Bash(Kick) revamp:
Bash damage got a complete revamp (world wide), and the max damage is now based on the Bash skill. In addition, the Armor Class of your shield provides a small boost to damage...the higher AC on the shield, the more damage. Last I checked, shield AC is not a huge bonus, and the bonus is tiered, so to speak. AC 1-40, 41-80, 81-120, and so forth. AC augments can bump the damage bonus into the next tier if they pass the mark. (Kick is the same, but it uses the AC on boots...obviously we don't have kick, but its the same code as bash now). In addition, 2 hand bash AAs use the new bash code as well, but they use the AC on the 2 hander for the damage bonus tier. Very nice Bash damage now...I'll let you all see exact damage for yourself
Triple Attack!! (SKs got this as well)
We now have Triple Attack skill at 150 at level 80. We also have Archtype AAs called Burst of Power - 5 ranks, cost 8 for each rank - each rank adds 5 to the Triple Attack sill cap. So, with Burst of Power 5/5, our triple attack is 175. Other melee classes got this AA as well.
All of our skill caps went up except for Channeling, Offence, and Defence. I don't know if there are plans for these 3 to go up, but as of now they are the same.
AA Overview:
I think we have 1000ish? Lost count a while back. I'll list them all in the AA forum (unless someone beats me to it). I tried very hard to get the Divine Lay idea in (Innate DI-like ability but uses LoH), but he said code could not support it, and I don't think there was alot of time left for code development of new stuff. But, LoH is now changed to AA with various ranks, so I'm thinking Divine Lay might be possible in the future. We now have a timer when you click the greyed ouy LoH (yay!) AND it still resets on death
I'm 95% happy overall with AAs.
Spell Overview:
Yeesh! We still have some issues here, mainly Sustenance of Tunare and Ward of Tunare - its going to require some work to get it up to parr, and believe me I'm trying. Again I'll list them all in the spell forum. There is really nothing new beyond the basic upgrades, except for Mark of the Saint (its the same as the cleric reverse damage shield...its kinda cool.) and Aurora of Marrow (was supposed to be Group BoS, but for some reason it didn't work - more details in the spell forum). I don't think we're quite done tuning all of the spells, so hopefully some other changes can be made post-launch.
Note: the rank 1 SoF spells were designed to be very small upgrades, if at all, over the TSS/TBS rank 3's. If you are a raider and you have all of your Rank 3's, it is a viable option to not purchase some of the SoF rank 1's so your focus is still maxed. The rank 2's and rank 3's are spread out more, so they are a considerably better upgrade path compared to TSS/TBS.
Content:
I'll let you all explore and see the new zones. But, I will mention the undead areas
In Loping Plains near the Hills of Shade zoneline is a graveyard (pretty cool area) with lots of skeletons. Raiders can solo there easily enough, and some high end groupers probably can too. Hills of Shade has various areas with undead as well...mainly the crypt area.
Gear:
From what I saw (someone can correct me if I'm wrong) EVERY spell and melee focus we'll ever need is available on Hybrid, Tank, or PAL-Only group and raid gear. The only exception I saw was Echo of Anger, which is only on 1 piece of raid gear (Pal/SK/War/Bard mask). The choices are somewhat limited, and we are also listed on "healer" gear as well (more choices for focus, though I'd personally pass for the Hybrid/Tank gear). A few clickies are thrown in here and there. The group designated gear is better than some of the raid gear I'm wearing, so overall the itemization looked pretty nice. Raid weaponry looked ok, but group 2 handers seemed low ratio imo, but may be re-tuned. Others can provide more detail on weaponry.
I spent 95% of my time in the Arena parsing various things, so I'm looking forward to actually going out with friends and tackling the new content. If we can get our spell issues ironed out, I think this will be a very solid expansion.
