There will be an update today, sometime in the late afternoon/early evening but I will let you know exactly when nearer the time. The server will be down for an hour or two at the most.

WHAT DOES THIS UPDATE BRING?
More balanced gameplay especially above level 75, with much less spikey damage and no brick wall players, battlefields should be much more enjoyable for all and PvE should be more challenging.
Faster levelling from level 65+.
Dungeon runs will be much more rewarding with increased gold and experience from monsters and bosses.
Less bugs and less crashes!

SEASONAL
Halloween
Denubu is back in Terminus with his Halloween quests and this year he is giving out temporary Halloween Broomstick mounts.

BALANCE
Ignore Defense Mechanic
Skills that are supposed to ignore a portion of the target's defense no longer ignore ALL defense. The code has been written and fully tested and all is working as intended. See the skills section below for changes to Ignore Defense skills since many of them have changed.

Defense
Since ITD is fixed, defense gained from level 85 items needed to be reduced since it was artifically inflated in past updates along with HP and Stamina. I'm not going to list them all here since it's too many but a new formula was used to increase defense based on level 65+ items. This will mainly affect the tank-type jobs, Templar and Champion, but changes were made across all jobs. Some jobs got a bit more physical or magical, or both, or more of one and less of the other. Just check your gear

With ITD working as intended, defense is no longer a useless stat so it's important for me to continue looking at this so you should expect some more tweaking later on.

Hit Points
Again, since ITD is fixed, HP and Stamina gained from high-level items needed to be reduced. Most high-level items got a reduction of about 10%, some items, Shields for example took a much bigger hit.

Some of you might get a shock when you compare your HP but remember, player and monster ITD damage is fixed so you won't be needing so much of it. What about PvE? Yep, it will be more difficult and you will probably need to rethink your strategies when it comes to the harder encounters. Monster, and especially boss and world boss HP has been reduced allowing for enrage timer fights but it will be working more as intended now and you will need a proper party/raid and good healing.

Skills
ITD skills from the 1st jobs have been reduced. Why? Because they were set too damn high.
ITD skills from the mail-type 2nd jobs that had really low cooldowns but really high ITD have been reduced.
ITD skills from the 3rd jobs have been increased. Why? Because they needed increasing to make the skill viable again after the ITD fix.

Tweaks might be necessary, time will tell!

Fighter
Berserked Assault reduced to 10/20/30/50% Ignore Defense.

Ranger
Visceral Penetration reduced to 10/20/40/50% Ignore Defense.
Armor-Piercing Shot reduced to 10/30/50% Ignore Defense.

Gladiator
Charge 2 reduced to 50% Ignore Defense.

Mercenary
Annihilate 2 reduced to 55% Ignore Defense and cooldown reduced to 12s.
Chilled Tempest Penetration 2 cooldown reduced to 8s.

Berzerker
Shockwave increased to 10/15/20/25/30/35/40% Ignore Defense.
Charge 2 reduced to 50% Ignore Defense.

Adventurer
Canine Assault reduced to 20/30/50% Ignore Defense.

Shadow Walker
Vigorous Assault reduced to 20/30/50% Ignore Defense.
Exposed Weakness Defense reduction reduced to 10000/15000.

Scout
Armor-Piercing Shot 2 reduced to 25/50% Ignore Defense.

Hunter
Armor Penetration 2 reduced to 40/50% Ignore Defense.
Penetrating Shot 2 reduced to 20/40/50% Ignore Defense.
Manticore Sting 2 Defense reduction reduced to 10000/15000.

Warlock
Explosive Blast 2 increased to 35/45/50% Ignore Defense.

Templar
Righteous Strike increased to 10/20/30% Ignore Defense.
Aegis Strike duration reduced to 4s.
Shield Bash duration reduced to 3s.
Brace duration reduced to 3s (all ranks).

Crusader
Coup de Grace increased to 10/20/30/40/50 Ignore Defense.

Soul Blader
Annihilate 3 reduced to 60% Ignore Defense.
Aeolian Strike increased to 30/40% Ignore Defense.
Soul Blade: Ruin increased to 10/20/30% Ignore Defense and All Defense reduction reduced to 5000/7500/10000.
Soul Blade: Execute reduced to 50/75% Ignore Defense.

Champion
Counter Sweep increased to 10/20/30% Ignore Defense but reflect reduced to 30/50/75%.
Guardian's Call's Physical Defense reduction reduced to 15000.
Wall of Reflection reflect reduced to 30/40/50%.

Myrmidon
Shatter now reduces the target's Physical Defense by 5000/6000/7000/8000/10000 and increases the Myrmidon's Physical Defense by 5000/6000/7000/8000/10000.
Rising Steam Strike increased to 20/30/50% Ignore Defense.
Death's Grasp 2 increased to 10/20/30/40% Ignore Defense.
Spirit Burn increased to 20/30/40% Ignore Defense.
Backdraft increased to 30/50% Ignore Defense and bonus magic damage reduced to 80/100%.
Phoenix Stance reduced to 1000/1500/2500/3500 Magic Attack and 50/100/150/200 Hit.

