and they can sit while bandaging, which works up to 70% or more, on top of using regen potions and regen tribute/devices... a melee can regen his HP in a way that rivals casters regening mana (while back in the day, you'd get to 50% and then give up) > Ten minutes? TEN MINUTES? OK, dude, as a soloing cleric before the > existence of KEI and FT items, one who -wanted- the downtime so I could [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > eschewing FT or B) you're really going out of your way to hunt things > that are inefficient for you. Mana pool around 3000. Best spell around 4 to 1 damage/mana ratio. Mana regen of around 30/tick. That allowed for killing a blue with maybe 5 minutes recovery time. For kiting more than one at a time with AE, the spells do less damage per mob for a given amount of mana, so that would take about 90-95% of my mana, giving around 10 minutes down. Wizards were not fast soloists. :-) Signature--Tim Smith >As I said, I haven't played for a long time. A year or two, I think. >Have they added something to massively increase mana regen rates? Back >when I played, the best you could do as a casual player was KEI and >maybe one or two FT1 items. Depends on level. At 70 with a few hundred AAs, most classes regen pretty quickly - it's fairly easy to have FT20 at the high levels. At 50-60, most classes are facing a LONG time to regen mana if they get low - there's lots of +mana items, not so much FT, and base regen is lower. Of course, the answer is not to get low. Find a group that can kill comfortably using only the mana you're regenning. This is easier said than done, sometimes :( >Without KEI, after a normal fight, it took about 10 minutes to get mana >back. "Normal" varies a lot by class, level, style, and group composition. It's simply wrong to say that downtime is a problem for all parts of the game - you have to give specifics about what you're doing, and then suffer the fools like me who'll tell you to do something else if that's not working for you. -- Mark Rafn dagon@dagon.net <http://www.dagon.net/> On Sun, 25 Dec 2005 06:27:28 GMT in <reply_in_group-9CDE19.22272724122005@news1.west.earthlink.net>, Tim Smith <reply_in_group@mouse-potato.com> graced the world with this thought: >I've always thought having forage as a racial skill was dumb, because it >is a skill that, in real life, any human can easily learn. So, what is >it about foraging in Norrath that makes it so some races can do it and >some cannot? Indeed, I've wondered about that and tracking, too. I can see where some races may be inherently better at these things, but I've always found it interesting that I can swim in a river, but not be able to find any water to drink. >EQL developers addressed a wide range of issues in the Halfling >Hodgepodge Q & A on 22-DEC. >>When is there going to be an upgrade to bring Lifeburn into parity >>with cleric turn undead, mage 32k nukes, etc.? My cleric has Turn Undead AAs,during my last trip to Drusella's room in HS to get a friend the HS Master Key it didnt fire once,just did it its normal dot damage.So please do not use this as an excuse to demand something increased in power totally unrelated. (And I am not complaining about TU AA,itsfine as it is) >>Any chance of increasing the mana regen rate the same way you did HP >>regen, where the longer you sit still, the higher your regen gets? Lamers of all kind,race and class unite. >Were looking at some ways to address downtime regeneration for both >mana and endurance, although Im not sure the same mechanism that we >used for hit points is appropriate in this case. There is no downtime when one chooses his target properly,or do you want to turn EQ in a Diablo like high speed killing mass-slaughtering game? Meldur >There is no downtime when one chooses his target properly,or do you I don't understand that one. I suppose you can kill greens without downtime, but even a 70 necromancer has _some_ downtime on mobs he can XP off of. Never mind a soloing cleric or warrior. the wharf rat schrieb: >>There is no downtime when one chooses his target properly,or do you > > I don't understand that one. I suppose you can kill greens > without downtime, but even a 70 necromancer has _some_ downtime on > mobs he can XP off of. Then he kites too fast. You have to find the optimal way to keep on killing. And if you notice your mana dropping too much just ease off a bit and use one dot less next time. Unless you are trying to learn a new kite spot Meldur is absolutely right. :) You can expand that concept to groups too. If you run into downtime every so often then you are killing at a wrong speed for that particular group. :P Hagen >Then he kites too fast. You have to find