Beta Info (1 Viewer)

[Gildon]

Is there interest in having Beta info from PoR posted here? I have access to the Beta and can repost some of the things from the Beta forum, screenshots, etc. There won't be exploit information yet but just a heads up on zone descriptions, raid / group encounters, monster mission details, etc.

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Pop me a red cent if you enjoy this info btw

 

[armysoldier]

sure why not 8-)

might spark some ideas for the future.. he he he

 

[Gildon]

The Devastation is part of the Plane of Conflict, the plane of the Goddess of Rage, Sullon Zek. It is called The Devastation by those that live there, though it has no true name and most of the "natives" don't refer to it at all. This is a place where those that commit murder out of anger are sent when they die. They find themselves a part of the Seething Wall, a mass of living/dead souls awaiting the change to be reborn to fight on in the Devastation and earn the favor of their goddess. They force their way to the forefront of the wall to earn the chance to be called. When they are called to battle by Sullon Zek they fight their way toward the stronghold at the center of the field.

This zone is meant for characters of level 60 to 70. Near the entrance most NPCs should be for level 60 PCs to deal with. As you rotate around the zone in either direction the opposition will be more challenging.

Quests
There are few denizens of the Devastation that will talk to anyone at all. But you can find some rare types with the larger groups that will offer quests to bring back body parts from thier enemies.

Events

Titanothon (meant for 18 - 24 players)
- A big bazu that Sullon summons from the wall when she is extremely angry

Ragewind (meant for 18 - 24 players)
- A big dervish that represents a fraction of Sullon's rage

Breaking Barriers (meant for 18 - 24 players)
- Sometimes an organized leader will come from the wall. He will build walls and a ballista to defend himself.
NOTE: At this time you will be seeing big dwarves instead of walls and ballista. We'll fix that soon.

The Great Beast (meant for 28 - 32 players)
- One of the great beasts that awaits in the Seething Wall is called forth by a furious Sullon

Drishak the Malevolent
Sevelin the Slayer
Nydiran the Unrelenting
Sevaredith

Missions

The Battle for EverFrost (Monster Mission)
- Given out by Oathmir
- Be the mortal Sullon and her companions as they battle to save Halas

Cage Kerafyrm
- Battle the great prismatic dragon. Help imprison him, give him his future as the Sleeper.

 

[Gildon]

Thurgadin Monster Missions

These missions all begin with Dain's Historian Duggans, a new NPC in Thurgadin B. He is located just off of the Dain's throneroom. Via dialogs you will be able to accept missions to relive the greatest moment of Dain the First, Dain the Second and Dain the Third as they lead and defend their people against the Giants.

The intention with these missions is to do several things. First I wanted to create missions where you, as a player, play a familiar character class. I've limited the dwarf templates to classes that a Dwarf player can be when they create a character and I've tried to give them abilities true to those archtypes. Any issues with those templates are welcome. Secondly I've tried to pre-tune these missions to be slightly more difficult than the average monster mission with an eye towards creating a reward commensurate with that. I haven't seen the final reward for the mission yet but it is intended to be cummulative (think Slipgear's Gem) and increase in power as you complete each of the three missions. Finally each mission in the set is intended to be more difficult than the last. The first mission should be a challenge but doable while the second and third provide more and more challenge.


The first mission allows up to 6 players to relive Dain the First's triumph as he secures the Great Divide for the Coldain dwarves so they can construct Thurgadin.

The second mission follows Dain the Second as he leads a daring raid into the heart of Kael itself.

The third mission puts a unique twist on the missions. Dain the Third must defend against several waves of Giants who grow progressively more powerful. In addition to the 6 players there are also 4 armies of Coldain at your command that you can control with text triggers with the General located at the waterfall. If the Giants reach the waterfall you fail.
With each of these missions if the Dain dies or zones out of the instance the mission is failed.


----
Personal note, I haven't played these MM's yet but feedback on the message board has been very positive. This is similar to the 10th ring war in your ability to control coldain armies.

 

[Gildon]

Arcstone

Arcstone, the Isle of Spirits is the entryway to the Plane of Magic. The isle is designed for players of level 60 to 70, with the zone as a whole being tuned around a Muramite Proving Ground level of difficulty. Aside from the base population, the content is as follows:

Single Group (6 players)
- Spirit Hunter Missions: Speak with Spirit Hunter Elijo and Spirit Hunter Azmaro to begin hunting the greater spirits of Arcstone.
- Skylance Missions: Skylance missions are tuned a bit harder (Illsalin level difficulty) but they begin from Ao the Fourth Born.


