Game updates/2024-11-22

Update Notes: November 22, 2024

This is a minor update to begin our Thanksgiving-themed event. There were also some fixes and revisions ready to go, so they're included here. (We're still working on the upcoming "major update" that will include Vampirism.)

Bard Skill Revisions

The changes here ensure that bardic songs can be powered up at high level so that they remain very impressive group and/or solo buffs. In addition we've added new ways to make the horn "blast" abilities more useful, both when used in conjunction with a lute or when used with a melee weapon such as a sword or axe.

Bard ability abilities:

- Song of Discord: base damage increased a bit at all tiers

- Song of Resurgence: base healing amount increased

- Song of Bravery: power-cost reduction increased at all tiers (by roughly double)

- Blast of Defiance: "reaps Health and returns it as Health" => "reaps Health and returns it as Health (or Armor if Health is full)"

- Moment of Resolve: now restores Health (or Armor if Health is Full). Previously it restored Armor.

- Moment of Resolve: physical damage mitigation lasts 8 seconds instead of 5 seconds

Changes to bard treasure:

- "Song of Bravery boosts allies' Basic Attack and Core Attack damage +67" => +151

- "Thunderous Note costs -20 Power and range +6 meters" => "Thunderous Note costs -30 Power and damage is +10%". Note: previously this effect was on Necklace and Hands slots. It is now only available on Necklace slot equipment. If you have gloves with this effect on them, they have become Legacy. You can use Transmutation to roll the effect off of your gloves, or you can get a randomly generated replacement. Speak to the Legacy Item Helper golem in Serbule for more information.

- "Blast of Defiance reaps +22% of the Health damage to you as health. The reap cap is +100" => "Blast of Defiance reaps +22% of the Health damage to you as health (or armor if health is full). The reap cap is +150"

- "Song of Resurgence also restores 10 Power every 4 seconds to each target in range" => 16

- also, fixed bug that caused this effect to incorrectly add in benefits from Song of Resurgence health-restoration effects

- "Song of Discord deals +X damage and has a 5% chance to stun each target every 2 seconds" => 10% chance to stun

- "Song of Discord has a 53% chance to deal +25% damage to each target every 2 seconds" => 33% chance to deal +100% damage

- "Song of Discord Damage +20%" => +26.5%

- "Song of Discord reduces targets' Rage by -238 every 2 seconds" => "... and deals +55 damage"

- new effect: (Chest, OffHand): "Song of Discord deals +100% damage to targets with less than 33% of their Max Rage"

- new effect: (Head) "Thunderous Note deals +84 damage and is considered a Bardic Blast ability."

- new effect: (Hands) "Every 2 seconds while Song of Discord is active, your Bardic Blast ability damage is boosted +10.5% for 30 seconds"

- (Head, MainHand) "Song of Bravery has a 15% chance every 4 seconds to grant listeners a Moment of Bravery: all attacks deal +25% damage for 5 seconds" => 25% chance to boost all attacks by 50%

- dev note: this was originally coded in an old-school way, where each slot's effect triggers separately. This seems like the most fun approach here, so that hasn't been changed. What this means is that if you have both the Head and Main-Hand versions of this effect, you don't have one 50% chance to get a moment of bravery, but rather two 25% chances. If both effects trigger, damage is boosted twice.

- also note: there is a new tier of this effect for level 90+ gear, with 30% chance instead of 25% chance

- new effect: (Legs, Ring) "Direct Nature Damage +24% and Indirect Nature Damage +48% while Bard skill active"

- new effect: (Legs) "Song of Bravery further reduces ability costs -20 and increases Direct Damage +11.5%"

- "Song of Bravery causes allies' Combat Refreshes to restore +92 Armor" => +143

- "Moment of Resolve dispels any Stun effects on allies and grants them immunity to Stuns for 8 seconds." => "In addition, Moment of Resolve can be used while Stunned."

- "Song Of Resurgence Healing +22" => +30

- new effect: (Ring) "Melee abilities boost your Bardic Blast ability damage +15.5% for 30 seconds"

- new effect: (Ring) "Blast of Fury Damage +182"

- "Blast of Defiance reaps 23% of the Armor damage done (up to a max of 150), returning it to you as armor" => "Blast of Defiance Damage +120 and Reuse Time -2 seconds"

- "Blast of Fury deals +52% damage and knocks the target back, but the ability's reuse timer is +2 seconds" => "Blast of Fury deals +28% damage and knocks the target back"

- new effect: (Ring, Necklace) "Blast of Fury Damage +120 and Reuse Timer -1 Second"

- new effect: (Legs, Chest) "Bard Blast abilities cause target to suffer 280 Nature damage over 8 seconds"

- new effect: (Legs) "Melee abilities boost your next attack +62.5% if it is a Bardic Blast ability"

- "Whenever you take damage from an enemy, you gain Bard Base Damage +10% for 15 seconds. (Stacks up to 10x)" => "Whenever you take damage from an enemy, your Bardic Blast abilities deal +10% damage for 20 seconds. (Stacks up to 12x)"

Bard item changes:

- Bard horn weapons that boosted "Bard Base Damage %" now instead boost "Bard Damage %". (This is a buff as it is generally a larger bonus for high-level players, and the same bonus as before for low-level players.)

