Relic Guard Dynamic Scaling
 

• Based on feedback and in an effort to make keeps and a small number of relics easier to defend for outnumbered populations as well as to reduce the difficulty of attacking realms that hold 5+ relics, all Elite Relic guards, relic temple guards, and the normal but high-purple con "Elder" guards will now scale their difficulty up and down depending on how many relics a realm holds.
  • Realms only holding 0-1 relics will see the highest difficulty guards defending their realms keeps and relic temples.
  • Realms with 2 relics will see little to no change from current guard difficulties.
  • Realms holding 3 or 4 relics will have slightly less powerful but still red-purple guards defending their keeps and relic temples.
  • Realms holding 5 or more relics will have significantly less powerful, orange-red guards defending their keeps and relic temples.
• Currently the number of guards spawned will not change but this is another lever we can investigate if the above changes do not go far enough in addressing these concerns.

Climbing-Spikes adjustment

• Based on feedback and in an effort to allow other class archetypes room to shine in keep sieges, the following changes have been made to heavy tank climbing spikes:
  • Hero, Warrior, and Armsmans' climbing spikes ability has had its cooldown increased from 60 seconds to 3 minutes.
    • Additionally, a new debuff lasting 45 seconds is fired when climbing-spikes is initiated that increases damage the Hero, Warrior, or Armsman takes by 15% from all sources.

Protection Obelisk and Keep Upgrade System

• A new system's first pass has been implemented that will enable players to upgrade specific aspects of a specific keep to better tailor its defense as well as to get more use out of keeps their realm owns.
• Each feature will be added individually so that game and siege balance can be observed with these new dynamics one at a time.
• Keep Upgrades will be purchasable at the new Master Stone Mason NPC to the left of the staircase in each realm's inner keep.
  • Please note that this feature is only available in New Frontier keeps and is not available in any tower or Knoc Meayll's keep.
• The first keep upgrade available is a Protection Obelisk that can be purchased for bounty points.
  • This obelisk spawns to the right of the staircase on the main floor of the inner keep. 
  • When the Protection Obelisk is spawned, keep defenders can right-click their keep lord to receive a significant damage reduction buff so long as they stay in the inner keep's lord room or roof area.
    • Leaving those areas will result in the buff being removed though players can simply revisit their lord to get the buff again.
    • Like relic guards, the effectiveness of this buff will scale based on the number of relics your realm owns.
      • Realms with 5+ relics cannot obtain this buff.
      • Realms with 3-4 relics receive a 25% damage reduction buff when staying within the lord room or keep roof areas.
      • Realms with 2 relics receive a 50% damage reduction buff when staying within the lord room or keep roof areas.
      • Realms with 0-1 relics receive a 75% damage reduction buff when staying within the lord room or keep roof areas.
  • The aim of this upgrade is to improve the ability for defenders stuck inside the inner keep to take more risks and be less fearful of attacks by attackers in the courtyard.
  • Additionally, we hope to see more dynamic battles in and around the 1st floor of the inner keep as enemy realms will want to destroy the Protection Obelisk before advancing into the lord room and facing significant damage reduction buffs on their enemies while defenders will want to maintain this advantage.
• We very much look forward to observing how this first upgrade fares and what new tactics we may see out in the Frontiers!
  • There are several other additional keep upgrades being discussed as well as more ways to redeem the upgrades - by completing myriad gathering quests around the frontier - so stay tuned!

Relic and Keep Reset

• All of the above notes are now live but in order to facilitate these new changes and dynamics all keeps and relics will be reverted to their default state at 11 AM EST / 4 PM GMT tomorrow, December 18th.