HEADLINES
We are implementing disciplines using the combat ability system; we plan to fully replace the current stance system. When we began class balance discussions we eventually decided that this system would be a better foundation moving forward. Disciplines can be ranked to allow more eventful leveling progression and late-game content rewards for melee classes. The combat ability system will also offer a better UI experience for melee.
Physical resistance is being introduced. This resistance will mostly be used for discipline skills, but can be used for spells.
The new discipline system is designed around stamina being akin to mana; you expend this resource until empty, then rest to recover. Setting stamina costs for new disciplines was mostly best judgement and testing in limited scenarios. Please provide feedback and we will make adjustments as needed. If you are not a rogue, stamina should feel unchanged. If this is not the case, please report this.
All warrior skills have been converted to learnable disciplines. No changes have been made to warrior abilities; this is just a one to one conversion (originally was meant to test the functionality of combat abilities in a stand alone patch). We do plan on refactoring warrior abilities, just not at this time.
We are excited to finally deliver the Rogue rework. This rework involves a complete conversion of Rogue stances into disciplines, and a rework of the trap placement and poison tradeskill systems. Disciplines will provide new and exciting abilities to level up with, receive as progression rewards, provide consistent DPS, and create a play style that is more than spamming backstab. Trap placement has been changed to a more intuitive system that encourages stealth and ambush tactics. Lastly, the new poison tradeskill should offer easier and more enticing rewards. One quick note concerning Critical Precision (Double Damage). This ability is a static 10 seconds and is tracked at 1 second intervals, meaning it is a true 10 seconds. Some of you may initially think this might be a huge nerf to burn. We want to say that while the window for burn is shorter, the Rogue is able to use more abilities during this window. The burst DPS during this window should see similar pre-patch burst DPS. As always, your feedback is important, so let us know what you think.
ENCHANTER TWEAKS
We have reviewed player feedback and are making the following tweaks. A few things to note. We feel reworking cascading bond is a better long term solution, so a fix to player concerns regarding this will not be right away. Similarly we do not have a solid answer for Relic: Placid Focus at this time, but are discussing possible solutions.
STR/ATK DEBUFFS
Currently, debuffing a mob's strength or attack had no effect on an enemy. This has been fixed and should add more dynamics to classes with buffs, debuffs, pets, and dispels.
We plan to completely re-envision how reagents should work. The general idea is that a reagent serves as a platinum sink for powerful spells. Having a reagent be summon-able from a mage spell or an item defeats the point of reagents. Rare-use powerful spells can also require non-purchasable reagents; necromancer resurrect is probably the best example of this. Here are a few changes we have done so far:
SUNKEN CATHEDRAL
- Combat Ability and Discipline System implementation.
- A complete rework of the Rogue class - disciplines, trap system, and poison tradeskill.
- Warrior abilities converted to Disciplines.
- The new Physical Resist Type.
- Stamina and Health added to the rested recovery state.
- Enchanter class mechanic tweaks.
- Rework to strength and attack debuffs.
- Sunken Cathedral is now available for exploration.
We are implementing disciplines using the combat ability system; we plan to fully replace the current stance system. When we began class balance discussions we eventually decided that this system would be a better foundation moving forward. Disciplines can be ranked to allow more eventful leveling progression and late-game content rewards for melee classes. The combat ability system will also offer a better UI experience for melee.
DISCIPLINE DETAILS
- The hotkey for the combat abilities window is:
- Options->Keys->UI->Toggle Combat Ability Window
- The client restricts the combat ability window to only tank, melee, and hybrid classes.
- Players will buy discipline 'Skill' books from class guilds or late game locations.
- A player learns a discipline by right clicking the "Skill: ..." book.
- Players can activate disciplines with the macro "/discipline ability_name"
- All discipline messages now route to the Melee Discipline chat filter.
- Right clicking a discipline hotkey will open an interface to search through disciplines by category. Selecting a discipline will set the hotkey to this ability.
DISCIPLINE ABILITIES
- Abilities that consume stamina to perform a special attack.
- Most will use the new Physical Resist type. (see below)
- Some of these require a particular weapon type to be equipped.
- Discipline damage will scale from:
- Ability Ranks
- Attack Power
- Codex of Power
- Ability Skill Type (1hs/2hs/etc)
- Specialization Bonus (Blade/Strike for a 1hs skill)
- Enemy physical resist
- Discipline damage will not scale from weapon base damage.
