Albion Online Guide: Arcane Armory

There are many discussions around arcane staff. Goal is to offer support for beginners, or different build options for advanced players that want to try out something else. Now we will talk about the topic again.

So far for the intro, let’s get going too the important stuff.

albion online

Overview

 

  • Weapon basics
  • Spells
  • Builds and Media
  • Build Ideas

 

Arcane Staff Basics

The arcane staff is a support weapon, it is not meant for hyper dps, strong heals, or tanking in pve, if you want those then you’re probably in the wrong place.
Now, now don’t get discouraged immediatly, the arcane staff does increase the damage output of your group significantly, while also offering great ways of reducing damage.
Additionaly it can cleanse debuffs on allies or purge buffs from enemies and there are alot of hidden mechanics that are in favour of this weapon.

 

Spells
Q-slot:

Arcane shield, a spell that buffs the target with a small damage absorbing shield. The spell blocks the damage before the armor/magicresistance is applied. That means it is calculated against the raw damage, one would take.

Example: 1000 damage, 1000hp, 50% armor/magicresistance, 300 shield.

(1000(damage)-300(shield))x(1-0.5(ar/mr))= 350 damage recieved

Castspeed instant, range 9m cooldown 5 seconds, duration 4 seconds

Available on all staves, starting at t3

W-slot:

Cleanse, removes negative effects from an ally and all allies in a 5 m radius around him. The target of the spell recieves a movementpeed boost and a cc-resistance buff for 5 seconds.

Cast time instant, cooldown 10 seconds, range 9m, aoe 5m, duration 5 seconds

Available on all staves, starting at t3.

Arcane beam, is a channeled spell, that buffs the damage output from the target by 137% for up to 7 seconds. Movements, spellcasting or cc will interrupt the channel. Interesting sidenote is that the channeled beam leaves a lingering buff that lasts roughly 1 second on the target. Additionally does the beam range , once casted, exceed the 9m range, if the target keeps on moving further away. It still breaks with at a certain distance.

Is the Delated Teleport a New Playstyle?

Delayed teleport in Albion Online is not that useless at all.

new-world-in-albion-online

Delayed teleport works with cast time spells like heavy cleave for example:

1. Delayed teleport
2. Wait 1 sec
3. Cast heavy cleave or something like that

The aoe will be set at the new position of your character. Nice combos inc.
So it is nice for repositionning without breaking your casts, with a little of anticipation of course.

For example : snipe shot with crossbow. If you cast delayed teleport before it, you will be replaced without breaking your cast. (Keep targeting a target who run away or replacing yourself to avoid stuns).

Another: Iron-clad staff, use dalayed teleport, “e” spell, then your are now in the enemy team to split them.

Do you have any idea for combos with that?

Talking about the Steppes in Albion Online with Level Designers

The steppes are a rough environment. Whereas the swamps are green and full of life, the steppes are a dry wasteland. But there is a glimmer of hope within the badlands; oases pop up every now and then, refreshing everything and everyone surrounding them. If you need hide or fiber, the steppes are the place to be.

Today we’re taking a look at what you might find along your journey in the steppes, along with level designers Lino Claudius and Viktor Pekar.

Level designers build the world of Albion, they jokingly call it “playing God”. Using assets made by the art department, they create the puzzle pieces of the world and fill it with small “stories”. It is up to the player to fill in the blanks and guess what has happened.

Below you will find a few of the steppe scenes created by Lino and Viktor. Feast your eyes!

Road through Hell

Road through-Hell

As Lino kindly puts it, the steppes are an “unfriendly area to live in”. Setting up camp when travelling through this abyss can be quite dangerous, which is why nomads put up their site near a canyon. They have now moved on, abandoning their camp, and* continuing their journey. Or perhaps they just slipped and fell…

Dried-Up River

 

Dried-Up-River

 

Once a flourishing river, the water has disappeared and the land has gone dry.

