2008

Vanguard MMORPG Chat Log

stargrace March 13, 2008 0Comment

<~MMORPG_Taera> Greetings and welcome to MMORPG.com’s Live Chat on irc.coldfront.net! I’m your host, MMORPG.com’s community manager Laura "Taera" Genender. Joining us today is the Vanguard: SOH team!
<~MMORPG_Taera> Our guests will do their best to answer as many questions as possible, but due to limited time and a high volume of inquiries, they may not be able to answer every single one. Users are limited to one question at a time, and you will be notified if your question is rejected or discarded.
<~MMORPG_Taera> To ask a question, please /msg MMORPGBot Yourquestionhere
<~MMORPG_Taera> Now it’s time for introductions! Feel free to start sending your questions to MMORPGBot while our guests introduce themselves!

<+MoonliteSOE> Hi all! Im Sharon Morris, Head GM Moonlite; my team looks after all of your in-game petitions. Nice to see you all!
<+Ellyra> Hi everyone! I’m Julie aka "Ellyra", the Community Representative for Vanguard. Thanks for showing up, and I hope we can have a great chat!
<+PhaThom> Hello Everyone! Thom Terrazas here, Producer for Vanguard & mid-level Paladin on Seradon. I want to thank MMORPG for hosting the chat and all of you in attendance. Thank you for coming!
<+Silius> Hello everyone this is Silius, glad to see you all here.
<+Gebron> Hello everyone, this is Gebron the Demented… Code Monkey and technical Hub of All Blame. Thanks for coming, and please throw tomatoes at me this time, I still have bruises from the potatoes last chat…
<+GlipSOE> Hey everyone, I am Nick Parkinson aka Glip the Gnome. I am basically a miniature, better looking version of Thom. I’m involved in all things production (scheduling, coordinating, making fun of Silius, etc). Thanks for having us SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />

<@MMORPGBot> creasian asks, "Is there any news of a retail re-release and if do, how it will be handled?"
<+PhaThom> Hello Creasian, We are just starting Update #5 which includes a NEW starting area that we can keep our new players in the same general starting locations
<+PhaThom> The NEW area will help us in having an awesome acquisition program to market out to new players. A Re-Release will be evaluated when we are ready to launch that new island
<+PhaThom> Also, there may be some confusion on what a re-release is to some. Once we have the Isle of Dawn (The NEW area), we will have what we believe to be a very nice introductory to the game that transitions you very nicely into other areas. That is key to doing any re-release.

<+MMORPGBot> feythe asks, "Can we expect veteran awards to be taken away from accounts that did not actually deserve them?"
<+Silius> We are not going to remove free items from people because of a mistake on our end. These items are a gift and would have been attained by those that got them early if they stuck around. Hopefully we can release some more at a later date now that we are aware of what the problem was and can avoid it.
<+PhaThom> What we’re discussing at this point on the veteran rewards to actually create some additional items that we can give to only those that deserve it. We may not be able to taketh away, but we can giveth more to the rightful owners….

<+MMORPGBot> bvar asks, "Hi Id like to ask the question How far out are the developers currently with there next raid dugeon. What kind of things can we expect from it, and do the developers plan on working on raid dugeons continously to keep the raiders satitisifed in VG"
<+Silius> We have our next two dungeons in mind but planning on those will not start till later. Currently we will be releasing more overland raid mobs like we did with GU4 progressing the storyline of Haelifur and Torkald and his brothers.

<+MMORPGBot> kenji asks, "How is the balance (mit, evasion, hp, aggro) between the three tanks. And are all tanks truly viable in most situations."
<+Silius> Tanks are currently at a point where we are satisfied with the balance between them.

<+MMORPGBot> silentnoise asks, "What does SOE feel about the current reaction to Gu4 and how long before they will implement a patch to correct the issues?"
<+GlipSOE> Well, anytime you take something like customization away you expect a bit of backlash. So in that regards, we weren’t too surprised. However, we did what was ultimately in the best interest of the game – and as more folks get the chance to hop in game and play that’ll become more and more apparent.
<+GlipSOE> The flying mounts are going to have a pretty good reception too once players start finishing off those quests. Very few things are cooler than flying over all your buddies on a Griffon or Wyvern.
<+GlipSOE> As for when we’ll be patching next to fix any bugs that were introduced with GU4, expect something next week!

<+MMORPGBot> stabfast asks, "What is the real reason behind the group 4 Changes from Game Update 4? This is a game breaking change that will highly influence the vast majority of your current subscribers. Group 4 plays a vital role in the raiding experience as it is not only a means of fail safe from wipes, but also a play base substitution system for certain encounters. Please, give us a REAL incite into this change and not the same old "it’s
<+Silius> The reason is the same as has been posted a few times by me. Group 4 was never meant to loot. Only the people who participated in the killing of the mob were ever supposed to loot.

<+MMORPGBot> cyrcle asks, "What classes, if any are planned to be looked at or revamped for Game Update 5?"
<+Silius> Psi, Shaman, Cleric, Sor, Ranger, Bloodmage, and Disc

<+MMORPGBot> settha asks, "What are Vanguards long term plans after Brass City and GU 5?"
<+PhaThom> One of the things that will be looking at and I say "One" because we have plenty that we are planning on…is Progression Paths
<+PhaThom> We want to make sure they flow well throughout the world. From the Teens through level 50 content.
<+PhaThom> Truly, we have a lot of items on our roadmap at the moment and our focus is update 5 at the moment. The further we plan ahead makes it difficult to stick to
<+PhaThom> Our plans are laid out but we know that things change and we could potentially have something that needs to be placed that the top of the list from many different angles…

<+MMORPGBot> psikotick asks, "Why do AEs now go through Ward Shield for clerics as though it doesn’t exist? Secondly, why only one Argent Coil per Kotasoth kill, and only 1 egg per Dressla kill for Wyvern quest?"
<+Silius> That’s what we decided when the mount was put in. Dresla is an overland encounter getting a mount egg off of her is a bonus.

<+MMORPGBot> jazaar asks, "Why has the game decided to make such a dratic change and limit loot distribution amoung guilds whom have built a large player base?"
<+Silius> If you are talking about group 4 changes, it is a bug fix that was meant to be fixed a long time ago. We never intended loot to be distributed to more people then the people who actively killed the mob.

