Q2 2020 patch - Back with a Vengeance

..with an oath of vengeance paladin, that is..


Hi guys. Apologies the patch is late. The next patch from us will be the wishlist patch. Please be sure to give a thank you to all the Imms, as everybody on staff has worked very hard on this patch!


Races

Giants:

The goal for giants was to make them a bit "simpler" by simplifying their religion pick.

* Giants can no longer initiate into an element directly opposed to their race. This affects the available religion picks.
* Storm giant cannot initiate into plague.
* Stone giant cannot initiate into air.
* Fire giant cannot initiate into ice.

In addition, some plant-based materials for storm giants no longer zap the storm giant as if they were "wood" (e.g. moss).

Treants:

Treants have long been frustrating to play with the equipment being un-removeable and we've used this patch to invert that into a strength.

* The absorb command now allows treants to store items in their trunk, a bit like a sack, but only the treant can access their trunk. Rares and worthless items (like guild issue) get belched out onto the ground. Be careful you do not break glass items.
- Equipment stored in the trunk is a little lighter to carry.
- If the treant dies with stuff in the trunk, it will dump into their corpse like normal inventory items.
- If you are wondering about steal, yes, things in their trunk are un-stealable. This is a good race to pick if you just hate thieves stealing that much.

Additionally:
* Treants can now be evil or good. They must have ethos neutral.
- Note that evil treants get a small vuln to holy and resist to mental.
* Treants now block being summoned while rooted.

Elf/Drow:

Our update here was just to undo the aggravation we introduced with two-handers messing up sneaking. We fucked up.

* "autosneak" is now unaffected by wielding two-handers.

Werebeasts:

We wanted to make sure evils get the cool race we discussed, and also that a werebeast player does not feel like they got gimped on levelling by not being able to stay transformed for their ranks.

* Level-ups now use the transform stats.
* Werebeast can now become evil (a forsaken) via a pseudo-quest in Arachnos. This can be done between level 15 to 25 (inclusive).


Classes

Thief:

The goal for thief is to make adrenaline exciting and fun for both the thief and their target. Players who have seen the recent actvity of thief can see this fun has been one-sided to say the least, and that means logouts / turn-off. We can do better.

* A thief cannot hide with "aggressive" adrenaline (40 seconds long, or 10 seconds on successful blackjacks).
* Being inside someone else's cabal causes aggressive adrenaline.
* Evasive adrenaline (60 seconds) allows hiding at high success rate, but can be uncovered trivially with "where" command (if used in the same room). being uncovered will refresh the evasive duration (i.e. 60 seconds).
* Adrenaline active/calm is the same as not having adrenaline. This should last ten mins and just prevents logout/causes guild guardian bloody.

Please note : We are all concerned about the "feel" of being able to just type WHERE in the room as it does not require any delay to use. We welcome feedback on this. Remember you can also hide in items /behind signs and that does not apply to the where command.

Ranger:

The ranger class has received some relief towards their pets becoming annoying to use. They are affected by the same adrenaline update as thief.

* A ranger cannot camouflage with "aggressive" adrenaline.
* Active/calm adrenaline is the same as not having adrenaline.
* A ranger is now able to have two boars.
* The dirt kick bonus in forests is now the same as in field for the ranger class.
* Rangers can now manually use beastcall to actively call a falcon to them.
* Wolves are now called with a warcry used in forest, hills, field, sand, and mountain sectors.

Also, HUGE NERF:
* Tiny mobs (like mosquito, squirrel) do not give more than 1 steak anymore.

Berserker:

The berserker players said that they should be able to generate more fury and we agreed.

* Fury gain has been added to charge / sideswipe / hobble.
* Berserkers no longer have a hidden penalty to dual parry if they use a dual parry weapon.
* weapon cleave is now available, starting at level 30.

Dark-knight:

Because Cure light on DK is awesome and that's our final answer.

* Cure light has returned.
* Unholy armor is now based on item armor class and level instead of on weight.

Druid:

This is a class that was in need of some nerfing, especially to the staff damage and wilderness healing. We are not trying to nerf them super hard at this time.

* HP per level for druids has been brought in line with healer and shaman HP per level.
* The blindness effect from druid sunblast has a shorter duration.
* At higher levels, the druid's staff damage dice will now mimic an iconic rare weapon of the same damage type (e.g. water enchanted staff uses staff of storms damage dice).
* When a player successfully saves against the heat metal affect, that piece of eq cools and becomes immune to heat metal for a time.
* The mana cost and cast time of wilderness healing has been increased substantially.
* Druids can no longer chant while affected by blasphemy.

On the other hand:
* Beasts summoned from the druid staff will no longer decrease the group exp.
* An important bug in healing word has been fixed.

Illusionist:

Our goal with illusionist is to make them seem (key word, seem) less cheesy while retaining that legendary mobility and ability to generate pant-wetting terror. Thus this is a combo of some changes to make their lives easier (does that surprise you, Merlandox?) and others are to help people thwart that legendary offense.

Better:
* Winter's huntsmaster, a.k.a. King of Duplicates, can be duplicated again.
* Illithid cone of force has been corrected so that the lag is identical for illusionist and victim when save is made.
* Fleeing with duplicates no longer causes the duplicates to flee too.

Adjusted:
* Dispel magic'ing or losing a duplicate to separation will lock out that memorized duplicate for 2 ticks.
* Memorization now only stores non-unique mobiles (so ettins, defilers, etc.). For level 48 "named" dupes you will need to fetch them.
* The spell hysteria now causes memorized dupes to be forgotten.

