Hello, this is the Shadow Arena Development Team.
We have given much thought to elements of the game that may cause difficulties for players and considered how they could be resolved as we move forward into the second half of Beta Season 6.
With this in mind, we have decided to proceed with a few updates and would like to inform our players in advance of these changes.
Before we share details about the major updates, we will remove the AP/DP auto-increase mechanic that occurs over time, which has been brought up by many players.
The system was designed to act as a mechanism to encourage players to keep playing even if they were behind on farming so that they could have the chance to turn the tides of battle in the late stages of the game and to alleviate the burden that comes with having to repeatedly hunt monsters to farm. However, because this mechanism did not take into account the abilities of each hero, it resulted in a situation in which heroes who benefited from AP and DP effects had a distinct advantage. As a result, hunting monsters for growth became less important.
Therefore, these specs will be disregarded and the following main changes to be introduced will provide players with the pros of farming and minimize the cons, all aimed at achieving the right balance of farming without losing its purpose.
Firstly, the number of Tokens acquired automatically will be increased.
This change was made to compensate for the possibility that players would leave in the middle of the game if they were unable to properly farm due to the removal of the AP/DP auto-increase mechanic. We expect that this change will allow players to strategize during downtime in the middle of the game while also greatly reducing the burden of farming, ensuring that growth is not affected.
Secondly, the number of normal monsters will be reduced, while the number of objects will be increased.
Previously, it was more efficient to hunt monsters in order to grow while avoiding combat as much as possible.
In retrospect, this resulted in a situation where players were forced to engage in repetitive monster-hunting gameplay rather than fighting other players, which became tedious and exhausting.
To address this issue, we will reduce the number of normal monsters to reduce the stress associated with repetitive farming (hunting monsters) and instead focus on object battles.
As a result, rather than earning tokens by hunting normal monsters repeatedly, we expect players to engage in smaller battles to control objects or even engage in psychological warfare between players by securing increased vision.
Thirdly, the overall HP of Heroes will be reduced, and the item balance will be adjusted.
The risk of losing battle is greater for heroes with high base health because battles that break out during the preliminary stages last longer. Also, it was concluded that actively farming yielded higher growth potential than acquiring Tokens through PvP, which was also a deciding factor for avoiding battle. Additionally, with the removal of the AP/DP auto-increase mechanic, we concluded that purchasing defensive items, in general, could lead to situations where battles do not end or dreadfully drag on.
Therefore, we plan to adjust the battle time to an appropriate level by reducing the hero's vitality and adjust the balance of items as a whole to ensure that battles last a reasonable amount of time.
Lastly, the items in the shop will be revamped and the number of item slots will be reduced to 4 slots.
Apart from AP and DP increasing over time, we reduced the inventory slot to four to ease farming and emphasize the importance of growth when purchasing each item. Furthermore, items that were somewhat irrelevant will be removed, while the traits of the remaining items will be enhanced, allowing for more strategic selection.
We will follow up and provide you with more details on the above matters through the update notes.
Thank you for your continued love and support of Shadow Arena.