Abandoned Camp

Abandoned-Camp

Once used by animal farmers, this camp has been deserted for a while. The remnants of the camp still remain, slowly being taken over by the steppe. It looks like the farmers left in a hurry. What happened here will remain a mystery – but it does make you wonder…

Once used by animal farmers, this camp has been deserted for a while. The remnants of the camp still remain, slowly being taken over by the steppe. It looks like the farmers left in a hurry. What happened here will remain a mystery – but it does make you wonder…

Fall of Death

Fall-of-Death

“Accidents happen – even in Albion,” Viktor commented when showing this scene. The question hat events transpired here will not be answered, but it certainly does not look good!

Like what you see? More information about the flora and fauna in the steppes will follow in a future developer news!

Castle Fight is Available in Albion Online for 6 Weeks

Conquer Castles in the next 6 weeks to have your own guild logo implemented in Albion Online!

Steppe

Starting from Monday, May 23, until Sunday, July 3, we are running a Castle Fight event in Albion Online!

The goal of the event is to get a hold of as many castles as possible at the checkpoints listed below. Each castle will grant your guild one point. The top three guilds at the end of each week will get their custom guild logo implemented in the game. Any guild who can get first place twice during the event will receive the logo exclusively for them to use!

Each week will start on Monday, 11:00 UTC, and end the next Monday, 11:00 UTC. The only exception is the last week, which will end on Sunday, July 3, at 20:00 UTC. That means there are two fewer checkpoints in the last week of the event!

Each day has four checkpoints:

  • 02:00 UTC
  • 08:00 UTC
  • 14:00 UTC
  • 20:00 UTC

As there are six castles in the game, a guild can get a maximum of six points per checkpoint. The official blog will update the leaderboard regularly and announce the winners every Monday.And all event details can be found in the event forum thread.

Do We Need Another Support Weapon Stuff in Albion Online?

Let’s discuss about the topic. I think the only support weapon arcane stuff is not enough to fill that whole support role. Or does someone think it’s enough? Let’s first discuss generally and lets go for details later. If we get multiple good proposals we can always start new threads for each of those. I know there is some people who has already something good in their sleeves, so bring it on.

albion-online

  • Now what kind of build you would like to see?
  • What kind of weapons?
  • What kind of abilities?

I got my inspiration from another thread where people were talking about broadswords. I have thinked role like this before, but now I got my final inspiration. If that suggested inspire ability wont suit there maybe it could get own whole build or be its own weapon. So a “captain” role was something i got in my mind. Abilities are buffing allies different kind of way. Where inspiring shouts are couraging allies to resist cc and maybe battlehorn giving some attack or defence buff for few seconds. This could suit well in swordline, and maybe glaive away from there and move claymore to .3 place and brings this “captains sword” to .2

I think something like sage or bard from Ragnarok online would be a cool support class for this game. Sage and his advanced class have some spells I could see working in this game.

1) Spell Breaker – interrupt with mana siphon that has short cast. Also deals small amount of dmg.

2) Magic Rod – the spell that absorbs single target spell used on sage and gives to sage some mana. Good defensive spell.

3) Magnetic Earth – the most important one I thought might work well here. It is anti AoE spell. You cast it on the ground and that place is a safe heaven against AoE spells. How it worked in team fights was you had to recast it and your team had to move on it so they wouldn’t get eaten by AoEs. In a game where AoEs are so good this could work pretty well.

4) Blinding Mist – an AoE where characters inside it have blindness on them – chance to miss theirs attacks.

5) Indulge – sage sacrifices some of his health to give his friendly some energy.

6) Soul Exhale – exchange of energy by sage and the target. Can be used to restore energy to your friendlies or take energy from enemy when sage is down on energy.
Bard is AoE support with musical instrument as a weapon. He had spells that are active around him and you have to stand inside it to get the effect of it, spells like increasing damage, casting speed, health or attack speed.

