Alpha Two Update Notes - Thursday, January 30, 2025

Roshen · January 30

These are the update notes for changes that went to Alpha Two realms on Thursday, January 30, 2025

As a reminder, if you come across bugs during Alpha Two testing, please report them to us in-game using /bug

Highlights

Sandsquall Desert has many updates, including adding Pocket Dungeons, NPCs, and new desert exclusive gatherables and recipes for all artisanship professions
Guild Level Progression, Skill Tree, and Guild Commodity Vendor have been added!
Significant balance changes and ability tweaks for Bard and Fighter Archetypes

Sandsquall Desert

Sandsquall Desert Pocket Dungeons

Pocket Dungeons are mini-dungeons that are available based on Node level! These offer greater risk and greater rewards than generally adventuring out in the world. Bosses here can have unique gear drops!

Added Pocket Dungeons in the following places:
- Brood Pit Pocket Dungeon is north of Azmaran
- Lost Hero's Sepulcher Pocket Dungeon is to the north of Aithanar
- Prismarium Pocket Dungeon is northeast of Azamar
- Scarabsong Hollow Pocket Dungeon is east of Sunhaven
- Snakebite Stash Pocket Dungeon is east of Aithanar
- Vault of the Emigrant Pocket Dungeon is northeast of Sunhaven

Sandsquall Desert Enemies and NPCs

New elite enemies added to the Sandsquall Desert include Najash Hunter, Najash Predator, and Najash Tracker
Elite enemy variants added to the Sandsquall Desert include Desert Crocodile, Bull Crocodile, Sandweaver Scorpion, Venomstrike Scorpion, Giant Scorpion, Giant Sandweaver Scorpion, Scarab, and Crimson Scarab
New enemy variants added to the Sandsquall Desert include Sandsquall Broodling, Scarab Hatchling, Crimson Giant Scarab, and Desert Flesh Golem
Replaced enemies that spawn near Nodes Sunhaven, Azmaran, Aithanahr with Sandsquall Desert enemies
Increased wander distance for enemies to make the Sandsquall Desert feel less static
Crystal Golem’s Disintegrate ability will now be more reliable
Large Scorpion can now Fury Pincer Smash
Improved Scorpion attack visuals, underground movement, and various other animations
Giant Scarab has improved visuals for attacks

Sandsquall Desert Artisanship

Added new huntable NPCs. These include: Broodling Scorpion, Daystrider, Crocodile, Dynasty Beetle, Hippo, and Veshan Komodo. Additionally, Glimmering Geode and Bonestrider may be obtained from specific enemies
Flailrunner has carcasses on its hunting drop table
Swiftclaw huntable NPC has more spawn locations
Speckled Dace, Sandsquall Pupfish, and Gila Chub have been added to fishing loot tables in the Sandsquall Desert. Also added associated recipes that use these materials
Cactus has been added as a Lumberjacking gatherable. Also added associated recipes that use this material
Acacia and Date Palm have been added as new Lumberjacking gatherables
Obsidian has been added as a Mining gatherable. Also added associated recipes that use this material
Sandstone has been added as a new Mining gatherable
Paintbrush Plant has been added as a Herbalism gatherable. Also added associated recipes that use this material
Poppy and Agave have been added as new Herbalism gatherables
Some gatherables found in the Riverlands have been removed from the Sandsquall Desert
Some Riverlands gatherables are also available in the Sandsquall gatherable spawn pool. Zinc, Copper, Ruby, Tin, Emerald, Halcyonite, Iron, Sapphire, Lumadon, Flax, Giant Bluebell, and Spindlevine should now spawn in both biomes

Sandsquall Desert Quests and Events

Created Sandsquall Desert reward tables for events in the zone
Set up commission boards to have some commissions that are exclusive to either the Sandsquall Desert or Riverlands biomes
'AMBUSH!' event has been added to the north of Aithanar
'Ambush by Night' event has been added to the north of Aithanar
'Scorpion Charmer' event has been added to the northeast of Sunhaven
'Shadebellies' event has been added to the lawless zone of the Sandsquall Desert
'Shady Mayhem Event' has been added to northeast of Sunhaven
Over 420 Treasure Map locations have been added to the Sandsquall Desert
Fixed many treasure mounds locations that were spawning underground