Small Event (up to 24 players)
- The Collasus of Skylance

Large Event (up to 42 players)
- Zomm the Seventh Born

- Relic Raids: You can also get some of the raids for Relic (the zone above Arcstone) from Orsarro the Youngest in Arcstone

 

[Gildon]

Elddar Forest

You access Elddar by stepping on the platform in Ruins of Takish-Hiz located at: 132, -79, 106 (by the amphitheatre)
The only static zone out is that same platform in Elddar, located at: 200, -174, 88 (by the amphitheatre)

This zone is static with one instance (Tunare's Shrine, the giant tree with the door carved into it in the south end of the zone.)

This zone is level 70 and the difficulty should be somewhat comparable to Drachnid Hive.

There are two small events located in the forest:

Vertekin the Soothsayer - 3-4 group small event, approx. Dreadspire difficulty when tuned.
Lugnah the Arcane - 3-4 group small event, approx. MPG difficulty when tuned.

Both of these events will be triggered via destructible objects located in their camps.

Shalowen the Pure will give you a single group mission arc that consists of 3 single group missions that leads into a 4th which is a large event.

The current names are

Mission 1: Investigating the Elddar
Mission 2: Questioning the Priest
Mission 3: The Key to Corruption
Mission 4 (Large Event): The Corruption of Ro

 

[Gildon]

Theatre of Blood [End Zone]

There is no zone-in to the Theater of Blood. An item with a right-click spell is required to access it.

There is no zone-out of the Theater of Blood. You must gate, origin, portal, die and summon your corpse with the altar, return home, or hearthstone to leave.

The Theater of Blood is an outdoor static zone with end-game content, similar in design of Plane of Fear.

There will be six events in the zone - Gnarlibramble, Mad Marry-Anne, the Maestro and several others. Nodyin and Gordish worked on these events.

There are 16 different races of NPCs in the zone - and like Fear / Hate - each race drops the armor of a different class. They should be difficult enough, especially with their innate abilities, to give a few groups a challenge.

Within the Theater of Blood is a belltower instance that houses a sequence of raids.

Valic is a huge gargoyle that is located on an island in the Theater of Blood. He will be tuned for 54 people and is an open event. He is rooted so push off the island isn't an issue.

Mad Mary-Anne is a crazy banshee who paces back and forth on her bridge. She is intended to be a large open 54 person event. Initial max hit is 5000.

Vasella is a vampire located in the Theater of Blood. She is intended to be an large open event for 54 people.

Maestro Tan'lor and his bored audience are a large event tuned for 54 players and is located at the amphitheater in the Theater. Chat with him to begin the event but be careful what you say to him or he might hit you.

Anastasia is a large event for 54 well equiped players. She is near the fountain area in Theater.

Gnarlibramble is a large event for 54 well equpiped players. He is in one of the forrest areas of Theater.

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There has been much discussion about the cock blocking of the instanced zone by guilds keeping the 6 gate keeper mobs down all the time. The devs have taken these points into consideration and feel that the respawn timers and the fact you only "need" to kill 1 of the 6 gate keepers to gain access to the instance in the tower will prevent guilds from cock blocking.

 

[Gildon]

Relic

Welcome to Relic, one of the two Planes of Magic for this expansion.

Unlike it's sibling Arcstone, Relic is more of an orderly place (no, not chaos vs. order).

The lower section is more openly hostile than the upper section though there are a few uber dangerous areas (you'll know which areas I'm speaking about once you stumble across the mobs I'm referring to).

A few "interesting" areas in the lower section.

The mystical bazaar - this area is non-KOS unlike most other areas in the lower section

The Arena - where you can get yourself a quest to challenge the Champions of the Circle

Courtyard of Contemplation

Alleyway of 1000 doors

The upper section - which has mostly Non-KOS WANDERERS - has a few interesting areas but I'll let you experience them yourself.