I love support classes and would love to see one perhaps two more support weapons in the game. There could be even Paragon like class from GW 1 or Mesmer like debuffer class. I know devs said they want to balance weapons in hand first, which I understand. But seeing more support weapons would be amazing.

Balancing Issues New Skills in Albion Online

Today I will share with you the balancing issue in Albion Online.

Albion-Online

Great Hammer 6.3 brand new tackle skill

  • description: travels in straight line dealing 48 dmg and stunning for 5.7s energy cost 65 cooldown 15s

Polehammer 7.2 (same rough tier) Groundbreaker

  • description: travels in straight line dealing 297 dmg and stunning for 9.14s energy cost 67 cooldown 15s even the 4.2 polehammer skill is better than the great hammer

Please start posting full descriptions of potential new skills FAR prior to placing them in game. Something this obvious should have been common sense.

To put it bluntly this isn’t the first time:

  • Movement ability on Armor (why make it so medium is better than light and heavy when prior to this it was balanced passives are fine it is the active skills that unbalanced game)
  • Movement ability on Weapons (they should all be roughly the same…if you need help calculating there are a number of us capable on forums ask…please)
  • Aoe dmg on Bow (like really you nerf the 1 skill that was sort of “ok” and totally ignore the 3 second spammable that can hit everyone in a cone?)
  • Meteor being useless (i.e. remove the knockback no other aoe makes it so that it ruins everyone else’s aoe in game)

A New Give Away Started by Albion Online Alliance Members

A new give away started by several [EX] alliance members distributes their lands.

Albion-online

The guilds Undead Lords, Ominous and La Croisade have recently announced something remarkable: they are giving away guild territories for free! As reported in the latest Albion Gazette, these members of the [EX] alliance have been very successful in their latest endeavors in the East and have seized a lot of land.

What is going on behind the scenes? Why would these guilds suddenly give up their newly conquered assets? Pest, leader of the Undead Lords, explains the thinking behind their charitable actions.

Albion-online

“Our goal is to shake things up this beta, and maybe keep some guilds playing,” he declares. “Give smaller guilds a chance to get territory and try out Guild vs Guild this Beta.”

Only smaller guilds are eligible to join this give away. This decision was made for a very specific reason, Pest elaborates.

Pest: “We took all these territories as very small, competitive guilds from three different very large zergs. We dismantled the [FEAR] alliance, defeated the [EAST] alliance (KDS/Aegis), and fended off Brasil Forces. We feel it is only right to give these territories to other small guilds that might be struggling against zergs!”

As of writing this article, they have already given away 10 of their territories, with about 30 more remaining. Want to get your hands on some land? Check out Pest’s forum announcement here for more information.

What do you think of this sudden give away?

Detailed Features in Albion Online Update Darian

Darian is the last content update throughout this phase of Beta. The game designer is now working in full force on preparing the next phase of beta on which you can expect more details soon. Now is the feature details in Darian.

albion-online

Features

Study items

  • In crafting buildings, you can now “Study” crafted items.
  • You can study multiple items, and even multiple types of item, at once, provided other requirements are met.
  • Studying an item destroys it.
  • Studying an item grants you Fame towards the same Destiny Board unlocks that crafting that item would.
  • Studying an item is intended to be equivalent to repeatedly salvaging and recrafting it: you can spend Crafting Focus on it, Premium status improves the Fame gained, and the overall Fame gain should be equivalent.
  • The main limitation on what you can study is that you must be able to craft any item you want to study; it does not matter who crafted it, in much the same way that it doesn’t matter who gathers the resources you use to craft.
  • It is also necessary that the item is at full durability, and that the building you’re using can craft that item.

LP spending improvements

  • You can now use LP to unlock Mastery Levels on the Destiny Board from the beginning, rather than only after 20% of the Mastery Level is completed.
  • It costs 8 times more LP per Fame to unlock the first 20%, so it’s still more efficient to unlock that section through normal gameplay.

