[2021] [24. November 2021] Lands Awakened Update

Lands Awakened Update - Version 19.000.1 - November 24, 2021

Hotfix 1
Hotfix 2
Hotfix 3
Hotfix 4
Hotfix 5
Hotfix 6
Known Issues

Massive Biome Rework and Improvements

• Greatly improved graphics for all five biomes, with increased variance between low, middle, and high-tier zones within each biome
  
• Greatly improved layouts with unique landscape features for each zone
  
• Reworked resource colors: when possible, resources are now colored to correspond to the color associated with their tier
  
• Improved minimaps that are clearer to read
  
• New overlays for the world map showing approximate resource availability and mob Silver values - as this feature requires aggregated data to function, it will not be active for several days after the update launches. Details: forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/157220
  
• Existing Hideouts have been automatically re-placed, and are eligible for a single move for a short time after the update goes live. Details: forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/157221
  

New and Reworked Open-World Gameplay Objectives

• Open-world mobs now automatically upgrade over time. Each mob can upgrade multiple times, gaining strength and offering increased Fame and loot, rewarding players and groups who seek out unexplored areas.
  
• Rewards for open-world mobs overall increased
  
• Static Dungeons reworked and feature new events:
  
  • Static Dungeon mobs also upgrade over time, offering massively increased rewards
    
  • Chests and bosses in Static Dungeons also upgrade automatically, rewarding exploration of neglected dungeons
    
  • New "Dungeon Rush" events:
    
    • Randomly, at short notice and for a limited time, the mob upgrade rates of a particular dungeon will greatly increase
      
    • This is communicated to players in nearby zones via the zone map, and appears overhead after entering the dungeon
      
  • Static Dungeons now have additional side entrances from neighboring zones:
    
    • Prevents camping one entrance
      
    • Allows escape when a more powerful group enters
      
    • Allows entry from multiple directions during a dungeon event
      
  • Points of interest in dungeons are now marked on the minimap when in close proximity
    
  • Mob camps outside Static Dungeons now feature veteran (group) mobs and are included in the time-limited Dungeon Events
    
  • Previously, killing mobs in Static Dungeons in the Outlands applied a stacking Fame buff – this buff has been removed from Static Dungeons, but still applies to World Boss zones
    
  • Randomized Dungeon entrances no longer appear within Static Dungeons
    
  • Leaving a Static Dungeon now prevents entering Hideouts for 2 minutes
    

Treasure Rework
Treasure system reworked to be more dynamic and unpredictable:

• Treasures now spawn randomly anywhere in the open world where PvP is possible, rather than at fixed locations
  
• There are three different sizes of Treasures: Small, Medium and Large
  
• Once spawned, Treasures stay locked for a duration based on their size (5 minutes / 20 minutes / 40 minutes)
  
• Treasures are only shown on the map to players in the same or nearby zones – the range at which they are visible depends on their size
  
• As part of this change, the old Treasure sites, as well as treasure chests in random mob camps, have been removed
  

Resource Changes

• Maximum charges per regular T7-8 resource nodes increased from 3 to 9 (Tier 7) and 2 to 11 (Tier 8 )
  
• Tier 7-8 resources now randomize their initial charges on respawn (between 1 and their maximum), and the overall number of nodes, as well as their respawn rate, has been increased on these tiers (offsetting laborer changes below to some degree)
  
• Tier 7-8 Large Resource Nodes (23/27 max charges, respectively) replaced by Plentiful Resource Nodes (30 charges), which spawn fully charged and are marked on the local map while unharvested
  
• Tier 5-6 Plentiful Resource Nodes added
  
• Resource mobs now always spawn fully charged; respawn rate adjusted accordingly
  
• Resource Guardians can now spawn in biomes in which their resource type is secondary or tertiary (e.g. Old White can now spawn in Steppe, Forest, or Swamp). This has no impact on the total Guardians spawned.
  

