ArenaNet:Developer updates/Archive April-Jun 2009
Developer Update - June 2009 PvE and PvP Skill Balances
The major goals of this update are to balance certain overpowered skills, increase the effectiveness of Spawning Power, make Ritualist spirits viable in PvE, and increase the effectiveness of Paragons in PvE through the Command and Leadership lines.
Other than a few niche builds, the Ritualist and Paragon have had trouble finding a place in PvE. The basic concepts of these professions make them very strong in PvP and over the course of balancing them for competitive play, they've become underpowered or awkward to use in PvE.
The Paragon has a lot of strength as a support class where it buffs up the party by adding survivability and damage. In this vein, we've focused on the Command and Leadership lines in PvE and given them new utility while restoring some of their original power.
The Ritualist's primary attribute, Spawning Power, is a little underpowered and doesn't offer players enough of an incentive to play a primary Ritualist when they want to use weapon spells. We doubled Spawning Power's effect on weapon spells, an increase that should make it more appealing as a primary attribute and make the weapon spells of secondary Ritualists weaker in comparison. Ritualists use binding rituals to summon spirits which can either heal and protect, or deal damage and provide utility on the battlefield. The metered pace of building a base of spirits is balanced for PvP. In PvE, however, where the battlefield rapidly shifts ever forward, there is rarely time to establish a spirit base before the encounter is over and the party moves on, leaving the spirits behind. Drastically reducing the casting time of all binding rituals in PvE will give Ritualists ample time to summon spirits to each encounter. Also, the increase to the maximum level of spirits will help them survive longer during encounters.
General Playbalance Changes
Palm Strike: increased recharge time to 7 seconds.
Palm Strike's recharge was perfectly positioned to combo with Trampling Ox for consistent knockdowns with a frequency that made it difficult to counter and not fun to play against. We increased Palm Strike's recharge to break up the timing of this combo's knockdown effect.
Visions of Regret: functionality changed to: "For 10 seconds, target foe and adjacent foes take 15..45 damage whenever they use a skill and 5..50 damage if not under the effects of another Mesmer hex."
Visions of Regret has been extremely powerful, particularly when stacked with other hexes in a team-based hex-overload build, or just coupled with a similar skill (such as Empathy or Backfire), so we've limited how much damage it does in these circumstances.
Weaken Knees: decreased duration to 1..16 seconds; decreased Health degeneration to -1..4; decreased damage to 5..10.
Lingering Curse: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds; increased Energy cost to 15.
Suffering: increased recharge time to 20 seconds.
Weaken Knees was too good without any points in Curses, so we've reduced its damage output and scaled the Health degeneration based on the Curses attribute. Lingering Curse and Suffering were a little too good at pressuring enemy teams because they are easily maintained on all enemy targets. To make this more balanced, we've increased the Energy cost of Lingering Curse and the recharge of Suffering.
Ether Prism: increased recharge time to 20 seconds.
Savannah Heat (PvP): increased Energy cost to 15.
In Heroes' Ascent, Elementalists carrying Savannah Heat, Searing Heat, and Teinai's Heat have been prevalent in the meta for some time. While the numbers on Searing Heat and Teinai's Heat are at a good place for balance, Savannah Heat's Energy cost was clearly too low for its powerful effect in close quarters PvP. A higher cost should apply more Energy pressure to the build and slow down its damage output. Because this is an issue for PvP, we split the skill and only changed it there. Unlike other Energy management skills, Ether Prism has both damage mitigation and Energy gain with no downside, causing it to grow popular in all PvP formats. Increasing Ether Prism's recharge slows down the influx of Energy and brings it more in line with other Energy management skills.
Ritualist
- Spawning Power: increased effect on Weapon Spells to 4% per rank.
Brutal Weapon: decreased duration to 10..40 seconds.
Guided Weapon: decreased duration to 4..10 seconds.
Resilient Weapon: decreased duration to 5..15 seconds.
Vital Weapon: decreased duration to 5..30 seconds.
Wailing Weapon: decreased duration to 3..9 seconds.
Warmonger's Weapon: decreased duration to 3..13 seconds.
Weapon of Shadow: decreased duration to 3..8 seconds.
