Design Notes
November 29, 2024
Phantom Chronomancer Class
Reap Your Rewards
Introducing the Phantom Chronomancer class, the newest addition to AdventureQuest Worlds! Unlock the class, armor set, and character page badge when you get the 2025 Poster calendar. You can pre-order your 2025 Calendar NOW from HeroMart. A version will be added to the in-game HeroMart map in the later half of 2025 for HeroPoints or AdventureCoins.
This year's calendar class combines time and death to create a dodge based calendar class that can dish out large amounts of damage.
Phantom Chronomancer Details
Description
Recommended enhancement: Wizard. When a Chronomancer refuses to die a natural death, a Phantom Chronomancer pays them a visit, carrying out their execution by draining them of their temporal powers.
Stat Model
Power Caster
Mana Regen
The Phantom Chronomancer gains mana when they:
- Strike an enemy in combat (more effective on crits)
- Are struck by an enemy in combat
Combat Skills
The Clock is Ticking
Rank needed: 1 / Auto Attack
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 1
Type: 40% - 280% Physical
Range: Medium
Cooldown: 1.8 seconds
Swing your scythe at your opponent, dealing unavoidable damage while applying No Escape From Death, reducing their Dodge by 30%, outgoing damage by 20%, and Crit Chance by 15% for 20 seconds. Damage dealt is based on the number of Seconds to Midnight stacks you have.
An Auto Attack, but with a Scythe (and some hefty target debuffs)!
Reaping Rift
Rank needed: 1
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 1
Type: 40% Magical
Range: Medium
Mana Cost: 4
Cooldown: 3 seconds
Harvest your opponent's time to use against them. Applies Temporal Rift for 10 seconds, which stacks to 4 and is used by your other abilities.
If Death Sentence is active, it's consumed to apply Guillotine, reducing your opponent's Physical and Magical Resistance by 45% for 12 seconds.
The calendar class special, Temporal Rift. Stack this up, and you'll be doing lots of damage in no time. This skill also has an added effect of debuffing your target's resistance stats when certain conditions are met.
The Clock Strikes at Midnight
Rank needed: 2
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 1
Type: 55% - 385% Magical
Range: Long
Mana Cost: 10
Cooldown: 3 seconds
Begin the countdown to your opponent's demise. Applies Seconds to Midnight for 12 seconds, increasing the damage of each successive hit of this skill, up to 4 times.
If Death Sentence is active, it's consumed to apply Impalement, increasing your outgoing damage by 20% for 12 seconds.
A fairly straightforward skill. The more you use it, the more damage it deals to contribute to your rift collapse skill. If Death Sentence is up, you'll also receive a nice boost to your damage output!
Final Hours
Rank needed: 3
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 1
Type: 290% Magical
Range: Long
Mana Cost: 45
Cooldown: 3 seconds
An unavoidable attack that signals the end for your opponent. If you don't have Temporal Rift, you Enshroud your presence, increasing your Dodge by 40% while healing you over time for 10 seconds.
If you have 4 stacks of Seconds to Midnight, applies Death Sentence, increasing your Crit Chance by 30% for 3 seconds.
A very expensive skill mana cost wise, but arguably your most important one. Firstly, using this skill while you don't have Temporal Rift grants you 40% Dodge, which is enough to max out your Dodge when paired with certain enhancement traits. Secondly, when you have 4 stacks of Seconds to Midnight and use this skill, you get the Death Sentence aura, which can either be used to increase the likelihood of your rift collapse skill critting, or can be consumed with Reaping Rift to apply Guillotine, severely reducing your target's resistances and allowing for more damage to be done by you and your teammates. If you have enough mana to spare, you can use this skill again after applying Guillotine to benefit from both of these effects at the same time!
Time of Death
Rank needed: 5
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 1
Type: 16% - 48% recorded damage as Magical
Range: Long
Mana Cost: 0
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Carry out your opponent's execution, dealing damage based on the amount you've dealt in the last 10 seconds while Temporal Rift was active. Damage scales with each stack of Temporal Rift and consumes those stacks. Removes Seconds to Midnight and Death Sentence.
Last but not least, the rift collapse skill. The more damage you deal while under the effect of Temporal Rift, the more damage this skill does. When you use this skill, it consumes your Temporal Rift and Seconds to Midnight stacks, so if you want to want to balance your Dodge chance upkeep with your damage output, you might want to use this skill sooner than later.
Passive Skills
Sharpened Scythe
Rank needed: 4
Type: Passive
Hit Chance and Crit Chance increased by 10%.
