Patch Note 1.116

[Leodagan]

First Patch Note published with expected Champion Level change...

And I'll explain a bit later why I'm depressed, and how this is gonna be solved pretty easily

1.116 Pendragon Patch Notes

Highlights

• Obtain one of the 250+ brand new or revamped Champion Abilities and one of the 150+ Champion Weapons on your quest for Champion Level 15!
• Brave the depths of the Darkness Falls RvR dungeon to experience new encounters and find new rewards!
• The Portal Ceremony has made its exit!
• Several item and class adjustments, including global item use-timers, Assassins, Warlocks, and Caster stat debuffs!

Frontiers

Changes

• Master Vaughn, Stor Gothi Dagny, and Brerend will no longer be performing the Portal Ceremony. Instead they will teleport players to the same teleport locations as other Channelers found throughout the world.
• (Ywain Only) Players will now respawn in their realm's Portal Keep when /releasing in the Frontiers instead of the strength Relic town.
• Portal stones have been added back to both Border Keeps and both Relic Towns
• A new teleporter has been added to the Portal Keeps that will teleport players directly to the Relic Towns
• Buff NPCs have been moved back inside of the Portal Keeps
• Apprentice Vaughn, Dagny, and Brerend have been moved from the Strength Relic Towns to the Power Relic Towns
• Archer guards at each Portal Keep have had their attack range increased to the proper amount. They will now attack from the same distance as the caster guards.
• The invulnerable guards around the Strength Relic Towns have been removed.

Quests

• The Supplies for the Cause quest rewards have been reduced from all 3 Doppelganger realm shards to a choice of 2 Doppelganger realm shards.

Champion Levels
Changes

• All players have received a forced Champion Ability respec and had their points refunded.
• Players are now able to progress to Champion Level 15.
  
  • This means players will receive the normal hit point modifier and power pool increase with each subsequent champion level.
  • Champion Level 15 is earned in the same way that CLs 1-10 were earned: experience. Quests and RvR combat will be the fastest ways to earn CL XP.
  • If you have already visited the King once to embark on the Champion Levels, there is no need to visit him to proceed towards CL15.
• Each champion level between 11 and 15 will require twice as much experience as each champion level between 1 and 10.
• Players will now receive 1 additional Champion Ability point when embarking on their Champion Levels.
  
  • This means after the forced champion level respec, CL10 players will see that they have 11 CL points to spend now instead of the previous 10.
• Players will receive 1 additional Champion Ability point for each Champion Level from 11 to 15, for a total of 16 points at CL15.

Abilities

• Champion Abilities have received a complete overhaul.
• Champion Ability-point costs have been altered as follows:
  
  • First ability in each column: 1 point
  • Second ability in each column: 2 points
  • Third ability in each column: 3 points
  • Fourth ability in each column: 4 points
  • Fifth ability in each column: 5 points
• This means in order to get all 5 abilities in a given column, it will take 15 of the possible 16 Champion Ability points.
• In conjunction with this point increase, almost all previously-existing abilities have been moved and condensed towards the beginning of each column.
  
  • This means that the old point cost for the 5th ability in a column (5 total points) is roughly the same as it is now for the 3rd ability in a column (6 total points). Given this general increase, almost all of the old 5th abilities are now located at the 3rd position in a column or earlier, and so on.
    
    • With the condensing of abilities, several under-used or under-powered abilities have been removed.
  • The new 4th and 5th slot Champion Abilities in each column are significant upgrades from either abilities obtained earlier in that column, or are unique, new abilities.
• Scores of new abilities have been added and almost all of the existing abilities have been tweaked. Check out the base trainers in each realm to see them!
  
  • The same base trainer restrictions apply as before. Players may only train CL abilities from base trainers other than their class’ base trainer.
    
    • Base Trainers are located in Cotswold and Caer Gothwaite in Albion, Mularn and Aegirhamn in Midgard, and Mag Mell and Grove of Domnann in Hibernia
• Newly obtained Luminescent Cambiare Stones can now be /used in order to perform a CL respec and will now stack to a count of 25, instead of 5.
  
  • These stones can only be /used when unstacked and when at least 1 Champion Ability point has been spent.
  • Already purchased and pre-existing Luminescent Cambiare Stones will not be /usable unless stacked on top of a newly purchased stone.
  • Newly purchased stones that get stacked onto pre-existing ones will no longer be /usable either, so be careful!

Quests

• A new quest line has been added to help guide players towards achieving Champion Level 15.
• Travel to your realm’s throne room and speak to the following NPC in order to embark on these new quests.
  
