[2022] PTR: March Release Notes - Patch 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 | New World Dev Tracker

Please note that this list is not all encompassing and is intended as an early look into a number of changes included within the most recent PTR build. This change list will be regularly updated, up through retail release of the game version.

Spotlight

Tempest’s Heart - the Myrkgard Expedition

The final showdown against Isabella is upon you… Enter the Tempest’s Heart! Pursue the Tempest into a corrupted dimension of reality, through the twisted capital city of Myrkgard. Discover the secrets of her past while you dive deeper into her corrupted mind.

The Tempest’s Heart is an endgame expedition for 5 players. Recommended for level 60+ players with Gearscores between 550 and 570.

Main Storyline Finale Quest and More

The main story questline picks up as you pursue Isabella back to Shattered Mountain. The final quest, The Heart of the Tempest, is given by Yseult Meredith. They are located at Mountain Home Outpost in Shattered Mountain.

Additional repeatable quests can be taken from Mara Rosa, in the cathedral just South of the expedition entrance.

New Weapon: Blunderbuss

The Blunderbuss is a ranged weapon that offers high mobility coupled with potent close-to-mid range DPS. It’s the first weapon to scale on Strength and Intelligence, making it a good companion for bruiser or mage builds. The Containment tree is all about closing the gap and unloading hot lead into your enemy’s face. Conversely, the Chaos tree focuses on keeping your distance and bombarding areas with explosive AoE damage.

New Legendary Weapon Quests

Alongside the release of the Blunderbuss weapon itself, we’re also releasing a new Legendary Weapon Quest series. Upon reaching Level 60 and maximum skill level with the new firearm, players should seek out Wang Tang Zhi in the Ebonscale Reach settlement to start this epic endeavor.

World Experience

World Additions - Rewarding Exploration!

New experiences have been added across the world for players to discover.

World Paintings - Vista Views

Two easels can be found in each territory. Upon interacting with these easels, players will be given a painting of the view for their house. If a player loses their painting, they can reacquire it by visiting the same easel again 24 hours later.

Rafflebones the Loot Collector!

Rafflebones rummages around Aeternum for lost treasures and goods. He will spawn all around the map at various levels in every territory. When players encounter Rafflebones, they will have 45 seconds to kill him in order to get rewards or else he’ll flee! Players will always be awarded a Named weapon. In addition, level 60 players will be given Obsidian Gypsum on kill of any level Rafflebones. Rafflebones who are found in zones that go above level 60 will award level 60 players 500 Umbral Shards, as well.

Stinky the Hunter

Stinky the Legendary Hunter can be found wandering around the swamps of Weaver's Fen throughout the day, while at night he retreats to his humble abode. Stinky can drop three Named items for level 30 players: Stinky's Keepsake, Stinky's Sharpshooter, and Stinky's Hatchet.

The Forgotten Yeti

A population of yeti didn’t get the memo that the Winter Convergence has passed and can be found wandering the frozen wastelands of the Great Cleave. These Yeti drop level 45 standard Elite rewards.

Roadside Encounters

New random roadside encounters can be found along routes in Weaver's Fen and Restless Shores.

Unbound Island

Revamped the layout and encounter experience for Unbound Island in Cutlass Keys. Go forth and uncover the curse of Benjamin Boatswain’s ill-gotten treasure! (For early level 30 players)

Andrometus

Revamped the layout and encounter experience for Andrometus in Weavers Fen. Blight continues to spread from Lepus, threatening to consume Aeternum. (For mid level 30 players)

Notable World Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue with Edengrove faction missions in progress that cannot be turned in after a new build is release.
Added the “Active Bonuses” section to the Faction Mission Flyout.
Fixed an issue where players can’t accept certain community goals after they refresh on the project board.
Added a fix to address potential crash candidates in the objective system.
Added an Auto Grant to Faction Advancement Quests when players switch factions.
Fixed an issues where gatherables don’t always sync their state to the client.
Fixed an issue where Nekumanesh and Barkimedes quest pins appear off to the side of the map if they are unpinned and repinned.
Reduced difficulty in early game POIs and MSQ path through level 15.
- Adjusted certain enemies that were the wrong gameplay tier for their location.
- Adjusted number of AI in some POIs to prevent back spawning in solo play.
Fixed several areas where players could drown on land.
Tier 4 housing added to Reekwater and Ebonscale Reach settlements.

