SoD NDA Lifted

[Nolrog]

Source

Well, the Seeds of Destruction NDA has been lifted. Here's some information on the expansion.

Tradeskill goodies abound. The first question I'm sure everyone has is will the cap go up. The answer is . . . oh look a monkey! (bonus points for people who got that reference)

Every trade got something (some more than others of course). No trades were revamped. There are cultural weapons. They are quite nice. Through jewelcrafting, you can make a plethora (and I do mean that literally) of cultural symbol augments based on diety. However, they are not diety restricted. If you want to add a fire proc, then you could use an augment based on Ro. But you could add an ice proc, or a poison proc or a disease proc based on those dieties too. Very well done and very nice weapons (stat wise). Kudos to The Ogre.

Jewelcrafting has a new metal to work with, adds a new flavor to some old metals and makes the cultural symbols for the weapons. For some metals, you can now make them with a type 7 augment slot in addition to the 10 and 11s.

Pottery can make power sources. I didn't get the chance to play with this much though.

Baking: a new meat with the typical recipes that come with it.

Brewing: some very confusing (in names) brews, and a really nice recipe for a high end drink that has nice stats on it, but will be rather rare due to difficulty in getting ingredients.

Fletching, as Ngreth mentioned, plays a supporting part to the new weapons. No new bows this time around.

Tailoring: Most of the cultural weapons were smithed, but a few were tailored.

I believe there's new higher level potions, but I didn't get the chance to futz around with them either.

And of course, research has already been well discussed, so I don't have anything to add.

Save any Chronal Resonance Dust you get. You will need it a lot.

And for the question I alluded to above . . . . no, there's no raise in the cap.

I'm sure I didn't catch everything. Others please feel free to jump in as well.

[Nolrog]

The mercenaries are a nice addition. There aren't a ton of new features like we typically see in an expansion because the mercs were a ton of work. SKlug spent oodles of time working on them, improving the AI and debugging. I'm not sure he was able to do much else.

The zones are gorgeous. I love them. Taking us back to our old favorites, Qeynos, Q Hills (Oceangreen Village and Hills), Kurns Tower, Kaessoea, Field of Scale (Bone), City of Dranik. And Blackburrow. This is particlarly my favorite. It's brand new graphics and a bit larger, but everything is still where it belongs. Superb.

I believe there's a bit more of a bump in spells than we saw for the last expansion, and priest heals (specifically druid and shaman) both got some much needed attention.

All in all, a very solid expansion, that I'm really excited about.

[greebmushroome]

any info on the cultural weapons? are the combines race-restriced or is the use race-restricted or both? are the current metals in game used to make them? what's the "rare" component of them? is there a new metal for 81-85 weapons? what's needed to make the weapon augs?

[Nolrog]

any info on the cultural weapons? are the combines race-restriced or is the use race-restricted or both? are the current metals in game used to make them? what's the "rare" component of them? is there a new metal for 81-85 weapons?

They are not race/diety/class restricted. You can make any of the augments, and use them in the weapons (the augments are restricted based on 2HS, 1HB, piercing and the like.)

I'll answer the rest later on. I have to look it up because I forgot. LOL. Sorry about that. Know they use the silks that drop though.

[greebmushroome]

thanks for the info!

in what way are the weapons "cultural"?

[mewkus]

Source
...
Tradeskill goodies abound. The first question I'm sure everyone has is will the cap go up. The answer is . . . oh look a monkey! (bonus points for people who got that reference)
...

For those of us that don't get the reference, does the cap go up?

[greebmushroome]

For those of us that don't get the reference, does the cap go up?

he answers it at the end of the first post (and that answer is, "no")

[mewkus]

D'Oh... I guess the monkey hid that line from me as I was reading the post... nevermind.

[Nolrog]

For those of us that don't get the reference, does the cap go up?

Keep reading.

[Nolrog]

thanks for the info!

in what way are the weapons "cultural"?

They use some of the existing cultural ingredients and have the diety augments that go in them that makes them all a bit different from each other.

[Taadieri]

The mercenaries are a nice addition. There aren't a ton of new features like we typically see in an expansion because the mercs were a ton of work. SKlug spent oodles of time working on them, improving the AI and debugging. I'm not sure he was able to do much else.

Somebody made the point on the SOE boards that a lot of changes were made to support mercnenaries that also affect the rest of the game, mostly in good ways.

For instance, coins being made weightless is necessary if people are routinely carrying thousands or tens of thousands of plat to pay the ongoing fees for their mercenaries.

Showing target buffs is necessary if many groups are now going to have members that can't tell you when their buffs wear off.

Significant upgrades in the quality of NPC AI to make the mercenaries useful additions to a party will probably show up in other ways in the game.

There are bound to be other examples.

[Aldier]

The new "cultural" weapons use the same types of items as the cultural armors use.

There is a new level 85 version of the weapons.

The symbols add a dmg, stats, and sometimes a proc depending on the deity determines the type of proc.
Tunare = heal proc
Fennin Ro = fire proc
etc.

Some do not have a proc and just add more straight dmg. This gives a LOT of flexibility in the type of weapon you can create and the type of proc you want.

[Paloverde]

The above post seems to indicate that the mercenaries become part of the group and not a "pet". True?

What about tinkering?

[Akenta]

The above post seems to indicate that the mercenaries become part of the group and not a "pet". True?

What about tinkering?

True about the mercenaries - they are a new group member. I think that's they the mana and endurance bars were added to the group window. They don't have any pet commands, they just have a few settings you can change. They're on test now and worth playing with to see what they can do. (Also a lot of discussions on the EQ Forums).

I would also like to know about tinkering.

[Chaparrell]

Level XIV potions?

Are there level 14 potions coming (except alacrity, of course)? If so, what is the drop we need to make them?