Hello everyone! I am happy to say that Northern Kingdoms has finally arrived!
This is the biggest single update the game has ever received. I've had an idea for it for years, and been actively designing and developing it for 6 monts straight. It's a huge, expansive, gorgeous zone with real feeling of frozen winter. The zone is actually bigger than the whole Gedonia. It's not as dense with content ofcourse, but there are still a lot to do there. The benefit of this is that the draw distance in the zone is much larger than in Gedonia, and the zone looks great. Here is what you should know about it:
- You can get to it through Gedonia desert, and it requires level 45 to enter
- The zone is quite difficult, so before going there, you should get the best equipment you can get and farm few expeditions to improve your skills.
- There are new caves, dungeons, towns, events, quests, enemies and resources. There are a lot of stuff there, you can see all of it through the map.
- You can build another house at the center of the zone.
Reworking epic tier sets
I've decided to rework a system of getting epic tier sets. Originally, I had about 10 different sets, all of them were given in Citadel of Evil dungeons, and that was an end of it. Then, after adding more endgame content and more sets, the whole system because kinda janky. Half of playstyles were locked behind random drops, and after you got your set you were basically done with progression. That didn't feel right, so I decided to change it.
- Now, after completing Citadel of Evil and starting Expeditions, you would be able to purchase any epic tier set you want in the specialized Explorers shop.
- By default, epic sets are weaker, on the same level as Kainite armor. All bosses in endgame dungeons, expeditions and totems from Northern Kingdoms now drop marks of ascendancy, which can improve your armor a few times, making it much much stronger.
- The anvil for improving epic sets is near runic forge and the shop
- Tier set bonuses now 2 items/5 items instead of 3 items/5 items. That way you can actually combine two epic sets with different bonuses to further customize your build.
- There is a lot more sets now, more than 2 dozens actually, and there will be more added in the future
Other updates
Main:
- Max level cap is increased and is now 80. Experience requirements after level 50 now also increased.
- Added character select screen to loading in the main menu
- All runic effects from runic forge were nerfed. After testing some time I've felt that they become too powerful, and were overshadowing other types of progression.
- Companions basic dodge chance reduced.
- Changed voice acting for Wyanna nd Ernest in main story cutscenes, and added voice acting to some secondary quest cutscenes
- Armor and magic resist calculations were changed. The cap is now 90%, but after some thresholds, armor values on items give less reduction. This was done so Highly armored characters were basically invincible, so getting to the cap is now harder. You will need about 190 armor or magic resist to get to the 90% cap
- I've felt that Magic overload became too obligatory for most magic builds, and the ability by itself was boring. Magic overload was nerfed, and most magic damage was recalculated, Now base damage of magic scales better with level, and Magic overload is not required for dealing constant damage in endgame.
- Effects of custom dishes you cook is now scales with your level
- Difficulty and reward of advanced and expert expeditions are increased
Now to the particular skill trees changes. For the most part these changed are aimed to make some specs better at endgame, and you won't notice a lot of changed for levels 1-40, with a couple of exceptions.
Ferocity
I am pretty happy with ferocity overall, it's a simple and straightforward spec, so there isn't a lot changes.
- Changed Crusher armor 5-items bonus to get you more stamina
- Powerful strike with axes and maces now has different animation, which is quicker than the older one
- Added a bunch of new cool heavy armor sets for Ferocity users
Combat mastery
Combat mastery was fine too, just changed a couple of epic sets
- Buffed snakebite set, it is now literally bites enemies with actual snakes, which is pretty cool.
- Added a couple of sets for agile warriors
- Enchant weapon attack damage was recalculated. It scaled too much on higher levels and was too powerful.
Banditry
Banditry received massive changes, to amke assassins and rogues actually viable at endgame.
