February 01, 2019

Yokai New Year is Almost Here!

Get Ready to /Party... Yokai Style!

We have a TON of events happening, because this is the week of OMG all the returning events! So strap on your lightest gear and get ready to MOVE!

Yokai Isle blends many cultural elements from China, Japan, and other Asian countries to create one of the most popular zones in-game. So every year, we celebrate Yokai New Year in Akiba. This year is the Year of the Boar (and the colors brown, yellow, and grey) in the Yokai Calendar. 

Talk to Empres Ai no Miko and battle the Honorable Boar monster in the Empress' throne room. Take him on to show your respect for the boar's determination and courage.

The boss monsters has a chance to drop:

• the Boar's Guard armor set
• Brown Foo Dog
• Honorable Boar house items
• Honorable Boar pet
• Obsidian Samurai Armor Stand house statue
• Obsidian Samurai Banner house wall item

Class Balance Updates

Pisces and the class balance team are back at it -- updating classes you love to keep them fun and handy in battle! We changed four classes this week:

• DoomKnight 
• Artifact Hunter 
• Mystic and Arcane Dark Caster 

The classes that received the most significant changes were Mystic and Arcane Dark Caster, while DoomKnight and Artifact Hunter received smaller changes. Because of this, DoomKnight and Artifact Hunter may be revisited later in February based on your feedback-- so hop on social media or on Discord and let us know what you think about these classes!

Mystic and Arcane Dark Caster Changes

The biggest change you guys wanted with these was a decrease in the time required to build up momentum. Now you won’t need to reach 100 stacks of your first skill before seeing high DoT numbers!

• Envelop in Darkness: now stacks to 20 (instead of 100), but the Damage over Time effect increases at a much faster rate. 
• Arcane Overwhelming: cooldown reduced from 50 seconds to 25 seconds
• Arcane Overwhelming: Self-stun/mana recovery increased to 5 seconds. 

The significant cooldown reduction and haste boosting effect of Arcane Overwhelming means your damage will now be consistently higher IF you can manage your skills and timing well. 

DoomKnight Class Changes

After a thorough review and reading your feedback, we saw DoomKnight would most benefit from increased mana regeneration opportunities.

• Blood Offering: mana cost removed, now costs 20% of your max health.
• If Blood Offering is used when Dark Wound is present: 20% increase to Haste and Crit Chance (contributes to mana recovery).

Artifact Hunter Changes

Buff applied to the Supreme Arcane Spell:

• Deals increased damage 
• Has a slightly stronger Damage over Time effect 
• Costs less mana 
• Will always hit (but can never deal a critical hit).

But that is not all we've got in the works! Later this month, the class crew will look at... 

• the possibility of additional changes for Artifact Hunter and DoomKnight 
• Buffing Chunin 
• Reworking the skills on a currently rare class whose skills may make an appearance on Heroes Heart Day. 

And just as a reminder: the classes changed in February were directly influenced by YOUR feedback! If you want to see something change, hop on Twitter, Facebook or the forums and let us know!

Also Coming this Weekend...

Log in tomorrow as our GroundHorc's Day quest and gear return. Then come back this Sunday during the SuperBowl Half-time show as we re-open the /punt map and the LoreBowl Gear Shop featuring the Loyalists and the Satyrs!

Next Weekend... Yokai New Year Continues

Join us for an all-new story adventure!  Zhu, the boar spirit we must honor and celebrate, has been enchanted, and lays unconscious. He is still alive, but our mystics say the only way to revive him is to enter his dreams and destroy whatever has trapped him.