Design Notes

May 29, 2020

Summer AdventureCoin Bonus

Get 25% more ACs with any Membership or AC Pack

Get 25% more AdventureCoins from any AC or membership pack you buy with our latest AC bonus! This is a great time to top up before all our Summer releases begin. We got so much great feedback from everyone on how the Flash Sale was set up (with membership packs also getting bonus AdventureCoins), that we're bringing it back as our Summer Bonus. 

Summer events are just around the corner, including... the Hollowborn zone, the Champion of Chaos and Malgor the ShadowLord, and a new 4-week chapter in Artix's Doomwood storyline... not to mention our Summer Collection and new upgrade packs! We've  got a ton of things planned, so this is the best time to stock up!

May 29, 2020

New Doom Set: Infernal Harbinger

Available in the Wheel of Doom merge shop!

The Wheel of Doom spins round and round... and this week, as we prepare for an onslaught of dark and deadly gear, we've added the Infernal Harbinger set in the Wheel of Doom merge shop! 

Find all of the set gear in the Wheel of Doom merge shop:

• Infernal Harbinger armor
• Infernal Harbinger Hood and Morph helm
• Infernal Harbinger Wings
• Infernal Harbinger's Howl scythe

Plus, find the rare color customizable Malevolent Harbinger set in your Featured Gear Shop until June 30th.

Get your Free Spins

Everyone loves to get prizes... and that's why we brought back back free spins for the Wheel of Doom!

• Members get one free spin a day while their upgrade is active
• All players get one free spin a week. 

See the Free Spins Design Notes for more details.

Spin the Wheel, Collect your Treasures, and Choose Your Prize 

The Wicked Item of Donated Awesomeness is here! Each time you spin the Wheel of Doom, you'll get a Treasure Potion to spend in the Doom Merge Shop. Save up 1,000 and you'll be able to buy a Wicked Item of Donated Awesomeness. Each WIoDA will let you choose a rare or valuable item, and a member of the Support Team will add it to your account.

Wicked Item of Donated Awesomeness Details

• The WIoDA will be a Wheel of Doom merge shop exclusive. 
• Cost: 1,000 Treasure Potions. 
• The WIoDA token will no longer be left in your inventory.  
• With each prize awarded, it will be removed so you can obtain a new one.  And another new one. And another new one.
• The stack limit shows as x1.  
• At this time, the same rules as PIoDA will remain in place for what types of prizes you can ask for.  

While we do have even more plans for the Wheel of Doom and the IoDA tokens, those are a subject for another day.  (hint*hint*teaser)

* But since they are removed now with the placements of your prizes, you can get as many of them as you have Treasure Potions for.  You just have to redeem them one by one.

** Exceptions include staff personal items, custom weapon contest prizes, HeroMart items, etc

May 29, 2020

Memet in SPACE

Intergalactic moglin mayhem continues this week

Login now and begin an all-new, out of this world adventure! Thanks to your help, several weeks ago, Memet the Scruffy-Looking Nightmare Herder survived a her encounter with intergalactic crime lord Zorba the Bakk. But she still owes him that gold, and now, she has another opportunity to pay him back... by taking out a few other scruffs that owe more. 

Head to /byrodax to begin your quests. 

• Crack the code to break into Byro and Dax's logs
• Battle mutated creatures and gather samples
• Hunt down Byro and Dax and collect Zorba's bounty
• Defeat Droids, Critters, and Treeants for Jets and Flots to spend in the Byrodax merge shop

Last Chance for May Featured Gear

We've got to make room for new gear coming in June, so if you haven't checked your Featured Gear Shop recently, now's the time! Leaving this Sunday night:

• May the 4th seasonal gear
• Cinco de Mayo seasonal gear
• Mother's Day seasonal gear
• Nolan the Holy Goldfish pet
• Darkon's Debris rare items

May 22, 2020

Welcome to Yulgar's Borgars

Battle to create Twig's Dream BÖRGAR

Grab your biggest burger-flipper and make your way Yulgar's Inn. Twig just won Yulgar's first ever Design-a-Burger Contest and they need YOU to help make the winning recipe: a Fishand Ice Cream BURGER?! O_O?! 

