March Patch Preview

Daybreak Games has given all of us Everquest players a teaser of what to expect from the upcoming patch next week!

(From the EQ Forums)

The March patch is scheduled for Wednesday, March 16, 2016 (the day of EverQuest’s 17th Anniversary!). Here are some highlights on what players can expect from this patch:

DoTs Improvements

Over the past few months, we've been reviewing the way DoTs work and how we would like to improve them going forward. As most of you know, there's a limited number of debuff slots available on any given NPC, which conflicts with DoT classes wanting to layer as many spells as possible on any given NPC in order to maximize damage. This layering has contributed to a lot of problems over the years; most notably, it takes a lot of spell slots away from players who want to maximize DoT damage, and it uses up many of the limited debuff slots available on raid targets.

In order to improve the way this works, we're starting this process with Beastlords, but we're planning to continue with it through all classes that use DoTs regularly. Here's what we did for Beastlords:

  1. We went back to the first DoT in any given line, and doubled it (or more). This step may not happen for every class, but Beastlords in particular haven't been able to use DoTs for as much reliable damage as we'd like, so they needed the boost.
  2. We looked at updates to those lines and increased their damage in a much more aggressive scale than we used to. This should mean that a new DoT will perform better than itself plus two previous levels of the same spell under the old scale.
  3. We increased damage/mana efficiency over the entire line in a progressive manner. At each level you should be getting more damage per mana than before.
  4. We categorized the new DoTs into lines which will prevent the same player from stacking multiple levels of the same DoT line on the same target. Other players can use DoTs in the same line on the same target, and the same player can use DoTs in the same line on different targets. The increase in damage should mean that a single player is dealing more damage with one DoT than they formerly did with three spells.

 

So, let's look at some numbers. The current level 101 Beastlord poison DoT, Glistenwing Blood, currently deals a raw total (with no focus effects or any other enhancement) of 14395 damage over its duration at a cost of 1285 mana. Stacking the previous two levels of that spell will deal a total of 43349 raw damage for a total of 3460 mana. As a superDoT, the current level alone will deal 121154 raw damage for a total of 8532 mana, and will only need one debuff slot to do it. While, yes, that is a very high mana cost, it's also far more damage. It's worth noting that the level 91 spell, Binaesa Blood, will now deal 45210 damage on its own for a cost of 3799 mana.

We're planning to make this same transition for all classes that use DoTs over the next few months. Other classes probably won't see the same boost in base damage that Beastlords have, since they have fewer innate boosts to DoT damage than other classes, but we expect everyone to be doing more damage, ramping that damage up faster, using more mana (though more efficiently), and using fewer debuff slots on their targets.

Hate's Fury Sails Again

For our 17th Anniversary, we've added a hybrid event to Norrath called “Hate’s Fury: Seventeen Pieces of Silver.” Krasnok's ship, Hate's Fury: The Scorned Maiden, has set sail once again, and this time he's got friends. Sixteen of them, in fact. Each of them will give a reward of Commemorative Coins, and if you defeat all of the crew members, you can unlock the door to Krasnok's cabin and face the Captain (#17!) himself for raid-quality rewards.

We've added a new gnome race that starts in Ak`anon that runs several times a day on EVERY server during the anniversary and a few new items to the jubilant merchant in the Plane of Knowledge as well. Head over to these spots to have a look!

Zone Experience Modifier Changes

This part gets a little bit "inside baseball," but bear with me. Way back when we started our first Hot Zone project, we increased experience within the zones by increasing the raw data, and then setting it back down to what it used to be once we rotated to a different set. We did this for the first several years before we realized it was a very error-prone process and developed a better one. A few days ago, some players expressed a concern that Burning Woods had a very high experience modifier, making it outstrip the experience available in any other zone available in that era. We looked into this report and discovered that Burning Woods had its ZEM raised when it was one of the original hot zones, but it wasn't ever reset. A few years later, when it was made a hot zone again, the ZEM was raised again... and again never lowered back to what it was. Under our current hot zone system, on non-progression servers, it was getting yet another boost to the ZEM, in effect making it a triple hot zone there, and a double hot zone on progression servers.

So, yeah…we had to change that. As we investigated, we realized this had happened to varying degrees to a lot of zones. Though Burning Woods was the only zone to have been boosted twice with no reset, many other zones had either been set to an incorrect value after being used as a hot zone at some point in history. We ended up with about 20 zones that were set too high, and another group of about twenty that were set too low. With the upcoming patch, we're setting those back to where they were supposed to be. Dungeons in the same era now have similarly higher-than-average ZEMs, and outdoor zones in the same era will have similarly lower-than-average ZEMs. While we know it's not very fun to have to leave a zone you were comfortable in, we're excited that zones like Sebilis, the Crypt of Dalnir, the Temple of Cazic Thule, and Velketor's Labyrinth will be returning to give better experience rewards to the players who are brave enough to enter them.

--

 As always, we value your feedback on these upcoming changes, but we hope you’ll check them out for yourself first (on test or on live servers) before passing judgement. We’re grateful for your support!

Comments

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DOT change for a Necro.
# Mar 12 2016 at 9:08 AM Rating: Excellent
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From a group game Necro perspective, this DOT change may or may not be good for the class.

It all depends on what percentage increase to the current damage of Necro DOT's that this new method increases it by, and if our epics will still increase the DOT crit chance by +10% for all dots no matter their level. So far there is little detail re the class as they have concentrated on Beastlords atm.. However the dev's already stated that other classes wont see as high an increase to damage so only time will tell.

Some Necro's are concerned with the lack of stacking dots of a similar line, which is common for many group Necro's re our highest damage 5 tick-unfocused Pyre DOT line being in the same spell line up as the second highest 5 tick-unfocused Pyre DOT from the same spell line but from the expansion before (5 levels lower). Though depending on high a boost we get, it may not matter in the end..

