Brad's lengthy post from the EQ Website forum
Sha' Rite' Mon
thread is in the forums at www.everquest.com
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Several members of the EQ team, with some initial help from a player's
email, put the following document together listing both enhancements and
'nerfs' we've made to the game since launch. And while we probably forgot
some things, both negative and positive (please let us know and I'll update
the document), I think it puts in perspective the ratio of positive vs.
negative changes to the game we've made. I also feel it heartily
invalidates the assertion that we are out to make the game harder or to have
players advance slower overall, or that 'all we do is nerf'.
The following is broken down by class, and then addresses those changes made
that affect the whole game. Changes we feel are positive from just about any
perspective are denoted with a '+', and those some players might consider a
'nerf', but that we felt were important for the long term health of the
game, are denoted with a '-'.
(again, I'm sure we've forgotten some things, both '+' and '-'; please feel
free to comment and add items).
WIZARDS:
+ Added additional means by which to obtain Ice Comet
+ Made Researching much easier
+ Added more high level spells
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Enhanced High Level (35+) Meditation
+ Enhanced AoE Spells to let Wizard effect more creatures
+ Added Plane Travel Spells
+ Enhanced Specific Wizard Stun Spells
+ Added AoE slow monster spell (c.f. Bonds of Force)
RANGERS:
+ Introduction of better average armor that is easier than most to get
+ Critical Bow hits
+ Many new quests requiring a tracker to find outdoor spawn
+ Made Ebony Blade group friendly
+ More variety of items obtained via the Forage skill
+ Increased defensive skill caps (parry, dodge)
+ Added innate resistance to fire and cold
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Added additional Ranger Spells
+ Changed Some Spell Casting Skills to allow easier Skilling
(c.f. Dance of the Fireflies)
DRUIDS:
- DOTs changed negatively, making Kiting less efficient
+ DoT changed positively to enhance group play
+ Many new quests requiring a tracker to find outdoor spawn
+ Increased druid's tracking ability
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Enhanced High Level (35+) Meditation
+ Enhanced Pet/Charmed Animal Pathing
+ Enhanced Some Druid Anti-Movement Spells (c.f. Ensnare,
Grasping Roots, etc.)
+ Lowered the Casting Level of Some Druid Teleport Spells
PALADINS:
+ Added Archery
+ Added innate resistance to disease
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Increased stats of Armor of Ro items
SHADOWKNIGHTS:
+ Spell changes (added lifetap)
+ Made Harm Touch less resistible
+ Added innate resistance to poison and disease
- DOTs changed negatively, making Kiting less efficient
+ DoT changed positively to enhance group play
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+/- Feign Death Changes - Better for Low Level Character, Better
for High Level once learning curve has passed
+ Made Certain Spells Harder to Resist (c.f. Invoke Fear)
+ Changes to Pet Appearances
CLERICS:
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Enhanced High Level (35+) Meditation
- Resurrect Changes (Players come back sick)
+ Made Certain Spells Harder to Resist (c.f. Invoke Fear)
+ Reduced the Casting Time of Some Spells (c.f. Word of
Healing/Health, Ward Series)
MONKS:
+/- Feign Death Changes - Better for Low Level Character, Better
for High Level once learning curve has passed
+ New tailoring armor
+ Added items that boost stats, etc.
+ Added innate resistance to fire
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
NECROS:
- LifeTap/Dots changed
+ Some Lifetap Spells Made more mana efficient
- High Level (39+) Pets weakened
+ DOTs made more efficient
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Enhanced High Level (35+) Meditation
+ Necromancer Pet Buff Spells Strengthened
+ Added Special Items to let Necromancers Summon Stronger Pets
+ Corrected Bug that let monsters attack you from far distances
through your pet
+ Lots of New Spells (c.f. Screaming Terror, Pact of Shadow,
Vampiric Curse, Bond of Death, Summon Corpse, etc.)
+ Enhanced Call of Bones Series
+ Enhanced Screaming Terror
- Added a Recast Time to Pact of Shadow
+ Made Certain Spells Harder to Resist (c.f. Invoke Fear)
+ Added New Looks to Necromancer Pets
- Removed Charm
+ Enhanced Pet Pathing
+ Reduced the Casting Time of Some Necromancer Spells
+ Made Research Easier & Fixed Broken Research
+ Added Quests to let Necromancers Quest (instead of Research) their pets
+ Enhanced Effectiveness of Some Spells (Shadow Vortex, Surge of
Enfeeblement, Ignite Bones, Dead Man Floating, etc.)
Magicians
+ New summon item spells
- High Level (39+) Pets weakened
+ Better mid+ level pets (they cast spells now)
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Enhanced High Level (35+) Meditation
+ Magician Pet Buff Spells Strengthened
+ Enhanced Pet Pathing
+ Added Special Items to let Magicians Summon Stronger Pets
+ Corrected Bug that let monsters attack you from far distances
through your pet
+ Made Magician Research Easier - especially for their pets
+ Added Spell Effects to most Magician Summoned Items
+ Enhanced AoE Spells to let Magicians effect more creatures
+ Reduced Mana Cost of Damage Shields
+ Reduced Casting Time of Ward Series
+ Made the Malise Series Stack Better
+ Made the Burnout Series Better
BARDS:
+ Added stat and other bonuses to instruments
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Corrected Bug that let monsters attack you from far distances
through your pet
+ Added Addition Effects to Some Bard Songs
+ Added New Bard Songs
+ Added Ability for Bards to Punch 'Magic Only' Creatures
+ Increased the Power of Some Bard Songs (c.f. Chant Series,
Fifil's, etc.)
