AC2:Announcements - 2003/05 - Desecration

Teaser

Original Link (now dead) - microsoftgamesinsider.com/AC2/Episodes/DesecrationTeaserText.htm?nc=1

May Episode: "Desecration"

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At a spot that had once been the shore of Lake Artefon, a small party has gathered. The dam that the Drudges constructed at the request of their undead masters has erased the lake. This mixed group of Humans, Lugians, and Tumeroks are all arranged around a small bonfire and the halo of light it casts to dispel the night's darkness. The party seems almost to cling to this light for fear of what lurks out in the night. Closest to the fire is an ancient man, his head covered with thin wisps of white hair, his face a mosaic of wrinkles. His nearly sightless eyes, a dull, milky color, seem to be looking into the fire. Some of those surrounding him wonder if he is as ancient as the tale he has promised to tell.

"The long procession snaked its way around the banks of the River Prosper, making its way toward Artefon. At its head, bearers carried an honored burden: four massive biers. Atop each bier lay a massive stone sarcophagus. Within these sarcophagi rested the remains of our greatest leaders. The names of these great ones are well known…"

The old man pauses as he says each name.

"Saint Elysa Strathelar."

"The noble Thorsten Cragstone, whose sacrifice allowed all to live free."

"Aun Aulatah, who defeated the Hea and united the Tumeroks into the Shi tribe."

"And Lord Kresovus, first lord of Linvak Tukal."

The ancient man turns his eyes as if looking above all those assembled. His voice takes on an almost toneless quality.

"The Fall of the Kings had devastated the lands and upset all the places where these great ones had lain. The Underground City, which served as a many humans' first home in Dereth, had collapsed. Old Cragstone had been swallowed by the earth. Marae Lassel, the Tumeroks homelands, had sunk beneath the ocean's waves, while Linvak Tukal stood in ruins. A new place was needed, a place where they could be remembered forever."

The man pauses, but his eyes still stare out into the darkness above.

"Artefon was to be that place."

The man blinks, waking from his revery. His dull eyes move from face to face, examining the party surrounding him.

"All of the races came together to build the tombs and catacombs. The Lugians lent their expertise and strength to carving the chambers from the rock. The dexterous hands of we Humans cut the ornate carvings and inscriptions that decorated each tomb. The Tumeroks spoke to spirits of nature, guiding them so that the tombs would always be filled with the green of life."

"Years were devoted to the effort, and many of our honored dead were interned in the catacombs that snaked beneath the ground. Yet, as we found out when we left the Shelters, that effort seems to have been for nothing. Soon after the last soul was entombed there, the Nemesis was upon us. In fleeing to the Shelters, our ancestors had set wards to protect them from the portalspace magics of the Nemesis. Those who know the fate of the Fetterguard know the power of those wards; they rippled the surface of Dereth, and as the land shifted under their power, Artefon sunk beneath the waves."

The ancient man quickly turns his attention back to the fire before him.

"It was a wonder to me to finally see the lands our people had left behind. After seeing what had become of Artefon, I had hoped to someday see this city stand above the waves again. But not in this way."

The man gasps sharply, revealing an internal struggle to hold back his anguish.

"Not in this way. It was to have been at our hands that these tombs be restored. We would make it so that generations to come would know of those who rested within and give them the honor they deserve."

Looking up to those around him once more, the man wipes a tear from his eye.

"Please, I beg you, find out what has happened. Learn whether our honored dead still rest undisturbed. You must… "

 

May Guide

Original Link (now dead) - http://ac2.turbine.com/index.php?page_id=79

May Guide: Desecration

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A lake drained, erased from existence... An ancient city revealed, standing tall above the waters once more… Lands in the north of Omishan split open by rolling jets of steam…

The land is marred by what appears to be the work of undead masters. These ancient lords once had contact with the mortal races' ancestors, seeking their aid. Now, they appear to have new objectives in mind, as they appear in staged tests of the mortal's abilities. Many of the mortal races also saw the effects of the gifts these lords had given to their Nemesis minions. With those artifacts, those guiding beacons, the Nemesis creatures have been able to do more than just ransack the holdings of the mortal races; these creatures have been able to set permanent holdings, claiming some lands as their own again.

The winds of change are sweeping the land, and in the tempest they bring, they may sweep the mortal races off the surface of Dereth once more…

A number of changes were made in our May episode, and the details of the changes can be found below. Only changes to existing content and dynamics are listed below, since we don't want spoil new content! Also, for the latest updates on what's going on with the game, check out the State of the Code and the State of the Network.

