AC2:Announcements - 2005/05 - Legions
Edit
Original Link (now dead) - http://ac2.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=342
Release
The last Empyrean breathed slowly, trying to calm her fears. There could be no danger in this place that she had avoided for so long. It was one of the best-hidden, best-protected centers of power on Auberean. Any invader with evil intent would be assailed by defenses more potent than Nalicana's own spells -- and she felt sure those defenses would have alerted her to any intrusion. The Tower's master had held her in high esteem. Higher, she knew, than she had ever deserved.
She turned the crude key over and over in her hands. Its dull color was something like iron and something like lead, with no luster at all. And it was strangely heavy, almost uncomfortable to hold. Were these natural properties of whatever stuff Asheron had used to fashion the key? Or was it enchanted to seem worthless to casual observers?
Nalicana thought of the insects that disguised themselves as sticks and leaves to hide themselves from predators. The Tower and the key were both disguised, she knew. She had always assumed this was meant to hide them from the Olthoi or the Shadow. As she cast her eyes towards the top of the Tower -- even now shimmering in her vision, so that it was a stony outcropping, and then a massive tree, and once again a blank-faced turret without doors or windows -- she did not feel like a predator. She felt like a stick-bug, praying that the Tower would not see through her own disguise. But what did she have to hide? She was only here to fulfill the Tower's purpose.
Grasping the key tightly, she spoke a word of transport. And then, whether predator or prey, she was inside.
* * *
Shi Honauri would not weep for Aun Tanua. While Tanua's breath had lingered, Honauri had been unashamed of his tears. The great warrior could neither see nor hear them. But now? Now, Tanua might inhabit any blade of grass, any stray breeze, any drop of rain. Now, Honauri would not offend the master's sensibilities with unwanted grief.
And there was still one duty to perform before Honauri set out on his own final quest. In his bones, Honauri knew his slow life in this backwater had burned away on Tanua's pyre. Honauri felt the call of the animae again, just as he had been called in his youth. But how could an old and broken Tumerok answer such a call? Only by traveling to the same place Tanua had gone. Honauri would seek the great spirits one last time, but he felt sure he would not meet them in this world.
He would die on his last journey. And for that, he was grateful. Better to depart this world softly and soundlessly, before its kings and charlatans could try to turn you into a hero.
But not yet. Not until Tanua's ashes were scattered. Honauri hobbled out of the old farmhouse, which before Tanua's battle had seemed haunted, and now was merely empty. Could these blasted fields ever bear fruit again, Honauri wondered? Had Tanua's sacrifice consecrated the land, or had the kemeroi's touch left it forever poisoned? The question was moot. No peasant family would dare to re-inhabit this homestead until its story had faded from local legend. By that time, the field would be a forest.
Shi Honauri took up the weather-worn rake that leant against the farmhouse. Swallowing the last of his grief, he began clearing away the evidence of Aun Tanua's passing.
* * *
Nalicana thought the Tower's interior would be lightless and suffocating. She imagined that even the rats must have died long ago, had any remained inside when Asheron sealed the Tower away from the world.
It was a shock to regain awareness at the Tower's peak and find the place bright and... alive? No, not alive, but sleeping. Breathing. And there were webs in the corners and tracks in the dust. So there must be cracks in the walls or in the foundation; some breach into which life could creep, ignoring all spells of illusion, as animals often did. Surprising, but not as surprising as the Tower's still-burning lights. Had the Servitors tended them across the silent years? She passed a few inert automatons as she descended into the Tower's core, but they did not acknowledge her presence.
Was that because she intended no harm? That must be it, she decided. The Tower's defenses did not care about her. She was only here to do what must be done: to set the key in its ethereal lock, to turn it, and probably to end this age of the world. For nothing would ever be the same, once Asheron's most incredible deed -- the salvation and imprisonment of his race -- had been undone.
And wasn't that for the best? Surely Asheron had not meant for the Sundering to last forever. If he had, why leave behind the Tower, the gate and the key? Why put to sleep what might better be left to die? Sticky webs clung to Nalicana's face as she descended past empty rooms, but she didn't notice them. Her thoughts were torn between her present fears of the strange, brutal, not-quite-Falatacot invaders on Knorr, and of her own memories of the past.
The Seaborne Empire of Yalain had been founded on the bones of the Falatacot. It had won dominion over Auberean by wresting it from the Undead, who were the misbegotten half-children of Falatacot blood magic. Without the Falatacot blasphemies, there would have been no Firstborn and no Geraine. And the Falatacot witches had been the first to cry out to the Shadow with welcoming voices -- a cry which Ilservian Palacost repeated in later days, and which transformed him into Bael'Zharon the Destroyer. If you traced Auberean's darkest monsters to their roots, too often you found the Falatacot witches and their lust for the dark. If the Falatacot had returned, the Empyreans must also rise again.
But hadn't Maila Realadain used a forbidden spell to save her son Asheron's life from Bael'Zharon's first doom? Had that, too, been an act of evil? Nalicana suddenly realized that Asheron had thought so. He'd always blamed himself for the Sundering and for everything that followed. He had never forgiven himself for surviving the blast that killed his mother and the noble Council. And he had never believed that the disaster of the Olthoi had been beyond his power to prevent.
Nalicana stood before the gate. She brandished the dull key and opened her mouth to recite the simple cantrip that would unite key, gate and Tower. The Sundered Lands would open themselves to Auberean, and the survivors of Yalain would sleep no more. Nalicana would be the last Empyrean no longer.
In a flash of insight, she knew it was all wrong.
Asheron had left the Empyreans caged because he had finally grasped the depths of their failure. They should have embodied perfection and Light. Instead, they had degenerated into inquisitors, emperors, merchants and fools. Asheron might have been Yalain's great protector, but his weakness had allowed the Olthoi to lay his people low. There was no place for such failures in the new world that Asheron had helped create, the world of the Humans, the Tumeroks and the Lugians. That was why Asheron had never released his people from bondage. And that was why Nalicana would never turn this key.
It was a simple thing to reverse the key, to hold it high above her head. Without hesitation, she began to chant a more potent spell, a spell of destruction. Raw force surged through her arms and hands. She channeled her energies into the ugly relic until it began to glow, to shiver, and to fracture....
And Nalicana's vision blazed as lightning leapt from half a dozen points around the gate, coursing into her unprotected body. The terrible assault blasted away everything that was not pain. Nalicana fell screaming to the ground, the key and her intentions forgotten. As her robes smoldered and burned, a corner of her disciplined mind warned that her heart and lungs were cooking within the Tower's terrible wrath, and that her brain would soon follow. Asheron's old defenses had seen through her disguise and found her purpose. She was an enemy of the Tower. It would kill her to save itself.
A dark shape flowed smoothly into the room. Ignoring Nalicana's writhing body, it swept up the heavy key and thrust it towards the gate. A harsh and grating voice intoned the words that Nalicana had refused to speak. A long-isolated bubble in portalspace shifted, distorted, and made contact with the surface of Auberean's reality. And nothing would ever be the same again.
* * *
Shi Honauri crouched on his haunches, staring at the terrible thing in the ashes.
It was... not merely beautiful. It was perfect. Every rivet glittered like diamond, every strap glowed with the suppleness of strong leather. Where a deep crater had once welled with the life's-blood of immortal Tanua, there was nothing but proud and shining metal. Where it caught and reflected the dawn's light, it was brighter than the sun.
Shi Honauri reached out slowly, knowing and hating the loss of peace that must follow. But the animae would not let him flee into the forest, as he willed himself to do. Instead, he brushed the metal lightly with his fingertips.
And the breastplate of Aun Tanua sang to him. It sang of hope and resolve and power. It sang of regret and loss and despair. The armor's song was of a true heart, bound always to the struggle and glory of life.
There was no decision to be made. There were only a few more moments to savor the cool breeze, the rustling of the withered corn, and the first drops of an early-morning rain.
* * *
Nalicana could not stay awake for long. Her pain was too great, her strength nearly spent. But one question would not wait for healing. She whispered through cracked lips, "Why did you turn the key?"
"We cannot refuse our destinies," Isin Dule replied, cloaked as always in half-shadow. "That is what I have learned from my long journey. Again and again, I have tried to stop chasing my lost soul. I have sought to embrace darkness, I have sought to flee from darkness, I have sought to bargain with darkness. But darkness is not my destiny. My destiny is my own. And so my search continues."
"What is my destiny, then?"
Letter to the Players #1 Edit
Original Link (now dead) - http://forums.ac2.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=13132
Legions Letter #7: Details of Hero 2.0
Welcome to the first of many Legions Letters! These letters will detail game systems changes that are included in AC2: Legions. The first three letters will be about the three Empyrean classes.
While we’re providing all the numbers on the skills so that you can see how they'll work, please understand that even now, the numbers are still subject to change. We have a new batch of players trying out the classes now, and we will likely make some final tweaks to the classes based on their feedback.
We have omitted Empyrean Hero information for now -- we’ll discuss the Hero Powers of Empyreans, and which skills can be raised past level 50, in a later update. But now, let’s talk about...
The Empyreans
They fled the Olthoi centuries ago. Now, guided back by an unknown hand, the Empyreans have returned to Auberean. But this is not the Auberean they knew. The Seaborne Empire is gone without a trace, and the last shreds of hope for the world are in peril – threatened by an enemy even deadlier than the Olthoi. Where there was once peace, now there is only strife.
A handful of primitive races – Humans, Tumeroks, Lugians – have taken up the banner of the Heroes of Dereth. These Heroes will rise to challenge the new foe, but they cannot win alone. It is time for the Empyreans to put aside their differences, and fight alongside these brash young allies to reclaim their lost world.
The Empyreans are no strangers to the ways of battle, slaying their enemies with exotic melee techniques, ancient spells of power, or the raw force of the perfectly-disciplined mind. Today we present their melee skills, which lead to the more-advanced skills of the Templar at higher levels.
Empyrean Melee
Most Empyreans learn to use a sword very early in life. They have devised an elegant, graceful combat system which lacks the physical brutality of other races, but makes up for it in agility and a touch of potent magic.
Skill Tree
Code:
23 Draw Blood Perfect Light
___/ | |
/ | |
18 Death Blow Demoralize Salvation Unfettered Fury
\_____ | \______ | \___ |
\ | \ | \ |
13 Deceive Purge Brilliance Maiming Blow
| | | ___/
| | | /
8 Engage Stun Feint
\________ | |
\ | |
3 Fleche Soothe
| __/
| /
2 Jugular Thrust
|
|
1 Thrust
Skills in Detail
Thrust
This skill does significantly more damage when the target is vulnerable.
Credits: 0
Vigor Cost: 32
Recovery: 1 second
Range: 1 meter
Damage: Weapon Only
Notes: this is the free skill that all Empyreans get at level 1. It cannot be raised.
Jugular Thrust
A melee attack. This skill does significantly more damage when the target is vulnerable.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 32
Recovery: 1 second
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Notes: the melee-tree "vuln-taker" skill.
Fleche
A melee attack.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 50
Recovery: 2 second
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Soothe
Improves the user’s health regeneration.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Duration: 120 seconds
Range: Self
Effect: 3 (L1) – 15 (L50) percent increase.
Engage
A melee attack that taunts the monster to attack the user.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 30
Recovery: 3 second
Range: 1 meter
Taunt: 5 (L1) – 10 (L50) percent.
Stun
A shield attack that stuns the target.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 160
Recovery: 7 seconds
Duration: 3 (L1) – 10 (L50) seconds.
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Effect: stuns target for 3 (L1) – 10 (L50) seconds
Feint
A melee attack. This attack will apply a bleed effect to the target.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 120
Recovery: 7 seconds
Duration: 30 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Effect: 2 (L1) – 8 (L50) damage per second.
Deceive
A melee attack that attempts to get the monster to stop attacking the user in favor of someone else.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 80
Recovery: 5 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Detaunt: 10 (L1) – 15 (L50) percent.
Purge
A user centered area-of-effect attack.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 150
Recovery: 5 seconds
Range: 8 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Brilliance
A self-targeted skill that reflects a portion of damage back to the attacker.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Duration: 120 seconds
Damage Reflected: 8 (L1) – 35 (L50) percent
Maiming Blow
A shield attack. If executed after Feint, this attack will lower the targets offensive masteries.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 120
Recovery: 5 seconds
Range: 8 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Successful Combo: 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) offensive mastery lost.
Death Blow
A powerful attack that has increased bonuses to critical strikes.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 110
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 1 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50).
Effect: attack has a 20% chance to critically-hit for double damage. (This is the same bonus as other critical-strike attacks such as Critical Throw or Betrayal.)
Demoralize
A melee attack that drains some of the target’s vigor and gives it to the user.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 140
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Effect: Drains 50 (L1) – 250 (L50) vigor from the target and gives 150% back to the user.
Salvation
A self-targeted emergency Vigor heal.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Vigor Healed: 20 (L1) – 250 (L50)
Unfettered Fury
A double-strike melee attack.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 140
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 2 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Draw Blood
A melee attack that drains some of the target’s health and gives it to the user.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 200
Recovery: 4 seconds
Range: 2 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Effect: Drains 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) health from the target and gives 300% back to the user.
Perfect Light
A powerful melee attack that sets the target on fire.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 300
Recovery: 5 seconds
Duration: 30 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50)
Effect: Drains 2 (L1) – 10 (L50) damage per second
Empyrean Templar
Starting at level 15, an Empyrean can choose to become a Templar. The Templar is a tank class. With sword and shield at the ready, a Templar uses his considerable defenses to keep others alive. The Templar thrives on hardship – indeed, he is empowered by it – and this feeling of “Giving Oneself for Others” permeates the Templar’s skill set.
As the Templar takes damage, they gain Valor. After a Templar has taken enough damage (roughly 1/4th of their total health), they reach
Valor Level 1 – their body emits a bright light. Further damage will increase this to
Valor Level 2 and then
Valor Level 3, at which point they will be glowing with energy.
Certain skills in the Templar tree are more effective when used while the Templar has
Valor Levels. Once one of these skills is used, the Templar’s
Valor Level resets to zero. The rate at which a Templar gains Valor from damage is determined by their level in Sigil of Valor, and can be further increased by the Righteousness skill.
Skill Tree
Code:
40 Inspiration
|
|
35 Blade of Blood Bind Atonement Compassion
Conviction \____ | ___/
| \ | /
30 Blade of Gift of Righteousness
Judgment Devotion _/ \_
\____ | / \
25 Scorn Au’s Grace Sacrificial
\_____ | \___ __/ Boon
\ | \ /
20 Blindside Affliction
| _____/
| /
15 Sigil Of Valor
Skills in Detail
Sigil Of Valor
Grants the Templar the ability to accrue Valor when taking damage. Also bestows health and armor to the Templar. This is a toggle skill; it can be turned on and off at will.
Credits: 5
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 4 seconds
Duration: Toggle
Range: Self
Effect: 70 (L1) - 100 (L50) percent of incoming damage is counted towards increasing your
Valor Level. Also, bestows 1 (L1) – 100 (L50) additional armor and 20 (L1) – 600 (L50) max health.
Blindside
A shield attack that stuns the target.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 110
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 2 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Effect: stuns target for 3 (L1) – 10 (L50) seconds
Affliction
A bloodletting attack. This skill is improved if the Templar has
Valor Levels.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 120
Recovery: 7 second
Range: 2 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Valor Level 1: 180 Damage over 15 seconds.
Valor Level 2: 300 Damage over 15 seconds.
Valor Level 3: 480 Damage over 15 seconds.