<+MMORPGBot> bob_niac asks, "Are bards always going to be Melee Heavy or will there be provisions made to allow Spell-Singers?"
<+Silius> Cannot speak on that at the moment, but when we start planning out AA then that may be something we put on the table.

<+MMORPGBot> dafuzzle asks, "what are your plans for the future in Vanguard?"
<+Gebron> Well we’ve sort of answered the question from a gameplay standpoint, but I can speak to the technical side of the fence.
<+Gebron> As you’ve no doubt noticed, we’ve made great strides in improving frame rate in the game, and next we’re tackling hitching.
<+Gebron> We’re about to start testing code which greatly, and I do mean greatly, reduces hitching in the game. We’re not done with it, and we’re excited enough about the result that we may be releasing it in phases rather than make you wait…
<+Gebron> the inevitable goal is to try and get the game to where it practically never hitches. We’re getting close! The change to how the game feels without hitching is… oh so sweet!

<+MMORPGBot> dificeman asks, "What kind of changes can we expect in GU5?"
<+GlipSOE> Update 5 is going to be focused around the new starting island that Thom talked about earlier. The goal of it is to provide a consistent (and awesome) newbie experience that will lead into the real meat of the game.
<+GlipSOE> There’s a handful of other features that we also have planned for GU5 (such as the class updates Silius mentioned) but at this point we’re not going to promise anything that isn’t finished yet. But we’ll definitely have the new starting island SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />

<+MMORPGBot> durnt asks, "when will they add gallions into the game- tier 5"
<+Silius> Trying to get it in as a part of update 5.
<+Ellyra> The question should be, "When they are in game, who is going to build one for Ellyra?" SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />

<+MMORPGBot> jrod asks, "When will the game trial be open?"
<+PhaThom> Trial: So we already have a lot of work completed on the Isle of Dawn and we are very busy on it for Update #5. However, the Isle of Dawn may launch just after Update #5 or as a subset of Update #5.
<+PhaThom> . I would love to put a date to it but as soon as I do, it may change and I will most definitely be “killed” by my team members :

<~MMORPG_Taera> Thank you for all the great questions! We will continue answering questions for another 15 minutes, but at this time, MMORPGBot is no longer taking new questions SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />

<+MMORPGBot> annul asks, "Why is it that spells longer then longer then instant now move to the target your selected on even if you started casting on a different mob… like cast a dot on one and check the mez on another and bam the dot is now on the mezed mob, im a lvl 48 necro on seradon."
<+Gebron> To be quite honest, that’s the first I’ve heard. We’ll certainly look into it, as that sounds quite annoying. We figured you were happy enough that your pets now hit your new target, we may as well stop your spells from hitting.
<+Gebron> kidding!

<+MMORPGBot> siela asks, "Will you be going through each of the classes the same way you have done for Druids, Necros, Paladins, Rangers, etc? Will it most likely be done several classes per patch? (When are Bloodmages a bot’o love? /wink)"
<+Silius> Yes

<+MMORPGBot> fujitsu-xeth asks, "Monks got some attention in gu3, but nothing in game update 4. Feign death dealy still isnt live, our class lead has been MIA for over a month, and drunken and dragon monks are wondering when they will get their useless skills fixed or changed to something meanigful. Stuff like foolhardy swagger (doesnt transfer hate) or sun dragons corona"
<+Silius> Monks received a pass recently and as we finish up the classes we will still fix bugs along the way. There are currently no plans to revisit monks again in the near future outside of bug fixing.

<+MMORPGBot> snapcase asks, "Are there any plans currently in the works to make the long-fabled RP-Ruleset server?"
<+GlipSOE> There are no plans for a dedicated RP server, but if you head on over to the forums Ellyra has opened up an RP section. SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />

<+MMORPGBot> mekron asks, "are there any plans to bring any of the classes that were not in launch to game?"
<+PhaThom> Honestly Mekron, we’re not planning on bringing any un-delivered classes to the game in the very near future. Basically in a round about fashion, not at this time
<+PhaThom> I would like to hear what you are interested in though

<+MMORPGBot> sanic asks, "will NPC boats ever get implemented to compliment other forms of travel like the riftways"
<+Silius> NPC boats have never been turned off. I can look into possible problems with them but they have been functioning since launch day.

<+MMORPGBot> khocha asks, "Any info you could give us about fishing? And with fishing, will there be a purpose? Such as a cooking your catch to make food?"
<+Gebron> Fishing is currently still in early development. We’re playing around with lots of ways to put "hooks" throughout the rest of the game that "tie" into fishing.
* +GlipSOE takes 10 points of pun damage
<+Gebron> We’ll have a more formal announcement with the full feature list in the near future. Stay tuned to the test server.

<+MMORPGBot> customprofil asks, "Will we be able to have a place like in SWG to hold our macros we create?"’
<+Gebron> We have a growing list of UI polish features, and we are starting to hand them out. Expect that one to come SOON™.

<+MMORPGBot> lsat asks, "Will we eventually see water mounts?"
<+Silius> Currently not planned but you never know.

<+MMORPGBot> gunney asks, "How is subscribership (game popularity) currently doing? on the rise I hope"
<+PhaThom> We’re “officially” not permitted to go into subscriber numbers unfortunately, but I would like to say things are very very good after our Free Play session recently ended going into Update 4 ?
<+PhaThom> not ? … = SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />

<+MMORPGBot> phathom asks, "Why is Phathom so hot?"
<+PhaThom> This seems to a problem that follows me everywhere I go…
<+PhaThom> Silly Taera SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />
<+PhaThom> I know you wrote that question originally
<~MMORPG_Taera> Oh, he wishes!

<~MMORPG_Taera> Thank you very much for joining MMORPG.com, the Coldfront team, and the Vanguard: SOH team for a wonderful Dev Chat! Round of applause to our guests, and a big thank you for joining us!
<~MMORPG_Taera> Logs will be posted shortly on MMORPG.com SMILEY<img mce_tsrc=" />

<+PhaThom> Thank you all!
<+GlipSOE> Moonlite is actually a fembot
<+Gebron> So long, and thanks for all the fish.
<+Ellyra> Thanks everyone for sticking around, and providing us with some great questions.

