by Moorgard on 2001-08-03
Reports are streaming in from across the face of Norrath. The wizards are saying it. The rangers are discussing it. Even the monks are dissertating.Mostly, folks are saying "WTF???"
The Avatar of War--biggest, badest melee mofo anywhere in Norrath--has been killed twice. That's twice, mind you. So to prevent farming of those godly monk leggings, Verant has gone and nerfed the whole zone of Kael by making any giant above the rank of guard completely uncharmable.
Why do this? Because Legacy of Steel and Shock of Swords were using the tactic of charming giants to use them against the Avatar of War. That's right; LoS and SoS had the audacity to allow enchanters to use an ability given to them by Verant in order to win a 40-minute battle that netted them 700 corpses. Because this was such a trivial, boring fight (as all mobs that take 40 minutes to kill are), Verant decided to make things easier on their poor, defenseless Avatar of War.
Get real. This battle was not trivial. Was not going to become trivial. And was not going to work on most servers. Yet Verant chose to take this action anyway.
Why? They put loot on the AoW, after all. They must want it to be killed, right? Or were those 60 AC monk legs just a big joke around the office?
"Let's put a 300AC breastplate in his loot table. No one's going to kill him anyway."
Well, whatever the reason for the decision, Verant has succeeded in making the Avatar of War unkillable.
That's right, folks. Unless your server can get 100 warlords and 100 high priests together for this fight, you can kiss your chances of getting flayed barbarian armor goodbye. You're in for the biggest Zerg rush you've ever seen.
Sorry to say it, but Verant isn't scoring a lot of points with the Mobhunter team right now.
Sleeper awake, Verant says nothing. World is unchanged.
Avatar of War dies. Verant says nothing. Tactic gets completely nerfed.
Makes you wonder what they changed in Plane of Growth to ensure that Tunare stays alive. Oh, that's right, they already did that by packing her full of crap loot.
Is charming mobs a valid tactic? Like so many other abilities given to players--feign death, for example--Verant seems to want players to only use their skills a certain way, and will nerf them if players come up with a new use for them.
So while it's okay for the kobold noble to charm you and force you to beat your groupmates senseless, it's not right for a player to do the same thing to the Avatar of War, even though he has the spell to do it.
That isn't balance, my friends. That's not balance at all.
