New Tasks

[Gruff]

Devs,

Is Thaum taken into account when getting the new shade tasks?

My combat skills are no where near as high as my thaum skills because I purposely trained them to be better at healing people.

I've noticed the "dark path" I go down for hunting the shades, I basically have to be in guardian stance for (otherwise I die quick) and when I hit them with my poultry weapon skills (>= 50) I'm only connecting for 2 or 3 damage.

Is this intend? Do I have to pick up an offensive Thaum skill in order to complete these tasks?

Also, why do they aim for the eye so much? It seems like the first wound I take is a bad one to the eyes.

[Rias]

Most physical damage types do extremely reduced damage to ghost-like nethrim (shades, spectres, wraiths). However, no thaumaturgy is required to take them out. I would suggest an iron weapon, though, for the added alchemical damage nethrim take from ferrous materials. Steel works too, but not as well. Also be advised that when you do melee while actively channeling thaumaturgy, you have a high chance of Light flares when you strike which are devestating to nethrim. Lastly, if you happen to train in Hafted weapons, using a lit torch works very well against them due to the fire damage.

If you have little combat skill, you should only be getting shades (no spectres) which have very low energy and should go down after just a couple hits with an iron weapon. A decent Light flare should be able to poof them in a single shot.

If your combat rolls are going as low as 50, I'd recommend wearing some lighter armor until you've got enough Armor Use skill to negate those penalties more effectively. Try some soft leather in nonvital areas (arms, legs, hands, feet), and some rigid leather in the particularly vulnerable spots. Make sure your helm is one that covers your eyes.

Tip: If you start to get overwhelmed, deactivate your Halo spell. That's what flushes them out and causes the nethrim to show up, so deactivating it will prevent any further enemies from spawning until you activate it again.

Regarding eye shots: They're they least likely to happen, but the most likely to be noticed, since that's the most vital hit location. I know it sucks when it happens.

[Gruff]

Thanks, I'll give that stuff a try.

[Gruff]

Next update.

The Halo is a good note.
The torch is a good note.
The channeling. Good note.
Is there leather armor with eye protection? Most I see are just leather caps...leather is all I'm wearing by the way.
My combat skills are less than 25...not my melee roll. My thaum is sitting at 230.

I find it very hard to believe the eye portion though. I rarely get hit in the eye from other mobs. Yet hunting shades the first wound I take, nearly every time, I take a Crit to the eye. First or second shot, reliably. I still have no chance of blocking or parrying unless in guardian mode.

I tried these bounties a number of times and had to retreat every time because of eye wounds. I think I got hit in different locations for scratches two or three times, the rest, heavy eye wounds...7 or 8 attempts...most of the time returning with only eye wounds. I asked over CHAT and I'm not the only one with this experience.

Matter of fact, this morning or late last night, Aerotine had two instant deaths from specters. They each only hit once. Care to guess the location of the wounds? I'll give you a hint. Rhymes with pie. :P

They sure seem to be the most common. Granted , no eye protect...but you're right, they are SUPER easy to notice when you have no other wounds accept two gouged eyes. Perhaps this if a bug? Since you adamantly say they aren't programed that way, what else could it be?

[TwistedAkai]

Is there leather armor with eye protection? Most I see are just leather caps...leather is all I'm wearing by the way.

I've seen leather armor that protects the eyes (or at least claims to) in a shop in a city. It has a funny name that I can't remember without checking. So it does exist, and even better is you can probably get it!

[Jaster]

Cuir bouilli. I think it's in Shadgard. Player crafted leather helmets cover the eyes as well, as far as I know. And I'm pretty sure there's some leather helmets with eye protection sold in some other shop somewhere, maybe the tanner at the Coalition?

[faylen]

Just to comment on the eye shots, I too have noticed that with nether eye shots seem extremely common, disproportionately to any other creatures. My udemi was trying to help out with the totems that were spawned over the last couple of days and had four deaths due to eye shots, most of which I noticed very little other damage upon reawakening. Once or twice I can say is just unlucky, but after a while I'm thinking something's a little funky, too.

[Jaster]

When we say nether, are we talking nether creatures in general, or actual sorcery/nether casts hitting the eye?

[Rias]

While there was a bug with the aiming formula with ranged casts, it wasn't so bad as nethrim or sorcery reliably hitting the eyes. There was simply an equal chance for every hit location. Here are my sample numbers while I stood in a room overflowing with shades.

