Give us your feedback on the January teaser!

[Ibn]

"Soldiers of Dereth! To me!" she cried. The Queen's Royal Guard, scattered and battered by the sudden attack, converged on Tirenia. They wore a patchwork of armor and cloak. Many had been asleep when the Vault had been breached. None of them had ever expected an attack in this most secret of locations. Now they paid the price for that arrogance.

Read the January teaser, "Assault", here (http://ac.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=337).

[KPD157]

Pretty good looking not that I got guys who can use the new weapons but I definately do wonder what that weapon the last guy is wielding is :)

[Deven-Kenyon]

looks like an axe

[Hungwell]

Very nice visuals. Kudos on the bow and xbow especially.

[MVOFJR]

Nifty weapons stuff.... Look very nice.

[immortalbob]

all my weapons are junk!!!! time to hunt new ones down and blow them up!! screenshots are great, cant wait to see it ingame.

[Bruiserk]

Nice looking graphics on the weapons, but that bow and x-bow are junk. The only thing I'd do with those is ust them.

[Alltu_Tru]

nice teaser :D cant wait for next week!

and btw, those are just teaser weapons.... not ubber weapons.... showing what they can do, not the BEST they can do ;)

[Vlad Morbius]

Wow a balloon!!1 Wonder if i can steal it for a ride? :D It looks somewhat like a Tumerock fort, with a tree? any ideas folks? My thoughts at first were the Overlord Fort, which would have the hunt area as well as a dungeon.
Also are those drudge mystics?

[Someguy1]

So what is this new big bad?

Considering it throws boulders and last month's teaser said that it had gray flesh it certainly sounds like an augmented lugian. When the thing arrives at the warehouse in this teaser the guard wonders what alliance this is meaning its a creature she was familiar with. Last month's roll out spoke of changelings and the unknown creature called them his brothers. Not sure what to make of that...

Its all been rather mysterious so far but obviously its related to Aerbax and Ler Rhan somehow but what its purpose or origin hasn't been revealed yet.

[Televangelist]

Excellent graphics!

To add a bit of diversity to the lower (non-elemental) tiers of weapons...

Perhaps use a different 'skin', i.e. different textures on the same 3D model, for different material types?

Scenario, would this be possible? An obsidian sword and a green jade sword having a different texture for the shaft, based on the material type?

I think that'd go a long way to making loot weapons at *all levels* look cool -- though the new ones look quite nice already. :)


I had that idea a while back and did some photoshopping to see what it'd be like... took the textures from the crystal sword, the obsidian golem, diamond golem, the pyreal golem, etc... and photoshopped them onto loot swords to see how it looked. I liked the result.

[Ironfield]

I looked this new weapons, but there is one thing i not understand why it so is.

Look at this Bow, 315 to wield, Activation, Arc 119, Bow 278 ?

I only can Activate the spells when i wield the bow, so why is this Act lower ?

Edit: feedback to the Story hmm.. not sure, is hard to read.

[Scenario]

I looked this new weapons, but there is one thing i not understand why it so is.

Look at this Bow, 315 to wield, Activation, Arc 119, Bow 278 ?

I only can Activate the spells when i wield the bow, so why is this Act lower ?

Edit: feedback to the Story hmm.. not sure, is hard to read.

At its base, activation requirements on loot items generally revolve around Arcane Lore. Any additional activation requirements, such as weapon skill, rank, or heritage group are used to make the item more specific and require less arcane lore to activate. Don't look at the activation requirement as Bow Skill to wield vs Bow Skill to activate (since you will likely have a bow skill higher than the activation req if you are able to wield the 315 req bow - for example). Think of it as Bow Skill to wield vs Arcane Lore to activate (with each modifier to the activation req helping to reduce the Arcane Lore requirement).

The kind of dyanmic seen in the teaser images has around for a good long while now in loot items - ever since the first tier of wield-req items went in.

[Heideggar]

Quick Predictions:

1) Hmmm, new death animations for the drudges? (decapitation on a crit that killed a drudge?)

Guess we start the new arc. Sounds good, but the stamina of storyarcs, the ability to keep people involved, can be tough. Good Luck. I was hoping the Burun Arc would stretch a bit longer to provide further questing with the noble armor, noble weapons, etc. for upgradeability. I hope something like this can still be done.