the optimal way to keep on >killing. I suggest that optimizing for "no downtime" does NOT (or at least not always) optimize for XP (or kill) rate. For instance, I often find that if I kill slowly enough to never go OOM I can't possibly clear a camp (with implications for wasted time splitting spawns etc.) OTOH if I kill as fast as I can (least time per mob) I can clear the camp even though I may need some downtime between groups of kills. Now, as a cleric or warrior, no matter HOW fast or HOW slow I try to kill, each kill takes more than 50% of my mana and/or HP bar so no matter WHAT I do (except hunting greens) it means minutes of downtime per mob. Group dynamics are somewhat different. IMHO the "fastest" group kills until the cleric is LOM then the necro pumps him up while the group takes 60 secs to rebuff or wait for repops. >>Then he kites too fast. You have to find the optimal way to keep on >>killing. [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] >group kills until the cleric is LOM then the necro pumps him up while >the group takes 60 secs to rebuff or wait for repops. I had groups in MPG,WoS or Tipt in mind on my initial post,usually the puller keeps pulling until some of the keyclasses,slower,tank or healer says afk cause his little sister has vomitted over his keyboard or something like that. :p Even in WoS/MPG pickupgroups I see it very rarely happen,that one of the key classes needs a medbreak,and humans need a bio break from time to time,so I can easily let my mana run out slowly if needed,the next biobreak will come without question and I can med up to full. Meldur the wharf rat schrieb: >>Then he kites too fast. You have to find the optimal way to keep on >>killing. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > I kill as fast as I can (least time per mob) I can clear the camp even > though I may need some downtime between groups of kills. I think that is not true. Because the limiting factor is the mana regen. If I can clear a camp by using all my mana and med back up completely I could go slower and still be able to clear the camp. Though I won't have time to take a break for the mobs will respawn as soon as the last one dies. If the limiting factor is the mobs that are available then it would be pointless to slow down your killspeed. That is easily noticable when you notice your mana staying at around 95%. Then you clearly need to find another camp imho. Hagen >I think that is not true. Because the limiting factor is the mana regen. > If I can clear a camp by using all my mana and med back up completely I >could go slower and still be able to clear the camp. Though I won't have >time to take a break for the mobs will respawn as soon as the last one dies. I believe that what you're failing to consider is that you regen mana much faster by killing it then medding than by constantly running around trying not to go OOM. So you actually get better mana throughput by just getting it over with and sitting down than by trying to carefully monitor mana usage. And I really don't see how a solo cleric (or wizard!) could kill and NOT go OOM. Without chain nuking they can't kill a thing and there's no way to regen faster than you use it up nuking... Especially with the cleric your-target-has-resisted-AGAIN line. Killing light blues or one shotting greens really doesn't count. That's the trivial solution :-) >>I think that is not true. Because the limiting factor is the mana regen. >> If I can clear a camp by using all my mana and med back up completely I [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >no way to regen faster than you use it up nuking... Especially with the >cleric your-target-has-resisted-AGAIN line. Tools available to the soloing Clerics: Ward of Vengeance (405 defensive proc,no its not a DS,can crit) Summoned Hammer,26/18 vs.Undead,not to mention the "godly" proc. Summoned hammer pet. Clarity potions (I use the 18p version) Haste potions (again I dont use the most expensive one) Very efficient heals over time. Desolate Undead (Nuke,310 mana before SCM and focus kicks in, ,unresistable,can crit) Turn Undead (1200 free damage every 3 minutes,AA ability) Divine Avatar (well,too bad its only usable every 36m for 3m,heals for 200 a tick,increased procrate and melee damage.) Pacify ??? (I dont want singles :) ) To sum it up: Use what you got wisely and NO DOWNTIME occurs vs. low dark blue mobs. As I mentioned soemwhere else here,I can make an AA every 2 hours in Chardok B or Veksar,and compared to a lot of Clerics I am kind of under-equippped for nowadays standards,caused by playing 2 mains simultanously,of course I have all Focus effects and FT I can get at my level. I dont know what you expect