Patch Notes for February 19, 2014

EverQuest servers are scheduled to be taken down for a game update at 4:00 A.M. Pacific Time tomorrow (Wednesday). Downtime is expected to last for approximately four hours.

Here are the patch notes as posted by Roshen on the EQ Forums:

*** Highlights ***

- Alternate Advancement Ability Auto-Granting: AA abilities are now auto-granted for Gold players who check the opt-in box on the "Alternate Advancement" window. Abilities up to and including level 85 and Underfoot are auto-granted. See the "AA" section below for more details and exceptions.
- Leadership AAs have been converted to standard abilities. You no longer need to earn separate leadership experience to obtain these abilities. To learn more about the change, you can press 'L' in-game. See the "UI" section below for additional details.
- Many spells and AA abilities related to fighting multiple NPCs at once have been altered. See the "Spells" and "AA" sections below.
- Heroic Adventure Rares - Many problematic spells used by rares inside of Heroic Adventures have been changed, and target selection for all of their spells improved. See the "NPC" section below for more details.
- Heroic Adventures no longer lock, so players can be added to them at any time. Request timers are unchanged.
- Increased the spawn chance for all rare NPCs in House of Thule.
- Progression servers have a new poll available regarding the implementation of Alternate Advancement Ability Auto-Granting. You must be level 60 and on a progression server to vote.
- Perfected Augmentation Distillers are now being sold on the Marketplace.


*** Items ***

- The Breakdown in Communication gemstones are now on a lore group. Previously, you could have more than one, though wearing multiples would zero out their stats without giving a message as to why. If you find yourself in a situation where you don't have the highest BiC augment for which you are eligible, delete all your BiC augments and hail Fezbin Fizzles in Abysmal Sea to receive the correct replacement.
- Increased the drop rate for Xorbb's Caged Hatred from 1 percent to 5 percent.
- Slightly improved the damage done by the Revenge effect on the Ring of Revenge.
- The Orb of Calm Tides has gained the ability to clear away stormy skies if it is raining in addition to its original power of calling forth rain showers during clear weather.
- Reaper Strike and its Recourse, as well as Lich Sting and its Recourse, now fade after their owners deal 800 hits.
- Leeching Embrace now fades after its owner deals 360 melee hits.
- Leeching Touch now fades after its owner deals 180 melee hits.
- Cultural molds, patterns, symbol patterns, and crafting tools are now available for sale from Culturist Devari in the Plane of Knowledge.
- Fixed an issue where some item ornaments weren't rendering properly.
- The Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship has been renamed Dusty Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship. It will remain tradable on Firiona Vie for now. Sarvil Amberstone now awards a new Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship, which is not tradable on Firiona Vie. If in the future the Dusty Ceremonial Elixir of Scholarship becomes no-trade, the community will receive advanced notice.
- Perfected Augmentation Distillers are now being sold on the Marketplace.


*** Quests & Events ***

- Heroic Adventures no longer lock, so players can be added to them at any time. Request timers are unchanged.
- Hate Rising - Raid - Corrected a text error that appears when players are struck with the Spear Throw ability.
- Hate Rising - Raid - Banshees now properly remove charm from their victims when defeated.
- Hate Rising - Mission and Raid - Treasure chests no longer spawn in inaccessible areas.
- Endless War - The cliknar bombers in this Heroic Adventure now stop their attack runs after the fourth step, like other, similar effects.
- Endless War - The cliknar bombers in this Heroic Adventure now deal roughly half their previous damage, and their damage isn't inadvertently increased by players' AAs.
- Ritual of Terror - Raid - The duration on the silence component of the Confusing Mists debuff has been reduced to 1 tick.
- Working Overtime - Nibbling Moles in this Heroic Adventure will no longer leave corpses.
- Espionage Starts at Home - Fleeing Witnesses in this Heroic Adventure will no longer leave corpses.
- Dark elves killed during Neriak - Fourth Gate Heroic Adventures now have a chance to drop dark elf Hero's Forge armor ornaments.
- Ancient Heroes - The raids offered by Old Man McKenzie now allow up to 6 of the same class template to be chosen. Previously, these raids only allowed one of each class to be chosen.
- Ancient Heroes - The missions and raids offered by Old Man McKenzie now reward a small amount of experience upon completion.
- All reward sets that grant experience now list an approximate value of the amount of experience given.


