Regarding MA Jobs

Nemesis Revised · Post by **Nemesis Revised** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:28 am

I finally finished both jobs (Sentinel and Arcanist) from MA.

I'd like to say thanks alot for the job well done; here's just some of my comments and suggestions:

Pros:
- rich story and content; quests change after every level (unlike AO jobs where you just have to keep killing rats)

- the new areas in are neatly tucked in with the MA content

- the reward items given after every job is wonderful

Cons:
- some dialogue bugs tend to occur. not sure if its just the lag

- level 2 sentinel job (capturing mephits) takes a long time to accomplish. Perhaps it'd be better to to reduce the mephit number to 5 or 8. Although, level 3 and 4 of sentinel job was quicker in terms of game time, I suppose the level 2 sentinel job was there to balance the rate of accomplishment to complete the sentinel jobs

- level 3 arcanist job takes forever to finish. i had been running around for 3 hours trying to find 4 more cockatrice tails. i suppose it's just the cockatrice who spawned very rarely. Perhaps improve it's spawn rate? Or perhaps instead of asking the player to find 5 of each (cockatrice, medusa,gorgon); maybe ask the player to find 25 items (either/or) as sum - meaning it doesnt have to be 5cockatrice,5medusa,5gorgon - it can be any variety as long as the player sums up these items to 25.

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just some feedback. Thanks so much for the MA jobs! Keep it coming! (waiting for SL, eheh)

Post by **Flailer** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:15 am

Thanks for the feedback and glad you enjoyed it. I was trying to catch the flavor of MA in those jobs...

- Yeah, the dialoge bugs are seen when there's a lot of lag and a lot of dialog strings being passed around (included is vendor dialogs, ferry dialogs, etc). It becomes more apparent as we add more dialog rich jobs as well. Not sure if there's anything we can do about it at the moment, but we're aware of it and trying to think of solutions.

- I considered adding steam mephits to the job, but I think the length of that one is probably about right. Just out of curiosity, what level were you when you hit the 2 jobs after that?

- I'll check the spawn rate on those critters, but they should be spawning about the same as the others.

And yes, SL will be wonderful when we get there.

Nemesis Revised · Post by **Nemesis Revised** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 10:38 am

i was level 10 when i ended. Beautiful masterpiece flailer, congratulations on the great art

Post by **Flailer** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 12:53 pm

Applied some bug fixes today to the MA jobs. Also, steam mephits can be captured now in addition to fire and magma mephits. Spawn rates and amounts for mephits were increased on 4 maps around the Garagoth area.

MLoki · Post by **MLoki** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:03 pm

So I was unable to clear out the Golem labrotory and I believe it was because my Miphit capture device stayed in inventory. I activated it recently and it reset my mephit capture device total to 0 again. Perhaps if I go back now that it will at least allow me to capture the 10 mphits needed again to advance on once more but if it doesn't take the device out of inventory then I do not believe I can advance any further. It will give me the next job but will not let me "finish" it even after I have cleared out the lab.

MLoki

Death Dealer1 · Post by **Death Dealer1** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:19 pm

i finished the sentinel job..found the dialogue bug. some things i wanted to say or ask though.

the wizards constructs: i had to be level 5 for this job, at level 4 with an almost completely melee char i couldn't make it through all of the constructs, the jump to 5 with new gear though i cleared it easy.

the infernal thingy: that item you get when you finish the jobs for the aura/damage bonus.....are the numbers on that going to be alright? i mean 1d4 damage is ok for hitting things, even though it will never be higher..but for the aura i think the max damage is like 5 at lvl 40....to me, thats not really even worth having at lvl 40 if i'm taking 100 and giving 5 back...its worse than death armor i think..

anyway just some things on my mind, haven't finished the arcanists job because my char sucks until about lvl 11-12 so i can't handle the desert yet.

Post by **DeputyDog** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 10:08 pm

DeathDealer, gotta remember its negative energy which there is no block for.
Its just in addition to everything esle you dish out and per attack so it does add up fast.

Im trying to talk flailer into making the aura items either last longer or have more uses per day.