War Gloves
War Gloves are an entirely new weapon line featuring three new base weapons, four artifact weapons, and fifteen new abilities, plus unique passives. They are melee-focused and offer damage, mobility, and control abilities along with limited ranged abilities. They are crafted in the Warrior's Forge and feature their own Combat and Crafting masteries on the Destiny Board.

• Includes full Destiny Board trees: specializations, masteries, and Elite Levels (see below)
  
• Receive a city crafting bonus in Caerleon
  
• Artifact War Gloves are crafted via new Artifacts that drop in the open world or are made at the Artifact Foundry
  
• Black Hands replaced with a new dagger, the Demonfang (see "Combat Balance Changes" below for details)
  

Reworked Guild Seasons
To shift the focus of Guild Seasons away from territorial control and toward player activity, their reward systems have been reworked and the Conquerors' Challenge introduced.

• Conqueror's Challenge:
  
  • Runs for the entire Guild Season
    
  • Open to all players, guild-affiliated or not
    

Conquerors' Challenge introduces two new reward systems, Might and Favor:

• Might:
  
  • Allows progress towards personal seasonal challenge goals
    
  • Unlocks rewards such as battle mounts, Fame boosts, and new seasonal avatars
    
  • Earned via various activities with a risk of PvP, including:
    
    • PvE in Outlands / Roads of Avalon
      
    • Opening Treasures
      
    • Killing Siphoning Mages / Crystal Spiders
      
    • Playing Hellgates / Crystal League
      
    • Winning Corrupted Dungeons
      
    • Capturing Power Cores and Energy Crystals (see below)
      
• Favor:
  
  • Favor is earned in most cases where Might is earned
    
  • This is a currency which can be used to purchase Siphoned Energy and reward chests
    

Guild-affiliated players' activities additionally contribute to their guild's Might Level:

• Each Guild Might Level completed awards Season Points
  
• Allows all players in a guild to contribute towards Season Points, while earning Might and Favor for themselves
  
• When a guild reaches a new bracket, members are in turn rewarded with:
  
  • Significant Might
    
  • An additional bonus to Might earned during the rest of the season
    

A Season Overview has been added to show:

• Guild's current rank
  
• How Season Points were earned
  
• Which guild members contributed the most Might to each Might Level
  
• Which guild members earned the most Season Points via Crystal League
  

The Season Overview no longer shows season rewards, as these are now earned via the Conqueror's Challenge.
Additional changes for Season 14:

• Siphoning Mages, Crystal Spiders, etc. no longer directly give Season Points
  
• Territory levels rebalanced (see "Territory Energy Crystals" below)
  
• Castles, Castle Outposts, and Guild Challenge no longer grant Siphoned Energy
  
• Crystal League rewards rebalanced
  

Headquarters Hideouts:

• Based on their performance in the previous season, guilds can earn the right to declare a Headquarters in the subsequent season
  
• Qualifying requires earning a minimum number of Season Points and ranking among the top 600 guilds of the season
  
• Declaring Headquarters in higher-quality zones requires higher point totals. Details: forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/156756
  
• Undamaged Headquarters cannot be attacked while maintaining sufficient Power, and receive 50% additional power from Power Cores (see next section)
  
• Headquarters can only be accessed by the owning guild
  
• Guilds qualifying for an HQ at the end of a season also receive a single "Booster" which can be used in the subsequent season
  
• Boosters can:
  
  • Declare a Hideout under construction an HQ, making it invulnerable to attack after 20 minutes and providing starting Power
    
  • Boost the Power of an existing Hideout
    
• The current season's Headquarters qualifications can be seen in the Guild Estates Overview in the Guild UI
  
• Upcoming Headquarters qualifications can be seen in the new Season Overview
  
• HQ Hideouts currently cannot be declared in the Roads of Avalon – this will be reevaluated in future updates
  

Hideout Power Cores:

• "Power Anomalies" spawn at randomized places and times in the Outlands, and appear on the local/world maps at a range depending on their strength
  
• Power Anomalies are initially protected by an energy shield for a duration depending on their strength
  