Invoker:

Our goal here was to give the invoker a little bit better sustain in PVP/PVE (especially in hit-and-run). We see invokers trying to run around brandishing red and white staffs or quaffing curing potions and want to make sure our invokers feel they can still compete without relying as much on consumables. (But you should still get some.)

* The invoker shield spell was reworked. The max shield depends on the invoker level and the intelligence. The shield soaks damage for the invoker and can be refilled by casting mystic tendrils. Keep in mind that shields take full damage regardless of armor class, and also that if the shield is broken, the invoker may experience a little bit of lag. Some of you guys may feel this makes the shield useless. We'll take feedback on the feel.
* Mystic tendrils may no longer regain mana when cast on mobs for damage. This is unnecessary with the shield refills adding sustain.

Necromancer:

The easiest way to get a kill with a necromancer is right after your opponent walks through a heavy lagging portal. Therefore, following a necromancer who just stepped into Hell is definitely not recommended.

* HELLGATE : a new spell that creates a portal to the underworld that they can travel through with their army.
- A hellgate is a one-way portal.
- If the necro is INSIDE the underworld, they can instead choose a graveyard (or their lair) to travel to.
* The reaping scythe is longer an unwieldly weapon, thus, no longer suffers parrying problems.

Shadow:

Watching the best players in AR play shadows taught us all that the shurikens are quite powerful. As well, it was overdue time to do something about drow assassinates.

* A shadow cannot hide with "aggressive" adrenaline (40 seconds long, or 10 seconds on successful strangle).
* Active/calm is the same as not having adrenaline.
* A chance to save vs spell versus the level 50 poison has been added to drow's poison mastery racial legacy.
* Throwing shurikens (either via skill or spells) now has a 1 second wind-up, which makes it interruptable with bash etc. This does NOT add to the 1.5 lag from throwing - this goes concurrently.
- The above does not apply to the shadow arts "Shadow Shuriken".

Monk:

Despite being a decent damage class, monks have earned a reputation of being the best tanks and best healers in the game. This is a rogue-cleric hybrid (not a warrior-hybrid) so our goal here was to correct the course here, refocusing this into damage dealing, and while we DO want them to be able to stand toe to toe with warriors, that needs to require at least the right fighting style.

Also, say goodbye to monks spanking warriors wearing bows.

* Monks may no longer interact with weapons AT ALL (an oath of rp reasons). Weapons can be trained by sparring and watching groupmates fighting, and I am confident having seen the scarecrow sessions that this will work well enough for monks to get proficient with weapons. Everybody loves a free scarecrow.
* Monks now receive a parry penalty while in inferior combat style. the amount is equal to weapon advantage penalty.
* Healing is now 40 mana (up from 30) and biases towards cure serious/light with cure crit being more rare to come out.
* Attempting to kick while healing will interrupt the monk's focus.
* See also general armor types on heavy/medium/light armor below. (In skills/spells)

Some new things to compensate.

* Tiger style no longer has a frenzy parry penalty.
* Drunken style staggering now kicks in at a much lower damage threshold.

Bard:

Bards continue to excel at gambling better than any other class.

* "Let it be known" now reduces item costs in all stores via a reputation increase.

Healer:

Removal of weapon ward on healers and shamans hasn't worked as well for them as the hard-hitting staff swinging druid class so we've addressed this with both classes. Healers have received a bit more interesting stuff especially as we anticipate this class to take a huge drop now that paladins are much more attractive to play. Also, most players of healers found castigate useless, so that was reworked. Also, nobody ever said a nice word about cure continual, so we reworked that.

* A new skill "staff block" which improves defense with staff since they lose shield without gaining damage. This should make it possible for a healer to get by with just their healer staff and be less gear-dependent.
* A new "prudence" skill has been added which helps a healer in combat, but only if they aren't actually doing anything back.
- Note that this replaced their "shield" spell which is really not a fit with no mystic tendrils.
* Invigorate has been moved to level 42 (this is so that it doesnt have to require being in the healer shrine to use it... just being tattooed).
* Holy water has been moved to level 45.
* Accession now fills useful gauges back up to 100%.
* Castigate now causes whoever is being castigated to be subdued (like a soft silence you can just flee from).
* Heavens Gate no longer requires divine power to use it, however:
- it now leaves a vapor trail, and
- setting a beacon with heavens gate actually creates a beacon object which is locateable.
* Calm is now area-of-effect instead of targetted at people.
* Cure continual is now intensified and extended by other cures (instead of amplified).
* The spell HEAL has been decoupled from cure continual and had its heal increased to meet in the middle between old heal and "cure cont" heal.
* Healers now gain affbreak as their divine power improves, lightly reducing their dependency on gear (you may notice the theme here). Keep in mind this benefit is weighed against using castigate to drain divine power and help the healers defense. The healer will have to choose whether to castigate or try to hold divine power full for the affbreak.

Shaman:

As with healers, the class was not working too well without weapon ward. How do you solve that? By creating the most fun spell in the damn game. Enjoy the brief respite, paladins. THE END IS NIGH...

* The demonic visage spell now locks out beckoning weapon for a 12 hour period.
* Falling over from insomnia into sleep interrupts fighting with mobs.
* Enfeeblement should prevent avian/quasit flying (i.e. flying with wings). magical flight is ok.
* Killing an enemy with hex up always pops off their head.
* HEADSHRINKING!!
- A shield is created from shrinking a severed head which has limited hp.
- Wearing the severed head as shield prevents weapon or combat disadvantage.
- Barraging the shield does not cause damage/distention to the shaman and instead attacks the shrunken head, causing it to drip pus on the attacker.
- The shrunken head's hp can be restored with successful phantom grasp (malbreak is a great idea for this)
- Sticking pins in the head does a "cause light" to the head's original owner, anywhere in the world. Don't lose your head!
---This is a once per day (24 ticks) thing, so you could stop someone quitting out for a while after a fight, but definitely not indefinitely.

