New Event: The Faire Beyond Time

The isle of Crosscrest sits outside of what mortals comprehend as time. The mysterious and powerful mage Xyrus has made it his home, and invites people of all races and allegiances to his home to enjoy his creation: The Faire Beyond Time! Announcers will arrive in each major city to announce the Faire’s arrival each month, and teleport players to Crosscrest (for a price).

Thrilling rides! Fabulous games! Wondrous prizes! Exotic foods! But only if you can pay. And Xyrus does not take simple coin as currency. Everything at the Faire Beyond Time costs Temporal Essence, a strange material which only Xyrus seems to have any interest in. Obtain an Anchor of Ages from the Faire grounds to start collecting Temporal Essence from any defeated NPC or enemy player of appropriate challenge.

 

Raids and Dungeons

Dragon Chasm

  • The walkway near the entrance has been widened to prevent players from consistently walking into lava when nearly 25 players are gathered at the portal.
  • Drakon Scout patrols now respawn after 3 hours, up from 15 minutes.
  • Dialog for the Drakon Duke has been altered to remove all references to walking through his dukedom, and the paradise we will share.
  • The Enrage timer on the Royal Guards has been extended by 2 minutes on Normal difficulty.
  • Zara’kis’ Flaming Hand of Fiery Doom now targets a random character regardless of threat.
  • The Dragon King’s Combustion Wing now properly applies a stack of “Stood in the Fire” to all targets hit.

Fel Caverns

  • Targets afflicted with Walking Bomb will now hear alarm klaxons and see big exclamation points on their screen informing them of their imminent explosion.

Sondfell Crypts

  • Stellos’ Whirlwind Strike now deals 50% more damage, to encourage players to follow the mechanics of the encounter.
  • Due to player feedback, Gorvos the Belchers belching sounds have been reduced in volume.

Dungeon Finder Changes

  • Players that have chosen tank or healer as their role can no longer be entered into a party as both roles simultaneously.
  • Players that queue with DPS as their role will now receive bonus rewards, to encourage more players to choose this role.

PvP

General

  • Plate-wearing classes have had their damage reduction in Battlegrounds reduced by 10%.
  • Mail and leather-wearing classes have had their damage reduction in Battlegrounds reduced by 5%.
  • The buff from Torgrin’s Amazing Healing Elixir is removed upon entering an Arena or Battleground.

Battle at Northglen

  • Time to capture a point has been reduced to 8 seconds. (Down from 20 seconds)

Siege at Garatol

  • Holding the flag in one of your team’s captured bases now increases the point value of all bases your team holds, not just the base holding the flag.
  • Holding the flag but not capturing it in a base will now highlight the player on the map, and give the holder a debuff that increases damage taken. This is to prevent certain players from grabbing the flag and hiding, prolonging matches to an obscene degree.

Assault on the Sapphire Coast

We’re making several changes to this map to create a quicker and more balanced experience.

  • Siege Engines no longer kill players they run over.
  • Siege Engines no longer become Waterlogged if touching the ocean water.
  • Gates and walls no longer kill players in their immediate vicinity when they collapse.
  • There is no longer a High Tide, Low Tide mechanic based on the time of day a match takes place.
  • Players may no longer fling diseased corpses over the walls to cause an outbreak among the defending team, slowly killing them.
  • Burning Oil pots have been added to the top of each gate, and can be activated to deal heavy fire damage to players near the outside of the gate. (Friendly fire possible, 2 minute cooldown)

Quests

The Alpha is the End

  • The Alpha Gopher’s damage has been slightly reduced.

It’s Unbearable!

  • The respawn timer on the Alpha Bear has been increased.

If You Wanna Be my Lever

  • The elevator’s speed has been lowered, and more enemies added to help the fight last through the longer ascent.

Hatching a Scheme… Also an Egg

  • Summoners or Rangers with a fiery pet can hatch the Mysterious Egg in half the number of steps.

Zones

Mordheim Forest

  • Volumetric Fog has been increased by 50%.
  • The ambient sound effects now include whispers and faint, far-off screams.

The Hell Plains

  • The gouts of flame from the ground are now purely decorative, and no longer cause fire damage to nearby players.

Kazun Cliffs

  • Reduced the number of snowy pine trees by 10%.

Thessen Fields

  • The gouts of flame from the ground are now purely decorative, and no longer cause fire damage to nearby players.

Monsters and NPCs

  • Several NPCs with the last name “Smith” are no longer flagged as smiths capable of repairing damaged equipment.
  • Quest NPCs no longer turn hostile when hit with a Playful Snowball.
  • Neverith the Impaler now has the Impale ability.
  • King Fandrin of Highstone no longer announces to the entire zone when a player has turned in the daily quest In the Name of the King.
  • The Master of Puppets now properly blinds players when casting Twisting Mind or Smashing Dreams.

