The main changes of the Hellbound update: level 85 for the main class and certification skills from subclasses, the pet era with Fenrir and improved baby pets, Steel Citadel, level 81 skills and combo buffs, clan rules, Icarus weapons and other details.
Little by little we have reached the Hellbound update too.
Subclasses and pets
It was in the Hellbound update that the basic differences between the main class and subclasses began. It was in this chronicle that players, switching to a subclass, began to feel handicapped. That is, on getting subclasses you can no longer feel like a full-fledged player of precisely that subclass. Why the Koreans did this is unclear; perhaps they wanted players to run around on main classes, or to make more characters for each needed profession. Unclear all the same.
- The first step in this direction was raising the level of the main class to 85, while subclasses remained at a maximum of level 80. Then came the strengthening of the main class through skills that can be added after the subclass reaches levels 65, 70, 75 and 80, and at level 80 of the subclass divine transformations were added, which are described in the article Transformations in the Freya update: the types and the Transform Sealbooks. All additions and removals of skills from subclasses are done through the NPC Avant-Garde in the Ivory Tower.
- The quest More Than Meets the Eye for the book of transformations was introduced as well, and new transformations from raid bosses.
Starting with the Hellbound update, the era of dragging pets around begins, and it is from this chronicle on that players, not having taken even the first profession yet, already rush to level wolves and baby pets.
- The level of all pets was raised to 86. A Great Wolf levelled to level 70 can be exchanged at any pet manager for a Fenrir, a battle wolf. Baby pets, on reaching level 55, can likewise be exchanged for improved pets, which began to really help their owners in battle.
- For the owners of clan halls in Aden and Rune extra goodies were introduced: the possibility of exchanging a Great Wolf for a Great Snow Wolf, a Fenrir for a Snow Fenrir, and striders for a Red Strider. The exchange works both ways, and if you need the original animals, they can be obtained from the NPC Pet Trader Mickey.
- For all summoners the attribute system was extended to servitors: if you hold a weapon with an attribute, 80% of that attribute is added to the servitor's attack. This concerns attack only; defence attributes do not extend to servitors. The effects of all the herbs picked up now extend to pets too.
New locations
- A new location was introduced on the island of Hellbound: Steel Citadel. It consists of the Base Tower, the Tower of Infinitum, Tully's Workshop and the Tower of Naia. A heap of strengthened mobs with attributes, runs through the locations lasting many hours, the raid bosses Demon Prince, Ranku and Beleth. In the old locations there are no grand changes: the zone near Core was strengthened, the respawn and behaviour of the Shade minions of the Dark Water Dragon were changed; trifles, in short.
Skills
- New skills of level 81 were introduced, such as Protection of Rune, Fighter's Will, Protection of Elemental and others; some of them were given to all classes, some were divided between magic classes and damage dealers, and almost every class also got unique skills only for that class. Crafters, for example, were given the unique transformation Golem Armor. And spoilers were not.
- All kamael were given at level 80 the skill Soul Cleanse, which removes all debuffs. And berserkers also got the cheating skills Rush Impact and Mass Disarm; the latter takes the weapons off all the surrounding enemies. All summoners, temple knights and shillien knights at level 80 got a new cubic, Summon Smart Cubic, which removes all debuffs from the owner.
- It was also in this update that combo buffs were introduced, when one buff replaces several old ones, for example: Shield and Might can be replaced by a single Improve Combat or Chant of Combat, from a prophet or a warcryer respectively. Bless the Body and Bless the Soul: Improve Condition from a prophet. Shield and Advanced Block: Improve Shield Defense from an elven elder. Empower and Magic Barrier: Improve Magic from a shillien elder. Focus and Death Whisper: Chant of Critical from a warcryer or Improve Critical from a shillien elder. Wind Walk and Agility: Improved Movement from an elven elder. Vampiric Rage and Haste: Chant of Blood Awakening from a warcryer.
- Skill enchanting was changed: the skills obtained before the third profession can now be enchanted up to +30, those after the third profession up to +15. As always, heaps of already existing skills were changed, which we will not list here, since we would not have enough time for it.
Changes in clans
- To register for a castle siege a clan now needs not level 4 but level 5. Accordingly, the skill Seal of Ruler is now given to the leader of a clan of level 5. The requirement for the number of clan members for levelling up from 8 to 9 was lowered from 140 to 120.
- The possibility of flying a wyvern was added in forts. In return this possibility was removed from the clan halls in Aden. The period between the dissolution of an alliance and the creation of a new one was reduced from 10 days to 1 day. Now it is possible to declare war on a clan that is in the same alliance as you, and vice versa, you can take into your alliance a clan with which you are at war.
Quests
- A heap of one-time quests was added, from level 35 to level 41; what the quests are, I have not sorted out yet. Several quests were added on Hellbound, including one in Steel Citadel for shoulder pads; the quest is taken from Matras.
- In the quest Enhance Your Weapon charging of crystals up to level 15 was added in connection with the appearance of the new weapons. A soul crystal can be charged to level 15 on Beleth, Antharas and Valakas. A walkthrough for kamael was added to the quest An Arrogant Search.
New weapons
- Two types that were forgotten in the previous chronicles were added to the Dynasty weapons: the Dynasty Staff with Acumen and the Dynasty Crusher with Focus. Of course there are other special abilities there too, but I mentioned precisely these as the most important. A new, top S80 weapon was added as well, which, owing to the continuing lack of creativity among the Koreans, was all named Icarus: Icarus Trident, Icarus Hammer, Icarus Shooter and so on. It is into these that special abilities of level 15 are inserted.
- New agathions were added to the Luxury Shop. I no longer remember whether we talked about agathions or not; let me remind you that these are such useless little creatures that fly by your ear and from time to time mutter something into that very ear. Some C-grade weapons and armor were moved from the Luxury Shop to ordinary shops; in the Luxury Shop you can now buy only C-grade weapons and armor of the middle level. About top D grade I do not know; nothing has been said about it so far.
Other changes
- The casting time of the Blessed Scroll of Resurrection was reduced from 15 to 3 seconds; now you can resurrect with them almost instantly. After you take in hand a weapon with an active augmentation skill, that augmentation cannot be used until 30 seconds have passed.
- All the books for learning skills from level 40 to level 74 were put on sale at NPCs in the starting villages, divided by race; that is, in the dwarven village you can now buy all the blueprints for crafters from the NPC Mion.
- The so-called monster parade was added on Fantasy Isle; here the Koreans surely went off their heads. To be honest, I noticed no monsters there: there were servitor pets waving their little hands, and attendants in the form of gatekeepers and NPC traders from various villages. Perhaps different parades are held there? The Underground Coliseum was introduced in this update; I was there a couple of times and understood nothing in particular; judging by the name, you probably have to fight somebody there.
- By association with the changes made in the window of active skills, passive skills were now changed as well, that is, divided into different categories. If you look into it, not so many changes were introduced in this chronicle; the Koreans were probably resting before a new update. It is still unclear where, for example, to get the recipes and key materials for the new weapons.