Player Spell Area Visualization

  • To further increase the readability of PvP, we implemented a pre-visualization of player AoE spells. This means on any AoE spells, the area will be highlighted on cast start.
  • The area will be filled with a gradient, this fill shows the exact time when the spell will hit the area.
  • The color of the area indicates the type of spell: enemy damage, friendly heal, enemy heal or friendly damage.

 

Improvements

  • Names of deleted characters will be freed for use upon deletion. Names are reserved for the deleting account for 72 hours. After that time they can be claimed by anyone. Note: this change only affects characters deleted after this release.
  • New riding animations for Direboar and Direbear mounts.
  • Improved many animations.
  • Animations when crafting have been improved by swapping weapons out for building-appropriate tools.

Albion-Online

Changes

  • Access rights can now have a maximum of around 50 individual settings per object.
  • Threat Generation on player spells has been reworked, to make the tank gameplay more interesting it is now more challenging to keep aggro.

Balance Changes

Arcane Staffs
Arcane Staffs Arcane Protection did not really shine as a slot 1 ability so far. The shield was quite weak and had a long cast. This has now been changed to an instant ability, allowing a more reactive playstyle.
The invulnerability on Enigmatic Staff was changed to a damage shield in the last content update, which fixed the staffs scaling per tier. However the damage absorbed per tick was too low, which hurt the Enigmatic Staff’s core role.

Arcane Protection

  • Damage Absorbed increased by 6%
  • Cast Time: 1s -> 0s
  • Base Energy Cost: 7 -> 6
  • Shield Duration: 5s -> 4s

Invulnerability

  • Damage Absorbed per tick increased by 60%

Bows
The biggest change is on the Frost Shot. This spell should allow for good mobility, but the distances covered on high tiers was never intended and was actually a bug. Therefore the knockback distance is now always fixed to 11m.
Bows where also a bit too strong in dishing out instant AoE Damage, so Multishot damage was toned down a bit and the Rain of Arrows now have a 1s delay before they hit.
The Poisoned Arrows seemed a bit weak compared to the other slot 1 choices, so the dot has now 6 ticks. Making it easier to stack up the dot, as well as dealing more damage overall.

Poisoned Arrow

  • Number of Damage Ticks: 5 -> 6
  • Base Energy Cost: 5 -> 4
  • The Poison deals now magic damage.

Multi Shot

  • Damage Reduced by 8%

Frost Shot

  • Knockback distance is now fixed to 11m

Rain of Arrows

  • Added a delay of 1s before the first wave of arrows hits the ground

Crossbows
The Caltrops used to be a combination of damage and some cc. With the new spell Sunder Shot on slot 2 being now the best choice for damage, the focus of the Caltrops has been shifted stronger on the cc aspect.

Caltrops

  • Area Size: 1m -> 1.5m
  • Base Energy Cost: 3 -> 4
  • Slow Strength: 22% -> 50%
  • Damage Reduced by 44%

Cursed Staffs
Due to the heavy armor reduction the Armor Piercer has been extremely strong in group fights. To make Cursed Staffs a bit less mandatory the AR/MR reduction has been reduced and the damage increased. This way the spell’s damage output stays still high, but the effectivity doesn’t multiply in groups as much anymore.

  • Armor Piercer
  • AR/MR Reduction decreased by 38%
  • Damage increased by 75%

Daggers
Infiltration’s long hit delay made the spell too hard to hit against other players. The hit delay has now been reduced to make the spell viable for pvp.

Infiltration

  • Hit Delay: 2.5s -> 1.5s

Holy Staffs
With the changed, faster executions, the 2s cast time was too long to successfully resurrect an ally. So the cast time has been adjusted.

Resurrection

  • Cast Time: 2.s -> 1s

albion-online

Maces
After Cador we saw less Mace line items in the game, because without the help of the old armor spells the Hammer offered the better straight forward cc. With this patch we define the sub roles of the different mace line items stronger. While also offering Maces a strong cc spell on slot 2.

