Coming Soon to Arcane Legends: Skill Mastery!

[Remiem]

**IMPORTANT** The following information describes a feature still in development and is subject to change.

Hey folks! In our recent posts we've been alluding to the suite of amazing new features coming in Client 1.5. Well, I'm here to introduce the very first, and possibly the largest undertaking for this client: Skill Mastery!

As Arcane Legends grows, and each expansion grants more skill points, players have started reaching a ceiling on the uses of their skill points, meaning less diversity of player builds, and eventually--nothing to put points into! Uh oh.

At the upcoming level cap of 56, players will have a total of 55 skill points to spend. With the current system, that essentially gives you the ability to train and fully upgrade every single skill, AND max out 3 passives. Or put points into every single one--if you wanted. This is cool and all, but don't you want a little more choice in the way you build you character?

Skill Mastery will give you just that...

In Client 1.5 a new tab appears on the Skills Screen: Masteries. Adding levels of mastery to a skill will incrementally increase their stats, adding more power and better specialization to your character build. For example,

This is Noxious Bolt on a rogue at Mastery Rank 1. You'll see that at Rank 1 we've added 0.4 seconds to our DoT damage and increased the damage of each tick by 1%. You can also see what will happen at Rank 2. A 0.8 second increased and +2% damage per tick. See the pattern? As you continue progressing the skill will get more and more powerful until, at Rank 10:

You've added 4 seconds to your DoT and 10% damage per tick.

The Nitty Gritty

+ Masteries become available at player level 20.
+ Each skill has 10 Ranks of Mastery
+ Each Rank of mastery offers an incremental increase to a relevant skill stat.
+ You must train a skill before you can add Mastery Ranks
+ Stat increases do stack with buffs from pets and elixirs.

What Does Each Mastery Do?

Here's a run down of what the masteries will look like for each skill.

Warrior

Skyward Smash Mastery: Increase the Impact Radius of Skyward Smash by 0.25m per point
Vengeful Blood Mastery: Vengeful Blood cool down is reduced by 0.5sec per point
Windmill Mastery: Increase Critical chance by 0.25% per point, and increase the maximum number of targets by 1 for every 2 points
Rallying Cry Mastery: Add 0.125 STR per point, per level while Rallying Cry is active
Juggernaut Mastery: Juggernaut cooldown reduced by 0.5 sec per point
Horn of Renew Mastery: Horn of Renew now adds 0.4 armor per point, per caster level, while the heal over time effect is active
Chest Splitter Mastery: Chest Splitter Mana cost reduced by 2% per point
Axe Throw Mastery: Axe Throw applies a DoT that lasts 5 seconds, each tick deals damage and has a 10% chance per point to taunt the afflicted enemy. Ticks every 0.5 seconds.

Rogue

Shadow Storm Mastery: Increase the effective AOE range of Shadow Storm by 0.25m per point, and increase the maximum number of targets by 1 for every 2 points.
Shadow Veil Mastery: Buffs allies inside Shadow Veil an additional 0.25 Damage per point
Shadow Piercer Mastery: Shadow Piercer now heals for an additional 0.5% of players max health per point. This effect stacks with the Shadow Absorption Upgrade.
Razor Shield Mastery: Reduces damage taken with Razor Shield active by 1.0% per point
Noxious Bolt Mastery: Increase DoT length 0.4 seconds per point, and DoT tick damage by 1.0% per point
Entangling Trap Mastery: Reduces Cooldown of Entangling Trap by 0.25 sec per point
Combat Medic Mastery: Medic packs now also replenish 0.33 Mana per point, per character level
Aimed Shot Mastery: Reduce Mana cost of Aim Shot by 2% per point

Sorcerer

Arcane Shield Mastery: Increase the amount Arcane Shield can absorb by 1.5% per point
Curse Mastery: Curse now reduces target's chance to Crit by 1.0% per point.
Fireball Mastery: Reduce Mana Cost of fireball by 2% per point
Frost Bolt Mastery: Frost Bolt has a 0.4% chance per point to freeze an enemy, boss, or player for 2 seconds
Gale Force Mastery: Casting Gale Force adds a buff that lasts 0.4 seconds per point, and ticks every 0.4 seconds. Each tick removes any negative effects on the Sorcerer. (Bleed, slow, freeze, stun, etc)
Lifegiver Mastery: Lifegiver Sapling - there is a 2.5% chance per point to spawn a sapling at a healed group members location. Saplings remain stationary, and heal any allies within a 4m radius for 1% health per tick at a rate of one tick per seconds for 4 seconds. If a player remains in that location they will heal for 4% of their max life over 4 seconds.
Lightning Mastery: Increases Lightning Damage by 1% per point
Time Shift Mastery: Time Shift has a 0.35% chance per tick to freeze weaker enemies in between time and space indefinitely, stunning them permanently. Weaker enemies do not include players or bosses.

Other Skill System Changes

Along with skill mastery, we'll be tweaking some of the passive skills to balance them with Skill Mastery and our ongoing itemization plan. These changes include:

+ Damage: Points placed into the Damage passive skill will increase your DMG stat by .5 points, instead of the current 1% increase. This will eliminate the issue players faced where elixirs or pet buffs would wash out the points from this passive.
+ Critical Chance: Each point placed into Critical will now increase your chance to land a critical hit by 0.6% instead of 1%. This was reduced to compensate for Crit chance coming in from Masteries as well as future gear sets, to keep it in balance with a sustainable power curve.


But, Respecs cost $$!

Don't worry, we'll be handing out 5 free respec scrolls to every player at the time of this update so that you have plenty of room to experiment and decide on the build that is best for you.

Plus, we'll be giving you guys the opportunity to earn some extra respec scrolls during an upcoming weekly event.


And there you have it! A first look at the new Mastery system. As always, please feel free to provide us with your thoughts, questions and concerns (the constructive kind!) and remember that this information is in development and subject to change. You'll get to try it out for yourself very soon, with the release of Client 1.5.