Sandsquall Desert Environment and Visuals

Sandsquall Desert has had many changes and improvements to the look and feel of this biome
More Caravan accessible routes have been added
'Ye olde constructione signs' have been added in some exceptionally work-in-progress areas
Temporary oceans have been added around the Sandsquall Desert peninsula
Added landmarks for future POI development
Updated the terrain around Azmaran
Updated the terrain around the southern edge of the Sandsquall Desert
Added large essence crystals throughout the Sandsquall Desert
Clouds in the Sandsquall Desert have been changed to feel more in line with the biome climate
Added dust storm visual effects that change based on wind speed
Added heat shimmer visual effects that change based on temperature
Unique lighting has been added to some areas of the Sandsquall Desert
Ambient audio and VFX have been added to the Sandsquall Desert
Improved collision with many things in the Sandsquall Desert

General

Effective immediately, all Santa Hats, Candy Canes, Christmas Trees, and all forms of Christmas Cheer have been purged from Verra
The bug reporting tool has been updated! There are more drop downs to better categorize bug reports. An "exploit" checkbox has also been added, to help testers escalate exploits to us
Added a 7-day expiration to Marketplace item listings. Items that have expired can be reclaimed and relisted
Shrines will now automatically attune when you are a small distance away
Adjusted a variety of levels and rewards for sided quests
Updated a variety of descriptions for equipment
Added environment assets to help support Road to Joeva quests
Fixed a duplication exploit related to stolen Glint
More server stability improvements

Character, Archetypes, and Combat

General Character

Pressing ESC will no longer cancel abilities that have consumed a cost. This will make it so that Bard Music isn't canceled by hitting ESC
Fixed a bug preventing weapon combo finishers from stacking correctly
Significantly improved performance for weapon combos
Increased the road buffs for Characters, Mounts and Caravans
Shield block chance and wand damage should no longer have incorrect stat stacking
Updated visual effects for the Tank's Absorption Field, Indomitable Field, Intimidating Aura, Taunt, and Wall abilities
Out-of-combat regeneration is now displayed as a regeneration stat

Mounts

Improved sound effects for various enemies and mounts
Fixed a bug preventing mounts from jumping if up against a wall
Updated a variety of mounts to include much more detailed descriptions
Added audio to swimming, sprinting, and running
Added a possible fix to prevent characters from rubber banding after dismounting

Bard

Bard Resonance has been added as a stat to the player’s HUD

Dark Lullaby
- Single Target
  - Damage bonus per debuff on target reduced from 15% to 3%
- AOE
  - Damage bonus per debuff on target reduced from 10% to 3%
  - Base damage increased from 25% to 35%

Chilling Lament
- Single Target
  - Damage reduced from 75% to 60% of base damage
- AOE
  - Reduced base damage from 50% to 40%

Discordance
- Reduced damage from 75/50/25% to 50/37.5/25%
- Cooldown reduced from 25 seconds to 15 seconds

Mock
- Base damage increased from 110% to 125%
- Fiery Wit burn damage reduced from 75% to 60%

Resonance
- Will now grant an extra stack at the end of songs and dances

Resonant Weapon (Menacing)
- Shock stacks applied reduced from 5 to 1 per stack consumed

Sagas
- Will now have a 90-second cooldown
- Will not consume theme buffs

Themes have been reworked to target base stats and optionally stack or weave with each other
Fortissimo will now empower melodies at the cost of resonance
Pantheon Saga has been reworked to grant a mana restoration weapon buff
Nimble Dance will prioritize dispelling crowd control effects
Polished the animation and timing for a variety of Sagas

Cleric

Mend - Increased base healing from 1 to 1.5
Flash Cure
- Decreased base healing from 2.5 to 1.75
- Increased mana cost from 10 to 20
Deliverance - Updated sound effects
Divine Infusion - Updated sound effects

Mage

Shatter - Reduced damage from 300% to 225%

Tank

Vengeance
- Damage increased from 90/100/110% to 120/130/150%
- Temporary health increased from 0.1/0.2/0.3% to 2/2/2%
- Removed Courage cost. Added a mana cost of 10 and an 8-second cooldown per charge
- Targeting has changed from AOE to single target
- No longer breaks combo progression, allowing it to be weaved between combos
- Successive combos cancel some post frames from each previous combo step
- Incoming hits now reduce the cooldown by 0.5 seconds, and blocked hits reduce the cooldown by 1 second
  - Has a 1 second internal cooldown
- Temporary health duration increased from 10 seconds to 8 seconds
  - Multiple temporary health stacks now properly expire
- Final combo attack now stuns the target for 3 seconds

