New Spells in Pop?

Fires of Heaven Guild Message Board - Planes of Power spells on Test (Just a few and almost all Necro)

A number of spells were on Test for a short while today hinting largely at the raising of the Level Cap to 65 with the Planes of Power expansion. There has been a lot of conjecture over whether the cap would be raised since shortly before the Boston Fan Faire and even there no word was given to confirm it either way.

However some leaks of info from the Test Server seem to indicate that the Level cap may indeed be raised to Level 65. Some theories are that this raise will only be effective within the Planar worlds of the expansion i.e. You would be Level 65 in the Plane of War but only Level 60 in Luclin or Norrath. We will all have to sit back and wait for further information to emerge.

In the meantime here are some of the spells which were recently on the Test Server (but removed after a very short period). Note that these spells were only on the Test Server, have since been removed, will most likely change or may not go live at all and that some of the spell descriptions are at this time only theoretical..

Shield of the Arcane 61 Mag/Nec/Enc/Wiz - Personal Shielding Spell
Force Shield 63 Wiz/Nec - HP Rune Shield + Mana Regen
Blood of Thule Nec 61 - Poison DoT
Legacy of Zek Nec 61 - Warrior Pet with New Model
Rune of Death Nec 62 - Pet Haste & Stat Buff
Saryn's Kiss Nec 62 - Magic Based DoT
Embracing Darkness Nec 63 - Magic Based DoT + Snare
Saryn's Companion Nec 63 - Rogue Pet with New Model
Death's Silence Nec 63 - 30 Second Undead Only Mez to Level 56
Seduction of Saryn Nec 49 - New Lich Spell
Touch of Death Nec 29 - Pet Heal Spell + Disease Cure
Child of Bertoxxulous Nec 65 - Shadow Knight Pet with New Model
Word of Terris Nec 65 - Undead Only Charm
Ward of Xegony Mag ? - New Air Pet
Servant of Marr Mag ? - New Water Pet
Child of Ro Mag ? - New Fire Pet
Rathe's Son Mag ? - New Earth Ppet
Firebolt of Tallon Mag ? - New Fire Based Bolt
Sun Storm Mag ? - New Fire Based Rain DoT
Black Steel Mag ? - New Magic Based DD
Maelstrom of Thunger Mag ? - New Magic Based AE nuke
Sun Vortex Mag ? - New Fire Based DD
Thanks to the FoH website for gathering this information while it was available.

Submitted by Baelish, 10:08 PM EST

Fires of Heaven Guild Message Board - Planes of Power spells on Test (Just a few and almost all Necro)

Planes of Power Design Update

The Planes of Power development team has been working hard to ensure development is on schedule and things are looking really fantastic. Initially, we wanted to avoid mentioning too much too soon; unfortunately the lack of details has lead, at least in part, to an increase in rumors as we get closer to the release of Planes of Power. We'd like to put some of those rumors to rest and give you a general outline of some of the things we have planned.

For Planes of Power there will be two forms of character advancement: level increase and Planar Advancement.

The level cap will increase to 65. Those levels will have inherent benefits much like previous levels. However, they will not be exactly the same. The rate of advancement in character levels is designed to feel more natural and not take the punishing time commitment required between 51 and 60. We understand the frustration that painfully long levels can cause, and hope not to repeat that experience for players. This, combined with the new bonuses for fighting higher level opponents, should make leveling seem less like something that you have to do and more like something that just happens as you play.

Level advancement is closely tied to Planar Advancement. The systems compliment each other. Planar advancement includes extensions on the Alternate Advancement system, along with new abilities for all classes. Advancing your character is a combination of traditional leveling and advancement through planar abilities. Players who enjoy pure leveling can do so, and people that prefer a combination of level advancement and investment in specific abilities can do that as well.

That's the basic plan for advancement in Planes of Power. We'll continue to refine and tune the specific details as we go through the remaining six weeks of beta testing.

Many of the game balancing and system changes you've seen in Live EverQuest over the last few months have been done with this future advancement in mind. Expect to see more balancing that allows us to once again develop high end content that does not involve marathon battles that are more about attendance and endurance than tactics and skill (e.g. The first time people rounded the corner, stared Trakanon square in the face, and knew they had mere minutes to win or lose, as opposed to the second hour of an end-game encounter.) Creating Planes of Power has been as much about reevaluating existing gameplay as it has been about creating new gameplay.

We believe that advancement should be fun and rewarding. We are very aware of the issues that players are not enjoying in current gameplay and some of the mechanics introduced with other expansions. We plan to avoid contrived "timesinks", so that you'll be playing rather than just spending time. This is not to say that success in Planes of Power doesn't require some time, we just want it to be time that you can enjoy. And even though this is a high level expansion, there will be ways for both casual and hardcore players to advance.

That is as much detail as we can give you right now. We appreciate your patience, and we hope that you'll enjoy Planes of Power.

- The Planes of Power Development Team

Congrats to Holipa! She is our newest Warder!