Announcements - 2012/02 - Master of Arms

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February 2012 - Patch Page

Teaser Images

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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

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

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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.

Teaser

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

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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.

Release Fiction

Original Link - No Link Available

Release Fiction

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No Release Fiction this Month.

Weapon Skill Changes

Original Link - http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=695-weapon-skills&catid=86-2012&Itemid=68

Weapon Skill Changes

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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:
http://forums.ac.turbine.com/showthread.php?t=53918

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:

Recklessness allows a player to increase their melee or missile damage at the cost of increase the incoming damage they take. Recklessness does not apply to critical damage numbers. When trained, the combat bar will highlight the area where recklessness is active, which is between 10-90% power. Below or above this range allows the player to attack normally without the recklessness effect. The skill provides a maximum +20 Damage Rating increase if specialized and +10 Damage Rating if trained. This effect decreases proportionally if the Recklessness skill is less than the combat skill.

Developer Comments

General Weapon Changes

01-23-2012, 10:52 AM - Link

Here is some specific information on the weapon change over/skill change over:

As planned Sword has swapped over to Heavy. Dagger has swapped over to Finesse. All other single hand melee has swapped to Light. All missile skills have swapped to missile.

Spells, including rares and cloaks, have changed in the same manner. New cloaks will drop featuring the new skills we are adding to the game.

New spells for Shield can be found on Shields and Hand Armor. The other skills will be found on weapons (where appropriate, Dual Wield should never show up on a missile/wand/two handed weapon) and head armor. Cantrips follow the same rules as all other cantrips.

Defenders loot sets now has a shield spell included. Soldiers set is now Heavy/Light/Two Handed weapons along with Dirty Fighting and Recklessness. Swift set is now Sprint, Jump, Finesse Weapons, Dual Wield and Sneak Attack. There is also a good chance the SWift set will be renamed to something more fitting such as Rogue's set.

Each player will get to choose a ranged and melee mastery. These masteries will be a +5 Damage Rating boost to attacks. The reason for +5 DR is to give flavor to a character while not overly penalizing players who want to use multiple weapon types.

Masteries will not apply to Weeping or Blighted weapons.

Some questions that have been asked:

Can we get a universal ammo for all missile weapons?
The problem with a universal ammo is that the ammo is what allows us to have different types of weapons (crossbow/bow) be fired at different speeds while still having a similar DoT. If there was a universal ammo all of the missile weapons would have to work exactly the same and there would literally be no difference between a bow/crossbow/atlatl.

Can we get a Light/Heavy/Finesse version of all of the quest weapons?
That would require over a thousand new weapons to be made and thousands of new lines of NPC logic to be implemented. It isn't really feasible for that to happen. Also we don't want a version for every skill. AC has always been a game where there are quests that have rewards for different skills and players get to go find the quest weapons they want the most. This will carry on and in the future there will likely be quests that only have a Light or only have a Heavy weapon reward.

What about a craft interaction that a player can use on one type of quest melee weapon to change it to another type? ex. Craft a stone onto a Light weapon to make it a Heavy weapon?
This actually is at least the same amount of work as above. It would still require over a thousand new weapons and would instead require thousands of craft interactions. Also we don't think a version of every weapon for every skill is the best approach for the game.

The following posts will list the loot weapon/quest weapon skill changes.

NoWorries AC Associate Designer

Loot Weapon Changes

01-23-2012, 10:52 AM - Link

Here is how the weapon drops will change for NEW loot weapons starting in the February patch. Old melee loot weapons will change as Sword=Heavy Dagger= Finesse All others= Light:

Axe
Heavy

• Silifi
• War
• Battle
• Lugian Hammer

Light

• Dolabra
• Ono
• Hand
• War Hammer

Finesse

• Hatchet
• Shou-ono
• Tungi
• Hammer (new weapon that will look like the smithing hamer)

Dagger
Heavy

• Dirk
• Stiletto (double strike)
• Jambiya (double strike)

Light

• Khanjar
• Dagger (double strike)

