Game Mechanics: Staff of Temperate Flux and Rod of Insidious Glamour Should not be useable on move

[Darver]

Comment from June 01, 2001 says

"ALLRIGHT - i've grown ill of all the misinformed folks out there... please allow me to explain why this item is one of the most useful items a wizard can have (yes i stated this in an earlier reply but i want it right up top in bold )...

1) The effect lowers fire and ice resists by 6 - zap yourself with it and you will see this to be true... any debuff that doesnt require your mana, and doesnt even require you to be still (you can use the effect while running, it wont be interrupted, it has zero cast time) - IS INVALUABLE"

The person specifically states you can use it while running.

Also, this comment from Sept 18, 2003 says:

"JMTC. This staff is probably the most used item in the wizard ******** How so? Well.. at 65 I still use it to pull mobs while on the run. It is instant cast which makes all the difference in the world since you can "run by" pull. You dont have to stop. You just right click from inventory and the mob chases you. Very nice when you are on horseback etc.. and stopping just means a slow restart to a run, or you are in a hot spot with other nasty mobs and stopping to cast some agro getting spell will just put you in harms way longer than is good for you."

They also mention you can run while pulling, meaning it's instant.

Additionally, the patch notes don't say how long the cast time is. Can we find any evidence that this actually ever went through, considering comments after that date still talk about it being instant? Or can we find patch notes after this that state it was reverted to instant?

[Darver]

Another post on our forums on this:

https://www.project1999.com/forums/s...?p=3119216&utm

[CrazyPro]

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

Can we find any evidence that this actually ever went through, considering comments after that date still talk about it being instant? Or can we find patch notes after this that state it was reverted to instant?

https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/...459&p=3#m15124

Staff of Temperate Flux
#Jul 25 2000 at 4:57 AM
Anonymous
Anonymous
-This quest is pretty hard to complete. At lvl 29 I have all the pieces except the Heart of Fire which drops off the Inferno Wizard(Not Warlock). SolA is a pain in the butt to navigate through. Goblin Wizards amd Shaman can see through invis and the Gnomes in the castle wont help you when your in trouble. Heart of Ice from Permafrost was easy(Invis look for thier casting message find one alone and RootBomb), Lambent Stone for the the Staff was a sinch(Hehe, just got to Rathe mountains and buy it from a merchant), I had to enlist the help of a group to kill the Stone skellis and Died here a couple times[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] but I got it. I am told that the staff can be used from your inventory slot like JBoots. Every little bit helps in the fight against resists, it also give you something to do before dropping the Target that your tanks are fighting, too bad you gotta stop to cast it now.

It was probably changed to 0.01 seconds or something like that, like the dain hammer.

[sammoHung]

It was instant cast and could be cast on the move:

Source: I used it to gather and quad wyverns in CS in late 2001.

[Awsten_Tx]

I dont know, seems like some "trust me bro" post from individual players.

Patch notes seem pretty clear, as well as player comments about having to stop to use it.

I looked forward up to 2003 and didnt find any patch notes reverting the change.

I am curious if that quad kiting guide was written after that fact, being unaware of the flux staff changing to have a small cast time.

[sammoHung]

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

I dont know, seems like some "trust me bro" post from individual players.

Patch notes seem pretty clear, as well as player comments about having to stop to use it.

I looked forward up to 2003 and didnt find any patch notes reverting the change.

I am curious if that quad kiting guide was written after that fact, being unaware of the flux staff changing to have a small cast time.

Meanwhile, you used a non-existent patch as your original source.

Here is the list of patch notes I found for June 2000

JUNE 6, 2000:
-Some new spells are available for the hybrid classes. Check your Kunark spell vendors.
-Due to the fact that the looting rules were changed on Tallon Zek post-production, we've decided to allow characters on both servers a one-time character-move. Registration for the move will open at 6:00pm PDT on Friday, June 9th, 2000, on both servers, and will be open through 12:00pm PDT on Monday, June 12th, 2000. You can register for the move by executing the "/movelog yes" command during the registration window. There is no limit to the number of people that we will allow to move between Tallon and Vallon Zek, so there is no reason to rush to enter the command.