A Swift Death
Rank needed: 4
Type: Passive
Haste and Dodge increased by 20%.
Harvested Time
Rank needed: 10
Type: Passive
Outgoing magic damage increased by 25%.
Conclusion
Phantom Chronomancer has a fairly straightforward playstyle that involves balancing your dodge upkeep with your damage output. When you max out your Temporal Rift and Seconds to Midnight stacks, you can use Time of Death out the door to deal a fair amount of damage and refresh your Dodge buff reliably, or you can build your Time of Death damage even higher by applying your Guillotine and Impalement auras first, but at a severe cost to mana while also risking your dodge upkeep.
August 01, 2017
August Calendar of Events
Don't miss any of our deadly dragon events!
Our summer saga, the 7 Deadly Dragons, has got the entire team fired up for our August releases! You'll battle alongside Galanoth, head of the Order of DragonSlayers, to take down 2 more of the 7 fiercest dragons our world has ever known!
August 1: Reens's Birthday Double Server Boost
August 4: Dragon of Sloth, Part 1 + August Upgrade Bonus
August 11: Dragon of Sloth, Part 2 + Elemental Summoner limited quantity set
August 18: Dragon of Lust, Part 1 + Event Rare gear
August 25: Dragon of Lust, Part 2 + Event Rare gear
November 19, 2014
The New Newsletter!
New Releases for November 21st
Looks like the newsletter leveled up and evolved into its new form! Check out all the new NEW happening this weekend in everyone’s favorite adventure game, AdventureQuest Worlds!
Click here to see the new glorious newsletter before it hits Inboxes worldwide.
And share your thoughts on this new layout on my Twitter @BeleenAE!
November 12, 2014
New Game Release Nov. 14
Extinction Games: Hero Under Fire
Inspired by the hit series the Hunger Games, AQW launches the Extinction Games: Hero Under Fire this Friday!
- Deadliest Game in the entire game
- Machines desire Human annihilation
- Battle through the Packaging District and save mankind from being processed and pureed!
If you want to hit the #1 spot on the Hero Leaderboard, you've got to save Meeta, Kale, and Katnip from becoming the main course!
Draconic DoomKnight Tier
Gold is good, but AdventureCoins are so much better! Bonus: harness the Draconic DoomKnight set when you buy your AC package!
- 2000 ACs = Draconic DoomKnight Armor Set
- 5000 ACs = Set plus Dark Dragon Daggers & Cape
- 12000 ACs = Set plus Dagger, Cape, Polearm, and Pet
Become the Draconic DoomKnight starting Friday, November 14th, at 12:01 AM EST!
Order your 2015 Calendar!
The time has come! HeroMart just received the 2015 Dragons Calendar!
- Includes Chrono DragonKnight CLASS!
- Breathtaking dragon art work month after month
- Includes 7 in-game items for AQW
- ED, MQ, and DF items included as well
We only ordered a limited amount of these beautiful Calendars, so get yours starting Friday at HeroMart.com!
Next Week: Dragon’s Dawn
The dawn is over the horizon; on the fateful day of November 21, everyone will discover the Dragon Ancestors!
- Team up with the DragonMasters of Lore
- Locate the fabled Dragon Eggs of the mighty dragon ancestors
- New Limited Quantity Shop includes:
- Dragon Gear, 2 Dragon-Themed houses, and a FREE PLAYER PET!
Spoiler Alert: your actions will determine which Dragons will rule in the upcoming mobile game, AQ: Dragons!
November 09, 2012
TimeKiller Class
Time To Kill Some Time
The 2013 AE Calendar has arrived on HeroMart.com!
This year we went in a new direction by printing the calendar on a single poster sized sheet and when the year is over you can flip it to the backside where the image takes up the whole page!
It's a kind of Where's Waldo of AE. Diozz managed to work NPCs from AQW, AQ Classic, DragonFable, Mechquest and Epicduel into one single amazing image! Dage spent days painstakingly painting the image and we double checked the dates this year so I'm sorry to report that there is no bonus November 31st in the new one.
The Calendar comes with a special Mech head in MQ, the TimeKiller armor in DragonFable and in AQW you get the TimeKiller Class, TimeKiller Hat, TimeReaper Hood, TimeReaper Scythe, the Very Big Ben Cape and TimeKiller Character Page Badge!
and now it's time for a breakdown...
TIMEKILLER CLASS SKILLS BREAKDOWN
The TimeKiller is a rare breed of hunter who travel the breadth of space and time hunting your prey. Are you a bounty hunter? Do you hunt the most dangerous monsters in history? Do you track down history's greatest treasures? When you have a very long life and enough power to travel through time at will, you have to set your own goals.
