Patch notes from when sky opened.

[Lazortag]

edit: apologies if this is already well-known or if these patch notes are already in someone`s possession and most of the changes were implemented.
edited again to make it clearer when the patch notes begin and end.

I haven`t read through all of this, but I found this just now when researching something else. I figured it was interesting because Sky JUST opened on the server so we know that the changes in this patch should take effect soon too:

http://www.therelentless.com/boards/...d.php?t=129874

January 20th, 7:00am

*Announcements*

The Plane of Sky is now open!!! As a reminder to our customers, the alternate planes of reality do not necessarily follow the same physical or ethereal rules as Norrath proper.
Enjoy!

Today is patch day! The EverQuest servers have been patched with the following changes:

*General Changes / Fixes*
- Some changes have been made to the exit of Nagafen's Lair into the Lavastorm Mountains. This will hopefully reduce if not solve the bug that causes people to fall into lava when exiting Nagafen's Lair. Please let us know how this goes.

- Due to feedback received from the customers concerning the density of fog during rainstorms, visibility has been increased.

- All drops of steel weapons have been replaced with higher quality fine-steel weapons of the same type. This change was made to reduce the amount of new currency coming into the world at the mid-to-upper levels. The fine-steel weapons are in all cases superior to the steel weapons that were dropping, they just sell to vendors for less money.

- Casting times have been implemented on several activatable items. This was done to
correct issues that could arise from people chain-casting these items.

- The safe-point (the point which you return if you fall below the world) in Kithicor has
been moved near the entrance to Rivervale, a safer part of the zone.

- Corrected a bug that caused AC to be improperly displayed for higher level characters. Your AC should now reflect all of your items.

Additional Bug Fixes:

- Corrected a bug in the client that could cause a crash if you were spammed with emotes
by someone on your /ignore list.

- Corrected a bug that allowed ships to move faster when disarmed

- Corrected a bug that caused the Aqualung to lose its charges if dropped on the ground.

- Fire Giants in Nagafen's Lair should now recover properly when stuck in lava. Consider
yourself warned.

- The Instill Doubt skill has been disabled on the PvP servers.


*Spell Changes*

- Shadow Vortex is now a "drain" spell.

- Siphon Strength will now stack with strength buffs and debuffs

- Panic the Dead cast and recast delays have been reduced. In addition, the spell is less
resistable.

- Angstlich's Appalling Screech had its radius increased slightly.

- All Wizard AoE damage and stun spells have had their radius slightly increased

- Yonder will now interact better with levitate.

- Form of the Great Wolf had its speed component increased.

- Terrorize Animal had its casting time reduced and is less resistable.

- New magician's spells have been added. Check your spell vendors.

- Reoccurring Amnesia has been made more effective.

- NPCs will now treat the "Cancel Magic" series of spells as hostile. Previously, NPCs did not mind if players dispelled all of their buffs before attacking. Now they will.

- The Fear and Charm series of spells now properly notify the caster when they break. No, seriously, we're certain this time.

- Harmtouch now does more damage beginning at level 41.


*Levitation Changed*

Due to the implementation of casting times on activatable items, the code that disallowed
refreshing of the Levitation spell while it was active is no longer necessary and has been backed out. The Levitate spell may now be refreshed while the spell is in use.

*Quests and Items*

- The Armor of Ro should be more obtainable. We will continue to evaluate and adjust the
rarity of other class-specific armor components to make the pieces obtainable in a
reasonable amount of time.

- We have changed the reward of a newbie quest in the Qeynos area from a level 49 scroll to a level 1 scroll. The issuance of a level 49 scroll was a typo in the quest data, allowing new characters to amass an abnormally large amount of currency.

- The stats on the reward for the Rogue Redemption quest have been increased to make it better than the favorite dropped-weapon for the level range.

- Ravenscale boots will now drop as frequently as other Ravenscale items.

- The Mask of Deception may now be equipped by the appropriate races.