• Once the shield fails, a carryable Power Core is revealed
  
• Cores can be brought to owned Hideouts to boost their Power Level
  
• Hideout Power Levels increase crafting bonuses (strength of this effect depends on Hideout Power Level)
  
• Hideout Power Levels degrade over time
  

Territory Energy Crystals:

• "Energy Vortices" spawn at randomized places/times in the Outlands, and move across the landscape until they dissipate and drop an Energy Crystal
  
• The stronger the Vortex, the longer it takes to dissipate
  
• Energy Crystals can be carried to any owned Territory Watchtower to boost the Territory Energy Level
  
• Because Territory Energy Crystals only generate energy (and give Might) when brought to an owned territory, they will only spawn while Territory Scoring is active. This means they will not spawn outside of Guild Seasons, nor during the few days of the season when scoring has paused
  
• Territory Levels increase the Season Points generated by Siphoning Mages and the enchantment rate of resources in the zone
  
• Territory Energy decreases over time
  
• Playing Crystal League matches from a territory tower now adds Energy to the Territory (instead of directly increasing its level)
  
• Territories no longer provide gathering yield bonuses within their boundaries
  

Rules for carrying Cores and Crystals:
The following actions cause these items to drop, allowing pickup by other allied or enemy players:

• Being killed or knocked down
  
• Mounting
  
• Going invisible (via spells, potions, etc.)
  
• Entering instanced areas (Roads of Avalon, Static / Randomized Dungeons, etc.)
  

Elite Levels
20 additional Elite Combat Specialization Levels added for each weapon and armor item:

• Unlocked by spending Fame Credits and Silver
  
• Give the same Item Power increases as normal levels
  

Specialization Medals:
Specialization Medal icons appear on equipped items, and represent the level of specialization achieved with the item. Medals are visible in Inventory, Duel Requests, Party Invites, Loadout Creation, and Inspection.

Overall Fame Increase + Adjustments
With the introduction of Elite Levels, in addition to the massively increased Fame available from upgraded mobs, the overall Fame earned for most activities will increase significantly (20-50%), with the exception of some activities that already offer very high Fame (Slayer Corrupted Dungeons, Hardcore Expeditions).
Changes to Instanced Content

• As this update aims to return focus to the open world, rewards for outlying instanced content have been reduced overall. While many of these activities remain incredibly rewarding, targeted adjustments were necessary to accomplish the goal of rewarding open-world gameplay.
  

Corrupted Dungeons

• The bonus from Infamy to Corrupted Dungeon loot and Fame has been reworked. The cap to this bonus is now +50%, which brings its Infamy scaling more in line with that of Hellgates. This is primarily intended to limit the high value potential of the highest end, while preserving base rewards to keep entry-level values similar.
  

Hardcore Expeditions

• In order to ensure Hardcore Expeditions are properly aligned with other features, a reduction to the overall rewards was necessary.
  
• Additionally, the power enemies in Expeditions gain per level was increased to compensate for the new Elite Levels. There are no changes to Level 1 Expeditions, but it increases slightly per level until it reaches its peak at +5% more damage and hit points at level 15 and beyond.
  

Our view is that HCEs should be the most challenging and rewarding safe-zone content in Albion Online, but should never be so rewarding as to draw in players who would otherwise be willing to brave the risks of the open world.
Fame / Silver rewards for Hardcore Expeditions adjusted:

• Fame Change / Silver Change:
  
  • Level 1: 0% / 0%
    
  • Level 2: -1% / -1%
    
  • Level 3: -2% / -1%
    
  • Level 4: -2% / -3%
    
  • Level 5: -3% / -5%
    
  • Level 6: -4% / -8%
    
  • Level 7: -4% / -11%
    
  • Level 8: -5% / -6%
    
  • Level 9: -6% / -6%
    
  • Level 10: -6% / -7%
    
  • Level 11: -7% / -8%
    
  • Level 12: -8% / -9%
    
  • Level 13: -9% / -9%
    
  • Level 14: -9% / -10%
    
  • Level 15+: -10% / -10%
    

Knight's Vow Bonus Doubled

• In addition to huge Fame increases across the board, the "Knight's Vow" seasonal bonuses have been doubled. These bonuses, previously given as Season Rewards, are now acquired via the Conqueror's Challenge and yield up to 10% increased Fame for their duration (90 days).
  

