I'm highly disappointed in the Beastmastery report. A few things I will note:

Balancing - Good, very good, it was crappy before, I haven't tested it now, but anything that makes it better than before is a plus.

Bodyguard - WOOT ADMIN WOOOOOT almost done eliminating all the dodges in this game. =) coughremoveacrododgepleasecough

Poison - I'm surprised this went through, as the possibilities of the extremely overpowered combos that can result as of this is just amazing. Hexens now have a new softlock (spit senso dwhammy asthma + anorexia anyone?), did warriors really need a third way of choosing what poisons they want? New affliction skills are awesome, as I prefer afflictions > damage because anyone should be able cure afflictions, but not everyone can tank massive damage...maybe poison should be changed to be just charybdon? I suggested a different idea in the beastmastery report thread where the beast can afflict with a random affliction out of a set (Disease - dysentery, epilepsy or scabies, Neurosis - anorexia, impatience or masochism, Psychoses - hallucinations, paranoia or stupidity, Muscular - rigormortis, weakness or paralysis). That's just an example, I'm sure something along those lines would have been better than the ability to choose a poison to afflict.

Web - What's with the fake fix? 2000 mana beast web is still going to be abused the same as 1500 mana beast web was, honestly. Beast web + shieldstun is a 7 second incapacitation...beast web + wrack kind of kills the point of the wrack's web requirement...beast web + axelord knockdown lulllz...the abuse is endless. Why wasn't this removed??

Trample - I like this fix but I hate this fix. Desitrus posted the potential abuse with trample being on beast balance, but trample being on normal balance is equally abusable because instead of it being able to be used every 10 seconds it's usable every four on active balance, which still poses problems for group fights where a meld is involved. Perhaps trample should be changed to not break 4 limbs at all. It should only break 2 limbs, and it will always break 2 limbs, and instead of 'scaling' (i.e, hitting less people the more there are in the location) it will always hit every enemy who is prone, since only two limbs are breaking.

Sleepmist - Same feelings with this as I had with beast web...why wasn't this removed? Do the admin not see the overpoweredness of this ability in the hands of wiccans?

:/

Yeah, the poison thing....who's idea was that, exactly?

It's bad. Bad bad.

Combos-

Wiccans/hexens:
Senso + dw anorexia/asthma
order metawake off + beast sleep + dw sleep sleep
* This is especially nasty with wiccans of course with aeon and sleep locks

Knights:
Wed spam + anything, since proning stops any defense against knights beyond rebounding
ANOTHER way to senso with slitthroat and such

Bards:
Not so much effected, other than you can use ibululu or reckless

Monks:
Venom on demand for locks and major hinders

Etc etc

Remove or change poisons please

Beasts aren't necessary for combat. No idea why you guys are complaining.

Constructs aren't necessary either.

Because whorable beast web is a Bad Thing. Beasts don't have to be necessary to be way powerful.

I'm still in favor of higher mana costs for balancing some of these things, but 2k beast mana isn't high enough to prevent spammage. 4k would have been much better. A level 12 beast with full mindoru can cast that three times. Most beasts would cast that once or twice without resorting to empathy.

Don't get me wrong, I like that beasts have power. There's nothing worse than worthless skills, and it might be better to err on the side of OP for a common skillset. Still, push it a little further.

Honestly, I like Poison/Sleepmist for Moondancers. They needed love.

No.

Its love most others didnt need, it should be removed and moondancers fixed themselves, not fix them through a whole nother skillsets.

so anyone actually going to post the post?

ANNOUNCE NEWS #1276
Date: 2/10/2009 at 23:37
From: Estarra, the Eternal
To : Everyone
Subj: Beastmastery Updates

This is a fairly significant update to Beastmastery, which encompasses a
special report from your ever lovin' envoys, a smattering of bugs, and
our own review. So without further ado:

o New beast skills: scaling, gust and poison.

o BEAST INFO will now show the beast's area location and plane.

o Web spell for beasts now call 2000 mana.

o Beast balancing is now slightly better than before.

o You don't need to be mounted for your beast to kick.

o Trampling formula changed to account for beast level.

o Jumping, kicking and trampling now use beast balance. Syntax has
changed on these skills.

o When you dismiss a beast, you can order it to feed out of its feedbag.

o Cost of trains for camouflage has been lowered.

o Dragon turtles have now have swimming and breath weapon does more
damage.

o Bodyguard has been changed to absorb damage against denizens (8%). The
train cost has been slightly lowered

o Dreamweave spook should work on beasts.

o Beast deepsea diving should work.

o Beastmaster skill has been changed so you can imbue immediately after
learning a skill.

o Beasts that are purchased or collared won't reset to the stables so
long as you are in the same room with them.

Yeah I agree with everyone: Web, Trample, Sleep need to be revisited once more, and Trample fixed up a bit too. I mean, with Trans Beastmastery and a little time training a beast, there are some extremely nerftastic combos that can be performed.

I just wish they had increased the amount of food you can keep in a feedbag. I still haven't gotten a pony past level 1 without it starving to death, falling into lava, starving to death, randomly bugging and dying, STARVING TO DEATH, etc...

I -absolutely- can't imagine how anyone, even the most careless person in the world could manage to pull something like that off. Fill the feedbag, STABLES HOUSE PONY FEED, take it out when you have time, repeat, get trains and train it. A hour of influencing won't really get you level 12, but you certainly will be level 10 or close. Then just... remember to put some food in the feedbag and make an alias to BEST DISMISS on QQ? I get annoyed with the limited amount of feeds as well, but mostly for reason that it takes longer to train the beast... but keeping it fed so it doesn't die is damn simple.


As for the changes, yay for even more and even greater abuse!

Beast heal also doesn't work off equi/balance anymore? It used to require only beast balance.

Err, I'll do the breakdown...

Pony 1: Took it out of stable after incubation. It was starving, died before I could type OUTR FRUIT, BEAST FILL FEEDBAG etc.
Pony 2: Didn't realize I needed to pay stable fees for right after the incubation. Pony matured/starved in stables/died while I was asleep.
Pony 3: This one lasted a few days, but went to bed, came back, same thing as 1.
Pony 4: Lost connection. Came back to dead pony. I am assuming starvation was the culprit.
Pony 5: Ran into lava. Pony followed. Pony burnt. Pony dead.
Pony 6: Died in Nature challenge, completely forgot about pony in the chaos for the seal and never whistled him back. I assume he made a nice dinner for some cave fisher.
Pony 7: This little guy starved to death while I was writing a news post. Best part? His feedbag was 3/4 full. Equine anorexia?

So, yeah. I honestly can't get a pony up to even level 2 before it dies. And I've taken them hunting/influencing - is there some training I need to give them for them to get xp from me? Half an hour of influencings with pony following didn't net even one level for the nag. :/

I dropped my eagle when I died in that lava pit and he didn't get burnt. Maybe it's because I was carrying him, but he did still end up in the lava pit... and I had no way to retrieve him until he reset.

the trick here is simple

buy level 12 pony from gregori for 20,000 gold.

I wanna do it myself!!!! /stubborn

I don't think mobs can ever die to other mobs or environmental hazards...so those "lava" and "fisher" anecdotes are pretty confusing.