Slight downgrade for hex:

* Hex fades off if the shaman quits out before the person they hexed.

Paladin:

Our paladin class is now focused on being a "tank" in the sense of a real-life tank that enters the battlefield heavily armored and provides support fire. They anchor their groupmates and lead, and appear the largest threat so that they are the obvious target to focus on in group fighting. As the paladin increases their willpower (described below) it can be thought of as increasing their momentum in the fight. Although they do have new skills as well, please be aware that paladins affect their groups a LOT via what their roleplaying calls for them to do and not do. In a sense, this provides as much impact on the class and group as any new skills they have gotten.

* holy armor is now based on item armor class and level instead of on weight.
* Old skills Identify, word of recall, and dual parry are added to the base paladin skill kit.
* New skills include iron will, inspiring presence, bolstering presence, repentance.
* A willpower gauge is in effect. Your goal will be to have this MAXED. There is no need to manage it, other than you want to keep it high if you can.
- Willpower is increased by using active skills that spend mana (not spells).
- Max your willpower to improve your divine might damage.
- If you are bashed, tripped, bodyslammed etc, it is considered a "loss of momentum" and therefore your willpower will drop in response.
- Activitating the skill of "iron will" will causes the same bashes, trips, disarms, barrage etc. ill-effects (but not the skill damage) to be resisted by your willpower. Warrior/Zerker players, take note here that the paladin is still accepting a loss of damage from divine might and not just getting away freely here. They won't like it.
* Divine might has been reworked to use WILLPOWER to add damage.
* Reckoning is now an area of affect talent but will only hit people who are hitting you (again, as the paladin, you want to be the tank).
* 4 specializations are added via taking an oath at level 15. Taking an oath is required. Breaking an oath will make you into a dark-knight.
- oath of protection, devotion, vengeance, eradication
- Each paladin spec has 5-8 unique skills and spells.
- Please refer to helpfile SACRED OATH to get started with the new paladin specs.
- Depending on spec, the above skills are subject to change.

For people with existing paladins, some of your skill percentages will be transferred into the new skills that were recently added, and you may then get the skill back at 1% because it is in a spec. The skill effort was not lost.

Vampire:

We're not gonna tell YOU that. An in-game note will be sent to vampires.

* Something new that affects lairs.
* Something else that affects hunting.

Skills/Spells

A couple odds-and-ends and QOL updates that affect everybody, generally.

* Disarming has a +1 pulse lag to prevent cheesy sacs now that we took out disarm to inventory.
* Create food casting lag has been reduced to match butcher lag.
* Using the kick skill will now interrupt focus abilities. (this was in the monk list but affects everyody too)
* The Lore skill, when used on a rare or unique item, will now show whether you have enough time played to keep it through the next monthly purge.
* Channeling spells can now be targetted.
* Save breaks ALL now receive a level-based bonus so that less savebreak is required in low levels to "max out" on savebreak. for instance 5 savebreak is enough to be maxed on break at level 30. this bonus recedes as the player levels up.
* Periodic poisons now wake the poisoned person into a resting position.
- Drinking poison water (e.g. the herbal brew from the mage tower) causes a 4 tick poison of level depending on the item.
* Base armor slot multipliers are now affected by armor types. This is an additional worthwhile note on monks since they do not wear heavy plate armor. Wearing leather to avoid encumberances causes them to lose a bit of raw armor class in return for that mobility.
- Note that enchant armor is magical, meaning that it is applied like heavy armor. So if you are using light items, that makes enchant armor's contribution more significant.
* Skills that use gauges have been updated to pretty much all use "%N" (as in, energy) in the prompt. Under the hood, we have a bit of duplication with MSDP variable names that we do not really need, and would like to update this down the road to improve the game's performance.

Cabals

General

* Cabal banks now uses the cabal points. You can deposit gold to convert into points. Withdrawals will be points not gold.
* A new "domination" affect was added. After a bit of experimentation, we decided to make this a symbolic "bragging rights" buff.

Justice

* Justice will no longer demand wild weapons handed over after a fine, which previously resulted in a WANTED flag if refused. The recipient of the fine now has the option to hand over the weapon as 'payment' to remove their fine.

Legion

* There was an abduct nerf and a lot of other new crap in return, if you want to know more, you'll have to make one. But we'll mention here that abduct does not explode you in a rift anymore.
* Protection money is back in use.

Items

* The larger monster potions are slightly cheaper.
* Fantastic boost now lasts for an hour with a slight discount over useful boosts (its difficult to commit this much time as the balancing factor).
* Reputation now reduces cost of items in cities.
* Some ways to reward more productive time played for the purpose of avoiding the monthly rare item purge have been added.
- Activities that reward relics in chunks, such as killing endgame mobs, credits you additional time.
- Killing players rated higher than you OR above the Blood Line (Mendoza Line) credits you additional time.
- The Blood Line is visible at https://abandonedrealms.com/players/index.php?sort=rating
- You'll see your monthly time as "bloodshed" on your score. See HELP BLOODSHED for additional info.
* New set "Fire with Fire" - good-only align, gear available at 36+ for all good aligns. the bonus causes the good align character to deal more damage with fire weapons against people who are wielding fire weapons.
* New set "Perseverance" - good align caster set.
* New set "In the Limelight" - bard set
* A new two-handed exotic has been added - "an electrum claw"
* A silver flail has been added to goblin village. Note that besides being silver, this is deliberately the worst flail in the entire game. If you manage to kill a drow with it, please post a log so we can all laugh with you.
* Adding a player to your trusted list (HELP TRUST) will prevent him from from being marked as a vulture on your behalf.
* Sacrificing rares now leads them to their mob holders after a few hours. requested sacced items , if sacced by lightwalkers, get home sooner.
* if a non-rare item is requested, the mob will re-equip it at the end of the request IF the player completes the request successfully.
* A new packet of gold seeds has been added to Ming in Timaran. You can buy the seeds and plant a tree. The tree that grows from the seeds can be shaken for gold.
* The cranium smasher is no longer anti-good.
* The spiked whip of anguish is now anti-good.
* The prankster utility belt is no longer wild and has a strength buff.
* The herbal brew has returned to the High Tower of Sorcery.

