Patch Notes

Rebalance Patch Proposal v8.1

⚖️ Going Live — Feedback Still Open

Hello everyone. This is the final shape of the rebalance, and a short explanation of how it got here and what happens next.

We put these changes on the test server so they could be played and measured before anything went live. There was not enough participation for that to work. Not enough people came, and the matches that did happen were too few to tell us much.

What we did get was written feedback, and a lot of it: 87 players sent us their thoughts on the proposed changes. That is what shaped the numbers you see below — several entries were altered, and a few were dropped entirely, on the strength of what you told us. Every one of those 87 players has had CC added to their account as thanks.

Since we cannot test these properly on the test server without people in it, we are applying them on the live server instead. That is not the order we wanted, and we would rather have had the data first — but holding a finished rebalance indefinitely while the test server sits empty helps nobody.

Scope: Only the entries listed in this section are being rolled back. Everything else from Rebalance v7.4 and Rebalance v7.5 stays exactly as it is — including the Halt / Toxic Hand grouping, Sacrifice's cooldown, the Orbiter cast-time increases, Advent Legend's Tenacity removal, Blessing Elemental's range removal, Axe Smash, Indomitable Dagger, the Steadfast Sword resistance reduction, and the v7.4 Ida Oread changes. Titles are the one exception — see Title Changes below.

Ultimate Rage Cast

RestoredMovement Speed returns, but only on the cast form. Ultimate Rage Cast gives a flat +15% at every rank; plain Ultimate Rage keeps none of it.

Vital Charge

RemovedMovement Speed Tenacity is taken off the skill. It granted a flat 5% at every rank.

Lightning Strike

ReducedDuration goes back to a flat 6 seconds at every rank. The scaling added in v7.4 is removed, so the extra time you currently get from rank 11 upward is gone.

Duration (seconds)

Imposed Fatigue

ReducedDuration goes back to a flat 15 seconds at every rank, on the same basis as Lightning Strike above.

Duration (seconds)

Speed Attack

RestoredSkill Cast Time returns to its old curve and climbs all the way to rank 20 again: 37% → 62% at max rank. The v7.5 cap is gone.

Skill Cast Time (%)

Razor Sharp

ReducedSkill Cast Time loses the flat +10 it was given in v7.5 as Speed Attack compensation, going back to 54% → 44% at rank 20. With Speed Attack restored above, it is no longer needed.

Insane Howling (Heroic)

RemovedSkill Cast Time is taken off the buff again. v7.5 added it as the Berserker's share of the Speed Attack compensation; with Speed Attack restored, it comes back off. Insane Howling Cast is a separate skill and is not affected.

Swing Shot

ReducedSkill Block debuff — Arena only. Inside the Arena the debuff is 10 points weaker at every rank, so it reaches −40% → −30% at rank 20. The first five ranks fall to zero, meaning Swing Shot applies no Skill Block debuff in the Arena until rank 6. Outside the Arena nothing changes.

Skill Block — Arena

🔮 Sorcerer — Combat Cast Times

RevertedThe four main combat spells return to their original cast times, in the Arena as well as everywhere else. The single shared 2.10s cast introduced in v7.5 is gone. The Orbiter cast-time increases from the same patch are not affected and remain in place.

Ethereal Impale — 2.10s → 3.26s

Windstorm — 2.10s → 3.26s

Wretched Cold — 2.10s → 2.83s

Firestorm — 2.10s → 2.66s

🗡 Swashbuckler — Buff Cast Times

ChangedSwashbuckler buff cast times land on a middle ground rather than going all the way back. Every buff in the list below is set to roughly 2.2 seconds — slower than the v7.5 values you have now, but well short of the originals.

Heroism Might — 1.46s → 2.2s

Shout of Insight — 1.66s → 2.2s

Smart Force — 2.16s → 2.2s

Smart Weapon — 1.66s → 2.2s

Smart Blade — 1.66s → 2.2s

Sword Stopper — 1.56s → 2.2s

Advent Legend — 1.59s → 2.2s

Fortitude Soul — 1.66s → 2.2s

Steadfast Sword — 1.66s → 2.2s

Force Armour — 1.46s → 2.2s

Boost Up — 1.48s → 2.2s

Safeguard — 1.64s → 2.2s

Masquerade Master — 1.66s → 2.2s

Lunar Masquerade — 1.66s → 2.2s

Dauntless Masquerade — 1.66s → 2.2s

Chant Masquerade — 1.36s → 2.2s

Fires Masquerade — 1.36s → 2.2s

Fallen Masquerade — 1.36s → 2.2s

🔮 Oenone Oread — Debuff Duration

RestoredThe v7.5 restriction is lifted. Increases Duration of Debuffs reaches resistance debuffs again — skills that lower Skill Block, Physical Resistance, an Elemental Resistance or a Dimensional Resistance. The 18 skills that lost the bonus — among them Remove Armor, Swing Shot, Requiem, Firestorm, Frozen Darts, Seismic Shock, Wind Shear, Volatile Combustion, Body Check and Explosive Bodkin — get it back.

