The main changes of the two Gracia updates: vitality, new dwarven skills and buffs, masterwork craft, common items, jewelry augmentation, Kamaloka, Pailaka, fame points and a number of smaller things.
Little by little we have reached the update "Gracia Part 1 and 2" too. These are two different updates, the first and the second part, but I combined them into one, since although the updates are quite serious in gameplay, in volume they do not take so much space as to split them into two different articles. When the talk concerns some one question where there were changes in both the first and the second part, I will be sure to note it in the text.
Vitality
It was in the Gracia Part 1 update that the vitality system was added to the game (in detail: Vitality: levels, experience bonus and how the points come back). In the standard bars of CP, HP and mana, the very last bar, which showed how much was left to the next level, has changed: now the vitality level is shown in this place. Pay attention to the four horizontal dashes to the left of the main bar. When all four dashes are filled, you get 300% of the usual experience, three dashes 250%, two 200%, one 150%, no dashes the standard experience. The problem is that when you pick at ordinary mobs, vitality constantly goes down, and if you just stand dully on a spot and beat mobs, it will quickly drop to the zero level, and you will get no extra experience.
It grows only when you are in a peace zone (it accumulates gradually) or when you beat raid bosses (after each successful raid it grows in a jump). It is clear that the Koreans wanted players to level as fast as possible, but already by the Gracia Part 2 update they understood that for restless players sitting and waiting for vitality to grow at least somehow is no fun at all, so in the second part they added a new herb dropping from mobs: Vitality Replenishing Herb. This herb lasts 5 minutes, and while the buff hangs on you, the vitality bar will grow even when you pick at ordinary mobs. As applied to dwarves: as soon as you pick up this herb, take a pike in your hands and start leading big trains, so as to restore the bar to the maximum in 5 minutes. From experience I will say that vitality bottles drop quite often.
New skills
As always in updates, the Koreans piled up a heap of new skills, and the dwarves got their share too, especially the crafters. First, these are skills for golems: the cheating skill Repair Golem, which acts like the bishops' Restore Life. Just imagine: at a siege you summon a Siege Golem, which has a heap of HP as it is, the enemies pounce on it, and when the HP is almost gone, with an elegant movement of the mouse you restore its HP almost to the maximum. The no less cheating skills Armor Plate and Strengthen Golem raise our golems' P. Def. plus max HP and P. Atk. plus attack speed respectively.
- And we have also become needed by everybody not only for craft: we were given 6 (six) buffs; true, they last only 10 minutes each, but they are quite universal (the defence buffs are given at level 46, the attack ones at level 49). Temper strengthens the P. Def. of heavy armor. Tan strengthens the P. Def. and evasion of light armor. Embroider strengthens the P. Def. and MP recovery of magic armor. Sharpen strengthens the P. Atk. and crits of piercing and cutting weapons. Spike strengthens the P. Atk. and the stun chance for blunts. Restring strengthens the P. Atk. and increases the range of bows and crossbows.
They strengthened us quite a lot. And they also added the crazy skill Summon Merchant Golem, the summon of a trader golem. I never used it; it is easier to seat level 1 dwarves. Reality turned out to be even more prosaic: I simply did not understand the functions of this trading golem. It turns out it sells nothing of your things, as I thought at first; it simply duplicates the functions of an ordinary grocery shop, to sell or buy all sorts of stuff there, and disappears after 3 minutes.
Changes in existing skills
- The most shocking thing was the cutting of all the skills connected with magic crits, that is, the Wild Magic buff, Wild Magic from augmentation and Dance of Siren: the chance of a magic crit was cut for all of them. The raid curse can no longer be removed with the skill Cleanse. The Over-hit effect was added to many attacking physical skills.
- In Gracia Part 1 spoilers were given the ability to crystallize items. The Phantom Summoner class was made into a pure mage, with the necromancer skills Death Spike and Summon Cursed Bone added. All dwarves were given the skill Fatal Strike. In Gracia Part 1 the buff slots were divided: now dances and songs take a row of buffs of their own, and debuffs were likewise moved to a separate row.
Changes in craft
In Gracia Part 1 the masterwork craft system was introduced. When crafting things you can get either a double craft, that is, craft two identical things with one craft, or the so-called Foundation Item. It has to be taken to the Blacksmith of Mammon and, with a certain amount of Mammon's Varnish Enhancer, turned into a Masterwork Item. A masterwork is the same thing, but one property, strictly defined for each thing, is added to it. For example, if you craft a Foundation Tallum Blade, then on converting it into a masterwork sword it will be called Tallum Blade - Destruction, and the effect of raised physical attack will be added to it. That is, in this way you can strengthen weapons, armor (each part of the armor can get the masterwork status and its own strengthening accordingly) and jewelry.
Once I was chatting with a crafter girl, a clan leader, and she complained that she does nothing but sit in her clan hall: the whole clan drags recipes, key materials and resources to her, and she crafts and crafts all day long in the hope of getting masterwork things. And once the admins of one server and I locked ourselves in a castle for two days and crafted weapons to stupefaction to understand what the chance of getting masterwork weapons is. We agreed that it does not exceed 3-4%.
