Tuesday, February 15, 2011

THEKITTYOFTROOF'S RESPONSE TO PATCH NOTES (Why I said that in caps lock, I don't know)

Once again! We have more notes for me to evaluate, and make serious game decisions on my spec (Pffft).

Mythic's Producer Letter is in Italics, my response is in.. lets go with light green text this time :D

Highlights Yes! :D







Claim Window

With the popularity of account entitlements, we‘ve decided to improve the in-game delivery method of items associated with said entitlements. IT'S ABOUT TIME MAN Whether you have the plethora My Vocabulary is.. quite low. of items that came with the Collector’s edition or an adorable vanity pet They're not that adorable, we wanted to make it easier to claim your items! What this means is that item delivery for new characters or purchases will no longer go through in-game email I thought it was just mail, but it's Email?  Well, you learn something new (almost) every day. Instead a new Claim Window interface has been added that can be accessed via /claim or via the Account Entitlements button on the Main Menu. All of your items will be accessible in this new window and can be claimed at any time. No more expiring emails! Yeah, I don't get it, but it sounds good.


But that’s not all Oh?! Accidentally lost your Trusty Mount? No We’ve got you covered No no no, Geiko has me covered, you're getting confused. Included in the Claim Window is the ability for characters to ‘reset I'm resetting my gold over and over’ specific items if they have lost or misplaced the original Misplaced my gode on expensive twink gear, you give me moniez back?. Certain items, typically currencies Like... oh darn and ‘charged’ items cannot be reset via this window. You can tell if a claimed item can be reset as the button will only light up for items that allow this functionality.

 
This new method of delivery will be used for all new deliveries to characters I see... perhaps we can compromise so I get my gold?. Characters who have been sent items in the mail previously will have those items shown as ‘claimed’ and any emails with items in them will continue to be accessible until they expireThank goodness!. Items that have been sent via email previously will be able to be ‘reset’ if the item allows it.



Armor Set Changes Uh oh...



The Renown Rank and level requirements for several item sets have been reduced to allow players to use them sooner in their careers So T3 is gonna be the new T4? (Like.. giant gear gaps I mean). With the new ranks for the above sets, a new armor set has been added to fill in the gap between Warlord and Sovereign.  OH GREAT, just another to grind...

 
Scenario Shakeup

 
The battle has shifted!LET ME GUESS, SCs I do not like With the advent of 1.4.1, the lineup of the Scenario offering will be changing. A number of old scenarios are making their return Oh man..., some are retiring for the moment Meh, ok, and others are shifting tiers Eww. For a full list of the new line-up, see the RVR section. I'll get there


Optimizations

 
As part of our ongoing focus on giving players the best possible experience, we‘ve made a number of behind-the-scenes optimizations to the server and client code to increase performance.


General Changes & Bug Fixes



The time and duration of the penalty to Renown gain for repeatedly killing the same enemy has been adjusted Hooray maybe?. Players will now be able to procure Renown more often from their enemies with less time between kills needed to be effective. Let the crossrealming.. BEGIN!


We’ve made some adjustments to the renown bonus that is available for players that have the Progression pack. This means the curve for the Tier 4 levels will increase slightly and it will now continue into the early post-80 levels and ramp down to normal. OH MY GOD, THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!! -cries- This is just what I needed

 
The AFK timer for Open World areas has been increased from two minutes to three minutes.  Another Fabulous change

Realm versus Realm

 
Open World Campaign

Adjusted warcamps to ensure that the OrvR tracker shows up in all zones properly. I think yay


Manor of Ortel von Zaris' gates will now open for Resource Carriers upon interacting with a Resource Carrier. Same, I think yay


Resource Carriers will now despawn when an RvR lake's winner is determined. Thank god!!


