Give us your feedback on the September event!

[Ibn]

Use this thread to give us your feedback on the September event: A Small Victory.

You can read the Dev Notes and Rollout Article here (http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=267).

[Shadow Mouse]

The story seems to be picking up a little.... Maybe we'll have some more answers about the resurfacing of the Falacot, and their connection with the Burun.

[MisatoX]

Woooot, that was a rush. Finally got to be in the first group to solve the major quest. Was a lot of fun scrambling around and figuring it out, well done. and spore damage hurts >_<

Got this as a reward: Noble Rapier - 6-10 +9+9, multistrike, crushing blow, biting strike, and lvV spells

Now if the servers would come back up I could test it !! grrrr

[Lag Beast]

I like it so far. I logged in and got 165 mill xp on my main. Sure wish we could do that every month. ;)

[Unsi]

I liked the new war scroll icons. The lady in A-A is quick courteous and painless. The tent looked cool. Looked like it was going to catch fire any moment from all the leveling inside there. The rest is sort of wait and see. I didn't get to stay on very long. The allegiance chat was really really laggy. It took up to 3-5 minutes for something said to post. This forum is in bad shape too. I keep having to refresh because the computer cannot find the server any time I try to veiw something different, or see if there is an update on the diagnostics. You guys having a brown out? Wish me luck posting this. :rolleyes:

[DadgaSilverhand]

Yes, i also noticed how bad and how slow is this Turbinegame forums, keep getting pages not found and forcing to refreshing.
it been going on for over 15 hrs.
this post was made on almost 10 mins before midnite, as of 11:48 pm, started noticed around 8:30 am (east coast).

there is some relay routes was down ( if due to hurricanes, or some "hate" worm program somewhere attacking specific relay sites making it so slow or crashing) it is difficult.
i hope this clear up by the time i wake up.

[MisatoX]

Tested out my sword, kinda a dissappointment. Going on my mule. *shrug*

Blackmire 4, holy crap that was fun. Was in the first wave again so we had to figure it all out from scratch. Kept getting ported back to the start. Tons of fun figuring it out. That guy at the end has some nasty spells. Spells on the jewelery could have been a bit better, but oh well.

Some of the best fun I've had on patch day in a long time. It's 3:30am and I got class early morning, so you can tell I've been enjoying myself. Now to crash :D

[cliser]

The magic changes suq big time. Trying to fight mobs that used to cast 4s and now cast the equivalent of 6s is a joke.

These mobs were only just balanced so how is making them twice as powerful supposed to work ?

Most of the dungeons I used to hunt (and lots of above ground) are virtually unplayable. My choices are to fight lowbie mobs that cast 2s (now equivalent to 4s) and get a pittance in XP or i fight Monkeys and Olthoi.

No fun at all.

It took three months (I think) the rebalance mobs last time. Do I have to put up with this for that long again ?????

[cauthon]

Why did you change the moons! :( :( :(

[Final_Destiny]

In the name of AC, why in the hell u increased streaks damage, i think that u need to try getting git fot consistant 70s and 100s crits.... thats killing pvp..

[Merubin]

From what everyone has told me so far the quests could've used much better rewards (but they had fun doing them).. the lugian who gives out multiple quests is a nice addition :)

I don't think his quests would be done much though without upping their rewards a lot unless there's more to it, or that manacle being used.. it's not even enough for one point without the right stats - that's a pretty big trade for the tiny bonus and requires lore which isn't a popular mage skill.

[Zenra_Icewind]

I think the new graphix on the moons looks pimp, and getting a free lvl to 99 on my main? Pimpin' as well. Haven't gotten to play yet, so I'll see if I get to yay or nay, and wonder if I can hit any of the juggies now. :rolleyes: We'll see.

[Ophar Kabitaki]

Morgluuk and BM4 are nice dungeons. Fun to run around in.

The rewards kinda bite. Another suite of weapons that give dual imbues to everyone but mages. Pretty shoddy treatment of mages. If you have to lessen the %s on them fine..but at least make it LOOK like you are treating them fairly.

[faddim]

> Since the introduction of the Crafting Confirmation dialog box, we've
> seen
> several reports from players who claim that they failed their
> crafting
> interaction despite the crafting confirmation dialog claiming they
> had 100% chance of success.

I would bet the code calculates your percentage chance
of success and rounds off a floating point number
to the next nearest integer for display. Standard rounding
is 0.5 or larger gets rounded up. So 99.5% would show as 100% on
the display and there's still a chance of failure.

>
> We've investigated the code thoroughly and have found no bugs that
> could
> cause this, we've even added additional logging that will trigger if
> this
> occurs – and it hasn't.

Sure. They checked for equal to 100. 99.5 is not equal to 100, so it
never triggers.

[DadgaSilverhand]

Upgrade Crystal vaults is so insane, thick spawns, problems with war spells going everywhere. it is difficult for level 40 to solo Fenmalain, much less killing Fen crystal soloing without renders.

tried lvl 53 sword (on MT) failed to kill, due to series of drainings, this guy dont have any render sword made, that awful!!
then tried lvl 54 sword (on SC) better prepared and equiped with slash render, and full buffed and did solo.

both were parked before patch day, but i did send my main (LC's 124th lvl sword tank)- before free level, was parked in Caul, but was surprised by hordes of Panumbris and Lts. but he took them all out. then went on to Fen, from the start to the end of both Fen dungeons, pretty nasty surprises. so i can check for my MT and SC toons before i log them in and get them out safety. i am not pleased with heavy dense spawns.

you had lied to us folks, i see the end of soloing contents of those great quests. every new quest is all about "Must Have fellowships", see Frore City, all those Blackmires, Renegades, and Arefalle, etc, need more to say or add on the list? all the other upgrade places are nearly required fellowships.
I see the problems with war spells increased damage base, most folks isnt prepared to deal with magic attacks. look like some folks will get frustrated with chain-casting mobs and get Really Bored to camp bugs and monkeyes.

i mean it really get old fast by camping Olthoi and Tuskers for months. some folks like to camp magic-user creatures because some can resist the attacks and some drains when other cant, spending xp on defense is huge if not spec'ed.
on weapons and armors, and possible clothes and jewelries do need overhaul that need some extra percentages (%) of magic defenses.
there are some unusable salavges (see ruby, diamond, obsidian), make them as new imbue or tink to add magic defense, minor magic ward, etc.

those new upgrade crystal shields? are already useless and will quickly outgrew within that level range and will more likely to use Cov shield because they are semi-tinkerable worthy. Sim shield is far superior than those crystal shields due to best buff combo for meleers and buffable.

please cut down on "magic chain-cast happy" mobs on new quest in future patches unless we do get magic defense upgraded.

[evono]

Yea... This update has seemed to turn asherons call into a slide show for me.... Its not the least bit smooth and is sacking my CPU what did I do wrong... ill go search the troubleshooters

[enoch_VN]

I usually love to play after patch.....except for this one......nothing really interesting to do for me except maybe BM. The new items are pretty much mule inventory. Although the extra exp was nice :) Already looking forward to next patch

[psycho]

In regards to another nerf on the singularity wand. Let me first say i don't care if the wand isn't super uber. Not in and of it self. The problem is lack of testing and consideration of how things are gonna be after they are released. Then to just turn around and hack away at an item till it's almost worthless. Most people wouldn't get upset if they got the end result the first time. It's giving them something and then taking it away.

This is like if i bought my son a BB gun for christmas. Once i seen him shooting it i decide it shoots to fast, so i rough up the inside of the barrel to slow down the BBs. Then as i watch more i decide it shoots too straight. I go ahead and bend the barrel. Still through sheer volume he can still take down many critters. So i go ahead and take out the tube for the BBs so alls he can do is load one at a time. By this point he'd be pretty mad and have a glorified club.

As it is i don't even feel it's worth doing a quest till it's been out for a few months. That way atleast if it gets nerfed i don't know what i'm missing. It's great that you're trying to keep things balanced and all. But a little foresight would be worth it's weight in gold. Taking more time to evaluate, test, and modify an item before it hits the update would keep people from getting annoyed. This year for december update we should all get a nerf ball and bat or nerf football. That could really sum up 2004

[Tesarra-TD]

Actually, level 7 STREAKS were tweaked, not level 7 bolts or arcs however. This was taken from the Sept. LTTP:

As we wrote in previous articles, in September we will be slightly increasing the damage on some War Magic spells. Bolts and Arcs at levels 1 through 6 will have their damage increased, as will Streaks at all levels. It is important to note that level 7 Bolts and Arcs are not being changed.

(Charts are on the LTTP)

I haven't been in any pvp combat since the patch, so I couldn't tell you from first hand experience as to weather or not this will hurt pvp. Now I'm interested to see though. Gonna go check it out :cool:

[elandril]

I thought the Crushing Blow was going to be tweaked on the singularity wands, not totally removed. Crushing Blow is no longer a special property of my wand.