Last but not least:
* Stomping on severed heads now cracks skulls and this increases reputation with Davairus. This is used as the reputation to get a discount evermore's smuggler. Notice that shamans have an advantage on severed heads via headshrinking. This is by design as clerics traditionally hold political sway at level 50 via what they offer to Winter. If you need a supply of severed heads to crack, please talk to your friendly neighbourhood shaman.

Areas

* Overlord hp have been scaled down a bit.
* All natural blankets of darkness have been removed except the black hole in galaxy and cultist temple in Mystic Forest. The hp/mana regen rate in this room is lower than other rooms, however.
* The bump in the eastern road has been smoothed out to make way for a statue of Davairus in dragon form.
* Several ranking mobs with easy to target vulns have learned new offensive skills:
- Defilers now kick dirt.
- Drkshtyre ogres now kick dirt.
- Twice-bitten butlers now kick dirt.
- Fire giant outlaws now bash.
- Oaken beasts now bash.
- Note that all of the above has been that way since June actually.
* Autoscaling mobs now are +2 levels higher than the attacker. this modulates to every 5 levels, rounding down. so for example if i am level 25-29 fighting serpents, i get level 27 serpents. and when i get to 30, i get level 32 serpents.
* The battlements no longer lead into the sewers. there is a way out from the sewers into the toilets of the drunken scribe.
* We put back in some seringale battlements rooms, specifically northroad to west gate.
* Smuggler now accepts either GOLD or RELICS.
* Moving or fighting will prevent falling through clouds, such as outside of Cloud Castle.
- The cost of moving through air sectors has been drastically reduced.
- The cost of moving through fly-only rooms has been increased.
* It is now possible to flee through an open lair door.
* There is a new bounties task people can collect.
* Auction house now sells id for 1 relic. market info <object>
* Augment now has the same chance to explode things as the enchant weapon does at 5/5.
* Forged armors use a lighter weight now.

Misc.

These are some more QOL updates to commands and mobs that couldnt fit into a particular category.

* Noexp command can no longer be used before level 25.
* Medals will no longer be earned before you enter PK (typically level 10).
* Rsay, ryell, and rgtell will work the same as @say, etc to speak in a racial language.
* Csay, cyell, and cgtell will work the same as #say, etc to speak in a class language.
* Lastnames can now have a single apostrophe character (') or dash character (-). It must be inside the string, not at the beginning or end of it.
* Updated Players page and forum Top Killers list to handle ties appropriately.
* Added a config toggle "showsecrets" to display the mysteries string. newbie players do not get this flag. they have to manually turn it on.
* Nostream now defaults OFF for players who pick newbie.
* "Hall of Famers" can only have ONE non-50 "special character" at a time. You can roll another one if the present non-50 is either deleted or pinnacled. Otherwise, you'd need to go through the normal application process.

As far as head stomping goes, is there any other mechanic involved, or you just stomp a head, any head? Do you need to be a certain level? Head from a certain level mob? I stomped some heads earlier and did not notice anything happening other than there being shattered skull residue. No reputation change.

Reputation is based on the level of the head.

If you can get exp from the mob you killed, stomping its head should give rep. It will thank you for your sizeable offering.


Just want to mention here too that I've included a bit of regulation (you can read that word as "nerf" if you like) to object casting into this. This was motivated mainly by the ruby-hilted dagger's behavior (note that I am saying the dagger, and not that the wearers of the dagger are the problem) but there are an awful lot of items that cast spells and I can see potential for someone just wearing a full enchanted suit and getting loads of free spells every round. This will affect everything from flame red capes to mushroom amulets and aforementioned dagger.

Items which do spells now have a tick-length internal cooldown before they can cast again. This will work out on the average to about 12 seconds. Then in addition to that, each spell on the item will have a 2 tick internal cooldown. This is going to work out to more like 40-45 seconds. So for example, just because we were talking about the ruby hilted dagger just now. It casts poison, plague, and curse. If the poison spell produces it would be 45 seconds before it can produce again, and it would be about 12 seconds before the curse/plague can produce. Please notice the effect that this prevents an item from casting all its spells in one hit in some massive RNG fluke. Also, most spells have a "chance" to cast, and this is in addition to that.

yeah better nerf it, somebody might have fun

Ruby-hilted dagger is still a kickass weapon. Its just the part where it also casts level 120 poisons (-12 str/dex and a demolish - or worse) got unintentionally super-buffed into working on almost every hit by a prior envenom update. That's not how it used to work. You can look at old logs for yourself if you don't believe that.

yeah you'll always have an excuse for your bullshit because you think as long as you can make it sound plausible to yourself it's true

That is a huge list of stuff, and you could've picked any of it to choose from, but you chose the absolute easiest change for me to defend which tells me you're just picking a fight. You really had a lot of better options. What you did is what a loser of a fight would do

How about something productive.