Weapon of Warding (PvP): decreased duration to 3..8 seconds.- Weapon of Warding (PvE): decreased duration to 3..8 seconds.
As a primary attribute, Spawning Power lacked compelling reasons to put attribute points into it. Players also had little motivation to choose primary Ritualist over taking it as a secondary. By increasing the effect of Spawning Power on weapon spells and adjusting the skills to compensate, we hope to encourage Spawning Power for builds with weapon spells while toning down those spells for secondary Ritualists.
Agony (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..12.
Anguish (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; decreased Energy cost to 15; increased Spirit level to 1..11.
Bloodsong (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..12.
Destruction (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Disenchantment (PvE): decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased Energy cost to 15; decreased recharge time to 30 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..12.
Displacement (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Dissonance (PvE): decreased casting time to 1 second; increased Spirit level to 1..12.
Earthbind (PvE): decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased recharge time to 30 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Empowerment (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Gaze of Fury (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Life (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Pain (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..12.
Preservation (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Recovery (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Recuperation (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Rejuvenation (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..20.
Restoration (PvE): decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased recharge time to 30 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..14.
Shadowsong (PvE): decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased recharge time to 30 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..10.
Shelter (PvE): decreased casting time to 1 second; increased Spirit level to 1..12.
Soothing (PvE): decreased casting time to 1 second; decreased Energy cost to 15; decreased recharge time to 45 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..12.
Union (PvE): decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 1..12.
Wanderlust (PvE): decreased casting time to 1 second; increased Spirit level to 1..12.
Armor of Unfeeling (PvE): decreased Energy cost to 5. Functionality changed to: "For 10..35 seconds, your Spirits takes 50% less damage and are immune to critical attacks."
Signet of Spirits (PvE): increased recharge time to 20 seconds. Functionality changed to: "Create three level 1..12 Spirits. These Spirits deal 5..30 damage with attacks. These Spirits die after 60 seconds."
Signet of Creation (PvE): increased recharge time to 30 seconds. Functionality changed to: "For 5..30 seconds, the next 1..3 Binding Rituals cast instantly."
Signet of Binding: functionality changed to: "You lose 200..50 Health. Gain control of target Spirit."
Spiritleech Aura: functionality changed to: "Skill. For 5..20 seconds, all of your spirits within earshot deal 5..20 less damage and steal 5..20 Health when they attack."
Spirit Siphon: functionality changed to: "The Spirit nearest you loses all Energy. You gain 15..50% of that Energy."
We split all binding rituals into PvE and PvP versions so that we could better balance them for PvE without negatively affecting competitive play. We drastically decreased all the cast times because it takes too long for a Ritualist to build an effective spirit base while keeping up with the rapid pace at which most parties move through PvE encounters. Spirits also tend to die quickly in PvE, where their low level and Health make them prime targets for the monster AI. So, to make spirits survive longer, we raised their maximum level by four. Certain binding rituals had a high Energy cost or lengthy recharge to balance their powerful effects for PvP. Since this kind of balance is less of an issue in PvE, we've adjusted the numbers on those binding rituals accordingly. We also reworked certain spirit-related skills and split the ones we feel could create a potential balance issue in PvP.
Paragon
"Brace Yourself!" (PvE): functionality changed to: "For 5..12 seconds, the next time target other ally would be knocked down, all nearby foes take 15..75 damage instead."
"Can't Touch This!" (PvE): functionality changed to: "For 20 seconds, the next 1..5 touch skills used against allies within earshot fail."
"Fall Back!" (PvE): decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
"Find Their Weakness!" (PvE): functionality changed to: "For 5..20 seconds, the next time target ally attacks, that ally deals +5..50 damage and inflicts a Deep Wound for 5..20 seconds."
"Go for the Eyes!" (PvE): decreased recharge time to 0 seconds; increased chance to land a critical hit to 30..100%.
"Help Me!" (PvE): decreased recharge time to 10 seconds. Functionality changed to: "For 1..10 seconds, you gain 15..90 Health and other allies' spells targeting you cast 50% faster."- "Help Me!" (PvP): functionality changed to: "For 1..10 seconds, you gain 5..50 Health and other allies' spells targeting you cast 50% faster."
