Changelog: Paths to Glory Update

[h2]Paths to Glory Update - Version 26.000.1 - July 22, 2024[/h2]

[h3]The Albion Journal[/h3]
Overview

• The Albion Journal is a personal logbook that will help you keep track of your adventures and to build up the chronicle of your journey through the lands of Albion
• This is a new achievement tracking feature designed to provide clear guidance and exciting goals for all players, whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just starting out
• The journal offers a mixture of missions that can be completed in a single play session, as well as longer-term goals that unlock valuable rewards and unique vanity items
• The Journal provides an overview of the game’s core activities and features, guiding players through Albion’s sandbox structure immediately after the tutorial

We want every play session to have an achievable goal. Whether you're completing a quick task or taking on a more significant challenge, progress should always be within reach. With the introduction of the Albion Journal, we want to provide everyone with a quantifiable way to measure their progress while exploring all the different features Albion Online has to offer. With this update, the Journal has five main categories, and we plan to expand this with four further categories in the future.

HUD changes

• The Albion Journal has its own section, the Journal Tracker, on the player HUD — just below the Destiny Board button
• The Journal Tracker displays up to three missions for you to follow your progress.
  • You can choose which missions to follow here, or let it show recommended missions
• The Journal Tracker is a collapsable menu, which notifies you when you have rewards available

Your Journal

• The Albion Journal starts with one revealed mission and gradually reveals more as you progress
• Missions can be completed even if they are not yet revealed in the Journal
• Missions are organized into categories and subcategories, with goals and rewards unlocking as you progress
• Main Categories included in the Paths to Glory update:
  • PvE
  • Gathering
  • Economy
  • Exploration
  • PvP
• Some brand-new items are available as rewards as you progress through the Journal (see ‘Albion Journal Rewards’ below)
• Many existing Steam Achievements are now part of Journal Missions
  • If these were completed prior to the launch of the Journal, their rewards will be ready to claim
  • Steam Achievements will remain in the Achievements section separately

[h3]Albion Journal Rewards[/h3]
Mission Rewards

• Each completed mission grants a reward
  • These rewards can be claimed in the Albion Journal UI
  • Rewards for individual missions include Tomes of Insight, Silver, Focus Restoration Potions, Gathering Tomes, and many more!
  • A new reward item is available, Tome of Learning, which grants Learning Points when used

Category Rewards

• As you progress through each of the main categories, you will unlock unique new vanity rewards at various stages
  • 20% completion: A unique Avatar
  • 40% completion: A matching Avatar Ring
  • 60% completion: A wardrobe item with a vanity spell
  • 80% completion: A brand-new mount skin
  • 100% completion: A very rare, elite version of the wardrobe item and spell
• These vanity rewards follow the theme of each category
• All Category Rewards are non-tradable

[h3]Dynamic Spawn Rates[/h3]
In order to provide more content during each server’s peak times, this update introduces a new feature to the open world and the Roads of Avalon: Dynamic Spawn Rates.

• Snapshots of each server’s activity levels will be taken ongoingly
• Some spawn and upgrade rates will be automatically adjusted based on this activity
  • Spawn rates will dynamically increase during busy times and decrease during off-peak periods
  • There are limits in place to ensure that low-activity periods don’t offer too little, and busy periods don’t offer too much

As a result, it should be easier to find content during the busiest times on each server. With this update, this feature will affect treasures, resources, and mobs, with the amount available more in line with each server's activity. The impact will be measured and adjusted as necessary and it may be expanded to other content in the future.
[h3]Roads of Avalon Improvements[/h3]

We've listened to your feedback and, as promised, we're working on the most popular change requested by the community. With these changes, we’re not looking to completely reshape the Roads of Avalon, but rather to rebalance their regions and rewards while adding new content in the form of Tracking. We will continue to monitor gameplay in the Roads after this update, to see what further changes and improvements can be made.

Region Balancing

• The tier of Roads region you enter is now based on the zone type from which you enter
  • Tier 4 Roads: Primarily found when entering from Blue and Yellow zones
  • Tier 6 Roads: Typically found when entering from Red and Black zones
  • Tier 8 Roads: Exclusive to Deep Roads and 20-Player Portals
• The number of 20-Player Portal Regions has been increased to provide more frequent connections to Roads Hideout Regions
  • Some connections to 20-Player Portal Regions from non-Hideout Regions have been added too, to increase competition
• Group Portals within the Roads now have a 300 second recharge time

Content and Reward Balancing

We wanted to better balance Roads content and rewards with other activities in Albion. There will be fewer Roads regions for gathering, but those that do exist will have higher respawn rates to compensate. Additionally, the Roads will not be quite as powerful for leveling as in the past, but will instead be more attractive for loot. On average, Fame has been reduced by around 20-25%, while the total Silver output from the Roads (taking into account increased spawn rates) has been approximately doubled.