General fixes for:

Bad collision
Bad death planes
Camp placements in camp allowable areas
Holes in the world
Floating objects
Flickering or missing textures
AI and gatherables under terrain or cliffs

General AI

Updated AI Target acquisition in the open world to avoid targeting players who are not actively engaged in a fight
- Initial target acquisition remains unchanged with the AI attacking the first player they detect
- Once an AI has their initial target, they will only evaluate additional players if they take an aggressive act (attacking the AI, taunting, healing a player fighting the AI, etc)
- Expedition, Invasion, and Outpost Rush AI do not use these new target acquisition rules meaning those AI will acquire targets as they have in the past
Introduced a grace period to AI aggro on spawn.
- This will prevent AI from aggroing on players until 5 seconds after their spawn begins or until they are damaged
- This delay affects AI that spawn naturally in the open world; dungeon AI and AI spawned by events (such as Corrupted Breaches) are unaffected
Fixed an issue causing AI to target players who used a taunt ability just prior to entering Death’s Door
Fixed an issue preventing AI from targeting another player after their target vaulted over an object
Varangian Knights
- Fixed an issue causing status effect VFX from debuffs and damage-over-time abilities to show up at their feet
- Fixed a visual issue where Varangian Knight’s were not gripping their weapons
- Fixed a visual issue with the Varangian Scout’s armor
Ancient Guardian
- Updated the SFX players can hear when an Ancient Guardian revives after dying
- Fixed an issue causing the Ancient Guardian Mage’s Arcane Bubble spell to not be visible
Invasion Commander
- Fixed an issue causing the Invasion Commander to not deal damage to structures.
Dynasty Summoner
- Fixed an issue with the Summoner’s ambient animations that would show his magical swords floating several feet below him
Corrupted Villager Skinner and Farmhands (Knife and Pitchfork)
- Removed bleed from triple stab and charge attack
Timber Wolf
- Removed direct damage component of the Grit enabled Hamstring attack so that it now only applies bleed
Grey Wolf
- Removed Bleed and Grit from Lunge attack
- Adjusted Lunge attack to reduce the frequency of it translating past the player on hit
Corruption Impaler
- Removed Grit and fullbody reaction from backhand slash melee attack
Withered Retcher
- Removed pushback on projectile attack
Drowned Grenadier
- Removed fullbody reaction from bomb projectile

Expeditions

Update the queue requirements for expeditions to require only 1 person at the entrance, while porting the other players in
Fixed an issue where boss music would stop playing after a party wipe in the Dynasty Shipyard Expedition
Updated Expedition Victory banners to play unique SFX
Amrine Excavation
- Simon Grey
  - Simon finally figured out how to get that blasted cage off his head! (He now has a new unique model and coloring)
Garden of Genesis
- Blighted Greenskeeper
  - Fixed an issue causing the Blighted Greenskeeper to sometimes kill players who were behind her boulders.
  - Fixed an issue causing the Blighted Greenskeeper’s group wipe ability to kill players who were already in Death’s Door
  - Fixed an issue causing players who were downed by the Blighted Greenskeeper’s group wipe ability to be permanently slowed.
- Fixed an issue where the animation for interacting with the Azoth Sapling in Garden of Genesis could stutter and fail randomly

Mutators

Difficulty of named AI have been tuned down, while bosses have been tuned up
Tooltips for major curses no longer appear on mutator difficulties less than 9
Desiccated
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes stop Combustible chains from continuing to chain if there were valid targets
- Fixed an issue allowing Combustible to deal damage to invulnerable AI
- Fixed an issue causing the Combustible timer to show the wrong text when hovered over
Eternal
- Paranoid no longer triggers on damage over time effects

Combat

Inventory While Moving

In this update, we’re making a highly requested quality-of-life improvement: you can now move while using your inventory! Whether you’re using directional inputs or auto-run, opening your inventory will no longer stop you in your tracks. Feel free to examine your loot or swap your gear while running to your next point of interest!

