Combat Overhaul Update 9

= Combat Overhaul Update 9 =

Important Notice: Weapons and Armor created before this update will be considered legacy items and will not receive quality bonuses. They will be treated as if they are normal quality items. Please create new equipment for testing.

Barding

 * Barding difficulty is now dynamically calculated based on traditional UO formula.
 * All barding effects now have a duration based on the relevant barding skills.
 * Using Provocation or Peacemaking on a monster which already has one of those effects will override the current effect.
 * Barding no longer produces threat to provoke monsters, instead it acts as a target priority while maintaining its threat table.
 * Taunts will override an active provoke.
 * Provocation, Discordance, and Peacemaking now factor the monster's barding difficulty into the chance to gain skill.
 * If a skill check results in no challenge for the bard there will be no chance to gain skill.
 * If a skill check results in an impossible challenge for the bard there will be no chance to gain skill.
 * A failed attempt with a barding skill will result in the generation of threat towards the bard.
 * Slayer instruments now provide +20 effective barding skill up from +10.
 * Exceptional instruments now provide +10 effective barding skill up from +5.
 * Max barding difficulty has been slightly reduced.
 * Barding difficulty scaling requirements on high level creatures have been slightly reduced.
 * Barding difficulty no longer receives a bonus from secondary bard skills.
 * For example you no longer receive any benefit during provoke by having the peacemaking skill.
 * Discordance's effects are still increased by secondary barding skills, however its success chance is not.
 * No changes to Musicianship.


 * Instrument Duration is calculated using the relevant bard skill and Musicianship.

Duration in seconds = (75 - (Barding Difficulty / 2)) * (Barding Skill / 100)

With a minimum duration in seconds = (20 + Boss Duration Bonus) * (Musicianship / 100)


 * Minimum duration bonus for boss level creatures is 10 seconds and will scale based on boss level.

AI

 * White wyrms will be more inclined to use magic than Dragons.
 * White wyrms have access to more spells than Dragons.
 * Liches will now be more aggressive with spell casting chances and frequency.
 * Fixed a bug causing monsters to be stuck in leashing state.
 * Monsters will now have a small speed boost when they are too far from home along with a small uninterruptible heal over time.
 * Monsters will regenerate health if left idle and out of aggression for a period of time.
 * Fixed an issue which caused AI dragons to be unable to use Fire Breath.
 * Monsters will more intelligently handle threat when provoked.
 * Hydra will now use special abilities such as Fire Breath.
 * Hydra will now properly cast on ranged targets.
 * Hydra will now identify threat caused by healing pets.
 * Cora will now identify threat caused by healing pets.

Herding

 * Herding skill gains are now based on the difficulty of the monster which is being attacked, relative to the pet which is attacking it.
 * If a monster is too easy compared to the attacking pet gains will not be possible.
 * Herding skill cannot be gained by attacking other pets or other players.
 * Herding is now available to train from the Stable master vendor.

Combat

 * Various equip able tools have been given a shared tool weapon class.
 * Fixed an error that was in some cases causing armor ratings to be lower than intended.
 * Slayer weapons provide a +50% damage bonus applied to final damage instead of 100% bonus.
 * Weapon accuracy calculation has been brought in-line with traditional UO.
 * Defensive wrestling has been added.
 * With GM Anatomy and GM Evaluating Intelligence, an attacker's chance to hit is reduced as if the victim had GM Wrestling.
 * Defensive Wrestling Skill Level = (Evaluating Intelligence + Anatomy) / 2
 * Defensive wrestling does not affect chance to land a punch, it is only defensive.
 * Paralyzing Blow duration has been increased to 4 from 3.
 * Stun Punch duration has been increased to 4 from 3.
 * Slight re-balancing of roll values for Medium and Heavy weapon classes.
 * Heavy weapon variance has been tightened.
 * Bows have had a slight flat roll bonus added.

