Greetings, Adventurers!
This article was updated on March 22: Season of the Guardian will release on Tuesday, April 2. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to resolve issues based on PTR feedback and work together towards even more enjoyable experiences in Aeternum. You can also look forward to the full release notes at the end of next week.
Thank you for playing the Season of the Guardian PTR. To better address your feedback on the upgraded combat & animation system as well as issues identified through the PTR and internal tests, Season 5 will be delayed. We appreciate your support as we continue to resolve issues and work together towards an even more enjoyable release. Stay tuned for an updated Season 5 release date in the near future.
Here’s how each feature has been reshaped based on your PTR feedback. Other changes, noted below, will require more time to implement and release in a later update. Our team will continue to work hard on these additions for a more seamless experience. Thank you for your insightful commentary, patience, and understanding.
Artifacts
Phoenix Amulet
Many of you shared concerns that the invulnerability perk will make Healers and Ranged DPS overpowered. Taking this feedback into consideration, we updated the Phoenix Vengeance perk so that when a player receives lethal damage, they will temporarily avoid death, become invulnerable for 4 seconds, and then die. Following a second PTR release which provided these changes, we received and acknowledge further feedback regarding the sustained interest and viability of the perk with these modifications at play.
As a response, we will take another pass at the design of the Phoenix Vengeance perk, but due to timing, will plan to release further changes in an update following Season 5. You can expect the following adjustments (values not final and subject to change):
When you receive lethal damage, avoid death and regain 100% of your max health. You will then become inflicted with Vengeance. This reduces healing by 100% and deals 12% of your max health every second until you die or get a kill. (180s cooldown).
Venom Spear
Most feedback suggests the Poison Tipped perk should only apply its Damage Over Time effect to heavy melee attacks for more compelling risk versus reward combat. We agree with your sentiment. Now the perk will only apply to heavy melee attacks.
We also saw recommendations to re-balance Venom Spear separately for PvP and PvE, as some of you felt the DOT effect for ranged attacks was balanced in PvE activities. However, we want to limit the amount of functional divergences for between PvP and PvE, so we’ll likely consider adjusting the item’s stats such as Damage % or Status Effect Duration instead.
Nature’s Wrath Chestwear
The Nature’s Blessing perk split player opinion. It removes Empower status effects in exchange for an always active base damage increase. This can be a trade off or completely beneficial depending on the prevalence of Empowers. For example, the Spear has several Empowers, which if combined, equal 50% Empower. However, to achieve that 50% Empower, you’ll have to either use two specific abilities or dodge frequently. It can be perceived as a net-loss if you look at max Empower uptime, but with the Artifact you can swap your abilities and passives to obtain that additional damage without utilizing those Empowers. You can even maximize the bonus damage 100% of the time unlike with base Empowers where it is only possible as long as you use those abilities, though there are cooldowns to consider.
For now, we believe the Artifact is powerful but not essential. It has the added benefit of promoting different playstyles through trade-offs. Given the divided feedback, we will not make any changes for the time being. We’ll continue to monitor its usage and make revisions in the future if necessary.
Upgraded Combat & Animation System
It was apparent from your feedback following the first PTR update that some fine tuning was needed with the Upgraded Combat & Animation System (aka Slayer Script). While your reports helped us identify many of the bugs and issues, we will continue to test and improve this system for Season 5.
Controller Support
Players noted some awkwardness with the current version of Controller Support, specifically the pre-set controller layouts and accessibility options. Although no major changes or updates will be coming with Season 5, we will continue to make improvements for the controller experience, like custom controller mapping and speech to text, in future updates.
Cooking Trade Skill
We heard your feedback regarding the Cooking Trade Skill changes, and made several adjustments to address the two largest concerns: the increased amount of resources required to craft dishes, and the fast depletion of Fishing Hotspots where Legendary Fish can be found. As such, cooking recipes will now require 3 materials for 3 dishes (opposed to 5 materials for 3 dishes) and the number of fish that can be caught from Fishing Hotspots has been increased. As a bonus, we’ve also decreased the respawn time for Fishing Hotspots!
We will continue to gather feedback, so please keep it coming. We’d also love to hear your thoughts on this new feedback article format. Thanks for your support and participation! We’ll see you in Aeternum.