<~MMORPG_Taera> We apologize if we didn’t get to your question, we had almost 200 questions and only 60 minutes SMILEY<img src=" />

Impressions on GU4

stargrace March 12, 2008 5Comments

Servers came up yesterday two full hours before they were scheduled, which was a good thing. I’ve noticed that Vanguard typically seems to say they’ll be down for 4-6 hours but end up being up before the designated time. Always a plus in my eyes. I logged into game, and three of my characters faces were very noticeably different. The kojan half elf (Satia) is ok, she escaped mostly unharmed, as did the Kojan human (Arysh pictured above). However, Ishbel the dark elf, Ysandria the high elf, and poor Minxes, the Thestran Human, were not so lucky. Their eyes are too big, chins are far too long, and faces too narrow. Yes, it’s something I noticed. Will I quit the game over it? No of course not. I’m attached to my characters but I’ll make due. It’s not the end of the game like so many had prophesied. I eagerly logged in game to see if I could cover up those ugly heads with helmets.

Well, my characters are all lowbie still, they don’t wear the most unique of gear. Satia especially due to the fact that she wears cloth. Her helmet is huge and looks like the popes hat dyed a few different colours with a large blue stone in the middle. At least her face is ok though. Arysh can now gore people to death with her horn (pictured above) and Minxes can simply fall backwards and stab out an eye with the sharp spike on the back of her helmet. There’s an option to turn those off though, so again I’m not too concerned.

Half the guild logged in and ran towards flying mounts right away. From what I’ve heard there’s a few bugs at the start, when you agro some griffins the babies won’t drop their feathers, or something. I’m not big enough to test this out myself yet, needing quite a few more levels (the flying mount quests start at level 45). You get some pretty great gear upgrades from the quests though, and speaking of gear upgrades, wow. Green gear was given an overhaul and revamped, it can now compete with crafted gear. Which is exactly something I wanted to see. Vanguard crafted gear was 10x as good as pretty much anything out there for that level aside from APW gear. No longer is that the case. Is there still a market for crafted? Of course, always will be, but it won’t have the exact power that it used to hold before over adventurers. That’s fine by me speaking as a crafter, I hated the way I basically ‘controlled’ the game through my wares. I made lots of money very fast selling lowbie items because nothing quested could compare. Now you might argue that I deserved it, for the hours and hours I devoted into crafting. Doing quests, working faction, but that’s no more time then any adventurer puts into their character (except of course I level slower, since I don’t adventure nearly as much as I craft).

Dusts dropping from nodes. This is something that was a fantastic change- however it needs to be toned down. They drop far too frequently. Dusts will soon be worthless. I’d like them to at least still retain their value on the market. No, not the crazy 3-5p I’d seen on some crystals, but there’s got to be a smoother method of implementing this. I basically got a dust off of every harvest, and plenty of rare ones. They also added items to mobs that you can deconstruct into a rare resource or dust. I like this idea, but I fear it will just lower the price even more of crafted goods, with an influx. Depending on how many people adventure and get these to drop. In my day of playing yesterday, I saw at least 14 drop. I deconstructed into resources instead of dusts due to the huge amount of dusts that dropped.

I see the game is down right now (for a hotfix I assume) and I can’t check notes because the vanguardplayers is down for maintenance as well. I logged in with an extra 10fps, which was great. The new riftways (once you fix your version of infomap, drox, core, or whatever other custom UI you use) are amazing, the lowered costs on flying mounts also great. They nerfed the veteran reward potions from 2h to 1h, which was a shame, but on the plus side the timers are now out of game, fantastic.

Numerous bugs were fixed, too numerous for me to name and I’m pleased with all of that. It’s great, and over all I feel that this GU was a huge hit. People were excited. Now, remember I also don’t keep public channels on. Apparently not everyone shared in my opinions over the GU and they made this very apparent. Silius himself came into the craft channel again when I asked if the rifts worked based on your adventure level only (they’ll only unlock if you’re in a level range of the rift) or if it was all spheres. No one could answer for sure so he piped in and let me know it was for all spheres. I love the changes to the names of nodes. I dislike the large round circles they’ve placed over the heads of mobs for a con system. Mobs work by dots, two dots is solo, three is small group (though most can solo) four is small group five is full group, and six dots is a raid encounter. They look like horribly drawn eyes hovering over the mobs heads. I also dislike how the named in game ALL HAVE THEIR NAME SPELLED IN CAPITALS, SO YOU CAN’T MISS THEM. I think that was going overboard. Yes, it makes them visually easier to see (they’ve also increased the spawn rates on named, and ALL named drops are bind on pickup and can not be deconstructed any more) but did they have to take it that far? I play Vanguard for the challenge, if I can’t tell if a named is really a named or not, maybe I need to switch to Hello Kitty.

I still stand by the game though as a loyal customer. I think even more good things are planned for the future, and I know their subscriptions are up over the last five months, so they’ve got to be doing something right. We’ll see what today’s tweaks hold.

I Want to Look Cool, Too!

stargrace March 11, 2008 2Comments

In pretty much every mmo I’ve played (and no, I have not played many I admit that right now) the ‘cooler’ your armor looks, the better a character you have. This is very apparent when you get into EQII and VG (EverQuest2 / Vanguard) especially. Vanguard more so then most. There’s not many items in the game that have particle effects. When you spot a few items that do, you know they’ve got to be awesome, and you’d be correct almost 90% of the time. Notice me, standing to the right, wearing my drab baby blue cloak, orange and red shoulders, and a collection of mish mash from random quests. I’m very obviously a lowbie. Then, to my left we see “Champion Vashazir” who is decked out in sparklies. His bow is by far one of the coolest graphics I’ve seen for gear in Vanguard, it sparkles like ice. His weapon (a hammer or mace of some sort?) also glows with a purple aura. His armor is dark and foreboding, good for a race that’s a cat and may not seem so intimidating to most creatures out there who just want to point and laugh as they cough up a hairball. I examined him and sure enough he’s wearing raid gear from Ancient Port Warehouse (APW, the one raid area in Vanguard- until today when they release more raid content) so he’s certainly just as ‘uber’ as I thought he was when I looked at him from across the bank.

Now if only Vanguard would fix the font in game, doesn’t that look horrid? I know I can turn names off, but then I can’t really see anyone and that just makes it annoying (for those who are wondering, and I know you are, N is the toggle for names, go figure). The game’s down for at least another two hours, I’ve been checking for UI updates, but I haven’t seen one for Drox yet. I did install CoreUI3 to see how it runs and how I like it compared to DroxUI, which I have not seen an update for yet. If all else fails, I’ll just continue to use default, which is honestly not that bad. I’m just very used to being able to see things a certain way some times. Plus I have my G15keyboard and I’d be lost without it.