[MannyCalavera]

As a high level archer on DT, I think the missile weapon changes were very appropriate. I am hitting more frequently, but can still be dodged. This is exactly what was needed. It would be nice to have an imbue to add this effect to a loot weapon, and to be able to add it to a dark bow.

[Gargoyle_Jack]

Is it just me? Or has anyone else noticed that there are no more spawns of Sturdy Steel Chests?

I spent 5 hours running dires from shore to shore....literally....and didn't find a single chest.

These used to spawn around Ayan and Candeth Keep like clockwork, now.......nothing.

I pulled 50 keys day before the patch just a stones throw from Ayan.

Be nice to know if this was intended, or a goof. As it is, my mules are gonna fill up.

Gargoyle Jack

[EshuunDara]

I was very unhappy with the wands from the 3 crystals quests.

Lets look at the shendo orb. It has several problems:

Wield req of 290 war magic, coupled with a activation req of 240 arcane lore. This means:

1) only mages can equip the item -- war magic only req kills the martyr mages wielding the item too however.

2) most mages won't be able to activate the spells. This is because most mages don't train arcane. And why should they? To use spells on items... That would imply there are spells on the items worth using. Item Mastery 5? Creature Mastery 5? The only thing useful on this item is the Wizard's Greater Intellect spell, but I'd rather buy 20 points of mana than have to give up 4 skill credits to train arcane and use this item. If you don't have lore now, this orb will definately not make a case to convince you to train it. If you do have lore, there are still plenty of good reasons not to bother with this item.

Lets talk about the spells some more. If I have 290 base war magic, I can easily crank out 7s in war. If I can easily crank out 7s in war, I can probably cast at LEAST 6s, but probably 7s in creature. So what is the point of item mastery 5 and creature mastery 5?

Furthermore, there are no mods on this orb. NONE. No mana con mod. No melee defense mod.

The orb does have Biting Strike. That said:

My CS orb is undoubtably better, and it has both melee and mana def mods. My level 1 newbie could wield it too, unlike this orb, which requires you to be around level 70 or so to meet the War Magic req.

Now lets say I am a war mage with arcane lore. If I want a wand that gives me +20 mana, I'll use my baudren, as it gives me +20 willpower too, which is +5 to all my spellcasting skills. It doesn't have biting strike, but the cantrip somewhat offsets that. It also has lower requirement to equip the darn thing.

Turbine has said in the past the quest items are not supposed to be better than the uberest of lootgen stuff. That said, lets compare this item to a few other quest items. I already mentioned the buadren, so lets do... the singularity wands:


the bound singularity wand can be obtained by a character that is over level 35, and the reqs are simply 225+ base war. It has a +7 melee def mod, and a +7 mana con mod. it also has the following properties: Virindi slayer, and Biting Strike. So I can get a biting strike wand with easier reqs *AND* mods... or I can get the shendo orb... or I can get the ultimate singularity wand with 290 base war req (Same as the shendo orb)... which has +8 +8 as mods and virindi slayer and biting strike attributes. Sounds better to me than the Shendo orb.

Lets pick another quest wand: The Dark Sorcerer's Phylactery. It has better spells - including mana con 6 and minor willpower and gives +30 mana (Wizards Ultimate Intellect). It doesn't have the imbue however, but the reqs are quite a bit lower: 250 life magic.

Hmmm. I suppose what I'm getting at is that every item should have a niche.

Slayer wands all have a niche, because they're better than tinkered weapons (damage wise) against certain content assuming you vuln the target first.

If this item had really good mods on it, I imagine it would have a niche of sorts too. If it was a +12% mana con wand, I could see people using this as a poor mans CS wand until they get one.

I don't think quest items should be better than the best of fully tinkered loot gen stuff, but I think it should fall somewhere in between what people would consider good coming out of the lootgen, and the OMG uber equipment that has been fully tinked.

Unless "ooh shiny, lets give this to the town crier" was the niche you were shooting for, the shen/caul/fen quest orbs missed their mark.

[Gouru]

> Since the introduction of the Crafting Confirmation dialog box, we've
> seen
> several reports from players who claim that they failed their
> crafting
> interaction despite the crafting confirmation dialog claiming they
> had 100% chance of success.

I would bet the code calculates your percentage chance
of success and rounds off a floating point number
to the next nearest integer for display. Standard rounding
is 0.5 or larger gets rounded up. So 99.5% would show as 100% on
the display and there's still a chance of failure.

>
> We've investigated the code thoroughly and have found no bugs that
> could
> cause this, we've even added additional logging that will trigger if
> this
> occurs – and it hasn't.

Sure. They checked for equal to 100. 99.5 is not equal to 100, so it
never triggers.

Faddim, would you care to explain how to store 99.5 in an integer? You really don't think that that was one of the FIRST things they looked at?

[Crimson-Ghost]

I've yet to complete anything in the patch so far but I was running through eastham the other day and noticed that the trial portals where moved nearby into a little underground cave. I also noticed that the older portals were still present but they were underground in an unreachable area just below the stairwell, perhaps that was a bug? In any case, wasn't sure so I figured I'd post here so somebody could see it.

[Jet-eye-nite]

no pass up :eek: , loot in my mind still poor , when did everyone get 250 + al ?

[LugianWarlord]

Jalina al-Hajj tells you, "I am sorry, friend. I have only the materials to provide pennants to those who were already on Dereth when Asheron returned home. I am sure that you will find other ways to show your courage and honor."

--
Can't get my free level :confused: :( :mad:

Character Birthday : April 26 / 2004

[Gafoon]

Faddim, would you care to explain how to store 99.5 in an integer? You really don't think that that was one of the FIRST things they looked at?
Ok, Gouru, I'll bite - here's how you store 99.5 in an integer:

You use fixed point numbers - you store 99.5 as 995000000. That fits easily in a 32 bit integer.

99.6343758 you store as 996343758. You only get 10 digits of precision (since 100% needs to be 1000000000, and DWORDs cap out at 4 billion).

Of course if you wanted to use long longs, you could get a lot more digits of resolution :)

Sorry, I just felt I had to twit you :) There's absolutely no reason to believe that Turbine is doing it that way, and there is a great deal of evidence that this isn't how they store their success percentage.

The players have come up with a magic formula that they believe matches the skill check in AC. But that formula includes floating point math, and it's not at all clear that the real formula uses floating point math.

[Dallimar]

Thanks for nerfing the sing wand. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!

When are you going to stop dumping on mages? We need some loving too. My wife plays a archer and has noticed that her class of char gets most of the loving.She understands now why when on patch day i get home and ask how bad did mages get dumped on this month.

[Logan Conrad]

Hail on yonder Ibn & Team!!

Will you ever make it possible to apply ivory to the old versions of the Crystal Bows? I'm working on a "Villa of Bows" and I'd like to add these to my villa wall. The new ones can be given/hooked which is great, but I'd still like to add the old ones for a complete collection.

See this thread for my collection so far:

http://vnboards.ign.com/AC_Archers_Stop/b5147/42443863/p1

Thanks.

[packing]

there is 2 sturdy steel key chest that are always there one in the mountain citidel and one in a tower near the white rabbit

[hobbittx]

I started my first mage with the 6th character slot, and he's to level 28 now. I appreciate the new ability to devastate critters with spell damage, but it seems to backfire when I take out a lurker, and the other 2 come and wipe me out with 1 or 2 level 4 spells of their own.
I take little damage from physical blows, but those spells are monstrous. Odd that my mage should be so good at melee, yet so awful at magic resistance? Sure didn't create him for that effect.
1 thumb up, 1 thumb down.

Woof

[Ares Blackheart]

The new Noble weapons really suck! :mad:

I found some pics of them before i started the quest and guessed that they were for noobs even though they have 325+ wield req.

So I start the quest with my lvl 82 3school Melee for fun
First I have to break down a door and its taking a long time even after I cast imperil 6 and use a slash rend. I get a lvl 70 melee friend to help and its soon down and i go find an npc

Now its off to another fort.
We get to the outside and theres some really easy monsters, some of the bruun i think around lvl 70 and some of thouse new gigant guys around lvl 90, And a lvl 50 could kill them!!?? I though turbine was trying to balance monsters and make their skill accurate to their lvl...

Next we get to the big door with tons of hp we have to knock down to get into the place. I debuff it, tell my buddie not to id it (cuz i know that makes it again hp, witch is really stupid!) We lower its hp by about 1/8 and then all of a sudden its full again! That god damn thing had the fastes regain i had ever seen in my 4 years of ac! We did like 5000 damage to it in about 20 secs and it got it all back!

So boowhoo i was all upset! a lvl 82 and a lvl 70 were unable to do even half of that quest! And even if we got like 5 guys together and took it down, we had to go kill a lvl 200 boss after to get the new weapons!

first i have to say, that yes, i know this quest is to open the way to blackmire 4 and the devs of the quest dident have to give anything for a reward. But the reward should be worth the time and effort of the quest!

Now I have to rant about these weapons!



