User:Immortalbob/Guides/Returning Players Guide

Returning player's guide to new general game play, and game mechanics from the Throne of Destiny patch forward.

This guide will be an abridged version of the main guides on each of these topics. Please follow the links to the main guides for each topic for more information.

See the Patches page for more in depth information about new quests and items.

Combat
During the Master of Arms event, all old melee skills were replaced with a more concise system allowing you to use all types of weapons. You may now train:
 * Finesse Weapons
 * Light Weapons
 * Heavy Weapons
 * Missile Weapons

Also during the Master of Arms even, secondary combat skills were added. See New Skills for a breakdown.

Weapon Mastery
 * Increases damage by 5% with your mastered weapon. Although you will be able to use any type (ex: Axe, Spear, Mace, etc) you will do more damage with one specific type.

New creature slaying weapons There have been many new slayer style weapons over the years. Listed below are the most prominently used slayers and quests associated with them.
 * Ghost - Jester's Lost Marbles
 * Mukkir - Mukkir Aspect of Grael Quest
 * Olthoi - Aerbax's Prodigal Olthoi
 * Shadow - Shadowfire Stone Quest
 * Skeleton - Spectral Skull
 * Undead - Search for Lunnum

Weapon Auras
 * Weapon and wand buffs are now cast upon the wielder. Any weapon wielded afterwards will obtain the buffs.  It is no longer necessary to buff each weapon or wand individually.
 * Due to this, the Water of Stasis was retired, and all Unenchantable weapons had their spells removed, and damage/mods increased to previously buffed levels. Also, weapon/wand debuffs have been reduced to 30 second duration.

Surges
 * See Aetheria listed under for more information.

Crafting
Much of the crafting system has remained the same, however there are a few noteworthy things worth crafting.

Alchemy Grenades
 * Crafted using Alchemy
 * Uses the Thrown Weapons skill to throw grenades at creatures or players which will cast life vulns on the target. (TW skill can be untrained)

Beer
 * Crafted using the Cooking skill.
 * Provides level 8 buffs to all attributes.

Crafting Golems
 * Craftable pet golems that cast stack-able buffs for Alchemy, Cooking, Fletching, and Lockpick.

Gearcrafting
 * See for more information.

Geography
Below is a list of new areas, and short descriptions of each. Bur City of Neftet Colosseum Crystalline Crag Dark Isle Facility Hub Freebooter Isle Frozen Valley Gearknight Invasion Area Graveyard Halaetan Isles Moarsman City Olthoi Island Paradox Valley Town Network Vissidal Island
 * Home of the Burun
 * Many quests from the very low levels up to 180.
 * 200+ Hunting and Questing ground.
 * Alternate Currency vendor with special items that takes A'nekshay Tokens.
 * Creatures give Luminance.
 * Test your might as your fellowship makes it's way through 18 levels in the Colosseum.
 * Alternate Currency vendor with special items that takes Colosseum Coins.
 * Mini-Boss battles with xp rewards.
 * Level 70-150+ Hunting and Questing ground.
 * Many quests that progress as you gain levels.
 * Level 150+ Hunting and Questing ground.
 * Each spawn of creatures will spawn a boss creature which drops a trophy for xp.
 * Leveling hub designed for levels 10 - 50.
 * Level 180+ Hunting and Questing ground, accessible via joining a Society
 * Creatures give Luminance.
 * Level 200+ Hunting and Questing ground.
 * Many 180+ quests located here.
 * Creatures give Luminance.
 * Inner Sea Gear Knight Invasion Area for characters level 30-60.
 * Direlands Gear Knight Invasion Area for characters level 150+.
 * Level 150+ hunting and questing ground.
 * Spawns change during the night cycle of the in game clock. (See Time)
 * Alternate Currency vendor with special items that takes Ancient Mhoire Coins.
 * Castle of Lord Mhoire - More quests are available here, and creatures give Luminance.
 * Created for the Throne of Destiny expansion. Home of the Viamontian race.
 * Many quests for levels 5-140.
 * Level 180+ Hunting and Questing ground, accessible via joining a Society
 * Creatures give Luminance.
 * Home of the Olthoi race
 * Must be a Player Killer to access.
 * Creatures give Luminance.
 * Alternate Currency vendor with special items that takes Mutated Olthoi Glands looted from player controlled Olthoi.
 * Level 130+ Hunting and Questing ground.
 * Alternate Currency vendor with special items that takes Small Olthoi Venom Sacs.
 * Nearly all static landscape portals have been removed, instead we have a town network portal in each town that provides access to nearly all other towns.
 * Level 130+ Hunting and Questing ground.