Scorn
A melee attack that taunts the monster to attack the user.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 170
Recovery: 5 seconds
Range: 2 meters
Taunt: 15%
Au’s Grace
A self targeted heal.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 220
Recovery: 4 seconds
Range: Self
Heal: 50 (L1) – 500 (L50)
Sacrificial Boon
Grants the Templar’s fellows health over time, while causing the Templar to lose health over time. This skill is a toggle buff; it can be turned on and off at will. If this skill would lower health so much that the Templar would die, the skill turns itself off instead.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 4 seconds
Duration: Toggle
Range: Aura
Fellow Effect: 2 (L1) – 20 (L50) health per second restored
Templar Effect: 2 (L1) – 20 (L50) health per second lost.
Notes: losing health isn’t a terrible thing for a Templar – they can gain Valor from this damage just as if they had been attacked by a monster. In fact, this skill has many tactical uses. For instance, it is handy for giving the Templar
Valor Level 1 before they ever enter combat.
Blade of Judgment
A melee attack that does additional damage, regardless of the target’s armor.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 200
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 2 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Additional Damage: 50 (L1) – 150 (L50) through armor damage.
Gift of Devotion
Negates some of the damage that the Templar and his fellows suffer.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Duration: 120 seconds
Damage Negated: 10 (L1) – 30 (L50) percent.
Righteousness
Increases the Templar’s ability to accrue Valor.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Duration: 120 seconds
Effect: When the Templar is attacked, the damage they receive counts towards their
Valor Level at an increased rate. The rate is increased by 1% (L1) – 50% (L50).
Blade of Conviction
A powerful melee attack. This skill is more effective if the Templar has
Valor Levels.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 180
Recovery: 7 seconds
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Valor Level 1: Additional 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) damage attack.
Valor Level 2: Two Additional 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) damage attacks.
Valor Level 3: Three Additional 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) damage attacks.
Bloodbind
Places a protective ward over the Templar’s fellows. While active, this ward will reflect damage inflicted upon the Templar’s fellows onto the Templar. This is a toggle skill; it can be turned on and off at will.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 4 seconds
Duration: Toggle
Effect: 10 (L1) - 30 (L50) percent of damage inflicted on the Templar's fellowship is negated. 80% of the damage negated is inflicted directly onto the Templar.
Notes: assuming that Sigil of Valor is enabled, the Templar gains Valor for the damage they receive from this skill.
Atonement
A melee attack that takes health from both the user and the target.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 200
Recovery: 12 seconds
Range: 2 meters
Damage Bonus: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50)
Target
Damage: 30 (L1) – 300 (L50)
Templar
Damage: 25 (L1) – 250 (L50)
Notes: assuming that Sigil of Valor is enabled, the Templar gains Valor for the damage they receive from this skill.
Compassion
A heal that affects the Templar's fellows. This skill is more effective if the Templar has
Valor Levels.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 400
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 20 meter
Effect: Heals 25 (L1) – 250 (L50) Damage.
Valor Level 1: Heals 50 (L1) – 400 (L50) Damage instead.
Valor Level 2: Heals 100 (L1) – 600 (L50) Damage instead.
Valor Level 3: Heals 150 (L1) – 900 (L50) Damage instead.
Inspiration
Restores the vigor of the Templar's fellows. Does not restore the vigor of the Templar. This skill is more effective if the Templar has Valor Levels.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 280
Recovery: 10 seconds
Range: 20 meters
Effect: Heals 20 (L1) – 200 (L50) Vigor.
Valor Level 1: Heals 50 (L1) – 350 (L50) Vigor instead.
Valor Level 2: Heals 100 (L1) – 500 (L50) Vigor instead.
Valor Level 3: Heals 150 (L1) – 700 (L50) Vigor instead.
Letter to the Players #2 Edit
Original Link (now dead) - http://forums.ac2.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=13362
Legions Letter #2: Crafting Changes
Welcome to Legions Letter #2: Crafting Changes. We were going to talk about the other Empyrean classes first, but we decided to jump ahead to the crafting changes, because we are providing these early, in the March update, along with some other content and features. (You can read about the other March update content here)
Crafting Changes for AC2: Legions
During the development of AC2: Legions, we’ve addressed many aspects of game play. Most of these are related to the hero levels of play, but some of the changes permeate all levels. The changes to crafting are a good example. We have decided to back-port the AC2: Legions Crafting changes into the March update, so you will receive these changes even before the expansion ships.
Durability… no more
As I mentioned months ago, we were planning to address the “durability issue” in Legions. Players feel that any weapon with durability is vastly inferior to a permanent weapon. Since not every item in the game has durability, crafted items are automatically treated as second-tier items.
Our original plan was to add an Item Repair system. This would allow crafters to repair weapons and armor for other players. After the item was repaired, it would be forever attuned to the owner – that way, crafted items could not be handed down to other players. However, after we implemented this system and played with it, we found it was too bulky, and not fun enough.
So we went back to the drawing board, and took another look at what we were trying to accomplish, and the best way to get there. Our objectives were:
- give crafted items a sense of permanence
- keep crafted items from being handed down forever, so that crafters have a steady flow of customers
- give crafters a new mechanism with which to interact with other players
So what is the easiest way to make crafted items have a sense of permanence? We simply removed Durability from all crafted weapons and armor. (Crafted tools still have durability, however.) This solves the problem in the method that most players prefer.
And to keep crafted items from being handed down forever, they are now Bind On First Use. When someone uses a crafted weapon or armor into battle, the weapon becomes linked to that player forever. They can still mule the weapon if they want – it isn’t attuned to them. But it can never be wielded by anybody except the first user.
The Bind-On-First-Use system has various safety checks built in. When you equip an item that will become bound when you use it, a warning message is displayed so that you know what’s happening. And an item that’s already been bound has another warning message in examination. Items that are Bind-On-First-Use but have not yet bound will have their names appear in green. Bind-On-First-Use items can be sold in shops until they become bound to a player, after which they will not be accepted by the vendor.
So what does this mean to you?
- All crafted weapons and armor will become Bind-On-First-Use. The next time someone uses that item in combat, the item will be bound to that person forever.
- All crafted weapons and armor will become durability-free. Crafted tools will still have durability, as will yellow-text Incomparable treasure items.
- Treasure items that have been spellbound will also become durability-free. They will be Bind-On-First-Use as well, so that only one owner will ever be able to use the item. These items will bind to the next person who uses them in battle. This will be applied retroactively to all existing spellbound items, as well as to new spellbound items.
We also added some brand new game systems that give crafters new roles in the economy. These new features revolve around a new type of item called Lodestones.
Lodestones
A strange new type of stone has started popping up in the most unusual places. Miners occasionally find them as they are working a mine, and hunters also find them on the corpses of their enemies. Dubbed “lodestones,” these are special magical spheres that contain ancient energies. The Shaper’s Guild has been instrumental in helping to find several different uses for these strange objects.
How Lodestones are Found
Miners have a small percentage chance of finding a lodestone each time they mine. Monster corpses, too, can have Lodestones on them, as long as the monster is no more than one level lower than the player's level. (This keeps high-level players from farming low-level monsters for lodestones.)
The quality level of the lodestone you find will be based on your player level:
Code:
| Player Level | Condition of lodestone |
|---|---|
| 15-29 | Crumbling |
| 30-44 | Brittle |
| 45-59 | Rough |
| 60-74 | Smooth |
| 75+ | Shining |
The quality of the lodestone determines how potent it is. But what do they actually do? That depends on what Type they are. They come in five types: Rusty, Clouded, Translucent, Marbled, and Mossy. So a level 30 player might find a Brittle Marbled Lodestone, or perhaps a Brittle Rusty Lodestone. A level 60 player might find a Smooth Translucent Lodestone or a Smooth Mossy Lodestone. When taken off of monster corpses, any of the five types can be found on any type of monster. While mining, only one type of lodestone can be found from each type of mine. Iron mines only ever yield Rusty Lodestones, Silver mines only yield Clouded Lodestones, Wood mines yield Mossy, Stone yields Marbled, and Crystal yields Translucent Lodestones.
The simplest use of the lodestone is to create a Delving Stone.
Delving Stones
Each of the five mining skills will have a new recipe which takes a lodestone as its only ingredient. The recipe always succeeds (there is no chance for failure). The result is a Delving Stone. These powerful stones will summon a mine right in front of the user. The mine will have the usual three uses. The quality of the lodestone will determine how many times the crafted Delving Stone can be used to summon a mine. The type of the lodestone determines the type of mine that is created.
Code:
| Lodestone Type | Mine Type |
|---|---|
| Rusty | Iron Mine |
| Clouded | Silver |
| Mossy | Wood |
| Marbled | Stone |
| Translucent | Crystal |
Harmonic Stones
Spellbinders will have a different recipe for Lodestones. They can turn a Lodestone into a Harmonic Stone. A Harmonic Stone can be used on any crafted weapon to turn it into a Harmonic Weapon (see below). The recipes for Harmonic Stones require purchased trait, like Coal, but no mined or butchered trait. The recipes are not automatically successful – they can fail. The quality of the lodestone determines the difficulty of the crafting process – higher-quality lodestones are more difficult to turn into Harmonic Stones. Upon success, these recipes grant Craft Experience to the crafter.
Harmonic Stones have a level requirement based on their quality.
Code:
| Lodestone Quality | Harmonic Stone Level Range |
|---|---|
| Crumbling | 15-24 |
| Brittle | 25-39 |
| Rough | 40-54 |
| Smooth | 55-69 |
| Shining | 70+ |
The type of the Lodestone determines the Damage type of the Harmonic Stone:
Code:
| Lodestone Type | Harmonic Stone Type |
|---|---|
| Rusty | Decay Harmonic Stone |
| Clouded | Arcane Harmonic Stone |
| Translucent | Neutral Harmonic Stone |
| Marbled | Martial Harmonic Stone |
| Mossy | Nature Harmonic Stone |
A Harmonic Stone can be used by a player of the appropriate level to turn their crafted weapon into a Harmonic Weapon. Let’s talk about Harmonic Weapons.
Harmonic Weapons
All monsters have been assigned a category: Decay (evil or undead), Arcane (magical or made of energy), Martial (tool using races), or Nature (plants or animals). Harmonic Weapons are attuned to one of these types of monster, and do more damage against them.
At first, the extra damage is very small, but through repeated use against the appropriate type of monster, the Harmonic Weapon will “learn” to do more damage against its particular type of foe. After a week or so of play, you could train a Harmonic Weapon to do an extra 10% damage against its foe type. Further gains are possible if you keep using the weapon –up to a maximum of 40% bonus damage – but it takes longer and longer to train the weapon as it reaches the higher percentages, so actually reaching the 40% cap would take many months of play.
You may have noticed that Translucent Lodestones make Neutral Harmonic Stones. These stones are not attuned to any one particular damage type – they can learn to do more damage to ANY type of monster. However, they learn at a much slower rate, and they are capped at 20% extra damage for any particular type of monster.
Only crafted weapons can be made into Harmonic Weapons.
Although this system only applies to weapons right now, we will be adding Harmonic Armor at a later date.
So How Does This Harmonic Weapon Stuff All Fit Together?
Here’s an example of how Harmonic Stones get used. Let’s imagine Bob, a level 50 warrior, has a nice crafted sword. He decides he wants his sword to do more damage to Decay creatures, so he seeks out a Rusty Lodestone of his level. For his level, he would need a Rough stone. He could find it on a monster, but he’s a busy guy, so he goes and buys it at a consignment vendor. Next, he finds a crafter who turns his Rough Rusty Lodestone into a Stone Harmonized to Decay, and he uses this stone on his weapon. Ta da! His weapon has become Harmonic, and has the capacity to deal more damage to Decay creatures through use.
Lodestones as Devices of Knowledge
Lodestones are not simply energy, they are encapsulated knowledge as well. There is a process where weaponcrafters, armorcrafters, and toolmakers can unlock this knowledge and combine it with their own knowledge to create intricate symbols of their craft. These devices are prized by many, crafters and non-crafters alike. Like Harmonic Stones, the recipes to create Devices can fail, but they grant Craft Experience upon success. Since these recipes are bestowed by quests in the March update, we won’t go into too much detail here. Suffice it to say that Lodestones have many uses, and there will doubtless be even more in the future.
Trait Mines
There’s a new way to get trait. The Guild of Shapers have uncovered massive underground resource caches. However, accessing these caches is difficult and dangerous. There are keys which will grant you and your fellowship temporary access to one of these underground mazes chock full of trait mines. But due to the instabilities of these caches, you and your fellowship will only be able to stay in the cache for a few minutes. Work with your friends to mine as much trait as you can in the time allotted. When the time runs out, you will be teleported back out of the dungeon.
There are five caches on each of the three continents (one cache per type of trait per continent). You can enter each dungeon only once per week. The keys for these caches can be a bit tricky to find – you will have to figure that out for yourselves!
The trait caches are intended to be a fun additional way to get trait. We don’t expect them to replace traditional mining – just to augment it.
Letter to the Players #3 Edit
Original Link (now dead) - http://forums.ac2.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=13604
Legions Letter #3: The Mentalist
Introduction
There is no more dangerous weapon than the mind - especially the mind of an Empyrean. While Hieromancers use ancient rituals to channel their power, Mentalists take a different approach. They hone their latent psychic abilities, relying heavily on telekinesis, as well as their ability to torment the thoughts of their enemies.
At low levels, an Empyrean missile character uses one Orb. Levitating it (and themselves), they fling the orb up to 40 meters away. "Orb" can be a misleading name for these weapons - they are spherical, but they often come with blades or other deadly accoutrements.
Higher level characters can choose to become Mentalists. A Mentalist can control two orbs at once, and has a more deadly array of skills.
Empyrean Missile
Code:
23 Equilibrium Phase | | ___________ | | 18 Life Globe Energy Globe Stumble Placate __ | | | | | | 13 Overcharged Sphere Exacting Force Protecting Sphere | | | | | | 8 Orb Volley Orbital Storm Corrosion | _______/ | | / | 3 Pummel Decimate _________ __________/ / 2 Torment | | 1 Strike
Skills In Detail
Strike
This skill does more damage against a target that is vulnerable.
Credits: 0
Vigor Cost: 32
Recovery: 2 seconds
Range: 20 meters
Damage: weapon only
Notes: this is the free skill that all Empyreans get at level 1. It cannot be raised.
Torment
A projectile attack. This skill does more damage to a target that is vulnerable.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 32
Recovery: 2 seconds
Range: 40 meters
<Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50)
Notes: the missile-tree "vuln-taker" skill.
Pummel
A melee ranged attack with a moderate knock-back effect.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 80
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 2 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50)
Decimate
A projectile attack.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 50
Recovery: 2 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) - 200 (L50)
Orb Volley
A two-projectile attack.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 80
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50) each attack
Orbital Storm
A self centered area-of-effect attack.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 80
Recovery: 7 seconds
Damage: 7 (L10) - 200 (L50) in a 10 meter radius around caster
Corrosion
A projectile attack that does aditional damage, regardless of the target's armor.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 80
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50)
Effect: 10 (L1) - 100 (L50) additional damage.
Overcharged Sphere
A self-targeted combat speed buff.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Duration: 120 seconds
Range: Self
Effect: 5% (L1) - 40% (L50) combat speed increase
Exacting Force
A projectile attack that has increased bonuses to critical strikes.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 110
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) - 200 (L50)
Effect: attack has a 20% chance to critically-hit for double damage. (This is the same bonus as other critical-strike attacks such as Critical Throw or Betrayal.)
Protecting Sphere
A self-targeted armor buff.
Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Duration: 120 seconds
Range: Self
Effect: 6 (L1) - 60 (L50) armor
Life Globe
A self buff which raises max health and slightly improves health regeneration. This skill is a toggle-buff; it remains active until turned off.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 4 seconds
Range: Self
Effect: 10 (L1) - 100 (L50) additional max health. 3% (L1) - 15% (L50) out-of-combat health regeneration boost.
Energy Globe
A user buff which raises max vigor and slightly improves vigor regeneration. This skill is a toggle-buff; it remains active until turned off.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 4 seconds
Range: Self
Effect: 20 (L1) - 200 (L50) additional max vigor. 3% (L1) - 15% (L50) out-of-combat vigor regeneration boost.