Skaven bosses, inside Thanquol's Incursion, will no longer suffer damage from Moral sources. What!?!? Seriously!??! That makes me want to... punch a... TV or something, Morale is how I damaged them in heal spec :-P



Misspelling corrected in the Skaven Skirmisher buff's tooltip. Fix.. wait is "Moral" supposed to be "Morale?" fix that mispelling.

 
Resource Carriers will now auto-dispatch if they come under attack while still awaiting orders at a Battlefield Objective. OOooooh good idea IMO


The following changes have been made to the Packmaster Skaven class: Touched a packmaster once, never again.  Nothing to say on changes


o The cooldown for Strength in Numbers has been lowered to three minutes.


o Thwap! and Thwap!Thwap!!Thwap!!! are now ranged abilities.


o In addition to the Rat Ogre specific buff, which has not been changed, Thwap! now heals any friendly target for about 2% of the target's max health. The Packmaster cannot use this on himself.


o Thwap!Thwap!!Thwap!!! now places a HoT on any friendly target, except himself. The strength of the HoT is still dependant on the number of Overconfidence charges the Packmaster has built up:


 1 - about 3% of the target's max health per tick.


 2 - about 4% of the target's max health per tick.


 3 - about 6% of the target's max health per tick.


 4 - about 8% of the target's max health per tick.


 5 - about 10% of the target's max health per tick.


The range on the Gutter Runner's Sabotage ability has been lowered, preventing it from being used from behind Keep Doors. You can do that? Oh now you tell me


The range of the Gutter Runner’s Spy ability has been decreased to make it work more in line with its intent. The results will still be shown to everyone, but only within a decreased radius from the Gutter Runner. BOOOOO!!! That sucks for me.
 

The Skaven abilities Leap and Scurry Away now correctly respect the Champion's Challenge moral ability. Awwww haha, really loved leaping out of a champions challenge, made me feel all powerful



Battlefield Objective guards in Tier 1 have had their levels raised.
Fair enough, on my AM today in Blighted Isle I took a BO with 2 WEs on me, killed them too.




Keep Guards in EvC Tier 4 correctly remove themselves from the Keep only when the inner doors have been breached. Finally, that annoyed me so much haha.... no not really.. I .. never even noticed

 
Battlefield Objective flags now require 10 seconds of interaction to capture, and cannot be interacted with while under the effects of Last Stand. OH DARN, lol.  Loved capping BO flags surrounded by zergs

 
Keep Guards in Tier 2 correctly remove themselves from the Keep when the Keep doors are breached. Lol.  Remember once in ostland the guards actually bugged and wiped order for us... ahh good times



Leaving ORvR areas, while under the effects of a Skaven-applied defluff DEFLUFF, HURRY! or DoT, no longer warns non Skaven-controlling characters about the risk of losing Skaven control.  Lol, no longer warns me huh?



Mantrap, Rats of War, Warpfire Thrower, and Doomrocket have been fixed to properly respect line of sight restrictions. Awwww doomrocket no more fly through keep walls at people?:-(


Enemy guards will now dispel the Last Stand effect from the player SCREW YOU!. The effect will also be dispelled upon entering an enemy warcamp. GAHHHHHHHHHHH,  I loved using this trick to kill AFKers :-(
go go douchebag moves!




Scenarios



The line-up of scenarios that are permanently available has changed. The new list is as follows:
Tier 1


• Gates of Ekrund I love gates


• Nordenwatch Screw Nordenwatch

KHAINES EMBRACE GOES HEER?!?!?
Tier 2


• Gates of Ekrund yay gates of ekrund again


• Mourkain Temple I just realized these won't pop


• Stonetroll Crossing Ewwwww

PHOENIX GATE GOES HEER?!?!
Tier 3


• Gates of Ekrund ALRIGHT!! MORE GATES! :D


• Mourkain Temple Meh


• Tor Anroc I always hated Tor Anroc, so be it


• Reikland Factory Worst SC there is IMO, too much running


Tier 4


• Gates of Ekrund YESSSSS, GATES FOR T4?!?! AHHAHAHA This is AWESOME!!


