EQ2's weekly hotfix features many Guardian combat art changes.

Amnerys posted on the SOE forums last night regarding the weekly hotfix downtime. Here's our Time Zone Conversion Tool to help you plan.

The US servers will come down on September 14, 2010, at 7am PDT for a hotfix.  The expected downtime is 1 hour.

Today's hotfix included many ability changes to the Guardian class along with several other minor enhancements and fixes. Review the full patch notes after the hop.

UPDATE: Some users are experiencing a DirectX 9.0c dll error when trying to login after this patch. You may need to update your current version of DirectX. See this thread on the SOE Developer Roundtable forum for possible solutions.

USER INTERFACE

• Fixed a bug with and re-enabled new spells replacing old spells in the hotbar if the new spell is more powerful.

COMBAT

• Flurry and AE auto-attack now work for ranged weapons and off-hand melee weapons!
• Ranged AE auto-attack will be a splash around the primary target.

PVP COMBAT

• Ranged Weapon auto-attack damage has been slightly reduced in PVP Combat.

ITEMS

• Two handed Weapons and Ranged Weapons have had their damage ratings increased.
• Master Yael’s weapons have had their damage ratings increased.

ABILITIES / ALTERNATE ADVANCEMENT

Brawlers

• "Crane Twirl" now also adds 20% AE Auto-Attack chance.

Guardian

• "Got Your Back" is now raid-wide and has a 50 meter radius.
• "Call of Shielding" now increases the maximum health of the raid as well as the defense skill.
• "Guardian Sphere" now has a 0.5 second casting time. It lasts for 12-20 seconds (based on spell revision) and grants the guardian a 25% (at master) chance to absorb an attack (same as before) but no longer has max triggers of 6. The interpose effect has been changed to a stoneskin proc at 50% at master.
• "Recapture" now reduces the hate position of the group members by 1 as well. The reuse is now 45 seconds.
• "Iron Will" now reduces snare effects on the guardian as well as increases stamina. (36% at master at 90)
• "Plant" now forces targets in Area of Effect to target the guardian and increases the guardian's threat slightly. The duration has been slightly reduced.
• "Double Attack" is now "Flurry" and grants 3% Flurry chance rather than 9% double attack.
• "Bind Wound" now heals the warrior to full.
• The "Crippling" line has been changed to the "Aggression" line.
• "Last Man Standing" no longer has a casting or recovery time. It is now a stoneskin instead of damage reduction.
• "Cripple" is now "Shoulder the Burden" and transfers 15% threat from the target group member to the guardian.
• "Hold the Line" and "Aggressive Defense" now trigger threat 100% of the time on a successful block.
• "Aggressive Nature" now increases the threat amounts on "Hold the Line" and "Aggressive Defense".
• The original location for "Enhance: Plant" is now "Enhance: Armored" and increases block chance when in defensive stance.
• "Enhance: Plant" now increases duration and radius.
• "Enhance: Intercept" also reduces incoming damage to the target of Intercept.
• "Enhance: Moderate" now increases the target's crit bonus by 1% rather than reducing hate gain by 2%.
• "Enhance: Reinforcement" has been moved to slot 5 in the new hate line.
• "Enhance: Rescue" in the original slot has been replaced with "Enhance: Call to Arms" which increases the skill bonuses by 7% per rank.
• "Enhance: Reinforcement" in the original slot has been replaced with "Enhance: Call of Shielding" which increases the spell by 5% per rank.
• "Enhance: Concussion" and "Enhance: Ruin" have been combined into "Enhance: Taunts" which reduces the resistibility of Shout and improves the threat amount of both Shout and Provoke.
• "Enhance: Sever" is now "Enhance: Hatred" and increases the guardian's threat generation by 2% per rank.

PERAH’CELSIS’ ABOMINABLE LABORATORY

• Arkatanthis the Destroyer’s item table has been adjusted so he is more likely to drop weapons.

BATTLEGROUNDS

• Fixed a bug where some players would get little to no warning before being kicked from a battleground match for slacking.