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Episode 4: "Revelations"
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/default.htm?nc=1
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_teaser.htm?nc=1
March Episode - "Revelations"
She grimly released arrow after arrow into the hordes as the mages worked feverishly behind her. An incoherent scream nearby told her that another of their number had fallen, but she dared not turn to see who it was. It sounded like Eldeth… Another friend lost in this battle. Of course, she thought, all who had chosen to stay behind had known the consequences.
The last stragglers squeezed through the nearly-closed doors of the fortress. The resounding thud of the doors finally closing was quickly followed by the sharp clang of its bar sliding into place. The doors secured, she looked out into the darkness from her position on the fortress walls. She could already hear the low drumming of Gurog hooves slamming into the frozen tundra. They would be here soon.
The constant drumming had driven nearly all the feeling from his fingers, yet he continued. As he beat a rhythm to ease his companion's pain, he looked out over the walls of this, their last holding in Omishan. Only a dim gloom illuminated the scene below, for heavy clouds of ash obscured most of the sun's light. Even that dim illumination was all he needed to see the vast tide of Burun still surrounding the fortress, a tide that stretched off into the distance.
She sat among the rough assemblage of warriors, those lucky enough to have survived the initial onslaught. This was the mortal races' first-and last-council of war on the Nemesis attacks. The most accomplished portal mages stood before the assembly explaining their plan, the only hope they saw of saving most of the survivors. Upon conclusion of their presentation, they asked if there were questions, but she knew there would be none. Everyone present understood what was at stake; there was nothing to question.
As he turned to direct his next attack, a Burun appeared before him. It swung its scythe-like blade at his head, but he ducked under the swing and quickly drummed a beat that called a lightning bolt down on the creature. The Burun's limbs twitched erratically as electricity coursed through its body, then it fell over. As two more Burun heads peeked over the wall, a cry came from behind him: "The wards are almost set! Just a moment more!"
A moment more and he could rest.
She swung her blade, severing the Gurog's head. As its body fell to the ground, she saw out of the corner of her eye a Gurog Champion rushing toward her, its axe already in motion. Even as she tried to evade its blow, she felt a sharp pain cross her chest. Falling to her knees, she struggled to draw breath, but only a wet gasp escaped her lips. A moment passed. A shadow passed over her. She looked up, struggling to focus her eyes. Finally her vision cleared and she saw the Champion looking down on her.
"Rock pusher," it sneered as it raised its axe once more.
A ragged cheer rose up behind her. She turned to see a violet light piercing the heavens. Looking back over the wall, she saw the Drudges break off their assault and look up. She allowed herself a tight smile as a few turned to run. The wards were complete; her duty was almost finished.
She was looking up at the Gurog when it was suddenly backlit by violet light. The Gurog turned to face this new enemy and roared in rage as the expanding brightness drew nearer. As she concentrated on trying to draw breath, she turned her head to look down at the ground before her. "Rock pusher," she muttered. "Feh." She gasped one final time, and the ground drew closer. Then there was nothing.
In the blink of an eye, an intense violet light banished the gloom. His Burun adversary turned and sheltered its eyes with its hands. He, too, squinted into the brightness and followed the line of the violet arc as it raced upwards into the sky. Suddenly, with a thunderous crack, the arc expanded and terrified croaking filled the night air. The light blazed ever stronger; soon there would be nothing else.
Complete March Episode Guide
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_complete.htm?nc=1
March Episode - "Revelations"
NEW! Experience Reward
The first time characters log in during our March episode, they will be awarded one half of the experience needed to advance to their next level, up to a maximum of 5 million experience points. For more details on why this is the case, please take a look at this thread on the official Asheron's Call 2 message boards.
Major Skill Changes
Original Link (now dead) - No Link Available
March Episode - "Revelations"
NEW! Experience Reward
The first time characters log in during our March episode, they will be awarded one half of the experience needed to advance to their next level, up to a maximum of 5 million experience points. For more details on why this is the case, please take a look at this thread on the official Asheron's Call 2 message boards.