"Incoming!" (PvE): decreased Energy cost to 5; decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
"Never Give Up!" (PvE): decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
"Never Surrender!" (PvE): decreased recharge time to 15 seconds.
"Stand Your Ground!" (PvE): decreased Energy cost to 10; decreased recharge time to 20 seconds.
"We Shall Return!" (PvE): increased Energy cost to 25; increased recharge time to 30 seconds. Functionality changed to: "All party members in earshot are resurrected with 25..50% Health and 5..20% Energy."
Anthem of Disruption (PvE): decreased casting time to 1 second.
Bladeturn Refrain (PvE): functionality changed to: "For 20 seconds, target non-Spirit ally has a 5..20% chance to block incoming attacks. This Echo is reapplied every time a Chant or Shout ends on that ally."
Signet of Return (PvE): decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
Blazing Finale (PvE): increased Burning duration to 1..7 seconds.
Defensive Anthem (PvE): decreased Energy cost to 10.
For the Paragon, we have split numerous skills so that we can restore the power to PvE versions that was lost in previous balance updates targeted at PvP. We also tweaked and reworked the functionality of a handful of skills to make them better suited for the PvE environment. These changes are meant to serve as a gentle reminder that the Paragon is an excellent support class, well-suited to the speed and mobility of PvE content.
Sunspear
Cry of Pain: functionality changed to: "Interrupt target foe's skill. If that foe was suffering from a Mesmer Hex, that foe and all foes in the area take 25...50 damage and -3..5 Health degeneration for 10 seconds."
Vampirism: decreased casting time to .75 seconds; increased Spirit level to 4..14.
Cry of Pain's strength is the speed at which high amounts of damage can be dealt to big groups of enemies. By separating half its damage into Health degeneration, we make multiple copies of the skill not stack well and limit synergy with Visions of Regret (which often serves as the required hex to trigger devastating damage). This change is targeted at builds that use multiple copies of the skill to quickly spike down large groups of all difficulties. Vampirism has also had its casting time reduced and spirit level increased as part of our changes to binding rituals.
Runs, Solo Farming, and Speed Clears
Players have long asked for our viewpoint on these ways of playing through content. For the most part, we think these are acceptable ways of playing Guild Wars but may occasionally take steps to increase their difficulty or even block a particular build. For instance, when it comes to Shadow Form, there is little concern about solo farming in most places; however, the speed clears of our most difficult content have become fast enough to warrant a more watchful eye. Over the coming months we will monitor these areas and, starting with Cry of Pain, make adjustments where necessary.
Zaishen Quests
The PvE-oriented Zaishen Quests were rewarding fewer Zaishen Coins than non-repeatable quests should. We have increased coin payout across the board to more appropriately reward players for completing these tasks. The objectives of the Random Arena Zaishen Quest required more time than was intended for its reward, so we lowered the required number of wins to complete the quest. Last week, we also reduced the rewards for the Hero Battles Zaishen Quest in response to players who were manipulating the outcome of matches to gain fast rewards. This lowered Zaishen Coin reward more accurately reflects the time it takes to complete the quest.
Developer Update - May 2009 PvE and PvP Skill Balances - 21 May 2009
The major goals for this update are to address the power of certain spike builds, make pressure builds a more viable option, adjust some skills to encourage tactical use, and provide some buffs to underused skills. In GvG, we have continued to see extremely versatile spike builds dominating; they are able to split, be defensive, and output high damage spikes while still having many of the tools needed to counter other build types. They could do it all, and do it all a bit too well. We've targeted certain key skills to tone down these builds' ability to do high damage spikes and shut down other build types. We've also reduced the effectiveness of party healing as well as hex and condition removal to slightly encourage pressure builds in the format. As always, we seek to reward tactical use of skills, and some skills have been adjusted to help encourage this.
Reducing Spike Effectiveness
Mirror of Ice: functionality changed to: "For 5 seconds, plus 3 additional seconds for every rank of Energy Storage, you deal an additional 5..35 cold damage whenever you cast a Water Magic hex."