Complete Yulgar's Quests to unlock sweet rewards

Check out the Featured Gear Shop in your game menu to find the perma-rare EPIC and ULTRA Borgar Hats and color-customizable Colorful Chickencow-Mancer armor set.

The Spicy Town gear is available in Yulgar's AC shop in /borgars map.

Get up to 25% more ACs free!

Don't miss our current bonus offer! Top up your AdventureCoins for a limited time and get 25% more ACs free from any AC or membership pack.

Why a parody release... and why now?! 

Good questions! There are two answers: 

1) A Bob's Burger movie is slated to release this summer, and AQW artist Crulon had already begun his parody armor set. Many of our team members are giant fans of this universe, and couldn't wait to let the puns and fun begin.

2) Behind the scenes, the team has been working on a special guest event. (Just for AQWorlds this time around, not AQWorlds + AdventureQuest 3D). When we work with guest artists, sometimes things take a bit longer than expected (we are always understanding and accommodating when that happens; we know how crazy it can be trying to schedule creativity). 

Our plan for this week didn't start out as a parody event... but we're sure glad it ended that way! Huge thanks to Crulon, Nakana Rei, and Hikari for acting as your super-sweet sous artist-chefs and getting these crazy, creative items made in time for this weekend's event!

May 18, 2020

AQWorlds Patch Notes

Check the list of bug fixes to see what the team has addressed

Reens, Cemaros and the AQW Bug Hunter team are busy squashing the bugs you submit each week to the Bug Tracker at www.Artix.com/bugs.

Check back weekly to see if the bug you reported has been addressed.  Please remember that not all bugs are "easy fixes" so some reported and confirmed bugs from each week may not be on the fixed list as they will require more time or a different person to fix them.

If you would like to know how the reports go from you to fixed, check this page:
http://www.aq.com/lore/guides/BugReportFAQ

Bug Fixes:

• Unrare Undead AC Shop will open now.
• Valthos item descriptions have been updated so they no longer say “Valoth”.
• Gibazil's Fury is no longer clickable as the animations were causing extreme lag.
• Astral Orb click box for quests has been recentered over the pet now.

May 15, 2020

Summer AdventureCoin Bonus

Get 25% more ACs with any Membership or AC Pack

Get 25% more AdventureCoins from any AC or membership pack you buy with our latest AC bonus! This is a great time to top up before all our Summer releases begin. We got so much great feedback from everyone on how the Flash Sale was set up (with membership packs also getting bonus AdventureCoins), that we're bringing it back as our Summer Bonus. 

Summer events are just around the corner, including... the Hollowborn zone, the Champion of Chaos and Malgor the ShadowLord, and a new 4-week chapter in Artix's Doomwood storyline... not to mention our Summer Collection and new upgrade packs! We've  got a ton of things planned, so this is the best time to stock up!

But I just bought AdventureCoins! 

If you bought AdventureCoins or a membership pack between May 4th and May 11th (when the current AC bonus began), we’ve got your back! Artix, the AQW team, and I sincerely appreciate your support, and want you to know that the extra ACs were automatically added your account back on May 11th, so you didn’t miss out.

May 15, 2020

Enter the Hall of Classes

A Hub for all your Class Training Needs

The first wing of the Hall of Class Trainers is open! Log in and /join classhall to talk to the 16 Trainers for classes geared towards heroes level 1-25. Talk to Class Loremaster Arlen for his quests, merge shop, and permanent rewards shop.

Talk to each of the trainers to learn more about how to best use the different classes, and access the quests/shops to obtain them.