• Tracking is now possible in the Roads
• Group rewards have been significantly increased to encourage cooperative play, while solo rewards have been reviewed to ensure fairness compared to other content
  • Avalonian Chests have had their value increased
    • Tier 4 and Tier 6 chests have received a slight buff, and Tier 8 chests a significant buff
  • They now also upgrade in size over time if left untouched
  • Small Avalonian Chests can never be rare or legendary, while Large Avalonian Chests can never be common
• The number of areas dedicated to gathering has been reduced
  • Their respawn rate has been increased to maintain total resource output in the Roads
  • The free spots will be used to introduce additional PvE areas and Solo Randomized Dungeon entrances
• Randomized Dungeons with fixed entrances have had their bonus loot reduced
  • To compensate, they are always Enchanted now
• Randomized Dungeon entrances, Mobs, Chests, and Resources have been moved to offer greater diversity of content and remove ultra-specialized regions with only one resource type

Mob Adjustments

• Mob tiers are now standardized in each different Roads region
  • With the exception of resource mobs, all Roads mobs will match the tier of the region
• Pathfinder Initiate, Ascetic and Monk’s knockback spell now has an AoE indicator and can be dodged
• Pathfinder Heavy Drones no longer use their spells off-cooldown
• Bosses protecting chests offer significantly less Fame
  • Instead, opening a chest will reward Fame to the first group who open it

Other Changes

• Roads Portal tooltips now show the danger type of the Roads region
• Avalonian Chest tooltips no longer show their rarity, regardless of your proximity to them
• Furniture can no longer be placed in PvE and gathering areas
• Some areas have updated visuals, for greater variety

[h3]Guild Islands Rework[/h3]
Paths to Glory updates Guild Islands to bring them in line with Personal Islands

• Guilds can now also own multiple islands in every city on the Royal Continent – one each in Martlock, Bridgewatch, Fort Sterling, Lymhurst, Thetford, and Caerleon –.
• Guild Islands have reworked visuals which reflect the atmosphere, aesthetics, and biome of their host city

[h3]New Crystal Weapons[/h3]
New update, new Crystal Weapons! This update introduces the next batch of these weapons, which will be craftable at the end of Season 24:

• Twin Slayers (Daggers): Ring of Death throws your daggers in a ring around you, which can then be summoned back, slicing through all enemies in their path
• Dreadstorm Monarch (Mace): Eye of the Storm conjures a growing storm around you that slows enemies and shreds their resistances
• Exalted Staff (Holy Staff): Sanctify heals allies and removes ground-based damaging, debuffing, or crowd-control areas of effect

[h3]Corrupted Dungeon Changes[/h3]

• Corrupted Dungeon Maps have been added
  • These can be crafted at the Artifact Foundry
• Bat spawn times adjusted
  • Hunter: 5 minutes → 3 minutes
  • Stalker: 5 minutes → 3 minutes
  • Slayer: 3 minutes (unchanged)

[h3]Quality of Life Improvements[/h3]

With this update, we wanted to provide several much-requested quality of life enhancements by improving a number of important weapon functions and UI elements, along with some other frequently-requested changes and additions.

Weapon Improvements
Based on your feedback, two important changes have been made to weapon functionality:

• Weapons now have all of their spells unlocked from Tier 4 upwards, to increase gameplay variety
• Items can now be overcharged twice in combat, increasing overcharge duration at a  greater risk of breaking the item
  • This will allow for prolonged ZvZ battles beyond the 30-minute mark

Party Ready Check
A new system allows party leaders to check on the readiness of their group members, to help in activities which require coordination.

