This news article was automatically parsed from the official Albion Online website.

Posted by Talion March 23rd (Source)

Director's Notes

Features

All Heavy Armor items are now Plate!



All Medium Armor items are now Leather!



All Light Armor items are now Cloth!



24 New Spells!

You'll need to reforge your old armors if you want to gain access to these, of course.



Three unique variations of Cloth, Leather and Plate items per armor slot to specialize your unique build.



Shoe spell choice is now an important part of your build! Shoes now offer very different spells, not just variations of sprint.



New dungeons!



New mobs!



New bosses!



New lighting setups!



New entrances and exits!



You will now always be knocked down at 0HP .



. Your health will regenerate over 180s ; when you reach full health you will get back up again.



; when you reach full health you will get back up again. If no players were involved in knocking you down, then your health regen rate increases by 10x once you are no longer on any mob's aggro list.



You have some minor protections after you get up (primarily being ignored by mobs for 15s).



Knocked down players in red and black zones can be executed by players. This takes a few seconds, and is interrupted by damage.



by players. This takes a few seconds, and is interrupted by damage. Knocked down players can only be interacted with to execute or resurrect them, and will not take damage from AoEs etc.



Mobs in red and black zones will begin executing knocked down players once there are no standing players left on their aggro list. This is also interrupted by damage.



You can now build Repair Kits.



They are built at Toolmakers, and cost 8 metal and 8 planks of the appropriate tier.



These are pieces of furniture which can be placed in the world (including in dungeons, but excluding starter zones).



(including in dungeons, but excluding starter zones). They decay over time if left in place.



They can be picked up again by their owner.



They allow any player to repair their damaged equipment , as with a repair station.



, as with a repair station. They cost twice as much silver to use as a normal repair station.



You can now buy baby horses and baby oxen for every tier between 3 and 8.



Their costs, grow times and nutrition use per hour all scale with higher tiers.



You now need an adult animal of the appropriate tier to craft a mount.



Destriers are gone ; you can now craft armored horses using a normal horse of the appropriate tier, starting at T5.



; you can now craft armored horses using a normal horse of the appropriate tier, starting at T5. Existing destriers/destrier babies will be converted automatically into T5 horses/ horse babies. Note that this does not affect armored horses, only the farmed animals.



horse babies. Note that this does not affect armored horses, only the farmed animals. The ability to raise higher-tier mounts is unlocked sequentially by tier in the Destiny Board.



When "pushed" (by clicking, for example), spells darken in addition to scaling, and this effect now works more quickly.



(by clicking, for example), spells darken in addition to scaling, and this effect now works more quickly. When hovered , spells now have a bright yellow glow around them.



, spells now have a bright yellow glow around them. Channelled spells' icons stay in the "active" state while channelling.



spells' icons stay in the "active" state while channelling. Disabled spells are now clearer, and can display both disabled and cooldown states simultaneously.



spells are now clearer, and can display both disabled and cooldown states simultaneously. Spell selected state is now clearer.



There is now a permanent "spell bar" that shows all available spell slots, even when no spell is present in that slot.



Characters and mobs that are behind terrain features or other large props will now be highlighted so they're substantially easier to see.

This can be disabled in settings.



or other large props will now be highlighted so they're substantially easier to see.

Party leaders can switch between " party loot " and " free loot " (the default being the former) at any time.



" and " " (the default being the former) at any time. Free loot works the same as current looting rules.



Party loot r andomizes loot from party kills between nearby party members.



between nearby party members. You can see loot assigned to other players, but can only loot your own loot.



This protection lasts until the general mob loot protection wears off (ie 120s).



The way a mob is going to drop loot is determined when a group member first engages that mob (since its last reset).

If your party leader switches to free loot halfway through a boss fight, the loot from that boss will still be distributed as per party loot rules.



(since its last reset).

Improvements

It is now possible to travel directly to your island from another city , paying the travel fees as if you'd travelled to the host city first.



, paying the travel fees as if you'd travelled to the host city first. Moving into and out of interaction range of buildings, chests etc will now update much more promptly.



Curse Deathmonger's freezing spell now displays its range clearly.