Stumble
A numbing projectile attack.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 140
Recovery: 5 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50)
Effect: reduces target run speed by 10% (L1) - 40% (L50)
Placate
A projectile attack that tries to get the monster to stop attacking the user in favor of someone else.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 140
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50)
Effect: detaunt 5% (L1) to 10% (L50) of monster's health.
Equilibrium
Turns incoming health damage into vigor damage. If a single attack would kill the Empyrean, this skill does not save them from death.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Duration: 120 seconds
Range: Self
Effect: instead of losing health, the Empyrean loses Vigor at a 1-to-1 ratio, until they do not have any Vigor left. There is one special case: a single blow that would kill the Empyrean if this skill was not active will still kill the Empyrean.
Phase
A projectile attack which ignores 50% of the target's shield armor.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 120
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50)
Effect: weapon and bonus damage bypass 50% of target's shield.
Empyrean Mentalist
Starting at level 15, a Ranged Empyrean can choose to become a Mentalist. Able to wield two orbs simultaneously (and thus have dual-wield auto-attack damage), the Mentalist specializes in vast destruction. The Mentalist has three major groups of attacks. One group of skills performs many attacks on a single target, one group performs attacks on multiple targets, and one group performs a bleed attack if done in the proper order.
The single-hit attacks are the main damage form of the Mentalist; due to their reset times and the durations of their linkers, Mentalists can "partially repeat" this chain like a Berserker can - that is, a high level Mentalist can repeat the later steps of the chain without having to perform the beginning of the chain again.
The area-of-effect attacks are more special-purpose. Because of their longer reset times and shorter linkers, they cannot be partially repeated like the single-hit attacks. However, they have a large (10 meter) area of effect, plus slightly more damage per hit than the regular attacks.
The percentage bleed attacks are most useful when a Mentalist is fighting group monsters. Activating their bleeds is relatively difficult (requiring four separate hits to get a 15% bleed), and really only shines when fighting the toughest monsters.
In addition, the Mentalist has several utility skills.
Code:
40 Dementia ____/ | / | 35 Swiftness Psionic Assault Mental Onslaught Volatility _______ | / | | | / | | 30 Projected Will Mental Barrage Instability | | ____/ | | / 25 Nightmares Mental Salvo Temporal Shift | | __/ | | / 20 Terrors Grim Divination _______ | | 15 Aneurysm
Skills In Detail
Aneurysm
Entry Skills, Single Target Damage. This skill does much more damage if used after a successful hit with Terrors, Nightmares, or Dementia, or some combination thereof.
Credits: 5
Vigor Cost: 110
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) - 200 (L50)
On Successful Combo with Terrors: 4% Target Bleed over 30 secs
On Successful Combo with Nightmares: 5% Target Bleed over 30 secs
On Successful Combo with Dementia: 6% Target Bleed over 30 secs
Notes: For each of these other skills that were successfully used on the target already, Aneurysm causes a small percentage bleed. All three bleeds stack with each other, so if Aneurysm is used after a successful hit with Terrors, Nightmares, and Dementia, the user will have a total of 15% bleed damage on them. These bleeds are capped at 4k, 5k, and 6k damage, respectively.
Terrors
A projectile attack. If Aneurysm is used after a successful hit with Terrors, Aneurysm does additional bleed damage.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 130
Recovery: 10 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) - 200 (L50)
Grim Divination
A long range, line of sight attack.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 220
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 60 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50)
Notes: useful as a "pulling" skill, and for hitting targets who are avoiding projectiles.
Nightmares
A projectile attack. If Aneurysm is used after a successful hit with Nightmares, Aneurysm does additional bleed damage.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 150
Recovery: 10 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) - 200 (L50)
Mental Salvo
A dual missile attack
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 110
Recovery: 10 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50) for both hits.
Temporal Shift
A self-targeted skill that increases the user's attack speed.
Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Duration: 120 seconds
Range: Self
Effect: 10 (L1) - 70 (L50) percent combat speed increase.
Projected Will
Increases the damage of the user's nearby fellows.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Range: 20 meters
Duration: 30 seconds
Effect: 10 (L1) - 80 (L50) damage increase
Mental Barrage
A three-hit missile attack. Can only be used after executing the Mental Salvo skill.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 130
Recovery: 5 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50)
Instability
A triple-strike, 10 meter area of effect missile attack. Can only be used after executing the Mental Salvo skill.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 130
Recovery: 10 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) - 80 (L50)
Swiftness
Increases the run speed of the user's nearby fellows. This is an aura skill; it can be turned on and off at will and has no fixed duration.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 1
Recovery: 4 seconds
Range: Aura
Effect: 4% (L1) - 20% (L50) runspeed increase.
Psionic Assault
A ranged line of sight attack with a potent knockback.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 220
Recovery: 300 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) - 75 (L50)
Notes: This skill is great for getting out of sticky situations, or for helping out fellowship members who are in trouble. It has a long reset time to avoid abuse.
Mental Onslaught
A four-hit missile attack. Can only be used after executing the Mental Barrage Skill.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 150
Recovery: 5 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) - 80 (L50) per hit
Volatility
A quadruple-strike, ten meter area of effect missile attack. Can only be used after executing the Instability skill.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 150
Recovery: 10 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 10 (L10) - 90 (L50) per hit
Dementia
A projectile attack. If Aneurysm is used after a successful hit Dementia, Aneurysm does additional bleed damage.
Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 170
Recovery: 10 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) - 200 (L50)
Letter to the Players #4 Edit
Original Link (now dead) - http://forums.ac2.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=13790
Legions Letter #4: Hero 2.0 Overview
Hero 2
It’s almost here: Hero 2.0, a complete re-envisioning of post-50 game play. What’s changed? Well, it’s easier to say what HASN’T changed. The Hero quest remains the same. The level range remains the same. Everything else has changed. Forget what you know about post-50 gameplay: your preconceptions may mislead you. Hero skills, Focus, how you gain powers… all of this has been altered, often dramatically.
Over the coming weeks we will explore a new world of game play. To say that we’re excited about these changes is quite the understatement. This letter is designed to just give you an overview of the new Hero 2 systems – future letters will give more detailed information.
Why Did We Do This?
We started by just adding some new hero skills and calling it “Hero 2.0.” But before we had even released this, we realized it wasn’t enough. Hero-level gameplay needed dramatic readjustment, and that’s what it’s gotten. Here’s the problems as we saw them:
- The difficulty shifts too much between pre-Hero and post-Hero levels. Monsters become too hard for many class templates.
- Most hero skills suffer from balance issues (they are either too powerful or too weak), and even putting balance issues aside, most hero skills are boring because you can’t use them often enough.
- The Focus attribute is not fun enough.
- There aren’t enough choices for high-level players.
In short, the Hero levels are supposed to offer a new world of excitement to players, and they were just sort of “enh.” We really wanted to ramp up the fun.
Focus Re-envisioned, Hero Skills Rebalanced
In today’s game, Focus is either too precious, or too useless: either you don’t like your hero skills so Focus is meaningless, or your hero skills are so useful that you don’t want to “waste” your Focus unless you really have to.
So it seemed like we needed more uses for Focus, but more than that, we needed Focus to be less “precious” and hoardable. We needed to make Focus a dynamic, fluid variable – something that is earned quickly and is spent loosely. In other words, it needs to really be an interactive part of the game.
So, the Focus system was redesigned. Heroes will now have a max Focus of 100, not 1000. You earn 20 Focus from killing any solo monster your level or higher. Your fellowship earns 100 Focus from killing a group monster (unless the monster is much lower than the group’s level range). So it is now much easier to fill up your Focus bar.
Hero Skills have been rebalanced as well. Now, they cost only a bit of Focus – say 20-30 Focus per use. And while they’re still powerful – more powerful than any normal skill – they are less powerful than they were in Hero 1. This new system allows them to be usable much more often – many times every play session – rather than being saved for rainy days.
There are also many new hero skills, including another unique skill for every class, as well as more than a dozen new hero skills that are common to all classes. These skills also use Focus, so now Focus is a much more useful and tactical part of the game.
Hero Credits
In the past, the few Hero skills that were available were free – you simply got them by being the proper level. That’s all changed now. A new type of skill credit – called the Hero Credit – is used to purchase these skills.
Unlike Skill Credits, Hero Credits are used in bulk. A typical hero active skill might cost 300 or 400 hero credits! You earn 100 Hero Credits per level that you are eligible to be a hero. So you earn 100 hero credits at level 45, another 100 at level 46, and so on. If you become a hero later in life (say at level 50), you retroactively earn all the hero credits you would have earned in the earlier levels.
But there is another way to earn Hero Credits, too. Monsters now drop Tesserae, freely tradable objects that grant a Hero Credit when used. Tesserae can increase your Hero Credit count, up to a certain limit based on your level. For instance, at level 50, a player will have automatically earned 600 hero credits, but they may have earned up to 150 more by using Tesserae. (If a player reaches the maximum number of Hero Credits, and they find another Tessera, they can either hold on to the Tessera until they level up, or they can trade or sell it to others.)
The Tesserae are an extra reward mechanism – you can also earn them by questing. But you never need Tesserae – the Hero Credits that you earn automatically by leveling will be enough to keep your character viable and interesting. The credits you are granted by level 50 will give your character power similar to what they had in the previous system. By level 60, the automatic hero credits will make your character much more powerful than existing level 60 characters. And Tesserae can make your character even more powerful.
New Active Skills
In addition to the Hero Skills you already have, and the new unique class-specific “tier 3” hero skills, there are a bunch of new skills that are available to every class. These skills were presented long ago, as the original plan for Hero 2.0. Now, they are just one part of the equation.
These skills scale from 0 to 10 by spending XP on them. This unusual level cap was chosen so that each level of skill would be very significant. When you buy these skills, they start at 0 -- meaning they can't be used at all until you spend XP in them. This is a measure intended to prevent min/maxing behavior.
There are three new types of skills: Bursts, Chants and Forces.
- A Burst skill is meant to be used in a pinch; the magnitude of the effect will be quite large, but so is its cool down time.
- Chant skills are vital-boosting effects. They are aura effects, so they can be switched on and off, and affect the whole fellowship. While a chant skill is on, the chanter will constantly lose Focus while players gain health or vigor. If the player runs out of Focus, the skill turns off.
- Force skills are self-only buffs that grant things like armor or damage reflection. They cost a small amount of Focus to turn on, and they take additional Focus each time the player is hit. If the player runs out of Focus (or turns the skill off manually), the effect ends.
There are also hero skills that mimic the portal/lifestone recall/summon skills, allowing players to spend hero credits on these powers instead of regular credits.
These skills will go on the main Hero Skills Page for each class (we’ve separated the Hero Skills from the regular class skills, for cleanliness). But aside from these skills, there are also Perks.
Hero Perks
Perks are passive hero skills that have only 1 level of skill: on or off. A perk simply doesn’t go past “1”, the level you get when you buy the perk. So in essence, the only thing you lose for buying a perk is Hero Skill Credits – you don’t have to spend XP on them.
Perks are modest permanent power boosts. You can only untrain one perk per 10 day period. This is to keep people from min/maxing their perks constantly by untraining them. When you train a perk, the game will warn you that you can only untrain one perk per 10 days.
All Perks appear on a separate Perks GUI page, which can be reached from the Hero page for each class. You do NOT have to untrain all your Perks in order to switch classes – perks are class agnostic. You can buy Perks from the Perk Page as soon as you become a hero, although some Perks have parent perks that must be bought first.
Note that perks do NOT have level requirements!
Perks range from "Night Stalker", a skill that gives you a small bonus to accuracy during the nighttime hours, to "Pack Rat ", a perk that gives you one extra inventory slot, to "Fast Learner", a perk that increases how much XP you get when you kill a monster. There are perks for taunting, pet management, critical-hit chances, accuracy against certain types of monsters, and much more.
There are more than 150 perks to choose from, allowing for an unprecedented amount of character specialization. Many perks come in several levels – for instance, there are six “Deep Pockets” perks, allowing up to 6 additional inventory slots. Some Perks, such as Jumping Mastery, are provided for flavor only, but almost all of them are useful to different types of characters.
Passive Changes, Stat Rebalances
The passive skills have been re-addressed. Arcane Lore has been left unchanged, but the other passive skills have been reinvented or completely replaced.
In addition, regular skills that scale past 50 have been made more potent in those higher levels, so that there is much more incentive to raise them.
These changes go hand in hand with a rebalancing of high-level monsters. The end result is a system where players are better able to hit monsters, evade monster attacks, and survive incoming damage. Pets at high levels have also been adjusted so that they are more in line with the sorts of monsters being fought.
Combo Chains
By working together, three or more players can form a “combo chain.” Each of them use a particular skill in the right order, and the result is a dramatic attack upon the monster. The combos vary in exactly what damage they do, but all combos have a couple of identical properties: in addition to damage, they also stun the monster for 2 seconds (even if the monster has already been stunned in the last minute). If the monster is killed during the 2 seconds that it is stunned, the monster is worth more XP than usual.
Combo Chains always involve at least one use of a Hero Skill, and always require 3 different people (though not necessarily 3 skills). Aside from that, we won’t be giving too much information away about Combo Chains… there are some hints in the game that will help clever players figure out what the chains are on their own.
Conclusion
This letter has provided a broad overview of the general ideas in Hero 2.0. Taken together, these changes have altered the entire post-hero game, making it more fun, offering more character diversity, and providing greater opportunities for strategy and tactics.
Letter to the Players #5 Edit
Original Link (now dead) - http://ac2.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=337
AC2: Legions Pre-order Gift - The Drudge
Long have they been in the shadow of the other races. Theirs is a dirty, cowardly, sickly, pasty, mean, brutish race. But a proud race! And a cunning one. They have learned many techniques for battles, and the wisest among them have even learned to tap into the power of their own Shrine of Transcendence. The time of the Drudge is at hand.
By pre-ordering AC2: Legions, players will be able to create Drudge characters on Legions launch day. The Drudge is a fun new race with a lot of unique abilities. They do have some limitations, however.
While you can choose to be a male or female Drudge, it’s hard for the other races to tell the difference between Drudge genders – they look and sound the same, aside from minor size variations. If you encounter a Drudge in the field and are unsure, it's best to play it safe and just call him/her "my friend". Given their prolific numbers, though, we’re sure that Drudges, at least, have no trouble telling the difference!
Drudges make use of only two armor types: rags (which have armor levels equivalent to robes), and drudge helmets. However, Drudges have thick skin which helps make up for their lower armor level. (The skill Thick Skin bestows this extra armor.)
Drudges can wield any sword or other common 1-handed melee weapon. They can also wield the new Board with Nail weapons, which are found randomly in treasure. They cannot wield shields – they are strictly a one-handed weapon class.
Drudges have only one skill tree, the melee tree. But their melee tree is different from everybody else’s: this is a very large tree! It also has some missile and magic skills in it. (All the skills use melee mastery, however, so they aren’t “true” magic or missile attacks.)
The Drudge way of life is less orthodox than the other races, partly due to their being closer to the ground than most. Drudge buffs are acquired by eating bugs found on the ground. Many drudges also choose to raise rabbits as warrior pets. These short-lived fluffy fiends sacrifice themselves in various tragic ways… but as with Drudges themselves, there’s always another rabbit around to take its place.
Some Drudges like to hit things very hard, but others prefer to throw their weapons. The skill tree provides options for several different types of Drudge templates.
The Drudge Skill Tree
Let’s go over each skill.
Whack
This is a free skill given to all Drudges. This skill cannot be increased. This skill does more damage when the target is vulnerable.
Skill Credits: 0
Vigor Cost: 32
Reset Time: 1 second
Range: 1 meter
Smash
A melee attack. This skill does significantly more damage when the target is vulnerable.
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 32
Reset Time: 1 second
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Stab
A potent melee attack.
