Shattered Kingdoms

I think those people are crazy then.

Also, there is some reference to MR trains reducing damage from magical weapons. This was a misunderstanding I had when speaking with Qahz about what he got from it when it first came out and saying something to the effect of I went in with this warlock and and 2-manned a cabal guardian, and none of us got hurt. I thought at the time he said he tanked the cabal guardian's damage output in melee combat and didn't get hurt. I did think that would be rather outrageous, but the truth of the matter is I have no idea whether magic type weapons have their damage reduced by MR trains or not.

Although it is true that low level magic type melee damage is fully resisted, but given the nature that magical resistance works, I would be of the opinion that it does not reduce damage, unless, of course, Dulrik points out otherwise.

They do.

It works very similar to magic damage immune pets such as the matte-black halberd. If you are many levels higher than the effect, you will be immune to it. Otherwise the ability degrades to resistance, which by the way is not half damage -- it's never been that effective. The only real difference with MR is that you have to make your MR check on every hit or else it doesn't work at all.

Seems reasonable to me.

In retrospect, would an aura of negation that canceled haste, giant strength, left a victim with fatigue, would a second aura of negation be able to rip that fatigue away from the victim?

Truth is that aura of negation(AoN) sounds a lot like an ability of an elite magic user to absorb magic from others.

1. Doesn't make sense that AoN may negate effects from herbs. Then again, SK doesn't have alchemical bonuses.

2. AoN should have a predefined range. It either should be used against anyone who hits the barb with a melee weapon (reach or not) or either against those around him (no reach). Basically, the range of AoN, shouldn't be defined by the reach of the barbarian.

3. Reaching 100% protection or even close to that percentage, overturns any balance SK have seen between the classes. If a class has too high chance to win at 1 vs 1 against any of the other classes, something is wrong and in this case, spellcasters seem lacking.

4. When I first heard of this ability, I thought AoN is a passive ability that has a chance to remove a random buff from your opponent and turn it to healing. Actually, that doesn't sound so harsh, yet it can give quite the advantage to the barbarian. Now, if it's targeted and checks each buff and also has a chance for crit debuff, it sounds seriously overpowered.

5. If I got this right, magical damage due to weapons or NPCs is reduced. Why is it that resistance also offer protection? It looks more normal to have chance to totally negate that damage or take it in full.

It still sounds to me like a cabal or a unique ability but if it has to be an open class ability, there should be counter-measures that warriors can follow (Hiding behind pets doesn't count) and also spellcasters may overcome using their art.

Cheers.-

I say let me fight a MR barb anyday. They have crappy HP

MR barb v fire elemental? Log plz.

MR Barbarians still can't get these spells, and that's still bad for them. Then again you also included frenzy on the list, so I'm just going to assume that you aren't paying attention to yourself.


MR griffarbs have plenty of HP.


Looking at it from a class comparison perspective, aura of negation along with the damage reduction buff made MR barbarians completely unkillable for the classes that already had trouble with them (Sorcs, Swashies, Rogues, Shamans, priests, hellions,paladins and scouts(?)) and now has even placed them on even footing with other classes that used to be able to handle them (Mercs, Non MR barbs, warlocks) even when those classes are fully prepped. As well, there was practically no encouragement given for people to roll an MR barb of any race besides griffon, or any drawback at all for rolling an MR griffarb compared to the other races. Griffon is still the -far- superior choice, since Aura of Negation works well enough without EQ anyway, griffons have the best unbuffed stats for a barbarian, (You might say giant, but a giant barb is practically guaranteed to be over 1/2 weight capacity) griffons get extra stat points so they don't have to sacrifice as much HP for MR trains, they're size large, and they also don't need crap to be able to kill people except an enchanted weapon and some lousy armor that starts with MR or MP.


I mean, I like the notion of being able to play SK with less grind, but how come you implemented it for only one specific race for one specific build of a single class?

No, fatigue is not magic.

Am I invisible? Because three pages back I listed five ideas which I thought would help bring the skill into balance, the most important being that this should not be able to debuff held spells.

Giving the barbarian the chance to get on equal footing is fine, but negating the skills of other classes (especially shamans) is a bit too much, especially given that this is a passive/premeditated effect.