Our spell designer was working on some details on druid pets for me, and decided that better documentation on the dex debuff change was warrented. Here is the deal:
"I looked at all the patch messages from Nov. 1 on, and
while there is a vague mention of dex debuffs being fixed, I really thought
the full ramifications were more thoroughly discussed. However, that's
definitely not the case; this was an important change that was not
documented well enough. Basically what was happening was that dex buffs were
erroneously affecting chance-to-hit, instead of affecting defense skill
totals. Chance to hit is based on a percentile (0-100), while defensive
skill totals are more like 100-700. So when a high level monster was being
debuffed for 100, it was making its chance to hit 0, instead of reducing its
defense by 100 (100/700 is about 15%, which is the target of the spell).
"The flip side of this was that dex buffs were directly affecting the chance
to hit as well... Where this was radically affecting balance was with
summoner pets (since they're monsters, naturally). Enchanter, Cabalist, and
Spiritmaster pets were basically having their chance to hit maxxed out at
100% even on high level targets. They were soloing oranges easily and in
some cases reds. When the dex buff fix went in, these guys were brought into
line, but the oddball side effect was that the much lower level Druid pets
were now effectively useless for damage dealing. Since high Nature spec
Druids weren't suffering any major balance issues (they were still soloing
quite well), the issues hasn't been re-addressed. Their pets are still
useful for harrying enemy casters in RvR, and for dealing with adds during a
pull. The matter isn't closed though, and the issue of Druid pets is on my
list to address."
News
