=AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (Full Version)

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Bu Kek Siansu -> =AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/20/2021 12:18:46)

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AdventureQuest News

Monday, September 20, 2021

COMING THIS WEEK!

The War Between Shadows Part V - Shadowfall II:

The remnants of Tiamoth have risen again and grown stronger, fueled by the Stranger from beyond the Void! As friendly reinforcements finally arrive, it's time to join Knights, Guardians, and Adventurers from all over the land to finish the fight! Take on each part of this immense foe to bring it down before it can break free!

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Back-To-School Daily Prizes
Ends October 13th

Login daily for your chance to win 7 amazing rewards, 1 for every day of the week! Just by logging in and playing AQ you will qualify for 50 prizes being given away daily. The more characters you play with the better your chances of winning. As an added perk, all Guardians gain an extra 50% chance of winning! Here are the 7 Water variant prizes along with the day of the week they are being given away:
  • Sunday - Scroll Knight Helms
  • Monday - Dodgeball Z Spell
  • Tuesday - School Uniform Color-Custom Armor
  • Wednesday - Savage Schoolbook Pet
  • Thursday - Paperclip Pencil Bow
  • Friday - School Bell Bulwark
  • Saturday - Ruler Buster Blade
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Digi-tagged! -Digital X



Lv 1000 -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/21/2021 13:55:50)

Yay more story!



PD -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/21/2021 14:10:24)

My big question is how close are we to finishing this saga? Maybe 2-3 more chapters and an epilogue judging by the pace of the previous summer sagas? A big concern I have is that at this rate we probably won’t see an MC set this year judging by the pace of releases that we’ve had. December usually is all for frostval and we’ve still got more major holidays to celebrate. Namely Harvest and Mogloween, as well as the yet to be concluded Necromancer class (which should conclude next month according to sources). We only really have about 10 weeks of releases including this week) left since December is pretty much going to be a lost cause for anything not related to frostval judging by how things have gone the last 4 years.

It’s also worth remembering that the MC saga in 2019 didn’t finish either and it bled into 2020, so keep that in mind



Sapphire -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/21/2021 15:06:32)

Not a big deal if they don't do a MC set



RobynJoanne -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/21/2021 15:21:02)

Last year, we started the MC Set at the end of September and finished by the end of November. We only had three releases in total for all the items, so if the staff are similarly or even more efficient for this year's, it should be doable.



PD -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/21/2021 18:12:19)

quote:

Not a big deal if they don't do a MC set


In a vacuum, you are right. It wouldn't be a big deal if we didn't get to have an MC set this year. Except we don't live in a vacuum. While intrinsically not having it would be alright, it would mean the following if it doesn't happen:

1. It would represent a continuing general failure to commit to the game's long-term playability. I don't need to repeat how the commitments to everything else (premium content, seasonable content, other unobtainables) has been in conflict with the playability of the game. Despite what some would have you believe, these things do get in the way. The things that need to get done aren't getting done. It keeps getting pushed back in favor of the things that generally do not help for the long-term health of the game.

2. It implicates where the priorities of the game are. If we get our MC set, it means that there's still commitments to that said stability by ensuring a more complete player experience. If we don't get it, it means that holidays, premiums and other filler content is seen as more important as the MC set gets taken to the backburner in favor of the previously mentioned content categories. Cray has previously said that how he plans things is that we have a Summer Saga (where we get the bulk of our long-term content), and then another concluding saga near the end of the year dedicated for the release of the yearly MC. No MC set would represent a failure of commitments, priorities and improvement opportunities.