*** Spells ***

- Greatly increased the proc rate of Life Drain Poison and Soul Drain Poison.
- The Ire of Marr and Wrath of Marr effects now last for 5 minutes.
- Beastlord - Corrected effect caps that caused Sha's Reprisal to have unintended results.
- Cleric - Made several changes to how the Shining Rampart line of spells works:
-- All ranks now trigger-cast a separate damage absorption buff called Shining Defense, which absorbs 10 percent of incoming melee damage up to a total of 3200 hits.
-- The Shining Rampart buffs themselves now have a limit of 72 defensive procs before they fall, and will proc less often on creatures that are below the level of the spells.
-- All ranks of the Shining Rampart spells have had their mana costs increased a bit to be more equitable with the other two priests' lines of spells.
- Cleric - Added a proc limit of 120 to the Ward of the Divine line of spells.
- Cleric - Anticipated Interposition should now have a more distinctive icon.
- Cleric and Shaman - Corrected an issue that could prevent Free or Silver players from properly casting the Preincarnation spell.
- Druid - Made several changes to the Skin of the Reptile line of spells:
-- All ranks now last the same base amount of time: 4.5 minutes.
-- Mana costs are now lower and scale more smoothly.
-- All ranks have had their proc limit increased to 72 procs.
- Enchanter - Corrected effect caps that caused Dreary Deeds to have unintended results.
- Magician - Changed the early ranks of the Burning Aura line of spells to be limited to 48 procs, rather than 240 incoming attacks, to match later spells in the line.
- Magician - Hulking Bodyguard now fades after 48 hits like later spells in the line.
- Magician - Added a target limit of 12 to all beam spells.
- Necromancer - Corrected effect caps that caused Death's Malaise to have unintended results.
- Paladin - Increased the proc limit on the Ward of Tunare line of spells to 32.
- Paladin and Shadowknight - Corrected effect caps that caused Helix of the Undying to have unintended results.
- Shadowknight - Leechcurse Discipline now has a hit limit of 350 incoming hits.
- Shaman - Made several changes to the Lingering Sloth line of spells:
-- All ranks now have a limit of 240 defensive procs before they fall.
-- All ranks now increase in mana cost as their levels increase.
-- Increased the chances for ranks 1 and 2 of Lassitude and later to cast a healing spell from 30/40/50 percent to 45/47/49 percent.
- Wizard - Increased the target limit on all beam spells to 12.
- Wizard - Increased the target limit on the Funnel of Frost line from 8 to 12.


*** NPC ***

- Increased the spawn chance for all rare NPCs in House of Thule.
- Fellowship campfires are no longer targetable and will now be listed in the "Find" window as "Fellowship Campfire - Player Name's Fellowship."
- Heroic Adventure Rares - All Rares inside of Heroic Adventures now appear in the "Find" window.
- Heroic Adventure Rares - Messages now appear in the chat window and in pop-up text whenever a rare is spawned inside of a Heroic Adventure.
- Heroic Adventure Rares - Many problematic spells used by rares inside of Heroic Adventures have been changed, and target selection for all of their spells improved:
-- Guard Captain N'Mar - The Shield of Foolishness buff now lasts for approximately 2 ticks.
-- Guard Captain N'Mar - The Punitive Measures debuff is now only cast on one player at a time, and now lasts for approximately 2 ticks. It also has a longer recast timer.
-- Guard Captain N'Mar - Greater Evocation now only hits one target, instead of all targets in an area, and won't be cast on the main tank in a group.
-- Firesting - Blazing Venom won't be cast on the main tank in a group, lasts for one more tick before casting Spontaneous Combustion, and deals less damage each tick.
-- Firesting - Spontaneous Combustion damage was halved, and is no longer inadvertently modified by player AAs.
-- An Enraged Bixie Drone - Brutal Strike is now only cast when the drone is below 50 percent health. The spell deals slightly less damage and will not be cast on the main tank in a group.
-- Tleroth the Mistress of the Web - The messaging for the Webstorm spell has been improved.
-- Princess Honeywing - Scent of the Future Queen had its description revised to better reflect its effects.
-- Princess Honeywing - Bixie drones spawn less often, drop no loot, and are capped at a maximum of 10 up at a time.
-- Monarch Deathwing - Monarch's Retribution now lasts for approximately 2 ticks, has a longer recast timer, and cannot remove players, pets, or mercs from the Monarch's hatelist.
-- Monarch Deathwing - Debilitating Fumes now lasts for approximately 3 ticks.
-- Gellwing, the Corpse Looter - Brutal Strike is now only cast when Gellwing is below 50 percent health, deals slightly less damage, and will not be cast on the main tank in a group.
-- Gellwing, the Corpse Looter - Empowered Blade's damage has been reduced to 25 percent of previous damage.
-- Bloodsucker - Life Leech deals one-third its previous damage, but now heals the caster for damage dealt. It now only lasts approximately 3 ticks, and has appropriate descriptions.
-- Bloodsucker - Base attack speed has been slowed by 20 percent.
-- Oozoroze - Prismatic Ooze now only lasts approximately 3 ticks, and its damage scales with the Oozoroze's level.
-- Oozoroze - Creeping Ooze's damage has been reduced by approximately 50 percent.
-- Vorovelze - Fungal Cloud now lasts approximately 3 ticks.
-- Lieutenant Robert Ward - Panic has been renamed to Crippling Panic and no longer has a fear effect.
-- Jattius Rattican - Infectious Agony now lasts for approximately 4 ticks.
-- Spirit of the Hills - Crushing Fist's damage was reduced slightly.
-- Squire Gordon Flock - Panic has been renamed to Crippling Panic and no longer has a fear effect.
-- Squire Alan Wells - Crippling Blade now silences its victim instead of inflicting a fear effect.
-- Evoker K`Lexor - The Shield of Foolishness buff now lasts for approximately 2 ticks.
-- Evoker K`Lexor - The Punitive Measures debuff is now only cast on one player at a time. It lasts for approximately 2 ticks and has a longer recast timer.
-- Evoker K`Lexor - Greater Evocation now only hits one target, instead of all targets in an area, and won't be cast on the main tank in a group.
-- Rilen D`Tradis - Resentment now lasts for approximately 5 ticks, and Rilen selects his target randomly from his hatelist.
-- Rilen D`Tradis - Messaging has been added to clarify the interaction between his spells.
-- Bloody Tome - Shared Insight now has a cap on the amount of mana an individual character loses.
-- Plague Bringer - Caustic Cloud now only lasts for approximately 3 ticks.
-- Plague Bringer - Has a new ability called Plaguetouch.
- Fixed issue where some NPCs were not scaling to the appropriate player's level in Heroic Adventures.
- Fixed an issue where some NPCs were not dropping certain loot in Heroic Adventures.


