Combat Rebalance and Late-Game Gear

Combat Rebalance

• Combat difficulty:
  • Monster health +8% per difficulty up to d5, then 1.4 x (1.085^(d-5) + 0.15(d-5)) (was 1.085^d + 0.3d everywhere).
  • Difficulty stat buffs halved: attack/strength/magic/range/defense +2 -> +1 per difficulty, weapon stats 12.5% -> 6.25%, agility 15% -> 7.5%, stamina 10% -> 5%.
  • Treasure Hunter is now the only loot lever: 5 -> 4 levels per difficulty. Every kill rolls its loot table once at every difficulty (was 1.4 rolls at d0, plus 1.4 more per 20 difficulty). Dungeon caches still turn chance above 100% into extra rolls.
  • Stepping a zone up now needs 50 waves since the last step or cap raise. Raising the cap saves that zone's difficulty only.
  • Example, a monster with 1,000 health, 100 attack and 100 weapon strength:
    • d5: health 3,000 -> 1,400, attack 110 -> 105, weapon strength 162 -> 131, Treasure Hunter +25 -> +20.
    • d10: health 5,260 -> 3,160, attack 120 -> 110, Treasure Hunter +50 -> +40.
    • d20: health 11,110 -> 7,910, Treasure Hunter +100 -> +80.
• Dungeon waves: the extra difficulty each wave adds is compressed, so early waves are harder and bosses easier. Goblin Settlement goes from 0 / 2 / 8 / 10 / 15 / 12 to 3 / 4 / 6 / 7 / 9 / 8; Giant King Unbound 15 -> 9.
• Affinity: every attunement that matches the target now counts (was only the strongest). Matches add up to a +75% cap, weaknesses and resistances net out, and affinity no longer boosts accuracy.
• Single-type affinity affixes give flat points instead of percent: "of Melee/Magic/Ranged" T1 4-8% -> 2-3, T2 8-15% -> 3-5, T3 15-20% -> 5-7; damage-type affixes ("of Fire", "of Slashing" and so on) T1 6-10% -> 2-4, top tier 20-25% -> 6-8; defensive T1 2-6% -> 1-2.
• Weapon damage types restored. Most weapons had lost their secondary physical types in an earlier data rewrite:
  • Battleaxes are Blunt first again, Slashing second. Wrath and War, Hands of Khaast, Forgotten Sadness, Golemic Warhammer and Fists of the Golem lead with Blunt.
  • Guns are Blunt > Piercing > Slashing. Bows are Piercing with a little Slashing (longbows 75%, recurves 60%, crossbows 50% of Range accuracy). Throwing weapons are Slashing + Piercing. Staves get a token Blunt.
  • Other weapons get their old secondary back at 50% of the primary's accuracy.
  • 23 Slashing-only melee rings, necklaces, capes and ammo-slot items now carry Piercing and Blunt too.
• Stuns: a landed stun of N stacks gives the target 2N Stun Resistance, which blocks new stuns until it wears off one swing at a time. Paralyzed caps at 3 stacks, the Stunned slow at 50%. Gear stun, silence and blind take the best piece instead of adding up; Feather of the Gale stun 10 -> 2 stacks. Stun-lock builds no longer hold high-difficulty Maelstrom.

