Folks,

   Well, it’s Friday and time for another Sneak Peak at the next major patch.  In this case it will be an early look at the Patch 1.2 patch cycle.  While we could easily call this patch Combat & Careers Part Deux, I think a better name is the Bugs, Careers, Bugs, Items and Bugs Patch.  Over this patch cycle we will have addressed and resolved about 500 bugs and issues (some internal, most external) and some of the changes have already been pushed to LIVE.  Now, while a lot of these are teeny tiny little bugs, such as grammatical errors in tool tips, the majority of them are substantial. 

   This patch is intended to be made available to our Core Testers next week on our Public Test Server (PTS).  We also intend to break with tradition a little bit and make the entire patch notes available to the community before the patch goes to the PTS.  So, without further ado, here are some highlights from the 1.2 patch cycle.



1) Bugs: I’m certainly not going to list 500 bugs/issues here, but the list is rather lengthy and right now bug fixes alone are coming in at about 16 pages of notes.

2) New Careers: Two new careers have been added, the Slayer and the Choppa.  For those that got a look at the Choppa during Beta, you’ll see some changes and improvements but the Slayer is all new and ready to take the field for the first time.

3) Combat and Careers Adjustments: Lots and lots of bug fixes, adjustments and tweaks to all careers. This Balance patch focuses on addressing a number of global issues identified by the players that have been affecting the overall feel and balance of the game. This includes items such as Resistance stacking, Disorient effects, and Damage Absorb shields. In addition to these more global changes, we continue to work on each individual career addressing many of the more significant balance concerns and bugs brought up by the community.  This includes a focus on the following careers; Witch Elf, Witch Hunter, Chosen, Knight, Black Orc, and Swordmaster.

4) Realm vs Realm: RvR is introducing several great changes including the new Open RvR Rallying Cry, Zone Domination System, and Siege Weapon Improvements and more!

5) Items: Itemization improvements and fixes for Gunbad, Bastion Stair, Lost Vale, Fortress Raid Rewards, City Invasion Rewards, and more!

6) Crafting System Improvements:  Overall improvements to the system with Apothecary being the focus of this patch.  New ingredients, improved interfaces and more.

7) Public Quests: Easy PQs for Tiers two, three, and four! This completes our first pass at the Easy PQ system and we will continue to review and tweak the system as necessary. As we have already done for Tier One, we have gone through the PQs in each Tier and made sure that at least one per chapter can be completed by 1-3 people.

8) New Live Event: The Bitter Rivals event will be launching with this version as the official kick off for the anticipated introduction of the Slayer and Choppa!

9) New Scenario: The Twisting Tower Scenario will be making a special preview appearance!

10) User Interface: Lots of UI improvements for both old and new systems! These improvements cover everything from crafting to RvR.

11) Mail: Send multiple items attached to each mail! Easily one of our most requested features by the players.

12) Client Stability: Continued improvements to the client in the areas of stability performance and visual quality.  Improvements to an MMO’s client, just like the server, are ongoing and these will continue now and in the future to be one of our priorities.

As always, there’s a lot more to this patch than I can hope to cover here and things are subject to change during testing, but 1.2 is a huge patch for us and it will be followed by another large patch, 1.3.  I’m also working on a State of the Game that will lay out, in more detail, our plans for the rest of 1.2, 1.3 and beyond.  And once again, this is only a Sneak Peak. =)

Mark