I compared the Noble dagger to the living dagger:
Living dagger: 8.4-16 multi strike, crushing blow and biting strike, also has possablity of a few spells close to minors
Noble dagger: 3.6-6 YES THATS RIGHT 3.6-6!! THATS LESS THAN HALF! has same special props

Fact: a lvl 25 can get the living dagger solo

Fact: a lvl 40 could kill a sable grommie and get a dagger better than the Noble dager

Fact: you will need to be atleast 60 and go with many friends to get the noble dagger











fact: THIS IS RIDICULOUS

ridiculous: unworthy of serious consideration







Who comes up with this stuff?

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Thanks for nerfing the sing wand. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!

When are you going to stop dumping on mages? We need some loving too. My wife plays a archer and has noticed that her class of char gets most of the loving.She understands now why when on patch day i get home and ask how bad did mages get dumped on this month.

When was the last time you used your mage? Four years ago? LOL Must be, since the majority of loving always goes to mages FIRST. Archers rarely get anything, and the other melee classes even less so. The Sing Wand was too stupidly overpowered anyway... so the nerf was needed.

Mind you, they should've left it like it was from the start, and made ALL other weapons just as powerful in their own right, as then it would be balanced. But Turbine never balances any weapons to equal that of what they always give to mages on a diamond-encrusted golden platter.

So don't fret... now you're only 50 times more overpowered than everyone else, instead of 100 times. :p

[Mott The Hoople]

Love the game, but you've completely lost me on this one. As if the farce that is the Magic Defense skill - you know the one, the ((FOCUS+SELF) / 7) one that rarely, if ever, actually does anything - was not enough of an advantage.

Currently playing a level 55 Staffer/Alchemist with a Magic Defense of 200 and what big fun it is to to be consistently taking 40-80 points of damage with every level VI protection in the book running! Reminds me of the good old days in beta on Morningthaw before I discovered Life Magic and the protections it offers.

Going to leave Dereth to those who are masochistic enough to tolerate this nonsense. Will come back in a few months, like I always do, and hope things have changed for the better.

I don't think Interplay would mind too much if you paraphrased their slogan and used "By Mages, For Mages". That would, at least, be much more honest and descriptive than your current one.

[KsBabe]

When was the last time you used your mage? Four years ago? LOL Must be, since the majority of loving always goes to mages FIRST. Archers rarely get anything, and the other melee classes even less so. The Sing Wand was too stupidly overpowered anyway... so the nerf was needed.

Mind you, they should've left it like it was from the start, and made ALL other weapons just as powerful in their own right, as then it would be balanced. But Turbine never balances any weapons to equal that of what they always give to mages on a diamond-encrusted golden platter.

So don't fret... now you're only 50 times more overpowered than everyone else, instead of 100 times. :p

I am his wife and I can outkill him two to one on all critters even though he uses his tinked out wands and staffs. Yes Mages has been nerfed from where they were when we began playing this game and yes I use tinked bows but the bm bow is what I use when I want to kill fast. I can use the bladed bow and one and two shot VoD gromnies and lugians, I can use this bow and take the kill on Obits away from maxed out UA'ers.
I do feel that mages have been nerfed and as for being 50 timesmore overpowered than me, how? Being able to vuln faster than me? That is all he can do that makes him more overpowered than me. He is level 147 and in my opinion, he should be overpowered compared to me, magic users should be able to do more damage than archers but hey, I can use him for my own personal pocketmage, may not be fair to him but I wont complain,,lol.
I truly believe also that us archers does get more loving than any other class in AC. We get better bows (that just keeps getting better with each high lvl bow we get) and we are even looking at the possiblity of getting a chance for our arrows to go faster after being fired, so yes we do get alot of attention and I will be the first to admit this. If this isnt the case then why do we hear those D***ed archers all the time from every class but archers?
Now on to my rant about the increased war damages that the mobs are doing.
I have a magic resistance of 297 buffed and yesterday I was getting hit with lvl 6 warspells that was doing 106 points of damage to my char each hit. If this is a crit then please by all means give all classes this chance of getting crits like the critters do. I dont mean this was 1 out of 20 hits, this was a normal hit each time. Now if this is the damage level six spells can do then I will tell my hubby to start using sixes again, because with these high numbers in damage did by lvl 6 spells and this many critical hits all the time then he may get a few kills using just sixes, and it will save on plats too,,lol!

[Mat Icefalcon]

Let me see. Where to begin.

Hmm hadn't done BM4 yet. Maybe some day.

More nerfs to mages when it comes to player vs mob, vice versa via pk. Really pathetic. Obviously you guys dont test things out enough (example.. look at patch day).

Couldn't mobs have a seperate magic resistant skill.. something like war resistance??? Have that check against a mages war skill vice regular magic d. Maybe have that war resistance skill lower than a mob's regular magic resistance, so that mages get a better DoT that they deserve for spending so many skill points for that war skill??? I'm guessing not. Probably would take too many resources.

Note: For the above glob... I'm a hardcore melee

Hmm what else???

Damage from spells coming from Mobs seem to have gone up. Any chance of making magic d a little more usefull due to that??? I'm guessing probably not due to the lack of resources, testing and so forth.

Other than that, I'm pretty happy that I still can log in.

Ohh one more thing.

In the future, are there plans for a 64 bit AC client?? I really love the speed of windows XP 64. If not.. no worries. At least it can run 32 bit games ok.

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

As per usual, I agree with most if not everything you say! ;)

I am his wife and I can outkill him two to one on all critters even though he uses his tinked out wands and staffs.

Un-Vulned, un-imped? No way. So you first have to put away the bow and prepare the critter, then take the bow and go at it again. By doing this, you lose valuable time, and the critter is at your feet by the time you're ready to shoot. The mage has it all in one, no delays to change weapons or tools of the trade. Imp/Vuln Shoot! More efficient. Damage? Drain, drain, shoot! etc.

Yes Mages has been nerfed from where they were when we began playing this game

If you're talking about them being able to drain from a mile away, taking 25% of the total each time, yes! Good thing too, or no one in our current system would have a prayer over a mage. There's been other things that were nerfed, but all of them required to "try" and keep things more balanced. But IMO, much more needs to be nerfed on mages. I know that's a very unpopular idea to mages, and they hate anyone for it who says such, but I really believe it, and "I" play a level 113 mage, and actually am playing it more than my other toons now. When my 113 mage can outdo my 208 Archer, something is terribly wrong! lol :eek:

and yes I use tinked bows but the bm bow is what I use when I want to kill fast. I can use the bladed bow and one and two shot VoD gromnies and lugians, I can use this bow and take the kill on Obits away from maxed out UA'ers.

Very true. But then you should be able to do better than UA, right? If everyone keeps comparing skill cost, then spec bow is 250% more expensive.

I do feel that mages have been nerfed and as for being 50 timesmore overpowered than me, how? Being able to vuln faster than me? That is all he can do that makes him more overpowered than me. He is level 147 and in my opinion, he should be overpowered compared to me, magic users should be able to do more damage than archers but hey, I can use him for my own personal pocketmage, may not be fair to him but I wont complain,,lol.

They're overpowered, plain and simple. I know this first-hand myself for the comparison I made above between my Archer and Mage. How much time have I spent on my Archer to be worth Fifty Billion XP? (XP-Chain Exempted) Loooooong time. My mage has Two and a half Billion XP. That actually works out to 20 times less XP, and the mage is better equipped to handle anything (except Hollow Minions)? LOL Again, something is terribly wrong here! :mad: Mage can do everything without having to alter its stance. Clear advantage by itself.

I truly believe also that us archers does get more loving than any other class in AC. We get better bows (that just keeps getting better with each high lvl bow we get) and we are even looking at the possiblity of getting a chance for our arrows to go faster after being fired, so yes we do get alot of attention and I will be the first to admit this. If this isnt the case then why do we hear those D***ed archers all the time from every class but archers?

I agree 100%. Of course, we also take a lot more overall damage due to no shield, plus have to stand perfectly still while shooting or we miss every shot. Meleers have it much better in that sense because of sticky-melee and allows them to be pulled around all over the place, making tracking for monsters (and pvp) that are shooting back much more difficult to hit, hence taking less damage, and even less so due to a serious shield.

Now on to my rant about the increased war damages that the mobs are doing.
I have a magic resistance of 297 buffed and yesterday I was getting hit with lvl 6 warspells that was doing 106 points of damage to my char each hit. If this is a crit then please by all means give all classes this chance of getting crits like the critters do. I dont mean this was 1 out of 20 hits, this was a normal hit each time. Now if this is the damage level six spells can do then I will tell my hubby to start using sixes again, because with these high numbers in damage did by lvl 6 spells and this many critical hits all the time then he may get a few kills using just sixes, and it will save on plats too,,lol!