2) hehe, this guy sounds like one of my buds. Whacks at a virindi quidox with his sword (He's sword/magic D, no life) for 10-15 minutes while his wife, a mage, lets him know he won't amount to any kind of virindi killing machine. They both die, and then they go find me to kill the mean hollows and virindi (melee D mages are fun).

3) I'm hoping you guys made the no-life-magic area similar to that dires-subway you did months ago. The one where you run into the door and you're in the dungeon. No portals to go through, just straight into the dungeon. Would be neat imo.

4) Justicar, hmm, hope you guys have finally gotten around to readjusting the rewards/difficulty of VoD creatures?


I'm one of those guys that likes looting creatures to find super awesome stuff, and then just gives it away because I have no guys that could use it lol. So this should be interesting with the weapon upgrades.

[Hungwell]

I just noticed something on the teaser that I half expected but still find disturbing.

Both the bow and the xbow are less than max on the damage % and both are craft 9.

That is about what I expect to find. I figure I will end up blowing up 2/3rds of the +127% +2 damage craft 7 bows that I find and just shutting up and being happy if I hit one cuz they look cool.

bleh.

[Scenario]

I just noticed something on the teaser that I half expected but still find disturbing.

Both the bow and the xbow are less than max on the damage % and both are craft 9.

That is about what I expect to find. I figure I will end up blowing up 2/3rds of the +127% +2 damage craft 7 bows that I find and just shutting up and being happy if I hit one cuz they look cool.

When I was taking the screenshots, I wasn't trying to find the most uber item for display (with optimal damage, WS, and properties). I was killing creatures and looting what I found.

Yes, there will likely be items with similar propertiesin loot as what was in the teaser images, but there will also be better (and worse) items out there due to the loot mutation. The loot system has always produced this kind of result.

[Hungwell]

Yeah Scenario I know. I also know that I havent found a craft 5 (9 tinker max) 130 in over 6 months. Not one. I play AC in areas that should drop an occasional 130 between 2 and 6 hours a day. I get kind of excited if I find a craft 6 130 now. Multiply that by a .33 on imbues and the odds of my ever posessing a 166 rending bow of any kind are about nil.

Sumpin just aint right.

[Alok]

Yeah Scenario I know. I also know that I havent found a craft 5 (9 tinker max) 130 in over 6 months. Not one. I play AC in areas that should drop an occasional 130 between 2 and 6 hours a day. I get kind of excited if I find a craft 6 130 now. Multiply that by a .33 on imbues and the odds of my ever posessing a 166 rending bow of any kind are about nil.

Sumpin just aint right.

I'd like to first point out that I have a full set of 166% bows, rends, AR, CS, CB.

BUT...

Only the AR/CS/CB were found and tinkered through the lootgen. Not a *SINGLE ONE OF THE RENDS* was discovered through the lootgen. Not a friggin' one in the last year. Now, if this is the intended norm for archers to NEVER find a W4 weapon, then fine, whatever....but I think that's pretty jacked up if that was the intended effect of the loot changes. >=/

[Davidge]

Hungwell, craft 4 -- 130 mod bows do still drop. I have found 5 and imbued 2 of them successfully in the last 4 months. The most recent was found last week Thursday night, the imbue landed last night and my archer now has a very beautiful maxable Slash Rend bow to play with. (Now to find the remaining Hog to finish it off with . ... )

Ivory Yag, (4) craft (Ivory) SlashR (4Tinks), +142% def +26%, (speed) 28 : Blood Drinker VI. Dif 0, Rank 7, (activate) Bow of 259, (wield) Bow of 290, Value 3,701, 324BU

Edit: thats the buffed stats, I believe the meleeD bonus is base 9%

[Crimson-Ghost]

I agree that the drop rate for 130's is much too rare, as opposed to how often I find good sword/uas and any other type of weapon in general (with the exception of nice casters, which are about as rare as nice bows).

Not really a huge deal, it would just be better if it didn't take a few months to get 1 good bow and be lucky enough to land the imbue lol.

