Changes...and not.

First, some changes I didn't make.

I had previously announced changes to Guardian Charm that would have made it pretty useless after level 75, I have shelved those changes. It's difficult to pull the trigger on changes as drastic as that, there's a whole back and forth (in my head) about whether, given the amount of time it's been as-is, it's the right thing to do to change it. Not to say it may not happen in the future, but for now it remains as is.

 T10 - Sunderock

 We have made some changes to Tier 10, that will reduce the amount of time required to complete it.

 These include:

• Lowered plagueborn kill count (from 1000 to 750)
• Increased faction gained per kill quest completion (previous base 75, new base 125)
• Lowered T10 Expedition cooldown (from 48 to 36 hours)
• Faction weapon quest count reduced (from 100 to 60)
• Boss soul drops increased slightly
• Sarnak boss spawn chance increased

T11 - Kael Drakkel

Tier 11 is also going to see some changes related to it's current difficulty. Both trash and bosses will have a hit point and damage reduction to bring it down to a more playable difficulty for the average player.

 I have started and stopped on several long winded explanations about Kael's difficulty, but ultimately it is just incredibly difficult to tune content without going too far one way or the other, so we've resisted any major changes to Kael until we had enough data logging to make an informed decision. It's still a bit of a guessing game, but it's time to take our best guess. Expect these changes shortly.

Guild Leader: Drogath
Guild Name: Voyager

Done

So, no talk about the Ez credits being taken out of VP? What are we doing about the lack of donations during the events? People are wondering how to get Reward items like warband summons and group cures. I mentioned before, make a small chance that an ez credit can drop during the halloween events and with some steady, dedicated grind... you might get 25 during an event to get something. Multiple events would require getting enough to get a 75+ item.

Maybe I missed the note on the fix for lack of donations for Reward items.

-Mix-

I don't understand if by no talk about EZ Credits being taken out of VP, you missed the first line of the VP loot changes section, or because I didn't elaborate further. Either way, I don't have anything to add to that, and nothing to announce at this point on EZ Credits.

This all sounds like a great trade off.  Do you think the weapon quest count should come down as well to sync up with your balance changes?

No, there isn't any need for a weapon reduction, as the camps will be area pullable still.

Changes are in no way to make SR easier, only to help offset the loss of Guardian Charm makes to large pulls.

Another thing to consider is without GC zone pulls, certain items like GSOA/GSS are going to be harder to come by for players that aren't already in kael.

But that can also be balanced.

GSS's are available in VP in far greater quantity than SR
GSOA's won't have any changes to their drop rates, as everything below SR can be ZP'd by any T10 warrior, with out without GC

Sounds like good changes.  With regards to the GC change (long time coming), could we have a look at T10 length adjustment to balance it against a GC nerf?

Because people have been abusing (not in an 'against the rules' way) the Guardian Charm's overpowered effects for so long, I do intend to make a few changes, though it's not going to be extreme:

• Increase base faction rewards from kill quests, likely from 75 to 100.
• Reduce Plagueborne kill count, likely from 1000 to 800.
• Introduce a new item 'Sunderock Spear' - this item will be the result of a Magic Box combine of 5 Scorpion's Spears, and will be an area pull item with a short duration root (usable in Sunderock only). This will allow players to more easily pull camps in Sunderock, and not lose too much to the inability to zone pull (without GC).

Zone pull will still work in Sunderock, and it is certainly survivable with the right gear, but most people rely on GC to faceroll ZP it.

For clarity, GC will be useless by level 78. Level 77 it will be very ineffective, with 76 and 75 being slightly better. Ultimately, Guardian Charms are a cheat code, and they were never intended to be.

VP change will likely impact me as I'm just about done with at least the faction work in T10 and was looking forward to trying VP/Sleepers. 

Is the intention to force people back to farming old zones for essences or will VP/Sleepers still be faster back farming of essences just less so than previously?

Essences still drop in VP, but the rate they drop at is not what it was. It should never have been nearly as lucrative for essences as it was, nor should I have left it like that for as long as I did.

As someone who has played MMORPG's, I always understand how shitty it feels when you miss out on something, because it was before you could take advantage of it. However, the more I explain some of the mistakes I've made to Sarthin, and try not to let us repeat them as developers, the more it made no sense to just leave something as glaringly unintended as the rate at which loot was dropping in VP.

