Remove/Replace Fortification.

[Angelus_dead]

If fort was replaced by a bonus to AC on confirmation rolls, and that was the only change made, we would be looking at taking up 4+ item slots, feats, stat allocation, for the sole purpose of having heavy fort, because mobs on epic would still be hitting us 95% of the time with our fully buffed to the hilt 80 AC. And classes like WF barbs would max out at around 50 AC with full buffs, meaning they make a bunch of sacrifices to just have heavy fort (assuming the bonus to AC on confirmation is +50), while end-game mobs hit them on 19/20 swings anyway.

I don't see how that improves the game, or makes it more fun. Seems more like punishment.

You don't think it's a good idea to increase diversity of character types or have a real drawback to intense focus on damage and hitpoitns to the exclusion of defense?

Yes, it's true that the suggestion would prevent many barbarian-style characters from making themselves 100% immune to critical hits. That's the objective.

[Kadran]

Funny how people make suggestions wen 1 they dont play the game 2 they dont cleric if they log on once ever two years

so explain how having your party being one shotted by epic ogres....barbs included this makes the game more FUN?

I know change is scary bro, but Borror is making a whole lot of sense. Step away from the computer, take several deep breaths, return to the computer and re-read their suggestion with an open-mind.

I DO have a cleric, several in fact. I DO believe that 100% immune is over powered. Turbine does too. That's why they changed Protection from Energy in the first place.

Just for fun I played my last character from 1-20 with 25% fort (WF) I never used any fort item. I didn't main tank the hound, or sully, but regular mobs really aren't that bad if you have decent HP, displacement, and self heals (I play a WF arcane melee.) You just need to change tactics every now and again, and be versitile. :-)

[Matuse]

If you take a good suggestion and edit it to replace the good numbers with bad numbers, it becomes a bad suggestion.

I edited nothing. There are no "good numbers".

If heavy fort is +10 AC vs confirmation, then the only people who will use it will be super high AC tanks that probably don't need it...people who don't care about AC now won't start, because they can't get it high enough to matter, and adding +10 to jack squat still leaves you with jack squat.

If heavy fort is:
+10 = meaningless, nobody will use it.
+25 = People with garbage AC still won't benefit from it, people with middling AC (all 3 of them) will see some help, people with huge AC will become immune to crits.
+50 = uber powerful, and everybody uses it; exactly as it is today.

How is your system even a tiny bit of an improvement over the current one?

2. Sample values for the AC bonus might be +5 Light, +15 Moderate, and +20 Heavy Fort, although the exact numbers are not firmly specified.

Because that goes nowhere. Monsters with +50 to hit are not exactly super rare at high levels. With robe wearers going around in the 25-ish AC area, adding +20 of anti-seeker will be exactly the same as adding +0 in anti-seeker.

Being protected from critical hits is in everyone's vested interest. The mechanic by which they protect themselves has to be accessible to everyone, because everyone gets hit, and considering how hard monsters hit when they aren't critting, crits become nearly instant death much of the time. Turning fortification into AC doesn't give fidelity of access to all characters. The tiny handful people who walk around with 70+ normal AC will become basically crit immune. The slightly less tiny handful of people with middling AC will get the equivalent of 20-60% fortification, and the very large number of people with no AC will recieve no benefit from this at all. How does that -in any way- improve the game?

Besides which, making crit protection so difficult to obtain will even further emphasize the importance of hitpoints. Which is fine for barbs/wizzies/sorcs/healbots/most fighters who can drop an 18 into one attribute, and all the rest into con, but those classes who need more than one attribute will be -extremely- hosed. Also hosed is the entire concept of character diversity, to an even greater extent than you're complaining heavy fort does.

[Siskel]

Correct, but you have to start somewhere.

A few advantages are:

• Helps making certain design space relevant again (+/- to-hit, +/- AC, mobs' critical hits, and fortification greater than Heavy Fortification's)
• Increased range of meaningful Armor Class
• Increased unpredictability while maintaining same difficulty level
• Helps making certain design space relevant again (+/- to-hit and +/- AC)
• Reduced dependency on a dedicated healer while maintaining same difficulty level
• Increased difficulty of kiting

Not under what Angelus_dead or I advocate.

