What impacts ability for fear spell to stick?

[miethos]

As I have gotten my necromancer close to 30, I am noticing more and more stuff is resisting fear. Some 4 times in a row, in which I give up. Up until about low 20s, I never had this issue besides the occasional resist here and there. But at 29, even stuff that is 7 or 8 levels below me is resisting much more than usual. Is there any stat that directly influences fear or is it just weird coding on the emulator to make it behave this way? (it is a level 4 spell after all) I don't recall having this problem when I played EQ live but that was a long time ago.

[Juugox2]

depends on alot really level or the type of mob.. if he has HIGH MR or not, i mean normally if its a low dark blue then it usually wont resist much but a new fresh db may resist lil more then a lower db but it all has to do with what type of mob and lvl really

[Roanoke]

Once my druid hit 27 I started to notice a lot more resists on magic based spells. At first I thought it was a coincidence but then started to realize that it's not. A bard friend that I group with frequently has said the same thing.

[Slave]

The problem is that the resist code on P99 is still waaaaaay on the "err toward gimping players" philosophy that has been used here since day 1.

[mwatt]

The stat is definitely MR. Having said that, there were changes made to the resist system a little while back that changed the behavior of resists. With nothing other than annecdotal evidence to support it, in my observation, I have noticed that resists are higher than what I would expect for some levels. This is particularly noticable in the 30s. After 40 this smooths out and if anything, resists may be a bit less prevalent than one might expect.

[Lazortag]

The problem is that the resist code on P99 is still waaaaaay on the "err toward gimping players" philosophy that has been used here since day 1.

Resists are fine and classic. Start fighting blue con mobs.

[Slave]

Resists are fine and classic. Start fighting blue con mobs.

If you think that, you either haven't leveled from 1-50 or a while or never played Classic Everquest.

I am in a constant state of leveling my characters, because of the stupidness that is the endgame raid content on P99. I level mainly casters. At no point have I ever said, "Wow you know what, these resists seem really good and fair compared to what they used to be such a short time ago on Live." There were, however, many, MANY times I said "there is no fucking way that should ever happen."

[Lazortag]

If you think that, you either haven't leveled from 1-50 or a while or never played Classic Everquest.

I am in a constant state of leveling my characters, because of the stupidness that is the endgame raid content on P99. I level mainly casters. At no point have I ever said, "Wow you know what, these resists seem really good and fair compared to what they used to be such a short time ago on Live." There were, however, many, MANY times I said "there is no fucking way that should ever happen."


I don't want to be too contentious but I really see no problem with the resists as they are. I played an SK in classic and have some idea of what resists were like. I leveled a Bard here from 1-60 here (roughly 50-60 when the new resist changes went in), and I have an enchanter floating around level 23 here as well. What I've noticed:

-If a mob is a low blue con, I almost never get resists (maybe 5% of the time at most).
-If a mob is a high blue con (say, 1-2 levels lower than me), resist rates are much higher (maybe ~25% of the time)

For instance, my Bard's mez spell has a nearly 100% chance of landing on mobs in the level 45-49 range. I say this because as far as I know I have never gotten a resist on a mob in that range since I hit 60. However if a mob is closer to my mez's level cap (55), resists are much more frequent (for example, my mez gets resisted on the bees in Sky about 60% of the time, roughly the same percentage of the time for Drusella, and probably about as low as 20% of the time for the shrooms in Seb). If my enchanter is fighting a blue con ghoul in Unrest, nothing ever gets resisted, but if he's fighting a level 20+ mob, again, resists happen maybe once every four spells. This is just my experience and I don't find these numbers are that brutal, and they seem classically accurate as far as I remember.

[Hoggen]

I only played a wizard in classic. The resists were enough to make baby Jeebus weep. I remember root being resisted three and four times in a row. I remember full resists of ice, fire, you name it, on blue mobs. Classic resists just plain sucked for certain classes/spells. The only "unresistable" spells seemed to be lifetaps. That's why necros were so desirable on dragon raids.

[Slave]

...once every four spells. This is just my experience and I don't find these numbers are that brutal, and they seem classically accurate as far as I remember.

then let's both not derail the thead into who remembered what resistances in Classic and get back to the matter of the OP.

The two biggest things that affect your ability to land a Fear, in order of importance, are 1) your level compared to the mob, and 2) the mob's magic resistance.

[Ulivar]

The two biggest things that affect your ability to land a Fear, in order of importance, are 1) your level compared to the mob, and 2) the mob's magic resistance.

and 3) how scary your char looks :p

[visage]

and 3) how scary your char looks :p

YES!

[Messianic]

The problem is that the resist code on P99 is still waaaaaay on the "err toward gimping players" philosophy that has been used here since day 1.

