New Hunting Ground for L60 range(estimated)

[Dendum]

Meraki — Yesterday at 10:21 PM
Hey Everyone, a previously unannounced permanent hunting ground known as the Forgotten Vineyard opened in Solhaven tonight in the Prime instance. You will find a variety of Shan in the roughly late 50s to mid 60s level range. I have fond memories of hunting Shan and wanted to bring another midrange hunting ground to the Solhaven area.

You can expect the local adventure's guild to begin assigning tasks for the new area in the not too distant future (probably tomorrow). The hunting ground will be made available on shattered/test also at that time. (Stay tuned for release information for Platinum).

Special thanks to GM Quilic and GM Lydil for bringing the hunting ground to life with their imagery. Thank you GM Lydil for running the Shanked storyline with Duvernith as the release event. Additional thanks to the other members of Dev team for their endless knowledge about critters and to GM Tivvy for her inspiration and motivation


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Note Divergence and Spell Sever are in effect.

[Orthin]

may check it out once it's mapped but yuck on spell sever

[Berost]

may check it out once it's mapped but yuck on spell sever

Because level 60 stuff needs spell sever ....

[Tgo01]

Note Divergence and Spell Sever are in effect.

LOL

[Dendum]

9920

[Gelston]

Congrats on creating a hunting ground no one will want to hunt in.

[drumpel]

Taking on Shan in Solhaven was a challenge at times without proper spells. It can be done, but it's tough, especially when they swarm or you walk into a spike thorn/call wind/earthen fury/disarm/tackle....the spot can be kind of unforgiving.

I wouldn't want to hunt shan with divergence or spell sever....I certainly wouldn't want to hunt higher level shan with divergence or spell sever.

Why don't they just remove magic from players, only let creatures to use it and we all just run around as warriors or rogues? That's what these new hunting areas seem to be leaning towards......

[Methais]

Taking on Shan in Solhaven was a challenge at times without proper spells. It can be done, but it's tough, especially when they swarm or you walk into a spike thorn/call wind/earthen fury/disarm/tackle....the spot can be kind of unforgiving.

I wouldn't want to hunt shan with divergence or spell sever....I certainly wouldn't want to hunt higher level shan with divergence or spell sever.

Why don't they just remove magic from players, only let creatures to use it and we all just run around as warriors or rogues? That's what these new hunting areas seem to be leaning towards......




"As a game, we have a higher standard [than fun]." - Estlid

Enough said.

Estild logic.

Pretty sure Estild wants to slow combat down to roughly the same speed as if you were playing an pen & paper tabletop game and rolling physical dice.

[Viekn]

Taking on Shan in Solhaven was a challenge at times without proper spells. It can be done, but it's tough, especially when they swarm or you walk into a spike thorn/call wind/earthen fury/disarm/tackle....the spot can be kind of unforgiving.

I wouldn't want to hunt shan with divergence or spell sever....I certainly wouldn't want to hunt higher level shan with divergence or spell sever.

Why don't they just remove magic from players, only let creatures to use it and we all just run around as warriors or rogues? That's what these new hunting areas seem to be leaning towards......

Or just build off this concept where some hunting grounds are designed more for squares, and others are designed more for pures/semi's.

[drumpel]

Or just build off this concept where some hunting grounds are designed more for squares, and others are designed more for pures/semi's.

Any future hunting ground will only be designed for squares because they are too lazy to be creative and balance the game, it's just easier to nerf down magic instead..

[Mobius1]

Taking on Shan in Solhaven was a challenge at times without proper spells. It can be done, but it's tough, especially when they swarm or you walk into a spike thorn/call wind/earthen fury/disarm/tackle....the spot can be kind of unforgiving.

I wouldn't want to hunt shan with divergence or spell sever....I certainly wouldn't want to hunt higher level shan with divergence or spell sever.

Why don't they just remove magic from players, only let creatures to use it and we all just run around as warriors or rogues? That's what these new hunting areas seem to be leaning towards......

I'd say that squares are the worst off of all classes, actually, as Spell Sever only lets them wear 2 spells. Spell Sever is a massive nerf to most squares.

[drumpel]

I'd say that squares are the worst off of all classes, actually, as Spell Sever only lets them wear 2 spells. Spell Sever is a massive nerf to most squares.

I've hunted plenty of times with my rogue and warriors with and without spells. Only spell my rogue knows in terms of defense is 401.

I don't play with the GMs stupidity when it comes to spell sever or divergence, they are two horrible game designs yet for some reason stupid people seem to support the GMs' ways of nerfing the game down like it's the best thing since sliced bread. If every new hunting release is done with sever and divergence in place, they'll be hunting areas that aren't visited by most people.