• A party leader can initiate a Ready Check in two ways:
  • From their character drop-down menu
  • By typing /readycheck in the chat
• All party members, regardless of location, receive a notification asking if they are ready or not
• Responses are displayed to all party members
  • Green check-mark: Ready
  • Red cross: Not ready
  • White question mark: Pending/AFK
• If a member does not respond in 60 seconds, they are marked as Pending/AFK
• Responses remain on-screen for 30 seconds after the end of the Ready Check
  • If a new Ready Check is initiated in this time, the original responses are overwritten

UI Improvements

• The Destiny Board has improved scaling and zooming
• All players in a Randomized Dungeon now receive a message when the entrance closes
  • No more counting to 90 and guessing if an entrance is gone!
• The Daily Bonus Tracker in the HUD can now be collapsed
• Last Death Recap can now be accessed from the Player Menu at any time during the same play session
• Siege UI:
  • The Siege UI is now accessible at any time when using the Siege Banner item
  • Improved information display that better reflects the requirements necessary for Siege Banner use
• Added a market value estimation of equipment when inspecting a player
  • The estimated value includes equipped items only, not items in inventory
  • Displayed value is a rounded number; hovering over estimated value shows the exact amount
• Player Rankings UI:
  • Added options to filter rankings by “Guild Members only” and “Friends List only”
  • When a player ranks outside the top 10,000, their position along with the two players immediately above and below them are displayed
• Party and guild management:
  • Player markers are now displayed in front of other elements (such as health bars) and are easier to distinguish from the background, improving the visibility of marked players in large battles
  • Player pings now appear as system messages in chat
  • Added button to Guild UI to copy Guild Member list to the clipboard
• Territory Activity Chest world map overlays added, showing:
  • Average Activity Chest Value
  • Next Activity Chest Value
• Trade UI now displays projected character weight after a prospective trade
• Added confirmation popup message when using Journey Back to better inform about Silver costs
• Added an opacity setting for the chat box in focused mode
• Improved search function by allowing variation in words instead of requiring an exact match
• Improved target dummy DPS view to be more consistent and closer to actual damage timing

[h3]Additional Changes and Improvements[/h3]

• In order to create some economic space and bring greater parity to Albion’s various features, various slight adjustments have been made to the Mists and Knightfall Abbey:
  • Boss and Shrine chest values in Knightfall Abbey reduced by approximately 10%
    • Duo Mists’ chests have had their bonus values adjusted to offset this change, and are unaffected
  • Resolved an issue where some mobs in Knightfall Abbey gave too little Silver
    • This has resulted in a ~9% overall increase in Silver from mobs
  • Already small loot chances from mobs removed to offset increased Silver and protect chests from further reductions
  • Arcane Spiderling spawn chances in the Mists reduced by 18%
• Veteran and Elite mobs now regenerate health in combat, making them less profitable when engaged by fewer players
  • Their overall health has been reduced to maintain the time needed for a group to kill them
• Mobs with very long respawn times (e.g. Ancient Resource Mobs) will spawn at more unpredictable intervals
• Reworked animations and VFX for Quarterstaffs and Scythes
• The following spells have also been visually redesigned:
  • Threatening Smash (all Maces)
  • Slowing Charge (two-handed Hammers)
  • Rending Strike (two-handed Axes)
• A-key can now be used to exit islands
• Dynamic Events added for the Mists, Roads of Avalon, and Tracking
• Territory Activity Chests are now lootable by anyone after a Raid if the Territory has no owner
• Players who are inactive during a Faction Warfare week will no longer receive a weekly report
• Removed recipes that use Arcane Essences and Faded Essences from the Artifact Foundry
  • Arcane Essences can now be salvaged for Silver
• Crystal Gladiator vanity items are no longer available from Crystal League chests
  • These are now only available via Albion Journal Crystal League Missions
• Spawn buff prevention no longer counts down while between regions
• [MOBILE] Added S, W, and E indicators to Minimap
• [CONTROLLER] Moved "Emotes" to the D-pad action wheel
• [CONTROLLER] Added a "Travel Mode Settings" controller button action to the Region Map

[h3]Steam and Mobile Achievement Conditions[/h3]
With the launch of the Albion Journal, the conditions for certain Steam and Mobile achievements have been changed. Your progress in these achievements has not been reset, after the changed condition.