 

[Gildon]

Takish Hiz

You access Ruins of Takish-Hiz through a portal in Ro located at: 2735, -320, 108 (crack in the sand)

There are two zone outs:
You access Elddar by stepping on the platform in Ruins of Takish-Hiz located at: 132, -79, 106 (by the amphitheatre)
You can return to Ro by clicking on the rope object located at: 269, -983, 62 (inside the little broken house)

This zone is static with one instance (The Root of Ro, which is home to several missions)

This zone is level 50-65 and the difficulty should be somewhat comparable to Corathus.

There is a Geomantic Compact event located within the palace. It is aimed at 3-4 groups of people around Time difficulty

Cirwea is part of a story arc but is a Large open event located in the ampitheater section of the zone. He will be tuned for 36 people. Current max hit is 4600 and casts a 3k Dot on engaging.

The Frantic Construct is located in the ruins of Takish`hiz. He is summoned by a group of summoners at the end of their ritual. The Construct is aimed at a small event of 18 players. Killing him will free the summoners.

 

[Gildon]

Preliminary Map screenshots

Theatre of Blood

Tazkish Hiz

Relic

Sverag, Stronghold of Rage

Freeport West

Elddar Forest

Devastation

Arcstone

 

[someoneorsomething]

Very cool. One question, are then gonna make it a max of 54 players on the raids? I seriously hate the raid limit. In my guild we always have to leave peeps behind because SOE puts limits to the raids. Do you think that if you were a band of adventures and you went to make war with something or someone the other side would say "Oh im sorry you can only kill me with 54 people. 10 of you have to sit and wait." It Kinda ticks me off. Dont know how this turned into a rant....sorry

 

[Bronx]

It's too bad they could not tune the expeditions to the amount of people in the raid/expedition. Probably too much of a headache and they are too lazy to explore it.

 

[Gildon]

They have some instances for smaller 2-3 group mini-raids but nothing larger then 54. I think Prathum mentioned in the last expansion that no raids would be as big as PoP raids were again, they felt it required guilds to build up to an unmanageable level.

 

[someoneorsomething]

Well i guess we need to get up to 108 members on at a time so we can do 2 54 group raids then. LOL. Or kick people out. :P JK.

 

[Gildon]

Death in Devastation

Part of the lore behind Devastation is that when someone dies in the war , they go to the writhing wall where they claw their way back to the front over many years and eventually join the war again.

When you die in the zone from now on, instead of returning to your normal bind point, you will instead respawn at one of the entrances to the wall within Devastation. You can still leave the zone through other means, but death is no longer one of them.

Origin will be an important AA for melees in this zone.

 

[Gildon]

Thurgadin Monster Missions

One of the templates you can select is a Scout. The scouts job is to stop the lower level giants from running back and getting reinforcements. Latest dev changes to this mission:

-Changed 11 Kromrif basepop giants into Kromrif Scouts, level 55
-When a Kromrif scout gets to 80% HP he runs to a set location. If he makes it to that location he alerts the 3 giants that are stationed at that location and they all head back to attack the Dain

-Each giant that makes it to his destination increments a counter (but those who die before they make it don't increment the counter) The counter is a zone variable named alarmNum

If alarmNum is less than 2 the giants that spawn (The Kromrif Quick Reactors) are level 50
If alarmNum is between 2 and 4 the giants that spawn are level 55
If alarmNum is between 4 and 6 the giants that spawn are level 60
If alarmNum reaches 6 or higher the Enraged Giants that usually spawn after the boss dies will begin to spawn
For alarmNum 0 to 3 the Giants (Quick Reactors) spawn at -8, 1120, -136
For alarmNum 4 and higher the Giants (Quick Reactors) spawn at 83, 1709, -195)

 

[Gildon]

Freeport Arena Instance

There is an instanced mission in Freeport that puts you in the Arena against multiple waves of monsters. Here are some comments from the developer:

Hey everyone, I'm going to be working on making some of changes to this mission this week based on your feedback so far. I wanted to give you a bit of information on the background of this mission as well. This is intended to be a progressive event that really doesn't have an ending. When making this it was thought to have a long series of encounters that at some point would be impossible to defeat at the current power level. As your group geared up and started working together better you would be able to progress further in it.

The first change I'm going to make is to set up CC methods for the adds. I'm planning on having it somewhat randomized though. Some will be mezzable, others will be charmable, others snareable, etc. There will also be combinations of those as well, for example one set of adds may be mezzable, charmable, and snareable.

