ONE WEEK ALCHEMY EVENT
* For one week, Princess Kateriina will teach any willing adventurers the secrets of Alchemy.

FOUR MONTH MERIDIAN LADDER CHALLENGE
* Starting Friday November 8th at 8 pm EST, the first great Meridian Ladder Challenge will begin.
You have one week to plan strategies for a new style of play.

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A challenge ladder is a separated pool of players, ranked by wisdom, that can only interact with each other.
They have their own economy – out of ladder items can’t be picked up by them and they can’t give items to normal players.
No spells, buffs, AEs, etc can cross over. Separate wall element limits in a room.
Players in ladder / non-ladder can see each other, mainly for cool purposes like watching fights, but also because mules can be used for spotting anyway.
Monster killing with ladder + non-ladder is possible, but only because monster XP is split based on damage dealt anyway.
You can’t really gain an advantage by building with out of ladder players.
Players in a ladder join building groups separate from non-ladder players.

Ladders also have special events, rules, and rewards.
The first challenge ladder will have specially crafted Marauders – aka PKs and hunters – active at unpredictable times.
Players may find themselves under attack by a variety of PKs while out in the world.
These PKs may also be pursued by a variety of hunters, who will appear shortly after to assist law-abiding citizens.
Be aware, players who are outlaws or murderers themselves will not be treated so kindly by these hunters!
Not all the PKs are red. Some have soldier shields, or ao3s/swords of the hunt, to challenge players participating in those systems.
Defeated Marauders generally drop the specialized gear they’re using, plus something extra and unexpected…

The challenge ladder also has special drops available in certain places.
These unique items offer powerful school-based abilities.
For example, the Shadowstep Tabi boots grant Qor 6 players a new level 6 Qor spell called Sanguine Fervor,
which makes all of your attacks cause bleed for 10 seconds, but can only be cast once per minute.
Shadowstep Tabi boots also grant the passive abilities ‘You are hidden while not in combat.’ and ‘You are immune to poison.’
These unique items are obviously only available to ladder players.

The character with the highest wisdom at the end of the challenge ladder gets a title and an INSANE REWARD.
The top ten characters get a GREAT REWARD.
The top one hundred characters receive a PRETTY COOL REWARD.
Rewards will be announced at launch of the ladder!

ENDLESS SEA PALACE (EVENT + NEW DUNGEON)
* A curious tower has always stood on the sea beyond the Ancient Ziggurat… a structure built by gnomes in ancient days and filled with strange mechanisms.
It seems someone has finally found a way to pick the gnomish locks and get inside.
He was overheard in Tos claiming that a combination of runes and crystals can open pathways unimaginable straight down into the earth…
He also claimed an enormous creature lived within, and that potential explorers would be insane to challenge it.
Keep your eyes peeled over the next week for this mysterious person.
He is known only as the Locksmith, and his appearance will precipitate the opening of the Endless Sea Palace.

BREATH IMPROVEMENT
* You can now see your breath remaining when underwater. It takes over the vigor bar.
On a related note, some users have reported issues seeing water centipedes. We’re working on that.

CHAOS STRATA
* Chaos strata have been fixed.
* As a refresher, a Chaos Stratum is a high level pvp-on area with variable monsters that can only be accessed by those reincarnation 5 or higher.
The Chaos Stratum itself is actually in the world, an overlay on top of a real room. You can stumble upon it by accident and attack or be attacked.
Defeating the boss within dispels the Chaos Stratum and has a chance to drop a dye bottle.
Chaos Stratum are created by putting Scrying Crystals in the device in the Ancient Ziggurat.
Shard mods rolled on the Scrying Crystal can affect loot quality and difficulty.

* More interesting bosses for CS are being worked on.

CEREMONIAL MACE
* A new weapon, the ceremonial mace, has been added to the game.
It does silver and bludgeon damage.
It can’t roll weapon mods. Instead, it can roll a variety of caster mods.
Unlike regular maces, this type of mace knocks back on crit. It’s not meant to be a main weapon, but rather a caster stick + knocking option.

It only drops in the new Endless Sea Palace.