Skills
We've spent the last few months collating player feedback and performing our own detailed analysis of the skills present in the 9 main and 18 specialty trees. For our March Episode, "Revelations," we are tweaking a variety of skills.
Our focus in this first comprehensive pass is on non-functional skills and/or true bugs. In some cases, we've made design changes to balance out certain skills or specialties. This list is not our attempt to make all classes equal; distinctly superior and inferior specialties still remain. We will share our initial plans to address these inequalities sometime next month.
Because of the sheer number of changes made to skills in March, we've decided to offer players a one-time opportunity to remake their skill choices. When you login after our March episode has gone live, you will have one-time access to a "/skills reset" command. Typing this command will untrain all of a character's skills and return the skill credits and experience spent on those skills. You can then choose to spend those credits and experience again on a new skill set. This command will only be available during the March episode, so if you want to make use of it, you must do so during this episode. We want to stress that while we may offer this command again when we make sweeping changes to the game's skill set, it may not be available again for a few months or it may be limited to specific character classes.
Important notes about the "/skills reset" command:
- You will only be able to use this command once per character.
- You will only be able to use this command during the March Episode. Once the April Episode goes live, you will not be able to use this command.
- Only characters created before the March Episode will be able to use the command.
- We suggest that you spend your skill credits first. Only once you are happy with your skill credit allocation, then spend your XP.
- Make sure you train all the skills you want to train. Sometimes it can be easy to forget a Paragon or Adept skill because they are not visible in all skill trees.
- Be careful of inadvertently spending too much XP too quickly. Skills can cost a lot of XP at the higher levels. Make sure you have enough XP for all of your important skills.
- We will not be offering this command again anytime soon, so please be careful if you decide to reallocate your skill credits and experience. Game Admins will not be able to help you in this matter.
What follows is a list of the skill changes. Please keep in mind that we are publishing these changes early with the goal of getting your feedback. Threads will be started on the official AC2 message board to collate the feedback.
Character Class Index
| Human | Melee Missile Magic |
Bounty Hunter Ranger Enchanter |
Defender |
| Lugian | Melee Missile Magic |
Juggernaut Raider Elementalist |
Tactician |
| Tumerok | Melee Missile Magic |
Feral Intendant Hivekeeper Invoker |
Zealot |
| Human Melee | |
| Begrudge |
|
| Twin Blades |
|
| Insult |
|
| Human Defender | |
| Lay Hands |
|
| Righteous Fury |
|
| Human Bounty Hunter | |
| Lucky Charm |
|
| Hunter's Ruse |
|
| Hunter's Betrayal |
|
| Feign Death |
|
| Fate's Forgiveness |
|
| Human Missile | |
| Critical Shot |
|
| Impending Doom |
|
| Human Ranger | |
| Forage |
|
| Divining |
|
| Human Magic | |
| Slithering Flames |
|
| Human Enchanter | |
| Blade of Frost |
|
| Blade of Fire |
|
| Lugian Melee | |
| Double Strike |
|
| Lugian Juggernaut | |
| Maim |
|
| Cataclysm |
|
| NEW! Decapitate |
|
| NEW! Dismember |
|
| NEW!Disembowel |
|
| Lugian Missile | |
| Rout |
|
| Lugian Raider | |
| NEW! Shatter Soul |
|
| Lugian Tactician | |
| NEW! Small Turret Casing |
|
| NEW! Large Turret Casing |
|
| Grapeshot |
|
| Self Destruct Sequence |
|
| Wall of Ice |
|
| Slough Field |
|
| Fiery Obstruction |
|
| Lugian Mage | |
| Pain Touch |
|
| Internalize Suffering |
|
| Lugian Elementalist | |
| Sand Fiend |
|
| Sand Minion |
|
| Guardian Spirit |
|
| Volcanic Rift |
|
| Thunderstorm |
|
| Incendiary Cloud |
|
| Tumerok Melee | |
| Hunger |
|
| Tumerok Feral Intendant | |
| Iron Pincers |
|
| Summon Beetle |
|
| Lumbering Might |
|
| Summon Shreth |
|
| Tenderize |
|
| Leader of the Pack |
|
| Summon Reedshark |
|
| Sanguine Orders |
|
| Tumerok Zealot | |
| Onslaught |
|
| Soft Flesh |
|
| Skull Cracker |
|
| Bone Crusher |
|
| Spine Ripper |
|
| Back Breaker |
|
| Tumerok Claw Bearer | |
