Game Mechanics: Caster Mobs

[savarin]

I've yet to see this mentioned by anyone else and haven't found anything in the forums about it, but I definitely remember caster mobs being significantly weaker in the old days until a patch sometime during or after velious. Previous to this, caster mobs generally cast spells far below what their actual level would predict. I remember this specifically because I played a warrior and recall that before the patch, pulling wiz mobs in sebilis wasn't terribly dangerous because they cast extremely weak nukes more appropriate for a level 30 mob. After the patch they began using things like ice comet and force strike, causing them to be far more formidable. I've tried checking patch archives but I can't seem to find exactly when it happened; I'm hoping someone with superior research skills remembers this as well.

When the change occurred it certainly made caster mobs much more of a threat, but because this was after velious it wasn't completely out of proportion to the itemization implemented at that point. Though I certainly didn't like the fact wizard mobs could suddenly ice comet me, with velious gear it was manageable. Unfortunately it appears on this server that caster mobs are as they were after the change, casting nukes appropriate for their level. The issue is that in the classic era this makes them significantly more formidable than they were in old eq, to the extent that caster mobs are capable of absolutely destroying PCs lacking a heavy arsenal of stuns. Post-velious it wasn't especially difficult to get your resists to a respectable level, but in classic it's significantly more difficult.

Now I might be wrong, it could be that this change only affected sebilis mobs, or mobs in that particular level range. My memory isn't clear, and I certainly remember healer mobs being more difficult than warrior mobs. Nonetheless, with the possible exception of festering hags, I don't remember caster mobs quite so formidable in old eq. Somewhat related are some of the hate mobs, specifically the bard mobs actually casting bard songs and the pet classes (golems & revs) actually having pets up. I'm less clear about this as I did not raid hate very many times, but I have no recollection of revenants having pets or banshees (or any bard mob for that matter) casting songs.