[2022] [21. November 2022] Beyond the Veil Update

Beyond the Veil Update - Version 21.000.1 - November 21, 2022

The Mists

• The Mists are a new realm dedicated to solo and duo PvE and PvP gameplay
  
• Will o’ Wisps can be found in the open world and Roads of Avalon:
  
  • If followed, they open portals to the Mists for a short period before disappearing
    
  • Depending on the type of Wisp, the portals allow either one or two players to enter before closing:
    
    • Portals to “The Mists" (the solo version of the Mists) only support one player and parties can’t be formed while inside The Mists
      
    • Portals to “The Greater Mists" (the duo version of the Mists) support parties of up to two players, but no more
      
  • These portals have a rarity level, which can upgrade over time
    
• Wisps can also be found within the Mists, which open portals to other Mist regions
  
• Both lethal and non-lethal PvP are possible, depending on the region
  
  • Lethal Mists regions can only be found within other lethal areas of Albion
    
• Combat within the Mists has no effect on Royal Continent reputation
  
• Any given Mists region will eventually become fully engulfed in fog, returning all players to the location from which they entered
  
• Players can use mounts, but mount health is capped at 1500
  
• Players can use Journey Back ability from within the Mists
  
• Mists regions contain resources (both enchanted and unenchanted), treasures, and enemies, with new enemies including the Griffin, Veilweaver, and Fey Dragon
  
  • These three creatures are essential for the creation of the new Fey Armor line (see below)
    

Brecilien: The City in the Mists

• A new city, Brecilien, has been added to the game
  
• Brecilien exists without a fixed physical location, drifting in the same realm as the Roads of Avalon and the Mists
  
• Players will not be allowed access to the city until they locate it for themselves
  
• Once the city has been discovered, players can use the Travel Planner and Journey Back ability to travel to and from it
  
• Players are able to buy Player Islands in Brecilien, even if they already own islands on the Royal Continent
  
  • Islands in Brecilien do not share upgrade levels with islands on the Royal Continent, and if a Royal Continent island is abandoned its upgrade level will not be applied to an island in Brecilien
    

Fey Armor

• Fey Armor is a new Artifact Armor line based on the unique ecosystems found within the Mists
  
• The Artifacts used to create these armor pieces are dropped by specific creature types within the Mists, offering unique new opportunities for PvE / Gathering, transport, trade, and crafting
  
• These armor pieces include their own unique spells, offering countless new combat and defensive possibilities for PvP and PvE
  
• These armors are craftable at sufficiently advanced crafting stations throughout Albion, and come in all three major branches:
  
  • Feyscale (Cloth)
    
  • Mistwalker (Leather)
    
  • Duskweaver (Plate)
    

New Enchantment Level: Pristine (.4)

• A new and exceedingly rare enchantment level, Pristine, has been added to the game
  
• This corresponds to ".4" in the Tier level, e.g. Pristine Bloodoak Logs are Tier 6.4 wood
  
• These resources only appear in the open world as Resource Treasures, or they can be created via Transmutation
  
• When Pristine resources appear:
  
  • They only appear in open-world full-loot (black) zones
    
  • They are locked for a certain amount of time based on their tier
    
  • They appear along with their lock timer on the minimap and zone map, and also on the world map if the player is within a certain amount of zones
    
  • Limited-time daily gathering events do not increase the appearance of .4 resources, though they do increase the yield
    
• This enchantment level exists for Hide, Ore, Wood, and Fiber, but not Stone
  

Roads of Avalon Rework

• The Roads of Avalon have been reworked with new objectives and content balanced for small-to-medium groups
  
• The types of objectives found in the Roads have been expanded:
  
  • Open-world treasures will randomly appear
    
  • Mobs will upgrade over time if untouched, as they do in the open world
    
  • Crystal Spiders will also be found
    
• Special regions within the Roads can connect exclusively to other Roads regions that contain Hideouts. These regions offer raid level content and portals that support larger groups. You can also use these regions to launch attacks on other Hideout regions
  
• Elite Avalonian enemies in the Roads now show a danger icon to differentiate them from regular Avalonian enemies
  
• Hideouts in the Roads of Avalon can now be declared Headquarters:
  