Lore

At a spot that had once been the shore of Lake Artefon, a small party has gathered. The dam that the Drudges constructed at the request of their undead masters has erased the lake. This mixed group of Humans, Lugians, and Tumeroks are all arranged around a small bonfire and the halo of light it casts to dispel the night's darkness. The party seems almost to cling to this light for fear of what lurks out in the night. Closest to the fire is an ancient man, his head covered with thin wisps of white hair, his face a mosaic of wrinkles. His nearly sightless eyes, a dull, milky color, seem to be looking into the fire. Some of those surrounding him wonder if he is as ancient as the tale he has promised to tell.

"The long procession snaked its way around the banks of the River Prosper, making its way toward Artefon. At its head, bearers carried an honored burden: four massive biers. Atop each bier lay a massive stone sarcophagus. Within these sarcophagi rested the remains of our greatest leaders. The names of these great ones are well known…"

The old man pauses as he says each name.

"Saint Elysa Strathelar."

"The noble Thorsten Cragstone, whose sacrifice allowed all to live free."

"Aun Aulatah, who defeated the Hea and united the Tumeroks into the Shi tribe."

"And Lord Kresovus, first lord of Linvak Tukal."

The ancient man turns his eyes as if looking above all those assembled. His voice takes on an almost toneless quality.

"The Fall of the Kings had devastated the lands and upset all the places where these great ones had lain. The Underground City, which served as a many humans' first home in Dereth, had collapsed. Old Cragstone had been swallowed by the earth. Marae Lassel, the Tumeroks homelands, had sunk beneath the ocean's waves, while Linvak Tukal stood in ruins. A new place was needed, a place where they could be remembered forever."

The man pauses, but his eyes still stare out into the darkness above.

"Artefon was to be that place."

The man blinks, waking from his revery. His dull eyes move from face to face, examining the party surrounding him.

"All of the races came together to build the tombs and catacombs. The Lugians lent their expertise and strength to carving the chambers from the rock. The dexterous hands of we Humans cut the ornate carvings and inscriptions that decorated each tomb. The Tumeroks spoke to spirits of nature, guiding them so that the tombs would always be filled with the green of life."

"Years were devoted to the effort, and many of our honored dead were interned in the catacombs that snaked beneath the ground. Yet, as we found out when we left the Shelters, that effort seems to have been for nothing. Soon after the last soul was entombed there, the Nemesis was upon us. In fleeing to the Shelters, our ancestors had set wards to protect them from the portalspace magics of the Nemesis. Those who know the fate of the Fetterguard know the power of those wards; they rippled the surface of Dereth, and as the land shifted under their power, Artefon sunk beneath the waves."

The ancient man quickly turns his attention back to the fire before him.

"It was a wonder to me to finally see the lands our people had left behind. After seeing what had become of Artefon, I had hoped to someday see this city stand above the waves again. But not in this way."

The man gasps sharply, revealing an internal struggle to hold back his anguish.

"Not in this way. It was to have been at our hands that these tombs be restored. We would make it so that generations to come would know of those who rested within and give them the honor they deserve."

Looking up to those around him once more, the man wipes a tear from his eye.

"Please, I beg you, find out what has happened. Learn whether our honored dead still rest undisturbed. You must… "

General Skill Changes

• The mesmerize skills are now better at controlling a mob of monsters. Instead of the monster being immobile for just a few seconds, a mesmerize monster will stand idle the entire time it is under the effects of the skill, which in some cases will be a maximum of a minute. However, mesmerized monsters will immediately wake up on taking damage, but have no immunity to a future mesmerize attack. That means the instant a monster wakes up it can be put right back to sleep again with another mesmerize. This change will affect Hypnosis (Lugian Sage), Daze (Tumerok Hive Keeper), Mesmerize (Human Enchanter) and the new Beguile skill (Human Bounty Hunter).
• In revising the mesmerize skills, we have given the confuse skills some attention as well. Now when the target is confused it wanders around aimlessly for the duration of the effect. Of course, if the monster is damaged, the confuse effect is broken, and it will go back to attacking nearby targets. This change affects the Confuse (Human Enchanter), Addle Wits (Tumerok Claw Bearer) and Buzzing Cloud (Tumerok Hive Keeper) skills.
• A skill that doesn't do direct damage to the target, but can still miss the target, now displays whether it has hit, missed, or been evaded. This means that skills like the mesmerize or confuse skills will display a "miss" or "evade" message appropriately. In addition, buffs applied to items or players will display text in your chat window when they are applied. If you are the target of a skill like this, you will see what skill was applied to you and who cast it. Since these messages are classified as combat messages, they will appear in whatever chat window you have configured to display those messages.
• Multiple instances of a skill that enhances an item, such as the Human Enchanter's Imbue Fire and Imbue Frost spells, no longer stack. Only the instance of the effect with the highest skill rating is active on an item at a time. We've also fixed the bug that kept the frost or fire particle effect from expiring on the weapon, so your weapon will revert to its normal state when the spell expires. If you have a weapon that is currently affected by this bug, you will need to have the spell cast on the weapon again and then let it expire normally.