Be careful while you’re on the move though because you won’t be allowed to change equipment if you are in combat. Which brings us to the next new feature…

In Combat System

The new In Combat System tracks when the player is actively engaged in any type of combat and restricts some actions accordingly. When a player enters combat, their health, mana, and stamina bars will become visible and a crossed swords icon will appear to the right of their health bar. While in this state, the player will not be able to change abilities or equipment. This replaces the previous functionality that prevented abilities and equipment from being changed while abilities were on cooldown.

General Changes

Fixed an issue where shield blocking SFX would be heard instead of the equipped weapon’s blocking SFX.
Fixed an issue where weapon sheathing and unsheathing SFX would not always change after equipping a different weapon.
Updated the Musket’s Sharpshooter Critical Reload ability to have an SFX when it occurs.
Fixed an issue where player could drop below 0 mana.
Road Speed Boost: Speed buff can now be applied to players using emotes that allow movement.
Weapon Sheathing:
- Fixed an issue where the sheathe and unsheathe animations for weapons would loop if the player started or stopped moving while one was playing.
- Fixed an issue where the player’s weapon could remain equipped instead of sheathing when in the prone position.
Healing: Fixed an issue where incoming healing efficiency modification was incorrectly being capped at 50% instead of 100%.
Ammo Updates:
- Flint Arrows: These arrows have been removed from the game due to the addition of infinite ammo. Any Flint Arrows previously created will become Iron Arrows. Additionally any Flint Arrows posted on the trading post will be canceled and returned as Iron Arrows to the player who posted the listing.
- Infinite Ammo: Players can now fire ranged weapons (Musket, Bow and Blunderbuss) without equipping ammo.
  - If no ammo is equipped, an ammo counter will not be displayed on the reticle and the weapon will still be allowed to fire.
  - If players have higher tier ammo equipped in a game mode that provides infinite ammo (such as Outpost Rush) an infinity icon will appear on the reticle instead to distinguish it from having no ammo equipped.
- Ammo rarity/damage tiers have been updated as follows:
  - T1 Infinite (Previously Flint) = 1.00x damage.
  - T2 Iron = 1.05x damage.
  - T3 Steel = 1.10x damage.
  - T4 Starmetal = 1.15x damage.
  - T5 Orichalcum = 1.20x damage.
- Ammo weight has been removed.
- Increased maximum stack count for ammo from 500->1000

Blunderbuss

The Blunderbuss is a ranged weapon that offers high mobility coupled with potent close-to-mid range DPS. It’s the first weapon to scale on strength and intelligence, making it a good companion for bruiser or mage builds. The Containment tree is all about closing the gap and unloading hot lead into your enemy’s face. Conversely, the Chaos tree focuses on keeping your distance and bombarding areas with explosive AoE damage.

Bow

Fixed an issue where bow status effects could not be extended via perks or other bonuses.

Fire Staff

Burning: Updated the burning debuff applied by several fire staff abilities.
- Increased damage tick rate from 1.5s to 1s.
- Decreased maximum stacks from 10 to 5.
- Increased damage per stack from 3% weapon damage per tick to 6%.
- Updated tooltips for all affected abilities.
Fixed an issue that prevented players from interrupting repeated light attacks with a block.
Burn Out: This ability now ends early if the player traverses into deep water.
Flamethrower:
- Accelerating Flamethrower (Item Perk): Fixed an issue where this perk did not properly scale its potency with gear score.

Great Axe

Bloodlust: Adjusted detection volume to prevent exploits between dueling players.
Charge: This ability now ends early if the player traverses into deep water.

Hatchet

Raging Torrent
- Refreshing Torrent (Item Perk): Fixed issue where the final attack of Raging Torrent was not triggering the cooldown reduction from this perk.
Feral Rush
- Energizing Feral Rush (Item Perk): Fixed an issue where this perk would not apply the stamina gain on both hits of Feral Rush.
- Feral Rush now ends early if the player traverses into deep water.

Ice Gauntlet

Heavy Attack: Fixed an issue where heavy attack could be charged with insufficient mana and a light attack would be performed at the end of the charge. The functionality has been changed so that attempting to charge without sufficient mana will instead trigger a light attack immediately.
Fixed an issue that prevented players from interrupting repeated light attacks with a block.
Entombed
- Healing Tomb (Item Perk): Fixed an issue that prevented this perk from functioning properly if the player exited the Entombed state by dodging.
Heavy Freeze: Fixed a typo in the description.
Ice Spikes: Fixed an issue where the Mighty Spike visuals would not appear in some circumstances.
Wind Chill: Fixed an issue where this ability could trigger the Defiant Freeze passive even when canceled.