Class LoreMaster Arlen needs your help

Arlen's quests are geared towards heroes of all levels, and reward Loremaster faction rep and badges. Spend them in his merge shop to unlock versions of the Shinobi and Battle Berserker armor sets. The Greenguard Ranger set is available for gold for all heroes.

Tackle the Training Dummies

Head to the room north of Class Loremaster Arlen to find our training courtyard and three SUPER-HIGH HP training dummies. The high HP will give you a chance to test out your skills and practice your moves and combinations alone or with friends.

Hall of Classes Rare Gear

Find color customizable versions of the Shinobi and Battle Berserker armor sets in the Featured Gear Shop in your game menu. These sets will leave Friday, May 29th.

May 11, 2020

AQWorlds Patch Notes

Check the list of bug fixes to see what the team has addressed

Reens, Cemaros and the AQW Bug Hunter team are busy squashing the bugs you submit each week to the Bug Tracker at www.Artix.com/bugs.

Please do not send non-release bugs on Twitter.  They will get lost.  Make sure you send bug report forms!

Check back weekly to see if the bug you reported has been addressed.  Please remember that not all bugs are "easy fixes" so some reported and confirmed bugs from each week may not be on the fixed list as they will require more time or a different person to fix them.

If you would like to know how the reports go from you to fixed, check this page:
http://www.aq.com/lore/guides/BugReportFAQ

Bug Fixes:

• Zorba the Bakk Pet no longer turns into giant Zorba the Bakk.  (Sorry Buggy Fans! I liked this one too!)
• Stones of Ashturi and Wings of the East Wind have been convinced they are not each other.
• Fa's apop in /garden now displays correct text.

Art Fixes:

• (Green,Purple,Pink) Dragon Ninja Swords "swooshy effect" fixed.
• Thunderous Zephyr Dragon tail no longer duplicates while moving.
• Space Katana repositioned for improved grip.
• Dual Enchanted Kitsune Katana animation has been reworked to show better when black CC is used.
• ArchFiend of the ShadowFlame transparent parts filled in.
• Royal Doom Lords (Female) garter matches dress now.

We are aware that the recent spawn timer change has had a few .. unintended consequences.  We are working on getting those looked at as quickly as we can.  For this week, the monsters in the same room as Zargon II in /hollowhalls have been convinced that attacking you while you are trying to talk to him is quite rude and they have agreed to stop it.

May 11, 2020

Log in for Server-wide Daily Bonuses

Log in every day in May for new gifts

We know a lot of you have had unexpected schedule changes recently. To help keep your spirits high and game time fun, we're making sure that when you log into AdventureQuest Worlds, you have even more to do. More rewards to hunt for, quests to complete, and battles to win. Log in each day through the end of May for a new item, boost, buff, or surprise. 

May 11th: 72 hour double Class Points boost on all servers 
May 12th: new 0 AC item drop
May 13th: new 0 AC item drop
May 14th: 72 hour double Gold boost on all servers 
May 15th: Void aura resource drop rate boost
May 16th: new 0 AC item drop 
May 17th: 72 hour double Gold boost on all servers 

That's not all! Click here to see all of the other active and previous boosts, gifts, and buffs.

May 11, 2020

Summer AdventureCoin Bonus Starts Today

Our Bonus AC Flash Sale is back on... as our Summer AC Bonus

Surprise! By popular demand, we're starting our Summer AdventureCoin bonus a few weeks early. We got so much great feedback from everyone on how the Flash Sale was set up, that we're bringing it back as our Summer Bonus*. Starting today, get 25% more AdventureCoins from any AC or membership pack purchase. 

Summer events are just around the corner, including... the Hollowborn zone, the Champion of Chaos and Malgor the ShadowLord, and a new 4-week chapter in Artix's Doomwood storyline... not to mention our Summer Collection and new upgrade packs! We've  got a ton of things planned, so this is the best time to stock up!

But I just bought AdventureCoins! 