I have yet to find time to experience this myself, but I believe what you're saying. The thing you have to remember though is that (talking about vod/caul critters) these monsters have a much higher war-magic skill than any human player does, and that's why their casts always hit their mark. This is obvious because as a low level mage, you can't hit any high level critter as they resist, but once you grow up (the only change is your skill) you can hit them everytime and often kill in one shot (speaking about lower level critters). So the higher the critters war magic, the harder it will hit you, magic defense or not. Now, if you had 100/100 focus/self and spec Magic Def and it was maxed out, I bet that level 6 war blast wouldn't touch you, and if it did would be minor damage.

I'm now looking forward to getting out and trying to hunt with all 6s, I sure don't mind blowing a pile of pyreal scarabs instead of plats! No siree! lol Of course now I have to re-arrange my tabs to use 6s... bleh :(

[psycho]

Really if you wanna "balance" it all out. Then all classes should have the same cost to raise and spec. Then talk about balance. Untill then the pecking order in "powerful/damage" should be to the ones who have to spend the most skill credits.

[packing]

magic defence only helps to resist doesnt help with damege at all from war magic unless u have the aegis ability on maxed magic defence makes the aegis negate 25% of damege just like mele defence dont determin damege u take from mele attacks it just helps to evade

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Really if you wanna "balance" it all out. Then all classes should have the same cost to raise and spec. Then talk about balance. Untill then the pecking order in "powerful/damage" should be to the ones who have to spend the most skill credits.

You mages (I'm assuming you're a mage) keep forgetting a very KEY thing here. A mage doesn't NEED Melee Defense to survive, due to their ability to transfer health/stamina/mana around at will, and to drain creatures to gain back the health they've lost. If Meleers had the ability to do that while holding their respectives weapon(s), Melee Def wouldn't be needed at all by any class. But such is not the case.

Spec War = 28 Credits. Spec Bow (for instance) = 16, but then you need at least trained Melee Def, and most like Spec Melee to have the same survivability factor. So now we add 10 (trained) to spec Bow = 26, and if Spec Melee = 36. So who should have the most power? Bow! It does to a point, but versatility wise, the mage still gets the lions share in ability to kill.

Lower end? UA = 6, Spec Melee with UA = 26, 2 points short of war. Why is it so underpowered compared to a mage? Same goes for Sword, Axe, Mace, etc., etc.

Now on TOP of War, you have Spec Life and in some cases Spec Creature as well! No melee could ever afford this and still use a weapon etc. So now you see why mages are sickly overpowered in every sense. They have it ALL, while everyone else gets the shaft. Even all the new wands etc for mages gives them so much more power over all other weapons with the same percs on them. Virindi Slayer on the Sing Wand, even after the nerf is insanely overpowered than any other weapon with Virindi Slayer.

Why is this? Obviously the Devs still favor mages... what else is new.

I've said enough... Mages have always been overpowered, and I guess that's a normal trend.

By Mages, FOR Mages.

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

magic defence only helps to resist doesnt help with damege at all from war magic unless u have the aegis ability on maxed magic defence makes the aegis negate 25% of damege just like mele defence dont determin damege u take from mele attacks it just helps to evade

Then how come my archer with max Magic Def takes less damage from War than my lower level toons under the exact same conditions? Hmmm? It certainly does make a diff if you have greater skill over lesser skill.

Same applies to Missile Def. Prior to specing Life on my archer, I wanted to see how much more damage I'd take from an incoming missile attack with and without Missile. Since it was trained, I took down numbers with, and then untrained it and saw the diff without, on the SAME monster. Hollow Rock Lugian. I took more than double the damage without Missile Def.

So it DOES make a diff if you have a higher or lower skill in whichever of the evasive skills available..... Rightly so too! What would be the purpose to train a skill and dump millions of XP into it, if it didn't make any difference to your protection? Sometimes you evade, other times you take damage... with the skill, less damage and without the skill, full damage.

[Akawa]

So far, there's very little I can point to and say, "Now thats why I like Turbine, every month... new goodies." In fact, all I can say is, "huh... new patch, new stuff... back to the old grind since they ain't worth the effort."

Three Crystals quests, thank god I did these before patch. Those places are freakin' insane. Seriously. What lvl 20 is going to be able to get through Fen on their own? You'd need a group of 4-5 lvl 20s to even make a dent.
I like the improved Shields, especially the non attuned part. They look nice on my mules.

You guys sure are going out of your way to kill off solo questing on Dereth aren't ya?

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

You guys sure are going out of your way to kill off solo questing on Dereth aren't ya?

Even after they said time and time again that that wasn't their intention... that they realized it was one of the KEY reasons AC was so popular. Yet it is true that solo play is becoming less and less possible.

I know one thing for sure, less solo playability will see the cancellation of my subscriptions, that's a promise. I live for solo play. Take it away, and I have no more reason to keep shelling out my $39 a month.

[Butter88]

Turbine. Good job!! Keep up the good work.


EDIT: Although i do agree with the fellowship quests popping up like crazy. I am a solo hunter and it gets hard enough to find a decent fellow at the times when I play. There were some quests that I always wanna try out but can't due to a lack of a fellow.


Could there be solo quests anywhere on the drawing boards where it might challenge a lvl 100+ character? I think that would be awesome.

[EshuunDara]

You guys sure are going out of your way to kill off solo questing on Dereth aren't ya?

Lately that has been the feeling I've gotten.... I live for questing, but the last few months have seen quest after quest that I simply cannot do. I've tried, and it sucks. I was able to solo blackmire 2, but with EXTREME difficulty (and a ton of bodies).

I don't mind quests that require groups if they're rare, but come on -- there is a reason people hated the "team splits up and pulls levers for each other" type quests: 1) you have to split up, and 2) forced grouping.

The blackmire quests are cool and all, but I honestly hate them, because of the grouping dynamic. It's a shame that the dungeon couldn't spawn more creatures when more players are present to accommodate the both the groupers and soloers...

[psycho]

You mages (I'm assuming you're a mage) keep forgetting a very KEY thing here. A mage doesn't NEED Melee Defense to survive, due to their ability to transfer health/stamina/mana around at will, and to drain creatures to gain back the health they've lost. If Meleers had the ability to do that while holding their respectives weapon(s), Melee Def wouldn't be needed at all by any class. But such is not the case.

Spec War = 28 Credits. Spec Bow (for instance) = 16, but then you need at least trained Melee Def, and most like Spec Melee to have the same survivability factor. So now we add 10 (trained) to spec Bow = 26, and if Spec Melee = 36. So who should have the most power? Bow! It does to a point, but versatility wise, the mage still gets the lions share in ability to kill.

Lower end? UA = 6, Spec Melee with UA = 26, 2 points short of war. Why is it so underpowered compared to a mage? Same goes for Sword, Axe, Mace, etc., etc.

Now on TOP of War, you have Spec Life and in some cases Spec Creature as well! No melee could ever afford this and still use a weapon etc. So now you see why mages are sickly overpowered in every sense. They have it ALL, while everyone else gets the shaft. Even all the new wands etc for mages gives them so much more power over all other weapons with the same percs on them. Virindi Slayer on the Sing Wand, even after the nerf is insanely overpowered than any other weapon with Virindi Slayer.

Why is this? Obviously the Devs still favor mages... what else is new.

I've said enough... Mages have always been overpowered, and I guess that's a normal trend.

By Mages, FOR Mages.


I really like how the people who try and calculate other skills as costing more leave out the other skills needed by a mage. You say able to transfer health/stam/mana that requires life ontop of war. And No! mage can be effective without Mana C. Now i suppose you'd have to say well the archer would need life too. That's not essencial. Plenty of melee running around without life. If you're gonna do the math add up all the components.

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

I really like how the people who try and calculate other skills as costing more leave out the other skills needed by a mage. You say able to transfer health/stam/mana that requires life ontop of war. And No! mage can be effective without Mana C. Now i suppose you'd have to say well the archer would need life too. That's not essencial. Plenty of melee running around without life. If you're gonna do the math add up all the components.

It's a GIVEN that a mage has Mana Conv, Life, Creature and Item, no? But what is it that KILLS? Why, it's War Magic, correct? So from that standpoint alone we have to weigh the cost of War Magic against a Melee Weapon. In doing so, the thing that allows a mage to survive (mainly) is Life Magic, but then all other classes could benefit by having Life also, so we're back to War vs the Melee Weapon, which has to include Melee Def; or the Meleer doesn't have any way to stand up to a nasty monster and survive the abuse (since melees cannot use their life magic to help keep them going as they use their respective weapon. Therefore it's War Magic vs Weapon/Melee Def; unless of course you don't think it's fair that a meleer should be able to survive an attacker?

If you want to be ridiculous about it, then we could add up everything a meleer needs to survive out in the wilds, like a mage does. But you know what the end result would be. The end result would be that every class requires 88 skill credits to complete their characters. That makes ALL of us EQUAL. Therefore using that formula we should ALL have the SAME amount of power and ability, right? LOL

So, no.... we're now back to looking at the absolute basics of what you need to KILL with, a mage needs War Magic, and a Meleer needs their Weapon and Melee Def, seeing as they have to hold onto an object that doesn't allow them to use their Life Magic to keep them alive (unlike mages), via healing, transfers.

