Renovation Season 5: Close Combat and Lance Changes

[h2]

Close Combat[/h2]
Skill Changes

For each updated skill, the skill info and description has been updated to reflect changes.

Smash

The damage multiplier for each skill rank has been increased.
- Example: Based on Rank Dan 3 of the skill:
  - Before: Humans and Elves: 620%, Giants: 720%
  - After: Humans and Elves: 800%, Giants: 900%
The cooldown of Smash is reduced at higher ranks.
- Before:
  - 3 seconds at all ranks.
- After:
  - Rank F ~ Rank A: No Change
  - Rank 9 ~ Rank 1: 2.5 seconds
  - Rank Dan 1: 2.4 seconds
  - Rank Dan 2: 2.2 seconds
  - Rank Dan 3: 2 seconds

Bash

The damage multiplier for each skill rank has been increased.
- Example: Based on Rank 1 of the skill:
  - Before: 380% / 400% / 420% / 440% / 460%
  - After: 520% / 540% / 560% / 580% / 600%
The cooldown of Bash has been increased to 2 seconds.
Bash's attack priority has been adjusted to be higher than normal attacks.
When using Bash while dual-wielding, Bash stacks are gained twice as fast.
Close Combat Talent Damage increases based on the number of Bash stacks.
- Example: Based on Rank 1 of the skill: 2% / 4% / 6% / 8% / 10%
Close Combat Talent Damage increase is only applied while wielding a Close Combat Talent weapon.
When Bash is at 5 stacks, Close Combat Talent and Elemental Knight Skills will ignore Auto-defense of Heavy Standers below a certain rank.
The Bash stack retention time has been reduced to 20 seconds for all ranks.
The Bash stacks will remain even when changing weapons.
Bash will now automatically strike the enemy from a distance, depending on how close the character is to the enemy.
Example: Based on Rank 1 of the skill: Distance up to 7m
This function does not occur if the skill is used by a monster.
The issue of intermittent normal attacks when using Bash continuously has been fixed.

Counterattack

Counterattack has been improved so that the character can move more quickly after a successful counterattack at higher ranks.
- Before:
  - 3 seconds at all ranks.
- After:
  - Rank F ~ Rank D: No Change
  - Rank C ~ Rank A: 2.5 seconds
  - Rank 9 ~ Rank 6: 2 seconds
  - Rank 5 ~ Rank 1: 1.5 seconds
  - Rank Dan 1: 1.4 seconds
  - Rank Dan 2: 1.2 seconds
  - Rank Dan 3: 1 second

Assault Slash

The damage multiplier for all skill ranks have been increased.
- Example: Based on Dan Rank 3 of the skill:
  - Before: 260%
  - After: 350%
Assault Slash has been improved so that the character can move more quickly after a successful counterattack.
- Example: Based on Rank Dan 3 of the skill:
  - Before: 1.5 seconds
  - After: 0.3 seconds
The cooldown of Assault Slash has been reduced.
- Before: 7 seconds
- After: 5.5 seconds
An issue where the skill could not be used in certain situations on enemies who have been knocked down has been fixed.

【 Developer Comments 】In order to reduce the inconvenience of Automatic Defense and ensure that Close Combat talent skills can be used meaningfully in battle, we have updated the above skills and adjusted their values. Due to how Close Combat skills work there are often situations where you need to approach your target. Our expectation is that you’ll be able to zip around more in-battle with Bash’s new gap closer and Smash's lower cooldown. As Smash contains higher potential risk, the damage values have been increased so that the skill has a higher payoff when successful.

[h2]

Lance Combat[/h2]

NEW! Lance Impact

New Lance-only skill!
Knock your target back with a heavy blow, and grants an effect that gives your next Lance Charge increased damage when unmounted!
- Knocks your opponent back in a straight line, up to 5m.
  - If your opponent cannot be knocked back, you will leap back 5m instead.
- Grants Lance Charge Mount Bonus (On Foot) upon use, empowering your next Lance Charge.
  - Your next Lance Charge will deal mounted Lance Charge damage.
  - The effect disappears upon use of Lance Charge or after a short duration.

