Game updates: 3/28 - 4/5

Getting back into the swing of things - here's some discussion on the updates I've managed to eke out this past month, between work on the spoils system. =)

Static charge is now free, and may replenish mana/spirit.
Devil's siphon gains power versus heavily damaged targets.

There are a number of abilities which, in their current form, are very similar to each other. These abilities have a tendency to obsolete one another (lagged abilities such as static charge vs. elemental malediction), or to mirror each other with no variation or incentive for strategic use (e.g., kick, striking fist, and ashi barai kick). As as additional undesirable side effect, the lagless abilities and the inferior lagged abilities tend to be extremely poor choices for advancement beyond 100% mastery.

By differentiating these abilities in subtle ways, I can diversify their mastery benefits (making the comparison more than a numerical scaling comparison) while introducing the possibility of strategic use for some of the plain lagless 'strikes'. There are three ways I can do this: 1) introducing additional base functionality, as in the case of static charge; 2) granting additional functionality with mastery beyond 100%; and 3) through the use of inscriptions (as in the case of oblique pattern - tih).

Some abilities which were hard-capped on damage will now improve at diminishing rates instead.

Some of the more statistically inclined scripters among you have already noticed that certain abilities seem to stop scaling completely after a certain point. In addition, these "hard caps" tend to be coded into older abilities, and so they tend to cap extremely early (as the average power level of a character is much higher than it was 10 years ago). I will slowly be working on addressing these hard caps over time (the process will be slow, as a significant amount of balancing is required).

Nojohr's combat choice has been redesigned.
Nojohr's lightning choice has been redesigned.

The nojohr 'choice' abilities were used, 99.99% of the time, as simple +dam and +spe buffs. The other two choices on each ability were generally ignored due to the fact that they served similar functionality to the +dam and +spe aspects, but with poorer bonuses. I've reduced these abilities to only two choices each, but with a stronger differentiation between functionalities (pure damage output versus speed and lateral defense for the combat choice, and a defensive boost to counteract the nojohr's fusing penalty versus a situational attack for the lightning choice). The benefit to nojohrs is twofold: more diversity in combat options as well as new avenues for mastery improvement (as the new versions improve beyond 100%)

The lightning choice drains over time normally, but it increases in power instead while the nojohr has the galvanize effect up. Galvanize uptime can of course be maximized by simply keeping it charged constantly (and never discharging it with a war-strike or cleave); less obviously, a nojohr can maintain a good galvanize uptime by discharging it near the end of its 10-second duration (instead of using war-strike/cleave immediately after the galvanize).

Instrumentation of riposte improves beyond 100% mastery.

I've always liked riposte as a unique, flavorful nojohr ability. The new mastery benefit for instrumentation of riposte not only improves the base ability slightly, but it also grants a lesser riposte buff whenever the nojohr has a gambit active (currently, gambit of the warring shield or aulora's gambit). The warring shield is obviously the more popular, powerful gambit on its own merits; however, aulora's gambit has a much longer duration, and can thus maintain a higher riposte uptime.

Connection issues

Nodeka is temporarily inaccessible due to connection issues beyond our control - we'll have this ironed out as soon as possible. I'll keep you posted if further issues develop.

Update: It appears to be an ISP network issue; we don't yet have a timeline for resolution but we'll keep you posted.

Update 2: The issue has been resolved; you should be able to connect to Nodeka normally.