Can monks get weapon improvise instead of specific weapons? I know this was mentioned elsewhere. It is a bard skill.

Monks needed a good spanking but with weapon improvise they still cannot properly use a bow or master any weapons. They could get decent with all weapons, but those bare hands would always be the better option.

Maybe adaptation that grants you the ability to use weapons but you can't practice then past 5 percent so you really have to work for it

Monks can already wield weapons of ave <= 10 as of last week so that shouldn't still be an issue.

"Removal of weapon ward on healers and shamans hasn't worked as well for them"

I just want to point out how hard I went against this change and how you guys dog piled on me about how amazing they were gonna be when they lost weapon ward. :P now can i also say the overhaul to illusionists has ruined the class. nerfing dreamstruck a little would've been a better choice than all the new hugumujug with that class.

ahh kaareg? ahhhh there was a few firegiant hsamsn running around.

1. Shamans and healers still don't have weapon ward.

I'lll talk about healers. The healers don't even need a shield, they can just use healer staff and staff block away happily not worrying about having another piece of eq to be accused of just hoarding. Somebody made sideswipes hit prot shields a while ago so they are absolutely golden on that. Good luck trying to disarm/sac an endless supply of healer staffs. Its better defensive and less hoarding. It is great and feels really fun to fight using healer staff.

I am not willing to discuss shaman headshrinking with you, but I will say the pain point with weapon ward for me was it clearly doesn't make sense to add a spell that needs to be tracked and recast every 3 ticks onto a class which has to think about the HP and spells of their GROUP. Weapon ward made clerics worse at being clerics. Thats the bottom line.

2. Dreamstruck is resisted by the new defensive set so it IS nerfed a little. I would say if anythings broken with the illusionist class its having all their damage spells being limited to charm damage and that hob spark is a "pve doof" spell that tricks players into spending time to master something that (A) doesnt work in a PK, and (B) teaches how to play an illusionist WRONG. But its not a ruined class. You have just failed to understand the deadly impact of that flee change and illithid cone of force buff. So I've mentioned it again so that you take it more seriously. Those two lines are deadly serious stuff. You need to look at that list from a PK'ing perspective. Also, crying about level 48 dupes discounts all of their other PK skills and escape tools. They are stacked.

1. That is really cool for healers. They have always been a decent class, but in my opinion, not being strong pkers has kept them from being recognized as such.

2. Illusionists did just fine before they could memorize the huntsmaster or whoever you think their key duplicate is, and you can still use them to pk. The only loss is using those special people to level up, but you don't get group gate before you are done ranking.

You get two dups out, copy the huntsmaster then group gate near your target.

Sorry for the double post cannot edit here.

Illusionists are strikers, you hit when the timing is right, and if you get wrecked, you can turn into a shadow. If you are an illithid and get wrecked, you can eat a brain and shadow or word depending on how good the brain was.

If you are going to play an illithid PM me and I will tell you where the best brains are. Most people know it is close to home, but fail to realize the true potential of gate.

In short, Illusionist has been my favorite class for a long time and I am not complaining about this change, I was going to mention things that got better, like being able to haste you dupes and mirrors with no cool down, but I am never sure what is a boon or bug, so trying not to tip off everything.

Honestly, there are a bunch of bugs with illusionist spells that I'm just lazy to bug it anymore, because nobody has replied me on the grandeur bug. For example, casting haste on your 1st illusion grants you a spell delau debuff. Previously you cant haste your 2nd illusion but someonr changed it that you can continue to haste your 2nd illusion. The spell delay tricks people to think u can only do it once a tick now.

For evils, the only worthy level 48 dupe is the huntsmaster. The other 48 dupes are shit, they arent even worth your time getting them. Moreover the blurry illusion rates are so high, 48 mobs are kinda worthless now. But whatever, illusionist can do without. As you say dav, i casted 3 colour spray with a 15 afflictive break on a warlord (tenacity) with almost no afflictive saves. It hit hit/graze/hit. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The amount of mental saves available in the realms is so disgusting now. I think the new paladin aura gives the entire group 13 mental saves. Hah! Way to go.

merlandax hasn't found the secret illusions ahahhahaha i won't tell him nyth i promise.

it really sounds like your crying cause you can't just walk in and dunk people in 4 rounds anymore.. boring.

yes the illusionist holes are easily apparent to anyone who actually plays one

What is the difference between Your and You're?
The most simple explanation is that:

Your = a possessive adjective. It shows possession, that something belongs to the person you are talking to. e.g. This is not my pen, it is your pen.

You're = You are. It is a contraction (or short way of writing). e.g. You're crazy = You are crazy

What's the name of the evil werebeast race? A forsaken? What does that mean. What kind of beast is that?

It was changed to raknos I believe, and I think it is a spider. But i haven't made one so I could be wrong

What does it mean (inclusive) for that special quest for the evil werebeast?

forsaken seemed really lazy so i named it some dope shit. youre curious. working as intended. hit up arachnos when you get to level 15

It seems pretty silly to leave out information for a race update that only affects one class that the race can be.

Really, it was a waste of my time. Thanks for that.

Inclusive just referred to the number range including being 15 and 25.

BS. The forums was clearly saying it was for rangers (ozaru) the whole time.

Werebeasts:

We wanted to make sure evils get the cool race we discussed, and also that a werebeast player does not feel like they got gimped on levelling by not being able to stay transformed for their ranks.

* Level-ups now use the transform stats.
* Werebeast can now become evil (a forsaken) via a pseudo-quest in Arachnos. This can be done between level 15 to 25 (inclusive).

