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==Update Notes: November 6, 2020==
With this update, the Halloween event comes to an end. But there is a silver lining: it's cranberry season! Also look for special seasonal recipes (they can drop as loot scrolls) throughout the month.
There are also some balance changes in this update, mainly for [[Shield]], [[Staff]], and [[Cow]]. You can read on to get an understanding of the longer-term goals, or just jump to the sections on each specific skill.
The changes will require players to adapt a bit -: - especially high-level players -: - so for the next few weeks all the affected skills are much cheaper to Transmute. This will help you convert your equipment as needed. Remember to report any bugs you find with the in-game bug report button, and thank you for helping us make Project: Gorgon!
One of our near-term goals for combat is to make high-level fights last longer (both solo fights and group fights). Combat will be more strategic and frankly more fun when each fight lasts a few seconds longer to allow for more decisions. One of the problems with this plan is that currently, most players would die if they had to stand toe-to-toe with monsters for much longer than they do now. So in the future, we'll be experimenting with some new game mechanics to increase player survivability.
Before we make big systemic changes, though, we need to review the existing tools for survivability, namely skills, abilities, and treasure. So in this update, we aren't doing anything to actually lengthen combat yet. We're doing a review of the "tankiest" skills in the game: [[Staff]], [[Shield]], and [[Cow]]. (We'll look at other skills with defensive aspects, such as [[Unarmed]], [[Ice Magic]], and [[Deer]], in a separate update.)
Some of [[Staff ]] and [[Shield]]'s abilities have been changed pretty dramatically to help support longer combats. We'll use Staff's ability "Blocking Stance" as an example of how we've changed things. This ability could be explained as: "for 10 seconds out of every 30, you don't take physical damage (slashing/crushing/piercing)". This ability was jaw-droppingly powerful... a third of the time. The rest of the time you just had to wait (or die). This ability could be really fun, but it wasn't a great fit for our plan to lengthen combat duration. And due to its extreme potency, there wasn't much for the ability's treasure to do: it was already so powerful that treasure couldn't go much further. Hence boring loot.
The new version of Blocking Stance has flat physical mitigation that lasts 30 seconds (meaning you can sustain it indefinitely), and the treasure effects are more directly beneficial to survival. We've tried to keep some of the ability's original "use it at just the right moment" flavor too by keeping 3 seconds of invincibility (instead of a whopping 10).
===Shield Changes===
[[Shield ]] is intended to be a super-versatile survival skill, able to pair with all sorts of other skills to help keep you alive. One notable weakness was that it wasn't great at tanking Elite bosses, so we've added some new options to help you build for that job.
====Bulwark Mode:====
The ability "Vigorous Defense" has been completely replaced. New ability: "Bulwark Mode". This toggled ability reduces your damage output and sprint speed in exchange for damage mitigation. The highest version (at level 75) reduces your damage output by 50%, reduces sprint by 15%, and reduces all direct damage you take by 27%. It can be turned on and off at will with no Power cost.
: - If you already knew Vigorous Defense, you now automatically know Bulwark Mode instead.
: - New treasure (Head, Main Hand): "While Bulwark Mode is active all your attacks taunt +50% and restore 26 Armor to you"
====Elemental Ward:====
: - Changed the Elemental Ward ability to: "Reduces elemental damage (Fire, Cold, or Electricity) by 35 for 30 seconds, and for the first 3 seconds, provides complete immunity to elemental damage." [This is the level 75 version.]
: - Treasure change: "Elemental Ward mitigates 45% of all Poison damage for 10 seconds" => "Elemental Ward mitigates +54 Darkness damage for 30 seconds"
: - New treasure (Chest, Ring): "Elemental Ward mitigates +32 elemental damage (Fire, Cold, and Electricity) for 30 seconds"
====Other Treasure Changes====
: - "All types of shield Bash attacks restore 16 armor" => 21 armor
: - "Stunning Bash deals X Trauma damage over 12 seconds" did not also apply to Emergency Bash, but now does
===Staff Changes===
[[Staff ]] is another extremely defense-oriented combat skill. It was already pretty good at that role, although its Elite-tanking options were a little limited. As explained above, the skill's two signature defensive abilities, Deflective Spin and Blocking Stance, were heavily revised. This will take some getting used to, but will hopefully end up being more fun in the long run. (With good gear, of course! These abilities now benefit more directly from their treasure.)
====Deflective Spin====
: - Ability Change: At max level the protective buff changed to 13% universal mitigation for 15 seconds. Base damage increased.
: - Treasure: "Deflective Spin heals 108 Health over 60 seconds" => 270 health over 15 seconds
: - New Treasure: (Ring): "Deflective Spin gives you +18% Projectile Evasion for 15 seconds"
====Blocking Stance====
: - Ability changes: "For the next 10 seconds, you suffer no physical damage" => "Reduces any physical damage you suffer for 30 seconds, and for the first 3 seconds you are immune to physical damage" (base ability @ level 77 mitigates +34 slashing/crushing/piercing from regular enemies, and +68 more against Elites). Ability cost increased.
: - Changed Treasure: "Blocking Stance restores 50 Power to you" => "Blocking Stance costs -16 Power and mitigates +10% of physical damage from Elite attackers for 30 seconds"
: - New Treasure: (Head, Necklace): "Blocking Stance mitigates +12 physical damage (Crushing, Slashing, Piercing) for 30 seconds. Against Elite enemies, mitigates +24 more."
====Other====
: - Lunge: ability's internal "power category" was increased, increasing Power cost, base damage, and potency of treasure effects. (All Lunge treasure was affected at least slightly; for brevity only significant changes are listed here)
: - "Lunge hits all enemies within 5 meters, but deals -8% damage and reuse timer is +2 seconds" => "Lunge hits all enemies within 7 meters and deals +175 damage to health and armor, but reuse timer is +2 seconds"
===Rabbit Changes===
[[Rabbit ]] isn't a tanky skill, so this is a bit off-focus for the rest of the skill changes, but there's a rabbit-themed live event coming up soon, so we've made some changes to make high-level builds a little more fun and impressive, whether combined with Unarmed or Ice Magic.
: - Ability change: Carrot Power: Base chance to consume carrot changed from 33% to 10%. Tweaked wording to make it clear that Rabbit Treats act as Carrots for purposes of this ability
: - Rabbit gear can be transmuted cheaply at Item Workbenches for the next few weeks
===[[Spirit Fox ]] Changes===
Just bug-fixes this time around. The fox's treasure tables aren't completely full yet, so there's room to add more special treasure effects, but we haven't decided what yet. (Perhaps we'll add tools to synergize with another skill... what skill pairing would you like to see?)
