Class changes
This article is intended to lift the veil on the core class changes that will go Live with the next major game update. As always, these changes are subject to change throughout the test server development cycle, but hopefully this article will give you an overview of some of the changes, tweaks, and additions to each of the different classes. Please bear in mind that these changes come in relation to the new core system changes, so please be sure to read the Core Systems Changes article first.
Please note, this article does not list all of the changes to each class (those can be read in the preliminary update notes). Many of the feats and abilities have been altered to use the new core systems.
So, all that having been said, let’s take a peek to see how your favorite class will be changed!
Soldiers
The headline change here is that all soldiers in Hyboria will be able to use plate armor! This means that in the future as new content comes in, heavy armor will have DPS oriented statistics and plate armor will have more defensive statistics, offering soldiers a choice as to their preferred armor set-ups.
* New ability: Irritate. Irritate is a low cooldown ability which temporarily adds threat to your current target.
Guardian
* Cry of Havoc – A new low cooldown AoE threat ability to pick up groups of mobs and salvage your team from annihilation. It also deals damage to the affected monsters.
* Combat Mastery – A new purely beneficial Stratagem which increases the Guardian’s damage.
* Relentless – A passive buff to increase your resistance to stun and fear effects.
Conqueror
As the leaders of the battlefields, Conquerors will also be given more effects to strengthen their allies in combat:
* Berserk Inspiration – Normal attacks will stack up your Furious Inspiration.
* Ruthless Assault – When the conqueror performs a critical strike, subsequent attacks will have a higher chance to crit.
* Retaliation – A new medium cooldown AoE threat ability to pick up groups of mobs and bring order to chaos. This ability also places a short duration damage shield on the Conqueror.
Dark Templar
The defensive capabilities of Dark Templars will be improved with new threat abilities and buffs that increase the health of the Dark Templar, while increasing his damage. The majority of the Dark Templar’s base covenants have also increased in power:
* Seal of Chaos – A new medium cooldown AoE threat ability which also gives the Dark Templar a short duration increase to healing received.
* Dark Hand – A new instant cast lifetap spell.
* Soul Barrier – Feat changed from spell to ability. You no longer have to keep recasting this buff to have it running.
Priests
Casting times on all health buffs have been reduced to 1.5 seconds.
Priest of Mitra
Priests of Mitra are getting abilities to debuff spell protection abilities and will get increased healing power:
* Divine Halo – A new feat which makes your holy nukes build up Divine Blessings on yourself. When this reaches 5, you gain the Divine Halo effect, which will periodically heal the lowest health friendly target close to you. Each heal performed will remove one Divine Blessing from the stack. When the stack reaches zero, the pulsing heal will stop.
* Avert thine Eyes and Imperil will now give significant holy and unholy invulnerability debuffs on the target. Avert thine Eyes will still increase the miss chance on the target.
Tempest of Set
The Tempests of Set’s spells have been adjusted to better balance the rate and relative amount of their damage output. It has been shifted to force players to have to better time their spells and choose when to use certain spells. In line with these changes, several of their spells have received a faster casting time.
* Lightning Strike is going from a 3 second cast to a 2.5 second cast.
* Call Lighting has been changed to a 1.5 second cast targeted AoE spell. The Thunderhead buff is maintained, and – in addition – any cyclones nearby will receive a buff to their damage.
* Damnation and Glorification of Set have been made instant cast and will grant powerful buffs to magical protection. They are put on a shared cooldown to make them tactical spells that the Tempest will actively use in combat.
Bear Shaman
As a melee and healer hybrid, Bear Shamans will receive increased survivability versus both physical and magical damage. Some of the more important changes are:
* Their Feral totems offensive effect has been strengthened while the defensive effect from the totem has been removed.
* A new totem - Miasma - replaces the Vemon totem, increasing stamina regeneration and placing a DoT on several targets around the target. The DoT stacks up to three times and will also drain stamina.
* Improved Grizzled Hide will be replaced by Improved Scarred Hide, which will give you a chance to get extra armor if you are victim of a critical hit. The chance increases with each number of feat points allocated, and maxes out at 100% with three feat points.