DISCIPLINE BUFFS
- These buffs will display with a spell icon in the combat ability window when activated.
- The buff duration remaining is tracked with a grey meter below the icon.
- These buffs update each second to prevent premature fading. (Combat abilities tend to be short duration e.g. 6 seconds)
- These buffs have endurance upkeeps, draining stamina each second while activated.
- A player may only have one discipline buff active at a time.
- Having a discipline buff active prevents another buff from being cast (This is a client restriction)
- A player can cancel a discipline buff by left clicking on the discipline buff icon (Similar to other beneficial buffs)
- Discipline buffs fade when:
- The duration ends
- The player runs out of stamina
- The player left clicks the buff
- Zoning
DISCIPLINE STANCES
These abilities will use a hybrid design to merge discipline and stance mechanics. A player will learn the stance ability then switch stances using the ability hotkey rather than a command. Not ever class will have discipline stances. Example; a Rogue is always an offensive class, therefore they will not have toggleable states.
- A stance hotkey is greyed out to indicate what stance the player is in.
- When using or toggling stances, you may see a cooldown message. This is because we use client-side timers to grey out the stance ability hotkey. This is not enforced server-side and is for visual purposes only. You would mostly see the message when spamming abilities.
- Activating a second stance will reset the previous stance's hotkey.
- Stances are reset to normal stance by:
- Activating a bandolier swap
- Swapping a weapon from your primary or secondary slot
- Having zero endurance
- Activating the same stance hotkey again (Toggle)
- Zoning
Physical resistance is being introduced. This resistance will mostly be used for discipline skills, but can be used for spells.
- Player physical resistance is always zero.
- There is currently no way to lower a targets physical resistance. (This is due to the code not being in EQEmu and does not necessarily indicate a design direction)
- Physical resist adjust will mitigate resistance.
- Spell and discipline physical damage is reduced by physical resist.
- Physical spells can be resisted/reflected/deflected.
- Physical resist will display alongside other resists when using Jayla's Insight.
The new discipline system is designed around stamina being akin to mana; you expend this resource until empty, then rest to recover. Setting stamina costs for new disciplines was mostly best judgement and testing in limited scenarios. Please provide feedback and we will make adjustments as needed. If you are not a rogue, stamina should feel unchanged. If this is not the case, please report this.
- Stamina has been added to the rested state recovery bonus.
- As we convert stances, exhaustion will be going away in favor of individual ability cooldowns.
- Warrior and Monk out of combat stamina now displays correctly when idling at your races maximum out of combat stamina value.
- Stamina Buffs and Worn Acumen
- Reduces discipline stamina costs in the new stamina system.
- Continues to function the same for existing old stance mechanics.
- Melee Discipline
- Reduces stamina costs by 4% in the new discipline system.
- Rogue resting stance has been removed.
- Warrior and Monk stamina bonus gained in combat remains the same.
- Tales of Rapid Recovery
- Reduces discipline cooldowns by 5% in the new discipline system.
- Continues to function the same for existing old stance mechanics.
- Health regen has been added to the rested state recovery bonus. This should help reduce recovery times for characters without self healing.
- Health regen has been fixed. It was unintentionally broken last patch and was most noticeable at beginner levels.
All warrior skills have been converted to learnable disciplines. No changes have been made to warrior abilities; this is just a one to one conversion (originally was meant to test the functionality of combat abilities in a stand alone patch). We do plan on refactoring warrior abilities, just not at this time.
- Existing warriors will need to buy their warrior skills from a warrior guild discipline vendor.
- Reckless Fury and Reckless Strike will be sold at the discipline vendor but cannot be used until the player has acquired the proper AA.
- The warrior specific message "You must wait 2 seconds before using another ability." and other similar messages are now filtered through Melee Disciplines chat.
