Five on Friday - October 24, 2008

"Will I still be able to redeem my Spring Cleaning points after this publish?"

Yes - the collection box will remain after this publish. Don't save them too long, though, because it won't be there forever! We will give you warning when it's going to go away.

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Imbuing Q&A

Leurocian has been hanging out this week on Stratics answering a ton of questions about imbuing - here are the questions and his answers for easy reference.

Also check out the official Stygian Abyss Imbuing page, and if you're interested in what properties can be imbued on which items, Imbuing will use this chart. (Note: if a property is merely "on" or "off," like Slayers or Use Best Weapon Skill, then "on" counts as 100% intensity.)

Further questions, comments, concerns, are more than welcome - you can post them in that thread or send them to us directly via the Feedback Form. Please remember that all the Stygian Abyss features are subject to change, review, balance, etc, so if you see a potential issue, let us know now!

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Mysticism Q&A

With all that great info on Imbuing, Mysticism was feeling unloved, so Leurocian took a pass at quite a few questions about it as well. Enjoy!

Q: Are you frozen in place while casting mysticism spells?
A: Yes.

Q: Do slayer spellbooks work with Mysticism spells?
A: Yes.

Q: Do Mysticism spells interrupt like magery spells do?
A: You can interrupt Mysticism spells. Spellcasting will look similar to Spellweaving.

Q: How will players acquire Mysticism spells?
A: To be determined.

Q: Can you inscribe Mysticism spells?
A: To be determined.

Q: What do you think about giving some kind of bonus to mysticism for having the inscription skill?
A: You receive all the normal bonuses to Mysticism as you do Magery. This includes inscription, evaluating intelligence, intelligence, spell damage increase items, and slayer bonus

Q: Nether bolt does damage using "nether energy". What damage type is that?
A: Chaos

Q: How does the healing stone work? Is it an item you summon and use every now and then for a heal, or is it an item that's consumed every time you use it? If it's a consumable, can you summon more than one at a time?
A: You cast the healing stone spell and you summon a healing stone in your backpack. You can only have one at a time. Dropping the healing stone destroys it. Shares the same timer as a healing potion. In the case of the healing stone, imbuing (not evaluating intelligence) and mysticism scale the healing power. The Spellweaving spell: Arcane Empowerment can further increase the effectiveness of the healing.

Q: Can you pick what hit spell effect to put on a weapon with enchant or is it a new hit spell effect unique to the enchant spell?
A: You can pick what hit effect to enchant.

Q: Can you enchant weapons being held by other players or creatures?
A: No.

Q: Does a hit spell effect added by enchant stack with other hit spells on the weapon?
A: No. And that include the ninja focus attack ability as well.

Q: What type of damage does Eagle Strike do?
A: Energy.

Q: How does the resistance to damage work for stone form? Is it similar to a swamp dragon barding? Does it stack with a swamp dragon barding? How does it work with the spellweaving spell Attune weapon?
A: at 120 mysticism and 120 imbuing, the mystic receives a +12% resist increase to all resists and a +24% damage increase. The mystic is forced to walk (like reaper form) and has a -2 faster casting penalty and a -10% swing speed penalty.

Q: Is there a cast delay associated with using a spell trigger, or can you store any level of mysticism spell on a spell trigger to instantly cast it?
A: Here are the details on the Spell Trigger spell:

Once triggered, the spell will take immediate effect, provided that all the normal validations pass such as enough mana, available control slots, reagents, appropriate skill level, valid targets/locations, etc. If any of these validations fail, the Spell Trigger cannot be activated.
- Note: Spell Triggers can trigger stored spells even if the Mystic is frozen, stunned, calmed, slept, etc. However, Spell Triggers can not be triggered if the player is in no play mode (like character transfers).
The Spell Trigger remains in tact until triggered or until the magic is cancelled (i.e., logging into the game cancels buffs and debuffs).
Spell Triggers cannot be purged (Mysticism: Purge Magic).
Spell Triggers brought within an area of no-magic are suppressed and cannot be activated.
Only one Spell Trigger can be on a Mystic at a time. Recasting a Spell Trigger replaces any existing Spell Triggers on the Mystic.
The Spell Trigger spell can never be selected as a spell to trigger. All other Mysticism spells are valid provided that the Mystic has sufficient skill levels in Mysticism and Imbuing.
There is a 5 minute cooldown after a Spell Trigger is triggered before a Spell Trigger can be invoked again.
Spell Trigger object is deleted upon the player logging into the game.