The patch notes posted below are great. I see so many good changes. I hope people spend more time praising the 100 new things they’ve added instead of the 5 things that may (will) go wrong. Those notes are proof right there of the changes that are happening in Vanguard. Are these things that should have been fixed at release? Of course they are, but as long as progress is being made (and it very obviously is) I’m happy. Vanguard will never be one of those ‘super power house’ games out there, it won’t compete with WoW for subscribers or even EverQuestII, but there’s still a good niche of players who will flock to it I think. It’s got the potential to gather more still, if SoE plays their cards right. They need a relaunch of the game (which was in the works, but I haven’t heard anything more of it lately) and a lot more fixes. Polish, as it were. In the mean time, I’m still having a blast playing.

If you’re in any SoE games and want to send me a tell, please, feel free to /tell vgd.seradon.satia ! I always love to talk.

Vanguard – Game Update4 Notes

stargrace March 11, 2008 1Comment

Hotfix Notes March / 11 / 2008
Vanguard Update 4

1. Flying Mounts
2. Riftway Revamp
3. Character Optimizations / Helmets
4. Overland Raid
5. Class Updates
6. Refund Points
7. Veteran Rewards
8. Bug Fixes / Performance
9. Patch Notes

1. Flying Mounts
With Update 4 we have added the first two permanent flying mounts into Vanguard. Griffons and wyverns are now available for players to attain. Head to Southwatch to begin the griffon quest and to Ancient Port Warehouse for the wyvern.

2. Riftway Revamp
Also featured in Update 4 is a revamp to the riftway system. At level 10, once arriving at the first outpost after the newbie experience, the player will encounter the first riftway stone. These riftways are placed within all similarly leveled outposts, and are available immediately as options for travel. In addition, there will be a quest-giver at each riftway with ‘region introduction quests’, giving an overview of what content is to be found in each region as well as a delivery quest to visit a main quest giver in that region located near the riftway.

UI
Riftway locations are represented on the map. When moused over they will show an outpost name, region name, and level range. If the riftway is available to the player it will show up in color, and if not then it will be grey. When an available riftway location is clicked and the player has required cost, the player is teleported to that location.

Cost
Riftways will be tiered and color coded by level range and each tier will have a different cost to travel. This will ensure that lower level players should always be able to afford to get to where they need to go while at the same time not trivializing the cost for higher level players.

3. Character Optimizations / Helmets
These two updates go hand in hand, because one allows us to do the other. First, we have done a lot of optimizations to player characters. By eliminating extra bones in the PC model faces we were able to add several visible helmets – which would have otherwise been interfered with by those extra bones. The end result is less customization in the facial area but better performance for the character models and brand new visible helmets.

4. Overland Raid
Many years after being driven into hiding by his murderous brothers, Fengrot Foulbreath has emerged from his slumber beneath the stagnant waters of Thelaseen.  Although diminutive compared to his brothers, Fengrot makes up for this by being twice as cruel and ill-tempered as any of the other Sons of Torsheim.  Having made a pact with Krigus, spirit of disease and decay, Fengrot hopes to use the spirit’s power to destroy his most hated enemy – his brother, Torkald Who Mourns.

Fengrot is an overland raid target appropriate for 18 well equipped, high level players.

5. Class Updates
Three adventuring classes have received significant attention this update. They are the druid, dread knight and paladin. The main thing we did with each class was, after fixing broken or underdeveloped abilities we sat down and took a look at each of the three classes and evaluated where it was with our overall vision. After that, we made the necessary changes, be it altering abilities, adjusting DPS or a variety of other things. For a complete list of the updates, check out the detailed notes below. 

6. Refund Points
If you’ve ever regretted putting attribute points into a certain stat as you level up, we now have a way for you to fix that! Players can now purchase refund points for all non-automatically allocated attribute points from their trainers. The initial refund will be free, but then the price will rise progressively each additional time refund points are purchased.

7. Veteran Rewards
Veteran Rewards have been added to the /claim window. Rewards include titles, special items (such as vanity pets) and a set of furniture to place inside your house. Veteran rewards are available for players who have had active accounts for six months or more. Additional rewards are available every two months after that. Enjoy!

8. Bug Fixing / Performance
A good deal of time this update, especially for the programming department, has been spent fixing bugs and improving performance. In terms of the bugs, we tried to target issues that fell into one of two categories. First we obviously wanted to make sure any game breaking issues or bugs were fixed but after that we tried to focus on getting rid of as many small, annoying bugs as possible. Usability is a big focus, and we want to make sure the play experience is as seamless for players as possible. A full list of our bug fixes and performance tweaks can be found below.

9. Patch Notes
Vanguard Build 2002 Patch Notes 3/11/2008 – GAME UPDATE 4

GENERAL
– Wyvern flying mount quest is now available
– Griffon mount quest is now active
– There are now no fly zones around certain areas of content.
– Helmets are now visible
– Riftways have been revamped
– Veteran Rewards are now available for those who have been around for 6 months or longer.
– All adventuring consumables now share three cooldown timers. Each consumable either has a 2 minute shared cooldown (for all health, energy, and endurance renewal consumables), a 5 minute shared cooldown (for all ‘burst’ buffs) or a 15 minute shared cooldown (for all long duration buffs).
– All 30 minute duration buffs from item clicks have had their duration reduced to 15 minutes.
– Anevka’s Renewal now shares a cooldown with low cooldown crafted consumables.
– Named NPC items have had their item power increased.
– All named drop items are now BOP
– All named drop items are no longer deconstructable
– All named now spawn more often
– PVP – All fears should now stun in pvp. They will all be set to half the duration of your normal fear, with 30% diminishing returns and have a 25% chance to break on damage.
– Recasting mez on a target will no longer strip the previous mez. This is also true if the mez attempt is resisted.
– Refresh timers will now count down while offline.
– Quest timers will now count down while offline.
– Fix for a pet ability exploit.
– You can now right-click on a player name link in the chat window to get a context menu for that player, which allows you to do various things like send them a tell, ignore them, add them to friends list, and more. You can also right-click on a player in the game world to get a context menu for them that has the additional options that require you to be close to them, such as inspect, invite to brotherhood, caravan, etc
– Holding down shift and left clicking on an item in your inventory when the market/broker window is open will paste the name of the item into the item search field of the broker window, unless you are currently typing in the chat window, in which case it will paste an item link into the chat window as normal.
– Right-clicking on one of your friends in the friends list of the Social window now brings up a context menu for that friend, allowing you to send them a tell, invite them to a group, and more.
– NPC’s that are rare spawns/bosses will display their names in all capitals so they can be distinguished from other NPC’s.
– Added display option for showing the dot strength of NPC’s in the 3D view (called show NPC difficulty).
– Added display option for player cloak. Now it can be hidden if desired.
– Added option to hide player helmets.
– Teleporting dockmasters have been removed from the game
– All adventuring trainers now have an XP reduction ability which will reduce XP gain to 0 when toggled on.
– You may no longer loot a raid NPC if you were not one of the 18 people engaging the NPC.
– You can no longer drain life to someone engaged in a different raid.
– You may no longer swap in equipment while casting
– Casting any spell at all will now force a dismount if you are in combat. If flying, you will be unable to cast. This also applies to bard songs.