Literally in the place where the update is placed. This is what it says. WEREBEAST can now become evil etc...

So I'm supposed to just intrinsically know that this means its for rangers, more specifically OZARU, now?

I think that was a pretty fair assumption for him to make, considering werebeast druid was an option. You wouldn't assume you were taking that extra 300 exp hole to literally just be a human.

are they not allowed to do the regular werebeast quest?

Unless you are bitching just for the sake of it. The forums are riddled with clues about evil rangers. I made one just to see what it was all about but not a serious character. I was clueless how to be evil and went to my guild that didn't work. Then I remembered the forum was talking about arch's is it maybe the guild master said something about it. I headed in that direction and figured it out. The quest part of it to become evil was really cool so good work on that design. Nothing wrong with how it is constructed or designed. This gives you an opportunity for your background and rp to use this as a starting point to turning evil.

OK but there have been 5 or 6 players who have created one without issue, so I don't feel super convinced.

So are Druids able to do it or not? Because I don't want to play a ranger and I want an evil werebeast witbout getting outcasted or slain because of deviating roleplay.

I ttied already and there werent any quests specific to werebeast when I entered Arachnos. You have the Sorbus sacrifice one, reacuing the cocooned adventurers, and killing spiders.

Since i don't play druids, I am 100% convinced its ranger only. Especially since the title says evil ranger lol No evil druid or evil werebeast

Where does it say rangers only? In some ither thread where ideas are being thrown around? I thought the update thread was supposed to include all the information that was changed. According to this thread and what I quoted for the WEREBEAST race update, it makes no mention of being a ranger only.

Well one thing to consider is this... It would make things more complicated if druids could turn evil, since they are required to have no more than one axis off of true neutral (chaotic evil is not a valid alignment for druids). Therefore, I would assume it is impossible.

Druids can already be evil. Duergar...Avian...Human...

right they can be good or evil, but when they are they have to be neutral ethos. You could roll a neutral chaotic werebeast druid and then quest to evil chaotic. Now you aren't 1 axis off of true neutral anymore.

So what are you saying? That this wouldnt work because of ethos chosen? Because the druid can only he 1 axis off true neutral? That makes a lot more sense to me as to why my attempts would have failed.

I think that's A possible reason. But before you roll another druid and level to 15, I don't think it's going to work no matter what. I think it just wasn't even implemented to work for druids. It's a ranger thing I think. But idk anything for certain

I'm pretty sure this is a ranger-only thing. The point I was trying to make is I didn't see somebody like Dav or any other Immortal for that matter coding an additional case or trying to account for additional variables when the evil werebeast ranger was explicitly announced.

Three things. First (and definitely foremost) thanks to all the Immortals for all the hard work, this seems to me (take that for what it is worth) an extensive and labor intensive set of changes and thanks again for all you do.
Second, the addition of staff block seems to lessen the utility (or need) for spirit shield, perhaps lower its level requirement as a fix?
Third, seeing the addition of SPECIALIZATIONS to ANOTHER class seems to me to take a LOT out of the newbie friendliness of AR that I love (perhaps because I am a 15+ year noob).

Hi, is it possible to update the TRANSFORM helpfile to say what kind of stats the spider transformation gives?

Or if anyone has made one would you be so kind to say what stats does it give?

So, a wanted shaman can behead guards, and crack them for favor? Isnt Davairus lawful? Not sure if there is a valid point here, just wondering.

"Unholy armor is now based on item armor class and level instead of on weight."

As a new player, I've been reading the hell out of the helpfiles. Where/how do we submit updates? The UNHOLY ARMOR helpfile still has the old info.

You can submit a BUG in game or through the website and we'll get it.

Hey, JeepGuy! Glad to hear we have fresh blood. Not to derail the topic too much, but whenever you see something which is off (descriptions in rooms, of items, monsters, etc. having typos or other issues, or something not working as you would expect it to), definitely submit a bug report!

Hi JeepGuy - I updated the help file yesterday, here's what it says now. Let me know if it is still unclear and we can tweak it accordingly.

'HOLY ARMOR' 'UNHOLY ARMOR'

Syntax: AUTOMATIC



Unlike other fighters, paladins and dark knights train for both extensive

spellcasting and weapon combat, and dividing their skills between the two

has left little room in their hybrid fighting style for the same rigorous

physical regimen as more specialized fighters and rogues.  As a result, in

place of the more conventional DODGE skill, paladins and dark knights

instead choose a less physically demanding route by fortifying their armor

with magic.  This is accomplished by the holy armor and unholy armor skills.

 

The holy armor and unholy armor skills bolster the defensive attributes of

the items a paladin or dark knight wears on their head, torso, arms, hands,

legs, and feet.  The heavier the type of armor of the items that are worn,

the larger the ARMOR CLASS bonus from the holy armor and unholy armor skills.

Heavy Armor grants the most AC bonus and Light Armor the least.



The skills also improve in defensive potency as the paladin or dark knight

earns more ranks in his respective guild, as well as with increasing skill

proficiency.  At their maximum potential, the holy armor and unholy armor

skills are easily two of the most powerful armor enhancements in Serin.

 

Holy armor and unholy armor provide identical defensive bonuses as DODGE

against lag-inducing skills such as bash.

 

* Heavy armor grants the most bonus and light armor gives the least

* The reverse is true for Oath of Eradication paladins

* Wearing higher level items improve holy armor and unholy armor bonuses.

It might be my newness but here's what I'm reading.

Dav wrote, "Unholy armor is now based on item armor class and level instead of on weight."

To me, that means it IS NOT based on weight. AC matters. Level matters.