  • Both Hideouts and Headquarters within the Roads of Avalon will take damage if they have insufficient Power (this requirement only applies in the Roads of Avalon)
    
  • There will be a grace period of several days after the update goes live during which existing Roads Hideouts will not take damage from insufficient Power
    
    • New Hideouts constructed after the update goes live will also receive a grace period of 3 days
      
  • When constructing a Hideout within the Roads, the second and third phases can be skipped by declaring the Hideout your Headquarters, and spending additional Silver and resources to accelerate the building process
    
  • Power Cores will now appear in the Roads, but cannot be taken to and from the open world
    
  • Declaring an HQ in the Roads requires the guild to have at least 1000 Season Points in the current or last season; guilds that already have 1000 or more points in Season 17 are instantly eligible
    
• Logging out from within the Roads (outside of a Hideout) now requires significantly more time no matter if it was triggered intentionally or by disconnect
  
  • Logging back into the Roads results in damage to gear durability and loss of stacked resources, and will remove the player from the Roads
    
  • This also occurs when the original logout was triggered from an instance like a Randomized Dungeon or a Hellgate if entered from the Roads
    
  • After Maintenance or a disconnect, players will have some time to resume playing in the Roads without triggering the logout consequences, though as with all disconnects characters will be vulnerable for a significant amount of time afterward
    

UI Quality of Life Improvements

• Guild Crest, Appearance, and Finder improvements:
  
  • Guild Crest creation has been improved and streamlined to allow for a much easier creation process
    
  • Guilds can now further personalize their descriptions and the way they appear to members and outside players
    
  • Guild Finder: Added option to send a message automatically to all new recruits, and reworked application mail creation to better represent the applicant
    
• Guild Loadouts can now be selected and purchased/equipped via dropdowns in the Marketplace and banks/chests
  
  • Personal and Guild Loadouts are now indicated by small personal / guild icons respectively
    
• Added "Appearance" tab to Character Inspect UI that displays a player's current vanity items
  
• Added Destiny Board information windows to properly explain Auto-respec and Auto-learn
  

Other Changes

• To bring dungeon entrances found in the open world more in line with each other, entrance channeling time to Corrupted Dungeons has been lowered to 3s
  
• Resolved discrepancy between logout timers while Faction flagged in blue and yellow regions, and reduced the extended Faction logout timer in these regions to 30s. This results in an increase in yellow (previously 10s) and a decrease in blue (previously 60s). Logout times while not Faction flagged are unaffected.
  
• Crafting bonus changes:
  
  • Specialist potion crafting bonuses removed from Caerleon
    
  • When Hideout Power Cores were introduced, Hideouts in the Outlands had their default crafting bonuses reduced as Power Levels allowed these bonuses to be increased. Roads Hideouts were left alone because they didn't have access to Power Cores. Now Roads Hideouts receive similar treatment:
    
    • Generalist Refining bonus decreased from 18% to 10%.
      
    • Specialist Refining bonus: stays at +10%.
      
    • Generalist Crafting bonus reduced from 25% to 18%, but can be improved to 26% through Power upgrades
      
    • Specialist Crafting bonus stays at +15%, but can be improved to 57% through Power upgrades
      
    • Comparable to Quality 1 Hideouts, except that Q1 Outlands Hideouts have 15% generalist refining, while Roads Hideouts have 10% generalist refining and +10% specialist refining
      
• Global discount reference rate adjusted to match current Gold market economy
  
• Updated character selection screen visuals
  
• Arena furniture items no longer salvageable
  
• Hardcore Expedition difficulty increased with higher enemy damage and health to adjust for overall surge in player power with .4 Enchantment and Elite Levels
  

Mobile Improvements

• Improved targeting for healing spells and attacks
  
• Increased spell tooltip size
  
• Custom button can be used in tap control layouts
  
• Added option for "Separate Dynamic Actions", setting main button default to "attack" and placing other actions on separate button
  
• Dynamic action minimum gathering tiers now selectable
  
• Moved spell cancel area to avoid accidental spell cancellation
  
• Moved "Account", "Logout" and "Options" to fixed buttons at top of main context menu
  
• Improved party view for mobile players, including scalable UI, easier "Hide Party" button, and additional options
  

Combat Balance Changes

Arcane Staffs
With Arcane Staffs so strong in Crystal League, and Enigma Blade often outshining other W abilities, Flicker’s cooldown has been increased to dampen this ability somewhat. This will add depth to the ability, as casters can choose whether to only use Enigma Blade, or to also gain extra mobility at the cost of higher cooldown. To make Frazzle more useful, it again has "damage taken increase" effect on targets, independent of resistances. This allows for more unique damage-amplifying roles.