In one of the following updates the Koreans understood that armor sets consisting of an upper and a lower part get a great advantage in masterwork things compared with armor whose body is one piece (two masterwork effects against one), and they removed the craft of masterwork things for the upper part of any armor. In which chronicle that happened I no longer remember.
Common items, shops and augmentation
- In the first part of Gracia the so-called common gear was introduced. Things up to A grade started dropping from mobs which look like ordinary ones but can be neither enchanted nor augmented nor gathered into sets. That is, practically shadow gear, only without a lifetime, and they can be handed over. Now you need not bother with craft at all up to S grade and can run in common gear, which is sold very cheaply because it literally pours out of mobs.
- All things up to top C grade inclusive were added to ordinary shops; low B-grade things are now sold in the Luxury Shop. Prices of everything sold in shops were lowered considerably. At the Blacksmith of Mammon you can now exchange a B-grade weapon for one of the same class, that is, low B for another low B, top B for another top B weapon (now crafting a Star Buster is irrelevant: it can be got in exchange for a commonplace Art of Battle Axe).
- Jewelry can now be augmented. In the second part of the update, when you enchant a thing to +4, an effect of raised HP is added to it. The duration of all herbs was increased from 2 to 5 minutes.
Locations and Hellbound
- All monsters in Cruma Tower now give a raised amount of experience and SP compared with the past chronicles. Cruma Tower is now closed to players of level 56 or higher. For all mobs the ability to return to the place of respawn was improved, when they are led beyond a certain distance from it. Some high-level mobs in the rift were given the ability to use soulshots and spiritshots.
- If Hellbound is open to players (the chain of tedious and long quests on the Isle of Prayer under the general name Bird in a Cage has been done), any player can get to Hellbound by doing the simple quest Path to Hellbound or, simpler still, the quest That's Bloody Hot! on the Isle of Prayer.
New instances
- Kamaloka. A new instance for a group, introduced in Gracia Part 1, divided by player levels; the time for the run is 30 minutes, the frequency once a day. The level requirements: levels 18-31, Gludio, NPC Bathis; levels 28-41, Dion, NPC Lucas; levels 38-51, Heine, NPC Gosta; levels 48-61, Oren, NPC Mouen; levels 58-71, Schuttgart, NPC Vishotsky; levels 68-78, Rune, NPC Mathias.
- Kamaloka - Labyrinth of the Abyss. Introduced in Gracia Part 2; the time for the run is 45 minutes, once a day.
- Pailaka. Introduced in Gracia Part 2; the run is divided into three different zones depending on the player's level and is done solo; certain goodies are given for it, and to do a Pailaka you have to take a quest from an NPC. Levels 36-42: Pailaka - Forgotten Temple, the quest Pailaka - Song of Ice and Fire, one hour is given, taken in Gludin from Inspector Adler. Levels 61-67: Pailaka - Devil's Isle, the quest Pailaka - Devil's Legacy, an hour and a half, taken in Giran from the Devil's Isle Survivor. Levels 73-77: Pailaka - Varka Silenos, the quest Pailaka - Injured Dragon, an hour and a half, taken in Goddard from the Ketra Orc Shaman.
- Kratei's Cube. To be honest, I do not know what it is. However many times I went there, I could never wait for other players for either a game or a mass PvP to begin.
Changes in PvP
- In the Gracia Part 2 update the so-called fame points were introduced. They are given for sieges, fights at the Olympiad, the Festival of Darkness and something else; later they will also be awarded for territory wars. Like, you can lie in the siege zone as a corpse and fame will still drip to you. For fame you can acquire PvP inserts, consumables and talismans. Also in the second part of the update the time a player remains flagged was changed from 20 seconds to 2 minutes.
Other changes
- The influence of attributes added to armor was doubled. The time until an unresurrected pet disappears completely was increased to 24 hours, but only if it did not die of a lack of food. The area skills of the horses were cut: the maximum number of mobs caught by the skills was reduced considerably.
- New buffs were added to the servitors obtained at level 56: Feline Queen has Blessed Body, Blessed Soul and Haste; Unicorn Seraphim has Acumen, Clarity, Empower and Wild Magic; Nightshade has Death Whisper, Focus and Guidance.
- For all the second profession quests the drop chances of quest items were raised and the number of them required by the quest was reduced. Master Toma no longer teleports about the locations but stands in one place. On High Five I saw him on the island.
- All players can now get the newbie buffs up to level 62; orc shamans get the physical buffs up to the second profession and the magic buffs after it. Newbie Travel Tokens were cancelled: newbies can move between the starting villages for free and as many times as they like through the newbie helper. All teleports up to level 40 are free.
- A new tab was added to the active actions: My Teleports, but it does not work at all in this update. In the second part of the update the weight of common gear was cut by two thirds. Demon's Gloves and Demon's Boots are now sold by NPCs.
And the most interesting thing about these updates is that, although they are called Gracia, not a word is said in them about the continent of Gracia.