I'll look into adding spectators. I had them in originally but took them out to prevent some graphics lag during the event. In regards to the type of creatures used, I tried to get a variety of types in there to help keep things interesting. I can see the issue with the muramite NPCs though. If you can think of reasonable models you'd like to see used in the event feel free to let me know and I'll see if they'd work. However, I do plan on leaving things like the zombies and other undead in just to keep the undead aspect in the fights.

Currently there is only the version that everyone has been playing through. As soon as time allows though I'm planning on adding a second version of the event that is timed. You would have an hour for example to get through as many of the fights as possible and would only have a break of a few minutes at most between fights. But that has yet to be added at this time.

We're still finalizing the reward but the plan is you get an augment or some other type of item that scales in power based on how many events you've completed. If you do 50 and your buddy does 20 you will have a more powerful reward than he does.

I thought I'd address the issue of the easy beginning waves. At the moment here's how the wave you start on should be determined:

Each fight you win is basically recorded. If you beat the first 20 fights then it will be noted on your character that you've finished the first 20 fights. Then the next time you start the event it will start you off on fight 21. However, when the fight you are given is determined it checks to see what fights everyone in your group has done. If five of you have completed the first 30 fights but one of you hasn't done any of them you will be given the very first fight. It takes the person with the lowest number of fights completed and uses their number to determine which fight is to be set up.

I'm thinking of adding a way to reset your fight counter if you really wanted to so that you could start over again. That is not in as of yet though.

I'm probably going to be making some larger changes to the races in the event tomorrow and will be pretty much eliminating all of the muramite models and possibly a few others from the fight.

 

[Gildon]

Exploit Alert!

In the zone Devastation, Mobs will be on different faction and fighting over territory in a neverending war. This will be a strong contender for faction exploitation similar to the Tactics pit in PoP unless they figure out a way to prevent it .

 

[Gildon]

Epic Armor / Tradeskill Trophies

The concept of class specific Epic Armor was recently brought up and the devs really like this idea. No details yet.

New tradeskill trophies will be available for all tradeskills including some sort of granddaddy trophy for having mastered all tradeskills.

 

[ddd000]

Is it confirmed that there is no new AAs?

 

[Gildon]

They have confirmed there will not be a whole slew of AA's this expansion, they do that every other expansion. There will be a few AA's that expand on some of the new features of this expansion. We haven't seen them yet but I would expect some AA's for interacting with Sphere's of Influence and Auras.

 

[Gildon]

New Alchemy recipes

Here are the new Alchemy recipes. Copy and paste this into excel and use the text import wizard to import it as comma delimited.