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 50
Reset Time: 2 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Thick Skin
Increases the natural armor of the user. This is a toggle skill; it can be turned on and off at will.
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: Toggle
Range: Self
Armor Granted: 1 (L1) – 50 (L50)
Fling Nail
A ranged attack that causes the target to bleed.
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 20 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Bleed Damage: 2 (L1) – 8 (L50)
Tasty Centipede
A tasty way to increase the user’s natural armor!
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: Self
Duration: 120 seconds
Armor Buff: 6 (L1) – 60 (L50)
Wriggling Morsel
A self healing snack.
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 100
Reset Time: 7
Range: Self
Heal: 25 (L1) – 250 (L50)
Lucky Stab
A melee attack that has increased bonuses to critical strikes.
Notes
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 110
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Notes: 20% chance to critically strike for double damage.
Headbutt
A melee attack that stuns the target.
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Effect: Stun for 3(L1) to 10 (L50) seconds
Chakram
A potent ranged attack.
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 110
Reset Time: 7
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Crunchy Snack
A vigor-healing snack.
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 7
Range: Self
Vigor Healed: 200 (L1) – 600 (L50)
Boils
A bloodletting attack.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 140
Reset Time: 7
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Bleeding
Damage: 2 (L1) – 8 (L50) damage per second
Delicious Spider
A delicious self-targeted runspeed increase.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: Self
Duration: 120 seconds
Effect: Run speed increase of 8% (L1) – 40% (L50)
Scratch
Nothing like a good back scratch! A self-targeted skill that returns health over time.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: Self
Duration: 120 seconds
Regeneration: 2 (L1) – 20 (L50) health per second.
Sucker Punch
A melee attack that does additional damage, regardless of the target’s armor.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 5 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Additional Damage: 10 (L1) – 100 (L50)
Screech
A caster-centered, area-of-effect attack.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 10 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Tetanus
A numbing attack.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 280
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Additional Effect: 10 (L1) – 40 (L50) percent runspeed reduction.
Juicy Earthworm
An extra juicy increase to the user’s melee evasion.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: Self
Effect: 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) points of melee defense.
Sneaky Assault
A two-hit stab attack.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 110
Reset Time: 10 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) – 300 (L150) per swing
Way of The Hunter
When this skill is enabled, the Drudge gains the ability to toss their weapon. Their auto-attacks gain a 40 meter range. (These auto-attacks still use melee accuracy numbers.)
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 4 seconds
Range: Self
Duration: Toggle
Effect: increases auto-attack damage by 1 (L1) to 25 (L50)
Rabid Fiend
Summons a Rabid Fiend to fight alongside the user. The Rabid Fiend uses melee and short-ranged attacks on enemies.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 120 seconds
Range: Self
Pet Stats: Low Health, Low Armor, Medium Damage
Devious Assault
A triple hit stab attack. Can only be performed after an attempted use of the Sneaky Assault skill.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 130
Reset Time: 5 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 75 (L50) – 300 (L150)
Chuck
A ranged attack.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 130
Reset Time: 7
Range: 40 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Drudge Dance
Grants a vigor over time effect to all nearby fellows (including the Drudge himself).
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: 20 meters
Duration: 120 seconds
Effect: 2 (L1) – 8 (L50) Vigor per second
Brazen Assault
Four hit stab attack. Can only be performed after an attempted use of the Devious Assault skill.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 150
Reset Time: 5 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 80 (L50) – 350 (L150)
Feet of Fury
Empowers the user’s Rabid Fiend with the ability to perform much more powerful attacks.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 200
Reset Time: 60 seconds
Duration: 10 (L1) to 20 (L50) seconds
Range: 20 meters
Perfect Decoy
Summons a … “decoy” of a Drudge. This decoy uses area-of-effect taunts to attract monsters.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 120 seconds
Range: Self
Duration: 30 seconds
Pack Attack
A powerful melee attack with a large chance to perform a critical-hit. Does extra damage if performed after another Drudge uses this same skill. (Each individual Drudge can only use this skill once per minute on any given target.)
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 10 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Damage: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50)
Effect: 20% chance to critical-hit for double damage.
Additional Effect: 50 (L1) – 300 (L50 damage if performed right after Pack Attack.
Tribal Flame
A targeted fire-based area of effect attack.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 150
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
AoE Range: 10 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Additional Effect: 2 (L1) – 8 (L50) fire damage per second
Hare Trigger
The user’s Rabid Fiend becomes the live bait for a trap. The trap appears wherever the rabbit was standing (up to 40m away from the caster). The next creature (aside from the caster) which steps on the trap will be rooted. If the trap is not sprung after 5 minutes, it will disappear.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 120 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Effect: a trap that roots the victim for 2 (L1) to 15 (L50) seconds.
Plan ‘B’
When all else fails, use fire! Sets the Perfect Decoy on fire, giving it a fiery damage shield. Any creature which attacks the Decoy will burst into flames.
Skill Credits: 1
Vigor Cost: 220
Reset Time: 120 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Duration: 30 seconds
Effect: fire damage of 2 (L1) to 8 (L50) for 15 seconds
Devouring Flames
A devastating ball of fire.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50)
Effect: fire damage of 2 (L1) – 10 (L50) per second for 30 secs
The Drudge Revolution Begins!
Hopefully reading over the various Drudge skills has given you a taste for the possibilities of Drudge characters. What these skill descriptions CAN’T do is convey the humor of the drudge, from his screeching “songs” to his loping run, or his many Easter egg effects and sounds.
The Drudge can definitely hold their own soloing or in groups, and they have their own unique play style.
Letter to the Players #6 Edit
Original Link (now dead) - http://forums.ac2.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=14876
Legions Letter #6: The Hieromancer
With a race as steeped in magic as the Empyreans, it’s not surprising that their mages have a style all their own. Empyrean magic relies heavily on gestures, and their mages have developed a weapon that works with that idea. The Celestrum is a clawed contraption that fits over the mage’s gloved hand, exaggerating and empowering their movements.
The magic of the Empyrean base tree is potent, but simple, using lights and colors to create many of its effects. Because the magic tree provides useful powers such as health and vigor rejuvenation, nearly all Empyreans have at least a few skills from the base magic tree.
Empyrean Magic
Code:
23 Plasma Wave Chromatic Edge Illumination
___/ | __/ \_______ |
/ | / \ |
18 Photon Burst Blinding Ray Enfeebling Arc
| | \___ |
| | \ |
13 Projected Force | Inner Light Radiance
\____ | | |
\ | | |
8 Convergent Ray Scarlet Rain Refresh Mind
\_________ | |
\ | |
3 Energy Bolt Refresh Body
| ___________/
| /
2 Color Burst
|
|
1 Prism
Skills In Detail
Prism
This is a free skill given to all Empyreans. This skill cannot be increased. This skill does more damage when the target is vulnerable.
Credits: 0
Vigor: 32
Recovery: 2 seconds
Range: 1 meter
Color Burst
A projectile attack. This skill does more damage to a target that is vulnerable.
Credits: 1
Vigor: 32
Recovery: 2 seconds
Range: 40 meter
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Energy Bolt
A projectile attack.
Credits: 1
Vigor: 60
Recovery: 2 seconds
Range: 40 meter
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Refresh Body
A targeted healing spell.
Credits: 1
Vigor: 100
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage Healed: 25 (L1) – 250 (L50)
'Convergent Ray
A long-range projectile attack.
Credits: 1
Vigor: 80
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 60 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Scarlet Rain
A self centered Area-of-Effect attack.
Credits: 1
Vigor: 80
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 10 meters, self centered area of effect
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Refresh Mind
A targeted vigor healing spell.
Credits: 1
Vigor: 160
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage Healed: 200 (L1) – 600 (L50)
Projected Force
A projectile attack that has increased bonuses to critical strikes.
Credits: 1
Vigor: 110
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Effect: 20% chance to critical hit for double damage
Inner Light
A vigor regeneration buff.
Credits: 1
Vigor: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Range: Self
Duration: 120 seconds
Vigor Regeneration: 3 (L1) – 25 (L50) per second.
Radiance
A combat speed buff.
Credits: 1
Vigor: 1
Recovery: 300 seconds
Range: Self
Duration: 120 seconds
Speed Increase: 5 (L1) – 40 (L50) percent.
Photon Burst
A double-projectile attack.
Credits: 2
Vigor: 120
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) per bolt.
Blinding Ray
A numbing attack.
Credits: 2
Vigor: 280
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50)
Speed Decrease: 10 (L1) – 40 (L50) percent.
Duration: 15 (L1) – 30 (L50) seconds
Enfeebling Arc
A disease attack.
Credits: 2
Vigor: 220
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) per bolt.
Duration: 15 seconds
Vigor Loss: 3 (L1) – 30 (L50) per second.
Plasma Wave
A powerful projectile attack.
Credits: 2
Vigor: 300
Recovery: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50)
Chromatic Edge
A fellowship weapon buff. Weapons affected by this spell have a chance to do additional armor-bypassing damage on each hit.
Credits: 2
Vigor: 1
Recovery: 4 seconds
Range: Aura
Applied Effect: 10 (L1) – 50 (L50) Damage
Application Percent: 10 (L1) – 30 (L50) percent
Illumination
A fellowship accuracy buff. 50% of this buff stacks with other accuracy buffs.
Credits: 2
Vigor: 1
Recovery: 4 seconds
Range: Aura
Mastery Added: 1 (L1) – 50 (L50), Half Stacks
The Hieromancer
Empyreans who delve deeper into the magical arts become Hieromancers. Graduating from the simpler spells of the base magic tree, the Hieromancer concerns himself with three types of magic: Rites, Rituals, and Gestures.
The four Rites (Artifice, Enchantment, Strife, and Verdancy) act as catalysts. These are toggle-skills that do nothing by themselves, but they empower the Ritual spells in different ways. A Hieromancer can only have one Rite on at a time, so they must often switch back and forth between different Rites to get the effect they want.
The Hieromancer also has seven Rituals in their tree. These elaborate spells take a while to cast, but each one has multiple attacks. The rituals are further enhanced in different ways depending on what Rite is enabled. Rituals scale to 150, while the Rites do not scale past 50.
Finally there are Gestures. With these, the Hieromancer performs a brief, deadly magical gesture and causes great pain to the enemy. Gestures do not gain any advantage from the Rites, however. Gestures scale to 150.
Skill Tree
Code:
40 Ritual of
the Heavens
|
|
35 Gesture of | Ritual of
Distortion | Glamour
| | _______/ |
| | / |
30 Ritual of Ritual of Rite of Artifice Ritual of
Bombardment Torpidity / | Blood
\ | / | |
\ | / | |
25 Rite of Enchantment Ritual of Rite of Strife
| \ Agony |
| \ | |
| \ | |
20 Ritual of the Rite of Verdancy Gesture of Flame
Elements | /
\_____________ | _______________/
\ | /
15 Gesture of Pain
Skills in Detail
Gesture of Pain
A projectile attack.
Skill Credits: 5
Vigor Cost: 110
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Gesture of Flame
A projectile attack.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50)
Fire Effect: 2 (L1) – 8 (L50) damage / second
Gesture of Distortion
A projectile attack.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 200
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50)
Rite of Artifice
This rite affects the spellcraft potency of a ritual, causing debuffs to be more effective. (Each Ritual explicitly mentions the effect of having this Rite enabled.) This rite remains active until manually dispelled, or until a different Rite is turned on.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 1 second
Range: Self
Rite of Enchantment
This rite affects the accuracy aspect of a ritual, bestowing considerable additional accuracy to the projectiles fired by the rituals. This rite remains active until manually dispelled, or until a different Rite is turned on.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 1 second
Range: Self
Effect: Inceases the accuracy of each ritual by 2 (L1) – 100 (L50) unless otherwise specified.
Rite of Verdancy
This rite affects the armor bypassing aspect of a ritual. Each of the attacks in the ritual bypass a certain amount of the target’s armor. This rite remains active until manually dispelled, or until a different Rite is turned on.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 1 second
Range: Self
Effect: Causes all rituals to bypass 1 (L1) – 50 (L50) percent of the targets armor unless otherwise specified.
Rite of Strife
This rite affects the damage aspect of a ritual. When active, rituals do additional raw damage. This rite remains active until manually dispelled, or until a different Rite is turned on.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 1
Reset Time: 1 second
Range: Self
Effect: Causes each ritual to execute an additional 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) damage attack unless otherwise specified.
Ritual of the Elements
A Ritual that destroys the Vigor of enemies.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 220
Recovery Time: 12 seconds
Range: 60 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) per bolt / 3 bolts.
Effect: 30 (L1) – 300 (L50) Vigor Damage.
Rite of Artifice: additional 10 (L1) – 100 (L50) Vigor Damage
Ritual of Bombardment
A Ritual that does area-of-effect bleed damage.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 240
Recovery Time: 12 seconds
Range: 60 meters
Damage: 7 (L1) – 200 (L50) AoE Attack / 3 attacks.
Effect: 2 (L1) – 10 (L50) Damage over Time
Rite of Artifice: Additional 2 (L1) – 8 (L50) Damage over Time.
Ritual of Blood
A Ritual that damages the accuracy of enemies.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 220
Recovery Time: 12 seconds
Range: 60
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) per attack / 3 attacks
Effect: 5 (L1) – 150 (L50) attack skill decrease.
Rite of Artifice: Additional 5 (L1) – 50 (L50) attack skill decrease.
Ritual of Glamour
A Ritual that enhances fellowship members’ weapons to do additional damage against a certain type of target. The exact nature of the buff depends on which Rite is enabled. (If no Rites are enabled, this Ritual does nothing.)
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 220
Recovery Time: 12 seconds
Duration: Permanent (aura buff)
Rite of Artifice: 1% (L1) – 10% (L50) increase to Arcane Damage.
Rite of Enchantment: 1% (L1) – 10% (L50) increase to Decay Damage.
Rite of Strife: 1% (L1) – 10% (L50) increase to Martial Damage.
Rite of Verdancy: %1 (L1) – 10% (L50) increase to Nature Damage.
Ritual of Agony
A Ritual that strips enemy armor.
Skill Credits: 2
Vigor Cost: 200
Recovery Time: 12 seconds
Range: 60 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) per bolt / 3 bolts.
Effect: Decreases the targets armor by 1 (L1) – 100 (L50). This does not stack with other armor debuffs.
Rite of Artifice: Decreases the targets armor by an additional 1 (L1) – 50 (L50). This stacks with other armor debuffs.
Ritual of Torpidity
A Ritual that reduces Combat Speed.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 220
Recovery Time: 12 seconds
Range: 60 meters
Damage: 3 (L1) – 75 (L50) per bolt / 3 bolts.
Effect: 5 (L1) – 40 (L50) percent combat speed debuff.
Rite of Artifice: Additional 5 (L1) – 10 (L50) percent combat speed debuff
Ritual of the Heavens
A Ritual that does grave damage and also causes knockback.
Skill Credits: 3
Vigor Cost: 220
Recovery Time: 12 seconds
Range: 60 meters
Damage: 12 (L1) – 260 (L50) per bolt / 3 bolts.
Effect: Target Knockback Effect.
Rite of Artifice: Knockback becomes Area of Effect.
The Hieromancer is a bit more tactical than some other classes. The rites require the player to make decisions based on what they’re doing and fighting. And the rituals, with their slow, powerful attacks, require some strategy to use successfully. This is not a class for the button-masher. But with skill, the Hieromancer can be one of the most potent classes around.
Letter to the Players #7 Edit
Original Link (now dead) - http://forums.ac2.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=15108
Legions Letter #1: Empyrean Melee and The Templar
Hero 2.0
In the September 2003 update we released the original Heroes of Dereth system. We’ve played a lot of AC2 since then, and have found many places we wanted to improve the system. And now, finally, we are ready to reveal our vision for a better post-50 game. Let’s talk about the changes, why we made them, and what the ramifications are.
