Adventurers,

More news to share coming your way. The Update was originally going to go out just days after the first Etana News however this did not happen. The reason behind this is linked to the State of Ares 2026 post and old discord conversations. As mentioned, there are three developers covering infrastructure, server, client, and data. If changes are done to the server or client, it requires testing and approval before the patch lands with the player.  Additionally, there is a monitoring phase post update to ensure everything is working accurately. This plays into conversations about more frequent updates. Not every update requires these changes, and the aim is to push more updates to the players that do not need these changes.

New Polls 

Discord will have new polls available:

• Open PvP otherwise known as GvG
  • Is there still demand for Open PvP / GvG from players?
• Player Power 
  • Should there be more of a gap between higher level players and lower level?
• Reforged System
  • This system was cancelled just before Frontlines. To condense this - would you like to see boss specific items (Includes Demi and Mini bosses) have a way to be upgraded? 
  • Note 1: There is a core idea from launch of the game that as grade goes up the idea is for lower grade items to phase out. Currently we are still on this path.
  • Note 2: The Reforged System is currently for upgrading an items gear to be comparable to the next grade. This means if you reforged a Grade 10 it would remain Grade 10 but have stats similar to Grade 11.
  • Note 3: This system would not carry over your Plus or Prefixes. You would have to acquire both again.
• PvP Map / Testing
  • Would you be interested in a PvP exclusive map in game?
  • Would you be interested in a Testing Map in game?

The Details

Righto - there have been many people attempting to message me in game the past two weeks. By and large my work has been reduced the past two weeks with some issues that needed to be addressed. There was still oversight, but I apologize for not being able to talk further. Still there are some details to give everyone. 

Balancing

The balance being tested are geared toward certifications, offense (PAT, MAT, Accuracy), and defense (AC, MRES, Evasion) and how it relates to PvP and PvE. Each class should feel distinct and have options available depending on their weapon choice. There have been many tests using former servers for items and certifications. So here are a few points of research and player concerns that have been noted.

• Time To Kill: PvP Time to Kill looks to have grown exponentially. Between HP being buffed, Holy Potions, and increased stats it has caused it being difficult to kill opponents. There is acknowledgement about players relying or having a counter argument here but observing fights in game, especially group fights, I feel players more powerful or a group more prepared should be rewarded for their efforts. 
• Macro Pots: The ability to macro (hold to pot) was enabled to level the playing field for those who use macros. This threshold should be lowered. If the trade off is its easier to hit the threshold against having thousands of HP regained in a second then this is worth it.
• Open World: With balance changes then most of the world should be accessible on foot. Teleports would remain for those with the correct level or mapmakers. Some dungeons would also only be available for those at the level requirement. ELITE dungeons would be locked behind a level requirement.

Skills are also another part of the rebalance. Expanded skills are on the roadmap but for the current skills there are talks that they are broken. Let's have a talk about skills. Skill attacks do two things: Remove the miss chance (Which then interacts with accuracy system for final damage) and gives more PAT or MAT when you attack with a skill. Let's look at an example:

• Knight / Spearman: 10,000 - 11,000 PAT using a skill with 100 ~ 150 power would attack with 12,000 ~ 14,000 PAT.

• Archer: 10,000 ~ 11,000 PAT using a skill with 100 ~ 150 power would attack with 11,000 ~ 12,500 PAT.

• Mage: 10,000 ~ 11,000 MAT using a skill with 100 ~ 150 power would attack with 11,000 ~ 12,500 MAT.

Damage is largely calculated with division by defensive stats this means the benefit of using higher skills does not payoff as much as one would expect except for losing the chance to miss.  Since Gardion release most monsters have been reduced in AC or MRES to allow players to see damage growth as they get stronger. If the traditional defense was used with monsters, then players would start hitting below 100s on monsters even if they grew stronger. This isn't necessarily a bad concept, but it can be divisive depending on player preference. 

Release and Anniversary

The expectation is to do the patch release with the Anniversary Event. The event has been moved over to our testing and looks to be complete. The event will be straightforward and will be similar to last year. A post will be made detailing the event. 

Looking Forward

Before heading out earlier this month I found that the Anniversary Event had snuck up on me. A lot of work has been spent on maps. The Anniversary event was going to include a new map, Memoria, that would replicate some of the early days of challenging bosses. This has been shifted towards one of the monthly events. Speaking of monthly events - candidly - this was more work than initially considered. Throwing out experience, luck, drop rates, event quests, or event shops is not much work. To give some insight - there was a desire to throw out entire quest lines, boss rushes, puzzles, transmogs, class specific events, and super bosses (like Cupid!) in addition to everything else. A lot of this has come together but it is not in a state to start the ball yet. These events have to continuously roll once they release and for the full year.  I apologize for this being longer than expected. 

Lastly here is a quick rundown on some projects being worked on! Hopefully no Q1 releases here...

• Nation Warfare Return
  • Had a list minute change. There was a rage buff remaining in the new design. This has been disabled. Additionally - the poll for increased difficulty has passed but the changes will not be added in. Wanted the opportunity to give players a chance and give feedback before making these changes.
• Grade 11 Item Expansion
• New Dungeons
  • Daily Dungeons that will launch after Etana Caverns will come first
• Next Expansion with Grade 12
• Custom Items