ALCHEMY_DESC , Source 1 , Source 2 , Source 3 , Source 4 , Source 5 , Source6 , Source7
Potion of the Cat VII , Smooth Potion Vial , Dragonwart , Birthwart , Birthwart , Birthwart , Duskglow Vine , Hearty Goblin Blood
Philter of the Erudite II , Crude Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Eyebright Leaf , Eyebright Leaf , Eyebright Leaf , Eyebright Leaf , 
Philter of the Dal II , Crude Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Pinch of Burdock Root , Pinch of Burdock Root , Pinch of Burdock Root , Pinch of Burdock Root , 
Potion of the Rhino II , Crude Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Lucerne Leaf , Lucerne Leaf , Lucerne Leaf , Lucerne Leaf , 
Potion of the Rhino IV , Makeshift Potion Vial , Blue Vervain Bulb , Sprig of Lucerne , Sprig of Lucerne , Sprig of Lucerne , Sprig of Lucerne , 
Potion of the Rhino VIII , Fine Potion Vial , Valerian Root , Lucerne , Lucerne , Lucerne , Duskglow Vine , Hearty Goblin Blood
Tonic of the Bear II , Crude Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Single Sage Leaf , Single Sage Leaf , Single Sage Leaf , Single Sage Leaf , 
Effusion of E'Ci VII , Smooth Potion Vial , Dragonwart , Benzoin , Benzoin , Benzoin , Duskglow Vine , Hearty Goblin Blood
Effusion of Solusek II , Crude Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Pinch of Allspice , Pinch of Allspice , Pinch of Allspice , Pinch of Allspice , 
Effusion of Solusek VII , Smooth Potion Vial , Dragonwart , Allspice , Allspice , Allspice , Duskglow Vine , Hearty Goblin Blood
Effusion of Druzil II , Crude Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Pinch of Mandrake Root , Pinch of Mandrake Root , Pinch of Mandrake Root , Pinch of Mandrake Root , 
Effusion of Druzil VIII , Fine Potion Vial , Valerian Root , Mandrake Root , Mandrake Root , Mandrake Root , Duskglow Vine , Hearty Goblin Blood
Effusion of Saryrn II , Crude Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Night Shade Leaf , Night Shade Leaf , Night Shade Leaf , Night Shade Leaf , 
Effusion of Bertoxxulous IV , Makeshift Potion Vial , Blue Vervain Bulb , Sprig of Mullein , Sprig of Mullein , Sprig of Mullein , Sprig of Mullein , 
Weak Concoction of Ice , Crude Friable Potion Vial , Sticklewort , Fragment of Yellow Rheum , Fragment of Seathorn , Fragment of Suranie , Fragment of Suranie , 
Formed Stunning Concoction VI , Gemmed Formed Potion Vial , Dragonwart , Sprig of Yellow Rheum , Sprig of Angurth , Sprig of Arroweed , Sprig of Arroweed , Sample of Filtered Highland Sludge
Formed Concoction of Corrosion VI , Gemmed Formed Potion Vial , Dragonwart , Bulb Lotus Petal , Sprig of Fire Spore , Shard of Stinging Crystal , Shard of Stinging Crystal , Sample of Filtered Highland Sludge
Formed Ensnaring Sphere II , Simple Formed Potion Spherical Vial , Violet Tri-Tube Sap , Yellow Rheum Leaf , Angurth Leaf , Bitterwood Twig , Bitterwood Twig , 
Formed Sphere of Ice V , Fine Formed Potion Spherical Vial , Bugbane , Sprig of Yellow Rheum , Sprig of Seathorn , Sprig of Suranie , Sprig of Suranie , Sample of Filtered Taelosian Sludge
Formed Sphere of Corrosion VI , Gemmed Formed Potion Spherical Vial , Dragonwart , Bulb Lotus Petal , Sprig of Fire Spore , Shard of Stinging Crystal , Shard of Stinging Crystal , Sample of Filtered Highland Sludge
Heat Awareness II , Simple Potion Vial , Vinuk , Figwort , Agrimony , Lucerne , Lucerne , 
Disease Awareness I , Makeshift Potion Vial , Larkspur , Aloe Tip , Briar Thistle Thorn , Sprig of Birthwort , Sprig of Birthwort , 
Regeneration Awareness I , Makeshift Potion Vial , Larkspur , Measure of Pickleberry Extract , Briar Thistle Thorn , Marsh Algae Leaf , Marsh Algae Leaf , 
Essence of Erudite , Runed Potion Vial , Fangorth , Erudite Meat ,  ,  ,  , 
Essence of Halfling , Runed Potion Vial , Fangorth , Halfling Parts ,  ,  ,  , 
Immunization V , Simple Potion Vial , Arnworth , Sprig of Mullein , Sprig of Mullein , Sprig of Mullein , Sprig of Mullein , 
Blood of the Wolf II , Makeshift Potion Vial , Blue Vervain Bulb , Sprig of Fenugreek , Sprig of Birthwort , Dash of Wolf Blood , Dash of Wolf Blood , 
Mist of the Wolf I , Fine Potion Vial , Valerian Root , Fenugreek , Birthwart , Measure of Wolf Blood , Measure of Wolf Blood , Robust Shadow Essence
Potion of Negation , Crude Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Grain of Hemlock Powder , Grain of Hemlock Powder , Pinch of Mandrake Root , Pinch of Mandrake Root , 
Kilva's Blistering Flesh II , Crude Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Comfrey Leaf , Acaana Leaf , Flamewort Leaf , Flamewort Leaf , 
Kilva's Skin of Flame IV , Gemmed Potion Vial , Balm Leaves , Comfrey , Acaana , Flamewort , Flamewort , Exceptional Shissar Blood
Titan Potion , Plain Potion Vial , Bugbane , Tri-Fern Leaf , Tri-Fern Leaf , Curuloth , Curuloth , 
Potion of Aquatic Haunt , Plain Potion Vial , Bugbane , Woundwart , Woundwart , Sage Leaf , Woundwart , 
Grandmaster Medicine Bag , Artisan's Seal , Potion of Mystical Aptitude ,  ,  ,  ,  , 
Feable Ensnaring Concoction , Primitive Friable Potion Vial , Cicino , Fragment of Yellow Rheum , Fragment of Angurth , Splinter of Bitterwood , Splinter of Bitterwood , 
Weak Ensnaring Concoction , Crude Friable Potion Vial , Sticklewort , Fragment of Yellow Rheum , Fragment of Angurth , Splinter of Bitterwood , Splinter of Bitterwood , 
Poor Ensnaring Concoction , Rough Friable Potion Vial , Vox's Dust , Yellow Rheum Leaf , Angurth Leaf , Bitterwood Twig , Bitterwood Twig , 
Ensnaring Concoction I , Makeshift Friable Potion Vial , Belan , Yellow Rheum Leaf , Angurth Leaf , Bitterwood Twig , Bitterwood Twig , 
Ensnaring Concoction II , Simple Friable Potion Vial , Violet Tri-Tube Sap , Yellow Rheum Leaf , Angurth Leaf , Bitterwood Twig , Bitterwood Twig , 
Ensnaring Concoction III , Plain Friable Potion Vial , Blue Vervain Bulb , Sprig of Yellow Rheum , Sprig of Angurth , Bundle of Bitterwood Twigs , Bundle of Bitterwood Twigs , 
Ensnaring Concoction IV , Smoothe Friable Potion Vial , Betherium Bark , Sprig of Yellow Rheum , Sprig of Angurth , Bundle of Bitterwood Twigs , Bundle of Bitterwood Twigs , 
Ensnaring Concoction V , Fine Friable Potion Vial , Bugbane , Sprig of Yellow Rheum , Sprig of Angurth , Bundle of Bitterwood Twigs , Bundle of Bitterwood Twigs , Sample of Filtered Taelosian Sludge
Ensnaring Concoction VI , Gemmed Friable Potion Vial , Dragonwart , Sprig of Yellow Rheum , Sprig of Angurth , Bundle of Bitterwood Twigs , Bundle of Bitterwood Twigs , Sample of Filtered Highland Sludge
Ensnaring Concoction VII , Runed Friable Potion Vial , Dragonwart , Yellow Rheum , Angurth , Bitterwood , Bitterwood , Powder of Ro

