January PTR Release Notes: Patch 2

Today, we have a new list of the PTR changes. We have more Fast Travel Shrines near Expeditions, which might (only might!) mean that Mutators will be added to every Expedition sooner or later.

The most interesting fix is hiding very deep in the most not-so-obvious notes. “Only Bound items take durability damage on death”. My game wallet says cheers to the developers.

A weekly cooldown on crafting AND buying the Mutated Expedition Tuning Orbs is confirmed, so only two orbs per week are available.

Lots of bug fixes, specifically Outpost Rush fixing, are also on the list. The most important change is that Tier 4 Combat Trophy materials will be obtainable.

Besides, now we have an official note of what’s going to be with the house taxes. The bad news – they will not remain at 2% anymore. The good news – all taxes were divided by two, so when this patch goes live, the maximum house tax will be 10%.

Azoth Vials could be gained from trading skill aptitude, and to make them rarer, the number of Vials gained from all chests was decreased. It’s time to buy some Vials, I guess before they return to their previous price.

Please note that this list is not all-encompassing and is intended as an early look into a number of changes included within the most recent PTR build. This change list will be regularly updated, up through the retail release of the game version.

PTR Backstories

1. Playtester bags have had their GS significantly increased, providing players with a lot more inventory space.

2. Playtester gear containers have had their weight removed — however, we still advise only opening containers that you need in order to prevent immediately overpopulating your inventory with unnecessary items.

3. The “Playtester Vial of Azoth” item now grants Azoth as expected.

World Experience

Fast Travel:

1. New Fast Travel shrines have been unearthed!

1.1. Excavated Shrine added at the Amrine Excavation.

1.2. Starstone Shrine added to the North East wall of the Shattered Obelisk Complex.

1.3. Shiresad Shrine added just outside the entrance to The Depths.

1.4. Genesis Shrine added in front of the Garden of Genesis entrance.

1.5. Melpomene’s Shrine added below the Siren’s Amphitheatre.

1.6. Lazarus Shrine added next to the entrance to the Lazarus Instrumentality.

Expedition AI

1. Blighted Greenskeeper

1.1. Reworked the VFX on the Blighted Greenskeeper to be more visible to players.

World PTR Fixes and Additions:

1. Fixed an issue where Festering II still allows a player to be healed at 20 stacks.

2. Fixed an issue where some enemies are not being counted for scoring purposes in Mutated Expeditions.

3. Fixed an issue where a Negative Mutator Score appears to grant a positive Mutator Ranking.

4. Fixed an issue where AI does not gain the benefits from Empowered buffs while in mutated Expeditions.

5. Fixed an issue where players can avoid the starting line of Dynasty Shipyard.

6. Fixed an issue where the damage over time effects activate Paranoia.

7. Fixed a crash that occurs during the final boss encounter of the Dynasty Shipyard.

8. Fixed an issue where players are able to go AFK in Outpost Rush and avoid being kicked.

9. Fixed an issue where players cannot complete the Major Corrupted Portal event in Monarch’s Bluffs.

10. Addressed Warden Ducquet missing localized VO while the player approaches to interact.

11. Fixed an issue where Camps are not upgraded when level and/or quest requirements are met.

12. Fixed an issue where players were unable to turn in faction missions.

Quests/Missions Fixes:

13. Fixed issues with Carrionstar Ancients not present at Izar or Crux for Faction missions.

14. Fixed issue with Mourning Bridge RAID Faction Missions that can’t be completed.

15. Fixed issue with Cornil Reynolds, Edengrove Watcher, missing VO and having no lipsync during “Down Reekwater Way” quest.

16. Removed Duplicate Quest entries in data.

Combat

1. Outpost Rush Game Mode

1.1. Increased the Azoth cost of Brute tokens from 500 Azoth to 750 Azoth.

1.2. Summoning Stones are now dropped on death.

1.3. Summoning Stones now have a rarity associated with them. Epic for Bear and Wraith Tokens, and Legendary for Brute Tokens. This should make it clear to players when they are dropped by other players.

