Hey guys,

I just wanted to let you know what's going on with the next update. I know I said end of January would be the likely release date but it's taking a lot longer than expected, so please be patient whilst I add all the new stuff and test as much as I can before release. I can't give an exact date but it will be this month for sure, hopefully in the first half of the month.

What's in the update?

Cap Increase
The level and skill level cap will be raised to 85.

3rd Jobs - Main focus of development
As you have already seen from the tank previews the next advancements have completely new skills, not just new ranks of old skills, so it takes a lot of time to come up with skills that work well together. We have to think of each and every skill and how it will work together with other skills, not only from that job but how it will work with the skills from the other jobs. We also have to decide on the progression of the new skills, what must be learned prior to that skill, where it should be in the skill tree etc. etc.

Originally I was doing one class at a time but it was just too slow, so now I have done all of them at once to a certain stage. This is why I didn't post more previews, because none of the other classes are completely finished yet. I now have all of the new skills in place and in game and I am working on each skill, calculating the damage they should do and the effects that they have, debuffs, buffs etc. and then I will start looking at the graphical effects. Depending on time I may release the update without spending so much time on the effects and add them afterwards since I can just patch them into the client without server restarts.

Job Names
The new job names are now confirmed.

Knight -> Templar
Guardian - > Champion
Gladiator -> Crusader
Berzerker -> Vanquisher
Mercenary -> Soul Blader
Barbarian -> Myrmidon
Adventurer -> Wind Walker
Shadow Walker -> Avenger
Scout -> Sniper
Hunter -> Desperado
Magician -> Wizard
Warlock -> Sorcerer
Priest -> High Priest
Sage -> Elementalist

So far the status of the jobs is as follows:

Templar - Completed skillset and skill tree. Finished.
Champion - Completed skillset and skill tree. Finished.
Crusader - Completed skillset and skill tree. Finished.
Vanquisher - Completed skillset and skill tree. Finished.
Soul Blader - Completed skillset and skill tree. Finished.
Myrmidon - Completed skillset and skill tree. Finished.
Wind Walker - Completed skillset and skill tree. Finished.
Avenger - Completed skillset and skill tree. Bug fixing
Sniper - Completed skillset and skill tree. Testing
Desperado - Completed skillset and skill tree. Testing
Wizard - Completed skillset and skill tree. Todo.
Sorcerer - Completed skillset and skill tree. Todo.
High Priest - Completed skillset and skill tree. Todo.
Elementalist - Completed skillset and skill tree. Todo.

When I say finished, I mean all the skills are in, trees are finalised, basically everything is working as it should be. I still need to test all the classes again once they are all completed and adjust damage and stuff.

Job Specific Items
All new armor sets and weapons will now be restricted by job so that stats can be tuned properly to that class without worry of overpowering others.

Battle of Atlantis Battlefield - Complete
Battle of Atlantis will job Flagmatch and Deathmatch each hour. This battlefield as you can guess from the name, will be using the Temple of Atlantis dungeon map.

Similar to Deathmatch but with the focus being on battling your way past the enemy team to their camp and destroying their fountain to win the game instead of killing enemy players. Points will still be awarded for killing players and the leader but the object of the game is to destroy the fountain, and once destroyed the game is won. The fountain will have quite a bit of health and will also have it's own defenses to slow you down.

Paniye Circus Troupe - Insane Mode
Payaso and his gang will be back with a vengeance in the new Insane Mode version of the dungeon for level 85 players where you will find new armor sets based on the original Circus sets.

Temple of Atlantis - Hard Mode
The next instalment of ToA for level 85 players with increased difficulty and a chance to grab some updated Imbued weapons and armor with set effects.

PvP Armor and Weapons
Level 85 armor and weapons will be added to the Battlefield vendor.

New Minibosses
New miniboss versions of all the monsters on the 4 new maps will make an appearance and will be dropping unique and epic armor and weapons for level 85 players.

New World Bosses
Nereus will be getting an update and will be level 85. He will drop updated versions of his existing items.

Sakun and Tundro have teamed up and will be ready to face level 85 players giving them a chance at some nostalgic revamped versions of their armor sets. They will both drop unique and epic armors with their much requested skins.

Two more as yet unnamed bosses will also be introduced with this update.

Gathering
Resource nodes will be scattered across many of the maps and dungeons allowing you to gather herbs and minerals for use in brand new recipes. You will need to buy the correct tools to pick herbs or mine minerals.

More chests will be added in random locations with better items inside.

Recipes
Brand new recipes for the next round of health and mana potions have been added for high-level alchemists and these recipes will require you to gather herbs.

Legendary and Legendary Shining enhancement card recipes have also been added to alchemy for level 76+ armor items.

Some other really special recipes have been added to Cooking and Card Master, but it's not food! More about this at release time.

New Chain Quest
A brand new chain of quests will be available from Sedy in Terminus awarding another awesome epic armor set. One of the requirements to complete these quests will be completion of the first level 75 chain quests and the items they awarded.

Cloaks
A new vendor in Sandfall Desert will be selling you cloaks. Cloaks use the Costume Back slot.

Vanity Pets
Like having a critter follow you around and boosting your stats a bit? Vanity pets will be available from another vendor in Sandfall Desert. These use the Costume Face slot.

Costume Accessories
A whole bunch of new costume accessories will be added to May in Terminus for Scrub's Tears. These range from cats and dogs in backpacks, elephant trunk noses, back-flags and jetpacks, to giant crucifixes and balloons.

Titles
Lots of new titles will be dropping from bosses and awarded for special quests. There will also be some more donator titles with fancy wings.

Timed Dungeon Runs
Timed insane run quests will be added awarding tokens that will be required for certain other quests.



That's the main stuff, but there are a lot more minor additions and bug fixes.