[2023] [13. February 2023] Beyond the Veil Patch 4

Beyond the Veil Patch 4 - Ver. 22.040.1 - February 13, 2023

Traditional Chinese and Indonesian Added

Albion Online now offers full language support for Traditional Chinese and Indonesian.

• These languages are selectable from within the launcher or via the in-game Settings menu
  
• Dedicated chat channels have been added to the game for these languages
  
• Forthcoming news articles will appear in these languages as well
  
• Dedicated forums have been added:
  
  • Traditional Chinese: forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Board/221
    
  • Indonesian: forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Board/207
    
• To report translation issues for these or other supported languages, please use this dedicated thread: forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/87904
  
• Note to Steam users: As Steam does not support Indonesian localization, the store page and Achievements will remain in English. Localized Achievement names for all languages can be viewed directly in the game client.
  

Season 17 Statue Unveiled
The statue honoring Take-off-Wuhu, winners of Albion's 17th Guild Season, can now be seen in front of Conquerors' Hall in all Royal Cities. The statue also includes the banners of second- and third-place winners Dancing on the Grave and EQMS EQMS. Congrats to these guilds on their accomplishments!

Changes and Improvements

• Guild and Alliance formation costs updated:
  
  • Guild: 100,000 → 1,000,000 Silver
    
  • Alliance: 500,000 → 5,000,000 Silver
    
• Added "Always" option for Streamer Mode popup, and Steam login is now hidden like other credentials
  
• Reworked, improved, and diversified ambient sounds for all biomes and cities
  
• Added 2 slots to trading UI; updated layout
  
• Artifact item details now show which items they can make; items can be clicked for more info
  
• Added Search / Filter options to Bank and Chest UI
  
• Price display is now consistent across building types (crafting stations, Vanity Merchant, etc.)
  
• Added message when crafting stations are not usable due to lacking access or nutrition
  
• Shared Loadouts UI now opens inventory tab if no equipment is set
  
• Fast Travel journey selection now has subcategories and is searchable
  
• Adjusted standard Silver price ranges for City Plots bought directly from the system:
  
  • Rests (Outlands Towns): 5,000,000 - 15,000,000
    
  • Caerleon / Brecilien: 5,000,000 - 45,000,000
    
  • Royal Cities: 5,000,000 - 200,000,000
    
• New appearance options added to character customization:
  
  • Additional skin color palette with 7 olive tones
    
  • 2 new male and 3 new female hairstyles
    
  • 1 new face option each for male and female characters
    
  • 2 new character Avatars each for male and female characters
    
• Added tutorial screen to Black Market and Marketplace screens to give additional information on what they are and how they work
  
• Added tutorial screen to the Wardrobe and Mount Skin section of the Appearance screen to give additional information about how to equip skins and how unlocks work
  
• Heretic Mob Changes:
  
  • Added or adjusted abilities for:
    
    • Thief (Dash, Heavy Smash)
      
    • Poacher (Blunt Arrow, Arrow Rain)
      
    • Mage (Stalking Embers)
      
    • Healer (Regenerate Energy)
      
    • Tank (Crushing Blow, Dash, Shield Bash)
      
  • Changed Tank Miniboss dash to be in a line and target into a direction instead of on top of the targeted enemy, also uninterruptible
    

Combat Balance Changes

This patch mainly focuses on improving the feel and audiovisual feedback of several early-game items, to improve first impressions and bring some older items up to Albion’s modern standards. Most of these changes are not intended to address the current endgame meta, but rather to improve the foundation of Albion's gameplay.

Arcane Staffs

Time Freeze has been very dominant in mid- and large-scale fights, particularly as a defensive tool to save allies. However, it was somewhat too powerful to make up for positioning errors, and above all it helped larger groups more than smaller ones. To help smaller groups capitalize on the positioning mistakes of larger forces, the ability to Freeze allies has been removed. Instead, Great Arcane can now solely be used to stop enemies. This gives it more impact in this new role, though its freezing capabilities have been buffed.

• Time Freeze (Great Arcane Staff):
  
  • Can no longer freeze allies
    
  • Base Cooldown: 60s → 45s (Cooldown scaling stays the same, so it has 25s cooldown on 2000 IP)
    
  • Cast Time: 0.6s → 0s
    
  • Hit Delay: 0s → 0.5s
    
  • Enemy Player Freeze Duration: 2s → 3s
    
  • Player Immunity after a Player Freeze: 15s → 5s
    

Bows

Bows have been adjusted to feel better and more responsive. Ray of Light’s cooldown and root duration are further decreased, making it the more damage-oriented kiting option on the W-slot. Ray of Light is now the first W spell, making the early PvE experience more interesting versus players beginning with two self-buffs (Explosive Arrows and Enchanted Quiver), which made Bows feel somewhat undynamic in the early game.