I went 3-4 levels (before they changed resists like 5-6 months ago or so) without any resists at all. I'm pretty sure I could count on two hands the number of resists I got leveling my necro from 26-35. I was hunting Saben Tucross at level 17 (level 22ish mob) and the millers in Qeynos Hills at 19. I landed darkness probably 80-90% of the time on red mobs.

Resists were way too easy for a time. Maybe they are a bit heavy now - but I definitely don't feel it when i'm leveling on low blues.

[casdegere]

I don't know how you guys can complain, considering what has happened to Enchanters. The MR resistance of mobs is high IMHO making charming problematic and dangerous. I have charmed mobs in groups for DPS and it has worked out ok but its still not all that great. Soloing is just plain difficult but I still see people doing it, mainly Necromancers, Druids and Shaman. Negative Charisma having any effect is false. Chanters are the only class where Charisma has any bearing beyond vendor buying/selling.

[Spoodowg2000bc]

Is low charisma giving greater fear chance/duration a myth?

[Khemo]

Personally in the mid 20s I'm seeing many more Fear/Spook resists (at least a 2x higher resist rate) than darkness resists. Given that they're both listed as Magic (0) that shouldn't be the case. My necro is iksar with some -CHA gear so I've been wondering as well if that might be having some affect. Numb the Dead seems to be resisted at a much greater rate than darkness as well, and results in agro almost every time which is definitely not the case on my chanter.

Also I've seen fear breaking early sometimes especially on white/yellow cons - does fear have checks each tick like root/charm?

[Estu]

Chanters are the only class where Charisma has any bearing beyond vendor buying/selling.

And bards, for missed notes as well as (this second part I'm not as sure about) mez/lull.

[EnderWiggin]

Fear resist is pure MR resist and level of the target. I am noticing that fear is resisted a lot more than it was in classic, too. (I leveled five or six Necromancers in my EQ career.)

[Nirgon]

Invoke fear seemed to have way, way better resist and duration rates.

[Lazortag]

And bards, for missed notes as well as (this second part I'm not as sure about) mez/lull.

It doesn't matter for mez - mez is always a constant duration if it lands. It affects your chance at a critical lull resist though (ie, a resist where the mob aggroes you after)

[Atmas]

I mained a Wiz in classic and occasionally played several other casting classes. Play a wiz here.

From what I recall the resists and fizzles were lower on live. I'm not trying to base that on believing I can remember even and yellow cons resisted 'X'% versus the % they resist here. But on how my playstyle differs. On live given the choice between killing a yellow, white, or blue I almost always chose white or yellow because for roughly the same amount of mana I would get more xp. Higher lvl mobs had a few more hpts but they weren't much more difficult for me to kill.

What most people say is that resists get better as you level. I think its more of the case that mobs more levels down when you get higher are still blue. Which was the same as on live. On the other hand some specific mobs are less resistant than I recall them being.

On P99 I feel like spells are treated a little more like the melee mindset where fizzles and resists should be fairly common like misses. In my late 30s I still felt like I was getting a fizzle every other mob on finisher small nuke which I had for over 20 levels.

As far lifetap goes on live there was a -200 resist modifier so it was nearly guranteed for normal mobs while leveling. Can't really say for fear.

I guess you can't expect everything to be exactly reproduced. I went to kill a Gnome in LFay that I remember being easy xp and re-read accounts of on alla to confirm. Multiple posters claimed they could two shot the NPC because of low mage hpts with two sub 500 hpt nukes. It took me about two and half 600+ nukes to kill her on this server.

[Snaggles]

Back on live Invoke Fear seemed to work better for my SK. I don't know though, maybe it was crap too.

As mentioned some spells have modifiers (Heat Blood series, Taps, etc). Fear I'm sure doesn't have one or might even have a penalty as the effect is pretty amazing.

After leveling a Rogue and SK in live and now a Necro on P99 I think the resist rates are just fine for them, or at least not noticeably bad. Any easier and it would be hard to call it, "gaining experience" ;).

[Tux]

I don't know how you guys can complain, considering what has happened to Enchanters. The MR resistance of mobs is high IMHO making charming problematic and dangerous. I have charmed mobs in groups for DPS and it has worked out ok but its still not all that great. Soloing is just plain difficult but I still see people doing it, mainly Necromancers, Druids and Shaman. Negative Charisma having any effect is false. Chanters are the only class where Charisma has any bearing beyond vendor buying/selling.

Spell resists are very level sensitive here, much more so then I believe on soe. This can work for you (root regularly holds for full duration on a low-blue mob) and against you (accidentally pull yellow mob, it then resists 5-7 spells in a row and kills you).

Personally I prefer it, you have a better idea of when you can rely on spells and when you cannot.

It's when Velious rolls around enchanters will start hurting, very high MR if not out right mez immunity is the norm. Its a rough expansion for them.