If you bought AdventureCoins or a membership pack after May 4th and before today, we’ve got your back! Artix, the AQW team, and I sincerely appreciate your support, and want you to know we’re automatically adding the extra ACs to your account so you don’t miss out.

* In previous bonus offers, only AC packs got the bonus coins. 

May 08, 2020

The Summit of Insanity Awaits

Return to Darkon's Garden this weekend

A recipe for insanity: One mysterious woman. Rumors of a missing warrior. WAY too many floating eyes and waving tentacles. This weekend, /join garden and talk to Fa, the puzzling, pretty, part-time gardener. She'll help you stay alive if you do her a few favors. But beware: nothing is what it seems to be here. The more appealing something is, the faster you should /slay it. Survive, and you'll be able to access Darkon's shop full of strange-but-color customizable items. 

/join garden to begin your adventure (bonus points if you can find the hidden access point in one of the early game zones). Bring your stoutest gauntlets (and a lot of gold, you'll need it for his merge shop full of rewards after you complete the release).

Darkon's Featured Rare Gear

To help you bring the pain to any enemies you encounter in battle, Darkon crafted a series of incredibly wicked, 100% rare, color customizable items. Find them in the Featured Gear Shop until May 29th.

Darkon's Featured Gear includes:

• Fa's Casual Wear (same art for male/female characters)
• Fa's Bangs helm
• Darkon's Debris 14 (dual wield)
• Darkon's Debris 319 (dual and single-wield)
• Darkon's Debris 319 and 508 (floating sword pets)
• Creature 35 pet

Who is Darkon? 

Darkon is a mysterious artifact collector who is willing to sell some of his collection... to make room for more "valuable" things. (In real life, HE is one of our most valuable artists, working primarily on AQ3D, but also on AQWorlds when we can steal him away for a week!)

Server Login Screen Refresh Button

Captain Rhubarb and Yorumi added in a small but nice bit of convenience for you. Now, instead of logging in and out to see if your favorite server is back online, you can just hit the Refresh button to see its updated status.

To All the Moms Out There, Thank You!

Every Hero's story starts with their mother.* This Sunday is Mother's Day, the day to celebrate whatever woman (bio-mom, step-mom, aunt, grandma, teacher or neighbor-lady) gives you the advice, reality checks, and hugs you need.

Find the seasonal Mother's Day items in the Featured Gear Shop in your Game Menu. They'll be available through May 29th.

* Unless you were born on an elemental plane or wandered in from some nameless void and were created from a wisp of aether...

Not able to get out to the store to get your mom a card? We've got your back.

Print out this card and follow the instructions on this page: here. We hope your Mother likes the card! The artwork was created by Oishii and J6. It is really easy and does not require any cutting, glue, or a degree in nuclear engineering (although that might help.)

Alteon Server Update

Fans of the Alteon server, never fear! Captain Rhubarb is currently testing a few new tricks and experiments with the server. You may be able to see it but not join it for a while, but it will return to normal in the near future.

Darkon's Quest Updates

Thank you to everyone who battled through this weekend's release and shared your feedback on the story, the gear, and the farming quests. Taking all of your comments into account, Darkon and the testers worked over the course of today to re-balance quests and make several adjustments.

Darkon's First Errand 

• Drop rate for Bananas on all monsters increased
• Bananas removed from Island Monkey
• XP, Gold rewards increased

Darkon's Second Errand 

• Ultra Carnax will always drop at least 1 Ingredients?, may drop up to 7
• Ultra Kathool will always drop at least 1 Ingredients?, may drop up to 7 
• Binky will always drop at least 1 Ingredients?, may drop up to 10
• XP, Gold rewards increased

Darkon's Third Errand 

• Requires level 60 (this quest is geared toward higher-level characters)
• Nulgath's Mask drop rate increased
• XP increased

Miscellaneous

• Drop rate increase on Debris Fragments  in /garden

May 08, 2020

Now available: Galactic Shadow Commander

Upgrade to unlock the exclusive armor sets

“Mehehe. When you look at the Evil side, careful you must be. For the Evil side looks back.” – Zomboda Get the Galactic ShadowScythe Commander upgrade bonus pack when you buy any AdventureCoin or Membership package of $10 USD or more and unlock two new armors, a house, pet, accessories, and character page badge.

