Another Chapter of Rebalance & BoE - June 1st Maintenance

There's a saying that goes: "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step..."  That couldn't be more fitting considering the plight of Fiesta's Archers.  After a 24 hour delay and much anticipation we received our weekly maintenance update!  The GMs hinted that we were in for something big and they didn't disappoint.  While not everything in the patch went over smoothly, for the most part, I think the majority of the players are happy this week.  Thankfully Archers did see a bit of attention this week, but I remain confident that OutSpark and OnsOnSoft aren't done tweaking the arrow flinging class just yet.

So here's a breakdown of this week's patch:

Bind On Equip:

This was something that was the subject of much debate on the forums.  Previously only Leviathan's Nest's (Level 90-105 Instance Dungeon) armor drops were soul bound.  Meaning if you picked up the item, you could not trade it, store it, drop it or sell it.  Either you kept it on your own character that acquired it or you destroyed it.  This was the first time we've ever encountered something like this in a piece of equipment.  This was problematic when there was nobody in the party that matched whatever dropped from the egg after Leviathan was defeated.

When Secret Laboratory (Level 100-110 Instance Dungeon) was released, the drops were kind of half-bound.  You were unable to store, trade, or vend the equipment, but you could drop it.  This made "drop-trading" possible.  You and the other party would have to agree upon a price, party with the other person, trade the gold, and then through sequential allocation of party drops, hand over the item.  It was a little complicated and it took a large amount of trust on both parties.  This changed about 3 months ago though as out of the blue, drop trading become impossible as the equipment was soul bound in the same fashion as LN gear was.  The players were given no notice of the change so a lot of people, myself included, fell vicitm to our own generosity.  If we had lent out gear prior to that unannounced change, the gear was then essentially locked away on that other person's account.

So why was the change warranted?  Simply because of the sheer difficulty of Secret Laboratory.  As it was, nearly the entire party (aside from Clerics) had to be fully charmed and extended to have hopes of pulling off a successful run.  All their work was for naught if the drop at the end could not be sold/traded if the drop was from a subclass not represented in the party.

So what changed?  All of the previously bound items now became tradeable as long as you did not equip it after maintenance.  Even if you had the items equipped on you when maintenance started, once you unequipped and then re-equipped it, you were given the option on whether you wanted to bind the item to that character.  This was a nice added touch since I'm sure there are many players that logged out for some time and didn't have a chance to unequip items that maybe they wanted to sell or return.  Unfortunately, bound items remain exactly that, bound.  Once you do bind the item, it's forever stuck to your character until you destroy it.  That means you'll get zero return on your investment.  There are hopes that an un-bind type item becomes available at some point, but we can't say for sure.

So what went wrong?  As far as the Leviathan's Nest and Secret Laboratory stuff went, nothing.  However, the new Bind On Equip feature had a seriously adverse effect on Purple Equipment.  "Purples" are typically cash shop items that you won through various events in-game.  Examples of Purples are weapons (not weapon skins), like Teva, Red/Blue Valentine's, Cherry Blossom, and Holiday.  If you're somewhat new to the game, recently Halloween weapons were released in some GM sponsored events back in November of last year.  These also became soul bound.  There are several permanent costumes out in circulation that are now locked down also, Pink/Blue Valentine's Day and the permanent Holiday costumes.  Also, if you had the previously transferrable-within-your-account Little King's Crown (the gold one), that has also become locked down.  I started a thread alerting the GMs of this change, and it seems like it will get fixed.  I'm hoping for the best as currently I have a Halloween Wand stuck on my 90 Fighter and a +9 Teva Bow stuck on a storage account.  My Pink V-day costume is on my Warlock, which isn't so bad, but I'll miss the functionality of moving it from character to character as I saw fit.  So I'll keep my fingers crossed that this will get resolved.

Just FYI, the previously bound armors that were rewarded in the first place boxes for PvP KQ are unchanged.  They are still immediately soul bound whether equipped or not.

Archer Rebalance (A New Skill):

Okay!  So first off, a new skill was added that benefits all Archers and the parties (hopefully) they get into.  That skill is called Nature's Aim.  It provides a boost to the Archer's (and party's) DEX stat.  Higher tiers result in bigger boosts.  Currently the max tier for the skill is 9, which is level 84.  At that tier, each member of the party will enjoy a 150 point boost in their DEX.  This translates into 150 additional Aim and Evasion.  Sounds wonderful doesn't it?

So what went wrong?  The skill itself is great, it definitely helps an Archer's survivability, but sadly the duration on the skill is only 2 minutes long while it suffers from a 5 minute cool down.  However, the skill's CD and Duration are empowerable.  Whether you want to sacrifice your points here is your call.