• Auto-Attacks
  
  • Standtime after each attack: 0.4s → 0.3s
    
• Poisoned Arrow (all Bows)
  
  • Hit Delay: 0.2s → 0.1s
    
• Ray of Light (all Bows)
  
  • Cooldown: 12s → 10s
    
  • Root Duration: 1.99s → 1.8s
    
• Spell Unlock Order
  
  • Level 70: Ray of Light → Explosive Arrows
    

Crossbows

The auto-attack timing for Crossbows is reduced to make them feel more responsive.

• Auto-Attacks
  
  • Standtime after each attack: 0.4s → 0.3s
    

Cursed Staffs

Demonic Staff was very dominant across various content types. Its combination of high damage potential and Fear allowed for combo setups with too much burst damage and limited counterplay, for example by following up with Cursed Beam after the Fear while the enemy has four Vile Curse Charges on them. To reduce its followup damage potential, while the target is feared, Anguished Soul will now consume the target's Vile Curse Charges.

• Anguished Soul (Demonic Staff)
  
  • Now consumes all Vile Curse Charges on the target
    

Hammers

Forge Hammers had recently been buffed, which made them very powerful in the Crystal League and in Hellgates. The combination of a frontline bruiser with good damage and disruption, and the very high tankiness made it very difficult to counter. Thus, the high impact of Forge Hammers in the front has been preserved, but with reduced survivability.

• Giant Steps (Forge Hammers)
  
  • Armor Factor: 0.35 → 0.2
    
  • Magic Resistance Factor: 0.59 → 0.35
    

Quarterstaffs

Concussive Blow has been reworked into a multicast ability, Concussive Combo, which feels much better to use and communicates what is happening more clearly. Additionally, the standtime after Vault Leap has been reduced, allowing the caster to combo while the enemy is still in the air at the expense of some cast range.

• Concussive Combo (formerly Concussive Blow; all Quarterstaffs)
  
  • Reworked into a multicast ability
    
  • Combine up to two abilities. The combo resets after 6s
    
  • 1st and 2nd: Flowing Blow
    
    • Land a Flowing Blow on the targeted enemy, dealing physical damage in a cone in front of you.
      
  • 3rd Concussive Blow
    
    • Land an overhead Concussive Blow on the target, dealing physical damage and stuns.
      
• Vault Leap (regular Quarterstaff)
  
  • Standtime: 0.6s → 0.25s
    
  • Range 15m → 12m
    

Swords

A new W-ability, Blade Cyclone, has been added. This fun and engaging ability deals damage while also offering some mobility and repositioning. Since Swords already have a lot of mobility in their kit, we wanted to keep the speed it offers under control by limiting its distance and move speed. And as an additional check, it also consumes a Heroic Charge. For pure unconditional mobility, Iron Will will still be the superior choice. Blade Cyclone will now become Swords’ first W ability, to vastly improve the initial experience with this weapon tree. Improvements have also been made to various Sword ability visual effects, making them more satisfying to use.

• Added new W-ability: Blade Cyclone
  
  • Swirl into target direction, dealing 40 physical damage up to 3 times.
    
  • Move Speed: 11m/s
    
  • Range: 7m
    
  • Standtime: 0.25s
    
  • If you have at least 1 Heroic Charge active, it will be consumed and enemies take 60 physical damage every hit instead.
    
• Crescent Slash (Clarent Blade)
  
  • Projectile Speed: 28m/s → 29.3m/s
    
  • Improved Projectile Hit Detection
    
• Adjusted Spell Unlock Order:
  
  • Always Unlocked:
    
    • Heroic Strike
      
    • Heroic Cleave
      
    • Blade Cyclone
      
  • Level 3: Interrupt
    
  • Level 15: Splitting Slash
    
  • Level 40: Hamstring
    
  • Level 70: Parry Strike
    
  • Level 85: Iron Will
    

Shoes

Ethereal Form’s downsides led to it being underused. To make it more reliable, the initial channel is now uninterruptible. In addition, its self-damage reduction effect has been removed.

