New Patch 1.5.0

[katriell]

WG would probably just change the Silan missions to accord with the new functionality. But can they? "Well, it has become a lot harder to do it that way. Let's rework the tutorial a little. ...Wait, what do we tell them to do with affliction now?" Endorse the nuker/afflictor group? Is this actually a move toward making affliction more useful to groups and less useful in solo play? Perhaps they plan to develop adjustments that will make afflictors more attractive.

[gcaldani]

I spent many months on Silan before my first subscribtion. I was the one showing newbs how to use fear in order to prevent yelks from releasing gas upon death. If you managed to kill them while they were still feared, that is. I saw it with my very own eyes, as I did it countless times. Dead yelk, no gas, because of fear. And they weren't one-shot-killed either. Now it is impossible to do solo, one has to fear while the other nukes, in order to prevent that gas from releasing.

Also, root used to work better back then, because the root WOULD hold the Javings in place long enough to cast a nuke after the link was broken. No longer possible. The mob keeps moving after being rooted and is released as soon as the link is broken.

I did those quests so many times I still know them by heart. Nitrouss is not lying : it USED to be possible. It USED to work the way the quest meant it to be. Now the best you can do solo is make those yelks gas far enough away from you in order to not get damaged by it.

Nitrouss is a master afflictionnist, he knows how they work now compared to then. I'm not a master, but I do see the change and its effects. Old strategies with affies can no longer be used.

Spell hitting should have a 3 seconds lasting effect, holding the link should add 3 seconds per tick... and effect should last 3 seconds after link breaks.

3 seconds is the general time it takes to cast a spell without any amp/time credit modifiers. And I think it's a reasonable delay.

Sorry, Sherk, you didn't rolled a new char in Silan and didn't tested by yourself.

I rolled a new char and started testing in Silan:

1. I didn't taken asvantage of my knowledge. I just followed the quest lines without grinding anything, so without forcing outleveling the quests.

2. I did first 2 melee missions to reach 350 HP. So I got 3 constitution upgrades.

3. I moved to mage trainer and started the magic lines. As long as i reached Birth of Magician 2 I reached lvl 13 close to 14. Got Frost Touch.
Trained Acid 2, root 1 and fear 1.

4. Birth of magician 3: root and kill javings. I had frost touch, acid 2 and root 1. My root was never (I repeat NEVER) resisted. 10 times out of 10. Okay, root 1 is a level 15 spell, and after 2 kills i dinged 14. Root always linked up and not a single javing (i repeat: not a single javing) disarmed me. Only 2 times out of 10 (fair enough) they were able to come close to me, mostly due to an acid cast failure.

5. Service of people 1: kill 15 slaveni. Well nothing to say here, very easy to do and very fast. Dinged 16 after the first kill.

6. Service of people 2: after i spoke with the quest giver i started the mision at lvl 17. Loot 10 Yelk Mushrooms and take advantage of your fear spell. I had acid 2 and fear 1. Fear was never resisted at first hit, it got resisted one time (ONE TIME) when i had to cast another fear to the same yelk. Fear is a lvl 10 spell, i was lvl 18 (dinged during fight) and yelks are lvl 20. Yes, link duration is lower than before, but still i never got trouble. I always linked up the affliction. It was a bit harder than in the past, but it's absolutely doable, more... it's easy to do.
And That was soloing. It would have been even more easy and effective if done in team. Also, fear is enough to get the mob far from you, not avoiding him releasing gas. That's a plus that you can still do in team with proper timing.

Before reaching that missions, you get a 'rendor kill' mission where the npc teach you how to team up, with a window explaining hot to invite, etc...

In the subsequent missions, he don't need to tell you do next in team. But he even never tell you do it soloing. It's just up to your decision.
So, stating that silan missions wanna you using afflicions in solo, it's untrue. They just tell you to use the spells. It's up to you decide to solo or not. Afflictions are control powers, so they best used in team.

Tho, I shown you that still both missions (javings and yeks) are very easy soloable, without outleveling the mobs, but just following the quest lines.

So, how you can continue stating something absolutely untrue?

Afflcitions are far from being useless. They can be improved, yes, but stop lying.

PS: I know Silan quests by hearth as you. I have a lvl 51 char that lives exclusively in Silan since 2007. I am a master DA and very close to a master OA, so I know what I'm speaking of.

[orbdragon]

Yes he did Orb.