Tank

 * Bastion now requires at least 60 skill in Parrying, Tactics, and Anatomy.
 * The effects of Bastion now scale with each of these skills.
 * Bastion effect is now reduced by 66% during a PvP timer.
 * Playing an instrument will cause Bastion to deactivate, it will reactivate if the player is still eligible after a duration has passed.
 * Call to Arms success chance has been increased to 80% up from 75%.
 * Taunt range has been increased to 6 from 5.
 * Aegis stamina reduction buff has been increased from 20% to 30%.
 * Unwavering Stance's duration during a PvP timer is now 20 seconds.
 * Unwavering Stance cannot renew its timer during a PvP timer.
 * The spell healing buff provided by Unwavering Stance has been removed.

Weapons
Weapon quality has been overhauled to interpret exceptional and magical modifiers differently. Previously weapon prefixes for accuracy affected tactics for melee weapons and for ranged weapons archery skill. Going forward accuracy modifiers will affect weapon skill for all weapons and thus chance to hit. Previously weapon suffixes or crafting qualities added a flat damage bonus to all base weapon damage rolls. Going forward weapon suffixes or crafting qualities will instead add toward tactics bonus during base damage calculation.

Spellcasting

 * Corrected an issue which was causing the damage modifier for armor penalty to be undervalued.
 * Shields are now factored into the armor penalty used to determine damage modifier for MindBlast.
 * Fixed an issue causing cloaks to prevent meditation.
 * MindBlast now chooses damage modifier based on either stat differential or armor penalty.
 * Whichever yields a higher bonus will be used.
 * Casting times for Recall, Gate, and Earthquake are now unique. (Returned to the live values)
 * Mage buckler is now considered a light shield and does not block meditation.
 * GM Inscription when paired with Healing greater than 60, now provides up to a 40% bonus to spell healing in PvM.
 * Mana Drain now drains mana based on the caster's Evaluating Intelligence and the victim's Magic Resist.
 * Inscription's Magic Reflection bonus has been reduced from a maximum of 15 to 12 circles.
 * Magic Reflection without Inscription has been reduced from 8 to 6 circles.
 * Inscription's spell damage bonus has been increased from 10% to 20%. (PvM only)

Poisoning

 * There is no longer a cure debuff provided by poisoning skill.
 * Taste Identification cure debuff remains.
 * Taste Identification now provides a bonus to base poison level chance for greater poison.
 * With greater than 60 poisoning there is a 80% chance to cast greater poison in pvp. (100% PvM)
 * With greater than 80 poisoning there is a 20% chance to cast greater poison in pvp. (40% PvM)
 * Without Taste Identification and only greater than 60 poisoning, there is an 60% chance to cast greater poison.
 * Greater poison now blocks 25% of spell healing.
 * Deadly poison now blocks 50% of spell healing.
 * Lethal poison now blocks 75% of spell healing.

General

 * Armor Rating in the paperdoll will now reflect the current durability wear of armor worn.
 * New Dragon mobiles have been added to replace the existing dragons.
 * You can no longer hide while a bandage timer is running.
 * Hiding no longer clears the player's threat for aggressive monsters.
 * You can no longer hide when you are the main target of a creature that has line of sight of you within hiding range.
 * The distance from monsters that you must be in order to hide, now scales off the Hiding skill.
 * Hiding range = ((100 - Hiding Skill ) / 2) + 8
 * Max hiding range is 18.
 * Overland templates have been migrated and rebalanced.
 * Added Lich Lord mobile.
 * Added Ratmen.
 * Added Lizardmen.
 * Added Lich King.
 * Added Wraith.

Bugs

 * Fixed an issue causing energy vortex not to decay.
 * Fixed an issue causing skill gains to be more frequent than intended.
 * Fixed an issue causing magical items to successfully roll higher prefixes and suffixes than intended.
 * Fixed a bug which caused newly tamed Dragons and White Wyrms to get stuck if they were tamed while attempting to Fire Breath.
 * Fixed an issue causing threat to not be generated if a monster was under peacemaking.
 * Fixed an issue causing spells with a circle greater than 1 to be uninterruptible.
 * Fixed an issue causing Telekinesis to work without line of sight and with unlimited range.
 * Fixed an issue causing Mana Drain to sometimes not refund all drained mana to the victim after a delay.
 * Fixed an issue which allowed players to use provoke while hidden.