Mounts and Pets

  • The Lightborn Charger has had its lighting effects and textures improved to reflect its rare, high quality status.
  • The Three Headed Hydra now has the proper number of heads.

Items

  • The Lightning Hatchling Egg has had its drop rate reduced.
  • Timeless Medallion of the Eternal Enduring Hero now has a duration of 2 hours.
  • The One True Blade is now a Unique item and a Main Hand weapon.
  • Fixed an issue with the Diamond Tipped Toolkit’s tooltip.

 

Racial Abilities

Elves

  • One With Nature no longer allows smelting without a forge or fire.

Dwarves

  • Rub Some Dirt On It now heals for 10% of maximum health, up from 1%.

Humans

  • Live Free or Die Hard now increases damage dealt after breaking a crowd control effect by 15%.

Orcs

  • Crush, Kill, Destroy – now increases all physical and fire damage dealt by 1%.

 

Classes

Bards

We’re fixing a few bugged abilities and removing some avenues for unintended toxic gameplay.

Musician

  • Charming Song no longer affects NPCs with a PvP faction affiliation.
  • Charming Song no longer affects NPCs with charm or dominate abilities capable of controlling NPCs with a faction affiliation.
  • Charming Song no longer affects NPCs for escort quests.
  • Song of Despair and its upgraded version Song of Hopelessness now correctly applies the stacking debuff to the target enemy, not the caster.

Clerics

Clerics have had a definite edge in the healing role for a while. We’ll be tuning them back numerically, but we’re also tweaking some of their spells to have clerics face more meaningful choices in what spells to cast and when.

Blessed

  • Touch of the Divine initial healing Reduced by 10%, healing over time reduced by 5%.
  • Divine Restoration cast time has been increased to 5 seconds, healing increased by 10%.
  • Blessing of Life area of effect reduced by approximately 15%.
  • Channel Life no longer makes the cleric immune to crowd control while casting.
  • Sudden Respite has had its mana cost doubled.

Augury

  • Prophecy of Peace now affects raid members within 15 yards from the start of casting, not anyone entering the cast area during casting.
  • Foretold Aid has had its healing over time decreased by 20%.
  • Vision of Healing’s mana refund effect now returns 50% of its mana cost when triggered, down from 100%.
  • Vision of Beyond no longer causes and audible whisper to the caster that knowledge of the future is forbidden, and a price must be paid by those who transgress the laws of reality. While we feel it provides good flavor, we hear your feedback.

Dreadguard

We’ve heard your feedback that the Gore Lord specialization theme is a little too dark for Realm of Quests. We’re doing some minor tweaks to hopefully bring it more in line with the general tone and aesthetic of the rest of the game.

Dark Champion (Formerly Gore Lord)

  • Blood Fountain is now titled Vital Cut, and has had its visual effect toned down.
  • Spilling Entrails is now titled Gut Wound, and has had its visual effect reworked.
  • Cries for Mercy has had its audio effect reworked and lowered in volume.
  • Flesh Rend no longer causes targets to appear mutilated or flayed alive.
  • Take Their Sight no longer causes the target’s eyeballs to hang from the Dreadguard’s weapon.
  • Cripple the Weak no longer causes the target’s broken bones to poke out from its legs.

Paladin

Paladin specializations just had a rework with 1.5.4, so there’s not too much that needs fixing. We’re making a few minor quality of life improvements, though.

  • Aura of Solemnity, Aura of Determination, and Aura of Strength now affect the paladin’s raid members, not just party members.
  • Holy Bulwark now creates a button near the center of the screen that allows the Paladin to cast their Stone of Recall without necessitating a macro or placing it on the hotbar.
  • Casting Hammer of the Divine in a battleground no longer causes characters to be deleted at random.

Rangers

While we feel that rangers are living up to the class goals and feel, they are definitely overtuned in damage right now, so we’re scaling back across the board, especially on Sharpshooters.

Sharpshooter

  • Bonus critical strike chance from Sniper’s Focus reduced by 5%.
  • Sniper’s Focus now increases critical damage by 25%, down from 35%.
  • Trick Shot now ignores 30% of the target’s armor, down from 50%.
  • Clustered Shots now stacks up to 3 times on a target, down from 5.
  • Quick Draw can no longer be used while under the effects of Play Dead.
  • We thought about taking guns out of the game, but decided Dwarves look silly using bows.

Tamer of Beasts

  • A tamed Basilisk’s Petrifying Gaze now lasts 3 seconds, as opposed to the wild monster’s 15 seconds.
  • A tamed Hydra no longer get’s an auto attack with each head.
  • Ankle Bite now only works on creatures with discernible ankles.
  • Go for the Throat no longer instantly kills targets in PvP, but deals scaling damage based on the amount of health the target is missing.

