Most changes in listed here are intended for a mid- Energy Surge Season Balance Patch. There will be more changes appearing here in the next 1-2 weeks. In the Mid-Season patch we want to improve various underused items / weapons. While also making changes to items and abilities, that are either too dominant in it's role and hurting overall variety by it or if they have playstyles that are not very fun to fight against. Big reworks, like the Black Hands, will go live with the next content update.
This post gets regularly updated with the latest changes of our internal playtests.
Very Important:
All these changes are still in testing and may vastly differ in the final patch. Sometimes we just try out various things, which may get reverted. Also the balance changes are not neccessarily all complete. Just because a certain item is not adjusted in the changelogs so far, doesn't mean it isn't on our 'need to be adjusted'-list. These changes are simply a snapshot of the current development and everything in there needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
This thread is not meant to discuss these unfinished changes. It is just to give all players the same chance of guessing the direction of the next balance patch
Already Live:
Arcane Staffs
The Locus is a very strong support weapon in ZvZs. At the moment it allows for a dual role whenever the frontline engages or is engaged, whereby it both removes the enemy’s buffs and cleanses all allies, thus fulfilling the role of offensive and defensive support whenever the frontlines clash. So that more considered decisions have to be made in these situations, the purge effect of the Void has been removed. This will open the ZvZ meta up to other support weapons, with less focus on this single item. Additionally, the max target count for Motivating Cleanse has been increased to make it more useful in large-scale fights.
Explosive Mine damage had been lowered in the past to reduce the one-shot heavy meta in previous patches. However, since AoE Escalation has been reduced since then, we’ve reverted the damage nerf here in order to make the Explosive Mine a ZvZ force to be reckoned with once again.
Enfeeble Blades is currently a very underrepresented ability in game. To give it a more useful role, it has been reworked into a ground target area which purges each enemy hit. Since the Locus is now limited to cleanse only, Lifecurse Staff can take over the role of AoE purging in large-scale fights.
Wildfire Staff has been struggling to find a valuable spot in group compositions. Its core mechanic means that it is not very suitable for small-scale fights, while in large-scale combat it is outshone by other DPS options. To give it a specific DPS sub-role that is specifically suited to punishing the enemy frontline, the burning effect will now ignore armor and deal 3.75% of the player's max health per tick. This will make it more desirable against tanks and heavily-armored players. This fits the ability design better, as the rolling Magma Sphere is quite difficult to land on the enemy’s backline but much better suited to punishing an overextended frontline.
Hammers have been the main tank in 5v5 Crystal League play for a while. To make them somewhat less powerful, the damage and armor reduction of Iron Breaker, which could generate heavy pressure over the course of a fight, has been reduced. In addition, the cooldown of Power Geyser has been increased by 2 seconds to reduce the up-time of this ranged displacement. Furthermore, the stun duration of Tackle has also been reduced slightly as this, along with its mobility on a rather low cooldown, made it more valuable than other Hammer E-abilities.
Healers in Albion offer a very strong sustain, meaning they have the tools to prevent their group members from simply being burst down in group fights. As a result, Healers are usually designed without a lot of damage in their kit, and are thus encouraged to use their Q-slot either for full sustain or additional damage. However, there is also the option to go full sustain and get damage from other sources such as potions, capes, or armor. To balance this approach, base damage output has been reduced when equipping any healing staff. Healers can negate this penalty by using the damage ability on the Q-slot. This change should reinforce the original intention: that Healers choose between sustain and damage.
Flash Heal is currently rarely used and has thus been reworked. Instead of a spammable heal without cooldown, a 3s cooldown has been added for a rebalanced high-impact heal, meaning Healers don’t have to remain still to get the maximum healing output of this ability. Cast Time has also been reduced to make it less susceptible to interrupts, but the hit delay has been kept in order to use the same telegraphing on the ground for allies and enemies to react to.
