LU 21: nice update and thanks for all the fish

Here we are standing at the drinking age of our Live Updates. There have been many in the past that were innovative and game changing. There have been some that made us pissed and for some even quit our characters; these are what were they thinking. Then there are some like these that are middle of the road nice update and thanks for all the fish.

The Good:
- Ranged auto-attack now does more damage!
- Completing quests that are level 60 to 70 now provides greater XP.
- Heroic and Epic named encounters now have a better chance to drop Master spells and rare tradeskill components.
- Additional power has been discovered and unlocked within the Scepter of Rahotep.
- Rogue: Pick Pocket now has greater variances in the coin reward, had its reuse timer reduced to 30 seconds, has an increased chance of success, will not attempt to cast on a target that has already been pick pocketed, and the taunt effect now scales with level.
- Shaman: The Spirit Wolf pet's attack speed has increased.
- Carnage PvP-flagged players will no longer have an immunity timer after zoning.
- Bows and projectile weapons should now do similar damage to melee weapons during auto-attack, making ranged auto-attack just as viable an alternative as melee auto-attack.

The Neat/Neutral:
- City PvP has been renamed to Carnage PvP to better describe its nature.
- Group lotto now shows you the rolls you make vs. the rolls your group mates make when distributing loot
- The red, blue, green, and white shards needed for "An Eye For Power" have been made into harvestable objects that allow 6 harvests. Additionally, the respawn time on these shards has been reduced, and the likelihood of Master Webclaw and Bloodrage spawning has been slightly increased.
- A new zone connection has been added between the Down Below and the Caves.

The Bad:
- You can now mentor only in instances on PvP servers.
- Kite shields at all levels now provide the same chance to block as tower shields (12%).

The Funny:
- Necklace of the Cascade no longer gives +1 to stamina. To compensate for this horrendous nerf, we have increased its power bonus.

I could go over each and every change in LU21 but these were the ones that I think grabbed out at me the most. The only ones I'll go over is well... you guessed it The Bad.

Mentoring: It's the best idea for an MMO since Chuck Norris. I love it, even without and XP deflation for helping this would be a great tool. Sadly, on PVP its stuck to instancing and at least still apart of the game. I'm not a huge fan of instancing though I like to group with my guildies. We still ran into troulbes trying to grp both in BSV (excavation site) and the Valley of the Magi. There was big troubles because the instancing for mid 20's to 30's is hardly existent and weak at best. The zones that do exist are hard to have fun in since they are just little cubbys in a nice world (I like the paranoid feeling I get in PVP). We tried the instancing in the zones previously mentioned and found that 4 is to many for Magi so we moved to BSV and found that everything in there was solo and way to easy to be a lot of fun. Once we were done we tried to figure out a new plan and it was just to difficult.

I understand why they took it out, mentoring down is a huge advantage in PVP and I've mentioned a few fixes. I believe this would work, Go back to Old school mentoring. Let me only use the spells I was designed to use at the lower levels and when I choose to mentor let me be stuck in mentored state for 30 minutes after I decided to unmentor even if I log off. Easier said then done I know but anything is better then not having it in the game.

Kite shields: I know not everything is realistic, seriously this is a fantasy world but this one kinda just miffs me. Why is a Kite shield as likely to block as a tower? It's not a huge deal and I wont go on a hunger strike about it. Wasn't it enough that they made some Kite Shields look like tower shields? As a former Guardian I don't think I should have to compete with a Paly or SK to get better mitigation or defense. They have other things to help off set them anyhow from heals to wards and other spells. What I don't understand is why I feel as if Guardians have been at the shit end of the stick since LU 13. I know SOE wants a balanced game but out of all the classes I've played since LU 13 Guardian is the only one that seems to not fit it's class title. I still think they should rename them Hitpointdiansnodps.

I'm not calling for a nerf, I rarely if ever do and I'm not calling for Guardian uberism. All I know is that when I play my Guard it feels as if I'm 1/2 the fighter as everyone else. Yes I know pre LU13 there was only a few other fighter that could keep up with me in tanking and they had to have serious gear. Though it just seem like they pushed every fighter beyond Guardians leaving them as support for extra HP and their small DPS. I'm unsure, I'm gonna play my Guardian again for the next few weeks and report back.

Now, I know I picked on the bad but it's what I do best. If you notice overall there is more good and neat stuff on my list. I did like the patch and hope there are still many more to come.