Hello, this is DEV Allanon.
In today's Developer's Note, I’d like to preview some update plans we have for May - Details of the character utility adjustments and the progress on client optimization.
This round of character utility improvements focuses on alleviating the structural constraints and resource management inconveniences experienced by certain characters.
Additionally, I plan to share updates on the ongoing optimization efforts to ensure a smoother and more enjoyable gameplay environment for everyone.
Direction of Character Utility Improvements
As previously announced in our Devtalk video, this revamp centers around four heroes: Staff Evie, Battle Scythe Evie, Longblade Arisha, and Sylas.
1. Staff Evie
For Staff Evie, the changes are centered around improving the mechanics and efficiency of 'Focus' to prevent her combat flow from being interrupted.
- ‘Focus Skill’ Improvements
- We plan to slightly increase the casting speed of Focus skills, both while stationary and moving, to raise her overall combat tempo. We also improved 'Casting Save' to work while moving and allowed Active skills to be cast immediately while in motion.
- However, to preserve her unique character identity, she will not perform attack animations while moving.
- Survivability & Resource Management
- A Successful guard with ‘Mana Amber’ will now recover a portion of her Stamina, and each successful guard will reduce the cooldowns of magic across all tiers.
- Repeated successful guards with Mana Amber will allow her to generate enhanced healing motes via 'Healing Corona'.
- Animation & Range
- The animation speeds for Ice Blow, Fire Storm, and Firebolt have been increased, and the attack ranges for Fire Shock and Ice Spear have been expanded.
- Other Details Under Review
- While 'Rage Conductor' offers a high return upon casting, the high-risk nature can feel punishing and potentially impact play experience of party members negatively. We are looking for clear points to improve this.
- Depending on our options, discussions over this matter may be extended until the Aggro System revamp scheduled for July.
2. Battle Scythe Evie
Battle Scythe Evie is currently performing well, but we want to address the entrenched playstyle of "trading hits" with the boss. The following changes are what we plan to improve to strengthen her proactive response capabilities in the latest raid environments.
- Parrying & Evasion Enhancements
- We’re adding a new parry mechanic to Soul Skewer and Horrific Scream. Using these skills to perfectly match the enemy's attack timing will negate incoming damage and provide a clear advantage upon success.
- Additionally, if 'Blink' triggers a "just-dodge," an attack hitbox will be added to the trajectory before and after movement, increasing the value of precise control and rewarding players for actively evading enemy attacks.
- Other Details Under Review
- To ensure that her already top-tier DPS does not skyrocket excessively due to these utility buffs, we are concurrently reviewing potential numerical adjustments.
3. Longblade Arisha
For Arisha, we’re currently focusing on relieving the extreme Stamina pressure caused by her core skill, 'Arcane Flurry’, and enhancing the tangible feeling of her growth.
- Resource & QoL Improvements
- The Stamina consumption of ‘Arcane Flurry’ has been reduced. We have also added/strengthened the Stamina recovery effects when using ‘Diffusion Warp’ and ‘Ether Zone.’
- The Mana recovery amount upon landing ‘Counter Drain’ has been increased, adding flexibility to her resource management. Furthermore, the casting time for ‘Resonance’ has been shortened to increase its practicality in real combat.
- Other Details Under Review
- First, we plan to fix the issue where Critical hits were not being applied when using 'Ruin Blade'.
- After monitoring the DPS changes resulting from these resource adjustments, we will consider further DPS tuning if necessary.
4. Sylas
Sylas has stable utility and mobility, but his core damage is heavily skewed toward the latter half of his combo cycle, making it structurally difficult to output efficient damage in real combat scenarios.
To fix this, we have revamped his cycle as a whole, bypassing the intermediate steps of his cycle and restructured his combo logic to allow for more aggressive operation.
- Control & Combo Improvements
- We adjusted the frames connecting normal attacks to movement/dodge to increase responsiveness.
- We also relaxed the activation timing for ‘Spirit Rend’ to improve ease of control. The tracking performance and forward movement distance of ‘Cyclone Saw’ and ‘Illusion Fist’ have also been adjusted to improve skill stability.
- Normal attacks following ‘Cyclone Crash’ will now immediately link to the 3rd normal attack, expanding his 3rd Smash combo route. Similarly, normal attacks following ‘Illusion Fist’ and additional enhanced attacks will immediately link to the 3rd normal attack, expanding his 4th Smash combo route.
- We also added Stamina recovery effects upon successfully landing Cyclone Crash and Ultimate Charge.
- Other Details Under Review
- We plan to continue monitoring changes in his practical damage output resulting from these combo extensions and proceed with additional balance adjustments if necessary.
Character Modeling Improvements
Alongside the utility changes, we’d like to share updates on some minor changes to character modeling — a topic we’ve been receiving many feedback on.
First, we are improving the lower-body proportions of Fiona and Evie.
As some of our earliest characters, their lower-body proportions are being adjusted to eliminate any visual discrepancy when compared to recently released characters, enhancing the overall quality of their silhouettes.
Additionally, we are adjusting Evie's facial proportions and head size to be smaller than current. Evie's head and face were originally modeled slightly larger than other characters, leading to awkward proportions in some situations. To fix this, we are slightly reducing her overall head size.
However, please be noted that we are not planning an overhaul. We are actively avoiding drastic changes to her facial image. While maintaining Evie's unique, original charm, we intend to refine the modeling details of her eyes and nose and enhance her textures to give her a more sophisticated look. Accordingly, Evie's exclusive hairstyle, 'Long Spritely Ponytail', will receive minor changes to suit her newly adjusted face shape.
We are well aware that design aspects like appearance are strongly tied to personal preference. Knowing how much affection our Mercenaries have for these heroes, our development team is approaching this with extreme caution. We will do our absolute best to present a satisfying result.
Client Optimization
Next, we have some news on the long-awaited client optimization efforts currently underway to provide a smoother combat environment.
To reduce frustrating stutters during combat and allow you to experience smoother controls, we plan to apply the following technical fixes:
- Optimization to the combat UI processing method, which has partially mitigated the frame drop issues occurring during battle.
- Improved response speed through reduced DX11 input lag, allowing for more instantaneous control.
- Refinement of the DX11 rendering process to prevent intermittent graphical errors. We expect this to provide an overall more stable playing environment.
We will continue monitoring the client after the update and continue optimizations until the improvements become actually meaningful for everyone.
We sincerely apologize for the recent inconvenience due to the string of errors. We promise to put more effort into listening to your voices and will do our best to create a more pleasant playing environment.
These changes will be introduced first on the KR Test Server on April 1st, and after gathering your valuable feedback, we plan to apply them to the KR Official Server on April 9th. For the NA/EU region, we will implant the changes as soon as they are ready for updates.
Even if you do not have access to the KR test servers, your opinions on the direction and details of today's announcement are always welcome. Please feel free to tell us honestly if the core issues or expected changes align with our direction, or if there are areas that need further refinement.
We ask for your continued interest and participation as we work together to make a better Vindictus.
Thank you.
