Patch Notes: Version 1.85

Here are the notes for the much-anticipated version 1.85a, now on Pendragon.

EDIT, 9:30 AM EDT 7/28

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====================== Dark Age of Camelot Test Version 1.85 Release Notes Quest System and Class Changes July 27, 2006

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NEW THINGS AND BUG FIXES

- Art has been updated for players in shade (EDIT: meaning Shades of Mist, not necro shade), mummy, and stone forms (Catacombs and newer clients only).

- A number of NPCs erroneously displayed that they gave Master Level experience when they did not. This has been fixed, and they will no longer indicate that they are worth Master Level experience.

- Advanced trainers have been stationed in the starting towns (Cotswold, Mularn, and Mag Mell) by their guilds. Note that many of these trainers are new to training and may not offer all services those in the capital city might (such as beginning the epic quests, etc.).

- Fixed two bugs in the user interface in which tooltips were not being positioned correctly in tree controls.

CLASS CHANGES AND FIXES

Cabalists

- Simulacrum pets will now perform the entire range of emotes granted to other pets.

Hunters

- Hunters have a new instant-cast pet at spec 40 and 50 in Beastcraft with the following details:

40: Hunter's Elder Protector - Spawns at 85% of the Hunter's level and has a chance to proc Disease (Rabies) as well as perform various melee styles on the target.

50: Hunter's Elder Avatar - Spawns at 90% of the Hunter's level and has a greater chance to proc Disease (Rabies) as well as perform various melee styles on the target.

Necromancers

- Necromancers should now be able to purchase and use the Realm Ability Purge.

- Fixed a rare bug in which Necromancers would not lose shade form when their pets went away.

- Tinderbox items can now be used by Necromancers while in shade form.

Left Axe Changes

- Decaying Rage is now a side positional style with a 5 second stun.

- Aurora Borealis now chains off of Decaying Rage.

Axe

- Valkyrie's Shield will be based off Evade for Berserkers and Shadowblades

Sword

- Frost Cut will be based off Evade for Savages.

Slash Changes

- Riposte for Infiltrators will now be based off Evade.

Dual Wield Changes

- Reflection for Infiltrators will now be based off Evade.

Thrust Changes

- Beartooth for Infiltrators will now be based off Evade.

- Ricochet for Infiltrators will be based off Evade.

Blades

- Horizon blade will now be based off Evade for Nightshades and Rangers.

Piercing

- Tarantula will now be based off Evade for Nightshades and Rangers.

Master Level Ability Changes

Sojourner

We've strived to make Forceful Zephyr a more balanced ability, allowing it to be more reliable in use and more defensive in nature as per its original design.

To that end, we've made the following adjustments to this Master Level ability:

- Forceful Zephyr is now a targeted pet summon spell very much similar to a Theurgist Earth pet in terms of speed and functionality. The ground target aspects of the ability and thus the unreliability have been removed entirely. The caster must face the target during the initial casting and have adequate line of sight. This line of sight is not limited to just X and Y planes, as targeting on a different Z axis is possible.

- Forceful Zephyr will only ever hit the person originally targeted by the caster. It will no longer sometimes hit other enemy targets in its path.

- The Zephyr will chase after the target and only the target designated by the caster. It is possible to outrun the Zephyr during its lifespan if conditions are right.

- The Zephyr is immune to Crowd Control spells of any type and will not deviate from its target.

- The ability now has a 2000 unit range and remains an instant cast ability.

- The initial lifespan of the Zephyr is 10 seconds. If it catches its target the Zephyr will last an additional 7-10 seconds as it buffets its target around. If the target out runs or out maneuvers the Zephyr for the 10 second duration then the Zephyr will vanish.

- The Zephyr will randomly choose a direction when it hits its target and buffet the target in that direction, albeit at a slower speed than the initial burst of velocity demonstrated from caster to target.

- The Zephyr will chase a target under water if the target dives after the ability is used, though the caster cannot use the ability on a target above water if the caster is under water. The reverse it true for using the ability underwater.

- While the Zephyr is buffeting its target for the 7-10 seconds, the target is immune to damage through a pulsing melee and magic ablative. This immunity drops as the target gets dropped.&gt;&gt;

- The recast timer of the ability has been lowered from 15 minutes to 10 minutes.

- ***FOR TESTING PURPOSES ON PENDRAGON ONLY: The recast timer for Forceful Zephyr has been lowered to 60 seconds. This is only to help us test the mechanics of the change, and the official timer will be ten to fifteen minutes (see the above note).***

NEW FRONTIERS NOTES

General

- When zoning from the Frontiers side of Druim Ligen and Druim Cain to the homeland side, the player will no longer appear beneath the geometry.

- GTAE spells, such as Earth Wave should no longer do double damage to players on rams.

- Players should now receive realm points while operating a ram.

- All battlegrounds now award 25 percent more realm points per kill.

Leirvik Battleground - General

- The size of the center island has been enlarged. - The center island terrain has been contoured to allow many unique play styles. The center keep is now on a raised hill.

- All towers have been moved further away from the center keep. Each realm will have a tower near the vicinity of the bridge that connects to their portal keep island.

- Each realm's portal keep island now has a direct bridge route to the center island. You may still swim if you wish.

- Various texture enhancements have been introduced throughout the zone.

- 'The ground is too steep' restrictions have been removed from Leirvik.

