Patch-Notes

Thank you very much for the feedback submitted about patch 1.122C! It sounds like overall we are on the right track with these changes. While there are a few more self-explanatory pet tweaks and general bug fixes below, there is one issue from the original 1.122C notes that warrants a bit more explanation: the weapon pet-proc changes.

We’ve received and reviewed the feedback on both sides of the matter. Some stating that they would enjoy their caster and support classes much more without these random pet-procs; as well as looking forward to a return to class-focused gameplay instead of item-focused. While others have been highlighting certain combat situations where these weapons provide some much-needed utility, especially in smaller scale fights.

As such, we feel that bringing the weapon pet-procs back at a reduced power than what exists on Live is a solid compromise to both viewpoints until we can revisit them and other item-based abilities in patch 1.123.

The following notes are now up on Pendragon and are also edited into the original 1.122C notes HERE.

 

General

Changes

• All weapons on all realms that once had proccing pets have had their procs changed as follows. The affected weapons are:
  • Traitor’s Dagger
    • Pet proc remains. Duration reduced to 15s. Vampiric Mist damage increased slightly.
  • Astral Blade of Illusions
    • Pet proc remains. Duration reduced from 15s to 8s. Proc can still not be used in Mobile Stance on light tanks.
    • Damage over time proc remains.
  • Astral Mace of Illusions
    • Pet proc remains. Duration reduced from 15s to 8s. Proc can still not be used in Mobile Stance on light tanks.
    • Damage over time proc remains.
  • Astral Hammer of Illusions
    • Pet proc remains. Duration reduced from 15s to 8s. Proc can still not be used in Mobile Stance on light tanks.
    • Damage over time proc remains.
  • Astral Conflagrant Sword/Hatchet
    • Now procs 115 essence direct damage.
    • Damage over time proc remains.
  • Astral Mephitic Fang
    • The essence direct damage proc has been reduced from 150 to 115 damage.
    • Disease proc remains.
  • Astral Voltaic Great Sword
    • Pet proc remains.
      • Damage from the storm proc has been reduced from 95 to 35 essence direct damage.
      • Damage from the storm proc pet has been reduced from 85 to 25 essence direct damage.
    • 150 essence direct damage proc remains.
  • Astral Voltaic Great Hammer
    • Pet proc remains.
      • Damage from the storm proc has been reduced from 95 to 35 essence direct damage.
      • Damage from the storm proc pet has been reduced from 85 to 25 essence direct damage.
    • 150 essence direct damage proc remains.
  • Astral Voltaic War Pick
    • Pet proc remains.
      • Damage from the storm proc has been reduced from 95 to 35 essence direct damage.
      • Damage from the storm proc pet has been reduced from 85 to 25 essence direct damage.
    • 150 essence direct damage proc remains.
  • Astral Voltaic Spear/Polearm
    • Pet proc remains.
      • Damage from the storm proc has been reduced from 95 to 35 essence direct damage.
      • Damage from the storm proc pet has been reduced from 85 to 25 essence direct damage.
    • 150 essence direct damage proc remains.
  • Virge of Forgotten Souls
    • Now procs a debuff that reduces the target’s casting speed by 75% for 25 seconds.
  • Discarded Red Cap Hammer
    • Now procs a debuff that reduces the target’s casting speed by 75% for 25 seconds.
  • Unseelie Harvester
    • Now procs a debuff that reduces the target’s casting speed by 75% for 25 seconds.
  • Nevermore’s Broken Bone
    • Pet proc remains. Duration reduced to 8s.
  • Ice Shard
    • Now directly procs a 3 second snare that ignores root immunity.

Bug Fixes

• Champion’s strength/constitution and dexterity/quickness line of self-buffs no longer overwrite concentration and supremacy potion buffs.
• Champion’s strength/constitution and dexterity/quickness self-buffs now have a casting animation.
  • Note that Champion’s will need to respec to their Valor specialization to see this fix.
• Champion’s strength/constitution and dexterity/quickness self-buff should no longer trigger a 2s cast timer after the cast is completed.
• Friar’s Grandmaster Staffman self-buff should no longer trigger a 2s cast timer after their casts are completed.
• Warden’s self-health regen buff should no longer be overwritten by Bards’ health regen chant.
• Omni-regen potions should no longer overwrite concentration-based health regen buffs from Clerics.