We are excited to finally deliver the Rogue rework. This rework involves a complete conversion of Rogue stances into disciplines, and a rework of the trap placement and poison tradeskill systems. Disciplines will provide new and exciting abilities to level up with, receive as progression rewards, provide consistent DPS, and create a play style that is more than spamming backstab. Trap placement has been changed to a more intuitive system that encourages stealth and ambush tactics. Lastly, the new poison tradeskill should offer easier and more enticing rewards. One quick note concerning Critical Precision (Double Damage). This ability is a static 10 seconds and is tracked at 1 second intervals, meaning it is a true 10 seconds. Some of you may initially think this might be a huge nerf to burn. We want to say that while the window for burn is shorter, the Rogue is able to use more abilities during this window. The burst DPS during this window should see similar pre-patch burst DPS. As always, your feedback is important, so let us know what you think.
ROGUE DISCIPLINE ABILITIES
Rogues may purchase the following disciplines from the Rogue Guild. Be sure to explore for additional ranks!
- Incisive Blade - Ranks I to VI. A stabbing thrust to pierce an opponents physical resistances. Requires an equipped piercing weapon. Can only be used in combat
- Twin Fangs - Ranks I to IV. Attack two nearby targets (2 target PBAoE). Requires dual wielded weapons.
- Widow's Flight - Disappear in a cloud of smoke (Self Evacuation). Must be hidden for a duration. Requires Concentrated Flash Powder.
- Razor's Kiss - Ranks I to VI. Using your body's combat inertia allows you to execute this inexpensive but highly damaging ranged attack . Requires an equipped throwing weapon. Has a minimum range. This ability will throw a projectile toward the target using the model of your ranged weapon.
- Impish Antics - Ranks I to III. Slyly avoid your opponent's notice. (Jolt) Can only be used in combat.
- Fan of Knives - Ranks I to VI. Hit your target and two others near it using your thrown equipment. Requires an equipped throwing weapon. Has a minimum range. This ability will throw projectiles toward each target using the model of your ranged weapon. (3 Target Targeted AoE. Min range is greater than the targeted area, so you will never hit yourself)
- Flash Powder - Ranks I to III. Throw a crafted vial of flash powder. Explodes in a burst of light, stunning and blinding your target. Short range and in combat use only.
- Disarm Trap - Buy this for 1 copper at level 15. It is a workaround for the current Set / Disarm Traps hotkey and allows a player to disarm nearby detected traps.
ROGUE DISCIPLINE BUFFS
- Gutsy Gambol - Ranks I to III. Swift movements to reposition yourself in combat. Can only be used in combat.
- Night's Grace - Moderate chance to avoid incoming spells. Only usable in combat.
- Critical Precision - Deal double damage for 10 seconds. Shared 15 minute cooldown. Only usable in combat.
- Nimble Dance - Evade all melee attacks for 10 seconds. Shared 15 minute cooldown. Only usable in combat.
- Stalker's Diversion - Ranks I and II. Study your opponent for backstab openings. Small chance when you are struck to find an opening. Allows for a backstab from any direction.
- Crippling Point - Focus your attacks on your enemies vital points, damaging their mana and endurance by a percentage of damage dealt to them.
- Cagey Footwork - Ranks I and II. Reduces threat generations. Enemy is never behind rogue at rank II.
ROGUE TRAPS
Traps have been reworked and are now a purchasable discipline type for Rogues. The old system has been removed in lieu of this rework. Setting a trap is as simple as a button click (no hail dialogue needed).
- Rogues can purchase their first trap at level 15 when they acquire the Set/Disarm traps skill.
- Traps that a rogue has placed will have a visible name after the type set but will not be targetable by players. (eg. Visible Name = Poison Trap)
- Placing a trap will not break a rogue's hide.
- After placement, traps take 5 seconds to arm themselves.
- Trap damage scales from the same modifiers as spell damage and no longer from Set/Disarm skill level.
- Trap placements can fail based on the Rogue's Set/Disarm skill level.
- A failed trap placement sets the discipline's cooldown to 5 seconds. Think of this like a long fizzle.
- Ambuscade Expertise speeds up arming speed by 0.25s per rank.
- Ambuscade Expertise increases trap critical chance by 2.0% per rank.
Rogues may purchase the following discipline traps from the Rogue Guild. Be sure to explore for additional ranks!
- Blast Trap - Ranks I to IV. Explodes when triggered, burning up to five victims with hot shrapnel. Be careful to not get caught in the blast! (5 Target Targeted AoE)
- Poison Trap - Ranks I to IV. Inflicts poison damage over time to the enemy caught in this trap. (Single Target DoT)
- Stasis Trap - Ranks I to III. Enemies caught in this trap are locked within a stasis.