• Successfully finish an Expedition → Finish a Tier 3 Solo Expedition
• Enter a Randomized Dungeon → Finish a Tier 3 Solo Dungeon
• Enter 1,000 Randomized Dungeons → Finish 1,000 Solo Dungeons
• Complete your first hunt → Track down a rare solo creature
• Track down and kill one of each creature type →  Track down 7 different rare solo creatures
• Kill a Guardian Aspect from every biome → Harvest resources from Guardian Aspects in every biome
• Defeat a Guardian in a Road of Avalon → Harvest resources from a Guardian in the Roads of Avalon
• Defeat the final boss in a Corrupted Dungeon→ Defeat the final boss in a Hunter Corrupted Dungeon
• Gain 100,000 Infamy in any Hellgate type → Gain 100,000 Infamy in 2v2 Hellgates
• Gain 250,000 Infamy in any Hellgate type → Gain 250,000 Infamy in 2v2 Hellgates
• Win a Crystal League Match → Win a 5v5 Crystal League Match
• Win a Crystal League Match of Rank 3 → Win a Rank 3 5v5 Crystal League Match
• Win a Crystal League Match of Rank 7 → Win a Rank 7 5v5 Crystal League Match

[h3]Combat Balance Changes[/h3]

Our main focus with this update was to adjust the resilience curve, which addresses the survivability of melee and ranged weapons in large scale battles. The goal is to make these fights less focused on melee brawl compositions, and give ranged damage-per-second more room to succeed.

Resilience
The impact of Resilience on large-scale fights has been reduced significantly, making melees less tanky with higher numbers of attackers. This means that all players (including ranged players) deal greater damage to melees. To compensate for this, the resilience penetration for various long range melee weapons has been reduced. This is aimed at large-scale fights - for up to five attackers melee Resilience values are unchanged.

The Resilience curve has also been normalized for ranged weapons, to use the same Resilience values as melees and make both these weapon types more competitive in all group sizes.

• Melee weapon Resilience remains unchanged for groups of five or fewer, and ramps up more slowly from six attackers
  • For example, melee survivability has decreased by 10.58% against ten players, and by 19.16% against fifteen players
• Ranged weapons now uses the same resilience values as melee, which means that the ranged survivability increases more quickly
  • For example, Ranged survivability has increased by 9.72% against three players, by 17.99% against ten players, and by 6.47% against fifteen players

Arcane Staffs

• Protective Beam (Enigmatic Staff)
  • Range: 12m → 14m

Axes

• Blood Bandit (Battleaxe)
  • Recast time window for 2nd throw: 10s → 9s
  • 1st throw Cooldown: 0s → 1s
  • 1st throw 0 stack Damage: 175 → 160
  • 1st throw 1 stack Damage: 200 → 190
  • 1st throw 2 stack Damage: 225 → 220
  • 1st throw 3 stack Damage: 250 (stays unchanged)
• Bloody Reap (Infernal Scythe)
  • 1st Hit Damage: 108 → 98
• Whirlwind (Greataxe)
  • Damage for consecutive hits: 4 → 5
• Carrioncaller
  • Resilience Penetration: 30% → 25%
• Halberd
  • Resilience Penetration: 30% → 25%
• Infernal Scythe
  • Resilience Penetration: 30% → 25%

Fire Staffs

• Flame Tornado (Blazing Staff)
  • Final DoT duration: 2s → 2.4s
  • Damage per tick (vs players): 60 → 66
  • Damage per tick (vs mobs): 43.45 → 48

Hammers

• Powerful Swing (all Hammers)
  • Added 66 bonus threat generation

Quarterstaffs

• Auto-Attacks (all Quarterstaffs)
  • Attack Range: 4m → 3m
• Hurricane (Iron-clad Staff)
  • Channel Duration: 2s → 3s
• Tornado (Soulscythe)
  • Increased projectile speed slightly by ~10%

Shapeshifter Staffs

• Adapting Matter (all Shapeshifter Staffs)
  • Shield duration 1.5s → 2s
• Distortion (all Shapeshifter Staffs)
  • Damage per tick: 60 → 54
• Tether Shift (all Shapeshifter Staffs)
  • Removed multicast
  • The follow up ability (dash or pull) now activates instantly
  • Shield Strength: 100 → 200 (now applied before the pull starts)
  • Removed the resistance increase when cast on allies
• Polymorph (all Shapeshifter Staffs)
  • Added: Cast time 0s → 0.4s

Spears

•  Spear Throw (Heron Spear)
  • Damage: 200 → 210
• Razor's Edge (Rift Glaive)
  • Area width: 8m → 7m
  • Knockback area length: 10m → 8m
  • Slightly increased knockback speed, thus reducing CC time
• Heron Spear
  • Resilience Penetration: 25% → 20%
• Rift Glaive
  • Resilience Penetration: 25% → 15%
• Spirithunter
  • Resilience Penetration: 20% → 15%

