Combat Overhaul Update 7

Armor
Armor has been reworked to no longer have dexterity penalties. Instead heavier armors and shields will accumulate an armor penalty when worn. This armor penalty will have a few consequences for your character.

Higher armor penalties will have the following effects:
 * You will incur more stamina damage from the damage you take.
 * You will regenerate mana at a slower rate.
 * You will take more damage from the MindBlast spell.
 * You will receive a greater bonuses from the Bastion passive.

Meditation

 * Mana regeneration is now driven by your total armor penalty and the player's meditation skill.
 * Max mana regeneration rate is 2 mana per second.
 * Min mana regeneration rate is 1 mana every 8 seconds.
 * Mana regeneration for players is penalized by the cumulative armor penalties according to their slot location.
 * Mana regeneration is reduced by 2% for every 1% of armor penalty.
 * A player can activate the meditation ability only if they are wearing cloth or leather armor and are not holding a shield.
 * Mana regeneration food buffs have been disabled for drinking.
 * Drinking was originally intended to be primarily for roleplaying purposes, however due to some poor balancing, it has completely overshadowed the Meditation skill in some builds. A secondary skill should never render a primary skill irrelevant in the way that drinking was previously doing.

Example
An example of how this penalty is calculated for a player wearing a full set of platemail with a heater shield would be as follows:

(item penalty * location modifier) = slot armor penalty

(0.28 * 100%) + (0.21 * 100%) + (0.51 * 100%) + (0.35 * 100%) = total armor penalty = 135% armor penalty

Or an example of full chainmail with a metal kite shield:

(0.28 * 80%) + (0.21 * 80%) + (0.51 * 80%) + (0.35 * 80%) = total armor penalty = 108% armor penalty

Combat

 * Passive Two Handed Weapon specials no longer have a stamina cost.
 * Active weapon specials such as Disarm and Stun punch have had their stamina requirement reduced to 10.
 * Base stamina regeneration has been increased to 1 every 2 seconds.
 * Several core combat sequence changes have been made to more accurately reflect that of pre AoS UO.

Stamina Damage
When taking damage the player will incur stamina damage that is scaled by the amount of dexterity they have and their current armor penalty from the armor and shield they have equipped.

Stamina Damage = (Damage / 6) * (Dexterity / 100) * (1.0 * (Armor Penalty / 2))


 * Stamina damage is calculated using pre armor mitigation damage.
 * Max per hit stamina damage is limited to 10.
 * Maces increase stamina damage further by 20%.

Weapon Re-balancing
All weapons have been re-balanced and normalized into categories of weapons by weapon skill. Within these groups weapons are defined with the same dice roll, speeds, and durability. Each melee weapon skill has an interrupt, light, medium, and heavy category of weapon(s). Archery also follows with a light, medium, and heavy.


 * Minimum damages have been raised across the all weapons to provide slightly more consistent damage.

Interrupt

Light

Medium

Heavy

Archery

 * Bows now have lower max damage and higher overall speed.
 * There is now a chance that an arrow that has missed will appear on the ground.
 * There is now a chance that an arrow that has hit will appear in the creature's backpack.

Staggering Shot

 * Archery weapons now have a chance to perform a weapon special called Staggering Shot.
 * You must have at least 80 Anatomy and 80 Archery in order to attempt Staggering Shot.
 * Chance to trigger is based off of Anatomy with a 20% chance against creatures and a 10% chance against players.
 * When successfully activated, the victim will be slowed by 30% for 4 to 8 seconds.
 * The duration of staggering shot is scaled off of the weapon speed of the archery weapon and the difficulty of the creature in PvM.
 * Slower archery weapons will inflict a longer staggering shot effect.
 * In PvP timer the duration of the effect is halved.
 * The archer has a 25% increased accuracy bonus during the duration of the effect against a staggered target.
 * If Staggering Shot successfully triggers when the victim already has staggering shot, the shot will do an additional 25% damage.

Poison

 * Poison damage has been re-balanced to have heavier slower ticks.
 * There is no longer a healing debuff applied when the victim has lesser or regular poison.
 * Poison field cast by players is Regular poison.
 * Poisoned weapons poison chance is no longer tied to Anatomy, instead it is a flat 25% chance to apply.