*Fletching Update*

All arrows created with the new Silver-Tipped Arrowhead (formerly the Bladed Arrowhead)
are now magical in nature, and may be used versus magical creatures. All existing items in your possession will automatically morph into the new magical items. Additionally, each successful attempt to create magical arrows will yield 10 arrows instead of the previous 5. As such, the vendor buy-back value has been decreased accordingly.

*Paw*

The difficulty of Paw has been decreased. We found that many of the gnolls in the new
Paw had too many hitpoints, making the dungeon more difficult than it should have been for the desired level target. Please let us know how this change affects the viability of the dungeon.

*The Plane of Fear*

The item-drop percentages in the Plane of Fear have been increased. This change was
supposed to have occurred in the last patch, however the data was not exported. It has
been tested and equipment drops are now occurring at a much higher rate.

*The Plane of Hate*

The item-drop percentages on roaming and fast-spawning NPCs in the Plane of Hate have
been decreased. Previously, these NPCs used the same drop-percentages as the slow-spawning NPCs, causing overall drop percentages to be extremely high.

Also, the inhabitants of the Plane of Hate no longer fall for illusions, and tend to "Hate"
everyone.

*Monk Enhancement*

A monk's speed in hand-to-hand combat will now improve with level, beginning in the high
20s. This will result in higher level monks doing substantially more damage in a given
time-frame.

Though this change does increase the power of the average monk, it should be stressed that the monk is now even more in need of true upset creatures off them. We want to stress that the "taunt factor" of a monks fist has
NOT been increased, though it may appear so due to your increased damage.

*Paladin/Shadowknight Enhancement*

Paladins and Shadowknights now have a higher hitpoints and higher skill caps on Bash
and Taunt.

The additional hitpoints will be noticeable for Paladins and SKs over level 25. This was
done because the Paladins, SKs, and Rangers had the same HP base, which upon further
consideration is not compatible with our vision of those classes' roles. This change willbasically put Paladin and SK HPs midway (in terms of Hit Points) between rangers and
warriors of the same race.

The taunt skill was increased because SKs, and in particular, Paladins had difficulty
taunting opponents off of Rangers, Monks, Rogues, and Warriors due to their lower
damage output. Though the Paladin and SK will never equal the warrior in their ability to
taunt, this change in addition to some of the taunting spells should help them become more effective tanks.

Bash was increased because Paladins typically aren't switching to two-handed weapons, choosing instead to continue using the bash skill. Most warriors, being ogres, trolls, or
barbarians for the most part, do not worry about bash and instead opt for slam, which uses the same skill. Paladins are typically the only characters who use a shield throughout their lives.

*Rogue Enhancement*

Whenever a rogue is invisible, whether by spell, potion, or skill, they are now also invisible to undead.

This change was made to add a definite class-advantage to the rogue, allowing them to do something that no other class could do. It is the first step in a multi-step process to improve the rogue class.

*Wizard Enhancement*

Level 35 or above wizards will find that their spells (Magic, Cold, or Fire) much less likely tobe resisted. This effect stacks with the Staff of Temperate Flux and enchanter, shaman, and magician resistance debuffs.

This change was made to increase the effectiveness of wizards at about the level that all spell-casting classes start seeing their resistance rates go up. Wizards specialize in direct magical damage. It makes sense that they should be better at causing that damage than the other classes.

*Bard Enhancement*

Bards will now receive the Meditate skill at 10th level. This skill will be granted automatically the first time a bard zones after reaching 10th level, and cannot be trained further. It will have the effect of decreasing the amount of time that it takes a Bard to memorize their songs. Previously, it would take 50th level bards upwards of 2 minutes to memorize a song. Now it is much faster.

*Druid Enhancement*

The skill cap on a Druid's tracking skill has been increased. This change was implemented
based upon general public opinion that the former cap was far too low for the skill to be even marginally viable.