Class Specific Changes

Four classes have received some extensive changes in May. Details on those changes are below.

Human Alchemist

Revised Skills

• Fire Breath: This skill is now much more effective when the target is vulnerable, similar to "Point Blank" in the Human Missile tree. In addition, having the Dark Side skill active no longer prevents this skill from being used.
• Oxidize: The range of this skill has been increased from 30 meters to 40 meters.
• Dark Side: When using the Dark Side skill, all of the Alchemist's skills and auto-attacks are now at melee range. To compensate for this, when Dark Side is enabled the Alchemist receives an armor buff of roughly half the power of "Encase." This armor increase will stack with other armor increasing skills. In addition, the Alchemist is able to regenerate Health and Vigor normally when Dark Side is enabled. Finally, this skill's Health and Vigor buffs remain the same.
• Dizzying Fumes: The skill credit cost of this skill has been decreased from 3 credits to 2 credits.
• Festering Wounds: This skill's cost has also been reduced from 3 credits to 2 credits.
• Explosive Concoction: The range of this skill is has been increased to 40 meters.
• Thin Air: The vigor cost of this skill has been reduced to 220 and the range has been increased to 40 meters.
• Concussion Grenade: The grenade now always detonates, even if it misses its intended target.
• Blight: This skill provides a shield around an Alchemist who has Dark Side enabled. Anything that attacks the Alchemist while this shield is up has a chance of receiving a 30 second bleed effect. The chance of an attacker getting the effect ranges from 40% to 60%, while the bleed effect ranges from 3 to 50 points of damage a second.

New Skills

• Healing Formula: This skill heals all of the Alchemist's fellowship members, including the Alchemist. The healing effect ranges from 25 to 250 points of Health and costs 200 Vigor.
• Seething Tonic: This skill adds a static amount of damage to the attacks of the Alchemist and his fellowship.

Human Bounty Hunter

Revised Skills

• Anemia: In addition to its combat speed decreasing effect, Anemia now does an additional 4 - 125 points of direct damage if used soon after Nettle. Anemia reduces the combat speed of the target by 10% - 50% for 15 to 30 seconds.
• Nettle: This skill will no longer do additional damage if used after Anemia. Instead, it will make Anemia do more damage.
• Feign Death: A number of changes have been made to this skill. First, the skill affects all targets within a 10 meter radius of the Bounty Hunter. We've also given the skill an increased chance to hit, roughly equivalent to 2.5 to 50 points of Grand Mastery. Along with this, the skill gives a 10 second boost to their defensive skills, roughly equivalent to 2.5 to 50 points of Grand Mastery in all three forms of defense. Finally, the skill deals out weapon damage plus 3 - 75 points of damage to those nearby targets.
• Paralyze: The skill credit cost for this skill has been reduced from 3 skill credits to 2 credits.
• Bounce Back - This skill gives the Bounty Hunter 2 to 11 points of Vigor per second for 30 seconds and can be used once a minute. The skill credit cost has been reduced from 3 credits to 2 credits.
• Fate's Forgiveness: The reset timer of this skill is now 2 minutes and has a 100% chance of completely negating the first killing blow the Bounty Hunter receives after using the skill has been enabled. The Bounty Hunter takes absolutely no damage from this would-be killing blow. The chance of this skill negating future killing blows is reduced by each subsequent blow. How much each blow reduces the chance of surviving a killing blow depends on the Bounty Hunter's skill rating. At a rating of 1, each blow reduces the effectiveness by 50%, while at a rating of 50 each blow reduces it by 10%.
• Puncture: The bleed effect from this skill now goes twice as fast if applied soon after Anemia. It does the same amount of damage, but in a 15-second span instead of a 30-second span.
• Insidious Concoction: The Vigor damage-over-time effect that this skill gives to weapons now removes 3 - 30 points of Vigor a second for 30 seconds.
• Ruse: Bounty Hunters can now use this skill on targets up to 40 meters away, instead of just 1 meter away. In addition, the skill no longer gives the Bounty Hunter a temporary armor debuff. Along with this the vigor cost has been reduced from 260 points to 230 points. Finally, you do not have had use "False Pretenses" before can use this skill, although "Ruse" will do an additional 7 - 200 points of direct damage if you use it soon after "False Pretenses."
• Betrayal - This skill no longer requires that you use "Ruse" before you can it, though if you do use "Ruse" first, it will do an additional 75 to 400 points of direct damage to the target.

