Patch Notes - August 10th, 2021

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HEADLINES
  • Shadowknight and Paladin Discipline system rework.
  • Top end dungeon tweaks.
QUALITY OF LIFE - BUFFS
Now that a lot of the foundational systems have been implemented, we have been discussing ways to re-add the quality of life benefits that players enjoy, but within these new systems.

Players have expressed concerns with how variables to raid recovery times clash with the new buff system, the following change is designed to smooth this out.

Currently, buffs do not expire when a player is safe inside a city (eg. Athica while not in combat or PVP); this was a past quality of life addition. We have extended the "safe in city" rule to include areas that allow binding. An iconic example would be the bind location known as "tables" (or table if you're a purist).

DISCIPLINES
A six second lockout timer has been added to disciplines after a player swaps weapons.

TANK REBALANCE
As we move forward, we would like to explain where we see each tank ranked in different categories:

MITIGATION
Warriors would continue to be the best at physical mitigation with Paladins the worst. The caveat being, Paladins will now specialize further in spell mitigation to differentiate them.​
  • Physical Mitigation: Warrior (13%+) Shadow Knight (7%) Paladin (5%)
  • Spell Mitigation: Paladin (7%+)
AGGRO
Currently, the tank single target aggro order is not correct. Warriors are too low due to our weapon balance and Paladins are too high due to Zealous Might aggro multipliers.​
  • Single Target Aggro:
    • Shadow Knight: Single target aggro should be easy and efficient. Other raid members should be jolting rarely.
    • Paladin: Single target aggro should be the lowest of the three tanks. Other raid members should be jolting often.
    • Warrior: Warriors should be between Paladin and Shadowknight aggro, being closer to Paladins. Other raid members should be jolting sometimes.
  • Area of Effect Aggro:
    • Paladin: High aggro on 6+ targets. Easy and efficient to generate.
    • Warrior: Moderate aggro on current target and decent aggro on 2 to 3 other targets. Targets beyond this should produce noticeable aggro loss.
    • Shadowknight: Unbreakable aggro on a single target. Aggro on a second target should be moderate but need to be worked for. Targets beyond this should produce noticeable aggro loss.
SINGLE TARGET DPS WHILE TANKING
Warriors should always provide the largest DPS while tanking. Shadowknights should be second, closely followed by Paladins. Currently Paladins are doing too much single target tanking DPS due to Zealous Might multipliers.​

KNIGHT SHIELDING MASTERY
  • This AA has not been working, it was not adding its bonus to shields for knights (for at least 10 years). It now properly applies its bonus.
BASH
  • The bash damage formula now applies diminishing returns to bonus damage from shoulder and shield armor class as it increases.
  • Using bash currently applies a bonus aggro value that is equal to shield AC; knights receive a multiplier to this bonus value. For this patch, we have increased this multiplier. We feel that bash is an appropriate source for aggro for knights; it scales with level, gear and accuracy. By buffing this source we can spread out aggro generated by more absurd sources. This is one adjustment that will assist with the low level paladin aggro issues we have received from feedback.
WARRIOR
The aggro multiplier of bloodlust has been increased to put warriors in a more appropriate spot for aggro generation. This is an interim fix until warriors receive a full discipline rework.

