Here are a few comments from Sanya, from the Camelot Herald on various Style changes and Dex debuffs Style Changes In addition to the item in the release notes about combat style changes (i.e. that style damage now scales up as you rise in level), there were two other changes: - Sidewinder in the piercing list is now based off Tarantula, not Black Widow. All combat styles (except previously for this one) in the game that are "chained" styles require an opening of some kind (i.e. block, parry, etc.). Sidewinder was the only chain style in the game that did not require an opening move, and as such has been changed to require a previous style that in turn requires an opening move. EDIT: This change is being discussed in response to some player feedback. - The Executioner and Defender's Faith polearm styles for Albion Armsmen have been swapped. Previously, Armsmen could find themselves in a situation where they had enough specialization in Polearms to receive Executioner but did not yet have Parry (the opening that is required for Executioner). Now, Armsmen will get Defender's Faith at eight trains in Polearm, which has no opening move, and then Executioner at ten trains, when they will almost certainly have Parry. In general, we make changes like these because players report that they did not get a style when they should have. This happens because the game will not give you a combat style if you do not have the opening skill required for it. This means that an Armsman who does not have Parry, will not receive any styles that require Parry as an opening (i.e. Executioner). As more players report problems like this, we will make similar changes. High Level Style Problem There is a problem right now with high level styles, that make it appear you've lost styles you used to have. We are in the process of fixing it. I'll edit this post to reflect the fix as soon as I get word. Dex Debuff Changes Our spell designer was working on some details on druid pets for me, and decided that better documentation on the dex debuff change was warrented. Here is the deal: "I looked at all the patch messages from Nov. 1 on, and while there is a vague mention of dex debuffs being fixed, I really thought the full ramifications were more thoroughly discussed. However, that's definitely not the case; this was an important change that was not documented well enough. Basically what was happening was that dex buffs were erroneously affecting chance-to-hit, instead of affecting defense skill totals. Chance to hit is based on a percentile (0-100), while defensive skill totals are more like 100-700. So when a high level monster was being debuffed for 100, it was making its chance to hit 0, instead of reducing its defense by 100 (100/700 is about 15%, which is the target of the spell). "The flip side of this was that dex buffs were directly affecting the chance to hit as well... Where this was radically affecting balance was with summoner pets (since they're monsters, naturally). Enchanter, Cabalist, and Spiritmaster pets were basically having their chance to hit maxxed out at 100% even on high level targets. They were soloing oranges easily and in some cases reds. When the dex buff fix went in, these guys were brought into line, but the oddball side effect was that the much lower level Druid pets were now effectively useless for damage dealing. Since high Nature spec Druids weren't suffering any major balance issues (they were still soloing quite well), the issues hasn't been re-addressed. Their pets are still useful for harrying enemy casters in RvR, and for dealing with adds during a pull. The matter isn't closed though, and the issue of Druid pets is on my list to address."