InanAgain asks: Regarding creature rebalance, my bow skill is fairly high but I’m missing a LOT without my majors (coord and bow). My majors put my buffed skill about as high as people with a base of 380 or so and minors, or as high as 126+ folks working on maxing skills, and I’m still missing A LOT.
Orion_Turbine: Paper formulas don’t always translate into perfect practical application and the random number generator isn’t always as kind as everyone would like it to be. With that out of the way, hard numbers. Seraphs were indeed changed. Their skill in melee defense, missile defense and magic defense were all increased. The Valley of Death was created as a high level group hunting grounds. While in there it is expected that group members will be working together to collect their kills so the stats are higher than anywhere else. Hard numbers. With a buffed skill of 406 you will hit a Drudge Seraph 50% of the time, according to hard data. This considers being at the outer edge of the charge indicator on level ground. Currently being any further reduces that chance to hit by a significant amount. A bloodletter requires a buffed skill of 368 to hit 50% at the same restrictions as above. Again, hard numbers are one thing, applied is a different scenario. In melee distance you might find you hit better by varying your attack heights. There are several factors that contribute to lowering your skill against creatures. The main problem we see right now is the distance issue which we are working to alleviate.
Edit: I wanted to apply some reference numbers for meleers.
Bloodletters, 400 buffed skill to 50/50.
Seraphs, 430 to 50/50.
Both assume a 30% attack mod
[b]Rojon_[/b] states: Not for nothing, but I thought I read somewhere new monsters weren’t going to be designed to be beyond the abilities of most players.
Orion: The numbers that are provided are completely achievable. At 68 my UA has a buffed 416 UA, that is with 7’s. That includes a minor UA item and a major Strength item but the bloodletter is a creature that I am not yet ready to fight. As the Bloodletter weighs in at level 130 I wouldn’t expect to be facing him for another 25-30 levels. They are bad@$$, certainly not denying that, but in the end they are a creature that is well beyond the breadth of my character at the moment. Yet if I wanted to face them I could because I would hit them 50% of the time if I were paying attention to the fight. Now I am 68 spec UA, with a 100 strength and coord, buffed to the gills with a major and a minor that help me out, in 20 levels I will be more than able to handle those creatures around the time a trained character would be able to chance them for their much higher experience yield.
George_Clinton asks: Did Reapers get changed this patch? Anyone know if they have a new level/xp value?
Orion_Turbine: Yes they were changed as part of the monthly patch. If I remember correctly, at home at the moment, they are giving about 61.5 k now and their melee and missile d increased while their magic d remained about the same. Their level when down, I think they are around level 120. Sorry I can verify tomorrow morning.
-MrBean- states: (summarized) I think the values on the Marae Lassel creatures have been dropped too low.
Orion_Turbine: Most of the content on Marae Lassel remained untouched. Those creatures not yet updated will be fixed for the month of April.
BonoboM states: At level 65, I was just getting into Dires hunting. Now that is out of the question.
Orion_Turbine: Try pulling back to Dryreach, hunt the Tumeroks there. The creatures that you fought when you were 15-40 before are not the same creatures that you will see now. Everything has changed it is a brave new world out there ready to be rediscovered. Take the chance that there is a place where you will find a hunting niche, when you find tell others. Help them get to the same places you find. It is worth the small effort now to test against creatures that used to be considered trash monsters. Everything has changed greatly in a matter of moments. I know that it may seem difficult to understand and hard to adapt to at first but when you try this I think you will see that the changes are for the betterment of the game. One thing that I guarantee any fix that we put in April, the difficulty bar will remain higher. The challenge will still be there and hunting creatures that display as over 30 levels greater than you will still be very very difficult. Do yourself the favor of starting the testing to see where you like hunting now. You might be very surprised at where you end up.
Later: The redistribution map is a guideline, it’s not something that is set in stone. They are areas that are suggested level breaks. There are certainly some areas of the game world that are now dire. If you are really just looking to relax and get some good loot then that Mid North Areas between Arwic and Stonehold might suit your fancy.
BlahO-o asks: Are the Olthoi Mutilators hollow?
Orion_Turbine: Dark Ominous Voice: They said that we couldn’t make physical damage hurt without it being hollow…muhahahaha. J/K Truth is they are very very strong little guys with very big bad attitudes
BorderlineCase asks: Is the Master of the Pack spawning correctly?
Orion_Turbine: They are indeed spawning as they should be. Last month however the boss monster spawns were tweaked to be higher to allow people to collect the now retired versions of the boss monster drops, this month they have returned to their rare spawn rates.
urata states: Monsters casting Martyr’setacomb is not cool. Monsters have alot of health, monsters that are easy to kill otherwise can almost instakill me just because they have so much health and cast that spell.
Orion_Turbine: For the record there are no creatures that cast a level 7 hecatomb. And the misnamed Paradox was not supposed to have that spell so it is a bug. The toughest one is on the Sycophant and that is a 6 but they have health comparable to player of that level.
Maddy asks: I’m glad the issue of missile d of monsters was finally looked at, was really needed. I do have a question for you though. When you were looking at setting the missile d of the monsters for a given area, what type of “archer” did you use? Starting coord, how much XP into bow, shooting at full accuracy or not, etc
Orion_Turbine: All stats for creature across the board were calculated against the following character stats:
Spec in their main damage dealing skill (ie. Sword, Bow, War Magic)
80 as their starting core Attribute.
(ie. Coord/Strength for Melee, Coord for Missile, Focus/Self for Magic)
The experience spent into skills was what the normal flat melee, Missile or caster would spend. As this was not an exact science to game conditions we erred on the side of caution establishing a broad range for expected progression and pulled from these ranges depending on how difficult we wanted to make a monster vs. a particular monster type.
Yek Yai asks: Are the Marae Spawn Olthoi Nobles supposed to be near the Temple of Forgetfulness?
Orion: The Olthoi are supposed to be there.
Warwolf asks: (summarized) I don’t enjoy buffing. And if Platinums are the “end all be all of Golems” are level 7 buffs at 80+ a must? And if so, will they come on items?
Orion: You should not need level 7 spells to hunt at 80+. The rebalance did not take into consideration melee’s or archers buffed to gills. A person who is buffed with 7’s will oif course have a better chance but that is because of the higher skill ratio that 7’s will always grant. At this point we are not planning on putting 7’s on items, but we have entertained the thought.
Digi-Tekh asks: (summarized) I began the Quid orb dungeon at 30. With the spawn changes and the level restriction, how am I to finish it?
Orion: They should indeed spawn in lower areas up north. The upper level restriction was also removed from the portal. You just need to be level 20 now.
Eolorian asks: The Overlord holds what is now the most awesome quest sword in the game, yet swordsmen (meleers) have trouble with him? I have 433 buffed sword and +22% attack and I hit around 10% of the time on him. Is that right? Also, is the Overlord Sword supposed to not have Swiftkiller on it?
OrionSwift killer missing is intentional, you can buff it though. The Overlord himself is using the same sword, so you might want to throw a blade lure on it.
Trai asks: (summarized) I ran into an elemental that was nearly immnue to all drains. Was this intentional?
Orion: There are some creatures that are intentionally life resistant. This has been the case since they were first introduced, and will continue to be the case in the future. Some beings are so in tune with the ebb of Life that they are immune to it’s negative effects. It is unlikely that any of those will ever change.