Pull Area

  • Hit Delay: 0.2 -> 0.6s
  • Area Size: 5m -> 7m

Silencing Strike

  • The spell now also purges enemy buffs on hit.

Battle Howl

  • Silenced duration increased by 17%

Root Prison

  • Enemies hit will now stay rooted for 2s after the channel ends.
  • Channel Duration: 4s -> 3s

Nature Staffs
The Well of Life heal was a bit too low, considering how risky it is to stay in place in the circle against another player team. To make up for the risk, the heal strength has been increased.

Well of Life

  • Heal increased by 10%

Spears
Increased the Dash Speed of the Reckless Charge to make it easier to hit and be useful for repositioning.

Reckless Charge

  • Dash Speed: 0.2 -> 0.6s

Swords
The Heroic Strike charges have been buffed to give the sword line more mobility and stickyness to the target. Also the Cleave ability now also applies the Heroic Strike charges, so it is possible to get the max out of the slot 3 abilities, independent from the Q choice.
To further increase the swords mobility, players can now also freely move during the whole Mighty Swing animation.

Heroic Strike

  • Speed Buff per Stack: 6% -> 10%
  • Speed Buff Duration: 5s -> 6s

Cleave

  • Now also applies Heroic Strike Charges on hit

Mighty Swing

  • Standtime: 1s -> 0s

Cloth Armor
Frost Shield was making the squishy armors a bit too tanky, which outshined the other spell choices and also made the Cloth Armor users bypass their weakness a tad too good. Therefore the AR/MR buff strength has been reduced.
The penalty on the Speed Caster was removed, because picking this spell already has the drawback of sacrificing any defensive ability from the chest. Considering how squishy Cloth Armor is, this is already a big commitment.

Frost Shield

  • AR/MR Buff decreased by 33%

Speed Caster

  • Spellpower Reduction Removed, the cast speed bonus now has a penalty.

Mighty Swing

  • Standtime: 1s -> 0s

Cloth Helmet

  • The cleanse has been removed from the Ice Block, because the damage immunity alone is already a very strong choice for this slot.
  • The Speed Caster has been way too niche so far. With this update it also offers a 20% cast speed to make the spell more useful.

Ice Block

  • Removed the Cleanse
  • Can’t be used when silenced anymore

Disruption Immunity

  • Added an additional 20% Cast Speed buff to the spell

Leather Helmet
To make cleanse more valuable and encourage using cleanses in team composition the spell now also cleanses allies in close proximity.

Cleanse

  • Now also cleanses allies in close proximity

Plate Shoes
The Shield Charge was capable of absorbing too much damage. Especcially in comparison with other shielding abilities like Sprint Shield.

Sprint Shield

  • Damage Absorbed increased by three times

Shield Charge

  • Damage Absorbed decreased by 15%

Misc
To allow for more possible combinations of damage buffing builds, the max damage buff height has been increased.

  • Max Damage Buff: 150% -> 200%

New Spells in Albion Online Content Update Darian Explained

Albion Online latest Content Update Darian is released today and will include a total of 12 new spells. Check them out here!

Albion-online-Darian

1.Charge on Claymore (Third Slot)
Charge towards an enemy, dealing damage and temporarily pinning them to the spot. The length of the enemy root depends on the number of Heroic Charges on you.

2.Fearless Strike on Claymore (Third Slot)
Dash towards a location and strike all enemies on your way, dealing damage to each enemy and slowing them. The slow strength depends on the number of Heroic Charges on you.

3.Bloody Reap on Scythe (Third Slot)
Swing your Scythe twice to deal damage to all surrounding enemies. The first hit causes the enemy to bleed.

4.Magma Sphere on Great Fire Staff (Third Slot)
Shoot a devastating magma sphere in any direction. It will deal damage and burn all enemies along its path.