Without the numbers or details re the Necro, it is hard to judge what or how it will affect us at this point.

I hope it is positive all around..


Number's don't seem to work
# Mar 12 2016 at 5:50 AM Rating: Excellent
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3,008 posts
Quote:
The current level 101 Beastlord poison DoT, Glistenwing Blood, currently deals a raw total (with no focus effects or any other enhancement) of 14395 damage over its duration at a cost of 1285 mana. Stacking the previous two levels of that spell will deal a total of 43349 raw damage for a total of 3460 mana. As a superDoT, the current level alone will deal 121154 raw damage for a total of 8532 mana, and will only need one debuff slot to do it. While, yes, that is a very high mana cost, it's also far more damage
.

I get the idea. Take away the practice of stacking multiple levels of the same line of DoT and replace it with the top level DoT of that class doing as much or even a "little" more damage than the stack of 3 levels. This opens up DoT slots on mobs for other DoT classes and as a side benefit makes it easier for the player to cast his spells. But look at the example they provide. They say the 3-spell stack previously would do 43349 damage at a cost of 3460. Supposedly the new 1-spell DoT "stack", what they call a "superDoT, will do 121154 damage at a cost of 8532. I don't care about the "very high mana cost." It's still much cheaper dps 14.2 dpm (damage-per-mana) as compared to 12.5. BUT IT'S A HUGE JUMP from 43349 to 121154. This will never stay this way. They've almost tripled the dps output of this class, at least in terms of their DoTs. Anyone seriously think this will not unbalance the classes and be tolerated by other class players? And if they do the same for necros and shamans and other DoT classes... well, we're back on the "overpowered" complaint side of necros, that's for sure.

Not to sound negative, but on the ZEM topic... WHY O WHY did it ever have to come to this? How hard is it to reverse a ZEM boost once a limited-period increase reaches its scheduled termination date? DBG is admitting previous management acted essentially incompetently when they would modify the pace of experience in zones, nobody checked their work, and players were subjected to irrational enhancements and reductions in how much experience they acquired in zones they visited. This is Programming 101. Nice they're going to fix it now but what are the odds the fix will break stuff too? Happens a lot, historically.
Quote:

With the upcoming patch, we're setting those back to where they were supposed to be. Dungeons in the same era now have similarly higher-than-average ZEMs, and outdoor zones in the same era will have similarly lower-than-average ZEMs


What does "back to where they were supposed to be" mean.... exactly? Are all dungeons going to have the same XP enhancement and all outdoor zones have the same reduction? If not, how about giving us a list of each zone's modifier so players can do the "beta-testing" and see if the DBG programmers made the changes properly? It beats letting an error persist 3 months, frustrating players trying to XP in their favorite zone and then finally get around to conceding "errors were made" and fixing it all over again in a summer patch.

Edited, Mar 12th 2016 6:56am by Sippin
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Here Here
# Mar 11 2016 at 4:54 PM Rating: Excellent
1 post
Agreed! I like EQ and I'm happy it's still going. 16 years later I can still log on and check out areas I played back in 1999, that's pretty awesome imo.

Would be awesome if the people who have this love / hate, hate, hate relationship with it... maybe go and try to find greener fields elsewhere...
#deadlaughb, Posted: Mar 10 2016 at 10:50 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) F*ck daybreak, roshen and holly. Does roshen even do much other than nerf's? They do crap like this but can't even give us a real expansion? Cut copy and paste zones, and a bunch of broken tasks that took over 2 months to fix after the release. But roshen always has time to nerf. Glad I stopped paying for my account months ago when my sub ran out. DB will never get another penny of mine.
Daybreak
# Mar 12 2016 at 2:38 AM Rating: Decent
2 posts
nerf? did you read this? this is a MASSIVE buff. like, holy freakin crap that is a huge buff. The number one issue with dots is how long it takes to get them all on. Now instead of casting 3 dots a beast could cast 1 dot and do triple the damage of those 3 dots. less than 1/3rd the cast time, triple the damage. I'm just wracking my brain trying to figure out how somebody could think this is a nerf.
Daybreak
# Mar 12 2016 at 12:01 PM Rating: Default
Scholar
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77 posts
darkland52 wrote:
nerf? did you read this? this is a MASSIVE buff. like, holy freakin crap that is a huge buff. The number one issue with dots is how long it takes to get them all on. Now instead of casting 3 dots a beast could cast 1 dot and do triple the damage of those 3 dots. less than 1/3rd the cast time, triple the damage. I'm just wracking my brain trying to figure out how somebody could think this is a nerf.



Did YOU even read this? The zone experience modifier change is a nerf. I guess your brain got wracked after reading the 1st few sentences of the posting.
Daybreak
# Mar 12 2016 at 8:37 PM Rating: Decent
2 posts
that's not a nerf either that is fixing a bug. That should have never been that way. You should be complaining about the fact that they let such a massive bug that screwed the balance of the game exist for so long.
Daybreak
# Mar 11 2016 at 11:50 AM Rating: Excellent
Sage
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57 posts
If you dislike the game that much STOP PLAYING! Go away and stop annoying the rest of us the actually like playing it.
Changes, et al
# Mar 10 2016 at 9:56 PM Rating: Excellent
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32 posts
DB,
A thank you to your crew, for keeping an ancient platform running, mods tweaks revamps and all.

Brofar, Bristlebane
Changes, et al
# Mar 11 2016 at 9:35 AM Rating: Excellent
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106 posts
Here, here. There is always negative comments so it's nice to have some good ones. As Wynkman says, thanks for all your hard work keeping EQ going. It may not be perfect but it's my addiction and I LIKE IT :)
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