PALADIN
All Paladin stances have been removed (including aggressive and defensive), and reworked or replaced with Disciplines. We see the Paladin as a hybrid between Warriors and Clerics. Clerics tend to be a bit more melee oriented in design, so Disciplines were also designed to accentuate this. Paladin will be the top healer of the three tanks both while tanking and as a raid utility. To differentiate the Paladin from the Shadowknight when it comes to mitigation, we have further advanced their Spell Mitigation theme. Paladin single target aggro was nerfed, while also increasing their area aggro generation. We have given the Paladin three tools to help with emergencies that arise from aggro:
  • A single target aggro information skill, similar to Jayla's Insight.
  • Fast casting target of target healing spells.
  • A unique taunt skill.
PALADIN DISCIPLINE ABILITIES
Paladins may purchase the following disciplines from the Paladin Guild. Be sure to explore for additional ranks!​
  • Pious Strike - Ranks I to VI. Strike an undead target, banishing their existence from this plane. Has a chance to weaken your target. Has a very rare chance to deal massive damage to your target.
  • Lady's Strike- Ranks I to VI. Bash your target with your shield, dealing physical damage and generating aggro to those around you. Deals additional damage to stunned targets. Requires a shield. This ability should bring low level paladin aggro to values that feel better while leveling. Because this ability is bash damage, it inherits the properties of bash.
    • It interrupts spells.
    • The damage can never crit.
    • Bonus aggro is generated against your primary target using the above BASH rule.
  • Cleansing Strike - Ranks I to VII. Channel a purifying flame into your weapon, striking your target with fire damage. Additional chance to deal a critical strike against Undead. Requires a two handed weapon. Consumes both stamina and mana.
  • Holy Inspiration - Read the tide of battle, gauging how close another player is to pulling aggression off you. Only works if you are the primary aggro to an enemy.
  • Moment of Truth - Ranks I to II. Force your enemy to focus its rage toward you. Only usable in combat. Must be in melee range.
PALADIN DISCIPLINE BUFFS
  • Bastion of Faith - Ranks I to III. The defense of the faithful, granting 3/4/5% melee mitigation and 3/5/7% spell mitigation.
  • Althuna's Fury - Ranks I to III. Faith exudes might! Your zeal carries you into battle, increasing melee damage but decreasing mitigation and aggro. Increases melee damage by 10/15/20%, increases melee damage taken by 5/7/10%, and reduces aggro generated by 5/10/15%.
ZEALOUS/RIGHTEOUS MIGHT REWORK
Due to Zealous and Righteous Might's impact on single target DPS and tanking aggro, these spells have been reworked. Althuna's Fury is intended to provide measured Paladin melee damage, while dissuading from use while tanking. Aggro loss has been distributed to Bash, healing, and Lady's Strike. These new healing spells accentuate the Paladin's healing and spell mitigation strengths.​
Inspire your target's target with the power of faith, healing them and mitigating spell damage for a duration. This buff will also heal them again on their next successful block.
  • Inspire Belief- Target's Target, 287 Base Heal, 1.5s cast, zero recast time, 3.5s recovery, 12s duration, 2% spell mitigation. (Reworked from Righteous Might)
    • Bestow Light - Fade on block, 95 Base Heal.
  • Runic: Inspire Faith- Target's Target, 691 Base Heal, 1.5s cast, zero recast time, 3.5s recovery, 12s duration, 3% spell mitigation. (Reworked from Zealous Might)
    • Bestow Faith - Fade on block, 399 Base Heal.
BLINDS
Blind spells can no longer be overwritten; freeing up a spell slot for some who used two. Paladin blind spells now lower dexterity instead of attack. The dexterity debuff value increases with spell rank. Additional lower level blinds have been added to assist the leveling paladin. Searing light gets a balance nerf as it was out of bounds numerically.​
  • Flash of Light - Decreases dexterity by 5.
  • Glint of Light - A new magic-resist blind purchasable at level 18. Decreases dexterity by 8. Has a magic-resist adjust.
  • Gleam of Light - Decreases targets dexterity by 5.
  • Fervid Light - A new fire-resist blind purchasable at level 45. Decreases dexterity by 12.
  • Blinding Light - Decreases targets dexterity by 16.
  • Wave of Light - Decreases targets dexterity by 10.
  • Searing Light - Decreases targets dexterity by 20. Mana cost increased to 120. Resist adjust lowered to 75. Direct Damage component removed.
STUNS
  • Words of the Righteous is a new single target stun available to Paladins to purchase in late game areas.
  • Descending Judgement has been reworked into Word of the Templar, an upgrade to Word of the Crusader. Descending Judgement provided a lot of a Paladin's aggro while also being predominantly hated by a large portion of developers and players.
HAND OF PIETY
The cooldown of Hand of Piety has been reduced to 20 minutes.​
HEALING AGGRO
Healing aggro generated by a Paladin using single target, self, or target's target healing spells has been slightly increased, outpacing other healer classes.​
DIVINE REFUSAL
The base healing has been increased to 17% (from 13%). Ranks of Divine Radiance further increase this amount. 20, 25, 33, 50%, (from 14, 17, 20, 25%). The AA description has been updated.​
Focuses your fighting spirit, increasing the chance to flurry against undead. Paladins will refuse to die from undead once every 24 hours. Ranks of this AA reduce the cooldown and increase the heal amount of this innate skill.
DIVINE STUN
The AA description has been updated to inform players that this spell generates aggro:​
Training in this ability gives you a new, fast-casting low-resist stun that work even on creatures immune to stun spells. Always generates a medium amount of aggro.
UNDEAD NUKE
Paladins may now learn Banish Undead at level 64. Literally the best buff, so I saved it for last. Nuke on.​
SHADOWKNIGHT
All Shadowknight stances have been removed (including aggressive and defensive), and reworked or replaced with Disciplines. We see Shadowknights as a hybrid between the Warrior and Necromancer classes. Because Necromancers are more spell oriented, Shadowknight Disciplines are not themed around weapon use. Damage Over Time spells were adjusted to play a core role in Shadowknight gameplay. Leech stance has been converted to a short cooldown ability, setting self-healing below Paladins, and above Warriors. A few tools were given to a Shadowknight to address mana sustain, being the cousin of a Necromancer. The mechanics of pet sacrificing should feel better:
  • Instant triggering
  • Failure messages describing when the ability requirements are not met
  • Introduced at lower levels
  • Pet clickies no longer allow for pet sacrificing, being replaced with a class skill
Lastly, a Shadowknight is the undisputed champion of Single Target aggro. Veil spells have been replaced, shifting aggro to new single target aggro tools.