But first, note that this is the letter that explains the vast details. It’s for players who want to know all the nitty gritty parts, and it’s very, very long. If you’re looking for an overview, see here:
http://forums.ac2.turbinegames.com/...ead.php?t=13790
To help you find your way through this very long letter, we’ve broken it up into sections. Each section discusses an issue we had with the original system, and then presents our solution to that problem.
Issue 1: Archetypes Growing Ever Further Apart
The original Hero system is not especially solo-friendly. This is not surprising based on how the game developed up to that point -- the content in the 30s and 40s was intended to wean players away from the solo-oriented gameplay and into grouping gameplay. This is a classic problem with many MMOs, old and new. Changing the gameplay mid-stream causes player unhappiness, whether it’s a soloing game that turns into a grouping game, a grouping game that turns into a raiding game, or a PvE game that turns into a PvP game. Some players will come along for the new ride, but others will not. In our case, we seemed split pretty evenly between soloers and those who enjoyed grouping. So a while ago we took a step back and attempted to infuse the game with a more even blend of solo and group content, and that’s what we’re doing to this day. AC2: Legions has a great mixture of solo and group content, and the bimonthly updates will follow this trend of providing lots of solo content along with exciting group content. We can have the best of both worlds.
But the original Heroes of Dereth system is not intended to encourage soloing. In fact, quite the opposite. The Hero 1 game systems reinforce grouping to ever greater amounts as you level up. One way it does this is by overpowering different archetypes towards their intended grouping behavior. The effect isn’t terribly noticeable in the 50s, but becomes much more pronounced as you ascend in level. A tank at level 50 is very hard to kill, but that’s nothing compared to a level 80 tank, who is nearly impossible to kill. However, tanks at level 80 have a hard time killing anything themselves… they’re expected to have a damage-dealer along. And in the opposite extreme, damage-dealers become ever better at hurting creatures, yet ever more frail and killable. The intention here was to reinforce the need for a tank and a healer. This extremist view of classes doesn’t allow for much soloing content at the very high levels. The only classes that can solo well at those levels are damage dealers, because they are able to deal enough damage to kill the solo creature before it kills them. We needed to address the issue before the majority of players reached this level range.
In Hero 2.0, we’ve kept the different class roles alive and well, but not to the same extremes as in the old system. The different class archetypes are quite alive and well, but not to such extents that they are unable to solo.
New Passives
The main reason that the different class archetypes grew further and further out of control was because of the passive skills such as Major Bonus Damage and Major Max Health Increase. These skills have been changed, and sometimes removed.
We also noted that when we presented sub-par options to players (such as offering the weaker Damage Boost passive to tanks), we weren’t really giving them a viable option. The weaker versions of the passives were generally too weak to be worth spending XP on. So we’ve removed the weaker versions of passives. Instead, we simply GIVE players the effects of these weaker passives automatically. The passive descriptions will give more details.
We also redid the XP curves for the altered passives. In general, they are significantly cheaper than in the Hero 1 system. For instance, it is possible to buy 10-15 points of Health Increase for the same cost as 7-8 points in the old system.
Health Increase: this passive is available only to tank classes. It increases health by 3 per point. This passive is cheaper than the old Health Passive, so you can buy more points of it with the same amount of XP. In addition, ALL players automatically gain 30 health every level above 50, whether they are a tank class or not.
Vigor Increase: this passive is available only to healers and sages. It increases vigor by 3 per point. This passive is cheaper than the old Health Passive, so you can buy more points of it with the same amount of XP. In addition, ALL players automatically gain 10 vigor every level above 50, whether they are a healer class or not.
Damage Pool: this is the default passive, given to all classes who don’t get Health Increase or Vigor Increase. Tanks and Healers do NOT get this passive.
The Damage Pool is a new game mechanic. For each point of skill purchased, the Damage Pool increases by 1. The Damage Pool has a percentage chance to be added to an attack. Different attacks have a different percentage chance to apply the Damage Pool, but they generally follow this system:
Auto-attacks: 10% chance to add the Damage Pool to their damage.
Weak attacks (which do 75 damage at level 50): 40% chance to add the Damage Pool to their damage.
Medium attacks (which do 200 damage at level 50): 60% chance to add the Damage Pool to their damage.
Strong attacks (which do 260 damage at level 50): 80% chance to add the Damage Pool to their damage.
Hero attacks (which do 340 damage at level 50): 90% chance to add the Damage Pool to their damage. (More on Hero Skills later in this document.)
Other skills which fall in between these numbers have appropriate percentage chances. For instance, the Berserker skill Avalanche, which does 100 damage at level 50, has a 45% chance to add the Damage Pool to its damage.
Note that the Damage Pool only gets added once per attack. So a multi-hit attack will only add the Damage Pool to at most one of the hits. However, if the first hit in a multi-hit attack doesn’t add the Damage Pool, each subsequent hit has a chance to add the Damage Pool, until one of the hits succeeds in adding the Damage Pool.
Damage Pool is cheaper than Major Damage Boost was, so you can buy more points of it with the same amount of XP.
Let’s look at an example. Say a Zealot raises their Damage Pool passive to 100. Now if he uses Shred Hope, the first attack has a 40% chance to add 100 extra damage to the roll. (This is done before the weapon’s variance is taken into account, much like the old Bonus Damage passive was, so in effect the result is likely to be less than 100 exactly.) Now, because Shred Hope has two swings, if the first swing doesn’t get the Damage Pool added to it, the second attack also has a 40% chance to get the 100 extra damage.
Damage Pool is not as potent as the old Major Damage Boost passive. However, passives are not the only way to increase your damage output. It is now more profitable to raise individual skills past 50. (This applies to all skills that scale past 50, including the skills of tanks and damage dealers.) In general, skills scaled like so:
Old Damage at level 150: New Damage at level 150:
300 500
600 1000
780 1300
Arcane Lore: this passive is unchanged. It costs the same as before and has the same effectiveness.
Heroic Mastery: this new passive allows you to increase your accuracy and evasion. Each point purchases improves accuracy and evasion by 1 point. It covers all three damage types (melee, missile, and magic). All classes have this passive.
Note that you NO LONGER receive automatic accuracy and evasion points just by leveling up. The only accuracy and evasion points you receive are from the Heroic Mastery passive. Monsters have been reduced so that they receive fewer points per level. The result is that players can still hit things their level by the same amount (assuming they buy the appropriate amount of Heroic Mastery), but because the difference in evasion scores between levels has decreased, it is now easier for players to hit monsters that are higher level than they are. This change also has positive results for PvP, because it reduces somewhat the importance of level when two players are fighting.
Heroic Mastery is the cheapest of the passive skills; keeping your accuracy at the same level as it was in the old Hero system is easy, and it is not difficult to increase it much higher than before.
We expect players to purchase at least 10 to 15 points of Heroic Mastery per level. Players will be able to get a feel for how effective this passive is because the game now displays your percentage chance to hit a given target in the examination panel.
Max Focus: The passive that granted Focus has been removed. It is no longer possible to increase your maximum Focus, except through Perks. (See below.)
The changes to the passives dramatically alter how the game is played at higher levels. Because all players now receive additional health, vigor, and damage (by raising skills) at higher levels, classes are less divergent. This is further compounded because the passives that allow specialization are less potent than in Hero 1. In the end, we still have strongly defined classes: tanks are still near-unkillable, damage-dealers are whirling death, etc., but these class specializations are no longer taken to excesses that limit soloability.
Monster Changes
Of course, players were not the only ones who changed in Hero 2. Monsters have been rebalanced and adjusted as well.
Solo monsters have changed the most. Instead of having one-size-fits-all solo monsters, there are now several types of creatures. So-called “Protector” monsters are heavily armored but weak-hitting, while “Conqueror” monsters have very little armor, but deal high damage. There are also various creatures in between these ranges, as well.
Several AI bugs and glitches were fixed, and many monsters have new powers, plus better logic that lets them use their powers at the right moment.
In addition, all monsters affected are now worth more XP – at least 10% more, and often much more than that.
These changes affect monsters on Linvak, Arramora, and Knorr. Monsters on Osteth and Omishan have not been changed (except for some bug fixes).
All classes can now solo high-level creatures of at least their level (and usually at least 3 levels above them). However, you have to pick your battles a bit more carefully, especially when fighting monsters far above your level. Since there are now more differences between monsters, there are certain creatures that will be easy for a given template, while other creatures of the same level might be much harder for the same template.
One other change is worth noting – all monster debuffs now use Magic Accuracy, even if they are melee or missile-oriented creatures. This means that mage classes have a better chance to avoid these debuffs compared to other classes.
Issue 2: Focus System Not Exciting
In the original Hero system, the Focus bar suffered from several problems. Most hero skills were not worth spending Focus on, so players tended to collect a vast amount of Focus and only use it occasionally (such as in PvP). On the other hand, a few classes had skills that were extremely powerful and also very cheap, so that Focus management was rarely an issue – they could essentially use their skills whenever they wanted. In either case, it was very rare to even look at your Focus bar before entering a fight. Focus was a very minor bookkeeping issue as opposed to a key gameplay factor. We wanted to dramatically increase the importance of Focus.
New Focus
The Focus bar now has a maximum size of 100, rather than 1000. This change helps to underscore that the new Focus rules are very different than the old ones! Easy come, easy go: that’s the motto for the new Focus bar. Because it only goes to 100, it’s very easy to fill up on Focus, and any additional Focus you gain is lost. So naturally, this means you will want to use your Hero Skills more often.
Focus is easier to find than ever before. All solo monsters that are no more than 4 levels below your level will give 20 Focus on death, while group monsters no more than 4 levels below your level will give 100 Focus (divided amongst the fellowship). You can also regain your Focus just by logging off for the night: you regain a point of Focus for every ten minutes of time spent offline. This lets you log in ready-to-go each game session.
The Focus costs for Hero Skills have been adjusted dramatically downward. Hero Attacks tend to cost 25 to 40 Focus per use, meaning that you can use them every couple of fights. Hero Buffs tend to cost 50 to 80 Focus, meaning you can use them every three or four fights.
Issue 3: Lack of Choices for Development
One of the major motivators for writing Hero 2.0 was to offer more than the cookie-cutter options available to players in the original system. Because skills were given to players automatically, every player of an individual class was essentially the same, with only minor variations in Arcane Lore or other passives. Cookie-cutter classes aren’t fun. Worse, the original system had too few skills to look forward to. We needed a system that provided additional options for growth.
Hero Credits
In order to provide Heroes with additional options for advancement, we needed a new currency for buy skills. Thus was born the Hero Credit. Unlike regular Skill Credits, Hero Credits are used in bulk. A typical hero active skill costs 300 or 400 hero credits! You earn 100 Hero Credits per level that you are eligible to be a hero. So you earn 100 hero credits at level 45, another 100 at level 46, and so on. If you become a hero later in life (say at level 50), you retroactively earn all the hero credits you would have earned in the earlier levels.
But there is another way to earn Hero Credits, too. Monsters now occasionally drop Tesserae, tradable objects that grant a Hero Credit when used. Tesserae can increase your Hero Credit count, up to a certain limit based on your level. For instance, at level 50, a player will have automatically earned 600 hero credits, but they may have earned up to 150 more by using Tesserae. (If a player reaches the maximum number of Hero Credits, and they find another Tessera, they can either hold on to the Tessera until they level up, or they can trade or sell it to others.)
The following table shows how many credits you are given automatically, plus the maximum number of theoretical Tessserae you could find at your level. However, this is a very fanciful number, at least for the lower levels – because Tesserae are hard to come by, it is very difficult for a level 50 player to have found 150 Tesserae (though they may be able to purchase that many from others…). It is also extremely unlikely that a level 60 player will have found 650 Tesserae through the course of playing. (Though again, perhaps they are given extra Tesserae from vassals and friends…) In general, it is only very late in the game, say level 100+, when levels take much longer to complete, that the cap on max. Tesserae per level might come into play.
Code:
Player Total Automatic Max Possible Max THEORETICAL Level Hero Credits Tesserae Used Possible Hero Credits 45 100 25 125 46 200 50 250 47 300 75 375 48 400 100 500 49 500 125 625 50 600 150 750 51 700 200 900 52 800 250 1050 53 900 300 1200 54 1000 350 1350 55 1100 400 1500 56 1200 450 1650 57 1300 500 1800 58 1400 550 1950 59 1500 600 2100 60 1600 650 2250 61 1700 725 2425 62 1800 800 2600 63 1900 875 2775 64 2000 950 2950 65 2100 1025 3125 66 2200 1100 3300 67 2300 1175 3475 68 2400 1250 3650 69 2500 1325 3825 70 2600 1400 4000 71 2700 1500 4200 72 2800 1600 4400 73 2900 1700 4600 74 3000 1800 4800 75 3100 1900 5000 76 3200 2000 5200 77 3300 2100 5400 78 3400 2200 5600 79 3500 2300 5800 80 3600 2400 6000 81 3700 2500 6200 82 3800 2600 6400 83 3900 2700 6600 84 4000 2800 6800 85 4100 2900 7000 86 4200 3000 7200 87 4300 3100 7400 88 4400 3200 7600 89 4500 3300 7800 90 4600 3400 8000 91 4700 3525 8225 92 4800 3650 8450 93 4900 3775 8675 94 5000 3900 8900 95 5100 4025 9125 96 5200 4150 9350 97 5300 4275 9575 98 5400 4400 9800 99 5500 4525 10025 100 5600 4650 10250 101 5700 4775 10475 102 5800 4900 10700 103 5900 5025 10925 104 6000 5150 11150 105 6100 5275 11375 106 6200 5400 11600 107 6300 5525 11825 108 6400 5650 12050 109 6500 5775 12275 110 6600 5900 12500 111 6700 6050 12750 112 6800 6200 13000 113 6900 6350 13250 114 7000 6500 13500 115 7100 6650 13750 116 7200 6800 14000 117 7300 6950 14250 118 7400 7100 14500 119 7500 7250 14750 120 7600 7400 15000 121 7700 7550 15250 122 7800 7700 15500 123 7900 7850 15750 124 8000 8000 16000 125 8100 8150 16250 126 8200 8300 16500 127 8300 8450 16750 128 8400 8600 17000 129 8500 8750 17250 130 8600 8900 17500 131 8700 9075 17775 132 8800 9250 18050 133 8900 9425 18325 134 9000 9600 18600 135 9100 9775 18875 136 9200 9950 19150 137 9300 10125 19425 138 9400 10300 19700 139 9500 10475 19975 140 9600 10650 20250 141 9700 10825 20525 142 9800 11000 20800 143 9900 11175 21075 144 10000 11350 21350 145 10100 11525 21625 146 10200 11725 21925 147 10300 11925 22225 148 10400 12125 22525 149 10500 12325 22825 150 10600 13400 24000
Again, it’s important to reiterate that you should not expect to find 25 Tesserae during the course of hunting at level 45. They appear on corpses about as often as Lodestones do now. There are additional ways to earn them, however -- you can receive them as rewards from quests, though the Tesserae earned from questing cannot be traded. And it is even possible to find Tesserae while mining, though the chances are slim, and they can only be found by players who are level 45 or higher.
Tesserae are a bonus reward mechanism. They are NEVER mandatory. The Hero Credits that you earn automatically by leveling will be enough to keep your character viable and interesting. The credits you are granted by level 50 will give your character power similar to what they had in the previous system, and by level 60, the automatic hero credits will make your character much more powerful than existing level 60 characters. Tesserae can make your character even more powerful over time.
So… what can you spend your Hero Credits on?
EDIT: The passive skills listed above cost Hero Credits now... but only 75 hero credits each. The vast majority of your Hero Credits will go towards active skills and perks, as described below.
EDIT: The original Tesserae cap chart was wrong. The chart above is correct, and has also been expanded to go all the way to 150.
