Too hard to hit NPCs in 4.4 Final

[Arastiroth]

I run a private server and updated my DB (Drawde's worlddata 1.1 with a few minor changes), and me and a couple friends went on the new 4.4 EQemu release and tried fighting things on some lvl 40 characters, but found that it is incredibly hard to hit NPCs. I tried with a lvl 41 ranger to kill an orc in Oasis (not sure of the exact level, but around lvl 20 or maybe lower), but found it incredibly difficult to hit them, including missing about 15 or 16 times in a row once. It seems like NPCs hit me correctly (miss quite a bit for low greens), but over the course of an entire fight they bring me down to about 60% life even though I'm wearing pretty good gear for lvl. My DoT over the course of the fight will do nearly as much dmg I do simply cause I can't hit (Dual wielding 9/25 weapons with a FBSS on, so it isn't like my weapons suck is why).

My friends tried out a SK and a Pally and they also had similar troubles with killing low greens. Monsters are way too hard to hit right now, and I doubt this is how hard it was intended to be.

Is there any possible way for me to fix this? It's impossible to play melee types if you can hit anything.

Hope that this can be fixed easily, or that they update EQemu so that it works properly. Right now it is simple crazy how hard it is to hit.

[Bigpull]

Actualy this isn't a recent change, what did change recently is the max damage formula and the "damage curve", basicly i nerfed melee damage a little bit, so things die a little slower than they used to maybe. Well as you noticed stuffs harder to kill now, so off digging I went. Turns out clients were using the wrong function to check thier skills and it was giving them 0's, rapidly plumeting the chance to hit into negatives, and triggering the cap at 30%. =P

Non hasted level 40 ranger #setallskill 150, summon up two yaks and an fbss, and off to testing we go. #spawn Level_Fourty 1 40, and parsed at

time 1:21
damage 1175
dps 14.51
hit 67
miss 17
hit% 79.8
hits per sec 1.04
max slash 29
count 1
min slash  1
count 3
average hit 17
estimated weapon delay 21

Buffed with Beta spells, and speed of vallon

time 0:17
damage 1140
dps 67.04
hit 59
miss 8
hit% 88.1
hits per sec 3.94
max slash 33
count 1
min slash  1
count 3
average hit 19
estimated weapon delay 9

[Arastiroth]

I went in and checked my rangers ATK with showstats, and it showed his ATK as 0. I decided to make a new character and see if it somehow got messed up along the line. Made a new ranger, #level 40, #setskillall 150, and still got an ATK of 0 and multiple misses.

I then made an ogre warrior, and equiped him with fbss, two yaks, and full cobolt plus a cloak, #level 40, #setskillall 175, which managed to have him have an ATK of 15. I went to SRo, attacked a sand giant, which I got down to about 85% life before I was close to dead. Depopped SG, #heal self, #spawn Test 1 40, and attacked that. I basically get about 1 hit per every 5 or 6 swings, sometimes managing a double hit (very rarely -- about two or three double hits in the amount of time it took the ogres offense to raise up 10 pts -- was #healing myself throughout the fight), but other times going through a couple quad misses before hitting.

I also noticed the sand giant had an ATK of 0 when I #showstats him, but I've never done that on a NPC before, so I don't know if that's normal or not. I'm going to fool around with things to see if somehow when I sourced I brought that error in, but if anyone has any idea why that is happening, please let me know. =)

[Merth]

Looking at the function that calculates melee hits, I only see one part where ATK is used:

dmgbonusmod += (float)(this->spellbonuses->ATK + this->itembonuses->ATK)/5;

If that's all there is to it, then it looks like your ATK only applies to a damage bonus.

In fact, I haven't done research on it, but I wouldn't be surprised if ATK from item bonuses is always zero.. ie, I bet this hasn't been coded in yet.

[Arastiroth]

I tried with a completely empty DB (just used the 4.4 clean install DB), and made a monk (since they don't need items as much as other classes) #level 40, #setskillall 150, #spawn Test 1 40, and then attack. Again, even without any DB installed, except the basic 4.4, I have lots of trouble managing to hit. I haven't heard many other people say anything yet, but am I the only one that has this problem, or are there other people out there that have been having trouble with melee characters hitting?

