Design Notes

March 09, 2018

Exalted Harbinger, Blood Sorceress and Potions!

Exalted Harbinger, Blood Sorceress/Scarlet Sorceress and Potions Update!

Welcome to the Soul Cleaver revamp! We have taken a long and hard look at what made Soul Cleaver unique and fun. We looked at feedback from all of you as well and are pleased to present this new version, The Exalted Harbinger!

Really quick though, I just wanted to go over an update to how Scarlet Sorceress is obtained and its new precurser, Blood Sorceress.

Previously, players were able to get Scarlet Sorceress at incredibly early levels by simply farming it alongside higher leveled friends. The farming ability of Scarlet Sorceress was unrivaled up to level 50 and because of that, new comers and alts were clamoring to get it ASAP and did not need any other class until hitting level 50+ content. We want to encourage players to explore the game more and try out a variety of classes, so we have made some changes.

First off the version of Scarlet Sorceress players can buy with ACs is NOT AFFECTED in any way. Your AC Scarlet Sorceress is exactly as it was.

Secondly, all versions of Scarlet Sorceress that were obtained by defeating Scarletta in towerofmirrors have been replacd with a new class, the Blood Sorceress. Blood Sorceress will now drop from Scarletta as well, and Scarlet Sorceress will not.

Thirdly any player who is level 50 or greater and who have completed all quests in towerofmirrors can trade in their Blood Sorceress, by accepting ‘Blood Sorceress to Scarlet Sorceress’ from Thief of Hearts in the first room of towerofmirrors. This class will give players their old Scarlet Sorceress in exchange for their new Blood Sorceress. Players can then go to their buyback shop and get their Blood Sorceress back if they want it, or defeat Scarletta again and get Blood Sorceress to drop.

Blood Sorceress is designed around Scarlet Sorceress. It uses similar skills but its damage output and healing have been reduced. Also, all of its stacking auras have been replaced by single stacking auras that apply a more average effect.

Unfortunately, players will have to rerank their Scarlet Sorceress so we have given everyone a 25% class boost until Monday morning. You get this boost for any class, not just Scarlet Sorceress so it's a great time to rank 10 some of those classes you've been neglecting.

Also, we have updated a large majority of consumable items so that they now stack to 99. There are a handful of consumables, notably Potion of Haste and Arcangrove daily potions that are more limited, otherwise, enjoy the increased stack limit to potion away your problems!

With that out of the way, here are the design notes for Exalted Harbinger!

(Physical/Magical) (Mage Mana Regen)

Recommended enhancement: Luck. For the Legion at any cost! Your task is to harness the souls of the enemies of the legion. Break, leech, rend and snare their will to live. Lose yourself to the power, lose yourself to the legion!

Soul Breaker: You relentlessly beat at your foe's soul. Dealing high damage based on weapon attack, but with a longer cooldown.

Mana: None

Cooldown: 3 seconds

(Physical)

Range: Close

Note:150% Weapon Damage

Right off the bat you’ll notice a slower auto attack. The trade off is that it hits much harder. The actual damage over time is the same (100% every 2 seconds = 150% every 3 seconds) but you’ll see an increase in damage over time because there is a much stronger focus on crits and crit damage in this class, which scales better on larger hits.

Soul Rend: Deals damage based on the difference between your current and maximum HP. The lower your health, the more damage you'll do.

Mana: 15

Cooldown: 6.5 seconds

(Physical/Magical)

Range: Close

Next up you’ll see a couple of changes to Soul Rend. First off, the cooldown has increased to 6.5 seconds. The reasoning here is that this skill becomes very strong when buffed by your other skills. Also, we increased the damage on this skill by 10%. With these changes, you’ll be hitting significantly harder with Exalted Harbinger then you did with Soul Cleaver. Soul Rend gets exponentially stronger with less health, so it’s worth it to risk your life total to nail those massive crits.

Soul Leech: Drain life directly from your target's soul. Deals damage and heals you.

Mana: 30

Cooldown: 6 seconds

(Magical)

Range: Between Close and Medium

Soul Leech has received a reduction in mana cost (from 40 mana to 30 mana) as well as a significant reduction in cooldown (from 17 seconds to 6 seconds). The damage and heal on it is relatively the same, although with the stronger auras on this class, it’ll actually be quite a bit better. We have also removed the damage reduction debuff, so that you have more control over how low your health is, plus it didn’t synergize with your Soul Snare in any way.

This is your last ditch saving grace when things get a bit spicy. You want your health to remain pretty low to maximize the damage on Soul Rend so you might not want to spam this. Plus, while the mana cost has been reduced, its still your most expensive skill and it will drain your mana quickly.

Soul Snare: Snare your opponents soul from afar reducing their chance to hit by 90% for 10 seconds.

Mana: 25

Cooldown: 20 seconds

(Physical/Magical)

Range: Long Range

Soul Snare no longer stuns your enemy. It now reduces their changes to hit by 90% for 10 seconds. This is a huge buff over a 4 second stun that didn’t affect many bosses. This significantly increases its survivability vs big bosses and pvp. You basically shut down any class without a hit chance buff. The mana costs and cooldown have also been significantly buffed (from 30 mana to 25 and from 35 second cooldown to 20 seconds).

Blood Price: Sacrifice your very life force to increase all damage dealt by 125% and your chance to crit by 15% for 10 seconds. Can't miss and can't crit. For the Legion!

