random things in release notes

[DANTEIL]

Aside from the stuff we already knew about (new quest, new raids, new PrEs), the release notes contained a few extra tidbits that caught my attention (perhaps idiosyncratic to me):

You can now perform /showhelmet on/off using the Inventory screen by clicking on your helmet in the ‘doll’.

Much better!

The graphic overlay effect for death has been adjusted.

I hope that this improves visibility when dead.

Guild Renown

Killing quest, raid, and mini bosses now generates Guild Renown.

A bug that resulted in too much renown decay at level 26 has been fixed.

There is now a medium guild size bonus!

Players can see how much renown their characters have contributed to a guild by mousing over the Guild XP status bar. Note that this will only show renown earned since Update 7.

The Guild Size used in determining the small guild bonus and guild renown decay has been modified. This is called the Modified Guild Size and it will be displayed in the Guild UI. Get your calculators out.
Modified Guild Size = Total Accounts - Inactive Accounts (>30 days) + Recent Departures (<14 days)

Some percentage of guild renown earned by a player will be removed from the guild if that player is expelled or quits and elects to remove the renown. The player will not bring this renown to any other guild they join.

All kinds of interesting stuff in this! Renown for bosses just makes sense, and the medium guild bonus is a good idea, and I like the idea of a 'modified guild size.' The 14 day 'departure window' seems long, though. Also, it remains to be seen if it is a good idea for guilds to get dinged when a player leaves a guild.

Hirelings

Cleric and Favored Soul hirelings will now automatically remove status effects such as curses, diseases and poisons from their masters if they are a high enough level to do so.
If a monster is immune to certain damage types, hirelings will not cast a spell that generates that damage type.

Hireling contract timers will now pause when in a public area.

Monsters now do Line of Sight checks on hirelings instead of just automatically knowing they are there.

These are all *awesome* hireling changes.

[Gust of Wind] also clears away all lingering effects in its path, such as clouds and walls of fire.

oOooo -- I'll be using this.

[Trippy]

One that caught my eye but I had no idea why the change was necessary,

Wrath of Flame
- Malicia's outfit has been changed.

I did the quest maybe once so I am probably missing something, anyone know why it was changed and what it was changed to?

[The_Cataclysm]

One that caught my eye but I had no idea why the change was necessary,

Wrath of Flame
- Malicia's outfit has been changed.

I did the quest maybe once so I am probably missing something, anyone know why it was changed and what it was changed to?

The only thing I could think of is maybe it was changed to match how she looks in Big Top

[The_Cataclysm]

Checked out Malicia's outfit. She now looks the same as she does in Big Top (though minus the Big Top and the staff).

[Symar-FangofLloth]

She now looks the same as she does in Big Top

Kinky

[Rumbaar]

All kinds of interesting stuff in this! Renown for bosses just makes sense, and the medium guild bonus is a good idea, and I like the idea of a 'modified guild size.' The 14 day 'departure window' seems long, though. Also, it remains to be seen if it is a good idea for guilds to get dinged when a player leaves a guild.

I don't like this, as I have inactive accounts that are intentionally there and older than 30days to get my 6 account small guild bonus. But for many it will be a benefit, and I can work around this change.

oOooo -- I'll be using this.

Ha I wonder how many 'pull my finger' lines I'll see in chat now

[herdisleah]

YAY Combat Expertise was stealth-buffed to no longer have an abysmally long recharge. It has been reduced from 15 seconds disabling all your spells, to 6 seconds.

[Blue_Wizard]

The 14 day 'departure window' seems long, though.

So, if you wanted to keep an active guild roster, would booting someone at 14 days inactive consider them part of the guild until the 28th day, so you could technically boot them at 2 weeks 1 day (to be safe) and you won't get hit with decay?

30 days until decay
-14 days inactive
-14 days considered guilded
= 2 days of slop/limbo/lost days of buffer if one of the officers didn't check or something

Is this correct?

[supp3nhuhn]

I read it more like players that left the guild are counted towards your membership number for an additional 14 days.

[t0r012]

I read it more like players that left the guild are counted towards your membership number for an additional 14 days.

same way I read it.

I expect this was to keep people from cycling leaving the guild when they log off , only to get reinvited when they log on so that the guild get the biggest small/medium guild bonus possible even though the may have many times the member numbers allowed for the bonuses.

[CaptGrim]

I hope that this improves visibility when dead.

It does, it looks pretty cool and at least you can see when you are dead. It also dims the further away from your stone you are. From pretty well lit whiteish light back to the point almost complete darkness when you are about to snap back.

Its a major improvement and looks cool. Good job here!

[donfilibuster]

A dev posted in other thread mentioning that if the acount was inactive and you boot it you get less renown decrease and if it were a few months old you get no decrease at all.

[Ryiah]

Also, it remains to be seen if it is a good idea for guilds to get dinged when a player leaves a guild.

I think this system is to prevent rapid guild leveling through the inviting of low level players and then, once guild level is pretty decent, kicking all said players. Its precisely what Epitaph of Khyber pulled. They filled their guild up literally to the cap and then after achieving a pretty decent level promptly kicked all of them. Epitaph was almost literally level 25 overnight as a result. A system like this would pretty much reduce the chances of a stunt like that being pulled again. And even if someone did, its likely the guild would lose a good quarter of their levels or even more depending on the percentage.