Q: Is there a limitation to how many spell triggers you can have at a given time?
A: As answered above, only one Spell Trigger can be on a Mystic at a time.

Q: Does cleansing winds also heal pets? It would be really cool if it AE healed party members and pets of party members (pack tamers would LOVE this).
A: The current design is no. Cleansing Winds functions similarly to the magery Arch-Protection spells. It heals all characters in a party.

Q: How does targeting work with cleansing winds? (AE around caster or AE around target) My preference would be AE around caster.
A: Target a location or target and the area of effect is centered where you target. AoE is 2 tile radius.

Q: What restrictions are in place on repeatedly sleeping a target? The effects of sleep look to be less detrimental than those of paralysis, so there probably isn't a problem there.
A: Here are the details on the Sleep spell: In general, Sleep follows similar rules and restrictions to paralyze.

The creature is not frozen, and can move, but at a much slower movement speed.
Being hit, taking damage, etc. immediately breaks the sleep effect.
The creature is inflicted with a 45% Defense Chance Increase penalty while under the effects of this spell.
The Sleep duration is scaled based on the (Evaluating Intelligence + Mysticism / 20) of the caster (similar to the Paralyze spell, except Mysticism affects the scaling as well). 12 seconds @ 120 Evaluating Intelligence + 120 Mysticism.
Resisting Spells shortens the duration of this spell effect, identical to paralyze. 0 seconds @ 120 Resisting Spells, if Evaluating Intelligence and Mysticism of the Mystic are also 120.
Unlike Paralyze, Sleep is not three times as long against non-player targets.
Casting Sleep is a harmful act like Paralyze.
Key Notes about Sleep:
- NPC spellcasters such as Satyrs and Dryads cannot calm a player, player's pet, etc. if he is currently under this Sleep spell.
- Peacemaking will not work on any creature, player, etc. if the calmed target is currently under this Sleep spell.
- Sleep target will be further unaffected by this spell under the following conditions:
  - If the sleep target is currently immune to paralyze due to recent paralyzing special moves.
  - If the sleep target is already paralyzed, stunned, calmed via Peacemaking, or already asleep.
  - If the sleep target possesses the cannot be barded calmed or slept.
  - If the sleep target is a shopkeeper.
- Taming is not penalized with the Sleep spell, even though Paralyze does penalize Taming. Peacemaking also currently doesn't affect Taming.
- Honor currently checks to see if the target is paralyzed. Honor will also check Sleep as well, just as it already checks Peacemaking.

Q: Can a player use a "pop box" break the sleep effect?
A: Yes. Taking damage will break the sleep effect.

Q: Does mass sleep hit friends and foes alike? (I'm assuming no) Mass sleep looks like a great counter for wither swarms.
A: No. Just Foes.

Q: Roughly how big of a radius are you planning to have on spell plague? I would suggest not making it bigger than that of wither.
A: 4 tile radius (same as wither)

Q: How is spell plague targeted? (ex. AE around self, AE around target)
A: Here are the details of Spell Plague:

The Spell Plague chance is determined based on the Evaluating Intelligence and Mysticism of the Mystic and the Resisting Spells of the victim. (i.e., at 120 Mysticism and 120 Evaluating Intelligence of the Mystic and 120 Resisting Spells of the victim, the chance is 50%.)
Damage is equivalent to a 7th circle Mysticism/Magery spell.
Damage can be enhanced by the following (same as Magery):
- Inscription Bonus
- Intelligence Bonus
- Spell Damage Increase (capped at 15% for PvP)
- Slayer Spellbook
- Evaluating Intelligence Bonus
Once the victim takes damage, there is a 50% chance the spell plague will be removed from that victim.
- Regardless, the spell plague will be removed from the victim after 15 seconds passes.
There is a 30 second cooldown for harming a victim with spell plague.
Note: Victim will not take damage from the spell plague if the Mystic is on a different facet or the like.

Q: It sounds to me like nether cyclone is a spell that effects all targets it travels through in order to get to where you targeted. Is that correct?
A: Nether Cyclone affects all foes at a targeted location or centered on a specific target. The AoE is a 2 tile radius.

