some love for RBF, crossbows (in Changelog)

RBF does about 30% more damage than it did, and absorbs about 10% more FB

AX and EXbow formulae changed; they drain about 1/11 of what they did per x before.

PL will only absorb the AX and EX drain if PL minion has positive DX/ST. (But, PL still always absorbs all of stat drain, no partial drain.)

Hey Jon, I just got out of a battle, and I'm not sure if this is "optimal behavior" or not, but -7.6 million strength for one hit with a exbow seems a bit excessive... don't you think?

Post-battle stats
Minion	HP	ST	DX	AC	DI	Ammo
The Guy	-67,834	20	20	113	0	0
The Fire	-96,042	-7,640,044	19	51	0	1
The Pants	-12,848	-7,131,926	294,235	105	215,943	4,134

After one hit with an AXbow and my PL minion has a DX of -36,480,108. Something doesn't seem right here.

i like it!

went to turn down the AX and the dial went the wrong way...

hey, my ExBow is overpowered now! ; P

Henkert shot Dark Knight [4652]
Wall Of Shadows looks weaker!
Wall Of Shadows absorbs damage [4652]
Henkert hit Dark Knight [3424]
Dark Knight looks weaker!
Wall Of Shadows absorbs damage [3424]

Ohh this is even new, on the second hit there is drain. Never seen that before.
Is that new?

3 hits with an Axbow and I have:

DX = -109,440,347


If this doesn't make Axbows/Exbows viable, I don't know what will! :P

"PL will only absorb the AX and EX drain if PL minion has positive DX/ST. (But, PL still always absorbs all of stat drain, no partial drain.)"

Sweet sweet sweet! :D

1 single tank VS me

Henkert shot Owned [5101]
Owned looks weaker!

Owned shot Henkert [1]
Henkert looks weaker!

Battle stats afterwards
ST -657,079

it does need some tweaking.

My name isn't in the spelling checker so i need to right this, or have to do something difficult with HTML which i know 0 off

LOL! One drain each on my minions...

-2,320,108
-6,960,363

Looks good, might indirectly help the poor mages out too :)

Perhaps 11 times as much ST/DX is being drained, instead of 1/11th?

(Why 1/11? kind of an unusual number...)

Mael: that's most certainly the case.

Any RBF users out there? Hows those changes look? Anybody? Hello??? :)

Hold on, if the bows drain a % + the constant how much ST/DX will PL minions need to work the same way as before?

How much EC do ex/axbow users need to get past most PL minion's DX/ST? ;)

the damage done will still take them below 0

Nice! :D Finally a use for EC as well! :D

Against the top RoBF I'm taking around 120k damage for each hit.

Well finally a solution for the PL/axbow problem.

At least it's a solution of sorts.

quick Ranger, sell your giant axbow before Jon fixes the bug! ;)

whoops, forgot the parentheses... fixed

damage higher (check)
drain lower (check)
pl minions need STR and DEX...(check)

Yep that about covers it...thanks Jon.

thank you JON :) i love you hahaha.

I must be missing something. Axbows/Exbows are not even lower powered than before? Has the drain just dropped to one-eleventh of its level before? Doesn't that mean that these weapons are now (more) useless?

Pardon me if I'm overlooking something obvious, it's early morning here... :-)

negator, damage is up, drain is down, PL minions now need positive dex to transfer the drain away from intended target. Not useless, just balanced on both sides.

Did something more change for ranged? I had to remove 2 opponents from my fight list today, because they suddenly did massive damage to me in ranged. Not with xbows, but with elbows.

Negator, since the change to a fixed cost per x and the corresponding increase in existing weapons x the drain has been ridiculously high as it was a certain % for each x. Only a small proportion of my fight list were vulnerable as a moderate PL would nullify he drain.

I'd given up hope, but I guess July is a good month!

Ah, thanks for the clarifications, everyone. Not feeling so dense now... :-)

"Did something more change for ranged?"

Nope.

Praise be to Jon...

or conversely,

The Jon giveth and the Jon taketh away...

Whichever suits you mood ;-p

it really took me a while to realize what a RBF is :P

And then a little longer to figure out, even with this change, who wants to wear it anyway LOL

i have no idea why it was unloved seriously, unless i don't get it

it blocked a percentage of damage done right? and FB backlash. so why not get a wall and FB minions and go nuts

even now its better so why not use it, with Prot and heavy AC.

though now with the anti-defense nobody wants i can see its unloved but before, why?


someone please explain

It stops a fixed amount of FB damage, which when facing FB mages (mostly single minions) really did nothing.

Then it does damage to anyone attacking the wearer in Melee. This damage was, to put it politely, small.

It was then given an Aura.

And the Melee damage changed to every hit instead of once per round.

I also think somewhere along the line it was given Evasion as well, but that might have been taken away. Can't remember.

What about base EC? If you get the minions to 0 Str and 0 Dex can they still absorb? (If you're wondering why I'm asking this, it's cause I have base EC due to a Mage Shield)

nice :)

and gah: a base EC doesn't cast with a MgS

Time for tank teams with PL to train some Haste and Giant Strength.

It does... at least in the fight logs it says that they lose 20 str/dex