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Lands Awakened Patch 8
Season Winner Statue
Congrats to IAMNIUBI, winners of Guild Season 14! You can check out their statue in Conquerors' Hall, which also includes the banners of 2nd and 3rd-place winners Elevate and Judicate.
Improved Arena Matchmaking
Various improvements made to the Arena matchmaking process to speed up the forming of teams in queues. This should reduce waiting times for solo queue DPS players. The adjusted system now also distributes pre-made healers (2-3) players more efficiently among solo DPS queue players.
Other Changes
Axes
Resilience Penetration for Halberd and Carrioncaller has been increased to improve their damage output in group fights and make them more effective in large-scale combat. Carrioncaller also now has higher sustain damage in group fights, which should also increase its effectiveness in Crystal League scenarios.
Blood Ritual now has more damage frontloaded at the moment of each hit, making casting it in quick succession more viable. The ability still has a DoT that is overwritten by each hit, meaning there is still a reason to space the three activations apart for maximum damage. Utilizing Blood Ritual primarily for burst damage should still do a significant amount of damage. The maximum damage output of the ability remains unchanged.
The Resilience Penetration of the Glaive has been reduced to somewhat downgrade its sustain damage in group fights. This should also reduce its sustain damage in 5v5 Crystal League, without having any impact on its damage output in solo play.
Dual Swords had been very similar to many other sword abilities, leaving little scope for them to have a strong, unique role without outshining other swords. For this reason, an attack speed and attack damage buff to the E-ability has been added, to make Dual Swords a strong auto-attack bruiser. The Weakening ability on Swords has also been improved to impact enemy damage output more significantly, giving another useful passive option. The hit detection of Mighty Blow (Broadsword) has also been reworked to only deal damage if the caster lands close to the target, improving counterplay potential against it.
As Fists of Avalon had struggled to find their role in the game, Purifying Combo has been adjusted. The Roundhouse Kick at the beginning has been removed, and the ability instead begins with the Dive Kick. This has less cooldown and keeps the enemy airborne longer, making it easier to follow up with Purifying Fist. To make the full combo even more impactful, the last hit now also purges enemy buffs on impact, removing defensive buffs before the damage is dealt.
Cross Step is another ability in the War Glove kit that hadn’t really found its place. It has therefore been reworked into a new ability called Fleet Footwork. The new ability starts with the Roundhouse Kick that was previously the first stage of Purifying Combination, but now only deals damage without the knockback. After striking an enemy with the Kick, the ability can immediately be recast to perform the Cross Step dodge as a followup. Cross Step now no longer grants a buff to auto-attacks, but instead the caster takes less damage during the animation, so it is used purely to dodge or reposition. In addition, Shock Wave’s range has been increased to strengthen it in its intended role of catching up to ranged opponents.
With the recent changes to Enchanted Quiver, the stacks fell off more easily and had a slower ramp up time, allowing more counter play. However, regular Bows were somewhat underrepresented since then. For this reason, the changes to their stack duration have been reverted, while their damage burst potential has been reduced to balance this.
Frost Staffs were dominant in various areas of the game. With their peak damage output when stacking multiple cast time modifiers, they outshone most other ranged DPS. While keeping this playstyle generally intact, the damage output of Ice Shard has been reduced slightly, to lower the peak DPS that Frost Staffs can reach. In addition, as Freezing Wind had a large CC area on a relatively low cooldown, this cooldown has been increased.
Recent changes to Crowd Control Duration scaling and Diminishing Returns made Great Hammers less effective, since their strength depended on a single long lasting stun. For this reason Tackle’s stun duration has been increased, to make Hammers more impactful in team fights once more.
Great Holy was a very impactful weapon in the Holy line, which made it very hard for melee opponents to enter a fight. The enemy knockback was too punishing, due to the long airborne time inflicted. To make Great Holy less oppressive against enemy melees, enemy knockback speed has been increased, meaning a shorter airborne time for those struck.
Heavy Maces had been underrepresented, even though their silence and purge should have made them a good counter to Nature Staff sustain builds like the 5v5 Crystal League meta. To make them more attractive the radius of Battle Howl has been increased, so that Heavy Maces are more effective in fulfilling their role.
