Project: Gorgon News

The main focus of this update has been technical: we're now using Unity 6! This is a major version change to our game engine, so expect the unexpected in terms of bugs. Please report weird things you find.

Besides the version upgrade, we've also spent time on other technical aspects of the game, along with a random assortment of other fixes and changes and new stuff.

(Statehelm is still in heavy development, and still 1-2 months away. This is a *big* city -- by far the biggest we've ever done! But it's coming along nicely.)

• Serbule Inn facelift
  
• Art revisions to Dark Chapel dungeon
  
• Tweak waters in all outdoor zones to improve reflections and better reflect the sun/moon light
  
• Fix graphical issue between fog and trees in Anagoge
  
• Tweak rock collisions in Kur near Ratuk
  
• Fix Rahu's horizon
  
• Fix infernal egg dropped appearances
  
• Fix broken beds in Eltibule
  
• Fix for sleeping underneath a bed in Ilmari instead of on top of it
  
• Fairies should sleep more comfortably in beds now
  
• Fix coffin in Truxartis' hideout
  
• You can now strafe left/right while swimming and flying
  
• Enemies will no longer get stuck on a certain rock in Necromancer's Courtyard
  
• Fix a few pathfinding issues in Povus Caves,
  
• Fix some issues with water rendering in Povus Caves (and possibly other dungeon)
  

• A new puzzle has appeared in Rahu, providing Lore XP when solved for the first time,
  
• Furlak in Rahu offers 2 new quests,
  
• The quest "Stop the Aktaari! (Repeating)" now requires the player to have at least one level 70 combat skill
  
• Ungulates are now slightly more abundant in the world, to ease the XP curve when leveling ungulate genetics
  
• Add more charged boars to Dark Chapel,
  
• Add dedicated rhino spots to Rahu & Fae Realm,
  
• Analyzing wild horse genes gives double the experience as it used to
  
• Add a new Item Sacrifice altar to Serbule Hills - it has existed in our data files for many years but was never actually turned on!
  
• A lore item in Eltibule that was previously unobtainable can now be interacted with
  
• Adjust wording of a Strange Altar in Vidaria to better indicate where to go to solve it
  
• The unmarked altar in Vidaria can now be used every 30 days instead of 90
  
• Reconfigure the way a certain 6-sided coin works
  
• Ferris Blueheart is now too busy to chat with anyone below level 30 combat skills, and only accepts gifts from and hands out favors to those with level 70+ combat skills
  
• Liamu no longer gives a Demonic Research Scroll as a favor-up gift
  
• Increase spawn rate of Lesser Behemoths in Vidaria
  
• Adjust spawns of Demonic Overseers and Justiciars in Vidaria, so at least 1 of each type is always present. They still abide by the laws of spawning, so you may have to wait a few minutes after killing one for another to show up
  

• Touch up appearances and animations for dozens of creature types. This includes:
  
  
  
  • Fixing animation bugs
    
  • Polish animations, in many cases speeding them up so they look more realistic
    
  • Add idle animations that trigger every once in a while, making the world feel more alive
    
  • Randomize many creatures' idle animation speeds, so 2 of the same type of creature standing next to each other will no longer remain completely in-sync
    
  • AI-driven monsters now adjust between their walk and run animations; previously they always used just the walk animation
    
  • Most non-bipeds now stick to the ground realistically (based on your Non-Bipedal Ground Alignment setting, of course),
    
• Big Golems now explode when destroyed, and their individual pieces obey physics (this is tied to a new setting which can be turned off, and is off at low graphics settings - "Death Physics")
  
• Speed up some bat attacks so they are faster than global cooldown (this impacts both monster bats and player bats)
  
• Fae bees, bears, and rhinos have their original anatomies once again, instead of Fae anatomy. Changing their anatomies had unintended consequences on their behavior as pets
  

• Fix missing "Genes" button for some pets in stables
  
• Fix "0 Quests" being reported in the quest window
  
• Long character names no longer wrap in the target UI
  
• Work Order for "Awesome Throwing Knives" is now correctly labeled "Superb Throwing Knives"
  
• Fix typo in Ratkin Digestif error message (disgesting -> digesting)
  
• The Lore Skill's report should now be completely up-to-date, and all Max Lore XP values should be accurate.
  