VP should be really, really hard. It was launched that way, but because I was new at this, and because people were not as excited about difficult content as I would be, I capitulated far too easily, made some aggressive de-tuning, and it just wasn't that difficult anymore. Loot didn't change though from one difficulty to the other, so what should have been relatively hard to come by, was not. It wasn't intended to be a catch up for everyone, which it unfortunately became.

Ultimately, it was a bad decision on my part, compounded by a continued resistance to make a change that would hurt those who would miss out, but I've just had to pick a spot and make a change.

There is a solution I am kicking around, that eliminates the economy busting rate of essence drops, but still gives some relief to people who really do need to come into T11 pretty well equipped. This solution is that VP will drop No Drop, all in one essences, that can be turned into the Essence Trader, and will give credit towards the 100 essence quests. While these won't drop as frequently as essences were, their utility will be far superior. I want to think on this for a few days though, and make sure it's not something else that could cause issues down the road.


-Draca

This morning there are a few changes coming over.

Further reduction in the hitpoints of mobs in Kael Drakkel (T11)

While some people like the level of difficulty in T11, and appreciate the challenge it presents, it is not in line with the typical difficulty for a progression Tier. Many players cannot dedicate the amount of time that is required to work through T11 with any efficiency, and are not seeing many rewards because of it. We've also adjusted the scaling to better align with raid sizes. There have been no other changes, as the loot drops and damage output from the NPC's seem acceptable, and manageable.

Kael boss drops

People have noted that bosses don't always drop anything useful, or much of anything at all, and this is what comes from the balance of either adjusting spawn chances where you may not see a boss in an evening of gameplay but would definitely get loot, or you get some bosses, but take what RNG gives you, loot wise. Our choice was, as you can tell, to have bosses spawn more frequently, but with a chance to karate kick you right in the balls with some less than stellar loot. Nothing changed here, just wanted to address that.

VP Loot

Several things to point out with Veeshan loot:

• As noted in the changelog in-game, EZ Credits were removed from VP.
• More dramatically, following this morning's update there will be a considerable reduction in the sheer amount of loot drops in VP. Loot in VP, in particular the amount of zone essences and other previously valuable items, has been a great disappointment for me. My experience was lacking during VP's development, and because I intended for the zone to be considerably more difficult than it is now, I never intended for people to mow through it as fast as they can. This is obviously shortsighted, as clearly people would grow more powerful over time and with new content, but the mistake was made. I have resisted changing it, because it feels unfair to short people who never got the chance to be in the zone in it's current loot pinata form, but unfortunately the change needs to be made.
• Tunare will drop a GoW on every kill. (Map has been removed).


Guardian Charm

Guardian Charm is an overpowered item, changes will be coming in the next few weeks to dull it's effectiveness level 75+

This also includes a fix for the issue with Auras

Guild Leader: Nysos
Guild Name: Shattered

Please and Thank you =D

Done

Everything will be available by launch.

Guild Leader: (Linamas)
Guild Name: (Gathered Might)

Thank you kindly, EZ Admins!

Linamas

Done

In anticipation of the launch of T11.

Double Loot
Double Exp
Halloween Event


Now thru 2/18

It is with great anticipation, and excitement, that we announce the release date for Tier 11 - Kael Drakkel..

Sunday, February 18th. 5am PST (UTC -8:00)

This will be preceded by a short double loot/double exp weekend from 2/16 until Kael Drakkel's launch.


Official launch post to come.

For Sarthin & Akkadius,
               
Draca
EZ Admin Team
 

Additional Change:

• Auspice of the Hunter, the item click buff from leather Sunderock boots, was previously being boosted by the Earring of the Mystic Ages buff; Painfully Gorgeous. This interaction has been removed. Both buffs remain as they were, but EoMA will not multiply Auspice as before.


We understand that many people see these type of changes as unnecessary nerfs, but part of class balancing is correcting issues that can wildly affect the effectiveness of certain classes. Now, more than ever during my time, and in large part thanks to Sarthin's input and testing, we have a clear picture of where we want classes to fall, and are working to make that a reality, but when imbalances present themselves, they must be dealt with.

-Draca