Additionally, some E abilities of the Holy Line have been adjusted: Holy Explosion has high healing output and good defensive utility with its knockback - to reduce the self-sustaining quality of this ability, the energy cost per tick has been increased; Celestial Sphere is now an uninterruptible cast so that it can't be fully denied as it often is in the competitive 5v5 scene - the ability also allows for counterplay after the cast, while the sphere is still bouncing between targets; lastly, Hallowfall's cooldown Reduction now receives a slight buff when hitting an ally - this change is meant to alleviate somewhat the downside of its very long base cooldown.
Maces have been out of the Crystal League 5v5 meta for a while now, so to give them a potential unique tank role Guard Rune has received an overhaul to make allies immune to knockbacks and stuns. This could be used to support a caster backline like Holy, Frost or Fire, protecting them from displacement and stun-heavy enemy front lines (Casters currently have difficulty getting into the meta because of this type of frontline). To further increase the attractiveness of Mace tanks, the value of Sacred Ground has been increased with a slow effect added to it, to offer some value in reducing enemy movement too. Furthermore, Battle Howl's cooldown has been reduced so that it better fits into the faster meta that has developed over the years. The ability to remove HoTs on this item is now on a lower cooldown than the Nature Cleanse and could create a lot more value against Nature Healer comps.
As noted above (under Holy Staffs), base damage output when equipping healing staffs has been reduced. This is to counter a workaround whereby Healers could go full sustain on the Q-slot and get damage from other sources. Now they would have to use the Q-slot damage ability to counter the reduced base damage output, in line with the original intention that they choose between sustain and damage.
Spirit Animal is currently underrepresented in large scale fights, although it is in precisely these situations that it is meant to shine. To increase its impact, cast range has been adjusted and the cast direction can now be chosen independently. This allows the Healer to better support his army from the back line.
Spears are a highly versatile weapon, offering a lot of utility and different options for different situations. This high utility, paired with its strong sustain damage, makes it difficult for weapons that are focused on pure damage and less utility to compete with spears. For this reason we have reduced the sustain damage of the Auto Attack Buff.
As with the Weeping Repeater, Galatine Pairs were nerfed before to mitigate the one-shot heavy meta, but this has now been reverted to make them a notable force in ZvZ again.
Crescent Slash has also not yet found widespread use since the recent rework. Since it had so many different effect possibilities per stack, the additional value of each effect was balanced very low to make up for this added utility. This was probably too low, however, so the value of 2-stack and 3-stack effects has now been increased.
Druid Sandals have been out of the meta for a while now. The slowing effect they provide is very strong, which is why move speed gain was limited. But the current low move speed seems too much of a disadvantage, meaning the ability is hardly used. For this reason mobility has been slightly increased, while still having something like Run provide much higher mobility.
The Tower Chariot is currently one of the weaker Battle Mounts in the game. Since the Tower Chariot will be returning as a reward for the Energy Surge season, it has received a slight overhaul to make it a potential useful support in the modern ZvZ meta.
Planned for next Content Update:
Bows
The recent change to bows allowes for more counter play on the enemies. However the short buff duration has been a bit too strict, making it now too easy to keep a bow player in check and denying the burst damage from Enchanted Quiver.
Daggers
With the introduction of War Gloves, Black Hands have also been reworked into a more fitting item for the Dagger line. Black Hands previously felt somewhat out of place in that weapon tree, so a new dagger has been added that is better suited to the assassin theme. Additionally, it is now less effective to chain Disembowel into itself with multiple players, improving its burst damage but making it less useful for simply holding enemies in place.
With the last patch's overhaul, we saw Wildfire Staff finally come back as a deadly force to be reckoned with. However, the burst damage potential made it a bit too deadly, so we have toned down the true damage part.
This update improves the general feel of auto-attacks for Quarterstaffs. Attack animations have been overhauled to make them more dynamic with a faster average hit interval. Damage-per-second and the time for passives to activate remain unchanged. Additionally, the range of auto-attacks and some targeted abilities were increased to emphasize the weapon's range. These changes are primarily intended to make Quarterstaffs more enjoyable. However, since Grailseeker is already very strong in various content types and will benefit from the range increase, the duration of its wall and root effects has been reduced.