The helpfile says, "Heavy armor grants the most bonus and light armor gives the least." I interpret that to mean that it IS based on weight. It "grants the MOST bonus."

The 2 quotes seem like total opposites.

light/medium/heavy are the names of the armor classes. Those names are chosen to correlate with density (i.e. the kind of shape) not just weight. Its like having a fully enclosed metal surface versus a chain vest. It will also be heavy but it being classified 'heavy' is more to do with being a homogenous metal plate. We have a magical armor type in the game called 'adamantine' much like wolverine's adamantium claws which you will find is a lower weight than typical metals but the items made from it fall into the "heavy" armor class. Dragonscale and demonskin are similar exotic materials.

I think the confusion is Dav's quote says "armor class" but that does NOT mean AC. Even though they're the same words... by armor class he means the classifiers light/medium/heavy.
Holy armor used to provide bonus armor based on weight alone, and only for heavy type armors. Now it provides it based on whether it is light/medium/heavy and the level of the item. So a heavy class item of max level will provide the most bonus

That makes the change and helpfile clear to me. I'm not sure how the next newb will read it.

Suggestion: explain this in the AC helpfile and maybe add HEAVY ARMOR, LIGHT ARMOR, and WHATEVEROTHER ARMOR as titles to it so people can find it.

I did wonder if heavy armor was a thing. It is in title case in the UNHOLY ARMOR helpfile (in 1 place). But there wasn't a helpfile for it so I went back to my assumption that it was a weight class.

Thanks JeepGuy. I went one step further just now based on your feedback and added references to HELP ARMOR TYPE.

'HOLY ARMOR' 'UNHOLY ARMOR'

Syntax: AUTOMATIC



Unlike other fighters, paladins and dark knights train for both extensive

spellcasting and weapon combat, and dividing their skills between the two

has left little room in their hybrid fighting style for the same rigorous

physical regimen as more specialized fighters and rogues.  As a result, in

place of the more conventional DODGE skill, paladins and dark knights

instead choose a less physically demanding route by fortifying their armor

with magic.  This is accomplished by the holy armor and unholy armor skills.

 

The holy armor and unholy armor skills bolster the defensive attributes of

the items a paladin or dark knight wears on their head, torso, arms, hands,

legs, and feet.  The heavier the ARMOR TYPE of the items that are worn,

the larger the ARMOR CLASS bonus from the holy armor and unholy armor skills.

Heavy Armor grants the most AC bonus and Light Armor the least.



The skills also improve in defensive potency as the paladin or dark knight

earns more ranks in his respective guild, as well as with increasing skill

proficiency.  At their maximum potential, the holy armor and unholy armor

skills are easily two of the most powerful armor enhancements in Serin.

 

Holy armor and unholy armor provide identical defensive bonuses as DODGE

against lag-inducing skills such as bash.

 

* Heavy armor grants the most bonus and light armor gives the least

* The reverse is true for Oath of Eradication paladins

* Wearing higher level items improve holy armor and unholy armor bonuses.



See also: HELP ARMOR CLASS, HELP DODGE, HELP LAG, HELP SET PARRY

See also: HELP ARMOR TYPE



Vnum: [1460] HOLY UNHOLY ARMOR

Thanks!

It was probably a mistake to name the armor classes something that would get confused with item weights. It just kills me a bit that you end up having to read helpfiles. Great that we have them, but I would much rather have it just make sense without needing to resort to them. If there's a better set of names for this stuff we should swap.

Why not just say "Armor type" = light/medium/heavy? Armor class = the number that grants damage reduction.

With the monk parry taking a hit in inferior combat style, how does that work out with the yang styles IE tiger, dragon, etc. that supposedly already act as if the opponent has a weapon type advantage? By this I mean, say my opponent is in defensive, and I'm using I dunno, tiger style. So now I'm technically superior and shouldn't suffer a parry penalty, but because I'm in a yang style I still suffer a parry penalty?

Oath of eradication paladins lose staff skill?!?

ALL paladins lack staff skill now.

This is what is shown from the "class paladin skill" command:

Level 1: dagger n/a flail n/a
mace n/a polearm n/a
shield block n/a spear n/a
sword n/a enhanced damage n/a
hand to hand n/a parry n/a
rescue n/a staves n/a
wish n/a reckoning n/a
staff n/a condemn n/a
Level 2: inspiring presence n/a
Level 4: holy armor n/a
Level 5: lore n/a
Level 6: second attack n/a
Level 7: fast healing n/a
Level 8: set parry n/a
Level 10: disarm n/a divine might n/a
Level 11: iron will n/a
Level 12: shield disarm n/a
Level 14: meditation n/a
Level 15: bolstering presence n/a aura of beauty n/a
shield slam n/a punish n/a
guardian n/a fencing n/a
staff block n/a provoke n/a
sacred oath n/a
Level 16: lay on hands n/a
Level 17: third attack n/a
Level 20: charge n/a
Level 22: dual wield n/a
Level 24: dual parry n/a
Level 25: shield wall n/a hunt evil n/a
Level 30: repentance n/a
Level 35: stake n/a
Level 37: buckler n/a
Level 38: strike of faith n/a
Level 40: errantry n/a steed n/a
consecration n/a
Level 45: leap of faith n/a
Level 50: paragon n/a

So I assume that the staff skill is in there somewhere...

Anyway I think I found the answer. "staff block" skill is available to devotion paladins, so I assume that staff is only for devotion paladins, and accordingly to the helpfile, the staff block skill is to replace the "set parry" skill that is no longer available to devotion paladins.

Wow.. I really can't keep track of all these paladin changes with 4 different specializations.

