NDA Lifted

[Voragath]

Official Announcement:
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq/index ... fted.1642/

I'll post a few of the new things I could think of and some things I could double check (been a long day and I'm too tired to get it all in). Some last minute changes have been made and are likely to still be made so keep an eye out.

EARTH PET
He gets a boost! (rejoice)
He now procs a recourse from the root spell he casts. When root lands, it'll proc a rune on the earth pet that mitigates 20% of melee damage for a total of 10,298 and lasts 3 tics. It's called Earth Elemental Strength.

MOD ROD
We have a new self only mod rod. It's on a separate time from the AA mod rod. The AA and MASS rods share a timer. So, you can use a self only + AA or self + mass rod. It gives you 7500 mana and does 11k in damage. It costs about 5k +/- based on rank. The mass rod is still worthless unless I missed a change.

FICKLE
This got a last minute change. It's now a 25% chance to proc a 50-150% dmg booster for your next spell.

GATHER MAGNITUDE
Returns 11822/12413/13033 mana.

TURN SUMMONED
This now does 4.5k / tic for 4 tics and has a 5% chance to proc a 128k dd (listed as a 2 tic dot in the spell file but only seems to hit once).

FORCE OF ELEMENTS
This now does 10,050/13,150/16,250 for each respective new rank. I was seeing the max rank crit at around 55k.

FIRE CORE
75-125% damage increase

VAPOR CORE
3 ranks. Increase nuke critical damage by 17/20/26%.

VIRULENT TALON
New rank does 37.5k dmg.

ELEMENTAL UNION
3 new ranks. Each rank only works on spells up to a certain level.
Rank 1: 35-70% (max level 96)
Rank 2: 40-80% (max level 98)
Rank 3: 45-95% (max level 100)

Not everything got an upgrade and not all upgrades are listed above. Notable missing spells were surge DS, chaotic assistance upgrade, and fire orb upgrade and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head.

There are currently 2 tiers of content. Thus we only got two EM focii upgrades: EM 17 and 18. At 18 the pets con DB. I won't give an opinion because I always think they should be better but you can expect max focus and aa water at about 6k (no raid buffs), fire at about 7k, air about 4.8k, and earth about 4.5k. I say "about" because there will be variations based on mob, pet buffs, and how pissed the RNG god is at you. Just a general idea for those curious (someone always asks).

New pets can be focused by EM 8+.

I'm sure others will come along and fill in what I missed or glossed over too much. I'll post more tomorrow when I can if there's anything left.

[Piemastaj]

No NEW Spells or AAs will be coming on release. Merely upgrades to lines we already have. W should be getting NEW AAs/Spells during RoF at some point, it was not stated how soon though.

Our Magic Rain got a really nice boost and it possibly will be worked into a Burn setup. I got into Beta quite late and the majority of my time was spent parsing pets among other things.

While self buffed with just VT and FBO from activated, Water pet was over 21k DMG on the mobs front for the duration of VT (EM 16). During FBO 8 only the pet was sustaining 12 to 13k (self buffs also), my parse got messed up a bit so I have to rerun it to get more accurate numbers.

Fickle change throws a slight monkey wrench into potential line-ups also. Fact of the matter is, Fire Core and Flames of Power essentially share the same slot to enhance our Fire nukes. Flames of Power will be 50 to 150% while Fire Core is 75 to 125%. So essentially we will only possibly be gaining 25% on the top-end of our nuke, while losing either 19967 Base Rank 3 VoA spear or 3 hits of 14432 from our Rain. Fickle will only be doing 15378 DMG at rank 3. While Fire Core is on, Flames of Power will not proc (it does not lose the counter) meaning Fire Core takes precedent.

Now, while Union is on. The increase goes much higher on the top-end and a slight boost on the low-end. 45 to 95 vs 50 to 150. So it would have a bigger upside in terms of nuke potential while Fire Core is off. Again though you run into the loss of VoA Spear or Rain DMG while possibly getting a proc. While Union is on, Flames of Power will lose its counter meaning it takes precedent over Union.I personally do not foresee Fickle having any room in the raid game except for trash, it will probably play a bigger role in the group game though.

Last I heard the Earth pet Mitigation buff will only land if the Earth pet root will land also. Which is a draw back, but hopefully this opens the door for other buffs on different pets.

Our pet heal got a major boost. It got around double added to it. However, the cast time is still balls at 2.3 seconds. But it is a step in the right direction.

Type 3 augments got a nice boost also.

Companion of Necessity appears we will have to buy rank 3 now. Rank 1 was getting destroyed in the end-zone.

[Goranothos]

Thanks for the info.

Any general, non mage-specific things you can tell us? For instance, are the more difficult zones unlocked by flagging, like HoT, or open to all, like VoA? How does group progression work? Locked behind a new language, like in VoA, or something different?

I'm sure places such as EQResource will have this information soon, but hoping for an early "heads up".

[Voragath]

No language on this one. I have not seen nor heard any official word or thoughts on how progression/keying/flagging will work. The devs are a fan of the VoA system but that does not mean they'll use it; just a possibility. All zones should be open at the start. The main zone is a central hub (a la the void from SoD) and has a portal for each zone running around the center.

ALARAN LANGUAGE
If you are worried about this for you or an alt, there is a quest in the entry zone you can do to max your language. You run around and collect some papers/books (all groundspawns) then turn them into the quest npc. The npc gives you a container and 2 combinable items. If your language is not 100, each combine gives you a skill-up (1 or 5 points depending on where you start) and you get the 2 components back. Once you hit 100, you receive the proper item on the combine. Those combines are no-fail.

SPELLS
As PJ noted above, some spells did not get upgrades and may be released later. This does not mean all spells will see an upgrade if/when that happens. These are not in any order and were pulled from Aristo's beta list; but we all know what levels these spells show up at by now. I'll add some other info like mana and damage to pertinent spells after beta is up. This is just for people to see what to expect and the names.