TimeReapers are a rare breed of TimeKiller. They have lived long enough to grow bored of collecting histories greatest artifacts and hunting extinct species. They have taken to tracking down and hunting the most dangers prey... other TimeKillers.
Either way, it's an interesting way to kill some time.
The class is a single target class based on the ROGUE mana regen model so you will get mana back on hits and crits but ALSO get slightly healed on a dodge. Only 1 of the skills help you dodge so don't expect that to happen too often unless you use a build based on Dex like all Thief Enh, but some of the attacks are physical and some are magical so I suggest a full Hybrid Enh build.
AUTO ATTACK
2 second cooldown
A basic attack, taught to all adventurers.
STRETCH TIME
15 mana, 4 second cooldown
Every time you use this ability to attack an enemy for moderate damage, it slows their local time more and more making them attack more slowly with every hit. Stacks up to 4 times.
It's a stacking haste debuff and a very low cost, low cooldown moderate damage ability.
RELIVE THE PAST
20 mana, 8 second cooldown
Causes moderate damage, and forces your enemy to relive the attack over and over again taking damage over time.
You hit them for moderate damage and forces them to relive the pain in the form of a DoT (damage over time). Starting to catch on? There is a very stong TIME theme to each of the TK's skills.
COMPRESS TIME
30 mana, 20 second cooldown
Surrounds yourself or an ally in a bubble of compressed time. The target will heal, regain mana and attack more quickly for 10 seconds.
This is an interesting skill. Accompanied by Pyromancer's shield skill animation, this skill causes you to heal rapidly (in the form of a decent HoT or Heal Over Time) and causes you to regenerate your mana faster. The interesting thing about this skill is that you can use it on yourself by default or click on another player and use it on them. VERY good in guild combat situations. It's costly but worth every sencond of waiting and every point of mana spent.
I think it's the first skill in the game that allows you to assist another player with mana regen. It will make you a good friend to have.
SPEED PERCEPTION & QUICK REACTIONS
Rank 4 passives
Increase Dodge by 10%
Reduce Damage Taken by 10%
As your control over time grows, so do your abilities. You can't move faster but you can make everything else move more slowly.
STOP TIME
45 mana, 20 second cooldown
Causes High Damage and locks your enemy in time leaving them frozen as time flows around them normally for a short time.
It's a High Damage Skill AND a four second stun. Four seconds may not seen like a lot but with Compress time it gives you just enough time to catch your breath and dive back into the battle for another round. Also a very good lead-off skill in PvP vor Obvious reasons.
ANCESTOR'S FAVOR
Rank 10 passive
Rarely causes up to three monsters around you to get frozen in time while your local time is compressed causing you to attack more quickly for a short time.
This was a fun workaround. We can;t actually stun more than one enemy target at the time so this actually casts a dramatic reduction in haste for ten seconds, which increasing your own haste. You're basicly the Flash.
It's a pretty fun class. There's not a lot of interaction so it's not very complex, and while I like classes that take some brain power to use, It's nice to play one that is just simple. clean and efficent.
THE SPAN Comes Later Tonight
Don't forget to check out tonight's Span release as Iadoa continues to lose his mind to Drakath's chaorrupting influence.
41 days until Just Another Day
November 30, 2010
A Truck-Load of Pun
Incoming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ooooh! The truck transporting the 1st shipment of Battle On 2011 Calendars just arrived! As the driver, "Buddy", lowered the pallete off the back of the big rig's trailer a swarm of service robots poured out of the Secret Underground Lab's loading dock carrying the boxes to the unpacking plant. Do not worry, they were armed with twin G4-R anti-sneevil lasers*. Florida has a notoriously large sneevil infestation problem. You really need to watch your boxes closely. Faith carefully inspected each box then nodded her head for us to proceed. Within minutes we ripped through the cardboard containers like a pack of highly caffinated velociraptors. Freed from their boxy prison, the shiny Calendars immediately got the codes that unlock the Chronomancer class (and other in-game collector's items) placed within them. As you read this... we are packing your pre-orders and preparing to mail them out! There are a lot of them. It is really intimidating. Probably going to take until Friday for physically pack and ship them all. The only thing scarier than seeing that mountain of boxes** on the truck and knowing they were all already sold.... is knowing that a second bigger batch is on its way and most of them are already sold too O_O So for those of you who have been waiting on the first batch -- heads up, your calendar is on its way soon!