• Improve shadow rendering; they should not flicker as badly in outdoor zones
  
• Shadow Distance setting is now capped at 500 (previously 1000)
  

• Corpse Talking 51-60 unlock now accepts Shamanic Infusion as an alternative to Necromancy level requirements
  
• There is now an alternative method of unlocking Corpse Talking 61-70, which does not require Priest levels
  
• Ratkin Digestifs now last through zoning, and correctly give Power Regen instead of Health Regen
  
• Increase health restored for Reconstruct 7 (200 -> 230), so it's not the same as Reconstruct 6
  
• Druid treasure effect "While Druid skill is active: abilities that have Burst targeting deal +X Nature damage over 8 seconds" was dealing Poison damage by mistake
  
• Butterfly Harnesses were racial-slot equipment instead of belt-slot equipment as intended
  
• Druid treasure effect "Rotskin deals X Nature damage to health over 12 seconds" now displays correctly in the ability tooltip, and actually does direct health damage
  
• Treasure effect "Embrace of Despair becomes a Sonic ability and deals Nature damage instead of Psychic. Sonic Ability Damage +45% while Vampirism skill active" was accidentally affecting Eclipse of Shadows instead
  
• Treasure effect "Bite attacks deal +24% damage and hasten the current reuse timer of Blood Mist by 2 seconds" only worked for the two bite attacks in the Vapirism skill; now works for all bite attacks
  
• Treasure effect "Song of Bravery has a 30% chance every 4 seconds to grant listeners a Moment of Bravery: all attacks deal +50% damage for 5 seconds" actually boosted damage by 25%, not 50%. We've split the difference and now the description and effect both agree that it adds +33% damage
  

Added some new synergy bonus levels:

• Unarmed: Endurance 60, Cow 75, Deer 75, Pig 75, Rabbit 75, Lycanthropy 75, Giant Bat 75
  
• Sword: Calligraphy 75, Bladesmithing 25, Bladesmithing 50, Bladesmithing 75
  
• Lycanthropy: Rabbit 70 (know your prey), Pig 70, Howling 50
  
• Rabbit: Survival Instincts 60
  
• Fire Magic: Jewelry Crafting 70, Ice Magic 80, Alchemy 60
  
• Ice Magic: Ice Conjuration 25
  

We're still working behind-the-scenes on the last major city of the game. (You may see new references to Statehelm, but it's not accessible yet.) In the mean time we have lots of fixes, rebalances, and things to find:

• Added "default" Endurance requirements to most high-level loot dropped gear.
  
  
  
  • Most higher-level items that do not have any combat skill prerequisites will instead have an Endurance requirement.
    
  • Endurance requirements start at item level 30 and slowly increase from there. By level 65+, the requirements follow these rules:
    
    
    
    
    • Loot gear default Endurance requirement is (item level - 10)
      
    • Crafted gear default Endurance requirement is (item level - 15)
      
    
    
  • These changes were made to prevent low level characters from using high level equipment (that had literally no requirements before), and to set a baseline for items that have only generic gear mods (in the absence of other combat skills).
    
  • These changes are retroactive. Your gear may automatically unequip itself when you log in if you do not meet the Endurance requirements.
    
• Egg run quest rewards reduced. This affects gear rewards; recipe/scroll drops and xp are untouched.
  
  
  
  
  • Adjusted Cheb's sales numbers to be normal for a high-level vendor (instead of extra cranked)
    
• Increase spawn rate of interactive Graves across the world, roughly doubling them
  
• Elite & Boss demons in Vidaria now possess Astonishing Demon Skulls
  
• Add a second repeatable method of obtainable Scrolls of Demonic Research
  
• Increase likelihood of Vidaria Secret Chests to drop Mementos (if you've unlocked the Memento mechanic)
  
• Slightly improved drop chance for Pixie Dust
  

• Add 16 new Item Sacrifice Altars across Alharth
  
• Fix one source of "error cubes" being shown in-game. This fixes a specific scenario where you have already loaded the scene successfully (without errors), but still come across an error cube, possibly long after loading into the area.
  
• Fix for "3-Color dye recipes don't properly handle only 2 dye types"
  
• Some chairs, such as those in Serbule Inn, are now sat in from the side to avoid clipping into the tables. We added new tech to enable this, so if you spot clipping on other chairs in the world please report them!
  