* Spirit of the Bear will now also provide a team health buff.
Rogues
Rogue-like abilities have been strengthened and longevity in combat has been increased.
* The old Concealment feat has been merged into Swift Shadows, which now both increases speed while in stealth and increases your hiding skill.
* Lethalty – A new feat replacing Concealment, which increases base weapon damage. More ranks will improve the effect.
* Excellent Balance will grant stamina when knocked back in addition to the existing effect. Quick Recovery will now provide an increase to stamina regeneration. These feats have also swapped places in the feat tree.
Assassin
The assassin will have more debuffs available to lower a target's physical damage mitigation, effectively increasing damage dealt by the Assassin and his companions through-out the fight.
* Lunge has been improved to be a 10 second buff increasing the damage of all the Assassins attacks.
* Grim Corruption will lower the target’s physical mitigation. The type of damage with reduced mitigation will depend on the Assassins stances.
* Seeds of Corruption will now give attacks a chance to build a stack of debuffs on the target. When Grim Corruption is used, damage is inflicted on the target and the stack of seeds is removed.
Barbarian
The barbarian has further evolved as a master of chaotic fighting through receiving a new powerful AoE combo. They will also get a new charge ability at their disposal.
* Blitz – New charge ability with medium cooldown replacing the Hand Weapon Expert feat. Barbarians can spend feat points to increase the amount of damage dealt when charging.
* Devastation – Feat which replaces Great Weapons Master. Every time the barbarian attacks without getting a critical hit there is a chance to increase the critical hit chance. More feat points spent will increase the chance of this happening.
* Savage Rage has been turned into a passive buff which increases damage after performing a critical hit.
* Whirlwind – New area combo which hits all the enemies around the barbarian.
Ranger
The ranger has received some new tactical abilities to add to their toolset.
* Terror Totem – New ability that gives the ranger a totem to place which will fear minions and the weakest Necromancer pets.
* Splintering Puncture’s damage has been significantly increased, at the expense of the radius, which has been reduced. The duration of the debuff has been increased and will be consumed when the target is hit by Bleeding Puncture.
Mages
The most significant change here is that pets will now scale in power with the caster, inheriting a portion of their damage, critical hit, and magical protection bonuses.
The Archmage feat will change to increase amount of mana gained from mana potions. Additional feat points in this feat will increase the effect. School specific buffs have been removed and mages are no longer restricted to one school.
Herald of Xotli
Visually, players of the Herald are in for a treat as Avatar of Xotli has a new and even more frightful look!
* Arcane Abatement has been made instant, and grants a powerful buff to cold damage protection. This is a short duration tactical buff intended for active use in combat.
* Lingering Hell - The debuff has been removed from this feat, and it now increases the duration of the Hellstep AoE. Touch of Hell will now decrease the cooldown on Hellstep.
* Fiery Enervation has been merged into Inferno Curse. It applies debuffs to magical protection and damage.
Demonologist
* Chaotic Blast is now a ground targeted AoE spell. It applies an invulnerability debuff and does fire damage by default. If you have Cursed by the Heavens running, the damage will be electrical.
* Mystic Suppression has been made an instant cast powerful unholy protection buff with a short duration, making it tactical buff to use in combat.
* Shock and Shockstrike will build up Empowered Shock Lance stacks on the caster, increasing the critical hit chance and lowering the casting time of Shock Lance.
* Shock Lance – New spell replacing the old Demonic Wrack feat. Shock Lance will consume Empowered Shock Lance stacks and deal column damage. For each Shock Lance cast, the mana cost of the next will be increased.
Necromancer
The bigger change for the necromancer is how their pets will improve in strength as the Necromancer improves their stats, but we’ve also modified several of their abilities due to the changes to invulnerability ratings in this update.
* Spell rotation has changed, Flesh to Worms is now a long-duration DoT, and the cooldown has been removed from Ice Strike.
* Chill has changed to consume Pestilential Blast to inflict damage.
* Wither Soul has been converted to Withered Soul which gives you an instant cast Ice Strike when you get a critical hit.
Pestilential Blast has had its duration increased to 15 seconds.
