Asherons Call: Upcoming Dispel Changes

As we mentioned in the recent March Letter to the Players Follow-Up, one our near-term projects is to increase the usefulness and versatility of the dispel spells. After reviewing your feedback from the Letter and discussing the options in a number of team meetings, we’ve come to a consensus on the following plan. Now we’d like to present it to you and get some final feedback before we put this plan into action.

Dispels that are cast by players currently remove both negative and positive enchantments. Because of this, an NPK player could not use a dispel on a fellow NPK player – because they would dispel the other player’s buffs. Player-Killers could however use dispels to remove both positive and negative enchantments from their target – an effect that was not entirely desirable for either friend or enemy. To address these issues, we are planning to change all dispel spells cast by players to remove negative spells only. This will affect both existing and newly-learned spells: all dispel spells currently in a player’s spell book will change to spells that remove negative enchantments only, and all newly-learned dispels will also remove negative enchantments only.

Dispels that are cast by players are currently only available up to and including level 6. We will be expanding to include level 7 dispels for each of the three schools that currently have them (Creature, Item, and Life). The level 7 dispel spells will follow the same “double-scarab” pattern found in other dispels, using Platinum and Diamond scarabs.

Dispel spells currently require a substantial amount of mana to cast, starting at 50 mana for the level I versions. We feel that the mana cost is slightly too high for these spells, so we are considering adjusting them downwards. The following table shows current mana costs for dispels, and our possible new mana costs.

Dispels that are cast by players currently remove up to 3 spells for the lower levels (level 1 and 2); up to 4 spells for the mid levels (level 3 and 4), and up to 6 spells for the highest levels (level 5 and 6). We would like to increase the number of spells removed for the lower-level dispels. The following table shows the current number of spells removed per level, and our possible new number of spells removed per level.

Currently, the scrolls for dispel spells are found in Steel Chests exclusively, and all levels of dispel spells are found in Steel Chests. Our plans include the ability to find all levels of dispel scrolls in creature treasure and in chests. Creatures of all level ranges that can currently drop spell scrolls will have the chance to drop dispel scrolls. And Level 7 dispels will occur in Steel Chests. Scriveners will not sell these spells.

Dispel gems, dispel potions, and magic casters with an inherent dispel spell (such as the Awakener and the Attenuated Awakener) are very similar, but in the past they have rather different behavior in terms of what kinds of spells they dispel and how many spells they dispel. Going forward, however, we propose to give them all the same behavior in these areas.

Dispel potions currently remove both positive and negative enchantments which we feel reduces the usefulness of these craft items. Our plans include changing dispel potions to remove negative enchantments only. Dispel potions will use the same type of dispel spells used for both dispel gems and magic casters with dispel ability.

It is only possible to create dispel potions up to level 5 currently. Our plans include the ability to craft level 6 and 7 dispel potions using techniques similar to the current dispel potion crafting processes. In addition, the lower gems -which current dispel level 4 and 5 spells – will dispel level 5 and 6 spells respectively.

Dispel gems and the Awakener and the Attenuated Awakener currently have no maximum limit on the number of negative spells they will remove when used. This behavior will not change, but dispel potions will gain the same behavior to bring them into line. In other words, dispel potions will also dispel every negative spell on the player.

In order to increase the convenience of dispel gems and dispel potions, these items will now stack to 25.

We had originally discussed removing the ability for dispel gems to remove all negative spells. One issue with this however is the fact that creatures will frequently cast the same negative spell on a player multiple times, creating multiple “layers” of the same spell. Many players voiced their concern that removing the ability of dispel gems to remove all negative spells would result in a situation where they could only remove several layers of a spell, and not all layers. This issue could also impact magic casters with dispel abilities. In response to these concerns, we have decided to hold off on removing the ability for gems to dispel all negative spells while we investigate solutions that would prevent the layering effect from occurring.

Due to the planned changes in dispels, we will also be removing the ability for most creatures to cast dispel spells on players. Traps, however, will keep this ability (as will very special ‘creatures’ such as Asheron himself).

Many Player-Killers have expressed concern over the current use of dispel gems and dispel items in PK combat. With the coming dispel updates and additional dispelling options, Player-Killers foresee the current, relatively moderate issue with dispels and dispel items quickly degrading into a perpetual dispel-debuff-dispel stalemate. We are investigating the issues involved in tying the use of dispel spells, dispel gems, and other dispel items to the 20-second PK combat timer. This is one area in which we would particularly like to hear more of your opinions.

These changes impact PvM combat and PvP combat in very different ways. Because of this, we’ve created two separate feedback threads: one for PvM and one for PvP.

Please use this thread for PvM Dispel feedback.

Please use this thread for PvP Dispel feedback.