More Shadowguard Changes??

Belfry - Last week it used to be such that when you're being pushed off, you could run towards the dragon to counteract it. Now it appears to have been changed so that the dragon paralyzes you. Is this change intended?

Anon now seems to treat direct damage (like armor ignore and word of death) like physical damage, switch to earth elemental form, and heal from it. So tamers are f***ed once again, as everyone needs to pull their pets off regardless of damage type. The encounter becomes even more of a snorefest.

It seems that now that everyone and their mother have farmed shadowguard to death, and are equipped with ridiculous overpowered legendary artifacts and roof drops, broadsword would like to change the encounters to be ridiculously annoying in order to remove any chance a new player has of obtaining this loot.

As someone who has just returned a month ago, and was just getting started with shadowguard, these changes are basically going to be a final nail in the coffin for me. I don't want to farm f***ing wings from vile drakes, then jump on a platform, and IMMEDIATELY get pushed off with NO WAY TO COUNTER the mechanic. (Heck we even tried wall of stone. You just get pushed right through it).

Not to mention all these f***ing drakes, bosses, etc have 120-130+ wrestling, and thus take freaking ages for a 100 wrestling pet to kill. Not everyone has billions of gold to spend on their pets getting all their skills up to 120.

I'm just sick and tired of all the bs to be honest. I'm trying very hard to have some fun, but it seems broadsword has other plans. I think you just lost 5 subscribers (me and my friend group) tonight, who are tired of fighting a neverending uphill battle where new obstacles are added constantly, while the majority of the existing playerbase are already chilling at the top.

/rant off
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Comments

  • King_GregKing_Greg Posts: 248
    A lot of players are with you. I didn't even know about the Anon Changes.

    The Belfry they should of only fixed the ability for pets to FLY up without the wings. 

    Fountain, they just needed to fix the stacking of the Canals. 

  • TeapotTeapot Posts: 58
    Havent had a chance to try it out yet with the new changes.  But Im in the same boat as I just returned to the game last year and only just last month got my accounts ready and learned to do the roof.  So bittersweet that finally got to do it regularly and now its gone.  I am going to give some other combinations a try at least.

    Not sure I understand the mindset of making old content less accessible.  Usually companies do the opposite once the higher tier people have farmed something long enough, so that the more casual subscribers get to experience it as well.

    Theres already a very big lack of end game content in this game that has rewards worth the grinds they involve.  I get theres a small team for this games small budget, but upsetting a portion of subscribers to appease complaints from people that probably have farmed this content for 2 years straight doesn't make business sense.
  • MervynMervyn Posts: 2,208
    edited June 2018
    Word of death is not direct damage, it is chaos damage.

    armor ignore should still deal the type of damage that the pet deals. Although interestingly, the official uo wiki reads that ai deals physical damage. And I was arguing with the editor to remove the “physical damage” sentence as you don’t always deal physical damage...
    i hope they haven’t changed that in game after I drew attention to it...


    Also, how did you get to fight anon if you couldn’t complete the Belfry?
    I tell you the truth, tis better to do 10 damage on the right target than 100 damage on the wrong target.

    Breaking in the young since 2002


  • drcossackdrcossack Posts: 145
    edited June 2018
    Obuw said:
    Belfry - Last week it used to be such that when you're being pushed off, you could run towards the dragon to counteract it. Now it appears to have been changed so that the dragon paralyzes you. Is this change intended?

    Anon now seems to treat direct damage (like armor ignore and word of death) like physical damage, switch to earth elemental form, and heal from it. So tamers are f***ed once again, as everyone needs to pull their pets off regardless of damage type. The encounter becomes even more of a snorefest.

    It seems that now that everyone and their mother have farmed shadowguard to death, and are equipped with ridiculous overpowered legendary artifacts and roof drops, broadsword would like to change the encounters to be ridiculously annoying in order to remove any chance a new player has of obtaining this loot.

    As someone who has just returned a month ago, and was just getting started with shadowguard, these changes are basically going to be a final nail in the coffin for me. I don't want to farm f***ing wings from vile drakes, then jump on a platform, and IMMEDIATELY get pushed off with NO WAY TO COUNTER the mechanic. (Heck we even tried wall of stone. You just get pushed right through it).

    Not to mention all these f***ing drakes, bosses, etc have 120-130+ wrestling, and thus take freaking ages for a 100 wrestling pet to kill. Not everyone has billions of gold to spend on their pets getting all their skills up to 120.

