[2022] The Arcane and Frost Patch

Into the Fray Patch 4 / Arcane and Frost Patch - Ver. 20.040.1 - August 9, 2022


Magic Staff Overhaul: Arcane and Frost Staffs

This patch finished the Magic Staff overhaul that began with the Into the Fray update. Arcane and Frost Staffs have new and updated abilities, as well as new visuals and animations.
See the Combat Balance Changes section below for details.

Season 15 Winner Statue Unveiled

Congrats to Elevate, winners of Guild Season 15! Check out their new statue in Conquerors' Hall, alongside banners for second- and third-place winners Team Pilas and RAQ.

UI & Quality-of-Life Improvements

• The Building Nutrition UI has been updated with new fields and shows how much nutrition is being added. This affects player buildings, Hideouts, and Territories.
  
• The Trade UI layout has been updated and now displays the Silver amount bid by each side at the upper left.
  

Black Zone Loot Changes

For the first 90 seconds after a black-zone kill, the dead player can only be looted by the following:

• The killed player's allies (same party, guild or alliance)
  
• The player that dealt the killing blow
  
  • The killer's allies
    
• The player that dealt the most damage to the killed player
  
  • That player's allies
    
• After 90 seconds the corpse can be looted by any player
  

Other Changes

• Might from Castle and Outpost Chests is now distributed to the guild's members in a larger radius, to better include all participants
  
• Hideout Power Cores and Territory Energy Crystals will now award Might to the captor, any guild members that are within range, and any eligible guild members that have recently helped in its capture
  
• Added buttons to the character stats window enabling you to directly contact players via whisper or mail
  
• Pieces of furniture in the open world must be placed at least 10 meters apart:
  
  • This distance only applies to other furniture objects and not walls or terrain
    
  • This doesn’t apply on Player Islands, Guild Islands, in Hideouts, or in Cities
    
• The Faction Warfare "Last Stand" buff no longer prevents the Journey Back ability
  
• The Faction Warfare Flagging Bonus can no longer be purged
  
• Level 6+ Crystal League Championship tokens no longer appear in the Marketplace
  

Combat Balance Changes

Arcane Staffs

• Arcane Protection (all Arcane Staffs)
  
  • Shielded target is now immune to Forced Movement effects
    
  • Blocking a Forced Movement effect will remove the shield
    
  • The shield no longer affects threat generation
    
  • Cooldown: 5s → 6s
    
• Removed the ability Energy Bolt (all Arcane Staffs)
  
• New Q-slot Ability Chain Missile (all Arcane Staffs)
  
  • Shoot a Chain Missile in the targeted direction
    
  • Upon hitting an enemy, it will jump to the closest enemy within 8m, dealing 121 magical damage (can hit up to 3 targets; cannot hit the same target multiple times)
    
  • Applies one Arcane Charge to all enemies hit
    
  • Arcane Charges are consumed when you deal direct damage to the affected target, dealing an additional 61 magical damage
    
• Magic Shock (all Arcane Staffs)
  
  • Damage: 150 -> 135
    
• Frazzle (all Arcane Staffs)
  
  • Cast Range: 11m -> 13m
    
  • Casttime: 1.2s -> 0.6s
    
  • Cooldown 10s -> 12s
    
  • Now reduces enemy resistances (instead of bonus defense vs players)
    
  • Resistance Reduction Duration 5s -> 4s
    
• Empowering Beam (all Arcane Staffs)
  
  • The caster can now move during the channel
    
• Mimic (all Arcane Staffs)
  
  • Cast Range: 11m -> 15m
    
  • Mimicked abilities
    
    • Axes: Raging Blades -> Battle Rush
      
    • Frost Staffs: Frost Nova -> Glacial Obelisk
      
    • Maces: Snare Charge -> Guard Rune
      
• Removed the ability Energy Beam (all Arcane Staffs)
  
• Added new W-slot Ability Enigma Blade (all Arcane Staffs)
  
  • Combine up to two abilities; combo resets after 4s
    
  • 1st ability, Enigma Blade:
    
    • Conjure a magic blade that hits all enemies in a cone in the targeted direction, dealing 200 magical damage
      
    • Hitting at least one enemy enables the next combo ability
      
  • 2nd ability, Flicker:
    
    • Teleport to the targeted position (cannot teleport through obstacles)
      
• Arcane Orb (one-handed Arcane Staff)
  
  • Projectile Speed: 14.4 m/s -> 17.7 m/s
    
• Time Freeze (Great Arcane Staff)
  
  • Now also affects allies (group-, guild- and alliance members only)
    
  • Freeze Duration vs players: 4s -> 2s (remains 4s vs Mobs)
    
  • Hit Delay: 1.1s -> 0.5s
    
  • Base cooldown: 39s -> 50s
    
  • Cooldown reduction per 100 Item Power: 0.8s -> 1s
    
• Black Hole (Witchwork Staff)
  
  • Radius: 5m -> 6m
    
• Time Corridor (Occult Staff)
  
  • Now always costs 15% energy
    
  • Base cooldown: 30s -> 44s
    
  • Cooldown reduction per 100 Item Power: 0s -> 1s
    
• Dark Sphere (Evensong)
  
  • Hit Delay: 0.6s -> 0.4s
    
• Removed the Passive ability Aggressive Caster (all Arcane Staffs)
  