Set Bonuses and Late-Game Gear

• New Crusader set (Defense 85): Crusader's Great Helm, Crusader's Cuirass, Crusader's Tassets, Crusader's Sabatons, Crusader's Gauntlets and Mantle of Judgement. Each piece drops at 1/48 from the Sanctum Cache or is crafted at level 92 from Crystal of Judgement, Stygian Bars (Elder Cloth for the cape), Chaotic and Ancient Crystals. Crystal of Judgement from the Sanctum Cache 1/20 -> 30%.
• Crusader's Conviction: 2 / 4 / 6 pieces give +6 / 12 / 18 protection and resistance and +1.5 / 3 / 4.5 defensive Chaos affinity. At 4 pieces every 8th landed attack is a Judgement that rolls its maximum damage, every 5th at 6 pieces. A Judgement that misses carries over to the next attack.
• New Riftbound set bonus on Shapeless Scythe, Shapeless Bow, Shapeless Staff, Shattered Forging Hammer, Crystal Mace, Fractured Identity, Rift Tear, Void Anchor, Ancient Chaos Amulet and Shattered Reflection (two-handers count as 2 pieces). At 3 / 4 / 5 pieces: +3 / 5 / 7 offensive Chaos affinity, +30 / 50 / 70 Chaos accuracy, +10.5 / 17.5 / 24.5 strength, dexterity and intellect, +1.5 / 2.5 / 3.5 defensive Chaos affinity. From 4 pieces every 7th landed attack (every 5th at 5) breaks the rift, following the style of that ability:
  • Melee: also strikes every other enemy for 24% (40%) of the hit as Chaos damage.
  • Range: leaves a Chaos damage over time worth 36% (60%) of the hit over 6 seconds.
  • Magic: cuts the remaining cooldown of your other abilities by 1.8 (3) seconds.
• New Range abilities: Shapeless Bow swaps Triple Shot for Unraveling Shot (12s cooldown, 1800 damage over 20 seconds on top of base damage) and Lesser Chaotic Spikes for Withering Volley (30s cooldown, up to 3 targets, 600 damage over 10 seconds each). Elven King's Longbow swaps Deadshot for Royal Deadshot (cooldown 30s -> 15s, damage 1.2-1.6 -> 1.4-1.9), dexterity 64 -> 76, crit 5% -> 8%.
• Stormborn: zap chance 1/3/6/9% -> 4/8/12/16%, damage 50% -> 75% of the hit, strikes the same target when it is alone, and a surviving target is paralyzed for one attack.
• Rebirth Flames: new Kindling, 1 stack per attack that lands a Fire hit. At 12, heal 5/10/15% max HP, clear Resurrection Sickness, scorch the target for 75/150/225% of that hit (half to other enemies) and burn it for the same over 10 seconds. Phoenix Ascendant: Rebirth at 10 Kindling, +75% scorch, and Hellfire Aura after every Rebirth.
• Cinder Heart and Phoenix Tear Ring now count for Master of Flames; Phoenix Feather Staff and Ember Wand for Phoenix's Flame. Phoenix's Flame leaves 16 Resurrection Sickness stacks.
• Ashwake (Phoenix Tear Ring): Fire hits give you Ashburn, up to 5, +6% damage each, kept between targets. Heartflame (Cinder Heart): auto-attacks build Heartburn to 5, your next cooldown ability spends it for +6% each, any element.
• Elven Discipline: 1 Elven Accuracy per attack (+2 more on a miss), none while Exceptionalism lasts. Exceptionalism 2: +40 accuracy and +10% crit per stack.
• Frozen Heart: chance 3/6/9% -> 6/12/18%, temporary health is the higher of 100/200/300 or 4/8/12% max HP (at most twice the hit).
• Eternal Winter: +6/18/24% damage against Ice Prison, Frostbite or Hoarfrost targets. Shatter also fires on Hoarfrost, and its cap scales with max HP.
• Hellfire Aura and Demonic Burst now scale with the hit: the higher of the old flat value or 20% (Hellfire) / 15% (Burst) of the hit per level.
• Dwarven Masterwork moves to Forgemaster's Hammer. Shrimp God's Wrath is on Shrimp Scepter, Shrimp Stinger and Shrimp Tail; Shrimp God's Gift on Mantis Shrimp Helm.
• Unreachable tiers removed: Legendary Might 3-piece, Ancient Edge is 1 piece only, Leviathan's Grasp is 1 piece at strength 3, Golemic Fortitude tops out at 8 pieces.
• Phoenix and Demon gear blind: 1% / 1 stack / -10% -> 2% / 2 stacks / -40%.
• In our sims Phoenix is now the top magic set, Elven King gains 13-45% damage and Ice mostly gains survival.
• Guns: Witch Hunter Handgonne dexterity 71 -> 64, agility -6 -> -45, Range accuracy 274 -> 256. Prepare Volley's Sniping Stance 5 -> 3 (+125 -> +75 dexterity). Crafted Cannon dexterity 66 -> 80, Range accuracy 89 -> 236, and it gets the Personal Cannon's abilities.
• Infernal Boots: +12 strength, +1.2 per augment level.

New Content

• Three new guild buildings: Kitchen (Cooking and Bulk Cooking), Brewery (Leftovers every level, plus Long Steep at L5 and L10: timed buffs such as potions last 5% longer per level) and Chapel (Shrine offerings earn more Guild Marks, 0.25 -> 0.5 per offering point at L10).
• Seven recipes that had a missing ingredient can now be made:
  • Crafted Cannon: Illegal Barrel from giants and titans, Firing Mechanism from the Foundry Cache and Obsidian monsters, Reinforced Stock from the Overgrown Cache and forest beasts, Enchanted Scope from Royal Elves, Pactmaster, Exiled Preceptor, Failed Experiment and Stalker, Unstable Powder from the Flaming Cache and demons.
  • Giant Slayer: Giant Bones from giants and titans.
  • The Black Monolith: Monolith Fragment from the Giant Cache, Void Essence from the Maelstrom Cache.
  • Thunderous Edge: Chaos Lightning Shard from Voidtouched Giants, Warped Abominations, Broken Mirrors and Rifts; Eye of the Storm from the Storm Cache; Perfected Storm Essence from the Sky Palace and Zephyr caches.
  • Charged Edge: Djinn's Blessing from the Sky Palace Cache, Lightning Core from the Zephyr Cache.
  • Ember Wand: Charred Stick from the Flaming Cache.
  • Dwarven Adventurer's Backpack: Rootiron from the Dwarven Research Cache.
• Collections for the Foundry, Demonic, Blighted Core, Fungal Depths, Sky Palace, Zephyr and Sanctum caches, and for the Livestock Competition Cache.
• Combat capes have their own enchant slot. Endless Ammo, Rune Reserves and Immunity scrolls fit them; Researcher's Boon stays on skilling capes (capes that already have it keep it).
• Seed Oil recipes for Resin and Lacquer, and an alternative Polishing Paste recipe (Diamond, 10 Air Runes, 20 Seed Oil).
• Undying Will now works on mercenaries.