INNATE DOT AGGRO
Shadowknights now have an innate bonus to aggro generated from damage over time sources. Spell casting subtlety for Shadowknights will now also apply to DoT aggro.​
VEXATION OF BLIGHTS
Each rank of this new AA further increases the aggro generated from damage over time sources. This AA also applies a multiplier to the Shadowknight's contribution to DoT Weakening. Excerpt from our forums detailing this mechanic:​
DOT WEAKENING
Weakening effect works by adding up all the damage done to a mob by DoTs in a single tick. For the remainder of that tick, the mob directly deals less damage in melee based on how much DoT damage it is taking in proportion to its HP.
LOW LEVEL DOTS
Low level DoT levels have been lowered to increase usability. New low level DoTs have been added to their repertoire. Adjacent spells shuffled to maintain 1 spell per level.​
  • Disease Cloud - Level 3 (from 5)
    • Locate Corpse - Level 5 (from 3)
  • Clinging Darkness - Level 9 (from 11)
    • Fear - Level 11 (from 12)
  • Fever - New, Level 12
  • Engulfing Darkness - Level 18 (from 20)
  • Heart Flutter - Level 21 (from 36)
  • Virulence - New, Level 30
  • Dooming Darkness - Level 33 (from 44)
  • Searing Blood - New, Level 42
  • Scourge - New, Level 45
  • Boil Blood - Level 48 (from 53)
  • Inflame Blood - New, Level 53
  • Asystole - Level 56 (from 60)
  • Cascading Darkness - Level 58 (from 59)
DISEASE DOT/DEBUFF REWORK
The following spell line has been adjusted and added to. Three of these spells replace the Shadowknight veil line.​
  • Heart Flutter - Duration lowered to 30s, mana cost reduced.
  • Arrhythmia - New, Level 34, 2.0s cast time, 30s duration. (Reworked from Veil of Dis)
  • Heart Panic - New, Level 44, 2.0s cast time, 30s duration. (Reworked from Veil of Marlow)
  • Asystole - Cast time reduced to 4.1s, duration lowered to 30s, mana cost reduced.
  • Cardiac Arrest - New, Level 65, 2.0s cast time, 30s duration.
  • Runic: Heart Possession - New, Runic Two, 2.0s cast time, 30s duration. (Reworked from Veil of Kaezul)
SCORCH BLOOD
A new fire DoT available to Shadowknights to purchase in late game areas.​