Armors
Mercenary Jacket formerly synergized extremely well with DoT weapons but less so with other weapon lines. To change this, max healing now requires fewer hits. Max healing output will remain almost the same. However, DoTs now no longer trigger the healing effect, opening up the ability to work with more weapon combinations. Additionally, the buff duration has been reduced, so countering it by denying the damage is a more effective option against it. We've also ensured that Fiend Robe and Graveguard Armor can’t be used to chain-CC enemies by multiple players using the same abilities.
Howl has been overhauled to feel more modern with no standtime and better application of its debuff. Additionally it can now be used as an ranged interrupt. So it can also be used on leather helmets as an additional utility spell to swap to. We added a small cast time to Flash of Insight to allow better counter play against builds that use double Mercenary Jacket. It also adds another layer of decision making on when to best use the ability instead of just using it everytime after using an armor ability. To make interrupts not completely devastating the cooldown when the cast is interrupted is halved.
Royal March is still dominating the shoe-meta in Corrupted Dungeons. The general playstyle of this item is good for the feature, because it is better at chasing than at escaping, However it is also not healthy if it completely outshines every other shoe item in this content and limits build variety. Therefore we keep the strong chase potential but remove the additional combat buff in terms of resistances it provided. So the item is specialized only in it's strong chase ability and no extra value in the actual fight.
Poison potions have been pretty strong in a vast range of activities including PvE, ganking, and small-scale PvP. Particularly in ganking groups, poison potions bring too much value, where getting close enough to throw a poison once at the target is enough to keep them out of gallop for a fatal duration. This strategy doesn’t offer much interaction for the chased player on the mount, and as such the throw range and poison duration have been reduced to make it less easy to apply and allow mounts to regain gallop faster. This also reduces the overall damage output of poisons, which were already a very strong option for a lot of content and should still see plenty of use.
To encourage players to explore the open world and actively fight mobs, dismounting rules have been changed. If a player dismounts with no enemy player within 40m, the player can instantly use their three weapon abilities (Q, W, and E). However, the other ability slots (head, armor, shoe, potion and food) will retain a 5s cooldown after dismounting.
In addition, mount health for most mounts used for travel, gathering, and small-scale transport has been increased, to better their chances of surviving being hit by fully charged mobs. Mount health had generally fallen behind in relation to players’ damage potential over the years, as mounts remained with much the same health pools while that of players increased. Health for these mounts has increased by roughly 25-50%, making them better equipped to survive the new challenges introduced in this update.
This post gets regularly updated with the latest changes of our internal playtests.
Very Important:
All these changes are still in testing and may vastly differ in the final patch. Sometimes we just try out various things, which may get reverted. Also the balance changes are not neccessarily all complete. Just because a certain item is not adjusted in the changelogs so far, doesn't mean it isn't on our 'need to be adjusted'-list. These changes are simply a snapshot of the current development and everything in there needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
This thread is not meant to discuss these unfinished changes. It is just to give all players the same chance of guessing the direction of the next balance patch
Already Live:
Arcane Staffs
The Locus is a very strong support weapon in ZvZs. At the moment it allows for a dual role whenever the frontline engages or is engaged, whereby it both removes the enemy’s buffs and cleanses all allies, thus fulfilling the role of offensive and defensive support whenever the frontlines clash. So that more considered decisions have to be made in these situations, the purge effect of the Void has been removed. This will open the ZvZ meta up to other support weapons, with less focus on this single item. Additionally, the max target count for Motivating Cleanse has been increased to make it more useful in large-scale fights.
- Motivanting Cleanse (all Arcane Staffs)
- Max affected targets: 5 -> 10
- Max affected targets: 5 -> 10
- Void (Malevolent Locus)
- Doesn't Purge enemies anymore
- Doesn't Purge enemies anymore
Explosive Mine damage had been lowered in the past to reduce the one-shot heavy meta in previous patches. However, since AoE Escalation has been reduced since then, we’ve reverted the damage nerf here in order to make the Explosive Mine a ZvZ force to be reckoned with once again.