*** AA ***

- Leadership AAs have been converted to standard abilities. You no longer need to earn separate leadership experience to obtain these abilities. To learn more about the change, you can press 'L' in-game. See the "UI" section below for additional details.
- Auto-Granting of AAs for Gold Subscribers:
-- A checkbox has been added to the AA window which will allow players to choose if they wish to participate in the auto-granting of AA abilities when they meet the requirements for those abilities.
-- For Time-Locked Progression Servers, the Call of the Forsaken expansion must be open before auto-granting becomes available.
-- All AA abilities up to and including level 85 and the Underfoot expansion, except those noted below, are auto-granted.
--- Excluded AA from auto-grant:
---- Alchemy Mastery
---- Arcane Tongues
---- Baking Mastery
---- Blacksmithing Mastery
---- Fletching Mastery
---- Fletching/Bowyer Mastery
---- Jewel Craft Mastery (Enchanter)
---- Jewel Craft Mastery (Non-Enchanter)
---- Poison Mastery
---- Pottery Mastery
---- Tailoring Mastery
---- Tinkering Mastery
---- Spell Casting Subtlety
----- Spell Casting Subtlety has been removed as a requirement for other "Silent Casting" abilities so players may choose to purchase them as desired.
- Berserker - Decapitation - Changed all levels of this ability to function on enemies at the purchase level minus 1. Reduced the proc rate to approximately 2 per minute for a raid geared player.
- Berserker - Decapitation - Created 3 new ranks of this ability to bring its maximum effective level up to 99.
- Cleric - Divine Retribution will now fade after 40 procs.
- Enchanter - Changed the buff icon for Deep Sleep to avoid confusion with mesmerization effects.
- Enchanter - the First Spire of Enchantment now has a proc limit of 24.
- Ranger - Headshot - Changed all levels of this ability to function on enemies at the purchase level minus 1. Reduced the proc rate to approximately 2 per minute for a raid geared player.
- Ranger - Headshot - Created 3 new ranks of this ability to bring its maximum effective level up to 99.
- Rogue - Anatomy (Assassinate) - Changed all levels of this ability to function on enemies at the purchase level minus 1. Reduced the proc rate to approximately 2 per minute for a raid geared player.
- Rogue - Anatomy - Created 3 new ranks of this ability to bring its maximum effective level up to 99.
- Shadowknight - Mortal Coil now has a hit limit of 1320 incoming hits and will trigger Mortal Residue more often. Mortal Residue's duration has been extended.


*** Progression Servers ***

- Progression servers have a new poll available regarding the implementation of Alternate Ability Auto-Granting. You must be level 60 and on a progression server to vote.
- Hero's Journey achievements that award armor or weapons are now restricted on progression servers.


*** Collections ***

- All Heroic Adventures now spawn 4 Collection items every run. That number was previously randomized in some adventures.


*** Achievements ***

- The Underfoot requirement for opening the "Achievements" window has been removed.


*** Miscellaneous ***

- The doors leading from Lower to Upper House of Thule now appear in the "Find" window and no longer prevent players from entering. On progression servers, Call of the Forsaken must be active on the server for at least one month for the restriction to be removed.
- The doors leading from Upper to Lower House of Thule now appear in the "Find" window.
- The zone line leading from Upper House of Thule to Morell's Castle now appears in the "Find" window and no longer prevents players from entering. On progression servers, Call of the Forsaken must be active on the server for at least one month for the restriction to be removed.


*** UI ***

- "EQ" buttons can now be made into hotbuttons. Click and hold any "EQ" button to create a hot button that can be used in any hotbar.
- In the "Edit Social" window and chat windows, putting a '#' symbol before a command will now ignore the rest of that command. This can be used in socials for "commenting" or for ignoring a line without needing to clear the line.
- Right clicking on AA hot buttons will now take you to the correct AA in the "Alternate Advancement" window.
- Leadership abilities were removed from the "Leadership AA" window. The abilities are now built into normal game function and are available without having to spend points.
-- The Leadership abilities window has been removed.
-- Any hotbuttons that were made for these abilities retain their functionality.
-- Leadership abilities are now available without having to spend Leadership AA points.
-- Removed the "Fast LA Purchase" checkbox from the General options.
-- Press 'L' in-game to read a description of the new functionality and to see where to access the abilities.
- Fixed the positioning of the "Player Studio" icon and "Created By" label to properly anchor to the bottom of the preview window when the "Marketplace" window is resized.