TERRORS
The cooldown has been removed from all terrors; freeing up a spell slot for some who used two.​
  • Terror of Gradalsh is a new terror available to Shadowknights to purchase in late game areas.
SHADOWKNIGHT DISCIPLINE ABILITIES
Shadowknights may purchase the following disciplines from the Shadowknight Guild. Be sure to explore for additional ranks!​
  • Meld Bone - Reap undeath from the fading of life, summoning your highest level pet from your spell book. If used on a target that is close to death, the cooldown of this ability will be lowered. Requires melee range.
  • Touch of Hatred - Ranks I to VII. Instill deep hatred upon your enemy, greatly increasing their aggro towards you. Requires melee range.
  • Festering Harvest - Ranks I to VII. Harvest the life of another through a festering touch. The life healed increases with the number of your afflictions on the target. Requires melee range.
  • Deceitful Doubt - Instill powerful doubt upon your enemy, dispelling a beneficial buff with a chance to interrupt spell casting. Requires melee range.
  • Pet: Edict of Pain- Commands your pet to sacrifice itself, imparting its strength to you for a duration.
  • Edict of Pain- A buff granting the Shadowknight a 500/1000 Delay Death life value, 15/25 Disease Resist and 1/2% physical mitigation.
    • Delay Death is most commonly known as "Purple Club", a negative life value that must be exhausted before a player dies.
  • Pet: Grave Pact - Ranks I and II. Commands your pet to sacrifice itself, restoring mana through it's undeath.
The following Discipline skills require ranks in Servant Training to use:​
  • Pet: Noxious Blast - Commands your pet to sacrifice itself, causing disease damage to nearby foes.
  • Pet: Reaper's Touch - Commands your Pet to sacrifice itself, Draining HP from its target and giving it to your group
  • Pet: Ritual of Gore - Commands your pet to sacrifice itself, mesmerizing nearby foes in a spectacle of gore.
  • Pet: Withering Curse - Commands your pet to sacrifice itself, infecting its target with an incremental damage over time spell. This ability counts towards Festering Harvest's heal.
Meld Bone and each sacrifice skill have their own cooldown timer.​

SHADOWKNIGHT DISCIPLINE BUFFS
  • Shadow of Marlow - Ranks I to III. You fade slightly into the realm of dreams, granting 5/6/7% melee mitigation.
  • Putrid Aura - Ranks I to III. You are wreathed in a caustic aura, increasing the damage of all your damage over time spells by 25/50/100% but decreasing melee mitigation by 5/7/10% and aggro by 10/25/50%.
  • Spirit Anchor - Merge your energies with the spirits of the dead, guarding yourself from detrimental mana drains. Mitigates mana drains with a value less than one fourth your maximum mana.
  • Terror Guard - Wreathe yourself in nightmares, enthralling all those who strike you in combat.
FLAYING STRIKES
This AA now increases damage dealt to Ancient and Young races in addition to Humanoid Monsters.​
SHROUD OF THE LICH
Weapon proc moved to slot 5 to allow for more usability.​
UTILITY BENEFICIAL: CONVERSION
Deathly Temptation mana regen increased to 12, health decay increased to 12.​
NECROMANCER
  • Deathly Temptation is now available to purchase at level 40 as a nice step between Call of Bones and Lich.
DRUID
  • Cataclysm mana cost increased.
ROGUE
  • LOIO and Refuge discipline vendor costs have been lowered.
  • A poison vendor has been added to Kelethin, and the poison vendor in The Mountain Crags of Tarhyl has been updated.
  • Nimble Dance duration extended to 10s.
  • Crippling Point now has a vendor cost.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Concealed Blades AA from working.
  • Gutsy Gambol movement speeds increased slightly. Stamina costs decreased slightly.
  • Wisterol has been re-added to Poison Merchant to allow continued crafting of Savage Frenzy for Marlow quest.
ENCHANTER
  • The duration of the Misdirection line of spells has been doubled.
SPELLS
  • Cleric symbols, Savagery, and Reagent conservation descriptions corrected.
  • Razadian Conservation has been corrected, setting its value at 25%.
  • Flash Powder Ranks I to III correctly state which reagent they require.
  • Flash Powder Rank III now correctly requires a "Flash Powder" reagent.
  • Suffocate, Gasping Embrace, Torment of Gnyrt, Asphyxiate, Chokehold, and Misery of the Swamp spell descriptions updated.
  • Critical Precision spell description updated.
TOP END DUNGEONS