| Expose |
|
| Twin Shot |
|
| Tumerok Hivekeeper | |
| All Attack Skills |
|
| Wax Statue |
|
| Tumerok Magic | |
| Eye of the Storm |
|
| Tumerok Invoker | |
| Ghost of the Past |
|
| Invoke the Grandfather |
|
| The Redeemer |
|
| The Reckoner |
|
| The Vindicator |
|
| The Avenger |
|
| Astral Hunters |
|
| Invoke the Grandmother |
|
| Summon Brat |
|
| Summon Minor |
|
| Summon Master |
|
Inventory
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_inventory.htm?nc=1
Inventory
Your Inventory Panel now contains four separate containers: one main pack of 42 slots, and three side packs of 12 slots each, making a total of 78 slots (12 more than before). When you pick up items, the game will attempt to put them in the first open slot in your main pack, then in the first open slot in your top side pack, and so on down the side packs. Items that were toward the bottom of your inventory before the patch will be distributed to the other three side packs. Side packs are not separate objects, and cannot be dropped on the ground or given to other players.
Friends, Fellowships, and Allegiances
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_groups.htm?nc=1
March Episode - "Revelations"
Friends Tab
We've added a new Friends tab to the Social panel. Clicking on this tab will give players the following options:
- Check the online status of the characters on their Friends list. The different status types are "Available," "Do Not Disturb," "Away from Keyboard," and "Offline."
- Set their own status to one of the status options ("Offline" will only display once the player logs out).
- Add or remove friends from their Friends list. In order to add characters using the Friends tab you will need to have selected the character first. To remove a character from your list, you can simply select the name on the Friends list and click the "Remove" button.
- Note that all the old "/friend" commands, such as "/friend status," still work.
Fellowship XP Bonus
Initially, AC2 had a fellowship bonus, but it was taken out before the game launched because fellowships were already far more effective than solo players in killing creatures and gaining XP. However, we recognize that some of the issues present in playing in a fellowship—finding a group, coordinating a group, developing effective hunting strategies—all contributed to many players choosing to stay solo. One of the core strengths of AC2 is in hunting, exploring, and questing with a group of other players; therefore, in order to overcome "solo-inclined" inertia and get more people excited about grouping without hurting the ability to solo, we have brought back the concept of fellowship XP bonuses as follows:
| Fellowship Size | % Creature Experience Reward |
| 2 Players | 75% |
| 3 Players | 65% |
| 4 Players | 55% |
| 5 Players | 50% |
| 6 Players | 40% |
| 7 Players | 30% |
| 8 Players | 20% |
| 9 Players | 15% |
Allegiances
- Allegiance MOTD: Allegiance monarchs can now set a message of the day for their allegiance. All members of the allegiance will see this message when they log in or when they bring up the Allegiance tab in the Social panel. Monarchs can control the message of the day using the following commands:
Command Description /motd set <text> Sets the message of the day for the allegiance. /motd clear Clears the message of the day. /help motd Provides help for the MOTD commands.
- We've fixed a bug with passing up allegiance XP. If a vassal did the vast majority of his or her advancement through questing, the bug prevented the XP from being forwarded up to his or her patron. The allegiance system has been changed so that every time you level, whatever XP you have not previously passed up to your patron will be sent.
Skills: Continent Recall and Pets
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_skills2.htm?nc=1
March Episode - "Revelations"
Continent Recall
As a reward for completing all seven Vaults on a continent, you will be able to access a skill which allows you to recall to that continent's capital city (Cragstone, Ikeras, or Linvak Tukal). Once you have finished all seven Vaults, travel to a Nexus stone located on the outskirts of the specific capital for that continent. Use the stone to unlock the skill. Some things to keep in mind regarding Continent Recall:
- NEW! There will be a 30-second "Lifestone protection" cast upon your character once you begin portalling back to the Nexus spot.