• Ethereal Form (Feyscale Sandals)
  
  • The channel is now uninterruptible
    
  • Removed the self damage reduction
    

Mounts

Offensive Mount abilities can no longer be used while faction-flagged (excepting Faction Mounts).

Miscellaneous: Visual Overhauls

These abilities have had audio and visual overhauls to make them more satisfying to use and improve their readability.

• Bows
  
  • Auto Attacks
    
  • Poisoned Arrow (all Bows)
    
  • Enchanted Quiver (Regular Bow)
    
  • Undead Arrows (Whispering Bow)
    
• Crossbows
  
  • Auto Attacks (including Energy Shaper)
    
• Quarterstaffs
  
  • Concussive Blow (all Quarterstaffs)
    
• Maces
  
  • Sacred Ground (all Maces)
    
• Swords
  
  • Splitting Slash (all Swords)
    
  • Mighty Blow (Broadsword)
    
  • Charge (Claymore)
    
  • Spinning Blades (Dual Swords)
    
  • Crescent Slash (Clarent Blade)
    
• Armors
  
  • Speed Caster (Scholar Robe)
    

Fixes

• UI fixes:
  
  • Fixed issue where, on opening Travel Planner from an island, some destinations would be missing or not highlighted
    
  • Fixed issue where notifications counter stated wrong numbers in main UI
    
  • Fixed issue where cooldown times in spell slots would not display correctly when items with Cooldown Reduction were equipped
    
  • Fixed issue where sorting and filtering in the Marketplace UI did not function correctly
    
  • Fixed issue where Dynamic Actions and Minimum Gathering Tier settings couldn't be changed on desktop
    
  • Fixed sorting issues in Warriors Forge and Mage Tower, as well as with Fey Armor and Offhands
    
  • Fixed issue where guilds with over 300 active members would not appear in the guild finder
    
  • Fixed issue where Loadouts sent by mail were not clickable
    
  • Fixed issue where "Skip Cluster" from character selection screen gave an error message
    
  • Fixed issue where dropdown in Crystal League Season UI would disappear
    
  • Fixed issue where "My Party" section in Party Finder was blank after reopening it
    
  • Fixed issue where guild creation cost was different on UI and confirmation popup
    
  • Fixed issue where Loadouts would not save after multiple edits
    
  • Fixed issue where construction confirmation window would not close with ESC key
    
  • Fixed issue where Hideout Headquarters UI incorrectly said qualifications were not met for Roads of Avalon
    
  • Equipment now updates in real time for applicants requesting to join in Party Finder
    
  • Fixed issue where enchanted resource message displayed wrong rarity
    
  • Fixed issue where disabling Open World Tooltips for Mists entrances also disabled tooltips for region exits
    
  • Fixed issue where opening Destiny Board while a tooltip was displayed could cause tooltip to persist
    
  • Fixed issue where a shared Loadout would not display the selected passive and active spells when items were clicked
    
• Controller fixes:
  
  • Fixed issue where "Select Loadout" dropdown in "Loadouts" Marketplace tab was not selectable
    
  • Fixed issue where checkboxes in "Open-World Tooltips" settings were inactive
    
  • Fixed issue where zone map border covered gamepad controls display
    
  • Fixed issue that caused abilities to activate after closing inventory if button was pressed before opening
    
  • Improved casting of position / rotation spells with "cast on release" mode
    
  • Fixed issues where spell indicator areas would not appear and inventory UI would close after returning focus to game
    
• Mobile fixes:
  
  • Fixed issue where spell cast indicators would persist after being silenced during casting
    
  • Fixed issue where traps in Corrupted Dungeons could be selected while targeting
    
  • Fixed issue where manual target drags would not lock the dynamic action attack mode
    
• Ability fixes:
  
  • Fixed issue where Cripple (Spears) could purge Heroic Stacks even while target was immune to purges
    
  • Fixed issue where Falcon Smash (War Gloves) could lead to players being briefly stuck
    
  • Fixed issue where Electric Field (Stalker Jacket) and Lifesteal visuals would persist after mounting
    
• Fixed issue where chest rarity could be viewed before unlocking
  
• Fixed issue where laborers could return with no resources
  
• Fixed issue where mobs in Roads of Avalon camps could respawn without a chest present
  
• Fixed issue where characters would freeze when casting spell and opening loot bag at the same time
  
• Fixed issue where Fearless Rush (Elite Wild Boar) didn't give immunity to forced movement effects
  
• "Autumn Tree" furniture item now appears in correct fall colors
  
• Additional graphical, audio, UI, and localization fixes