Owned Hideout Fame Buff

• Players now receive a limited-time Black Zone Fame Buff from visiting an owned Hideout, if that Hideout is also set as their Home. This buff scales with the power level of the Hideout, and can be up to 10%.
  

Faction Point Conversion Adjustment

• As Fame is broadly increased across the game, the PvE Fame to Faction Point conversion rate has been adjusted so that Faction Point acquisition rate is not affected. Players should now receive more Fame, but the same amount of Faction Points, for Faction Warfare-related activities.
  

Usage Fee and Crafting Changes
Usage Fees (the "taxes" building owners charge for crafting / refining) are now directly derived from the Nutrition an item consumes from the workstation:

• Fee is set in the game UI to be calculated per 100 Nutrition consumed
  
• New menu accessible from price screen gives detailed overview of all calculations influencing crafting price
  

Crafting Improvements / Fixes:

• Increased item value of T2, T4.2 and T4.3 Raw Resources for a clearer item value progression for Refined Resources per Tier / Enchantment
  
• Fixed an issue where crafting prices of items created in batches by default (e.g. Meat, non-Fish foods) was only equal to 1 item instead of the batch
  
• Fixed an issue where Avalonian Offhand Artifacts were treated as level 3 Artifacts (should have been level 4)
  
• Unified Item Values of Artifacts with same power levels
  
• Fixed Focus Cost calculation of consumable items:
  
  • Focus is now derived from the Nutrition of the ingredients of a consumable (formerly based on the item created)
    
  • Fish Sauce now considered in Focus Cost Prices - was previously ignored in Focus calculation even though it could be returned via Focus
    
• Fixed an issue where intermediate Ingredients (Meat, Flour, Butter, Bread, Alcohol) had their consumed Nutrition added twice to their final Nutrition
  
• Cape Crests are now treated as Level 1 (Rune) Artifacts and have an appropriate corresponding Item Value
  
• Nutrition and Item Value stats now appear over Estimated Market Value for relevant items
  
• Mount Focus costs updated and rebalanced
  
• Fixed an issue where studying multiple stacks of an item was more expensive than studying the same amount of items in one stack
  
• Full details: forum.albiononline.com/index.php/Thread/157229
  

Quality-of-Life Improvements
Buyable Loadouts:

• Loadouts can now be purchased via the Marketplace
  
• A special tab allows players to purchase Loadouts, and gives data about relative cost and availability
  

Item Rerolling:

• Players can now stack up to 999 items in the Reroll Menu (max 4 stacks), which may include different item types
  
• Players can set their goal quality; all Items exceeding this quality will be put back into inventory
  
• Players can now see reroll probabilities for items added
  
• Cost and Chance Rebalancing:
  
  • Chance of success and cost now both scale with the item's starting quality
    
  • Chance of success drastically increased
    
  • As a result of these changes, rerolling Normal, Good and Outstanding Items is more viable
    
  • Cost of rerolling into a Masterpiece is unchanged
    
• To make Quality more impactful, its Item Power increase has been boosted:
  
  • Good: 10 → 20
    
  • Outstanding: 20 → 40
    
  • Excellent: 50 → 60
    

Party Improvements:

• New /join command
  
• /invite and /join can also merge whole parties
  
• New interface allows IP/gear inspecting of potential party members
  
• Improved party-related notifications
  
• Added /snooze command auto-ignores party invites, either ongoingly or for a chosen duration
  
• Able to use /invite /join /kick without typing names for selected characters
  
• Added cooldowns for /join and /invite requests to avoid abuse
  

Farming Usability Improvements:

• Added Shift-Click option for Harvesting, Nurturing, Picking up, and Feeding
  
• "Take all" option can now be toggled on / off
  

Expanded Soundtrack and Combat Audio
The game soundtrack has been significantly expanded and updated with full orchestral recordings. Music for the following has been added or greatly expanded:

• Royal Cities / Caerleon, with unique themes reflecting each city's character
  
• Combat and Bosses (adjusts dynamically with threat level and mob type)
  
• Hideouts (changes with level increase)
  
• Tutorial
  
• Starter Towns (Mountain Cross, etc.)
  
