Week One of PTR Testing

Hi everyone! We wanted to give you a little more information about what to expect as you jump into the PTR this week. Some of this we mentioned in the announcement about the server opening, but it bears repeating.

Before we get into it, just to keep you updated on the Steam PTR client: we are still working on getting that out as soon as we can. We understand the wait is frustrating for our Steam users, and we apologize for the delay. We will have it out to you as soon as we possibly can.

Onto some notes about this week’s build. First, nearly everything you know about combat has had some slight adjustments. In no particular order:

• The way we calculate most actions in combat (hits, misses, dodges, blocks, critical hits, spell resistance, etc.) has been updated. In general, special events like a dodge or a critical hit should feel more impactful when they happen. This doesn’t mean there won’t be bugs. Please report any inconsistencies you find related to combat mechanics.
• NPCs have all been moved to the new unified templates (no more chevrons!). We are still in the process of reviewing and updating NPC combat abilities. It is likely you will still encounter some NPCs that are missing abilities, or have abilities that are more powerful than intended.
• NPCs health and damage have been adjusted to make fights last longer and help improve overall challenge. This is something we will continue dialing in based on PTR data and feedback.
• The way we calculate the benefit of your armor and your resistance stats has been changed. These stats now make a much bigger impact than they used to, especially at low levels.
• Abilities for all our classes have been completely reworked to support the combat changes and the upcoming mastery system. Note: Summoner and Wizard were already prepared for the combat changes and will feel the most familiar, although there are still some necessary fixes and adjustments planned for those classes. Note: Some brand new mechanics (i.e. Dire Lord’s Blood Debt) are still being dialed in, both in balance and visual presentation.
• First-to-Engage tagging has been enabled to determine kill credit for most NPCs. You should see this reflected in situations where multiple people (who aren’t in the same group) are fighting the same opponent.

Second, we have made several changes related to items that you need to be aware of:

• Bind on Equip support has been enabled. You may find that items you pick up become untradable once you equip them. Note: currently there will not be a confirmation message when you loot a No Drop item or when you equip a Bind On Equip item. Item tooltips and layout are slated for additional improvements and visual updates.
• Item tooltips now display the rarity level of the item.
• Items can now appear with many additional stats and effects on them. You may not encounter too many of these at low levels, but as we expand into higher level testing you will likely find a few of the new stats.

Here’s some other things you should know about:

We have enabled the mail system. You can send and receive mail messages to other players. If you’re using the mail courier NPC (you can find one in all three starting areas) you can send and receive items and coin to your friends, guildmates, and your alts. You can find those courier NPCs near the banks in Sorhiryth, Availia, and the Barrowdark. We have temporarily disabled the delay in sending/receiving items to better support testing, but there will be a delay introduced before the final release of this update.

• Crafting and Gathering have been disabled for the time being. They will be re-enabled during a later stage of testing.
• The old NPC trait vendors have been removed. For this first week, any attribute bonuses you receive should come from items.
• Classes that aren’t ready for testing yet have been disabled at character creation. We’ll be bringing these classes back online for testing in upcoming weeks, but for now we want the focus to be on the 8 classes that are available.
• The rate of experience gain has been adjusted, and a rested experience bonus is now enabled. This is something we will continue dialing in based on PTR data and feedback.
• Character level is capped at 10 temporarily. We will raise that level cap in upcoming weeks, but for now we want testing to stay focused on our starting areas and low-level combat to make sure we get that dialed in.
• If you happen to wander down to the Silent Plains you will find the updated Port of Rulun, which is still very much under construction and is not yet optimized at all. You should expect framerate drops and potential collision issues in that area. Feel free to explore the town if you want, we are proud of how it’s coming together. But remember that you are venturing inside at your own risk.

We’d like everyone to keep in mind that this is a testing environment and what you are working with is still very early and in some cases incomplete. Given the extensive nature of the changes we are making, it is expected that you are going to find bugs and areas that still need to be tuned and balanced. This also means that support will be very limited. You may want to create several characters to test with, just in case something happens that causes one of them to get stuck or otherwise broken.

We are planning to update this server very frequently with bug fixes, tuning adjustments, and as we bring additional classes and systems online for testing. We’ll provide detailed patch notes with each update so that you know what has changed. However, we also may need to wipe your testing characters during some of these updates. We’ll let you know in the patch notes if a wipe has happened but just remember that these characters are temporary and treat them as such.

We strongly encourage you to read the PTR FAQ if you have not already. Thank you for helping us test the Combat and Progression Update and thank you for continuing to support our team as we work towards the full launch of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen!

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