Spell and combat effects

• New spell effects across every class and rank give each spell line its own appearance. Enemy casts use matching effects aimed at the player or pet actually hit. Lingering visuals follow active effects, and reduced motion is supported.

• Sorcerer spells feature rolling fireballs with flame trails, shattering ice, Ice Comet and clearer lightning. Conjurer spells use sweeping flame crescents, distinct elemental summons, pet healing and empowerment. Repeated fire casts retain the new visuals; incoming flame and frost effects face their targets correctly.

• Necromancer spells feature returning lifetaps, dripping venom, rolling plague, smoldering blood and bone summons. Harm Touch erupts in a large purple explosion; Lay on Hands opens feathered wings and healing light. Paladin and Dreadknight wards, stuns and other spell lines have distinct effects.

• Cleric spells feature healing blooms, protective sanctuaries, cleansing light and solar strikes. Shaman magic uses primal venom, disease, earth, ancestral spirits and beastly blessings. Druid magic brings sunlight, ice, trailing flame, insect swarms, living bark and leafy travel effects.

• Enchanter, Bard, Beastmaster, Ranger and Assassin gain glassy mind magic, resonant songs, primal companion effects, physical arrows, skyfire and four distinct weapon poisons. Pet effects follow companions, while songs and control effects follow their active targets.

• Melee skills have distinct impacts, including Cleave and Whirlwind sweeps, Backstab punctures, shield strikes and individual Monk techniques. Frenzy shows a slash for each hit that lands. Mend and Feign Death gain restorative and dust effects.

• Rend tears a dark magical rupture through its target. Holy Reckoning descends as a shaft of light and spreads across the ground, illuminating enemies it hits.

Companions and mana

• Necromancer and Dreadknight skeleton pets now use new unarmed gravebound artwork that matches the enemy art style.

• Familiar now summons a cosmetic arcane wisp that stays in the bottom right, opposite your pet. It uses no pet slot and grants no combat bonuses. Dismissing it, dying or removing Sorcerer clears it.

• Summoned and charmed companions no longer reserve maximum mana. Summon spells now cost a flat amount of mana based on the spell version and take 8-10 seconds before cast-speed bonuses. Symbiotic Attunement reduces summon mana cost and cast time by 5% per rank, up to 25% each. It now requires a class with summon spells; purchased ranks are retained. Existing pets return on login without another summon charge.

• Lich forms now trade natural health regeneration for stronger, level-scaling mana recovery. Lich, Greater Lich and Ancient Lich consume 90/110/130% of natural health regeneration and add 75/100/125% of natural mana regeneration before spell upgrades. Added regeneration offsets the cost; negative health recovery drains HP down to 1. Spell upgrades improve benefits without increasing the regeneration penalty. You can switch to a cheaper form, and autocast preserves your active choice.

• Runeward now absorbs up to 20% of each hit after other defenses. Runeward and Aegis cost 1 mana per 2 damage prevented, with Strategy reducing the cost. Aegis retains up to 30% protection; both prevent only what available mana can fund.

Combat and abilities

• Named enemies now have a gold health-bar border and one gold pip per equipped class, making single-, dual- and tri-class enemies recognizable at a glance. Name colors still indicate relative difficulty.

• Enemies can now use learned Backstab, Bash and Ranger bow techniques without player equipment slots blocking them. Enemy bow techniques use their innate attack damage when no bow is equipped. Class, level, cooldown and resource requirements still apply; player equipment requirements are unchanged.

• Damage-over-time effects now deal their first tick immediately on landing, then tick at their normal interval. The tick schedule starts earlier without adding a final tick. Repeated poison procs refresh their existing timer without extra instant hits.

• Rend and Chastise now deal one magic hit that scales with level, skill and resources spent. Breach affects the whole hit; Martial no longer adds endurance costs. Each damaging hit reduces Harm Touch or Lay on Hands cooldown by 15 seconds, down from 60.

• Improved Harm Touch now increases Harm Touch damage by 10/20/30% instead of reducing its cooldown. Harm Touch and Lay on Hands retain their 120-second base cooldowns.

Combat text and tutorial

• Combat text now shows every skill increase and follows your selected motion style. The Show Skill Gains setting still controls these messages.

• The Warlord tutorial now recommends Ferocity first, with Martial as the next choice when Ferocity is already assigned to another class.

• The first Lay on Hands spell is now named Lay on Hands, without the rank number.