JUNE 27, 2001

Gameplay Changes:

• Aggro Changes: We've made an adjustment to the way that NPCs choose their targets. It's a rather simple change, one that makes a lot of sense. But we want you to be aware of it so that it won't surprise you too much, and so that you won't think that it is a bug. NPCs are now much more aware of the vulnerability (or, more precisely, the invulnerability) of their targets. NPCs will now be very unlikely to waste their time attacking a target that they can't harm.
• Spell and Item Interruption: Ducking will now interrupt a spell instantly. You will no longer be able to sit while using items or casting spells. This will not affect bard songs, which will still work as they always have, but will affect all items, even those with song-like effects.

Spell Changes:

• Skin Like Nature and Natureskin should stack with more spells now (though not with each other).
• Aegolism can now be clicked off.
• Imbue Ivory has had its casting level lowered to 29.
• Shard of the Core will be tradable now.
• Shroud of Hate and Visions of Grandeur should stack properly now.
• Several new Translocation spells have been added.
• Call of the Hero will no longer remove the target from NPCs' hatelists if the target is not summoned far enough.
• Egress will now work indoors.
• Wind of the North, Wind of the South, Markar's Relocation and Tishan's Relocation have had their additional restrictions removed, and can now be cast from any zone where other similar spells can be cast.
• Summon Companion can now be used by Necromancers, Shamans, Enchanters, Shadowknights in addition to Magicians.
• Deadeye should now stack with Dead Man Floating, but should not stack with Acumen.
• Plainsight will now stack with Dead Man Floating, but not with Acumen.
• The Great Divide portal spells are now 39th level instead of 44th level.
• Spirit of the Oak will no longer be overwritten by any beneficial spells.
• Paralyzing Poison spells should no longer be broken by direct damage spells.
• Hsagra's Wrath and Porlos' Fury now have a 5 second recast delay.

Item Changes:

• The effect on the 10th ring should have fewer stacking conflicts with haste buffs.
• The effect of the Monk epic, Celestial Tranquility, will stack with the higher end haste spells. Keep in mind - the highest haste will always win out. This means that the spells will stack, the haste components will not.
• Speed of the Shissar has had its duration increased from 20 minutes to 30 minutes. This effect should no longer conflict with Call of Earth.
• Bone Ring of Condemnation will no longer be usable in the secondary slot, it will only be wearable on the finger.
• Druid Skyshrine Quest armor has had a color change so that it will look more unique.
• Circlet of Shadow will no longer drop in-game. The Circlet of Shadows, can now be found in its place. This item differs from the original only in that it has a five-second casting time. Existing Circlets of Shadow will retain the same functionality as before, though we may change existing Circlets at some future date.

Quest Changes:

• King Tormax is now a little more particular about who he gives quests to.
• The Iksar Shaman 6th Skull/cudgel quest should be working now.
• Rumor has it that there is a new source for green dragon scales in Norrath.

PvP Changes:

• If you go link dead on a PvP server and are killed you can still be looted.
• When a player becomes invisible (or hides successfully) every other player that had them targeted will lose their target. This is true for all servers, but has the greatest implications on PvP servers. The use of spells that allow you to see through invisibility will prevent you from losing your target if that target hides or goes invisible.
• Faction hits on Rallos Zek: Killing a person in one of his or her home cities will cause a faction hit with residents of that city.

Miscellaneous:

• We've addressed a lot of spelling and grammatical errors over the past few weeks. For example we have corrected all misspellings of "deity" in messages to the player, changed Cantana to Cantata and others.
• The 'Fab Four' in Dagnor's Cauldron will no longer assist Undertow Skeletons.
• Instill Doubt/Intimidation can no longer be used while sitting, and sitting after starting it will cancel it.
• Mastery of language skills now occurs at 100, not at 101. This was a problem for masters of a language, since language skills could not go over 100.
• The messages for eating and drinking now say "Chomp... Chomp," or "Glug... Glug..." so that they can't be copied with emotes.
• Helms on Barbarians, Trolls, and Ogres should no longer block the first person view when in combat.
• Sirens Grotto has been changed a bit. It should be a more interesting zone now.

NOTE:

Boisterous shouts can be heard across the lands as carriers herald the arrival of the latest volume of their city's newspapers. Citizens rush to get a copy of these publications to read the featured articles, latest gossip, and community news for their home town.

Patch Addendum:

Something we forgot to mention in the last patch message. If you have a weapon from the Temple of Veeshan that tells you that it is out of charges when it tries to proc, you can petition your GM for a replacement. The replacement should work...

Faction Fixes and More:

• Fixed the bug with feign death spells that was causing it to fail and sending a "Your spell has been interrupted" message.
• Fixed the way that NPCs were treating pets. They were accrediting more hate to pets than they should have.
• Also fixed a bug with factions that was making it impossible to raise some factions. There may still be factions that you can't raise because there are no methods for raising them, not because of a bug. If you get a faction message you will also get a faction gain (or hit).
• Also added a message that will let you know when you can no longer gain or lose faction with a certain group. It will say:
  Your faction standing with could not possibly get any worse.
  or
  Your faction standing with could not possibly get any better.