Post:Tuesday Tidings - 49 - Xala'Shar - 01/26/2021 - 19:05

Tuesday Tidings - 49 - Xala'Shar · on 01/26/2021 19:05	1816
Happy Tuesday, Elanthians! This week's project has been on my list for a while, but often was set aside because of the work needed to fully accomplish it. In line with the strike team goals of smaller projects, I broke up the whole into chunks to start making progress on it. Xala'shar special attacks are finally taking their turn in the spotlight. My intention is to eventually review them all. This week, vindicators' wail and vanquishers' blinding sparks got some adjustments. General Warrior (non-caster) Specials: Previously: They attempted their special attacks 11% of the time, including when they weren't otherwise planning to attack. If a Xala'shar wanted to give an atmo message or move around, they had an 11% chance to trigger their special attack. Now: They only have a chance to do their special when they otherwise would be planning to attack anyways. The chance was further lowered to 5%. Vindicators' Wail: This was updated from a custom set of checks to instead use our standard SvS mechanics. This is now an AoE Fear vs Will attack. The stuns were generally shortened from 5-30 seconds to 1-10, depending on the success of the attack. If they succeed enough to make you drop your items, those items will be at your feet now instead of on the ground. The internal head wounds for a critical failure were reduced to be more reasonable. Several successful hits can still add up to some hefty head damage, but you won't jump straight to a bleeder on the first (or second) hit anymore. Vanquishers' Spark Throw: This one already used our general special attack utility, but it allowed for damage to target a random body part (left hand for example), but still always ended up blinding you for 15 minutes because it "hit your eyes" and did extra (strong) damage to the eyes. With the update, it will now focus damage on the head, neck, or eyes, and it does no additional damage beyond where it hits. The blindness effect CAN still happen, but only if you take so many hits that your eyes are practically destroyed anyways. Its duration was lowered to 2 minutes. The template used to simulate the attack was all kinds of goofy before. Now it's based on a tier 5 cudgel with impact damage swapped into fire damage. These are just two of the (many) special attacks Xala'shar use. In time, I'll review all of them and make tweaks where needed. For a little history note that provides some context to the nature of their specials as they have been -- Xala'shar were originally made by Xadrian and intended to be part of a quest-like setting. Having an Empath nearby was expected as part of the group makeup, and so the special attacks were particularly punishing. When they were instead released as some of the first higher level hunting, those specials weren't adapted to work in a 24/7 hunting setup. Xala'shar were meant to be challenging, but some of them were...considerably more than that. Big thanks to Ynami for tackling the QC for these! The updates are live everywhere. If you notice anything goofy, please let us know! Zadraes (for the team!)
This message was originally posted in Discussions with DragonRealms Staff and Players / Game Master and Official Announcements, by DR-ZADRAES on the play.net forums.