Balance

• Skirmishing and Sniping Stance also lower strength and intellect by the same amount, so they no longer pay off on melee or magic. Ranged stances need a ranged weapon.
• Armor Rend and Smoke Bomb always apply their debuff (80% / 50% -> 100%), accuracy 1.05 -> 1.15 and 1.15 -> 1.25.
• Accuracy affinity: Bestial Defender 1 -> 12 (Empowered 2 -> 18), Fire Orb and Shrimp Stinger -> 24.
• Mercenaries: 1 per player in marketplace leagues, up to 9 in others. In a party every member seats their own.
• Desserts heal 40% less (Monster Ice Cream 3750 -> 2250). Prismatic Pudding costs 3 extracts (was 1).
• Messy Eater no longer lowers your shield cap; Shield Specialist raises it.
• Silver-Lined Quiver: Marksman's Focus -> Endless Ammo. Pure combat capes, quivers and a few rings and necklaces only apply their bonuses in combat.
• Desiccated Priest and Consumed Inquisitor are now bosses and Imperfect Golem a demi-boss (kill XP unchanged). The Zephyr Spire and The Sanctum of Order monsters got their real stats; several were placeholders.
• Vendor prices cut on about 70 combat drops: combat junk worth 5k+ halved; Scarecrow set and Livestock Medal 100k -> 5k; Obsidian set 68-164k -> 17-41k; Corrupted Fragment 750k -> 327k; Elder Gem 3M -> 750k; Decayed Cloak 2.56M -> 1.12M; Fire Orb 6.36M -> 1.59M; Kalanahmatti, Magma Core, Runed Stone and Royal Ice Shard 1.68M -> 420k; Ice, Fire and Nature Fragment 750k -> 187.5k.
• Mysterious Seed: Dark Mage 1/200 (1-128) -> 1/15000 (1-32), Consumed Priest 1/300 -> 1/15000, Hedge Witch 1/1000 -> 1/100000.
• Consumed Priest gems about 50x rarer, Living Vine Blight Shard 1/15 -> 1/500, Fungal Fly Fungal Core 1/50 -> 1/500.
• Ancient Cache collection reward 8 Ancient + 3 Maelstrom Caches -> 1 Ancient + 4 Maelstrom; it paid back more caches than it cost.
• Quests no longer reward finished dungeon keys or Ancient Tokens:
  • Valley of the Giants: 3 Giant's Keep Key + 3 Elder Lockstone -> 3 each of Nature, Ice, Fire, Corrupted and Chaos Fragment, plus 3 Elder Gems.
  • Storms Above and Below: 3 Zephyr Pinion + 3 Thunder King's Decree + 5 Storm Feather -> 12 Stormwing Pinion + 17 Storm Feather.
  • Reaching the Isles: 5 Zephyr Pinion -> 20 Stormwing Pinion.
  • Ancient Token rewards became Ancient Crystals at half count (Beyond the Edge, Into Stormier Seas, Storm Signs On Shore, The Edge Of Safe Seas). Gather the Floating Warnings now asks for 3 Ancient Crystals.
• Guild:
  • Weekly Marks allowance 250-500 -> 500-3000 by Market level.
  • Build focus no longer pays 2x Marks and has no 24h cooldown. Deposits pay 1x, and when an upgrade consumes materials you donated, you get contribution for them.
  • Member capacity grows in steps from housing and walls: 25 base, 30 at Hall 5 + Tavern 3, up to 100.
  • Guild crafting XP now follows the raw materials a recipe uses.
  • Your offerings through the guild count toward your personal Shrine total.
  • 3-day rejoin cooldown after leaving a guild.
• Skiller routes on 23 quest steps need far less: about 4x the combat route instead of up to 18x.
• Slay contracts: targets get base-zone routes, dungeon-only kill counts cut (Advisors 754 -> 9, others 1932 -> 176, 1650 -> 130, 976 -> 108), rerolls skip contracts you just cancelled. Elemental Rune Batch no longer favours air and water runes. Enhanced contracts never auto-repeat.
• Quest and contract target weights fixed so tougher monsters never count for less (Possessed Mage now matches other elites).
• Chances only works, and only counts down, while researching. Research costs trimmed on about 10 outlier items.
• New action plans repeat by default.

