The next update will start to address the viability of melee DPS classes in dungeons and other PvE content and I will also be moving the server.

SERVER RELOCATION
The server will be relocated to a more central location and the majority of players should expect to see lower latency, meaning less lag. I don't have a magic wand though, so some of you in far off locations or those with generally flaky connections will still experience the occasional lags. The server is already setup and waiting for the latest database and domain redirect so it won't add much time to the maintenance and update time.

This is part of the ongoing (and expensive) effort to find the ultimate location for a server with a global playerbase and will hopefully be the last!


MELEE CLASS PVE VIABILITY
Ok, so the main issue as far as I can see, is that melee are unable to stay competitive with the caster classes (Wizard and Sorcerer) when it comes to DPS, for several reasons, one of them is their inability to sustain damage because of positioning, splash damage from monster AoE skills and also the differences between physical and magic defense of bosses. Another reason of course is the caster skills that grant double boss damage, and finally their ability to glitch-cast their spells. The glitching has been part of Iris since the beginning and turned into a part of playing a caster. It's a deep set problem with the game engine and not something that can be fixed, by me at least. Even the newer games that are based on Iris Online have this problem.

I'm not saying that melee should be able to do as much damage as a caster, at least not without making certain sacrifices to some of their strengths, such as survivability, but to do that, certain changes need to be made with the games content. So please read below.

Monster Changes
Bonus accuracy stat of monster's REGULAR skills have been removed or reduced in the majority of high-level dungeons and maps meaning their skills will rely on the monsters actual hit rating just like with players (this does not include MODE skills used by bosses - those that get announced on screen occasionally - those generally have a large amount of additional accuracy and will remain that way).

Multiple target skills of monsters that do not have a cast time or some kind of warning have been reduced in damage or other effects such as ignore defense, resulting in less damage done. A good example of one of these skills is the Tomb Hawks in Golden Temple - completely random, without warning, unavoidable area damage that can oneshot a melee. Don't expect all of these type of skills to have been adjusted just yet, it's an ongoing hunt and adjust for me. If you know of one, tell me.

Pros & Cons
The main benefit of these changes is that you shouldn't get hit so much from random multi-target skills and the avoidance stats Physical and Magic Evasion will be of much more use for everyone, not just the mail classes that tend to favour it now. Before anyone feels the need to shout about evasion being useless for their class, monsters do not have anywhere near the amount of hit that players have, so it's is absolutely not useless when all of this additional skill accuracy is removed. However, don't expect to go in with high evasion and me superman - remember there is always a 35% chance to get hit by a same or higher level enemy regardless of how much evasion you stack due to the soft-cap.

The side-effect of me going through and making all of these adjustments is that I found plenty of monsters that didn't have the correct hit and avoidance ratings, meaning some monsters will now *possibly* be able to hit players more often AND the player will need to have a sufficient hit rating - but at these levels it shouldn't be an issue. This mostly affects Temple of Atlantis, Circus, Wood Garden Hard/Insane and Magic Tower Hard.

Damage
It's too late in the game to remove the additional boss damage that casters have on several of their skills so if you can't beat them join them (I guess?). The other melee and ranged classes will now have a 50% Boss Damage buff for 10s on one of their existing 3rd job skills.

It wasn't possible to make this completely equal for all classes without making further changes to existing skills but each skill is available at level 76/77 without the least investment in other skills as possible. Cooldowns range from 4.1s to 8s but since the skill is invoked at 100% chance and lasts for 10s, it's irrelevant.

Why not 100% like casters? Because I think it's overkill and I don't want content to be completely destroyed. It will already become a lot easier due to this change, regardless of the classes in the party. Just be happy with it. You didn't have it before and now you do. If you absolutely must have 100%, make a caster.

That's about it for on that subject. Expect more changes to content in the near future.


SKILLS
Crusader
Beastial Impact 3 now grants 50% Boss Damage for 10s.

Vanquisher
Beastial Impact 3 now grants 50% Boss Damage for 10s.

Soul Blader
Devided Slash 3 now grants 50% Boss Damage for 10s.

Myrmidon
Penetrating Edge 3 now grants 50% Boss Damage for 10s.

Wind Walker
Savage Toenail 3 now grants 50% Boss Damage for 10s.

Assassin
Spectral Dagger now grants 50% Boss Damage for 10s.

Sniper
Dexterous Shot 3 now grants 50% Boss Damage for 10s.

Sharp Shooter
Breach Fire 3 now grants 50% Boss Damage for 10s.

Wizard
Permeating Chill 3 invoked buff no longer stacks with other skills that grant double boss damage, for example Chilling Shock and Ice Arrow. This should never have stacked in the first place and no idea how it slipped through for all this time.

Sorcerer
Scorched Earth movement speed reduction increased to -20/-50% and dot increased slightly to 1500/2000.


FIELD MONSTERS
The level 65+ maps listed below were all added in updates where the level cap was raised and were made to be quite challenging because the majority of players had end-game gear and skills. These days they are nothing more than levelling and farming maps and players do not usually have the required gear to be effective, slowing their levelling capability and generally reducing their fun. Monster HP has been reduced and in some cases, damage too, so that the levelling process feels smoother again.

