Weekend Warfront: Road to Madness
There is rumored to be a great source of power deep in the Chaos Wastes. The Maw of Madness as it is called is undoubtedly being used by our enemies.
There are two fates branching forth for you. In one, you storm the Maw of Madness and claim the magical power for your realm. In the other, you wander the wastes, a mewling spawn of wretchedness. Which would you rather see come to pass?
This weekend Road to Madness will be the weekend warfront from 12:00 on Friday to 12:00 on Monday Altdorf time. You get +50% XP and Renown in the Maw of Madness scenario, and extra rewards from completing the event tasks.
General
Optimisations
- Some fixes have been done to how warband and group information is sent to the client that should make the client perform better.
- Health updates were sent when overhealing a target were fixed, so it will reduce the amount of target updates in the client and make it perform better.
Combat and Careers
General Changes and Fixes
This balance patch is mostly focused on tweaking CC and snares to make the gameplay more mobile. Engineer & Magus are also getting some tweaks to that end. Most of the Unstoppable buffs have been standardized at 30s, even if the CC is 3s or 4s long. This makes longer soft CC (silence/disarm) a bit more worthwhile compared to 3s knockdowns.
- Range calculation of point blank AoE abilities have changed to include the caster players radius. For ground target AoE it is from the centre point of the ground target however, as ground targets don't have a base radius themselves.
- [21977] - AM puddles not visible
- [22012] - Root immunity abilities not working properly
- [22033] - Blazing Blade does not stack on Target for each Kotbs that is applying it. Only one dot for n number of kotbs.
- While airborne after a knockback or pull you now again count as being moving for the purposes of abilities and casting abilities.
- [21837] - Pounces can be used mid air after a punt.
- [22001] - Trivial Blows not working correctly.
- [21986] - Resist stat buffs show incorrectly.
- [21929] - AP regen stopped after handing in part in scenarios.
- [21825] - Stoutness of Stone not working on staggers.
- [21949] - Liniment of Boundless Sight only gives Initiative
All Dwarves
- Stoutness of Stone - changed from 50% shorter duration KD and stun to -1s duration.
All Magic Ranged DPS
- Unleash The Winds - Reworked to do 1200 damage to all targets within 30 ft and for the next 10 seconds your abilities will build 50% faster, cost 25% less Action Points and you cannot be set back during this time.
All Physical Ranged DPS
- Pierce Defenses - This tactic now reduces dodge and parry by 10% and block by 5%.
All Tanks
- Juggernaut - Ability now provides 5s immunity to snares and roots upon activation.
- Unstoppable juggernaut - Reduces cd to 40s (currently 20s)
Note: Currently 45ap Juggernaut often does not provide any benefit as snare can be immediately reapplied. Unstoppable Juggernaut slightly nerfed to not make it too strong.
Balance Changes
- Earthshatter - Snare duration reduced to 5s and snare potency reduced to 30%.
- Powered Etchings - Snare duration reduced to 5s and snare potency reduced to 30%.
Balance Changes
- No Escape - Snare duration reduced to 5s and snare potency changed to always snare 30%.
Balance Changes
- Sundered Motion - Snare duration reduced to 5s and snare potency reduced to 30%
- Immolating Grasp - Snare potency reduced to 30%
- Spellbinding Rune - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
Balance Changes
- Improvised Upgrades - Range at which you build stacks increased from 25ft to 30ft, and range at which stacks drop off is increased from 25ft to 50ft.
- Tangling Wire - Snare potency reduced to 30%
- Crack Shot - Duration increased to 4s.
- Firebomb - Changed to be castable on the move.
- Flashbang Grenade - Changed to be castable on the move.
- Fragmentation Grenade - Changed to be castable on the move.
- Concussion Grenade - Changed to be castable on the move.
- Bombardment turret - Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s
- Gun Turret - Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s
- Flame Turret - Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s
- Thunderer - New 11pt tactic in Rifleman. Grants 10% armor penetration to all rifle attacks and allows auto attacks to fire on the move.
- Quick Reloader - Tactic moved down to 7pt Rifleman.
- Hollow-Points - Tactic moved down to 3pt Rifleman and it has a brand new icon.
- Stopping Power - Tactic moved to core.
- Throwing Arm - Has a brand new icon.
Bug Fixes
- [21874] - WAAAAAAAGH! Ability buffing auto attack speed and not auto attack damage.
Balance Changes
- Big Brawlin’ - Snare potency increased to 30%, Big Swing will now have 20s cd.
- Puddle o Muck - Snare duration reduced to 10s and snare potency reduced to 30%.
- Deafening Bellow! - Radius reduced to 25 ft.
- Shut Yer Face - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
- Get 'Em - Duration increased from 9s to 15s.
Balance Changes
- Wot’s Da Rush? - Snare duration reduced to 5s and snare potency changed to always snare 30%.