New Skills

• Beguile: This new skill replaces "Shift Blame" and mesmerizes targets for 7 to 45 seconds. It can only be used on targets who are 10 meters or closer.

Tumerok Hive Keeper

Revised Skills

• Agitate Nest: Along with summoning a wasp to attack the target, the skill does weapon damage to the target.
• Drone: This skill does additional damage when the target is vulnerable, similar to "Penetrate" in the Tumerok Missile tree.
• Daze: As mentioned above, this skill's mesmerize effect has been revised. The effect lasts 5 to 30 seconds and has a range of 60 meters.
• Honey Drop: The recovery timer on this skill has been reduced from 12 seconds to 7 seconds, and its Vigor cost is now 1 point. It heals 25 to 250 points of Health, depending on the Hive Keeper's skill rating.
• Protect the Queen: This skill causes any of the Hive Keeper's wasps to do an additional 30 to 100 points of damage per attack for 10 to 60 seconds. The skill also does more direct damage to the target. Finally, the skill credit cost has been reduced from 3 credits to 2 credits.
• Wax Statue: The statue now has 30 points of Health per skill point and a stronger monster taunt. In addition, the statue looks almost exactly like the Hive Keeper that created it, except it has a waxy texture.
• Crawling Skin: This skill now reflects a maximum of 50% of Health damage received back to the attacker as Vigor damage. The skill credit cost has been reduced from 3 skill credits to 2 credits.
• Impregnate: This skill will have an increased chance of hitting the target, equivalent to 2.5 to 50 points of Grand Master. Along with summoning a Wasp to attack the target, it will do 3 - 75 points of damage when it hits the target.
• Release the Swarm: This skill applies a 30 second percentage-based damage-over-time effect on target(s). At the highest skill ratings, it will drain up to 8% of the target's maximum Health over 30 seconds. This attack stacks with other damage-over-time attacks. After being hit, the target is immune to additional Release the Swarm attacks for 2 minutes.
• Vampiric Swarm: The Swarm is now a permanent pet to which the Hive Keeper can issue commands. It has the following stats:

Health - 10 points / skill point

Vigor - 15 points / skill point

Armor - 2 points / skill point

Damage - 4 points / skill point

The skill has a 60 second reset time, and like all pet summons, costs 1 point Vigor to use. Most of the Swarms attacks do ordinary damage to the target, although that damage is higher if the target has the "Protect the Queen" effect on it. Occasionally, though, the Swarm performs a vampiric drain (hence living up to its name) which steals Health from the target and gives it to itself. Finally, the explosion aspect of the Swarm has been entirely removed; it will never explode again.

• Seeping Hives: This skill applies a 30-second percentage-based damage-over-time effect to the target. At the highest ratings the skill drains 10% of the target's Health, based on the target's maximum Health. This attack stacks with other damage-over-time attacks. After being hit, the target will be immune to additional Seeping Hives attacks for 2 minutes. Finally, purchasing this skill is easier; the skill credit cost has been reduced from 3 credits to 2 credits.

Tumerok Healer

Revised Skills

• Focusing the Spirit: This skill is now fellowship-propagated.
• Energy Surge: The skill credit cost for this skill has been reduced from 3 credits to 2 credits, while it now only costs 10 Vigor points to cast. The reset timer has not been changed and remains 5 minutes. Finally, the skill can only be cast on the Healer and restores 400-1000 points of Vigor.
• Remedy: This skill removes all poison effects from members of the Healer's fellowship who are within 20 meters of the Healer. In addition, it gives the fellowship members 50 - 200 points of Health. The skill's Vigor and skill credit cost hasn't been changed.
• Inoculation: This skill will cost 2 skill credits instead of 3 skill credits to purchase.
• Rotten Core: The bleed effect from this skill has been removed and replaced by an effect that reduces all of the target's attacks by 10 - 60 points of damage. This reduction only applies to normal attacks; it does not reduce the damage of attacks that ignore armor. The skill costs 400 vigor points to cast, does 7 - 200 points of damage, has a range of 40 meter, and has a 7-second reset timer.
• Disperse Heat: This skill removes all fire effects from members of the Healer's fellowship who are within 20 meters of the Healer. Along with this, it heals 50-200 points of Health to those fellowship members. This helps offset, but not completely negate, the Health lost to fire effects. The Vigor and skill credit costs haven't been changed.
• Push the Limit: The Vigor cost of this skill has been reduced from 460 points to 240 points. It still takes 40 to 400 points of Health from the Healer, depending on their skill rating, and returns 375% of that Health as Vigor.