Bonus Fame, silver and loot is now awarded in more dangerous areas, as follows:

Yellow zone: 50% bonus

Red zone: 100% bonus

Black zone: 100% bonus

Gateway dungeons: 100%



Bonus Fame is now awarded in larger groups, as follows by group size:

1 group member: 0%

2 group members: 0%

3 group members: 17%

4 group members: 33%

5+ group members: 40%



is now awarded in larger groups, as follows by group size: Fame on Elite and Veteran mobs reduced to balance this out somewhat.



to balance this out somewhat. It is now possible to enchant T8 items at the highest-tier altars.



items at the highest-tier altars. Transmutation times for gems, souls, runes, essences and relics is now 0.1s per unit across the board.



The cursor now has a defined click priority, such that for example loot and silver now takes priority over gateways in the same location.



Changes

Durability loss on knockdown is now always 10% , rather than being 20%-40%. You still cannot have items destroyed by knockdown.



, rather than being 20%-40%. You still cannot have items destroyed by knockdown. Potions have been reworked:

Healing potions are now an instant, self-targeted heal-over-time spell.

Energy potions are now an instant, self-targeted energy-over-time spell.

Chilling potion now works works similarly to Frost Bomb, placing a delayed AoE on the user that roots hostiles after a 1.5s timer.

Recovery potion is now an instant self-buff.

Stoneskin potion is now an instant self-targeted spell.

All potion spells should now have appropriate icons and effects.



Readouts for ping and FPS are now hidden by default; they can be re-enabled with /ping and /fps.



It is no longer possible to remove equipment during combat ; items are locked and can only be changed once you have left combat.



; items are locked and can only be changed once you have left combat. Increased GvG tickets in fights over home and resource territories from 100 to 150.



in fights over home and resource territories from 100 to 150. Loot dropped from mobs is now protected for 120s, up from 60s.



is now protected for 120s, up from 60s. Keeper Giants are now on an improved diet, and should be treated with more respect in combat as a result.



The Harvester now does less melee damage, but his spells are no longer interruptable.



Balance Changes

Shields

Give a % based AR/MR bonus



Torches

Give a % based Cooldown speed bonus



Tomes

Give a % based Max Energy and Energy Regen bonus





Energy Shield

Removed Energy Shield as a spell choice.





Arcane Orb

The Orb now also purges enemy buffs on hit



Invulnerability

Instead of full invulnerability, the spell now applies a shield that can be outdamaged. The shield strength scales with increasing tiers.





Magic Arrow

Removed the small delay before the projectile is fired.





Caltrops

Reworked the spell: You can now shoot small traps into the ground



Snipe Shot

Cast Range: 10m -> 15m



Exploding Shot

Explosion Timer: 5s -> 2s



Sweeping Bolt

Damage reduced by 7%





Deep Cuts

It is a new spell choice on slot 2: It reduces the Healing Received of the target.



Dash

Dash speed is doubled





Pyroblast

Cast Time: 2.5s -> 2s

Damage reduced by 12%



Meteor

Hit Delay: 3.4s -> 2s





Heavy Cleave

It is a new spell choice on slot 2: A 1s cast time AoE attack.



Earth Shatter

Area Size: 5m -> 5.5m

Hit Delay: 0.5s -> 0.4s



Giant Steps

Removed the self-slow





Heavy Cleave

It is a new spell choice on slot 2: A 1s cast time AoE attack.



Pull Area

The spell from the old Heavy Armors is now available as new spell choice on slot 2



Charge Shield

Removed Charge Shield as a spell choice.



Root Prison

The spell from the old Heavy Armors is now available as new spell choice on the Flail for slot 3





Rejuvenation

Rework: If the spell is reapplied when fully stacked up, all the stacks are consumed for an energy bonus





Hurricane

Channel time: 5s -> 4s





Spirit Spear

Rework: If the spell is reapplied when fully stacked up, all the stacks are consumed for a movement speed bonus



Harpoon

Removed the small delay before the projectile is fired.