Class-Unique Active Skills
First off, there are skills unique to each class. These are the skills from Hero 1, with some alterations and additions. These Hero Skills are still more powerful than regular skills, but they are less powerful than their old forms. This keeps them from being game-breaking (especially in PvP), but allows them to be used much more often.
Another change worth noting: the Vigor costs of hero skills are very low. The average Hero Skill now costs 80 Vigor to cast. Let’s look at the skills in detail next.
Juggernaut:
Catastrophe
A self-centered area-of-effect attack that lowers all targets' attack skills.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 30 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 10sec
Range: 30m self-centered
Damage: 12 (L1) to 260 (L50) to 1300 (L150)
Effect: reduces melee, magic, and missile attack by 10 (L1) to 200 (L50+) for 30 (L1) to 60 (L150) seconds.
Devastating Arc
Juggernaut throws his weapon and hits the enemy, possibly for percentage damage.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 5sec
Range: 60m single target projectile
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150) plus chance of doing percentage
Damage: 20% chance of doing 8% (L1) to 12% (L150) of the monster's health. (The percentage attack is capped by skill level, much like the spec tree skill Decapitate.)
Sunder
An attack that reduces the target's armor.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) - 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 60sec
Range: melee single target
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150)
Armor Reduction: target's armor is reduced by 15 (L1) to 150 (L50) to 250 (L150) for 30 seconds.
Lugian Berserker:
Wrathful Perseverance
Max health is increased.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 50 (L1) to 60 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 120sec
Range: self
Duration: 60 seconds
Effect: Berserker's max health increases by 100 (L1) to 500 (L50) to 1500 (L100); Berserker also gains 100 (L1) to 500 (L50) to 1500 (L100) health immediately.
Raging Charge
The Berserker runs at extreme speeds, and has Damage Absorption.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 50 (L1) to 70 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 120 seconds
Range: self
Effect: Berserker runs at 1.5x (L1) to 3.0x (L100) normal speed, and absorbs 1% (L1) to 25% (L100) of incoming damage. Duration is 30 seconds. The run speed effect stacks with other run speed increases. The damage absorption does NOT stack with other damage absorption effects.
Torrent of Destruction
Only usable after Avalanche or Vortex of Pain. This single-target attack sends the Berserker into a flurry of attacks, hitting the target eight or more times (determined randomly).
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 40 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 20 seconds
Range: melee single target
Damage: 10 (L1) - 80 (L50) - 200 (L150) per hit
Lugian Tactician:
Siege Cannon
A spinning cannon appears on the Tactician's arm for a moment; it fires a powerful line-of-sight energy bolt that bypasses some armor, and then disappears.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 30 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 5sec
Range: 60m
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150), bypasses 25% of armor.
Crystal Wall
Creates a Crystal Wall. This wall doesn't have a strong attack, but it has inherent damage reflection built into it.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 60seconds
Range: self
Overdrive Turret
The Tactician imbues a turret with their most volatile of engineering knowledge, bestowing it with the ability to fire a super charged bolt.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 30 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 7 seconds
Range: 40 m (targeted turret); 60 m (turret can overdrive 60m)
Turret
Damage: 50 (L1) to 750 (L50) to 2500 (L150)
Lugian Raider:
Living Rock
The Raider throws a rock as normal, but when if it hits, it subsequently becomes a living pet. The pet rock can be controlled as an ordinary pet monster. The pet rock has a moderate heal that it can bestow upon its master.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 10seconds
Range: 80m
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150)
Hollow Boulder
This attack bypasses ALL of the target's armor.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Minimum Level: 60
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 10sec
Range: 70m
Damage: 12 (L1) to 260 (L50) to 1200 (L150). Bypasses 100% of armor.
Bring Down the Mountain
The Raider throws a slew of boulders at the target. This is a multi-hit attack.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 30seconds
Range: 70m
Damage: 5 hits at 10 (L1) - 120 (L50) - 600 (L150).
Lugian Elementalist:
Tidal Wave
A large area-effect water attack. All enemies in the area take damage and have their attack speed reduced.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 30 (L1) to 40 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 10sec
Range: 20m AoE, 40m ranged LOS attack
Damage: 12 (L1) to 260 (L50) to 1300 (L150)
Effect: slows combat speed by 1% (L1) to 30% (L50+) for 30 seconds
Sand Goliath
Summons a Sand Goliath. This pet does NOT count towards the maximum of two Elementalist sand pets.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 60 (L1) to 80 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 300 sec
Range: self
Pyroclastic Flow
A moving wall of superheated rock and gas. This is a five-hit projectile attack.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 30sec
Range: 40m
Damage: 5 hits at 10 (L1) - 120 (L50) - 600 (L150)
Lugian Sage:
Breath of Life
People who have died recently and are still at the "You have died, press Resurrect to resurrect" screen can be recovered. The Sage can cast this spell on their corpse and they will reappear before the Sage. Note that this skill’s Focus cost goes DOWN as experience is spent on it.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 80 (L1) to 40 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 10 seconds
Range: 40m
Focus Retained: Normally a player is dropped to 10% of their max focus on death (in Hero 2). When resurrected, however, they are capped at a higher number: 1% (L1) - 20% (L100) higher, to be exact. Thus, when someone is resurrected by a L100 resurrect, they are reduced to 30% of their max Focus.
Sanctuary of the Mind
The target's skills cost abundantly more, but they gain a strong HoT for the duration, plus an immediate heal. This can be cast on fellowship members or the Sage.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 30 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 15 sec
Range: 40m
Duration: 15sec
Effect: Heals 10 (L1) to 350 (L50) 700 (L100). Health over time healing of 1 (L1) to 100 (L100) per second. Vigor cost of target’s skills increase by 300.
Psyche Twist
<The target's mind is clouded with pain. It takes damage and becomes unable to move for a short while.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 60 seconds
Range: 40 meters
Damage: 40 (L1) to 400 (L50) to 2000 (L150)
Effect: root for 10 (L1) to 30 (L150) seconds
Feral Intendant:
Feral Rage
The Feral Intendant gains extra speed and extra armor.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 55 (L1) to 65 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: self
Duration: 60 seconds
Effect: 1% - 30% - 50% combat-speed increase, 10 - 50 - 120 armor increase. These effects stack with existing spec tree skills.
Primal Howl
The Tumerok lets loose a terrible howl which hurts and weakens all around it in a 20m radius.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 10seconds
Range: 20m self-targeted
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150)
Effect: reduce nearby enemy's damage by 10 to 100 to 300 for each attack the enemy makes in the next 30 seconds.
Evolution
The Feral Intendant's pet becomes deadlier and more indestructible.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 22 (all levels) - skill goes to 100
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 120 seconds
Range: 40meters
Duration: 30 seconds (L1) to 60 seconds (L50)
Effect: Pet armor is increased by 10 (L1) to 500 (L100). Pet damage increased by 1 (L1) to 100 (L100).
Zealot:
Defile The Unbeliever
A six-hit melee attack. There is also a small chance that an additional bloodletting attack will be automatically applied to the target.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 40 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 10sec
Range: melee
Damage: 6 hits, each hit 10 (L1) to 80 (L50) to 200 (L150)
Effect: chance of applying a percentage bleed effect; chance is 1% (L1) to 40% (L150). Bleed is identical to other Zealot bleeds.
Arrow Breaker
The Zealot becomes so attuned to his surroundings that he can evade attacks more sucessfully.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 55 (all levels)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 120 seconds
Range: self
Effect: for 7 (L1) to 60 (L100) seconds, Zealot gains a 150 point bonus to evasion vs. missile, magic, and melee attacks.
Fanaticism
The Zealot's auto-attacks become stronger for a time.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 55 (L1) to 65 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: self
Duration: 60 seconds
Effect: Zealot's hands glow. Auto-attacks do an additional 7 (L1) to 100 (L50) to 200 (L100) damage.
Tumerok Clawbearer:
Tar Mines
The Clawbearer flings a bunch of bombs at a target; the projectiles land around the target. Some will go off instantly; the others will go off if the target or another enemy moves nearby.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 14 seconds
Range: 70m
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150)
Effect: on successful hit, creates 4 tar grenades around the target. Tar grenades root with an AoE effect for ten seconds and does minor damage.
Sandstorm
The Clawbearer scoops up sand and forms a huge cloud around them. This is a self-targeted AoE defense debuff.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 35 (L1) to 50 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 14sec
Range: 40m self-targeted AoE
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150)
Effect: reduces missile, magic, and melee defenses by 10 (L1) to 200 (L150).
Duration: 60 seconds.
Fatal Flaw
An attack that causes the target to become vulnerable.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 22 (any level)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 60sec
Range: 60m
Damage: 40 (L1) to 400 (L50) to 2000 (L150)
Effect: target begins to glow with "vulnerability particles." The next skill that indicates it does more damage to vulnerable targets will do an additional 500 armor-bypassing damage to the target. This Fatal Flaw lasts on the target until someone uses a vuln skill on them, or 12 seconds, whichever comes first.
Tumerok Hivekeeper:
The Queen's Defender
Creates a very large, very nasty wasp which attacks the selected target. The wasp disappears when killed or when it kills the target, whichever comes first.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 30sec
Range: 60m
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150)
Master Hive
A large nest appears on the ground and summons wasps on all nearby targets. The Master Hive lasts for 5 minutes or until it is destroyed.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 40 (L1) to 60 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 300seconds
Range: self
Tormenting Swarms
The Hivekeeper summons a swarm of stinging insects for each member of the fellowship. Each fellowship member can control their swarm as a pet.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 40 (L1) - 60 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Tumerok Invoker:
Ancestral Fury
A line-of-sight attack that causes three spirits to fly up from underneath the target's feet, covering them in spirits for a moment.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 12 sec
Range: 40m
Damage: 3 hits, each for 7 (L1) to 200 (L50) to 1000 (L150)
The Pure Spirit
Summons an erobal pet. This pet does not count against the max number of Invoker pets a player can have. The pure spirit disappears on its own after 20 minutes if it has not been killed by that time.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 60 (L1) to 80 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 300seconds
Range: self
Spectral Form
The Invoker becomes transparent and ghost like. In this state, a percentage of incoming attacks do no damage.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 22 (any level)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: self
Duration: 10 (L1) - 120 (L100) seconds
Effect: the Invoker takes no damage from attacks 20% of the time
Tumerok Healer:
Tanua's Gift
People who have died recently and are still at the "You have died, press Resurrect to resurrect" screen can be recoverable. The Healer can cast Tanua’s Gift on their corpse and they will reappear before the Healer. Note that this skill’s Focus cost goes DOWN as experience is spent on it.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 80 (L1) to 40 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 10 seconds
Range: 40m
Focus Retained: Normally a player is dropped to 10% of their max focus on death. When resurrected, they are capped at a higher number: 1% (L1) - 20% (L100) higher, to be exact. Thus, when someone is resurrected by a L100 resurrect, they are reduced to 30% of their max Focus.
Curse of Peace
The target's skills cost abundantly more, but they gain a strong HoT for the duration. This can be cast on fellowship members or the healer.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 30 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 15 sec
Range: 40m
Duration: 15sec
Effect: Heals 10 (L1) to 350 (L50) 700 (L100). Health over time healing of 1 (L1) to 100 (L100) per second. Vigor cost of target’s skills increase by 300.
Drums of Immunity
The Healer casts a powerful ward on himself and all of his nearby fellows that negates many attacks.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 35 (L1) to 50 (L100)
Power Up Time: 3 seconds
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 900 seconds
Range: 20m self-centered
Duration: 15 sec (L1) to 45 sec (L100)
Effect: All fellowship members get an effect similar to the Zealot skill Screen. Any incoming negative effect has a 30% (L1) to 70% (L100) chance of being cancelled and not applying to the target.
Human Bounty Hunter:
Assassin's Strike
An attack that does extra damage if done from behind the target.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 8 sec
Range: melee
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150)
Effect: attacks from behind deal 50% extra damage.
Treacherous Blades
A nasty 4-strike attack; each attack has an increased chance to perform a critical hit. (Usable only while the Bounty Hunter is dual-wielding.)
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 12sec
Range: melee
Damage: each attack does 10 (L1) to 120 (L50) to 600 (L150) with 20% chance to crit for 200% damage.
Wisdom of the Land
The Bounty Hunter offers his insights to nearby fellows, causing them to critically hit more often and be more lucky at avoiding death.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 55 (any level)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: self
Duration: 30 (L1) to 120 (L150) seconds
Effect: affected fellows gain +1% (L1) to +5% (L50+) chance to critically hit, and the equivalent of Fate’s Forgiveness (when a normal attack hook would kill them, it has a chance of doing 0 damage instead).
Human Defender:
Cragstone's Rebuke
Defender tosses his shield 40m; target is stunned and severely taunted. Has improved chance to critically hit.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 12sec
Range: 40m
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150).
Effect: Target is stunned for 8 (L1) - 10 (L150) seconds. (obeys normal stun immunity rules - that is, can't be stunned more than once per minute). Also, taunts monster equivalent to 25% (L1) to 100% (L150) of the monster's health. This skill has a 20% chance to critical-hit for double damage.
Aegis
A floating reflective shield appears in front of everyone in the fellowship; a percentage of all incoming damage is reflected back to the attacker.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 45 (L1) to 55 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 60 sec
Range: 20m self-centered fellowship propagated
Duration: 30sec (L1) to 60sec (L100)
Effect: incoming attacks are reflected back at the attacker; they do 10% (L1) to 50% (L100) of the damage to the attacker. In addition, a portion of the damage is absorbed and does not harm the target. 1% (L1) to 15% (L100) of the incoming damage is not applied to the target.
Reprisal
The Defender performs a shield attack on the target and at the same time casts a group heal on nearby fellowship members (including himself).
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 30 (L1) to 40 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 15sec
Range: melee
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150)
Effect: casts a healing spell at same time; heals for 100 (L1) to 250 (L50) to 750 (L150)
Human Ranger:
Rain of Arrows
A simple, elegant, and deadly five-arrow attack on a single target.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 35 (L1) to 45 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 9 sec
Range: 80m
Damage: each arrow, 10 (L1) to 120 (L50) to 600 (L150)
Bird of Prey
The Ranger points at a target. This is a line-of-sight attack. If it hits, a falcon swoops down and attacks the target. It continues to attack the target for the duration, at intervals. It is not a pet, but rather a damage-over-time effect.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 10 seconds
Range: 80m
Damage: 40 (L1) to 400 (L50) to 2000 (L150)
Effect: Falcon-over-time bleed, 20 (L1) to 60 (L150) damage for 30 seconds
Firebirds
The Ranger points at a target. This is a line-of-sight attack. If it hits, the ranger summons a flock of Firebirds to attack all monsters within the radius of the target. These are not pets, but rather damage-over-time effects on the targets.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 12 seconds
Range: 80m, 20m AoE
Damage: AoE: 12 (L1) to 260 (L50) to 1300 (L150)
Effect: Flaming-Falcon-over-time bleed, 10 (L1) to 40 (L150) damage for 30 seconds
Human Alchemist:
Elixir of Life
People who have died recently and are still at the "You have died, press Resurrect to resurrect" screen can be recovered. The Alchemist can use this skill on their corpse and they will reappear before the Alchemist. Note that this skill’s Focus cost goes DOWN as experience is spent on it.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 80 (L1) to 40 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 10 seconds
Range: 40m
Focus Retained: Normally a player is dropped to 10% of their max focus on death. When resurrected, they are capped at a higher number: 1% (L1) - 20% (L100) higher, to be exact. Thus, when someone is resurrected by a L100 resurrect, they are reduced to 30% of their max Focus.
Caustic Breath
The Alchemist spits acid on the target. This is a melee-range attack. This effect works in both human mode and Darkside mode.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 7sec
Range: melee
Damage: 40 (L1) to 400 (L50) to 2000 (L150)
Effect: acid damage, does 10 (L1) to 20 (L150) health and vigor damage per second for 30 (L1) to 45 (L100) seconds.