UI

• Mobile overhaul: new load screen, header activity chip, slimmer bottom bar, full-screen zone backgrounds, and mobile layouts for fight planning, Social, Shrine, Wardrobe, Collection, Marketplace, Crafting, skill tabs and Home.
• Combat battlefield: drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, Fit resets the view; the play area spans the full width in combat. Default Combat Model Size is now Default Zoom.
• Stone containers, popovers and tooltips restyled; Settings entries sit on cards. Cooking is redesigned and desktop Smelting uses the new layout.
• Drop popups scale with rarity and glow below 10% / 2% / 0.5% / 0.1% (new settings Scale Drop Popups by Chance and Drop Popup Rarity Glow).
• Auto-Accept Quests is on by default. Quest steps can show several "Bring me to" buttons.
• Use Ammo Pouch for Crafting: crafting and scroll crafting can draw materials from your ammo pouch once the stockpile runs out.
• Market: watchlist sort (Marketplace Watchlist Sort) with listing age, icon-only navigation, prev/next follows your watchlist, Back returns to Watching.
• Research and Augmenting: Transforms toggle (or search "transforms"); augment badges show the level an item transforms at.
• Combat inventory: separate food and ammo pouch panels, a healing total tooltip, and the food cooldown ring on your health bar.
• Buff trackers read "N stacks" with real tooltips; new Bristle Stacks and Undying Will Recharging rows. Bestial Fury shows as a buff.
• Encyclopedia: set enchantments list their piece tiers and a Set pieces section; many more sources and uses (Transformed from, Researched from, alchemy, cooking, sublimation, contracts, guild buildings); encounter arenas are visible. Bestiary shows full drop tables.
• Talents: point-source tooltips, skill filters always in the header, an "In build" filter, Back to list or Escape.
• Dungeon hiscores: a personal runs view, your best run as a party member, consistent ranks.
• Guild: roster sorting and a name menu, recruiting guilds listed first. New setting Receive Guild Invites; accepting an invite switches guilds directly (once per rejoin window).
• Cooking tooltips say whether an effect covers dishes, brewing or preparation. Gathering and fishing tooltips show node tags and weight nodes by size.
• Confirmations on farming Remove, shrine donations, guild builds, item log clear, queue clears and trade accept.
• Contracts: intel shop shows stock and next restock, unlock toasts list only new contracts, target tiles show weights.
• New setting Equipment selector: group items (off gives a flat gear picker). Right-click inspects items in the desktop app.
• Inventory tabs: counts ignore filters, the selected tab never hides, Manage Tabs explains Inventory Tab Tokens. Clicking an "Opened X" chest link in chat pins it.
• Haste tooltips read +N% attack speed. Enhanced Stun is now Paralyzed. Monolith's Weight and Giant's Legacy tooltips match what they do. Warding Bench reroll text says it randomizes affix values.
• Mercenary editor warns about talent-only abilities. Smelting action bar stays on screen. Shield cap tooltip added.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed failed dungeon runs outside Group Finder losing their banked loot; party leavers keep theirs too.
• Fixed auto-attack not swapping when the default attack is not the basic one. Abilities a weapon swap can't use are parked and come back when you swap back.
• Fixed loadout saves showing "refused" when they succeeded.
• Fixed dead mercenaries coming back via lifesteal from their own DoT.
• Fixed Swift Agony paying out kills twice, dead attackers still triggering effects, and group fights not ending when the last ally fell.
• Fixed Shrimp God's Wrath spending its empowerment on the triggering attack, and Forbidden Archive echoes stopping with one cooldown ability.
• Fixed monsters floating on the battlefield and mobile popups running off screen.
• Fixed Elemental Rune Batch counting x5 per craft instead of x1.
• Fixed whispers received while offline not showing as unread.
• Fixed wardrobe unlocks, referral rewards and referral platinum not reaching your other online characters, and Idlescape Plus perks waiting for a relog after subscribing.
• Fixed claiming leadership from an inactive guild leader who was still shown as online.
• Fixed elite challenge zone cards showing the wrong scroll and clear count, and the last inventory row being hard to scroll to.

Misc

• The Guidebook pet box is claimable once per character instead of once per account.