- Explosive Mine (Weeping Repeater)
- Damage: 230 -> 270
- Damage: 230 -> 270
Enfeeble Blades is currently a very underrepresented ability in game. To give it a more useful role, it has been reworked into a ground target area which purges each enemy hit. Since the Locus is now limited to cleanse only, Lifecurse Staff can take over the role of AoE purging in large-scale fights.
- Enfeeble Blades (Lifecurse Staff)
- The ability can now be cast at the ground and doesn't require an ally target anymore. The Blades will then stay on the ground area instead.
- It is now a channeled ability and the Blade area lasts for the channel duration
- The cast and channel is now uninterruptible
- Enfeeble Blades now keeps purging enemy buffs on every hit. (It doesn't purge enemy HoTs)
- Cast Range: 11m -> 15m
- Cast Time: 1s -> 0.6s
- Area Radius: 6m → 5m
- Area Duration: 5s → 4s
- Damage Debuff per Stack: 5% → 4%
- Debuff Max Stacks: 10 → 5
- The cooldown now scales with Item Power:
- 900 Item Power: 50s
- 1700 Item Power: 34s
- 900 Item Power: 50s
- The ability can now be cast at the ground and doesn't require an ally target anymore. The Blades will then stay on the ground area instead.
Wildfire Staff has been struggling to find a valuable spot in group compositions. Its core mechanic means that it is not very suitable for small-scale fights, while in large-scale combat it is outshone by other DPS options. To give it a specific DPS sub-role that is specifically suited to punishing the enemy frontline, the burning effect will now ignore armor and deal 3.75% of the player's max health per tick. This will make it more desirable against tanks and heavily-armored players. This fits the ability design better, as the rolling Magma Sphere is quite difficult to land on the enemy’s backline but much better suited to punishing an overextended frontline.
- Searing Flame (all Fire Staffs)
- Fixd a bug with the collision detection at max range. This means that it's effective range is now increased.
- Fixd a bug with the collision detection at max range. This means that it's effective range is now increased.
- Magma Sphere (Wildfire Staff)
- Projectile Speed: 7.67m/s -> 11.5m/s
- Cast Speed: 0.6s -> 0.4s
- Instant Damage: 267.43 -> 296
- Ignite Damage per tick: 20.06 -> 3.75% of the targets Max Health
- Projectile Speed: 7.67m/s -> 11.5m/s
Hammers have been the main tank in 5v5 Crystal League play for a while. To make them somewhat less powerful, the damage and armor reduction of Iron Breaker, which could generate heavy pressure over the course of a fight, has been reduced. In addition, the cooldown of Power Geyser has been increased by 2 seconds to reduce the up-time of this ranged displacement. Furthermore, the stun duration of Tackle has also been reduced slightly as this, along with its mobility on a rather low cooldown, made it more valuable than other Hammer E-abilities.
- Iron Breaker (all Hammers)
- Resistance Reduction: 0.14 -> 0.12
- Damage vs Playes: 120 -> 90 (Damage vs Mobs stays unchanged)
- Resistance Reduction: 0.14 -> 0.12
- Power Geyser (all Hammers)
- Cooldown: 8s -> 10s
- Cooldown: 8s -> 10s
- Tackle (Great Hammer)
- Stun Duration: 2.35s -> 2.10s
- Stun Duration: 2.35s -> 2.10s
Healers in Albion offer a very strong sustain, meaning they have the tools to prevent their group members from simply being burst down in group fights. As a result, Healers are usually designed without a lot of damage in their kit, and are thus encouraged to use their Q-slot either for full sustain or additional damage. However, there is also the option to go full sustain and get damage from other sources such as potions, capes, or armor. To balance this approach, base damage output has been reduced when equipping any healing staff. Healers can negate this penalty by using the damage ability on the Q-slot. This change should reinforce the original intention: that Healers choose between sustain and damage.