[elandril]

So, no.... we're now back to looking at the absolute basics of what you need to KILL with, a mage needs War Magic, and a Meleer needs their Weapon and Melee Def, seeing as they have to hold onto an object that doesn't allow them to use their Life Magic to keep them alive (unlike mages), via healing, transfers.


Id love to see you level a mage to 100+ without mana c to survive.

[Heideggar]

1) Who said someone who uses a melee weapon needs melee D? Luxury skill imo.

You can almost get away with not having melee D on a missle person. However, I found I did quite a bit of selective hunting because some things were just annoying.

2) I don't notice a damage shift when having a defensive skill higher or lower. Only thing that I see are the hits and misses that affect the overal DoT, but if you count the hits, I don't see the change. Observer error, hand cramp, whatever. My "numbers" don't compare with your "numbers" hehe.

3) Blackmire 4.. eh. Wasn't as bad as I hoped it would be. The forced grouping stuff is kinda blah. A very difficulty-to-solo quest is nice, but ... you just push people to purchase items from the quest instead of experiencing the quests (when you force group hunting). I saw several people just say, "eh, I'll just buy the items I want from a bot in MP and save myself 3-4 buffs". I don't blame em, but I went and did BM4 myself, all by my lonesome.

4) I dunno. Just didn't feel like much with this patch at all. Then again, I suppose I usually feel that way. There are quite a few things that I've been waiting for, for months, and seen nothing of, so... you can understand.

5) Oh, yeah, forgot to add in my "amg, mages are so underpowered" bit. Helps make those who feel "left out" feel better. Also, please don't exagerate, mages aren't mearly 50 times stronger, more efficient, cheaper, easier to play, more versatile, and above all else good looking... we're one milllion times better than anyone who isn't a mage. Oh, and I play all mages. I've never played a melee with just item, never played a melee/missle character, never played a hybrid, all-trained mage, claw mage, leveled tinkerers or nothin like that. All mage baby. If you aren't a mage, you probably think XCZCXCZ is some kind of leet speak all the new kids are doing.

*snickers*

*breaks out chuckling*

[Naia-Ra-Sal]

i hope there is more to the Captain K'rank quests then we know so far , i did 5 of the quests with one char and the rewards are just stupid .

[Butter88]

5) Oh, yeah, forgot to add in my "amg, mages are so underpowered" bit. Helps make those who feel "left out" feel better. Also, please don't exagerate, mages aren't mearly 50 times stronger, more efficient, cheaper, easier to play, more versatile, and above all else good looking... we're one milllion times better than anyone who isn't a mage. Oh, and I play all mages. I've never played a melee with just item, never played a melee/missle character, never played a hybrid, all-trained mage, claw mage, leveled tinkerers or nothin like that. All mage baby. If you aren't a mage, you probably think XCZCXCZ is some kind of leet speak all the new kids are doing.


I have a 3 school tank/sword, a 1 school tank/xbower, and a CLaW mage in training. I would take my sword guy over anyone of them. Much easier to play, I think that sword has gone a little bit underpowered, but it doesn't bother me.

I find mages to be quite powerful, but not OVERPOWERED. Mages aren't the way to go although most people play them because once you get passed the baby lvls, it is hella easy to lvl up a mage to lvl 150. I have PK'd with some mages and yes some kill me, and some don't. I hunt with a war mage all the time. I can also outkill him, depending on the critter.

As far as mages > everyone else. I beg to differ. Some of the most skilled/talented player AREN'T mages. Just look at the legend Del Cabon, he wasn't a mage. You still think he is a n00b?

Each character template has it's own strengths and weaknesses. And when you put two talented players together in PK, they equal each other out. All sword needs is a tiny bit of a tweak, and everything will be all set.

That's my 2 pyreals.

[Heideggar]

Butter, like... 90% of #5 that I wrote was just me being sarcastic.

I could easily have just not written number 5, but I was interested in who would respond to it in a 24 hour period.

[agnari]

IBN

can you confirm that the 'fix' of the Railea spawn 'fix' to the QQ attachment is properly working?

for 20 toons I found R on average < hour per toon.

Now before this Sept fix I spent 8 hours with one toon no success. Now after the 2nd fix to make him more available i've spent another 4 hours and still no R.


Here is a hint, roll R back to the QQ attachment he was a heck of a lot easier to find before y'all started making him easier to find!

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Id love to see you level a mage to 100+ without mana c to survive.

*Nonsensical Mode On*

I'd love to see you level a mage to 100+ without War Magic to survive.

*Nonsensical Mode Off*

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

Butter, like... 90% of #5 that I wrote was just me being sarcastic.

I could easily have just not written number 5, but I was interested in who would respond to it in a 24 hour period.

Apart from the fact that I have played a Melee with only Item, I didn't see any sarcasm either. Must've been the leet kiddee speek reefeereence. :rolleyes:

Actually, there is a well respected Monarch on MT who plays a Melee with only Item, who happens to be 150+. Amazing what can be done if one but tries.

XCZCXCZ? Hmmm... maybe I should ask my youngest son... but then even he's probably to old to know..... or care. ;)

[Final_Destiny]

Really if you wanna "balance" it all out. Then all classes should have the same cost to raise and spec. Then talk about balance. Untill then the pecking order in "powerful/damage" should be to the ones who have to spend the most skill credits.

What we mean by balancing is the ability to mach mages not to over damage them. I agree that war should be the most damaging, but not to that extent, if u want to calculate it mathmatically its so easy, in pvp mages hit for an average of 200 (with weeping and vuln) melees and bowers hit for an average of 35 (with weeping and vuln), if u want to relate skill cost to damage then melees should dame as their skill cridits cost:


200 dmg --------- 28 skill cridits
X dmg --------- 16 skill cridits

X = (200 * 16)/28 = 114.28 thats what melees should hit or with respect to their spec ciridits cost, now they only hiy for an average of 35.

The game is never balanced this way, mages been given love to an extent that other templates are really getting useless now. some real love to other templates is required, the only template that getting magic boost is mages, streaks damage got boosted, and thats how it goes.

[Heideggar]

"Apart from the fact that I have played a Melee with only Item, I didn't see any sarcasm either. Must've been the leet kiddee speek reefeereence.

Actually, there is a well respected Monarch on MT who plays a Melee with only Item, who happens to be 150+. Amazing what can be done if one but tries.

XCZCXCZ? Hmmm... maybe I should ask my youngest son... but then even he's probably to old to know..... or care. " - flatfoot


Yeah, I'm sure you wouldn't find it sarcastic because you 1) Take things way too seriously and 2) was meant for people like you to get you all worked up. If I was a truly mage centric person, I wouldn't have more melee characters on my accounts than mages, in a 4 to 1 ratio.

There are many well respected monarchs on MT who play a melee with item only, and 150+. That's not to say there aren't many other item only 150+ characters who aren't monarchs either. Of course, I don't use treestats to look them up, I know them.

You PvP and don't know what XCZXCZ is? *shake head* You don't PvP.

[EshuunDara]

I suppose my question is...

what the heck does this skill credit debate have to do with the september event? Sure war magic got a tweak, but it was the low levels of war magic. It's the equivalent of increasing the damage on 250 wield req swords a bit. Nice for those who use them, but most of are far beyond that point and don't give a rip. (My level 32 all trained mage loves the change however, thank you thank you thank you thank you!).

[Bob_Jones_LC]

Figured I'd check out the new shendo orb, so I handed it over and the NPC handed me back something entirely useless to my Life/UA... Could have used a "Are you sure you want to destroy your orb" message...

Any chance we can hand back the new orb and get the old one back?

[Butter88]

Butter, like... 90% of #5 that I wrote was just me being sarcastic.

I could easily have just not written number 5, but I was interested in who would respond to it in a 24 hour period.


Well, it seemed you were attacking Melee's. Just had to defend my characters :D They were hard work (still are).


I still do believe that sword needs a little tweak. Maybe swords that have 5 more added to the max damage. Or quicken the amination on a full swing.

Just my 2 pyreals.

[Ibn]

Is it just me? Or has anyone else noticed that there are no more spawns of Sturdy Steel Chests?

Sturdy Steel Chest spawn rates were not changed.

[Ibn]

can you confirm that the 'fix' of the Railea spawn 'fix' to the QQ attachment is properly working?

The change to the Ralirea spawn rate is in the October event, not September.