• Nameplates now respect the Bold and Italics GUI options
  
• All "Fae" animals now have Fae anatomy and count toward Fae-related quests. Previously only Panthers followed this rule, now it applies to all animals
  
• Fix bug causing some Swarmers to get stuck in the Rubywall
  
• We now export two now JSON data files: abilitydynamicdots.json and abilitydynamicspecialvalues.json. These files are used by the game to add extra info to ability tool-tips when certain requirements are met. (In other words, these describe DoTs and buffs that can be added to abilities by special buffs and treasure effects.) These are likely of limited use for tools, but who knows.
  
• Extracting an augment from an item automatically aborts if the provided gem doesn't match any of the item's powers. (Previously the gem and item were destroyed.)
  

Druid was already a very capable healing and support skill, but its offensive abilities and skill synergies received some improvements. To help you take advantage of these changes, Transmutation costs for Druid gear will be reduced this month.

[h2]Druid Ability Changes[/h2]

• Toxinball deals a bit more base damage at each tier; other treasure adjusted slightly as a result of this formula change
  
• Cloud Sight is now a Ranged attack (instead of Melee) with a range of 30 meters
  
• Cosmic Strike reuse time hastened from 45 seconds to 40 seconds
  
• Fill With Bile: increases Indirect Poison (per tick) by twice as much
  
• Delerium has higher base damage; some treasure effects adjusted slightly as a result of this formula change
  

[h2]Druid Treasure Changes[/h2]

• (Hands, MainHand) "All Druid abilities have a 38% chance to restore 25 Power to you" => "All Druid abilities except Shillelagh have a 59% chance to restore 50 Power to you"
  
• (Necklace, Ring) "Cosmic Strike deals +19% damage and boosts your Major Healing +100 for 10 seconds" => ...deals +38% damage and boosts your Major Healing +100 for 20 seconds"
  
• (Head, Legs) "Cosmic Strike deals +264 damage, generates no Rage, and removes 705 Rage" => ...deals +310 damage, ...
  
• (MainHand) "Cosmic Strike deals +143 damage and reuse timer is -5 seconds" => "Cosmic Strike deals +280 damage and reuse timer is -10 seconds"
  
• (Head) "Cloud Sight causes target's attacks to have +5% more chance of missing, but Power cost is +15%" => "Cloud Sight causes target's attacks to have +5% more chance of missing."
  
• (Legs, MainHand) "Energize restores 117 armor to each target" => 180
  
• (Feet, Ring) "Energize restores +28 Health and conjures a magical field that mitigates 10% of all physical damage they take for 1 minute (or until 100 damage is mitigated)." => "Energize conjures a magical field around each target that mitigates 20% of all physical damage they take for 1 minute (or until 200 damage is mitigated)."
  
• (OffHand, Necklace) "Energize Healing +82" => +120
  
• (Head, Legs) "Delerium depletes +440 rage and deals +83 damage" => "Delerium depletes +440 rage and deals +320 Nature damage over 8 seconds"
  
• (Chest, Hands) "Rotskin deals 354 Trauma damage to health over 12 seconds" => "Rotskin deals 444 Nature damage to health over 12 seconds"
  
• (OffHand, Necklace) "Max Health +50 when Druid skill is active" => +70
  
• (Head, MainHand): "While Druid Skill Active, Druid Base Damage +50%" => "... and Nature Vulnerability -18%"
  
• (Head, OffHand) "Heart Thorn coats the target in acid that deals 580 armor damage over 8 seconds" => 480 armor damage over 3 seconds
  
• (MainHand, Ring) "Delerium depletes +810 rage and taunts -600" => ... and deals +115 damage
  
• (Head, Legs): "Delerium depletes +440 rage and deals +320 Nature damage over 8 seconds" => 360 Poison damage over 6 seconds. (Delerium is a poison attack and was supposed to have a Poison DoT, but some wires got crossed)
  
• (Ring) "Rotskin hastens the current reuse timer of Regrowth by 5 seconds" => previously there was only one tier of this effect. This tier is unchanged. But there are higher tiers of the effect which hasten the reuse timer of Regrowth a bit more (by 7.5 seconds at level 100)
  
• (Head) "Cloud Sight causes target's attacks to have +5% more chance of missing." => previously there was only one tier of this effect. This tier is unchanged, but there is a second tier available starting at level 70. It increases target's miss chance +10%
  