Life Staff

Orb of Protection: Fixed a text error with the tooltip that stated it healed for 10% weapon damage when it actually healed for 8%. (Actual healing values were not changed, only text was corrected.)
Sacred Protection: Fixed an issue which caused this passive to deal durability damage to the equipped weapon when swapping.
Spirits United: Fixed an issue which caused this passive to deal durability damage to the equipped weapon when swapping.
Sacred Ground:
- Blessed (Upgrade):
  - Changed the name of this upgrade to be “Anointed” so as not to be confused with the item perk of the same name.
    * Fixed an issue where this upgrade provided healing through Ice Gauntlet’s Entombed ability.
Basic Attacks:
- Light and heavy attacks can now be canceled by self-targeted heals.
- Fixed an issue that allowed light attacks to fire at a faster rate while holding the block button.
Divine Embrace: Fixed an issue where the channeling UI element did not match the actual casting time of the ability.

Musket

Shooter’s Stance
- Fixed an issue where Shooter’s Stance was increasing the meter for the “Censored” mutator if the player entered and exited the stance without ability going on cooldown. It will now only increment of the meter after the first shot is fired while in Shooter’s Stance.
- Marksman: Fixed an issue where the this upgrade was not functioning properly.
Back it Up: Fixed an issue where this passive was disabled while using Sticky Bomb.
Critical Reload: Fixed an issue that caused the sound effects for this passive to play incorrectly. Improved reliability of hit counting.

Rapier

Tondo: Fixed an issue where using Evade to cancel Tondo could result in the damage being dealt without showing the visual effects.
Flurry: Fixed an issue where this ability could not be canceled using Fleche.
Fleche: This ability now ends early if the player traverses into deep water.
Momentum: Fixed an issue where the visual effects for this passive would persist even if the rapier was sheathed or swapped.

Sword and Shield

Leadership: Fixed an issue which caused this passive to deal durability damage to the equipped weapon when swapping.
Leaping Strike: This ability now ends early if the player traverses into deep water.
Counter Attack: Fixed an issue that caused this ability to stop functioning and display 0s for all of its values.

Void Gauntlet

Heavy Attack: Fixed an issue where heavy attack could be charged with insufficient mana and a light attack would be performed at the end of the charge. The functionality has been changed so that attempting to charge without sufficient mana will instead trigger a light attack immediately.

War Hammer

Path of Destiny
- Stimulated Reduction: Updated description to specify that the cooldown reduction only occurs on the first 4 enemies hit by this skill.
Mighty Gavel
- Justice For All: Fixed an issue that caused the second hit to refresh the cooldown of the ability.
Outnumbered: Fixed an issue that prevented this passive from functioning when its conditions were met.

Items

Vial of Wyrdwood Sap: Fixed an issue where the the perk granted by this item was referred to as both “Gathering Restoration” and “Gathering Recovery” in different parts of the UI. It is now called “Gathering Recovery” in all instances.
Chain Elemental Perks: Fixed an issue where these perks did not indicate the amount of damage the chain effect deals. They now list that the chain deals 11% weapon damage.
Damage Ward Perks: The Abyssal Ward perk provided by Amethyst gems previously had a higher damage absorption rate than other gems which provided elemental defense. In this update we are bringing up the values provided by all gems across the board in order to normalize this change. Gems that provide physical resistance have had a smaller increase however since physical damage tends to be more common.
- Abyssal Ward: Adjusted damage absorption provided by this perk from 2.5%/3.5%/5%/6%→ 3%/4%/5%/6% (Only tier 1 and tier 2 absorption was changed.)
- Thrust/Slash/Strike Ward: Increased damage absorption from 2%/2.5%/3%/3.75% → 2%/3%/4%/5%.
- Strike Ward: Fixed an issue where this perk incorrectly stated it reduced Lightning damage.
- Arcane/Ice/Fire/Nature/Lightning Ward: Increased damage absorption from 2%/2.5%/3%/3.75% → 3%/4%/5%/6%
Fixed an issue where weapon passive abilities such as Sacred Protection were being removed when consuming potions due to the weapon being sheathed.
Blood Letting (Ring Perk): Increased bleeding duration bonus from 5%-15% to 10%-30%
Burning (Ring Perk): Increased burning duration bonus from 5%-15% to 10%-30%
Divine (Amulet Perk): Fixed an issue where this perk bonus was being removed on death.
Plentiful Shells/Plentiful Arrows: Updated the descriptions for these perks for clarity and added previously unlisted 2s cooldown.
Retaliate: This perk has been reworked from giving a damage bonus for 3 hits after being hit 3 times to giving a 2s damage bonus after getting hit 1 time. This will not refresh while already active.