New Skills

• Energy Upsurge: This skill costs 2 skill credits to purchase. It gives the target 200-800 points of Vigor, and also gives a 30 second over time effect that can restore 3-12 points of Vigor per second. The skill costs 10 Vigor to cast and has a 60 second reset timer. It can only be used on others.
• Energy Torrent: This skill provides the same amount of Vigor to the target as Energy Upsurge, but has a more powerful Vigor–over-time effect. Energy Torrent's Vigor-over-time effect gives 3-25 points of Vigor for 30 seconds. The skill costs 2 credits to purchase, costs 10 Vigor to cast and has a 60-second reset timer. It can only be used on others.
• Energy Deluge: This final skill grants 300-900 points of vigor to the target, and also gives the target a 30 second effect that grants the 3-25 points of Vigor a second. The skill will cost 2 credits to purchase and 10 Vigor to cast, and has a 60-second reset timer. It can only be used on others.

Combat and Creatures

• Linvak Massif has received some significant changes to its landscape spawns. Certain ringways on Linvak Massif are now exclusively spawning solo or group creatures, while other ringways are more mixed. In the mixed ringways, individual outposts have been changed to be geared toward either solo or group spawns.
• A few monsters are setting up camps in some regions of Linvak Massif.
• After looking at the effect of the fellowship bonus that we introduced in March, we are going to change the dynamic somewhat. In looking at the original dynamic, we feel that we gave too much of a boost to some sizes of fellowships, allowing them to generate more experience than is really reasonable. Alongside this, through reading player comments, we came to the realization that there is no need to make larger fellowships produce less experience than smaller ones. So as the size of the fellowship increases, so does the total experience the fellowship generates, until the fellowship reaches 5 people. After that, the fellowship generates the same amount of bonus experience, divided equally among all the members of the fellowship.

No. of People	March % XP	May % XP	May - Total XP
2	75%	60%	120%
3	65%	45%	135%
4	55%	35%	140%
5	50%	30%	150%
6	40%	25%	150%
7	30%	21.4%	150%
8	20%	18.75%	150%
9	15%	16.67%	150%

Quest Changes

• After being killed, Lord Deimos' corpse will be surrounded by 9 flawless Tyrant scales. These scales can only be picked up by the fellowship that killed Deimos for the next 5 minutes. On a related note, Lord Deimos is no longer immune to mesmerize skills.
• The Sclavus in the Hierophant's Temple aren't spawning as close to the final door as they once were, so players should have less of a chance of being forced to deal with Sclavus crowding through and preventing them from passing through the door.

Inventory and UI

• The sound system has received a number of performance improvements, while the options to disable music and sound now work as intended. Players can now disable music and sound from the "AC2Config.exe" dialog box outside the game along with using the in-game sliders to do the same. These settings are also being saved between game sessions.
• Avatar movement has been slightly tweaked to improve responsiveness to player commands.
• Weapons now "remember" what slot they were last equipped in. When you double click on a weapon or equip it via a shortcut bar, it will equip in whatever slot it was last in, replacing anything you have equipped in that slot. The exception to this are bows; trying to equip an item to a secondary slot while a bow is equipped will fail.
• When using certain items, such as keys and glyphs, your mouse pointer now changes into a usage cursor. This better indicates when you are trying to use one of these items.
• Trophy items dropped by creatures are now stackable.
• There are two new emotes that can be used in combat to let people know you need some help. The first is "/healme," which broadcasts a message saying you need assistance and displays a red Health icon above your avatar's head. The second is the "/buffme" emote, which also broadcasts a message and displays a blue Health icon above your avatar's head. These emotes can be used in combat and won't disrupt your combat in anyway.