Vanquisher
Relentless Assault increased to 10/20/30/40/50% Ignore Defense and ITD time effect reduced to 50%.
Impale increased to 10/20/50% Ignore Defense.
Shockwave 2 increased to 10/15/20/25/30/40/50% Ignore Defense.
Charge 3 reduced to 50/60% Ignore Defense.
Duel no longer causes Skill Paralysis to the Vanquisher or the target.
Cleave now increases Physical Hit by 300 for 10s.
Raging Sweep ITD time effect reduced to 50% but the duration has been increased to 4s.

Wind Walker
Flying Scissors increased to 10/20/30% Ignore Defense.
Finish Him reduced to 75% Ignore Defense.
Exposed Armor 2's Physical Defense reduction reduced to 20000.

Assasin
Essence Shift increased to 20/40/50% Ignore Defense.

Sniper
Firecracker gained Ignore Defense and ignores 35/45/55% Physical Defense.
Deranged Shot 2 increased to 10/15/20/25/30% Ignore Defense.

Sharp Shooter
Death from Above 3increased to 10/30/40% Ignore Defense.
Penetrating Shot 3 reduced to 25/45/55% Ignore Defense.
Manticore Sting 3's Physical Defense reduction reduced to 10000/15000.

Wizard
Permeating Chill 3 increased to 10/20/30/40% Ignore Defense.
Ice Age increased to 40/60% Ignore Defense.
Thunder Sunder increased to 40/60% Ignore Defense.

Sorcerer
Eye of the Storm increased to 40/60% Ignore Defense.
Explosive Blast 3 increased to 35/45/50/55% Ignore Defense.
Armageddon increased to 40/50% Ignore Defense.

Prophet
Thicket now reduces the targets movement speed by 60/70/80/90% until they move out of it's range (instead of immobilise) and also causes Magical Skill Paraysis as well as Physical.


ITEMS
Myrmidon Itemisation
Myrmidon's Phoenix Stance skills were actually doing less damage than an auto-attack, but rather than just giving more free Magic Attack with Phoenix Stance, making undergeared fresh level 75 Myrmidons overpowered, the stat will now be gained from armor, weapons and accessories.

Phoenix Stance now gives 1000/1500/2500/3500 Magic Damage and 50/100/150/200 Magic Hit.

Many level 75+ armor, weapons and accessories usable by the Myrmidon have been adjusted to give Magic Attack as well as Physical Attack.
Dual Sword weapons now give Magic Attack as a secondary stat but it will not increase when enchanted, only the primary stat (Physical) will increase and this is intended.
Armor sets and some accessories that gave Physical Attack now give All Attack.

For example, the Equinox Hardened armor set will give a total of 2500 All Attack instead of Physical Attack and the Midsummer Bolines dual swords will give 1300-1480 (min/max) + 430 All Attack instead of 430 Physical Attack.

With a full CQ set and weapon the Myrmidon in Phoenix Stance can now expect around 8k of bonus Magic Attack, up from 6k with just Phoenix Stance previously. Non-ITD skills should be more comparable with auto-attack damage but not quite as high since they are multi-target skills with low cooldowns.

I will be checking items further since we need to do something similar for Magical Crit and Hit. Right now it's very hard for a Myrmidon to raise their Magic Crit and that has been addressed by giving them more Magic Attack. If I later decide to make Magic Crit easier to obtain for them, the Magic Attack of their stance can be reduced further to compensate, but for now they will need to sacrifice other stats if they want to increase Magic Crit by using caster accessories.

Titles
Due to a bug in the code that checks if you already have a title before it gets dropped, Symbol of the Sandstorm Conqueror, Waterlord Conqueror, Paniye Circus Troupe, Laioha Conqueror, Decomus Conqueror, Ravid Rabbit and Bloodletter are now contained in boxes. This should hopefully fix the crashing at loot-time of some of these bosses. The titles have also been made untradable.
Symbol of the Zombie Pirate Conqueror that was always supposed to be in Pirate Bob's drop list has been fixed and will now drop again.

Battlefield Items
Some of the new Battlefield items were incorrectly set to level 75. They have been set to level 85 as intended.
Darcel accessories and the new level 85 Battlefield armor sets and weapons had their HP and Defense stats reduced. Please see Defense and Hit Points section above for info.
Combatant's Force Blade, Combatant's Chaos Blade, Combatant's Twin Chaos Blade, Exterminator's Shanks, Exterminator's Cannon, Thaumaturge's Staff and Thaumaturge's Rod now reduce MP Cost by 10% not just 10.
Thaumaturge's Staff and Thaumaturge's Rod job restriction fixed.
Thaumaturge's Rod now gives 10% MP Absorption, instead of HP Absorption.
Thaumaturge's Rod now gives 8% Casting Time, not just -8.


