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Friday, September 15, 2023
September 15th Release Part 1: Balance and Adjustments!
Hey there, heroes!

This week, we're splitting the release into two parts. Since it's a main story release, we've once again bitten off a bit more than we can chew, and the quest release will unfortunately be delayed until tomorrow. We apologize for the delay, and we're trying to prevent more in the future, but as we near the end of Book 3, quests are only going to get more involved as we want to make the best final arc that we can.

That said, here are some previews of this week's Book 3 main story release: For the Fallen!

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For today, however, we have a bunch of balance adjustments and bug fixes, along with a new cosmetic item!

First up, the DeltaStar Saber is now available from the cosmetic item shop in Bk3 Cysero's Superstore of Savings! This ancient relic was once locked away in the vaults of The Shapeless Empire, but now it's found its way into your hands...

The DeltaStar Saber will change color based on your element and is available for 350 Dragon Coins!

Next, the balance adjustments! (yay!) Don't forget to clear your cache!

For all following classes, tooltips and effect descriptions have been adjusted for clarity. Please note that at some point in time, I am planning to completely rework the way DragonFable's tooltips work, as well as standardize effect descriptions more. However, these changes will suffice in the meantime.

Riftwalker:

• Reality Pierce
  • Cooldown increased to 3 turns, up from 2.
    
  • No longer locked to Pierce damage.
    
  • Damage reduced from 150% base damage to 100% base damage.
    
  • Now applies -20 All, +20 Health resists to target for 4 turns.

Cryptic:

• Mind Crush
  • DoT effect increased to 60% weapon element damage, up from 30% Poison damage.
    
  • DoT effect now includes -20 All, +20 Health.

Ascendant:

• The Scythe
  • Effect increased to -25 weapon element resist, up from -15 weapon element resist
• The Staff
  • Effect changed to +75 Crit, from +30 Boost.
• The Hammer
  • Effect increased to +30 Boost, up from +25 Boost.

Ranger:

• Bonus damage when STR/DEX are both higher than INT and within Level/10 of each other has been increased to +25% base damage per hit, up from +15% base damage per hit.
  • Bonus from STR or DEX highest stat alone is unchanged at +5% damage per hit.
• Sky Assault
  • Now always deals two hits of 90% Pierce damage to each foe.
• Spotter's Shot
  • Innate Crit penalty on use reduced to -200 Crit, down from -400 Crit.
    
  • This means this skill can now naturally critically hit!
• Viper's Arrow
  • Now tracks the number of Venom stacks per individual target, instead of as a single value.
    
  • Now requires a successful hit to increase the Venom stack count on the target.
• Cripple
  • Focus penalty on use reduced to -2 Focus, down from -4 Focus.
    
  • Effect increased to -120 Bonus, up from -100 Bonus.
• Weaken
  • Focus penalty reduced to -2 Focus, down from -4 Focus.
• Recover
  • MP cost reduced to 0 MP, down from 80 MP.
    
  • Now recovers 25% MP on use.
• Armorslash
  • Effect now additionally applies +20 Health resist.

Chaosweaver:

• Vengeance
  • Effect increased to -25 All, +25 Health resist, up from -20 All, +20 Health resist.
    
  • Empowered Vengeance still adds an additional +30 Health resist to the total.

Pyromancer:

• Bonus damage when INT/DEX are both higher than STR and within Level/10 of each other has been increased to +25% total base damage, up from +15% total base damage.
  
• Penalty when toggling from Fire damage to weapon element damage has been increased to -10% multiplicative total damage, up from -10% additive total base damage.
  • For example, a skill that did 200% base damage before would have done 190% (200% + -10%), but will now do 180% (200% * .9).
• Bonus damage given by 5 stacks of Healing or Consuming Magefire has been increased to +100% base damage, up from +75% base damage.
  • Devouring Magefire is unchanged at +150% base damage.
• Pyromancer's Flames
  • Now tracks the number of Flames stacks per indiviudal target, instead of as a single value.
    
  • Now requires a successful hit to increase the Flames stack count on the target.
    
  • Effect is now properly removed when a target is defeated.
• Conflagration
  • Now only purges Pyromancer's Flames from the selected target.
    
  • Target is now required to have 5 stacks of Pyromancer's Flames to be targetable by Conflagration.
• To Ashes
  • Damage scaling reduced to +75% base damage per effect, down from +120% base damage per effect.
    
  • Maximum number of effects to scale reduced to 5 max effects, down from 10.
    
  • Damage scaling now only counts effects that are purged.
    