Game Modes

Game mode items such as the Outpost Rush consumables will now auto-equip to your hotbar when purchased (provided there is an empty slot available.)
Players can now queue for Wars and Invasions from their map.
Elite Boss Arenas
- Increased the quantity and quality of rewards that players will receive from reward caches granted from Elite Boss Arenas.
- Successfully completing a boss arena now rewards 50 Umbral Shards.
War
- Defenders will no longer be able to respawn on points A, B, and C. They can only respawn inside of their Fort.
- Increased the quantity and quality of rewards that players will receive from reward caches granted from War.
Invasion
- Increased the quantity and quality of rewards that players will receive from reward caches granted from Invasion.
Outpost Rush
- Removed the downed state from Outpost Rush. Players will now immediately die when hitting 0 health.
- Credit for killing a player now goes to the player who kills an enemy instead of the player who puts them into death’s door.
- Players will now receive score credit for contesting a control point.
- Teams can now see the enemy progress towards a Corrupted Brute Token on the map.

Starter Beach

To help the starting beach experience, the Watcher now offers players a choice of 4 weapons from a weapon rack to better suit their playstyle.
- Instead of starting with a sword, players choose between a Warhammer, Fire Staff, Bow, or Hatchet
- Each weapon also comes with chest armor, light healing potions, and some rations.

Durability Loss

Only your equipped items will take durability loss when you die

Invasion and War

Territory Storage

Removed the cost associated with moving items between territory storage
Your faction no longer needs to own both territories in order to transfer items between your storages

Player to Player collision

Player to Player collision removed from Open World, Expeditions, and Invasion.

Fast Travel

Fast travel is now more responsive when traveling short distances.

Perks

War/Invasion

Fixed gates missing VFX upon destruction
Fixed cannons missing ground decals upon impact.

Outpost Rush

Fixed Darkness Portal VFX in Outpost Rush.
Fixed an issue where Baroness Hain would not play SFX on some special attacks in the Outpost Rush.

Quests

Quest Updates

New soloable quest options are available for the MSQ to allow players to progress without running certain expeditions.
New quests leading players to the Legendary Blunderbuss weapon reward have been added.
New Faction Missions targeting Corruption Breaches can now be found in all zones.
Starting beaches were updated and weapon racks added to give players more choices on their preferred combat direction.
Added Gypsum as a reward to L60 quests in Shattered Mtn, Reekwater, and Ebonscale Reach.
Added map pins for Trial Quest NPCs for the Faction Advancement quests.
Removed the level threshold requirements from Main Story Quests.
Updated the “Intro to Factions” to be more streamlined and include new map/overhead icons for NPCs.

Notable Fixes

Fixed various issues where quest NPC VO was being cut off, and had echoes.
Fixed issues where quest objectives would loop and not allow players to complete the quests.
Fixed multiple issues where resetting a quest prevented the completion of the quest objectives.
Fixed issue preventing Powder kegs from being placed in “Shivering Timbers”.
Fixed issues with Tiger despawning and AI jumping into walls in Ebonscale quest “Shrine Cleansing”.
Fixed issues where expedition orbs failed to be rewarded after completing certain quests.
Fixed an issue in Mourningdale where two quests could be granted simultaneously blocking progression of one.
Fixed issue in the quest “Contained Night” that resulted in progress not occurring after crafting.
Fixed issue where quest VFX would be active for all players on certain quests.
Fixed issues where quests would have blank objectives.
Fixed issues involving the “Destiny Unearthed” quest.
Increased the size of hit boxes for Malign Nodes found in “Malign Dominion” quest.
Fixed issue where quest items were not collectible and objective markers were missing in “Ixia’s Blessing”.
Fixed issues that resulted in inconsistent formatting in the HUD and journal for quests.
Fixed descriptions for several items that were incorrect or confusing.
Fixed issues where players would collide with invisible objects at Daughterwell in First Light.
Fixed issues where the quest descriptions didn’t match the actual POIs name.
Clarified the requirements for “That Beautiful Stench” quest.
Fixed an issue where objectives on a subquest would carry over to the next subquest.
Moved the NPC for “Down Payment” quest away from Corrupted Portal spawn location.