** Edited to add new ensaring potions.

 

[Gildon]

Death in Devastation

Latest change to Devastation is that when you die, you leave an empty corpse with the group and respawn somewhere in the zone at one of 12 different zone spots in full gear. This should make for some interesting challenges.

Some folks are concerned about spawning right into wandering mobs since all the mobs wander around the zone and there are no defined safe spots. The devs are considering some alternatives.

It'll be interesting on a group wipe your whole group is scattered throughout the zone!

 

[Gildon]

Theatre of Blood

Theatre of Blood will have the highest XP modifier in the game. However the mobs are much tougher and have high HP so the kill rate won't be as fast. High DPS groups might see this as the new grinding spot of the expansion though if you're not already maxed out from monster missions

 

[Gildon]

New Horse

The new armored horse model you've seen floating around that comes in the box for this expansion will be a bit different this time. They're setting it up so that you can trade in your 100k or bard speed horse bridle along with some item you'll get from the expansion and get the new horse model that runs at the speed of your old horse.

 

[Gildon]

Tradeskill Info

Here's a real good post that someone made in the Beta forum in summary of the tradeskills in PoR. Red comments are from the developer.

Gorthag-TR wrote:

Well, at this point, the majority of the PoR recipes have been puzzled out, verified, etc... with 3 weeks left to go until we go live, lets see where everything stands....can’t find some of my notes, so some of these numbers may be off, running partially from memory… this also only covers recipes that I’ve tested



Alchemy - Full revamp - 420 recipes that I know of.



