Dragonstone - Patch 1.8

Cycle 9 - Patch 1.8

New Items

Molten Tools

Tier II Hellforge Tools!
Reinforced with very high durability.
Upgraded enchantments, comes with Efficiency V and Fortune III.
Autosmelts mined ores, logs, and sand.

Infernal Armor

The Hellforge's Tier II armor set!
Equipped with additional armor points, armor plating, and a shorter dash cooldown, this set is designed with melee combat in mind.
This is our first armor set that goes above the vanilla limits of armor, featuring 21 armor points and 18 armor toughness!

Aether & Nether Gemstones

Melee weapons can now be upgraded with Gemstones, just like wands!
Choose from 3 different types of gemstones, with more coming soon!
All Tier I melee weapons now have 1 gem slot, while Tier II melee weapons have 2 gem slots!

Forge Potions

Five new potions are being added to the forge!
Restoration Potions: Health Potion, Mana Potion, Golden Elixir.
Buff Potions: Leyline Potion, Smite Potion

The mana potions should help mages have more uptime for their magic attacks, as they often exhaust themselves and have to wait for mana surge to deal magic damage again. ~Dummy

⚙️ New Mechanic ⚙️

Armor Plating

We are adding a new armor stat called Armor Plating.
- Armor Plating is being added to our new Infernal Armor set and Dragon Helmets. (Replacing chromatic scales)
Here is how it works:
- Upon equipping an item with Armor Plating, you begin generating Armor Plate stacks.
- While armor plating is active, all incoming damage is reduced by 40%, and you are immune to most forms of knockback.
- Taking damage from any source reduces your armor plating by 1.
- When your armor plating reaches 0, it becomes "cracked" and is no longer effective.
- Armor plating will regenerate after 60 seconds have passed. It will also begin to regenerate if you don't take damage for 15 seconds and still have some armor plating left.

Balance Changes

Armor

Aether Armor (Full Set)

Armor Toughness increased from 4 ➜ 6 (+50%)
Magic Resistance reduced from 30% ➜ 20%

True Aether Armor (Full Set)

Armor Toughness increased from 10 ➜ 12 (+20%)
Magic Resistance reduced from 50% ➜ 20%
Fire Protection enchantment reduced from Lvl IV ➜ Lvl III
[Ability: Mana Surge]
- Cooldown reduced from 150s ➜ 90s (-40%)
- PvP nerf reduced from 50% ➜ 25% (-25%)
- Now notifies you when cooldown is finished. 🠉

Mana surge had too low of an impact with too high of a cooldown in PvP. With careful testing, we believe these changes will help mages deal burst damage more often. ~Dummy

Hellstone Armor Set

Removed Melee Resistance. 30% ➜ 0%
Fire Protection enchantment increased from Lvl III ➜ Lvl IV
Improved animation for Hellstone Dash. 🠉
[Set Bonus: Level 2]
- 🠉 Added +10 Max Mana
- 🠋 Removed +10% Melee Damage
[Set Bonus: Level 3]
- 🠉 Added +1 Base Melee Damage
- 🠋 Removed +20% Melee Damage

Tier 1 Hellstone Armor was not only competing with Tier 2 Aether Armor, it was more often that not stronger due to a number of problems with physical builds. These changes helped bring physical more in line with where it should be. ~Dummy

Raven Wings

Now grants immunity to fall damage. 🠉
Removed damage resistance while flying. 50% ➜ 0%

Sky Dragon Helmet

Added +4 Armor Plating (0 ➜ 4)
Removed Chromatic Scales (20 ➜ 0)
Can now hover slightly above the ground and maintain empowered buff while flight suppressed.