JUNE 15, 2000:
-The Chat and Login server components are now completely separate, meaning that players will no longer have difficulty logging in due to an excess of people in the chat server.

JUNE 22, 2000:
-We are pleased to announce the opening of The Hole, a high-level dungeon on the continent of Odus. The Hole is a complementary addition to EverQuest, available to all subscribers regardless of their Kunark status. The files necessary to enter The Hole are available via the "Optional Patch" button at the bottom of the patch program interface. The files are quite large (about 9MB total), so if the download is going slowly, you may want to postpone downloading the files until later. As mentioned above, The Hole is a high-level dungeon, designed to support characters starting at about level 40. It should be regarded as extremely dangerous. As a note, jumping in The Hole from Paineel is NO LONGER A SHORTCUT TO TOXXULIA FOREST. The GMs will not recover corpses for people who fall, or jump, or attempt to levitate into The Hole.
-As we announced earlier this week, due to the number of people specifying interest in "coin-only" loot on Vallon Zek, versus those wishing to retain item-loot, we have implemented "coin-only" looting rules for PvP combat on Vallon Zek.
Previously, players had to be resurrected within two hours after death in order to receive any experience back as part of the resurrection. Due to the increased size and difficulty associated with Kunark zones, we've raised this limit from two hours to three. This should assist players and make it easier for them to obtain an experience-returning resurrection within the time limit.
-We noticed few weeks ago that it is common practice to use NPCs to open locked doors rather than by using the services of someone that is able to pick locks. In order to protect and increase the value of the abilities of the lock-picking classes, NPCs have gained the ability to walk through locked doors without opening them.
-Over the past couple of weeks, we've received more and more reports of these dragons being bested by smaller and smaller groups of higher-level (high 50s) adventurers. As we've always felt that Dragons should be special encounters that require a large number of people, we were left with some choices. One choice available to us was to increase the power of the dragons to a level where the level 60 folks would find them challenging. This would have the disadvantage of forever placing them out-of-reach for those who did not buy Kunark, and place them further out-of-reach for those who did, but are just now approaching the levels where they could go on Dragon raids. Another possible solution was to make the dragons flee (depop) when engaged by a more powerful group of people. This would have the undesired effect of allowing some people to deny others the experience of fighting a dragon. Instead of raising the bar as mentioned above, we've instead decided that dragons, or at least these two dragons, should have the magical ability to pick their own fights. Players of level 53 or above will now encounter some difficulty when attempting to assist in combat with these dragons. This should help 40s and low 50-level characters with their chances to encounter a dragon without worry of getting forced out by much higher level players. In addition, it also has the added effect of creating a natural progression from the younger dragons of Antonica to the elder and more formidable dragons of Kunark.

JUNE 29, 2000:
-Many new recipes for the "Make Poison" skill are now in game. Features include: Several new poison books, stackable components, new suspensions, some purchasable components, and players now have the ability to purchase vials. Please check your vendors.

[Darver]

But either it reverted or that comment was wrong. Plus, there is nothing clear, that I've found yet, saying it has a definitive cast time number. This could have been something added in, then taken right back out 2 weeks later, possibly after public backlash or unintended consequences. The question is when.

Not that it matters, we have a comment from June 2001, which is before the end of Velious, stating clearly that you can cast it while running. This is probably our best evidence for how it acted in the actual timeline unless we can find something else. So, worst case this would affect a new server that is still progressing through the natural game play where an undetermined cast time is added between June 15th 2000 and sometime on or before June 1st 2001.

[Awsten_Tx]

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

Meanwhile, you used a non-existent patch as your original source.

Here is the list of patch notes I found for June 2000

lolwut?

https://www.eqarchives.com/patch/view/2000-06-15-1

[Darver]

The patch notes appear on allakhazam also, and they appear to be legit

https://everquest.allakhazam.com/his...es-2000-1.html

[Kinien]

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

Was this eventually changed back? Several comments on the staff page from Allakhazam from back in 2001 - 2003 mention that it's instant cast at that point.

https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/...7&p=2#comments

Very likely