Overall Combat Changes...

[Gninja]

With Live Update #13, we are introducing significant changes to the way combat works and how spells behave. The main goal of these changes is to increase the fun and challenge of EverQuest II. Some of the ways we are going to accomplish this goal include:

*Adjusting spells and combat arts to ensure that damage, healing, and utility are more proportionate among the classes.


*Making spell upgrades more meaningful and satisfying by adding new spells and arts to better fill out character progression and put the emphasis on distinctiveness at the subclass level.

*Removing damage mitigation from NPCs so that your spells and arts do damage in the range listed when you examine them.

*Making the con color of your opponent a lot more meaningful to better indicate the level of challenge you're about to undertake. For example, a red-con opponent should be something you want to avoid, an orange-con opponent should indicate an extremely tough fight, and so on.

*Removing item growth so that comparisons between items are clearer and upgrades feel more satisfying.

*Smoothing out player and NPC progression so there are no longer sudden increases in difficulty around the class and subclass levels.

*Addressing cases where some characters could be made virtually immune to attack through buff stacking.


Our intent is that the game feels and plays basically the way it always has for soloers and small group players. Individual players of any class or level should be able to defeat level-appropriate solo encounters. Heroic encounters should require the cooperation of multiple players. Groups and raid forces taking on powerful targets should find an increased level of challenge.

Below are some specific changes to the various elements of combat and spells. We will provide more class-specific information soon so you will be able to see your class has progressed with these changes.




Character Attributes
Avoidance

*Your likelihood of avoiding an attack is now based on two primary factors: the con color of the attacker and the type of armor you are wearing. The heavier your armor, the lower your chances of avoiding an attack.

*The more grey your target is to you, the greater your chance to avoid attacks and mitigate damage from that opponent; your chance to hit and damage the target also increases.

*Conversely, the more red your target is to you, the less your chance to avoid attacks and mitigate damage from that opponent; your chance to hit and damage the target also decreases.

*Increasing your Defense, Parry, and Deflection skills give you a better chance of avoiding attacks, but there is now a cap on how much these skills can be buffed or debuffed.

*Increasing your Agility improves your base chance of avoiding an attack, but it will not improve your likelihood of parrying, deflecting, or blocking with a shield.

*Buff caps scale as the character increases in level. The higher your level, the greater the amount of buffs that can be applied.

*Mages and Priests no longer receive the Parry skill.

*Shields now have the following base chances to Block: Tower (10%), Kite (10%), Round (5%), Buckler (3%). Your chances to Block scale up or down based on the con of your opponent.

*Wearing no armor significantly reduces your chances of avoiding an attack.



Mitigation

The base mitigation values of armor against an opponent of your level have been adjusted as follows: Heavy (32%), Medium (26%), Light (20%), Very Light (10%).
Mitigation scales up or down based on the con color of your attacker. That is, you mitigate progressively more damage of blue, green, and grey opponents, and progressively less against yellow, orange, and red opponents.
Mitigation is now shown as a numerical value instead of a percentage. The percentage is visible by mousing over the mitigation value on the Persona window.
Spell and item effects can now have a greater effect on your physical mitigation. You can mitigate a maximum of 80% of any physical damage type. This cap is higher against opponents that con grey.
Armor quality (Handcrafted, Treasured, Legendary, Fabled, or Mythical) has a greater impact on mitigation value than it did before.



Melee Damage

Melee damage bonuses for both auto-attack and combat arts are now calculated based on the attacker's strength.
The damage output of both players and NPCs should now increase more smoothly rather than receiving a sharp boost every ten levels.
Weapon quality (Handcrafted, Treasured, Legendary, Fabled, or Mythical) is now a greater factor in the damage potential of weapons.
Damage buffs only enhance auto-attack damage, not spells or arts.
The con of the target is now the primary determiner of your chance to hit or defend against attacks instead of skill. Skill buffs still have an effect, but they are treated more like a buff rather than the primary determiner.
Mages and Priests now gain 5 points per level in their offensive melee skills.