Steam: functionality changed to: "Target foe is struck for 5..50 cold damage. If target foe is on fire, Steam Blinds that foe for 5..10 seconds."
Fast Cast Mesmer/Elementalists have been used to devastating effect in PvP on numerous occasions throughout the history of Guild Wars competitive play. By coupling the Mesmer primary, Fast Casting, with the Elementalist's high-damage spells, players are able to work around the typically high cast times used to counterbalance the high damage of Elementalist spells. Layer on top of that the utility that Elementalists and Mesmers bring as midliners, and you have a character that is both deadly and difficult to counter. This character plays a key role in the versatile GvG builds we are trying to address with this update. Mirror of Ice was used to further boost the damage of water spikes, which were already made more powerful by using Fast Casting to throw out multiple spike skills in quick succession. We've tied the duration of Mirror of Ice to Energy Storage, the Elementalist primary, so Mesmers won't be able to maintain it to create fast spikes at a moment's notice. Steam was too good at being both a defensive skill with its Blind and a spike skill with strong damage, so we removed its conditional bonus damage to make it less valuable for spike builds.
Castigation Signet: increased recharge to 20 seconds.
Castigation Signet allowed heavily defensive characters to participate in spikes without negatively affecting their defensive roles, so we have adjusted its recharge to lower the overall damage output of this skill.
Hunter's Shot: removed 1 second cast and functionality changed to: "If this attack hits, your target bleeds for 3..25 seconds."
Melandru's Shot: functionality change to: "If this attack hits, your target bleeds for 5..25 seconds. If it hits a foe that is moving or knocked down, that foe takes +10..25 damage and is crippled for +5..15 seconds."
Keen Arrow: decreased conditional damage to 5..25.
Hunter’s Shot has been far too effective at both spiking and quickly spreading multiple conditions, so we’ve reworked the skill into a simple condition spreader. Rangers can use this to stack with poison or cover up other, more impactful conditions like Cripple or Daze. In conjunction with the Hunter’s Shot rework, we’ve adjusted Melandru’s Shot to function as an Elite version of Hunter’s shot. It applies the same basic Bleed, but it can also do spike damage and Cripple foes under specific criteria. Keen Arrow was providing too much damage on a critical hit, making Rangers a key part of overpowered spike builds, so this skill's conditional damage was reduced.
Strength of Honor (PvP) (PvP Only): decreased damage to 1..5.
Strength of Honor is another skill which allowed defensive characters to easily boost their team's offensive capabilities without much of a drawback. By stacking this with other damage adds, it could produce overpowered spikes a bit too easily. We've significantly reduced its damage to effectively remove this as a viable option in PvP.
Encouraging Tactics
Heart of Shadow: functionality changed to: "You are healed for 30..150, and you Shadow Step to a nearby location directly away from your target."
Viper's Defense: functionality changed to: "All adjacent foes are Poisoned for 5..20 seconds, and you Shadow Step to a nearby location, directly away from your target."
When an element of randomness is involved, it is more difficult to predetermine a strategy of attack or retreat. That unpredictability in the Shadow Step aspects of Heart of Shadow and Viper's Defense made the skills a little less tactical than we'd like. Changing the Shadow Step on these skills to behave in a consistent way allows them to be used more strategically, since you'll be able to predict where you'll end up and plan your strategy accordingly. The randomness allowed you to shadow step, and become unstuck, when stuck in a corner of the map; now it may be impossible to use Heart of Shadow and Viper's defense for this purpose.
Word of Healing: decreased non-conditional healing to 5..100; increased conditional healing to 30..115.
Word of Healing's base healing was so good that it was worth it to cast on recharge and not worry about getting the conditional healing. We've adjusted its numbers to reward a more tactical use of the skill and slightly tone down its overall effectiveness.
Foul Feast: increased recharge to 5 seconds.
As both energy management and a heal, Foul Feast was too good. With its low recharge, there wasn't any reason to not use it whenever it recharged. We increased the recharge to slow down the ability to spam it as well as make people consider the most effective use of the spell for their combat strategy.
Encouraging Pressure
Peace and Harmony: decreased duration to 1..3 seconds; increased recharge to 12 seconds.
