Skyfire: Chromodrac - Resolved

[Trystych]

Chromodrac's dispel is totally out of wack. It is removing 2 buff slots, the mob casts it on you every cooldown. They are not casting the other spells they should have available nearly as often. Even when fear kiting them on test server, immediately upon fear breaking you are dispelled. I'm not sure if it was a proc or just a spell used by them far less often on live, but the dispel makes them so totally not worth killing here.

[Uthgaard]

Working as intended.

[VictoryARC]

That's how I remember them. I hated killing those for that reason.

[Trystych]

Be that as it may, it is not working the same as it did on live.

I spent 50-55 soloing skyfire on live, killed chromodracs in the rotation of mobs, they were more annoying than regular mobs for sure, but they didn't dispel with anywhere near the frequency they do here. Maybe it was the range of the ability or the priority that is the difference, but there is definitely something wrong with the p99 chromodracs.

While looking for some form of proof for this, I came across: http://eqbeastiary.allakhazam.com/search.shtml?id=4143&page=1&howmany=50#msg103722118043957

Seems until 2002 these needed to be in melee range to dispel.

[Tovin]

I used to fear kite them as a necro when Kunark came out. I can confirm that the dispel had a radius associated with it. I don't know if it was an AoE dispell or just a proc, but it went off a LOT (could lose a whole list of buffs in seconds).

[Starklen]

Alla was showing that it was supposed to be the phobo dispel, idk.

[Trystych]

Wayback also indicates dispel was a melee range thing:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010425013245/eqbeastiary.allakhazam.com/search.shtml?id=4143

[Starklen]

http://i54.tinypic.com/2d8ia90.jpg

[Swishahouse]

WTB Storklen

[conFIGured]

I just Verified on Live that the Chromadics do dispell within mellee range AND cast dispell from a short distance...

Only thing posted that proves otherwise is a Allakazam post in 2002

(Trystych Link)
""""""""""""These things have been changed!
Posted: 2002-11-13 16:20:59 | Quote | Reply to Post | Follow
The One and Only Alcohol
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They no longer need to be in melee range to dispell or cast boil blood! I used to root-dot these suckers for easy exp. I just soloed one and he never got anywhere near me, but still got to dispell me quite a few times. I also tried casting Scoriae on them, and it was flat out resisted 3 out of 3 times. (I'm level 54 and these were dark blue. I know that they normally have good fire resistance, but damn...)"""""""""""""""""

If you scroll down on your 1st link, you will also see the 2nd link you posted, Tagged as year 2000 stating they already dispelled out of a short range.

"""""""""""Posted: 2000-11-27 16:27:03 | Quote | Reply to Post | Follow
Anonymous
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Anonymous Score: Decent
These are easy to kill if you kite them and keep them at a good distance. They do not cast dispell until almost in melee range, and I never got hit with the Blood Boil unless they were already hitting me. Paralyzing Earth (49th wiz root) works really well, I can often use harvest and med for the last two nukes to finish one off, by the time they break they are usually hovering.. don't seem to flee for some reason.

Zaerg - 50th DE Wiz - Drinal""""""""""""""

Its working as intended.

[Starklen]

Is the frequency confirmed to be identical? Basically if you allow one of these things to ever be unfeared and you have agro, all your buffs will be gone in 10-15 seconds. Each dispell is also removing 2 buffs at a time. I can actually remember getting dispelled so much by these fuckers last night that it would dispell its own heat blood that appeared below my usual 4 buffs during the time it took me to resnare and refear it while I was hunting.

Also, it seems reasonable to conclude that maybe they were made harder later if that guy was claiming to be able to root rot them without being hit by dispells at some point. To be clear, they dispell at a distance FAR greater than "almost melee range" on beta right now.

[Trystych]

For the lifespan of this server, the chromodracs are supposed to have a melee or near melee range on the dispel. They completely strip your buffs before you can even get them to a zone wall to begin fighting as it stands, Starklens screenshot is an accurate representation of what Skyfire is going to look like here; after a short period of time there will be next to nothing but chromodracs up effectively ruining the zone for xp. I hope the resolved bit means change is being made. If it is working as intended because that is how it is on live now, I can't argue that, but it is not how it worked during Kunark on live. To require junkbuffs and 2 clicky buff items to kill < lvl 50 xp mobs is obscene.

[Uthgaard]

No, no change is being made. That's how it was.

The comments about them needing to be in melee range isn't entirely correct, but there are spells with a longer range than the dispel requires.

