Statue of the season winners

Our congratulations go to IAMNIUBI, the winners of the 14th guild season! Their statue is in the Hall of Conquerors, where you can also find the banners of the runners-up, from Elevate and Judicate.

Improved Arena Matchmaking

Several improvements have been made to the Arena matchmaking process to improve and speed up team formation in the queue. This should generally reduce wait times for solo DPS players in the queue. The improved system also now distributes predetermined healers (2-3) more efficiently between solo DPS players within the queue.

Other changes

• When catching rare fish, there is now a rare chance to receive seaweed as a bonus to the catch
• The connection between the Cathedral of Light dungeon (in Darkbough Snag) and Sunfang Wasteland has been removed, as it provided a massive shortcut between the two zones. Players in these zones will be moved to the next exit when the patch goes live.
• Blood duration of the Merciless Suppressor`s Crow`s Feet: 25s → 2s
• The Vengeful Guardian (Territory Boss) and his subordinates no longer completely reset when leaving the chase zone
• New guild logo "Hood and Sickle" added
• [CONTROLLER] World Map, Local Map, and Fate Board can now be used via a centered cursor, when not using a virtual cursor

Changes to Combat Balancing

Axes

The resistance break of halberds and carrion callers has been increased to increase their damage output in group battles and make them more effective in larger battles. The Carrion Caller now has improved continuous damage in group battles, which should also increase its effectiveness in Crystal League applications.

Daggers

Blood Ritual now does more damage on each hit, making it more useful when used in direct, quick succession. The skill still has a DoT that is overwritten with each new hit, so there is still good reason to time these hits as far apart as possible for maximum damage. However, using Blood Ritual for burst damage should still do significant damage. The overall maximum damage of the skill remains unchanged.

Spears

The resistance penetration of the Glefe has been reduced to slightly decrease its continuous damage in group fights. This should also reduce continuous damage within the 5 vs. 5 crystal league without having a major impact on single-player damage output.

Swords

Two swords was previously very similar to many other sword skills, there was little room for the skill to fulfill a strong, unique role without overpowering other sword skills with it. For this reason, this e-skill has been given a bonus to attack speed and attack damage to make Two Swords a strong auto-attack melee fighter. The Weakening skill has also been improved to more clearly affect the damage done by the opponent, providing another good choice in passive effects. The hit registration of Mighty Strike (Broadsword) has been reworked so that damage is only dealt if the strike lands close to the target, improving counter options.

War Gloves

Since the Fists of Avalon had trouble finding their place in the game, the Purifying Combination has been adjusted. The roundhouse kick at the beginning has been removed, and the skill starts with the jump kick instead. This provides less cooldown and keeps the opponent in the air longer, making the follow-up attack with Purifying Fist easier. In addition, to make the combo even stronger, the last hit now cleans enemies hit directly on hit, which removes defensive buffs before damage is done.

Side Step is another skill in War Gauntlets that hadn`t really found its place yet. It has therefore been reworked as well, becoming a new skill, Nimble Footwork. The skill begins with a roundhouse kick, like the one that previously made up the first stage of the Cleansing Combination, but the kick now only deals damage, without the knockaway effect. After an enemy is hit by this kick, the skill can be immediately cast again, thus using the side step as a follow-up action. The side step does not give a buff to automatic attacks, instead the user takes less damage for the duration of the animation, so it is purely an aid to dodge or reposition. Additionally, the range of the shockwave has been increased, allowing it to better fulfill its intended role of reaching more distant enemies.

Bows

With the current changes to the Enchanted Quiver, charges decayed more easily and had a slower build time, allowing for more countering options. However, the normal bows were still somewhat underrepresented. Because of this, the changes to the duration of charges were reversed, but the burst potential was reduced somewhat to compensate.

Frost Rods

Frost Rods were very dominant in different areas of the game. With their damage spikes when stacking multiple spell time modifiers, they outperformed most ranged DPS. This playstyle was kept the same overall, but Ice Shard`s damage was reduced slightly to generally reduce the achievable DPS peaks for Frost Rods. In addition, since Frostwind provides a large area of influence for the CC effect with a relatively low cooldown, this time has been increased slightly.

Hammers

Recently introduced changes to CC duration scaling and Diminishing Returns made hammers less effective, as their strength came primarily from a single, long-lasting stun. For this reason, the stun duration of ramming has been increased to give hammers more punch in teamfights again.

Saint Staffs

The Great Saint Staff was a very powerful weapon in the Saint Staffs selection, making it difficult for melee opponents to even get into the fight. The push away, due to the long flight time, was far too severe. To make the saint staffs less overpowered against melee opponents, the speed of the away blast was increased, reducing the effective time in the air for hit opponents.

Maces

Heavy maces were underrepresented, even though their silence and purification should make them a good counter against natural staff sustain/sustain builds in the 5 vs. 5 crystal league meta. To increase their appeal, the radius of effect of Battle Howl has been increased, allowing Heavy Clubs to better fulfill their intended role.

Nature Rods

Nature Rods have long been very strong at keeping pressure on opponents in 5 vs. 5 Crystal League matches. In order to not reduce their healing too much in other matchups, the Purifying Heal cooldown has been increased and the extra healing has been reduced, making them easier to pressure from tanks. If the opposing team forces the wand user to use Purifying Healing, it will also reduce the healing delivered by that player.

To further reduce the potential sustain of teams with 2 healers, the duration of Nature`s Protection has been reduced. Additionally, a direct heal has been added, ensuring that the healing disease remains a factor. To compensate for this direct healing, the healing boost effect has been reduced slightly.

Helmets

Avalonian plate and cloth helmets have been of rather less relevance in the meta-game lately. The purifying smoke was a very good choice with offensive and defensive uses, but did not provide enough durability for the long cooldown. To increase this durability, the hit delay has been reduced and the range has been increased. Avalonian Ray also gets a shortened cooldown to make it more attractive as an alternative.

Shoes

The Devil`s Roast Shoes damage buff could previously be used to raise damage above the buff limit, as the victim`s mark increased bonus damage against players. To avoid such damage spikes in the future, the buff has been replaced with a normal damage increase. To give tanks another option for a strong attack, the cooldown of the elbow strike has been reduced.

5 vs. 5 Crystal League

Since it is very difficult to keep 3 points on the new map, encounters now drag on significantly longer on average. To counter this slower point reduction, the point deduction per kill has been increased. This rewards killing players more and reduces the effectiveness of a strategy of simply holding out / healing better.

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