NEW! Lance Leap

New Lance-only skill!
Reposition backwards with deft grace, and empower your next Lance Charge’s unmounted movement speed!
- Leaps backwards upon use, distance increases with rank, up to 6m at Rank 1.
- Grants Lance Charge Speed Boost (On Foot) upon use, enhancing your next unmounted Lance Charge.
  - Your next Lance Charge will have increased movement speed while unmounted.
  - The effect disappears upon use of Lance Charge or after a short duration.

Other Lance Weapon Changes

Basic Attacks and Smash can now be used from a closer range.
- The damage dealt will depend on the distance between you and the target, with the damage being reduced if targets are too close.
  - If the Spirit enhancement skill Ultimate Lance is present, this damage reduction does not apply.
The Defense skill can now be used when equipped with a Lance.
Lance Counter can now be canceled out of and ignores stun.
Corrected the behavior of Lance Charge that was causing it to occasionally fail when used at minimum range.
When undertaking the Lance Charge Advancement Test, you can now use Lance Impact and Lance Leap.

【 Developer Comments 】As is, the Lance talent can be used most optimally when riding a pet, but as a talent it can be difficult when in positions where you cannot use a pet. When entering progressively higher leveled dungeons, it becomes more difficult to make use of your pet. To this we decided that a new skill would be needed to allow for greater use of the Lance Combat talent even in harder content. The development team wanted to add more fun to the player input of the talent while reducing the dependency that the talent has on pets- Lance Impact and Lance Leap were designed with this in mind.

[h2]Additional Changes[/h2]
Human Movement Speed

Human movement speed has been increased, and is now equal to Giants.
- The movement speed bonus gained from Breath of Ladeca has been reduced due to this change.

Breath of Ladeca

The amount of movement speed granted in the description is now a percentage, rather than a flat value.
Altered from ~13% down to its new value of 10%.
Removed the 10% bonus damage to Close Combat talent skills when Dual-Wielding.
- Now adds 5% bonus damage to normal talent skills.

Transformation Skill

Your 1st and 2nd Titles are now maintained when using Paladin, Dark Knight, Beast, and Falcon transformations.
- Transformation-specific Titles can still be used when transformed.
Passive Defense Skills for the transformations, such as Paladin Heavy Stander, will now always be active.

Shields

The Shield Mastery skill had had the following changes made:
- The damage reduction rates depending on the size of your shield have been changed.
- The damage reduction when using Defense increases depending on the size of your shield.
- The Elemental Knight skill Dauntless Defense accounts for the size of your shield as well as the new “Damage Reduction Rate” effect.
The following Shields have had a new “Damage Reduction Rate” effect added:
- Frosted Borealis Shield: 14%
- Divine Shield: 15%
- Massive Despair Shield: 18%
- Perseus Vigilant Shield: 20%
- Nightbringer Vanguard: 30%
Using the Defense skill will no longer reduce damage against a skill that cannot be blocked, and your skill will be canceled instead.

【 Developer Comments 】Previously when wearing a small, medium, or large shield, the damage reduction of the Defense skill could be applied regardless of if the attack was successfully blocked or not, allowing players to maintain the damage reduction at all times. The development team decided to adjust this behavior in order to create more interesting combat scenarios in future content where Defense must be used to block some skills, while other attacks must be avoided entirely as they cannot be blocked. Instead of having an effect based solely on the size of the shield itself, we’ve strengthened the options and tweaked the damage formula so that higher-tiered shields are stronger in the long run.

[h2]Fantasy Life Changes[/h2]
Ducat Exchange Daily Limit

Seasonal Ducat exchange for Ducat currency will no longer have a daily limit.
- Commerce merchant NPC dialogues have been updated to reflect this change.

EXP-Granting Items

Gaining experience by percentage is changed from current level to absolute level for the following values:
- Item use (eg. Golden Fruit, Magical Piece (Grade n), Pet Golden Experience Fruit, etc.)
- Shop Sales Bonus (Equipment that has Shop Sales Bonus attribute which you then sell it)
- Fountain of Blessing in Uladh Dungeons
The experience formula values for the following are subject to change:
- Battle experience (including pets)
- Exploration experience (eg. Special Artifact)
- Spirit experience (eg. Mysterious Spirit Stone)

Be sure to check out the full patch notes!