    I'm just sick and tired of all the bs to be honest. I'm trying very hard to have some fun, but it seems broadsword has other plans. I think you just lost 5 subscribers (me and my friend group) tonight, who are tired of fighting a neverending uphill battle where new obstacles are added constantly, while the majority of the existing playerbase are already chilling at the top.

    /rant off

    Except that's how Anon's worked for the past few years?  I can't speak to Armor Ignore changes, because I always did it with guildmates that used it, while my pets didn't.  But he's ALWAYS healed the damage type his transformation corresponds to:

    Physical: Earth Elemental (also applies if you're a mage holding a Slayer spellbook.)
    Cold: Snow Elemental
    Energy: Llama-shaped Energy Vortex
    Poison: Acid Elemental
    Fire: Fire Elemental

    When I was doing it solo in the past (last time I did it by myself, I used 2 clients.  I tried 3 on TC1 but couldn't manage Virtuebane/Juo'nar - there was too much to juggle with my 3 client setup), I'd "All stop/All stay" my pets until Anon went back into his normal form.  On TC, his mechanics hadn't changed all that much - I was using various damage types and only had to pull one of my pets off.

    Belfry sucks, and shouldn't have been changed to completely stop pets or players from attacking the dragon.  It doesn't affect me since I don't use a sampire in the Belfry, but if I weren't multi-clienting it I'd never kill the Greater Dragon (I use flying pets there for a reason.)

    The Drakes in the belfry are a problem?  Really?  Try Rune Corruption or Armor Ignore, if you feel the need to fight them.  Pets with either one will tear through them.

    Shadowguard is still just as accessible as it was previously, although it's a bit harder.  The only difference now is that you can't easy mode it with tamers due to a bugged mechanic, and have to bring different templates, like a Sampire...but is that, for endgame content, such a bad thing?  Some people might say it's not fun...but it wasn't fun BEFORE (granted, I had farmed it extensively some time back, and had it down to a science.)

    It was about an hour long before the publish, and it's still about the same length of time now.
  • Lieutenant_DanLieutenant_Dan Posts: 195
    edited June 2018
    Welcome to Sampires Online

    ICQ 
    695356108

  • ObuwObuw Posts: 47
    Word of Death is not chaos damage. Afaik chaos damage = random damage type. Word of Death does direct damage, aka damage that ignores resistances.

    We completed the belfry allright. It just took us 2 tries, and 55 minutes (basically had to get lucky, so the dragon didn't instantly start pushing us down as soon as we got up).

    Drakes are obviously not a problem, but it can get extremely annoying when your pets miss them 20 times in a row. Just like most of the other encounters in shadowguard they are tailored for a sampire with 120 skill + 45 HCI.

    I'm sick of being REQUIRED to use a sampire for everything. Not all of us have the ridiculous gear required to make a functioning sampire. We play tamers now because they seemed to be the only class that can actually complete content without ridiculous gear requirements, but broadsword is doing everything in their power to change that.
  • MervynMervyn Posts: 2,208
    edited June 2018
    All the documentation reads that word of death deals chaos damage. 


    Are are we all just skipping over the fact that the OP has found some way of getting to the roof without completing the Belfry?
    I tell you the truth, tis better to do 10 damage on the right target than 100 damage on the wrong target.

    Breaking in the young since 2002


  • MervynMervyn Posts: 2,208
    You know what would balance out Sampires. Sampires get a 30% damage reduction from armoured swamp dragons. If Sampire’s Swamp dragons died when the sampires died, they would be begging for a veterinarian to come along with them. Instead they just log out to prevent it dying.
    I tell you the truth, tis better to do 10 damage on the right target than 100 damage on the wrong target.

    Breaking in the young since 2002


  • Max_BlackoakMax_Blackoak Posts: 620
    Mervyn said:
    All the documentation reads that word of death deals chaos damage.
    I was always under the impression it did physical damage because Anon turned to earth elemental the second he is hit with WoD. I've never seen him turn into anything else when hit with WoD...
  • Max_BlackoakMax_Blackoak Posts: 620
    just looked it up on uo.com: "This spell can possibly slay any one creature (not players) that is under 5-30% of its maximum health. Creatures that are not slain outright take chaos damage instead. Creatures that are under 5-30% of their health take direct damage."