"5. Powerful monsters, especially raid bosses, have their combat stats reevaluated to allow for the fact that they can now score critical hits"
"It does entail readjusting certain mobs' DPS"

It's most likely a design job, not a a programming job. The odds that it would take much away from "PrE's, new raids, new gameplay" are thus fairly low.

The problem with the AC idea is that an enormous amount of the game would need to be rebalanced. Fortification assumes there was a successful hit and AC no longer plays a role. To make AC play an additional role would require an evaluation of AC values across the board.

While it may be a neat idea to work in opposition to seeker bonuses we have quite a bit of content in the current system. An idea that is easier to implement would be best for all.

[Angelus_dead]

I edited nothing. There are no "good numbers". There are no numbers at all

That is exactly untrue. Why are you making false claims about what is written in the thread?

How is your system even a tiny bit of an improvement over the current one?

There is little incentive to answer questions from someone who does not read what has already been written.

[Tarnoc]

I know change is scary bro, but Borror is making a whole lot of sense. Step away from the computer, take several deep breaths, return to the computer and re-read their suggestion with an open-mind.

I DO have a cleric, several in fact. I DO believe that 100% immune is over powered. Turbine does too. That's why they changed Protection from Energy in the first place.

Just for fun I played my last character from 1-20 with 25% fort (WF) I never used any fort item. I didn't main tank the hound, or sully, but regular mobs really aren't that bad if you have decent HP, displacement, and self heals (I play a WF arcane melee.) You just need to change tactics every now and again, and be versitile. :-)

lets see so everyone should be a wf??your 2009 start date is lovely how long have you farmed these items and made your toons worthy of epic content?obviously your 25% fort wf sorc would be one shoted or hiding in an exploit spot to not be hit hmmmm

all this is doing makes my vip acount be forced to buy and chug turbine points mana pots just to finish quests

and lets see hmm a non wf with no dr no base fort and all things and only just over 300 hps is gonna be one shoted if he uses a spell that is strong and takes agro...or hmm my mass heal now affects 20 things i do mass heal take epic zombie butt pirate agro and get one shoted....hope you have lotsa res clickys o right you can by them in the store not in a raid atleast......


you know if they change this but also brought in core rules such as disarming headshots and totally revamped combat in ddo then yes ide think before i complained but this is just a nerf to make thigns tougher for those self proclaimed L33T who dont even play the game anymore and arent so L33T

[Xanthrawl]

lets see so everyone should be a wf??your 2009 start date is lovely how long have you farmed these items and made your toons worthy of epic content?obviously your 25% fort wf sorc would be one shoted or hiding in an exploit spot to not be hit hmmmm

all this is doing makes my vip acount be forced to buy and chug turbine points mana pots just to finish quests

and lets see hmm a non wf with no dr no base fort and all things and only just over 300 hps is gonna be one shoted if he uses a spell that is strong and takes agro...or hmm my mass heal now affects 20 things i do mass heal take epic zombie butt pirate agro and get one shoted....hope you have lotsa res clickys o right you can by them in the store not in a raid atleast......

<------Kadran
I have 2 accounts, because before DDO: EU there was a much lower character limit and I had a ton of character that I was tired of deleting. Now that my join date is months ahead of yours, I'll go ahead and debunk your other ******** +1 points.

I never once said that everyone should play WF. I said I made it to cap (20) with a WF w/o any additional fort. This means your fleshy can do it with a bloodknuckles loincloth from guard jungs.

As for questioning my gear, it's true my gear isn't amazing. I don't have many greensteel items. This only enhances my point and makes you look worse. If you need to buy mana pots to play a character to cap you should keep giving Turbine your credit card info. I'll even send you a card in the mail. :-D I'm glad people like you made it so DDO didnt have to shut down.

Anyone can have DR. Pick up a bloodrage symbiont. Cast Stoneskin. There's tons of ways to accomplish this. I have self buffs, self heals, evasion, and I'm a good player. I think you're missing, or under estimating the last one so let me stress that again. I'm a good player. This makes up for other lack-luster aspects I may have (largely due to alt addiction and prefering to level than play a capped toon.)

[Tarnoc]

<------Kadran
I have 2 accounts, because before DDO: EU there was a much lower character limit and I had a ton of character that I was tired of deleting. Now that my join date is months ahead of yours, I'll go ahead and debunk your other ******** +1 points.

