Albion Online: Into the Fray Patch 4 is now available; also known as the Arcane and Frost Patch, this completes the overhaul of the remaining magic staves in the game.
The frost and arcane staves in Albion Online not only received visual upgrades, but they got some new and reworked abilities as well.
There’s a new Q-slot ability called Chain Missile, available to all arcane staves in the game. When used, you shoot a Chain Missile in the targeted direction. Once it hits an enemy, it will instantly jump to the nearest foe within eight meters, dealing magical damage. Now, a couple of things to remember here. First, this ability can hit up to three targets, provided they’re relatively close to each other. And second, the same target cannot be hit multiple times.
Moreover, each enemy hit by Chain Missile gets an Arcane Charge. These charges deal an additional 61 magical damage and are consumed when you deal direct damage to affected targets.
Empowering Beam is one of the best active abilities available to arcane staves because it increases the damage done by your allies to the affected enemy. That said, you can now move while channeling this ability, increasing your chances of survival since you no longer have to be stationary while doing so.
For frost staves, the original Q-slot ability Frost Bolt has been removed in favor of Frostbite. When cast, you shoot a projectile in the targeted direction, dealing magical damage upon impact. Additionally, your damage is increased by 4% for 2.5 seconds, which stacks up to three times.
The original W-slot ability called Shatter has also been removed to make way for two new abilities, Frost Lance and Glacial Obelisk.
For Frost Lance, you throw a Frost Lance in a chosen direction and it explodes upon hit, dealing 145 magical damage to all enemies in a small area. All enemies hit by the explosion have their damage resistances reduced by 0.16 for four seconds. This is ideally used as an opener to make your other abilities hit harder.
Glacial Obelisk, on the other hand, serves two purposes. One, it creates a Glacial Obelisk when used, which increases all damage and cooldown rate of up to 10 allies within a six-meter radius of the Obelisk by 15%. Two, it can be detonated via recast, dealing magic damage to enemies within a five-meter radius. All enemies hit by the resulting explosion are slowed down by 40% for several seconds.
You can read all the reworked arcane and frost staff abilities on the official site.
Albion Online: Into the Fray Patch 4 is available on PC.
