Rift PTS 1.2 Addition #2

Fighting off some kind of a lung thing so not really feeling terribly verbose.  As a result you guys are kinda getting cheated out of a real post today.  Many apologies ahead of time.

A new patch seems to have landed on the PTS with a bunch of changes.  As per my usual posting them for your perusal.

PTS Notes

Original Thread

PTS 1.2 Addition #2 – 5/2/11

GENERAL
* Added weekly quests to Meridian and Sanctum to obtain a random Expert Rift lure.
* Currency caps are now shown on the character sheet.
* Potentially fixed player armors randomly changing color!
* Daily quest on offer for a particular day now stay the same before and after a shard restart.
* If the last leader-ranked member of a guild is removed due to trial player restrictions, a new leader will automatically be selected.

LOOKING FOR GROUP
* Dungeon Daily quests are now obtained via the Quest tab in the Looking for Group tool.
* Votekick. You can has it.

RIFTS AND INVASIONS
* Zone events now show on the main map which Wardstones need to be defended.
* Defender Achievements for each zone no longer list Rift events that do not occur in those zones.

COMBAT
* Diminishing Returns changes:
* Abilities are now consolidated into two groups for diminishing returns.
– Movement abilities [Root, Knockback, Snare] which were not previously set up with diminishing returns.
– Control abilities [Banish, Disarm, Silence, Fear, Confuse, Mesmerize, Stun]
* In PvP, being hit with a crowd control effect starts a diminishing returns timer. (We are currently testing this value at 30 seconds.) If you are hit with a second effect from the same group (Movement or Control) during that time, the effect is reduced by 50%. You are then immune to additional effects from the same group until the initial timer has expired.
* Crowd control-breaking effects have also been updated with the new Diminishing Returns groups:
* Breaks all effects:
– PvP Souls: Break Free
– Bladedancer: Untangle
– Elementalist: Sever Bonds
– Pyromancer: Flicker
– Ranger: Escape Artist – Escape Artist no longer grants immunities.
– Riftblade: Rift Walk
– Riftstalker: Flashback
* Breaks Control effects:
– Paladin: Devotion
– Reaver: Tempered Will
* Breaks Movement effects:
– Bladedancer: Flash of Steel
– Champion: Ruthless Pursuit
– Marksman: Getaway
– Riftstalker: Shadow Stalk
– Shaman: Battle Charge
– Vindicator: Unrestrained
– Warden: Dissolution
* Damage Reduction updates:
* The following powerful short-duration damage reduction buffs will no longer be overwritten by weaker effects:
– Nightblade: Twilight Shelter
– Riftstalker: Planar Refuge
– Vindicator: Phalanx
– Warlock: Neddra’s Essence
* The following abilities no longer stack with other powerful short-duration damage reduction buffs:
– Druid: Strength of the Fae
– Infiltrator: Ignore Pain
– Sentinel: Healer’s Covenant
– Void Knight: Singularity
* NPCs will prefer unstealthed targets when picking between targets they’re equally mad at.
* You should no longer see NPCs targeting ‘invisible man’ or other un-targetable phantoms.
* Falling damage no longer triggers abilities and other effects that react to damage taken.
* Fixed an issue causing ability effect tooltips on others to often show incorrect values.

SOULS
* Taunts can now be used three times before diminishing returns affects NPCs [previously 2 times].
* Fixed an issue with the use of Rogue tracking abilities while mounted that would cause the Rogue to ‘fall through’ their mount.
* Also fixed a bug with Feign Death and Slip Away abilities that sometimes didn’t keep you from gaining aggro right after use.
* Cleric snares now list the movement speed reduction on the effect tooltip.

CLERIC
INQUISITOR
* Nysyr’s Rebuke: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Control abilities.
* PTS bug fix: Life and Death Concord: The cooldown given to Bolt of Depravity when this procs will now show properly in the UI.
SHAMAN
* Vengeance of the Frozen Earth: No longer applies a snare to the target if they are already snared.
TEMPLAR [PvP]
* Barb of Shackles: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Movement abilities. No longer applies a snare to the target if they are already snared.
* Blessing of the Martyr: Now gives your damaging abilities a 20% chance to remove 1 buff effect from enemy players. Once triggered, this cannot happen again for 2 seconds.
* Ethereal Shell: Once triggered, cannot happen again for 15 seconds. Reduced duration to 5 seconds; damage reduction reduced to 3% per point spent.
* Arcane Defenses: Spell damage reduction has been reduced to 1% per point spent.