Immolation
The Alchemist is set brightly ablaze. His auto-attacks become flamethrower-like fire bursts. In addition, the Alchemist is immune to fire attacks for the duration of the skill. In Darkside mode, the attacks are melee range; in normal mode, the attacks have a twenty meter range.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 55 (L1) to 65 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 300seconds
Range: self
Duration: 30 (L1) to 90 (L100) seconds
Effect: Alchemist's auto-attacks do an additional 10 (L1) to 80 (L50) to 160 (L100) damage plus apply a fire effect of 8 dmg (L1) to 20 dmg (L100) per sec for 15 seconds.
Alchemist is immune to fire damage while Immolated.
Human Enchanter:
Execution
A giant sword falls on a target chosen by the Enchanter.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 12
Range: 40m
Damage: 40 (L1) to 400 (L50) to 2000 (L150)
Effect: bleed damage, 10 (L1) to 30 (L150) for 30 seconds
Living Armor
A suit of armor builds itself into the shape of a person. It attacks the target. This is a pet that follows pet orders. It has a weak punch attack, but it has very strong armor and a potent taunt. Living Armor lasts for 20 minutes or until it is killed.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 55 (L1) to 65 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: self
Enchanted Arms
The Enchanter summons a deadly blade that fights alongside the caster. This is a pet that follows pet orders. It is relative easy to kill but has strong damage attacks. The sword pet cannot be used at the same time as the Living Armor pet.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 22 (all levels) - to 150
Vigor Cost: 300
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: self
Human Sorcerer:
Geomantic Alignment
The Sorcerer harnesses the power of the ley lines of Dereth to tap into extra vigor.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 55 (L1) to 65 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: self only
Duration: 60 (L1) to 120 (L100) seconds
Effect: For the duration, all of the Sorcerer's spells cost 1 (L1) to 80 (L50) to 150 (L100) less vigor to cast. This effect follows the normal 50% rule: skills that would be reduced more than 50% by this effect are instead reduced to exactly 50% of their normal cost. This effect does stack with Esprit. Also, for the duration, the Sorcerer's in-combat vigor regeneration is increased by 1% (L1) - 35% (L100).
Blighting Gaze
A deadly attack that causes the target to be less receptive to heals.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 8
Range: 40m
Damage: 40 (L1) to 400 (L50) to 2000 (L150)
Effect: reduces the power of healing effects by 10% (L1) to 50% (L150). This affects healing spells, health-over-time effects, reaps, and potions. Does NOT affect health regeneration.
Duration: 60 seconds
Rez'arel's Ruin
Shards of the ruined moon rain down upon the target.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 30 (L1) to 40 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 12
Range: 60m
Damage: 7 (L1) to 200 (L50) to 1000 (L150), three hits
Effect: bleed damage of 1 (L1) to 30 (L150) for 30 seconds
Empyrean Hieromancer:
Mortal Coil
A deadly burst of energy encompasses the target.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 12sec
Damage: two hits, each 12 (L1) to 260 (L50) to 1300 (L150)
Symbol of Eternity
The caster avoids death when they would otherwise die, and instead gains health.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 55 (L1) to 65 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 300sec
Effect: Upon a hit or effect that would otherwise kill you, you instead live, and are given 100 (L1) to 500 (L50) to 1250 (L100) health. Effect lasts for 120 seconds or until used.
Gesture of Frailty
A gesture that damages the target and lowers their ability to inflict damage.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 60sec
Damage: 30 (L1) - 320 (L50) - 1600 (L150)
Effect: Decreases the targets damage output by 10 (L1) - 100 (L50) - 250 (L150)
Duration: 30 seconds
Empyrean Mentalist:
Phantasm
A dangerous mind-game that causes great pain to the target, and has a chance to perform a percentage-damage bleed.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 12seconds
Range: 40m
Damage: 30 (L1) to 320 (L50) to 1600 (L150)
Effect: bleed damage of 1% (L1) to 10% (L150) over 30 seconds. Chance of firing is 17% (L1) to 40 (L150)
Mental Breakdown
Usable only after Mental Onslaught or Volatility, this is a five-hit attack.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 12seconds
Range: 40m
Damage: 10 (L1) to 120 (L50) to 600 (L150), five hits
Temporal Distortion
Summoning all their mental powers, the Mentalist damages the timeline of enemies in the near area. This is a self-centered 20m AoE that does damage and inflicts a runspeed/combat speed slow on all enemies.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 12seconds
Range: 40m
Damage: 12 (L1) to 260 (L50) to 1300 (L150).
Effect: run speed reduced by 10% (L1) to 30% (L50) to 50% (L150). Combat speed reduced 10% (L1) to 35% (L50) to 60% (L150).
Duration: 30 seconds.
Empyrean Templar:
Call to Duty
The Templar bestows protective and offensive energies upon himself and the rest of the fellowship.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 120 seconds
Range: self
Effect: 1% (L1) - 10% (L50) - 30% (L100) damage buff, 10 - 50 - 200 armor increase. STACKS with existing spec tree skills. Duration is 30 seconds.
Gaze of Oblivion
The Templar’s stoic gaze pierces the heart of the enemy. This skill does more damage if the target can see the Templar when cast.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 12 seconds
Range: 40m
Damage: 30 (L1) - 320 (L50) - 1600 (L150) bonus damage. Damage is multiplied by x1.5 if the monster is facing the Templar when spell is cast. (within a 180 degree arc)
Courage in Arms
The Templar’s auto-attacks do a small amount of additional damage. They also perform a taunt on each successful hit.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 45 (L1) to 55 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 300 seconds
Range: self
Effect: auto-attacks gain extra damage of 4 (L1) to 50 (L50) to 100 (L100). Each hit also taunts the monster for 5x the amount of damage done.
Duration: 60 seconds
Drudge:
Vengeful Assault
A five-hit attack.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 45
Credit Cost: 25 (L1) to 35 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 80
Reset Time: 20 seconds
Range: melee
Damage: each of 5 hits, 10 (L1) - 120 (L50) - 600 (L150)
Bigger Board with Nail
A Drudge enchantment that enhances a weapon’s damage.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 60
Credit Cost: 55 (L1) to 65 (L100)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 60 seconds
Range: any selected weapon
Effect: raises weapon damage by 10 (L1) - 100 (L50) - 200 (L150).
Duration: 60 seconds
Feast of Flesh
The Drudge calls upon his brothers for aid against a single target. Summons five Drudge Assassins. The Drudges attack one target until either it or they die.
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Minimum Level: 70
Credit Cost: 35 (L1) to 45 (L150)
Vigor Cost: 160
Reset Time: 30 seconds
Range: 40m
More Hero Skills
In addition to the skills which are unique to each individual class, there are also skills which are available to any class. These skills scale from 0 to 10 by spending XP on them. This unusual level cap was chosen so that each level of skill would be very significant. When you buy these skills, they start at 0 -- meaning they can't be used at all until you spend XP in them. This is a measure intended to prevent min/maxing behavior.
Because these skills are intended to be useful at all play levels above 50, the higher points of the 10-point curve cost a LOT of XP. In general, it is only practical to buy one or two points of each skill for every ten levels above 50.
These skills appear on the main Hero Skills Page for each class (we’ve separated the Hero Skills from the regular class skills, for cleanliness). Let’s go over each skill:
Hero Portal Recall
This is like the common skill “Portal Recall,” except it costs Hero Credits instead of regular credits to buy, and uses Focus to cast. The Focus cost decreases as the level of the skill is raised.
Minimum Level: 45
Hero Credit Cost: 300
Credit Cost: 70 (L1) - 1 (L10)
Hero Summon Lifestone
This is like the common skill “Summon Lifestone,” except it costs Hero Credits instead of regular credits to buy, and uses Focus to cast. The Focus cost decreases as the level of the skill is raised.
Minimum Level: 60
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Credit Cost: 70 (L1) - 1 (L10)
Hero Summon Portal
This is like the common skill “Summon Portal,” except it costs Hero Credits instead of regular credits to buy, and uses Focus to cast. The Focus cost decreases as the level of the skill is raised.
Minimum Level: 60
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Credit Cost: 70 (L1) - 1 (L10)
Health Burst
An emergency burst of health is bestowed on the caster. This skill has a very long reset timer.
Minimum Level: 45
Hero Credit Cost: 200
Reset Time: 15 minutes (900 secs)
Credit Cost: 15 (L1) - 20 (L10)
Health Restored: 500 (L1) - 1500 (L10)
Vigor Burst
An emergency burst of vigor is bestowed on the caster. This skill has a very long reset timer.
Minimum Level: 45
Hero Credit Cost: 200
Reset Time: 15 minutes (900 secs)
Credit Cost: 15 (L1) - 20 (L10)
Health Restored: 500 (L1) - 1500 (L10)
Health Chant
Grants health over time to the fellowship for as long as it is active. This is a toggle-skill, meaning it can be turned on and off by the caster. Unlike other toggle-skills, however, it costs Focus to keep active. If the user runs out of Focus the skill automatically turns off.
The user can only use a single Chant skill at a time. However, other fellowship members can use the other Chant skill, allowing the fellowship to have the effects of both Health and Vigor Chant active at once. Chants follow normal stacking rules (i.e. a level 4 Health Chant will overwrite a level 2 Health Chant, not stack with it). This effect stacks with different kinds of health-over-time skills, such as Benevolent Leader.
Minimum Level: 60
Hero Credit Cost: 200
Credit Cost: 10 focus to start, plus 1 (L1) to 3 (L10) focus/sec
Health Restored: 12 health/sec (L1) - 58 health/sec (L10)
Vigor Chant
Grants vigor over time to the fellowship for as long as it is active. This is a toggle-skill, meaning it can be turned on and off by the caster. Unlike other toggle-skills, however, it costs Focus to keep active. If the user runs out of Focus the skill automatically turns off.
The user can only use a single Chant skill at a time. However, other fellowship members can use the other Chant skill, allowing the fellowship to have the effects of both Health and Vigor Chant active at once. Chants follow normal stacking rules (i.e. a level 4 Vigor Chant will overwrite a level 2 Vigor Chant, not stack with it). This effect stacks with different kinds of vigor-over-time skills, such as Recoup.
Minimum Level: 60
Hero Credit Cost: 250
Credit Cost: 10 focus to start, plus 1 focus/sec (L1) to 3 focus/sec (L10)
Vigor Restored: 8 vigor/sec (L1) - 33 vigor/sec (L10)
Armor Force
Grants additional armor to the caster. This is a toggle-skill, meaning it can be turned on and off by the caster. Unlike other toggle-skills, however, the player loses Focus whenever they are hit while this skill is enabled. If the user runs out of Focus the skill automatically turns off. The user can only have one Force on at a time.
Minimum Level: 70
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Credit Cost: 10 focus to start, plus 2 (L1) - 10 (L10) focus/attack incoming
Armor Added: 10 (L1) - 100 (L10)
Reflection Force
While this skill is active, a portion of incoming damage is reflected back at the attacker. This is a toggle-skill, meaning it can be turned on and off by the caster. Unlike other toggle-skills, however, the player loses Focus whenever they are hit while this skill is enabled. If the user runs out of Focus the skill automatically turns off. The user can only have one Force on at a time.
Minimum Level: 70
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Credit Cost: 10 focus to start, plus 1 (L1) - 5 (L10) focus/attack incoming
Damage Reflected: 8% (L1) - 40% (L10)
Taunting Force
While this skill is active, each incoming monster attack causes the monster to be automatically taunted by the user. This is a toggle-skill, meaning it can be turned on and off by the caster. Unlike other toggle-skills, however, the player loses Focus whenever they are hit while this skill is enabled. If the user runs out of Focus the skill automatically turns off. The user can only have one Force on at a time.
Minimum Level: 70
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Credit Cost: 10 focus to start, plus 1 (L1) - 5 (L10) focus/attack incoming
Taunt Given: 1% of monster's max health (L1) - 5% of max health (L10)
Fickle Fate
When the user spends Focus on this skill, a potent effect is added to them (and their fellowship) at random. The vast majority of the skill’s effects are beneficial, though there are occasional negative effects. As the skill is raised in level, the potency of the beneficial effects goes up, while the potency of the negative effects goes down.
Minimum Level: 70
Hero Credit Cost: 400
Credit Cost: 35 (L1) - 45 (L10)
Duration: 5 Minutes (Negative Effects), 15 Minutes (Positive Effects)
Effect: a random effect, such as a damage boost, increase to earned XP, max. health boost, etc.
Hero Skill Tree
This is what the Hero page of each classes skill tree looks like. The T1, T2, and T3 Hero Skills are placeholders for the individual classes’ unique hero skills. Note that most of the skills in the tree do not have parent skills. This means you can simply buy them when you are the appropriate level; for instance, you do not have to buy the T1 Hero Skill before you can buy the T2 Hero Skill.
Code:
Armor Reflection Taunting Fickle T3 Hero L70 Force Force Force Fate Skill Summon Summon Health Vigor T2 Hero L60 Portal Lifestone Chant Chant Skill | _/ | | Portal ________/ Health Vigor T1 Hero L45 Recall Burst Burst Skill
Edit: code font isn't working with the new board skin just yet... should be fixed soon.
Last edited by Citan : 04-20-2005 at 02:36 PM.
Perks
In addition to the new skills listed above, there are also Perks. These hero skills cost Hero Credits to purchase, but you do not spend XP on them. (They are always at skill level “1.”) Their effects are always on – they grant a small permanent benefit to the hero. By purchasing different perks to suit your play style and your avatar’s personality, you can create a truly unique character.
Each perk’s effect is noticeable, but small. However, many perks have several levels of skill, so that you can buy multiple similar perks to increase their effects.
Unlike normal skills, you can only untrain one perk per week. (After you have untrained a perk, you will not be able to untrain another until a week has elapsed.) However, perks are shared between classes. This means that you do not have to untrain all your Perks in order to switch classes.
Perks have no level requirement –a hero of any level can buy any perk.
When there are several related perks, such as the “Pack Rat” perks numbered 1 through 6, each higher numbered perk is parented to the next lower numbered perk. This means that you cannot buy higher-numbered perks without first buying the lower-numbered perks. (The lowest-level perk of any type, in this case “Pack Rat 1”, does not have any parent.)
Perks of the same number never stack with each other – that is, Pack Rat 2 overrides Pack Rat 1, so that owning both perks earns you a total of two slots, not three.
Let’s look at the perks in detail.
Perk Details
Nocturnal Blood
During the evening hours, health and vigor are regained at an increased rate. Cannot have the perk if Diurnal Blood is already owned.
Amount: 30%
Cost: 100
Diurnal Blood
During the daytime hours, health and vigor are regained at an increased rate. Cannot have the perk if Nocturnal Blood is already owned.
Amount: 30%
Cost: 100
Night Stalker 1
During the evening hours, accuracy is increased slightly. Cannot have this perk if any of the Day Stalker perks are already owned.
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Night Stalker 2
During the evening hours, accuracy is increased slightly. Cannot have this perk if any of the Day Stalker perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Night Stalker 3
During the evening hours, accuracy is increased. Cannot have this perk if any of the Day Stalker perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Day Stalker 1
During the daytime hours, accuracy is increased slightly. Cannot have this perk if any of the Night Stalker perks are already owned.
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Day Stalker 2
During the daytime hours, accuracy is increased slightly. Cannot have this perk if any of the Night Stalker perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Day Stalker 3
During the daytime hours, accuracy is increased. Cannot have this perk if any of the Night Stalker perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Hunter: Nature 1
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Nature category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Hunter: Nature 2
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Nature category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Hunter: Nature 3
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Nature category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Hunter: Martial 1
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Martial category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Hunter: Martial 2
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Martial category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Hunter: Martial 3
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Martial category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Hunter: Decay 1
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Decay category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Hunter: Decay 2
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Decay category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Hunter: Decay 3
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Decay category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Hunter: Arcanists 1
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Arcane category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Hunter: Arcanists 2
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Arcane category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Hunter: Arcanists 3
Increased accuracy versus monsters of the Arcane category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Hunter perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Defense Against Nature 1
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Nature category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Defense Against Nature 2
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Nature category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Defense Against Nature 3
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Nature category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Defense Against Decay 1
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Decay category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned..