- Steel Trap - Ranks I to IV. Releases a deadly quarrel when triggered.
Rogue's can once again disarm world traps by using the Disarm Trap discipline ability. No changes were made other than this fix. This should be the preferred method to level up trap/disarm.
ROGUE POISON AND DRUGS
The current poison making skill and recipe system has been completely reworked. From a top down view, players will have more ease in leveling and creating poisons, seeing more poison use. A seasoned rogue should find poison choice more nuanced, the lone rogue less dependent on others.
- All reagents are now vendor bought.
- Most poisons will give the rogue a buff with two weapon proc components. Each component has it's own proc rate value.
- The first component will be a direct damage proc.
- The second component will be a detrimental debuff proc. These are set for high proc frequency and short 3 tick durations. We do not want to incentivize swapping of poisons.
- Drugs will be a self buff type for the rogue.
- The following poisons and drugs can be made at different skill levels:
- Molten Lead - Fire damage proc with a debuff to enemy armor class. The AC debuff is a lot lower, but now stacks with all other AC debuffs.
- Obsidian Tears - Magic damage lifetap proc with a mana drain component.
- Chill Blood - Cold damage proc with a debuff to enemy attack speed and cold resistance.
- Mordant Gloss - Disease damage proc with a debuff to enemy stamina, agility, and disease resistance.
- Caustic Bile - Poison Damage proc with a debuff to enemy strength, dexterity, and poison resistance.
- Liquid Silver - Undead damage proc and debuffs undead to allow critical hits.
- Brittle Venom - Debuffs constructs to allow critical hits.
- Neural Shock - Self haste buff at the cost of agility.
- Kinematic Antigen - Self attack buff at the cost of stamina.
- Antispasmodic Ichor - Self dexterity buff.
- Flash Powder - Discipline Reagents.
ROGUE THROWING
Rogues will have a minor theme focusing on throwing. This is because Rogues currently have a 10% base critical hit chance to throwing, as well as max 250 to throwing.
- Rogue poison procs from the new tradeskill can also trigger from throwing attacks.
- All rogues now have a 25% base chance to not consume throwing ammo at all levels.
- Rogues can now learn the Concealed Blades AA, giving them a 50% chance to not consume throwing ammo.
- Throwing attacks now display a projectile animation using your worn throwing weapon. (This is for all classes)
We have reviewed player feedback and are making the following tweaks. A few things to note. We feel reworking cascading bond is a better long term solution, so a fix to player concerns regarding this will not be right away. Similarly we do not have a solid answer for Relic: Placid Focus at this time, but are discussing possible solutions.
MELEE AND SPELL CURSES
Last patch we were very conservative with making a few of our planned changes to free up spell slots. Based on player feedback, we have decided to make additional changes to free spell slots for an Enchanter. As such, Nejax's Rending Curse and Nejax's Striking Curse are now purchasable enchanter AAs. This should free up additional spell gem slots to allow current and future spells a chance in the field. Enchanters who have Nejax's Rending Curse or Nejax's Striking Curse in their spell book during this patch will be granted the equivalent AAs points.
MAGIC DIRECT DAMAGE
- Anarchy, Discordant Mind, Dementing Visions, Insanity and Relic: Chaotic Visions knockback removed.
- Relic: Chaotic Visions recast has been correctly set to 8 seconds.
MAGIC DAMAGE OVER TIME
- The duration and mana cost of Suffocate, Gasping Embrace, Torment of Gnyrt, Asphyxiate, Chokehold, and Misery of the Swamp has been halved. This will reduce the impact to an enchanters mana in situations where enemies die faster (group play).
- Additionally, the above spells are now reverse-splurts, front-loading a greater portion of the damage in the first half of it's duration.
- The debuff utility of this line has been fixed. See STR/ATK DEBUFFS
AOD/BOND
- AOD and Bond spell line recast times have been set to 50 seconds. With a 60 second duration, this should assist with maintaining uptime.
- AOD and Bond spell lines now correctly share a cooldown.
- The illusion mimicry of Incarnate and Corporeal Bond spells have been fixed.
DISPEL DETRIMENTAL
- Break Bindings has had its reagent replaced to an 'Garnet'; a new purchasable reagent at jewelcrafting vendors.
