Announcements - 2012/02 - Master of Arms
February 2012 - Patch Page
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1 FreeWeapons
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2 DualWield
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3 WhereYouWantToGo
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4 Feb12-001
Original Link - http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=692-master-of-arms&catid=86-2012&Itemid=68
Master of Arms
The new College of Arms had been months in the planning, but it was finally complete. With the assistance of the Oracle of the Haebrean, as well as Lord Asheron himself, the treatises of martial skills used by the Haebrean have been recovered. Already, the grand tomes had been copied and dispersed to the trainers who educate those who come into Dereth.
Sir Karadan, a Master of Arms of New Aluvia, sat going over his notes, a look of steady concentration on his face. After a few moments, he called in the Royal Heralds who were waiting for their audience with him.
“You summoned us, My Lord?” said the lead Herald.
“Yes. I have a task for you. I need you all to pass along this information to the Town Criers. It is imperative that word of these new training methods reaches everyone at the greatest possible speed.”
“What do you wish us to tell them, My Lord?” replied the Herald.
“Tell them that the world has changed. No longer will we rely on the old means of martial education. No more will we waste our skill and dedication trying to master a single weapon, to the exclusion of all others. It is time for the peoples of Dereth to embrace a new way. With the knowledge we have recovered from the ancient Haebrean ruins, we now understand the techniques of wielding weapons based on their general style of combat, opening the doors for far greater versatility and effectiveness in combat.”
“Tell them that now, with this improved level of training, we can now study far more than the mastery of a single weapon. Tell them that these new techniques allow us to educate the peoples of Dereth in far more than the simple mastery of armed combat. Tell them that we can now teach the mastery of shields, or how to wield a weapon in each hand. Better still, we can teach the methods of fighting with a reckless fury, or how to strike from the shadows, or even how to win a fight by whatever means necessary.”
“Tell them that the time has come for the peoples of Dereth to master the weapons laid before them, at long last.”
With the final part, the room fell silent. The strength of Sir Karadan’s words filling the hearts of the assembled heralds. After a few minutes, the heralds bowed and filed out of the room, off to spread the word of the changes that were coming.
Sir Karadan sat athis desk musing to himself aloud. “If...if...if. So many ‘ifs’ to have to count on: if word gets out fast enough, if Lord Asheron fulfills his promises, if he recharges the Temples, if he provides assistance in Arwic...then and only then we might have a chance to survive. A real chance to survive the coming storm... I just wish Borelean was here...”
It was his job to ensure that these new means of learning martial combat were dispersed to all, and he was damn well going to do it.Rollout Article
Original Link - '
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There was no Rollout article this month.
Release Notes
Original Link - http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=691-february-2012-release-notes&catid=86-2012&Itemid=68
February 2012 Release Notes
Welcome to the February 2012 Release Notes! There are a ton of changes coming in this month to Asheron’s Call, so lets get right to all of the new and exciting things we are releasing this month!
- Weapon skills have been revamped. Learn more here: Weapon Skills
- Creatures have been updated to use the new skills.
- Increased maximum damage of loot two handed weapons to compensate for the one handed melee damage increase.
- Updated existing rare gems to affect the changed combat skills. Added rare gems for the new Shield, Recklessness, Dual Wield, Dirty Fighting, and Sneak Attack skills.
- Buffs, Cantrips, and Rare combat spells have been changed over to the new skills. New spells have been added for the Shield, Recklessness, Dual Wield, Dirty Fighting, and Sneak Attack skills.
- Gearcrafting interactions and spells have been switched over to Item Tinkering.
- Adjusted quest armors to use the changed combat skills.
- New skill spells will be found on cloaks.
- Female Gear knights & Male Tumeroks should now be able to hit all small creatures
- Mana Forge Chests now drop 1 additional item (total of 7).
- Adjusted the armor set bonuses to buff the new and changed combat skills.
- Increased spell damage by 5%. Raven's Fury, Tusker Fists, & Void Damage over Time spells excluded.
- Multi-strike weapons should now be tinkable (only the new ones).
