Patch observations/opinions

Kinz · 04-11-2007, 09:57 AM

First off the biggest thing I have noticed thus far: Shadow Meld stance.
While shadow meld does seem to be giving us the proper block and parry stated on the tool tip, these percentages however seem to be way off from previous. Currently my shadow meld gives 5% hit, 1% parry, 1% dodge at DC1 and rises from there with DC at a final of 9%hit, 5% parry, 5%dodge (only have DC4 currently at L38). Didn't the previous form of this stance, while completely fubar and in no way worked, start off at 5% dodge and 5% parry? My main question is, was the current implementation intended or the previous in regards to percentages?

Another thing that I have noticed that wasnt really specified in patch notes is a change to Dreadful Countenance. My Dreadful countenance still does not build points on multiple mobs and still has points fade when I switch targets, but when building points on my current target if there is another mob aggro nearby it *will* apply the debuff of my Dreadful Countenance to all mobs near the one I built points on. Say I am fighting 3 mobs, I build up to DC4 on a single mob - when I do this DC4 applies to all 3 mobs surrounding me not just the single mob I am currently fighting. However when the mob dies, and I switch targets to the next mob I start from DC0 and rebuild. Which while it still sucks to lose the DC from mob to mob, it is at least an improvement imo from its previous incarnations.

Now outside of that, I love the new cull, and vile strike has a point now which is a nice option that works from what I have seen so far. Have not tested anguish (only 38, don't have it yet). Noticed that Nexus of Hatred is down to 16 endurance, wasn't this 30ish before? Dark Bastion/Shield of Fear also drop down to nothing when your DC fades from finishing a mob and moving to the next as feared, it does not maintain its highest value reached.

This is all I have been able to toy with thus far, will see how everything else works out as the day goes on.

EDIT : My chat log gets spammed w/ casting Shield of Fear II - however regardless of this it seems to be applying the appropriate debuff based on your current level of DC.

Lynxal · 04-11-2007, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kinz

First off the biggest thing I have noticed thus far: Shadow Meld stance.
While shadow meld does seem to be giving us the proper block and parry stated on the tool tip, these percentages however seem to be way off from previous. Currently my shadow meld gives 5% hit, 1% parry, 1% dodge at DC1 and rises from there with DC at a final of 9%hit, 5% parry, 5%dodge (only have DC4 currently at L38). Didn't the previous form of this stance, while completely fubar and in no way worked, start off at 5% dodge and 5% parry? My main question is, was the current implementation intended or the previous in regards to percentages?

Yeah, I was just going to post that, and I was scratching my head trying to think if I was rememberring it correctly as you were. Nice they didn't mention that one in the notes.

Also, Armor of Darkness still does not add mitigation to spell mitigation, and it still only adds 9.5% to melee mitigation.

Vaedar · 04-11-2007, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kinz

Dark Bastion/Shield of Fear also drop down to nothing when your DC fades from finishing a mob and moving to the next as feared, it does not maintain its highest value reached.

Who wants the old Slay back now? :twisted:

DrK · 04-11-2007, 12:12 PM

you are right about Shadow Meld. It used to give 5% accuracy, 5% parry, and 5% dodge(now block) and scale up with dc from there for a total of 10% in each at dc 5.

Hopefully the nerf was an accident and will be corrected because right now this stance is worthless.

I actually think that all of our stances need to be re-tooled. The way that our stances are currently set up is a hold over from an early beta period where defensive fighters functioned differently than they do now. The other two defensives got their stances reworked to reflect these changes, dread knight have not.

I'm going to make a thread specifically about this issue later on when I get back from work.

Zuul · 04-11-2007, 01:08 PM

Anybody else notice that we go through the cast animation of our stance everytime our DC level changes. That's really annoying to me.

And how are you seeing the exact buff that Shield of Fear is applying? I was trying to test it this morning but I couldn't find that it ever raised my Block % as reported by my Defense skill, and the buff itself always just says "1% block per level of DC".