Flash Heal is currently rarely used and has thus been reworked. Instead of a spammable heal without cooldown, a 3s cooldown has been added for a rebalanced high-impact heal, meaning Healers don’t have to remain still to get the maximum healing output of this ability. Cast Time has also been reduced to make it less susceptible to interrupts, but the hit delay has been kept in order to use the same telegraphing on the ground for allies and enemies to react to.
Additionally, some E abilities of the Holy Line have been adjusted: Holy Explosion has high healing output and good defensive utility with its knockback - to reduce the self-sustaining quality of this ability, the energy cost per tick has been increased; Celestial Sphere is now an uninterruptible cast so that it can't be fully denied as it often is in the competitive 5v5 scene - the ability also allows for counterplay after the cast, while the sphere is still bouncing between targets; lastly, Hallowfall's cooldown Reduction now receives a slight buff when hitting an ally - this change is meant to alleviate somewhat the downside of its very long base cooldown.
- Equipping any holy staff reduces all damage output by 50%
- Smite (all Holy Staffs)
- Now increases the caster's damage by 50% for 8s
- Now increases the caster's damage by 50% for 8s
- Flash Heal (all Holy Staffs)
- Cooldown: 0s -> 3s
- Cast Time: 0.8s -> 0.4s
- Hit Delay: 0s -> 0.4s
- Heal: 34 -> 130
- Removed the additional 10% Healing per target effect
- Cooldown: 0s -> 3s
- Holy Explosion (Great Holy Staff)
- Energycost per tick: 3.6 -> 4.0
- Energycost per tick: 3.6 -> 4.0
- Celestial Sphere (Redemption Staff)
- The cast is now uninterruptible
- The cast is now uninterruptible
- Divine Intervention (Hallowfall)
- Cooldown Reduction when Healing an ally: 35% -> 40%
- Cooldown Reduction when Healing an ally: 35% -> 40%
Maces have been out of the Crystal League 5v5 meta for a while now, so to give them a potential unique tank role Guard Rune has received an overhaul to make allies immune to knockbacks and stuns. This could be used to support a caster backline like Holy, Frost or Fire, protecting them from displacement and stun-heavy enemy front lines (Casters currently have difficulty getting into the meta because of this type of frontline). To further increase the attractiveness of Mace tanks, the value of Sacred Ground has been increased with a slow effect added to it, to offer some value in reducing enemy movement too. Furthermore, Battle Howl's cooldown has been reduced so that it better fits into the faster meta that has developed over the years. The ability to remove HoTs on this item is now on a lower cooldown than the Nature Cleanse and could create a lot more value against Nature Healer comps.
- Sacred Ground (all Maces)
- Cast Time: 0.8s -> 0.6s
- Enemies inside the area are now slowed by 20%
- Cast Time: 0.8s -> 0.6s
- Guard Rune (all Maces)
- Now allies inside the area are immune to forced movement and stun
- Resistance Increase: 0.20 -> 0.25
- Removed the Healing Increased bonus
- Now allies inside the area are immune to forced movement and stun
- Battle Howl (Heavy Mace)
- Cooldown: 20s -> 15s
- Cooldown: 20s -> 15s
As noted above (under Holy Staffs), base damage output when equipping healing staffs has been reduced. This is to counter a workaround whereby Healers could go full sustain on the Q-slot and get damage from other sources. Now they would have to use the Q-slot damage ability to counter the reduced base damage output, in line with the original intention that they choose between sustain and damage.
Spirit Animal is currently underrepresented in large scale fights, although it is in precisely these situations that it is meant to shine. To increase its impact, cast range has been adjusted and the cast direction can now be chosen independently. This allows the Healer to better support his army from the back line.
- Equipping any nature staff reduces all damage output by 50%
- Thorns (all Nature Staffs)
- Now increases the caster's damage by 10% for 10s (stacks up to 5 times)
- Now increases the caster's damage by 10% for 10s (stacks up to 5 times)
- Spirit Animal (Rampant Staff)
- Cast Range: at caster -> 12m
- Now cast direction can be selected independent from the cast position
- Base Heal per tick: 12 -> 13.5
- Cast Range: at caster -> 12m
Spears are a highly versatile weapon, offering a lot of utility and different options for different situations. This high utility, paired with its strong sustain damage, makes it difficult for weapons that are focused on pure damage and less utility to compete with spears. For this reason we have reduced the sustain damage of the Auto Attack Buff.
