Jay's Notes - Class and Crafting Balance Improvements

Hello, Pioneers.

This is Jay Lee, Design Team Lead for ArcheAge Chronicles.

You’ve sent us a lot of feedback recently through the community, Discord, and streams.

Amongst all feedbacks, the most heated topic by far should be the class balance.

Thank you so much for your attention towards the game and for all the passion you’ve put into it. We’re reviewing your feedback very closely.

Today I’d like to give you an early look at the key changes coming in next Tuesday’s update.

Your feedback falls into three main areas.

First, the Mage class is too strong compared to the other classes.

The Elemental Staff’s fire skills performed very well in both hunting and PvP. Meanwhile, many of you said the Longbow doesn’t deal enough damage for what you put into it.

Second, there were too few ways to deal with status effects.

Status effect damage scales with Max HP, but there was basically no way to reduce it. So no matter what gear you had, you took about the same damage.

Third, gathering crafting materials was too tedious.

Even a basic processed material needed both monster loot and Sweetgrass Powder. Bone Chips, the raw material for Bonecraft, also took a long time to collect in the amounts you needed.

We should have seen these issues coming and fixed them before launch.

We aplogize for the inconveniences this caused.

Here’s what’s changing in this update, based on what you told us.

• We’re lowering the power of the fire attack skills, mainly Wall of Fire and Flamethrower.

• Flamethrower in particular dealt high damage and also applied status effects very efficiently with the Hellfire trait, so we’re adjusting that.

• In return, we’re increasing the power of Shooting Star.

• Weapon ATK is increased for all Longbows.

• The power of Focus Fire, Fire Arrow, and Scarlet Arrow is greatly increased.

• The power of all Maneuver skills is greatly increased.

• Rapid Fire and Aimed Shot are already performing at about the right level, so their skill power isn’t changing. They will still get stronger from the increase in Weapon ATK.

We also reviewed other weapons, such as the Warrior’s Greatsword and the Berserker’s Axe.

But we decided it was better to ship the most urgent fixes quickly than to delay the update until every weapon was ready.

We’ll keep watching how people play and what the data shows, and we’ll adjust the other weapons step by step.

Currently, raising Elemental ATK made status effects build up faster and deal more damage. Elemental DEF, however, only reduced attack damage of that element and did nothing against status effects.

Starting with this update, higher Elemental DEF also reduces both the buildup and the damage of status effects of that element.

For example, raising Fire DEF makes you less likely to get Burn, and if you do get Burn, you take less damage. However, there is a floor: no matter how high your Elemental DEF goes, status effects always keep a minimum effect, so they can never be fully ignored.

This update simplifies the recipes for processed materials such as Ingots, Textiles, and Additives.

Many of these recipes used to require Common and Uncommon monster loot, and even Sweetgrass Powder. Rather than just reducing these amounts, we’re removing monster loot and Sweetgrass Powder from processed material recipes entirely.

However, for loot materials of 'Common' and 'Uncommon' grades which are used directly in equipment crafting—we plan to either maintain their current setup or increase their acquisition amounts.

We’re also increasing how many Bone Chips you get, since they were hard to come by. Yields go up across the board, and later regions give even more.

We’ll keep working to make sure gathering crafting materials doesn’t become too stressful.

This balance update started with your feedback and your passionate discussions.

You told us specifically what frustrated you and what fell short.

That helped us see what needed fixing and decide where to start.

Of course, this update won’t address every piece of feedback at once.

But we’ll keep reading what you tell us and reviewing real game data and play experience, and we’ll keep making improvements.

We look forward to your continued feedback and support.

Thank you.

Jay Lee
Design Team Lead, ArcheAge Chronicles