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Players bracing for EverQuest II's GU61 AA changes
Big changes are afoot in the world of Norrath, or at least the version of it on display in EverQuest II. Game Update 61 is just around the corner, and ZAM has a brief rundown on the major alternate advancement and tradeskill changes coming when the patch goes live. While many players are cautiously optimistic, some are concerned over the fact that such sweeping changes will affect their playstyles. How sweeping, exactly? Well, every character is getting a free AA respec, so there's your first clue. Also of note are the new class, subclass, and tradeskill trees available at level 10. Of particular concern to some is the fact that the Shadows AA tree will now be off limits to characters under level 50, depriving them of some very useful health, power, and run-speed AAs and making life that much harder for dedicated crafting characters. In other EQII news, EQ2Wire offers a brief look at the veteran reward changes hinted at during last month's Fan Faire. While no release date is forthcoming, producer Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson says that "the design is outlined and we're committed to the concept."
Scattered Shots: Got mana?
Scattered Shots is temporarily subtitled "Scattered Thoughts" this week, as David goes off on a speculative tangent. Perhaps all this expansion leakage is causing a leak in his brain too, but hey, a little bit of intellectual pondering never hurt anyone, right? This column is for hunters, by the way -- but, yeah... you knew that.After writing last week's article about hunter problems and predictions, I got to thinking about how hunters use mana, and reflecting on the question of whether hunters should be using mana or not. Hunters have many things in common with classes like rogues and warriors, such as doing physical damage, and yet they have much in common with mages and warlocks as well, such as being vulnerable to mana-draining abilities. This issue is vague enough that my observations here can only be considered personal opinions, and they won't be of interest if all you want from this column is a list of the greatest gear and talent builds. But for the speculative among us, there's lots to discuss here.