- Banditry now requires 15 skill points instead of 7, and each skill point gives a chance to evade damage
- New passive - glancing strikes
- New mastery - toxis fumes
- Damage of poisons is increased
- Vanish was nerfed for characters with low agility, now if you have agility lower than 3, it has a chance to fail
- Enemies have better chance to see you in stealth and sometimes attack the spot where they think you can be
- Overall endgame damage of daggers was improved, and armor has a new stat - crit multiplier
- Added new epic tier set
- Dark assassin set was buffed and changed
Bows
Rangers had a lot of trouble at endgame previously, because after spending their cooldowns, they only had basic shooting for damage dealing. Here are the changes:
- Explosive arrows, multishot and frozen arrows preparations now have actual effect with duration for applying, and can be stacked multiple times with different skills/armor
- New mastery will allow you to stack up to 3 explosive shot/multishots/frozen shots per use
- New passive skill "focused multishot" will allow you to fire a multishot in one single target, which would help to deal massive damage to single targets in long range
- Added a bunch of cool archer tiers - stealth archer, mystical archer, commander archer, sniper
- Sniper set changed and buffed
- Added quivers with infinte arrows to craft or drop
Defense
- Shield block now depletes stamina relevant to the damage dealt, This would make it harder for lower level characters to cheese higher level enemies at teh start of the game.
- Shield bash damage increases better with player level
- Added epic tier set for tanks
Elemental magic
Overall I was pretty happy with elemental magic, with few small exceptions. Base damage is now increased, after Magic overload was nerfed. Other stuff:
- Invoke elemental is completely changed (for like fourth time), and I am very happy with the result. Not gonna spoil it, but the game ability is pretty useful now
- Added frost mage epic set
- Freeze effect was nerfed, now it has capped duration.
- Nerfed OP elemental mastery trinket
Holy magic
Holy magic on endgame was pretty lacking, mainly because damage of main abilities was scaling well, It's now fixed, and some other stuff fixed too
- Holy hammer now targets enemies better near the target of the throw, it knocks enemies down and scales better with player level
- Judgement scales damage better with player level
- Paladin seal damage and holy amgic bonus scales with player level
- Metropolitan set now has new changed use for divine weapons mastery skill, which is insanely powerful
Dark magic
Dark magic was definetely in a good place, so there aren't many huge changes
- Weak curse damage increased
- Dark knight epic set is improved with a bunch of new effects
- Drain health scales better with level
Arcane magic
Other than nerfing magic overload, the arcane magic tree had a lot of other changes:
- Added new passive - evasive blink. It's pretty fun and powerful new skill, which basically adds dodge to mage type characters. I imagine it will become essential for most magic characters. It has some drawbacks for most mages, instead arcane mages
- Arcane warrior and arcane mage sets were buffed and changed with a lot of cool changes
Nature magic
- Werewolf form was reworked. Now it slows down during attack, so it's not that easy to strafe around enemies, but the werewolf rage will allow you to move faster for some time
- Druid set changed
- Spirit bear power increased
- Flower guardian damage scales better with player level
Blood magic
Blood magic was changed a lot. Previously most damage abilities from blood magic were useless at endgame, and it was mostly used as health restoration tree for melee fighters.
Here are the changes:
- Bloody spikes reworked for an extremely powerful wave aoe attack
- Blood demon deals more damage, has different attacks, uses bloody spikes and hemmorage differently, and overall is mostly ranged based fighter now
- Blooddrainer set changed
- Added new epic set of Master of Blood which focuses on summons and dealing damage with blood ablities
Bard and speech
Bard was quite powerful, mainly because serenade of serenity was healing dead companions, making them immortal essentially. This was fixed. Otehr changes:
- Added new passive - dark magician, which would allow you to spoil your skeletons and minions with your cool music
- Fixed the bug with serenades duration degrading after some time
- Can't use bard abilities while mounted anymore
- Ancient armor set was reworked
Bug fixes
- Fixed bug with Armalak running while not mounted
- Fixed the bug with take all button not working
- Improved shadows mystery in Volflar fields
- Fixed not being able to escape a dialogue with mastery fishing rod, aslo changed its description
- Fixed few small issues
Whats next?
After release of this update I will hang out for some time to check for any troubles and add small fixes, if neccessary.
I am planning to take a break for a summer and spend it with my family, and actually doing some physical activity and improving my health. When I return to work in September, I will start to work on my next big project, which I will announce when I will be ready. I will still slowly work on Gedonia updates here and there, and maybe add more major updates in the future, but it will definetely be slower. I still have places I want to explore in this world, but I'm also excited to start working on the next big project.
Thank you for your support!
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