GLOBAL CHARM CREDITS
Initially we only allowed charm credits to drop from enemies with a respawn timer greater than 30 minutes. Based on feedback and additional data, the following changes have been made. A linear drop adjustment has been added because we want to reward more difficult play.​
  • Respawn limit has been lowered to 20 minutes, and lesser charm credit drop chance lowered by 20%. (More zones, less chance)
  • Greater charm credit drop chance increased by 100%.
  • A linear drop adjustment based on enemy level has been added:
    • 20% drop penalty at 55, 33% drop bonus at 65
CITADEL OF THE CLAW
  • Rust Code added for all named.
  • Experience slightly increased.
  • Visiting nobles have a higher chance to rust code named and drop Commander's Orders.
ELDENAL'S MANSION
  • Hybrid-type Rust Code and accelerated respawn feature added.
  • A new visitor awaits your arrival.
BLOOD QUARRY (ROCK SIDE)
  • An additional Rebel Acquisition token quest has been added that involves this area.
  • Rust code added for named.
  • Trash in this wing now drop Yclistinite Bits.
EMBERFLOW
  • The spawn delay on cash named has been lowered to 5 minutes (from 30min)
WEAPON BALANCE
  • Ortananoch's combat innate, Legacy of the Dragonkin, has been altered. Proc rate has been increased, but will fade after five procs. Proc damage lowered to account for a higher proc rate.
  • Entropy's Spine damage proc, Withering Wave, has been changed to a flat damage value instead of a scaling value.
SUNKEN CATHEDRAL
  • Fixed bugs with named mobs spawning - should work normally henceforth.
  • Improved Quest NPC behavior.
  • Wax Fruit increased from snack to meal.
  • Unfeeling alkahest behavior improved.
  • Improved encounter flagging (Thanks Rymy, Marthog, Wuuc, Paxit).
  • Aggregate fungi should no longer fall under the world.
  • Zone quest reward received a bug fix.
  • Tunnel mushroom add spawning frequency reduced.
  • QoL improvements with respect to the amount of items.
  • Revisions were made in the spiral room.
  • Main quest line lengthened a bit - a new bonus awaits for those going all the way.
  • Quest encounter receives rebalancing and items brought in line with the difficulty.
QUESTS
  • A short little quest in Sundered Mountains offered by Freya the Blacksmith that was broken and could not be completed is fixed.
  • Ryzan's Dagger quest which was broken and could not be completed has been fully redone, now accessible by rogues level 60 and above.
  • Previously, killing 6 of 7 required types of stonemites & elementals for the quest "Things that go bump in the mines" incorrectly gave text implying the quest was complete when it was not actually complete. This has been fixed.
  • Gleaming Steel Sword has been added to the Well-Illustrated Treasure Map loot table.
  • Forest of the Fallen:
    • Vaton has listened to reason and will now allow all animal trappings to be done at the same time.
    • Guorth is allowing multiple defenders at once during the Yiv invasion of the Kromtor fort.
    • Gravedigging with Gumdor should work better.
MISC
  • The command system transition is complete. Commands using /cm will no longer work and will display an error
  • Yclistinite Credits can now be purchased in Lake of Ill Omen. Credits are tradable and can be redeemed for their full value.
  • Increased Heart Panic (Previously Veil of Marlow) and Taraztu's Healing Flames drop rates.
  • The Lug Worm has been fixed.
  • The Silent Halls: Soul Hunters of Rajzaa spawns changed to be more dynamic.
  • Cryospine bodytype has been adjusted to 'animal' to allow druid charm.
  • Lifedraw spell proc added to Ghostmetal Shield.
  • Max health of "a faerie trickster" lowered slightly.
  • Rotten Core(s) are no longer stackable.
  • Axe of Continuous Attraction was fixed to prevent a rare but serious malfunction. Thanks Stever for reporting the issue.
  • The Fletching combine to create Quiver of Scornwood Arrows is now up-to-date with the Fletching revamp in a previous patch.