- Changed -

EQUI.xml
EQUI_AAWindow.xml
EQUI_Animations.xml
EQUI_EQMainWnd.xml
EQUI_FindLocationWnd.xml
EQUI_GroupWindow.xml
EQUI_MarketplaceWnd.xml
EQUI_OptionsWindow.xml
EQUI_PlayerWindow.xml

- Removed -
EQUI_GroupMentorWnd.xml
EQUI_LeadershipWnd.xml


*** Previously Updated ***

- In the Heroic Adventure "Royal Access,” the bookcase within the parlor will now disappear when clicked.
- The ornate chest within the Heroic Adventure "Royal Access" now contains either a key or a note when opened.
- The Heroic Adventure "Life After Death" will no longer become gated if you give Brother Estle more than 3 items of Bear Bile, Sapling Resin, or Sapling Charcoal.
- Player corpses in the Dead Hills raid "The Legacy of Bayle" will now collect near Adana Baxter if Bayle's troops regroup.
- Defeating Brood Mother Visziaj in Crystallos will now also unlock credit for and items belonging to Chief Researcher Entharr, as long as he remains... absent.
- Corrected an issue that prevented players from obtaining the bonus reward for the Erollisi Day quest "The Perfect Companion."


- The EverQuest Team

Comments

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Not about lag
# Feb 21 2014 at 12:23 AM Rating: Good
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TL;DR: I like most of the changes, but they're about business opportunity, not server lag.


All the PR was about latency caused by swarming. What I really see here is a patch that's all about powerlevelling. Mark my words: SoE will be selling characters of a various levels in /marketplace in short order. Here are a few things I see:

- Headshot didn't need to be changed: rangers haven't been swarm headshotting since 2011 when they changed headshot to only function on your current target, and the Hail line of archery AEs stopped being useful.

- Decapitation used in swarming could have been fixed by doing what was done with headshot; setting it as a current-target-only effect, which they did. They took it further, though, because only a handful of berserkers were AE decapitating, and many of them were just slaughtering mobs one at a time in rapid succession. Now, decap triggers only 20% as often (check the Decapitation Wiki)

- Assassinate, just like Decapitation, could have been left alone aside from setting it as current target only, and no trigger on riposte. Can't say I really saw any rogues powerleveling, but I'm told they did.

- Free AAs make the players buying AA powerlevels less likely to buy any, and it sets a precedent for SoE being able to give away (read: sell) what amounts to gigantic quantities of experience. Want all the AAs through Underfoot? Go Gold! Already have Gold and want all of the House of Thule AAs? Just $9.99 per character! What a bargain!

- Replacing the double exp potion on Firiona Vie with a notrade variant? Also a means to cut out the flow of experience being sold in game. No more rolling a new toon, running them through the anniversary task, trading the potion to your main, deleting it and repeating the process to pick up plat for Kronos. It's been going on since the day they introduced that anniversary task 14 years ago, and NOW it's an issue? Come on, guys...

Many of the changes impact swarming above all other things, I'm not denying that. For the most part, I'm happy with the changes, and have happily accepted my free AAs on several toons. The primary people I see complaining about the patch as a whole fall into three categories: people selling powerlevels (rawr! beaming! swarming! rawr!), people buying them (now it will take for evaaaaar!), and elitists (I had to grind 12k AAs the hard way, so should everyone that just joined the game last month!).

(Edited to include TL;DR)

Edited, Feb 21st 2014 5:34pm by nyteshayd
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Anadriel Starfire, 120/46k AA High Elf Mage
Not about lag
# Feb 21 2014 at 10:32 AM Rating: Excellent
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nyteshayd wrote:
All the PR was about latency caused by swarming. What I really see here is a patch that's all about powerlevelling.Edited, Feb 21st 2014 1:27am by nyteshayd


Because, you know, SOE's Illuminati masters wouldn't want the truth to be known...

/eyeroll
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Not about lag
# Feb 21 2014 at 4:23 PM Rating: Decent
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/shrug

I'm not claiming a world dominating conspiracy. I'm seeing a business doing what businesses do best: spotting an opportunity to make money and cut down on the competition, all while blanketing it in lies about their motives to make it easier to swallow.
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Anadriel Starfire, 120/46k AA High Elf Mage
Booo to Dusty Ceremonial Elixers
# Feb 20 2014 at 6:42 PM Rating: Decent
I'm sad to see the Exp potions go no drop for FV server its how i pad for my accnts and gear for ever ;-(


Tried out SK and Shammy to see and feel the changes
# Feb 20 2014 at 3:40 PM Rating: Excellent
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I tested my Necro, Shammy and SK with the new changes in Argath, single and two pulling trash mobs and gladly the Mortal Coil proc cap of 1320 hits never came into play before its time ran out or was refreshed.

Lich Sting had never reached its cap before running out also but then again I had not faced a named in that session. It's possible that some raiding SK's taking care of more multiple mobs or adds may find the cap to Lich Sting an issue.

On the other hand the Shammy had to refresh the Apathy (or Lingering Sloth line -240 hits cap) almost every time I pulled two mobs.

Otherwise, it lasted the single fights. Not a major problem as I usually have that spell up anyways for whoever is tanking.

So in my case the SK and Shammy was not hurt as much as I had feared when the changes were initially announced.
Nice AA boost
# Feb 19 2014 at 8:31 PM Rating: Good
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I already had 6880 aa points assigned. This put me at 7901 assigned. Nice boost.
patch notes
# Feb 19 2014 at 7:40 PM Rating: Excellent
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I'm really glad they included an opt-out feature, or rather, opt-in. That means players can still AA to their heart's content at lvl 75... or just jump to 85 to experience new content. Great feature!