- Like other recalls, you will need to have full Vigor to begin recalling, and recalling uses up all your Vigor upon completion.
Our goal with this skill is to allow characters to travel and congregate more freely, especially characters in different level ranges.
Skills and Pets
Outside of the extensive list of skill changes we detailed in our first letter, there are only a few more additional changes to mention for March.
- Failing to summon a pet will no longer start the reset timer (so Tacticians who fail to place their turret will no longer have to wait an hour).
- In the past, a pet owner had to turn on the "See Other Characters' Damage Numbers" option in order to see the damage being done by and to their pet. We've changed this so that pet damage is now shown automatically for all types of pets.
The Treasure System
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_treasure.htm?nc=1
March Episode - "Revelations"
Treasure
For March, we are adding a number of new effects into the treasure system. This represents only the first step in a series of planned transformations that will take place over the next several months.
- We've added a variety of new beneficial effects to treasure items.
- Shields:
- Splendor—Lowers the min. level requirement by 1.
- Absorption—Absorbs a portion (3-12%) of damage 20% of the time.
- Bone Splitter—Adds +2 or +3 damage.
- Weapons:
- Grace—Lowers the min. level requirement by 1.
- Grace—Lowers the min. level requirement by 1.
- For all pieces of armor:
- Grace—Lowers the min. level requirements by 1.
- Armor Increasing Effects—These effects increase the armor level of a piece of armor by the specified amount.
- Shields:
Effect Name Armor Increase Durability 1 Thickness 2 Renitence 3 Impenetrability 4-5 Imperviousness 5-7
It should be noted that any armor found with "Impenetrability" can still have its armor level increased by the Human Enchanter "Impenetrability" spell.
- For breastplates and robes only:
- Specialized Class Effects—These effects provide benefits useful to the specialized class. The effects also limit the piece of armor so that it can be used only by that class. The names of the effects, the classes to which they apply, and the bonuses they provide are as follows:
- For breastplates and robes only:
Class Effect Name Human Bounty Hunter Prowl Human Defender Posturing Human Alchemist Voltaic Energy Human Ranger Promises Lugian Berserker Rage Lugian Juggernaut Brawn Lugian Raider Strong Arms Tumerok Feral Intendant Brute Tumerok Zealot Devout Tumerok Claw Bearer Dreamer Tumerok Hivekeeper Hive Effect Bonuses: 1-10 point Adept skill increase; 1-12 point damage increase Class Effect Name NEW! Tumerok Invoker Spirit Effect Bonuses: 1-10 point Adept skill increase; 3-5% Vigor Regeneration bonus. Class Effect Name Human Enchanter Drawing NEW! Human Sorcerer Thaumaturge Lugian Elementalist Matterite NEW! Lugian Sage Wisdom NEW! Tumerok Healer Gift Effect Bonuses: 1-10 point Adept skill increase; 10-60 point reduction in Vigor Cost. Class Effect Name Lugian Tactician Scheming Effect Bonuses: 1-10 skill point increase to Armor Piercing, Double Shot, Fiery Obstruction, Grape Shot, Rapid Fire, Repair, Slough Field, or Wall of Ice.
- Jewelry:
- Life Balance—Adds 10 to 120 Health, Subtracts 5 to 62 Vigor.
- Spirit Balance—Adds 20 to 150 Vigor, Subtracts 10 to 75 Health.
- Jewelry:
- The first types of helms are making their appearance in the treasure system in March. Humans and Lugians each have one style of helm, while Tumeroks have two styles from which to choose. Helms don't receive all of the same effects that other pieces of armor do, but can receive effects that increase their armor level or decrease the wield requirement level.
- Combat Delay on all newly created treasure has been evened out across the level ranges; that is, all items have a potential Combat Delay that ranges from 5 to 20, regardless of the item's level.
- We've added some different "decal" effects to newly generated weapons in the treasure system. For March, some of these decal effects (such as bloody, cracked, rusty, corroded, and mossy) have no correlation to the relative strength and quality of the weapon. Other decal effects depict the type of spell that's on the weapon (a flame decal for fire weapons, etc.).