KNOWN ISSUES
  • Archaic: Tarhyl's Raging Curse is currently not functioning correctly. (Fixed)
  • Some disciplines have occasionally been failing to land successfully with an "out of combat" message
  • The new Paladin target of target spells are not landing on Allies. (Fixed)
  • Edict of Pain I is not working. (Fixed)
  • Paladins can target themselves with their damaging discipline abilities
 
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Do players with combat range issues have latency issues and/or spam hotkeys at 300 APM for maximum efficiency?
 
Maybe it was just ramp that was having issues. Ramp and DS. I think WW goes off no matter what.
 
going from possibly faulty memory Massive kick on warriors and Eagle Strike on monks used to have the range issues on eagle strike think it failed silently. especially if z axis was involved. Oh and one place I seem to remember eagle strike failing almost every time was inside the houses in east badlands in the area with maggot infested corpse. Think there may be something funky between client and server on those houses since maggot infested corpse will sometimes summon you into the floor of the houses there making it a horrible idea to tank the adept where it stands. Haven't tested in a long time though since I changed my strategies to work around the issues.

on warrior I definitely spam monk I don't because don't want to mess up window for optimal use of empowered kicks. Latency could have been an issue at the time I cared because I was probably still on wifi instead of wired networking at the time(usually still under 90ms unless I was having a very bad day).
 
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This entire premise is based on the assumption that Shadowknights are not able to hold threat on multiple targets.

Are you being deliberately obtuse? Yes, SKs CAN hold agro on 1+ mobs, sure. How about 4 mobs? 6? 8? How much effort is required by the player for each of these scenarios? Is it fun? Now answer the same questions for Paladins and Warriors. What I'm trying to get across to you is that the answers to these questions should be the same for each class. They are tanks, they should all have the same basic tanking toolkit that enables them to be similarly effective in any tanking scenario that's appropriate for their gear level. To do anything other than that has been shown to be bad game design, because it will lead to players being excluded from opportunities due to decisions outside of their control. Each tank can have a niche or a role, but that niche shouldn't be "is just a better option in the scenarios that most people spend their time in, lol".

Knowing that players will take the path of least resistance to progress (even if it's not fun) and working around that is game dev 101. If you don't work around that basic idea, you're going to get situations where sub-optimal classes will be sidelined from the best parts of the game, solely because of decisions that the development team is making. In this case, that means players will attempt to choose whichever tank has the best multi-target threat (multi-target being 4+ mobs, which seems to be how most pulls go) so that groups can maximize their time investment when doing content. Is that honestly a design goal of the dev team?

SoD developers have created (and doubled down on) an environment that encourages this meta/behavior, because for some reason the three tanks (and healers) each only have a partially fleshed out toolkit. I'm not sure why the dev team seems to be against the idea that each tank should be able to tank effectively in the most common group-play situations. What does this achieve, how does it make the game better?