5.Tackle on Great Hammer (Third Slot)
Rush towards a target destination. Any enemies you hit on your way will be damage and stunned.

6.Black Hole on Great Arcane Staff (Third Slot)
Summon a black hole that quickly pulls enemies towards its center and then collapses, dealing damage to those caught in it and slowing them.

Albion-online

7.Tornado on Double Bladed Staff (Third Slot)
Create a tornado and shoot it in a chosen direction. Enemies hit by the tornado will be knocked up into the air and receive damage. Enemies in proximity to the tornado will be slowed.

8.Enfeeble Blades on Demonic Staff (Third Slot)
Summon a ring of deadly blades around a friend or foe. The blades will damage enemies surrounding the target, but not the target itself. They will follow the target around, repeatedly dealing damage and reducing attack power.

9.Salvation on Divine Staff (Third Slot)
Create a ground area that will charge up for several seconds. Once fully charged, it will heal all allies inside and cleanse all negative effects.

10.Battle Frenzy on all Axe line items (Second Slot)
Increases your movement and attack speed by 50%, as well as making you immune to any movement-impairing effects for 5 seconds.

11.Sacred Pulse on all Holy Staff line items (Second Slot)
Cast a pulsating heal on a friendly target. The target will heal the target and all allies in a 5 meter radius for 5 seconds.

12.Sunder Shot on all Crossbow line items (Second Slot)
Shoot a single arrow towards an enemy, dealing physical damage and reducing the target’s Armor and Magic Resist. The more health the target has, the more stacks of resistance reduction are applied with a maximum of 10 stacks.

Certified Tablets to Play Albion Online by Game Players

The devs are testing the game on a few select tablets to ensure the game runs smoothly, and a lot of people have tried playing the game on a tablet, so why not compile a list so everyone can see the models that are good for AO?

Albion-ONline

We might discuss it here first, below are ideas by the game players.

1.My suggestion is using a template like this:

  • Brand: Samsung
    Make/Model: Galaxy Tab 3
    OS Version: Android 4
    Runs the game without issues? Nope
    Observations: Can play well enough in my island, but crash every time I enter s city or a heavily populated area.

2.Here is my feedback:

  • Asus
    Brand: Asus
    Make/Model: Nexus 7, second edition
    OS Version: Android 5.1.1
    Runs the game without issues? Had issues
    Observations: Loading the game and loading zones took forever, up to 5 minutes. Sometimes while loading a zone, the screen would go black and the game stopped working. Played fine once game was loaded.
  • Samsung
    Brand: Samsung
    Make/Model: Galaxy Tab 3
    OS Version: Android 4
    Runs the game without issues? Nope
    Observations: Can play well enough in my island, but crash every time I enter s city or a heavily populated area.

3.My suggestion is using a template like this:

  • Brand: Samsung
    Make/Model: Galaxy Tab 3
    OS Version: Android 4
    Runs the game without issues? Nope
    Observations: Can play well enough in my island, but crash every time I enter s city or a heavily populated area.

4.System Requirements

  • Windows:
    Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8
    Intel/AMD CPU with SSE2
    Graphics card with Shader Model 2.0 support or better
    2 GB RAM or more
  • OSX:
    Mac OS X 10.7 or higher
    Intel/AMD CPU with SSE2
    Graphics card with Shader Model 2.0 support or better
    2 GB RAM or more
  • Linux:
    Ubuntu 10.10 64bit or higher or SteamOS (other distributions do work, but are not officially supported)
    Intel/AMD CPU with SSE2
    Graphics card with Shader Model 2.0 support or better
    2 GB RAM or more
  • Android:
    Android 2.3.1 or higher
    Tablet with 7″ screen
    ARMv7 (Cortex) or Atom CPU
    OpenGL ES 2.0 support or higher
    2 GB RAM or more
  • iOS (CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE):
    iOS 8.0 or higher
    iPad Air 2 or better

What’s your opinion anout this?