Shard of xxx (these are our new pets)
Exterminate the Unnatural (proc chance is 10/11/12 to do 72k)
Shield of the Dauntless (HP buff)
Promised Amelioration (31198/32758/34396 hp healed)
Bolt of Molten Magma (cost 1511/1571/1634 for 14216/14927/15673 dmg)
Burnout XI
Flameskin (standard DS 329/345/362)
Grant Frightforged Plate
Grant Nint's Heirlooms
Beam of Brimstone (Fire Beam mana: 1127/1172/1219 dmg: 9117/959/10047)
Grant Visor of Gobeker
Salvo of Many (still has 5 hits need 1/3/6/10/15 pets mana: 1500/150/1622 dmg: 3213-11781/3374-12370/3543-12989)
Phantasmal Guardian (regen is 44/46/48)
Shock of Blistersteel (magic nuke mana: 901/937/974 dmg: 9815/10306/10821)
Wand of Phantasmal Modulation (all ranks summon same rod and costs are 5110/4913/4724)
Broiling Sands (fast cast fire nuke mana: 1021/1062/1104 dmg: 7585/7964/8362)
Infernal Skin (4 counter DS, 1s cast, 14.5s recast, 12s duration but can be extended, counter used on successful hit. DMG is 2151/2259/2372 which is just shy of Surge of Arcanum's damage)
Grant Frightforged Armaments (weaps proc about 930 dmg, hate generator is 2050, and jolt is 4151 hate reduction)
Renewal of Hererra (heal 10188/10697/11232)
Summon Imperious Servant (Earth pet clicky works as VoA's version)
Groundswell Stance (Pet Melee rune absorb 33% dmg 46800/52700/60600 max)
Magmatic Veil (Defensive Fire Proc 1186/1245/1307 dmg)
Circle of Flameskin
Iceflame Eminence (DS portion 747/784/823)
Grant Icebound Paradox (Ice clicky 11595/12175/12784 dmg)
Rain of Scythes (magic rain mana: 1496/1556/1618 dmg: 13090/13745/14432)
Broiling Blast (PBAE dmg: 8763/9201/9661)
Fickle Magma (25% chance to proc flames of power which boosts next nuke 50-150 and 1% chance to proc flames of weakness which decreases next nuke by 50% and dmg is 13949/14646/15378 with mana cost 1564/1627/1692)
Gather Magnitude (returns 11822/12413/13033 mana)
Mass Phantasmal Transvergence (mana cost 6951/6021/5091 and that rod returns 2531 mana for 3038 hp)
Relentless Servant (cost 3248/3379/3514)
Spear of Blistersteel (cost 3951/4109/4273 for 24460/25683/26967 dmg and I was seeing over 100k crits with max aa's)
Phantasmal Symbiosis (dmg 5771/6060/6363 for 46/48/50 mana per tic)
Summon Imperious Minion (fire pet clicky)
Groundswell Bodyguard
Burst of Sand ??? (I just noticed this in the spell file for a level 96 spell -- I'll wait for Beta to come up and discuss with Aristo) Does not exist anymore

Once beta comes back up I'll try to get a complete list of AA's. I'll be having the new ranks of VoA aa's and their cost put onto Crystilla's website with descriptions so I won't be posting those here this year--just what AA lines are upgraded. They are expensive again and you'll be paying well over 500 AA to max them all out. Also, remember, some AA lines are bumping their ceilings and didn't/won't see more upgrades.

[jarsh92]

Is the change to the earth pet for just the newest earth pet spell, or will it affect all the previous earth pets?

[Arterian]

I would assume only the 99 version, but would be great if it was all of them.

[Voragath]

Is the change to the earth pet for just the newest earth pet spell, or will it affect all the previous earth pets?

Just the new one. It is tied to Earth Elemental Strike IX which is cast only by the new pet.

[Voragath]

Hmm...if you want to see what will be live, you can check out the Test server as well. It has what we will see on live next week.

[Voragath]

Here's the AA list as on Beta ATM:

GENERAL
Combat Agility (5 ranks)
Combat Stability (5 ranks)
Delay Death (5 ranks)
General Sturdiness (5 ranks)
Mystical Attuning (3 ranks)
Phantasmic xxx (10 ranks) [stat cap increase]

ARCHETYPE
Armor of Wisdom (3 ranks)
Companion's Blessing (3 ranks)
Companion's Durability (3 ranks)
Expansive Mind (3 ranks)
Destructive Fury (3 ranks)
Fury of Magic (3 ranks)
Gift of Phantasmal Exquisite Radiant Mana
MOTP (5 ranks)
Mental Clarity (5 ranks)
Mental Stamina (5 ranks)
Staff Block (3 ranks)

CLASS
Companion's Agility (3 ranks)
Companion's Gift (3 ranks)
Elemental Fury (5 ranks)
Elemental Union (3 ranks)
Empowered Force of Arcanum
Fire Core (1 rank)
Force of Elements (3 ranks)
FBO (1 rank)
Host In The Shell (1 rank)
Host of the Elements (3 ranks)
Ice Core (1 rank)
Malosinete (1 rank)
Replenish Companion (3 ranks)
Stone Core (1 rank)
Sturdy Companion (3 ranks)
Turn Summoned (1 rank)
Vapor Core (3 ranks)
Virulent Talon (1 rank)

Total Cost: 1,372 AA's
(this includes INT and STA stat cap from Phantasmic XXX; add 50 AA for other stat caps)

NOTE: Spell Casting Subtlety was intentionally not upgraded.

[deadman1204]

didnt they say something about combat agility being totally capped in VoA? Does it do nothing now?