- All boat merchants and docks have been removed from Leirvik.

- A number of new vendors have set up shops near each of the realms' portal keeps. The new vendors include a recharger, a smith, a poison supplier, and an arrowsmith. All merchant NPCs may be attacked by the enemy realm and will offer the chance to drop loot, upon death. Protect your citizens!

Cathal Valley Battleground - General

- Ever since the discovery of Cathal Valley, adventurers of all realms have wondered what the mysterious portal at the end of Cathal Valley represents. Observant adventurers will notice that the portal has shifted and revealed an enigmatic keep at the end of Cathal Valley! Guarded by the spirit of the previous keep lord, Keep Orseo is a mystery to all the scholars of each realm and a call has gone out to each realm's heroes to claim the keep so that the other realms will not be privy to whatever secrets the keep represents.

- With the revelation of the central keep in Cathal Valley, players have the opportunity to claim this strategic point for their realm. Once a realm claims the keep, it will populate with a contingent of guards to defend the keep on that realm's behalf until another realm comes along and kills that realm's keep lord.

- Several new vendors have set up shops near each of the realm's portal keeps. The new vendors include a recharger, a smith, a poison supplier, and an arrowsmith.

- Seeing an opportunity for profit, wood merchants have set up shop at the towers that overlook each realm's milegate. The wood purchased here can be used to repair the postern doors on the milegates or the keep doors on the new central keep.

- A number of vendors can be found at the new central keep in Cathal Valley. The vendors available in the center keep include a recharger, a smith, a poison supplier, a wood merchant, and an enchanter. All merchant NPCs may be attacked by the enemy realm and will offer the chance to drop loot, upon death. Protect your citizens!

CAMELOT CLASSIC WORLD NOTES

General

- The switches that open the door into and out of the border keeps on the home realm side have had their interaction radius normalized so they all operate similarly across realms. This corrects a small discrepancy across realms in how close you had to be to operate the switches.

Albion Monsters

- The mighty dragon Golestandt is no longer referred to as female by emotes displayed during the encounter.

- Slythcur should no longer wander into West Downs.

Hibernia Monsters

- The Siabra Queen and her entourage will no longer spawn on top of their tower in the Bog of Cullen.

Dungeons

- Additional entrances to the level 1-10 task dungeons were added to Ludlow and Vasudheim in 1.84. Because the dungeons exit to Cotswold and Mularn respectively, a npc was added at each of these entrances to allow players easy access back to the entrance at Ludlow and Vasudheim.

SHROUDED ISLES WORLD NOTES

Albion Monsters

- The Spirit of Lord Emthoro is now properly set to give Master Level experience.

Dungeons

- [Crystal Cave]  Fixed an issue in which Xanxicar's champions would not properly come to his aid when called.

TRIALS OF ATLANTIS WORLD NOTES

Oceanus Quests

-  [Master Level 1 Final Encounter - Cetus]  The Cetus encounter has been modified to prevent players from inadvertently killing Cetus with the mindslayers spawned from using 'Rassa's Mirror'. This means that the item should no longer be usable if the monster falls below 50% health and should not do enough damage to kill Cetus whenever it is used.

Aerus Quests

- [Master Level 9 Final Encounter - Phoenix]  The 'Phoenix Ozos' monsters that patrol the southwest generator will now path correctly all the way around the generator.

Item Notes

- Healers who were previously unable to trade the current version of Eirene's Chestpiece will now be able to trade it for a version with different stats.

CATACOMBS WORLD NOTES

Instanced Adventuring

- In the Plutonian Shores adventure wing instance, a Plutonian Wizard that was spawning and becoming trapped in the world geometry has been moved slightly to prevent this issue.

Dungeons

- Abandoned Mines (Albion) - Grayfur should no longer zephyr people through walls or to invalid places within the dungeon.

DARKNESS RISING WORLD NOTES

Quests - Albion

- Rebellion: The Race to King's Crossing - Players who do not receive quest credit for defending Sergeant Connelly may now speak with him after the encounter to advance.

- Conspiracy: Dark Development - Players who do not receive quest credit for defeating the demon in the tower may now speak with Kelec after the encounter to advance.

Quests - Midgard

- Rebellion: The Race to Hagg Dalur - Players who do not receive quest credit for defending Sergeant Malagin may now speak with him after the encounter to advance.

- Conspiracy: Dark Development - Players who do not receive quest credit for defeating the demon in the tower may now speak with Morkosis after the encounter to advance.

Quests - Hibernia

- Rebellion: The Race to Clocha Liatha - Players who do not receive quest credit for defending Captain Fearghus may now speak with him after the encounter to advance.

- Conspiracy: Dark Development - Players who do not receive quest credit for defeating the demon in the tower may now speak with Brother Esras after the encounter to advance.

FOUNDATIONS NOTES

- Doors to the tavern and other non-player owned properties in the Broughshane housing zone will now open properly when interacted with.

- The horse route from the Albion housing entrance to the Stoneleigh market should no longer freeze along the route.

COOPERATIVE SERVER

- New spell effects have been created and added to the Relic Fragments.

- Additional treasure has been added to the Relic encounters.

- Beer Run - This quest has been disabled on Gaheris since it requires players to enter the Battlegrounds.

- Gone but not Forgotten - This quest has been disabled on Gaheris since it requires players to enter the Battlegrounds.