Nature Staffs had been very strong at sustaining enemy pressure in 5v5 Crystal League matches. Without reducing their healing output in other content too much, the cooldown of Cleanse Heal and the additional heal have been increased to make them more susceptible to being pressured by tanks. If the enemy team pressures a Nature Staff player to use Cleanse Heal, it will reduce the player’s healing output.
To further reduce the potential sustain of double healer teams, Protection of Nature’s duration has been reduced. Additionally, a direct heal effect has been added which ensures it also triggers Healing Sickness. To offset this additional direct heal, its increased healing effect has been reduced slightly.
Avalonian plate and cloth helmets were recently less relevant in the meta. Purifying Smoke had previously been a strong utility slot with offensive and defensive application, but it had ceased to offer enough consistency for its high cooldown. To make it more consistent, its hit delay has been reduced and its range increased. Avalonian Beam’s cooldown has also been reduced to make it a more attractive option.
The damage buff from Hellion Shoes could previously be used to increase damage beyond the damage buff cap, due to Mark of Sacrifice increasing Bonus Damage vs Players. To prevent further damage spikes, this buff has been replaced with a regular damage increase. To provide tanks with another option for a strong engage tool, the cooldown of Elbow Smash has been reduced.
Since it is very difficult to hold a 3 cap on the new map, matches last much longer on average. To offset this slower point reduction, the point reduction per kill has been increased. This also rewards killing players more and diminishes the effectiveness of simply out-sustaining the enemy team.
Season Winner Statue
Congrats to IAMNIUBI, winners of Guild Season 14! You can check out their statue in Conquerors' Hall, which also includes the banners of 2nd and 3rd-place winners Elevate and Judicate.
Improved Arena Matchmaking
Various improvements made to the Arena matchmaking process to speed up the forming of teams in queues. This should reduce waiting times for solo queue DPS players. The adjusted system now also distributes pre-made healers (2-3) players more efficiently among solo DPS queue players.
Other Changes
- When catching rare fish, there is now a chance to obtain seaweed as an additional bonus drop
- The connection between the dungeon "Cathedral of Light" (in Darkbough Snag) and Sunfang Wasteland was removed as it created a massive shortcut between these two zones. Players within these zones when the patch goes live will be moved to the nearest exit.
- Bleed duration of Merciless Suppressor's Caltrops: 25s → 2s
- Vengeful Guardian Lord (Territory Boss) and its summons no longer reset completely when a player leaves their pursuit range
- Added new guild logo “Hood and Scythe”
- [CONTROLLER] World Map, Local Map, and Destiny Board can be navigated via a centered cursor when not using the virtual cursor
Axes
Resilience Penetration for Halberd and Carrioncaller has been increased to improve their damage output in group fights and make them more effective in large-scale combat. Carrioncaller also now has higher sustain damage in group fights, which should also increase its effectiveness in Crystal League scenarios.
- Halberd:
- Resilience Penetration: 30% → 50%
- Resilience Penetration: 30% → 50%
- Carrioncaller:
- Resilience Penetration: 30% → 50%
- Resilience Penetration: 30% → 50%
Blood Ritual now has more damage frontloaded at the moment of each hit, making casting it in quick succession more viable. The ability still has a DoT that is overwritten by each hit, meaning there is still a reason to space the three activations apart for maximum damage. Utilizing Blood Ritual primarily for burst damage should still do a significant amount of damage. The maximum damage output of the ability remains unchanged.
- Blood Ritual (Demonfang):
- Now applies an instant 100 damage each hit
- DoT damage: 50 → 25
- Number of DoT Ticks: 3 → 2
- Enemy Bleed Duration remains unchanged
- Now applies an instant 100 damage each hit
The Resilience Penetration of the Glaive has been reduced to somewhat downgrade its sustain damage in group fights. This should also reduce its sustain damage in 5v5 Crystal League, without having any impact on its damage output in solo play.
- Glaive:
- Resilience Penetration: 50% → 30%
- Resilience Penetration: 50% → 30%
Dual Swords had been very similar to many other sword abilities, leaving little scope for them to have a strong, unique role without outshining other swords. For this reason, an attack speed and attack damage buff to the E-ability has been added, to make Dual Swords a strong auto-attack bruiser. The Weakening ability on Swords has also been improved to impact enemy damage output more significantly, giving another useful passive option. The hit detection of Mighty Blow (Broadsword) has also been reworked to only deal damage if the caster lands close to the target, improving counterplay potential against it.