Now I'm off to wade into the official forums and glimpse the whining and crying and disclaimers of EQ's imminent demise, oh those poor headshot rangers, how will they earn their kronos now?... wish me luck LOL
Question and observation
# Feb 19 2014 at 12:03 PM Rating: Good
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A.) Just an observation. Of the AA that were not included, you have most of the tradeskill AA. But I did not see Salvage, and i did not see Brewing Mastery.
Are those included? or overlooked for the patch notes?

B.) as for:
1.) - Shadowknight - Leechcurse Discipline now has a hit limit of 350 incoming hits.
- Shadowknight - Mortal Coil now has a hit limit of 1320 incoming hits and will trigger Mortal Residue more often. Mortal Residue's duration has been extended.
Incoming hits? These works when you hit the mob, and if you are pulling and taking hits on your back, won't this decrease during that as well? It's a lot of hits, so it wouldn't be a big issue I guess, but only gives HP back when you do damage to the mob, so I don't get HOW this one is gonna work.
Incoming means you getting attacked, not you doing the attacks. So it dwindles down every time you are attacked, while you may or may not attack back either with attack or a reposte or shield bash. And considering you MIGHT reposte using those. They are allowing it to drop off a ton faster? You do realize that the secondary component to the ability is an AC increase? That'll drop off too.

2.) As for Cleric Shining line, you are giving it 2 buffs instead of one... Are we getting more buff slots? I know for a fact some classes are extremely buff heavy with selfbuffs, clickies and normal other buffs(SK, Pally, Ranger to name a few). Won't this change effectively block these classes from using those buffs which allow them to actually be effective in end game (being 85+ as stated by SOE), though the AA grant is supposed to allow people to get to the end game more quickly? Give here and cut here?
3.) LAA:
YAY. A little annoying since I worked very hard on getting 4 or 5 toons max LAA this past year, but still nice I won't have to do it for the rest of my toons (3+ accounts, I don't box much, more like mules, and alternatives for different levels and such, so I can play every class, without having to change servers).
4.) Enchanter Deep sleep icon change : YAY! ( I love my chanter, and this will help grps not break my mezzes, or breaking the RIGHT mezzes first.

5.) The changes where certain mobs won't hit "Main tanks" does this mena groups and raids will HAVE TO label players with main tank, main assist, and puller now? or will it be calculated by Agro?

6.) Perfected Augmentation Distillers in Marketplace... ABOUT TIME!!!!

7.) I keep asking this, as I have never really gotten a definitive answer... What exactly does Mortal Coil's rare proc of Residue actually do? I have no idea. but now they are making it last longer and proc more... What is it!? lol.
8.) The zonelines for House no longer block characters from entering... does this mean you no longer need the progression and be flagged? is it now considered unlocked?

Anyways, these are just some things I am curious about. If anyone can elaborate on one, some, or all points. Please do. Thank you.
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Question and observation
# Feb 20 2014 at 9:43 PM Rating: Good
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As an update, I was able to get a few answer.

Brewing Mastery should be in the notes as not being a part of the Auto-grant. Salvage is intended to be in the Auto-grant. The Admin I talked to, wasn't sure why it wasn't added into the patch notes, so not sure if it was an oversight or something else happened.

The question about how they changes some mobs and effects so they wouldn't hit Main tank = based on agro. Was worded a bit weird so wanted to get a definitive. So watch those agro meters!

The question about HoT zone lines, the change: "The goal is to make this content more accessible to players. As such, this change reduces the number of checks on "progression" ". Still hasn't answered if there are any requirements or not (I am leaning towards "not").

All the info I have been able to get from Roshen. So least there are even less questions now.
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while sony's being idiotic...
# Feb 19 2014 at 10:40 AM Rating: Default
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why not auto grant achievements too? only have 1878 of those with more being made all the time. I decided to stop playing eq for a few months now...when I come back I should have won eq during that time, right. playing the game is for suckers
while sony's being idiotic...
# Feb 19 2014 at 4:05 PM Rating: Good
The reason why peeps asked the devs not to defalt the tradeskills mastery's is if they plan to level using the potion, the potion levels on fails - so faster leveling if dont have tradeskills mastery.
Once maxed can buy the AA to make the stuff.
while sony's being idiotic...
# Feb 19 2014 at 11:55 PM Rating: Decent
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Larth wrote:
The reason why peeps asked the devs not to defalt the tradeskills mastery's is if they plan to level using the potion, the potion levels on fails - so faster leveling if dont have tradeskills mastery.
Once maxed can buy the AA to make the stuff.


