The Warhammer Online team has released Grab Bag Number 20, which answers a bunch of questions submitted by fans on the official forums. For example, one player asked what changes can be expected to Crowd Control. According to the response, "Some of the Crowd Control changes which you'll see coming in the next patch include increasing Immunity timers, combining Root Immunity and Knockback Immunity together, and a new 'Crowd Control Immunity' short-duration self-buff available as a Renown purchase, as well as Immunities persisting through death."

High and low server populations were also discussed, and the team said they expect server merges to resolve population issues on lower population servers. Therefore, players can eventually expect to see higher populations regularly. You can read the full Q&A below.

Q. Will the Zealot/Rune Priest Mastery trees ever be changed to be more comparable with the other healing class trees?

A. Rune Priests and Zealots have a unique setup - whereas the other healers typically have one Mastery that's more focused specifically on healing and then two which are focused in different ways, the Rune Priest and the Zealot have healing in all of their trees. Instead, for them, they're choosing which delivery approach to specialize in (direct, over-time, or group/area). 

We're happy with this general concept for them, but we do recognize that they have some weaknesses and we're going to be working on those via methods other than completely redesigning their Mastery trees to ensure that they bring unique options to the table that other healer careers do not get in those types of specialization.

Q. In Part 2 of the Executive Letter, you mentioned that Crowd Control is going to be looked at. Can you tell us what is going to be examined?

A. Some of the Crowd Control changes which you'll see coming in the next patch include increasing Immunity timers, combining Root Immunity and Knockback Immunity together, and a new "Crowd Control Immunity" short-duration self-buff available as a Renown purchase, as well as Immunities persisting through death.

Q. What is the new timeline to implement the Combat and Career changes that were pulled from Game Update 1.3?

A. You'll be seeing some AoE changes (including radius adjustments & standardization, and damage balance) coming very soon, along with our first tweaks to several Crowd Control systems. For all of the other changes, we'll be examining them on a one-by-one basis, and if we determine that they're still good and necessary, then they'll roll out in stages in future patches.

Q. Are we still going to be moving towards a % based bonuses for the stats system?

A. Not at this time, no. Our results from the Public Test Server showed us that this concept needed more time in the oven while we scrub through the test data.  The upcoming patch will indeed reduce stat contribution to AoE damage, but that is an independent change which stands on its own.

Q. AoE is king at the moment, but some AoE is where it needs to be right now and does not need any change up or down. One example is the DoK's DE, which can only hit four targets and does very minimal damage. Will AoE receive across-the-board changes, or will each ability be given a case-by-case examination?

A. The next patch will include a comprehensive review and adjustment of all AoE abilities. We're trying to not fundamentally change these abilities (so the basic functionality, number of targets, effects, etc. will remain the same), and we're instead focusing on making sure that the outputs of the abilities are more reasonably balanced.  Our overall goal is to reduce the overall amount of AoE damage that goes flying around the battlefield, so most abilities will end up seeing at least a small reduction in damage if nothing else.

Q. Are there any plans to introduce any new careers/races in the near or distant future?

A. Not at the moment, no - right now, we're completely focused on what we already have.

Q. Are there any plans to fix the current issues with the ToK Tactics and perhaps make them more applicable and feasible with the game?  Currently, I cannot use my greenskin Tactic because it has been wiped out by the Beastman Tactic, and the other Tactics appear to work no matter what type of creature you fight. Additionally, the granted abilities for obtaining some of the ToK Tactics are very lackluster compared to how difficult they are to obtain.

A. As far as any bugs go, of course we're absolutely going to be fixing them (as with all bugs!), but we can't promise which patch in particular you'll see the fixes in.  As for the rewards which don't feel as impressive, we'd certainly like to spruce those up in the future.

Q. Do Wards affect outgoing damage in any way?

A. They do indeed - any enemy which requires Wards will both deal more damage to you, and suffer less damage from your attacks. You'll need to unlock your Ward to negate these effects!

Q. Do the Land of the Dead Talismans only work on gear obtained in the Necropolis of Zandri and the Tomb of the Vulture Lord?

A. The powerful Soul Talismans only work in the special Vessel Weapons obtained from the Land of the Dead, yes.

Q. I understand that rare seeds are never consumed or lost during the Cultivating process. However, when I uproot a plot containing a rare seed, the seed is destroyed. Is this intentional?

A. Uprooting is a Cultivation system functionality that gives the player the option to clear a seed from the plot prematurely and does not take into consideration the rarity of a seed (e.g., it will destroy a common seed just the same as a rare seed).

Q. Why is there no Weapon Skill/Wounds Liniment 80/80 or 100/60 or 60/100, or a Range/Ballistic Liniment?

A. Due to the scope and resources allocated to the Liniments feature, it was impractical for us to include every possible combination of stats. We chose 12 that we felt suited the situation. Weapon Skill/Wounds and Range/Ballistics have in no way been eliminated from candidacy for future Liniment additions.

Q. Could you clarify the meaning of some of the armor set bonuses? Particularly the 6-piece bonus for the Invader set. For instance, the bonus for ranged careers grants +120 increased range and the bonus for tanks grants +5 DPS.  How exactly do these bonuses apply to range and DPS, respectively?

A. The "+120" range is simply a typo in the tooltip; the actual bonus is +10 feet (and yes, we're working on getting the display fixed!). The +DPS increases your character’s overall DPS by the allotted amount.  This effects both auto attack and ability damage.

Q. My Marauder's hair color changes when I zone or mutate. Is this a side effect of being so close to Chaos (like the mice) or is it a bug I need to be reporting?

A. Even the primal forces of Chaos know better than to mess with your hair - we'll look into this!

Q. What purpose do the "Skulls of the Fallen" serve? I've noticed that they're counted as currency.

A. Skulls of the Fallen are used to fuel the Divine Favor Altar Keep Upgrade. You can read more about the Divine Favor Altar and what it does here.

Q. Have you all ever considered reworking the server populations to be relative to all servers instead of a static number? Servers like Phoenix Throne, Dark Crag, and Iron Rock would be High (though they may be far from the limit), and players would have a better idea of the mid and low servers. Also, basing it off active (past two weeks) R40's instead of all players would get an even better snapshot to compare with.

A. That’s a great question, and that is an idea we have evaluated in the past. The concern with scaling the population display so that it is relative is that we might show a server population as “High” when it actually isn’t, because it just happens to have the highest population at that time. We do not wish these labels to be misleading in any way. That being said, we are expecting to resolve our long term population issues on our lower population servers and see high populations regularly as part and parcel of server merges that are currently in discussion.