CHARM & ILLUSION DAMAGE MODS
* Can now roll on some items in the form ‘% increased charm damage’ and ‘% increased illusion damage’.

PRISMS FIXED
* Fire and Death prism should be functional now.

ANCIENT ZIGGURAT GUILD HALL
* Now has 6 portals to graveyard themed locations as originally intended by the designer.

DRAIN DAMAGE FIX
* Drain damage, such as from drowning, is no longer reduced by general magic resistance.
So STOP DROWNING!

ICE DRAGON TWEAK
* Shillings reduced.

TEMP SAFE / PVP OPT OUT RULES CHANGES
* You can now enter guildhalls while temp safe or pvp opted out. However, you WILL be attackable, as these are special combat zones.
* You are also attackable in chaos zones like the Maze.
* As a reminder, players may request up to 2 characters opted out of pvp. We do this manually, so message/gmail Gar if you’re looking to do this.
* PvP opt out cannot be lifted once granted.

HIGH SORCERERS CHANGES
* Space itself is broken at the site of the Diffraction. Phasing isn’t possible.
* The High Sorcerers see you on their wide flat area of bare stone. Sneaking, hiding, and spying isn’t possible.
* If you log off at the Apex of the Ziggurat, you will get sent to Embalming Chambers.

BESTIARY IMPROVEMENTS
* Minions are now logged off with you, and return upon logon. They’ll retain HP, champion statuses, and loyalty.
Because they’re actually being destroyed and recreated, some minor things may change, such as avar blazon color.

* Charm spells have been given higher charm multiples, so it’ll be easier to charm mobs with weak spellpower.

* Bestiary skill and spell books can now disappear off the ground like any other item.
* Bestiary skill and spell book drop chance reduced. These should now hopefully be less annoying and more ‘oh cool’.
They’re meant to be a community knowledge pool type of thing, but if sharing books becomes too annoying, we might change how Bestiary is acquired.
Let us know your feedback!

ALCHEMY CHANGES
* Books of Alchemy can be earned in the new Endless Sea Palace.

* Alchemist’s Rings have had their spell list customized instead of riffing off Distill.
Existing Alchemist’s rings with personal enchantments that are no longer allowed have been set to Bless.
Generally, the allowed spells include personal enchantments level 3 or below that don’t pose a design problem by being ‘always on.’

EXISTING HEALS BUFFED, 1 NEW HEAL SPELL
We are beginning an experimental push toward removing or minimizing heal rods in favor of more interesting healing options.
Nothing’s been done with heal rods yet. We’ll see how this goes first.

* Spell heals are now affected by %increased damage modifiers.
Minor heal, hospice, and major heal will all heal more if you have %increased holy damage on your gear.
%increased magic damage also counts.
This will also increase the damage victims of a very strong Black Mantle hex will take when healed.
Heal rods & healing potions aren’t affected by this.

* Experimentally extending on that theme, Faren 3 has been given a fire-based heal called Cauterize.
Cauterize heals at roughly half the rate of Major Heal, but comes at a temporary cost of an equal amount of maximum health.
For example, a 99 sp Cauterize may restore 25 health, but also lower the recipient’s max health by 25.
You only lose max health equal to the amount actually healed, so you can never accidentally damage yourself or weaken yourself directly.
A point of max health returns roughly every three seconds. So if you heal yourself for 25 and lose 25 max health, that max health will fully return in 75 seconds (1 minute 15 seconds). No big deal in some situations, hugely critical in others.

%increased fire damage and %increased magic damage increase both the amounts healed and the max health lost in equal measure.
This spell can be used as a heal albeit with a tradeoff (true heals are Shal’s domain), but also as a way to long-term hinder one’s enemy in drawn out combat.
For example, you could continually cauterize an opponent after damaging them, continually lowering their max health.
Cauterize consumes 2 red mushrooms, 2 elderberries, and 2 herbs per cast.

If Cauterize’s heal is reversed into fire damage by a very strong Black Mantle, no max health is lost. You will instead be given burning like normal fire damage.

Cauterize is sold by Maleval.