Balance Changes
- Eeek! - Snare duration reduced to 5s and snare potency increased to 30%.
- You Got Nuthin! - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
Balance Changes
- Sticky Squigz - This ability can now be defended against. Snare duration reduced to 5s and snare potency reduced to 30%.
- Squig Goo - Snare duration reduced to 3s. Range reduced to 65 ft. Radius reduced to 20 ft. Now does 900 damage over 3 seconds.
- Drop That!! - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
- Choking Arrer - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
Bug Fixes
- [21607] - Trial of Pain giving incorrect number of bullet procs.
Balance Changes
- Expurgation - Snare potency reduced to 30% and radius reduced to 25 ft.
- Silence the Heretic - Duration increased to 4s
- Confess! - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
Balance Changes
- Slice Through - Crippling Blow will hit 2 additional targets for 50% splash dmg, snare potency applied to them reduced to 30% and duration to 5s. CD increased to 10s.
- Heaven’s Fury - Duration extended to 5s.
- No Escape - Root duration reduced to 3 seconds and radius reduced to 25 ft.
Balance Changes
- Stop, Drop, And Roll - Knockdown duration reduced to 2s.
Balance Changes
- Endless Guilt: Snare duration of Weight of Guilt stays at 6 seconds and snare potency reduced to 30%.
- Penance - Radius reduced to 25 ft.
- Vow of Silence - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
Balance Changes
- Quake - Duration extended to 5s.
- Warping Embrace - Snare duration reduced to 10s and snare potency reduced to 30%.
- Shatter Faith - Radius reduced to 25 ft.
Balance Changes
- Death Grip - Immunity timer lowered to 30s
Bug Fixes
- Storm of Ravens - Tooltip clarified.
Balance Changes
- Suppressing The Fragile Unbelievers - Radius reduced to 25 ft and duration to 5s.
- Tzeentch's Lash - Immunity timer lowered to 30s
Balance Changes
- Unholy Empowerment - Range at which you build stacks increased from 25ft to 30ft, and range at which stacks drop off is increased from 25ft to 50ft.
- Perils of the Warp - Duration increased to 4s
- Rend Winds - Changed to be castable on the move.
- Surge of Insanity - Changed to be castable on the move.
- Pandemonium - Changed to be castable on the move.
- Warping Blast - Changed to be castable on the move.
- Summon Pink Horror - Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s
- Summon Blue Horror - Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s
- Summon Flamer - Cast time reduced from 2s to 1s
Balance Changes
- Whirling Geyser - Radius reduced to 25 ft. Now knocks targets up in the air instead of knocking them back.
Balance Changes
- Whirling Pin - This ability can now be defended against. Snare duration reduced to 5s and snare potency reduced to 30%
- Ambush - Snare duration reduced to 3s. Range reduced to 65 ft and no longer benefits from range increases. Radius reduced to 20 ft. Now does 900 damage over 3 seconds.
- Throat Shot - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
- Opportunistic Strike - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
- Hunter's Fervor - Duration increased from 9s to 15s.
This had 15s duration in the old system, even though tooltip stated 9s. But at 9s it was essentially a net loss of AP for the SW themself as casting it prevented you from regenerating AP for 1.5s in addition to consuming 25 AP.
- Eye Shot - This ability will no longer knock down the target. Debuff duration reduced from 20s to 10s, ability cooldown reduced from 20s to 10s.
- Takedown - Snare duration reduced from 10s to 8s. While under the effect of Vengeance of Nagarythe this ability will knock down target for 2s. This ability will continue to build up even if you move.
- Split Arrows - The damage on Spiral-Fletched Arrow and Broadhead Arrow are now reduced by 20%.
Bug Fixes
- [21962] - Baiting Strike should not have cooldown
Balance Changes
- Throat Bite - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
Balance Changes
- Wind Blast - Snare duration reduced to 5s and snare potency increased to 30%.
- Law of Gold - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
Balance Changes
- Wave of Scorn - Snare potency reduced to 30% and duration to 5s.
- Blast of Hatred - Snare duration reduced to 10s and snare potency reduced to 30%. Damage reduced to 1800.
- In Malekith’s Name! - Radius reduced to 25 ft.
- Away, Cretins! - Radius reduced to 25 ft. Now additionally slows all enemies hit by 30% for 5 seconds.
Balance Changes
- Throat Slitter - Duration increased to 4s
- Sever Limb - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
Bug Fixes
- [21965] - Curse of Khaine tactic stacks additive with other incoming healdebuffs
Balance Changes
- Universal Confusion - Radius reduced to 25 ft.
- Consume Thought - Immunity timer lowered to 30s.
Bug Fixes
- [22042] - Gloom of nitght undefendable
Balance Changes
- Paralyzing Nightmares - Root duration reduced to 3 seconds and radius reduced to 25 ft.