Stats

Higher Strength increases your bonus to melee damage.
Increasing your Agility improves your chance to avoid an attack.
Higher Intelligence increases your bonus to spell damage.
Increasing your Wisdom improves your resistances to arcane damage types (Heat, Cold, Poison, Disease, Magic, Divine, and Mental).
The effectiveness of Strength, Agility, Intelligence, and Wisdom buffs has been increased. The effective cap is set at 7 times the character's level. For example, a level 30 fighter will receive an increasing melee damage bonus up to 210 Strength, while a level 40 wizard will receive an increasing bonus to spell damage up to 280 Intelligence.



Health/Power Regen

Base in-combat regeneration of health and power is capped at 1 point for every 10 levels of the character. Additional regen effects from spells and gear are applied on top of the base value.
When outside of combat, characters now receive both in-combat and non-combat regen effects. Previously only the greater of the two applied.
Spells, Combat Arts, and Abilities



Spells and Combat Arts

Most spells and combat arts have changed, either in potency or in what effects are applied. You are advised to examine your choice of spells and arts closely, as they may not behave exactly the same way.
Many spell lines have been added or expanded upon. Upgrades have been added for many spells and arts that didn't have them before.
There is now a spell damage bonus based on the caster's intelligence.
Debuffs and damage-over-time spells cast by two members of the same class can both stack on the same target. For instance, if two necromancers are in a group and cast the exact same DoT on the same target, both will land and take effect. If one necromancer has a lower-level DoT in the same line, that spell will stack with the other necromancer's higher-level version.
The power cost for a spell or combat art no longer increases when upgraded. For example, the Master I version of Backstab will cost the same amount of power as Apprentice I Backstab.
Upgrading the quality of a spell or art now has a more meaningful impact on the values of stat buffs/debuffs, hate generation, snares, haste, skills, and many other effects.
New spells and arts will no longer be awarded midway through a level. Instead, all spells and arts for a given level will be granted at the beginning of that level.
Casting times have been greatly reduced on most single-target damage-based combat arts.
Many combat arts with faster recast times will now also cost less power.
Attack speed decrease spells now have more effect.
Attribute increase and decrease effects are more powerful.
Icons for spells that target a single ally now have an orange background.
Spells and arts no longer buff class-specific knowledges (for example, skills such as Paladin and Troubador that used to be named Determined Faith and Ballads). Spells and arts with class knowledge buffs had their effects changed to something more appropriate.



Resists, Fizzles, and Interrupts

Spell casters now make use of a skill called Focus. It is raised by casting spells while being attacked.
Your chance to be interrupted while casting is now determined by your Focus skill and the amount of damage being done by your attacker.
All hostile spells have a chance of being resisted outright. When a spell lands, it will apply its full effect for the full duration listed in its examine information.
The chance to resist is based on the target's resistance to the spell's damage type, the skill level of the player's casting technique used by the spell (Ministration, Ordination, etc.), and spell quality (Apprentice II, Adept I, etc.).
Root, stun, stifle, fear, and mesmerize spells are either resisted or not based on the target's resistance to the damage type of that spell. Duration is no longer mitigated, so if the spell successfully lands, it sticks for the full duration.
Non-damage spell effects (snares, slows, debuffs, etc.) can no longer be mitigated. Except for damage spells and arts, if a spell lands it should have the full effect listed in that spell's examine information.
Damage spells have a lower chance of being resisted than other types of spells.
Taunts can now be resisted, but the chance to be resisted is lower than other types of hostile spells.
If a spell is resisted by all targets, the caster pays the full power cost. However, the reuse time will be reduced to half that of normal or 3 seconds, whichever is greater.
Only beneficial spells cast in combat now have a chance to fizzle.
Your chance to fizzle is affected by the skill level of the player's casting technique used by the spell (Ministration, Ordination, etc.) and spell quality (Apprentice II, Adept I, etc.).
The Spell Avoidance skill is no longer used and has been removed. Items with a Spell Avoidance buff have been modified.



Summoned Pets

Summoned pets now only grow a set number of levels. After that, a new summon spell needs to be obtained.
Summoned pets cast their spells and arts at the same quality level as the spell that summoned them. For example, an Adept I version of a pet will cast its spells at Adept I quality.
Summoned pets that previously did not have attack animations will now animate properly during combat.
The auto-attack damage of summoned pets is now determined by the quality tier of the spell used to summon them. That is, a pet summoned with an Adept I spell will do more auto-attack damage than a pet summoned via the Apprentice II version of that spell, and so forth.
Fighter pets (such as the Tellurian Recruit) should tank and hold aggro better.
Scout pets (such as the Shadowy Stalker) should do significantly more damage, but take more damage in return.
Mage pets (such as the Grim Terror) should do roughly the same damage as before, but have less health.
Dumbfire and swarm pets should do more damage, but have reduced health.
Your pet should no longer attack a previously broken encounter without provocation.
Pets will now automatically defend their owners if they are idle and "Protect Me" is enabled, even if their owner was the first to strike the target.



