Albion Online's new update brings some major balance changes to combat, weapons and abilities, and updates the Black Zone map to be clearer and more informative.
The new season will arrive soon, and the Sandbox team has been busy making some major balance changes to combat. These changes look to balance out the meta and diversifying it, giving more the opportunity to get in and find their ways into being part of the competition.
Changes to combat include a rework of maces and mounts. Maces are now updated to have more tank potential, with Guard Rune now making your allies immune to knockback and stun, Sacred Ground getting Slow added to it, and Battle Howl getting a reduced cooldown. Tower Chariots get some improvements to enable better support, including a Health Factor boost, Toxic Crystal Waste standtime decrease, and standtime removed altogether from Energy Cloud.
Swords, Staffs, and Hammers have all received tweaks, though less emphasis on an extensive overhaul. Various staff types have received a number of updates, for swords, Galatine Pair is rebuffed to encourage its use in ZvZ, and hammers have some rebalanced abilities too.
These aren't the only changes, but they do point to the work to not just balance the meta, but give players a chance to tune their styles and find the way they want to approach ZvZ and get in. Keeping things interesting, not too easy for the veterans, and not too inaccessible for those new or less skilled seems to be the overall job here.
The Black Zone map got some UI changes that will have the headers display Zone Quality Level when moused over. With the recent changes to HQ, castle outposts, territories, and the way sieges work, knowing the zone level is going to help one gauge just what the challenge in an area will be like, for offensive and defensive reasons.
For more details on the Albion Online update, see the official post here for more.
