Recently(within the past 3 days) the Malmohus item "luminous Jet Bloodletter's Leggings" had its item level and salvage value reduced. There is no record on the changelog for this update. (other Malmohus/worldbuild changes might also have occurred, but this is the one change I am able to 100% confirm)

This change is fairly consistent as far as available databases(ZAM, etc.) are concerned, so it is not exactly a 'non-classic' change(in other words, the change makes sense).

(I will leave the debate of nerfing old world zones as pushing people into 'optional' custom zones such as Tajendi I/II for another day.)

However, if you are going to(positively OR negatively) make changes to the world, please document your changes. Having the playerbase grumble about stealth nerfs is an avoidable negative result of undocumented changes.

This statement applies to both PvM and RvR changes. Please, don't stealth fix/nerf things; let the players know!

Item level was reduced? Then AF was also reduced? Very strange.

Its not a nerf - the item level on a few items was too high and I fixed it, the AF remains unchanged. Such worldbuild changes are common and do not warrant a changelog entry.

For future reference for armor: item level = AF/2 except cloth, in which case AF=item level. Anything otherwise is a bug that can be reported with /report.

@Isoup

Jet Bloodletter's Leggings
Realm: Midgard
Slot: Legs
Requires Skill: Armor: Chain
(Healer, Shaman, Skald, Thane, Valkyrie, Warrior)
Armor Factor: 102
Armor Absorb: 27
Magical Bonuses:
Strength: 16 pts
Constitution: 16 pts
Dexterity: 16 pts
Item Bonuses:
Dexterity attribute cap: 3
Armor Modifiers:
Base Factor: 102
Absorption: 27%
Quality: 100%
Condition: 100%

But important for Uthgard:

Stats before patch 1.89, item stats not changed retroactively:
Armor Factor: 88
Armor Absorb: 27
Magical Bonuses:
Cold Resist: 6%
Constitution: 18 pts
Energy Resist: 6%

So it's not a nerf but a fix like Abydos said above.

Its not even like that - the AF was 88, but the level was not 44, so the con was wrong is all. All the stats remain unchanged. Seems the complaint may be about salvage, which would probably mean it isn't incorrectly salvaging for arcanium any more.

Abydos wrote:Its not even like that - the AF was 88, but the level was not 44, so the con was wrong is all. All the stats remain unchanged. Seems the complaint may be about salvage, which would probably mean it isn't incorrectly salvaging for arcanium any more.

Whether or not it correctly or incorrectly salvages for the amount, I will not dispute, since I don't know what the correct salvage values of classic Malmohus were in the first place.

But, if your reasoning of item level indicating salvage value is correct, there are several instances of salvaged items from Malmohus that salvage either for too low or not enough materials based on their item level or item type:

For example, please see Lesser Staff of Sigils(only salvages for 12 duskwood, but item type is 2H staff) and Burr's Prey Seeker(only salvages for dyrwood, though item level is 45+).

On a similar subject, there are three sell values for Drakulv Mightcaller depending on the mob that drops it: 8g+, 9g+, and 11g+, depending(stats of the item are identical).

I hope that in your Malmohus worldbuild updates, you are not simply nerfing things advantageous to players without also fixing things disadvantageous to them. I should hope that he who taketh away also giveth, so to speak.

Regardless(and getting back on topic): if such worldbuild changes are common, and, as you say, do not warrant a changelog, I suppose we are left to assume that such fixes, changes, and/or nerfs will continue to go undocumented to the public?

I must say that is very disappointing. It would take minimal effort to mention such changes, and it would be very helpful to the community to understand what was changed, rather than leave it to the players to discover(happily or unhappily) for themselves.

Edit: @Razzer: yes, the first thing I did when I noticed the change was search available databases for info on stats, etc. The info you quoted is from ZAM, which I also noted. That is why, in my original post, I mentioned that the change 'makes sense'. I am not disputing the change itself, but rather the nature in which it occurred.

Also, as Abydos later confirmed, the AF of the item did not change, but rather the item level(and the con to the player, went from yellow to blue) was the change, which affected salvage level, but as I said, makes sense, and is not the complaint.

lsoup wrote:I hope that in your Malmohus worldbuild updates, you are not simply nerfing things advantageous to players without also fixing things disadvantageous to them. I should hope that he who taketh away also giveth, so to speak.

I'm not starting a discussion between "nerf" and "fix" now. But reducing an item-level while keeping all stats/AF the same doesn't look like a nerf to me if you actually want to USE the item.

shade wrote:
I'm not starting a discussion between "nerf" and "fix" now. But reducing an item-level while keeping all stats/AF the same doesn't look like a nerf to me if you actually want to USE the item.

I agree with you here, and the pants are a half-decent item to use for a few levels in between Braemar gear and level 51 SC.

But, would you not also agree that any changes, whether positive or negative, should be documented somewhere in patch notes so that players are actually aware of them?

As far as I am aware there are technical considerations to the changelog - we also have no other mechanism in place to document such changes, though I will bring the discussion up internally.

If you have specific reports, please use /report in game or send me a private message and I'll be glad to take a look at any worldbuild issues you encounter. Salvage rates should be based on the item level, which, may be incorrect in some cases.

Also, I don't randomly go in search of errata that would spite players - a player reported the issue and I corrected it.

Abydos wrote:As far as I am aware there are technical considerations to the changelog - we also have no other mechanism in place to document such changes, though I will bring the discussion up internally.

If you have specific reports, please use /report in game or send me a private message and I'll be glad to take a look at any worldbuild issues you encounter. Salvage rates should be based on the item level, which, may be incorrect in some cases.

Also, I don't randomly go in search of errata - a player reported the issue and I corrected it

Great response, thank you. I look forward to the results of your internal discussion, and otherwise I'll send you a PM once I confirm a few things regarding salvage values later today.

Topic can be closed, but please don't delete, in case someone returns to Uthgard a few months from now and wonders wtf happened to Malmohus(like I did when I came back last month and had to search through the forums to find out wtf happened to Raumarik!)