Finesse

• Lancet (double strike)
• Knife (double strike)
• Poniard

Mace
Heavy

• Morningstar (now pierce)
• Mazule
• Mace
• Flanged Mace

Light

• Spiked club
• club
• Kasrullah

Finesse

• Board with Nail
• Tofun
• Dabus
• Jitte (mutates with new staff values)

Spear
Heavy

• Spine Glaive
• Trident
• Partizan

Light

• Spear (now slash/pierce)
• Yari

Finesse

• Naginata
• Budiaq

Staff
Heavy

• Nabut
• Stick

Light

• Quarter Staff

Finesse

• Jo
• Bastone

Sword
Heavy

• Takuba
• Flamberge
• Ken
• Long Sword
• Tachi
• Schlager (rapier, double strike, full power pierce, comes in elemental versions)

Light

• Dericost
• Broad
• Shamshir
• Kaskara
• Spada
• Epee (rapier, double strike, full power pierce, comes in elemental versions)

Finesse

• Scimitar
• Yaoji
• Short
• Sabra
• Simi
• Rapier (double strike, full power pierce, comes in elemental versions)

UA
Heavy

• Nekode (now slash/pierce)
• Cestus

Light

• Katar
• Knuckles

Finesse

• Claw
• Hand Wraps (bludgeon)

Max Offensive Defensive Modifiers:

Sword/Dagger/UA - 20/20
Axe - 22/18
Mace - 18/22
Spear - 25/15
Staff - 15/25

NoWorries AC Associate Designer

Set Quest Weapon Changes

01-23-2012, 10:53 AM - Link

Initial plan for quest weapon sets:

Paradox-Touched:
sword - heavy
dagger - heavy
staff - heavy
mace - finesse
spear - finesse
katar - light
axe - light

Spectral:
sword - heavy
claw - heavy
axe - finesse
staff - finesse
mace - finesse
spear - light
dagger - light

Singularity:
sword - light
mace - light
spear - heavy
axe - heavy
staff - heavy
katar - finesse
dagger - finesse

Quiddity/Chimeric:
sword - finesse
mace - finesse
spear - finesse
axe - light
staff - light
fist - heavy
dagger - heavy

Assault:
sword - finesse
staff - finesse
mace - heavy
axe - heavy
dagger - light
cestus - light
spear - light

Red/Royal/Princely Runed:
sword - light
mace - light
staff - heavy
dagger - heavy
spear - heavy
claw - finesse
axe - finesse

Palenqual/Renegade:
sword - finesse
staff - finesse
spear - finesse
mace - heavy
axe - heavy
knuckles - light
dagger - light

Atlan:
sword - heavy
knuckles - heavy
staff - light
spear - light
axe - light
dagger - finesse
mace - finesse

Hollow:
sword - light
mace - light
katar - light
staff - heavy
dagger - heavy
spear - finesse
axe - finesse

Ravenous/Phantom:
sword - heavy
mace - heavy
staff - light
spear - light
axe - light
dagger - finesse
katar - finesse

Weeping/Blighted/Isparian:
sword - finesse
staff - finesse
spear - finesse
mace - heavy
claw - heavy
dagger - light
axe - light

Fallen:
sword - finesse
axe - fiensse
UA - finesse
mace - light
dagger - light
spear - heavy
staff - heavy

Mucor:
sword - light
staff - light
spear - light
mace - finesse
dagger - finesse
axe - heavy
UA - heavy

Noble/Burun:
sword - heavy
UA - heavy
axe - heavy
staff - light
mace - light
dagger - finesse
spear - finesse

Siraluun:
sword - finesse
mace - finesse
UA - finesse
staff - heavy
dagger - heavy
spear - light
axe - light

Worn/Battered:
Sword - light
UA - light
dagger - light
mace - heavy
axe - heavy
staff - finesse
spear - finesse

Society/Explorer:
sword - light
mace - light
UA - light
dagger - heavy
spear - heavy
axe - finesse
staff - finesse

Hero Tokens:
sword - light
mace - light
UA - light
dagger - heavy
spear - heavy
axe - finesse
staff - finesse

