Developer Sandbox Interactive recently launched the Beyond the Veil Update for Albion Online. Besides the rework of the Roads of Avalon and the plethora of content provided by the new realm, this update implements balancing adjustments to certain weapons as well.
The dev team has acknowledged that Arcane Staffs in Albion Online have been quite powerful, especially in the Crystal League. So, in the Beyond the Veil Update, the Enigma Blade - one of the abilities inherent in Arcane Staffs, has been nerfed.
For those who don’t know, the Enigma Blade is an ability that conjures a magic blade when cast, hitting all enemies in a cone, dealing 400 magical damage, but that’s not the best part. When the blade hits at least one enemy, players can use its next combo ability called Flicker.
Flicker allows players to teleport to a targeted location, gaining a brief period of immunity in the process. As one can see, that invulnerability to damage can save players when used at the right time. To dampen this ability, the devs have increased Flicker’s cooldown from 15 to 20 seconds.
This means that Arcane Staff wielders will have to choose between using Enigma Blade only or gaining Flicker’s mobility/invulnerability benefits at the cost of a higher cooldown.
It’s not all bad for Arcane Staff users, though. Frazzle has its energy cost adjusted to just 7% of max energy, from 9% previously. But more importantly, it now reduces the enemy player or mobs’ bonus defense by 30%, making them more vulnerable to attacks for several seconds.
Here are the other balancing adjustments implemented in this patch:
- Sweeping Bolt (Heavy Crossbow):
- Cooldown: 18s > 15s
- Standtime: 0.7s > 0.4s
- Vicious Barrage (Siegebow):
- Cast Time: 1s > 0.5s
- Channel Ticks: 5 > 4
- Base Damage per Tick: 97.26 > 130
- % Damage per Tick: 2% > 2.5%
- Demonfang Resilience Penetration: 75% > 50%
- Pyroblast (One-handed Staff):
- Projectile Range: 20m > 24m
- Max Channel time: 2s > 1.2s
- Minimum / Maximum Damage remain unchanged
- Frostbite (all Frost Staffs):
- Damage Increase Duration: 2.5s > 4s
- Avalanche (Hoarfrost Staff):
- Cooldown: 30s > 20s
- Ice Crystal (Permafrost Staff):
- Damage can no longer be reflected
- Smite (all Holy Staffs):
- Hit Delay: 0.15s > 0.25s
- Revitalize (all Nature Staffs):
- Energy cost at Channel Start: 0 > 20
- Energy cost per Channel Tick: 9 > 4
- Living Armor (Great Nature Staff):
- Now only heals with Direct Damage (DoTs no longer count)
- Heroic Charge (all Swords):
- Movement Speed Increase: 12% > 9%
- Iron Will (all Swords):
- No longer purged by movement-removing effects like Cripple
- Mighty Blow (One Handed Sword):
- Cast Range: 10m > 8m
- Distance to enemy after Leap: 1m > 3m
- Charge (Claymore):
- 0 Charges Damage: 86.00 > 81
- 1 Charge Damage: 137.61 > 130
- 2 Charges Damage: 206.41 > 195
- 3 Charges Damage: 292.41 > 276
Albion Online: Beyond the Veil Update is available on PC.