As long as the character is geared enough to survive the incoming damage, each tank should have a toolkit that allows them to tank 1 mob, or two or 6 or whatever their group can handle, with relatively the same level of difficulty (and it shouldn't be overly difficult, i.e. not reliant on tab targeting/cycling). Having a toolkit that enables you to handle the various situations that occur while grouping/raiding is rewarding and fun. A group shouldn't be held back because they brought a Shadowknight, or a Paladin, or a Shaman or an Enchanter or whatever solely because the development team decided a class needed to be worse than another in a given situation.

Yes, we fleshed out their toolkits in a varied and interesting way. The reality is that some who are used to a 15 year old server do not like change, no matter what it is.
I'm not sure that anyone is advocating against change solely because they don't want change. A number of people in this thread are telling you that a change is necessary, but statements like this make me thing you're dismissing their feedback without trying to understand what they're trying to tell you. Some of the changes you made ARE interesting ideas, but that doesn't mean they are fun or effective. But holistically , maybe these changes aren't making the game better. Maybe they're making already shitty situations even worse. I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to address that.

Ultimately, there's a question that should be asked of any design decision:
Will these changes lead to more fun and rewarding gameplay?
Sometimes the answer to that has to be "No.", and that's a tradeoff that has to be made for one reason or another. I don't think this is one of those scenarios.

A number of highly invested, experienced players are telling you that these aren't fun or rewarding. Are you going to listen?

 
Can shadowknights pull 8 mobs and mez stance them all? Memorization is a large threat multiplier. You might be able to terror them while they are mezzed also. That might work for the hard pulls.
 
I don't have abnormal latency, I have pretty low ping. I do have my disc activation as part of a macro that does other things as well all with one button (bash, taunt, attack on, etc) and I find with everything I fight, even normal sized humanoids I really have to get close for the disc to work. If it is latency related why would it be consistent that I need to scooch in to a similar face-to-face personal space for each similarly sized mob everywhere?

Things I've noticed:
- Z axis definitely affects the disc melee range (but doesn't affect auto attack range) and you need to be very close on the z axis
- mobs of both regular humanoid dimensions and unusual dimensions need to be in basically face to face range to work properly
- the range needed is very consistent for the same mob type, and way closer than auto attack melee range
 
Can shadowknights pull 8 mobs and mez stance them all? Memorization is a large threat multiplier. You might be able to terror them while they are mezzed also. That might work for the hard pulls.
Terroring them while mezzed could work but isn’t necessarily *fun* gameplay. Mez will almost indoubtedly be broken as well.

*edit* I guess you are talking about mez stance vs my screenshot being mez pet tome, so maybe it would work.
 

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It seems the mez might not be consistent enough to last long enough to terror afterwards. But mez is a lot more than a stun/blind in threat.
 
Can shadowknights pull 8 mobs and mez stance them all? Memorization is a large threat multiplier. You might be able to terror them while they are mezzed also. That might work for the hard pulls.
Mez stance has been a great situational "oh shit" button for bad pulls and things like that, but I'm not sure if it's possible to get terrors off on multiple mobs in time. It also relies on you already having agro on each mob, which greatly limits its usefulness as a potential threat tool.
 
Mez stance probably doesn't work so well if the mobs beeline to other people anyway. Its also pretty useless when stuff is mes immune, which happens occasionally (deep og trap shrooms for instance: they were already pretty hell with a group relying on veil, completely stun and mes and root immune and fast as hell and able to chew everyone else up: pop 12 of em at a time and kiss your group goodbye if you have an SK tank.)
 
i've got a totally original idea for a shadowknight spell to help alleviate what the game has become / will remain to be probably forever because thats just how literally any game that lasts for 2 decades ends up becoming. https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=5336 no need to thank me

I've yet to play any game that doesn't end up like shards where aoe is king. Add on top of it there has not been super rewarding group content for single target added in like a decade and it only makes it worse.
 
well there was adepts...for single target group stuff in the last decade, though adepts got hit by the low level rebalancing nerf. Now that I think about it what would a zone for single target xp entail?
 
i've got a totally original idea for a shadowknight spell to help alleviate what the game has become / will remain to be probably forever because thats just how literally any game that lasts for 2 decades ends up becoming. https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/spell.html?spell=5336 no need to thank me

I've yet to play any game that doesn't end up like shards where aoe is king. Add on top of it there has not been super rewarding group content for single target added in like a decade and it only makes it worse.
It’s almost as if someone had this vision at one point…
 

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So u want to use lvl locked content as reference to balance a class around? Not sure why you brought adepts up.