CHROMATIC SPELLS
- Chromatic Barrage, Refraction, Fusillade, and Aberrations mana cost slightly reduced.
- Items throughout the game have been retroactively populated with the Chromatic Fury focus effect.
CHARM
We feel charming is a major component to enchanter play and wanted to emphasize this. The following zones have had charmable mobs added or existing mobs edited to allow being charmed. We will continue to make similar changes to additional zones as time allows.
- Windstone
- Bloodied Quarry
- Citadel of the Claw
- Cyrtho Malath
- First Ruins
- Highkeep
- Catacombs of Elthannar
- Deepshade
- Everchill Caverns
- Overgrowth
- Rust Factory
- Spires of Saitha
- Upper Thaz
- Silent Halls
- Emberflow
- Halls of Misery
- Plane of Earth
- Bloodstorm Tunnels
Currently, debuffing a mob's strength or attack had no effect on an enemy. This has been fixed and should add more dynamics to classes with buffs, debuffs, pets, and dispels.
- NPC melee damage can now be increased or decreased based on the sum of STR and ATK buffs/debuffs.
- The upper limit was made greater than the lower limit to give enemies an edge in this bonus. Because NPC spells tend to add much larger bonuses, it may be wise to dispel enemies in certain fights.
- Player pets count as NPCs, and are affected by the above increases and decreases.
- Rangers have an 35% base chance to not consume ammo at all levels. Increased to 85% as before with the Returning Shot AA.
We plan to completely re-envision how reagents should work. The general idea is that a reagent serves as a platinum sink for powerful spells. Having a reagent be summon-able from a mage spell or an item defeats the point of reagents. Rare-use powerful spells can also require non-purchasable reagents; necromancer resurrect is probably the best example of this. Here are a few changes we have done so far:
- Removed the reagent requirements from Cleric symbol and Aegolism spell lines, Savagery, Dilated Shelter, Spellshield, Sorcerer Familiar. If a spell had a summoned reagent option, the reagent requirements were removed; these spells were essentially a spell with a zero platinum cost. If we missed any, let us know.
- Group Divine Benevolence reagent cost set to 1 opal.
- Regent Conservation now increases by 3% per rank.
- Brutalist's Bludgeon has been reworked to remove the Summon Peridot spell.
- We plan to address mage summon reagent spells at a later time.
SUNKEN CATHEDRAL
- This zone is now live for your explorations.
- The script for this fight has been rewritten using our current scripting language. The fight will be available after patch. We are hopeful that this conversion reduces the lag players experienced during this fight.
- The Tash and Malo debuff spell lines have been changed to allow resting when persistent on a player.
- Blessing of the Rose has been moved to Ryznek in Refuge.
- Glacial Strike will no longer lock out when you are not close enough.
- Death Fatigue's spell description updated.
- The mana regen component of Corrupt Spell: Mielech's Fury has been moved to a different slot to allow stacking with Mana Regen potions.
- The Fault, Hand of Delusions, and Darkweaver Queen's Pincer spell effects have been changed to Jinx
- Xenelaqui's Melody weapon proc correctly set to slot 10.
- The self damage on Sharn`Ree's Verdict has been slightly lowered.
- Imp's Fury was reviewed. This bow is on the low end of acceptable single target DPS. We feel this is good when it's ability to perform area damage is taken into account.
- Enchanter has been added to Fires of Heaven and Mastery of Elements.
- Spell Rune Shell, Glyphs, and Core can now drop in the Lake of Ill Omen fortress.
- Ank'Ai, the Corporeal Curse self damage has been lowered. Chance to drain raid mana also lowered.
- Windworn Boka has had its physical damage lowered by 15 and AC lowered by 20. The Flames Agony proc has had it's fire resist and hate over time components removed. This should reduce its damage output while maintaining its defensive theme.
- Spectral Spike has had its physical damage lowered to 1, and had its delay increased to 105. The proc rate has been slightly increased. This should reduce its single target damage in zero resist situations, while maintaining its spell damage.
- "an ysthar sorceror" renamed to "an ysthar sorcerer"
- A corpse call has been added to The Remnants of Old Ikild.
- Pink Tentacle Terror in Bloodstorm Tunnels has had its bridge mechanic improved.
- Lava spirits in first ruins should no longer 'clump' together while pathing.