  • Damage scaling now works with Devouring Magefire's Crit and Boost bonuses.
• Breath of Fire
  • Cooldown increased to 5 turns, up from 4.
    
  • Was effectively 5 turns before, as it always was unusable for 1 turn after coming off of cooldown.
    
  • Damage scaling now starts at 1 stack instead of 0 following its first use, matching its scaling when first used in battle.

Specials:

• An icon will now display on the special button when you have an on-hit special slotted.
  
• Fixed a bug where loading a build with an on-hit special would reset the cooldown of any subsequent on-demand specials to max.
  
• Double turns no longer reduce the cooldown of specials or trinkets.

Other Fixes and Adjustments:

• Atrea's Spire (and the Atealan base class upgrades) is now locked behind completion of the quest "Book One Epilogue".
  
• Willowshire Part 2 (The Earth Orb Saga, specifically quests starting with "A Dark Place") is now locked behind completion of the quest "Memory-Demons" (the Darkness Orb finale).
  
• Keybind Diagram in the options menu has been updated!
  
• Fixed an issue where the titan dragon customization screen in Sunbreeze Grove would not disable keybinds.
  
• Fixed a crash when attempting to load saved outfits on classes that cannot equip certain items.
  
• Fixed an issue where classes that were not intended to, could equip slotted specials.
  
• Classic SFX option is now available in the Options screen! Nostalgia!
  
• The Stat Trainer UI now includes a stat reset button!
  • Existing external reset buttons have been removed from Clyde the Stats Moglin and the Falconreach mayors' offices.
• And anything else I may have forgotten!

While I don't want to promise anything, these SHOULD be the final major balance adjustments for a while. STR/LUK changes are still coming, as are other class reworks, but things should be given a bit of time to settle, for now. That said, other QoL and fixes are still on the way in the future!

And that's all for today! But stay tuned, because the next quest in Book 3's final arc: Convergence, is coming tomorrow!

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Saturday, September 16, 2023
Book 3: Convergence - For the Fallen
Hey there, heroes!

This week's main story release has arrived! As Amadeus and Alteon recover from their recent exertions, it seems Zvezdana has a mission for you. It seems a certain familiar golemancer has been scavenging Magesterium golem parts!

Ostromir seems particularly interested in this mission too...

Will this finally be the end of Zadd? Or willl the coward manage to shuffle away once again?

Head over to Outpost Yeden and take on the latest Book 3 quest: For the Fallen!

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Also, some more bug fixes and adjustments!

• Fixed an issue where the Rogue's multi skill could cause the game to stick.
  
• Fixed an issue with the quest Haunted Castle/Castle Ruins where the first battle had a tiny hero.
  
• Fixed an issue where you could get stuck in the top right-side corner of the room behind the locked door in the True Mortal quest "The Maker"
  
• The cooldown of Honda's Legacy and Honda's Legacy EX has been reduced to 12, from 17.
  
• Fixed a number of issues with Pyromancer's Magefire and Conflagration.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Chaos Slayers challenge where the Cleric and Berserker would not apply ANATHEMA to themselves.
  
• Fixed an issue with the Patroclus challenge where a forced unequipped dragon's cooldowns would reset.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Guardian Dragon challenge was not applying Bonus with the Confidence effect.
  
• Fixed the descriptions of Sciuridaehotep's color shifts.

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Unfortunately, due to a family emergency this morning, the status/schedule of the next few weeks' releases is a bit tenuous. Depending on what happens, releases may be out of order or not as scheduled, as I cannot guarantee my own availability.

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And that's all for this week.

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I must admit I was quite surprised as to why Ostromir seemed so personally angry at Zadd despite having never encountered him personally. At the start of quest, the initial pop-up dialogue would have seemed to have indicated that he was just furious about Zadd destroying the golems of the Magesterium, golems mind you powered by the ejected souls of those who became one of the Ignominious. It would stand to reason that he'd be enraged in some way that Zadd and the Rose has effectively made them suffer a second death if he has any sentiment for their place in the Shapeless Empire even if it was an enforced role. However, once he mentions Raven's name its clear he was able to put two and two together from her story of her parent's death that Zadd's creations were in fact responsible for their demise to begin with. Furthermore, there is his guilt for his past actions in the Wastes as well as the Magesterium's role in Raven's family feeling the need to flee from the Empire. For all the good the "Shapeless Wills" for their empire it undeniably has caused its fair share of suffering for those that live within it and now that fact is wide and clear before him Ostromir is understandably weighed down by it all. He truly believes in the good that the Shapeless Wills and the sacrifices made that lay at its foundations but the knowledge of the loss and horrors its responsible for have to present doubts and a need to set those wrongs to proper rights to prove what you stand for is still for the good and best for your people.

