Note  57  Aule         (08/26/07 11:35)  Profession Changes

Professions have Changed!
 
Free Races: The Rider profession is now available to you!
Evil Races: The Archer, Warrior, Thief, and Assassin professions are now
available to you.  The Fighter and Bountyhunter professions are no longer
available.
 
This change unifies the professions, while still keeping some
side-specific professions in the areas of magic and wilderness.
 
 
Be aware that many professions' titles have changed!  Evil Races and
servants will generally have different titles at level 19 than their Free
Race counterparts of the same profession.  The ordering of many titles
was changed for better consistency and progression, and some titles which
had thematic issues have been removed and replaced by new titles.
 
 
Updates to the common professions:
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ARCHER
- The buffs granted by Archery and Positioning have been moved around, so
that Archery now gives the aim bonus and Positioning now gives the attack
bonus. (only while using a bow) 
- The EP cost for Fletch, Salvage, and Tie abilities have been removed
entirely. 
- Bow timing worst-cast is now 1 shot every 2 rounds, instead of the
prior 1 shot every 3 rounds. High Archery skill still gives a chance of
getting off a complete nock/draw/shoot maneuver in a single round.
 
 
ASSASSIN
- The Disguise skill has been removed and replaced with a new skill:
Lethal Precision 
- The Disguise ability now checks the Deception skill. 
- The new Lethal Precision skill grants the assassin the ability to do
more damage if they successfully hit their victim.
 
 
RIDER
- The common Riding skill no longer affects combat from mount, but does
affect riding speed.  Mount 'spur' and 'whoa' now directly affect travel
speed, and work with aliases and travelto.
- New skills: Balance and Taming replace Combat Arms and Ranged Weaponry.
- Balance protects a Rider from being unseated by another rider. 
- Balance reduces the penalty if thrown or unseated from your mount. 
- Balance increases the Rider's chance to land blows in combat, whether
riding or not. 
- Balance allows the Rider to travel faster while mounted. 
- Taming controls success of the new abilities: tame , mount call
, mount train 
 
 
THIEF
- The Appraisal skill has been replaced by a new skill: Nimbleness 
- Success for the 'Appraise' ability is now based on your Theft skill 
- The new Nimbleness skill grants the thief a passive dodge bonus,
helping the thief to avoid incoming blows.
 
 
WARRIOR
- The Blind Fighting skill has been replaced with a new skill: Battle
Instincts 
- The Battle Instincts skill still gives the same ability to fight while
blinded as the former Blind Fighting skill. 
- The passive 'aim' buff previously given by the Tactics skill is now
given by the new Battle Instincts skill. 
- Blocking has been changed from a dodge bonus to a defense bonus,
meaning that armour is required to get the blocking benefit.
 
 
Updates to the exclusive Free Race professions:
-----------------------------------------------
 
RANGER
- The Forage ability success formula has been modified so that herbs are
more readily available to lower-level rangers. 
- The Feint ability has been changed to not require a free hand. 
- The EP cost of Feint has been lowered. 
- Rangers have been given an auto-loading herb satchel.  Existing Ranger:
to get your satchel, go to any Ranger trainer and "request satchel".
- Herbs have been modified to only degrade very slowly over time, and
that time frame is a fixed time and not dependent upon the quality of the
herb.  Herbs within the herb satchel will not degrade at all.
- The EP cost to HP heal ratio of healing has been improved, especially
for the lower-end herbs.
 
 
WIZARD
- The Transcribe ability no longer burns up the scroll when it fails.
 
 
Updates to the exclusive Evil Race professions:
-----------------------------------------------
 
NECROMANCER
- The Sense ability has been modified to work exactly like find, so that
these two abilities are balanced with one another. 
- The IceSpike spell no longer damages a Player that the necromancer is
not already in combat with.
 
 
SNIFFER
- Sniffers have been re-coded to be the evil equivalent to rangers.
- The new Sniffer Skills are: Wilderness, Tracking, Butchery, and
Prowling
- The Sniffer Skills grant the following abilities and benefits:
- Attune. This is the ability to attune your eyes to the darkness. This
was formerly a fighter ability. This ability is based on the Wilderness
skill. 
- Track. This is the same Track that rangers have and is based on
Wilderness skill. 
- Sniff. No change, except now based on Tracking skill. 
- Shiv. No change, except now based on Butchery skill. 
- Prowl. New ability, similar to Camouflage, based on Prowling skill. 
- Sniffers with high Wilderness skill are better able to lead parties
through the wild. 
- Sniffers with high Butchery skill can do more damage in combat when
they hit their target.