Update 08.20.09 - Quests, Forge, Rats and more

Team Duels · Joined: 02 Aug 2007 Posts: 2391

There's a little something for everyone this week. More quests if you're the adventuring type, balance updates if you're the PvP type and a sale on Shadowlands packs if you're the collecting type. The Nobleman's Bundle deal is back as well just in case you wanted a pet rat....see below.

Pack of the Week: Noble Set VI. Become a Noble member to get a free pack every week.

The Shadowlands have gone on sale! Buy 1, get 1 free when you purchase packs with Challenge Coins.

Revolution in the Shadowlands: Chapters 7-9. The Aenok have arrived. The newest Duels race has landed and, with their help, the cleansing of Shadow Phyrra begins. But, what are these strange, angelic creatures and what unexpected consequences might their arrival hold?

Free respecs for a limited time!

The Nobleman's Bundle is back and as usual in limited supply. 50 packs plus 50 inventory plus your very own rat (limited to one per avatar). As usual if you purchase 2 of these and don't get a legendary, Shindaan Guardian Del will be happy to give you one of his.

Archon Advisory Updates from Forge (see below). These are live.

ACTION: Burning Powder
CHANGE: Reduced duration by 1 turn
REASON: Burning Powder, in combination with high Stamina builds, was doing too much damage for it's tier.

MECHANIC: "If resisted" Clauses
CHANGE: Removed from Energy Drain, Hold Person, Slow and Shakes
REASON: "If resisted" clauses were removed for multiple reasons. One of which was simply to simplify. The if resisted part of the skill was also contrary to the nature of resistance making it function more like absorb. We decided that was a bad idea. Several of the other changes were geared around adjusting the openers most effected by this change.

SKILL: Energy Drain
CHANGE: Changed to non-resistible, reduced the drain to 15%
REASON: With the removal of "if resisted" clauses, Energy Drain needed to function consistently, especially in comparison to other Attribute draining Openers. However, 20% seemed too high in testing at non-resistible, so the drain was reduced to 15%.

SKILL: Shakes
CHANGE: Changed reduction to 10% + (Intelligence / 35)%
REASON: With the loss of "if resisted" clauses, Shakes needed a bit of help. It was especially underperforming for people without multiple Artifacts. The current change keeps the reduction roughly the same as the previous version for artifact users while making non-Artifact builds more viable.

MECHANIC: Resistance
CHANGE: Put on a Diminishing Returns scale
REASON: Resist granting gear has evolved quite a bit and the need for diminishing returns on Resistance became necessary. It still takes nearly the same amount (actually a slight bit less) to get to 30% and the same amount as previously to get to about 50%, however, the higher end numbers have been scaled back a little bit.

SKILL: DW/Shields & Shield Mastery
CHANGE: Removed dodge debuff
REASON: Shields have been underperforming for a while and needed a small boost. With the removal of the Dodge debuff it is also possible for DW'ers to wield a Shield without losing all of their Dodge, however, they will still need Shield Mastery to receive a discount.

SKILL: Fortitude
CHANGE: Reduced the bonus to Stamina to +40%
REASON: With new items allowing more and more Stamina, like Resistance, Stamina-focused builds needed to be reined in a little bit.

SKILL: Offensive Power
CHANGE: Changed to -10% Dodge, -5% Absorb to opponent
REASON: Offensive Power is now more viable as a Low Path choice than the previous version. The current version gives Swordies a method of reducing both Dodge and Absorb without being overly reliant upon Openers and Actions.

SKILL: Defensive Power
CHANGE: Split the bonus, half from gear (15%), half flat (5%)
REASON: Defensive Power was allowing too high of a Resistance bonus and rendering a large number of openers and actions unuseable. It was changed to a half flat, half equipment based bonus to alleviate some of the higher end bonuses while still being useful as a general Resistance / Dodge boosting skill.

SKILL: Dark Elf's Delight
CHANGE: Changed duration to 2 + (SPD+PER/40) turns
REASON: High Stamina Dark Elf's Delight was proving problematic in that it was possible to simply load up on defensive attributes and wittle your opponent away to nothing. This change preserves the same duration of old, non-Stamina focused, builds while attempting to rein in the problem builds.

Duels Trivia Question of the Week: What dish contains the following ingredients, among others:

poisonous swamp mold
stankhog bile,
rancid goat's blood

First correct answer wins 5 Shadowlands packs.

Answer: Norag Stew
Winner: Street Sweeper Arias
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Order of the Burning Monk · Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:21 am Post subject:

norag stew
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Order of the Burning Monk · Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 413

Norag Stew
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Joined: 13 Sep 2008 Posts: 51

Norag Stew

Joined: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 5

my cafeteria stew? no jooking.
Finally nerfed stam DeD

Order of the Burning Monk · Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 835

no specific buff to wands. hopefully the resist and stam changes will make them non-arti competitive again Smile

edit:

/glee! (not wand related

finally not getting totally decimated by DED (only lasted 4 turns for op20)

http://www.duels.com/fights/narrate/228543465

sure, i only just won, but afew hours ago he woulda won in the green.

also had this fight

http://www.duels.com/fights/narrate/228543527

glad to see resist isnt as crazy BUT either stam hasnt changed much, or this guy had even more insane HP before the update

changes, especially to DED get my seal of approval Very Happy

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Romanian Crusade · Joined: 02 Jun 2009 Posts: 41

Norag Stew

MTL · Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 199

Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 1566

nice changes. horrible filler quests.
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Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 404

Free Respec link fail?

Order of the Burning Monk · Joined: 21 May 2008 Posts: 514

No change to HP or slow even though there "if resisted" clauses got dropped??

Did they seem to be over-performing in any way??

Order of the Burning Monk · Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:36 am Post subject:

I don't see a pack of the week delivered
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Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 297

+1 rebarb. My HP will be worthless now!
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