- Weakening (Passive, all Swords):
- Max Stacks: 1 → 5
- Damage Reduction per stack: 4% → 2%
- Removed the Healing Reduction Effect
- Max Stacks: 1 → 5
- Mighty Blow (Broadsword):
- Reworked hit detection so that the ability only deals damage if it lands in close proximity to the target
- Reworked hit detection so that the ability only deals damage if it lands in close proximity to the target
- Spinning Blades (Dual Swords):
- When hitting at least one enemy, the player now gets an additional buff which increases Attack Speed by 50% and Attack Damage by 50% for 5s
- Removed the additional percentage damage vs players
- When hitting at least one enemy, the player now gets an additional buff which increases Attack Speed by 50% and Attack Damage by 50% for 5s
As Fists of Avalon had struggled to find their role in the game, Purifying Combo has been adjusted. The Roundhouse Kick at the beginning has been removed, and the ability instead begins with the Dive Kick. This has less cooldown and keeps the enemy airborne longer, making it easier to follow up with Purifying Fist. To make the full combo even more impactful, the last hit now also purges enemy buffs on impact, removing defensive buffs before the damage is dealt.
Cross Step is another ability in the War Glove kit that hadn’t really found its place. It has therefore been reworked into a new ability called Fleet Footwork. The new ability starts with the Roundhouse Kick that was previously the first stage of Purifying Combination, but now only deals damage without the knockback. After striking an enemy with the Kick, the ability can immediately be recast to perform the Cross Step dodge as a followup. Cross Step now no longer grants a buff to auto-attacks, but instead the caster takes less damage during the animation, so it is used purely to dodge or reposition. In addition, Shock Wave’s range has been increased to strengthen it in its intended role of catching up to ranged opponents.
- Cross Step (all War Gloves) has been reworked and is now called Fleet Footwork:
- Kick enemies in a cone in front of you, dealing 50 physical damage
- Cooldown: 2s
- If the kick hits an enemy the ability can be reactivated for 2s to use Cross Step
- Cooldown: 2s
- Cross Step dodges behind the enemy
- During the dodge animation all damage received is reduced by 40%
- Cross Step Cooldown: 3s
- During the dodge animation all damage received is reduced by 40%
- Kick enemies in a cone in front of you, dealing 50 physical damage
- Shock Wave (all War Gloves):
- Range: 11m → 13m
- Range: 11m → 13m
- Removed Roundhouse Kick (The ability now starts with Dive Kick)
- Dive Kick:
- Time knocked airborne: 0.86s → 1s
- Cooldown: 20s → 15s
- Time knocked airborne: 0.86s → 1s
- Purifying Punch:
- Now also purges enemies before the hit
- Now also purges enemies before the hit
With the recent changes to Enchanted Quiver, the stacks fell off more easily and had a slower ramp up time, allowing more counter play. However, regular Bows were somewhat underrepresented since then. For this reason, the changes to their stack duration have been reverted, while their damage burst potential has been reduced to balance this.
- Enchanted Quiver (regular Bows)
- Attack Damage Increase per Stack: 30% -> 25%
- Attack Speed Increase per Stack: 13% -> 10%
- Attack Buff Duration: 3.5s -> 5s
- Attack Damage Increase per Stack: 30% -> 25%
Frost Staffs were dominant in various areas of the game. With their peak damage output when stacking multiple cast time modifiers, they outshone most other ranged DPS. While keeping this playstyle generally intact, the damage output of Ice Shard has been reduced slightly, to lower the peak DPS that Frost Staffs can reach. In addition, as Freezing Wind had a large CC area on a relatively low cooldown, this cooldown has been increased.
- Ice Shard (all Frost Staffs)
- Damage vs players: 125 -> 118
- Damage vs players: 125 -> 118
- Freezing Wind (one-handed Frost Staff)
- Cooldown: 15s -> 18s
- Cooldown: 15s -> 18s
Recent changes to Crowd Control Duration scaling and Diminishing Returns made Great Hammers less effective, since their strength depended on a single long lasting stun. For this reason Tackle’s stun duration has been increased, to make Hammers more impactful in team fights once more.