Rooting Smash

Stand time: 1s -> 1.4s

Damage reduced by 15%





Fixes

Fixed an issue where move speed reductions were not properly being capped at -80% .



were not properly being . It is no longer possible to invite players to a GvG who are not members of either participating Guild.



Fixed some issues with eg hair or ears poking through helmets.



Crafting T6, T7 and T8 furniture now counts towards Tinker's Journals.



Fixed avatar icons on some mobs.



Fixed many issues with Destiny Board rewards , particularly relating to missing bonuses on T4, T5 and T7 items and various armors; also improved ordering of items to be consistent in all places.



, particularly relating to missing bonuses on T4, T5 and T7 items and various armors; also improved ordering of items to be consistent in all places. Repair stations will now remember their usage fees after being upgraded.



Fixed an issue where the "damaged equipment" readout was displaying on top of Destiny Board and World Map UIs.



Fixed an issue where Power Field would affect more than 5 targets.



would affect more than 5 targets. Fixed an issue where Well of Life would affect more than 5 targets.



would affect more than 5 targets. Fixed some issues with client-side prediction of global cooldowns, relating to spells with cast times.



Icons for shrines will now show up on the minimap.



Fixed a map coloring issue with Ruffians' Refuge.



Keeper and Undead mobs took the muffling devices off their weapons; their attacks now have sounds.



Player characters should now always make footstep sounds, regardless of weapon is equipped.



Keeper Druid's Curse effect is now cleanseable.



effect is now cleanseable. Fixed an issue where reforging passive spells wouldn't take effect immediately.



Fixed various animation issues.



Fixed a large number of terrain issues, invisible walls etc.



Fixed a substantial number of tooltip bugs.



Fixed an issue where mobs appeared to teleport when resetting after an attack.



Improved synchronisation of Ice Block mechanical and visual effects.



mechanical and visual effects. Fixed an issue where Rending Strike was reducing healing done rather than healing received.



was reducing healing done rather than healing received. Removed slow debuff from Giant Steps .



. Removed undocumented auto attack damage reduction from Flee.



Fixed an issue where some players were unable to set their Home location successfully.



Fixed an issue where crafting Minor Energy Potion was not contributing to some Destiny Board unlocks.



Fixed a pathing issue with certain raid bosses.



Improved cluster map zoom speed on Android.



Fixed an issue where some spells could not be correctly cast on Android.



Fixed an issue with Fiber resource icons not showing up on the minimap.



Labourers can no longer be destroyed with demolition hammers, because that was weird. They will still be destroyed if their host building is destroyed.



Fixed some issues with dungeon exit portals not spawning.



Stacks of one stackable item now have the normal chance to be destroyed on death.



Fixed an issue where certain kinds of damage resistance, principally on shields, were not being applied to spell damage.



Improved Invisibility spell to be more consistent in revealing nearby stealthed targets.



spell to be more consistent in revealing nearby stealthed targets. Groundbreaker spell's stun is now cleanseable.



spell's stun is now cleanseable. Fixed an issue where Labourers could not be reclaimed after an island upgrade.



Finally found a fix for issue where player color changes from spells triggered during particular animation states could "stick", and continue to return when that state re-arises.



triggered during particular animation states could "stick", and continue to return when that state re-arises. Fixed various issues with spell animations and visual effects.



Fixed numerous issues with misplaced strategic resource markers.



Fixed an issue where setting minimum quality on a market buy order would incorrectly accept lower-quality items.



Fixed an issue where Expert and higher legendary houses had inaccessible entrances when placed in certain locations in territories.



Fixed placement issues with the management interface for Grandmaster's and Elder's houses.



Removed display of (obsolete) region tax in some UIs.



Fixed an issue where GvG attack success messages were using wrong Guildnames.



Fixed a performance issue with Rain of Arrows spell.



spell. Improved warnings when picking up grown farm animals.



Fixed an issue where the final tick of over-time effects was sometimes not applied.



You should no longer get notified twice when a friend who is also a Guildmate changes their online status.