I never once said that everyone should play WF. I said I made it to cap (20) with a WF w/o any additional fort. This means your fleshy can do it with a bloodknuckles loincloth from guard jungs.

As for questioning my gear, it's true my gear isn't amazing. I don't have many greensteel items. This only enhances my point and makes you look worse. If you need to buy mana pots to play a character to cap you should keep giving Turbine your credit card info. I'll even send you a card in the mail. :-D I'm glad people like you made it so DDO didnt have to shut down.

Anyone can have DR. Pick up a bloodrage symbiont. Cast Stoneskin. There's tons of ways to accomplish this. I have self buffs, self heals, evasion, and I'm a good player. I think you're missing, or under estimating the last one so let me stress that again. I'm a good player. This makes up for other lack-luster aspects I may have (largely due to alt addiction and prefering to level than play a capped toon.)

so basically your saying you get to lvl 20 and restart with an alt i myself like playing ym capped toons....hmm lets see are you jumping up on ledges to cast firewalls? that is an exploit after all (if it wasnt they wouldnt always be changing the landscape to remove said spots)....as for buying mana pots in the store i have not had too YET these changes are gonna be making my cleric lets see heal res heal res res res res because they have no hps from death penalty....like i said these changes would have to be a whole combat change not just one sliver.....and also things you fail to bring up wf have blanket immunitys thus also makeing thigns alot easier and have 2 extra con ina stat thus easier for more hps......do i doubt youve run with 25% fort to cap nope...do i believe youve spammed epic content with said fort wf...i doubt it....and as for dr coments once again your comparing placing items in slots too over powered race lines.. so lets change out wf blanket immunities while we are at it....and dwarves thier too tough too and o right finesse built elfs too many extra damage lines and as for my start date i was in the beta and didnt buy in the headstart because of the lame content at that time and gave ddo a second look just before the sands.......

[sephiroth1084]

We've been debating something similar to this, actually. Sunder, Improved Sunder, Destruction, Eagle Claw Strike, and the like would be fortification modifying effects instead of (or in addition to some of) their current effects, and we'd add other abilities that add to or lower fortification percentage as well. (We'd also likely add more possible treasure effects than the current 25/75/100%)

A secondary thing we're considering to go along with that is changing undead, constructs, and other similar creatures to having a base 200% fortification, and if you bust it down below 100%, rendering them vulnerable to critical hits and sneak attacks.

All still under debate at the moment.

I really, really like this line of thought!!! "You must spread more reputation around before giving it to Eladrin again."

Destruction should absolutely retain its current functionality, as these items represent a real and strategic option that player utilize in some content (particularly against hard to hit epic monsters), which is something this game sorely needs to retain.

Sunder, however, has been a very poor option for a long time, and giving it a fortification reduction ability would be very significant, and make these worthwhile, although how worthwhile will depend upon the final balance between fortification reduction effects, percentages, duration, etc...

Including items that grant different values of fortification than the current model would be interesting, but a lot of people may not appreciate having their Minos Legens or Mineral II accessory nerfed, and without reducing their value, or including stuff with a higher value than 100%, that's really the only way of addressing this issue. That said, monsters should definitely gain the ability to reduce our fortification as well, though likely less so than we can drop theirs.

My concern about the projection for undead, constructs and elementals with 200% fortification, is that if we are given the tools to somehow drop their fortification by over 100 points, how will anything with 100% fort or less pose any kind of challenge? I think a better solution might be giving them ~100-150% (depending on difficulty of monster maybe?), but also giving them some resistance to having their fortification reduced. So, say an item/feat/effect knocks fort down by 25% for 6 seconds, it might instead only reduce their fort by 12.5% for 3 seconds, or something similar. That seems like the best way to balance monsters for which part of their challenge comes in the form of being immune to crits and SA.

On a related note, it would be really good for rogues to get some sort of fortification reducing effect either innately as they level, as an enhancement line (1,2,3,4 model, not the 2, 4, 6 ideally) and/or as a new specialty feat (something desperately needed to offer some variety for rogues from lvl 10 on), as they are currently penalized much more than anyone else in quests with high-fort targets. One possibility would be to give rogue the ability to ignore a percentage of fort with their own attacks, without necessarily lowering fort on the monster (they gain SA, but don't enable others to crit/SA).