Glad the mephit rate was increased, and after my testing, i think we need to just up the cockatrice spawn count to be on par with the medusa.
Man that job is hard at lvl 5ish.. you get turned to stone alot:)
Trick was ranged weapons and/or a pet, although my pet kept getting stoned.. er turned er.. whatever.. it was dead.

Death Dealer1 · Post by **Death Dealer1** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:06 am

i was just talking about the way it figures 1+lvl/10..... so at lvl 40 its 1+40/10 and is like 5 damage...i realize its negative, and there are ways around that too, i'm just not too sure if i like the 5 damage at 40. so far i love the bonuses the jobs add more than the items.

Nemesis Revised · Post by **Nemesis Revised** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:48 am

Deputydog, thanks for the fix on the mephit rate. hehehe it took me 3 nights (game time) to collect the mephits b4 the update was made. And yeh, cockatrice appears quite rarely. my suggestion is to either make these three mobs (cockatrice, basilik, medusa) drop 100% of the time those ingredients OR just improve their spawn rate ehheeh.

Regarding the job item; i think they are very good. but yes, the duration doesnt last very long. either increase the damage (as deathdearler suggested) OR keep the same damage but make it reuseable after every rest (my suggestion).

although i have to admit guys, imagine five MA chars using those items at the same time and same area: the amount of negative damage is really tantalizing since it builds up. perhaps a more notable balancing scheme is to pump the damage up a bit: instead of /10, make it /5 of total levels. raise the duration by about 50-75%

Death Dealer1 · Post by **Death Dealer1** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:58 am

i don't know what you guys are complaining about on the mephits...it took me 20 mins to get the fire and magmas before the spawn rate went up...you have to do it just right in the right spot and they keep showing up no matter what, the only problem you find is killing everything around them first.

Ragefist · Post by **Ragefist** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:45 am

I've not completed these jobs (no MA chars), but regarding the aura --
If it's straight negative energy, will it heal undead creatures (like epic summons, palemaster or other)? Won't neg energy protection, death armor, and a few other spells counter this neg energy?

I'm not sure what the devs were aiming for with the job aura/on hit dmg trinkets, but I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say that it was a medium level boost to players. In that regard, they seem to function decently, and be more of a spice component to the game than any sort of deal breaking "I WIN button."

Post by **Flailer** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:26 am

First - the negative energy 'aura' isn't really an aura, it's technically a shield like death armor or acid sheath so if someone makes contact with the user, it returns some damage to them. As such, it doesn't act as a healing field to your undead summons.

And yes, a 3rd level cleric spell will provide protection vs negative energy damage (I think that's the only spell though actually). But, it's a short lasting spell.

And, you're right - if you'll notice, so far the damage added to job bonus typically isn't a global damage bonus, it's a damage vs an alignment or race. More of a continuation of the 'rock-paper-scissors' effect of certain factions having bonuses that will really bite against certain other factions, like MA vs NC, RK vs SL, etc. But, job items may change slightly since I'm in the process of taking a look at some of the bonuses to increase their power a bit and number of uses.

Death Dealer1 · Post by **Death Dealer1** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 11:05 am

its cool flailer...i really like the jobs and the do add to the flavor of MA. was just wondering on the power of it for what it is..but if you guys are going to look over everything eventually and see where it fits in thats cool too. oh, and for the record there are like 3 different spells for prot from neg energy and a couple of them can last a very long time if extended wiht lots of lvls....nomius used to get so mad when his horrid never hurt me...

Death Dealer1 · Post by **Death Dealer1** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:03 pm

ok, the arcanist job is wierd because those tricky little things of collecting petrification stuff...the extras stay in your inventory, if there is lag it all stays...and we need to figure out why sometimes the stuff falls into remains and can't be picked out because its plot...

Death Dealer1 · Post by **Death Dealer1** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:42 pm

bumping this

have we decided whether or not the durations were going to upped on MA job items? at lvl 28 my PM can use them to help his horribly low AB...but when they run out he has to wait like 10-15 mins before using it again....LA has that speed token and by lvl 20 its a continuous use item....any way by lvl 30 or so the MA tokens could be more continuous or longer lasting?