Sky Dragon Helmet was severely weaker than the other dragon helmets, largely due to being locked out of its flight buff in boss fights. These changes allow for the sky dragon to enhance their magical attacks while keeping their floaty movement in dungeon boss fights. ~Dummy

Fire Dragon Helmet

Added +4 Armor Plating. 0 ➜ 4
Removed Chromatic Scales. 20 ➜ 0
Removed 30% Melee Resistance. 30% ➜ 0%
[Passive: Infernal Strength]
- Strength I now begins at 20 HP. 16 ➜ 20
[Ability: Meteorite]
- Max meteor charges reduced from 10 ➜ 3 (-70%)
- Damage increased from 40 ➜ 60 (+50%)
- Vertical knockback increased by 300%
- Now applies Inferno Hex to all entities it hits. 🠉
- Animation adjusted to make the meteor feel more powerful. 🠉
[Ability: Combustion]
- PvE damage reduced from 3x ➜ 1.5x (-70%)
- PvP damage reduced from 0.5x ➜ 0.33x (-33%)

The Fire Dragon Helmet was definitely a controversial topic when discussing how it should be balanced. First of all, Fire Dragon specifically made the best use of chromatic scales in both PvP and PvE content, and was statistically impossible to kill in PvP scenarios. We have replaced chromatic scales on all dragon helmets with armor plating. Additionally, it had too many meteors and poke potential, so we condensed the power of them while giving them less stacks. Finally, we made a straight nerf to combust, as it was scaling unexpectantly with physical stats. ~Dummy

Sea Dragon Helmet

Added +4 Armor Plating. 0 ➜ 4
Removed Chromatic Scales. 20 ➜ 0
Healing Potency reduced from 50% ➜ 25%
Removed 5% Parry Chance. 5% ➜ 0%

Healing was largely overlooked as only one healing build existed. After calculating HPS numbers with different amounts of investment into healing, we decided to nerf the sea dragons healing potency to level out its raw healing potential with a green focused Aether Staff. ~Dummy

Void Dragon Helmet

Added +4 Armor Plating. 0 ➜ 4
Removed Chromatic Scales. 20 ➜ 0
Removed 10% Dodge Chance. 10% ➜ 0%

Melee

All Melee Weapons

Increased base damage vs mobs, now uses PvP Power to control damage vs players.
Slash attack no longer occurs while in the air to avoid confusion when attempting crits.
A sound now plays when landing a direct hit (not a slash hit) to let you know you did full damage.
Reduced particle size of slashes to reduce visual clutter.

We finally figured out a way to change how much damage is dealt between Mobs and Players with physical weapons. This should help make physical builds more viable in dungeons. Additionally, the player values were reduced as another way to keep physical in check as it was previously too strong in PvP. ~Dummy

In addition, testing revealed that slash attacks made it difficult to tell if you landed a crit or not, as more often than not the slash would hit the player when it felt like it should've been a crit. We changed the behavior of slash attacks to no longer occur while in the air to reduce the feeling of missed crits. ~Dragon

All Axes

Slash attack damage reduced from 0.9x ➜ 0.8x (-11%)
Slash attack now only occurs on direct hit. 🠋

This change to axes was made to prevent axes from constantly slashing while chopping trees. This also helps to balance their power a little bit, as axes have much wider slashes compared to swords which made them a little too powerful when swinging freely. ~Dragon

Aether Blade + Eternal Wind

Damage increased from 11 ➜ 16 (+45%)
PvP power set to 69%. 11 ➜ 11 (+0%)

True Aether Blade

Damage increased from 14 ➜ 20 (+43%)
PvP power set to 63%. 14 ➜ 12.5 (-11%)
[Ability: Whirlwind]
- Cooldown increased from 2s ➜ 6s (+200%)
- Knockback vs mobs increased by 47%
- Knockback vs players increased by 100%
- Removed weakness effect after casting. 🠉

The True Aether Blade was another controversial item when it came to its balance. Its AOE damage capability in dungeons far exceeded the True Aether Wand, and it found little to no use in PvP. We decided to make it a CC tool to help mages deter physical units. We increased its cooldown to prevent spamming in both PvE and PvP. ~Dummy

Hellstone Blade

Damage increased from 13 ➜ 18 (+38%)
PvP power set to 67%. 13 ➜ 12 (-8%)