- Luminance cap increased to 1.5 million.
- Players who had specialized Gearcrafting will receive a refund of the experience spent.
- Both skill & attribute Temples have been reset.
- Grand Casino Chest loot quality has been adjusted to match MFK chests.
- New +10 skill up button can be used to add 10 points to a skill at a time.
- UI: Char info panel now displays which masteries your character has above luminance.
- Removed arcane lore wield req of alternate currency clothing (e.g Gladiatorial Pants, Ceremonial Tunic, etc.).
- Enchantments have been adjusted so that a second spell cast on a player in the same category will remove the old spell (if it is the same or higher spell). This means players can no longer cast multiple of the same spell on their characters. Spells cast from weapons/armor/items will not be erased from cast spells.
- Quest weapons have been updated to use the new combat skills. Many weapons were also rebalanced.
- Upon logging in, existing players will be able to receive a free quest weapon from a selected list on a vendor and 6 tokens to purchase foolproof and other special weapon tinkers.
- New characters will now start with a weapon that matches their skill and mastery combination.
- Cloaks with the chance to reduce incoming damage by 200 have been reduced to 100 for PvP circumstances.
Known Issue: If a player has full inventory upon logging in after patch and were wielding a weapon and/or ammo with high wield req, they will likely drop their weapon and/or ammo onto the ground.
So these are just some of the things we have in store for Asheron's Call in February. Please remember that along with everything listed here, there are several new quests and exciting things going into the game for the February Event.Weapon Skills
Original Link - http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=695-weapon-skills&catid=86-2012&Itemid=68
Weapon Skills
Weapon Skill Changes
When the February Event launches you will see the following combat skills:
- Heavy Weapons
- Light Weapons
- Finesse Weapons
- Missile Weapons
You will no longer see the following combat skills as they have been moved into the new combat skills listed above:
- Axe
- Dagger
- Mace
- Spear
- Staff
- Sword
- Unarmed Combat
- Bow
- Crossbow
- Thrown Weapons
Missile weapons will be able to use any Bow, Crossbow, or Thrown Weapon.
Heavy, Light and Finesse weapons will be able to use any one handed melee weapon that is designated as using the matching combat skill. This also means that a player who chooses Heavy/Light/or Finesse will have the ability to use all types of one handed melee weapons (Axe, Dagger, Mace, Sword, etc) as long as the particular weapon matches their combat skill.
For example: A loot Scimitar will be designated as a Finesse weapon and a Long Sword will be designated as a Heavy weapon. A Battle Axe will be designated as a Heavy Weapon and a Mace will be designated as a Heavy Weapon.
Two Handed combat and all of the magic skills will continue to work as they did before and received a slight increase to damage.
Pre-existing loot weapons on patch day will automatically convert in the following way:
- Swords will convert into Heavy Weapons
- Daggers will convert into Finesse Weapons
- Axe, Mace, Staff, Spear, Unarmed Combat will convert into Light Weapons
- Bows, Crossbows, Thrown Weapons will convert into Missile Weapons
Quest weapons have been spread out evenly across the new combat skills. To see a list of what combat skill each of the quest weapons is changing to, see this forum post:
Weapon Masteries
Along with this skill change we have added a new feature called Masteries. A player may choose both a melee and ranged mastery of their choice which will grant them a +5 Damage Rating with the weapons they choose.
Ranged Masteries are:
- Bow
- Crossbow
- Thrown Weapons
- Magic
Melee Masteries are:
- Axe
- Dagger
- Mace
- Spear
- Staff
- Sword
- Unarmed Combat
- Two Handed Combat
Each race starts with a particular mastery in both the melee and ranged category:
- Aluvian: Dagger and Bow
- Gharu’ndim: Staff and Magic
- Sho: Unarmed Combat and Bow
- Viamontian: Sword and Crossbow
- Umbraen/Penumbraen: Unarmed and Crossbow
- Gear Knight: Mace and Crossbow
- Undead: Axe and Thrown Weapons
- Empyrean: Sword and Magic
- Aun Tumeroks: Spear and Thrown Weapons
Each player is allowed one free change of their melee mastery and one free change of their ranged mastery available in the town of Arwic. After the first free change, it costs an additional 10 MMDs and 100,000 luminance for each mastery change. The cost caps at 50 MMDs and 500,000 luminance. A player must wait at least 27 days between each melee and each ranged mastery change.
