New AoC patch brings important fixes

[MMOpwn]

Continuing with their policy of frequent medium-sized patches instead of intermittent colossal ones, FunCom are bringing a welcome new patch to the AoC servers today. As well as the all-important 'more client and server crashes resolved' and a host of alterations such as a sound effect for levelling up (what's a ding without a ding?) and fixes to quests, there are significant changes to Demonologists that should make the class more balanced.

Many spells have had their damage buffed, their casting time reduced, or their splash damage increased. The hated cooldown for wide-scale Area of Effect damage spells, Inferno of Amher and Shockblast, has even been shaved back down.

Of interest to all mages, ablative armor spells Contract of Protection, Protection of Set, and Runed Flesh all now notify the caster if the maximum amount of damage has been absorbed between refreshes. They last a lot longer, too - the duration has been upped to an hour. (Don't panic that the patch notes mention an hour cooldown. It's definitely duration that's been increased. This seems to be one of those hilarious typos.) Protection of Set and Runed Flesh also see a 50% buff to the amount of damage they can absorb.

Although there's little direct attention for Necromancers, they do have improved UI, and the changes to the armor spells (assuming they're positive) will benefit them too. Increased movement speed for pets should also make a noticeable difference.

There's been extended downtime again (at least on the European servers) which always causes some bellyaching, but it's a substantial patch (http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=37413); these things happen. (Unfortunately, there's already been some errata; gemmed items are not fixed after all.) So, FunCom, who gets the love next? Here's a hint: Assassins would really, really like some.


Source (http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=37413)

[via Massively]

[MMOpwn]

It's very busy over at FunCom, what with two patches a week coming out for Age of Conan. We understand. We know that sometimes stuff gets missed off the patch notes. Of course, sometimes stuff gets purposefully left off patch notes, and it can be hard to tell whether this was by accident or design.

What's certain is that when something changes, players will eventually find out. The more players, the sooner they find out; and AoC has rather a lot of players right now. Between them, with cross-referencing going on between European and American forums (always nice to see), the players have put together an unofficial list of what else changed with this morning's patch.

Perhaps the most striking change is that the levelling speed seems to have been increased. Levelling in AoC, at least at the lower levels, was already pretty speedy. Maybe this is to cut down on the 50+ grind? Players can also now crouch down by using the B key, which allows them to move through other players. If this seems like insignificant news, consider this: if your path is blocked by a sideways mammoth, rhino or horse, you can now do something about it.

What about nerfs? Yes, there's one doozy. Overreach, a Guardian power, has been reduced in strength, with players estimating a reduction of 40%-60%. The cries of 'stealth nerf' are already going up.

We think the most positive of the undocumented changes (http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=72497) has to be the fix to the Summon to Instance command. You don't know what that does? Don't worry, plenty of other people don't either. What it means is that the leader of a group can now summon the other group members to his own instance of the zone. It should now be the work of seconds to advertise for a group in OOC chat, assemble the team, zap them all to the same instance, and get going. Before the Summon to Instance command was enabled, there was a lot more trudging (and tedious explanation) involved.


Source (http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=38058)

[via Massively]