With its new functionality, Peace and Harmony was too good at shutting out hex- and condition-based builds by permanently maintaining the enchantment with the use of a 40/40 weapon set. We've decreased the duration and increased the recharge so that permanently maintaining it is no longer possible. This is intended to make pressure builds a little more viable.
Protective Was Kaolai: increased recharge to 25 seconds.- Lingering Curse: decreased healing reduction to 20%.
Despite numerous options for party healing, Protective Was Kaolai had become the obvious choice for party heals and was used in most builds. We've raised the recharge to make other party-healing options more viable and reduce the overall ability to negate pressure builds with strong party healing. In response to this change, we've adjusted the healing reduction on Lingering Curse to prevent it from becoming a problem in an environment where party heals are already less effective.
General Playbalance Changes
Shadow Fang: added an after-cast delay.
Unlike other Shadow Step skills, Shadow Fang did not have an after-cast delay, so we've corrected that in keeping with the other skills of this type.
Illusionary Weaponry: decreased Energy cost to 5.
Illusionary Weaponry’s energy cost was unnecessarily high for a skill that is balanced around its damage output, recharge, and duration. So we reduced it significantly to make fun builds using this niche skill run a bit more smoothly.
Fragility (PvE Only): this skill now also affects adjacent foes.
As a skill built for combos, Fragility requires a bit of work to make effective. As a single target spell, it just wasn't viable in PvE. By changing it to affect adjacent foes as well, this fun combo skill can find a place in PvE where hitting multiple targets at once is very valuable.
Strength of Honor (PvE Only): increased damage to 5..25.
While Strength of Honor was too good in competitive play, PvE builds that focus on buffing up a single character can be a lot of fun. To offset its removal from viable competitive builds, we wanted to try making this a PvE-oriented skill.
Aegis (PvP) (PvP Only): reduced casting time to .25. Functionality changed to: "For 1..3 seconds, hostile spells and attacks against 'target other ally' fail."
Aegis has long been a concern in the balance of competitive play and has seen numerous adjustments over the years. It has continued to be a problem because of both the overpowered nature of Aegis's basic functionality and the ability of teams to work around attempts to balance this skill by bringing multiple copies. So we've taken a different approach this time and hit the reset button by changing Aegis's functionality. Since this skill has only been a problem in competitive play, the change was not made to the PvE version of Aegis.
Warrior's Endurance (PvP) (PvP Only): this skill is now a stance.
After changing Warrior's Endurance to be a skill last year, we have observed a trend towards Warriors using only one weapon type over their other options. We've changed the skill back to a stance to encourage a more diverse spread of viable builds in all three weapon types associated with Warriors.
PvE Skills
Updates to PvE Skills are targeted at improving underused skills.
Dwarf
Low Blow: functionality changed to: "Strike target foe for 45..70 damage. If target foe is knocked down, that foe takes an additional 30..50 damage and suffers from Cracked Armor for 14..20 seconds."
To encourage this skill’s use, we increased its power by providing a better reward for building with knockdown.
Faction Skills
Elemental Lord: functionality changed to: "For 40..60 seconds, your elemental attributes are boosted by 1, you gain 1 Energy for every 10 ranks of Energy Storage, and you are healed for 100..300% of the Energy cost each time you cast a spell."
Elemental Lord has been given additional functionality similar to Aura of Restoration to make it a more versatile support skill for Elementalist primaries.
Summon Spirits: decreased recharge time to 5 seconds.
This skill's recharge was unnecessarily high, since the skill is balanced around other factors. We halved the recharge to more smoothly support spirit builds in PvE.
Vanguard
Tryptophan Signet: this skill no longer requires touch range.
The majority of classes spend most of their time outside of touch range, making this skill undesirable for them. Removing that restriction opens up its use for a wider variety of builds.
April 2009 PvE and PvP Skill Balances - 01 April 2009
This month's balance update focuses on PvP/PvE issues. Most changes apply to both formats. Skills that we weakened are not featured heavily in PvE, and we expect that players won't mind skills that were made more powerful.