- A bug in the Combat Delay and Vigor Costs affected how they generated the prefix for the name of an item. Names associated with benefits to these stats were placed on items that had penalties, and vice-versa. For example, an Even <item name> is supposed to have a reduced Vigor Cost, but instead had an increased Vigor Cost. This has been fixed.
- Any class that uses a specialized weapon is now able to use its auto attacks with zero Vigor, just like weapons used by the main skill trees. Prior to this, a bug caused characters to be unable to auto attack with these specialized weapons if the characters had no Vigor.
Crafting and Dyeing
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_crafting.htm
March Episode - "Revelations"
Dyeing
With all the recent changes that have been made to dyeing, we want to take a moment to give a comprehensive history of this craft, so that the March changes will make more sense.
When Asheron's Call 2 launched, there were two types of dyeing success states and two types of failure states. Most success states were "critical successes," meaning the item took on the dye color. A smaller percentage of success states also gave the item the desired color, but slightly damaged the item. Most failure states would give the item the desired color, but horribly damage the item. Finally, there was a small chance for a "critical failure," which resulted in damage and a strange color, like orange or pink.
When the February Episode launched, the success state that damaged armor was removed, meaning there was only one success state and two failure states. However, the message given by the more common failure state was causing some confusion. Due to localization issues, we were unable to easily change this message in the update, so we temporarily disabled the common failure state. This means that in the February update, there are only two dyeing states, a success and a critical failure.
In the March Episode, there is again one success state and two failure states. A success state will give the item the color. A failure state will do nothing; the item will not change color or be damaged in any way. A critical failure state will damage the item and give it a strange color.
We apologize for this confusion. We also would like to say that we are aware that many dyed items do not take on the color they should. This is due to an issue with our graphics engine. We'll try to fix this in the coming episodes, but at this time, we can't provide a specific date on when the fix will be implemented.
UI and Shortcut Bars
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_ui.htm
March Episode - "Revelations"
UI and Shortcut Bars
- Double-clicking on a skill icon in your Skills panel will no longer add a shortcut to any shortcut bar beyond the one currently displayed. (Previously, double-clicking would add a shortcut to whatever slot was next available, whether that shortcut bar was visible or not.)
- Due to a UI bug, items at the bottom of your inventory were being hidden when items were generated in your character's overflow slots. It was only after three or more items were generated in the overflow slots that these items appeared. We've corrected this problem so that now all your items are displayed, whether they're in an overflow slot or not.
- We have solved a problem that was causing tool tips to be far too small for the amount of text they needed to display. They should now display properly in the Options panel.
- Previously when you created an alias that you wanted to appear on a specific shortcut bar, you needed to specify the slot number and the shortcut bar number. (For example, you would have to specify an alias to appear on "42" if you wanted it to appear on the second slot on your fourth shortcut bar.) Now the alias command simply assigns the alias to the specific slot on the currently displayed shortcut bar. So if the fourth shortcut bar is the currently displayed bar, you simply need to assign an alias to the 2 to have it appear in the second slot there.
- If you type more than a multi-line text box can display at one time, the text box will now automatically scroll to display what you are typing.
Quest Change
Original Link (now dead) - No Link Available
March Episode - "Revelations"
Quest Changes
- The experience rewards given out by the following quests have been increased:
Quest Old Reward New Reward Darkenfowl Egg Hunts 0 XP 5,000 XP Mucor Mushroom 3,000 XP 6,000 XP Sclavus Cabals 5,000 XP 60,000 XP Shreth Gauntlet 4,000 XP 40,000 XP
- Although the entrance to the Golden Age Reliquary was moved into a Peaceful zone, the dungeon was still set as a Kingdom versus Kingdom zone. The dungeon is now a Peaceful zone as well.
- The Kehan Windmill now accepts any extra gears you may have collected in your adventures. At the moment, this is the only way to remove these additional gears from your inventory.