This is long, long overdue, and after digging into it extensively, I fully believe that Ngreth just got himself added to just about every shaman's xmas card list... The system is solid, and consistantly inconsistant...or inconsistantly consistant? =) There are several general categories of new potions, and each category has its own general ruleset - thrown potions, stat buffs, resist buffs, cures, ports, and misc stuff... I won't go into recipe detail, to avoid taking the discovery excitement away from folks, but basically, theres a general progression of up to 10 levels per series, and once you get a feel for the ruleset for each category of potions, and which category you're trying to make, you can pretty much tell what your basic components will be, and how many herbs to add to those components - its pretty easy to set up your 10-slot bags with your basic vials/power herbs/focus components & burn thru sets of combines. As with the research revamp, this system looks to be very easy to add in modular upgrades that make sense. Component costs are also seriously decreased for all but a few recipes, and the majority of components look to be vendor sold or, in the case of vials, player made with vendor sold components. The only real unknown factor will be the drop rate of the components for the top level potions, which the in game lore/texts suggest will be rare for the top level components, likely uncommon for the level 7/8/9 components. Effects are not yet on the potions (unless they were just added this morning), so its too soon to tell how useful these will be, or which effects are missing - the planned over-cap boost to stat potions has potential though, depending on how much of a boost it is, and if there are stacking issues with other over-cap buffs.



Pottery - Support role - 80 known recipes

It appears, so far, that the only new pottery recipes are going to be the vials for the new alchemy - the thrown potions use pottered vials, which have varying yields, shouldn't be too tedious to make them in mass quantities for a good ammo supply. I haven't looked into it enough yet to see if the basic vials for regular potions are pottered as well, I haven't noticed anything that suggests that as of yet.

Just the thrown vials.

Fletching - Skillup path! 41 known recipes

Finally, fletching gets an additional skillup path beyond 282 - unknown how rare these new dropped components will be, hopefully far more common than girplan feathers and drake-spikes/wingbones... The best bow is currently a little better than the PoP elemental fletched bows - useful for casual players, but better is available for anyone that regularly raids PoTime+ content. The other bows are essentially useless, just basic dmg/delay bows the last time I checked. Unfortunately it looks as if the bane arrows, originally intended for DoDh release, still aren't going in. Aside from the possibility of getting my last 7 points of fletching without having to spend another million or so on trophies, the fletching isn't all that impressive - very nice setup in crafting the new bows/subcomponents, but I don't forsee much of a market for the final products, other than vendoring/tributing them.

I still plan on review the bow stats.

Tinkering - Support role - 4 known recipes

2 new recipes in support of fletching, however, the rechargeable instant-lev clickie device is very very very nice =) a long needed creation...



Smithing - Support role - 3 known recipes

3 new recipes in support of fletching.



Jewelcraft - New jewelry line – 421 known recipes

This looks quite solid – good crafting process, marketable end product, good gear for folks leveling up. Process overview – make yourself a jewelers lens (no drop), and then get to work… currently – 3 gems used, 7 different cuts for each. There are 3 different slots for the new jewelry (5 inventory locations), using 6 different metals, to make the mounts. Combine cut gem with mount, and presto, you have some nice new jewelry – currently tops out at about 15 ac, 10 all stats/resists, 100 hp/mana/end, and one stat that varies, up to 20, based on the gem cut – stats subject to change, of course… Personally, I’d like to see a wider variance of stats, silver based jewelry should be far weaker than velium/palladium, rather than only having one stat that’s different, especially considering the ease of having all stats capped these days – this may have been addressed already, I haven’t looked at jewelry stats in about a week or so.. other than that, the new jewelry looks quite solid.



Brewing – at least 14 new recipes, haven’t delved deeply

Mostly just new flavoring for brewers, however, the Juice of Quellious is quite nice – finally a long lasting drink with more than 10 hp =) So…where’s the recipe for Blood of Rallos? =)



Baking – 80+ recipes, haven’t gotten around to testing yet – appear to be 80 from horsemeat alone, not even counting the new pies, etc.

Again, mostly just new flavoring... various horse meat recipes and whatnot, nothing special other than being new… I did notice several Bristlebane’s Challenge foods on a vendor once, one of which had 50 hp/end, but haven’t seen any recipe or quest mention of these yet, so can’t even confirm that they’re baked items.



Tailoring – 0

Unfortunately, it looks like no new tailoring this time…sadness for folks looking for a new skillup path other than the DoN cultural armor/symbols.

Sorry,,,, only so much time... and I have been work 10-12 hour days consistently... the alchemy revamp, major jewelcraft addition, and the new trophies took the bulk of my time. I also strongly felt that Fletching was worse off than Tailoring, so gave it additional stuff first.