*Feign Death and Pets*

After a serious discussion regarding the Necromancer's Feign Death tactic, as well as
reviewing public opinion on the matter, we have implemented a change. As we would like
everyone to understand why we feel this change was necessary, here is a summary of the issue:

Problem:

Feign death allows you to become an invalid target in all circumstances, providing
offensive tactics that are abusive. For this ability to remain balanced, the pet should follow the same rules as invisibility. Offensive tactics used by other classes involve the creature getting a saving throw verses the effect. Since creatures do NOT get a direct save verses feign death (as you cast it on yourself), and since you can retry the combat once you have feigned death, there is very little risk to necromancer himself. As this tactic involves charming an NPC and turning it against another NPC, which could be part of the same spawn, it allows for Necromancers to solo MUCH bigger rooms than any other class could.

This situation is well beyond what would preserve game balance for any other class
(soloing the Bloodthirsty Ghoul room and Ghoul Lord room, for example).

Example:

While there are many examples of how the Necromancer Feign Death tactic is abusive, one of the most egregious occurs in the Ghoul Lord room of Lower Guk. The room consists of 2 Bok Ghoul Guards and the Ghoul Lord himself. Using the current system, a level 50 Necro can easily solo the room at virtually no risk to himself. The Necro can get into the room quite easily with Invis To Undead. To clear the room he uses Screaming Terror on one Bok and Charms the other. When the Ghoul Lord rushes him, he feigns. The Lord then turns on the charmed Bok and kills it, taking considerable damage during the fight. The
Necromancer waits until the Ghoul Lord returns to its spawn point. When the necromancer gets back up, he is in no danger of being attacked due to the way Feign Death works now. He then charms the 2nd Bok and Feigns again. The fight goes on and the 2nd Bok is killed. When the Necromancer gets back up he has a VERY wounded Ghoul Lord AND nearly full mana. The Lord is now an easy kill, and the Necro collects his special items.

Solution:

Ideally, Feign Death should work like Invisibility, where summoned pets suicide and the charmed ones break Charm. We do not want, however, to adversely affect lower level

Necromancers to such a large degree. What we do recognize is the need to prevent higher level Necro's from exploiting key spawn points. Hence, when you Feign Death, any
charmed NPC will immediately break Charm. However, summoned NPCs (pets) will NOT be
affected. While this still allows the use of the Feign Death tactic with your summoned pet, it does not imbalance the game and many dungeon spawns to the degree that charming an
NPC does.

*Manastone Changed*

The players have raised many concerns about the power of the Manastone, which no longer drops. They cite that people without a Manastone are not as welcome in expeditions to the outer planes and other areas as people with them. Since dropping additional Manastones via quest or removing them from the existing populace is not desirable, we've decided to make it so that the Manastone will no longer function in the alternate planes. Furthermore, it will not function in any of the zones included with the Kunark Expansion.


We apologize to those adversely affected by this change. Our general goal is to avoid
making changes to items in peoples' possession, however we felt this change was, all things considered, warranted and for the benefit of the game as a whole.

- The EverQuest Team

[guineapig]

Nice find!

Much of this is already implemented here but there are a couple points in there that should be addressed.

[OngorDrakan]

"NPCs will now treat the "Cancel Magic" series of spells as hostile. Previously, NPCs did not mind if players dispelled all of their buffs before attacking. Now they will."

Hahahaha.

[Uthgaard]

- Some changes have been made to the exit of Nagafen's Lair into the Lavastorm Mountains. This will hopefully reduce if not solve the bug that causes people to fall into lava when exiting Nagafen's Lair. Please let us know how this goes.

In place

- Due to feedback received from the customers concerning the density of fog during rainstorms, visibility has been increased.

In place

- All drops of steel weapons have been replaced with higher quality fine-steel weapons of the same type. This change was made to reduce the amount of new currency coming into the world at the mid-to-upper levels. The fine-steel weapons are in all cases superior to the steel weapons that were dropping, they just sell to vendors for less money.