Grit
- Changed from a toggle ability to now have a 10-second duration which may be stacked up to 2 times
- Each activation now costs 40 courage
- Each stack grants 10% physical mitigation
- Removed the damage penalty and threat bonus
- No longer breaks combo progression
- The Supernatural Grit passive will now grant half of the physical mitigation as magical mitigation

Courage (passive)
- No longer provides passive mitigation

Inciting Strikes
- Damage increased from 50% per hit to 75% per hit
- Now generates 3 courage per hit per enemy hit, and up to 10 enemies per swing
- Threat multiplier reduced from 400% to 300%

Ground Pound
- Cooldown reduced from 60 seconds to 20 seconds
- Courage cost increased from 33 to 50

Slam
- Damage decreased from 200% to 175%
- Removed the mana cost and cooldown
- Each activation now costs 40 courage
- Removed the Knockback passive

Absorption Field
- Temporary health reduced from 20% to 15%

Iron Aura
- Increased mitigation from 2% to 5%

Intercept
- Temporary health increased from 8% to 10%
- No longer has an increased effect when cast on self

Fortify
- No longer scales duration off Courage consumed

Indomitable Spirit
- Max health and healing received has been reduced from 30% to 20%

Fighter

All Forms
- Now granted automatically upon leveling. Fluidity unlocks at level 5, and Celerity unlocks at level 10
- The passives for Fluidity and Celerity have been swapped:
  - Fluidity now provides health regeneration.
  - Celerity now provides mana regeneration.
  - Both passives now restore up to 1% health or mana after a successful weapon combo finisher based on current combat momentum.
- Form cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds
  - Cooldowns now trigger on the form being swapped from, rather than on the one swapped to

Cataclysm
- Reduced cooldown from 45 seconds to 30 seconds

Wallop
- Charges reduced from 3 to 1
- Now trips staggered targets
- Added a passive skill to Wallop which will return 30% of momentum spent as a percentage of maximum health to the caster over 6 seconds
- Added impact SFX

Crippling Blow
- No longer trips staggered targets
- Now applies an additional snare stack to staggered targets

Battle Cry
- Added a passive that breaks crowd control upon activation
- Now applies the 'demoralized' effect to enemies

Berserk
- Removed the crowd control break passive from the skill tree

Knock Out
- Now applies shaken to the target

Form of Fluidity
- Now grants up to 15% additional physical/magical evasion based on current combat momentum
- Disable evasion reduced from 40% to 25%

Leap Strike
- Now staggers instead of snares (will still apply 3 snare stacks to shaken targets)

Rupture
- Now stacks its effect multiple times on the same target when used consecutively or by multiple fighters

Whirlwind
- Reduced post-animation frames and improved transitions into subsequent abilities
- The final hit from the Climactic passive now staggers enemies
- Spin hit damage increased from 30% to 45%

Ranger

New passive ability: Siphoning Regeneration
- Each time the target of your regeneration effect deals damage to your Marked target, they gain health and mana regeneration equal to 5% of the damage dealt for 5 seconds
Stride - Updated sound effects
Regeneration - Updated sound effects
Thorns - Updated sound effects

Status Effects

Demoralized - Damage penalty has been reduced from 30% to 15%

Caravans

When swapping a Caravan Component, fixed an issue that made an empty popup instead of a confirmation window appear
The unstuck ability will now be a 15 second channel for Characters and Caravans
Fixed bugs causing Caravans to get stuck and improved recovery logic
After Caravan recovery, map indicators should now updating properly
Improved the visuals for Caravan Cargo Explosion
Fixed a bug with not being able to remove Cargo from Caravans after delivering it to a node
Fixed a bug causing Caravans to lose functionality after mounting in water
After a Caravan is destroyed, its owner's Caravan combatant status will now be returned to normal

Economy and Artisanship

Added a new Guild Commodities Vendor
Hunting Elixir should no longer give non-hunting related stats
Reduced the max batch size for Tanning Station to 50
Marketplace layouts are now available for Node at stage 2
Adjusted the respawn time for some respawning reward chests
Fixed some infinite glint loot chests

Nodes

Fixed a bug causing items in storage to be lost after losing citizenship
Enchanting scrolls have been added to Node citizenship vendors
Fixed issue where some NPCs at Node Service Buildings were non-interactable
The memorial site NPC now provides an adventuring experience buff to citizens and a weaker version of the buff to non-citizens

