Early this week, the winter update test ended after two bustling and busy weeks filled with lots of feedback and suggestions. Many players were curious to try out the Wheel of Destiny and provided us with ample food for thought on how to improve the wheel and everything related to it.
Based on the constructive feedback we received, we already made a lot of changes during the test. Some could be tried out during test server already, some even underwent several iterations, others were only announced since they required more development time.
Therefore, we would like to give you a quick overview of how we adjusted the Wheel of Destiny and Mitigation in the last few weeks. In the following lists, we are describing the state upon release in comparison to the state at the start of the test. Please note that only changes are listed here, not complete descriptions of all perk.
General changes of Wheel of Destiny and Mitigation
- We massively reduced the mitigation of monsters so they are now much less tough than they were at the start of the test.
- The mitigation of monsters can now been seen in the Bestiary.
- The Dedication Perk Mitigation was added and replaced Dedication Perks which were not seen as useful enough (Hit Point Regeneration Burst, Mana Regeneration Burst, Familiar Expertise, Frequent Familiar). The new perk Mitigation multiplicatively increases your mitigation by 0.03% for every point spent.
- We rearranged the positions of Dedication Perks and Convictions Perks in the wheel to provide a smoother start for characters with a lower level and to add more thresholds at which players can make meaningful decisions.
- During test server, we added a small defend value to quivers to ensure paladin mitigation is higher than caster mitigation (but still lower than knight mitigation, of course). Due to several technical issues which resulted from this change, we had to remove this value from quivers again and found another solution: Wearing a bow or crossbow now increases a paladin’s mitigation similar to how quivers did during test server.
- You now receive a bonus to all your damage and healing with each stage of a Revelation Perk that you unlock. Stage I grants +4 damage and healing, stage II increases this bonus to +9, and stage III increases this bonus to +20.
Knight-specific changes
- Executioners Throw: Base damage was increased considerably so it surpasses Berserk, or even Annihilation for targets with less than 30% of their hit points.
- Battle Instinct: Shielding granted per target was reduced from +8 to +6.
- Combat Mastery: Critical extra damage with two-handed weapons is now shown in combat stats.
- Augmentation Fierce Berserk: Aug I reduces mana costs to 310 instead of 323. Aug II grants a higher damage increase.
- Augmentation Intense Wound Cleansing: Healing increase of Aug I was raised massively. Aug II now reduces cooldown to 5 minutes instead of 7.5 minutes.
- Augmentation Chivalrous Challenge: Aug I reduces mana costs to 60 instead of 76.
- Augmentation Groundshaker: The damage increase of Aug I was slightly raised.
- Augmentation Front Sweep: Replaced Augmentation Annihilation. Aug I adds 5% life leech to Front Sweep. Aug II grants a damage increase for Front Sweep.
Paladin-specific changes
- Divine Empowerment: Was turned into a support spell which creates a field of holy energy around your feet for 5 seconds. As long as you stand in this field, your dealt damage increases by 8%, 10% or 12%. Cooldown: 32, 28 or 24 seconds. Mana costs: 500.
- Divine Grenade: Former name was “Divine Wrath”. Damage was increased for all stages. Cooldown was lowered for all stages.
- Ballistic Mastery: While wielding a bow your attacks and spells now treat the physical and holy sensitivity as being 2% higher for all enemies you hit instead of increasing damage of offensive charms.
- Positional Tactics: Replaced “Charm Enhancement”. Grants +3 distance fighting while no monster is within 1 square. Otherwise grants +3 holy and +3 healing magic level.
- Augmentation Strong Ethereal Spear: Damage bonus granted by Aug I was lowered.
- Augmentation Divine Caldera: Aug I reduces mana cost to 140 instead of 152. Aug II grants a higher damage increase.
- Augmentation Sharpshooter: Increased distance fighting bonus of Aug II from 40% to 45%.
- Augmentation Swift Foot: Aug I was expanded to also allow attacks and spells but the dealt damage is reduced by 50%. Aug II allows attacks and spells without damage reduction.
- Augmentation Divine Dazzle: In addition to increasing the duration, Aug II now also reduces the cooldown by 4 seconds.
Druid-specific changes
- Blessing of the Grove: Was reworked to tie its effect closer to the hit points of the target. Your healing is increased by 4%, 6% or 8% if the target has less than 60% but more than 30% of their hit points. Your healing is increased by 10%, 15% or 20% instead if the target has less than 30% of their hit points.
- Runic Mastery: Was reworked. You now have a chance of 25% to increase your magic level by 10% when throwing runes or 20% when throwing runes your vocation can create.
- Twin Bursts: Base damage was increased.
- Augmentation Terra Wave: Aug I now grants a damage increase. Aug II adds 5% life leech to this spell.
- Augmentation Mass Healing: Replaced Augmentation Magic Shield. Aug I grants a healing increase for the spell. Aug II increases the area covered by the spell.
- Augmentation Strong Ice Wave: Aug I now adds 3% mana leech to this spell instead of increasing the area covered by the spell.
- The level requirement of Nature’s Embrace was lowered from 300 to 275.
Sorcerer-specific changes
- Runic Mastery: Was reworked. You now have a chance of 25% to increase your magic level by 10% when throwing runes or 20% when throwing runes your vocation can create.
- Beam Mastery: Great Death Beam was merged with Beam Mastery into the Revelation Perk Beam Mastery which now unlocks this powerful beam spell. Its damage and length increase with higher spell stages. Cooldown: 10, 8 or 6 seconds. Mana costs: 140. In addition, Beam Mastery grants a passive effect: For each target hit by a beam spell, the cooldown of all other spells is reduced by 1 sec. (up to a maximum of 3 seconds) and the damage of this spell is increased by 8%/10%/12% (up to a maximum of 24%/30%/36%).
- Focus Mastery: Replaced Beam Mastery as Conviction Perk. Empowers the damage your next damaging spell within 12 seconds after casting a focus spell* by 25%. *Hell’s Core or Rage of the Skies
- Drain Body: Was turned into a passive effect that improves your crippling spells by adding mana or life leech to them. Grants 1%, 2% or 3%* mana leech against targets suffering from Expose Weakness and 3%, 4% or 5%* life leech against targets suffering from Sap Strength.
- Augmentation Great Fire Wave: Aug I now adds critical hit chance* of 10% and +15% critical extra damage instead of reducing mana costs. * This critical hit chance does not stack with the critical hit chance of an imbuement or weapon.
- Augmentation Energy Wave: Aug II now increases the area of the spell to 1/3/3/5/5 instead of 1/1/3/3/5.
- Augmentation Magic Shield: Aug I now increases the impact of your level and magic level on your magic shield capacity instead of lowering the cooldown by 2 seconds. Aug II reduces the cooldown by 6 seconds.
- Augmentation Sap Strength: Aug I now covers a larger area instead of reducing mana costs.
- The base damage of Greath Energy Beam was increased considerably.
Of course, we will closely monitor the impact of the wheel after release and how players will make use of the perks so we can continue balancing the wheel if necessary.
We would like to thank everyone who provided us with constructive feedback and suggestions. You helped and contributed tremendously to shaping the wheel into a better one. Thank you for your effort and passion and for taking the time to share your expectations, hopes and concerns with us.
Stay tuned!
Tus Community Managers.