After you purchase an account upgrade, select a bonus set of your choice from a list of options in your Account Manager. 

Pack Details

 Choose the Galactic ShadowScythe Commander to unlock the full armor set. 

• Galactic Shadow Commander armor
• ShadowScythe DIE Fighter floating mount armor
• 3 Galactic Shadow helms
• Necrotic Lightblade of DOOM cape + sword
• Micro DIE Fighter pet
• Micro DIE Fighter battlepet *
• DOOMstar Pet (with quest for house + house items)
• Spaceport house and accessories
• and a character page badge

Once you've chosen the Galactic ShadowScythe Commander bonus on the Account Manager page, log in and find the set's shop in the Other Achievements tab in your Book of Lore. 

12000 AC or 12 month membership package rewards:

• ALL the Galactic ShadowScythe Commander gear
• 7 Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts 
• 10 Wheel of Doom Tickets (worth 2,000 ACs!)
• and a character page badge

Boosts and Doom Tickets will be added directly to your inventory.

2k and 5k AC or 1, 3, or 6 month membership package rewards:

• ALL the Galactic ShadowScythe Commander gear
• 5 Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts 
• and a character page badge

*Requires an active membership

Don't miss our other "out of this world" upgrade bonus sets

Maybe you prefer a more... Marvelous intergalactic theme. We've got you covered. Check out the Infinity Titan upgrade bonus set! You'll find it now in your Account Manager.

Infinity Titan Upgrade Bonus

The hardest choices require the strongest will, but YOU have the strength to act on those choices and save the Universe. Starting this Friday night, get the Infinity Titan class variant, mount armor, regular armor, house, and more when you buy any AdventureCoin or Membership package of $10 USD or more.

Pack Details

 Choose the Infinity Titan to unlock two full armor sets, a class variant, house, and more. 

• Infinity Titan Class (new skill animations, icons, names + StoneCrusher Class functionality)
• Infinity Titan armor
• Infinity Titan's Throne armor (floating throne morph)
• 7 Infinity Titan helms
• Infinity Titan Fangs cape
• Infinity Titan's Reality Gauntlet daggers (pictured above)
• 6 more Infinity Titan weapons: sword, shield, axe, mace, polearm
• Infinity Titan House (with armor / hair customizer)
• Infinity Titan Gauntlet house item
• Mysterious Stranger NPC house item (with bank functionality)
• Infinity Titan BattlePet (member-only)
• Infinity Titan Pet (with quest for house + house items)
• Rep/XP/Gold/Class Points boosts added straight to your inventory
• and a character page badge

Bonus AC Flash Sale Ends Monday

This is your last chance to get 25% more AdventureCoins with any AC or membership package. The bonus offer ends May 4th, 2020. Get any pack  worth $10 USD or more and you'll be able to choose one of our exclusive upgrade bonus packs.

Summer events are just around the corner, including our May the 4th shop, the next chapter of Artix Krieger's NPC story, Hollowborn and Darkon zone updates, and the next chapter of Malgor the ShadowLord's saga.  We've  got a ton of things planned, so this is the best time to stock up!

May 05, 2020

Combat Changes & Class Adjustments

It's been a while since we did a livestream DN post...

Combat system changes, class balancing, and player live testing all starting soon as we fix the Yami no Ronin class's self DOT, fix a long-standing glitch, and add in a core gameplay improvement many of you have been asking for: making monsters respawn more quickly.

Glitch Fix? Combat System Change? Yes!