Conversely, you could separate fortification into two different values, one being resistance to crits and the other resistance to Sneak Attack, allowing for the possibility of one and not the other.

In any case, I am heartened to see that you folks are thinking about making improvements along these lines! Have you given any thought to looking at ways of adjusting other blanket immunities (ie Deathward, Freedom of Movement)?

[Kadran]

so basically your saying you get to lvl 20 and restart with an alt i myself like playing ym capped toons....hmm lets see are you jumping up on ledges to cast firewalls? that is an exploit after all (if it wasnt they wouldnt always be changing the landscape to remove said spots)....as for buying mana pots in the store i have not had too YET these changes are gonna be making my cleric lets see heal res heal res res res res because they have no hps from death penalty....like i said these changes would have to be a whole combat change not just one sliver.....and also things you fail to bring up wf have blanket immunitys thus also makeing thigns alot easier and have 2 extra con ina stat thus easier for more hps......do i doubt youve run with 25% fort to cap nope...do i believe youve spammed epic content with said fort wf...i doubt it....and as for dr coments once again your comparing placing items in slots too over powered race lines.. so lets change out wf blanket immunities while we are at it....and dwarves thier too tough too and o right finesse built elfs too many extra damage lines and as for my start date i was in the beta and didnt buy in the headstart because of the lame content at that time and gave ddo a second look just before the sands.......

I really am sorry, but I must bow out of this debate. You're poor understanding of the English language in all major spots (Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation, etc) and in-ability to press the enter key has vanquished me. But don't worry. I'm sure the devs read it and agree with you. ;-)

[Tarnoc]

I really am sorry, but I must bow out of this debate. You're poor understanding of the English language in all major spots (Grammar, Spelling, Punctuation, etc) and in-ability to press the enter key has vanquished me. But don't worry. I'm sure the devs read it and agree with you. ;-)

hmm so you cant argue your point sorry but my typing skills is the issue not grammar...but obviously you are an excellent typist...i have no interest in spending my time typing out a perfect paragraph to appease your need to attack my supposed grammar issues......maybe they should add a spell checker to the forums hmm waste more time on usless changes

[gavagai]

My concern about the projection for undead, constructs and elementals with 200% fortification, is that if we are given the tools to somehow drop their fortification by over 100 points, how will anything with 100% fort or less pose any kind of challenge? I think a better solution might be giving them ~100-150% (depending on difficulty of monster maybe?), but also giving them some resistance to having their fortification reduced. So, say an item/feat/effect knocks fort down by 25% for 6 seconds, it might instead only reduce their fort by 12.5% for 3 seconds, or something similar. That seems like the best way to balance monsters for which part of their challenge comes in the form of being immune to crits and SA.

On a related note, it would be really good for rogues to get some sort of fortification reducing effect either innately as they level, as an enhancement line (1,2,3,4 model, not the 2, 4, 6 ideally) and/or as a new specialty feat (something desperately needed to offer some variety for rogues from lvl 10 on), as they are currently penalized much more than anyone else in quests with high-fort targets. One possibility would be to give rogue the ability to ignore a percentage of fort with their own attacks, without necessarily lowering fort on the monster (they gain SA, but don't enable others to crit/SA).

I also think the overall fort for undead/constructs would have to be reduced if they don't want to make sunder and similar effects "crazybroken" overpowering. They may simply want to create new attack abilities for Fort, rather than transform Sunder into that kind of ability.

But Turbine should also consider implementing both passive fort-reduction and active fort-reduction abilities. This would make for a very rich and balanced fortification system.

Hunter of the Undead, for instance, could get a -10% passive fort reduction ability per Tier against undead -- since he knows undead, and knows where they are the weakest. He knows to shoot the zombies in the head. This passive ability benefits only the HotD, but then would beautifully dovetail with another ability that would lower Fort by 10%-20% for everyone. Most importantly, HotD would actually have a chance at being a better undead hunter than a Ranger with F.E. Undead.

Mechanics could get similar passive/active abilities versus constructs. Their keen eyes for how things work could easily extend to granting fort reductions against other types of enemies, as well.

And the rogue capstone could easily include a stacking passive ability.

[Galwain]

Some of this makes sense in many ways, and in others it just screams pain.