Banished:
sword - light
mace - light
staff - heavy
dagger - heavy
spear - heavy
katar - finesse
axe - finesse

Gaerlan Quest Weapons:
sword - heavy
claw - heavy
axe - finesse
staff - finesse
mace - finesse
spear - light
dagger - light

NoWorries AC Associate Designer

Single Quest Weapon Changes

01-23-2012, 10:53 AM - Link

Non-Set Weapons

Heavy:

• Lou Ka's Trident
• Brogard's Axe
• Abmim's Jambiya
• Ice Tachi
• Fetid Dagger
• Golem Mace
• Dastardly Dirk
• Mattekar Claw
• Tibri's Fire Spear
• Mite Queen's Staff
• Acid Axe
• Scepter Of Might
• Ornate Nekode
• Hammer of Lightning
• Sword of Lost Light
• Burnja's Board with Nail
• Cragstone's Axe
• Ebon Spine Harpoon
• Tachi of Grace
• Lugian Scepter
• Spear of Purity
• Club of Killagurg
• Sword of Frozen Fury
• Crescent Moon
• Brass Knuckles
• Blade of the Realm
• Blessed Spear of the Mosswart Gods
• Lugian Warlord's Scepter
• Silifi of Crimson Stars
• Hammer of Frore
• Spear of Winter Flame
• Sickle of Writhing Fury
• Bonecrunch's Hammer
• Razorbound Flange
• Atakir's Blade
• Lance of the Bloodletter
• Lifeless Knuckles
• Sword of Soroku
• Assassin's Edge
• Replica Bloodscorch
• Overlord Sword
• Osseous Mace

Finesse:

• Lou Ka's Yaoji
• Crop
• Kreerg's Spear
• Dull Dagger
• Golem Jo
• Spine Axe
• Bludgeon Sword
• Green Mire Yari
• Trophyr's War Hammer
• Carrot Dagger
• Sickle of Azaxis
• Fang Mace
• Sable Tooth Dirk
• Siraluun Matihau
• Hamud's Pyreal Katar
• Sir Ginazio's Sword
• Mi Krau-Li's Jitte
• Rumuba's Jade Spear
• Quarter Staff of Fire
• Sacrificial Dagger
• Crystal Sword
• Renlen's Grace
• Staff of the Nomads
• Cyphis Suldow's Half Moon Spear
• Club of Surprising Cunning
• Renegade Mace
• Oswald's Dirk
• Gibbering Claw
• Spinning Staff of Death
• Yaja's Reach
• Axe of Korogaith
• Mace of Winter Flame
• Ishaq's Mace
• Oswald's Dagger
• Vein-Thirst Kukuri
• Needletooth
• Grael's Claw
• Sterile Sword
• Tusker Bone SWord
• Remoran Fist
• Jitte's Law
• Soul Staff
• Escorcelled Falchion

Light:

• Lou Ka's Katar
• Rusty Knife
• Dagger of Tikola
• Olthoi Sword
• Auroch Horn Spear
• Fine Spine Axe
• Ash Tooth Dagger
• Ossidia's Dagger
• Vagurat's Hand
• Tumerok Spear
• Obsidian Axe
• Vile Scourge
• Spear of Given Heart
• Ebon Tooth Katar
• Basalt Blade
• Aun Tanua's War Taiaha
• Vanguard Leader's Morningstar
• Serpent's Fang
• Ashbane
• Dagger of Frozen Fury
• Copper Cutlass
• Staff of Coercian
• Scepter of Thunderous Might
• Quadruple bladed Axe
• Virindi Scalpel
• Fire Spear
• Demon Swarm Sword
• Axe of Winter Flame
• Mace of Hiranaith
• Hiyp The Toad's Pickaxe
• Mace of Dissonance
• Ancient Pyreal Dagger
• Spear of Baranaith
• Gikar's Dream
• Fist of Massacre
• Replica Sword of Bellenesse
• Fist of Enlightenment
• Shard of Harrag's Dagger

NoWorries AC Associate Designer