Empowering Nature's Aim.  Thanks to 3 forum goers in particular:  fire_imparat, resigood, and Dpogie97, they worked out a way to keep the buff on permanently, as long as you remember to recast it.  If you fully empower the CD, that drops the CD from 5 minutes to 3 minutes 30 seconds, and add 2 points in the duration of the skill, the skill then lasts for 3 minutes 45 seconds.  7 points is a lot to invest, but it looks like a good idea.  Just don't forget to recast!

Archer Rebalance (Auto Attack Speed, Arrow Issue):

This one was something that has been asked for for quite some time.  Previously, on auto-attack regardless of the attack rate of the weapon, Archer's could only have one auto-attack arrow on screen at a time.  This completely nullified the attack rate difference between x-bow and bow when used at a distance.

So what went wrong?  Was it truly fixed?  Even on Nature's Speed, it seems as if I shoot faster with my bow, but I still only experience one arrow on screen at a time.  With my attack rate of 1.1 seconds, a tier[4] Nature's Speed, I should see an attack rate of about 0.7 seconds.  It sure doesn't seem remotely to be that quick.  There still appears to be a faster attack rate at close range though.

Verdict:  Undecided.  Seems like an improvement over previous, but can't say for sure.  Damage is still too light.  Hitting a similar leveled knight with 13k HP for only 200dmg... I can't kill him if he housed.

Archer Rebalance (Detect Improvements):

Previously Detect only worked against Rangers.  It worked just like any other AOE in that you aim the reticle somewhere on the ground and click to fire.  It didn't work so well Vs. Rangers because they had to be within the proximity of the circle, the cooldown on the skill is 30 seconds, and it was just easier to spam your AOE attacks in hopes of hitting and uncovering them.

So what changed?  Detect now works against Warlocks using Metamorphosis (Bird-mode).  While this is a nice little change, I still would have rather seen a passive skill that allows SharpShooters to actually see a hidden Ranger.  I went into detail on that here.  How that would work Vs. a Warlock, I'm not sure, perhaps a targeting circle on the ground alerting you to their presence overhead and allowing you to target them?

Archer Rebalance (Entrap Improvements):

Entrap, like Slow Shot, was seen pretty much as a gag skill.  Something to mess around with since it did so little damage.  It had its uses, some Rangers would lay traps around the Giant Caiman spawn area in Tear's Marsh, but other than that, it was essentially worthless.  Both Entrap and Slow Shot did less damage than an auto-attack arrow, so why bother casting it?

So what changed?  Wow, a lot:

- Entrap[1]: Sets a trap that damages opponents & damages opponents in the area (AoE)
- Entrap[2]: Sets a trap that damages opponents & blinds the opponent
- Entrap[3]: Sets a trap that damages opponents & slows the opponent
- Entrap[4] (Coming Soon): Sets a trap that damages opponents & causes the opponent to bleed
- Entrap[5] (Coming Soon): Sets a trap that damages opponents & causes paralysis to the opponent

The skill is still predicated on the foe running over the trap, so you'd have to lure them to it.  Previously the traps were invisible, I'm assuming they're still that way.

Overall Rebalance Summary:  While I am definitely happy that Archer's received some attention this week, I still feel that the battle is far from won.  Rangers got a nice, unexpected boost this week, but it's still not the type of fixes we've been longing for.  I was honestly losing faith that anything would be changed.  Some progress is better than no progress.  I remain hopeful that we have just seen the tip of the iceberg as far as the Archer rebalances are concerned.  Keep them coming OutSpark!

 [GM]Kobal's Curry Quest!

I honestly thought this was a running joke in the past couple months of OSKI's.  But lo and behold, the Curry Quest is actually here!  The quest can be picked up from Nina in Elderine, who engages you in some slightly defensive banter.  She then send you off to find 30 pounds of Meat (Mob drop), 20 Potatoes (Herb drop), 20 Carrots (Herb drop), 20 Tomatoes (Flower drop) and 20 Mushrooms (Mushroom drop).  The Meat drops are fairly easy to get, I haven't yet tackled the farmable drops so I don't know of any problems with drop rates there.

The rewards are really nice.  You get a bowl of Kobal's Curry, which replenishes 100% HP/SP, I'm guessing it's a one-time use thing, it's not like a magic potion; a Roumen scroll (not sure why, but okay); and your choice of either 30-day DJ Headphone (+2% Evasion) or 30-day Nerd Glasses (+3% Critical).

It's rare that we see 30-day items as prizes, it's nice that OutSpark is raising the bar on some of the event giveaways.  Sadly, the community will quickly expect this as the norm and probably still complain about free stuff somewhere down the line.

"Character names in game has received a name tag change."

When seeing this I wondered what the heck it was.  Could we upload a guild avatar?  Maybe our own personal one?  Was there a guild flag?  Guild symbol maybe?  Sadly, none of that was true.  Instead we got this:

Thank God that you can toggle this on and off.  For me, permanently OFF.  I really don't see how anybody could think this is an improvement of any kind.