Treasure

• New effects can be found on treasure-generated gloves, bracers, or gauntlets. These effects will improve your skill rating in skills found in the base melee, missile, or magic trees. In order to equip these new items, you will have to be trained in the skill the item buffs. Finally, items can be found that buff one or several skills at the same time. Of course items that buff more than one skill at a time will be rarer.
• The Tumeroks have another treasure-generated helm to choose from.
• Tumerok Invokers will benefit from a new effect found on breastplates and robes. It is similar to the Lugian Tactician's "Scheming" effect which buffs one skill in the skill tree.
• The damage of all newly created bows, both those found as treasure and those crafted, has been increased to be on par with the damage of melee weapons of the same level range.
• The power of certain weapon effects has been reduced so that they do not overpower many player skills. As many players noticed, these effects were very powerful, giving the equivalent of a 50 rating in the skills found in many trees.
• We want to prevent an item from completely negating a player skill, so we've changed the weapon effects to be more compatible with player skills and never overpower that skill. You'll find a list below of each type of effect and what the power of each tier of the effect is:

Bleed Effects
Stacks with skills

Name	Effect
Stabbing	60 damage over 15 seconds
Piercing	75 damage over 15 seconds
Wounding	90 damage over 15 seconds
Maiming	105 damage over 15 seconds
Crippling	120 damage over 15 seconds

Fire Effects
Stacks with skills

Name	Effect
Smoldering	75 damage over 15 seconds
Flame	90 damage over 15 seconds
Blaze	105 damage over 15 seconds
Conflagration	120 damage over 15 seconds
Inferno	135 damage over 15 seconds

Disease Effects
Stacks with skills
Stacks with Lightning effects

Name	Effect
Sickness	60 vigor damage over 15 seconds
Illness	120 vigor damage over 15 seconds
Disease	180 vigor damage over 15 seconds
Contagion	240 vigor damage over 15 seconds
Malaise	300 vigor damage over 15 seconds

Lightning Effects
Stacks with skill effects
Stacks with Disease Effects

Name	Effect
Spark	60 vigor damage over 15 seconds
Voltage	120 vigor damage over 15 seconds
Lightning	180 vigor damage over 15 seconds
Electricity	240 vigor damage over 15 seconds
Conductivity	300 vigor damage over 15 seconds

Poison Effects
Does not stack with skills
Stacks with Water effects

Name	Effect
Weak Poison	Equivalent to Level 5 Anemia
Weak Venom	Equivalent to Level 10 Anemia
Poison	Equivalent to Level 15 Anemia
Venom	Equivalent to Level 20 Anemia
Toxicity	Equivalent to Level 25 Anemia

Water Effects
Does not stack with skills
Stacks with Poison effects

Name	Effect
Stream	Equivalent to Level 5 Still Water
River	Equivalent to Level 10 Still Water
Wave	Equivalent to Level 15 Still Water
Tide	Equivalent to Level 20 Still Water
Sea	Equivalent to Level 25 Still Water

Attack Speed Increasing Potions
Duration: Unchanged
Will not stack with skill effects

Name	Effect
Haste	Unchanged
Coordination	Slightly Better
Dexterity	Unchanged
Nimbleness	Slight Decrease
Exactness	Equivalent to Level 50 Fury's Focus

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• Any time a character's skills are reset, the server will double check to make sure the experience returned is equal to the experience earned by the character.
• The Tumerok Claw Bearer's "Rend Armor" skill is applying its armor debuff once again.
• The movement and acceleration of floating creatures has been tweaked so that they are equivalent to land-based monsters. These changes will affect both pets, such as Ero-bals and Phyntos Wasps, along with monsters, like Flayers and Drudge Mystics.
• The number of crafting successes needed to master Lugian Swordstaves has been reduced from 25 to 20, while the Basic and Quality Hammerblades need 25 (instead of 50) successes to be mastered. Any character that currently has successes higher than the new success thresholds will now be flagged as having mastered those recipes.
• A bug that was preventing the heal spells cast by pets, such as the Guardian Spirit, from healing their full amount has been corrected. These spells will now heal a maximum of 75 points each time they are cast.
• The drop rate of Tyrant Eyes, Claws, and Teeth has been slightly increased.
• The drop rate on Ebon Pyreal has been slightly increased as well.
• Non-magical jewelry generated by the treasure system no longer has wield requirements. This only effects newly generated items, not existing items.
• If you kill a creature and do not receive any experience from it, you will no longer see the less-than-impressive "You have received 0 XP!" message.
• Kydi Vault Glyphs are dropping on more creatures, especially those near the Vault.