• (Legs) "Fill With Bile causes any Nice attacks that deal direct Poison or Acid damage to deal +180 damage for 3 minutes. (This effect does not stack with itself.)" => +76% damage
  
• (Hands) "Fill With Bile causes any Core attacks that deal direct Poison damage to deal +180 damage for 3 minutes. (This effect does not stack with itself.)" => +220 damage
  
• (Feet) "Your Healing Sanctuary heals +23 health and buffs Melee Accuracy +14" => +25 health and buffs Melee Accuracy +23
  
• NEW: Loot drop only: (Hands) "Delerium becomes a 10m Burst attack that deals +33% damage to targets that are not focused on you"
  
• NEW: (Ring, Chest) "Indirect Poison Damage +48% when Druid skill is active"
  
• NEW: (Hands, Legs): "While Druid skill is active: abilities that have Burst targeting deal +328 Nature damage over 8 seconds"
  
• NEW: (Off-Hand) "Direct Slashing, Piercing, and Crushing Damage +18% when Druid skill is active"
  
• NEW: (Hands, Ring) "Cloud Sight Damage +125 and Reuse Time -2 seconds"
  
• NEW: (OffHand) "Cosmic Strike deals +320 damage and if it kills your target, you recover 9999 Health and 9999 Armor"
  
• NEW: (Feet) "Fill With Bile reduces target's Indirect Poison Vulnerability and Indirect Acid Vulnerability -40% for 3 minutes. (This effect does not stack with itself.)"
  
• NEW: (OffHand, Feet) "While Druid skill is active: abilities that fire a projectile, such as Toxinball, Fireball, or most Archery abilities, deal +248 Poison damage over 8 seconds"
  

[h2]Other Druid Changes[/h2]

• Some shields are now Wooden for purposes of activating druidic abilities
  
• Changed icon for druid ability Inject Venom as it was accidentally using a spider icon
  
• Added new wooden harnesses for butterflies. These are belt-slot items that enable Druidism. They must be hand-whittled by an expert whittler, who can find the recipes as loot drops
  

There were a few other skill changes that just happened to happen in this update.

[h2]Warden Changes[/h2]

• Warden ability Aggression Deterrent: base range increased to 10m
  
• Warden treasure effect changes:
  
  
  
  
  • (Head, Necklace) "Warden Base Damage +50%" => "Warden Base Damage +50% and Electricity Vulnerability -18% while Warden skill active"
    
  • (Chest, Legs) "Indirect Poison and Indirect Trauma damage is +24% per tick while Warden skill active" => +36% per tick
    
  • (Feet, Ring) Indirect Nature and Indirect Electricity damage is +24% per tick while Warden skill active => +36% per tick
    
  • (Chest) "Apprehend deals +48 damage and hastens the current reuse timer of Controlled Burn by 1.5 seconds (so it can be used again more quickly)" => "Apprehend deals +150 Fire damage over 6 seconds and hastens the current reuse timer of Controlled Burn by 2 seconds (so it can be used again more quickly)"
    
    
    
    
    • In addition this treasure effect is now also found on the Main-Hand Weapon slot
      
• Warden bug fix: Apprehend generates extra Rage (as a result of the Fire damage type); Lethal Force does not generate extra rage anymore
  

[h2]Archery Changes[/h2]

• The ability Bow Bash is now a Basic Attack and costs 0 Power to use. It otherwise remains the same (including its 3-second cooldown)
  

This is a minor bug-fix update.

• Fix crash from clicking the Summon button in the recipe window
  
• Fix text issues with popup UIs
  
• Fix issue with chat button going onto 2 lines
  
• Fix for manticores getting stuck in their crystals
  
• Fix for Winter Turrets getting stuck inside rocks
  
• Fix for spiders in Myconian Cave never coming down from their vantage points
  
• Improve pathing in Rahu Sewers (though it's still not 100% up to par yet)
  
• Reduce texture-memory usage in "Enter the Light" area; previously low-end PCs could hit out-of-memory crashes when entering this area
  
• Fix bug where charmed enemies' pet-mode wasn't displayed correctly (should be assisting but was displayed as passive follow)
  
• Fix broken unarmed treasure effect "Slashing Strike deals +64 damage and worsens the target's Slashing Vulnerability +16% for 60 seconds."
  

In this update we revise several combat skills and make improvements in many areas.

