Grab Bag - October 11th, 2013

Player Questions & Developer Answers

Marty: We won’t be adding anything like this to the items themselves, but we would like to make changes to the UI system so that UI designers can add things like this to their custom UIs.

Talal: We are still planning to roll out those changes with 1.115, which is tentatively scheduled for the end of the year.

Marty: I just tested this with a RR1 L50 Ranger (50+9 Archery) vs. RR1 L50 Warrior (50+10 Shield) standing still, facing each other. The warrior passively blocked at least 2 out of each of 5 shots fired of each Archery shot type. Obviously, this is not a thorough test, but it’s good enough to convince me that blocking arrows does not require engage and happens more often than 1%.

John: We can certainly look at this. Once the NF revamp is done and enjoyed a few weeks of being stable and fun, we’ll be shifting our focus back to endgame PvE content as a lot of it needs polishing and updating. Expect more weapons around then. In terms of Class Balance (because I know you are all wondering!), we’ll still be adding changes here and there but we’d rather not introduce huge Class Balance changes (like last patch) around the same time of something as impactful as a New Frontiers revamp.

Marty: I assume this question is actually about stat buffs since pets don’t have stats:

• Strength buffs increase a pet’s melee damage.
• Constitution buffs decrease damage done to a pet.
• Dexterity buffs reduce a pet’s spell cast timer, decrease damage done to the pet and increase its chance to hit with archery and bolts.
• Quickness buffs reduce a pet’s melee attack timer.

Talal: We respect all play-styles. Certainly 8v8 combat can be some of the most strategic, rewarding, and compelling in the game. The idea of the various ‘best’ group setups comes into play heavily when we determine the direction of class balance and is also a big factor in our upcoming changes to the New Frontiers. Indeed part of our goals for those changes is to make NF a smaller and more engaging landscape for all players, including our fervent 8v8’ers. I suspect, however, that your question has more to do with incentivizing group vs. group fights in a general way.

We’ve had wish list meetings where we talked about an Arena system (2 groups enter…1 group /rofls.) but features such as this would almost certainly pull players away from the Frontiers to say nothing of the fact that it would require the dedication of nearly all of our resources for a nontrivial amount of time – so we always return to the feedback and do our best to apply the resources we have to features and changes that are requested most often by the highest number of players. That said, we’re always open to suggestions, so leave feedback, start a thread on PostCount, or get a discussion going amongst your friends and realm mates. We’re listening.

Marty: They’re checked in this order: target Evade, Parry and Block, then attacker Fumble and Miss.

John: It is a tradeoff with defense. An Armsman wearing Leather is going to get melee’d for a lot more than one wearing Plate armor.

John: There are a good number of spells which require revision and normalization. Customarily, longer re-use timers were an indication of a more powerful spell or ability, but what was true several years ago may not hold up in today’s game. We can look at adjusting these (and other) spells or abilities with a significant disparity in re-use timers. Please don’t hesitate to bring them to our attention via feedback or bug reports!

Talal: We can look into a Mob or an item which grants Artifact Experience for Pendragon. It’s certainly possible.

John: Halloween event is just around the corner. We’ll then be capping the final piece of the Pict event at or just after the NF revamp. Once the dust has settled around that we’ll begin a brand new long-term event and quest line in addition to the usual seasonal events we do. And yes, we’ll do the Infernal Merchants again, but probably not until next year.