AoC Patch Notes for 6/26
Player Character
Archetype
* The bonus magical damage granted from Mystical Attunement has been doubled for Mages.
* Spells that were incorrectly receiving bonuses from increased magical damage will no longer scale with increased magical damage. This adjustment will only affect such spells that were not meant to have scaling with the increased magical damage bonus. This resolves issues with enhancement spells like “Pact with Set” where the health loss was too high for the trade off for the bonus to damage.
Barbarians
* An issue where Barbarians lose strength between the levels of 42 and 45 has been resolved. Please note that this is only between those specific levels.
Demonologist
* Infernal Knowledge and Diabolic Insight will no longer appear as hostile spells and will still persist after death.
Necromancer
* The bonus gained from magical damage has been increased on all damage-over-time (DoT) spells.
* Despoil the Soul duration has been substantially increased and is no longer removed on death.
* Frost Blast’s area-of-effect (AoE) has been changed to be a 90 degree cone in front of the caster.
* Shatter now additionally works on targets affected by Frost Blast and Ice Shackle.
* Dark Knowledge and Vile Insight will no longer appear as hostile spells and will still persist after death.
* Mark of the Devourer duration has been reduced to 60 seconds.
Ranger
* Raid-level bows and crossbows for Rangers have been corrected to add ranged DPS instead of melee DPS.
Combat
* Active blocking has been revamped to bring it back in line with the original design. Active blocking will now correctly display a buff in the debuff GUI to indicate the effect. You will now have an initial stamina cost upon activation and shielding bonus rather than evade chance. Attacks and heals performed while in “Active Blocking” will also have a reduced effect.
* Certain group buffs should no longer keep you in combat when your pets are also in the group.
* Melee pets will now do splash damage.
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Tags: AgeOfConan
About. Damn. Time.
Blizzard has *finally* realized that they’re going to have do resort to drastic measures to counteract the rampant account theft that goes on with WoW. This morning, I found this announcement. I don’t know all the details, but I would imagine it’s going to consist of a small device that generates a random string of numbers. Those numbers are valid only for a single login, and only for a certain amount of time, and are required to access the game (along with the username and password).
I have dealt with these devices before, and it’s a good method of security. Basically, even if a hacker gets your username and password (via keylogger, etc), they still cannot log in to your account, bleed you dry and delete your characters. It will be a little extra work to log in (ie, check the authenticator, get a code, enter it), but I think it’s well worth it for the added security. Users will be able to add multiple accounts to it, so my 4 account household will be safe with just 1 device.
I’ll be among the first in line.
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Tags: WoW
What’s Blizzard Teasing?
I know this seems to be shaping into a WoW only blog, but I swear thats not the intent.
For the past 3 days, Blizzard has been teasing everyone with a gradually opening “icy” image.
Blizzard’s annual WWI conference starts on Saturday, so there’s a good bet that whatever is hidden under this ice, will come out there. I’ve read everything from release dates or beta signups for Wrath of the Lich King (WoW expansion), to Starcraft 2 info, to Diablo 3 announcements, and even some fairly convincement arguments for Starcraft Online. Beyond that, there’s a good chance it’s something completely new.
For some light (ha!) reading, I’d suggest checking out this post at MMO-Champion. Lots of speculation, a little friendly name calling, but it really builds the excitement.
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Tags: Rumors, WoW
X-51 Nether Rocket
So, the lovely Mrs. and I took the kids to the mall last week, and for kicks, bought a few packs of the WoW trading card game. Now, neither of us are interested in playing the card game, but the lure of in game items pulled us in.
We bought 4 packs of cards, and scored 2 loot cards! She got Papa Hummel’s Old Fashioned Pet Biscuits ( food that makes vanity pets grow huge, which was good for her, since she has OVER 9000 non-combat pets), and I scored the X-51 Nether Rocket mount!
So, if you are on Ravencrest and see a Night Elf floating around on a big goblin firecracker, thats probably me. I really think the loot cards are an excellent idea, and I hope they continue to expand it; I was a big baseball card fan as a kid, and the prospect of buying packs of cards for a possible reward is very exciting for me. I’m sure I’ll do more of a write up on this eventually, but I had to share.
More info on the WoW Trading Card Game Loot Cards can be found at http://www.wowtcg.com/loot.
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Tags: TCG, WoW
WoW Arena Season 4 Announced
Eyonix (one of the illustrious blue Blizzard posters) says…
We’re currently planning to end the third Arena season and begin Arena Season 4 on June 24, 2008. This exciting Arena season will introduce the Brutal Gladiator set, and will also allow players to purchase Arena Season 2 items using the honor system. Please note that we will be resetting all Arena team and personal ratings. Players will still retain their Arena points and teams with this reset. The team and personal rating will simply be reset to the default 1500, allowing all teams to once again compete for top honors with a fresh start.
I’m not a big PvP’er myself, but I know that there are alot of people looking forward to this. Original Blue post is here.
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Tags: Arena, PVP, WoW
Welcome
Welcome to the first post to MMO Soup. The idea here is to have a place to share my thoughts and theories on Massively Multiplayer Online Games (The MMO Part). The Soup part is, well, my cheesy way of noting that I’m not really focusing on one single MMO, but all of them as a whole as well as each of them individually. I’m a theorycrafter, and have run the gamut from hardcore, 7 night a week raider to 15 minutes a week casual. I’ve played everything from Everquest to Age of Conan, and have at least demoed most every mainstream MMO available in the US.
Enjoy the read, feel free to yell at me in the comments.
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Tags: MMO Soup