Charmed Pets

Charm spells can be cast on solo and heroic NPCs, but not epic targets.
Maintained spells cast on charmed pets will automatically drop when the charm expires.
Charm spells can be resisted by enemies in much the same manner as root spells.
Charmed pets cast their spells and do damage based on the quality level of the spell used to charm them. For example, an NPC charmed with an Adept I spell will use its abilities at Adept I quality.
The health and power pools of a charmed target will be equal to that of a no-arrow non-heroic NPC, regardless of the size of its health and power pools when not charmed.
The chance for charmed pets to break free is now based on their resistance values to the type of spell used to charm them.
Limited-use charm spells will now cause charm to break if the pet is ordered to do something that it isn't supposed to be able to do. For example, ordering a pet charmed with Bria's Entrancing Sonnet to attack a target will cause the spell to break.



Root Spells

There are two types of root spells: damage break and periodic.

Damage break roots have a chance to break every time the rooted entity takes damage or is the target of a hostile action (such as a debuff).
Periodic roots have a chance to break at certain points in the spell's duration, but will not break due to damage or hostile acts.
Root duration is affected by the level of the spell and the type of root, but is not impacted by spell rank (Apprentice I, Adept III , etc.).
Damage break root duration ranges from 20 to 60 seconds if the root is the only (or primary) effect of the spell. Otherwise, duration is 10 to 30 seconds.
Periodic root duration ranges from 10 to 30 seconds if the root is the only effect of the spell. Otherwise, duration is 5 to 15 seconds.
The reuse time of a root spell is determined by the type of root spell and the targets it affects.
Damage break root reuse is generally 6 seconds for single-target roots and 10 seconds for TAE/PBAE-target roots.
Periodic root reuse is generally 10 seconds for single-target roots and 15 seconds for TAE/PBAE-target roots.

These numbers represent reuse for spells with root as the primary effect of the spell. Combination spells with root effects will vary based on the other aspects of the spell.
Cast time of a root spell is determined by the type of root spell and the targets it affects.
PBAE-target root spells are 1 second; single-target or TAE-target root spells are 2 seconds.
These numbers represent cast times for spells with root as the primary effect.



Healing

Wards now apply their effects after mitigation
As wards absorb damage, they now apply hate to the caster appropriate to the amount of damage absorbed.
Reactive heals now assign their hate to the caster of the spell rather than the target.
Overall healing potency should be better balanced among the Priest professions.
Healing spells generate less hate when healing someone who is not currently the opponent's main target.



Stealth and Invisibility

Invisibility, Stealth, and Detection spells are no longer upgradeable via spell scrolls.
Spell rank is no longer displayed in their Knowledge book entries.
These spells, once gained, continue to grow with your character as you level.
Invisibility and Stealth spells do not stack, nor will multiple Stealth or Invisibility spells stack with each other.
You can see any invisible or stealthed NPC or player that cons grey to you .
You can be seen while stealthed or invisible by any NPC or player that cons red to you .
See Invisibility spells allow you to see any NPC or player that is invisible.
See Stealth spells allow you to see any NPC or player that is in stealth mode.
Many redundant spell upgrades were removed that related to invisibility, stealth, and detections.



Training Spells and Racial Traits

Every ten levels (level 14, 24, 34, 44, and 54) you are presented with a list of four spells or arts. You may choose one of them, which will then be upgraded to Master II quality.
This replaces the previous Training abilities, which have been removed from your Knowledge book.
The descriptions of Racial Traits that increase resistances now more clearly indicate that the percentage gained is against a target of the character's level.



Abilities

Race-specific vision effects (Ultravision, Infravision, etc.) no longer consume power when used.