Freeholds

Updated the dialogue for the Freehold Well Tutorial
Freehold Well tutorial will explain the gatherable loop
Added an interactable bed to Freehold houses that gives a buff
Added Freehold Storage Chests
When accessing storage from a Freehold, characters should no longer be able to purchase material tabs and item chunks
Added new rooting ball recipes

Guilds

Guild Level Progression, Skill Tree, and Guild Commodity Vendor have been added
Generally applied buffs to the Guild Skill Tree
Archetype names should now show up correctly in the guild window
Added Guild rank promotion and demotion for guild roles
Added custom naming for guild roles
Performed a balance pass for Guild Experience
Fixed a bug that would cause Guild member rank changes to not do anything

Enemies & NPCs

Enemy critical hit rates have been significantly reduced
Adjusted NPC behavior for numerous enemies and refined NPC difficulty progression
Enemy damage has been increased slightly for higher-level enemies
Updated animations for a variety of enemies and NPCs
Improved visual effects for a variety of enemy NPC abilities
Various updates to numerous types of NPCs
Fixed a bug with the Minotaur Summoner's Wolf Bite
Fixed a bug with the Scorpion burrow protection to remain indefinitely after killing a character
Fixed a bug preventing the Minotaur Spirit from using abilities
Fixed a bug causing Zombie Scholars to be infinitely kiteable
Fixed a bug with Gryphons not dropping feathers or bones
Fixed a bug causing Tumok the Wretched to sometimes get stuck
Adjusted the location of bears in Baneswood Cemetery
Increased respawn timers for Forsaken Blades and Merciless General
Adjusted the population of NPCs at the Brood Pit and Lost Hero's Sepulcher
Fixed a bug causing the Minotaur Warrior to behave incorrectly
Fixed a bug where Animated Armors were unable to navigate to players
Fixed a bug preventing the Dünir Berserker from using their Homing Axes ability
Adjusted the population density of the Prismarium
The Vault of the Emigrant has now been populated

Events, Quests & Commissions

Added a spin-up phase to Guild Wars
Fixed various quests that were previously unable to be completed
Added additional quests along the New Aela Path
Enhanced a variety of quests with added dialogue for better context and exposition
Adjusted quest indicators to more accurately match their intended locations
Removed the ability to turn in Mayoral Commissions via the Journal

Visuals

Improved environmental visuals in and around Nodes
Adjusted lighting at low and medium graphic settings
Enhanced visuals for Sephillion, Citadel of the Steel Bloom, Gravepeak, and North Daragal
Fixed a bug where some road intersections were missing near New Aela
Upgraded foliage visuals in the Tropics region
Fixed visual issues for a wide variety of equipment
Fixed many places where characters could fall out of the world or access unintended locations
Updated the Sephellion Iron District, Sephellion Silver District, Ruins, and Cathedral of Virtue
Added collision to some types of trees
Fixed collision issues in and around the Ursine Cave, Daragal Mills
Fixed a bug causing white lava falls in the Befallen Forge
Fixed a bug causing moonlight to sometimes blind players

User Interface

Made improvements to the UI for the Skill Tree, Archetype Tree, Processing Station Menu, Character Creator Sculpt Menu, Profession Interface, Player Frame Lock icon, Quest reward, and Minimap
Added a new recipe item display to the profession progression window
The marketplace now auto-selects materials if no items are available in the selected shop
Updated various economy menus for improved functionality and clarity
Fixed a bug causing character race to display incorrectly when switching rapidly between races
Added a Caravan Launch Radius to the map
Tooltips will better adjust their location to stay on-screen
Character Creator - Characters will be better centered
Character Creator - Fixed a bug with the Gender buttons in the Race tab not properly changing Gender in the Appearance tab
Fixed a bug with scaling the World Map Legend
Updated animations for the World Map Legend
Fixed a bug where the accept and decline options would be missing on raid invites
Updated the text in the Invite to raid menu
Fixed a bug with the confirm and cancel bugs not properly showing the set home point menu
Added an expiration time column to the Marketplace sell item interface
Updated the expiration field for expired Marketplace listings
Updated text in the Node Citizenship interface
Updated text and icons for when the Combatant state is fading
Created new icons for empty Artisanship Slots
Fixed a bug that could cause developer text to be displayed sometimes
Updated some font styles
Fixed a variety of typos

Sounds

Improved sound effects for various enemies and mounts
Conducted an audio pass to enhance the sound design of several enemies and NPCs