• Destiny Board
  

Real Estate Plots Added to Rests
Real Estate Plots that allow players to build crafting / refining stations added to Rests (Outlands Towns), purchasable through the land auction system. Crafting and refining bonuses added to Rests:

• Base refining bonus: 15%
  
• Base crafting bonus: 18%
  
• Specialization crafting bonus: 15%
  
• Additional Weapon/Armor crafting bonuses (excludes Offhands):
  
  • Arthur's Rest: Warrior Weapon lines + Plate Armor
    
  • Merlyn's Rest: Hunter Weapon lines + Leather Armor
    
  • Morgana's Rest: Mage Weapon lines + Cloth Armor
    

New Achievements
13 new Achievements added for Steam and native / mobile clients, related to Cores / Crystals, War Gloves, Treasures, and more.

Mobile Changes and Fixes

• In-game chat now has a maximized mode triggered upon entering text, which can be disabled in the chat options
  
• Added option to lock virtual joystick in place instead of centering where first touched
  
• Drop-down UI elements replaced with a more responsive selection element and are now easier to use
  
• Marketplace filter element size increased for better readability
  
• Fast travel destination selection optimized for mobile keyboards
  

Other Changes and Improvements

• New Artifact resource added to Conqueror's Challenge Chests (see above), allowing creation of any Artifact weapon/armor from the corresponding tier/type:
  
  • Crystallized Spirit (any Runic Undead / Morgana / Keeper)
    
  • Crystallized Dread (any Demonic)
    
  • Crystallized Magic (any Relic Undead / Morgana / Keeper)
    
  • Crystallized Divinity (any Avalonian)
    
• Satchels of Insight now give more Fame and require less Silver:
  
  • T4 Bonus Fame: 20.046% → 40.002% | Silver per Fame: 1.3 → 1.25
    
  • T5 Bonus Fame: 24.147% → 44.467% | Silver per Fame: 1.29 → 1.23
    
  • T6 Bonus Fame: 28.786% → 49.531% | Silver per Fame: 1.28 → 1.21
    
  • T7 Bonus Fame: 34.052% → 55.295% | Silver per Fame: 1.27 → 1.19
    
  • T8 Bonus Fame: 40.051% → 61.882% | Silver per Fame: 1.26 → 1.17
    
  • T8.3 Bonus Fame: 63.887 → 88.246% | Silver per Fame: 1.24 → 1.13
    
  • T8.3 Masterpiece Bonus Fame: 74.417% → 100% | Silver per Fame: 1.23 → 1.12
    
• In conjunction with the overall increase in Fame throughout the game, the number of Learning Points earned per day for characters with active Premium has been increased from 20 to 30. Additionally, the Learning Point reward for a first Premium purchase has been increased from 350 to 500
  
• Hideout Changes:
  
  • Energy Manipulators added to Level 2 Hideouts
    
  • Hideout base refining bonus: 18% → 15%
    
  • Removed specialization refining bonus for Hideouts
    
  • Hideout base crafting bonus: 25% → 18%
    
  • Rebalanced progression of specialization crafting bonus in Hideouts based on zone quality:
    
    • Quality 1: 0.18 → 0.15
      
    • Quality 2: 0.21 → 0.20
      
    • Quality 3: 0.24 → 0.25
      
    • Quality 4: 0.27 → 0.30
      
    • Quality 5: 0.30 → 0.35
      
    • Quality 6: 0.33 → 0.40
      
• Dungeon Maps (Solo, Group, and Elite) may now open in zones with lower tiers than the map:
  
  • Maps opened in Royal Continent (excludes Elite):
    
    • T4 maps: T4 zones only
      
    • T5 maps: T5 zones only
      
    • T6 maps: T6 zones only
      
    • T7 maps: T6 and T7 zones
      
  • Maps opened in Outlands:
    
