Friday, August 1st Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: The Nicborn (Full Version)

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Laeon val Observis -> Friday, August 1st Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: The Nicborn (8/1/2025 19:36:16)

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[image]https://www.dragonfable.com/images/DF/author/Verlyrus.png[/image]
Friday, August 1, 2025
Arena at the Edge of Time: The Nicborn
Hey there, heroes!

This week, the Arena at the Edge of Time has been updated with a new challenge! Check out the Otherworldly Creatures 3 board to face the invasive Nicborn challenge!

[image]https://cms.battleon.com/DF/images/2025-08-01-Otherworldly3-2dn.png[/image]

From the plane of Nic, in search of prey, the Weftdrifter has emerged to hunt. Face the Pupa and the Weftdrifter to earn yourself a new cape! Can you overpower the Pupa? Can you outmaneuver the Weftdrifter? Head over to the Arena at the Edge of Time to find out!


Also this week, we have new seasonal cosmetic items for sale!

[image]https://cms.battleon.com/DF/images/Promo-DCAugust2025dn.png[/image]

The Riftwalker Helmets have arrived! Available in 3 color variations for 400 Dragon Coins each, these stylish helmets are perfect for protecting against high winds while divnig through rifts! You can even click them to lift their visors!

Other August seasonal items have also returned! Check them out in the Book of Lore!


Also this week, we have a number of bugfixes and adjustments! (Note: Just because some classes got fixes does not mean they aren't getting adjusted in the future)
  • Sepulchure's Flying Fortress has had some dialogue adjusted for better story consistency.
  • Doomwood Fishing's text has been fixed for real this time.
  • Pirate balance updates:
    • Plunder now builds 10 stacks of 5% damage, instead of 5 stacks of 10% damage.
    • Fury of the High Seas now also increases Bonus by +25.
    • Crackers Bonus debuff reduced to -60 from -80.
    • Avast DoT effect adjusted to 75% base damage from 50% + stat damage.
    • Cursed Treasure CD increased to 24, up from 15.
    • Cursed Treasure no longer grants potions. It now heals HP equal to your HP potion value, but only if Cursed Treasure hits. This does not count as drinking a health potion for any relevant mechanics.
  • DragonLord bugfixes (adjustments to come later)
    • Fixed BDL bug where Empowered Heart would have 9 CD when used under 20%.
    • Patience and Bulwark no longer notify at the start of every turn. The Patience and Bulwark stacks have been moved to a permanent effect. There has been no mechanical change.
    • Fixed RDL bug where Fire Dragon Spirit's cooldwon was lower than WDL's.
  • Fixed an issue with DoomKnight where Favor would apply a blank effect to the player (effect now has details and a name).

And that's all for this week!




Deni3000 -> RE: Friday, August 1st Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: The Nicborn (8/2/2025 10:44:19)

As a pirate main, I hate to admit some of the nerfs were a long time coming. Considering we have more options for powerful all resist and block/miss inn gear, the crackers nerf isn't bad at all, and the slower building damage bonus also doesn't make much of a difference in inn fights that already take a bunch of turns. The changes to plunder are the biggest proper nerfs, but so far I haven't noticed much of a hiccup in playstyle, since I rarely used plunder as soon as it came off cooldown pre-nerf. I'd be interested to hear what other pirate players think, but IMO this was a solid set of changes.

Also, I'm glad we get to see what the pupa (potentially) turns into! Very cool design, as always.



LoreQuester -> RE: Friday, August 1st Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: The Nicborn (8/2/2025 14:43:43)

@Deni3000 One of the few pirate mains here. I have to agree that the pirate nerf was inevitable. As it stood, pirates simply had too much survivability compared to classes specifically designed for tanking (like paladin). That said, I actually like the change to cursed treasure, especially since it's now a guaranteed healing move which can be executed in two turns (shield then heal) instead of requiring around 3-4 turns or even more (a turn to steal a potion, another to make sure your mp is lower than hp, shield, then one more just to drink said potion). Of course, the high cooldown means you need to be much more mindful, but it still feels "right," aka leaving pirate with enough defensive capabilities without making it "too good" compared to high-tier classes that should outperform it

That aside, this week's challenge is quite the wild ride. I first thought soulweaver would be instant-killed by the weft monster, similar to what happens when soulweaver fights the unraveler, but it turns out to not be the case. Perhaps this means that the pupa and weft are part of weaker/lesser species compared to our fluffy, scary moth man? Or perhaps an early stage of evolution that has yet reached maturity?



ProbablyCallum -> RE: Friday, August 1st Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: The Nicborn (8/3/2025 0:52:47)

@lorequester I feel like thats probably a bit too much to read into it. I think its more likely that at some point since early inn verly just realised that arbitrarily banning classes that arent dragonslayer from challenge fights isnt very fun design. I'm a huge fan of the design for this one though, I've not really been a fan of duos in recent times because for the most part the finish line for the fight is generally in the middle of the fight at which point it becomes a single, this one on the other hand has completely knocked it out of the park with the duo gimmicks making it substantially more than the sum of its parts.



Laeon val Observis -> RE: Friday, August 1st Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: The Nicborn (8/6/2025 4:28:12)

In a long time, I haven't had an image of victory for a challenge fight conjured that involved DoomKnight. While I will give kudos to this challenge for its take on adding appeal to soft thresholds, I do feel that the Reconfiguration mechanic of The Pupa as not that an impressive addition to make the aforementioned monster Inn worthy, probably because I actually respect challenge fights as potential attrition campaigns. Even without the Weftdrifter, felt no brainer to ensure that the heathen cocoon is in Good mode when it nukes.

Nonetheless, this challenge column feels like another attempt to appease burst attackers who got butthurt by the should have been inevitable existence that is Your Dragon. While I did hold back on my stance towards implementing more class bans in challenge fights, at this point it feels kimoi (stressed/accentuated in the same way as how Yutenji Nyamu called out Mortis' flimsy attempt to act as Mutsumi Wakaba in the BanG Dream! Ave Mujica episode Ne vivam si abis). As much as I understand the presence of preferences to certain items, classes, and/or playstyles, there should come a point to encourage players to break out of those predispositions that are merely comfort zones in these kinds of contents in the form of a hard no. Regardless of how it could be perceived as any combination of contrived, oppressing, or discriminating.



Flabagast -> RE: Friday, August 1st Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: The Nicborn (8/6/2025 5:58:39)

Oooh so it's not the Unraveler, interesting. Makes me wonder how many more mysterious soul weaving bug entities there are roaming between realms.



Dratomos -> RE: Friday, August 1st Design Notes: Arena at the Edge of Time: The Nicborn (8/6/2025 7:03:41)

I really enjoyed this and last month's fight. Both different but involve a lot of synergy with each other and a lot of flexibility for player. Nicborn especially was a highlight for me, after last month's intriguing two-parter, it was really nice to see these two appear in Inn. I like when we get story bosses as more challenging versions in Inn in next month, and I like this addition much more to OC3 than a random snake and eggs.



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