I freaking HATE specializations, especially one with this much convolution. Some newbs (like myself) will now never roll one because I am not gonna roll 4 all the way to 50 to find out wtf the differences are, and how to play each kind. I have said this many times, if you want your own special character, make it that way through gear choice, skill and spell use choice, and good RP. But w.e. It will not stop until all classes are unrecognizable from the original forms.

And yoi've been wrong every single time. Paladins were a broken class that nobody wanted to play. Pretty sure any time someone writes "specialization" you get triggered Kornhole.

Each paladin works in their own way, but imho, devotion paladins feel a bit gimped losing set parry, they risk getting disarmed unlike with set parry. And the staff block is a thing with staff alone, so it kinda feels like a bit of shoe horning them into a 1h and shield or staff. Do they gain some neat things to combat that, yes, a neat offensive style spell and some extra buffs and healing. But it does feel a bit dry though. I don't feel like a devotion paladin would be leading the charge, being a defender, they feel a bit more like a fighter-esque healer

You are not wrong Dav. I hate it, I always have and I almost always will (specializations). And did you mean to say that I was wrong every time I said make a character your own through choices available to any character or standard class? I could have 5 thieves all the same race even, and have them be very specialized.....just saying, don't need to complicate the hell out of classes with choices that aren't even outlined in helpfiles. Have never really been great with any class, and especially fighter types. Was going to check out berserkers, and just before I did, they now have some shit regarding religions changing their skills??? Fuck that, said I......and possibly others. It is not like I don't appreciate the effort it takes to make these classes "more enjoyable". Just HARD stating (EACH TIME) that it takes a LOT from the newbie friendliness of AR when you complicate any class like that. Also, learn to RP if you want to specialize......you need to have a class the way you want it, lets go fully customizable at creation. Hell yeah thiefy hellstream!

FTR, Rhoa, Solmundi, and Trovo were all created before this patch, and played plenty. Does that mean they are nobody?

@Kornhole: playing devil's advocate, are Rhoa, Solmundi and Trovo all ruined characters post-update? Not at all. They had RP, yes, and they were all different personality-wise and play style, but the players behind them have adapted and continue to play them. They're not saying "ever since the spec update our characters are ruined."

To unlock the true potential of a class you will need to be able to utilize everything that class has to offer situationally. This means you know what to expect when fighting a class, RP, gear, is only going to have a minor affect on that. They are still using the same skills, that is not going to change how they deal with situations any different than a necro going full dmg or full hp. They will still need to heal. One will be able to last a bit longer in combat while the other bursts dps. If you are focusing on a group of a set of abilities you are neglecting the rest and selling yourself short.

I love specializations, this is what will differentiate the classes and no one class will be the old generic same. Diversity. It makes me smile.

This spaz-out is because paladins now have spear instead of staff and get to spec for an additional weapon. So overcomplicated! Its just irrational because the word "specialization" triggers him. And FWIW, I didn't literally mean nobody ever rolled paladins. Some people rolled paladins early because the patch was dropping soon and their suggestions ended up in it. Others made monks instead and they haven't been exactly quiet about saying it. I dont have any plans to just render the game overcomplicated or completely unplayable. I'd say we can do better than wrecking the paladin class and shoving in defender potions in their place. We simply have more good ideas for paladin skills than we can put on one class and keep it reasonable.

"Paladins were a broken class that NOBODY wanted to play." -Davairus. I capitalized, because I don't know how to underline, but you didn't mean to say that? Many of the lvl 50 paladins were rolled far before the patch was even mentioned, and had been having reasonable amounts of hours played. I am not salty, I am not bitching, I will still prolly roll another paladin at some point. Hell, I will even prolly roll that one that gets changed to a DK when you fuck up, and will VERY likely fuck up. I love the RP possibilities that specialization can offer. And this time at least the helpfiled have been pointed out, and well clarified early. I still dont know wtf dragon ancestry is, but that is on me for not experimenting, and posting helpful tips on how to clarify the helpfiles. I do get triggered anytime specialization is mentioned, that is no exaggeration. I like the newbie friendliness of having a class's skills and spells be easily known. Now I see a paladin, and I gotta figure out if he has lightning charge, or condemn, or some other bullshit I don't even know about? W.e. It's not a big deal, spec them all, WoW it up, lets go with inscribing and runes for abilities and shit next. I will dump enough hours to eventually figure it out, and be great cannon fodder as always in the mean time. <---Butthurt I gotta figure out more nooks and crannies of a class I had actually known fairly well, when after nearly 20 years, I haven't even taken the time to learn all the areas well!

@Vhrael. I bet those characters were stoked for the specialization, now they could get more nitty and gritty with what they wanted to do. I mentioned them to rebut the quote I had put in a previous post from dav about nobody wanting to play them because they had been ruined. Paladins were fine as a class. I do agree though, that the RP was not a good fit, since they are supposed to be leaders of parties, and one of their greatest abilities made them unable to play with others, as it were. I do not agree that this meant the class needed an overhaul, but hey, I am not the one making those kinds of calls. (For good reason)

Did anyone look into the half-elf racial legacies for Paladins to make sure they translate over into the new skills? The one for inspiration relates directly to a skill called guardian, that looks like it is an oath of protection only skill.

Andrael, thanks that is a good point. That should probably become an inspiring presence thinger.

I think it used to give a damroll bonus? Maybe allow it to do a special bonus while they have an aura up? Who knows.

damroll and mental save bonus actually.

If elf gimpaladin picks eradication, does he still get vengeance skills also? Or is it still just a gimp

I believe elf defaults to eradication

There is no default. You still choose.