Plainly said, as a caster (drow Sorc) only gettin d4 for hit points and not completely gimping myself to stack h.p and con. i have a max of 350 ish h.p. I rely on having Heavy fort on a item for Elite riads, Epic content, ect. to survive. That heavy fort item lets me take 2-3 hits before my squishy caster gets killed. I've tried without it before, I cant even take 1 crit hit.

So in forms of other classes it could make sense. But as the caster classes, this would totally destroy us. There is no reason a caster should suddenly have to stack A.C. (which would be pointless anyway) since we would probably only be able to hit a 40 ish A.C. And since high end content mobs hit with around a +40 its pointless.

We've allready been destroyed mercilessly by having every mob being blanket buffed with death ward, and fire resist. The whole point of a high end caster was the ability todo massive damage. Its the reason you played one. I've lived with the blanket buffing and reduction of damage and still strived through. Maybe you should look at the other side of things, and not look towards the melee but maybe at the casters that are slowly being pushed to the back of the pack. I still refuse to become a buffer/cc'r/WF healer at end content game.

[Borror0]

My concern about the projection for undead, constructs and elementals with 200% fortification, is that if we are given the tools to somehow drop their fortification by over 100 points, how will anything with 100% fort or less pose any kind of challenge? I think a better solution might be giving them ~100-150% (depending on difficulty of monster maybe?), but also giving them some resistance to having their fortification reduced.

Says it with me: complexity creep! That is why Angelus_dead's solution is so appealing: it's incredible simple yet effective.

PS: ZOMG Wall of Text

[sephiroth1084]

I also think the overall fort for undead/constructs would have to be reduced if they don't want to make sunder and similar effects "crazybroken" overpowering. They may simply want to create new attack abilities for Fort, rather than transform Sunder into that kind of ability.

But Turbine should also consider implementing both passive fort-reduction and active fort-reduction abilities. This would make for a very rich and balanced fortification system.

That's basically what I was shooting for with my suggestion on the rogue stuff. Personal and Shared fortification reducing effects and abilities--I think personal/shared is better terminology for what you're suggesting than active/passive, as the latter implies something innate versus something that has to be clicked/activated (your HotD change as compared with, say, a change to Sunder).

Sunder, by the way, should definitely benefit from this if/when it comes about. Using an attack roll to reduce the AC of something you can hardly hit is a poor mechanic. Destruction items work because you can keep swinging until you roll high enough.

Hunter of the Undead, for instance, could get a -10% passive fort reduction ability per Tier against undead -- since he knows undead, and knows where they are the weakest. He knows to shoot the zombies in the head. This passive ability benefits only the HotD, but then would beautifully dovetail with another ability that would lower Fort by 10%-20% for everyone. Most importantly, HotD would actually have a chance at being a better undead hunter than a Ranger with F.E. Undead.

Even if they got a 100% reduction in undead fort, I don't think they'd make better undead hunters than Rangers with FE: Undead, simply because an extra 14 damage per swing trumps the ability to crit and most of the benefits HotD gains. HotD is actually a better beholder killer than undead slayer, oddly enough. Still, it would be a nice boon.

Mechanics could get similar passive/active abilities versus constructs. Their keen eyes for how things work could easily extend to granting fort reductions against other types of enemies, as well.

And the rogue capstone could easily include a stacking passive ability.

I'd rather see all rogues gain the ability to bypass fortification at least a little bit starting fairly early in the game and improving as they go, perhaps giving Mechanics a much better progression vs. constructs, but they absolutely should not be the only rogues who can do so, and having the ability just on the capstone would be an abysmal idea.

Rogues already do have access to this effect with Wrack Construct, which almost no one takes (that I know of). Perhaps the effect is too slight (up to 30% for 6 AP), or too expensive, but it's clear that the tech is there. Now it just needs to be broadened and tweaked.

I am hopeful.

[Angelus_dead]

My concern about the projection for undead, constructs and elementals with 200% fortification, is that if we are given the tools to somehow drop their fortification by over 100 points, how will anything with 100% fort or less pose any kind of challenge?

Yeah, probably there should be specific features to enables crit+sneak against undead/construct which is completely separate from the Fortification defense used by generic monsters.

That's how it works in the D&D 3.5 rules already. Undead are immune to crits not because they have some special shield protecting them, but because they don't actually care if their lungs are connected or not. Characters in D&D can use specific things to get those attacks on undead, like the Grave Strike spell or Truedeath augment crystals.