Alright, I admit fault here - I read his post thoroughly enough. Seems he did misphrase a few things.

As far as I know the only way to kill a yelk without them gassing at all is to one-shot them, and I am not even sure if that works. Regardless, that has nothing to do with fear.

Actually, I disbelieved this as well until I actually went and tested it. A yelk that is feared when it dies does not gas. Since the afflictions no longer hold as long as they used to, this has to be tested with two people; one holding a fear link and one nuking. Screenshots aren't as convincing as seeing it first hand, so I urge you to test this yourself.

[kalindra]

Calling me a liar is like saying Zorais are orange... plus it's rude. I described the best I could what I could do then and the changes I notice now when using fear and root. The missions are still soloable, but obtaining the sought effect is not. You can fear away the yelk so it gasses away from you but you can no longer kill it while it's still under fear, thus preventing gas from being released, since the effect vanishes as soon as the link is broken.

I never said they were useless, just that the sought effects are no longer obtainable solo while they used to, before.

But if the link frequency is the way you said in general (link everytime but once) and not just luck with mob's resist stats, then it's slightly better, since I remember getting frequent resists (about 1 out of 3-5 attempts) on my fears and roots when I did those missions before the patch.

I still stand by my 3 second lasting effect, though.

[gcaldani]

Calling me a liar is like saying Zorais are orange... plus it's rude. I described the best I could what I could do then and the changes I notice now when using fear and root. The missions are still soloable, but obtaining the sought effect is not. You can fear away the yelk so it gasses away from you but you can no longer kill it while it's still under fear, thus preventing gas from being released, since the effect vanishes as soon as the link is broken.

I never said they were useless, just that the sought effects are no longer obtainable solo while they used to, before.

But if the link frequency is the way you said in general (link everytime but once) and not just luck with mob's resist stats, then it's slightly better, since I remember getting frequent resists (about 1 out of 3-5 attempts) on my fears and roots when I did those missions before the patch.

I still stand by my 3 second lasting effect, though.

Sorry, Sherk, you know we often have same visions ad I often agreed with you in many things.

I didn'ty want to be rude but, i rerolled another char this morning, to repeat the tests, because I was having doubts and so i have redone it.

You now are changing the tone of the post. If your read your previous post, you will notice that the general meaning that you leave to others is: afflictions are useless.

That's not true. Sorry. As you said now, afflictions are harder to use and I agree on that. But they works as intended.

I tested afflcitions a lot now and I can't stand when i read: now you can't kill yelks, now jevings are too hard.... lol, sherk, when I test and see this total untrue i go upset. I don't think it's you, but the general attidute to go against a nerf (that's actually a fix, not a nerf) without considering the balance of the game is not correct.

Afflictions were way too overpowered. 99% of time i can land a fear against another master, I win. That's all. No way, unless i fall asleep at keyboard, for the other player to recover in some way.

Now, they are more balanced and, I think they still have very good points, as i shown yesterday at battle: i used afflictions extensively and they were very effective.

About the gas of yelks, seems you think that fear is here for that. I assure you that having the possibility to avoid yelk gasses it still a good thing, such as when you kill a named/boss yelk and it's effective.

The point is that to test things, you have to forget your experience and have to think as a new player, knowing nothing about the past.

You speak about 3 seconds, well root still have 2-3 seconds even if you don't link, you didn't noticed?

Fear didn't got that, but you have to consider that fear is lvl 10 while yelks are lvl 20 (speaking of silan) so i assume it's correct that link is harder to maintain. Tho, it worked pretty well.

Finally, no one have ever noticed that afflictions now links easier with same level or lower or higher but in the 10 level range? So, it seems that people wanna see only what they want to see.

Said that, I agree when and if you speak of improvements. There are many things that can be done and I already ticketed some suggestion to the devs, maybe not very good but suggestions are useful to turn on some light to their mind if not totally doable.

Think the benefit of the game and not the personal benefit of being overpowered, expecially in pvp.

If you felt offended, I apologize, but I think you understood what was the real meaning.

[jared96]

Are CSRs and devs aware of it ?

If they're not, I don't see how it could be fixed

If players had reported all exploits they found instead of exploiting them, I think it would have been better for all of us

Yes CSR's are well aware of it, so are devs.

Based upon the changes, and with an understanding of this particular bug, it would seem that eliminating the "post link break" delay, logically anyway, might have some effect on eliminating it.