From what MerthEQ said it would sound like ATK is broken right now if it only applies to dmg. It should also be applying to To Hit chances, I'd imagine.

[Bigpull]

Correct, currently the only way to increase your ATK rating is to have a buff or item that gives + ATK, It basicly balances the only way npc get AC, from spells and items

[Arastiroth]

So, now the only way to hit something is to buff yourself with a +ATK spell, or via items? How can you buff your ATK via items? No items give you a bonus to ATK, and str doesn't seem to do anything for your attack rating. So now you're basically dependant on being able to buff yourself in order to have even a slight prayer of hitting something? I'm sorry, but that seems very wrong. Also, it's just as easy to hit a snake as it is to hit a dragon??? I haven't tried yet, but it sounds like levelling up a melee character will be impossible if you hit only once every 6 or 7 attacks. After hearing this there is no way I'd *EVER* want to be a melee type. How boring will it be to swing 10 times and PRAY you hit twice??

I'm hoping there is something I am missing, cause right now it looking very dull for any melee types (especially Rogues, Warriors and Monks).

Also, it doesn't really balance out how NPCs get AC, because right now it's impossible to hit NPCs who don't have buffs on if you don't have buffs on. I haven't tried buffing myself yet to increase attack, but since that warrior that had 15 ATK missed consistently I'm assuming that a generally weak ATK buff isn't going to change much, either.

Not trying to be rude to the developers cause I know they're doing a lot of hard work on this, but just letting it be known that this right now isn't working. It's unplayable for me and I have to stick to 4.3 to be able to kill anything other then greens (blues kill me pretty easily). Casters are now 100 times more powerful then melee's.

[Sterbla]

Having equipped a warrior lvl 65 with full Emp Ssra/VT/PoP gear I find his ATK still to be in the 1400 range with melee skills around 233 and offense capped.

The one thing I noticed is that crits work again, dodge, block, riposte and parry also work (they didn't or didn't well in 4.3) and this warrior is still able to easily hit lvl 60 mobs.

[Arastiroth]

Not sure why it's working so weird for me, then. : :(

[Arastiroth]

Well, I made a lvl 65 warrior too and tried equiping him with lots of high end gear and he was able to hit relatively consistently (about 50% of the time) on a sand giant, but I think that's still a bit low considering all the elite items he was wearing. The problem is that when you play a REAL character who doesn't have equipment from Tunare/CT/Inny or PoP armor. I find it so hard to hit with a real character. With how it is right now, I would consider any caster class to be far superior to any melee class (especially pet classes) because they don't have to worry about struggling to hit. Pets seem to hit fine from the little I played with them, but REAL melee classes seem to have so much difficulty. Right now my ranger does far more damage with a bow (Larktwitter bow which isn't that good at all -- 12/42 I think?) then with dual wielding 9/25 weapons at lvl 40. I think I could do more damage standing back and just casting DD spells and meditating currently, really (especially if you don't count using kick, which many of the melee classes don't have).

[wdrng]

I've got exactly the same problem Arastiroth has. I started a new character (Ranger) who's 3rd level, and more often then not I'm getting killed by creatures that /con blue (except for decaying skeleton's, field rats, and gnoll pups). I still haven't been able to kill a /con grey before dying yet.


btw. I think the Dev's have done a great job. I first looked into EQ emulators about a year ago, and they were no where near as good as EQemu is now.
Great job!!

[Elrach]

I did notice something similar also.

I started a new warrior, and hydra him with a shm. I find the warrior does most of the damage via kick, and not his weapons. I hit very infrequently with the weapons, even with both offense and the weapon type skills is maxed for the level.

[wdrng]

Yup, same thing. My ranger just got kick last night, and his kick almost always hits, and it does more dmg on average then his attacks. Weapon is a bronze longsword, with offence & 1-hand slash 25+. His kick skill is only 19.

[JBenison]

Anyone found out about this issue? I am having the same problem and its very annoying for a melee class.