Economy/Progression/Rewards

Economy

Players will get back 1/2 the original purchase cost when abandoning a house
Doubled the storage bonus for all tiers of Storage Chests. Chests that used to provide 200 weight of bonus storage now provide 400 weight, etc.
Adjusted the description on Storage Chests to better indicate the benefit they provide.
Adjusted the description on Trophies to better clarify the actual benefit provided by these items.

Rewards

Harvest, log, and mine to uncover hidden stashes of Earthly rewards. Elemental motes, coin, and diamond gypsum are waiting to be uncovered as you gather on Aeternum.
Elite Boss Arena keys may now drop from enemies in the surrounding Elite zones.
Fixed an issue where Expeditions could improperly drop loot intended for areas outside of Expedition.
Fixed an issue causing Ancient T5 Muskets to sometimes drop from Angry Earth enemies.
Fixed an issue causing Invasion weapon drops to be exceedingly rare. They should now be significantly more likely. This change also makes the Named Weapon drops from Invasion very slightly more likely.

Crafting

Corrected Buttercream Pudding category to Attribute Foods
The amount of materials required to craft Elite Arena Tuning Orbs has been reduced. They now require 3 Runestones down from 5, and 3 of the orb-specific materials (Firefox, Fancy Shell, or Glowing Swamp Moss) down from 5.
Tooltips for crafting mods have been updated to show the proper ranges based on gear score.
The crafting mod selector popup is now sorted alphabetically.
New perks have been added to the world, and new perk items have also been added.
Fixed issue where the Upgrade option was erroneously available for Tier IV items.
Fixed the description text for Guardsman’s Insignias.
Fixed issue where some Potions didn’t properly apply crafting bonuses that scale with higher or lower tier ingredients.
Shard of Lithomancy and Keeper’s Pendant now give max 25 of their stat instead of 30.

Gear and Loot

Fixed a few visual issues with the light and medium Garden Genesis apparel sets.
Fixed a visual issue with the Toughened Leather Chest of the Zealot apparel set.
Fixed a few visual issues with Tempest Ice and Void Gauntlets.
Fixed a visual issue with the Mixer’s Hat.
Fixed a visual issue with the Lichen Lord apparel set.
Fixed a visual issue with the Nettle and Heartpiercer Rapier skins.
Fixed a visual issue with the Jadeite Dragon Armor skin.
Fixed a visual issue with the Stormbound skin.
Fixed a visual issue with the Autumnal Lord’s boots.
Fixed a visual issue with the Tempest Guard Shirt of the Battlemage apparel set.
Fixed a visual issue with the Stonebark skin.
Fixed issue that prevented certain Tradeskill apparel items from being purchasable on the Trading Post.
Fixed incorrect icon for Defiled Void Gauntlet
Fixed an issue where the Reinforced Steel, Reinforced Starmetal, and Reinforced Orichalcum Void Gauntlet Charms were not properly displaying their names.
Old Amulet, Rings and Earrings now have the proper Trading post categories.
Old Amulets, Rings, and Earrings now use proper suffixes for their item name.
Crafting Patterns now have their own trading post category.
Updated the Life Breaker War hammer’s appearance. It was previously incorrect.
Fixed a bug that was scaling Gear Score from Expertise level from gear awarded via Fishing Quests.
Daily cooldowns now refresh each day at 5AM in each server region’s time zone. Weekly cooldowns refresh each Tuesday at 5AM in each server region’s time zone.

Notable Bug Fixes

The Outpost Rush tutorial popup for building gates has been restored.
The notification when selling some items from a multi-item contract has been restored.