for Wizards,shall they be allowed to chain nuke all day or what ? Mheldur 68,270 cleric > Then he kites too fast. You have to find the optimal way to keep on > killing. And if you notice your mana dropping too much just ease off a > bit and use one dot less next time. But if you stretch out the time it takes to kill a mob, isn't that effectively the same thing as downtime? Three minutes of frenzied killing followed by two minutes of medding/resting works out to the same thing as five minutes of relaxed killing. You haven't gained anything. SignatureJohn Gordon "It's certainly uncontaminated by cheese." gordon@panix.com >> Then he kites too fast. You have to find the optimal way to keep on >> killing. And if you notice your mana dropping too much just ease off a [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >medding/resting works out to the same thing as five minutes of relaxed >killing. You haven't gained anything. Exactly that is the question,I happily quote myself: :) There is no downtime when one chooses his target properly,or do you want to turn EQ in a Diablo like high speed killing mass-slaughtering game? Needless to say whats my take on this. Meldur >>Then he kites too fast. You have to find the optimal way to keep on >>killing. And if you notice your mana dropping too much just ease off a [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > medding/resting works out to the same thing as five minutes of relaxed > killing. You haven't gained anything. Lost something as far as I'm concerned. I used to solo my cleric a lot, back in the day, because I was playing EQ while playing "house husband", and downtime meant I could go do a chore of one sort or another (load half the dishwasher, move clothes from washer to dryer, etc.) and come back just as I reached FM (or shortly after, no biggie if I was sitting full for a little bit, after all) and repeat. Stretch out my kills while keeping the same "kills per hour", but no down time, and I'd kill that ability. More, since my "play" time had no downtime (during the downtimes I wasn't playing), I had twice as many kills per hour played as someone who was killing slower! In groups, downtime meant chatting time. Playing a MMOG (and EQ was my first) meant actually having people playing with me... like back in my PnP days, as opposed to the standard single player CRGs I ended up playing because getting a tabletop group together that could work around my crazy life as a business owner and home schooling father. A "good group" where everyone is flatout busy all the time isn't nearly as conducive to chatter as one where we kill a few, then sit and rest back up, then go again. So, solo -or- grouped, I liked downtime. Now I do think the original EQ had a bit too much downtime, particularly as you leveled up, but I also think they went too far in the opposite direction, and further that the fetish players developed against downtime exacerbated this effect. Lance Lance Berg schrieb: >>> Then he kites too fast. You have to find the optimal way to keep on >>> killing. And if you notice your mana dropping too much just ease off a [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] >> > Lost something as far as I'm concerned. That depends on what you want to achieve. The original question was whether you could be killing without downtime or not. And I said you could if you adapt your killspeed to your mana regen. You are right that you could kill faster and med up afterwards if there weren't any more mobs around. But sometimes I just want to mindlessly go about killing mobs for exp and then I choose the no downtime way. Because it lets me kite nearly asleep. :P If I want something dead fast then sure I'm rather generous with mana. But then I don't care about downtime anyway. Hagen >>There is no downtime when one chooses his target properly,or do you > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Never mind a soloing cleric or warrior. I wasnt talking about soloing,but even then you can avoid downtime choosing the right targets(low blues),Veksar or Chardok B my Ranger or Cleric can make an AA in 2 hours,add the loot I get in this time,which is a multiple of what I get in a group,that seems about right to me(not that I have much use for plat other than twinking alts). Hey,I just remember fearkiting with my 55 Ranger,even before all the dumbing down (potions),he could do it all day wothout breaks. Btw there are other things than xping to keep me busy,chatting with friends,tradeskilling,doing quests just for fun. Mheldur 68,270 Cleric Uland 67,320 Ranger Melforge55,35 Ranger |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2009 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.