- Spririt Spear Charge (all Spears)
- Normal Attack Damage Increase: 40% -> 32%
- Normal Attack Damage Increase: 40% -> 32%
As with the Weeping Repeater, Galatine Pairs were nerfed before to mitigate the one-shot heavy meta, but this has now been reverted to make them a notable force in ZvZ again.
Crescent Slash has also not yet found widespread use since the recent rework. Since it had so many different effect possibilities per stack, the additional value of each effect was balanced very low to make up for this added utility. This was probably too low, however, so the value of 2-stack and 3-stack effects has now been increased.
- Crescent Slash (Clarent Blade)
- 2 stacks - Silence Duration: 0.8s -> 1.4s
- 3 stacks - Additional Damage: 48 -> 94
- 2 stacks - Silence Duration: 0.8s -> 1.4s
- Soulless Stream (Galatine Pair)
- 0 Stack Damage: 75 -> 84
- 1 Stack Damage: 119 -> 134
- 2 Stack Damage: 179 -> 201
- 3 Stack Damage: 254 -> 285
- 0 Stack Damage: 75 -> 84
Druid Sandals have been out of the meta for a while now. The slowing effect they provide is very strong, which is why move speed gain was limited. But the current low move speed seems too much of a disadvantage, meaning the ability is hardly used. For this reason mobility has been slightly increased, while still having something like Run provide much higher mobility.
- Frost Walk (Druid Sandals)
- Move Speed Increase: 30% -> 45%
- Move Speed Increase: 30% -> 45%
The Tower Chariot is currently one of the weaker Battle Mounts in the game. Since the Tower Chariot will be returning as a reward for the Energy Surge season, it has received a slight overhaul to make it a potential useful support in the modern ZvZ meta.
- Tower Chariot
- Health Factor: 3.6 -> 5.3
- Health Factor: 3.6 -> 5.3
- Energy Cloud (Tower Chariot)
- Standtime: 0.3s -> 0s
- Removed the reduces Energy Cost
- Instead it restores now 3 energy per second (stacks up to 2 times)
- Standtime: 0.3s -> 0s
- Toxic Crystal Waste (Tower Chariot)
- Standtime: 1s -> 0.6s
- Standtime: 1s -> 0.6s
- Tower Shield (Tower Chariot)
- The shield doesn't restore energy anymore
- The shield now also affects mounts
- The shield doesn't restore energy anymore
Planned for next Content Update:
Bows
The recent change to bows allowes for more counter play on the enemies. However the short buff duration has been a bit too strict, making it now too easy to keep a bow player in check and denying the burst damage from Enchanted Quiver.
- Enchanted Quiver (Regular Bow)
- Attack Buff Duration: 2.5s -> 3.5s
- Attack Buff Duration: 2.5s -> 3.5s
Daggers
With the introduction of War Gloves, Black Hands have also been reworked into a more fitting item for the Dagger line. Black Hands previously felt somewhat out of place in that weapon tree, so a new dagger has been added that is better suited to the assassin theme. Additionally, it is now less effective to chain Disembowel into itself with multiple players, improving its burst damage but making it less useful for simply holding enemies in place.
- Black Hands have been replaced by a one-handed dagger: Demonfang
- Devastating Strike (E-slot) removed
- Demonfang has a new E-slot ability, Blood Ritual:
- Infuse your blade with blood magic and swing it in front of you, dealing magical damage to all enemies hit but also applying Damage over Time to yourself. (Self-damage stacks up to 3 times). Can be recast again a maximum of 3 times; each recast increases cooldown.
- Infuse your blade with blood magic and swing it in front of you, dealing magical damage to all enemies hit but also applying Damage over Time to yourself. (Self-damage stacks up to 3 times). Can be recast again a maximum of 3 times; each recast increases cooldown.