 

Class Balance

 
Changes

Bonedancer

Bone Legion (Bone Army specialization)

• Pets have changed as follows:
  • Fossil Mystic
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 75%.
  • Fossil Healer
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 75%.
  • Fossil Conjurer
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 75%.
  • Fossil Seer
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 75%.

Cabalist

Spirit Animation

• Pets have changed as follows:
  • Ruby Simulacrum
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.
  • Sapphire Simulacrum
    • No longer has had its damage taken increased by 25%.
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.

Enchanter

Enchantments (Baseline)

• Pets have changed as follows:
  • Underhill Stalker
    • Anytime style no longer has a bleed effect.
    • This ability was interrupting every tick.
  • Underhill Companion
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.
  • Underhill Ally
    • No longer has had its damage taken increased by 25%.
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.
  • Underhill Zealot
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 75%.

 

Necromancer

Death Servant (Baseline)

• Pets have changed as follows:
  • Soultorn
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.
    • The Phantom version of this pet has had its disease’s snare value reduced from 70% to 35%.
  • Priest of Arawn
    • No longer has had its damage taken increased by 25%.
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.
  • Succubus
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.

 

Spiritmaster

Summoning (Baseline)

• Pets have changed as follows:
  • Spirit Hunter
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.
  • Spirit Runemaster
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.
  • Spirit Shaman
    • No longer has had its damage taken increased by 25%.
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%.
  • Spirit Valkyrie
    • Now has a 25% chance to ignore interruption, down from 100%. Will give up casting and attack after 3 failed attempts.

 

The following changes are now live!

General

• Instruments should now lose their durability much less frequently as before.
• There was an issue causing instruments to lose durability much faster in conjunction with running several songs at once.
• The new weapon from Jack Frost, the Ice Shard, has had its slow duration reduced to 3 seconds.
• Ice Shards are now only usable by level 50 characters.
• Midgard’s Ice Shard is now an Axe weapon instead of a Sword.
• This change allows it to be used in the offhand like the other realms.

Class Changes

Enchanter

•  The Underhill Stalker has had two styles removed:
• Achilles Heel and Leaper
• These styles caused the armor wither effect, which lead to massive hits on targets while Summon Mastery (ML9) was active. With these styles removed, the stalker's damage should be more in-line with the other melee-DPS pets in the other realms.
• Otherwise, we are happy with the DPS pets' damage as these pets are extremely weak to both physical and magical attacks, and gain no defensive bonuses even while under the effects of Summon Mastery (ML9).

Necromancer

• Arawn’s Legion pet limit has been reduced to 12, down from 16.
• Please note these pets are instantly destroyed with confusion spells (Skald, Runemaster, Healer, Bard, Mentalist, Warden).
• These pets are vulnerable to all forms of crowd control.

Spiritmaster

• Gates of Valhalla pet limit has been reduced to 24, down from 32.
• Please note these pets are instantly destroyed with confusion spells (Sorcerer, Minstrel, Friar, Bard, Mentalist, Warden).
• These pets are vulnerable to all forms of crowd control.
   

Developer's note: 

Overall, we are very happy with the pet-based class' performance. Prior to 1.122 pet-based classes had static and uninspired pets and pet abilities that made their pets more after-thoughts than class-defining roles. With 1.122 we wanted there to be a real choice among the different pets with each pet type being useful and unique. In many ways this has been accomplished. However, the melee-DPS pets seem to be a bit too popular still. As we monitor this latest round of fixes, we are looking at some additional adjustments in the coming weeks that will help the other pet types' performance. 

In addition, we would like to announce that class balance related tweaks and adjustments will be coming more frequently and more often as Hot Fixes, going forward. This allows us to more nimbly respond to your feedback to address any imbalances and allows us to perform more gradual improvements in shorter timespans. Major class balance changes will still be part of major patch versions (read: with downtime) but tweaks to classes, in the form of Hot Fixes, should be expected every 3-5 weeks throughout the year from now on. 

We've addressed the stealther archetypes, light-tank archetypes, and pet-classes extensively over the previous two patch cycles and so Hot Fix adjustments between now and the next major update will be focused in those areas; however, we will be looking at hybrids and the lesser-used support lines in the next major version. Speaking of the next major version, as discussed in the end of the year podcast, one of its major focal points will be on adjusting /uses and procs on gear so that class abilities once again matter more than the procs or abilities found on a character's equipment.

