Albion Online News

‘Tis the time for snowballs in people’s faces and fireworks in the skies. The Yuletide season is here, and Albion is once again under the cold thumb of the one and only Uncle Frost. Down in the dungeons, the bearded giant is spreading chaos – and loot!

[h3]Find Uncle Frost and Reap the Rewards![/h3]
Uncle Frost has set up camp again in a selection of T4-T8 Solo and Group Randomized Dungeons. Keep an eye out for a holiday-themed boss room – when you see it, Uncle Frost will be waiting to greet you with his usual icy disposition.

Defeat him and you could walk away with festive treasures like Uncle Frost’s hat, decorated pine trees, snowballs, or even the ultra-rare Yule Stag mount skin.



The mischief runs for the following times on each server:

• Albion Asia: December 19 at 23 UTC - January 5 at 23 UTC
• Albion Americas and Albion Europe: December 20 at 10 UTC - January 6 at 10 UTC

But the fun doesn’t stop there! Simply log in during the event to receive seasonal gifts via ingame mail:

• 5 fireworks in green, red, and yellow
• 50 snowballs to settle scores the holiday way

Grab your gear, brave the snow-filled dungeons, and show Uncle Frost who’s boss! Happy Yuletide, adventurers!

Another AlbionTV interview has dropped! SBI's Head of UI, Raoul Zander, stopped by to share a closer look at the much-anticipated quality-of-life features recently added to the game, along with a sneak peek at future projects.

(Note: This video is only available in English.)

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Missed the earlier interviews? AlbionTV chatted with Game Director Robin Henkys, CTO David Salz, and Co-Creative Director Michael Schwahn, diving into all things Albion.

Follow AlbionTV on YouTube (youtube.com/@albiontv) and Twitch (twitch.tv/albiononline) for more interviews soon!

The season of giving is here, and we’ve got a surprise for you. Until January 2 at 10 UTC, grab one of our selected Vanity Bundles and get 2,000 Gold free! Take this chance to treat yourself. After all, who deserves it more than you?

Choose from these iconic Vanity Bundles, each featuring themed wardrobe and mount skins, and claim your bonus Gold:

• Titan
• Arcanist
• Assassin
• Alchemist
• Ranger
• Tracker
• Frost Knight

Trade your free Gold for Silver on the ingame Gold Market, use it to unlock Premium status, or purchase exclusive vanity items. Hoard it or spend it – the choice is yours.

This offer ends January 2, so don’t miss your chance to claim this bonus! Find these bundles in the Albion Online Web Shop, in-game store, Steam client, iOS App Store, or Google Play.

Spoil yourself – you’ve earned it!

This patch follows up on previous combat balance changes, enhances some less prominent weapons and abilities, and introduces additional changes and fixes.

[h3]Changes[/h3]

• Dropped banners no longer reduce Fortification protection
• [MOBILE] Stack and Sort buttons have been restored to the main Inventory menu

[h3]Combat Balance Changes[/h3]

Bows

Wailing Bow has been underperforming in ZvZs despite being the only ability with custom AoE escalation. We have increased the damage escalation per target hit to bring Wailing Bow back to its glory days.

• Demon Arrow (Wailing Bow)
  • Damage to 1st target: 189 → 189 (unchanged)
  • Damage to 2nd target: 236 → 256
  • Damage to 3rd target: 283 → 323
  • Damage to 4th or more targets: 331 → 391

Cursed Staffs

While Dark Matter has high damage potential, it has been too easy to counter. We have decreased its cooldown to improve reliability but have also increased the energy cost to keep the ability's spam potential in check.

• Dark Matter (all Cursed Staffs)
  • Cooldown: 20s → 15s
  • Energy cost: 10 → 16

Holy Staffs

Sanctify’s unique ability to remove hostile ground effects created by enemies has proven less impactful than anticipated. As a result, we have increased its value as a traditional healing weapon.

• Sanctify (Exalted Staff)
  • Healing: 122 → 138
  • Range: 10m → 12m

Maces

We have given Dreadstorm Monarch’s Eye of the Storm additional damage and resistance reduction to help it command the respect it deserves.