Last week, we rolled a fix to one of Yami no Ronin's class skills which -- when used in a glitched room -- would be super overpowered, and would cause monsters to respawn much, much faster. As you can imagine, that was both very broken balance-wise (not to mention unfair to players who didn't use the glitch), but made farming for items much smoother. 

Yami no Ronin is a REALLY solid class, and we wanted everyone to enjoy it... but the damage skill was so broken, we could not leave it in-game as-is. After the initial skill change last week, we saw a lot of feedback, and when we went back to the drawing board to address it... Yorumi had an idea. He had been working on new fixes for several other map/room join issues. The fixes he'd recently finished would also work for the room glitch, too, with a few slight changes.

The ideal solution was to look at why players using glitched rooms were doing that, and weave those reasons into the fixes in a way that would benefit ALL our players and make the game more enjoyable on a global scale.

So...we dramatically reduced the time it takes for monsters to respawn.

Before: it would take 15 seconds or more for a monster to respawn after you killed it.
Now: you should see monsters respawning after 3-5 seconds.

That is a HUGE improvement, and is designed to benefit all players, regardless of which class you use... because playing the game will feel better at the core.

The class tester team has been hitting the servers crazy hard since last week, working with Pisces and Yorumi, to make sure we could get everything ready for a player test early this week, and that the new respawn timer felt good. They did, it does, and now we want to see what YOU think.

Combat system test timeline:

• Tuesday (early): changes will roll out to Sir Ver for initial member testing.
• Tuesday (later) or Wednesday: depending on the member feedback, we'll roll changes out to a few live servers for everyone to check out

You mentioned class rebalancing?

I sure did. The math that goes into designing and balancing class skills (the damage they do, the cooldown times, etc) has been balanced around the monster respawn timer that has been in-game since 2008. We needed to make sure that class gameplay would feel as good or better, and that the power levels would remain roughly consistent with where they were.

Scroll down to the bottom of the post to see a list of the classes/skills that have been changed. We'll be keeping an eye on your feedback to make sure we hit the target with these changes. If necessary, we'll adjust select skills over time.

5:30 PM: End of Day... SUCCESS

Thank you again to everyone who's helped test today! We are restarting ALL servers to add Yorumi's latest fix to Artix, Gravelyn, and Sir Ver, and to add all the changes to the rest of the servers. The double XP boost will also be re-applied. 

The class team will continue reviewing your feedback and we have a list of additional adjustments to make, and some other areas to look at. At the end of the week, we'll compile a list of everyone who's logged in to try out the new changes and give us feedback. You'll unlock a special 0 AC pet as our way of saying "thanks!" for being part of this incredibly big, significant change to make the game play more smoothly.

4:00 PM: A new glitch method found... and being fixed!

Thank you to everyone who reported finding an extra way to create a glitched room. Yorumi, Captain Rhubarb, and the testers are poking at it with a +5 Skewer of DOOM!

Brainstorming time: what would be a good 0 AC pet to give everyone who logs in this week, as a way of saying "thanks!" for helping us test the new monster respawn timer? Zorbak hitting a clock with a giant hammer? Open your idea floodgates and reply to this tweet.

1:23 PM: The Update Spreads + Cinco de Mayo

It is great to see everyone so excited about the new changes! We've just added the monster respawn timer changes and class balancing updates to Artix and Gravelyn servers. Please log in and check them out.

PLUS our Cinco de Mayo daily gift drops have been added. Take on the Frogzard in Battleon for a chance to get the new seasonal gear. 

11:11 AM: Update on the Update

We're seeing a lot of positivity and excitement. Thank you to everyone who's tested and sent feedback so far. And to those of you highlighting different classes or monsters that need to be looked at... you rock! Testers are looking at everything now.

Based on the overwhelmingly positive current feedback, we will expand the testing to two non-member servers at 1 PM EST, to give more players a chance to try the change out.