MAGE
ARCHMAGE [PvP]
* Due to the below changes, characters with Soul Points spent in Archmage will receive a free soul respec.
* Lethargy: Removed.
* Degeneration – New Ability: Channels dark energy into the enemy player, dealing Death damage over 3 seconds and removing a single buff effect from the target each second. 30 second cooldown. This ability is obtained after spending 10 points in Archmage.
* Ethereal Shell: Once triggered, cannot happen again for 15 seconds. Damage reduction has been reduced to 3% per point spent.
* Steelweave: Physical damage reduction reduced to 1% per point spent.
CHLOROMANCER
* Seed of Life, Soul Tether: Can no longer be cast on a pet.
DOMINATOR
* Durable Control: Now causes Transmogrify, Mass Exhaustion, and Disorient effects to break after the enemy receives damage equal to 1.5-3% of your max Health, plus 0.15-0.3% of your maximum health for each point spent in Dominator. This only occurs with enemies above 85% health.
ELEMENTALIST
* Water Elemental’s Ice Bolt no longer snares the target.
NECROMANCER
* Skeletal Zealot, Skeletal Horror: Readjusted their armor values, which were not previously readjusted after the cloth armor increase in 1.1. Other pets are unaffected.
PYROMANCER
* Ground of Strength: Reduced resistance bonus to 60.
* Cinder Burst and Fulminate can no longer be used within 5 seconds of each other.
* Cinder Burst/Pyromancer’s Armor: Fixed an issue where the damage from Cinder Burst would consume a Pyromancer’s Armor proc incorrectly if the proc occurred after Cinder Burst was cast but before it landed on the enemy.
STORMCALLER
* Spark of Life: Can no longer be cast on a pet.
WARLOCK
* Improved Life Leech: Updated ability description for more clarity.

ROGUE
INFILTRATOR [PvP]
* Against All Odds: Now triggers from stun, root, or disarm, reducing damage by 3-15% for 5 seconds. Once triggered, cannot be triggered again for 15 seconds.
* Evading Thoughts: Reduced duration to 2 seconds per combo point.
* Take Cover: AoE damage reduction reduced to 3% per point spent.
MARKSMAN
* PTS Bug Fix: Rapid Fire Shot: Fixed a bug where all hits for this would crit if the first hit was a crit.
SABOTEUR
* Traps will no longer follow you when zoning into an instance or using a porticulum.

WARRIOR
PARAGON
* Touch of Tranquility: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Control abilities.
VINDICATOR [PvP]
* Forced Recon: No longer applies a snare to the target if they are already snared.

ZONES
* Resolved some issues with major or elite Invasions not dropping loot – mostly seen in Stonefield and Iron Pine Peaks.
* Fixed a bug which could occasionally cause players to ‘pinball’ over areas of water.
SANCTUM
* Guardian players wondering how they can be knighted as a member of the Sanctuary Guard can now speak to Sir Guysun Lawless in the Lodge of the Planes to the rear of Sanctum. Sir Guysun can direct those seeking this honor to where they may have prerequisite quests incomplete. [Kain storyline quests]
SILVERWOOD
* Rift: Gedlo Supply Drop: Adjusted to prevent creatures getting stuck in stacks of crates…again.

DUNGEONS AND RAIDS
* With the upcoming addition of the Looking for Group tool, we’re also in the process of tuning our Expert Dungeons to be completable with one appropriately geared healer per group, instead of frequently requiring a second full healer on top of support heals. Additionally, the power of the items purchased from the Expert Dungeon stores has increased to assist gearing up for further challenges. With these changes we expect more dungeons to be completed more often; as a result, the cost for Expert Dungeon merchant items has increased. Overall, this should net a similar or improved gain rate of plaque-purchased items.
* Reduced the damage dealt by general Expert Dungeon NPCs.
* Dungeon Daily quests are now obtained via the Quest tab in the Looking for Group tool.
* All Raid bosses now drop 5 Plaques of Achievement for each member of the raid.
ABYSSAL PRECIPICE
* Added a portal to Calyx’s platform that activates once he is killed that allows players to exit the instance.
IRON TOMB
* Humbart the Bold no longer cleaves players behind him!

