Asherons Call: The Great Hunter Answers Still More Q&A

DarkMitsu states (summarized): The redistribution of monsters makes no sense. Easy, moderate and hard monsters all in the same places?
Orion_Turbine: Like we said in the letter to the players and what I will continue to affirm in posts throughout the month. The redistribution of monsters is complete. The rebalancing of monsters is not. Next month a lot of the creatures that people think are trash will no longer have that monniker. Things are going to change again. Everything will make more sense next month. We simply did not have enough time to rebalance all of the creatures in the game in the space of one month. So in March you can look for things to make more sense in some areas of the landscape where they are out of sorts.

Jack-Knife asks: Are we ever going to be able to dye the Sleeves of Inexhaustability?
Orion_Turbine: Nope it's part of their uniqueness.

Osmethne states (difficult summary): It's been stated that when looking through existing creatures they were underbalanced against missle attacks and this will be changed. However, as I'm trying out the new monsters (Drudge Bloodletters) I find I can only hit them when they are coming towards me or moving away.
Orion_Turbine: Looking at your character, you are the prime example at what we are aiming for. I don't mean this as offensive, but you are by know means "Uber" so these changes whould end up benefitting you. See that bloodletter you are hunting he designed for someone a lot higher than you. So the fact that you can hit him at all is a pretty good thing. :-)

Shadowpalm asks: Is the drop rate on Granite Hearts correct?
Orion_Turbine: It's going to be upped to be comparable to the other heart drops nect month, it is a shade off at the moment.

dugfromthearth states: The monsters from VoD do not seem to be an experiment and you can expect them to expand all over Dereth.
Yek-Yai follows by stating: Shadow Wraiths and Phantoms are now to be found in the 80+ West Dires area. That answers the question, doesn't it? At least some of the VoD monsters are going to (and HAVE) spread out into the Dires.
Orion_Turbine: YekYai, When you hunt in VoD can you solo the shadow camp? Do they have the higher hitpoint range? Are they so difficult that you need to have a group in order to earn an accessible amount of experience/time? They were created as a gate creature. Something that fit easily into several areas, not just a VoD creature. Now if you see the realy tough monsters from the VoD out wandering beyond the bounds of their valley let me know.

Gitano_AC asks: I was just wondering if it would be possible to make the uncarved Virindi keys giveable like the uncarved keys found on the critters in Valley Of Death.
Orion_Turbine: If we allowed them to be tradable then mules would carve them as Maddy said and that is why we are resolute on leaving them no drop. Conversely we decided to make the granite and marble keys droppable because the idea was that while hunting you wanted to be able to use them when you found one of the coveted chests they work with. We didn't want to interrupt the reward.

Esfandiyar_LC asks: Regarding future creature balance, whether the 2002 creatures magic resistances are going to be dropped to something realistic and that a year of mage hate is finally over?
Orion_Turbine: Creature balancing is underway and yes those creatures that have an exorbitant magic resistance are being brought into a more accessible level of difficulty. Why, you may ask if you are a melee.

War Magic is very powerful but when it is resisted 1 out of 3 it loses a lot of power. War magic is very powerful but it is more powerful when used in conjunction with Life Magic. War Magic is very powerful but you typically have lower strength than your melee brethren and are typically carrying far too much for your own good and suffer a penalty to your melee defense if you have it. To offset that you wear armor which increases your weight. To offset the enhanced amount that you are hit you need better armor and thus Item Magic.

That means that most mages have 3 schools, item and creature being interchangable and in a few rare cases players not taking life, I said few and rare. But in the end you need to spend your points into 3 very distinct areas to maintain a level of ability against the ever increasing difficutly curve.

Melee's only need one. (Hard to believe but you can get by without Melee D. This is not recommended.) Archers only need one. (Again you can get by without Melee D again not recommended.)

So if you are splitting your points between three skills as well as maintaining other skills, perhaps lockpick, healing, anything else. You are behind the xp curve that is set for Melees and Archers.

So you can expect that what, for some reason, was dubbed the year of mage hate has been changed some. Creatures will be more accessible across the board to those players that are of sub-uber levels. (By that I mean 100 in your main attributes.) Just hang tight :-) We're working on it.

Nemis_ states (can't be summarized you should read): Please be careful in your balancing changes.
Orion_TurbineWhen I say bringing all classes into balance I mean just that. I am not changing the amount of damage that you do, nor am I omitting the fact that you cannot survive a long battle versus creatures that will hit you.

I am adjusting the frequency at which you will hit those creatures that are around your level in difficulty. Instead of wandering around at level 15 with level 7 buffs one or two shotting Umbris shadows, you'll actually need to be a little higher, say around 30-35 if you are a maximized template.

We are being careful not to go overboard on our adjustments. Too often in the past we have done that, we are trying to not make the same mistakes as in the past.

Rest assured that the higher stam cost, longer attack speed and lack of a shield are all accounted for. Right now Archers have the potential to kill the most creatures in the game with relative ease. That's just being tweaked not reversed.

sindyr1 states: Lugian Raiders are 100% resistant to all magics. Name one 33rd level critter that a melee, no matter how high, cannot hurt!
Orion_Turbine: Well it is simple really. These changes that we have made to the landscape are not done. I wanted to post here and give you a little insight. (I expected to be posting a tone of these over the month of February into March.) The changes to the landscape are not complete. They should be done within the next month, but until then there will be some things out there that are a little wonky.

Now to explain the Lugian raiders, there is a very valid lore reason for these guys to be around. Now I don't believe that you are an avid fan of the lore so I think that this insight may help you understand what this is all about.

The lugians have a fairly structured society, you don't really get to see it because your out there stabbing in the chest or assailing them with arc after arc of magic. But they have a leader and different castes and just like the Isparian humans they have those that are out for themselves. These lugian betrayers made a deal with the virindi to be enhanced with chorizite for the exchange of the mystical ore. They began a war upon their brethren and have been fighting to take Linvak Tukal from the hands of the "good" lugians who are lead by Lord Kresovus.

They have been immune to magic since they were introduced. As part of the rebalancing efforts you will see them become a little more friendly. So take deep breaths and hang on cause everything will make sense soon.

Tarcha states: IDOLS in Lytelthorpe?
Orion_Turbine: Yes, some of the spawns may seem odd at the moment. In fact they appear very much out of place in some areas... But we stated that this is not a one month fix. So wait until next month and some of the explanation will be forthcoming.