WARRIORS:
+ Added critical melee hits
+ Later increased chance of critical hits
+ More Hit Points
+ Innate Magical Resistance
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Added Berserking
ROGUES:
+ Added Poison skill
+ Thrown Weapon Critical Hits
+ Minimum Backstab Damage Implemented
+ Minimum Backstab Damage Later Upped
+ Hide/Sneak Enhanced
+ Added innate resistance to poison
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Improvements to Poison Skill
ENCHANTERS:
+ Jewelry Trade
- High Level (39+) Pets weakened
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Enhanced High Level (35+) Meditation
+ Made Tishan stack better and removed recasting time
+ Corrected Bug that let monsters attack you from far distances
through your pet
+ Made Certain Spells Harder to Resist (c.f. Invoke Fear)
+ Increased Durations of All Illusions
+ Made Research Easier
- Made Illusion Wolf OD Only
+ Added Mana Enchant Spells to Allow Item Enchantment
+ Made Enchanter Pets Look Different
+ Enhanced Certain Spells (curse of the simple mind, etc.
+ Added More Effects to High Level Illusion Spells
+ Better Pet Pathing
SHAMAN:
+ Added Shrink Spell
- Took too long to recognize Alchemy bug
- High Level (39+) Pets weakened
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Enhanced High Level (35+) Meditation
+ Made Malise stack better and removed recasting time
+ Better Pet Pathing
- DOTs changed negatively, making Kiting less efficient
+ DoT changed positively to enhance group play
+ DoT's Made Stronger
+ Corrected Bug that let monsters attack you from far distances
through your pet
- Removed Charm Spell
+ Increased the Duration of Buffs
ALL MELEE:
+ Purchasable Potions added, giving more versatility to melee
classes and adding a money sink to the game to help the economy
ALL CASTERS:
- Removal of Manastone
+ Made it such that you can see meditating (levels 35+)
+ Implemented Specialization
ALL:
+ HALVED experience loss death penalty
- Removal of weightless box spawn
+ Purchasable weightless box added
- Introduction of Frenzy code (after level 19)
+ New emotes and animations
+ New graphics for weapons
+ Populated Plane of Fear
+ Populated Plane of Hate
+ Populated Kedge Keep
+ Populated and added Temple of Solusek Ro
+ Increased range for evac and teleport spells
+ Added second boat between Freeport and Butcherblock
+ Added class specific quests for many classes
+ Increased treasure and experience gain rewards for many older quests
- Upgraded NPC AI such that if an NPC is stuck it can teleport
around obstacle
+ Added /follow command
+ Added adjustable clipping plane
+ Added /yell command
+ Added /friends list
+ Increased frequency and complexity of dynamic quests and events
+ Added ability to rearrange spells in spellbook
+ Added additional chat filters
-Brad
Philth
He left out about 100 nerfed quests like the Paw where the guy used to spawn
every 10 minutes, and now takes 7 and a half hours (which is freaking
nonesense), and the JBoots made harder to obtain, trade skills less profitable
(known there were some exploits, but im not talking about those), a lot of
"rare" spawn mobs are even rarer, the planes made harder - twice. Dragons made
tougher god knows how many times, the removal of Rubicite (should have left it
in still), removable of other certain items, Roror has been stuck in Ferrott
since forever, creatures dropping less loot. Note, all of these per quest,
per creature is one '-' sign which would outweigh the positive sign 50 fold.
khe...@my-deja.com
+ Added stat and other bonuses to instruments
+ Added more Class Specific Quests
+ Added more Class Specific Items
+ Corrected Bug that let monsters attack you from far distances
through your pet
+ Added Addition Effects to Some Bard Songs
+ Added New Bard Songs
+ Added Ability for Bards to Punch 'Magic Only' Creatures
+ Increased the Power of Some Bard Songs (c.f. Chant Series,
Fifil's, etc.)
1) Since when can Bards punch 'Magic Only' Creatures? Or is that
todays patch?
2) Bards get Pets?
Can anyone shed some light on these 2 items?
Khelor Koncerto
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
dwwi...@pacifier.com
"Sha' Rite' Mon" <vood...@hell.net> wrote:
> The following is broken down by class, and then addresses those
changes made
> that affect the whole game. Changes we feel are positive from just
about any
> perspective are denoted with a '+', and those some players might
consider a
> 'nerf', but that we felt were important for the long term health of
the
> game, are denoted with a '-'.
>
>
immediately effected. The new class specific armor was much harder to
obtain and in many cases was inferior to Rubicite.
- Allowing the server count during peak hours approach 2000 or exceed
2000 on a few servers. This is the single number one nerf in the game.
There is unrealistic competition for creatures, items, experience, etc.
- The Undead spawn in Kithicor. Probably a + for level 35+ players. For
the rest of us it puts a high level spawn in a must travel zone. The
loss of life (exp) here by low levels is huge.
These three nerfs / negatives alone out weigh all the little itty bitty
positives put together. Funny how Brad didn't mention them.
Danny Craigg
2) Bards get "pets" at level 27, when they get Selo's Song of the Sirens
(Charm). However, I never saw this bug manifest itself, as the mob your
were charming your pet against had to be rooted by either you or your pet
(bards can't root).
I find it highly amusing that a "Corrected Bug" is listed as an
"enhancement" and that there is a vagueness to "Added Addition Effects to
Some Bard Songs" while the other classes have detailed explanations
regarding their spell modifications. Kind of like the patch message saying
Alenia's Disenchanting Melody "should" work, instead of "does."
Raiel Kendan, Traveling Minstrel of Karana
Asuna
propagande). The problem is they only announce the 'enhancements' and not
the nerfs (unless the nerf is 'for the good of the game'.
If you don't believe it .. explain to me why the 'rain enhancement'
wasn't listed.
Antheus