ITEMS
* Dragonslayer Covenant, Order of Mathos, and Icewatch notoriety merchants now sell only a single version of their armored mounts.
* Greater Bottle of Tricks, Exalted Bottle of Tricks, Whisker Concoction, Sheepish Concoction, Prancing Concoction, and Abyssal Modifier now share the same diminishing returns as Control abilities.
* Guise of Death and Shroud of Anti-Life now sort properly as Trinkets in the Auction House.
* Fixed Swift Desert Najmok to move at epic mount speed (110%). It was incorrectly using the rare mount speed (90%).
* Corrected an issue with the Greater Essences Rekindled Flameshard, Cinder Flamesource, Combusted Flamesource, Engulfed Flamesource, and Smoldering Flamesource which prevented them from proccing correctly in some situations.

PVP/WARFRONTS
* Diminishing Returns changes:
* Abilities are now consolidated into two groups for diminishing returns.
– Movement abilities [Root, Knockback, Snare] which were not previously set up with diminishing returns.
– Control abilities [Banish, Disarm, Silence, Fear, Confuse, Mesmerize, Stun]
* In PvP, being hit with a crowd control effect starts a diminishing returns timer. (We are currently testing this value at 30 seconds.) If you are hit with a second effect from the same group (Movement or Control) during that time, the effect is reduced by 50%. You are then immune to additional effects from the same group until the initial timer has expired.
* Elementalist: Water Elemental’s Ice Bolt no longer snares the target.
* Inquisitor: Nysyr’s Rebuke: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Control abilities.
* Paragon: Touch of Tranquility: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Control abilities.
* Templar: Barb of Shackles: Now shares the same diminishing returns group as other Movement abilities.
* Greater Bottle of Tricks, Exalted Bottle of Tricks, Whisker Concoction, Sheepish Concoction, Prancing Concoction, and Abyssal Modifier now share the same diminishing returns as Control abilities.
* Crowd control-breaking effects have also been updated with the new Diminishing Returns groups:
* Breaks all effects:
– PvP Souls: Break Free
– Bladedancer: Untangle
– Elementalist: Sever Bonds
– Pyromancer: Flicker
– Ranger: Escape Artist – Escape Artist no longer grants immunities.
– Riftblade: Rift Walk
– Riftstalker: Flashback
* Breaks Control effects:
– Paladin: Devotion
– Reaver: Tempered Will
* Breaks Movement effects:
– Bladedancer: Flash of Steel
– Champion: Ruthless Pursuit
– Marksman: Getaway
– Riftstalker: Shadow Stalk
– Shaman: Battle Charge
– Vindicator: Unrestrained
– Warden: Dissolution

CRAFTING
* Crafting daily and weekly quests now scale to match your character level and always award appropriate experience and notoriety.
* Made adjustments to sync up Runebreaking and Outfitter better. Previously, items crafted by Outfitters were too high level to be runebroken by an equal-level Runecrafter. The level ranges for Runebreaking have been updated and expanded to account for this and to be more flexible in general.
* Restricted the drop of crafting Cores to specific mob types when in Shimmersand, Iron Pine Peaks, and Stillmoor – once discovered, these can be targeted for hunting if you’re after more Cores!
* Brilliant and Blazing Life Resistance Rune recipes are now differentiated by required skill and planarite cost.
* Resistance Vial recipes now cost 2000 planarite, Heroic Warding Potion recipes now cost 2500 planarite, Brilliant Resistance Rune recipes now cost 1500 planarite, Blazing Resistance Rune recipes now cost 10,000 planarite.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO
* Fixed an issue with physics which could cause players to become stuck in a ‘falling’ state on certain collision. Oh, silly gravity.
* Corrected some audio stuttering at the end of combat, specifically in Iron Pine Peaks, Shimmersands, and Droughtlands.
* Turned up the relative volume of the ready check sound.