'left foot': 524,
'right arm': 547,
'head': 535,
'neck': 554,
'left leg': 535,
'right foot': 523,
'left arm': 526,
'right eye': 538,
'abdomen': 545,
'right leg': 557,
'chest': 555,
'right hand': 564,
'back': 541,
'left hand': 588,
'left eye': 543

So by my maths, that's, uh ... around a 14% chance to get hit in one of the eyes.

Anyway, bug's fixed. Rooks and Elemancers (and other ranged bolt casters), feel free to lynch the people who brought this up for bringing your successful aim rate down substantially. Hee hee.

[Nootau]

-.-

[Jaster]

I thought that was a bug months ago.

[faylen]

Makes me wonder if arrows are included in that.

Even if so though, I'll take the trade off. Eyes should be possible to hit, but not as likely as any other location.

Thanks for tracking that down!

[Gruff]

Great job on the fix by why wouldn't chance to hit when not aiming be the same as any other space? Wouldn't it be based on the size of the target area per body mass index. In the Army we have a saying...Aim small, miss small. Ie. The smaller the area you're aiming for, the great chance you can miss said target by an even smaller amount.

Either way, thank you for looking into it. I look forward to completing these tasks with less deaths and trips to the infirmary.

[Gruff]

Ok, so now the problem seems to be...no matter how many shades or what not I kill in the given area I don't get credit.

Thoughts?

[Kiyaani]

Are you sure you're in the right area? If it's one of the new tasks then you only get credit when the whole area is cleared from what I can tell. Just keep waiting and more will spawn until it says you're done.

[TwistedAkai]

I don't have a templar (yet), so I can't just check. Does it show progress towards completion when you check your task?

[Rias]

No, you're just told when you're finished. Remember you need to find an actual area to go into, it's not just out in the wilderness area. And you need to have your halo active to flush out the nethrim.

[Gruff]

So it is a culling task with out an actual number requirement.

That's what confused me. I thought it would be like the dangerous *insert mob here* and spawn on top of you. Is there anyway we can modify the language of the task to that end?

The one I have is cold snap hills area. I wandered around and killed stuff for a while. Acarin even came to help and we just gave up. I'll give it another go.

[Gruff]

My bandit tasks are killing me.

A squint-eyed rogue thrusts with a nicked copper dagger at you! (M:338 vs D:128)
16 pierce damage - to the right arm, partially deflected by some lamellar vambraces.
A squint-eyed rogue thrusts with a nicked copper dagger at you! (M:338 vs D:115)
6 pierce damage - to the left hand, barely deflected by a pair of heavy leather workman's gloves.
A squint-eyed rogue swings a nicked copper dagger at you! (M:338 vs D:128)
8 slash damage -- to the back, somewhat deflected by a lamellar cuirass.

A squint-eyed rogue thrusts with a nicked copper dagger at you! (M:338 vs D:128)
1 pierce damage - to the right arm, partially deflected by some lamellar vambraces.
A squint-eyed rogue thrusts with a nicked copper dagger at you! (M:338 vs D:115)
19 pierce damage - to the right leg, partially deflected by some lamellar greaves.
A squint-eyed rogue swings a nicked copper dagger at you! (M:338 vs D:121)
7 slash damage -- to the back, somewhat deflected by a lamellar cuirass.
A squint-eyed rogue kicks a clump of dust at you! (Off: 292 vs Def: 103)
A direct hit to the face!
You draw back, squinting and blinking in an attempt to clear your eyes.
You are stunned for 3 seconds!
A squint-eyed rogue thrusts with a nicked copper dagger at you! (M:338 vs D:121 B:191 P:61)
12 pierce damage - to the left hand, barely deflected by a pair of heavy leather workman's gloves.
A squint-eyed rogue thrusts with a nicked copper dagger at you! (M:338 vs D:109 B:166 P:55)
13 pierce damage to the right arm, exploiting a chink in some lamellar vambraces!
A squint-eyed rogue thrusts with a nicked copper dagger at you! (M:338 vs D:121 B:185 P:56)
6 pierce damage to the abdomen, exploiting a chink in a lamellar cuirass!
A squint-eyed rogue stomps his foot at you! (Off: 331 vs Def: 100)
1 crush damage - to the right foot, partially deflected by a pair of tightly-buckled dark leather knee-boots.
You hop about on one foot in pain!
You are stunned for 10 seconds!

How are these scaled? I've completed one and had to remove a ton of them.