- Disembowel (Claws)
- Channel Duration: 2.8s → 1.9s
- Number of Hits: 10 → 7
- Damage per Hit: 31.26 → 45
- The root effect is now heavily affected by Diminishing Returns, so players hit by Disembowel twice in a row are not rooted for the full channel the second time
- Channel Duration: 2.8s → 1.9s
With the last patch's overhaul, we saw Wildfire Staff finally come back as a deadly force to be reckoned with. However, the burst damage potential made it a bit too deadly, so we have toned down the true damage part.
- Magma Sphere (Wildfire Staff):
- Total Max Health Damage: 15% → 12%
- Total Max Health Damage: 15% → 12%
This update improves the general feel of auto-attacks for Quarterstaffs. Attack animations have been overhauled to make them more dynamic with a faster average hit interval. Damage-per-second and the time for passives to activate remain unchanged. Additionally, the range of auto-attacks and some targeted abilities were increased to emphasize the weapon's range. These changes are primarily intended to make Quarterstaffs more enjoyable. However, since Grailseeker is already very strong in various content types and will benefit from the range increase, the duration of its wall and root effects has been reduced.
- Auto Attacks:
- Auto Attack Range: 3m -> 4m
- Auto Attack Speed: every 1s -> every 0.5s (on average)
- Auto Attack damage per hit is halfed.
- Auto Attack Range: 3m -> 4m
- New Auto Attack Animations and timings for blunt Quarterstaffs:
- 3 Hit Combo with varied attack speed and damage:
- Quarterstaffs
- Iron-Clad Staff
- Staff of Balance
- Grailseeker
- Quarterstaffs
- 3 Hit Combo with varied attack speed and damage:
- New Auto Attack Animations and timings for bladed Quarterstaffs:
- Constant quick 2 Hit attacks:
- Double Bladed Staff
- Black Monk Staff
- Soulscythe
- Double Bladed Staff
- Constant quick 2 Hit attacks:
- Concussive Blow (all Quarter Staffs)
- Range: 3m -> 4m
- Range: 3m -> 4m
- Empowered Slam (all Quarter Staffs)
- Range: 3m -> 4m
- Range: 3m -> 4m
- Soul Shaker (Grailseeker)
- Wall Duration: 4s → 3.5s
- Root Duration: 3.5s → 3s
- Wall Duration: 4s → 3.5s
- Stunning Strikes (Passive on all Quarterstaffs)
- # of needed Auto Attacks: 5 -> 10
- # of needed Auto Attacks: 5 -> 10
- Ebergetic (Passive on all Quarterstaffs)
- Energy per hit: 1.24 -> 0.62
- Energy per hit: 1.24 -> 0.62
- Dreadladen Fighting (Passive on all Quarterstaffs)
- # of needed Auto Attacks: 4 -> 8
- # of needed Auto Attacks: 4 -> 8
Armors
Mercenary Jacket formerly synergized extremely well with DoT weapons but less so with other weapon lines. To change this, max healing now requires fewer hits. Max healing output will remain almost the same. However, DoTs now no longer trigger the healing effect, opening up the ability to work with more weapon combinations. Additionally, the buff duration has been reduced, so countering it by denying the damage is a more effective option against it. We've also ensured that Fiend Robe and Graveguard Armor can’t be used to chain-CC enemies by multiple players using the same abilities.
- Fear Aura (Fiend Robe):
- Reworked the Fear Aura immunity effect:
- If an enemy gets hit by Fear Aura, after 3s that enemy becomes immune to Fear Auras for 5s
- If an enemy gets hit by Fear Aura, after 3s that enemy becomes immune to Fear Auras for 5s
- Reworked the Fear Aura immunity effect:
- Bloodlust (Mercenary Jacket):
- Now only heals on Direct Damage (DoTs don't trigger healing anymore)
- Max amount of heals: 15 → 9
- Heal per Hit: 26 → 42
- Buff Duration: 8s → 6s
- Now only heals on Direct Damage (DoTs don't trigger healing anymore)
- Soul Chain (Graveguard Armor):
- Enemies pulled by the chain are immune to another Soul Chain for 10s
- Enemies pulled by the chain are immune to another Soul Chain for 10s
Howl has been overhauled to feel more modern with no standtime and better application of its debuff. Additionally it can now be used as an ranged interrupt. So it can also be used on leather helmets as an additional utility spell to swap to. We added a small cast time to Flash of Insight to allow better counter play against builds that use double Mercenary Jacket. It also adds another layer of decision making on when to best use the ability instead of just using it everytime after using an armor ability. To make interrupts not completely devastating the cooldown when the cast is interrupted is halved.