  • Chamberlain Harlen in Albion
  • Athr Hasetti Theyr in Midgard
  • Seneschal Desmond in Hibernia
  • Players must be CL10+ in order to receive this new quest.
• Performing this quest chain will grant players additional Daemon Blood Seals as well as a significant amount of CL XP.

Items

• 150+ new Champion Level 15 Weapons have been added, and they look stunning!
• These weapons can be obtained by either defeating certain high-end encounters within Darkness Falls or by obtaining the new DF currency, Daemon Blood Seals, and purchasing the weapons from the new Imp Blood Seal merchants within the dungeon.
  
  • These weapons are purchase-able prior to CL15 but will not be able to be equipped until CL15 has been obtained.
  • These weapons are trade-able and multiple weapons can be obtained, though each weapon can only be equipped by its designated class.

Darkness Falls

Changes

• The following mob encounters have received significant upgrades in behavior and difficulty. Each of these encounters, aside from Beliathan and Lilith which are simply BG-credit, require players to be within the immediate area of the mob to receive credit for their kill. These areas are marked with region names that display when entering and leaving them.
  
  • Legion
  • Lilith the Demon Queen
  • Beliathan
  • Grand Chancellor Adremal
  • Field Marshal Nebir
  • Prince Abdin
  • Prince Asmoien
  • Prince Ba’alorien
  • Princess Nahemah
  • High Lord Baelerdoth
  • High Lord Baln
  • High Lord Oro
  • High Lord Saeor
  • Gatekeeper Dommel
• All other mobs throughout Darkness Falls have had their difficulty increased.
• The experience and coin bonuses for venturing in Darkness Falls have been increased from 100% to 150%.
• New, upgraded loot has been added to Legion, Lilith the Demon Queen, Beliathan, Grand Chancellor Adremal, and Field Marshal Nebir.
• A new currency has been added to the dungeon: Daemon Blood Seals. Blood Seals can be used to purchase the new CL15 Weapons and new unique loot.
• Daemon Blood Seals will be available almost exclusively via quest. Seek out Mystemas near each realm’s merchants for repeatable quests that direct players to content that will grant the seals. Some seals will also have a chance to drop off the very high-end encounters.
• New Imp Merchants have been added to each realm’s merchant area at their entrance to the dungeon that will sell the Daemon Blood Seal items.
• All Imp merchants now denote which type of items they have for sale. Armor Merchants will also sell jewelry.
  
  • Emerald Armor Merchant
  • Emerald Weapon Merchant
  • Sapphire Amor Merchant
  • Sapphire Weapon Merchant
  • Diamond Armor Merchant
  • Diamond Weapon Merchant
  • Blood Armor Merchant
  • Blood Weapon Merchant

Quests

• The Call of the Champion quests in Darkness Falls have been disabled.
• New repeatable quests have been added that direct players to kill high-end encounters in Darkness Falls for the new Daemon Blood Seals. Visit the NPC, Mystemas, around each realm’s merchants in Darkness Falls in order to obtain these quests.
  
  • All of these repeatable quests are also automatically given when defeating the requisite encounter, so picking up the quests beforehand, while not necessary, will at least direct you towards the appropriate encounters.

Class Balance

Classes
Assassins

• Assassins have been given a forced skill respec.

Critical Strike Specialization

• The level 44 style, Rib Separation, now opens off Evade and is no longer a followup to Hamstring. Its to-hit bonus has been decreased from 15% to 10% and defensive bonus decreased from 10% to 5%. Its random armor piece wither effect has had its duration reduced from 20s to 15s.
• The level 45 style, Incapacitate, has had its to-hit bonus increased from 15% to 20%.
• The level 46 style, Neck Shot, has had its to-hit bonus increased from 20% to 25%.
• The level 47 style, Rib Shot, has had its to-hit bonus increased from 20% to 25%.
• The level 48 style, Hip Shot, has had its to-hit bonus increased from 20% to 25%.
• The level 50 style, Ripper, now follows the Garrote style instead of the Achilles Heel style. Its random armor piece wither effect has had its duration reduced from 20s to 15s.

Bard

• The single-target and area-of-effect instant amnesia spells have had their ranged reduced from 2300 to 2000.

Casters/Support

• All caster and support instant stat debuff spells (strength, constitution, dexterity, str/con, dex/qui, and de- haste) have been normalized from a 5s recast and varying durations down to a 10s recast and 30s duration.

Champion

• The instant haste, str/con, dex/qui, and acuity stat debuffs have had their durations reduced to 45s.

Eldritch

• In conjunction with the instant stat debuff recast and duration changes, the following changes have been made.
  