Swords

• Hamstring (all Swords)
  • 2nd Ability Renamed: Heroic Hamstring → Heroic Leap
  • Removed slow on Heroic Leap
  • Heroic Leap damage: 78 → 122
• Limit Breaker (Infinity Blade)
  • Damage Buff no longer ends after 2nd cast
  • Damage: 105 → 112
• Clarent Blade
  • Resilience Penetration: 20% → 15%

War Gloves

• Earth Crusher (Ravenstrike Cestus)
  • 0 Charge Damage: 166 → 179
  • 1 Charge Damage: 176 → 190
  • 2 Charge Damage: 187 → 202
  • 3 Charge Damage: 198 → 214
• Spiked Gauntlets
  • Resilience Penetration: 25% → 20%

Armors

• Dynamic Defense (Jacket of Tenacity)
  • Magic Damage Bonus: 25% → 20%
  • Physical Damage Bonus: 25% → 20%
• Electric Field (Stalker Jacket)
  • Damage per tick: 28 → 26
• Protection of the Fiends (Demon Armor)
  • No longer affects mobs

Capes

• Fey Barrier (Brecilien Cape)
  • Shield: 230 → 275
• Force Pulse (Avalonian Cape)
  • Damage: 144 → 133

Mounts

• Tranquilizer Venom (Goliath Horseeater)
  • Slow: Removed
  • Duration: 15s → 10s
  • Auto-Attack Speed Reduction: 30% → 15%
  • Added: Debuff now stacks up to 3 times
• Spider's Web (Goliath Horseeater)
  • Slow: 20% → 25%
• Cocoon (Goliath Horseeater)
  • Stun vs Battle Mounts: 4s → 6s
  • Immunity to spell 7s → 10s
  • Now stuns flying Battle Mounts

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Spell fixes:
  • Divine Intervention (Hallowfall Staff): Fixed issue where the cooldown reduction for healing an ally could be purged
  • Frost Shield (all Cloth Armors): Fixed issue where the slow effect could be purged
  • Hellfire Potion: Fixed issue where the damage over time effect could incorrectly be purged
  • Magic Pollen (Harvester Cap): Fixed issue where sleep effect would sometimes not apply
  • Wild Onslaught (Primal Staffs): Fixed issue where cooldown would sometimes not trigger
  • Flame Tornado (Blazing Staff): Fixed issue where damage-over-time could hit twice
  • Triple Kick (War Gloves): Fixed an issue where damage would not be dealt if the caster was buffed by Holy Blessing (Holy Staffs)
  • Avalonian Cape no longer triggers when hostile dismount debuff is active
  • Fixed incorrect tooltips for Relentless Assault (Crystal Reaper), Inertia Ring (Hammers), Tornado (Soulscythe), and Razor's Edge (Rift Glaive)
  • Fixed incorrect indication areas for Ground Pound (Grovekeeper) and Frost Lance (Frost Staffs)
• UI fixes:
  • Fixed issue where Death Recap and respawn option would not appear on death when Window Animations were enabled
  • Fixed issue where item details could not be opened when shared via chat
  • Fixed issue where Earthkeeper Chieftain’s whirlwind spell icon would disappear while spell active
  • Fixed issue where purchased items would sometimes not appear in Completed Transactions tab
  • Fixed issue where some recipes in crafting building UIs would display incorrect or confusing information
  • Fixed issue where some Tracked targets would not appear on the minimap
  • Fixed issue where, when in a Hideout, Hideout Production Bonuses would incorrectly appear on other region minimaps
• Other:
  • Fixed issue where the Fame Bonus buff from visiting a Hideout would persist after leaving the Black Zones to Brecilien
  • Fixed issue where loot mode could change unintentionally in Duo Mists
  • Fixed issue where characters with “Access Guild Mail” permission could accept or decline guild applications and alliance invitations without “Invite” permission, but could not send guild mails
  • Fixed issue where the Spiked Demon summoned by the Mistress of Demons would not despawn upon her reset or death
  • Fixed rare issue where players could take double knockdown damage in Yellow Zone Mists
  • [MOBILE] Fixed issue with selecting Destiny Board nodes via search bar
• Additional graphical, terrain, animation, audio, and localization fixes