For the most part, in place as accurate as classic was

- Casting times have been implemented on several activatable items. This was done to
correct issues that could arise from people chain-casting these items.

In place

- The safe-point (the point which you return if you fall below the world) in Kithicor has
been moved near the entrance to Rivervale, a safer part of the zone.

In place

- Corrected a bug that caused AC to be improperly displayed for higher level characters. Your AC should now reflect all of your items.

In place

Additional Bug Fixes:

- Corrected a bug in the client that could cause a crash if you were spammed with emotes
by someone on your /ignore list.

?

- Corrected a bug that allowed ships to move faster when disarmed

Disarm isn't working, and the big boats aren't targettable. Not affecting rowboats

- Corrected a bug that caused the Aqualung to lose its charges if dropped on the ground.

In place, double checked

- Fire Giants in Nagafen's Lair should now recover properly when stuck in lava. Consider
yourself warned.

In place

- The Instill Doubt skill has been disabled on the PvP servers.

Irrelevant

*Spell Changes*

- Shadow Vortex is now a "drain" spell.

In place

- Siphon Strength will now stack with strength buffs and debuffs

In place

- Panic the Dead cast and recast delays have been reduced. In addition, the spell is less
resistable.

In place

- Angstlich's Appalling Screech had its radius increased slightly.

In place

- All Wizard AoE damage and stun spells have had their radius slightly increased

In place

- Yonder will now interact better with levitate.

In place

- Form of the Great Wolf had its speed component increased.

In place

- Terrorize Animal had its casting time reduced and is less resistable.

In place

- New magician's spells have been added. Check your spell vendors.

Already in place, I think

- Reoccurring Amnesia has been made more effective.

In place. On the character used to test, reoccuring succeeded 80% of the time, memory blur only 50%
Incidentally, I isolated a bug with all of the memory blur spells that explains why they aren't working

- NPCs will now treat the "Cancel Magic" series of spells as hostile. Previously, NPCs did not mind if players dispelled all of their buffs before attacking. Now they will.

In place

- The Fear and Charm series of spells now properly notify the caster when they break. No, seriously, we're certain this time.

In place as of last patch, courtesy of Haynar

- Harmtouch now does more damage beginning at level 41.

Nope. Following the damage=level*10+1 formula all the way to 50

*Levitation Changed*

Due to the implementation of casting times on activatable items, the code that disallowed
refreshing of the Levitation spell while it was active is no longer necessary and has been backed out. The Levitate spell may now be refreshed while the spell is in use.

In place


*Quests and Items*

- The Armor of Ro should be more obtainable. We will continue to evaluate and adjust the
rarity of other class-specific armor components to make the pieces obtainable in a
reasonable amount of time.

Only report I recall about Ro armor drops was Mistmoore Granite dropping from too many mobs

- We have changed the reward of a newbie quest in the Qeynos area from a level 49 scroll to a level 1 scroll. The issuance of a level 49 scroll was a typo in the quest data, allowing new characters to amass an abnormally large amount of currency.

In place

- The stats on the reward for the Rogue Redemption quest have been increased to make it better than the favorite dropped-weapon for the level range.

In place

- Ravenscale boots will now drop as frequently as other Ravenscale items.

Needs more checking

- The Mask of Deception may now be equipped by the appropriate races.

In place


*Fletching Update*

All arrows created with the new Silver-Tipped Arrowhead (formerly the Bladed Arrowhead)
are now magical in nature, and may be used versus magical creatures. All existing items in your possession will automatically morph into the new magical items. Additionally, each successful attempt to create magical arrows will yield 10 arrows instead of the previous 5. As such, the vendor buy-back value has been decreased accordingly.

In place


*Paw*

The difficulty of Paw has been decreased. We found that many of the gnolls in the new
Paw had too many hitpoints, making the dungeon more difficult than it should have been for the desired level target. Please let us know how this change affects the viability of the dungeon.