- Howl (all Leather Helmets)
- Standtime: 0.6s -> 0s
- Now also interrupts enemy spell casting
- Range: 10m -> 12m
- Attack Speed Reduction: 15% -> 40%
- Attack Speed Reduction Duration: 8s -> 5s
- Slow Strength: 30% -> 35%
- Slow Duration: 8s -> 5s
- Standtime: 0.6s -> 0s
- Flash of Insight (Specter Hood)
- Added a 0.5s cast time
- Hitdelay: 0.4s -> 0s
- Interrupting the cast will cause the ability to go on a 30s cooldown.
- Added a 0.5s cast time
Royal March is still dominating the shoe-meta in Corrupted Dungeons. The general playstyle of this item is good for the feature, because it is better at chasing than at escaping, However it is also not healthy if it completely outshines every other shoe item in this content and limits build variety. Therefore we keep the strong chase potential but remove the additional combat buff in terms of resistances it provided. So the item is specialized only in it's strong chase ability and no extra value in the actual fight.
- Royal Boots
- Removed the Bonus Defense buff
- Removed the Bonus Defense buff
Poison potions have been pretty strong in a vast range of activities including PvE, ganking, and small-scale PvP. Particularly in ganking groups, poison potions bring too much value, where getting close enough to throw a poison once at the target is enough to keep them out of gallop for a fatal duration. This strategy doesn’t offer much interaction for the chased player on the mount, and as such the throw range and poison duration have been reduced to make it less easy to apply and allow mounts to regain gallop faster. This also reduces the overall damage output of poisons, which were already a very strong option for a lot of content and should still see plenty of use.
- Poison Potions
- Range: 11m → 9m
- Number of Ticks: 7 → 5
- Poison Duration: 6s → 3s
- Range: 11m → 9m
To encourage players to explore the open world and actively fight mobs, dismounting rules have been changed. If a player dismounts with no enemy player within 40m, the player can instantly use their three weapon abilities (Q, W, and E). However, the other ability slots (head, armor, shoe, potion and food) will retain a 5s cooldown after dismounting.
In addition, mount health for most mounts used for travel, gathering, and small-scale transport has been increased, to better their chances of surviving being hit by fully charged mobs. Mount health had generally fallen behind in relation to players’ damage potential over the years, as mounts remained with much the same health pools while that of players increased. Health for these mounts has increased by roughly 25-50%, making them better equipped to survive the new challenges introduced in this update.
- Q, W, and E ability slots now have a 0s cooldown when no enemy player is within a 40m range
- Unable to auto-attack players after dismount: 3s → 5s
- Mounting up on a mount with abilities (e.g. Elite Faction Mounts) no longer places mount ability slots on a 10s cooldown
- Time-until-gallop stat on mounts: previously, the time it took to get back into gallop was always a fixed 8s regardless of the mount. Now, the time it takes to get back into gallop after taking damage varies by mount (this is the "time-to-gallop" stat on the mount). This makes it easier to escape ganks while mounted and encourages more players to venture into the Outlands to take part in the new content added with this update. At the same time, gankers stand to benefit from this elevated overall activity, which should more than offset the fact that individual ganks might become somewhat harder.
- Mount Base Health Factor:
- Riding Horses: +50%
- Armored Horses: +60%
- Oxen: +20%
- Rams (transport): +20%
- Direwolves: +26%
- Cougars: +25%
- Direboars: +30%
- Stags: +50%
- Lizards: +28%
- Riding Horses: +50%