    • T5 maps: T5 zones only
      
    • T6 maps: T5-6 zones
      
    • T7 maps: T5-7 zones
      
    • T8 maps: T5-8 zones
      
• Skipping overcrowded zones on the Royal Continent no longer requires a minimum active time, meaning players can skip overcrowded zones immediately after the queue is activated
  
• Journal changes:
  

After an economic analysis of resource returns and crafting efficiencies across the game, it was found that the large amounts of resources produced by laborers were negatively impacting the profitability of both gathering and crafting. As a result, a reduction to the overall output of laborers was necessary.
The amount of Fame required to fill crafting journals has consequently been tripled, though this change has been somewhat counterbalanced by an increase to the amount of Fame received when crafting enchanted items.

• Tripled the Fame required to fill Crafting Laborer Journals
  
• Increased gathering / refining / crafting Fame for enchanted raw resources:
  
  • Enchantment level 2 raw resources: +33.33% Fame
    
  • Enchantment level 3 raw resources: +100% Fame
    
    • This translates into a Refining / Crafting Fame increase as this Fame is derived from its required resources
      
  • Updated Crafting Fame for enchanted T4 refined resources to account for absence of enchanted T3 resources:
    
    • T4.1: 37.5 → 45
      
    • T4.2: 52.5 → 90
      
    • T4.3: 67.5 → 180
      
• Further adjusted T7 and T8 Journal Fame values to make it more neatly divisible while not affecting the Fame to Resource ratio
  

Miscellaneous:

• Treasure Fishing Spots in Roads now use Outlands loot configuration (formerly Royal Continent configuration)
  
• Updated ability icons:
  
  • Divine Staff E - Divine Protection
    
  • Bedrock Mace E - Force of Nature
    
  • Morning Star E - Root Prison
    
  • Camlann Mace E - Vendetta
    
  • One-handed Fire Staff E - Pyroblast
    
  • Fire Staff W - Fire Ball
    

• Adjusted some weight and durability values for special mounts to bring them more in line with Riding Horses:
  
  • Weight:
    
    • Saddled Moabird: 53.2 kg → 35.4 kg
      
    • Saddled Winter Bear: 53.2 kg → 35.4 kg
      
    • Saddled Wild Boar: 53.2 kg → 35.4 kg
      
    • Saddled Bighorn Ram: 53.2 kg → 35.4 kg
      
    • Saddled Swamp Salamander: 53.2 kg → 35.4 kg
      
    • Saddled Greywolf: 53.2 kg → 35.4 kg
      
    • Moose: 79.7 kg → 53.2 kg
      
    • Flame Basilisk: 119.6 kg → 79.7 kg
      
    • Venom Basilisk: 119.6 kg → 79.7 kg
      
    • Siege Ballista: 79.7 kg → 53.2 kg
      
  • Durability:
    
    • Direwolf: 40,500 → 60,750
      
• Renamed Redleaf Cotton to Amberleaf Cotton due to recoloring
  
• Faction Flagging now grants small PvE Fame bonus
  
• Improved visuals of loot bags
  
• Hellgate Layout Changes:
  
  • Northern stair choke points of central platform in "The Hill" now same width as southern
    
  • Central bridge in "The Traverse" now has additional loop
    
  • Final platform in "The Tribunal" now accessible from four sides, with wider stairs
    
• Forest Castles: the two small moats between the gates removed to make layout more like other biomes' castles
  

Combat Balance Changes
Bows
Recent changes to bows allow better counterplay for enemies. However, the buff duration was slightly too short, making it easy to keep bow players in check and denying burst damage from Enchanted Quiver. For this reason, the buff duration has been extended.

• Enchanted Quiver (Regular Bow):
  
  • 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.
    