• Enigma Blade (all Arcane Staffs):
  
  • Flicker Cooldown: 15s → 20s
    
• Frazzle (all Arcane Staffs):
  
  • Energy cost: 9 → 7% of Max energy
    
  • Now reduces Bonus Defense vs players and mobs by 30%
    
  • Removed the Resistance Reduction
    

Crossbows
Due to slow damage application, Siegebow had been underrepresented in ZvZ play. To make it more competitive, its channel time has been reduced while its total damage output remains the same.

• Sweeping Bolt (Heavy Crossbow):
  
  • Cooldown: 18s → 15s
    
  • Standtime: 0.7s → 0.4s
    
• Vicious Barrage (Siegebow):
  
  • Cast Time: 1s → 0.5s
    
  • Channel Ticks: 5 → 4
    
  • Base Damage per Tick: 97.26 → 130
    
  • % Damage per Tick: 2% → 2.5%
    

Daggers
Demonfang had been overly oppressive in group fights, dealing more damage than similar options. To bring it in line with other AoE burst damage weapons, its Resilience Penetration has been reduced.

• Demonfang Resilience Penetration: 75% → 50%
  

Fire Staffs
Pyroblast was somewhat unpopular since its rework, because though it had high potential damage it was difficult to always hit. To increase effectiveness, its maximum channel time is reduced and projectile range increased.

• Pyroblast (One-handed Staff):
  
  • Projectile Range: 20m → 24m
    
  • Max Channel time: 2s → 1.2s
    
  • Minimum / Maximum Damage remain unchanged
    

Frost Staffs
Hoarfrost Staff was underused since its last rework. Its cooldown was high relative to its effects, so this has been significantly decreased. Since Ice Crystal damage was significantly delayed, it could easily be reflected, making it risky for large fights. Its damage is now un-reflectable. Additionally, the Damage Increase duration of Frostbite is increased, so the buff no longer falls off as easily.

• Frostbite (all Frost Staffs):
  
  • Damage Increase Duration: 2.5s → 4s
    
• Avalanche (Hoarfrost Staff):
  
  • Cooldown: 30s → 20s
    
• Ice Crystal (Permafrost Staff):
  
  • Damage can no longer be reflected
    

Holy Staffs
Smite’s Hit Delay after casting is increased slightly, to make it easier to dodge in 1v1 PvP situations.

• Smite (all Holy Staffs):
  
  • Hit Delay: 0.15s → 0.25s
    

Nature Staffs
To discourage interrupting Revitalize after a few ticks, a higher proportion of energy for the full channel is now spent when it starts. Thus, while the whole channel still costs the same energy, interrupting it early is penalized. Additionally, fighting with DoT weapons against Great Nature Staffs was too punishing, as Living Armor almost guaranteed Healing with few counterplay options. To give Cursed Staffs and Axes better chances against it, Living Armor now only heals on direct damage.

• Revitalize (all Nature Staffs):
  
  • Energy cost at Channel Start: 0 → 20
    
  • Energy cost per Channel Tick: 9 → 4
    
• Living Armor (Great Nature Staff):
  
  • Now only heals with Direct Damage (DoTs no longer count)
    

Swords
The movement speed boost from Heroic Charges has been reverted to 9%, as the previous boost gave too great an advantage in Corrupted Dungeons, even with the introduction of the Mephits. Additionally, with its low cooldown, long range, and high speed, Mighty Blow was overly difficult to defend against for many match-ups. Therefore, its range has been reduced to allow more counterplay options in Corrupted Dungeons.