Xaices · 04-11-2007, 01:20 PM

Thanks,

Shadow Meld is getting a couple of changes to it currently, I will add this ontop of that and make sure it applies correctly.

Those changes to Shadow meld I was refering to are.

Increases Rate of DC gain.. There was a problem with this initialy as it applied DC to every thing even if you were not in combat. So they are working on a Proc type effect now where every time you hit you have a chance to get bonus DC.

THe other change they are currently working on for SM is something with resists. not quite sure if that will make it to the form or not. Still being debated. SO if we get evering thing the Shadow Meld Form would look something like this:

5% to hit, increased accuracy
5% to Evade
5% to Block
5% to Parry
Adds ?% to Resists
Adds Chance on hit to raise DC

Somehting of that nature.

If you all had a choice between The Resists or Bonus DC what would you rather have? It may come down to one or the other.

Me personaly I rather have the resists. I know if I realy need my DC up there I can get it there fast enough. And the added resists would help in the form and fits the description of the form.

xythalia · 04-11-2007, 01:26 PM

Its good to see that Shadow Meld isn't finished yet, I was quite worried when I saw it this morning.

I personally would rather see some sort of spell mit (by damage % or resists) on sm then a DC proc of some sort especially if our armor of darkness is not going to be changed to include spell mit, however whatever they pick will change what the stance is used for quite a bit - +DC would make it a soloing stance (for me anyway, I dont use wrath while soloing) while +Resists would make it a tanking stance for higher level mobs that tend to cast.

I do agree that when I do need dc up quickly... Wrath + DV3 spam will get me up there in ~10-12 seconds for dc5, and since we have no way to lower it except bane, a DC increaser probably isnt needed.

Zuul · 04-11-2007, 01:47 PM

I'm with Xythalia... if AoD doesn't get spell mitigation, then we need the resists to be added to SM, if AoD does get the spell mitigation then I'd rather see SM get the DC proc as it is supposed to be our "solo" stance and that fits pretty well with that role.

Garn · 04-11-2007, 02:05 PM

I think either one would be nice honestly.

In the long run it would probably be most powering if it were resists that improved.

And most fun if it had an animated proc that increased DC.

Realy a toss up for me. Either would be a nice touch.

DrK · 04-11-2007, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaices

Thanks,

Shadow Meld is getting a couple of changes to it currently, I will add this ontop of that and make sure it applies correctly.

Those changes to Shadow meld I was refering to are.

Increases Rate of DC gain.. There was a problem with this initialy as it applied DC to every thing even if you were not in combat. So they are working on a Proc type effect now where every time you hit you have a chance to get bonus DC.

THe other change they are currently working on for SM is something with resists. not quite sure if that will make it to the form or not. Still being debated. SO if we get evering thing the Shadow Meld Form would look something like this:

5% to hit, increased accuracy
5% to Evade
5% to Block
5% to Parry
Adds ?% to Resists
Adds Chance on hit to raise DC

Somehting of that nature.

If you all had a choice between The Resists or Bonus DC what would you rather have? It may come down to one or the other.

Me personaly I rather have the resists. I know if I realy need my DC up there I can get it there fast enough. And the added resists would help in the form and fits the description of the form.

Are the block and parry percentages going to be brought back up to start at 5% rather than 1%? I really can't see this stance being worthwhile unless they are.

As to whether resists or a DC increase would be better - I think that depends on what kind of resists we are talking about.

I'd like to see more data on the proposed changes before making a comment one way or the other.

Are there any changes in the works for our other two stances?

I really think that:

Ebon Blade needs to have at least a +5% accuracy (starting at 5%, increasing 1% with DC) buff added to it to bring it up to par with the other defensive fighters offensive stances and I think that

Armor of Darkness needs to have the mitigation fixed so that it provides a full 10% bonus, needs to either provide spell mitigation or have the spell damage reduction removed and have at least a 5% block bonus (starting at 5% with a 1% increase per level of DC) added to it. I also think that the hate bonus needs to start at least around 35% rather than 30%