• 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
    

Fire Staffs
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%
    

Quarterstaffs
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 halved
    
  • New auto-attack animations and timings for blunt Quarterstaffs:
    
    • 3-Hit Combo with varied attack speed and damage:
      
      • Quarterstaffs
        
      • Ironclad Staff
        
      • Staff of Balance
        
      • Grailseeker
        
  • New auto-attack animations and timings for bladed Quarterstaffs:
    
    • Constant quick 2-Hit attacks:
      
      • Double-Bladed Staff
        
      • Black Monk Stave
        
      • Soulscythe
        
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
• Concussive Blow (all Quarterstaffs):
  
  • Range: 3m → 4m
    
• Empowered Slam (all Quarterstaffs):
  
  • Range: 3m → 4m
    
• Soul Shaker (Grailseeker):
  
  • Wall Duration: 4s → 3.5s
    
  • Root Duration: 3.5s → 3s
    
• Stunning Strikes (Passive, all Quarterstaffs):
  
  • Number of auto-attacks needed: 5 → 10
    
• Energetic (Passive, all Quarterstaffs):
  
  • Energy per hit: 1.24 → 0.62
    
• Dreadladen Fighting (Passive, all Quarterstaffs):
  
  • Number of Auto Attacks needed: 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
      
• 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
    
• Soul Chain (Graveguard Armor):
  
  • Enemies pulled by the chain are immune to another Soul Chain for 10s
    

Helmets
Howl has been overhauled to feel more up-to-date, with no standtime and a better application of its debuff. Additionally, it can now be used as a ranged interrupt, so it can also be used on leather helmets as an additional utility spell to swap to. A small cast time has been added to Flash of Insight to allow better counterplay against builds that use double Mercenary Jacket. This also adds another layer of decision-making about when best to use this ability, rather than it simply being used every time after an armor ability. To prevent interrupts from being completely devastating, cooldown when a 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
    
• Flash of Insight (Specter Hood):
  
  • Added a 0.5s cast time
    
  • Hit Delay: 0.4s → 0s
    
  • Interrupting the cast causes the ability to go on a 30s cooldown
    

Shoes
Royal March has continued to dominate the shoe-meta in Corrupted Dungeons. The general playstyle of this item was well-suited to these as it is better at chasing than escaping. However, it is not desirable for this to completely outshine every other shoe in this content and thus limit build varieties. Therefore its strong chase potential has been maintained while its additional defense buff has been removed, meaning the item is specialized only through its strong chase ability and offers no extra value in combat itself.

• Royal March (Royal Boots):
  
  • Removed the Bonus Defense buff
    

Potions
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
    

Mount Changes
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%
    

Fixes

• Destiny Board: Fixed an issue where information on gathering speed, gathering yield, and item power bonuses was missing for gathering gear
  
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to heal other players without going into combat mode
  
• Spell and Mob fixes:
  
  • Fixed a bug where the Silence icon / debuff of Sacred Ground (all Maces) was displayed too long on mobs
    
  • Fixed an issue where Spiritual Seed (Druidic Staff) displayed an incorrect cooldown
    
  • Avalonian Knight Captain is now immune to forced movement effects as intended
    
  • Fixed a bug where the Avalonian Archmage would sometimes have overlapping aggro phases after being engaged a second time
    
  • Avalonian High Priestess: fixed an issue where summoned mobs would die after pursuing targets rather than retargeting
    
  • Cartwheel (Quarterstaffs) no longer ignores CC Resistance on Mobs
    
• Setting "Home" in a Hideout and fast traveling via Travel Planner to a city, then using the Realmgate there, now leaves Home binding intact as intended NOTE: This fix was incorrectly communicated in the original patchnotes; the accurate description is as follows: "Using the Realmgate after respawning in a city after dying will no longer reset your Home binding, if your Home is set to a Hideout in the Roads of Avalon."
  
• Fixed an issue where the player stats UI would break after deleting text in the "personal message" field
  
• Hideouts: guild logos now appear on elevator, and Expedition Master appears on minimap, as intended
  
• Fixed an issue where the first gathering level for all tiers awarded the gathering yield buff twice instead of awarding the gathering speed buff
  
• Numerous additional graphical, terrain, audio, animation, and localization fixes