[2021] [21. September 2021] Call to Arms Patch 10

Call to Arms Patch 10 - Version 18.100.1 - September 21, 2021

New Artifacts Added

New artifacts have begun appearing as mob and chest drops in the open world. While they cannot yet be used for crafting, they are certain to prove useful in the future… (Learn more about these artifacts and other upcoming changes in the latest Dev Talk).

Hideout Changes

Entering Hideouts now requires a channel for players who have not set the Hideout as "Home". This change is intended to reduce the safety provided by having multiple allied Hideouts in a single zone. The following conditions apply:

• If a player has set "Home" in a Hideout, they can still instantly enter it without a channel
  
• The protection bubble granted when leaving a Hideout no longer breaks with open-world interactions, making it possible to safely channel back into a Hideout without losing the bubble
  
• Additionally, players with their Home set in a Hideout within the Roads of Avalon will no longer lose their Home setting when using the Travel Planner and then traveling through a Realmgate in a Royal City
  

Castle Outpost Changes

• Removed doors of Castle Outposts to make them easier to conquer by smaller groups and encourage more guerilla warfare
  
• Warning messages when Castle Outposts are under attack now appear only in the guild chat, to reduce onscreen messages for guild members
  
• Time until next guard wave spawns: 120 seconds → 60 seconds
  

Faction Warfare Changes

• Enlisting with a Faction with low recruitment rates now has less of a penalty for players of lower rank
  
• Faction Warfare kills in red zones are now worth up to three times as many Faction Points than knockouts in yellow zones
  
• Areas previously owned by a Faction other than Caerleon are now worth more Faction Points after a Bandit Assault begins
  

Nametag Changes

• Added option to display guild names of other players without displaying player names
  
• For Faction-flagged players, other players flagged to the same Faction now appear as allies
  

New Marketplace Categories

• Added "Tomes" category for tradable Tomes of Insight
  
• Added new "Mount" subcategories, which also contain all mounts that can equip skins from the same Mount Skin category:
  
  • Swiftclaw
    
  • Direbear
    
  • Direboar
    
  • Direwolf
    
  • Stag/Moose
    
  • Mule
    
  • Swamp Dragon
    

Other Changes

• Level 6 Crystal League Tokens (5v5 and 20v20) are now non-tradable
  
• A popup message now displays when the Usage Fee of a player-owned crafting station was recently changed
  
• When both players in a Corrupted Dungeon are knocked down, the get-up time is greatly reduced
  
• Reworked login and character creation / selection screens: players can now choose "Auto-Login", "Remember Me", or neither
  
• Mobile players can now begin playing with guest accounts, with the following conditions:
  
  • No cross-play: guest accounts are bound to a device ID
    
  • No shop access: guest accounts cannot make purchases in the ingame store
    

Combat Balance Changes

Bows
Regular Bows are still a very strong pick in the 5v5 Crystal League. To make their damage output a bit less explosive, the ramp-up to the max stack buff now takes slightly longer. Additionally, the attack buff stacks now fall off more quickly if the Bow stops attacking. These changes should offer more counterplay options and a bigger reaction window for the enemy team, while still keeping the general Bow playstyle intact, where it can focus single enemies down very quickly once max attack buff stacks are reached.

• Enchanted Quiver (Regular Bow):
  
  • Attack Damage Increase per Stack: 35% → 30%
    
  • Attack Speed Increase per Stack: 15% → 13%
    
  • Max Attack Buff Stack: 6 → 7
    
  • Attack Buff Duration: 5s → 2.5s
    

Cursed Staffs
Cursed Staffs are another top pick for the 5v5 Crystal League. With the latest buffs to Dark Matter, the ability has become very dominant in 5v5s. While we are happy to see this ability back in the meta, it currently gives Cursed Staffs a little too much burst damage, which has been toned down somewhat.

• Dark Matter (all Cursed Staffs):
  
  • Damage vs Players: 78 → 73
    

Holy Staffs
Previously, the combination of sustain and mobility made Hallowfall too strong in Corrupted Dungeons. By increasing the Cooldown of Divine Intervention, while also increasing the Cooldown Reduction when at least one ally is healed, the mobility and sustain for solo Hallowfall players is reduced without impacting its effectiveness in healing allies in group fights.