[Judo]

straight up doooOOoomm

[Gelandor]

We can sit here all day and debate whether or not the modification of fortification as currently implemented in game is a good idea, or not, but lets talk about the facts

1. When has Turbine, EVER been able to make such a huge change to the game without majorly screwing it up?
2. Here is what the D20 SRD Says about Fortification: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems...#fortification
3. The rules of this game should stay as close to D&D as possible.
4. As others has said, there would have to be some MAJOR balancing to MANY aspects of the game prior to the change of fortification, and I honestly do not have faith in Turbine to make this happen without causing some serious damage to DDO.

So, my main concern with making a major change to the game, such as how Critical hits, and fortification work, are points #1 and #4.

I could very easily see many many bugs attached, such as something like 'All Players with an AC of 35 or lower are being auto-critt'd on every hit'

Its not that I dont think there have been some good alternatives suggested in this thread, but this is Dungeons and Dragons Online, lets not forget about the D&D part.

[sephiroth1084]

Says it with me: complexity creep! That is why Angelus_dead's solution is so appealing: it's incredible simple yet effective.

Missed A_D's suggestion (or forgot it if it was something I read a while back). Link please, or direction to which page it's on here.

PS: ZOMG Wall of Text

Yeah, because that's something new.

Yeah, probably there should be specific features to enables crit+sneak against undead/construct which is completely separate from the Fortification defense used by generic monsters.

That's how it works in the D&D 3.5 rules already. Undead are immune to crits not because they have some special shield protecting them, but because they don't actually care if their lungs are connected or not. Characters in D&D can use specific things to get those attacks on undead, like the Grave Strike spell or Truedeath augment crystals.

There are certainly many, many ways to deal with this, any of which would be an improvement on the game as it currently stands.

What's going on A_D? We've been agreeing and awful lot lately, and your posts have been so civil...are you ill?

We can sit here all day and debate whether or not the modification of fortification as currently implemented in game is a good idea, or not, but lets talk about the facts

1. When has Turbine, EVER been able to make such a huge change to the game without majorly screwing it up?
2. Here is what the D20 SRD Says about Fortification: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems...#fortification
3. The rules of this game should stay as close to D&D as possible.
4. As others has said, there would have to be some MAJOR balancing to MANY aspects of the game prior to the change of fortification, and I honestly do not have faith in Turbine to make this happen without causing some serious damage to DDO.

So, my main concern with making a major change to the game, such as how Critical hits, and fortification work, are points #1 and #4.

I could very easily see many many bugs attached, such as something like 'All Players with an AC of 35 or lower are being auto-critt'd on every hit'

Its not that I dont think there have been some good alternatives suggested in this thread, but this is Dungeons and Dragons Online, lets not forget about the D&D part.

That the devs will likely screw up the first few attempts at such a sweeping change, should not discourage the discussion or implementation of improvements to the game. They have to get done somehow, and pussyfooting around them out of fear that they won't get done right the first time will not improve our game.

As for sticking to the D&D rules, I'm in favor of doing so when it makes sense. There are some things Turbine has changed, which seemed like they would work fine being translated directly, but many other things absolutely need to be changed for DDO, not the least of which are things that didn't work very well in PnP either.

The PnP writers clearly came to realize that things like immunity to sneak attacks and crits were somewhat unfair to rogues and some other characters, and implemented a lot of ways to get around those restrictions via special items, spells and alternate class features. Additionally, Heavy Fortification was very rare in PnP due to its expense, but DDO's wealth system obliterates any sort of loot straining via available wealth: we essentially have infinite finances.

Additionally, our SP system, shrines, dungeon design and the way the game functions as a whole dramatically skews the availability of things like Deathward and Freedom of Movement, so that immunity-based effects are far more prevalent than they would be in PnP.

We need changes like the ones being discussed in this thread to maintain a reasonable degree of balance, threat and challenge in DDO.

[Borror0]

Missed A_D's suggestion (or forgot it if it was something I read a while back). Link please, or direction to which page it's on here.

http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p...1&postcount=23

I'm sure you've read it hundreds of time before. It's been posted and reposted in many threads for a year and a half by now.

What's going on A_D? We've been agreeing and awful lot lately

Chances it's you that is agreeing with AD rather than AD agreeing with you.