    The wording is poor (as usual). This could mean chaos damage only applies when cast on something above 30% health or it could mean chaos damage applies whenever the target survives the spell's impact...
  • ParnocParnoc Posts: 236
    Mervyn said:
    You know what would balance out Sampires. Sampires get a 30% damage reduction from armoured swamp dragons. If Sampire’s Swamp dragons died when the sampires died, they would be begging for a veterinarian to come along with them. Instead they just log out to prevent it dying.
    Wow, armored swampies get 30% damage reduction?  I sure didn't know that.  When did that change?  You hiding something and have info no one else has?

  • NikardNikard Posts: 164
    There is a breath-taking amount of misinformation in this thread.. 
  • Max_BlackoakMax_Blackoak Posts: 620
    Parnoc said:
    Mervyn said:
    You know what would balance out Sampires. Sampires get a 30% damage reduction from armoured swamp dragons. If Sampire’s Swamp dragons died when the sampires died, they would be begging for a veterinarian to come along with them. Instead they just log out to prevent it dying.
    Wow, armored swampies get 30% damage reduction?  I sure didn't know that.  When did that change?  You hiding something and have info no one else has?

    To my knowledge the damage reduction is 20 % when using exceptionally crafted dragon barding, 12 % when using the Paroxysmus' Swamp Dragon (no barding needed) and 10% when using non-exceptionally crafted dragon barding.
  • MervynMervyn Posts: 2,208
    edited June 2018
    Yeah exceptional armoured swamp dragon absorbs 20% sorry.
    I tell you the truth, tis better to do 10 damage on the right target than 100 damage on the wrong target.

    Breaking in the young since 2002


  • MervynMervyn Posts: 2,208
    edited June 2018
    I wouldn’t go as far as to say that turning anon into earth ele by dealing direct damage or anon healing as earth ele from receiving direct damage is a bug. 

    Could just as easily argue that it’s a feature. The rule could simply be that anon heals direct and physical damage in earth ele form...

    but either way, I’m pretty sure nothing has changed. 
    I tell you the truth, tis better to do 10 damage on the right target than 100 damage on the wrong target.

    Breaking in the young since 2002


  • KelKel Posts: 8
    Being a new or returning player is hard enough because you're so incredibly far behind gear wise due to how OP good legendary pieces are. Are we seriously making it harder for new/returning players?

    As someone who has come back recently and now will have a tougher time doing roof as I have no gold and crap gear I may just quit. There's no reason to change something like this after years, especially if the main people it's hurting are those very people you're trying so hard to attract. 
  • ObuwObuw Posts: 47
    Mervyn said:
    Are are we all just skipping over the fact that the OP has found some way of getting to the roof without completing the Belfry?

    Obuw said:
    We completed the belfry allright. It just took us 2 tries, and 55 minutes (basically had to get lucky, so the dragon didn't instantly start pushing us down as soon as we got up).

    Some reading comprehension can often help in cases like this.
  • drcossackdrcossack Posts: 145
    Obuw said:
    I'm sick of being REQUIRED to use a sampire for everything. Not all of us have the ridiculous gear required to make a functioning sampire. We play tamers now because they seemed to be the only class that can actually complete content without ridiculous gear requirements, but broadsword is doing everything in their power to change that.
    I use a barebones imbued/reforged suit on my sampire, with the Luck Jewelry set.  You do NOT need an uber high-end suit for pvm content.  Max resists, max HCI, and elemental damage slayer weaps is all you need on a sampire.  But do go on about how you don't have the ridiculous gear required to make a sampire.
  • CentuCentu Posts: 14

    I ran Shadowguard last night with a friend, he was on Tamer and I was on Samp.  I can tell you that the Sampire is useless in the belfry.  I was being frozen after 1-2 Hits.  No chance to break the freeze or getting pushed off.  I understand the game mechanics, pets have always been pushed off, now the tamers can't use the log out trick.  But pets at least have the chance to hit a few times and I have seen the pets before being able to break the push when you have multiple pets involved.  I went up 3 times with my Samp and all 3 times I was immediately pushed off.  This cannot be by design unless the design is to only use pets.  The second run we had a third player join with an Archer.  After every hit the archer was frozen for a few seconds and had to retarget to continue attacking.  Again, this does not seem to be workable game mechanics.


