There is apparently a lot more to EQ2’s GU55 and Sentinel’s Fate expansion than I expected that is going to affect those of us not at max level.
I’m particularly excited about the Butcherblock Mountains and Kaladim revamps. I hope there’s lots of lovely new quests waiting there for me. Tier 6 Kaladim has been retiered, down to a T4 heroic dungeon. That makes a lot of sense, with it being in the T3 Butcherblock zone. My only concern is that in the process quests might have been removed, beyond the reach of Maltheas for evermore!
A more immediately important change is that stats are being streamlined. Currently priestly damage spells are improved by intelligence. This will be changing to wisdom, which already governs our healing spells. Intelligence will become a bit of a pointless stat for a priest, which is going to mean that we’re going to have to look for a whole new wardrobe! It’ll be a bit of a pain in the short-run, but with one less stat to worry about, once we find new gear it’ll make us much more powerful than before. Maltheas has already started looking about for new equipment.
This is how the good folks from the beta server are describing the stat changes:
Fighters
* Strength (primary) – determines your max power, increases your damage (including spells if you have them), and determines how much you can carry.
* Agility – improves your chance to avoid melee attacks, adds a crit mit bonus.
* Wisdom – improves your resists against spell damage.
Mages
* Intelligence (primary) – determines your max power, and increases your damage, adds a crit mit bonus.
* Wisdom – improves your resists against spell damage.
* Agility – improves your chance to avoid melee attacks.
* Strength – determines how much you can carry.
Priests
* Wisdom (primary) – determines your max power, increases your damage (both spell and melee), and improves your resists against spell damage.
* Intelligence – adds a crit mit bonus.
* Agility – improves your chance to avoid melee attacks.
* Strength – determines how much you can carry.
Scouts
* Agility (primary) – determines your max power, increases your damage (including spells/poison if you have them), and improves your chance to avoid melee attacks (adds a crit mit bonus).
* Wisdom – improves your resists against spell damage.
* Strength – determines how much you can carry.
Don’t forget that crits are being retooled too — or *were* being retooled. I haven’t had time to check on that lately. Wasn’t it all going to become one megastat rather than +melee crit, +ranged crit, +spell crit and all that?
If I had been in the beta and if I’d had a chance to see those things for myself it would hypothetically have been long before Xmas and I would hypothetically not have found the time I wanted to really check things out. Hypothetically. And then if I told you, I’d have to kill you.
I tell ya, this expansion is coming at THE worst time for me this year. I don’t usually say that (I don’t like “the universe is against me!” stuff), but seriously: Sentinel’s Fate early access (for the preorder/CE?) starts on the 16th — if I’m lucky, I will be welcoming the cable man to do our TV/internet/phone access that day, and ALSO welcoming the moving truck with a gajillion boxes and moving-type stuff.
And since we’re committed to unpacking like clever, sane people this time and not like insane dervishes (open box! throw everything somewhere! spend 5 years trying to find it!), I probably won’t have any time to play in that first week of early access anyway.
Ah well. I’ll have my spanky cat mount to console me… someday! :D
Aye, the crit thing is a bit worrying for me, as Maltheas currently has a 100% melee crit rate, and I’d be sorry to lose that.
No pre-orders for us UK folks, but I don’t think Maltheas would have been happy on the back of a giant cat anyway!
That fancy new tinkered mount, on the other hand, looks like just the sort of thing a rat about town might look quite good on!