If they move their horseshit sever and divergence to all other hunting grounds, I'll close my account and walk away.

[Mobius1]

I definitely don't understand why people say Spell Sever is fine as is.

I brought it up again on Discord and got the same old "Squares don't need spells, so it's fine." Ok, I can also succeed with a 0x weapon and 0x armor, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to be at a massive disadvantage. I don't get why I even need to argue this, but I don't think one person has voiced agreement with me.

Are all warriors just learning KS so they don't give a damn? I don't get it. But whatever, I'm getting to the end of my rope of giving a crap, as it has literally zero impact on my character who has spells up the arse. Help me help you!

[Tgo01]

Estild said on Discord that since spells are easier to come by these days that spell sever is needed. Dude, YOU are the one who pushed the Invoker, and now you are complaining that spells are too easy to get?

It’s almost like they pushed the invoker just as an excuse to nerf everything.

[Mobius1]

I just don't understand how people are ok with being able to wear spells, and suddenly dropping to 2. And they will literally eat this nerf and tell the GMs it tastes yummy.

Meanwhile, wizards get slapped on the wrist and they squawk like Canada Geese! Is it just that warriors/rogues are so used to being the worst they don't mind being nerfed? Like seriously, IMO for most rogues/warriors this is probably a bigger nerf than most of the divergence nerfs for wizards/bards! You have to hunt with significantly less DS/TD because of it. Yet am I the only one that is seeing this as a nerf? Because based on Discord responses I am a lunatic for thinking this?

And I've proposed a compromise several times, to allow you to wear spells based on MIU/AS/HP/etc, like old spellburst, but only from your own class' spell circles (Like a rift + spellburst + spell sever hybrid). But apparently squares on Discord don't want this as an option and would prefer to simply just be nerfed.

Oh, and let's not forget that Spell Sever makes AS/MIU even less valuable skills.

Some people have even claimed that Spell Sever is BETTER for a non-spell trained character, as you get two free spells. Lulz

[Methais]

I just don't understand how people are ok with being able to wear spells, and suddenly dropping to 2. And they will literally eat this nerf and tell the GMs it tastes yummy.

Meanwhile, wizards get slapped on the wrist and they squawk like Canada Geese! Is it just that warriors/rogues are so used to being the worst they don't mind being nerfed? Like seriously, IMO for most rogues/warriors this is probably a bigger nerf than most of the divergence nerfs for wizards/bards! You have to hunt with significantly less DS/TD because of it. Yet am I the only one that is seeing this as a nerf? Because based on Discord responses I am a lunatic for thinking this?

And I've proposed a compromise several times, to allow you to wear spells based on MIU/AS/HP/etc, like old spellburst, but only from your own class' spell circles (Like a rift + spellburst + spell sever hybrid). But apparently squares on Discord don't want this as an option and would prefer to simply just be nerfed.

Oh, and let's not forget that Spell Sever makes AS/MIU even less valuable skills.

Some people have even claimed that Spell Sever is BETTER for a non-spell trained character, as you get two free spells. Lulz

For what it's worth, I can't ward off shit in the upper area either, and get hit with high end rolls pretty frequently, and having a couple TD spells up makes no real difference.

I forgot which critter casts it, but I'll walk into a room and instantly get hit with Mind Jolt for like a 190+ endroll when the critter rolls like a 37 d100 or something along those lines.

At this point I have no idea what dev is even going for. Bolt DS is retardedly high on the 110+ stuff, often completely unhittable even with 211/215/307/+35 Ascension Spell Aim, critter TDs are out of control, at least elemental, player TD sucks ass for everybody, etc. Even those annoying ass ooze things usually have a stupid high bolt DS.

I haven't been there in a few days, but I'm pretty sure nothing has changed other than they nerfed the drop rate of artifacts from 100% to 33%. Which doesn't affect me much, but it's still dumb. And non-Premium people are gonna get fucked hard by that. But I think Auchand said in Discord earlier that he would put in a locksmith pool and herbalist, so that should alleviate most of that.

[Realk]

Only having gone through shan as pures.. the toughest part of that area is by far catching the spiders and then getting caught up in the rest of it. I've not gone to the new capped area's but I doubt I will after reading reviews for the past week or so.

[Neveragain]

Estild logic.

Pretty sure Estild wants to slow combat down to roughly the same speed as if you were playing an pen & paper tabletop game and rolling physical dice.

For $20,000 USD, you too can survive the new hunting areas.