Incorrect. The potion returns all materials to you if you fail the combine. Not having the masteries will cause you to fail more often, getting your components back for another attempt.
meh
# Feb 19 2014 at 10:05 AM Rating: Good
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too bad its only for Gold members.
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meh
# Feb 19 2014 at 10:48 AM Rating: Excellent
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fronglo wrote:
too bad its only for Gold members.


yep i actually bumped up my boxed account to gold just for this reason......figured it was worth it not having to grind AA points.
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Rukkuss 71 Iksar SK 1.5 Epic
Mokkas 70 Halfling Druid 1.0 Epic
Turfidor 70 Barbarian Shaman 1.0 Epic
Simplid 71 chanter
Trembledon 72 ranger
Rumblesx 70 monk
Bertoxx server
Why is SoE hell bent on destroying EQ?
# Feb 19 2014 at 10:03 AM Rating: Good
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n! btw means n-factorial. What that means is that if a mob has 25 possible path decisions, adding one more path decision takes 26 times longer to solve. Add 2 more means 26 x 27 times longer, etc. My apologies for the shop talk.
Auto AA granting..
# Feb 19 2014 at 9:14 AM Rating: Decent
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Resistance is Futile!
Ranger :Level 100
Maxed AA
Why is SoE hell bent on destroying EQ?
# Feb 19 2014 at 7:56 AM Rating: Decent
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The last time I checked, EQ was in a fairly steady decline. New players are not flocking to the game. But some players do return to the game from time to time. So as an insult to the loyal players, SoE offers an AA grant. Talk about a slap in the face. Nor do I buy the B.S. about server lag caused by killing large numbers of mobs. I've been on disability for a year now and I typically play 10-12 hours a day, and I have had zero problems with lag in the game despite being one of those people would pull 75 mobs at once. I do not feel that a well-tuned AoE group is an exploit. Wouldn't a rededication of server resources solve the problem as well? And why weren't Fippy and Vulak merged? Vulak probably has under 50 active players. Does it really make sense to tie up server resources for Vulak especially when your solution is to radically nerf so many abilities? I went to the EQ Next Landmark Community Event. I'm glad I did because it saved the cost of the explorer's pack. In addition I predict it will be a dismal failure. Might as well save yourself the trouble and make it a free to play game because you'll be changing it short order if you don't. Sony and all of its subsidiaries should make "Remember the Betamax" your company motto. It boggles the mind how one company can make such horrible marketing decisions and remain in business.
Why is SoE hell bent on destroying EQ?
# Feb 19 2014 at 3:28 PM Rating: Excellent
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kodiacFL wrote:
Nor do I buy the B.S. about server lag caused by killing large numbers of mobs. I've been on disability for a year now and I typically play 10-12 hours a day, and I have had zero problems with lag in the game despite being one of those people would pull 75 mobs at once.


They showed graphs and charts of CPU loads. Just because you don't experience it, doesn't mean it's not there. I have no idea if they have dedicated iron or VMs or a combination of both, but I can tell you, in any enterprise environment, one simply does not pop in a new server for more resources due to a minority of users being resource hogs.

As to the end of EQ -- I've played on and off since POP and if I had a nickle for every time one of you folks used to having your cake and eating it too prognosticated the demise of EQ because something was "nerfed", I'd be playing EQ10-12 hours a day too; except from a beach villa complete with a girl in a skimpy bikini to bring me drinks with those little umbrellas in them.

Edited, Feb 19th 2014 9:04pm by nekokirei
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Why is SoE hell bent on destroying EQ?
# Feb 19 2014 at 10:25 AM Rating: Decent
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So you take other peoples' money that they earn from actually working and use part of it to play a game. Sorry, you lack standing to complain about that game.

Edited, Feb 19th 2014 10:26am by Philliden
Why is SoE hell bent on destroying EQ?
# Feb 25 2014 at 4:26 PM Rating: Good
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Philliden wrote:
So you take other peoples' money that they earn from actually working and use part of it to play a game. Sorry, you lack standing to complain about that game.

Edited, Feb 19th 2014 10:26am by Philliden



If he pays to play he has every right to complain about the product, the same right as any of us.

I'll assume you know him and the details surrounding why he is recieving disability payments and that those payments are unjustified, because the only other option is you're an *******



Why is SoE hell bent on destroying EQ?
# Feb 19 2014 at 10:06 AM Rating: Excellent
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Why is it that when folks can't have things the way they want them they jump into "drama queen" mode and start wailing about the company destroying itself, and how the game will die because of the changes being made?

I started playing with the Kunark expansion, and took a break when my Rogue reached level 77. The number of changes that were introduced during that time that were going to lead to the death of EQ are too many to list. I returned to play on Fippy when it went live, and upon retiring in 2012 I came back to Ayonae Ro/Tribunal/Bristlebane to see what all was new. The server changes did not kill the game, as predicted. The new defiant gear, which made so much of the hard won raid gear obsolete, did not kill the game. I hear folks in general chat every week being welcomed on their return to the game. The numbers will never be what they were those first few years, because the options available to folks have grown by leaps and bounds. But EQ is still here.

I have no problem with the changes made to AA's, because I know I can choose whether or not to accept. I have no problem with the various class ability nerfs, because I don't believe the overall game will be affected. The adverse effects of this patch will be those individuals impose on themselves. If folks have not learned to adapt and find new ways to work and play within the framework offered, they have only themselves to blame.
Why is SoE hell bent on destroying EQ?
# Feb 19 2014 at 8:29 AM Rating: Decent
if you buy anything like many do IE lets say amazon are selling something for $10 u buy it and the next week you noitice its half price dont mean your gonna get your $5 dollars back does it same applyies to the free AA just because youve done this done that dont mean others should follow suit,how is the game ment to progress if its to stay th same,im loyal customer for 8 years and dont care if someone from tomorrow gets something ive achieved in 8 years,i see it as more groups more fun etc etc,my dig at boxers/soloists is true if you bothersto group with peeps and im not saying all boxers dont group but there are few that dont group, players need to group and mayybe sony has come up with a good way to get group play going again................WHATS WRONG WITH THAT,all you boxers are ******** cos these new players will be up your ***/camp and will spoil your selfish solo/box play.i see this as a step up for those who dont know where and what to hunt.