Outlander

  • Tendon Slice now only works on creatures with discernible tendons.
  • Wolf Strike has had its damage reduced by 10%
  • On the Hunt now increases damage for both the ranger and their pet, but the damage increase for each is 15%, down from 30% for just the ranger.

Rogues

All fine here.

Sorcerers

While damage and performance on Sorcerers is pretty much where we want it, there are some elements to their gameplay that leave them feeling a bit… arcane. We’re making some sweeping quality of life improvements and simplifying some mechanics.

  • We’re removing material components for most spells, and allowing sorcerers to use their last bag slot for a normal bag instead of a Spell Component Pouch. No more gathering burned twigs to cast Fireball.
  • Sorcerers now learn all spells as they level up, not from spellbooks dropped by spellcasting NPCs.
  • Sorcerers no longer need to level their Eldritch Lore Skill to deal full damage with their spells.

Flame

  • Burning Wave has had it’s damage increased by 5%.
  • Burning Wave now moves out in a cone from the caster, not fall on an area from the sky.
  • Burning Meteor has had its damage reduced by 5%.
  • Burning Meteor now falls on an area from the sky, not move out from the caster in a wave.

Ice

  • Ice Javelin no longer requires the Sorcerer to level their Javelin skill to deal full damage.
  • Frost Breath is now always a critical hit, regardless of the target’s defense rating.
  • Ice spells now deal increased damage to dragon, bird, plant, and earth based creatures.

Eldritch

  • The Eldritch Madness mechanic has been removed. Sorcerers no longer gain stacks of Eldritch Madness when casting spells specific to their specialization. There is a price to pay for forbidden magic, and that price is mana.
  • Eldritch Missiles, Warlock Bolt, and Witch Drain no longer hit friendly faction bosses.

Summoners

We’ve been looking over our logs and listening to your feedback, and we definitely agree that there is an imbalance in the usage of the various summons. We’re introducing some tweaks to hopefully bring some less popular summons into viability.

Acidic Cube

  • Base health has been increased by 34%.
  • Base melee damage increased by 25% at level 50.
  • Acid Burn (passive) now deals scaling damage based on the target’s maximum health, capped at 500 health per second.
  • New ability: Oblivious Consumption – the cube and allies within 40 yards ignore 30% of the targets total armor.
  • Unnatural Hustle now stuns targets for 2 seconds, and increases the summoner’s speed as well as the cube’s.
  • Now immune to Charm, Fear, and Insanity effects.

Slizard

  • Horn Gouge has had its damage reduced by 10%.
  • Tail Drag has had its damage reduced by 15%.
  • Pounce now only works on stunned, incapacitated, feared, charmed, or blinded targets.

The Devourer

  • Devour no longer instantly kills targets in PvP, but deals scaling damage based on the amount of health the target is missing.
  • Many Mouthed Bite now applies armor to each bite individually, not the total for all bites.
  • Swallow Whole’s duration has been reduced to 5 seconds, and the target is immune to damage and effects except those caused by Swallow Whole.
  • Due to player feedback, we have added eyes to the Devourer to address concerns that its design was “nonsensical”. These eyes are found on the Devourer’s many tongues.

Voidhound

  • Bite From Beyond now inflicts stacks of Gnawing Terror, increasing Void damage from all sources by 5% per stack. Gnawing Terror lasts 20 seconds, and stacks up to 5 times.
  • Fall into the Void’s chance of knocking a target prone has been increased by 10%.

Warriors

Warriors have been in a good spot for a while now, but but the scaling from late Dragon King and and Season 7 PvP items have revealed them to be a little too high in terms of both damage and survivability.

Tactics

  • Shatter Strike’s damage has been reduced by 7%.
  • Counter Strike has had its cooldown increased to 10 seconds.
  • Bonus Armor from Armor Mastery has been reduced by 10%

Juggernaut

  • Shield Block has had its cooldown increased to 15 seconds.
  • Defensive Wall has had its duration decreased to 8 seconds.
  • Bonus Armor from Armor Lord has been reduced by 7%.
  • Unstoppable now makes the target immune to root and stun effects.

Rage

  • Furious Regeneration has had its healing reduced by 15%.
  • Chop has had its damage reduced by 10%.
  • More Chop has had its damage reduced by 8%.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an error that could cause crafting certain items with Blacksmithing to consume materials but not create the item.
  • Fixed a number of issues that could cause the client to crash.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Sorcerers to cast Summoner spells.
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to access areas beneath Highstone that would have been in future content but now the surprise is ruined.

 


I’ll be at PAX East all weekend with the PAX Pokemon League once again! You may have noticed I helped make the leader art, probably because I have been retweeting the living hell out of the PAX Pokemon Twitter for like a month. Much kudos and thanks to KatrinaDraws for the sweet inks and colors on it.

I will mostly be hanging around the Handheld Lounge taking Pokemon battles and shouting “OBJECTION!” all weekend.