9:55 AM: Early Member Feedback is solid

Thank you to all of our early-battling Members sharing their thoughts on the new monster respawn timer! The early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive... which means we hit the target pretty solidly. Let us know what you think by logging in and battling, too! Share your feedback on my Twitter account and the Class Team Twitter.

9:21 AM: Sir Ver preview of the new respawn timer in 10

Members... this is your TIME! Log in after the servers restart and be the first to check out how the new respawn timer feels. Share your feedback on my Twitter account and the Class Team Twitter.

8:45 AM: Yorumi disappeared, PAUSE BUTTON ENGAGED

Yorumi had to run to take his daughter to daycare. He will be back soon and then... then the REAL fun will begin, as we do the final pre-countdown prep.

8:15 AM: Final Class Skill update review w/ Yorumi

For the moment, Lycan Class's Savage Skill will have its Alpha Sense aura removed. This was only working in PVP, and we received a fair amount of negative feedback from PVP fans about it. Yorumi has an idea about how to make PVP-only auras work, so the class team is going to play around with this over the next week. If all goes well... in the future we may have more PVP or PvE-specific auras. (Is that something you'd like? Let us know!)

7:10 AM: Yorumi reporting in, Alina on duty

Yorumi is awake (mostly) and I have had two full cups of tea. So let's DO THIS! (ie -- make sure we're on the same page for today's timeline, then start divvying up tasks before we get ready to roll changes.)

4 AM: Slightly Ahead of Schedule Class Updates

Good morning middle of the night! The team has been pumping out the code, updates, and testing new releases, fixes, and more over the last few weeks. Last week, we announced the second skill for the Yami no Ronin class was being revised, and we expected to have a member-only test on Sir Ver early this week. GOOD NEWS! We are still on schedule for that.

Those fixes required some pretty deep changes to the game's combat system meant to improve gameplay on a global scale, so we wanted that extra testing before the player preview/feedback period. The time for that test will arrive... in the morning. 

One of the backend improvements Yorumi has been working on is letting us do more / continue the regular server-wide gifts we began back in March. The most recent allows the game team to schedule automated server boosts... until something broke earlier tonight in the BEST WAY POSSIBLE (for you guys). That is why for about a half hour tonight, some players were getting 11,000 - 30,000+ XP per kill.

In resetting the XP boost to normal, we needed to restart the servers. That meant some of the additional class changes we have been working on rolled early, including: Yami on Ronin, Vampire Lord, ShadowScythe General, and others.

A full Design Notes post with details on the combat system changes (as well as all of the classes which will be/have been rebalanced because of them) will be posted later today.

These class changes are designed to play as good or better than they had before under the changes to the combat system.

Combat system change timeline:

• Tuesday (early): changes will roll out to Sir Ver for initial member testing.
• Tuesday (later) or Wednesday: depending on the member feedback, we'll roll changes out to a few live servers for everyone to check out

---

Class Skill Changes

ShadowScythe General

• Shadow Slam cooldown: 4 seconds > 3 seconds, 
• Range is now melee
• Shadow Blast: Consuming Shadow stacks applied per target: 3 > 1 
• Consuming Shadows stack limit: 20 > 10
• Damage taken per Consuming Shadows stack: 4% > 8%
• Damage decreased on all skills

Shadowscythe General was changed in a few ways. The long autoattack cooldown was reduced to prevent disconnects. Its damage caps a bit lower than before, but stacks twice as fast. Additionally, a bug was fixed where the class’s defense would not decrease properly. 

Abyssal Angel and Abyssal Angel’s Shadow

• Sinned Arrow/Vice Bolt damage reduced 
• Crystalis Veil/Imprismed Shroud critical strike chance: 25% > 15%
• Abyssal Angel deals damage scaled in a way that made it beat every other farming class in almost every situation. In order to maintain balance between other farming classes intended to be ahead and behind it, it was changed alongside the respawn rate changes.

Abyssal Angel’s kit happened to scale with the changes well, making it more powerful than every other farming class in the game. We rebalanced it to fit back where it was before.