• Added a new Passive ability Lingering Power
  
  • After casting any spell, increases your Attack Speed by 120% and your Attack Range by 33% for the next three normal attacks within 3s
    

Frost Staffs

• Removed the Q-slot Ability: Frost Bolt (all Frost Staffs)
  
• Added new Q-slot Ability: Frostbite (all Frost Staffs)
  
  • Shoot a projectile in the targeted direction, dealing 128 magical damage upon impact with an enemy; increases your damage by 4% for 2.5s (stacks up to 3 times)
    
• Removed the Q-slot Ability: Hoarfrost (all Frost Staffs)
  
• Added new Q-slot Ability: Frozen Surge (all Frost Staffs)
  
  • Freeze the ground in front of you along a 16m long and 3.8m wide path, dealing 80 magical damage
    
  • Slows all enemies hit by 20% for 3s
    
• Frost Bomb (all Frost Staffs)
  
  • Now instantly slows enemies by 20% while the bomb is building up
    
• Frost Nova (all Frost Staffs)
  
  • Range: 11m -> 9m
    
  • Stun Radius: 5m -> 3m
    
• Frost Beam (all Frost Staffs)
  
  • Channel Tick Interval: 0.5s -> 0.3s
    
  • Channel Duration: 4.5s -> 2.7s
    
• Removed W-slot Ability Shatter (all Frost Staffs)
  
• Added new W-slot Ability Frost Lance (all Frost Staffs)
  
  • Fire a Frost Lance from a targeted position in a chosen direction
    
  • Hitting an enemy causes the lance to explode, dealing 145 magical damage to all enemies within 3m radius
    
  • Decreases damage resistances of all enemies hit by 0.16 for 4s
    
• Added new W-slot Ability Glacial Obelisk (all Frost Staffs)
  
  • Create a Glacial Obelisk at the targeted position, lasting 6s
    
  • Increases all damage and the Cooldown Rate of up to 10 allies within a 6m radius of the Obelisk by 15%
    
  • Recast ability to detonate the Obelisk, dealing 70 magical damage within a 5m radius
    
  • Slows all enemies hit by 40% for 4s
    
• Freezing Wind (one-handed Frost Staff)
  
  • Standtime 0.2s -> 0.4s
    
  • Area cone reduced by 1m
    
• Hail (Great Frost Staff)
  
  • Each Hail wave can now be cast independently
    
  • Damage per wave: 119 -> 150
    
  • Damage is now reflectable
    
• Avalanche (Hoarfrost Staff)
  
  • Reworked ability:
    
    • Launch a giant snowball in the targeted direction, rolling over all enemies
      
    • Deals 60 magical damage (cannot be reflected)
      
    • The snowball starts with a 2m radius, growing up to 3.1m while rolling
      
    • Leaves behind a freezing trail that lasts 4s
      
      • Slows all enemies on it by 40%
        
    • Recast to make the snowball explode, dealing 160 magical damage (cannot be reflected)
      
    • Stuns all enemies hit for 1,33s
      
• Frozen Crystal (Chillhowl)
  
  • Now called Glacial Prison
    

Holy Staffs
The Hit Delay of Smite has been increased, as it was very easy to continuously hit enemy players with it. With their combination of high self-sustain and reliable high damage output, Holy Healers could be a frustrating match-up in Corrupted Dungeons.

• Smite (all Holy Staffs)
  
  • Hit Delay: 0s -> 0.15s
    

Maces
The Morning Star E-ability has been reworked. Its root duration is now limited to 1.5s against single enemies, to make it harder for groups to catch solo targets with it. However, its mobility has been increased along with its synergy with Air Compressor, making it more effective in group vs group fights.

• Air Compressor (all Maces)
  
  • Standtime: 1s -> 0s
    
• Root Prison (Morning Star)
  
  • Has been reworked and is now called Gravitas
    
    • Combine up to two abilites; combo resets after 3s
      
    • 1st ability Close In:
      
      • Dash towards the targeted position
        
    • 2nd ability Gravitas:
      
      • Conjure a high gravity field with a 5m radius around you, rooting all enemies (ignoring crowd control resistance), while channeling for up to 4s (cannot be interrupted)
        
      • At the end of the channel enemies remain rooted for 1.5s
        
      • Hitting less than 3 enemy players ends the root after 1.5s (mobs are not affected by this condition)
        
    
    
    
    

Fixes

• Party UI fixes:
  
• 
  
  • Members with no role, or who are in a different zone, now appear lowest on the list if sorted by roles
    
  • Targeted party member now highlighted in member list
    
• General UI fixes:
  
  • Fixed issue where Territory UI did not close when an attack started
    
  • Fixed issue where items could vanish when two players moved them to or from a guild vault at the same time
    
  • Fixed issue where some display elements would not appear after closing the World Map in recording mode
    
  • Fixed issue where Guild Rights Management UI lagged when scrolling
    
  • Fixed issue where cooldown duration of Guild Crest change would not display
    
• Spell fixes:
  
  • Evasive Jump (Royal Shoes) provides immunity to knockbacks
    
  • Ethereal Path (Harvester Workboots) move speed buff ends when mounted
    
  • Throwing Blades (all Daggers) deals damage to mounts
    
  • Fixed issue where changing a spell slot could result in an incorrect cooldown for that spell
    
  • Fixed issue where vanity ability keyboard shortcuts did not work while in recording mode
    
• Additional graphical, UI, terrain, audio, and localization fixes