[Heideggar]

Mott, ummm, everyone voices their opinion. Sorry to inform you that not everyone does it the same way. If I'm stifling someone's feedback, show me where, and why it's bad. I _might_ change : )

"Wow! An Allegiance Monarch! Have you ever considered the possibility that by virtue of the very fact that you didn't even have to lift a finger to gain the vast majority of your XP you have no business commenting on the experiences of those who actually DO play in order to gain their experience? Apparently not." - Mott

^^ I like this statement : ) It's good to know you can somehow make these great statements knowing little to nothing about my allegiance structure and what I do lol. *clap*

"But seriously, it's easy to see how an important person such as yourself, one who is obviously in possession of a clear mind and sharp wit, came to lead one of those glorified pyramid schemes that we call an Allegiance. Congrats, dude!"

yep, I bribed them! : )


Butter88: I've got nothing against melees. There's been a lot of "melees have the crap end" type postings. It was mainly for those that hardcore melee types who feel super cheated because there's a mage class : /


Really though, it hurts to know that people don't like my posts.

Next time though, PM me. This is off topic, and Ibn will probably delete it soon.


For On Topic:

"Originally Posted by Gargoyle_Jack
Is it just me? Or has anyone else noticed that there are no more spawns of Sturdy Steel Chests?"

There are some static spawns of SSK chests if you're having a tough time finding one in the wild.

[Shultz]

I think there wasn't enough in this patch.

I remember back in the day when patches had a lot more each month than they do now.

What's the situation here? Are there less devs working on the AC Franchise now?

What I'm looking forward to is new land off of Dereth's entire map.
(beyond 100 of any Coordinate. For those who do not know, 100 is THE edge of Dereth's map.) If that's an issue, we could just "tile" maps together. Easy, right?

[Merubin]

Having played with this patch a bit more I've got some real comments to make :)

General
New war spell damage from monsters is making my gameplay less enjoyable. I don't play a low level mage who it would benefit though, and I'm too lazy to toss lower level spells on my mage's bar - perhaps someone who would would be happier with it but I've found myself just getting irritated by the game after taking high damage doing things I'd have been able to survive before no problem.

Even had a fully buffed level 100ish character die running through the Watery Grotto for war paint before getting to the final room, though that was pretty funny :) A lot of monsters need higher experience IMO if this is a permanent change or many people are going to stick to tuskers & olthoi even more than before.

Temple of Hizk Ri
Could the # of monsters appearing in the maze after a failed jump be reduced? The Eye of Heights trial in Kivik Lir's temple is a lot more fun without something that horribly bad to run through when you miss, especially in the lower end quests where players can't have enough in skills to easy survive through those monsters.. we lost 3+ (some portal gemmed away) out of 7 people last time I went for 80-99 because of the war spells of the guys down there.

Temple of Kivik Lir
Fun, reminded me of why I liked the first one as someone who led that a lot and did the trials. I really liked the choice between Burun or the war spells, and that pit tricked me the first time I did it :) The end rooms of 60-79 and 80-99 should have reduced Burun spawns or reduced respawn times though with the difficulty of finding a decent group compared to 100+, with 5 people tonight we couldn't finish the 80-99 section - ended up slowly being picked off even after taking out Gorgluuk. Another reason the new war spells irritated me, especially after that non-dispellable Fungal Bloom debuff and knowing just one war spell from a Soothsayer = death for most of the fellow.

Captain K'rank
While getting random little quests is fun, most of these aren't worth the reward and barely worth doing even if you have portal mules to nearby locations. If you don't have portal mules/know your way around they're not at all IMO.. Perhaps he should give you a portal gem to near where you need to get to (ex: the estate settlement by Beachfort for the chorizite, the Dryreach Beach settlement with a key to the town if you get the axe) and tell you to buy a portal gem to get back to Linvak Tukal from the town's imbuer before you go?

Free Level
Thanks :) All of the experience I got on most characters went straight into magic defense.

[Heideggar]

I pretty much have to agree with you there Schultz on the amount this patch. For some reason, I initially thought the amount of downtime on patch day was due to so much content, not so much stuff added in for an expansion pack. I don't pay my monthly fees for the expansion pack. I don't get monthly updates of the expansion pack lol. I get monthly updates of regular live team content. Now, if the expansion pack guys want to do that, fine, but those working on the xpack are former live team members, moved to it. But... was an equal amount of talent hired to replace them so live team updates do not become hindered? I think the answer is no. Did equal talent come in to substitue those taken from the live team to do the billing migration? I think the answer to that is no too, right Ibn?

From my understanding Schultz, talent was taken from the live team in order to do the billing migration and xpack. This imo, is why we may see less, or less worth while content in monthly updates.

Hope that helps clarify.

Though, I thought Ibn had mentioned that somewhere before. Too tired to look that up for ya.

Let me put it this way, I read a lot of answers by Devs to tech/content possibilities. While some questions are pretty far fetched, there are actually some really good ideas. Many of those good ideas end up falling into the "We don't have the resources for it" or "We don't have that kind of time".

I've always been curious if Turbine had those resources from Billing Migration and the Xpack if they couldn't get something done about multiple weapon buffing, or making towns better (roaming NPCs for example), or the housing situation, or the PvP situations, or this or that.

I have yet to hear that people were brought in to pick up the slack by those who left the Live Team for these other two teams. So why should I assume that because there are fewer people, just as much, or more, is getting done.

*sigh* It's just hard to think of all the cool things that could be in the game that aren't there, or won't be there within a year, because of this.

I mean, really, what would some of you guys miss out on if you left and came back in like 1 year? As the trend goes, wouldn't you have:

1) Better areas to level?
2) Better equipment?
3) More quests?
4) More updated content?
5) both parts of the xpack
6) saved money
7) not dealt with the bugs, rollbacks, and crashes
8) real life stuff

Reasons I still play:
1) friends

*scratch head*
hmmm, someone help me out with this list?
A lot of the things I'd like to see won't get into the game for a very very long time, so... am I missing something here?

[cloud_12077]

I want something in return for putting the Morguuk head on a stick in the town. My name on it or something. Everyone else gets a plaque after they turn it in after you. I only got a global :(

~Z~

[Cuttler]

In the future, when you decide to give a gift to us, please use a new NPC. Since I didn't need 20 pennants cloging my mules I did not get them all with my characters so when I used the NPC this month I received the pennant instead of the xp. Now I just get: Jalina al-Hajj tells you, "I have already provided you with a pennant. Display it proudly!" when I use the NPC. Additionally I have followers who could not get xp from their 6th slot characters.

[wolftear]

You were at the wrong NPC cuttler, the xp reward NPC is in a tent not on top of a building.

[jordvik]

As predicted and yelled at the top of our lungs in the last LTTP response... The War magic changes is killing my enjoyment completely. I have been playing for a long long time and even the loot nerfs last spring hasnt done this much to destroy my will to play the game as much as this change. I have spent far too many hours already hunting Tuskers and Bugs that I dont want to fight them anymore. Caul is a deathtrap now, with the increase in level 6 war damage I am regularly taking 100-150 damage from a level 6 war/level 6 vuln combo. That is insane. If I dont spend 50% of my time undebuffing myself I die with two war spells. The monsters cast them way faster than I can even heal myself against, if there are two of anything, I might as well just type /die.

I dont have the will to log in much anymore as it only takes about 30 mins for me to die enough times that I just get so angry I recover my bodies and log off. This is crazy and needs to be fixed in a hotpatch. We did the 100+ Blackmire III last weekend. It took us SEVEN hours. The War and Life spell chaining that goes on in that dungeon is just insane and every one of our group died at least twice, most of us 3-4 times before we got it finished.

Either the spell level capacity for all non 7 casting monsters need to be shifted down a step or probably two and/or the xp for spellcasting monsters needs to be increased as dramatically as their ability to kill us. The ability to hunt anything that casts spells anymore is just destroyed and your fanbase is suffering for it. Please help.

Can we get an update please on what is going to be done about this dire problem?

[psycho]

200 dmg --------- 28 skill cridits
X dmg --------- 16 skill cridits

X = (200 * 16)/28 = 114.28 thats what melees should hit or with respect to their spec ciridits cost, now they only hiy for an average of 35.

The game is never balanced this way, mages been given love to an extent that other templates are really getting useless now. some real love to other templates is required, the only template that getting magic boost is mages, streaks damage got boosted, and thats how it goes.


I agree with that calculation completely. Except you have to take into account time. How long it takes to cast a spell to how long it takes to swing sword, shoot arrow, and so on with each class. I'm not saying it's balanced now! But with the combination of timing and some sort of balance in the damage across classes. In respect to how much one has to spend to train. I think most would be happy with the outcome. Leaving it to the skill of the player winning. Not who has what template.

[wolftear]

I totaly agree with Jordvik. Last night a friend and I tried to do a quest. I spent more than half of my time drinking health pots, using heal kits, and burning dispel gems because more than one war spell would kill me. Over two hours into the dungeon we finaly ran out of these items and got killed. To actualy get our bodies back we would have had to stand around with our alchemists making a few hundred more health potions and spend another 2+ hours trying to get back and risk leaving a couple more corpses behind. Instead we just logged off and I have no desire to log back in again.

[EshuunDara]

wolftear -- what level are you? How much health do you have?