Additional New Skills
Along with weapon skill change over listed above, we have added some additional skills for players to choose from.
Shield:
The shield skill allows a player to maximize the protection they receive from wielding a shield. If you specialize the Shield skill, you will receive the full value of your skill as the maximum Armor Level. If the player has a trained skill they will only receive half the value of their skill towards their effective shield AL
For example: If a player has a specialized Shield skill of 500 and a shield with an AL of 500 they will receive 500 AL from the shield. If the player had only a trained shield skill of 500 they would receive only 250 AL from the shield.
A player can never receive a higher AL than the maximum of the shield they have equipped. If a player had a specialized shield skill of 500 but was using a shield that had an AL of 100, the player would only receive 100 AL from the shield.
Any shield with a magic absorbing property now calculates the level of the effect based off of the shield skill. A player who only has trained shield skill only receives 80% of the effect that they would have received if the skill was specialized.
Dual Wield:
The Dual Wield skill allows a player to equip a second melee weapon in their off hand. A player fighting with the Dual Wield skill will alternate attacks from each weapon. The chance to hit with the offhand weapon is determined by the lower of their Dual Wield and the combat skill which matches the weapon in the offhand.
For example: If a player had a Heavy Weapon skill of 400 and a Dual Wield skill of 425, the offhand attack would use 400 skill for determining the chance to hit.
Another benefit of Dual Wield is that the best offensive and defense bonus from either weapon is used. This means a player could equip a 15% bonus to attack and 25% bonus to defense in the main hand and equip a 25% bonus to attack and 15% bonus to defense in the off hand and receive a 25% bonus to attack and defense on all attacks.
Sneak Attack:
The Sneak Attack skill gives a bonus to attacks landing from behind the target. This skill works with Melee, Missile and Magic attacks. Specialized Sneak Attack provides a maximum of +20 Damage Rating to attacks from behind and Trained Sneak Attack provides a maximum of +10 Damage Rating. If your Sneak Attack skill is equal to or higher than your attacking skill (War Magic, Missile Weapon, Heavy Weapons, etc.), then you receive the maximum damage. If your Sneak Attack skill is lower than your attacking skill, the effect you gain is reduced proportionally compared to the difference of the skills.
Another benefit of the Sneak Attack skill is that it allows a chance to do an increased attack from the front of the target if the player also has the Deception skill. Trained Deception will allow for a maximum 10% chance to land a Sneak Attack from the front of the target, Specialized has a maximum of 15%. If the Deception skill is 306 or higher, the player receives the maximum benefit. Anything below 306 reduces the chance proportionally.
A player or creature can reduce the damage of a frontal Sneak Attack by having the Assess Person skill. An Assess Person skill of 306 will prevent all frontal Sneak Attack damage. An Assess Person skill below 306 will reduce the damage of a frontal Sneak Attack proportionally.
Dirty Fighting:
Dirty Fighting works with missile and melee combat skills by weakening your opponent based on your attack height. The chance for you to land the Dirty Fighting attack is maximized at 25% if your Dirty Fighting skill is equal to or greater than your combat skill. If your Dirty Fighting skill is below your combat skill the chance is decreased proportionally.
High Attack Height: Target’s Attack skills reduced by 20 if specialized, 10 if trained.
Medium Attack Height: Target’s healing is reduced by 30 if specialized, 15 if trained. Also the target bleeds by 20 damage per tick if specialized, 10 damage per tick if trained.
Low Attack Height: Target’s Defensive Skills reduced by 20 if specialized, 10 if trained.
All of the Dirty Fighting effects last for 20 seconds once activated.
Recklessness:
Developer Comments
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