They're using the correct spells, beside that, there is no melee range dispel that was in the game at kunark. They're using them at the correct frequency, and they're on the correct spawngroups, so if the rest of the zone is cherry picked, they will eventually populate the zone.

You can hate them all you want, but you can rest assured that you are hating them as much as people did in 2000, and for the same reasons.

[Trystych]

I am sorry for beating this horse, but I have found more links to support my annectodal claims from my live experiences. I never killed anything in skyfire after kunark, so have no experience at all with the revamped (current on test) chromodracs. Maybe more people who spent a lot of time in skyfire DURING THE KUNARK ERA can weigh in here with their experiences, particularly the kite classes like druid, wizard, necro since they wouldn't be eating numerous dispels vs chromodracs unless things go wrong.

This post sums up my opinion nicely, except he is wrong on boil blood, it is a chromodrac ability that is used at range. http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/zones.html?zstrat=91&page=1&howmany=50#msg103877528444508

A wizard talking about quadding chromodracs not being a problem unless they get close. http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/zones.html?zstrat=91&page=1&howmany=50#msg103405195677372

A wizard noting the change to dispel being used at range. http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?1198-Looking-for-help-re-Essense-of-Sunlight&p=10120&viewfull=1#post10120

Lots of wizard QQ about chromodrac change. http://www.graffe.com/forums/showthread.php?5723-Warning-to-Skyfire-Quadkiter-s...&p=120396

Post from the sony boards about skyfire having been given an annoying revamp: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/posts/list.m?start=20&topic_id=19855#180901

Last one is hard to find on the page, so text included and the link provided.
cronus000
11-25-2002, 06:53 PM
I just wish they would stop messing up my current old zones I hunt in. YES, they nerfed some mobs with their super D duper "stealth" nerf. I now when kiting chromo's in skyfire get dispelled as soon as the mob is in root range.. WTF... This never used to happen with us before, so I can only assume the Nerf bat has been in use more then just PoP spell drops.. http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:X3ywoyvC_bMJ:https://thedruidsgrove.org/archive/eq/t-3832.html+skyfire+2002+everquest+dispel&cd=43&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-a

Edit: Judging by the graffes post, I would say the change happened on Oct 16 2002, putting it in the Luclin era.

[Jayko]

I played a necro on live and frequented the hell out of Skyfire. I can say that my experience and remembrance mirrors Trystych's. I hated these fuckers, but largely because of heat blood, not dispell. They dispelled my pet more often than me since you had to let them exceedingly close to you to actually get dispelled.

Can confirm the mob grouping was accurate though. The longer you pulled around them the fewer mobs you had left to pull, eventually you'd pop the whole areas the bastards.

[odizzido]

I used to solo in skyfire with my necro all the time when kunark released. I haven't been there on the test server yet since it looks like a lot of other people are in that zone, but the dispell was very close range during kunark. I almost never got hit with my necro, though my pet would lose his haste every time. I killed them anyways though otherwise it would be nothing but them.

[Adorean]

Uthgaard is 100% correct. This and Burning were my 2 main kiting zones when kunark released and yes Chromas sucked and yes they cast that dispell like mad. I would always let them dispell their boil blood dot before i would drop a final blow on them.

[Starklen]

Uthgaard is 100% correct. This and Burning were my 2 main kiting zones when kunark released and yes Chromas sucked and yes they cast that dispell like mad. I would always let them dispell their boil blood dot before i would drop a final blow on them.

So that giant body of citations and what other people have said is entirely wrong then?

[Pyrocat]

Uthgaard is 100% correct. This and Burning were my 2 main kiting zones when kunark released and yes Chromas sucked and yes they cast that dispell like mad. I would always let them dispell their boil blood dot before i would drop a final blow on them.

What class did you play? Could you post some evidence to back this up? Do you have some posts from pre-revamp that mention their dispell rate and, more importantly, dispell range?

Not trying to discourage participation, but we've got a dearth of evidence to support dispell having a long range, and a plethora of evidence supporting that chromas had a short range dispell that was later nerfed to long range.

[Uthgaard]

There's also a ton of evidence to the contrary, compounded by the fact that one solitary mob out of all the mobs in everquest doesn't just decide to limit itself to using a spell at less than the spell's range allows.

Running up against misperceptions and conflicting evidence isn't exactly an uncommon occurence in development. If anyone was even the least bit interested in discussing the real issue, I'd be more interested in discussing and explaining, but this is cherry picking from the evidence to make an 'im right you're wrong'. Moving along to the rest of kunark now, kthx.