3. It would be the final culmination of a year of a massive disappointment for AQ. My question wasn't necessary about the set itself, but rather it being able to fit within the timeline that is left for the year. With that said context, no MC set this year would be *the* indictment for what can only be concluded as a massively disappointing year. Again, I'm still holding out hope. As Robyn has pointed out, there's still time to get things done. Including this week, we have 15 Thursdays left for the year. Yet 4 of those are likely to be budgeted for Frostval. At least 2 more for Mogloween and Harvest (and likely more time necessary if they don't push the seasonal quest and the hub on the same week). 1 more for the conclusion of the Necromancer Class. So that's already 8 on a conservative count, or more than half of the remaining releases dedicated for Holidays. And that remaining allocation is probably lower depending on how extensive the rest of the holiday season will be this year. Cray probably can't give us any details, but I can only suspect based on the timeline of the previous summer sagas that we still have 2-4 episodes to go on this current summer saga, depending on whether we'll get an Epilogue episode as conclusion.

This all being said, I am not cheering for this all to not happen. I want our MC set to happen this year because it'll restore my faith in AQ. Because doing so is a nominal sign of them prioritizing an element of the game as a foremost commitment. I won't lie when I said I have thought about quitting AQ because for the past 3 years (And probably 4, but I don't have access to the event feeds from pre-2018) there's been a minimum floor of 50% of the game's content being premium/unobtainable/seasonable/rotational. If this trend keeps going on I probably won't be playing past 2022 or anymore after that.



J9408 -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/21/2021 19:58:06)

quote:

I won't lie when I said I have thought about quitting AQ because for the past 3 years (And probably 4, but I don't have access to the event feeds from pre-2018) there's been a minimum floor of 50% of the game's content being premium/unobtainable/seasonable/rotational. If this trend keeps going on I probably won't be playing past 2022 or anymore after that.


I think having a couple weeks dedicated to updating already existing outdated equipment to today levels could solve this problem. I would not mind seeing that.



PD -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/21/2021 20:09:07)

Purportedly in 2022 there will be a much bigger focus on QoL and updating existing content. We can only hope that this will actually come to pass. Otherwise I'm not too hopeful about next year either (to be honest, I couldn't really care less about Archmage at this point).

Anyways, it appears this will be yet another war event. Though this will inevitably have talks about improving the estate warring experience too in the future...



RobynJoanne -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/21/2021 21:10:07)

@Broccoli
People really shouldn't be able to stack subtractive resistance effects to 100%. Zombie Hunter + Ebony Sepulchure Form lets people do this with almost everything, but the two alone aren't really a problem given the existence of Paladin. The miscs are the ones that should probably be changed since modern miscs use multiplicative resistances.

I'll add to the discussion by reminding everyone that next year is also the 20th Anniversary. It should be a year to celebrate the accomplishments in the past decade, and item revamps and other QoL improvements could really contribute to that.



Lorekeeper -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/22/2021 0:45:06)

The broken interaction between Zombie Hunter and Groundhog pets shouldn't be around for much longer.

While our small team has a lot to juggle at this time with delivering both new and revamped content, there is no past nor present indication that there may not be time for an MC set this year. The War saga is indeed nearing its finale — Drawing a parallel to the last summer event, if one prefers, would suggest as much rather than up to four remaining releases.

I understand that expectations might be severely thrown by the comparatively much lower presence I've had in community interaction this year, and how that precludes teasing content or helping to keep up with the ye ar via laying out a roadmap. Unfortunately, health matters took up the vast majority of my time until very recently during this part of the year, and the matter is not yet fully resolved. While nothing severe happened, this was time consuming enough to keep me from answering a lot of posts.

The matter of quest rarity is one that is particularly close to my interests, and you can rest assured that it is getting brought up in internal discussions about content organization and quality of life updates.



PD -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/22/2021 1:46:07)

I used the 2-4 measure because roughly estimated using the amounts from Burning Solstice, which had 7 episodes, plus an epilogue episode, and 3 Umazen Saga Prologue episodes (11 episodes). And Dragonlord Keep, the one you mentioned had 6 episodes, a prologue, and an epilogue episode (7 total). This current war will get us to 5 episodes, a prologue episode, and I won't speculate whether we'll have an epilogue or not (So currently, 6 episodes, maybe 7? I won't ask for any more timelines but I didn't throw that number out there willy-nilly).