- Frostbite - Disarm duration increased from 3s to 4s.
Public Quests
Tier 1
Overall, all public quests have had the amount of mobs required to kill for Stage 1 reduced (in some cases by nearly 1/3). We believe that the difficulty of a PQ should not be determined by the amount of trash in the first stage, but by the final stage. Players were often intimidated by a PQ that required killing 80 NPCs. Accordingly, we checked so all NPCs present in a PQs area counted for kill credit, as before some NPCs were omitted. We tried to ensure that enough NPCs are spawned in Stage 1 of a PQ to not have to wait for respawns. Roaming has been turned on for some NPCs in Stage 1 when appropriate (mostly on animals, daemons, and brainless Greenskins), with the goal of making PQs look more lively (no more wolves standing in a nice line).
Game objects (GOs) have been counted and we have made sure that enough GOs are spawned to complete a stage, with extras in some cases. GOs which were meant to have VFX state changes have been properly implemented, so that when you 'burn a tent' it will now light on fire, and that tent will stay on fire in the next stage. For example, Suderholm is no longer permanently burning, now it will only be burning once that stage is completed. Though probably not popular, objectives which required interaction with GOs will now have cast times. It seemed a bit strange for you to click on a tent and have it instantly burst into flames. Now you get to deepen your roleplaying skills as you kneel for a few seconds and are rewarded with task credit when the timer is done. GOs will also disappear when clicked, thus preventing a player from spam clicking one GO 'x' times to complete the stage objective. GOs which were intended to be destroyed in Stage 2 are no longer destroy-able in Stage 1, which will prevent these PQs from bugging out in Stage 2.
PQ boss difficulty has been equalized and balanced across the three pairings as far as level is concerned (some bosses may still be more difficult due to the abilities they now have.) For example, every Chapter 1 normal PQ has a level 3 Champion, whereas before some PQs had level 3 heroes and others had level 2 or 3 champions. Regarding the final stage boss(es), we have begun to reimplement the audio files associated with Public Quests, giving the end NPC of a PQ a line or two to say. We are still working on re-adding the audio files, but hopefully in due time we'll have the audio files properly linked to the NPCs who have something to tell you.
Lastly, the map icons of PQs have all been fixed so that they properly say the intended levels.
Our intention is to make PQs more welcoming and less intimidating, particularly to new players, as part of our ongoing process to revitalize PvE starting with Tier 1.
Tome of Knowledge
- All Tier 1 History & Lore, and Noteworthy Person tome unlocks have been fixed/implemented.
Previously many Tier 1 History and Lore unlocks were restricted to the opposing realm's Chapter 1 hub, thus being unobtainable, yet appearing in your Tome of Knowledge. New methods have been added to acquire these unlocks in the opposing realm's storyline (i.e. an unlock that was in Empire Chapter 1 can now be obtained by Destruction players in the Chaos portion of the PvE area). Roam the land and stumble upon new discoveries.
World Environment
Monster Healing Abilities
One unintended side effect of all creatures gaining new abilities was that NPCs based on healers would now heal - a lot - and sometimes for half their HP or more at once. This was especially tricky for players not in DPS specs, as it became impossible to clear solo quests or even kill single mobs in some cases.
With today's patch, we have temporarily disabled all healing abilities from basic open-world mobs to ensure that quests and PQs are possible to clear if you are willing to put in the time. (Notable bosses, like Beastlord fights and Dungeon encounters, retain their healing as this is a key mechanic that groups of players are expected to overcome.)
In the future, some of these may slowly return, once we feel they are properly balanced.
Lairs
- Adjusted the Tier 1 Lairs, disabling some abilities that made the lairs quite difficult to complete. They should be easier to complete now
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug which meant that monsters would no longer say their speech text.
- Monsters now use action points meaning that they can no longer keep casting abilities when they shouldn't be able too.
- The leader of your Party should now be correctly shown. Previously this was only showing if you were the leader, or you were in a Warband.
- The Dwarf Keg-Handler, Goblin Bar-Back, Loyal Seagull, Crabby Crab, Moot Piglet, Moot Lamb, Oblast Elk Fawn, and Lynsk Bear Cub should all now be summoned properly.
- Live Event mounts have been fixed and should now summon properly. Their tooltips have been corrected to display a 60% chance to be dismounted upon taking damage.
- [22042] - Kill feed showing some kills in "DMR - Living Snot"
Hotfixes
2024/01/13
- Optimised the way buff information is sent to the client which should improve performance.
- Fixed an issue which caused monsters to not drop correct loot.
- Optimised the way guild information is sent which may improve loading.
2024/01/16
- Optimised buff sending to avoid recieving buff information you do not need. This should improve client performance in large fights.
- Optimised server performance in large fights. We noticed some performance degradation on Sunday night and we have investigated this issue and have done some optimisations.