  • PawainPawain Posts: 8,972
    Mervyn said:
    All the documentation reads that word of death deals chaos damage.
    I was always under the impression it did physical damage because Anon turned to earth elemental the second he is hit with WoD. I've never seen him turn into anything else when hit with WoD...

    If you hold a 100% poison weapon while casting WoD he turns poison.  Takes a few WoDs.  But maybe that has changed.  
    Focus on what you can do, not what you can't.
  • ObuwObuw Posts: 47
    drcossack said:

    I use a barebones imbued/reforged suit on my sampire, with the Luck Jewelry set.  You do NOT need an uber high-end suit for pvm content.  Max resists, max HCI, and elemental damage slayer weaps is all you need on a sampire.  But do go on about how you don't have the ridiculous gear required to make a sampire.
    All you need is max resists, max DCI, HCI, DI, 190+ stam, 45%+ SSI, 40% LMC, M&S for HLD, a whole set of elemental damage slayer weapons with HLA / HML / HSL, and a bunch of 120 power scrolls. And preferably a whole set of cameos to go with that. Yeah, that's not a lot at all. (Unless you're just using your sampire to farm miasma.)
  • ObuwObuw Posts: 47
    Centu said:

    I ran Shadowguard last night with a friend, he was on Tamer and I was on Samp.  I can tell you that the Sampire is useless in the belfry.  I was being frozen after 1-2 Hits.  No chance to break the freeze or getting pushed off.  I understand the game mechanics, pets have always been pushed off, now the tamers can't use the log out trick.  But pets at least have the chance to hit a few times and I have seen the pets before being able to break the push when you have multiple pets involved.  I went up 3 times with my Samp and all 3 times I was immediately pushed off.  This cannot be by design unless the design is to only use pets.  The second run we had a third player join with an Archer.  After every hit the archer was frozen for a few seconds and had to retarget to continue attacking.  Again, this does not seem to be workable game mechanics.


    So I was under the impression that up until last week you could run towards the dragon to counteract the push (or you could "all follow me" your pet to make him run towards you and not fall off") but now they have added this retarded paralyze effect. Is this not the case? Was the paralyze always there, and have we just never experienced it due to a bug or something?
  • Max_BlackoakMax_Blackoak Posts: 620
    Pawain said:
    Mervyn said:
    All the documentation reads that word of death deals chaos damage.
    I was always under the impression it did physical damage because Anon turned to earth elemental the second he is hit with WoD. I've never seen him turn into anything else when hit with WoD...

    If you hold a 100% poison weapon while casting WoD he turns poison.  Takes a few WoDs.  But maybe that has changed.  

    true...I was talking about the actual WoD when the monster is below 30% and with a spellbook (or nothing) in hand, not the WoD spam with poison weapon to get him to turn into poison form.
  • drcossackdrcossack Posts: 145
    edited June 2018
    Obuw said:
    drcossack said:

    I use a barebones imbued/reforged suit on my sampire, with the Luck Jewelry set.  You do NOT need an uber high-end suit for pvm content.  Max resists, max HCI, and elemental damage slayer weaps is all you need on a sampire.  But do go on about how you don't have the ridiculous gear required to make a sampire.
    All you need is max resists, max DCI, HCI, DI, 190+ stam, 45%+ SSI, 40% LMC, M&S for HLD, a whole set of elemental damage slayer weapons with HLA / HML / HSL, and a bunch of 120 power scrolls. And preferably a whole set of cameos to go with that. Yeah, that's not a lot at all. (Unless you're just using your sampire to farm miasma.)

    On my Sampire: 141 Str, 145 HP (I use a Tangle for the extra mana), 45 LMC, 130 dex/162 Stam, 20 int/56 Mana, and the Red Luck Jewelry.  Max HCI, 15 DCI (Conj Garb/Tangle/Mastery), 45 LMC (Not using a full studded suit.)  Weapons: SSI 30, HML/HSL/DI in varying amounts (I'm over cap on DI - 80% DI without a weapon.)  Resists 70/70/70/70/71.  My suit's reforged for resists, with Stam/Mana/HP increase imbued on it.  I don't use HLA, but I do have HLD in the form of one of the Mace & Shield clone from Blackthorn's (however, as far am I'm aware, it does absolutely nothing in pvm.)

    Don't use a Cameo on my sampire (due to how little I play it + I'd rather use Cameos on event throwers), but I do use a Conj Trinket (it doesn't affect my HCI at the present time, since I have 45 without it.)