[Tgo01]

For $20,000 USD, you too can survive the new hunting areas.

I'm just gonna laugh as soon as the first "this item ignores spell sever!" comes out.

Just completely make a jackass out of all of the GMs now screeching about balance and shit.

[Neveragain]

I'm just gonna laugh as soon as the first "this item ignores spell sever!" comes out.

Just completely make a jackass out of all of the GMs now screeching about balance and shit.

Remember, there's a reason these people aren't coding for a AAA game studio.

[Neveragain]

Since spells are easier to come by these days that spell sever is needed.

https://media0.giphy.com/media/6JB4v4xPTAQFi/200.gif

[SonoftheNorth]

Cool it will be a rich area for people that don't get every spell in the game to hunt

[Methais]

I'm just gonna laugh as soon as the first "this item ignores spell sever!" comes out.

Just completely make a jackass out of all of the GMs now screeching about balance and shit.

Infinite pinworn items that each add +1 to spells you can hold without getting wrecked by spell sever. Only $5000 each. Buy 10 for a discounted rate of only $45000 and enjoy spell tanking again!

[Tgo01]

https://i.imgflip.com/6h9e63.jpg

[Tgo01]

The GMs are engaging in mass gaslighting with this shit and many players go along with it for some reason.

GMs: Here's the invoker!
Players: YAY!
GMs: Okay now that spells are so easy to get we need to nerf shit.
Players: Makes total sense!

[Lavastene]

Estild said on Discord that since spells are easier to come by these days that spell sever is needed. Dude, YOU are the one who pushed the Invoker, and now you are complaining that spells are too easy to get?

ItÂ’s almost like they pushed the invoker just as an excuse to nerf everything.
I thought the same thing. But there is no arguing with them on it.

[beldannon5]

I would rather not have the invoker and go back to just having dreavenings. Screw estlid and his spell severe and divergence. he needs to be fired

[audioserf]

Cool it will be a rich area for people that don't get every spell in the game to hunt

Facts

[Hymore246]

Is it just that warriors/rogues are so used to being the worst they don't mind being nerfed?

You remember the old saying "The bigger the are, the harder they fall?" Warriors/Rogues are so small that falling does very little to them.


Like seriously, IMO for most rogues/warriors this is probably a bigger nerf than most of the divergence nerfs for wizards/bards! You have to hunt with significantly less DS/TD because of it.

Depends on where you hunt. For the most part, Spellburst ruins the ability to wear spells period until a fair bit into postcap as the system is super bias against Squares. You are correct about needing spells to hunt and contrary to Discord claims, Squares need spells to offset their low TD since they have almost no way to deal with it on their own. Combat Focus? Oh boy, +10 TD! Now I can be warded for +176 instead of +186! Meanwhile, it is completely possible to die from a +101 roll either directly or by putting you in a bad spot you can't recover from. GS4 deaths are fast after all. Rogue-wise, hiding can prevent casting but if a mob with an AoE spell manages to prep it for any reason, the spell will be open cast, pull you out of hiding from when you fail warding roll and you die. Had it happen plenty of times with Triton Radicals. The whole nonsense with "TD iS yOuR wEaKnEsS!" is BS as far as I am concerned. At very least, I have no sympathy for Pures complaining about maneuver rolls killing them. Welcome to the club! But to be honest both are bad systems since you can't realistically mitigate without a lot of postcap training or outside help if at all.


And I've proposed a compromise several times, to allow you to wear spells based on MIU/AS/HP/etc, like old spellburst, but only from your own class' spell circles (Like a rift + spellburst + spell sever hybrid). But apparently squares on Discord don't want this as an option and would prefer to simply just be nerfed.

Oh, and let's not forget that Spell Sever makes AS/MIU even less valuable skills.

Some people have even claimed that Spell Sever is BETTER for a non-spell trained character, as you get two free spells. Lulz

At very least, having the spells striped instead of exploding is better. I like not dying because I miscounted what I can wear. I think for a lot of Squares, their MIU/AS/HP training is so poor that 2 free spells are a net gain because they would need so many ranks in those skills that wearing 107 and 414 is just not reasonable. I do agree with you that Spell Sever should be more forgiving to Squares but the past formula for Spellburst is bad since it favors Pures too much. I don't think most Pures even notice Spellburst. Meanwhile, Squares can barely wear anything at all with out A LOT of outside training. I found better success just learning my own spells as a Rogue. Can't burst them if I know it! (taps head)

In my opinion Spell Sever should either:
1. Have a variable amount of free spells per hunting area. This level 60 area could have 5 or 10 free spells instead of just 2. Let the number decrease as you climb in levels to increase the difficulty of hunting areas.
2. Let spells below a certain level be immune to Spell Sever. Like anything below level 5. So 1204, 101, 503, etc are free to use without being striped and you still get 2 free spells for something else.

