Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Balance updates to IronThorn Shield and Booster Pets/Guests
Hello, everyone! Kamui here with a balance update for everyone! This update is touching on a specific family of items that are getting a slight tweak and one very specific item that has been needing an adjustment for a very long time.
So first off, we have now added scaling code to all of the Poelala/Dunamis/Thernda pets/guests! In addition, these items haven't been quite performing exactly how we'd like, so there's a slight adjustment to how stats are used to influence the boost they give you. Before, you'd get half of the boost by default, 3/8 of the boost from either STR/INT/DEX (depending on if the pet/guest was Dunamis/Poelala/Thernda), and 1/8 of the boost from CHA. The stat boosts would be based on what your assumed STR/INT/DEX or CHA would be vs what we assume your stat to be at that level. Going forward from today, instead of a 3/8 and 1/8 split, the stat boosts will get a 2/8 and 2/8 split, so your damage boost from Poelala and her friends will be equally influenced by both STR/INT/DEX and CHA.
Second, the IronThorn shield has for a long time largely overperformed due to it giving x1.5 weapon/special damage for the paltry cost of only -10 BtH on weapon/special attacks and the "cost" of using a substandard shield. This effect was over three times as strong as what it should be giving considering what is sacrificed, so instead the IronThorn shield has been adjusted in the following ways. First off, it's being moved to Adder's shop on Isle d`Oriens. Second, it will no longer boost weapon damage just by being held; it is now an Earth shield that has a STR "drive" in it similar to the Celtic Wheel and Pie shields. Info subs for the new IronThorn shield are below. The Lv 75 and 100 versions of the existing shields have been updated to Lv 95 and 115, respectively.
We know this is a massive change for Iron Thorn, but it was a huge outlier, and frankly we shouldn't have let it sit idle as long as we did. We figure this will open up some diversity in builds, and players will actually have good reason to use something else other than this same shield. Thanks for your time, and look forward to the new Paladin quests!
Connect with our online game community!