- Tackle (Great Hammer)
- Stun Duration: 2.10s -> 2.35s
- Stun Duration: 2.10s -> 2.35s
Great Holy was a very impactful weapon in the Holy line, which made it very hard for melee opponents to enter a fight. The enemy knockback was too punishing, due to the long airborne time inflicted. To make Great Holy less oppressive against enemy melees, enemy knockback speed has been increased, meaning a shorter airborne time for those struck.
- Holy Explosion (Great Holy Staff)
- Enemy Knockback speed: 10m/s -> 20m/s
- Enemy Knockback speed: 10m/s -> 20m/s
Heavy Maces had been underrepresented, even though their silence and purge should have made them a good counter to Nature Staff sustain builds like the 5v5 Crystal League meta. To make them more attractive the radius of Battle Howl has been increased, so that Heavy Maces are more effective in fulfilling their role.
- Battle Howl (Heavy Mace)
- Radius: 5m -> 6m
- Radius: 5m -> 6m
Nature Staffs had been very strong at sustaining enemy pressure in 5v5 Crystal League matches. Without reducing their healing output in other content too much, the cooldown of Cleanse Heal and the additional heal have been increased to make them more susceptible to being pressured by tanks. If the enemy team pressures a Nature Staff player to use Cleanse Heal, it will reduce the player’s healing output.
To further reduce the potential sustain of double healer teams, Protection of Nature’s duration has been reduced. Additionally, a direct heal effect has been added which ensures it also triggers Healing Sickness. To offset this additional direct heal, its increased healing effect has been reduced slightly.
- Protection of Nature (all Nature Staffs):
- Duration: 8s -> 6s
- Now directly Heals the target for 40
- Healing Increased: 40% -> 35%
- This effect can no longer be stacked by multiple players on the same target
- Duration: 8s -> 6s
- Cleanse Heal (all Nature Staffs):
- Cooldown: 18s -> 20s
- Heal Values:
- No Charges: 80 -> 70
- 1 Charge: 100 -> 90
- 2 Charges: 130 -> 115
- 3 Charges: 170 -> 150
- No Charges: 80 -> 70
- Cooldown: 18s -> 20s
Avalonian plate and cloth helmets were recently less relevant in the meta. Purifying Smoke had previously been a strong utility slot with offensive and defensive application, but it had ceased to offer enough consistency for its high cooldown. To make it more consistent, its hit delay has been reduced and its range increased. Avalonian Beam’s cooldown has also been reduced to make it a more attractive option.
- Avalonian Beam (Cowl of Purity)
- Cooldown: 45s -> 30s
- Cooldown: 45s -> 30s
- Purifying Smoke (Helmet of Valor)
- Hit Delay: 0.7s -> 0.5s
- Cast Range: 9m -> 11m
- Hit Delay: 0.7s -> 0.5s
The damage buff from Hellion Shoes could previously be used to increase damage beyond the damage buff cap, due to Mark of Sacrifice increasing Bonus Damage vs Players. To prevent further damage spikes, this buff has been replaced with a regular damage increase. To provide tanks with another option for a strong engage tool, the cooldown of Elbow Smash has been reduced.
- Mark of Sacrifice (Hellion Shoes)
- Now increases Damage instead of Bonus vs Mobs / Players
- Now increases Damage instead of Bonus vs Mobs / Players
- Elbow Smash (Judicator Boots)
- Cooldown: 30s -> 25s
- Cooldown: 30s -> 25s
Since it is very difficult to hold a 3 cap on the new map, matches last much longer on average. To offset this slower point reduction, the point reduction per kill has been increased. This also rewards killing players more and diminishes the effectiveness of simply out-sustaining the enemy team.
- Points Reduction per Kill: 4 -> 6
- Player crowd control resistances now correctly decrease knockback distance inflicted by various mobs, which previously had very high knockback distances
- Clearer error message when trying to reroll too many items
- Fixed an issue where the button to buy/upgrade your personal island could sometimes be disabled even when requirements were met
- Fixed an issue where spells with no cast time could interrupt the movement of the caster
- [CONTROLLER] Spell selection UI now opens when attempting to cast from an empty spell slot in Left Stick targeting mode
- [CONTROLLER] Fixed an issue where Dynamic Action indicators could remain even after disabling Dynamic Actions in the options
- Various additional graphical, UI, spell tooltip, and localization fixes