Think lava spirits near rohk they are very generous money/xp and more engaging then pulling 20 mobs in kaesora. You pull 1-3 at a time single target burn them dead typically and suffer consequences if you don't pay attention properly. The reward is you have chase items, good cash / xp but they are overall harder / less brain dead. That is how cita was when it came out and was very fun for the effort. We have not had any xp content similar since rohk trash. You can argue tunnels in OG but that was never very rewarding in cash or xp, infact it's horrible and if you are not trying to make an item just for the sake of making them anymore then there is minimal point being there other than going to jenrok for your resident Ixxl. So you end up brain dead aoeing and if the tank doesn't have it in their kit or on an item or what have you they feel lacking.

edit: I believe the closest thing to this would be goblin elites in fof but last I knew their exp / cash was quite lacking compared to just going and doing other zones.
 
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I was kinda joking about the adepts. I wasn't saying things should be balanced around them. just that they were made recently and where single target things to do with a group.

one zone I think of for easy single/double pulls is Lake of Ill Omen but that was as a duo not sure if a group would run out of targets where I was farming or bigger pulls would happen. don't know where that ranks. I know money wise probably not the greatest unless doing a named circuit or you get lucky with one of the mobs that has a random chance to just give you 1kp. some of the trash does have unique mechanics.
 
You aren't going to be doing single/double pulls for XP in lake, maybe farming the outside named but that is a completely different thing than what is being asked for here. In lake fort, where you would go for xp, almost every single pull is a multi-mob thing.

You do goblin elites for pretty much one reason and if you aren't looking for a ruby then why even bother.
 
I was farming robots in the ESE part of LOIO when I was there duoing though that was pretty named free area so probably very low plat. but guessing you might be more experienced on the grouping aspect.
 
sKs should get upgrades to wave of enfeeblement to address AE generation. They get Word of Spirit at 45 and that's trash. Replace that with a blue gem debuff, maybe -30 str and cha, then another one at lvl61, -45str, cha, with a couple hundred point lifetap. Debuff lasts three ticks. Alternatively, I'm sure sKs would be pleased with a blue gem terror even with a moderate resist adjust. Even with a short recourse that debuffed the sK.

This would not at all step on paladin toes or frustrate the idea that paladins are the undisputed 3+ target agro tanks. It just provides sKs a non hapless way of attempting to AE aggro. Echoing what lots of generational sk players in this thread have said, It makes zero sense that 1/3 of tank classes have no method whatsoever 65+ to press a button and even try for ae aggro. It's ludicrously bad design. Veil was a bad spell too but it was something that needed improving or sidegrading, not deleting without any substitute or awareness of how it fit into the sK kit.
 
a random thought I had though could be stupid would be have a spell SKs could cast on group members that would fade on hit that gives the SK enough agro and a little more(to account for additional agro they may generate in self defense) to get agro on all mobs near that group member. Thematically I would see something like the SK summoning skeletons to protect their party and maybe call it terror gaurd but there are some major mechanical downsides to that especially for pet classes. if wanted to nerf the idea more could make it only castable outside of combat. that way it only covers the initial pull and paladin dominance is maintained.

On another note would like to see the low level spell https://wiki.shardsofdalaya.com/index.php/Spell:_Disease_Cloud get a resist adjust I can barely remember the last time I have seen the dot portion of that spell not get resisted.(though I frequently play trolls casting that spell and they come with low charisma)
 
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