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.

[Aimanxasuna]

I always want to do this.

1st!!

lol

[oekeone]

2nd yay damn daniel

[diimitrii]

Nicee!! Looking forward, please release asap!! I want new content, bored af atm... I mean it

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[Jazzi]

Just want to say that shadow storm strike range and number of enemies upgrades are fully bugged and currently don't work at all. If you don't fix those first, the skill mastery of that skill is useless.
The skill mastery of aimed shot is useless as is too.
Please gives us choices here. Not useless upgrades. Ty in advance!!!

From a rogue's standpoint only useful masteries are:
1)Shadow Storm mastery, if and only if: the currently not working upgrades are fixed and they stack with the mastery + new maps have higher mob density than rengol
2)Razor shield: mostly for PvP and maybe elite
3)Noxious bolt mastery
4) Traps mastery, if and only if: bleed not stacking is fixed

[Remiem]

None of the masteries for mages seem worth it.

0.4% chance to freeze seems extremely low unless the DoT from ice also causes this bonus freeze. Even then it seems a tad bit too low.

Lightning damage increase, would have been better with an armour reduction bonus on lightning but it seems pretty decent
This will truely change AL,now with people needing skill mastery to PvP, respec each time you want to PvE.

Might even come across as another way to sell platinum(respec scrolls <_<)

While .4% seems small, remember there are 10 levels to each Mastery, so at max level it will be a 4% boost.

[Jazzi]

While .4% seems small, remember there are 10 levels to each Mastery, so at max level it will be a 4% boost.

You always have to calculate as in how many times this will happen per run in any map. Imo even at level 10 (4%) this most it will "proc" max once per higher elite run. This is for 10 levels worth of points

[scarysmerf]

Wow this all sounds awsome its gonna feel like a whole new Arcane legends.

[Morholt]

A few days ago I joked that the skill mastery system would basically be "1 skill point adds 1% damage bonus to the skill."
Turns out...that's pretty much what we ended up getting. We've been waiting since 2014 for this?
At least...at least it is fairly balanced, such as not making aimed shot more overpowered. Some skills do have a nice touch, such as horn of Renee being able to add around 200 defense. Things, such as fireball, have pretty miniscule upgrades.

--Shadow Storm Shot: the skill is already broken. The mastery just adds onto the broken element. Is the skill actually going to be fixed?

--Frostbolt: so the mastery is next to non-existent vs mobs...but for bosses we get a chance to freeze, which is nice. And mages will finally be (sort of) allowed to freeze in PvP? Civil rights for mages is getting closer: almost able to do what pets can do! :P

--Lifegiver: if a group of 4 are huddled together, and stay there for all 4 seconds...Will all 4 saplings work on all four players, thus returning 16% health to each player? Tacking some mana to the mastery would be a nice touch, too.

[chummierfrog248]

When update comes I won't be online and when they give out ankh I won't get one because I won't be on when update comes :'((((((((((

[Zylx]

I think it would be neat to add a full-power bonus to the skill masteries that are 10/10. Like for example, if one has Fireball maxed to 10/10, the skill has a chance to proc additional, smaller firecrackers within the radius of the explosion adding smaller damage ticks. Shadow piercer can have a chance to proc a shadow-double that would spawn and hit another nearby enemy (once per skill use). Etc. Etc.

[Elgrablyx]

Aimed Shot mana cost will be very useful at PvP for Rogues , that is the most used skill and it eats up mana , Nice work Sts

[robetbee]

Sound cool at ice bold and gale force and shield cant wait ^^

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[Pyrogenie]

I have to say I see a few issues to come with this system but I also see some major improvements. All and all as long as there is something new happening in AL then I'm happy. +1

[Crowsfoot]

I have a few questions about the below highlighted changes.

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
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.

1) Has the base cool down for the Vengeful Blood, Juggernaut, and/or Entangling Trap skills been changed (highlighted in red)?


2a) The masteries for Windmill, Arcane Shield, Frost Bolt, and Lightning (highlighted in blue) all do similar if not the same thing as existing upgrades for those skills. Have those upgrades been removed, or do the masteries stack?
2b) Does the master system add on to the current upgrade system, or is it replacing some upgrades partially? I'm making the assumption that the majority of the current upgrade system will remain since skill mastery is said to be unlocked at level 20.


3a) The Time Shift mastery (highlighted in green) sounds like at full mastery it has a 3.5% chance per 0.5 sec tick of a 10 second clock to permanently stun the "weaker enemies" even after the clock has worn off. I am assuming "weaker enemies" refers to those already affected by rooting by clocks. Is that analysis correct?
3b) If so, wouldn't that mean that any "weaker enemy" caught in a maxed out clock has a 50.96%* chance of being permanently stun!?


*Where I got this number (where P = odds of a permanent stun per enemy per clock):
P = 1 - (proportion of time an event won't occur per trial)^(number of trials)
P = 1 - (1 - proportion of times an event will occur per trial)^(duration of clock / ticks per second)
P = 1 - (1 - 0.035)^(10 / 0.5)
P = 1 - (0.965)^(20)
P = 1 - 0.4904
P = 0.5096
P = 50.96%


PS: a group of 5 enemies eligible to be permanently stun would have over a 97% chance of at least one being inflicted (from: 1 - (1 - 0.5096)^5), and over a 51% chance of 3 or more being inflicted (from: 1 - binomcdf(5,0.5096,2)) if my interpretation of the Time Shift mastery is correct. All of which is very, very cool.

[Aimanxasuna]

I personally think 10 points for each mastery is a bit too much. We only got 55 points to spend between skills, passives, and mastery. Maybe 5 points for each mastery would be awesome.

[Kingofninjas]

This looks great. The lifegiver sapling thing is useless IMO. 4% health is nothing, especially if u have to stand in 1 spot for 4 seconds. A more realistic number would be 50-75%.

Reducing mana cost of fireball is also useless. Mana means nothing to mages. Give us a good dot proc like rogues got with nox bolt.

[will0]

Fireball Mastery: Reduce Mana Cost of fireball by 2% per point > we dont need a reduce mana on Mage? Give us more burning damage ...

[Invalid]

First of all, that is a really great idea but it could be, well, cooler. I think that maybe you should, after spending 2 or 3 points, add something cool to the skill for example:
Lightning- 3 mastery points spent, has a small chance to chain lightning to nearby enemy or enemies. 6 mastery points spent, lightning web (or mines *just thought of that) near struck enemy. 10-max,
has a chance to spawn a ball of lightning that kind of goes towards enemies and large crowds and shocks nearby enemies and does a small AoE damage zone after it expires.
I hope this will be considered, changed ( or maybe made better *cooler), or implemented.

All this was and is much cooler in my mind LOL!

[Froxanthar]

Its better for Vengeful Blood to add 1% STR per point instead of cooldown.

Change Rally Cry mastery to something else.. 2% reduce incoming damage per point and taunt enemies while active perhaps? This will help the party instead Warrior alone in PvE and PvP.

How about 1 second per point for Juggernaut cooldown?

Instead of 2% reduce mana cost per point on chest splitter, why not give it a, 10% chance per point to lifesteal base on 10% of your maximum HP.