New Races
To date, 6 new races have been introduced. All races now have a sister race, which they can swap racial skills with. UP61oLb0Jzg Overview on Olthoi Play
 * Empyrean
 * Gearknights
 * Umbraen and Penumbraen Shadows
 * Undead
 * Olthoi Soldier and Olthoi Spitter
 * Tumerok
 * Lugian

Primary Combat Skills
Finesse Weapons Light Weapons Heavy Weapons Two Handed Combat Missile Weapons
 * Based on Coordination/Quickness, allows the use of all types of finesse weapons (axe, unarmed, spear, staff, sword, mace, dagger)
 * Based on Strength/Coordination, allows the use of all types of light weapons (axe, unarmed, spear, staff, sword, mace, dagger)
 * Based on Strength/Coordination, allows the use of all types of heavy weapons (axe, unarmed, spear, staff, sword, mace, dagger)
 * Use both hands to swing a larger weapon.
 * High damage, but no shield and no aegis (magic absorbing) options.
 * Most 2H weapons cleave (hit two targets), unless you choose to attack with 2H spears.
 * Based on Coordination, allows the use of all types of missile weapons (bow,xbow,thrown weapons)

Secondary Combat Skills
Shield Dirty Fighting Recklessness Sneak Attack
 * Allows the user to equip shields.
 * Higher shield skill means more Armor Level, and more Magic Absorption from aegis shields.
 * Debuff your targets offensive, defensive, or healing skills as well as damage over time.
 * Increase your outgoing damage, at the cost of increased incoming damage.
 * Sneak an extra hard hit/s when targets have their back turned towards you.
 * When paired with Deception you have a chance to sneak attack from the front.
 * Assess Person can mitigate Sneak Attack damage.

Crafting
Gearcrafting - Skill has been retired, but has been folded into Item Tinkering sMwVAI-Ea2Y 10th Anniversary recap, Two Handed Weapons and Gearcrafting Void Magic z8voQQ1nTqM Overview on Void Magic
 * Trinket Imbuing - Imbue trinkets(new jewelry type) with spells to increase a variety of stats.
 * Gearcrafted Devices - special items that work in conjunction with under utilized skills such as Deception.
 * new magic school, focuses on "type-less" nether damage that doesn't need vulns
 * Damage over time spells, and special debuffs.

Progression
Listed below are the progression methods for your character. Aetheria dTqDAFNPixM 
 * You can quest to open up 3 new inventory slots (level-reqs of 75/150/225)
 * Each slot can take magical symbols you find. blue=75, yellow=150, red=225.
 * Each symbol has a sigil (full-time stackable bonus) and a surge (random proc that typically only lasts 10 seconds or so).
 * Aetheria needs to be leveled up (gains free xp as long as they are equipped), the higher the level of your aetheria the better effects.

Augmentations
 * Added during the Throne of Destiny expansion, augmentations are passive special abilities for your character to collect.
 * 10 more augmentations added during the 10th Anniversary patch.
 * Armor and Weapon Augmentations are also available to infuse special properties into your equipment.

Cloaks!!
 * Cloaks have been added and work similarly to aetheria.
 * "Surge" spells include +20 to all skills, melee missile and magicd debuffs, war and void ring spells, and -200 to incoming damage proc.
 * Each level gained adds +2 to the skill associated with the cloak.

Levels
 * Facility Hub Quests - Created to make leveling from 10-50 faster and easier through quests.
 * Contracts have been added as a new tab in the Quest Journal panel. Use contracts to progress through levels 50-100.
 * The Throne of Destiny expansion raised the level cap to 275.

Luminance UP61oLb0Jzg Overview on Luminance. (Skip to 11:25) Skill Credits
 * Meant for 200+ characters, Luminance is acquired like experience via high level quests, and high level hunting grounds.
 * Once the desired amount of luminance is acquired, it may be used to purchase auras with varying effects, and two skill credits.
 * 2 skill credits can be obtained by doing the Hunting Aun Ralirea and Chasing Oswald quests.
 * 2 additional skill credits are obtained via Luminance.

Level 8 Spells
 * Level 8 spells have been added to the game
 * Require 400+ buffed skill to cast.
 * Can be acquired via Mana Forges, or high level hunting grounds.

Tier 7 Loot
 * Armor and Weapons have been upgraded in the highest tier.
 * Armor will have a 150 or 180+ level requirement.
 * Weapons have been increased to 420 wield for melee weapons, 375 wield for Wands, and missile weapons.
 * Level 8 spells appear on weapons/armor.
 * Epic Cantrips have been added. (+20 to skills and attributes)
 * Loot generated armor sets occur now in tier 7 loot.

Rares

 * Rare drop items have been added to the game.
 * The majority of rares found will be very powerful buff crystals that last 15 minutes.
 * Rare armor, weapons, and eternal items also exist, however are extremely rare.

Societies

 * The Societies of Dereth are factions which a player may join.
 * You may only join one society, but each society provides the same rewards, and access to high level hunting areas.
 * Land Control - Societies may take over one of two castles for access to the Black Market. This requires Player Killer status to compete.

Tailoring
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 * A great system that is much more flexible then simply dying your armor. Tailoring lets you swap looks from any similar piece of armor (same body coverage).
 * Tailoring also has a high-cost kit for reducing the coverage slots on armor, allowing you to have a 9-slot suit if you are willing to pay the cost. It also allows for a lot of flexibility with your suit's look while keeping it 9-slot. But there are some not-so-obvious restrictions.

Misc Enhancements

 * The chat system has been overhauled, we may now have up to 4 configurable floating windows.
 * A Quest Journal/Contracts tab has been added which can assist with keeping track of quest timers.
 * We can now have 11 characters per server.
 * Graphics have been updated multiple times since Throne of Destiny.