Monsters in Nightfall Shelter had their HP reduced.
Monsters in Ursadine Highlands had their HP reduced.
Monsters in Colossus Shadowfields (including Elites) had their HP reduced and a couple had their damage reduced slightly.
Monsters in Sandfall Desert had their HP and damage reduced substantially.
Monsters in Abysmal Shore had their HP and damage reduced substantially.
Monsters in Pandan Cove had their HP reduced slightly and their damage reduced substantially.
Monsters in Pandahama Island remain the same.

Minibosses on all of these maps remain the same.


QUESTS
Many quests from 65 and up (Nightfall Shelter, Ursdadine, Colossus etc.) had the wrong levels, for example Ursadine quests were level 60, but the monsters you needed for the quests are level 65+. These quests have now been given the correct levels and the experience and gold rewards increased accordingly.


DUNGEONS
Golden Temple
Adjustments made to some of the trash monsters in all modes.
Tomb Scorpids accuracy and ignore defense reduced. Now relies on hit rating.
Tomb Protector accuracy and crit rating reduced. Now relies on hit rating.
Summoned Viper accuracy reduced. Now relies on hit rating.

Temple of Atlantis
All monsters and bosses in this dungeon on Easy and Hard had their Hit rating increased to what it should be for their level and additional accuracy from some skills was removed or reduced so they rely on the hit rating only.

Circus
Hard mode monsters had their Hit rating increased and bosses gained additional accuracy on their special MODE skills.

Wood Garden
Hard and Insane mode monsters had their Hit rating increased and bosses gained additional accuracy on their special MODE skills.


TREASURE BANDITS
The treasure bandit system has been adjusted. The bandit's level now depends on the map they are found on and not the players level. Sorry guys, no more camping low level maps for level 85 bandits - if you want a high-level, you need to go to a level 80+ map. They will not spawn at all in Logging Area either - bandit's will spawn on level 20+ maps.

Bandits will no longer spawn in Fire Pit, Crystal Tower, Molten Arena or Archelon Temple.

Additional 7-Day 75% speed, 1.5s cast mounts added to bandit loot lists. They still drop permanent mounts and higher level bandits have a better chance.


SCREENSHOT AND VIDEO RECORDING
Something that always bothered me about Iris is how crappy the screenshot quality is. Whilst this can be very dependent on your graphics card settings (Antialiasing etc.) some of the problems are unrelated to settings and due to other internal issues, causing washed out colors and blurry or pixelated images. So, it has been fixed. No more washed out colors and the quality of the resulting jpg file has been increased.

So here we go.

Before Right Click and open in a new tab for bigger image



After Right Click and open in a new tab for bigger image


Video recording also got some updates including:
Updated MPEG codec bringing better quality and faster encoding, using less CPU etc.
Improved video file writing speed.
Improved AVI format compatibility meaning you should not see those warning messages when uploading to YouTube.
Fixed slow recording when forced Anti-aliasing is turned on in your graphics card settings.
Fixed audio/video sync issues on really long recordings.
Improved encoding and less ingame lag when recording on lower end computers.


BATTLEFIELDS
Since the last update, battlefields were incorrectly set to start with only 1 player per side because my test server files got copied over by accident.
Whilst I don't really care because ultimately it has meant more battlefields and more fun for players BUT what I do care about is the amount of cheats that have started to take advantage of this to farm battlefield and honor points by entering with 2 of their own characters. Because of this, battlefields now require at least 2 players on each side to start.

As mentioned in a previous update post, the rest of the percentage based healing potions and foods would be changed to unusable in battlefields. So, Blue, Green and Red Firework, Chocolate Strawberry, Cool Christmas Icing, Jumbled Soup and Honey Dish are no longer usable in the battlefields.

Several new potions added to the battlefield merchandise vendor.
Battlefield Mega HP Potion - Level 75, 10000 HP, 30s cooldown, 500bfp.
Battlefield Mega MP Potion - Level 75, 10000 MP, 18s cooldown, 500bfp.
Battlefield Enriched Mega HP Potion - Level 85, 15000 HP, 30s cooldown, 1000bfp.
Battlefield Enriched Mega MP Potion - Level 85, 15000 MP, 30s cooldown, 1000bfp.

Cooldowns are longer than previous potions. Use the old ones if you want a heal regularly and these for a bigger heal when necessary.


BEGINNERS
Added more levelup rewards giving Armor and Weapon Enhancement Cards, Experience Protection Cards, and a Wearing Card.

Increased the amount of gold gained from levelup reward mails.

Fixed the mail notification when receiving a levelup reward mail.

Fixed the default settings when you create a new character so you are not automatically blocking anything, such as party invites or whispers and not automatically hiding your costume hat.


THE REST
Super Dispel Potion price reduced from 2m to 1.5m

Aggro Reset Potion added to May for 20 Scrub's Tears.

nsDB now shows an extra tab if the item you are viewing can be found in a box, bag or some other container.

nsDB shop price reductions on most armor and weapons.



FIN.