• Divine Intervention (Hallowfall):
  
  • Cooldown: 25s → 30s
    
  • Cooldown Reduction when hitting at least one ally: 20% → 35%
    

Nature Staffs
Nature Staffs have also become very dominant healers in the 5v5 Crystal League. As with Cursed Staffs, the buff to Cleanse Heal was introduced to help with Nature's weak point: dealing with burst damage. This made Holy Staffs, whose main purpose is to counter burst damage, less attractive. As such, the cooldown of Cleanse Heal has been increased to make the burst heal and cleanse available less often and increase the potential for Nature Staff teams to be bursted down.
The Blight Staff change is mainly intended to tone down its combination of mobility and sustain in Corrupted Dungeons, where the slow helps create distance or catch up to enemies. To make up for the slow effect removal in group fights, Ruthless Nature now heals more when allies are in range and less when used in solo play.

• Cleanse Heal (all Nature Staffs):
  
  • Cooldown: 15s → 18s
    
• Ruthless Nature (Blight Staff):
  
  • No longer slows enemies
    
  • Healing Output is now lower when used alone and higher when an ally is affected
    
    • Healing (alone): 39 → 36
      
    • Healing (at least one ally affected): 39 → 42
      
  
  
  

Spears

Glaive has been a very strong frontline melee DPS in the 5v5 Crystal League for some time. As the short cooldown of Fling in particular gives the weapon a lot of control, the cooldown of this ability was increased to make its control less oppressive to opponents.

• Fling (Glaive):
  
  • Cooldown: 15s → 20s
    

Swords
With the buffs to Heroic Charge in the last patch, the Broadsword in particular became a very straightforward weapon dealing high constant damage from a very low-cooldown E-ability, which was hard to counter. To make it less dominant, the Cooldown of Mighty Blow has been increased to lengthen gaps between damage spikes and resistance increases.

• Mighty Blow (Broadsword):
  
  • Cooldown: 10s → 12s
    

Shoes
Their recent buff made Royal Boots a top choice in Corrupted Dungeons. They offer a very strong shoe ability for chasing down opponents if not interrupted or purged, which makes the ability very risky to use for disengagements. In this way they work as intended. However, the max movement speed they provided was slightly too high, as they were also very good for suddenly rushing to an enemy from off-screen and striking once to prevent ability changes. The max speed has thus been reduced to give more time to react to a player rushing in with max Royal March stacks.

• Royal March (Royal Boots):
  
  • Movement Speed Increase per Stack: 9% → 8%
    

Battle Mounts

• Arrow Volley (Phalanx Beetle):
  
  • Cooldown 4s → 2s
    
  • Fix: The debuff can now be cleansed as intended
    
• Omnibarrage (Phalanx Beetle):
  
  • Consumes all Arrow Rain stacks in a 18m radius
    
  • The strength of the ability now depends on the stacks consumed at cast start (independent of the amount of stacks on individual enemies)
    
    • Stacks: 0 / 2 / 4 / 6 / 8
      
    • Damage: 10 / 15 / 20 / 30 / 45 (every 0.5s)
      
    • Slow: 10% / 20% / 30% / 40% / 50%
      
  • The channel can now be canceled by the caster
    
  • Fix: Slow effect now stays active for the intended/whole duration on targets inside the effect area
    

Fixes

• Spell fixes:
  
  • Soul Link now gives the intended 8 seconds to connect (previously 1 second)
    
  • The second hit of Hamstring (Swords) can no longer be executed if the Heroic Charge runs out during the activation window, as intended
    
  • Like all other dash abilities, Fearless Rush (Elite Lymhurst Boar) now only affects players below 150% of max carry weight
    
  • The AoE indication area of Spinning Blades (Dual Swords) is now correctly displayed for the caster to better communicate the minimum distance
    
  • Improved hit detection of second hit of Devastating Strike (Black Hands) to make it more reliable, even with high ping
    
  • Fixed an issue where Hoarfrost (Frost Staffs) would not deal AoE damage to surrounding targets if the main target died
    
  • Fixed an issue where Everlasting Spirit (Cleric Robe) triggered too frequently, especially after purge
    
• Removed option to /suicide after being knocked down by mobs in Corrupted Dungeons, as intended
  
• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in spawning loot chests in Hellgates and Expeditions
  
• Fixed an issue where Faction-flagged players could become stuck in dungeons in overcrowded zones when respawning
  
• Fixed an issue where watering can was not displayed when watering plants
  
• Fixed an issue where some tradable Crystal League tokens were not visible / tradable on the Marketplace
  
• Fixed an issue where large Tier 8 fiber nodes did not display enchantment levels in the Steppe biome
  
• Fixed a rare case where healing debuffs did not apply correctly upon entering a zone
  
• Fixed an issue where scheduling a defense payout more than 15 minutes after the previously scheduled time would create an endless loop
  
• Resolved an issue that prevented Elite Faction Mounts and the non-Elite Caerleon Faction Mount from ever being higher than normal quality
  
• Additional graphical, audio, animation, terrain, UI, and localization fixes