Item Buffs and Effects
Fixed a bug that was affecting wearing cards stopping the effects from triggering.
Fixed a bug that was affecting armor on damage, weapon on hit and full armor set motion effects from triggering.
Fixed the CQ85 weapon on hit, on heal, on damage motion effects.
CQ85 weapons and full armor set effects no longer share a slot and can both be triggered/active at the same time.
Peridot, Ruby, Trick etc. wearing cards fixed. They were incorrectly giving their effects on damage (your damage to target) when it should have been on hit (when you are hit). Since their effects are debuff immunity related, this should make them a lot more useful, especially to healers, and you should see them pop up much more often than before and more likely when you actually need them.

Tarot
Donator's Private Seat got it's old wing effects back. Donator's Exclusive Seat remains the same (no changes).

Other
Fixed some stats for level 85 rare/unique accessories/weapons that drop from the newer maps. They had the incorrect stat Damage Reflect + instead of Damage Reflect %.
Costume Seal is now tradable.


MONSTERS
Hit Points
High-level 65+ field and dungeon monsters had their HP reduced by 10% or more.
World bosses Ulric, Livid, Nereus, Enraged Sakun, Enraged Tundro had their HP reduced.
Crystalisk Hard and other dungeon bosses had their HP reduced.

Damage
High-level 65+ monsters had their attack damage ranges reduced slightly.

World Bosses
Athelon spawn fixed.
Lost Mysterion spawn fixed.
Livid spawn fixed.
Livid's "Chaos Tornado" range increased.
Nereus spawn times changed.
Nereus basic attacks now do reduced damage.
Nereus "ReAbsorb" range increased.
Nereus "Genie Curse" range increased.
Nereus "Get over here" range increased.
Nereus has been given an extra spell for his enraged state called "Wipeout".

Experience
A bug with experience gained from monsters above level 65 has been fixed. You will now get much much more experience from most 65+ monsters.
Summoned monsters no longer give EXP or SXP. This includes monsters summoned by bosses or in boss encounters.
World bosses Glaceon, Athelon, Sakun, Sraclone, Lost Mysterion, Ulric, Livid, Nereus, Enraged Sakun, Enraged Tundro, Crystalisk Hard now award EXP and SXP.
Dungeon bosses from Temple of Atlantis Hard and Circus Insane now award EXP and SXP.
Most dungeon monsters from Temple of Atlantis Hard and Circus Insane now award EXP and SXP.

Gold
A bug causing monsters to drop the incorrect amount of gold has been fixed. You should see much more gold dropping from 65+ elites, bosses, world bosses, dungeon monsters and dungeon bosses.
Gold will drop less often from normal field map monsters after level 20 or so.
Summoned monsters no longer drop gold. This includes monsters summoned by bosses or in boss encounters.
Gold drops of most dungeon bosses increased.
Gold drops added to several dungeon monsters, including those in Temple of Atlantis Hard.
Gold drops of trash monsters reduced in Time Lost Cavern.
Gold drops of trash monsters in Circus Hard increased.

Other
Pirate Bob is no longer aggressive when spawned. You need to attack first.

OTHER STUFF
Bugs
Fixed a bug that was removing certain buffs when you moved maps/dungeons/battlefield etc.

Gathering
Ore veins fixed and can once again only be mined by level 85 characters.


DUNGEONS
Raids
Fixed a bug that stopped you from entering a raid dungeon whilst already in a raid party.
Fixed a bug that stopped you from inviting more players to an existing raid party when inside a raid dungeon.

Note: You must form a raid party before you enter a raid dungeon. If you enter as a party you will not be able to convert it to a raid whilst inside.

Vortex
You will now be kicked from the server if you attempt to cheat in Vortex by using the resurrection timer glitch.

Temple of Atlantis Hard
Arcturis' last phase has been relaxed a bit and he will no longer spawn so many helpers. You still need to be quick or you will get overrun eventually.


And finally...

Crystalisk Insane
Work is well under way to bring you the Insane version of Crystalisk but before I release it I want to see how all of these changes affect the existing PvE encounters. I don't want to release something too easy, or impossible. The main encounter is almost complete but I haven't really thought about what will drop, but once it's decided it can be done in no time at all. Once it's patched on the live server it will remain closed and I will invite some of you to test it properly with me.

Lisk Insane will be much more of a challenge than the previous modes and will require everyone in your raid party to be on their toes throughout the fight. The encounter will require several tanks and healers and top-notch DPS to beat the enrage timers.


That's about it. I hope you can all appreciate the direction I am trying to take the game in and can see the bigger picture, not solely how it affects you and your character. It will be a big change for some of the jobs but I would appreciate it if you held back on your constructive criticism until you see how it is for yourselves.


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TLDR? Find the time to read it all before you decide to make comments or ask questions. I'd rather spend my time making sure this update goes to plan than answering questions that you would already know the answer to if you took the time to read it all :P

Sedy