Vampire Lord  (and Enchanted Vampire Lord / Royal Vampire Lord / Vampire)

• Ghoul Gouge damage lowered
• Aspect the Bat cooldown: 25 seconds > 15 seconds, now reduces both physical damage and all outgoing damage by 45%

Vampire Lord was overperforming for a similar reason to Abyssal Angel, and received a similar treatment.
Aspect of the Bat being loopable in combat now means that the class will feel more fun to use, and its adjustments place it in the same spot it occupied before respawn rates were lowered.

Yami no Ronin

• Yami no Maku: Infinite Dimensions self DoT has been removed

Legion Paladin

• Shadowlight Spear: Bones Aflame aura removed

The fix is twofold here. Both to increase the class’s usability, and fix a overtly-high damage bug that was present because of it.

Sentinel

• Adrenaline Rush: Self Disregard self DoT has been removed

Legion Revenant and ALL the Dark Casters

• Autoattack cooldown was decreased to 1.5 seconds and damage adjusted to compensate
• This was done to prevent disconnects, overall DPS will remain about the same.

Barber

• Snip Snip now applies Bleeding to ALL targets

Questions & Answers

What about (X class)? Will its skills change?

Possibly. We'll be keeping an eye on all of your feedback in this "new respawn timer" era. If a class needs to be rebalanced, the class team will take a look at it.

I bought a class and it doesn't play the same way now.

Noted! If you are seeing noticeable differences in how individual skills feel or play now, please send a bug report (if a skill is broken) to the Bug Tracker or send feedback to the Class Team's Twitter.

Will this change how often reward items drop from monsters?

This combat change won't affect item reward drop rates BUT we've been seeing a lot of feedback that item drop rates have trended too low. We began increasing the reward drop rates last week, and will continue to monitor your comments and feedback about this topic.

May 01, 2020

May the Fourth Be With You

The Fourth is strong with this update!

Login now and begin an all-new, out of this world adventure! On a planet far, far away... your quest to help Memet the Scruffy-Looking Nightmare Herder begins as we start our May event line-off with a BLAST(er). She owes intergalactic crime lord Zorba the Bakk, and if she's going to pay him back, she needs YOUR help. Find new bosses, rewards, and more this weekend!

Head to /zorbaspalace to begin your quests. 

• Battle Palace Enforcers + Cactus Creepers
• Fight Thwompcats
• Take on Zorba the Bakk

And don't miss tonight's newest daily login gift: the ZB8 house item! Battle Zorba the Bakk the /zorbaspalace map for a chance to get the ZB8 House Item. Equip it to unlock an EXTRA map, boss fight + drops! Log in each day for a new reward, boost, or other gift during our Daily Gift series.

May the 4th Seasonal Gear

Here at the Secret Underground Lab, we are all game developers but also HUGE nerds, and I have to say... these ARE the Mog Wars-themed items you're looking for! Head in game now and find the seasonal May 4th (sci-fi/space-themed) gear in your game menu under the Featured Shops tab! 

Plus, find an entirely NEW merge shop full of space combat-ready items.

The Mawa's Stand Merge Shop includes:

• Galactic Shadow Trooper minion armor/helm
• Twicket, Twig Fortuna, and Twill-ek pets
• StarCrasher armor set
• and more to come on Monday!

May the 4th holiday... wait, what?

Well... it's not, really. Unless you're a particular breed of nerd. Which we are (and we know so many of you proudly call yourselves). As the Intergalactic Space Wiki (run by wookies, of course) tells us:

"May 4 is considered a holiday by Star Wars fans to celebrate the franchise's films series, books, and culture as well as strict religious rituals.[3] The date was chosen for the easy pun on the catchphrase "May the Force be with you" — "May the fourth be with you". Even though the holiday was not actually created or declared by Lucasfilm many Star Wars fans across the world choose to celebrate the holiday."