Finally, we'll be outlining our full plan for the 1.123 version (and beyond) in the coming weeks with a Producer's letter and newsletter. There are some big updates on the way and we're very excited to unveil them to you!

World

• The difficulty of the Frozen Caverns' challenge mode has been reduced.
  • The mechanics of the encounter remain the same but some of Jack Frost's damage has been toned down slightly.

Class Changes

General

• Several pets have been fixed to correctly take magic damage.
• All of the Mythirians from the Frozen Caverns instance can now be equipped correctly.
• The Speed of Sound Realm Ability no longer drops when hit by certain Slow abilities.
  • All other slows were already correctly not affecting Speed of Sound.

• The Amber Simulacrum pet's run speed has been reduced slightly.

• The Underhill Stalker pet's run speed has been reduced slightly.

• The Plated Fiend pet's run speed has been reduced slightly.

Painworking Specialization

• The debuff value on the Frozen Edge rear style has been reduced from 45% to 35%.
• The Deathseeker follow-up style has been adjusted as follows:
  • Its damage has been reduced from 100/tick to 75/tick.
  • Its frequency has been reduced from 2s/tick to 2.5s/tick.
    • Its duration remains at 10s.
• The following instant damage over time spells' values have had their damage adjusted:
  • Level 37 - Freezing Clench reduced from 74/tick to 64/tick
  • Level 47 - Freezing Howl reduced from 132/tick to 112/tick
• Netherbane's damage over time proc has been adjusted as follows:
  • Its damage has been reduced from 185/tick to 145/tick.
  • Its frequency has been reduced from 2s/tick to 2.5s/tick.
    • Its duration remains at 10s.

Spiritmaster

• The Spirit Valkyrie pet's run speed has been reduced slightly.

Get your Hot Fix fix before the weekend!

World

• Several quests' text has been adjusted to direct players to the strength relic towns instead of Caer Berkstead, Nottmoor Faste, or Dun Crimthainn for turn-ins.
• The Chapter 5 of the Otherworlds Campaign now correctly grants credit to groups who are not part of a battlegroup as well as to battlegroups.
• The correct Royal Accountant NPCs are now found in each realm's strength relic town.

Realm vs Realm

• Keep keys can once again be turned into the supply chests at Caer Berkstead, Nottmoor Faste, and Dun Crimthainn.
• Hookpoints on Caer Berkstead, Nottmoor Faste, and Dun Crimthainn towers should once again spawn correctly.

Class Balance

General

• Traitor's Dagger pet procs are now correctly prevented from working in Light Tank pet-proc stance.
• The spell icon for the Siege Alacrity chant now appears correctly.

Bonedancer

• The dread lord's magic resistances have been reduced slightly.
• The fossil healer's heal values have been reduced slightly.
• All heal-pet target's health thresholds to begin healing have been reduced from 90% health to 75% health.

Cabalist

• All heal-pet target's health thresholds to begin healing have been reduced from 90% health to 75% health.

Champion

• The siege damage, protection and haste chants should properly affect group-mates now.

Enchanter

• The Enchantment of Mana buff's delve now correctly indicates that the proc hits the target as well as the targets in its radius.
  • The Enchantment of Mana delve has been reduced from 325 to 275 damage.
  • Enchantment of Mana now has a 60s RUT.
• All heal-pet target's health thresholds to begin healing have been reduced from 90% health to 75% health.
• The Mana Barrier magic ablative line of spells can no longer be right-click removed to avoid the immunity timer.

• The siege damage, protection and haste chants should properly affect group-mates now.

• Chthonic Form should no longer drop randomly.
• Painworking's lower level versions of parry-chance buffs now correctly overwrite the Chthonic Form's innate parry buff.
• Nethersbane is now correctly removed from the Necromancer's inventory on logout.
  • This item is also removed on equip if not 50 painworking specialization.
• A bug causing the Death Servant line of bolt spells from doing much more damage than other bolt type spells has been corrected.
• The Spirit Form stealth lore detection radius is now affected by the Necromancer's Death Servant specialization.
  • This will result in lower general detection radius unless fully specialized in Death Servant.
• All heal-pet target's health thresholds to begin healing have been reduced from 90% health to 75% health.

Savage

• The melee tri-resist buff now stacks with item-based melee resist buffs.

Skald

• The siege damage, protection and haste chants should properly affect group-mates now.

Spiritmaster

• All heal-pet target's health thresholds to begin healing have been reduced from 90% health to 75% health.