Actually, its in the original 2002 design document.

To respond to the other poster, the purpose is a money sink.

~Tagad

The target repair times are between 4 and 6 hours currently, so it sounds like things are actually working as intended.

If that intent needs to move, as many of you suggest, then we will further evaluate things. Making the times longer than this presents its own set of issues.

That said, we probably need to make repair stones more accessable or some other solution to stop people from having stop what they are doing and return to for those players that play extended sessions.

~Tagad

In regards to the immunities used here: I chose to use immunities to create a different experience than the rest of Vanguard in this particular area. This is not the "standard" of all high level zones :)

If I did not use these immunities the only real "choice" I would have as a designer at this moment in time is to further buff the mobs - making the classes that were "nerfed in this area" shine even more and be 100% required.

I agree, there are more interesting ways to make things challenging and interesting - however, given that at the time Rahz was implimented I did not have infinite time to work on it, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.

~Tagad

The issue has been / is in the process of being addressed all around.
The Game Marshal will likely be giving those people that knowing exploited this a visit.

~Tagad

An issue was found with the intigration of a portion of the art files. People are working to get this issue addressed ASAP. We are not exactly thrilled about this either.

~Tagad

Meanwhile, yes, there is /currently/ not an equivilent. However, on the horizon you get to look forward to starting with better faction for the outpost in Stiirhad, Afrit, and several other areas.

I play an "evil race", as I've posted multiple times, and honestly its not /that/ bad. Its painful, dont get me wrong, but its not nearly as bad as everyone likes to make it out to be.

~Tagad

The final component of the new quest results in legendary gear, which is higher than heroic in stats. We are looking into adding in one to two more reward choices as well - if we do this, we'll make it such that the classes that would have "missed out" can trade in their item to get the new ones.

The patch note shouldn't really say "max faction" with celestine ward - as it shouldnt require 20,000+ for a standard race.

~Tagad

Can you PM me a character name, I'll see if we can get the character copied onto a coders account on the dev server and try to repro it.

~Tagad

What "new tanvu" content are you talking about out of curiosity? No one in design has done any work there. There is some content that was added towards the end of beta by one of our coders that exists, but that has been there for over a month.

In regards to Vol Tuniel, the bottom section has level 38, 39, and 40 NPCs. The 38's are green to a 42, and the 39's and 40's are light blue. The deepest section has truckloads of level 40, six dot Vi'Rak, two untuned boss mobs that drop standard boss loot, and orbs that will some day spawn a tuned raid mob.

~Tagad

Oh, you mean the /bonus/ he put in of making the quests /easier/ by making them drop 100%? Thats not a fix, its a buff. The runes /do/ and /did/ drop. I have multiple from earlier in the week myself.

"If a named in the Thelaseen or Vol Tuniel regions can drop an armor quest rune, it will now drop a rune 100% of the time." <-- This was increased from 60%, because many people simply don't see enough named NPCs in an evening.

"Lesser named in the Thelaseen and Vol Tuniel dungeons now have a chance to drop a higher quality armor rune." <-- We felt that there were simply not enough sub bosses and bosses to drop these runes so we did increase their entry into the world by putting them on the lieutenant NPCS at a 40% and 15% chance. Pretty much, due to your feedback.

Considering your level 41, according to station players - assuming thats you :) I know for a fact that there are plenty of non grey mobs for you to kill in both of those dungeons.

Either way, thanks for the feedback, its nicer when the attitude isnt there with it, but I'll live I guess :)

~Tagad