• Eye of the Storm (Dreadstorm Monarch)
  • 1st & 2nd cast damage: 39 → 50
  • Resistance reduction: 0.12 → 0.15

Vendetta’s cast time has been significantly reduced to help Camlann players hit their intended targets more accurately without requiring additional setup.

• Vendetta (Camlann Mace)
  • Cast time: 0.7s → 0.25s
  • Stand time: 0.7s → 0.2s

Nature Staffs

The previous changes to Soul Link have been a step in the right direction, giving Iron Root players a legitimate reason to use the Ally/Enemy effect. However, with the increase in power, the reduction to the Ally/Ally effect was too conservative. The intent is to maintain the Ally/Ally effect as the powerful and consistent option it has always been.

• Soul Link (Ironroot Staff)
  • Ally/Ally healing transfer percentage: 50% → 75%
  • 2nd cast stand time: 1s → 0s

Quarterstaffs

We have added more value to the 1st and 2nd casts of Phantom Twin to help the Phantom Twinblade perform more effectively as a DPS Quarterstaff.

• Phantom Twin (Phantom Twinblade)
  • Damage per tick: 36 → 41
  • Slow: 10% → 15%
  • Added missing energy costs: 5/5/7

Separator is emerging as an effective tool for singling out a target. To help it succeed in that role, we have increased its single-target damage.

• Separator (all Quarterstaffs)
  • Damage to target: 125 → 157

War Gloves

Ravenstrikes have become a more viable option now that players are no longer at risk of dying without the ability to stop their own damage. Due to this increased consistency, their damage and speed while channeling have been reduced to give enemies more room to react and recover.

• Earth Crusher (Ravenstrike Cestus)
  • Self-slow: 25% → 40%
  • 0 charge damage: 175 → 155
  • 1 charge damage: 185 → 165
  • 2 charge damage: 195 → 175
  • 3 charge damage: 205 →  185

Armors

Following recent buffs, we are happy with the adoption of Armor of Valor as a powerful defensive option with unique utility. However, tank items should not provide high CC, strong defenses, and significant damage in a single ability. The amount of damage it could return, particularly in 1v1 fights, was too high.

• Requite (Armor of Valor)
  • Damage: 46 → 31

Shoes

Mage Sandals have fallen out of favor in modern Albion, so we have added a new resistance buff upon landing. Additionally, changes have been made to make it harder for enemies to predict the exact landing location.

• Delayed Teleport (Mage Sandals)
  • Now increases resistances by 0.2 for 2s after landing
  • No longer shows the exact ending position VFX to enemies

Mounts

Tanks have been using Morgana Ravens as an additional CC option, overwhelming large groups of players by chaining long-duration fears. We have made changes to Raven Scream to address these issues.

• Raven Scream (Morgana Raven)
  • Now gives feared targets immunity to consecutive Raven fears for 15s
  • No longer inherits the rider’s bonus CC duration

Reactive Scream has been removed as it had the potential to put the mount's rider into combat uncontrollably, hindering their ability to flee.

• Reactive Scream (Morgana Raven)
  • Removed

Potions

The recent change to potion swapping has made using Fish Bait inconvenient, so we have changed the way it is consumed.

• Fish Bait (all Tiers)
  • Fish Bait is now consumable from inventory, rather than as a potion
  • If a character had Fish Bait equipped in the potion slot prior to this patch, this will need to be removed before it can be used from the inventory

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

Spell Fixes

• Vengeful Sprint (Demon Boots): Fixed issue where the active charge count VFX did not display correctly
• Hellfire Potion: Fixed issue where it reduced healing cast instead of healing received

Salvaging Fixes

• Fixed issue where certain items would have a lower salvage value than intended
• Fixed issue where non-salvageable items would display a salvage value

Mob Fixes

• Fixed issue where Keeper Bear and Giant mobs could knock players out of combat range, causing them to reset
• Fixed issue where the Morgana Fang boss would stand still while casting Splitting Claw