Q: Does garlic from Mysticism spells do damage to people in vampric embrace form?
A: Yes.

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"Is the 2-hour Sigil corruption permanent?"

From Draconi:
"This is a temporary change for the duration of the event. Also, we may need to balance out purification time and other variables during the Test Center run."

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"Will the faction points for stealing sigils be a permanent addition?"

Yes, the silver and kill points for successfully stealing sigils is intended to be a permanent addition.

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What's To Come:

After a long wait, Publish 56 is on Test Center. We'd love it if you could hop on there and check out the changes, try out the events, and let us know if you find any issues. Barring major disasters, we hope to have it on Origin and then the Live shards by the end of next week!

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Fansite News:

A minor procedural note: due to the updates to the web site, I now have an actual deadline for the Five on Friday. If you want to submit something, please make sure it gets to me by noon EST on the Friday you want it posted. On the positive side, you should see it consistently by around 3 EST :)

[Great Lakes]

MOA Monday Madness will be throwing a party in a dungeon. Death is a possibility. Games and prizes. Come dressed in costume. Look for a gate at Brit bank.

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[Sonoma]

Shard *Blood Dungeon* Event

Friday - October 24th - The People's Army of Sonoma (PAS) are pleased to announce a Shard Gauntlet Event at 8:00pm CT (6pm PT, 9pm ET). Gather at Skara Brae Trammel bank where PAS will escort and then help protect any players wanting to travel to Blood Dungeon Ilshenar to fight Balrons, Blood Elementals, and Succubi. All of these have a chance to be paragons, so there should be decent numbers of artis, gold, items to go around. If anyone has any questions about how this will work, please ICQ KingDavid (KD) of PAS at 137449336.

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Shard *Treasure Hunting* Event

Saturday - October 25th - Bring your level 6 Trammel treasure maps and The People's Army of Sonoma (PAS), along with Alliance tamers, will take the players to their map locations as well as provide firepower to subdue the spawn. All loot goes to the map owners. If anyone has any questions about how this will work, please ICQ KingDavid (KD) of PAS at 137449336

We hope to see as many Sonoma players out for these two adventures, and we hope everyone has had fun with the Peoples Army of Sonoma (PAS) October 'shard events'.

KD

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FALL-O'WEEN Home Deco Contest

Grab those deco kits ~ rake those leaves ~ cut those vines ~ pull out the cauldrons and scatter those bones! Let the creative juices flow as it is time for Sonoma's FALL-O'WEEN Home Deco Contest!!

It is easy to participate...

* Decorate your Sonoma home in a Fall or Halloween theme

* Entry home must be completely open to the public from October 26th thru October 31st for viewing by the Whispering Rose Radio judges

* Entries accepted until 5pm Pacific - Saturday, October 25th

WRR Guest Judges will choose the following:

* Fall Season Home Deco winners:

First Place receives a check for 1 Million gold

Second Place receives a check for 500K gold

* Halloween Home Deco winners:

First Place receives a check for 1 Million gold

Second Place receives a check for 500K gold

* Most Outstanding Fall-O'ween Home (either theme)

Grand Prize receives 2 Million gold

All eligible Fall-O'ween Home Deco entries receive a Thank You Gift Box of Home Deco TREATS!

Winners announced Friday, October 31st during the 'A Night to Dismember' event.

By popular request we are doing a tour of decorated FALL & HALLOWEEN homes on Saturday, November 1st at 7:30pm Central (5:30pm PT, 8:30pm ET) following the WRR Deal or No Deal event on Sonoma. If you want to register your decorated Fall/Halloween themed home as part of the home deco tour - not be considered for deco contest - please contact us before October 31st. Contact Queen Mum at ICQ 168-812-018 for full details on submitting your Sonoma home into the Fall-O'ween Home Decorating Contest and Tour!

* Reminder: Entries for the FALL-O'WEEN Home Deco Contest accepted until Saturday, October 25th at 5pm Pacific (7pm CT - 8pm ET).

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[Lake Superior]

Lake Superior Community's weekly event Schedule

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Community Meet'n Greet

Date: Monday, October 27th

Time: 7:30PM Central

Location: Skara Brae Community Center - located next to the bank

Hosts: Airmid / Sabina Nikolai

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Moonglow Zoo Community Collections hunt

Date: Tuesday, October 28th

Time: 8:00PM Central