Taste Identification

 * Taste Identification now provides a cure chance debuff to the victim up to -25%.

Poisoning

 * Poisoning now provides a cure chance debuff to the victim up to -25%.

Upgrading Poison
When casting poison players can upgrade their poison level using the poisoning skill.


 * The poisoner must have at least 80 poisoning to attempt to upgrade poison to Deadly.
 * The poisoner must have at least 60 poisoning to attempt to upgrade poison to Greater.
 * When upgrading to Deadly poison the poison spell will consume two extra nightshade.
 * When upgrading to Greater poison the poison spell will consume one extra nightshade.

Upgrade chance = chance * (Poisoning Skill / 100)

PvP
 * Chance to upgrade poison to Deadly is 20% at GM poisoning.
 * Chance to upgrade poison to Greater is 40% at GM poisoning.

PvE
 * Chance to upgrade poison to Deadly is 40% at GM poisoning.
 * Chance to upgrade poison to Greater is 80% at GM poisoning.

Resistances
 * GM Taste Identification provides +1 spell circle to the poison spell when resists are considered.
 * GM Poisoning provides +1 spell circle to the poison spell when resists are considered.
 * If you are within 4 units away from your poison target, you will get an additional +1 spell circle when resists are considered.

Poisoning PvM

 * Taste Identification causes poison frequency to increase by up to 25% against creatures.
 * Poison damage against creatures is increased by 50%.
 * Taste Identification increases poison damage against creatures by 50%.
 * If you poison a creature and stray too far away from it, the poison will downgrade to lesser poison.

Curing

 * Potions, Bandaging, and the Cure spell all operate using progressive curing chances.
 * Cure debuff chances are applied to Potions, Bandaging, and the Cure spell from Poisoning and Taste Identification Skills.

Potions Chance to cure = (Potion Chance - Total Debuff) + (0.5 * Attempts)

Bandage chance to cure = ((1.75 - (Poison Level * 0.25)) * (Healer Skill / 100) - (slips * 0.02) - Total Debuff) + (0.5 * Attempts)

Cure Spell chance = ((1.75 - (Poison Level * 0.25)) * (Magery / 100) - Total Debuff) + (0.5 * Attempts)

Note Arch Cure gains an additional 10% chance.

Tamers and PvP

 * Only UO based pet templates will function as PvP eligible pets.
 * Pets with owners in a PvP timer will have the following effects on their pet
 * Pet damage against players is scaled after a threshold is reached before armor mitigation is performed.
 * Pet combat run speed is slowed.
 * Pet chance to cast spells is slightly reduced.
 * Pet chance to use weapon abilities is slightly reduced.
 * Pet Fire Breath is scaled after a threshold is reached.
 * Pets cannot cast above Regular poison when the target is a player.
 * Pets will return to normal behavior after the PvP timer has elapsed.

In Britannia all of our monsters are nearly identical in stats and behavior to that of their UO counterparts. We are adding the following pets for testing that have been redefined with this in mind.

Current tamables for this update include:
 * Dragon
 * White Wyrm
 * Drake
 * Nightmare

Parrying and Tanking
A set of new passives and abilities has been added that will help facilitate the role of Warrior "Tanks". These abilities greatly boost the effectiveness of the player's Armor at the expense of mobility and increased stamina damage.

Bastion
A new passive buff effect has been add that will trigger upon the player meeting the following requirements.


 * A shield is equipped that is not a spell casting shield.
 * A total armor penalty of more than 60%.
 * Activation delay of 5 seconds has elapsed.

Bastion provides the following effects.


 * Up to 40% increased effective Armor Rating.
 * Up to 20% chance to Repel a magical attack type every 20 seconds.
 * If you are unmounted you gain an additional 10% bonus to Armor Rating modifier and Repel chance.

Repel
Repel is a magical spell counter that has a chance to trigger on spells and certain weapon abilities.


 * Once activated it will trigger a cooldown of 20 seconds.
 * Repelled attacks are nullified and do no damage.

Limitations
There are various limitations that will decrease the effectiveness of Bastion.


