Adventurers,

I hope everyone is well! Let's dive in!

The Advent

Reading up from everyone it looks like it's a positive release with some mixed reception. One of the finer moments after release is being able to watch folks interact with content. It never disappoints! The discovery of Cupid from the Valentines event then the Dread Zoic and Charon. To add to the list was the first person wandering around The Advent came across Korrin and went toe to toe…then died. Then watching the struggle on the first attempts of bosses was also fun to see. Speaking of deaths, the logs for deaths in the game have exploded both in PvE and PvP deaths. 

Additionally there have been new event conditions for The Advent to surprise players. In the end the surprise was for me because a player discovered the secret passage.

For the first message, “The imbued barrier has depleted”, this will be ongoing but with a new event condition. The last three messages will no longer appear as it was a one-time event. 

Now that this has been released into the wild - expect more event conditions for players to uncover. in the future Some will be clearly defined for players and others will still be hidden. 

Rate Information and Loot

In the past players have mentioned altering drop rates and it has returned for the Advent Keys mainly. To combat some of the messages floating around - Drop Rates cannot be changed unless the server is down for maintenance. There are many GM functions available. Most only work on our internal servers. The remaining functions for Phoenix are designed for teleporting, moderation (remove players from game or kill monsters, announcements, spawning items, and spawning monsters. Moderators have even more restrictions. This is by design to keep the server safe from a command that's only for testing and to ensure integrity. 

Long story simplified - Advent Key Rates have not been reduced. RNG is a huge factor, even when performing tests. Unless an item is set to a guaranteed rate, there have been many times where items just don’t want to seem to drop. Examples below!

Stats for keys:

• 8,618 Advent Keys dropped.
• 1,368 Advent Keys never looted.
  

For a grand total of 8 Advent accessories found so far. Keep in mind that now is the time to jump in to farm Advent Keys. When the event ends it will be much more difficult to drop them. 

Finally, a word on the boss armors. 2 pieces of the boss armors are in the game. These should be difficult to acquire. Their rate is set to be rarer than the previous boss armors. I have also heard some concerns about how the PAT is increasing substantially. A test was prepared earlier to compare a user's set against their Advent set in PvP.

The difference in PAT was almost 20,000. This is a huge jump, but what does this mean in terms of damage? The Advent set hit 817 damage while the boss set hit 658 damage. 158 damage difference. At 800 AC the Advent set hit 636 damage. This has been mentioned many times before, but final damage is division based. The Advent armors are riskier alternatives which increases the damage you take if you wear it. Part of the design with the Gardion balance was to reduce AC on certificates to prevent players hitting too low and feeling progression. 

Factors such as archer critical, Horus, focused attacks, Holy Potion reduction, and more have been designed as part of the Time to Kill speed. There isn’t a perfect balance, but I would like to interact with more players and do tests in game. As it stands PvP can end up being very quick which is a departure from what it has been. Please reach out with any concerns here!

Nation Warfare

The chat was not kind regarding how Nation Warfare went but it was expected! It passed by very quickly. New documentation to address the war and win conditions are coming. The gist is still to kill your opponents Symbol, when all three are killed, the war ends. If neither side can kill all three then the highest score wins the war.

Some players have seen how fast the war goes and rest assured that the patch for buffing these NPCs are coming. It would also be helpful if anyone wants to send in rewards for war. They could use some additional love.

Known Issues

• Collisions can cause monster or players to get stuck and soft disconnect you from the game. This can normally be resolved by logging in again, selecting your character, close the disconnect prompt, then go back to server select and try again. You may also try selecting a different character and then going to the character select to login on the stuck character.

• Anyone who attacks a stuck monster or player will be soft disconnected. If you see someone standing still while monsters are attacking them this is a clear sign to not attack. Make a ticket and it will be cleared up.

• Advent Mantle graphics are on the Coalition Mantle. Be advised if you imaginite the Coalition to another mantle that it will not stay. Once the next patch is in place it will revert to the Coalition Mantle.

• Pristine set pieces may drop outside of The Advent. This will now be fixed on the next patch. These items are relatively uncommon. They make for great transmogs too!

• Wall Collisions will be worked on and expected by the next patch. If you go through a wall in The Advent please leave immediately to prevent being stuck.

• An issue with dodge has now been replicated. These only apply to skill attacks and the effect is creating the opposite effect. Meaning if the gap between the users attack success and the targets evasion grows there will be more dodged attacks, but the damage reduction will be less. When this is fixed damage reduction from dodge will show properly.