I can't quite understand the intent of the post, particuarly last statement.....if the patch was intended to fix an affy bug, how / why would devs be attempting to fix something peeps hadn't reported and / or devs weren't aware of it.

I can't speak to PvP since I don't participate. As for PvE, if the intent of the patch was to make solo diggers totally defenseless or to force peeps to dig w/ guards, then it accomplished its goal. Right now, a diggr w/ 220-230ish DA can not survive solo encounters w/ purple carnivores

[kalindra]

I'm a solo digger and I manage to survive encounters with purple aggro without affies... it's part of the girlyman skill...

Named purples are another story. Even Cherkin manages to one-shot me in focus armor. But affies wouldn't change anything to that unless they allow us to enchant our picks...

[jared96]

I'm a solo digger and I manage to survive encounters with purple aggro without affies... it's part of the girlyman skill...

Named purples are another story. Even Cherkin manages to one-shot me in focus armor. But affies wouldn't change anything to that unless they allow us to enchant our picks...

Let me rephrase:

"Right now, a digger w/ 220-230ish DA can not survive a 2nd solo encounter w/ purple carnivores"

If you're digging and get back stabbed by a purple, you have a shot at saving yourself w/ a quick press of MPA (hoping mob don't lay a magic attack on ya), a Self heal and running like hell.

My preferred approach is MPA followed by a fear so that I can run away and leave some of my lifesavers available for the inevitable later arrival of another mob or KP. In this manner, I am able to take several attacks, alternating among the available lifesaving actions so that they have time to regen.

Wasting several of the "lifesavers" (MPA, INV, Speed, SH) on one attack means come back and dig defenseless or sit at TP or another safe spot (and very few of those left w/ KP) until your lifesavers regen.

It took me almost 2 years to collect the 5,000 sups necessary for a boosted HA set.....as things are now, I'd guess it would take 10.

Here's a new thing .... I have avoided many an attack by fearing a timmie, yelk whatever away from my dig spot and having him drag that wandering vorax or whatever away as he was feared into their path. I don't dare try that now unless the vorax has already engaged.

[hijati]

I was leveling my DA on Jabs in the Void before and after the patch. Ill tell you that I had more resists after the patch in general then i did before the patch. As I continued to level all the way to 240 (where i stopped before leaving for work for these next few months) my afflictions gradually increased in link precentages. As for how long they hold them I dont know cause I was not holding links on them I would cast get a link then break the link to kill them. The effects of stun still seemed to have a 2-3 second effect on them before they would regain composer and start moving towards me again. So I dont know why people are saying that the effect drops off right after the link is broken. I did not notice this effect and I feared several armas while trying out new spells and configurations. The effects still presisted after the link was broken and while some would regain composer and gased upon death, others did not and still died without it. It might be due to the level of the mob as to why on silan they regain composer faster (the mob was a higher level then your DA level) then the armas in the Void did (as they were a lower level then myself).

In PvP now I fought with Ryu at the Kara Tp Spear vs Spear, DA vs DA enchant. He could still link with me and me with him but the effects were limited time and you regained composer much faster, almost instaneously. So in PvP it is almost a waste of time unless you have a mage that is doing DA and a Melee tanking and doing DPS, otherwise you waste your stats for the spell if any and it only takes about 1 sec out of their combat time. Ryu beat me twice as I tried using more fears testing the timing and effectiveness against him. His links did no more against myself even as he is (i believe 250), and I was only 240. Im sure the real person to ask on this subject would be Stun as he has more experience then most other people with the afflictions in PvP. I have to give him credit for what he has accomplished in the time he has played the game, and would say to test his knowledge on the subject for the best answer to date.

Anyways, bottom line its still a great skill to level. In the limited time I have had it higher then 225 it has saved my life several times already. We will see what we notice in the future and see if it is truely as the devs intend cause if it is then there will not be a patch to adjust it

EDIT: Oh and as for bosses, I didnt have time to test the links on them. The few I did try named 260s and such still resisted like crazy and the 220 Boss I kill the link was easy to get ,however, it was a short lived link. So more testing on this is needed in addition to my last 10 levels.

And now i cant remember it i got to 240 or 245...whichever it is that you get the 250 spells at thats where im at.

Enjoy guys and most important......JUST HAVE FUN!!!!! ITS ONLY A GAME REMEMBER THAT!!!!!