UI/SETTINGS
* The Guild Exp contribution column on the Guild UI has been changed to show the member’s total Achievement score.
* Raidframe ready check marks should be more readable.
* Text for raid warning messages should be more visible, appear instantly, and come with a sound effect.
* The Settings option for ‘Show All Party Buffs’ is now ‘Show only my buffs on target’, which behaves the same was as the Debuff visibility options.

CLIENT
* Added alert flashing (similar to aggro flashing) to the client on the Windows taskbar for LFG popups while the game is minimized.

Trion Fighting Spam

Sitting on my server last night.  I got this server message.

2011-04-29_195519

The image says it all.  I have seen more work to fight gold sellers and spammers from this company than I have ever seen from another.  It is unlike me to post something short and quick like this, but seriously they need credit for this.  Now I am not sure if it was 500 accounts total or 500 from our server, but either way it is pretty cool.

All the work they have put into the chat spam filter, and mail spam filters are much appreciated.  Keep up the great work guys.

Minecraft Update: Royal Quarters

I have been trying to decide what to write today.  I have this post a brewing in my head regarding the moment I have pinned down that WoW ceased to be fun and became a job.  Problem is, I feel it is far too introspective to end the week on.  Instead I figured I would update on the progress of Belgarde in Minecraft.

javaw 2011-04-29 17-04-46-65

This week I was happy to get back on the House Stalwart Minecraft server again.  With the 1.5 patch, it broke Craftbukkit that we use to maintain our server.  The number of bugs in 1.5 lead the Bukkit team to hold off updating for a bit, so we were forced to either downgrade to 1.4 or just simply stay disconnected.  Personally I had other things going on so I didn’t go through the downgrade process.

The Farms Are Safe

javaw 2011-04-29 17-06-07-19javaw 2011-04-29 17-05-30-86javaw 2011-04-29 17-06-32-92

Last time I posted about Minecraft, I said I was working on a sheltered farmland area.  This has been completed and here are a few screenshots above of the area.  These show the fields, 2 farm houses, condos, and the completely sheltered docks.  The area is free of monster spawns and adds to the large safe zone that is contained in Belgarde city area.

Next project:  Royal Quarters

javaw 2011-04-29 17-04-33-67javaw 2011-04-29 17-03-48-00

In keeping with the flow of topics today,  I will be highlighting Belgarde’s Royalty.  Currently the dockside castle area includes a throne room, but no real living quarters.  It was my intention to build these extending below the waterline in the earth.  This was one of the features I started to flesh out and then never went back for.  So currently being out of pressing projects, I decided to start building this area out.  The above image shows the portion of the castle that extends out into the water.

javaw 2011-04-29 17-02-57-93

There is an access shaft that leads down to the royal quarters, which is several floors below ground.  The idea is, that keeping the quarters underground, would keep them safe from attack.  The above image is the central nexus that breaks out into separate hallways.  Included here are a number of chambers that have yet to be decorated, as well as an audience chamber with throne.  My thought is this is where the majority of private business would be conducted for the city of Belgarde.

javaw 2011-04-29 17-02-25-56

One floor below the royal quarters is the servant quarters.  If the royals live below ground, so would all of the servants that take care of the castle.  The idea in them being a floor below is that so visitors would never see them.  Below here I have fleshed out 12 dorm rooms, a large kitchen with a small dining room, and a workroom.  My plan is to continue downwards and build out additional levels.  The current idea is to build out a storeroom directly below the servants quarters.  Following the storeroom would be a prison to hold any criminals that have not been deemed as combatants in the arena.  Below that would be the royal vault, with all manner of traps along the way.

Minecraft Song

Just because I can, I am embedding the Minecraft Song by Bobby Yarsulik.  I seriously love this song, I am not sure why but to me it really fits this game.  He has gone on to create many other minecraft themed songs.  You can find him on facebook, or on twitter @byarsulik.  Personally I think Notch should license this song for the menu in game.  If you love the song too, you can pick up all his minecraft themed music over on itunes.

100th Post

So I just noticed that this is post number 100 for me.  It doesn’t really feel like I have done that many, but according to WordPress I have.  Just adding this in as an unimportant footnote.