[blackspyder]

id have to say with january teaser, everything is ok for me, i like the changes, but it has not changed the game, today was my last day on ac, so my sugestion for future ac players, heres a few ideas.
pyreal counter, i dont know how many times pyreals made me run out of room, this alone would be a cool quest to do, for people, in order to have
house quests, make people do quests to make extra chest storages in houses. that would make housing more worthwhile, to have.
remove capp on lvls and stats, this probably would make me come back to the game.
well hope that was a few ideas hope to return to the game ive played since start

[Hungwell]

Hungwell, craft 4 -- 130 mod bows do still drop. I have found 5 and imbued 2 of them successfully in the last 4 months. The most recent was found last week Thursday night, the imbue landed last night and my archer now has a very beautiful maxable Slash Rend bow to play with. (Now to find the remaining Hog to finish it off with . ... )

Ivory Yag, (4) craft (Ivory) SlashR (4Tinks), +142% def +26%, (speed) 28 : Blood Drinker VI. Dif 0, Rank 7, (activate) Bow of 259, (wield) Bow of 290, Value 3,701, 324BU

Edit: thats the buffed stats, I believe the meleeD bonus is base 9%


Come to Vegas with me. You are the luckiest person I have ever heard of.

The last 130 I found and imbued was a craft 6 that I used to upgrade my slash render from a freakin 7. I had a vassal give my noob a 130 bldg render that was a craft 5 pre-imbued and I nearly wet myself.

[Heideggar]

Hungwell, if you want some nice bows, just let me know. I've got "crap" that I'm always looking to offload (130% +12D ws 6).

I'm kinda disappointed that turbine doesn't accept American Express as a valid credit card to activate accounts.

If you activate my account I'll give you a nice surplus of stuff : )

P.S. - I won't tell you what I got them off of. You have to swear to me for that info : )

[Wasarcher]

Nice looking graphics on the weapons, but that bow and x-bow are junk. The only thing I'd do with those is ust them.

Agreed...I wouldn't get outa bed for a 125DM bow and wms 9 at that. so it looks like my theory is right...raise the wield but not the DM (see my posts on the higher wield thread).

[Wasarcher]

I agree that the drop rate for 130's is much too rare, as opposed to how often I find good sword/uas and any other type of weapon in general (with the exception of nice casters, which are about as rare as nice bows).

Not really a huge deal, it would just be better if it didn't take a few months to get 1 good bow and be lucky enough to land the imbue lol.


'Starter'(no skill wield) bows with 113DM I've discovered are now Rarer than Hens teeth, I haven't seen 1 of those in months. I've given all I had away to vassals and such, so newer vassals/mules etc have to make do with 100DM ones.

[Chueh]

It is not like max dmg melee weapons drop that often, for a low hour hunter like myselfs i rely mostly on guildmates for weapons that are close too the max stats (i dont think i got a single max dmg melee weapon yet, and i sure as hell didnt find any over the last couple months)

I agree the all Q3-4-5 wasnt good, but only Q7-8-9 isnt much better, seams to be that like 80-90 % of the weapon drop is 7+, id prefer that about half you find was 5 and under, that way ppl that cant hunt much do find a few good weapons every now and then, especialy with the new higher dmg once that are coming out now, i didnt even finish the set of 325 UAs for my main

[Sherlong]

I havent found a wms4 130% bow in.. crap.. I cant even remember..
All my bows that have been made anywhere near recently are wms6. Though I dont even have a wms4 130% bow, best is a 130% wms5 AR.

I find much better of everything, even casters, then a good bow.

[Wasarcher]

I havent found a wms4 130% bow in.. crap.. I cant even remember..
All my bows that have been made anywhere near recently are wms6. Though I dont even have a wms4 130% bow, best is a 130% wms5 AR.

I find much better of everything, even casters, then a good bow.

My best is also wms5 tinked 8 times to 158 AR. I have a coupla 130's with bludge rend and slash rend but they are wms 7. Hold on to any 130DM 290 wield bows you find....if the Devs get their way and make the 130DM's up to 315, they will be worth their weight in sings....Personally I think the Devs hold the tradebot francise and the wms 7-9 290 wield bows aren't selling so they figure if they up the wield to 315 then everybody will want to buy them. Pretty good going from 130DM 250 wield to 130DM 315 wield.
Can you imagine how much xp you'll need to get to 315 from 290!

[Milon]

Looks like a "Mancatcher" similar to a trident using spear skill. These weapons were used mainly to dislodge cavalry from their mounts. Now we get them, to dislodge heads from Lugians :D

[Hamfast]

And he would let his vassals call him a lying blue-skin before they could claim to be a better huntsman than he.

Seems to be a sign that this next story arc will include the arrival of the "Blue-Skin" folk...