1.4. Outpost Rush Alpha Wolf will no longer summon minions.

1.5. Outpost Rush gatherables no longer have weight.

1.6. Baroness Hain’s Ice Mines now slow the player by 30% for 3s instead of staggering the player.

1.7. Water can no longer be gathered in Outpost Rush.

1.8. Added two additional gate points on the sides of each team’s spawn.

1.9. Increased the cooldown on the Outpost Rush Brute’s Corrupted Ball.

1.10. Outpost Rush Brutes will now be much less likely to use their Corrupted Ball spell when players are inside of the fort.

Notable Fixes

1. Fixed issue where various status effect removals were resulting in a buff applying indefinitely.

2. Fixed issue where the Bow Concussion ultimate was applying to all attacks and not just headshots.

3. Fixed issue where Mending Protection wasn’t functioning properly. To fix the issue, the following changes were made:

3.1. Updated Mending Protection be able to be re-applied by any Orb Of Protection heal, even the recovery from Protector’s Blessing.

3.2. To compensate for that, the duration has been shortened and the effect of it has been reduced.

3.3. Previously, it was 5%-40% for 5s that only applied as the ability was initially used, now it is 5%-25% for 3s, but that duration can be refreshed with each tick of recovery and additional applications of Orb of protection.

4. Fixed issue where the great axe “Reap” ability was not damaged when both The Collector Modifier and the Gravity Passive were unlocked.

5. Fixed issue, that was prevalent in the PTR where the void Gauntlet’s cooldown reduction was being triggered by DoT Ticks.

6. Fixed issue where players were able to jump-cancel the bow firing recovery. There is now a 10 frame delay from when an arrow is released before a jump can be triggered.

7. Fix to permanent disease and slow being applied in PVP.

8. Fixed bug that did not allow Ancient Bear Paw to be used in crafting.

End Game Update Part 2 & Umbral Upgrade System

1. General Enhancements & QoL Improvements

1.1. We addressed an issue where Gypsum casts were only providing +1 bonuses when opening the above gear score 585 for an item. Now, upgrades from Gypsum Casts from 585 to 600 should be at least +2 except when expertise is 599.

Economy/Progression/Rewards

Housing Tax:

For full context, once this patch goes live, the following conditions will be applied: as a make-good for the players impacted by the server clock issues experienced in Nov 2021, we reduced housing tax costs for all players by 90% based on the tax % set by companies that owned the territories. We said that we would revert those tax breaks in a future update (which is now). In that time, the tax break has been active; however, it has brought to light an imbalance in wealth disparity which was punishing for homeowners, and as such, have decided to tighten the housing tax band. We will continue to examine player reception and data around this issue. We are adjusting them going forward to be fairer for homeowners and companies. We are focused on evaluating and continually tuning the overall wealth distribution and impact of the territorial tax system.

In this patch we have: 

1. Reverted 90% housing tax reduction (will impact the Live servers only).

2. Updated housing tax minimum band to 2.5%, down from 5%.

3. Updated housing tax maximum band to 10%, down from 20%.

4. Updating default housing tax to 5%, down from 10%.

Aptitude Rewards

With the introduction of trade skill aptitude, we upset the balance of the gain of Azoth Vials, which made them too plentiful. The excess of these items, for some players, caused damage to the overall value of Azoth Vials as a reward. Since these can be traded, we want to make sure they stay rare and special. We will keep watching players’ sentiment and data here to see if further adjustments are needed.

1. Removed Azoth Vials from T1 Aptitude gathering chests.

2. Reduced Azoth Vials from T2 Aptitude gathering chests to 1-2, down from 2-3.

3. Reduced Azoth Vials from T3 Aptitude gathering chests to 1-3 down, from 3-5.

4. Reduced Azoth Vials from T1 Aptitude crafting & refining chests to 0-1, down from 2-3.

5. Reduced Azoth Vials from T2 Aptitude crafting & refining chests to 1-2, down from 2-3.

6. Reduced Azoth Vials from T3 Aptitude crafting & refining chests to 2-3, down from 3-5.

Rewards

1. Fixed a bug where players under level 60 were able to get Gypsum from darkness events. Players must be level 60 now to start earning gypsum from those events.

2. The Surgeon, Pit Lord Daehi, Baines, and Mordici The Mortician previously did not drop battle trophy materials. This has been fixed, so they now drop battle trophy mats.