- Rakshasa Lute has been revised to reduce Moment of Resolve reuse time

- Fairy Lute now also reduces Moment of Resolve reuse time

- Starlute now also reduces Virtuoso's Ballad reuse time

Changed Necromancy Treasure Effects

This is a snapshot of the Necromancy skill which is still under minor development -- that is, there may be some more changes that coincide with the future launch of the Vampirism skill.

- (OffHand) "Death's Hold causes target to take +10.7% damage from Darkness for 15 seconds" => +11.57%

- (MainHand, Ring) "Summoned Skeletons deal +18% direct damage, but take +50% more damage from cold attack" => deal +24% direct damage, but take +50% more damage from cold attacks

- (Feet, OffHand) "Summoned Skeletons have +130 armor" => "... and suffer -20% damage from Burst attacks"

- (Chest, OffHand) "Summoned Skeletons have +93 health" => "... and suffer -20% damage from Burst attacks"

- (Feet, OffHand) "Summoned Skeletal Swordsmen have +149 armor and +10 Crushing/Slashing/Piercing Mitigation" => "+149 armor and -20% Crushing/Slashing/Piercing Vulnerability"

- (Hands, Ring) "Summoned Skeletal Archers and Mages deal +50 direct damage" => +70

- (Head, MainHand) "Provoke Undead restores 64 Health to you and causes your attacks to taunt +20% for 10 seconds" => "Provoke Undead restores 83 Health to you (or Armor if Health is full) and causes your attacks to taunt +58% for 20 seconds"

- (Feet, Ring) "Provoke Undead deals 72 damage to your minions, who then deal +72 damage for 10 seconds" => deal +129 damage for 10 seconds

- (Feet, MainHand) "Provoke Undead causes your minions to deal +29% damage for 10 seconds, but also take 175 damage over 10 seconds" => +46% damage

- (OffHand, Necklace) "Provoke Undead causes your minions to deal +43 damage for 10 seconds" => "Provoke Undead's Reuse Time is -5 seconds and it boosts your minions' damage +48 for 10 seconds"

- (Feet) "Heal Undead restores +22 health/armor and grants target undead +17 Mitigation from all attacks for 8 seconds" => "Heal Undead causes target undead to take -39% damage from Elite attacks for 8 seconds"

- (Legs, MainHand) "Heal Undead restores an additional 156 Health/Armor over 12 seconds" => "... and also hastens the current reuse timer of Rebuild Undead -5 seconds"

- (Chest, Ring) "Using Raise Zombie on an existing zombie raises its Max Health +195 for 60 seconds (and heals +195)" => for 5 minutes

Other Changes and Fixes

- To help you adapt to changes in this update, transmutation costs for Necromancy and Bard skills are reduced.

- Fixed bug with Archery treasure effect: "Blitz Shot Damage +X% and Critical Hit Chance +Y%". The critical-hit chance bonus was not applying.

- Fixed bug with Archery treasure effect: "Aimed Shot deals +X damage, has +Y% Critical Hit Chance, and also grants this Critical Hit Chance bonus to your next Archery attack". The critical-hit chance bonus was not applying to Aimed Shot

- added display of buffed critical-hit chance to ability tooltips

- Bug fix: Bladesmithing sharpening kits no longer add a Bladesmithing level-requirement to the item. They now apply a Sword, Knife, or Unarmed level requirement, as appropriate. Note that this fix can only apply to newly-used kits; weapons sharpened prior to this update will still have a Bladesmithing prerequisite until they are re-sharpened.

- the JSON file `abilitykeywords.json` has a new structure. (Sorry)

- jack o'lanterns and a few other art items can now be "installed" in guild halls

- fixed bug that caused elven judgment student key trunk to give no loot to party members except the one who receives the poison. (All party members should be able to get loot, just not the poison)

- fixed many Effect descriptions to have precise buff amounts in them. (This is shown in a tooltip when you hover over an Effect.)

- changed Weather Witching treasure effect: "Deluge deals +102 damage on contact and increases the target's Poison Vulnerability +15% for 30 seconds (non-stacking)". This effect now debuffs both Poison Vulnerability and Electricity Vulnerability. (It was bugged to debuff Electricity, and when fixing that, we decided it can just debuff both.)

- bugfix: fixed recipe for "Dwarven Stout (1 glass)" so that it better matches ingredient ordering from "Dwarven Stout Keg"

- fix pet skeletons not persisting across Areas. (And btw we can't currently implement spiders persisting, so that's why they don't. But it's on the todo list.)

- Horse Apple Bushes no longer have collisions

- Norbert no longer treats druids as animals, unless they are in an actual animal form. Previously you would see the countdown and it would get stuck at 0 and not let you progress - now he just directs you to speak with Spot

- Field Surgery 4 now requires Field Surgery 3 instead of 2

- Brugo the Wise now actually gives a gift at Best Friends favor

- Adjust graphics sliders: Shadow Distance & LOD Bias now have max values of 1000 and 10 respectively, and Ultra setting respects these maximums

- Lower flash brightness of certain get-hit effects

- Fix Gardening uncap icon in Floxie's training menu

- fixed bug that caused game UI to show incorrect ability reset times when certain unrelated buffs or debuffs were applied to them

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