[nofeir]

It seems to me that I read that collectors were no longer supposed to wave, laugh or yawn while you're trying to give them items. If that's true, then the Holtburg collector didn't get the message. It's really frustrating waiting for that bozo to quit emoting while you're trying to turn in three packs of casino loot! :D

[Northstar]

When I was taking the screenshots, I wasn't trying to find the most uber item for display (with optimal damage, WS, and properties). I was killing creatures and looting what I found.

Yes, there will likely be items with similar properties in loot as what was in the teaser images, but there will also be better (and worse) items out there due to the loot mutation. The loot system has always produced this kind of result.

Ok this is as I suspected.

The missile weapons have a twist to them – 315 wield-req missile weapons will receive a bonus to a specific elemental type. For example you might find a 315 wield-req bow that has a damage modifier of 127% as well as a +2 to fire damage. Whenever fire arrows are used with this bow, it will do an additional 2 points of damage to the target. (And no, +2 is not the best that you can find!)

Overall, these new weapons are expected to improve damage over time at high levels by around 5%.

This is all well and good and I find that my own personal experience for finding 130's in the past to be quite good in respect to decent imbue potential, my only question is...since the Xbows were raised above 150% a while ago...are the new higher wield bows going to be higher than 130% or is that still the max base for a bow?

Also, you state in the higher wield article that average DoT will improve by 5%... so my current PR bow that is a 158% with average hits of say 214 versus high level bandies would now add 10.7 more damage with what pierce mod on it, 9?

I guess the real question is how the elemental or physical attack bonus stacking works compared to our current weapons that has me a bit confused.

Thanks in advance.

North

[Bruiserk]

Ok this is as I suspected.



This is all well and good and I find that my own personal experience for finding 130's in the past to be quite good in respect to decent imbue potential, my only question is...since the Xbows were raised above 150% a while ago...are the new higher wield bows going to be higher than 130% or is that still the max base for a bow?

North

Max is still 130%.

A 125% high wield will more than likely be no better than a 130%. It's not really a bonus for us. If anything it's a nerf, since now, you'll have to carry around each type of damage bow if you want to use them.

There'll maybe be two bows that are worth it, and only in special circumstances. A fire bonus bow for monkeys, and a blud bonus for bugs. There aren't going to be too many archers dragging around a pack of overly burdensome bows that will be hunting more than one type of mob.

[Northstar]

Max is still 130%.

A 125% high wield will more than likely be no better than a 130%. It's not really a bonus for us. If anything it's a nerf, since now, you'll have to carry around each type of damage bow if you want to use them.

There'll maybe be two bows that are worth it, and only in special circumstances. A fire bonus bow for monkeys, and a blud bonus for bugs. There aren't going to be too many archers dragging around a pack of overly burdensome bows that will be hunting more than one type of mob.

Ok, while I assumed that was the case with the max mod, the only thing I saw so far was this:

Re: Give us your feedback on the Higher Wield-Req weapons!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arch Magi
Does that mean 5% more than a 10 tinkered bow (+166) or 5% more of a base 290 bow (+130)?



A max damage 315 wield req bow, untinkered, will have an average DoT about 5% higher than an untinkered max damage 290 wield req bow, assuming you're using the right element for the elemental bonus.

Keep this in mind: you could possibly find a 315 wield req bow with a 130 damage mod AND the best elemental damage bonus and THEN tink the damage mod up to 166.

Checking the specs, bows actually tend to be a little higher than the average 5% increase.
__________________
Alex "Ibn" Beckers
AC1 Online Community Relations

So that answers my question on the stacking of the bonus, but it didn't specifically state the max mod would cap at 130... and more importantly if they introduce even higher wield weapons in the near future... why would anyone try to get a marginal increase on a weapon that will be obsolete in a finite period of time?

As for the bows I normally hunt with... 80% of the time it's my PR bow and then I use my AR Dark [magic absorbing] Nayin for everything else while solo, if I'm doing a tusk run for friends I'll dust off my FR bow and that's it. With inate strength of 10 I refuse to carry anything other then what I need and even with burden management it can be tough at times.

Don't get me wrong, I'll still take a look at the new stuff as I find it... I'm just a lot less excited about it now after the reality sank in hehe.

North

[Harzah]

Cool =)

Can't wait to see the new weapons, I just hope the fire bow for instance doesn't smoke too :P I can just see my archer trying to pick out a target in the smoke generated from the fire arrows and the fire bow itself :P

That lighting crossbow looks nice! Love the effects (would love the work 9 steel too but obviously that's just the normal vagaries of the loot system).