Crafting

1. Fixed an issue where Timeless Shards were not being consumed while crafting.

2. Fixed an issue causing the Maker’s Mark Hatchet to incorrectly display as legendary with an extra perk in the crafting menu.

3. Updated art for Energizing Light Ration and Energizing Travel Ration to better represent the ingredients used to create them.

4. Fixed “Blackened Mandje Mandje with Corn Succotash” recipe that actually requires a Lava Barb. The recipe title now references the correct fish.

5. Fixed a bug that was preventing players from crafting GS 600 arcana items using Winter Patterns.

Gear and Loot

1. Fixed an issue where certain 600 gear score named items were increasing your Expertise.

2. Fixed an issue where the Lazarus Bow had less Dexterity than other bows at its Tier and gear score. It now has an equivalent amount of Dexterity.

3. Fixed an issue where the earring “Pedal” could not be repaired.

5. Fixed an issue with Wheel of Time skin, Egwene’s Cloak, where it would stretch with certain animations.

Progression

1. Speed up leveling for the mid-game levels of 23-45 by 20%. We saw that mid-game leveling was taking a bit long and did not match the pacing of the content we had, so we sped up mid-game progression by 20%.

Expedition Tuning Orbs

1. Materials used to craft Expedition Keys: Chisels and Corrupted Fragments, Shards, Crystals, and Lodestones are now tradable.

2. Expedition Mutator Tuning Orbs can be crafted once per week and also have been added to the Faction Shops, and can be purchased there once a week.

3. [Not currently in PTR] To keep parity with Expedition Mutator Tuning Orbs, normal Expedition Tuning Orbs for Dynasty Shipyard, Garden of Genesis, and the Lazarus Instrumentality have been added to Faction Shops and can each be purchased once a week.

4. To reduce the cost of all items in inventory taking durability damage on Death, we made a change so that only Bound items take durability damage on Death.

5. On the PTR, a cooldown was accidentally applied to the Covenant Faction Shop’s “Chunk of Consecrated Iron” instead of the “Mutated Expedition Tuning Orb”; this has been fixed.

UX, UI, & Social

1. Added a new loading screen tooltip to help explain how the strong against / weak against mechanics work.

In-Game Store

1. Décor Packs now display the number of furniture items included in the pack.

2. Store items can now simultaneously display that they are on sale and that they are available for a limited time.

3. Currency symbols are displayed correctly for all regions. 

Trading Post

1. Fixed an issue causing the Trading Post’s “Sort by Time” function to work incorrectly. It will now properly sort by time since the item was sold instead of alphanumerically.

2. Inventory should no longer scroll back to the top after closing the sell window (whether you sell or cancel) on the Trading Post.

Notable Fixes

1. The issue with companies who own more than one territory were not getting merge reimbursements was fixed. Companies are now compensated depending on the number of territories they own (rather than a flat amount).

2. Fixed the glitch with icons (sometimes Corrupted Breach icons did not appear on the map).

3. Fixed an issue that sometimes caused items not to appear repaired after a player repairs all.

4. Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the incorrect items to trade when trading from a split stack.

5. Fixed a number of text overlapping issues in the UI (weights on inventory categories, gem descriptions, item icons in storage when viewed from the map).

6. Some Timeless Shard icons were showing the icon for the incorrect weight. This is fixed now.

7. Fixed a bug where Eternal Pool Arena boss music could be heard right outside of the Eternal Pool Arena.

8. Fixed a bug where sounds were not always playing at Navarro’s Kitchen.

9. Adjusted the way mission tooltips dock (they now dock to the side of the tiles), to make it easier to read detailed info on missions.

10. Added a sound for when players capture points during an Outpost Rush.

11. Fixed a bug where players could not always hear Snap the Wolf when accepting the Snap’s Blessing quest.

12. Fixed server crash that likely stemmed from territories abandoned by their governors.

13. Fixed a discrepancy between server, client, and system clock timing in the war declaration screen.

14. Fixed an issue where the map was reporting that there was an Upcoming Invasion when there was actually an Upcoming War.

Source: https://forums.newworld.com/t/ptr-january-release-notes-patch-1-2/666767/5