Mana: 0

Cooldown: 10 seconds

(Physical/Magical)

Range: Close

Notes: Deals (333% attack power + 333% spell power / 2) in damage to yourself.

Your final skill is Blood Price. The cooldown has been dramatically reduced, from 45 seconds to a mere 10! The buff is also better. From 75% increased damage to 125%. The trade off is that it does around 10% more damage to you, compared to Soul Cleaver.

Blood Price accomplishes two things. It gets your health low quick so that your Soul Rend becomes more effective. It also gives you a huuuuuge damage buff, increasing all your skills power. You can refresh it before it runs out if you want to chunk your health down to super high risk levels. This will get your Soul Rend to demoralizing damage levels, but a light wind could kill you so watch out!

Rank 4 Passives

Might of the Legion: Increases Damage Done by 15%

No Pain No Gain: Increases Damage Taken by 15%

Rank 10 Passive

For the Legion: Increases Endurance by 20%

Finally, we have increased the damage on both damage passive (by 5%) so you take more damage but also deal more. We have also completely removed the old rank 10 passive, so players won’t have to stop leveling the class at rank 5. The new passive gives you a nice Endurance buff, increasing the effectiveness of your Soul Rend and improving survivability.

Special thanks to our amazing testing and contribution team! Pisces, Yoshino, Eht Cetera, Brittney and Apus!

Tags: classes, Exalted Harbinger, Scarlet Sorceress, Blood Sorceress, Potions,

"451 Memories" Maker

June 08, 2012

Xan Saga Finale

This Summer's heating up and it'll only get hotter!

We hope you're fired up for the finale of Xan's Saga! The heat is on as Lore's most insane Pyromancer turns your plan to foil his plot to ashes! Fighting fire with fire is a good way to get burned if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Mage of the Ignited Ones Armor

But you've clashed with Xan before! Now that you have Warlic to take some of the heat off you, Xan doesn't stand a chance! He IS insane and tricky, but with a bit of luck, some surprising trickery, and a bit of help from a unexpected source, Xan's going to go down in flames!

Non-Member Flame Warrior Armor!

ALL of this week's Xan rewards drop from monsters, so if you REALLY want those pyroclastic pay-offs, you'll need to fight for them! Don't look at these rewards too long, or you'll burn your retinas!

Lava Warrior Armor drops from the Lava Mages. Fists of Flame drops from the boss.

Alchemy Tradeskill Releases Tonight!

Magic and Science are both deadly weapons when wielded by the right hands. But mix them together
and you get Alchemy! /Join alchemyacademy this weekend to learn the science AND magic behind mixing up some of Alina’s most excellent elixirs and dangerous draughts… if Lim, Lore’s maddest scientist, doesn’t blow you up first!

Double-check Lim's notes before using the ChemicoTron!*

Alchemy is NOT a study for the weak of wits. You'll want to pay attention to instructions and keep practicing, but once you get the hang of the Chemicotron's controls, you'll be able to make some VERY handy potions!

PLEASE try not to burn down the Alchemy Lab!

Notes to remember:

All of the Alchemy Reagents you'll need to make potions are drops from monsters.
If you don't feel like hunting for a specific drop, you can ALSO purchase all but 2 ingredients using either Dragon Runestones (15 ACs each) or Academic Merits (awarded for Academic prowess).
Lim has TWO repeatable rep-boosting quests - one for members, one for non-members. (The member quests gives DOUBLE rep)
Warlic and Cysero give quests which reward rep for Spellcrafting and Blacksmithing, future Tradeskills!
Lim's Extra Credit quests require reagents you will create in Blacksmithing. Guess you'll have to come back to the Academy after that releases!
Every time you use a Dragon Runestone, you have a chance to unlock an insanely dangerous,wierd, or random animation!

More Potion Teasers:

Basic Bright Tonic - Use to increase your intelligence by 8% for 5 minutes.
Unstable Courage Tonic - Use to increase your endurance by 12% for 7 minutes.
Potent Malevolence Elixir - Use to increase your spell power by 25% for 15 minutes.

Work together to make comprehensive guides for what ingredients are required and what potions can be created!

* The Alchemicia Pharmacopoeia uses Dumoose's REAL notes taken while designing Alchemy. Dumoose miiiiiiight need a vacation after this.

Artix vs Sepulchure/ZOMBIES!!! Art Contest Update!

Because we had SO MANY incredible (and incredibly undead) art entries, we're going to need a bit more time to judge. Look for winners to be announced next week!

Dage was not allowed to enter the contest, but can't wait to see what you create!

In-Game Mod Hunt Update!

Reens and Stratos are still combing through the in-game mod applications, searching for candidates to join the team. Once they have compiled a list of prospective mods, they will contact those players with more instructions. Emails have not been sent out yet!

Reens and Stratos cannot reply to everyone who applied, sorry, but we ALL appreciate how many of you want to help make AQWorlds a safe and fun place for your fellow players!

More Artix/Vayle Quests!

Beleen is releasing the next quests for the Blinding Light and Necrotic weapons series! These will let you create the Advanced or DoomSoldier Weapon Kits! Remember: At the end of these quests, you'll be able to obtain the Blinding Light of Destiny axe and Sepulchure's Armor!

Coming Next Week!

Next week: Limited Time Summer Shop! Look for NEW versions of the NPC surfboard featuring some of your favorite characters, Dage's Pyromancer Apprentice set, and the incredible Professor Dolpho pet!
Next week: J6's Saga updates with "Bountyhunter Banzai!"