  • The level 3 to level 18 single target dex/qui debuff spells have been changed to area of effect debuffs.
  • The now AoE dex/qui debuff and AoE str/con debuff spells share a recast timer.

Reaver

• The instant acuity stat debuffs have had their durations reduced to 45s.

Thane

• The instant acuity stat debuffs have had their durations reduced to 45s.

Warlock

• Warlocks now have access to the Mastery of Healing and Wild Healing realm abilities.
• Warlocks have been given a forced skill respec.

Witchcraft Specialization

• The Greater Spell of Absorption line of spells in the Witchcraft specialization are no longer secondary spells and have been changed from a targeted damage suppression focus buff to a normal, self-targeted melee absorb buff as follows:

Level 13 - Spell of Protection - 13% abs - 4 power cost - 20 minute duration - 3.0s cast time
Level 24 - Greater Spell of Protection - 17% abs - 6 power cost - 20 minute duration - 3.0s cast time
Level 33 - Lesser Spell of Absorption - 21% abs - 8 power cost - 20 minute duration - 3.0s cast time
Level 43 - Spell of Absorption - 26% abs - 10 power cost - 20 minute duration - 3.0s cast time
Level 49 - Greater Spell of Absorption - 31% abs - 12 power cost - 20 minute duration - 3.0s cast time

• The Erode Armor (AF debuff) spells are now secondary instead of normal-casted spells and can take advantage of the Warlock's Primer spells' benefits.

Hexing Specialization

• The Putrefying Hex (lifetap) line of spells has had its damage type changed from Matter to Energy
• A casted Matter debuff line of spells has been added to the Hexing specialization as follows:

Level 23 - Malevolent Affliction - 15% Matter Debuff - 8s duration - 2.0s cast time - 12 power
Level 34 - Malevolent Pestilence - 25% Matter Debuff - 8s duration - 2.0s cast time - 16 power
Level 44 - Malevolent Scourge - 40% Matter Debuff - 8s duration - 2.0s cast time - 24 power

• The level 44 spell, Spell of Crawling (secondary snare), has been moved to Level 42 to compensate for the new level 44 Matter debuff spell above.
• The secondary AoE Snare/DD line of spells have had their power costs removed. These are secondary spells and never should have had a power cost.

Items

• All global item-use timers have been normalized to 90 seconds.
  
  • This change specifically affects the timer seen after using one item and then trying to use a second, different item.
  • This change only affects equipped items that are /used. It does not affect potions or other similar items.
• The Mesmerization Poison, essence flare, summoned by the Essence Flare Spymaster ability, will now only work for Assassins.

General Bug Fixes

• (Crash) Crashes resulting from certain combinations of the Bard Realm Rank 5 ability and Classic Character Models have been fixed.
• (Item) Dragonslayer armor can once again be placed into a vault.
• (Item) Draughts of Heroism and Supremacy should fire more consistently now.
• (Quest) Report to Druim Cain now steps correctly when speaking with Channeler Drolg.
• (Quest) Clerics can once again activate the un-leveled version of the Aten's Shield artifact.
• (Class) Paladin’s Greater Battle Zeal line of spells will now pulse while sitting.

[Leodagan]

They did it on purpose !!

They changed the cost of Champion Line Training !!

Just when I'm finishing my Data-Driven Career which is lightly implementing Champion Levels with a step-by-step training (1 point = 1 level) they now offer Champion Skills Tree which cost are gradually improving like Standard Training (Level 1 = 1pt, Level 2 = 2pts, Level 3 = 3pts, going to level 3 thus cost 6 pts, which a total cost of 15pts for a level 5 skill)

Champion Lines were the part I worked the least, this is payback

The good part is that changing how Champion Spec points are calculated when spent is not pretty hard, but maybe it'll need a switch for admin wanting to keep the old behavior, the bad part is that checks made when training were pretty basic (only checking if 1 pt is left as it was the cost of any skill...) and that this will need some improvement, or maybe even some new "skill cost" method implemented in Specialization for allowing easier customization... (I don't like ugly "fix" and it's always a good opportunity to improve DOL flexibility)

[Tolakram]

Look at the nerfs in there. Wow. The assassin nerfs are going to raise an epic uproar.

Why did they remove the portal ceremony?

[Leodagan]

Why did they remove the portal ceremony?

This was my second trouble... just when I had provided a Script

The Typical "way" of NNF is : Port to "Relic Town" then just wait ceremony for port to Portal Keep then use the Portal Stone to go where you want, you never tried to go back to "Relic Town" or you'll had to wait for Ceremony again...

It's a lot of "teleport" steps to go into frontiers, and it's not feeling right to move around your own realm frontier.

