Patch Notes - 23rd August

[Rincewind]

New patch, new changelog

Game Mechanics
* Laurentian Augmentation Clinics have mysteriously become functional again and can be operated by characters with the Surgery skill. For 5 AP, a Surgeon inside a powered Augmentation Clinic can put one of nine performance-enhancing bionic augmentations on another character in the area. Because they are bionic technology (not magic) augmentations last until the death of the aspect that received them and cannot be removed by any means but death. Characters may have up to three bionics installed in their bodies. Choose wisely.
* Unholy Strength now applies to all close-quarters attacks (hand-to-hand, melee, sword, touch attacks), not just hand-to-hand.
* The Redeemed's Moteless Eye now applies to all ranged attacks, not just bows.
* Defilers with Poison can now cure themselves of Defiler Poison if afflicted with it for 1 AP and 5 MP.
* Alchemy failures that drain MP have been removed. Alchemy rolls that would get that result will instead inflict Lethargic for 13-50 random ticks.
* Wisp Form no longer confers immunity to pet attacks.

Area of Effect
AOE combat has received many balance changes:
* Hitting a petmaster with AOE now triggers pet retaliation.
* Flamethrower and SMG AOE now ignore factionmates.
* Flamethrower and SMG AOE per-target damage is now boosted by enchantments and skills.
* Way of the Fast Hands now reloads SMGs and Flamethrowers used for AOE attacks.
* AOE attacks now prioritize Pets as targets.
* Bursting Flare per-target damage has been raised from 8 to 14 and max damage cap has been raised from 150 to 350.
* Deep Spellcraft AOE cost is now spell cost*3. Per target damage is now [spell base damage + spell affinity + spell damage from skills]. Max damage is now [(spell base damage * 10) + (spell affinity * 10)].
* Deep Spellcraft AOE now benefits from Hand of the Necromancer, if applicable.
* Explosive Murder accuracy has been raised from 75% to 90%.
* Song of the Word now costs 15 MP and deals [level + 5] per-target damage.
* Wing Shards AOE now deals [16 + damage from skills] per-target damage and has a 200-point damage cap.
* Grenades cost 3 AP to throw.
* Grenade accuracy is 45% without skills, 55% with Ranged Combat, 60% with Thrown Weapons, and 65% with Advanced Thrown Weapons. Grenade accuracy cannot be raised above 95%.
* Base grenades have been changed to 25 per target/100 damage cap.
* Damage output of enchanted grenades has been adjusted to:
--Per target: Base + [# of damage enchants^2 - # of damage enchants].
--Damage Cap: Base + ([# of damage enchants^2 - # of damage enchants] x 10).

Quality of Life and Interface
* The button to use the Advocate's Blessing of Inspiration or Healing Aura is now disabled if there aren't any other Good characters in the area that would benefit from it.
* Hovering a mouse over map tiles now displays their coordinates.
* Removes factional pet stances as choices for non-factioned pet masters.

Major Bugs
* Substantial reworks to pet targeting that should reduce some of its more inexplicable behavior.
* Fixed an issue that prevented portal bending to Purgatorio for Transcends without factions in Purgatorio.
* Fixed an issue that kept Animus of the Wolf and Animus of the Bat users from building fortifications while transformed.
* Resolved a bug that was keeping Defiler Poison from persisting on respawns.
* Solved a bug that was disconnecting users when they attempted to join a Guild.
* Addressed an issue where using healing items at above maximum HP set you to maximum HP.
* Class change art should display correctly now, including on the MobileClash theme.
* Pets now correctly pick a new target if locked onto a target that has died or moved away.
* Mask of the Martyr's damage aura on nondemons, which did not work, now works.

Minor Bugs
* Fixed an issue where dispel spells could (under some circumstances) appear as weapon options to attack characters, and where they could (under some circumstances) do a few points of damage.
* Removed an issue where characters with both a class and faction allowing bending to a planar destination saw the option twice.
* Darksoul Cabal can now reduce the cost of Touch of Corrupted Loyalty.
* Fists of Holy Resolve sends messages correctly now.
* Fixed issue where Death Touch damage from spells was not correctly taken into account when attacking doors.
* Fixed issue where death was not removing characters from the target list of Pets.
* Fixed a possible explanation for an issue where an error was sometimes thrown when checking for valid teleport and stepping stone destinations.
* Fixed an issue where Gun Wizards got one extra damage vs wards.
* Anointing a Potion of Planar Protection gives correct duration instead of zero minutes.
* Revoking a standing stronghold now correctly reduces fortifications by 25%.
* Corrects some messages that were failing to send for status tick triggered hp regeneration.

[Sac]

[Fellis]

Why do you consider wisp form negating pet attacks to be a core element of the class? Conduit is still a very strong class with many interesting builds, some more tanky built/geared conduits consider this change to be a buff because now they can use the 15% defense wisp form confers vs pets.

Wisp form was making pets not target the conduit *except* in retaliations, the pets would not aggro the conduit regularly afterwards. While we were looking at fixing this, it was decided that completely negating pets was not a element we wanted as part of the conduit's kit. Especially in a 30cp travel skill that already had MP movement, levitation, and 15% defense.

We also put some unnecessary arbitrary buffs in this one! If you have a Firearms character, SMG/Flamethrower AoE is useable now!

[Kylinn]

MP movement is a two-edged sword in a class which relies primarily on spells. Not only that; most classes with a travel skill pay once when they turn it on; the Conduit pays with each and every move they make. I rather considered the immunity to un-aggro'd pets a compensation for how expensive the movement is. (It's not like one can attack petmasters with impunity, after all - only the first blow is free.)

[Kandarin]

[Fellis]

[oath2order]

I feel like the augmentation clinics should require power to do surgery.

[Kandarin]