Note: We're still working on the upcoming city Statehelm; it's probably two major updates away. You may see new references to it in-game, but it's not accessible yet.


We've updated the game to use Unity 2022.3. This is a major version change, which usually causes some hiccups and weirdness -- we've tried to smooth everything out, but if you see new problems please let us know. In particular, Unity 2022.3 uses a new navigation system. If you find places where monsters or pets cannot traverse (when they could before), that's a bug we'd love to hear about!

This upgrade doesn't directly add a ton of new features, but it includes many subtle bug-fixes for various hardware configurations.


If you did the Lost Scapegoats event sub-quests before obtaining the main quest, the main quest will update properly the next time you talk to Miss Chievous. This applies to every sub-quest except for Miss Take - you'll have to go and talk to her again after obtaining the main quest.

• Adjust UI defaults to look better on a 1920x1080 screen. Namely:
  
  
  
  • GUI Scale defaults to 1.5, and has a new maximum value of 3
    
  • Several window default sizes have been increased: Quest Log, Recipes, Item Info, Chat
    
  • Note: These changes will only affect new installations!
    
• The setting "Chat Text Size" now affects the chat input font size
  
• There's a new default chat tab called "Chat" with the following channels: Nearby, Global, Tell, Status, Error, Emotes, Trade, Help. This tab is selected by default for new players
  
• New setting "Windows Text Size" affects the font size of the Quest Log, Recipes, & Item Info windows. More windows may be added in the future
  
• New setting "Popups Text Size" affects the font size of the Summon Item, Split Stack, & Informational Popups
  
• You can now ctrl-click on an item to view More Info about it
  
• Slightly adjust text of the Word of Power popup
  
• Slight changes to some of the windows, to make them look better and be easier to read
  
• New setting, "Use Reflections", turns reflections on or off. Find it in Settings > Graphics > Advanced > Lighting & Shadows
  

[h2]Ability Changes[/h2]

• Summon Doomstorm: chance to consume necromancy dust reduced from 33% to 10%
  
• Tsunami: Base Damage significantly increased (e.g. Tsunami 6 from 741 to 1007). Some treasure effects adjusted as a result of this formula change
  
• Deluge: Base Damage significantly increased (e.g. Deluge 9 from 578 to 882). Some treasure effects adjusted as a result of this formula change
  
• Summon Tornado: works in water
  
• At level 50, weather witches gain a lore recipe to determine the current weather in all outdoor areas
  

[h2]Treasure Changes[/h2]

• "Tsunami Damage +116, Targets also take +20% damage from sentient weather phenomena for 30 seconds" => ... take +30% damage
  
• "Tsunami deals +469 Nature damage over 7 seconds" => +560
  
• "Tsunami Damage +179, Every other casting resets the timer on Summon Tornado (so it can be used again immediately)" => "Tsunami Damage +252, ..."
  
• "Deluge deals +102 damage on contact and increases the target's Poison Vulnerability and Electricity Vulnerability +15% for 30 seconds (non-stacking)" => +18%
  
• "Dampen deals Cold damage and debuffs the target so that it takes +90 damage from future Cold attacks for 10 seconds" => ...takes +12.5% damage from future Cold attacks
  
• "Dampen debuffs the target so that it takes +90 damage from future Nature attacks for 10 seconds" => ...takes +12.5% damage from future Nature attacks
  
• (Head, Chest) "Shocking Grasp Damage +114. Every other use has a 25% chance to stun the target" => "Shocking Grasp Damage +95. Shocking Grasp has a 100% chance to stun the target"
  
• this treasure effect is now only available on Head-slot equipment. Chest-slot items that have this effect have become Legacy Items. You can use Transmutation to remove this treasure effect and make the item "un-Legacy", or speak with the Legacy Item Helper golem in Serbule to get a randomized replacement item
  
• new: (Head): "When you use Summon Tornado 3 or higher, you summon a second tornado that is 2 ability-tiers weaker. In addition all summoned Tornadoes deal +15% Damage"
  
• new: (Main-Hand, Ring): "Using Dampen, Lightning Bolt, Shocking Grasp, or Hailstorm while simultaneously channeling a different Weather Witching ability boosts your next attack (which is typically the channeled ability, unless it's not an attack) damage +34%"
  
• new: (Chest) "Shocking Grasp Reuse Time -5.5 seconds"
  