Bonus Stage: Changes

There have been various sundry changes in and involving the Tales of the Aggronaut site over the last few days/weeks.  Most of these have been fairly subtle and in the background, and have just been snuck in here and there by me.  However, with one of these changes being pretty significant, I figured today would be a good day to do one of my “Bonus Stage” posts and catch everyone up.

Chibi Bahmi Bel

bel_chibi_full This one has been in the works for a long time, since starting to play Rift.  One of the hallmarks of my website was the adorable Chibi version of ZA geared Belghast.  It was given to me by a good friend of mine Audrae, who if you follow the link has a special nack for Chibis.

For the Bahmi Belghast, she went off in a new direction for her.  She created it entirely in Adobe Illustrator using meshes for shading and such.  I really like the results and it gives a completely different feel to it than the original had.

As attached as I am to the new Chibi, I just could not bring myself to remove the original Zul’Aman Belghast from the banner.  So now you have a composite banner that includes both chibi’s back to back.  I think it works, but I am biased.  One thing is certain, the new Chibi looks amazing.

Website Facelift

Over the weeks since leaving WoW I have been making a series of tweaks to “unbrand” the website from being a purely WoW based one.  While doing these tweaks I have tried to give it a more “Rift” feel without making it a blatantly recognizable Rift-Only website.  I am not sure if I accomplished this, but I am overall fond of the tweaks.

One of the newest features is the blogroll.  In the past my blogroll was always out of date with what I was actually reading on a regular basis.  It was a pain to log into the dashboard and add and remove links, so it was something I did on a very irregular basis.  This lead me to start searching for an easier way to let my readers see exactly what I was reading.

Thanks to some helpful information from the interwebs… I have updated the website to pull in my actual Google Reader information.  Now you can see exactly what I am subscribing to and reading on a daily basis.  Currently the Blog Roll is divided into three categories: Rift Leaning Blogs, WoW Leaning Blogs, and General Gaming / Geek Stuff.  Of note, the last category is where I keep very obviously multi-game blogs like Spinksville or Kill Ten Rats for example.

Official Rift Fansite

You might have noticed, that I have added a logo to the bottom of the sidebar along with the Twisted Nether Blogcast ones.  I was contacted by Trion and told that they were going to add me to the Rift official fansites list.  I halfway expected a WoW Insider style bump, but overall there has been a slow trickle of people arriving at the blog from the list.  I am guessing that the majority of Rift players simply do not know about that page.

I think it is pretty cool that the Rift community support staff has been reaching out to various websites.  They definitely seem more aware of the gamer community and are making more gestures to support it than I have ever seen from another game company.  I am not exactly a major blog, so the fact that they have chosen to add me shows me that they are actually out in the trenches reading what the community has to say.

Gameography

I blatantly stole this concept from the blog “We Fly Spitfires”.  Over the last week a new link has appeared at the top of the blog, to my very own version of a Gameography page.  This was a fun little exercise as I tried to remember all of the various MMO games I have played, characters, and approximate levels.  I limited myself to only listing games that I have subscribed past the first month. 

In addition to games played, I created a list of all the various Alphas and Betas I have participated in.  After awhile this began to feel almost like a gaming resume.  I honestly didn’t realize it had been so many different Betas until I listed them out.  I knew that I had been in plenty, I am always looking for the ability to try new games as they are being developed.

Ariad The Gamer

I updated my about page, to rework it and add a significant change to this blog. Always in the past this has been solely my work, for better or worse.  However I was approached by a friend of mine, who wanted to start submitting articles.  I’ve know Ariad for going on seven years now, and had many a long winded discussion about gaming theory and application.  I am constantly amazed by his breadth of knowledge.

This is a significant paradigm shift in my blog.  No longer is Aggronaut, my personal vent platform.  Now we have actual contributors.  In the past we have had guest posts, but never a full contributor.  I am not sure if we will be adding any more, but I think this is certainly going to be a boon for my readers. 

I can’t promise that Ariad and I will always see eye to eye on issues, but I can promise that everything he posts will be as well thought as his comments always have been.  I hope you will all welcome him with open arms.  His first post should be arriving shortly.  I know I personally am looking forward to it with great anticipation.