I just hope that these newer style aren't going to 'squeeze out' the non-elemental, like it seems the wield req weapons have done to the non-wield req ones *shrugs*

Re: storyline
Awesome, enjoyed the writing a lot. I'm also exceedingly glad no one decided to call this month's event "the Storm" lol just would have been too cliche ;)

[Gaetano]

The teaser is as usual, well written, and always gets my blood going. But experience has taught me that what is written does not usually translate to what actually happens as the patch unfolds. I wish the game was as good as the written story.

Now I am confused as I look at this graphically "cute" bow. Nothing on it screams "you need to be a expert bow-person :rolleyes: to wield me".
The bonues to MD (+12) can be found on bows now with a 290 wield. The damage bonus of 125% is really NO BIG DEAL either. Its like saying I saw Britney Spears on TV, so has everyone else, and every 100+ archer has a 125% bow or better. Actually much better. Quick VI, BD VI :confused: why? Just leave the spells off, we can do better casting. Now for the big bang; Elemental Damage Bonus 3, Acid. What is 3? Is it 3%, 3/10 of a point, 3 hits or, and I hold my breath on this one, 3 pts more damage per shot when using an acid arrow....315 wield, for that! My Palenque's (sp) Bow with its 250 wield offers a Damage Bonus of +6. Only higher bow for Damage Bonus is the Ancient Bow of +9.

Looks like the only thing a higher wield bow offers is better looks. No sorry, the AA and Palen Bows look just as good and have lower reqs. :cool:

Now I realize that I haven't seen every bow in the loot gen bottomless pit. But if this bow is a representative of those to come, we archers are in trouble...all of us no matter weapon may be in trouble.

[CrazyPoster]

Look at this Bow, 315 to wield, Activation, Arc 119, Bow 278 ?

Your BASE (which is that regardless of buffs/debuffs) bow skill must be 315 to WIELD the bow.

Your debuffed (or buffed) bow skill must be 278 to activate the spells on the bow.

Say your base bow skill is 315. You can wield the bow. You can also activate the spells because you are neither buffed nor debuffed. But say you get debuffed with "lower bow skill VII". Then your bow skill is 275 and you cannot activate the spells on the bow. But you can still wield and use the bow.

I neglected Arcane Lore requirements in this example.

Note! All items that has been wielded and "activated" are still activated even if your "requirements" get debuffed, as long as you don't unwield the item. The requirements, eg. Difficulty, is just for the moment you wield the item. There is no check later on when wielded. So if you get debuffed, don't unwield ...

Another classical example: You have Lore 200 and you need Lore 230 to activate a ring. You can put a Lore V cap on your head (adds lore 30, you now have 230), then wield the ring and get its spells activated. Now you can unwield the cap (having Lore 200 again), but the spells on the ring are still active.

Elemental Damage Bonus 3, Acid. What is 3?
Glad you got my attention to this. I was thinking a 130% becomes a 133%, but ofcource it says "Damage". Must be that then. A "0" damage bow buffed with BD VII is Damage 22. When using Acid the Damage is 25?! If thats true then thats a nice issue. Damage is much more worth than "%". A 120% with Minor Bloodthirst is close to a 130% bow, if not the same.

[Gaetano]

Glad you got my attention to this. I was thinking a 130% becomes a 133%, but ofcource it says "Damage". Must be that then. A "0" damage bow buffed with BD VII is Damage 22. When using Acid the Damage is 25?! If thats true then thats a nice issue. Damage is much more worth than "%". A 120% with Minor Bloodthirst is close to a 130% bow, if not the same.

I agree completely. But is 3pts of damage worth a wield req of 315? I think not. And remember its only for a XXX damage type. The AA and Panaq have a +9/+6 overall damage bonus.

[DwynnsPlace]

Our Queen, If she lost her sword, is it going to useable by those that find it?


(GRIN) :D

[Burch]

Works for me

[Living_Fiction]

Not a big fan of the new 350 wield melee weapons. I think the melee weapons kinda got "screwed" in this update, just because they don't look any different, it's just the same stuff again. It would have been nice if you guys would have made the Melee weapons look different as you guys did with the wands, bows, and xbows.

On another note, I really do not understand why you guys put the Aviators Cap in the game. The great world of Asheron's Call doesn't really have much in terms of Aviation. The closest thing we have to Aviation are the birds, since Aviation derives from the latin word avis which means bird.

[AlphaSwift]

nm. Wrong spot.