• Dominate ability: no longer has a casting time
  
• Sidebar ability "Giant Bat Form" no longer requires you to have the Vampirism skill active to cast it
  
• Fixed bug that prevented rakshasa enemies from dropping blood
  
• Treasure changes:
  
• (Feet) "Enthrall Range +15 and Damage +138" => "Enthrall and Dominate Range +25"
  
• (Feet, Necklace) "Dominate Reuse Time -10" => "Dominate Duration +10 and Reuse Time -10"
  
• new: (Off Hand) "If you abort Dominate before it naturally expires, or if you use it on an Elite target, the target is stunned for 6 secs and it suffers +25% damage from all Indirect Damage sources for 30 seconds"
  
• new: (Chest, Hands) "Dominate boosts its victim's Direct Damage +79% and Taunt +1000% while charmed"
  
• new: (Ring) "Dominate boosts its victim's non-Rage attack damage +162% while charmed"
  

Animal Handling saw changes both to the skill itself, and to the various pets you can tame.

[h2]Ability Changes[/h2]

• Ability Clever Trick is now marked as a Survival Utility ability, which allows some buffs to apply to it
  
• Changed the level that you get "Sic 'Em" from 9 to 3. Changed the level that you get "Feed Pet" from 3 to 4. Since newly-trained Animal Handlers are automatically raised to level 3, this means Animal Handlers will always have an offensive combat ability they can put on their bar. (You need to use an Animal Handling ability at least once per minute to earn Animal Handling XP, but previously newbies only had "Feed Pet" available at level 3, and it wasn't intuitive that they needed to feed their pet before battle to earn XP.)
  
• Ability "That'll Do" no longer has a casting time. Reset time is 15s instead of 30s
  
• Added a new ability "Mark Target". This ability will eventually be trained by an NPC in Statehelm, but in the short term it can be learned from Crelpin in the Fae Realm.
  

[h2]Treasure Changes[/h2]

• (Chest) "Direct Cold Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active" => "Direct Cold Damage and Direct Darkness Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active"
  
• (Head) "Direct Electricity Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active" => "Direct Electricity Damage and Fire Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active"
  
• (Hands) "Direct Piercing Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active" => "Direct Piercing Damage and Direct Slashing Damage +20% when Animal Handling skill active"
  
• (Head, Main Hand) "Animal Handling pets' Sic 'Em abilities taunt +1500" => +2000
  
• (Legs, Main Hand) "Animal Handling pets deal +20% damage when they critically hit" => +50%
  
• (Legs, Necklace) "Animal Handling pets taunt as if they did +200% additional damage" => +400%
  
• (Chest, Ring) "Animal Handling pets taunt their opponents 40% less" => 57% less
  
• (Necklace, Ring) "Animal Handling pets' damage-over-time effects (if any) deal +162% damage per tick" => +200%
  
• (Legs, OffHand) "Animal Handling pets recover +21 Armor every five seconds (whether in combat or not)" => "Animal Handling pets have +11% Max Armor, and every second they recover Armor equal to 2% of their Max Armor"
  
• (Hands, MainHand) "Animal Handling pets' Clever Trick abilities deal +24% damage" => +27%
  
• (OffHand, Ring) "Animal Handling pets' basic attacks deal +15% damage" => +26%
  
• (Main Hand, Necklace, Legs) "For 19 seconds after using Clever Trick, pets' basic attacks have a 15% chance to deal double damage" => 30% chance. Also fixed bug that caused high tiers of this effect to only last as long as the lower tiers.
  
• (Legs, MainHand) "Animal Handling pets' healing abilities, if any, restore +53% health" => +73%
  
• new: (Chest, Ring) "Mark Weakness Damage +193"
  
• new: (Main Hand, Feet) "Mark Weakness Damage +75%"
  
• new: (Hands) "When Mark Weakness is used on a target that has less than 33% of their max Rage, it triggers again, targeting an enemy within 8 meters of the first (using Mark Weakness 9)"
  
• new (Off-Hand) "Mark Weakness further increases target's Pet Vulnerability +16%. Reuse time -4 seconds."
  