COYL
Why is SoE hell bent on destroying EQ?
# Feb 20 2014 at 1:13 PM Rating: Good
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Actually, Amazon would (being a company that values its customers more than $5) give you a refund if you asked.

But you make a good point. EQ is simply evolving to be easier.
Why is SoE hell bent on destroying EQ?
# Feb 19 2014 at 9:59 AM Rating: Excellent
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Other MMOs have taken EQ ground-breaking innovations and run off with them. They made stuff easy and fairless mindless to do. It has become expected among the MMO community and EQ has bent that direction. To the development staff's credit, they have taken many of the enormous time consuming out of EQ (long meds, corpse loots, boats, etc).

What EQ has that no other MMO will ever match is content. I suggest that some kind of actual player bonus be given for completing appropriate content at ... perhaps... an appropriate level. For instance, those who want to do old raids could be sort of shrouded down to a more appropriate level with the caveat that you'd never get raid gangs to do it so many allow you to go back to 10 levels higher with a single group. ... whatever. the idea is to put old content back into the game, not remove EQ's greatest resources.

As to the pathing problems, saying that you had no lag problems with 75 pulls is completely irrelevant. I have had mages tell me they intentionally pull 200 mobs until the zone lags and the mobs just stand there. As for whether the pathing problem is true, I can also vouch for that. As a person who solved two separate logistics pathing algorithms for DoD software, the garden variety Least Shortest Path algorithm has a growth rate of n! At some point the entire world's computing power would bog down (it's not a matter of hardware upgrades). The devs (or SAs) who analyzed the problem are on the up and up. As to the post about boxers being selfish, my experience is the opposite. Boxers have been the most generous people I've bumped into, they also spend the most money and support the F2P community.
SparxxUI Updated to v16.1 for this patch
# Feb 19 2014 at 7:12 AM Rating: Excellent
12 posts
I have two accounts, and on each account I have one toon that is maxed AAs and levels. I am not the least bit insulted or pissed off they are auto granting AAs up to level 85. Its 4 expansions ago, It does not effect me in the least. If folks do not like it they can opt out and not do it. I really think its a great idea to encourage new players into the game that might otherwise feel to fear behind to catch up. I really do not get why some folks seem upset about it. Seems to me that they just want to whine.
SparxxUI Updated to v16.1 for this patch
# Feb 19 2014 at 5:00 PM Rating: Excellent
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Demosley wrote:
I have two accounts, and on each account I have one toon that is maxed AAs and levels. I am not the least bit insulted or pissed off they are auto granting AAs up to level 85. Its 4 expansions ago, It does not effect me in the least. If folks do not like it they can opt out and not do it. I really think its a great idea to encourage new players into the game that might otherwise feel to fear behind to catch up. I really do not get why some folks seem upset about it. Seems to me that they just want to whine.



Well said.
sod the damn moaners-ban them sellfish players
# Feb 19 2014 at 3:38 AM Rating: Decent
WoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooT to all the moaners GoooooooooooD maybe you should have formed groups rather then go solo/box then eq wouldnt be forced to do this.say nastys things im an adults its not gonna get to me one bit ill just laugh at your comments..........if you do reply with venom i must be uttering some truthh have a nice day.

COYL
sod the damn moaners-ban them sellfish players
# Feb 19 2014 at 6:08 AM Rating: Excellent
11 posts
What is wrong with soloing / boxing? I will still continue to solo / box. I am not understanding your post I guess.
sod the damn moaners-ban them sellfish players
# Feb 19 2014 at 1:24 PM Rating: Good
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Heh nothing wrong with boxin. Just some folks are obviously jealous. Boxers have a group as soon as they log on, and can go straight from there...being able to be selective on who you group with means NOT having to froup with known bad players or ********** Eventually those folks start having problems finding groups, and come to the forums to whine about it. =)

The is just as much a boon/fail to boxers as it is to solo players
AA granting
# Feb 19 2014 at 2:59 AM Rating: Decent
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The AA grant is just an insult to all players that grinded those hard earned AAs from scratch. The only fair thing would be to refund the already bought AAs that is to be granted. The class nerfs are ok and needed but this AA stuff is BS.
AA granting
# Feb 20 2014 at 1:30 PM Rating: Decent
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Maybe not speaking for all but i dont like the aa autogrant also. So much plus the fact that i was getting near an eq burn out it made me cancel my 3 accounts. I might come back in the future but maybe not. I really hate the autogrant aa. I understand a lot of ppl dont care about it but i do.
AA granting
# Feb 19 2014 at 1:24 PM Rating: Excellent
knmgfijnm wrote:
The AA grant is just an insult to all players that grinded those hard earned AAs from scratch. The only fair thing would be to refund the already bought AAs that is to be granted. The class nerfs are ok and needed but this AA stuff is BS.


When was the vote that elected you to speak for all of us with max AA? I have two max AA toons, and I can say with 100% certainty that this didn't affect my toons one little bit. If you were max AA/level you would understand that.
AA granting
# Feb 19 2014 at 6:45 AM Rating: Excellent
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knmgfijnm wrote:
The AA grant is just an insult to all players that grinded those hard earned AAs from scratch. The only fair thing would be to refund the already bought AAs that is to be granted. The class nerfs are ok and needed but this AA stuff is BS.