Everyone should be able to soak more than one war spell... maybe not much more than that, but still, they should. I know a lot of people that start with 10 endurance that have a problem with this, but then... they chose to start with low health. The offset to that is if they use an Aegis, they have something to offset the damage they take by a fair amount. Similarly, the archers now have a sanguine bow to do the same thing. My initial thought is perhaps you should raise health, and make sure you're using the appropriate level buffs.

My low level characters aren't having problems with the war magic changes -- and I've got a few in the low ranges... a level 40 axe/thrown weapons guy, a level 54 macer, and a level 32 all-trained mage. it's not that bad unless you get ganged up on.


A few things you can do:

raise starting endurance (contrary to popular belief, the devs did not intend everyone to start with 10 endurance. This is endurance love, IMO).

use health giving equipment (helm of knorr, life giver amulet, gromnie oculet, elysa's favor rings, bloodstone necklace, crystal shield (caulnalain shield for example), tinkered jewelry with minor endurance or warrior's vitality, endurance spells, etc).

raise magic def

get an aegis or sanguine bow if a non-mage

raise health/endurance

[wolftear]

I'm a level 93/ archer. I believe my health buffs to around 290. When the critters are totaly debuffing you, chopping at your shoes for 10 or 15 points and then tossing out level 6 wars that hit for 135-160 it doesn't take long to see the lifestone.

[FmrSentFlatfoot]

raise starting endurance (contrary to popular belief, the devs did not intend everyone to start with 10 endurance. This is endurance love, IMO).

Yeah right.. raise innate endurance at the expense of degrading everything else. The only class that can do this are Mages. Any other classes that do, are stifling every other ability to effectively do combat.

raise magic def

get an aegis or sanguine bow if a non-mage

raise health/endurance

From how you started this reply to Wolftear, it was like you figured he was real low level. So to even make suggestions like the above wouldn't make ANY difference to a lower level character. They don't HAVE the XP to do what you suggest, and the magic def shield or bow is a laugh when it comes to protecting oneself, ESPECIALLY if you're low level. Oh, and if he's battling magic casters that also attack via melee, what good is a ZERO AL shield going to do? LOL

As it turns out, he's level 93... more than enough health to NORMALLY survive, but now people can't because of the new insane overkill damage monsters do out there. Also, even at level 93 (moreso for non mages) you don't have the XP to boost Magic Def high enough to resist a level 6 war blast. That only comes much later down the road after you've almost maxed out your killing abilities.... like around level 160+ before you can afford to boost Magic Def to a point where it actually does any good.

Personally it doesn't bother me, as I resist most incoming war magic casts, but I also know a heap of people who are having a real tough time with this new "untested" patch, that they test on their "phantom" test server that just recently got mentioned that one exists. hehe

If a test server really did exist, it's a wonder why nothing ever works properly. lol
Probably because all they do is just have fun there with their uber maxed out level 999 Admin Characters.... a place to unwind after a shift... just like we had in my days of off-duty entertainment.

Test? That means work! We're here to play, not work! That's how it worked back then, and that's how it works today. :rolleyes:

In order to have a test server where people TEST as a JOB, you need to hire people for it. I rather doubt Turbine has hired anyone to TEST exclusively. The proof is in every patch, where the PLAYERS are the guinea pigs. They call it retail, but AC has been a neverending BETA, since closed public beta days. The instant you alter the game (every month on patch day), you introduce more bugs and related problems... that WE get to find as we play. They tell us to submit reports of problems we find, so there's your proof of WHO are the testers of the patches.... YOU and I and every other player on every server. We are paying a premium price every month to TEST a game for the developers. It's always been like that.. and many have known it since the very first day.

[Shoey_LC]

:confused: Could you guys please look at the "Dark Flame" scroll which is a level 5 war spell quest reward that is now worse than the level 4 Flame Bolt spell since you did the upgrade to the War Magic damage for lower level spells. I was really hoping that the quest spell would still be something between level 5 and 6 as it used to be :)

Thanks

Shoey of Leafcull

[EshuunDara]

Yeah right.. raise innate endurance at the expense of degrading everything else. The only class that can do this are Mages. Any other classes that do, are stifling every other ability to effectively do combat.



From how you started this reply to Wolftear, it was like you figured he was real low level. So to even make suggestions like the above wouldn't make ANY difference to a lower level character. They don't HAVE the XP to do what you suggest, and the magic def shield or bow is a laugh when it comes to protecting oneself, ESPECIALLY if you're low level. Oh, and if he's battling magic casters that also attack via melee, what good is a ZERO AL shield going to do? LOL



uh huh... well the thing is... he's complaining about the changes to level 6 war spells. Nothing I fight casts level 6 war spells, so yeah, it seems to me that he is a lower level. Most of the VoD/Caul monsters use level 7 spells. *shrug*. As a level 93 character, he *DOES* have the xp to raise health, put XP into magic def, etc. As for the "casters that also attack via melee" bit -- take dark revs for an example. Their melee attack is not very good, so yeah -- an AL0 shield won't hurt you much if you're hanging out in the frost vault. He doesn't specify what creature he is fighting, nor what quest he's doing, so it is still a valid suggestion. He still has the option of baning his armor and using the aegis if he's overly concerned about the melee damage (or gasp! raise melee def to help evade more?? use a brass tinker on his weapon?)

[wolftear]

The quest is the Liazk Temple, the critters are Ancient souls (level 130), and Burun Shamans (level 140). As an archer I obviosly don't use a shield. All armor is fully baned with 7's, as well as full life, critter 7's. I don't think it is even possible for me to put enough xp into health to cover one more war spell, that's another 165 hp. And yes I do have moderate endurance and elysa'a ring on already. Also, as an archer I started with low quickness so melee defence will always be lacking. I still have to have my power bar to full just to hit the critters regularly, and raising bow/coord should be my priority. I'm not saying that I should be able to walk through in my underwear and stick arrows into everything without trouble, a challenge keeps the game interesting, however being 2 hit is more irritating than interesting. It could be said that I should just go hunt lower level stuff, but this quest is level geared, so this is where the devs figure I should be able to relitavely safely hunt. The changes are most obvious to me because these creatures that a few weeks ago I could hunt, are now out of my league.
I've never really been one to stand around for hours on end hunting the same things over and over. I've played for over 3 years and still my highest level toon is only 93. I prefer to do quests, even if the rewards are useless I find it a more fun use of my time. For all of the new quests it is imperative that we are heavy on magic defence, health to survive. Perhaps it is time to introduce some more quests that are full of lugians, tuskers, and olthoi and not teaming with war slingers... but that's just my 2 pyreal.
cheers.

[-Kaxak-]

Dev 1 )Hummm well boss , again this month we have no idea what to do , so the patch is gonna lack a bit of content again ......

Dev2 ) yea I have no idea wtf to put in this patch either ( shrugs)

Dev3 ) Hey !!! (light bulb) I KNOW !!! lets change the moons and make them bigger , I mean REALLY HUGE ....

Dev1 ) w00t

Dev 2 ) Outta sight man , you'll get a raise for sure with that idea ......

Dev 3 ) I got another idea , let's change the Color of the Pyreal Target Drudge , cuz we need that .....

Dev1 ) OMFG brilliant idea man ........

Dev2 ) You've out done yourself this time dude ( itches himself below the belt line)

[Fiction_LC]

^ about how it is. Even the quests the add lack effort likt the black mire quests... seriously must be the guys last week or something because it looks like he totaly checked out.

[Mal the Mad]

the big engineering types are working the billing issue, we was warned content would be lite for a bit. look back in the past i know there is an article or post on it....


but i tell you what engineering better get off their duff when billing goes live cause folks are screaming for content hehe....

ok my 2p

# Sorry! The administrator has specified that users can only post one message every 360 seconds


and im killing lots of time waiting my posting time. my thoughts are fleeting my network box pulse is beating. and the submit button is telling me wait in line... take my time. so I alt-tab to silence....

[krack]

Two thumbs down, as usual...every month practically since Turbine took over the operation. Sorry I am being brutally honest, but really things have never looked worse, Turbine.

[Fel]

Event ... what event ... methinks I missed something somewhere!

[HelpComputer]

Please add the names of the people who killed Morgluuk to the Pikes in the Capital Cities. It took 4-5 hours for a friend and I to complete the quest due to incomplete walkthroughs, so we had to find out what to do ourselves.. and I'd like people to remember this event (and myself)

[HelpComputer]

Please add Crushing Blow to the Noble Sceptre. Us mages don't have a BS + CB weapon, and melees and archers have dozens. I know the Singularity Sceptre had it, but you did away with that uneccesarily. . . and I like to think my 30 credits to spec war is worth it.