* Hind-sight being 20/20 we should have went with the Bazooka upgrade. You can never be too careful.
** I called it, Mount Boxula
House Call
Last week I was very ill and stuck in bed staring at the spackle on the ceiling***. This gave me some time to think. We are long overdue for an upgrade to our houses. You need the ability to lock your house, let friends-only in, kick players from your house, and to get objects for your house that let you do creative, crazy and terrible things to other players. Examples: A group teleporter so you can launch quests from your house; a mirror ball that makes everyone dance at the house owner's command; and trap doors that send players to alternate dimensions.... maybe with some cool monsters in there. Maybe have the option to make your house into a PvP zone? We are also long overdue to add CASTLES as obtainable homes in the game. On a semi-related subject I would like to add the ability to access shops, your bank, and other features to house objects and pets. Actualy, I would like the ability to add multiplayer minigames to these objects so you can play things like paper-rock-scissors or trivia while hanging out with your friends. Do you have any ideas for cool items? Let us know on the forums! Also, tomorrow -- Beleen is going to start this year's cookie contest!
*** In the spackle I found Skeletor's face, a pair of really uncomfortable looking wool pants, and a spider. Except... it really was a spider. I named him Webster. In fever inspired dreams Webster and I would go on missions and save babies from burning buildings and beat up bad guys using our combined super powers. Of course, with all of his might he was earily lured to the darkside and became the... omg, am I really telling you this?
November 16, 2010
Pink Power!
The best paladin repellant? Pink Shurikens, of course!
So I got a txt from Cysero yesterday that a present had arrived for me at the Lab. I was in class at that moment (studiously learning, not tweeting or anything like that) so I had to wait an excruciating 20 HOURS to come back to work and tear open the package sent by Gianna_Glow!
Double Triple Quadruple Pink Ninja Stars, omg!
AAAAHMAAAAAZZZIIINNNG! Ginna_Glow hand-crafted these beautifully pink shurikens and I just HAD to share them with you! I wonder how she guessed my favorite color?
Thank you, thank you sooo much Ginna_Glow!
And the story gets even better! Artix came back to the Lab a few moments ago and was greeted by a barrage of pink shuriken fury. And um… heh…. he is currently missing in action.
If you have seen this paladin, please direct him back to the Secret Underground Lab. I promise I won’t use them against you, Artix! We have a release to plan!
Speaking of a new release…
Captain Stratos of King Alteon's SkyGuard has just reported that Galdius and his Draconian Sky Pirates are growing more bold with each passing day. King Alteon has dispatched the SkyGuard to patrol the skies near Battleon and any strange airship activity should be reported to the nearest city guard.
We wish Captain Stratos the best of luck while Cysero, J6, Dage, Skyline, Reens, and the rest of the AQW Team prepare an all-new Rare AC Shop scheduled for Friday’s release. All of the items in this shop will be Rare so make sure you get the items while you can. It is 100% confirmed that the items in this shop will never be offered again.
And they’re sooo rare that WE haven’t even seen them yet. And we’re the ones making the game. Talk about intense.
(I wonder if any will be pink…?)
Also!
Maybe you have heard, or maybe you haven’t: J6 released a batch of his secret Birthday Items last Friday! These items will be taken out this afternoon (in a couple of hours) so if you wanna get your hands on some super secret J6-exclusive B-day items, head to the Hyperium (if you can find it) and wish that bounty hunter a belated happy birthday!
Once J6 takes out his birthday items, you will no longer be able to get them. I don’t know if he is going to re-release them on his next birthday or not, so if you want a little keepsake of J6’s birthday, I suggest you head to the Hyperium right away.
In addition to all of that…
The 2011 Year of the Moglin AE Calendars sold out completly during pre-orders! WOW, that was fast—so fast that the AE Team didn’t even get copies themselves.
Not to worry! We didn’t want to leave you guys and gals out either. These calendars are in such high demand that we printed out ANOTHER THOUSAND CALENDARS and we ARE taking pre-orders at HeroMart right now!
Head over to HeroMart and Pre-Order your 2011 Year of the Moglin Calendar!
This calendar has some of the best art (if not the absolute best) that I have ever seen. I think you’d agree with me too. And not to mention… the Calendar comes with a special promo code that unlocks the Chronomancer Class in AdventureQuest Worlds and in DragonFable, the Chronomancer Armor in AdventureQuest, and the Chronos Mech in MechQuest!
Yup. The Cape and the Class are entirely animated too. You can read more about the calendar and the Chronomancer Class skills in a previous DN post by Cy.