Albion Journal Fixes

• Restored progress towards the mission ‘Have the offspring of every type of animal’ that was lost with Horizons Patch 2
• Fixed issue where the mission ‘Deliver a Weakened Wisp in Lethal Mists’ could not be completed in Greater Mists
• Fixed issue where the mission ‘Directly sell 9999 preferred luxury goods to Caerleon’ would only count those sold in one of Caerleon’s Marketplaces
• Fixed issue where the mission ‘Raise a Tier 7 Mount’ could be completed by raising a pig
• Fixed issue where the mission ‘Get your very own island’ could be completed by having any type of island in your island list
• Fixed issue where ‘Kill or assist in killing players within one minute’ missions would not count assists
• Fixed issue where the mission ‘Have 2 offspring from a single horse’ could not be completed
• Changed mission ‘Reach Guild Challenge Level 100 with your Guild’ to ‘Reach Guild Challenge Level 99 with your Guild’

Other Fixes

• Various additional graphical, animation, terrain, audio, UI, and localization fixes

Another year is almost over, and it’s been a busy one for Albion Online, with four content updates bringing numerous new features and improvements to the game. With so much having happened, Game Director Robin Henkys, Co-Creative Director Michael Schwahn, and Head of Production Moritz Bokelmann took a moment to recap the game’s development over the past twelve months and look ahead to what’s in store for 2025.

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[h3]Crystal Raiders[/h3]
2024 kicked off with the Crystal Raiders update:

• This overhauled Guild Warfare in Albion
  • Added Territory Raiding, allowing guilds to steal Siphoned Energy from their rivals
  • This gave more options to smaller guilds, and added tactical depth to seasons
• The first Crystal Weapons were introduced
• The Conqueror’s Challenge was revamped
  • Players can earn valuable personal and guild rewards from a wide range of activities

[h3]Foundations[/h3]
Improvements to guild warfare continued with Albion’s second update of the year, Foundations:

• Guilds can upgrade Fortifications in their territories, making them tougher to raid
• Attackers can use Siege Banners to attack these Fortifications
• Territory Activity Chests reward active guilds, but provide a further incentive to attackers
• In the future, Fortification gameplay may be developed further with new siege possibilities, and options for less advanced players

[h3]Paths to Glory[/h3]
Paths to Glory introduced a new achievement system: the Albion Journal:

• This serves two main functions:
  • Guides new players through features, and encourages older players to try new activities
  • Provides tangible goals for each feature of the game
• Unique vanity items reward progress
  • These are non-tradable, so act as a genuine mark of achievement

This update also overhauled the Roads of Avalon:

• Activities and rewards were rebalanced
• New activities were added, like Tracking
• As a result, activity in the Roads has increased significantly

[h3]Horizons[/h3]
The last update of 2024 was Horizons, which focused on revitalizing the open world:

• New points of interest were added
  • These include Dynamic Encampments, Boss Lairs, Dynamic Resource Hotspots and new Crystal Creatures
• Higher-tier mobs were made more challenging, but more rewarding
• In the Outlands, rewards increase the deeper you go
• S.A.F.E. Portals transport solo players to random locations in the Outlands

Horizons also brought many more significant improvements, like the HUD Editor, Tier 6 Yellow Zones, and two further Albion Journal categories.

[h3]Looking Ahead[/h3]
The next update is currently in production, bringing with it:

• Further exciting additions to the Outlands, such as:
  • New small-scale objectives
  • New areas for non-guild players to base themselves
  • New trade opportunities
• New Crystal Weapons
• New Albion Journal features
• And more…

2025 will see other significant developments and changes, for example:

• Measures will be taken to stabilize the Gold market and address high Gold prices
• The production schedule will be revised
  • Seasons will be reduced in length to two months
  • Updates will arrive every two seasons
• Other topics that may be addressed include Hellgates, Corrupted Dungeons, the new player experience, and Faction Warfare

We’ll discuss these developments more in the new year. Until then, thanks for being part of Albion in 2024, and happy holidays!