Heroic Opportunities

Heroic Opportunity effects are now scaled based on the average level of spells used to trigger them. Completing HOs with low-level spells will have a much lower result than using spells appropriate to your level.
Triggering Heroic Opportunities using spells and arts that are higher level than the encounter will now produce more potent results. Previously the HO results were capped by the level of the target.
Heroic Opportunity result effects will be evaluated after the initial round of spell and combat tuning is complete.
Encounters and NPCs



Encounter Locking


Non-epic encounters no longer automatically lock to your group when engaged.

Epic encounters continue to follow the original encounter locking rules.
When you have engaged a non-epic target, neither it nor your group will display the lock icon. Players outside your group can assist in your fight by damaging your enemies or healing you.
The first player or group to attack a target will be the only ones to receive any reward for defeating it. This applies to loot, experience, and quest credit.
If an encounter will give you no reward due to the new encounter rules, its name will turn grey. This lets you know that you will gain no loot or experience for defeating the encounter.
If your group does less than half the damage necessary to defeat your target, the experience you gain will be reduced significantly.
If an NPC other than a pet or charmed mob does more than 50% of the total damage to an encounter, that encounter will no longer reward coin or XP.
Damage credit is correctly tracked if you add those who were helping you to the group before the target dies.
Any faction increase or decrease earned by defeating the target will be applied to everyone the creature hates when it dies.
Run-speed buffs are still suspended and health/power regen rates reduced when engaging an encounter. If you provide assistance to someone engaged in combat (either by healing that person or attacking his target), your run-speed buffs and health/power regen will be likewise affected. To flee or disengage from combat, you must still use the /yell command.
You are now allowed to change group options and add or remove members from your group while fighting. (Note: This change does not apply when fighting epic encounters).
If you have engaged your target and wish to ensure that no other players assist or interfere with the fight, use the /lock command. This will lock the target encounter to you or your group, preventing non-group members from healing you or attacking your target.
If you prefer to always lock encounters when you engage them, you can specify this in the group options.
Overmatch icons no longer display for non-epic encounters.
The /yell command will break an encounter (restoring out-of-combat regen and movement buffs) whether or not it was explicitly locked via the /lock command.



Consider Information

We have improved the information provided when considering an NPC's level of challenge by expanding upon the previous system to make it clearer and more precise.
Arrows in the target window indicate the challenge of an opponent:
3 down arrows = very weak opponent
2 down arrows = weak opponent
1 down arrow = below average opponent
no arrow = average opponent
1 up arrow = above average opponent
2 up arrows = strong opponent
3 up arrows = heroic opponent
3 up arrows plus X2, X3, or X4 = epic opponent intended for 2, 3, or 4 groups in a raid
When using the Simple (Frames) option, there are brackets around the NPC's name that indicate the following:
Swords under target name = weak opponent
Simple brackets = average opponent
Fancy brackets = challenging opponent
Fancy brackets plus banner = epic opponent
The number of levels your target will fall within a given con color range (other than white) have been adjusted.
Levels 1 to 19: 2 levels per color
Levels 20 to 29: 3 levels per color
Levels 30 to 39: 4 levels per color
Levels 40 and higher: 5 levels per color
Note: At levels 10 and below, there is only 1 level of green con.



NPCs

NPCs no longer mitigate the damage done by spells and combat arts. When a damage spell or art lands on an opponent, its damage should fall within the range shown in its examine information.
NPCs have a chance to outright resist any type of hostile spell. But when a spell lands, it will apply its full effects for the full duration listed in its examine information. Damage spells and taunts will be resisted less than other types of spells.
Instead of unleashing all their spells or arts at the start of a fight and then running out of power, NPCs will spread their use of spells and arts more evenly throughout the course of a battle.
The damage output of both players and NPCs should increase more smoothly rather than receiving a sharp boost every ten levels.
NPCs now have a broader list of spells that they can cast in combat. Certain NPCs that didn't do so before will now casts buffs, debuffs, and heals.
Common NPCs should be less likely to use spells and arts that incapacitate the player (i.e. stuns, interrupts, stifles).
NPCs use their own versions of spells and arts instead of using player spells combined with their own multipliers. This should eliminate cases where normal mobs could cast super-powerful versions of player spells. Please note that bosses and other special encounters may have such abilities by design, however.
Epic encounters have smaller health and power pools. They will hit for less damage, but players will be less likely to completely avoid and mitigate their attacks.
Aggressive creatures will now attack sooner when they notice you.
Items and Poisons



Items

Items no longer grow in effectiveness as the wielder gains levels.
Existing items (including weapons and armor) can be equipped at the same level they were before these changes; however, their effectiveness (meaning AC/resistance values for armor or damage range for weapons) will be fixed.
All modifiers (such as health, power, stat, and skill increases) other than mitigation and resistances are unaffected by this change.
Items no longer change their con color based on your level. An item's name will be grey if it is ineffective against opponents of your level, white if you can use it, and red if you can't use it.