    Skills: GM Resist/Necro/Bushido, 67.2 Chiv, 120 Swords/Parry, 111.6 Tactics (purely for the Mastery, which is scrolled to 120.)

    I have zero problems doing any of the pvm content in the game with the same suit I've had since I returned to UO in 2014.  I feel zero need to upgrade it, since it's not necessary.
  • The_Higgs_1The_Higgs_1 Posts: 420
    Shadowguard already took too long for the lack of reward you get from it.  Changing it to make it take much longer is just gonna turn it into dead content.  It shouldn't take longer to do the rooms then it does to kill the boss/es.   I understand things weren't working as intended but with those things being broken its made it worth the amount of time to complete it.  Taking more then an hour just to clear the rooms is a complete waste of time, especially when you can kill the bosses in ten-fifteen minutes.   Maybe they should look at a 24-hour room completion setup, basically saying once you complete the rooms you can do the roof as many times as you want in a 24-hour period before they reset.  Then it might be worth the time again.
  • ObuwObuw Posts: 47
    > Mace & Shield clone from Blackthorn's (however, as far am I'm aware, it does absolutely nothing in pvm.)

    Wait, what? Really? Do you mean the clone does nothing? Or HLD does nothing?

    What is this red luck jewelry?

    Even something as basic as Tangle is ridiculously difficult to get, since the droprate is 1% or less, and noone even sells it (or anything really) on europa anymore. And if they did sell it, it would probably go for around 100m, since people seem to even wipe their arses with 10m checks nowadays.

    Conjurer stuff are also flat out impossible to get, since they were only handed out during that one halloween event 10 years ago afaik. (Amazing design choices there too, handing out best in slot items during a one-time event).

    You should try actually making a barebones 45% hci, all 70 set with no artifacts, and see how difficult it is to even solo a GD with it.
  • MervynMervyn Posts: 2,208
    edited June 2018
    Lune rouge and soleil rouge from clean up.

    Our guild quite likes doing shadowguard when there’s no action in fel. 
    I tell you the truth, tis better to do 10 damage on the right target than 100 damage on the wrong target.

    Breaking in the young since 2002


  • drcossackdrcossack Posts: 145
    Obuw said:
    > Mace & Shield clone from Blackthorn's (however, as far am I'm aware, it does absolutely nothing in pvm.)

    Wait, what? Really? Do you mean the clone does nothing? Or HLD does nothing?

    What is this red luck jewelry?

    Even something as basic as Tangle is ridiculously difficult to get, since the droprate is 1% or less, and noone even sells it (or anything really) on europa anymore. And if they did sell it, it would probably go for around 100m, since people seem to even wipe their arses with 10m checks nowadays.

    Conjurer stuff are also flat out impossible to get, since they were only handed out during that one halloween event 10 years ago afaik. (Amazing design choices there too, handing out best in slot items during a one-time event).

    You should try actually making a barebones 45% hci, all 70 set with no artifacts, and see how difficult it is to even solo a GD with it.

    HLD.  Mace & Shield is a standard piece on ALL of my dexer suits, even for throwers.  Simply for the stat bonuses it gives.

    The only things I bought for my sampire suit (was given to me by a guildmate when I came back) were the Conj Garb (non-luck is cheap, although I could have also grabbed it from Blackthorn), Conj Trinket (granted, this was the most expensive purchase) and the Luck Jewelry set (with cleanup points.  Think it's 300k for the pair, whether you get the mage or dexer version.)  If the drop rates/unavailability of certain things are an issue for you, I would check out Blackthorn.  I farmed it extensively in the past and have multiple Blackthorn Conj Garb, Mace & Shield Glasses, and a Crimson Cincture or two.  Conj Garb/Crimmy/Tangle are 100 turn-ins each, Mace & Shield is 50.
  • ObuwObuw Posts: 47
    I believe M&S is 100, as we farmed one for a friend and it took us about 2 weeks of mindless grinding.

    Where would be your suggested farming spots? Captains? Balrons? Rats?

    So you're saying HLD doesn't work in PVM? That would be a huge issue. Are you sure?
  • PawainPawain Posts: 8,972
    edited June 2018
    He did not say that.  They work great in PvM and combine with HLD on weapons.  That and 50 on a bow make ~60% chance.

    How much are they from Library?
    Focus on what you can do, not what you can't.
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