ADVENTURING
– Bard – Lightning Kisses the Ground – Lowered the duration of the critical vulnerability to 10 seconds, but removed the # of hits portion of the duration.
– Bard – Aria of Calm Thoughts – Now increases spell accuracy and damage by 3% and spell crit chance by 2%. It no longer reduces energy costs.
– Bard – Chorale of Calm Thoughts – The name of this ability has been changed to Aria of Calm Thoughts and it is now a lyric component. Its cost has been lowered to 4 energy per sec., down from 10.
– Bard – Hazoc’s Harmony of Haste – The name of this ability has been changed to Hazoc’s Hymn of Haste and it is now a chorus component. Its cost has been increased to 5 energy per sec. to match other choruses.
– Bard – Fox Overtakes the Hare – The third version of this attack now has the proper critical hit bonus.
– Bard – Asilam’s Disenchanting Cry now has a 25m range.
– Blood Mage – Scarring Pact no longer stacks with itself. Blood Pact no longer stacks with itself.
– Blood Mage – Added combat text feedback for blood link and scarring pact so that you know why you are taking damage.
– Blood Mage – You can no longer share a blood link, spirit link, or scarring pact with someone engaged in another raid.
– Cleric – Fixed a bug causing Strike Down not to stack with Speed of Ghalnn.
– Cleric – Speed of Ghalnn no longer incurs global recovery
– Cleric – It should no longer be possible to retain access to path specific abilities if you abandon that path and choose another.
– Cleric – Turning Attempts will now regenerate one at a time rather than all at once (similar to Druid Phenomena Points).
– Dread Knight – Apothic Shield now has a refresh of 10 minutes.
– Dread Knight – Changed Hatred Incarnate to increase all damage instead of just melee damage.
– Dread Knight – If you are using a one-handed Arazmus weapon, you may trade it in for a two-handed Arazmus.
– Dread Knight – Bane is now instant cast, down from 4 seconds.
– Dread Knight – Bleak Foeman is now usable only with a 2 handed weapon equipped.
– Dread Knight – Black Wind is now a cone melee attack. It deals melee damage plus damage and adds hate. This ability can only be used with a 2 handed weapon.
– Dread Knight – Devour Strength now drains dexterity instead of Vitality.
– Dread Knight – Increased the damage on Torture
– Dread Knight – Increased the damage on Incantation of Hate.
– Dread Knight – Lowered the duration on Incantation of hate to 24 seconds.
– Dread Knight – Lowered overall energy costs
– Dread Knight – Removed the increased endurance costs on the Ebon Blade combat form.
– Dread Knight – Ominous Fate no longer triggers global recovery
– Dread Knight – Ominous Fate I-III now stun for 2, 3, 4 seconds respectively
– Dread Knight – Ominous Fate now has a 30 second refresh
– Dread Knight – Vile Howl now has a 5 minute refresh
– Dread Knight – Vile Howl now snares.
– Dread Knight – Vile Howl is now instant cast.
– Dread Knight – Vile Howl No longer requires DC 3+ to cast.
– Dread Knight – Added new ability line Mutilate at level 20. Upgrades every 10 levels.
– Dread Knight – Your forms no longer grow in power as your Dreadful Countenance increases. They start off at the old max numbers. This does not affect Dreadful Countenance.
– Dread Knight – You now have Weapon Shield while wielding a two handed weapon in defensive form. This ability is innate and gives you block chance that increases over levels.
– Dread Knight – Added new ability line Hex of Ill Omen at level 18. Upgrades every 10 levels.
– Dread Knight – Added new ability line Hex of Impending Doom at level 28. Upgrades every 10 levels.
– Dread Knight – Symbol of Suffering has been changed to Anthamine’s Charge. This ability is no longer a Symbol and is only usable with a 2 handed weapon.
– Dread Knight – Increased damage on Anthamine’s Charge.
– Dread Knight – Lowered the cast time on Abyssal Chains to 1 second.
– Druid – Soothe I is now available at level. You will start with this ability.
– Druid – Rampant Roots now costs 3 PP.
– Druid – Treeshape can now be cancelled.
– Druid – Increased damage on Star Mantle.
– Druid – Added new ability Wolfshape to trainers at level 8. This ability gives you the appearance of a wolf.
– Druid – Added new finishing ability, Summon Magma Elemental at level 26. It upgrades every 10 levels. This elemental will take an available elemental slot, but will be much stronger than the Earth Elemental.
– Druid – Hierophant’s Boon now has a refresh of 15 minutes.
– Druid – Hierophant’s Boon has been moved to level 10.
– Druid – Stormcaller’s Fury now procs off of spell casts as well as melee attacks.
– Druid – Increased the energy cost of Piercing Roots
– Druid – Increased the hit points, damage and hit rating of your summoned earth elementals
– Druid – Taproot now stops the player from moving while it is active. If you are moving while casting, it will root you in place, but will not break.
– Druid – Taproot no longer breaks when you cast spells.
– Druid – Roseberries have had their heal increased in power.
– Druid – Seer’s Intensity now increases run speed by 60%
– Druid – Seer’s Intensity no longer shape shifts you into a wolf.
– Druid – Seer’s Intensity now increases intelligence and spell haste
– Druid – Renamed Wolfshape to Seer’s Intensity
– Druid – Earthquake now costs 12 phenomena points
– Druid – Life Stream now costs 15 phenomena points
– Druid – Tranquility now costs 10 phenomena points
– Druid – The Brilliant Aurora ability line now has a 10 minute refresh timer.
– Druid – The Brilliant Aurora ability line now costs 15 phenomena points to cast.
– Druid – Summon Ancient Colossus is now Nature’s Tempest. Nature’s Tempest is a 15 second buff that lowers all spell costs to 0 and increases damage by 15%. It also summons 2 elementals to fight for you for 3 minutes.
– Druid – Therianthropy lowers the energy and endurance cost of all abilities for all defensive targets within 25m for 10 seconds.
– Druid – Renamed Wolf Pack to Therianthropy.
– Druid – Removed Wolf Pack II
– Druid – Added new spell line Antshape to trainers at level 14.
– Druid – Quelling Winds no longer causes NPCs who aren’t in combat to aggro.
– Druid – Quelling Winds is no longer focused and pulsing.
– Druid – Quelling Winds is now a targeted AE with a 25m range.
– Druid – Added new spell line Ire to trainers at level 4. This spell upgrades every 8 levels.
– Druid – Nature’s Wrath no longer has a resistance debuff component.
– Druid – Updated your Earth Elemental display models. They now look like golems instead of rock turtles.
– Druid – Added new spell line Wither to trainers at level 24. This spell upgrades every 8 levels.
– Druid – Summon Earth Elemental now has a 2.5 second cast time.
– Druid – You now gain the passive ability Earth Mastery at level 6. This ability explains how many elementals you can summon at each level.
– Druid – A summoned earth elemental now lasts for 3 minutes
– Druid – Summon Earth elemental now summons pets that can be commanded.
– Druid – Deadly Swarm now deals less damage in PVP.
– Druid – Deadly Swarm now has a 2 minute refresh
– Druid – Deadly Swarm now costs 7 Phenomena Points.
– Druid – The duration between ticks on Deadly Swarm has been lowered to 2 seconds, down from 4. This makes the spell a shorter duration with the same damage.
– Druid – Starfall has had its damage increased.
– Druid – Starfall now costs 10 Phenomena Points
– Druid – Starfall now has a 2 minutes refresh
– Druid – All berries are now soulbound
– Druid – Added new ability line Bountiful Harvest to trainers at level 50.
– Druid – Mottleberries, Sageberries and Roseberries are now on a 1 minute shared refresh timer.
– Druid – All versions of Sageberries now have 10 charges.
– Druid – The damage over time portion of Venomous Thorns now lasts 8 seconds instead of 16. The damage was not adjusted.
– Druid – Call Lightning now has a 25% base chance to crit.
– Druid – Call Lightning now costs 1 phenomena point
– Druid – Soothe is now instant cast
– Druid – The heal over time portion of Soothe has been increased.
– Druid – The heal over time portion of Soothe has been
– Druid – Soothe now has a 6 second refresh timer
– Druid – Soothe now costs 5 phenomena points and no longer costs energy