Haven't seen any complaints, seems tuned appropriately

*The Plane of Fear*

The item-drop percentages in the Plane of Fear have been increased. This change was
supposed to have occurred in the last patch, however the data was not exported. It has
been tested and equipment drops are now occurring at a much higher rate.

In place

*The Plane of Hate*

The item-drop percentages on roaming and fast-spawning NPCs in the Plane of Hate have
been decreased. Previously, these NPCs used the same drop-percentages as the slow-spawning NPCs, causing overall drop percentages to be extremely high.

In place

Also, the inhabitants of the Plane of Hate no longer fall for illusions, and tend to "Hate"
everyone.

In place, tested all illusions


*Monk Enhancement*

A monk's speed in hand-to-hand combat will now improve with level, beginning in the high
20s. This will result in higher level monks doing substantially more damage in a given
time-frame.

Though this change does increase the power of the average monk, it should be stressed that the monk is now even more in need of true upset creatures off them. We want to stress that the "taunt factor" of a monks fist has
NOT been increased, though it may appear so due to your increased damage.

In place

*Paladin/Shadowknight Enhancement*

Blah blah Knights > Rangers blah blah skill caps

In place

*Rogue Enhancement*

Whenever a rogue is invisible, whether by spell, potion, or skill, they are now also invisible to undead.

This change was made to add a definite class-advantage to the rogue, allowing them to do something that no other class could do. It is the first step in a multi-step process to improve the rogue class.

In place for hide/sneak, but not for invisibility spells/potions

*Wizard Enhancement*

Level 35 or above wizards will find that their spells (Magic, Cold, or Fire) much less likely tobe resisted. This effect stacks with the Staff of Temperate Flux and enchanter, shaman, and magician resistance debuffs.

This change was made to increase the effectiveness of wizards at about the level that all spell-casting classes start seeing their resistance rates go up. Wizards specialize in direct magical damage. It makes sense that they should be better at causing that damage than the other classes.

Don't think there's a class modifier in place for this, but could be wrong.

*Bard Enhancement*

Bards will now receive the Meditate skill at 10th level. This skill will be granted automatically the first time a bard zones after reaching 10th level, and cannot be trained further. It will have the effect of decreasing the amount of time that it takes a Bard to memorize their songs. Previously, it would take 50th level bards upwards of 2 minutes to memorize a song. Now it is much faster.

In place, all memorization here is actually faster than classic, on top of the bard enhancement

*Druid Enhancement*

The skill cap on a Druid's tracking skill has been increased. This change was implemented
based upon general public opinion that the former cap was far too low for the skill to be even marginally viable.

In place

*Feign Death and Pets*

Blah blah charm breaks, blah blah summoned pets stay

Not breaking charm

*Manastone Changed*

The players have raised many concerns about the power of the Manastone, which no longer drops. They cite that people without a Manastone are not as welcome in expeditions to the outer planes and other areas as people with them. Since dropping additional Manastones via quest or removing them from the existing populace is not desirable, we've decided to make it so that the Manastone will no longer function in the alternate planes. Furthermore, it will not function in any of the zones included with the Kunark Expansion.

In place

[Lazortag]

Wow, that was very thorough.

I'm curious about this though:

Nope. Following the damage=level*10+1 formula all the way to 50

Are you saying it should follow that formula until level 50? What change did they make here?

[Uthgaard]

I don't really know, never got into SKs, all I know is what the patch notes said.

What I am saying, is that Harm Touch is gaining a flat 10 points of damage every level until 50, and not doing more damage beginning at level 41 like that says it should now.

[guineapig]

Originally Posted by Uthgaard [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

A lot of stuff that's in place.

Wow, good deal bro!

[Remfin]

I think the general agreement on Graffe's was that the wizard bonus was bunk, but I don't know many wizards who were really playing multiple nukers full-time anyway so we probably didn't really know. Resists do seem way higher on here than I remember from live, so either the general formula is wrong or maybe there really was a wizard bonus...