6/12 dev letter

Hello BNS family

This is Team Bloodlust.

6/12:

This patch brings the addition of the 12th class, "Archer", the new story quest of "The Iron Barrier Wall", and the new Heroic Dungeon, "Hangar #0".

We also wanted to bring a lot of smaller changes that would allow more players to experience Blade and Soul.

Beginner / Normal / Hard Mode Dungeons

As BNS revolves around the dungeon experience, we wanted to let players face the joys of "experiencing" the dungeons and their mechanics, rather than having players "fail" and die for their mistakes.

The previous "instant death" effects will instead deal "unresistable damage" in this new mode.

As the boss HP and damage, as well as the "instant death" mechanic may be different with each mode, the overall attack pattern and mechanics will not change. We hope that this change will allow more beginners to feel free to join in on dungeon runs, and move up to the Normal and Hard mode counterparts when they feel they are ready.

In order to not "ruin" the current experience, we have kept the Normal mode and Hard modes to be what you have been experiencing before.

We hope that this change opens up the game to a wider range of players.

The new class [Archer]

The Archer uses the "Bow" weapon from range, and our focus was put on recreating the image of a "warrior freely using the bow in all situations".

We did our best to make each arrow feel impactful, and for each pull on the drawstring to feel heavy. Our focus was to have all of this be applied in our "Blade and Soul" combat fashion, so that players can chain together different skills in a fast tempo.

Main Points of Arher

Accumulation

"Accumulation" is one of the new special mechanics that the Archer can apply on their targets.

When a target is marked with Accumulation, all damage done during this time is stored as long as the effect is active.

Once the Accumulation effect ends, the stored up damage explodes on the target, and the target takes additional damage.

The Archer can use an upgraded Bow weapon to increase the maximum amount of damage they can store up during Accumulation.

Our design was to make it difficult for the Archer to fill out the Accumulation gauge on their own, but for others to be able to assist.

We feel that this will also add on to the party utility and form that the Archer will be able to provide.

Movement and Targeting

The Archer, during usage of certain skills, are limited in the movement.

However, this can be overcome with the usage of "Movement Skills" that were added

We hope that the skilled usage of these Movement Skills will allow users to maximize the Archer's potential.

Not only that, rather than a target based system, we made the Archer attacks be based on their camera targeting.

Maintaining control of your camera movement will be key to bringing out the maximum of the Archer's kit.

Combat Style (Dawn)

Dawn focuses on using many different skills that each have their strengths and weaknesses.

You can focus a barrage of arrows on one pinpoint target from afar

Or let loose a barrage from up close to "shotgun" the arrows onto one target.

Or you can let that faraway target know the dangers of facing the Archer.

If you are able to maximize each skill's strength, you will be able to bring out the "Dawn" spec's true power.

Combat Style (Gale)

Gale focuses on recognizing the weak points of the enemy.

If you move to a designated location, you can let loose a quick attack on your enemy's weak spot.

Also, as Gale is filled with Combo or Link skills, chaining these skills properly is paramount to maximizing your damage.

Recognizing the most advantageous spot during the thrill of the fight will be the key to utilizing the "Gale" combat.

Normal/PVP/Standardized damage

As with the new mode added to dungeons, we wanted to try something new for PVP battles as well.

Before, all skills dealt the same amount of damage, whether in dungeons, arena, or battlegrounds.

This made balancing a nightmare as certain dungeon-specific or battleground-specific changes could have unintended consequences on their counterpart.

In order to better address these issues, we will be dividing the damage the skills apply into "Standard", "PvP", and "Standardized" types.

Each situation you are in (dungeons, battlegrounds, arena), will utilize its respective damage type, and we will be working to balance Battlegrounds in particular to fix skills we feel are too effective.

We will be working so that you can have a better combat experience, no matter what situation you may be in.

Ancient Legendary Items

The "Ancient Legendary" items will be a tier above the "Legendary" items that were added quite a while back.

Rather than the current chance/guaranteed evolution through stages that the current Legendary items have,

Ancient Legendary items can be constantly evolved to unlock stats from +1 to +20, but there is a certain chance that the stats may fall.

One of our constant worry was "How can we help differentiate between each 'max' player?", and we feel that this is our solution to that worry.

With this update, the "Thornbreaker" weapon can be upgraded to its Ancient Legendary state, and the "(INSERT SOUL STAGE ABOVE BRIGHTWILL/BRIGHTSPARK HERE)" souls can also be upgraded to their Ancient Legendary states.

"The Throne of the Beginning"

As we introduced "beginner mode" to let more of our BNS family explore dungeons, we are working on ways for more players to experience the raid experience as well.

Rather than "a difficulty to tackle with 12 players", we are looking to create the "enjoyable experience for 12 players".

We hope that you look forward to our next big event, "The Throne of the Beginning"

We hope to answer all of your thoughts and trust for these past 7 years.

As we showed last year, we are still working on the conversion to UE4, and we hope to bring more good news regarding this soon.