We felt that some of the more effective skills needed to be toned down, while other skills were either too weak or simply didn't fit their intended purpose. New technology added over the last several months has also allowed us to change a number of skills to match the design team's original vision of Guild Wars gameplay.
Rebalancing Skills
Scorpion Wire: no longer has half-range. Changed functionality to: "Target foe is teleported to your location and knocked down."
Shroud of Silence: changed functionality to: "For 5..20 seconds, target player cannot send chat messages."
Shadow Stepping has triggered complaints about how an Assassin can move instantly to a target, keep the target knocked down, and kill it before anybody has a chance to react. To address this concern without decreasing the Assassin's overall effectiveness, we're instead experimenting with allowing Assassins to teleport their foes directly to them.
Shroud of Silence gave us an opportunity to give players the ability to disable opposing tactics callers. Since everyone uses text to call targets, this should prove a deadly change in large battles.
- Increased duration of all Avatar skills to 40..70 seconds.
Avatar of Grenth: changed functionality to: "For 10..90 seconds, your attacks steal 1..2 enchantments from any foe you hit and apply those enchantments to you."
We've made Avatars easier for non-Dervishes to permanently maintain with the use of consumables. Now Avatars give players a reason to bring an elite in skill slots normally left empty and frees up valuable inventory space by reducing the need to carry tonics.
Ray of Judgment: Removed Burning condition, increased damage to 10..90.
Searing Flames: Removed Burning condition.
These two skills were overpowered when combined and used together. To reduce the effectiveness of spike builds that use these skills, we took out the Burning and gave Ray of Judgment more damage to compensate.
Signet of Ghostly Might: reverted functionality to: "For 10 seconds, target ally or foe does +10..35 damage. When this skill ends, that target is slain."
Ritualists have struggled to find an effective offensive role in PvP. We think that our earlier changes to Signet of Ghostly Might reduced this build's effectiveness too much, so we reverted it to the originally intended function.
Context-Sensitive Skills
Sandstorm: now deals 10..30 more damage if the caster is standing in a sandy area.
Equinox: Exhaustion duration is now based on the time of day.
Dwarven Battle Stance: duration is now based on the user's height.
Gladiator's Defense: duration is now doubled in Random and Team Arenas.
Game engine upgrades have allowed us to track a number of interesting statistics and data. To gauge the popularity of this new feature, Sandstorm has been changed to give a small bonus when used in an appropriate region. Similarly, Equinox will now vary its duration depending on the time (Pacific Standard). Based on the success of these changes, we expect to base other skills on terrain, location, time, and height.
Guild Battles
- Guild Battle NPCs now respawn at regular intervals until the Guild Lord is slain.
NPCs have always played an important role in Guild Battles, but we are dissatisfed with split builds that focus soley on killing opposing NPCs. Since NPCs don't respawn, losing just a few NPCs can drastically lower a team's chance to win. To give losing teams more chance at a comeback, NPCs respawn on a slightly longer timer than players. The Guild Lord is unaffected by this change.
User Interface
- Characters suffering from Blind cannot see distant enemies.
- Characters suffering from Dazed will now spin in place. The camera is locked for the duration of the effect.
These exciting new additions will improve both the PvP and PvE experience by improving the interface display of your characters state. It is now much more obvious when your character is blinded or dazed, something that benefits front line and support classes in PvP. This also provides a more realistic environment for PvE players to roleplay in. With enemies you can't see and your display spinning around, you'll get a better sense of what it's like to be a Guild Wars hero!
Other Changes
- Removed the Lucky Aura effect from the Lunar Fortune item.
Although we were satisfied with the current effects of Lucky Aura, it unfortunately provided more of a benefit than expected to certain types of builds (especially farming). To bring this effect under control, we have had to remove it from the Lucky Fortunes. Other methods of gaining the Lucky Aura effect have not been changed.
- On a direct hit, the Zaishen rank emote now deals minor damage based on the user's rank and knocks the target down.
We thought this would be an interesting way to encourage emote spamming instead of skill spamming. We kept the damage minimal for now, though it does increase as you gain rank.
- Introduced a new Cartographer title for the Battle Isles.
PvP players need more to do besides killing each other, so now they can explore and show off their accomplishment with this brand new title.