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Defense Against Decay 2
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Decay category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Defense Against Decay 3
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Decay category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Defense Against Arcane 1
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Arcane category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Defense Against Arcane 2
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Arcane category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Defense Against Arcane 3
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Arcane category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Defense Against Martial 1
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Martial category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 15
Cost: 100
Defense Against Martial 2
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Martial category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 30
Cost: 150
Defense Against Martial 3
Increased evasion versus monsters of the Martial category. Cannot have this perk if any of the other Defense perks are already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Commanding Presence 1
Increases the range of pet commands.
Amount: 5 meters
Cost: 200
Commanding Presence 2
Increases the range of pet commands.
Amount: 10 meters
Cost: 200
Commanding Presence 3
Increases the range of pet commands.
Amount: 15 meters
Cost: 250
Commanding Presence 4
Increases the range of pet commands.
Amount: 20 meters
Cost: 250
Commanding Presence 5
Increases the range of pet commands.
Amount: 25 meters
Cost: 250
Commanding Presence 6
Increases the range of pet commands.
Amount: 30 meters
Cost: 250
Aggressive Demeanor 1
Pets do more base damage.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 100
Aggressive Demeanor 2
Pets do more base damage.
Amount: 4%
Cost: 150
Aggressive Demeanor 3
Pets do more base damage.
Amount: 6%
Cost: 150
Aggressive Demeanor 4
Pets do more base damage.
Amount: 8%
Cost: 150
Aggressive Demeanor 5
Pets do more base damage.
Amount: 10%
Cost: 200
Aggressive Demeanor 6
Pets do more base damage.
Amount: 12%
Cost: 200
Nurturing Demeanor 1
Pets have more health.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 100
Nurturing Demeanor 2
Pets have more health.
Amount: 4%
Cost: 150
Nurturing Demeanor 3
Pets have more health.
Amount: 6%
Cost: 150
Nurturing Demeanor 4
Pets have more health.
Amount: 8%
Cost: 150
Nurturing Demeanor 5
Pets have more health.
Amount: 10%
Cost: 200
Nurturing Demeanor 6
Pets have more health.
Amount: 12%
Cost: 200
Death Hardiness 1
Gives a chance to not lose vitae on death.
Amount: 20%
Cost: 50
Death Hardiness 2
Gives a chance to not lose vitae on death.
Amount: 40%
Cost: 100
Death Hardiness 3
Gives a chance to not lose vitae on death.
Amount: 60%
Cost: 150
Swimming Mastery 1
Less health and vigor is lost when swimming.
Amount: 25%
Cost: 50
Swimming Mastery 2
Less health and vigor is lost when swimming.
Amount: 50%
Cost: 100
Pack Rat 1
Grants one additional pack slot.
Cost: 100
Pack Rat 2
Grants two additional pack slots.
Cost: 100
Pack Rat 3
Grants three additional pack slots.
Cost: 100
Pack Rat 4
Grants four additional pack slots.
Cost: 150
Pack Rat 5
Grants five additional pack slots.
Cost: 150
Pack Rat 6
Grants six additional pack slots.
Cost: 150
Transmutation Master 1
Items give extra gold when transmuted.
Amount: 3% more gold
Cost: 100
Transmutation Master 2
Items give extra gold when transmuted.
Amount: 6% more gold
Cost: 100
Transmutation Master 3
Items give extra gold when transmuted.
Amount: 9% more gold
Cost: 150
Transmutation Master 4
Items give extra gold when transmuted.
Amount: 12% more gold
Cost: 150
Transmutation Master 5
Items give extra gold when transmuted.
Amount: 15% more gold
Cost: 200
Transmutation Master 6
Items give extra gold when transmuted.
Amount: 18% more gold
Cost: 200
Fast Learner 1
Slightly more experience is granted per monster killed.
Amount: 1%
Cost: 350
Fast Learner 2
Slightly more experience is granted per monster killed.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 350
Fast Learner 3
Slightly more experience is granted per monster killed.
Amount: 3%
Cost: 350
Fast Learner 4
Slightly more experience is granted per monster killed.
Amount: 4%
Cost: 350
Fast Learner 5
Slightly more experience is granted per monster killed.
Amount: 5%
Cost: 350
Fast Learner 6
Slightly more experience is granted per monster killed.
Amount: 6%
Cost: 350
Kingdom Soldier 1
More damage is dealt when attacking monsters or players from other kingdoms. Has no effect if you are neutral.
Amount: 1%
Cost: 200
Kingdom Soldier 2
More damage is dealt when attacking monsters or players from other kingdoms. Has no effect if you are neutral.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 200
Kingdom Soldier 3
More damage is dealt when attacking monsters or players from other kingdoms. Has no effect if you are neutral.
Amount: 3%
Cost: 200
Kingdom Guard 1
Less damage is taken when defending against monsters or players from other kingdoms. Has no effect if you are neutral.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 200
Kingdom Guard 2
Less damage is taken when defending against monsters or players from other kingdoms. Has no effect if you are neutral.
Amount: 4%
Cost: 200
Kingdom Guard 3
Less damage is taken when defending against monsters or players from other kingdoms. Has no effect if you are neutral.
Amount: 6%
Cost: 200
Deadly Precision 1
Grants a greater likelihood of making a critical hit.
Amount: +0.5% to critical chance
Cost: 350
Deadly Precision 2
Grants a greater likelihood of making a critical hit.
Amount: +1% to critical chance
Cost: 350
Deadly Precision 3
Grants a greater likelihood of making a critical hit.
Amount: +1.5% to critical chance
Cost: 350
Fortitude 1
Increases the effectiveness of incoming heals.
Amount: 4% more health
Cost: 100
Fortitude 2
Increases the effectiveness of incoming heals.
Amount: 8% more health
Cost: 150
Fortitude 3
Increases the effectiveness of incoming heals.
Amount: 12% more health
Cost: 150
Fortitude 4
Increases the effectiveness of incoming heals.
Amount: 16% more health
Cost: 200
Fortitude 5
Increases the effectiveness of incoming heals.
Amount: 20% more health
Cost: 200
Fortitude 6
Increases the effectiveness of incoming heals.
Amount: 24% more health
Cost: 250
Imposing Facade 1
Monsters will take more notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 3% more damage is noticed
Cost: 200
Imposing Facade 2
Monsters will take more notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 6% more damage is noticed
Cost: 200
Imposing Facade 3
Monsters will take more notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 9% more damage is noticed
Cost: 200
Imposing Facade 4
Monsters will take more notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 12% more damage is noticed
Cost: 200
Imposing Facade 5
Monsters will take more notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 15% more damage is noticed
Cost: 200
Imposing Facade 6
Monsters will take more notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 18% more damage is noticed
Cost: 200
Unimposing Facade 1
Monsters will take less notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 3% less damage is noticed
Cost: 200
Unimposing Facade 2
Monsters will take less notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 6% less damage is noticed
Cost: 200
Unimposing Facade 3
Monsters will take less notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 9% less damage is noticed
Cost: 200
Unimposing Facade 4
Monsters will take less notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 12% less damage is noticed
Cost: 250
Unimposing Facade 5
Monsters will take less notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 15% less damage is noticed
Cost: 250
Unimposing Facade 6
Monsters will take less notice to damage dealt to them.
Amount: 18% less damage is noticed
Cost: 250
Mining Master 1
Increases the amount of mined trait gained per swing.
Amount: 2
Cost: 50
Mining Master 2
Increases the amount of mined trait gained per swing.
Amount: 4
Cost: 100
Mining Master 3
Increases the amount of mined trait gained per swing.
Amount: 6
Cost: 100
Mining Master 4
Increases the amount of mined trait gained per swing.
Amount: 8
Cost: 150
Mining Master 5
Increases the amount of mined trait gained per swing.
Amount: 10
Cost: 150
Mining Master 6
Increases the amount of mined trait gained per swing.
Amount: 12
Cost: 200
Scholar's Craft 1
Increases the chance for critical success when crafting weapons, armor, and tools.
Amount: +0.5% chance
Cost: 200
Scholar's Craft 2
Increases the chance for critical success when crafting weapons, armor, and tools.
Amount: +1% chance
Cost: 300
Scholar's Craft 3
Increases the chance for critical success when crafting weapons, armor, and tools.
Amount: +1.5% chance
Cost: 400
Prospector 1
Increases the chance of making a critical success while mining.
Amount: +5% chance
Cost: 300
Prospector 2
Increases the chance of making a critical success while mining.
Amount: +10% chance
Cost: 300
Dungeon Crawler 1
Increases evasion while indoors. Cannot be purchased if Plains Walker is already owned.
Amount: 20
Cost: 200
Dungeon Crawler 2
Increases evasion while indoors. Cannot be purchased if Plains Walker is already owned.
Amount: 35
Cost: 250
Dungeon Crawler 3
Increases evasion while indoors. Cannot be purchased if Plains Walker is already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 300
Plains Walker 1
Increases evasion while outdoors. Cannot be purchased if Dungeon Crawler is already owned.
Amount: 20
Cost: 200
Plains Walker 2
Increases evasion while outdoors. Cannot be purchased if Dungeon Crawler is already owned.
Amount: 35
Cost: 250
Plains Walker 3
Increases evasion while outdoors. Cannot be purchased if Dungeon Crawler is already owned.
Amount: 50
Cost: 300
Anatomy: Humans 1
Increases damage done when attacking Human players.
Amount: 1%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Humans 2
Increases damage done when attacking Human players.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Humans 3
Increases damage done when attacking Human players.
Amount: 3%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Lugians 1
Increases damage done when attacking Lugian players.
Amount: 1%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Lugians 2
Increases damage done when attacking Lugian players.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Lugians 3
Increases damage done when attacking Lugian players.
Amount: 3%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Tumeroks 1
Increases damage done when attacking Tumerok players.
Amount: 1%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Tumeroks 2
Increases damage done when attacking Tumerok players.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Tumeroks 3
Increases damage done when attacking Tumerok players.
Amount: 3%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Drudges 1
Increases damage done when attacking Drudge players.
Amount: 1%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Drudges 2
Increases damage done when attacking Drudge players.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Drudges 3
Increases damage done when attacking Drudge players.
Amount: 3%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Empyreans 1
Increases damage done when attacking Empyrean players.
Amount: 1%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Empyreans 2
Increases damage done when attacking Empyrean players.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 100
Anatomy: Empyreans 3
Increases damage done when attacking Empyrean players.
Amount: 3%
Cost: 100
Treasure Hunter 1
Grants a chance to find higher quality loot.
Amount: 2%
Cost: 200
Treasure Hunter 2
Grants a chance to find higher quality loot.
Amount: 4%
Cost: 200
Treasure Hunter 3
Grants a chance to find higher quality loot.
Amount: 6%
Cost: 200
Wild Magic 1
Makes you susceptible to unpredictable magic effects. These effects occur randomly and without warning.
Cost: 400
Wild Magic 2
Increases your susceptibility to unpredictable magic effects. These effects occur randomly and without warning
Cost: 100
Wild Magic 3
Increases your susceptibility to unpredictable magic effects. These effects occur randomly and without warning.
Cost: 100
Wild Magic 4
Increases your susceptibility to unpredictable magic effects. These effects occur randomly and without warning.
Cost: 100
Wild Magic 5
Increases your susceptibility to unpredictable magic effects. These effects occur randomly and without warning.
Cost: 100
Wild Magic 6
Increases your susceptibility to unpredictable magic effects. These effects occur randomly and without warning.
Cost: 100
Intelligence 1
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Intelligence 2
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 100
Cost: 200
Intelligence 3
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 150
Cost: 200
Intelligence 4
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 200
Cost: 200
Intelligence 5
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 250
Cost: 200
Intelligence 6
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 300
Cost: 200
Intelligence 7
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 350
Cost: 200
Intelligence 8
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 400
Cost: 200
Intelligence 9
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 450
Cost: 200
Intelligence 10
Increases your maximum vigor capacity.
Amount: 500
Cost: 200
Vitality 1
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 50
Cost: 200
Vitality 2
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 100
Cost: 200
Vitality 3
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 150
Cost: 200
Vitality 4
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 200
Cost: 200
Vitality 5
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 250
Cost: 200
Vitality 6
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 300
Cost: 200
Vitality 7
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 350
Cost: 200
Vitality 8
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 400
Cost: 200
Vitality 9
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 450
Cost: 200
Vitality 10
Increases your maximum health capacity.
Amount: 500
Cost: 200
Heroism 1
Increases your maximum focus capacity.
Amount: 10
Cost: 50
Heroism 2
Increases your maximum focus capacity.
Amount: 20
Cost: 50
Heroism 3
Increases your maximum focus capacity.
Amount: 30
Cost: 100
Heroism 4
Increases your maximum focus capacity.
Amount: 40
Cost: 100
Heroism 5
Increases your maximum focus capacity.
Amount: 50
Cost: 150
Heroism 6
Increases your maximum focus capacity.
Amount: 60
Cost: 150
Issue 4: Group combat not exciting/rewarding enough
As we slowly developed more solo content, we found that the group content became less appealing. This is unfortunate, because our desire is to find the perfect balance between solo and group play. The monster changes discussed earlier help a lot, because now monsters have more tricks up their sleeves, and are worth more XP, making group hunting more fun.
In addition, we have added a new system that rewards organized groups.
Chain Combos
Chain combos are a system whereby three players working together can increase their effectiveness. Each player uses a particular skill, one after the other, and the result is a special attack on the current monster they are fighting.
There are many dozens of Chain Combos, but we aren’t going to provide a list of them to you. You will have to figure them out on your own! (You can tell when you have discovered part of a Chain Combo because the target monster will become “energized” – they will have a unique graphical effect on them.)
However, as an example, let’s reveal one of the Chain Combos: Subjugate+ Ritual of the Heavens+Queen’s Defender=Scorching Storm. So how do you pull this combo off? Each member uses their skill in order on the same target. First the Lugian uses Subjugate, then the Hieromancer uses Ritual of the Heavens, and finally the Hivekeeper uses Queen’s Defender. If done correctly, you will hear the game’s announcer say “Scorching Storm!” and the enemy will be hit with a whirlwind of fiery energy.
So what do the chain combos do? Well, different combos do different things, such as vigor draining or direct damage. But all combos have an additional
Effect: they stun the target very briefly (for about 2 seconds). This stun works even if the target has already been stunned in the past minute – it is an unavoidable stun. While the creature is stunned, it’s time for everybody in the fellowship to pile on all the damage they can, because if the creature dies while affected by this special stun, it will be worth 25% additional XP!
Most chain combos work on players in PvP as well as they do on monsters. (Though of course players are not worth any XP when killed, so the 25% XP bonus doesn’t apply.)
As we’ve said, we won’t be listing the individual chain combos, but here are some hints for you to find them:
- all chain combos consist of three skills;
- all chain combos require three different people (so it’s never possible for just two players to cast all three skills);
- all chain combos end with a Hero Skill;
- not every skill is applied to the enemy… sometimes you have to apply a skill to another player instead;
- you will see a graphical effect when you’ve completed the first two steps in the chain.
Conclusion
As you can see, Hero 2.0 is composed of a lot of pieces. (You’ve already seen some of the pieces in the game already: the Damage Type system used by Harmonic Weapons was designed for Hero 2.0.) Taken separately, each system provides improved gameplay for high-level players. But it’s when all the parts of Hero 2.0 are taken together that it really shines. We’re very proud of this endeavor, and we are excited to see you try it out!