• new (Necklace, Legs) "Mark Weakness causes your next attack to deal +182 damage if it is a Psychic attack"
  
• new (Head) "Psychic Damage +18% while Animal Handling skill active; Crushing Damage +18% while Animal Handling skill active"
  

[h2]Dev Commentary[/h2]
Notes on a weird treasure effect: "For X seconds after using Clever Trick, pets' basic attacks have a X% chance to deal double damage":

• Note that some pets have better inherent Basic Attack damage than others. Pets that aren't damage-focused, including most Bears and some Rats, have better Basic Attacks than damage-centric pets such as Cats. (This is because the cats' damage bonuses are applied elsewhere, usually to their Sic 'Em and/or Clever Trick attacks.) So Basic Attack-boosting treasure is a way to improve the damage of less damage-focused pets.
  
• If you equip multiple copies of this effect, the percentage-chances aren't added together; instead each is rolled separately. If you have two copies equipped and they both trigger on the same attack, the pet would deal 400% more damage than normal.
  
• If you use these treasure effects, it's recommended that you also use the effects that boost pets' Basic Attack Damage!
  
• Also consider the treasure effects that boost pets' Critical Hit Damage. Most pets have about a 10% Critical Hit Chance with all their attacks. (Chance is based on the pet's Enthusiasm.) When their Basic Attacks crit, the crit damage is also doubled, which can stack with this effect.
  
• Typical builds that use this effect only use one or two copies of it (because other treasure effects are more important). Three copies are available to provide build flexibility
  

[h2]Animal Handling Pet Ability Changes[/h2]
Animal Handling pets have three abilities: a basic attack, a Sic 'Em attack, and a Clever Trick. (You can examine your pet to see what abilities it uses.) We've revised most of the Sic 'Em and Clever Trick abilities as follows:

• Bear Taunt: is now an 8m Burst attack. High-level versions of Bear Taunt have a percentage-based taunt bonus instead of a flat bonus
  
• Bear Stun: is now an 8m Burst attack
  
• Bear Ultra: is now an 8m Burst attack. Base damage is higher
  
• Bear Warmth: self-taunt buff is now percentage-based instead of a small flat amount
  
• Bear Self-Heal: restores same amount of health, plus restores even more armor
  
• Bee Inject: increased damage over time (by more than double at higher-level tiers)
  
• Bee Poison Vuln: lasts 30 seconds instead of 15; range increased to 40m
  
• Wasp Blast: damage increased; ranged increased to 40m
  
• Wasp Ranged Slow: damage significantly increased; range increased to 40m
  
• Wasp Ranged Debuff: damage increased; range increased to 40m
  
• Wasp Burst Pierce: damage increased
  
• Big Cat Kill: now an 8m Burst slashing attack
  
• Big Cat Ultra-Kill: deals more damage; deals its full damage directly to both Health and Armor (doubling effective damage and bypassing armor mitigation)
  
• Big Cat Root: now a Burst 8m effect
  
• Raking Claw (Slashing Debuff): now a Burst 8m effect; debuff lasts longer
  
• Big Cat Heal: retains its instant heal and also has a heal-over-time effect that restores twice as much (total) health over 10 seconds
  
• Grimalkin Puncture: bleed damage dramatically increased
  
• Grimalkin Flee: added massive built in taunt plus an increased temp-taunt to more reliably pull target away
  
• Rat De-Rage: base damage is higher
  
• Rat Heal: now is a 20m burst heal that targets the pet, owner, and any other allies
  
• Rat Poison Vuln: now a 8m burst attack
  
• Rat Burn: fire DoT damage dramatically increased
  

[h2]Other Pet Changes[/h2]
Almost all Animal Handling pets had some changes to (hopefully) improve their utility in their intended role. The biggest changes are to their abilities as listed above. Pets also may have received Max Armor, Max Health, or damage changes. Those changes are too numerous and minor to be listed here (sorry), but below are changes that are more dramatic than just stat-changes:

• Bees with melee poison attacks now deal Poison damage-over-time with every basic attack (with shorter and weaker effect than their special move, but scaling at all levels)
  
• Chopjaw's regeneration has been reduced. Previously it regenerated 361 health per second at level 100. This was a bug; it was using monster-regen instead of pet-regen. Chopjaw now recovers 15% of its Max Health every second, which by default is 89 health/sec at level 100. This value can be buffed by using equipment or abilities that boost the pet's Max Health.
  