[Mobius1]

Well, I do understand the reasoning behind requiring some skills to wear the spells. The argument is that other classes technically did spend training points to learn those spells. The reality, though, in most of those cases they are learning those spells anyways, in order to get the offensive spells they need to kill.

Even so, MIU/AS/HP is not a huge price to pay, considering we generally have MTPs to spare, and spells in our circles count as half mana.

Whatever the case, I'll take it over how Spell Sever is now! I don't get why they would want to encourage squares to either go KS or learn spells. is there anything wrong with doing either of those? No, I learned spells, myself! But is that the direction they want to encourage squares to go? THAT is my problem. It limits the builds our classes can have.

Yeah yeah Mr. "I hunt HW with no spells and do fine." That's nice, but that doesn't prove a damn thing. Classes that typically learn spells could do the same thing, and could probably do it better than you can. But in what world is being able to succeed at something have anything to do with balance or fairness? You're still going to die a lot more easily than someone that has spells on.

Where it also throws it out of whack for me, is when you have a warrior or rogue with spells, like me for example. It's not a class balance thing, when I can learn the spells and overcome the BS mechanic. It's simply an XP gate (at least in capped areas). Or a shoe horn you into KS gate, which has tons of negative consequences outside of not being able to wear buffs.

Stuff like this absolutely baffles me how so many agree with it, and argue against me when I bring it up on Discord. Here they are trying to balance the classes, and this is 1 step forward 2 steps back for many warriors and rogues. I wonder if part of the problem is that the most vocal people on Discord are either already KS or have learned spells, and so they don't really care. Or they make some silly argument like "Just learn a few spells." Ok, the moment you tell me a warrior or rogue SHOULD learn spells, I will give you the middle finger. Sure, it's a choice - a choice we shouldn't be forced into (especially when Spell Sever is in non-ascension hunting grounds.).

It's also a typical case of Gemstone being bi-polar. Here, let's give you invoker, but then make it useless. Let's give you martial mastery, but then encourage you to learn spells so you can buff yourself.

[Mobius1]

Depends on where you hunt. For the most part, Spellburst ruins the ability to wear spells period until a fair bit into postcap as the system is super bias against Squares. You are correct about needing spells to hunt and contrary to Discord claims, Squares need spells to offset their low TD since they have almost no way to deal with it on their own. Combat Focus? Oh boy, +10 TD! Now I can be warded for +176 instead of +186! Meanwhile, it is completely possible to die from a +101 roll either directly or by putting you in a bad spot you can't recover from. GS4 deaths are fast after all. Rogue-wise, hiding can prevent casting but if a mob with an AoE spell manages to prep it for any reason, the spell will be open cast, pull you out of hiding from when you fail warding roll and you die. Had it happen plenty of times with Triton Radicals. The whole nonsense with "TD iS yOuR wEaKnEsS!" is BS as far as I am concerned. At very least, I have no sympathy for Pures complaining about maneuver rolls killing them. Welcome to the club! But to be honest both are bad systems since you can't realistically mitigate without a lot of postcap training or outside help if at all.


I actually wanted to comment on this too.

Honestly, the whole "squares are more tanky" thing is mostly a load of BS in most cases, and the reality is that most non-squares have a much easier time not getting hit. Wizards are one of the tankiest classes in the game, if not THE tankiest class (520, 530, 535, 540, 550, 414, 430. Seriously, it's almost ridiculous.), and even reduce maneuver damage more than someone in full plate. Few maneuvers are actually deadly, and it usually comes down to raw DS/TD for your survival. There's exceptions, but I find most of those things can be overcome with resists, warrior fittings, and/or crit padding. So yeah, SMR is a pretty lame ass weakness, and they got a huge gift basket handed to them with the SMR changes making them able to dodge them WAY better than before.

Sure, as a spell casting rogue with 100 spell ranks and plate armor, you can be incredibly tanky, especially coupled with hiding. But another class with equal XP is not likely dying much either. The reality is as Methais put it - a lot of the HW stuff is just going to wreck you no matter what your defense is, so it's mostly about disabling them or killing them first.

[gilchristr]

What is spell server. It sounds like some BS shit... I might have to forget about the forgotten vinyard

[Mobius1]

You can only wear spells you know + 2 you don't. Since most squares don't know any spells, they can only wear the 2.