If you are mentoring down to a lower level, your items will con purple to indicate that their effectiveness has been scaled down.
Examining your damage potential on a weapon takes into account any relevant buffs on your character. However, the damage rating of a weapon is determined by its base damage, not your buffed damage potential.
Items no longer buff class-specific knowledges (for example, skills such as Paladin and Troubador that used to be named Determined Faith and Ballads). Any existing items with class knowledge buffs had their effects changed to something more appropriate.
Mitigation values have been spread more evenly across armor slots. Chest and leg slots still provide slightly greater mitigation, though less than they did before. This should make it more beneficial to wear high-mitigation armor in every slot.
Physical mitigation has been removed from accessories (ear, neck, rings, wrists, and belt).
Arcane resist values (Heat, Cold, Poison, Disease, Magic, Divine, and Mental) on all items have been reduced by 50% to make the effects of resist buffs more meaningful.



Poisons

Poisons will now appear in the Maintained window as well as their Effects window when applied. (Previously, they were only visible in the Effects window.)
When a poison procs on a victim, the poison effect will appear in the attacker's Maintained window. This denotes that the player successfully poisoned a target. There is no concentration cost, however.
Poisons now display a descriptive proc message rather than just saying "poison."
A player can have one Poison from each category active at the same time. This means a Rogue or Predator can have a damage poison active, a resist debuff poison active, and a miscellaneous debuff poison active (anything other than a resist reduction or damage). Any or all of these three have a chance to proc during an attack.
There can no longer be more than one damage poison active. This was done to reduce confusion, since only one of those damage poisons would actually be active.
Poison damage effects will stack when applied by different players to the same target.
Poison debuffs will stack only if the debuff effect is different. The same debuff effects (e.g. two strength debuffs) will never stack, even if applied by different players.
Poisons are no longer outright resisted when they proc in melee combat, but their damage can be mitigated.
Poison effects will not interfere with profession damage or debuff spells. All poison effects will be cumulative to profession spells with similar effects (i.e. a player can use a poison that decreases the target's strength along with a combat art that decreases its strength, and both will take effect).



Class-Specific Changes

NOTE: This is only a partial list of the changes that have taken place. Virtually every spell and combat art has changed in some way.


Fighter Changes

The combat art damage output of Fighters has been set below that of Scouts.

The auto-attack damage of Fighters is slightly higher than that of Scouts.
All subclasses of Fighters now have both primary defensive and offensive stances. These stances do not require concentration.
As part of their defensive stance, each subclass of Fighter now receives extra mitigation against a specific type of arcane damage (Heat, Cold, Poison, Disease, Magic, Divine, or Mental) .
Monks and Bruisers have an additional stance that offers half the combined offensive and defensive bonuses of the other stances.
The base health and power pools of Fighter professions have been adjusted.
Monks and Bruisers have the highest health pool and lowest power pool.
Guardians and Berserkers have balanced health and power pools.
Paladins and Shadowknights have the lowest health pool and the highest power pool.
Crusaders now receive the Spear and Great Spear skills.
Shadowknights have been given an improved lifetap effect and harm touch reuse.
The Paladin spell Lay on Hands has been improved.
Brawlers can now deflect and parry attacks from any direction, not just the front. However, they can only riposte when facing the attacker.