Research & Poison – 0

Nothing new on the horizon for researchers or poison makers that I’ve seen either.

Research got 5... but they got a huge change last expansion. Poison did get nothing.



Trophies – 11 new trophy lines, 7 level evolving items

Essentially, make 10 different items appropriate to your current skill level, 66 different tasks available, broken down into 50 point skill increments, multiples of each of those 10 items may be required, and in many cases, there are subcombines, and possibly rare components for the higher level tasks, the reward is a very nice evolving trophy, which gains skill from non-trivial combines. Overall, a solid setup, very nice reward for the amount of effort involved – I expected more work involved for a lesser skill bonus, so I’m quite pleased, even if it will lessen the importance of my Creator hammer… =)






Improvement suggestions that come to mind (some of these may have been suggested or implemented since I last checked, I know the stats are changing around a bit still):



1) Add stats & mods to some of the other bows – of the 25 new bows, when I last checked, only the highest end one had stats, mods, and a proc on it, and it was nice, best playermade bow in game. Possibly scale down the mod, have 1-4% archery mod on the lesser bows, some stats/hp/mana/resists on them as well – I seriously doubt that anyone would use a pure dmg/delay only bow these days, considering the wide variety of tradeable bows with stats & hp/mana on them.

Like I said above, still looking into it. Some will still be statless, but I may look to have all the laminated stuff have something... there will always be better raid obtainable bows though. I will try and get the best of the laminated bow up to the best of what is currently available as single group content. (up to DoD)

2) Scale the all of the jewelcraft stats down through the metal sets, silver jewelry should have significantly lower stats across the board than velium/palladium

I went with the gem having all of the magic "magic" on this one, not the metal. Will think about it though. I will be adding a slot 9 to the Harmonogate rings.

3) Widen the range of thrown alchemy potions – theres a very nice spread throughout the trivial ranges now, so that nearly any skill level alchemist has something to work with, or even skill up on while using them…effects, while not known yet, appear to be Fire DD, Cold DD, Snare, Stun, and Corrosion (PR DoT?) Adding a Magic DD, Disease DoT, and a slow effect (decreased yield, higher trivial, and maybe require dropped component for every combine of this would be a good way to limit the availability of slow potions) would be a nice way to round them out, though its probably a little late to add in that many recipes Some sort of Jolt/Concussion effect would also be a godsend to classes that have no method of lowering their agro, though I don’t really see that one happening

We have considered other potions as of two days ago, but decided there is not time for them now. They are good ideas (we definitely have the magic and disease in plans (though DD disease)) for future expansion content

4) Fletching – some new arrows would be nice….. any word on the bane arrows that were going to be in DoDh? Or has that idea been moved from the ‘when we get time’ pile to the ‘not gonna happen’ pile?

It is not in the "not gonna happen" but in the "may not happen" and definitely "only if we get a code change" pile.

Overall, nearly 1000 recipes that I’ve already run across, and the combine system + game lore involved are quite solid. The new tradeskill work for this expansion is better than I expected for a ‘filler’ expansion in between major expansions, after all of the augments and research revamp last expansion I wasn’t expecting to see more than a handful of new items this time. Its nice to see tradeskills being taken seriously lately, and I’m looking forward to the September expansion already (no, I haven’t heard anything about one, but they’re pretty much every March/September like clockwork… =) )

I added 1575 recipes (and going to add one more soon... forgot the recharge on the levitation device) and 2223 items (though about 300 of those items are "cash loot" drops, of which only about 10-20 have anything to do with tradeskills)

this expansion

 

[Gildon]

Theatre of Blood

Another comment from a dev on Theatre of Blood keys

As it stands, the npcs are roughly a one day spawn and drop 3 tokens each. That's 18 per circuit. If a guild farmed all of them every time they popped, you'd have all 72 people flagged in 4 days.

There's gonna be a race on to get these spawns when the expansion releases, get your raid leaders ready

 

[Jigs21]

Any ideas where to get the new spells/disciplines from this expansion at? Any idea what you have to do? Would be wonderful if somone could fill us all in Thanks in advance!

 

[Jigs21]

bump

 

[IamBigDaddy]

Anyone know how to add new armor to Holy Steed?

 

[Acigaretteandsex]

where can you get the Cage for Kerafym MM?