As for Quest Rarity and while I have your attention, I've been keeping track of that, and everything else since 2019. But as for the specific holidays or seasons that AQ currently celebrates:

New Years (+1)
Valentine's Day (+1)
St. Patrick's Day (+1)
April Fools (+1)
Easter (+1)
Cinco De Mayo and Star Wars (+1)
Independence Day (+1)
Summer (+1, but really, this should be a +2 since we usually dedicate 2 releases for summer. One for starting the contest, the other for giving out the prizes)
Back To School (+1)
Talk Like a Pirate Day (+1)
Halloween (+1)
Black Friday (+1)
Thanksgiving (+1)
Christmas (+4, plus potentially more to open the Guardian Giftboxes and deliver the Contest Prizes)
Sometimes, a Sports event (Canadian NBA Finals, Super Bowl, etc)

The most egregious of these Christmas which usually gets celebrated for the entirety of December, plus some of January and sometimes the end of November. Keeping in mind that we have roughly 52 releases a year, on any given estimate 15-20 (28.8-38.8%) releases are at a minimum dedicated to holidays. And this doesn't even begin to account for the times that have happened in the past where the yearly seasonal release isn't pushed at the same time the hub gets available to us, plus the other things which then add on to our troubles like seasonal/rare GGB's, Void Takeovers, and other special events, contributing to the gross 50% minimum floor that has been seen since at least 2019 (And I speculate, looking at the event calendar, has been a trend since at least 2016, though this will take more time to analyze and I cannot do that at this time)



I apologize as realize I'm virtually driving this discussion off-topic with this discussion of release timelines. Yet part of me demanded to get straight answers on a firmly defined timeline. I'm still looking forward to this all but part of me wants to know just how much we have left for the year both from this Saga and things to come, and to not see 2021 as one of the worst years in recent AQ history.



RobynJoanne -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/22/2021 10:04:42)

Thank you Cray for your incessant support and efforts to facilitate communication between the players and the staff. I had no idea about your health matters and am sorry for bothering you at such an inconvenient time.

While I understand where PD's frustration comes from, I have no real issue with the seasonal quests since they have been a part of the game for most of its history, and these quests can be accessed every year for usually at least a month when they come back or any time through a one-time purchase of a painting. Frostval is the one that is truly problematic because it is essentially a mini-saga that will go permanently rare except for those who were there to play them and had the good fortune to buy the painting. Frostval takes a lot of the staff's time (practically equivalent to a yearly MC set quest), and only a subset of players will ever enjoy this work. I understand that the staff has already promised internal discussions on quest rarity, especially as there is continuity between the yearly Frostval releases, and that players with the paintings may feel betrayed if these quests and their respective rewards were to be permanently available in some capacity. There is no easy way forward that can appease all parties.

I apologize for the derail and for the overall pessimism. It often feels like my only contribution in the Forums is criticism when I still very much enjoy AQ.



Lorekeeper -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/22/2021 10:30:15)

It's no bother nor an inconvenient time. It's something I've deliberately withheld most details of for the sake of privacy and not overly worrying anyone. I'm not dealing with anything remotely life threatening, but it has been something of a big time waster.



RobynJoanne -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/22/2021 23:14:59)

Thank you for clarifying. Regardless, your health obviously takes precedence over these matters.

On to more relevant topics to the release:
It seems we are going to take down Tiamoth piece by piece. Is this the first time since Chillax that we're fighting something so big that even individual body parts are massive fights? Are the body parts going to be like SMUDD in DF? With the new status system in place, allowing for status effects and conditions with lore justification, we can now have much more interesting fights with each body part having its own unique mechanics. I can't wait to see what the staff has in store for us.



ruleandrew -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/23/2021 4:59:50)

Set 10 releases per year for quality of life improvement (class or sub race revamp will count as quality of life improvement).



PD -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/23/2021 20:12:12)

Just a quick note, the Land of Returning Evil quest is now in limbo.