[Dom on TD]

The devs have been some sadistic melee hating @$$es for a while now. Why is that? They gave the mages dispell spells with a ridiculous difficulty, and nerfed the gems of stillness from pincers a few months back. Now they increase attack mods on missile sing weapons and give War Magic a bump all the way accross the board. I was on Aerlinthe today (it was the 1st opportunity I've had to hunt this month becuse my ISP sucks) and the Ancient Diamond Golems never hit me for less that 70 today. I was buffed with 7's, major bludg ward, and had my Aegis out after the 1st hit for 130. It's like saying that Melees aren't supposed to hunt anything except Olthoi and Tuskers. If you want us to all be mages, just tell us! Don't let me imbue 3 weapons/damagetype/melee toon just to be put up in a closet. I can't dodge war spells, because monsters don't wind up and it takes too long to stop attacking. If you want me dead, just tell me so I can /die and possibly get back to my corpse.

[LrdHades]

The current chain draining + war magic changes = death. I like a little risky business when hunting, but now what's happening is people are mainly camping the safe areas and not going to deep into some zones.

Monster balance is slightly out of whack.

Loot balance is definately out of whack. It sucks to see mage items dropping with majors that require junk like high Missle or Melee def to use. Loot needs to be a little smarter.

High level hunting zones need rebalancing. People are avoiding the mass spawns of stuff that takes too long to kill for too little reward for stuff that has high xp and is much eaiser to kill. Why would I bother fighting 6 VoD druges when I can more easily kill 1 virindi in half the time, and get more xp? I think this sort of stuff needs to be thought out more carefully, and I think it needs to be adjusted.

Sub-level 50's need more %xp quests. Since high levels cannot fellow with sub level 50 people, the lower level guys are pretty much on their own until they hit 50. I brought some new guys into the game when I came back, and they are drudging through the lower levels mainly because there is hardly any player base below 50 to fellowship with. Something needs to be done about this, especially before the xpack hits.

[agnari]

Ibn sorry about the slow response (you answered question about why Raliena was still so rare after the 2nd fix). But thanks for the info.


So what you are saying is I was out hunting wrabbit during duck season. Gosh good thing none of the envoy wardens caught me without a license for wrabbit.

Gets in line to purchase a Wrabbit licnese for next month.

[Elvancier]

This is my first post, tho I have read the forums for awhile now and I hear the same thing every month.. Mages are the only class to play because they get ALL the advantages. It is to this I would like to respond...

I play on the world of Leafcull, I have a level 141 Mage spec in creature, life, and war. I have a level 70 dagger character, level 97 archer and a level 67 tinker mule.

Why everyone thinks it is soo great being a mage, I do not understand. I had to spend 16 skill credits to train in my attack skill and 12 more to specialize in it. Therefore, I spent 28 skill credits, now I ask you to add the cost of specializing in any other class... 16 is the maximum.

Now, lets examine a bow for an example. Bows use missile defense to determine a hit or miss. Mages must deal with magic resistance of high level creatures. Bows fire twice as fast as any level war spell except 1st. Bows can be rendered to the type of ammunition to be used. While it is true that wands may also, bows also have the advantage of Imperil.

Im going to use the Bobo Quest (Mowen) to demonstrate my thought process on this subject. By the time the "fellowship" mage imperils, vulns, and decreptitude's grasps Mowen, an archer will have taken 5-6 shots or more. Good luck mage getting the three fingered paw. Oh wait, did I say imperil? yes thats right, I had to spend 20 more skill credits on that skill too. This prevents a mage from specializing magic defense or melee defense. While it is true, you can sacrifice specializing in creature magic and arcane lore to do this, I did not find it all that useful as 2 in 5 spells still hit me for full effect and given the number of spells now cast by monsters, I could not solo some of the new 80+ dungeons.

Ok ok ok, granted, level 7 spells do 110-180 base damage, but unlike a bow, where is our 190% multiplier? I used a deadly spike tail against our monarch for research, unbanned at 80-100 base damage, I did 5 points 1 time in 33 straight hits, the rest were 3 or less. Hardly PvP material.

Now you may argue that armor is not a factor in spells but armor is very little factor in the hands of a skilled archer wielding an Armor Rending bow. Oh and by the way, those 48 points a mage spent to use his war magic, are not required at all by the archer, in fact, with the addition of the alchemy gems an archer can train alchemy instead and make level 6 life pro gems and use a rending bow.

The question becomes, which is more valuable, using only level 6 spells (or your local buffbot) and spending 22 credits on archery and fletching and having your mule make your alchmey supplies for you or having to spend 48 on your attack skill. By the way, Specializing in Bow, magic defense and melee defense is also 48 skill credits, what is the problem?

One final note, archers having only to build coordination, have an extra 200 stat points to place as they wish. Mages require a 100 focus and self to get maximum benefit.

This leads me to one conclusion, if you are not survivable as a character, perhaps it is poor character development skills or character conceptual design. It is not the fault of the developers of the game that you cannot survive.

On that note, I would like to thank the Turbine Devs for the best online gaming experience I have witnessed for the past 3 years. I have played other games and by far, Asheron's Call is the best.

As far as the patches go, some are better than others, but I enjoy the stories rather than the "Uber" items. A story running this long is an A+ in my humble opinion. Thanks guys.

Magi of the Rose
Leafcull

[Kyayote]

I want to take a min & thank you for the xp's.
Bm 4 is nice. I have not had a chance to run any of the others.
Kya

[Blazing Force]

THE SERVERS SUCK! i cant even play anymore! i log on and lagg out immedaitly, FIX THIS SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[hippiechick64]

I cant help it I have to say this to the person using the bobo example. I play all types of toons and my level 75 mage is hunting the same area that my level 126 bower with no magic hunts. Dont care about it, its just the way it is. Without magic of some kind I am out done by a mage much lower in level. As for Bobo, what you fail to calculate is that the 3 or 4 shots the archer got in while the mage was vulning/imping werent even hard enough to MOVE the health bar on the ape. Without the mage, or a 3 schooler, to imp/vuln, the bower could virtually hit Mowen all day long and never kill him. Now I dont care that my bower has to fellow to hunt in VOD yet my much younger mage can solo it, just had to put in my 2py
MJ
Edit: I wanna make it clear that this doesnt bother me. I accept that my different toons play differently. I in fact enjoy that I can play a different toon and have an entirely different experience.
MJ

[Elvancier]

Ok, I do not want to get into a heated debate about this archer/mage thing, but, Im failing to understand why everyone says a mage can hunt so much higher when they do so much less damage.

My level 53 Thrown Weapons character has done more on one hit than I have EVER done with my level 141 mage. "You freeze Scold for 3,725 damage." What makes this interesteing to me is that he was using an Armor Rending Atlatl with a 137% modifier with a deadly cold dart. It is important to note that Scold was neither imped nor vulned. If you can hunt with your mage in the same area as your archer, perhaps you are better at playing a mage. I say this not insultingly, but rather as an offering of an alternative. My patron is an archer and so are my two vassals. When we hunt, I dont even use war spells, no point. Their AR bows kill things long before I get the opportunity to put 3 spells on them in VOD. My vassal consistantly hits titanium armadillos for 3k+. Without a slaying wand, Ive never even done that kind of damage.

Just as a final note, the bows Im refering to are tinked to 166%. My vassal and I are real life friends and we have sat down together and compared the damages. Im sorry to say, but an archer spec in melee and magic def starting with 100 coord and focus, is quite surviveable at any level. I know, I have a level 97 one. But like anyone else, I prefer the easier to play mage.
But I do thank you for the input, but mostly, I hope you agree, I thank the Devs for a good fun game.

Magi of the Rose
Leafcull

[Mystech]

I searched to see if this came up and found nothing..

I did the 11 item quest tonight.. when I put the jewelry on, My magics lower 11% no get raised at all... this is with everything I Recieved from the quest.

Is there another part to this I missed?


Mystech

[howieforbes]

I like the changes made during the September event and I am looking forward to the UST and salvaging skill changes for October. I was wondering if you could look into the combining of the Foci to one pack space. With all the death Items one must carry and salvage combining the foci to one slot instead of up to 4 would help in salvaging and carring quest items. Just a thought. Oh hey how about a shield for the mages and still be able to cast. This could also help the mele guys while they are buffing.

[wolftear]

If you want to continue with salvage or trade skill love you could always create a way to UST, cook or use alchemy to make up some newly combined foci packs.

[Helmar]

I searched to see if this came up and found nothing..

I did the 11 item quest tonight.. when I put the jewelry on, My magics lower 11% no get raised at all... this is with everything I Recieved from the quest.

Is there another part to this I missed?


Mystech

The 11% spells override your Masteries. You see no bonus to your skill until your base skill is a minimum of 360+.

[Ryakki]

Just remember, no change is a million, a hundred million times better then a change for the worse.

Honestly, I'd be the happiest if monthly updates became tri-monthly updates and they were done more carefully, with the same amount of content as a single month. No bugs, no balance destroying features, no useless quest rewards. Everything done perfectly the first time.

Just my opinion.

Quality pwns joo.

[Burch]

The event was first class. I wish that those quests it is possible to solo could be identified. Perhaps by a range of player levels :)