The first batch of pre-ordered calendars should be arriving at the Lab next week. The estimated time of arrival for the 2nd batch of pre-ordered calendars (the ones that are now up on HeroMart) is approx 5 weeks. YAAAY—just in time for Frostval!
Hmm… what new stuff do you wanna see this Frostval, anyway?
So I hope that has answered a bunch of questions for ya ^____^ See you later gators and crocodiles and gila monsters and frogzards and every reptilian in between!
Yeah, I know I’m just a tad bit weird =p
September 14, 2010
Tuesday PINK Alert!
TLAPD, Arcangrove expanding, and Calendar Project Spoilers below!
Avast me hearties! The day be Tues, and tis be the hour to plunder AQW’s secrets makin’ landfall this Friday.
For starters (in case you haven’t already guessed): Talk Like a Pirate Day! YAAAAAAAR! I know you’re excited. TRUST ME —we are all excited! Last year, TLAPD was a huge hit both in game and here at the Lab. Arrrrrrrtix and I dressed up as pirates IRL as thousands of our friends equipped their costumes in game. I know I’m dressing up again. Maybe I’ll bring a pie with me. So I can be a pierate ^___^
Quibble Coinbiter will offer brand-new TLAPD swag for you and your hearties on Friday. All the original loot from last year, including the house, are not coming back this year. They are Quibble items so they might come back someday… but that day isn’t Friday.
You like our new booty?
Here is just a sneaky-peaky at a *few* new TLAPD items. A lot of female players complained that last year's female version of the Pirate Captain showed too much skin. Cysero took that very literally. This year's Cursed Pirate Captain has no skin whatsoever!
You’re ganna want to stock-up on some AdventureCoins if you wanna showoff the best TLAPD booty. Remember, you can store an unlimited amount of AC items in your bank for free and forever! It’s like the best way to build that rare item collection of yours =D
The Natatorium
Pirates are natural born swimmers. …I think? Well I hope. The newest zone of Arcangrove will send you underwater to the home of freshwater merpeople: The Natatorium! The Natatorium is an ancient meeting place for various forms of merpeople, which has recently come under attack by Ledgermayne's forces.
Undersea Under siege
You will meet Nisse, the Mermaid Sage, and help her take out vicious Angler Fish, Armored Merpeople, and a new wicked boss that everyone here at the Lab is dying to see! I don’t want to spoil that last part… not yet, at least… so you will just have to wait patiently like the rest of us! Until we see it for ourselves. And then maybe we’ll share =D
Calendar Announcement(s)!
Have you heard anything about the Artix Entertainment 2011 Wall Calendar?! Um well now you have! We are actually making an actual calendar featuring the female NPCS from AE, beautifully set against backgrounds reflecting each month’s theme! Check it out.
Ai No Miko posing for March!
Mido, our newest graphic design artist, is hard at work on the calendar. He is EVEN designing a new rendition of Beleen… and I cannot WAIT to see myself in a whole new art style!
Significant dates (aka the most awesome ones) from AE's history and the games (big events, beta and alpha dates, AE holidays, etc) are marked on this calendar so that you'll know just when to make time to play the Mogloween event, or to check out Frostval or Hero's Heart Day! …or TLAPD!
You can get the calendar from HeroMart once Mido finishes it. And also when HeroMart is online... Heh… OH AND! And there will also be an in-game item that comes with the calendars, unlocking something not-yet-decided in every game! Any ideas?
So let’s make this DN post even longer by listing the following month/NPC pairs! YAY!
January: Fae *
February: Beleen
March: Ai No Miko
April: Geopetal
May: Jemini
June: Faith
July: Nythera
August: Reens
September: Alina
October: Safiria
November: Oishii
December: Aisha
Your fellow player by the name of ChainSword is even making a fan-made calendar that will be included on the Portal site once it's done! ChainSword and his friends have already gathered all the information they need and have moved on to the art-gathering stage.
They would really like to showcase fan-made art in the calendar, and for that they need YOUR help! They've got themes for each of the months, but would also like to see any free-themed AE-based art for possible inclusion in the calendar. If you'd like to submit your talented work (or to read the guidelines for submission) please give this underlined hyperlink a click!
We could never do ANYTHING like this without your time, effort, and support. New ideas like this are amazing, and for that we have you to thank! So head on over to the forums and see what masterpieces have been made and come up with some of your own!
If these design notes are any indication of the crazy week ahead…. we are going to need more coffee.
* Wait… who is Fae? Am I missing something here?
AQ3D
BattleGems
BioBeasts
Dragons
Undead Assault