True Hellstone Blade

Damage increased from 17 ➜ 23 (+35%)
PvP power set to 65%. 17 ➜ 15 (-12%)

Aether Axe

Damage increased from 13 ➜ 19 (+46%)
PvP power set to 66% 13 ➜ 12 (-7%)

Angelic Axe

Damage increased from 17 ➜ 21 (+24%)
PvP power set to 67% 17 ➜ 14 (-18%)

Hellstone Axe

Damage increased from 15 ➜ 20 (+33%)
PvP power set to 68% 15 ➜ 13.5 (-10%)

Volcanic Edge

Damage increased from 18 ➜ 25 (+38%)
PvP power set to 66% 18 ➜ 16.5 (-8%)
[Ability: Magma Bomb]
- Cooldown increased from 12s ➜ 15s (-25%)

Magma Bomb is a very strong ability, and we found it has too much uptime, so we increased its cooldown. ~Dummy

Reliquae Aurora

This item currently does not do much and is awaiting a rework.

Chaos Hammer

Damage increased from 19 ➜ 39 (+105%)
PvP power set to 43% 19 ➜ 17 (-11%)
[Ability: Explosive Pain]
- Damage increased from 20 ➜ 60 (+300%)
- PvP damage increased from 10 ➜ 20 (+100%)
- Cooldown reduced from 8s ➜ 4s (+50%)
- Added range limit to thrown blocks to reduce lag. 🠉
[Ability: Grand Slam]
- Damage ceiling increased from 80 ➜ 120 (+50%)
- PvP damage ceiling increased from 30 ➜ 40 (+33%)

Ranged

All Forge Bows

PvP power reduced from 50% ➜ 30% (-20%)
Arrow Velocity is now displayed in blocks per second instead of a multiplier.
Now fires custom projectiles that we have more control over.

We found bows were out DPS'ing other weapon types with zero investment, so we tuned their damage to be more respective of uninvested weapon damage numbers of other damage types. ~Dummy

True Aether Bow

Can now continue charging to reduce arrow spread. 🠉
All three arrows can now damage the same enemy. 🠉
Damage reduced from 57x3 ➜ 49x3 (-14%)

Hellstone Bow

Arrow Velocity reduced from 80 ➜ 50 (-38%)
Explosion damage multiplier increased from 0.7x ➜ 0.75x (+7%)

Magma Bow

Arrow Velocity reduced from 80 ➜ 50 (-38%)
Explosion charge time reduced from 3.5s ➜ 2s (-43%)
Explosion damage multiplier reduced from 0.8x ➜ 0.75x (-6%)
An entity hit by an exploding arrow will now take damage from both the arrow and the explosion.

All Forge Repeaters

Now have a new Arrow Spread stat.
- Set to 2° on most repeaters for now.
Arrow Velocity is now displayed in blocks per second.

Repeaters were dominating single target DPS with no investment in PvE content. Their original purpose was to relieve strain of pulling back arrows while still having a bow type weapon, however they ended up being an infinitely better choice than regular bows. We are nerfing them in hopes of letting regular bows shine once more. ~Dummy

Aether Repeater

Damage reduced from 24 ➜ 16 (-33%)
Arrow Velocity reduced from 40 ➜ 20 (-50%)

True Aether Repeater

Damage reduced from 33 ➜ 22 (-33%)
Arrow Velocity reduced by 60 ➜ 20 (-33%)

Hellstone Repeater

Damage reduced from 38 ➜ 26 (-32%)
Arrow Velocity reduced from 60 ➜ 40 (-33%)
Explosion damage multiplier increased from 0.7x ➜ 0.75x (+7%)

Magma Repeater

Damage reduced from 48 ➜ 36 (-25%)
Arrow Velocity reduced from 80 ➜ 40 (-50%)
Explosion damage multiplier reduced from 0.8x ➜ 0.75x (-6%)

Magic

True Aether Wand

[Ability: Aether Barrage]
- Cooldown reduced from 20s ➜ 12s (-40%)
- Reduced the spread of barrage projectiles by 80%. 🠉

Infernal Wand

Updated item description to state that projectiles leave behind a lingering AoE for a short time.
Temporarily removed unfinished secondary ability.
- Replaced with Hellstone Wand's secondary.
  - Cooldown of this ability is shared between the two wands.
Other players' AoE circles are now colored red to differentiate between your own AoE circles.