• Mourkain Temple Ewwww, t2 and t3 was fine.. t4.. NO TY


• Tor Anroc Sigh..


• Maws of Madness Meh, maw is alright I guess


• Reikland HillsNever liked reikland hills


• Serpent’s Passage Serpent's is ok as well

BATTLE FOR PRAAG GOES HEER?


Contested Cities


An update to the Quitter’s debuff has been made for the contested cities. Characters that forcibly log out of the city without the preparation buff and do not log back in during the lifeline timeframe, will now correctly be given the Quitter’s debuff. Awwww



Combat and Careers

 
Renown Ranks


General Changes & Bug Fixes

 
The cap for Renown Ranks for characters below Character Rank 36 has been increased. Instead of your Renown Rank being capped at your Rank, characters can now accumulate Renown and Ranks up to double their character Rank. This will allow characters to earn more Renown Ranks before entering each subsequent Tier.  Rat grinding, say bye bye to tru!



Battle Fatigue will now correctly be listed as a Debuff rather than Defensive. That's always confused me, didn't know it was a bug

 
You will no longer be able to use keep doors while under the effects of roots, knockdowns, or staggers.Good and bad at the same time.  I like escaping while staggered, I like staggering people, then they go through the door.

 
ONLY COMMENTING ON DOK

 
Disciple of Khaine






Balance Changes










Bleed Out: The tactic is now available at level 35. Meh ok






Efficient Patching: Replaces the former tactic Persistent Rending. The new tactic allows Patch Wounds to cleanse one Ailment or Hex from your entire group. Persistent Rending sucked, YAY! :D  but now I have one more tactic to try to argue with myself about.. :-(






Empowered Transfer: Increases Transfer Essence’s base heal to 125% and the healing from damage to 75%.






Essence Lash: This ability will now deal damage in a large radius in front of the target. For each enemy hit, you will regain 15 Soul Essence points. You will no longer receive Soul Essence upon activation alone. Not a good change IMO, I liked how it gave SE upon activation, oh wellz..






Khaine’s Invigoration: Replaces the former ability Consume Essence. The ability is quick heal on a short cooldown. It is available in the Path of Dark Rites at level 6 Sounds fun! But I didn't know consume essence was going bye bye =O  Oh well, wasn't that great anyways...





Rend Soul: This ability is now available in the Path of Sacrifice at level 6. Right when the patch comes out, I am going to spec into this and see how it does... I'm hoping for awesomeness.





Restored Motivation: Heals will now have a 25% chance to grant your target Action Points. You cannot give yourself Action Points.Not many doks used this tactic but I did all the time, this change sucks, I loved using RM to give myself loads of Morale really fast (I'm assuming they're changing that based on "will now")  So that really REALLY sucks haha






Terrifying Aura: The tactic is now available in Path of Torture at 7 mastery points. Path of Torture?  From what I remember I always used this more in healing spec, =O did I go wrong?






Thousand and One Dark Blessings: The duration has been reduced. Gay.  It was fine already IMO, a pretty overrated move. People act like it's a morale 1 or 2. haha.  It's still awesome though.






Transfer Essence: The ability will deal slightly less damage. The heal portion has been redesigned to heal the group for a moderate amount in addition to half of the damage dealt. The radius of the heal is the equivalent of most group effects and will now heal the Disciple of Khaine as well.Ahhh awesome






Bug Fixes


Fixed numerous tooltip issues.





Content






Quests  NO ONE DOES QUESTS!! Well Eka does.. wait so do I...


The quest rewards for the ‘Mob Mentality’ epic quest have been adjusted to ensure there is no confusion.



Fixed the victory conditions for ‘Enfold the Sty of Sigmar!’ and ‘Capture the Enemy Lair’ to ensure they fire correctly.

