Patch Notes, Monday June 13, 2011

[h0tr0d (shaere)]

I waybacked eqtraders and could not find clump of dough in anything other then mixing bowl and collapsible mixing bowl.

[Aadill]

I don't remember backstab being particularly powerful. I recall that a good backstab was usually celebrated/met with awe and excitement by a group anywhere from 40 on up. Backstab maybe shouldn't be "more than half the time" the claim is but AFAIK it wasn't super-over-the-top powerful and capable of always hitting near max.

[Poeskas]

Has 2hs been fixed?

[Dazen]

My Rogue is just 53 and when raid buffed I'm at max str with 230 dex and he hit's for low 100's 2/3 of the time and I'll see a max backstab maybe once every 10 minets or so this didnt start with this patch it started with the MaY 29th patch.

[Hasbinbad]

I think the problem with backstab is that it is being mitigated by AC and/or level too much. I don't have any parse evidence for this yet, but after spending 2-3 hours killing shit and getting maybe 3 or 4 >340 backstabs total during that time, I found myself in WC, and backstabbed a Kodiak.. Double backstab for 280/360.

This leads me to believe that backstab damage range is working properly but that it is being mitigated as per normal hits, which my experience in live leads me to believe is wrong. On live during kunark, you could pretty much guarantee a given range (just for the sake of argument, we'll call it 1/2-3/4 of your max backstab when fighting blues/whites/yellows/reds) on a given strength of mobs, except once in a while you would get a minimum backstab, giving you a sadface, and once in a while you would get a max hit, giving you a happy face.

If your min backstab was 80 and your max was 450, it would look something like this:
You backstab Innoruuk for 260 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 310 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 275 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 365 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 80 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 290 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 350 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 450 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 280 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 260 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 80 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 400 points of damage!

Right now, if your min/max were the same, you would see something more like this:
You backstab Innoruuk for 80 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 80 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 80 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 320 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 80 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 210 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 80 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 80 points of damage!
You backstab Innoruuk for 80 points of damage!

Of course I have absolutely no evidence for this, no old parses, no screenshots.. But this is pretty much how it was based on empirical observation.

So it is my hypothesis that backstab should not mitigated as per normal hits by level and/or AC. It either ignores AC altogether and is based on your hit rolls, or has some form of an armor-piercing type function.. Dunno what you guys can do with that.

[greatdane]

Is bash damage with a shield looking right at higher levels? I distinctly remember that the damage was affected by the AC of the shield, and if a low-level basher had a high-AC shield, bash would be a meaningful source of damage. Well, at level 6 with Atramentous Shield (AC28) I was bashing for a maximum of 6. By level 10, the skill level having nearly doubled, the damage had not increased. Respectable bash damage was originally one of the stronger benefits of using a shield on a sk/pal.

[Gibcarver]

A pet is not supposed to replace a group.

I definitely remember lots of /quit pulls on live with FD.

I have wiped my group in HS after a CoH.

[Mebryn]

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

Level 29 pet at lvl 30 is constantly hitting for 6 with intensify death up. I'm running out of mana trying to solo because my pet is simply not doing its share of the damage.

Completely agree, still at 23 (on the verge of 24) but iirc way back in the day, at the low levels like 20, you usually didn't need to recast snare of a blue con (and yes, i'm stacking the same dots I did before patch) usually darkness would wear off around 15%-20% IF it did wear off, now it's more around 40% on average. Understandable for white and higher.

I don't dispute that pets probably were a little hard hitting and Necro's can adapt to the Dot and FD changes, but it's just discouraging to see the pet be whittled down to something that it's own master could probably out-melee.

[SpartanEQ]

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

Completely agree, still at 23 (on the verge of 24) but iirc way back in the day, at the low levels like 20, you usually didn't need to recast snare of a blue con (and yes, i'm stacking the same dots I did before patch) usually darkness would wear off around 15%-20% IF it did wear off, now it's more around 40% on average. Understandable for white and higher.

I don't dispute that pets probably were a little hard hitting and Necro's can adapt to the Dot and FD changes, but it's just discouraging to see the pet be whittled down to something that it's own master could probably out-melee.

Just made lvl 16 with my necro and got my new pet! 4, 4, miss, 4, 4, miss, miss, miss, 6, miss, 4 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I'm not used to having a powerful pet except when I summoned a yellow con one at lvl 12 or so. I never played a necro past this lvl before, but it seems pretty weak at the moment. I'll keep trying and see if I was just having a bad string of luck.

The above was <i>was</i> against an even con mob, but it was at like 3% health and walking away. It took my pet about 30 seconds to finally off the thing.

I know you know that the minimum damage may be occurring too often; I'm just weighing in. No complaints.

[Ostros]

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

They did with regards to pet min hit frequency. Should be noticeably lower, pending update.

Any time estimate on this? My necro has been punched in the dick and hamstringed because of this.