– Druid – You now have 20 phenomena points at level 1. Your pool size will increase by 5 every 5 levels until level 40. These will regenerate at a rate of 2 per minute.
– Druid – Phenomena are now available at level 1.
– Druid – Stormcaller’s Fury no longer deals damage through invulnerability.
– Monk – It should no longer be possible to retain access to path specific abilities if you abandon that path and choose another.
– Necromancer – Lich – Added new ability line Necrotic Clutch. This ability is available at level 30 and upgrades every 10 levels.
– Necromancer – Wraith – Added new spell line Ghastly Revenge. This ability is available at level 30 and upgrades every 3 levels afterwards.
– Necromancer – Wraith Acolytes now function
– Necromancer – Lich acolytes heal at a rate of once every 4 seconds instead of once every 10 seconds.
– Necromancer – Destroyer minions now attack at range with bows!
– Necromancer – Destroyer minions look differently
– Necromancer – Zealot minions now appear differently.
– Necromancer – Increased the chance that the Zealot minion will hit its target.
– Necromancer – Skin of the Xakrin now functions differently. It will apply its buff when equipping the skin graft on your abomination. Also, this skin appears as a humanoid jackal on your abomination.
– Necromancer – Wraith necromancers now look different.
– Necromancer – Spectre’s Touch has been adjusted. The following changes have been made: now has a 2 second cast timer, 15 second refresh timer, costs health to cast, lowered energy cost, increased damage and removed the portion that drained energy.
– Necromancer – Death Touch will now deal a large amount of damage to your target if they are immune to the Killing Blow portion of the ability.
– Necromancer – Enshroud now has a casting animation.
– Necromancer – Enshroud is now group targeted.
– Necromancer – Ritual of Necropotence now has a 3 second cast time and no refresh time.
– Necromancer – Ritual of Necropotence now grants a damage buff instead of granting free spells.
– Necromancer – Carrion of Corruption and Carrion of Depravation now despawn after 1 minute, up from 30 seconds.
– Necromancer – Carrion of Corruption has been renamed to Orb of Corruption. The spell now appears as a flaming orb over the NPC corpse.
– Necromancer – Lowered the cast timer of Necropsy to 1 second.
– Necromancer – Added a line of text to the description of Despoiling Blight to indicate that the ability can only be active on one target at a time. This restriction has always been there, but it was never indicated.
– Paladin – Champion’s Might is a passive buff that is active whenever you have a shield equiped. It is a 15% damage increase to melee attacks.
– Paladin – Virtue will now regenerate at a rate of one point every two minutes.
– Paladin – Increased the damage of Aegis Strike slightly.
– Paladin – Increased the damage of Guardian’s Assault.
– Paladin – A 12 second refresh has been placed on your combat forms. This means that once you enter a form you will be unable to switch out of that form for 12 seconds.
– Paladin – Righteous Supplication has been added to trainers at level 12. This ability will restore all virtue points and can be used every 20 minutes.
– Paladin – Blessing of Life, a new Gift of Virtue (group heal over time), has been added to trainers at level 30.
– Paladin – The damage caused by Sunburst has increased slightly.
– Paladin – Sunburst now only affects one target, costs one virtue and adds an amount of hatred in addition to the damage that it does.
– Paladin – Dictum of Valus now has a 10 second refresh and no longer incurs global cooldown.
– Paladin – Final stand now has a 10 minute refresh timer and requires a shield to use.
– Paladin – Lay on Hands now has a 2 minutes and 30 second refresh timer, down from 5 minutes.
– Paladin – Succor’s refresh timer has been lowered to 5 minutes.
– Paladin – Paragon now costs 6 virtue, lasts for 2 minutes and has a 4 minute refresh time.
– Paladin – Fury of Valus now costs 6 virtue, has a 5 minute refresh and no longer incurs global recovery.
– Paladin – Zeal is now trainable at level 12.
– Paladin – Zeal now costs 3 virtue, has a 2 minute refresh, lasts for 30 seconds and no longer incurs global recovery.
– Paladin – Increased the damage of Judgment of the Bloodthirsty.
– Paladin – Increased the damage of Judgment of the Impure.
– Paladin – Increased the range of Smite to 45 meters and lowered the refresh time to 6 seconds.
– Paladin – Increased the damage added by Blood Oath and lengthened its max duration to 5 minutes, up from 60sec. The description has changed to better explain the duration.
– Paladin – Shield of Resolve now returns endurance to the whole group. The values returned have increased and particles have been added to make it more apparent when the effect goes off.
– Paladin – Shield of Solace now heals the group when the paladin is struck by an attack. The base value of this heal is now displayed in the ability text as well and particles have been added to help identify when it is working.
– Paladin – Stroke of Conviction and Stroke of Fervor both function correctly with shield consecrations.
– Paladin – Stroke of Fervor now deals 350% weapon damage, up from 200%.
– Paladin – Stroke of Conviction now deals 300% weapon damage, up from 200%.
– Paladin – Strike of Gloriann now increases block ability ty 14% in addition to its previous effects.
– Paladin – Both Hammer and Might of Valus now deal 400% weapon damage.
– Paladin – Aura of Divine Power now grants a 6 to 12 percent increase in accuracy as levels are gained.
– Paladin – Courage has changed. A new version has been added at level 48 and previous ranks have had their levels changed to make a more gradual curve. This changes the values of the armor class portion of the buff in the mid levels. The Courage I and Superior Courage both retain their original values for armor class increase. The hit point portion of the ability have been slightly increased and will now stack with all other buffs. The new rank of Courage is available at trainers.
– Paladin – Aura of Replenishment has changed. It now increases the power of heals by 30%, lowers energy costs by 4% and reduces casting times by 8%. These bonuses only affect the paladin. The frequency of the regeneration pulses has increased to 10 seconds, up from 5. Because of this, the amount returned has increased.
– Paladin – Healing Touch has had its cast time lowered to 2.5 seconds and refresh time removed.  Energy cost has increased and healing amount has been lowered.
– Paladin – Retribution – Added a new counter attack, available at level 12.
– Paladin – Rescues – It is no longer possible to gain virtue points by using rescues.
– Paladin – Contrition – Is now a shield attack that adds a small amount of hate over time to the attacker of your defensive target. It no longer has a force target component and so it does not add the force target immunity.
– Paladin – Virtue Points will now regenerate one at a time rather than all at once (similar to Druid Phenomena Points).
– Paladin – If you are using a two-handed Arazmus weapon, you may trade it in for a one-handed Arazmus.
– Ranger – Arrow/ Bolt recipes should no longer show up 10 levels before you can forage the components to make them.
– Ranger – Blade of the Equinox is now marked as a Finishing Attack instead of just a Melee Attack.
– Rogue – Drub now costs 8 endurance
– Shaman – level 15+ – Your Patrons have been removed. Please visit a trainer in Khal, Dark Horse Tracks, Halgarad, House of Fallen Leaves or Martok to do a quest and choose your new patron. (Note: All of your patron abilities will be removed when you login and will remain that way until you complete the new patron quest.)
– Shaman – There is a new Patron choosing quest available that includes the option to respec – the first respec is free. Please visit a shaman trainer in one of the following areas: Dark Horse Track, Khal, Halgarad, House of Fallen Leaves or Martok.
– Sorcerer – Forget is now % based and has a 30 second refresh.
– Sorcerer – Nulling Ward is now a targeted AE instead of a point blank AE.
– Warrior – Bastion of Steel now has a 10 minute refresh time, down from 15.
– Warrior – If you are using a two-handed Arazmus weapon, you may trade it in for a one-handed Arazmus.