ReducedOn those resistance debuffs it is worth +5 sec → +3 sec at max rank. Every other debuff still takes the full ladder value.

HH Effect Removal — Split by Class

ChangedSkills that strip HH effects no longer work on both ends. Each one now cleans either you or your target, not both.

Target only — these can no longer clear debuffs from the caster. They are a tool for saving someone else.

Ruins of Horror (Sorcerer)

Iron Protector (Elementalist)

Hand of Justice (Slayer)

Dragon Boon (Orbiter)

Self only — the exception, and it goes the other way: it now cleans the Archer alone and can no longer be used on anyone else.

Bow of Meditation (Archer)

HH Effect Duration — Ranks 5 and 6

ReducedEvery heroic skill that applies Hold, Frenzy or Fear now lasts 5 seconds at rank 5 and 6 seconds at rank 6. Twenty-one skills are affected, and they all land on the same two numbers.

Hold and Frenzy skills (seconds)

Fear skills (seconds)

Debuff Duration Reduction — Capped at 5 Seconds

ChangedDebuff Duration Reduction now stops at a total of 5 seconds, no matter how many sources you stack. The stat comes from both items and skills, and until now every source simply added on top of the last, so stacking enough of it could shorten a debuff far past what any single piece advertises.

Cooldown Reduction from Items

ReducedThree item sources of Cooldown Reduction come down. None of them lose the line — each one simply gives less, and anything not listed here keeps the value it has today.

Oread — 6% → 3%

Ancient / HH / Nightfall body armor — 10% → 7%

Combined Prayer Stone — 5% → 3%

Wind Shear

ReducedThe Poison, Ice and Lightning Resistance debuff now stops at −20 → −10, reached at rank 10 instead of climbing all the way to rank 20. Its Elemental Resistance debuff is unchanged.

Poison / Ice / Lightning Resistance

Temper Armour

ReducedThe Poison, Ice and Lightning Resistance it grants now rises by 1 per rank to a maximum of 10 → 5, reached at rank 5. Its Physical Resistance is unchanged.

Poison / Ice / Lightning Resistance

Why: These three carry a lot of the pressure this class puts out. Blue Dire stays up far too long at high rank, and the two Skill Block debuffs start harder than they should. The base values come down; the bonus values go up, so the reward for ranking them is bigger than it was.

Blue Dire

ReducedDuration is rebuilt as a flat +1 second per rank instead of +2. It starts slightly longer and ends far shorter — 48s → 31s at rank 20.

Duration (seconds)

Insightful X

ReducedThe Skill Block debuff starts much softer — −6 → −1 at rank 1 — and now climbs one point per rank.

Skill Block — base

AddedThe bonus value keeps climbing instead of flattening out, reaching −27 → −32 at rank 20.

Skill Block — bonus

Close Fin Air

ReducedSame treatment as Insightful X — the Skill Block debuff starts at −7 → −2 and climbs one point per rank.

Skill Block — base

AddedThe bonus value climbs further as well, ending at −33 → −38.

Skill Block — bonus

Changed since v8: the earlier draft replaced each Oread’s All Stats line with stats matched to its type. That is dropped — every Oread keeps All Stats, up to +100 at max rank.

Oenone Oread (support)

ReducedIncreases Duration of Debuffs is coming down across the board. Combined with the rollback above, the stat now reaches every debuff again but for less added time.

Increases Duration of Debuffs (sec)

Cynsoura Oread (cast damage)

ReducedWe consider Cynsoura stronger than the other Oreads, so its damage is coming down.

ReducedSkill Cooldown Time Reduction stays on the Oread but tops out at 6% → 3%. The separate Skill Cast Time Reduction, which runs the same ladder, is untouched.

All Elemental Damage

Heroic Damage

Why: Some of the set bonuses turned out to weigh far too heavily on balance.

1. Since release, the HH special effects — Frenzy, Hold and Fear — have been the most effective skills in PvP, and the ones where timing matters most. The −3 second duration we put on the Cap cut their impact severely and shifted a balance that had been settled and familiar for a long time.

2. Debuff Duration Reduction, combined with HH skills, became overwhelming on certain classes and combinations.

So we are replacing those two stats. Decrease Stun Duration stays as it is — an earlier draft swapped it out too, but on reflection it is not the problem the other two are.

Cap

ChangedHH Effect Duration Reduction — removed, replaced with Skill Block (1 / 3 / 5%)

ChangedDebuff Duration Reduction — removed, replaced with All Elemental Resistances (1 / 3 / 5%)

Boots

ReducedDodge and Evade are halved across every tier: 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10% → 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5% on each.

The Sage

RemovedIgnore Skill Block / All Elemental Resistances by 4% has been taken off the title. All Dimensional Damages +15 stays.

Crusader of Ugdrasil & The Gladiator

RemovedIgnore Dodge/Block comes off both titles — +5% on Crusader of Ugdrasil and +7% on The Gladiator. Everything else they grant is unchanged.