But I don't understand how it work without ceremony ?

For Class balance I think it's pretty ugly, "Debuff nerf" when they had so much trouble to give them a real use, Champion Debuff are Nerfed when Champion is one of the most "Skill"-less hybrid...

Amnesia Nerf for Bard (only because of it's instant ??), Warlock change another spell moved to energy resist (a lot of latest class upgrade are using energy...)

The champion level improvement will allow for upgraded Health for all characters, health upgrade are a general caster nerf

[Leodagan]

Report about new Champion Skills :

Spells :
overall spell damage raised;
newer Bolt and PBAE spell seems more effective (higher bolt range, lower pbae cast time)
AoE effects improved (AoE DD+Resists, AoE DD+Snare)
A new "Must Have" AoE Disease 1500 range 250 Radius 30 seconds effect...
Some "Self" heal over time spell have made their way in specific lines... (could reproduce the Mentalist ability to heal himself easily)

Fighter :

Offer some styles in the firsts level that doesn't offer much delve... (they mostly looks like previous ones...) they're pre-requisite to new "melee buff", that work like long time buff or battle instant cast buffs
Including light Abs buffs / endu regen buff / Accuracy buff / Mezz reduction / Snare Root Reduction, Insta Melee Health Buffer, Insta Parrying Buff

The new CC reduction buff could be something interesting.

Stealther :

Offer some styles like Fighter, there is some higher level styles available in tree instead of buff, but some other skill are blend in there like "Body resist" Buff, Direct Damage, Insta Evade Buff (that should work on character without evade ability) and still some melee health buffer, or endu regen, light attack speed buff.

Healer :

More effective heal/cure spell with line ending with a targeted nearsight cure ! (cast time are pretty long, above 4 sec, but this kind of skill is gonna be a must have for casters...), resist buff has been made in one and only spell giving 10% for all magic resists, Group oriented heal line has been improved with light spread heal (4.5sec cast), targeted heal over time and contains the resists buffs
Stats buff line can offer most of a spec buffer abilities (dex/str/acuity/haste/con/str-con/dex-qui concentration based buffs) but value are somewhat in the "lower level" of a spec buffer, I see mostly no use to this as there is NPC buff bot that should grant similar effects


Conclusion :

Newer AoE disease for those who found this only skill useful in their previous CL template, overall spell have been given more usability due to improved values and cast times (they were only useful for their side effect or range interrupt before...)
Fighters ability will now grant more options for survivability for all those class that can't get advantage of close combat (styles are mostly useless, characters that shouldn't go to close combat won't take advantage of drawing their weapon against an opponent !)
Healer subclass improvement is really impressive, but low cast time will give these skill most usability when resting and may give more "supporting" option on siege fight (where you can find some hidden spot to take time to cast these...)

Realms Skill distribution is the same for Healer (except midgard seer having the supplementary Disease Line)/Fighter/Stealther, Casters lines are offering more options depending on realms, they try to mimic their own realm caster abilities (Albion elementalists have mostly damaging or damage component spells / mages debuff and DoT, Hibernia have diversified lines with damage and heal like mentalists or debuffs and drain health in forester lines, midgard lacking of caster base trainer offer the basic DoT+Heal, Debuff + Drain Health, PBAE oriented Line or Bolt oriented Line by the mystic trainer.)

They did a great work to bring subclass to something that is more than "some bonus skill you could have in potions or charge", the new skill cost will bring different "Champion Template", the Hit Point bonus continuing to increase with CL Level 11-15 grant a stats upgrade to those who advance their subclass, but I must honestly say that this looks like a "Patchy" way to bring more leveling to Dark Age of Camelot (experience needed for each CL is now gradually raising with each level), and there will always be some balance prerequisite in DAOC like "you shouldn't get a better skill than someone who spec'ed higher in their training to get their skill"

Now even with 16 total champion spec points you need to spend 15 points to get latest "awesome" skills (Cure Nearsight, AE disease, spreadheal, mezz reduction buff) and the only 1 left point won't enable to get the 2 or 3 first levels in an other line to get utility skills (All resists buff, endurance regen buff, self abs long term buff, evade buff...) , they removed the ability to fully spec 2 lines, and they distributed some unique class-defining skills to force you to choose between a full-spec or a multi-spec template

I think this is only a starting point for revamping Subclass and that nothing prevents from improving CL Max Level from time to time, as skill cost improve with level it won't make a huge harm to even give 15 more level in some months !! (allowing for finally choosing 2 FULL lines) Or Even staying around CL25 to prevent any char from having "2 latest" skill

[Graveen]

interesting !!