 
Items



General Changes and Bug Fixes



The Renown Rank and level requirements for several item sets have been reduced to allow players to use them sooner in their careers. This applies to the following sets: Annihilator, Conqueror, Invader, and Warlord.

 
o Annihilator – Level 25 to use, equipable at renown ranks 25-29Haha, ow.


o Conqueror – Level 35 to use, equipable at renown ranks 30-35 What a major change haha


o Invader – Level 39 to use, equipable at renown ranks 40-45 Can you say "OWNAGE IN T3!!"


o Warlord – Level 40 to use, equipable at renown ranks 54-60 At least this will give more equality in t4, VERY good idea by Mythic.  Will also discourage rat grinding


With the new ranks for the above sets, a new armor set has been added to fill in the gap between Warlord and Sovereign. This new set is named as “worn” and will be available from some shady merchants in the less populated areas of the capital cities. The set will not be as powerful as normal Sovereign, but will give a good interim edge for players as they move up in ranks. It requires level 40 to use and is equipable at renown ranks 63-70. MORE GEAR TO GRIND?!?! :-P


Fixed an issue that cause the bind location name for the Unshackled Host to appear incorrectly on the Book of Binding.

 
Fixed an issue where the tooltip on the Funerary Shroud of Khalida was displaying the incorrect value.


Gholros the Deathless should now properly drop loot.


Gorthlak should now properly drop loot.
Stein effects will now persist through death.
The Caretaker proc for Warrior Priests and Disciples has been adjusted so that the tooltip will accurately represent the amount of healing to be expected.
The Martyr proc for has been adjusted so that the tooltip will accurately represent the amount of healing to be expected.



The 7 piece Warlord bonus for Zealots should now properly dispel additiona hexes or curses.
The Harvest Blade has the correct icon for its item type.


All versions of the Elixir of Tahoth have had their reuse timer increased to 30 minutes


Item Stat Changes



Dark Ritual: Knight and Swordmasters should now have the option of 2 items with different stats at the completion of this quest chain.

 
Nightflame Pain Link and Painlink of Grief for the Witch Elf should now give Strength instead of Ballistic Skill. 


And the rest is meh
 
 
 
Kind of interested to see how people will react, and how effective the changes actually will be!A

7 comments:

  1. I am encouraged; I just resubbed a few days ago in anticipation of 1.4.1 and for lack of any decent PvP/RvR alternative on the market. I have armor in my vault that I hope will be given correct tooltips so I can use it right away. Cya on Gorfang.

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  2. I thought Tier 3 ended at rank 39.... I could be wrong though.

    Also, the new set (and old) will be purchasable with gold.

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  3. Actually I am wrong, as I never see Rank 39's in scenario's. The difference between Annihilator and Invader is not that large, especially compared to Sov+.

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  4. Gear gap, extra levels after rr80 and insane proc on mdps defensive Sovereign armor is not adressed ... this is what needs to be fixed.

    Yay! Huge gear gap in lower tiers too .. sigh!

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  5. I think we need to give this a few months to see how it goes -- if people entering T4 will now be in full invader with full warlord shortly after it should "help" address some of the gear gaps without upsetting the Doom/Warp wearers by nerfing their gear. It must help if more people are in higher then Anni when starting T4 but what remains to be seen is whether this will be enough to partially offset the Doom/warp imbalances. I say partially offset as I believe that people who gring that RR do deserve better gear, just not quite as "better" as it is now. Also sticking a renown increase back in for early 80's will help - I basically gave up on my RR81 Sorc wen i saw how low the renown had dropped after losing the RvR pack bonus so I will now revisit the Sorc and see if renown increases are improved

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  6. I don't think having Annihilator/Invader in T3 is going to be that bad given that you can wear anni straight out of T2, especially given that the "golden era" often looks back on Invader as the "standard". Sure, it's a bigger gear gap than there is now, but I don't think it's going to be that bad.

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  7. I am glad to see they are trying to lessen the gear gap. I have been ranting about that for months. It probably still isn't ideal, but something is better than nothing.

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