This AA grant is to level 85, you still have to grind AA past that. This is to get people to the end game a little faster, which by the way is 90% of the content released in new expacs....the last 2 expacs for me anyway were useless....except the offline trader mode.

So this is a good thing people can concentrate on leveling to 85, then grind like mad to keep up with AA's(and levels) It just gives the more casual player better options. Which is a nice change instead of catering to the end game player all the time.
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AA granting
# Feb 20 2014 at 2:28 PM Rating: Decent
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The neat thing about it is that people that hit lvl 51 also get some aa lovin. I have a lvl 53 enchanter and i got assigned over 100 aa points. If i choose to lvl that character and im still opted in i will get aa points every lvl as long as i keep the account gold.
AA granting
# Feb 19 2014 at 4:49 AM Rating: Decent
I thought there was a reset button to be added for aapts to be used with AAPTs now to allow person to buy in and not be penalized for earned AAPTS,
headshot
# Feb 19 2014 at 1:47 AM Rating: Decent
so does this mean that only raid geared rangers will be able to headshot these level -1 mobs or will all rangers be able to do this with the procs and 2 mobs per min im confused since it said raid geared? not all of us raid or have raid gear.
headshot
# Feb 19 2014 at 7:04 PM Rating: Good
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I logged in my 67 Ranger and was getting more insta-kills than I was before the patch
headshot
# Feb 19 2014 at 7:53 AM Rating: Good
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misbhaven wrote:
so does this mean that only raid geared rangers will be able to headshot these level -1 mobs or will all rangers be able to do this with the procs and 2 mobs per min im confused since it said raid geared? not all of us raid or have raid gear.


No not at this is the patch note. someone raid geared at level 100 i suppose is going to proc it about 2 per minute....I dont know what the normal proc would be for the non raid geared or lower level...

Quote:
Ranger - Headshot - Changed all levels of this ability to function on enemies at the purchase level minus 1. Reduced the proc rate to approximately 2 per minute for a raid geared player.


edit: so thinking about it some more i suppose the raid geared person will proc it 2 per min and less procs for the non raid geared person so yes the -1 will be able for all rangers if the have headshot, the more stats and better gear you have the more will proc up to 2 per minute.

Edited, Feb 19th 2014 8:59am by Rukkuss
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Rukkuss 71 Iksar SK 1.5 Epic
Mokkas 70 Halfling Druid 1.0 Epic
Turfidor 70 Barbarian Shaman 1.0 Epic
Simplid 71 chanter
Trembledon 72 ranger
Rumblesx 70 monk
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headshot
# Feb 19 2014 at 5:56 AM Rating: Decent
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When War was nerfed (bleed) a rare few gave us support. Now Rangers, Rog, and Zerkers are nerfed.
I wonder if they are really angry over that. The Limit nerf is worse Imo, I mean salt in the wound.
Nobody could have seen this coming and will certainly change the game. Five per min would
be somewhat decent, but Two? Good grief, as a War I rely on all classes for DPS and this will hurt
worse than the Bleed nerf did. Just ouch.

And I just filled my Last LAA today, now it's for nothing since it's all FREE. BAH!
Many worked Hard and long hours to fill those, and Reg AA's. What an extreme disappointment.

One thing I am glad for, I finished Hero's journey before they Give that away also! As far as
I'm concerned I've won the game doing that one.

I feel your pain fellow adventurers.

Edited, Feb 19th 2014 6:57am by Zolmazz
headshot
# Feb 19 2014 at 11:36 PM Rating: Decent
Zolmazz wrote:
When War was nerfed (bleed) a rare few gave us support. Now Rangers, Rog, and Zerkers are nerfed.
I wonder if they are really angry over that. The Limit nerf is worse Imo, I mean salt in the wound.
Nobody could have seen this coming and will certainly change the game. Five per min would
be somewhat decent, but Two? Good grief, as a War I rely on all classes for DPS and this will hurt
worse than the Bleed nerf did. Just ouch.

And I just filled my Last LAA today, now it's for nothing since it's all FREE. BAH!
Many worked Hard and long hours to fill those, and Reg AA's. What an extreme disappointment.

One thing I am glad for, I finished Hero's journey before they Give that away also! As far as
I'm concerned I've won the game doing that one.

I feel your pain fellow adventurers.

Edited, Feb 19th 2014 6:57am by Zolmazz


I just wanted to clarify something about headshot for you. Up till this point headshot was only used for power leveling and grinding AAs solo. As a warrior you had no way of benefiting from ranger headshot (or other similar abilities) in a real group situation. However now the abilities have a real use outside power leveling. The damage dealt by rangers, rogues, and berserkers in real group situations has just gotten a big boost. The proc rate had to be nerfed for this though because even procing only twice per minute we are effectively doubling our ranged DPS.
SparxxUI Updated to v16.1 for this patch
# Feb 18 2014 at 10:58 PM Rating: Good
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SparxxUI Updated to v16.1 for this patch

http://www.eqinterface.com/downloads/fileinfo.php?s=&id=4620

Enjoy!
SparxxUI Updated to v16.1 for this patch
# Feb 19 2014 at 12:34 AM Rating: Decent
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Nice and fast, excellent.
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