Ah and this would appear to be the end of the golem obsessed mage known as Zadd for now. Honestly didn't expect him to die here at all but given his actions and the fact that he would have likely continued to experiment recklessly, leading to further harm, his death was well earned. With that being said, it is incredibly fascinating to think about how long Zadd has been around up to this point. He practically started off as a seasonal C-tiered villian and managed to elevate himself just a little bit higher to a villainous megalomaniac that's played a serious role in the background and motivations of some of the smaller characters in the main story. That is no small feat, heck I was even a little bit impressed by his last stand, a fight that is the culmination of all he understood of golemancy, and I feel just a teeny bit melancholic about his line about not being able to discover more. My guy was a mad wizard through and through. I guess what I'm getting at is that impressed with what the devs have managed to do with him.

As for that golden cube Ostromir used, it seems rather clear to me that its some form of modified remnant Exalted tech for the act of teleporting an individual a certain distance to where they want to go although seemingly not on the same level as whatever modifications Notha made to her own body when she uncovered the remains of Exalted technology as the magesters' cube is a one-time use item by the looks of things. Though I'm still curious as to what those golden orbs were supposed to do. Powering the cube? The Sword? Or something else entirely? And on that matter of the Delta Saber, I presume its soulforged given its clear connection to delta star and soul visor catalysts as well the fact that it has all too familiar elemental spirit ball that forms inside it. Zvezadana indicated they certainly have more of them so I'm curious as to how many they have on hand.

All in all, this was a pleasant quest.


Also, sorry to hear about your family Verlyrus but I hope all goes well with them!

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I had a rough time fighting Zadd; it took me three times before I finally managed to take him down. At first I tried to ignore his golems and just power on through, but it seems better to knock them off the board as many times as it takes. Whatever power he kept using to make my skills unavailable was... really annoying. I recommend making sure your healing potions are up to date, and maybe inviting a guest or two.

The story, ah, the story. I had not connected Zadd's mad golem-crafting to the death of Raven's parents. Will Ostromir ever tell Raven what happened, and what his feeling of guilt made him do this day?

All in all, Zadd's death felt well-deserved to me, and long in coming. I will not miss him mucking about with things he should have either left well alone - I won't forget his utter glee at discovering the way the Magesterium powers its golems with souls - or kept better control of. I will not miss him scurrying off again and again, only to plague us later. The only thing better than Zadd dead on the field of battle would have been Zadd locked in a jail cell, singing like a canary about anything and everything asked of him, betraying his utter cowardice and lack of true loyalty.
I doubt it was Jaania who let the old fink off his chain to cause chaos; that seems more Akanthus's shtick. And remember that Zadd actually seemed to believe they were friends and relied on his word...

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'For the Fallen' indeed. Ostromir's dialogue during the quest did make me worry something would happen to him. But after he mentioned Raven's name it all lined up. I don't really take issue with what he did, as I think it adds some interesting depth and complexity to his character. He felt powerless because of the state of his homeland and his inability to do anything about it, but he also felt guilt and some sense of responsibility for what drove Raven from Azaveyr, leading up to her parents' deaths at the hands of one of Zadd's seemingly old prototypes. I find it interesting that he was compelled to go out of his way to avenge Raven's parents and resolve his internal conflict. And it's not like I'll be shedding any tears for Zadd either.

I do however take some issue with how the Hero responded. It's possible they were subduing any unease or guilt over Zadd's death for Ostromir's sake, but to me it really seems like Hero just kind of approved of the killing of a pretty minor villain in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it was Zadd's reckless experimentation that resulted in Raven's parents' deaths, but I doubt he had any intent to sick his new weapon on an innocent family of refugees just to see if it would be a proficient killer. Beyond that and some old Frostval shenanigans, I really don't think Zadd's actions would be worth such drastic punishment in the Hero's eyes.

I do want to be clear and say that I don't mind characters doing morally dubious things. Especially characters like Ostromir and Vseslava who already have a pretty gruesome established history; they're magisters afterall. But I do think that when such things happen, the Hero should act as a fairly consistent moral anchor and at least express some doubt or guilt when one of their allies goes so much further than they would.

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Is it possible that the final Proclamation arc reward is a Pet of some kind? We seem to be collecting components for something mechanical. Possibly a golem? A golem pet would be neat. Of course a good belt or ring would be fun, but you can actually see a pet, like you can a weapon, helmet or cloak.