- You can now pick up additional Sclavus Cabal Talismans at any point in the Sclavus Cabal quest, so fellowships can pick up spare Talismans for their current quest if needed. However, these Talismans cannot be saved and used to advance a future Cabal quest, since the quest advancement effect is tied to picking up a new Talisman. An old Talisman does not have this effect, so it won't advance your quest.
- When examined, the portal to the Nepeth Strata Shard now displays that it leads to that shard (it used to display that it led to the Naderu Shard).
- The "Surface Exit" portal in the Vesayan Vault will actually take you to the surface now, instead of teleporting you to the boss room.
- For the sake of consistency, the minimum level requirement on the Dillo Rustlers quest is level 30.
- NEW! The Three Doctrines quest has been revised; anyone who completed the quest twice and received the permanent +50 vigor buff twice will revert to only one application of this reward. Also, players who were in the midst of this quest and had been unable to complete it in our February episode should now be able to complete it.
Misc. Bug Fixes and Tweaks
Original Link (now dead) - No Link Available
March Episode - "Revelations"
Miscellaneous Bug Fixes and Tweaks
- Monster corpses now decay at different rates, depending on whether they've been looted or not. If the corpse has not been opened, it will last three minutes. If it has been opened and still has items on it, it will remain for one minute. If the corpse is empty, it will decay 15 seconds later. Exceptions to this rule are player corpses, which always last one minute; pet corpses, which don't have any loot and therefore decay in 15 seconds; and destroyed barrels, which always last three minutes so that they can shed their light.
- Many creatures were not consuming Vigor when using their healing and Vigor-restoring spells. This has been corrected and these monsters are now using Vigor.
- Failing to use a skill in mid-air no longer consumes Vigor.
- When your character gains a level, the chat text now displays how many health and Vigor points your character has gained.
- Saddles are now ethereal to players and monsters.
- The graphic degrades for several styles of Human boots have been corrected.
- NEW! The sounds that accompany skill and spell effects that disappeared in the February episode are now restored.
- NEW! The rate at which some monsters were throwing missile attacks has been slightly reduced. For example, Gurogs should now be throwing their axes every 1.6 seconds, instead of 1.2 seconds.
- NEW! The experience rewards given by landscape Tyrants and Giguraths have been restored to their December levels.
Episode Guide Addendum
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/Episode4/ep4_add.htm
March Episode - "Revelations"
Command Aliases for EQ and DAoC Players
Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Articles/newcommands.htm?nc=1
Command Aliases for EQ & DAoC Players
In order to make Asheron's Call 2 more accessible to players of all sorts, our March episode included some new features to help players from EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot who are giving Asheron's Call 2 a try. They're still in the game, and they should making traveling from Norrath, Hybernia, Albion, or Midgard easier.
The first feature is two new key maps. One is for players familiar with EQ's keyboard layout, while the other key map is for players more comfortable with DAoC's layout. To alternate between these different maps, simply click the "Controls" button in the character selection screen. Here you'll find two new buttons, one labeled "EQ Keys," the other labeled "DAoC Keys." Clicking one of these buttons and confirming that you want to apply the changes will map your keys to a layout similar to those used in those games. There's also a new button to switch your keys back to the default Asheron's Call 2 keys.
Another feature added in March extends Asheron's Call 2 to respond to many common commands in other games. Using the "/rest" command will cause your character to sit down, providing the same functionality as the existing "/sit" command. In situations where Asheron's Call 2 doesn't offer the exact same functionality as another game, AC2 provides help text explaining how to get equivalent functionality. For example, typing "/quest" gives a new player a help message directing him or her to open up the Quest panel. Here, players can find information about what quests they are on currently.
We've also implemented two other minor changes which will benefit everyone. In March, hitting the "r" key will automatically start the "/reply" command in the currently active chat window. Also, if a character name consists of one word, the comma is no longer needed in a "/tell" command. So to send a tell to "Citan" in March, for example, you could type "/tell Citan give me phat lewt!" and have the message sent to that character. Of course using the comma in the tell command will still work, no matter the length of the character name.
We hope that these changes will make everyone feel welcome in Asheron's Call 2!