Scout Changes

The spell/art damage of Scouts has been increased.
Auto-attack damage for Assassins and Rangers has been increased.
Swashbucklers and Brigands received a slight health increase.
Rangers, Assassins, Swashbucklers, and Brigands now have both offensive and defensive stances. These stances do not require concentration.
Bard debuff songs are now 0 concentration, 0-second reuse timer, 2-second cast time, 25m range, toggleable, 15m radius, and 1 minute duration .
Assassins gain improved damage output of stealth attacks.
Ranger: Steady Aim is now a more powerful short term ranged skill increase.
Brigand: Beg for Mercy has changed to target a player that places a reactive spell effect on them. This reactive spell effect causes them to lose a massive amount of hate to the entire encounter.
Swashbuckler: Inspired Daring now grants a 100% proc that lasts for 13 seconds.
Dirge: Hyran's Angry Sonata allows the Dirge to target the group's Fighter to increase the aggro they gain.
Troubador: Alin's Soothing Serenade lets the Troubador decrease hate for all group members other than Fighters.


Mage Changes

Mages now have larger power pools.
Summoner primary pets no longer spawn with a down arrow.
Enchanters gain a long-duration Charm spell.
Warlocks now have contagious forms of noxious resistance debuffs.
Conjurer: Conjurer's Mark grants the pet an elemental resist debuff proc whenever they attack.
Necromancer: Transfer Life heals at the cost of the Necromancer's health.
Necromancer: Lifetap, which drains health from the target to the Necromancer, is now obtained at level 20.


Priest Changes

Priests now have increased damage capability.
Priests can resurrect players outside their group.
Group healing has been improved in efficiency and potency.
Group cures have been removed from Training options and are now distributed among the Priest subclasses.
Shamans now receive the Great Spear skill.
Warden, Fury, Mystic, and Defiler form spells no longer require concentration.
Direct heals (both single-target and group) now have more differentiation among subclasses. Each subclass of Priest has different advantages:
Inquisitor: Slightly higher efficiency than most instant heals, best repeat spell healing amount for instant heals, fastest reuse timers.
Templar: Larger heal for increased power cost, less time consumed spent casting heals.
Warden: Highest efficiency of all heals, best repeat spell healing amount (regen effects from all lines stack).
Fury: Fastest healer, strong initial burst healing.
Mystic: Same efficiency as the Inquisitor but slightly longer reuse timers; each heal adds a minor max health increase which allows "overflow" health for the target (health increase from all lines stack).
Defiler: Matches the potency of Templar heals, but sacrifices some health to defray the overall power cost.

[Inglorion]

All I can say is this....Coercers were - before the combat changes - as per dev statements, one of the classes that needed a boost because they were not in line with the balance of the classes.

The changes they have made are as following:

1. Clarity is now a group spell (good thing)....but group ONLY...I haven't tested this, but from the description of other group buffs that states "raid", this would indicate that power regen buff will no longer be available to anyone outside my group on raids....MAJOR nerf

2. Silence spells....with the traits going bye bye, the trait spell that was a silence that would take on epic mobs went too. They did remove the epic restriction (at least in the description, but I have found that the descriptions pretty much are flawed as some of the proc spells don't have their percentage showing anymore) on the "normal" silence spells....but they have a recast time of 25 seconds and only a duration of 16 seconds...meaning that any tactic involving me silencing anything during the fight....just got a HELL of a lot tougher....another MAJOR nerf.

3. Mez'es....duration of mezzes has been lowered, which means that crowd control goes out the window quite a bit.

4. Another point on the Clarity issue....the power pool increase from the old spell is now gone....another big nerf

5. With the new combat system and how the avoidance/mitigation works, my resists are shot to pieces....and my mitigation as well...meaning that I tested it out with letting a lvl 20 mob hit me at lvl 50...and it got hits in pretty much every 1.5 hit - another major nerf since that means that lvl 45+ mobs will hit every damn time and I won't be avoiding anything like I have up until now (yeah, I know, I got hit a lot and hard before, but NOTHING like it is going to be now)

6. They removed the chanters' one and only tactical advantage in solo fights....our 550 nuke....it has now become a DoT that doesn't even do dmg all the time....we've gotten another lower nuke which does about 250dmg which isn't going to do much with lvl 45+ mobs. They changed our AoE stun from being an encounter AoE to be a full fledged AoE...meaning it will hit anything - and agro anything - within the range of the spell...has about 1k dmg component in it too, so it is going to make the mobs bee-line to the chanter every single time we fire this...making it useless since getting agro with the new changes is certain death for the chanter.

To be honest....I could not have been more disappointed with these changes...well...maybe if they removed my clarity spell all together, but that's about it.