Lorekeeper -> RE: The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/24/2021 13:27:12)

Whoops. Passed that along for fixing.



PD -> RE: =AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/24/2021 18:09:07)

spoiler:


Xilar Returns! 25% cutscene is out!

So this kind of confirms what we've been seeing all along. That Erebus is trying to use us against whatever is after him. And this war is providing the distraction of which Erebus and his hunter are using to buy time for what may be a climax that is entirely unexpected.

BTW, who is Xilar serving now that the Devourer is doing other things?



Primate Murder -> RE: =AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/25/2021 0:59:21)

spoiler:

It's been a while since we last saw Xilar.

Can anybody refresh my memory on who this guy is? I think he was related to The'Galin somehow?



PD -> RE: =AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/25/2021 1:03:55)

spoiler:


Basically, Xilar was the communicant of the Devourer the first time he came around. He continued to follow the Devourer the second time he came around and followed Omega's (Ryuusei's) orders, only to later split after Ryuusei ended up doing some rather questionable things which Xilar assumes isn't the actual will of the the Devourer. He later helps us to convince the Devourer to save Lore. Afterwards, he went back to his people, the Sentari Drakels (a split subrace of Drakels) until now.



Armsman -> RE: =AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/25/2021 23:47:46)

Have you guys been looking at the Back to School items? I've only gotten the shield and the pet so far, but it looks like it's a Daze synergy focused set.



joac1144 -> RE: =AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/26/2021 8:11:49)

quote:

Have you guys been looking at the Back to School items? I've only gotten the shield and the pet so far, but it looks like it's a Daze synergy focused set.

The Back-To-School items are Water clones of previous BTS items. There are infosubs available for the original items.



Lorekeeper -> RE: =AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/26/2021 12:02:56)

spoiler:

A particularly relevant fact about Xilar of the Silari is that he is the source of the majority of rumor-based descriptions of elemental creatures.

When Xilar was rejected by each temple of the Elemental Lords, The'Galin took him in. The Elemental Lords were blind to the fanaticism and stagnation of their clergy, and Xilar's task to expose this - as with other corruptions - was to spin the story that the elemental principalities themselves were at war. Arguing that the natural interactions of the elements were proof of conflict between the Lords was how he fooled the common people.

However, his treachery ran far deeper than that, as was the case with the fall of the Brilhado and near-extinction of the Githari.

In spite of knowing that inaction would have led to certain doom, Xilar has nonetheless shown remorse -- albeit his loyalty to The'Galin remains unflinching.



PD -> RE: =AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/28/2021 9:45:10)

spoiler:


75% is out!

So this boss is actually quite tricky. It has two components, the heart and the minion. I would advise killing the minion first. The dragon attacks with darkness, but the heart can attack with either dark or energy (I haven't been able to figure out this yet). I have yet to find a consistent F2P strategy against the Heart yet that doesn't involve paladin, although having a dark/energy defense armor might be smart. In the meantime though, Mana Trap is quite effective against the boss as it uses MP for attacks and it attacks with magic type.

The after-dialogue is interesting. It seems that "Webb" is trying to foster a spirit of unity amongst the knight factions in order to stifle Entropy. Cerin seems to aware at least that although politics would normally favor disunity, the external factors makes what is happening amongst the factions right now possible. Though, I still feel like this spirit of positivity as Cerin suspects feels *too* good to say the least.

But if this boss is more or less designed around the use of Paladin, that is actually really problematic because the boss is extremely hard without it. The only armor I can think of that could possibly stand a chance defensively (and you need to kill the minion quickly) is Rust Raider with its specialized Dark/Energy secondaries. You probably want to equip a -dark misc, and then an energy shield.




Citrocet -> RE: =AQ= The War Between Shadows 5 - Shadowfall II (9/28/2021 23:22:40)

over the passed 40 minutes, ive gotten Tiam's Heart down to 1/4 health a handful of times and it instantly shoots up to max health. whhhyyyyy xD



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