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==Ilmari War Caches==
Decades ago, the [[Crone Hegemony ]] built massive bunkers in the [[Ilmari Desert]], bunkers which have since been buried deep in the shifting sands. But what the wind hides can be unhidden...
Ilmari War Caches are mini-dungeons with level 50-60 solo monsters. Each War Cache is designed to be a quick solo adventure. Each time you start a War Cache quest, you'll get a map that works much like a treasure map, except the treasure is an entrance portal. The map is used up when you enter -- you can't get back in if you have to leave, so you need to come prepared! (If you fail the quest you can just cancel it and get a new quest, but the next quest may send you to a different dungeon.)
Note that the "map fog" in War Caches erases itself when you leave, so if you repeat the war cache, you'll need to map it again. (Clearing this fog does not earn Cartography XP.) This is our way of saying "don't obsess over clearing every inch of map fog, just play!"
To get started with the War Caches, talk to [[Sir Johnson ]] in [[Amulna]].
We'd love to get your feedback on this experience! To report a problem with a particular quest, please refer to it by the indicator mentioned in the quest text, such as "War Cache T-1".
==Hammer Changes==
The [[Hammer ]] skill was somewhat heavily-impacted by the damage-formula changes in the last update, so we spent some time refining this skill. We've restructured some of Hammer's gear to have more favorable synergy with other effects, sometimes by changing small percentage bonuses to larger flat bonuses. We've also added a few new treasure effects (not listed here, as usual).
===Concussion Debuffs:===
==Lycanthropy==
[[Lycanthropy ]] is one of the oldest skills in the game, existing since "pre-pre-alpha". It's changed many times over the years of early development. (It went through a "tons of loot-activated combos" phase for a while, and a "super-fast-Bite" phase, and a "corpse-eating gives infinite healing" phase ... Good times!) But after our last batch of changes (way back in 2017!) we switched our attention to other skills.
Returning, finally, to Lycanthropy, we've found that it has some overpowered damage combinations, but also had a bunch of crufty stuff. Some of that crufty stuff was left over from previous versions of the skill (like one Piercing ability in a skill that's now focused on Crushing/Slashing/Trauma), or abilities that were prototyped in the 2017 revision but didn't pan out like we'd hoped (like See Red, which just ended up being a random mishmash of buffs and heals). Other problems were due to engine limitations that are now fixed -- the new version of Shadow Feint is much closer to what was originally imagined, but couldn't be implemented at the time.
==Other Skill & Ability Changes==
: - [[Bard]]: "All bard songs restore X Health [or Armor] to YOU every 4 seconds" => fixed bugs that allowed these treasure mods to get applied multiple times when switching songs.: - [[Bard]]: Fixed a bug that caused some song-oriented treasure effects to apply themselves for 60 seconds after you manually toggled the song off.: - [[Priest]]: The ability Invigorate claimed to restore Power but restored that amount of Health instead. Now it restores Power as intended. (Treasure effects were already correct, only the base Power healing from the ability was wrong.): - [[Spider]]: Due to changes to game systems, the treasure effect "Web Trap sets a teleport spot. If you are hit 6 times within 30 seconds you'll automatically teleport back to that spot" no longer worked. Since it was not really very useful, we didn't try to make it work and just replaced it. It is now: "While you are near your Web Trap, you recover 4 Power per second".
: - Treasure effects that boost Spore Bomb, Stake the Heart, Fish Gut, and Crossbow attacks are more potent.
: - Many pieces of equipment that innately boost a damage type by a percentage (e.g. Spring Fairy Shoes, which have inherent bonuses to Nature and Electricity damage) have been buffed.
In addition:
: - Several [[Psychology ]] abilities were not correctly marked as receiving critical hits from [[Phrenology]]; this is now fixed.: - [[Crossbow ]] abilities now gain the same chance to "critically hit" that bows do, based on your Anatomy skill and the target's anatomy type. Crossbows gain a +50% damage mod when they crit. (This isn't a bug fix, it's a small power-up.)
: - Several monsters did not deal full intended damage with their Rage attacks: Worghests, Gazluk Elite Tacticians, Ratkin hammer-users
===Gazluk-Only Balance Change:===
[[Gazluk Keep ]] continues to be our testing ground for changes to high-level group content, since it's the highest-level group dungeon at the moment. We believe high-level group monsters need a large increase in Max Health to make group combat work as intended, so we're experimenting with that in GK.
Elite monsters in Gazluk Keep now have between 3000 and 4000 extra health, and bosses have up to 6000 extra health. This is an interim step -- it's probable that group monsters need even more health than this, but other changes are probably needed before we crank it all the way up. So this is an experiment so we can gather feedback and see what the ramifications are.
: - Swapped the icons for Sunstone and Morganite to better match the gem descriptions, and the dye color they create.
: - Fixed a bug where malachite attuned to the Rabbit skill did not work correctly in recipes if the malachite was placed in the second gem slot.
: - [[Torgan ]] correctly appreciates gifts of Awesome Metal Slabs.
: - Lady Windsong's favor "Escaped Snail Meat" bestows a special druid ability Rotflesh, but if you were not eligible for the ability (generally because you didn't yet know Rotskin 6, its prerequisite), you did not learn the ability. This is fixed retroactively, so if you've completed the quest the ability is now in your list. (But you still have to learn Rotskin 6 before you can actually use it!)
: - The Amulna residents Falkrin Overstrike and Alravesa the All-Hunter are still not fully written, despite having important roles to play in the future. They can now be found in the dining area above Selaxi's shop, where they can at least have a drink while they wait.