• Freeze Wasps' basic attack is now ranged
  
• Shooty wasps now have all ranged attacks (some had melee-range basic attacks)
  
• Grottofang has nature resistance instead of cold resistance
  

• revised pet AI logic for "Aggressive" and "Aggressive Seeker" pets so that they attack a nearby enemy immediately upon existing, even if their owner is not in combat. Previously they could not detect foes that weren't actively in combat with themselves or their owner.
  
• To help players adjust to the skill changes in this update, the following skills will have discounted Transmutation costs through April: Weather Witching, Animal Handling
  
• The Serbule Community Chest is now known as the Serbule Dynamic Safebox. The name has changed, but everything else is the same.
  
• Elven Lily, Red Rose, & Cedar Wood are now a bit more abundant, and each now spawns somewhere in the world
  
• Game now specifies that Denton Razor likes "Elvish" jewelry
  
• Upgrade fat dropped by Vidarian Hogs
  
• The footpath in Vidaria no longer counts as being in water
  
• Vidaria Orc Invasion event now shows up on the map
  
• Add a note to a strange panel in Vidaria to denote that it doesn't do anything yet
  
• more locations are accessible via teleportation coordinates
  
• Elite and Boss monsters have increased Critical-Hit Chance (from a flat 5% chance to up to 8% for some epic bosses)
  
• fix bug that allowed Battle Chemistry mutations to stay on pets even when the caster stopped using the Battle Chemistry skill
  
• fix bugs that caused you to lose/gain Body Heat, Flight Power, Breath, Radiation, Cleanliness, Peaceableness, and Hydration while the client was still loading a new area
  
• Fix Eltibule and Vidaria trees not providing shade for vampires
  
• Fix for Corey the Croaker not actually providing a hangout
  
• Fix Makara's dialogue not progressing
  
• you can now train Corpse Talking if you have either Necromancy 20 or Shamanic Infusion 20
  
• monsters who hunt by scent no longer track dead players
  
• fixed certain abilities such as Castigate that could not be used in water unless you were standing on the bottom of the lake or pool
  

This is a bug-fix update.

• You are now engulfed in purple flames when you are standing in an area that is applying Hellfire to you
  
• Demons that apply Hellfire now say so under their name when targeted
  
• Being dead in a zone of Hellfire no longer continues to apply Hellfire stacks to you
  
• Ferris Blueheart now offers a daily hangout to remove some Hellfire. What a nice guy!
  
• Hellfire stacks now show in your buff bar even when you are hiding Permanent Buffs
  

• Fix bug causing you to respawn at a random location in Vidaria, instead of the nearest respawn point
  
• Kormathrux the Helix Devourer (the horse thief boss) no longer curses you
  
• Astonishing Skulls can now be found on the undead in Vidaria
  
• adjustments to dynamic activities in Vidaria - monsters' detection, shout, and chase radius is a bit smaller
  
• Slightly increase spawn rate of engineers in the back half of the Vidaria Orc Camp
  
• Fix bugs in the Crazed Animal and Gargoyle events in Vidaria
  
• Vidaria events now show up on the map when they are active (make sure you have Events selected in your filters!)
  
• Orcish Mining Pick recipes now work like other crafted gear recipes, and Engineer Crall has many more recipes to teach as a result
  
• Optimize Vidaria crater smoke particles
  
• Fix wrong favor-increase text for Korbok
  

• fixed display bug in Blood Mist tooltip; it showed that it dealt damage without any treasure effects. (Ability does no damage without treasure effects)
  
• Treasure effect "While in Blood Mist form, you erupt in a fountain of vile blood every 2 seconds, damaging all enemies within 5 meters" was broken, is now fixed
  
• Treasure effect "Bite attacks deal +24% damage and hasten the current reuse timer of Blood Mist by 3 seconds" => by 2 seconds
  
• Vampire 81-90 can now be unlocked
  
• Enable vampire rune in Vidaria farmhouse
  
• Vampire Runes can now be interacted with in the Old Targeting UI
  

• New currencies (Vidaria Renown, Blood Oaths) now show up on vendor screens, displaying how much of that currency you currently have
  
• Fix bugs in the Golf window GUI
  
• Potential fix for Combatant-related exceptions on subservers (a/k/a "dead monsters chasing players")
  
• Gain a synergy level of Toolcrafting when reaching Gadgeteering 55
  
• Fix for "You're appreciating a performance" not going away when it should
  
• Fix for some NPCs no longer receiving gifts, and instead responding with something along the lines of "I don't know what to do with that"