Aether Staff

Now has a party targeting option.
- Enabling Party Healing will ensure projectiles only track and collide with party members.
- Turning this off will allow you to track and heal anyone.
- Toggle by looking directly down and pressing F (your swap hand keybind).

This change was to allow healers to target party members that are closely fighting other players, without accidently healing non party members. Additionally, you can still heal players in the open world without needing to be in a party with them. ~Dummy

🧟 Dungeon Changes 🧟

Outpost

Warden Shield health reduced from 300 ➜ 250 (-17%)

Ancient Digsite

Ancient Pharaoh now fires the "cursed sand" attack at the same time as the tornado to make the attack easier to predict.
Demonic Seal Shield health reduced from 500 ➜ 250 (-50%)
Hellfire Archdemon base health reduced from 8600 ➜ 6600 (-23%)

This is to compensate for the Repeater nerf and to slightly reduce the duration of the boss fight at higher difficulties, as this dungeon already takes enough time to finish as it is. ~Dragon

🛠️ Forge Changes 🛠️

Dragon Communion Altar

Crafting a Dragonstone now also requires 10 Infernal Rubies. 0 ➜ 10

Essence Generator

Cloud Essence & Infernal Essence crafting time reduced from 30 min ➜ 15 min
Fast Aether Essence & Fast Nether Essence shard cost reduced from 25 ➜ 20

Aether Infuser

Removed shard dust smelting.

Hellstone Furnace

Removed shard dust smelting.

Event Forge

All costs below are in Event Points.

Undead Essence cost reduced from 60 ➜ 25
Fiery Essence cost reduced from 75 ➜ 25
Cloud Essence cost reduced from 175 ➜ 100
Infernal Essence cost reduced from 200 ➜ 100
Aether Essence cost reduced from 1000 ➜ 500
Nether Essence cost reduced from 1400 ➜ 500
Ancient Debris cost reduced from 100 ➜ 45
Dragon Breath cost reduced from 40 ➜ 10
Totem of Undying cost reduced from 100 ➜ 25
Budding Amethyst cost reduced from 2000 ➜ 1000
Dragon Shard Block cost reduced from 1000 ➜ 900

Hellstone Forge

Many items had their costs reduced, but we forgot to document all of the changes we made.
Most notably, we heavily reduced the Infernal Essence requirement across the board (especially in Tier II), and lessened some of the vanilla material requirements.
[Dragon fill in the actual costs tomorrow when you have the old forge file to compare against]

🦋 Quality of Life 🦋

Ender Chests can one again be mined without silk touch.
Improved magma bow charge animation to reduce visual clutter.
Reduced particle size of melee weapon slashes to reduce visual clutter.
Players in the forge now receive Fire Resistance to prevent hellforge lava from burning players.
All forge armor and spirit armor use a netherite base again, which makes the items themselves immune to lava.

🐛 Bug Fixes 🐛

[Major] Finally fixed a long-standing bug that caused wand & bow projectiles to collide with invisible armor stands/markers in dungeons.
Fixed true hellstone blade slash consuming mana even if you did not have enough, causing you to enter mana debt.
Fixed mob grinders not working while AFK.
Fixed forge armor and spirit armor playermodel textures.
- Sadly animations are not yet supported.

⚠️ Known Issues ⚠️

Bow and Wand bullets were temporarily removed due to an alignment issue. (We added additional particles to keep them visible)
Repeaters temporarily no longer have a firing animation due to an issue with item data being overridden.
We temporarily disabled sneak to trade as it was interfering with forge abilities in pvp combat.

📆 What’s next? 📆

Server Quest + Server Event?