CRAFTING
– Added an "Assemble All" feature to the crafting assembly window. Once enabled it will continue assembling the recipe you selected until you run out of one or more of the ingredients necessary for the recipe, or until you toggle it back off.
– All Gawrut Kern NPCs have been moved closer to the crafting area.
– Korma Rett at the Tawar Galan crafting area now offers recipe training.
– Kenta at the Tawar Galan crafting area now sells crafting equipment as well as utilities.
– Harvesting nodes yield and loot tables have been cleaned up and will now drop resonance and focusing dusts. The types of dusts they will drop are based on their material.
– All harvesting nodes now use a tier specific labeling on their names and a consistent look regardless of rarity. They way they spawn has not been adjusted. The new display names are as follows
Metal
Tier 1 Metal Node
Tier 2 Large Metal Node
Tier 3 Rich Metal Node
Tier 4 Metal Vein
Tier 5 Large Metal Vein
Tier 6 Rich Metal Vein

Stone
Tier 1 Small Mineral Cluster
Tier 2 Medium Mineral Cluster
Tier 3 Large Mineral Cluster
Tier 4 Small Mineral Deposit
Tier 5 Medium Mineral Deposit
Tier 4 Large Mineral Deposit

Plant
Tier 1 Jute
Tier 2 Cotton
Tier 3 Firegrass
Tier 4 Silkbloom
Tier 5 Vielthread
Tier 6 Steelweave

Wood
Tier 1 Weakened
Tier 2 Barbed
Tier 3 Dry
Tier 4 Knotted
Tier 5 Dusky
Tier 6 Aged

DIPLOMACY
– Diplomacy Masks are now available! Give the facets earned by doing writs to lapidarians in New Targonor, Ahgram, and Tanvu. You can then use the near-by diplomacy assembly tables to attach gems to the masks. Base masks for gem socketing and the glyptic dust needed to carve the gems are both sold by the lapidarians. See them for more details!
– Mask gems and finished masks are no longer soulbound. Mask gems are tradeable and the finished masks are now bound when equipped.
– All diplomacy containers have had their total capacity increased.
– Smelly Cat’s cards can now be obtained off of civic parleys. The cat will still drop diplomacy equipment when defeated.
– Mixmaster Macken’s parleys now require Academic presence.
– "Missing In Action" parleys in the Ancient Port Warehouse should now give the proper amount of prestige faction.
– Civic diplomacy now has a chance to drop additional rewards upon successful completion of a parley. The rewards included are from all three spheres.
– Diplomacy masks that include three rare gems now give some presence and a special Statement. The Statement can only be used when the mask is equipped.