• Heroic Charge (all Swords):
  
  • Movement Speed Increase: 12% → 9%
    
• Iron Will (all Swords):
  
  • No longer purged by movement-removing effects like Cripple
    
• Mighty Blow (One Handed Sword):
  
  • Cast Range: 10m → 8m
    
  • Distance to enemy after Leap: 1m → 3m
    
• Charge (Claymore):
  
  • 0 Charges Damage: 86.00 → 81
    
  • 1 Charge Damage: 137.61 → 130
    
  • 2 Charges Damage: 206.41 → 195
    
  • 3 Charges Damage: 292.41 → 276
    

War Gloves
To make Backhand Strike more useful, it now knocks all enemies hit in the direction of the cast, rather than randomly scattering them.

• Backhand Strike (all War Gloves):
  
  • Enemies are now all knocked in the same direction
    

Helmets
Cleanse is now an option on all Leather Hoods. Additionally, the helmet abilities Energy Regain and Howl have been improved.

• Energy Regain (all Helmets):
  
  • Channel Duration: 9s → 4s
    
  • Tick Interval: every 1s → every 0.5s (Energy gain per tick is still the same)
    
• Howl (all Leather Hoods → Mercenary Hood):
  
  • Howl is now moved to Mercenary Hood
    
  • Cooldown: 30s → 20s
    
• Cleanse (Mercenary Hood → all Leather Hoods):
  
  • Cleanse is now moved to all Leather Hoods
    

Armors
Stalker Jacket was outshone in most situations by Hellion Jacket. To give Stalker Jacket clearer advantages, its cooldown has been decreased and its damage increased. This should make it the more desirable choice for consistent AoE damage output, with Hellion Jackets focused on sustain.

• Electric Field (Stalker Jacket):
  
  • Cooldown: 45s → 30s
    
  • Damage per Tick: 26.70 → 28
    

Shoes
To offer another Cleanse option on the shoe slot, the new ability Break Free has been added. This replaces Invisibility, which was somewhat obsolete in comparison with other invisibility options on the shoe slot.

• Removed the Invisibility ability from Mercenary Shoes
  
• Added a new ability, Break Free:
  
  • Cleanses all Crowd Control Effects when Dashing towards the targeted position
    
  • Can be used while stunned or silenced
    
  • Cooldown: 25s
    
  • Range: 12m
    

Diminishing Returns
Diminishing Returns have been reworked for knockbacks and knocking enemies into the air, to prevent players being stun-locked by repeated knock-ups:

• Knocking enemies into the air is now affected by Diminishing Returns
  
• Knocking enemies into the air now counts as knockback for DR, with individual adjustments applied to various abilities
  
• Knockback DR Factor: 0.04 → 0.08
  
• Knockback DR Time: 15s → 10s
  

Miscellaneous
To make dungeons more enjoyable, ability cooldowns after entering or changing floors have been reduced. The higher cooldown in the open world remains, in order not to encourage gank groups splitting across two sides of an exit.

• Ability Cooldown when entering or changing floors inside a dungeon: 15s → 7s
  

Fixes

• Spell fixes:
  
  • Fixed issue where using an AoE attack on a player under the Outlands shrine buff would trigger Outlaw status
    
  • Tear Apart description now displays the correct range
    
  • Throwing Blade description now displays the correct move speed
    
  • Fixed issue where Enigma Blade's "Flicker" ability could not be used after dealing a killing blow
    
  • Fixed issue where Hide Animal Poison would not always trigger with fast auto-attacks
    
• Mobile fixes:
  
  • Fixed an issue where auto-run would cancel when using mouse on mobile
    
  • Fixed issues where dynamic actions were not possible while in combat or with target selected, regardless of settings
    
  • Fixed issue where default cursor was not selectable in Settings menu
    
• Fixed issue where Item Details could not be opened from Sell tab in Marketplace
  
• Fixed issue where refining large numbers of lower-level resources could begin filling higher specialization nodes that were not yet unlocked
  
• Fixed issue where Avalonian Priestess received unintended damage from despawned summons
  
• Updated distribution of ore, fiber, and hide treasures in T6 and T7 Steppe regions on the Royal Continent, with an increase in hide treasures and a decrease in ore and fiber treasures
  
• Numerous additional graphical, audio, animation, terrain, UI, and localization fixes