 * The effects of Bastion are halved during movement.
 * The effects of Bastion are halved again during a PvP timer.
 * Removing your shield will trigger a 3 second grace period before Bastion will deactivate.
 * Casting a spell or equipping a two handed weapon will immediately cancel the effect and put in place a 10 second reactivation penalty period.
 * You must remain still for 1 second before regaining the full effect of Bastion.

Taunt
Along with AI improvements. There is a new Parry skill ability called Taunt. This ability allows shield users the ability to force a monster to attack them. This ability also triggers the shield passive called Aegis.


 * Requires at least 60 parrying skill.
 * Has a maximum success chance of 90% that scales off of the parrying skill.
 * Attacker generates 100% increased threat from damage dealt during the effect.
 * Immediately generates 50 threat.
 * 50 threat is removed upon the expiration of the effect.
 * Successful activation has a 20 second cooldown upon the expiration of the Aegis buff.
 * Each failed activation has a 15 second cooldown on attempt.
 * Cannot be used if Call To Arms is active.

Call To Arms
In addition to Taunt, another new Parrying ability has been added called Call To Arms. This ability behaves similarly to Taunt except that it is an area of effect taunt of lesser strength. This ability also triggers the shield passive called Aegis.


 * Requires at least 80 parrying skill.
 * Has a maximum success chance of 75% to trigger that scales off of the parrying skill.
 * In addition each monster in the radius must roll a 90% chance to taunt check to be taunted.
 * 10 threat applied to all monsters within 10 units.
 * Attacker generates 50% increased threat from damage dealt during the effect.
 * Heals 4 stamina for every monster that was successfully taunted.
 * Successful activation has a 20 second cooldown upon the expiration of the Aegis buff.
 * Each failed activation has a 15 second cooldown on attempt.
 * Cannot be used if Taunt is active.

Aegis
Aegis is a shield passive that is triggered from use of either Taunt or Call To Arms. This is a buff to the player's shield Armor Rating.


 * On blocking success the effective Armor Rating of the shield is increased by 100%.
 * Provides 20% stamina damage reduction for the duration.
 * Lasts a duration of 10 seconds.
 * Can be renewed or reapplied by use of either Taunt or Call To Arms.

AI, Threat, and Monsters
Base AI has had an overhaul to introduce threat and target management for monsters.


 * Melee, Magic, and true damage have been improved to generate threat more intelligently.
 * Healing now generates threat.
 * Misses generate a small amount of threat.
 * Monsters will change targets if another target in range becomes a greater threat.
 * Monsters will now manage their spell libraries more efficiently.
 * Monsters will now manage their weapon abilities more efficiently.
 * Template fixes have been applied to more accurately reflect the total max health of monsters. (With respect to UO)
 * Monsters will no longer leash as often during chase.
 * Monsters that are too far away from their spawn will return home with a run speed buff and a health regeneration buff.
 * Various AI performance improvements.

Fire Breath
A new dragon ability has been added to replace the existing weapon ability dragons were using. This ability is a close replica of the fire ball ability that dragons in UO use.


 * Fire Breath deals damage based on the creature's current health.
 * When a dragon begins this ability it will let out a roar, after a few seconds if the victim is still in range it will release its fire breath.
 * Fire breath is usable by tamed dragons, although it is subject to the same scaling damage in PvP that melee damage is.
 * A dragon cannot trigger this ability again until the cooldown has elapsed. This cooldown is triggered even if the ability is not successful.

Spellcasting

 * Spell damage now receives a 50% damage bonus in PvM only.

MindBlast
MindBlast now does damage based on the victim's total armor penalty.

Adjusted Damage = Base Damage Roll * (Magery / 100.0) * (0.75 + (0.25 * (Evaluating Intelligence / 100.0)))

PvP: Bonus Damage = Adjusted Damage * (0.25 * (Total Armor Penalty / 2))

PvM: Bonus Damage = 0.25 * Armor Rating

Total damage = Adjusted Damage + Bonus Damage

General

 * Character window tool tips have been updated.
 * Armor Penalty added to character window.
 * Armor Rating will now reflect bonus from Bastion and Aegis.