WORLD POPULATION
– Ancient Port Warehouse – It is no longer possible to summon a boat within the port of Innovus.
– Ancient Port Warehouse – Spawnable bosses in APW now drop Hoptonian Ore.
– Ancient Port Warehouse – The Core Processor will now mitigate spell damage as it was intended to do.
– Ancient Port Warehouse – The Core Processor will now recognize when the Assault Module/Defense Matrix have returned to battle and will once again take advantage of their presence.
– Ancient Port Warehouse – Akym’s Dagger is now displaying as a heroic instead of legendary weapon. In addition the damage and delay have both been increased slightly. Otherwise the stats remain relatively unchanged.
– Ceros Island – All ceros island quest rewards have been moved to Sloggerosh except for the mask rewards which are now drops of Pharaoh Harakhan in Nusibe Necropolis.
– Craigwind – Craigwind shrine events have been fixed
– Hegnerian – Some changes were made to Hegnerian and the three guards before him to help prevent bottlenecking. All loot has been removed from their tables and will now be obtainable through repeatable quests. These quests can be obtained in the Spore Chamber on a new npc, Fon Cogswin. Find her, and she may make you an offer you can’t refuse.
– Hegnerian – Hegnerian now respawns every 30 minutes. As a result, a 6 hour lockout timer has been added to him. Players will be locked out of Hegnerian, Euralon, Myrdicos & Raea.
– Hegnerian – Fixed an issue with the Tomes resetting too early.
– Hegnerian – The Core of Ezigoth will now drop from Hegnerian as multi-loot for those in the group that need it.
– Nusibe Necropolis – Pharaoh Harakhan the outcast can now be challenged by those brave enough to reassemble his body in Nusibe Necropolis.
– Old Targonor – The Knights of the Old Blood have returned with a single order from the lich king Sartok to protect the denizens of Old Targonor, for something special will be happening soon.
– Quests – Informing Ca’ial should now give the poison as described.
– Tanvu – Kau Isa now sells horses in Tanvu.
– Tehatamani – Tehatamani event has been fixed

ITEMS
 – Hunter’s League Weapon – Due to recent changes to the Paladin, the Tanwen’s Greatsword of Protection has been changed to a 1 handed blunt, Tanwen’s Mace of Protection.
 – Cloak of the Pantheon is now unique.
– Resolved an issue with the world loot tables that was causing some items to drop much less often then desired.
– Cirel’s Sanguine Mandolin now has Vitality and Hit Points instead of Health and Endurance regeneration.
– Ariezel’s Horn of Rage now has additional strength and hit points instead of endurance regeneration.
– Sell value of equipable gear has been increased slightly.
– Arazmus – Regarding Dreadknights, Paladins & Warriors – Due to the revamps made to your classes regarding weapon specializations, you will now have the opportunity to trade your weapon with Handler Aerco in Afrit for a weapon of your classes preference. Note: You will only be able to do this one time, and will not be able to choose the weapon you are trading in.

CODING
– Reactions are still draggable, but only if the reaction is not available. If the reaction is available (no refresh time remaining, sufficient resources, and the target in range), then reactions activate on the down-click.  This change is to ensure that players do not accidentally drag reactions that they are attempting to activate.
– Reactions should now work properly with AE’s.  Previously, reactions did not always correctly trigger chains if there were multiple targets being hit
– Reaction time remaining only appears as a green bar if the reaction is actually available. Otherwise it is color-coded to allow the player to easily identify why it is unavailable.
Color Hierarchy:
1. Target out of range: light brown
2. Not enough resources: crimson
3. Refresh time remaining: dark gray
4. Usable: bright green
– Getting a new crit or a new block/parry, while the reaction time remaining is counting down from a previous crit or block/parry, resets the corresponding reaction time remaining to full. However, if the player is on the 2nd or later step of a chain, that one remains at the previous time remaining, but all of the other chains now become available with a full reaction time remaining bar.
– Fixed bug where some classes (i.e. warrior) would have their chains cancel with a little over two seconds remaining on the reaction timer.
– Fixed bug where reactions were not being updated correctly in ability book and on hotkey bar. They now only show up as available when they are available in the reaction window.
– Changing targets or killing a target now cancels all chains and counters.
– Fixed bug where chains would sometimes not immediately reset to the opener (i.e. when missing on a later step in the chain or killing the target on a later step in the chain). They should now always reset to the opener.
– Fixed counterspells so that they now show up in the ability and hotkey bar as available immediately. Previously, they didn’t become available in those places until they became available for the first time in the reaction window.
– Fixed bug where changing combat forms made chains become unavailable.  Active chains now remain available when a player changes combat forms
– Implemented /reactionchain, /reactioncounter, and /reactionrescue.  These calls are followed by an integer that specifies which chain, counter, or rescue slot to activate.  So "/reactionchain 2" activates whichever reaction happens to be in chain slot 2.  All of the possible slots have corresponding Key Bindings as well (reactionchain[01-10], /reactioncounter[01-05], and /reactionrescue[01-05]), which are associated with Aliases[114] through Aliases[133] , with no default binding, allowing the player to easily set up hotkeys for any chain, counter, or rescue slot that they want.
– Fixed various issues with /reactionautochain (‘G’), /reactionautocounter (‘Y’), and /reactionautorescue (‘V’).  /reactionautochain uses the chain with the most steps that is available.  /reactionautocounter and /reactionautorescue use the highest level available counter/rescue.
– The /claim window is now sorted by number available, starting with those items that are unlimited.
– Change to ability book so that it now wraps around (pushing back on the first page goes to the last page and pushing next on the last page goes to the first page).
– Fixed some client crashes.
– Fixed some long-standing crashes related to alt-tabbing out of the game.
– Implemented functionality for "/consent group" and "/consent raid".
– Fix to simulacrum’d NPCs not staying controlled because of heal aggro.
– Added a button to put all available attribute points into (max) a particular statistic.