Known Issues

Axe line items in the game still kept the Energy Shield, although it has become an invalid spell choice. (The Energy Shield will be removed from these items in the game with a later patch)



Mace line items sin the game still kept Charge Shield, although it has become an invalid spell choice. (The Charge Shield will be removed from these items in the game with a later patch)



Friendly flagged players can't use the Charge Shield against hostile players.



Invisibility doesn't reveal other players channeling the Invisibility spell. (Only works against Ambush)



With Cador we're releasing a number of changes directed at improving the PVE experience in Albion- most prominently the addition of group loot and repair kits. We've also completed our work on the Heretic mob faction.Cador also marks an important step in our plans for combat: The completed armor rework allows us to now turn our attention to adding more ability choices to existing weapons.As part of the PVE improvements, Cador also changes mob lethality and the death mechanic. We are aware of concerns regarding the impact of extending this change to PVP, but there are several reasons why we want to test these changes in public to see how big their impact really is.For one, killing another player will have a strong reputation impact in the upcoming reputation system- we really like that the new mechanic makes this a very conscious choice. Additionally, we believe that the changes add tactical depth and excitement to PvP encounters. We want to test these changes for at least two weeks before making a final decision.While we were quite happy with the distinct combat roles heavy, medium and light armors offered, the differentiation of Cloth, Leather and Plate on top of it was making the system too convoluted and hard to read. That is why we simplified it with this update: now, all heavy armors are Plate, all medium armors are Leather, and all light armors are Cloth.We're also introducing 24 new spells! Now each armor item has one unique spell only available on this specific item, which opens up lots of combinations for your very personal build. On top of this, the three different types of Leather Armor (formerly medium armor) now each have a distinct specialization within the Leather range, emphasized with different spells and stats. The same applies for cloth and plate.Of course, you keep all your items and Destiny Board progress. All old armor pieces in the game will be replaced with their equivalent in the new system, and reforging existing items gives you access to the new spells.The Destiny Board armor progression in the fighter line and crafter line were different under the old system - fighters progressed by weight, while crafters progressed by material. We found this confusing, and it also didn't work well with this armor rework, so with this update the fighter line and crafter line progress through the same armor items. In the fighter line: all the old "light" items will now be Cloth, all "medium" items will now be Leather, and all "heavy" items will be Plate, so if you were a tank before with the heavy line, you're still a tank with the new Plate line. For crafters, all the old Plate items will stay Plate, all Leather items will stay Leather and so on. This means if you were a Cloth crafter before, you can still craft all the Cloth armors (so your materials stay the same), but instead of being able to craft one DPS set, one tank set and one hybrid set, you'll be able to craft all the DPS armors instead, as they'll all be Cloth.The progression of one-handed weapons has been reworked. The Ability Power gap to two-handed weapons was too big under the previous progression, so it's been reduced.In general one-handed weapons now havethan they previously did. The actual damage and AP increase depends on the weapon's effective tier: At Tier 1 it is the max increase of 18.3%. That increase gets gradually reduced with each increasing tier until at max tier the increase is 0%, so exactly like the weapon used to be.The reasoning behind this is, two-handed weapons always had 20% more AP/damage than one-handed weapons. That difference will be made up by the stats of the max tier reworked offhand. The impact and importance of the offhand increases with each effective tier, so for example a T1 offhand grants a bonus that makes up for 1.7% DMG/AP loss. Combined with the 18.3% DMG/AP buff on the T1 weapon it will compensate the extra 20% DMG/AP of two-handed weapons.The progression of the offhands have been reworked to match the new progression of one-handed weapons (see above). We also changed the stats of the offhands.First of all Shields are now the best tanking option: they now give % based AR/MR increase. They used to give a straight AR/MR bonus, which was more beneficial for squishies than for tanks. We found this counter-intuitive, and it made the Torch the best offhand choice for tanks - the Torch was always competing with the Shield, because they both buffed effective hitpoints.With this rework the Torch is buffing your cooldown speed, instead of hitpoints, making it the better offensive choice. The Tome is similiar to how it used to be, it's just beenadjusted to match the new one-handed weapon progression.The Energy Shield has been removed from the weapon lines. It is now available for the Soldier Helmets, where it fits much better than on a weapon. Now you don't have to sacrifice one of your three weapon spell slots to bring the shield into battle.The one-handed Arcane Staff so far was nice, but didn't really have its unique combat role so far. That's why we made the Arcane Orb now also purge enemy buffs, to give it its own sub role to shine in.The Enigmatic Staff on the other hand has its role already well defined - but the invulnerability had the problem that it was not getting better at all with increasing tiers. So now, the beam applies a shield that can be outdamaged, and the strength of this shield increases at higher tiers.Previously, when shooting Magic Arrow there was a small delay before the projectile was actually fired after the button press. This is now gone. The projectile now shoots instantly, making the spell more responsive.Caltrops on the Crossbows was a very nice defensive ability. But for a ranged weapon, we found it would be much more fitting to place traps where you want on the battlefield, without the need to move to the desired position. That's why we reworked the spell, so you can now shoot the trap directly into the ground. The trap is smaller and the slow is weaker, but it has only a 3s cooldown, so you can create a minefield in the enemy line. In case you also want to use the old Caltrops - the trap you place beneath your feet and almost roots enemies - well, the Bear Trap on the Hunter Hood does pretty much that, so you still have that option available if you want it.With the 3s cast time, the Snipe Shot is very hard to get off in PvP. With all the interrupts and increased mobility in the game, the spell design felt a bit outdated. To fix this, we increased the range a lot. Getting the cast through is still difficult, but once an enemy has been targeted there is no easy running out of range now. Perfect to snipe down casters from the back row.Heavy Crossbow users had a hard time hitting multiple targets with the Exploding Shot, due to the long delay before the bomb detonates. This delay has now been tuned down, to make it less easy for enemies to avoid the AoE damage of the bomb.Repeating Crossbow is one of the best ranged DPS weapons. A well-timed Sweeping Bolt can pierce through multiple targets and hurt the enemy team a lot. We hope to see more of these nice shots in GvGs; however, the damage was a bit too good, stealing the show of other ranged DPS weapons, so it's been toned down a bit.The Dagger line has been missing an offensive spell choice on slot 2, so we gave them the new spell Deep Cuts, a spell that drastically reduces the healing recieved of its victims. Also, the speed of Dash was doubled - now it is a pretty fast repositioning tool, that isn't easily outsprinted.The game has changed quiet a bit, and long casts have become more and more difficult to get through in PvP. The Fire Staff line has typically had long casts with strong damage - we want to keep that identity, but there was the need to adjust the cast times a bit. So the Pyroblast has a shorter cast time and reduced damage, and the Meteor lands a bit faster after the cast.Hammer line items can be slow to level up in PvE, so we've added Heavy Cleave as a good damage spell choice. This also has nice synergy in PvP, because it can be used in combos with the Hammers' stuns. We also made some adjustments to some slot 3 spells to make them a bit more threatening, and less easily avoided.Mace line items can be slow to level up in PvE, so we've added Heavy Cleave as a good damage spell choice. The Pull Area of the former Heavy Armors is now a spell option on slot 2 for all Mace line items. Charge Shield has been removed, because the Mace already has another Charge spell. A reworked version of the Charge Shield can now be found on the Knight Boots.The Flail was one of the less useful weapons in the game, so it was time to give it a new E spell. Now it has a reworked version of the Root Prison (former Heavy Armor spell). With the Root Prison and the Pull Area available on one weapon, the Flail can now shine as a control tank weapon.In a 1v1 scenario or solo PvE Nature Staff users were a bit too good at out-sustaining their enemies. To reduce this constant outhealing of incoming damage, reapplying Rejuvenation at max stack will now consume the stacks for a energy bonus. This change also adds a layer of new tactical decisions to this spell.Hurricane is a great disruption spell, making this weapon a strong addition to a GvG team. However it is a little bit too good at its job, stealing too much of the spotlight from other tanking weapons. This is why the uptime of it has been reduced by 20%.The Spirit Spear's constant max stack uptime was just too good and didn't offer many interesting choices. To make the stacking up not an auto-pilot playstyle, reapplying the Spirit Spear at max stack will now consume the stacks for a short movement speed boost.