The Empress of Ebonscale Reach Update: Patch Notes and Release Date

This page lists all information on The Empress of Ebonscale Reach Update for New World. Read on to learn more about its release date and patch notes.

The Empress of Ebonscale Reach Update: Release Date

Released on March 16, 2021

On March 16, 2021, New World released its March Alpha Update, also known as The Empress of Ebonscale Reach Update. This update saw the addition of the new region of Ebonscale along with all its quests, a new expedition called the Garden of Genesis, and sweeping balance updates.

Source: New World Official Site

Patch Notes: Spotlight

New Zone: Ebonscale Reach

Ebonscale Reach is a fertile territory named for the black fungus that grows in abundance there. The area is home to the remnants of a long-forgotten Dynasty who must contend with the demons of their past in the form of a fallen Empress. Here, amid lush wetlands, majestic waterfalls, and stunning architecture, players will counter the atrocities committed by the Empress’s Corrupted forces and the Dragon Magic she has been cultivating for centuries, ultimately exposing her true plan, which reaches far beyond the shores of Aeternum.

• Ebonscale Reach is located north of Monarch’s Bluffs and west of Brightwood and is intended for player level 51 and above.

Ebonscale Reach: New Enemies

Several new hostile inhabitants of Aeternum now populate Ebonscale Reach, including Corrupted Dynasty Musketeers, Heavies, Warriors, Spear Captains, Summoners, and Maidens, as well as Tigers and Corrupted Tigers.

New Expedition: Garden of Genesis

The Garden of Genesis is an expedition leading into the birthplace of the Angry Earth, where players must face elemental protectors in order to penetrate into the nursery’s primordial heart. Like the rest of Edengrove, the Garden has been infected with a mysterious Blight, and though the Angry Earth will never accept outsiders into their sacred space, only the players have the power to purge the Blight and begin the Garden’s restoration.

• The entrance to this expedition is located in the northwestern part of the crater in Edengrove.
• Players must have completed the following quests in the area before entering the Garden of Genesis: 1. Survivalist Ellwood’s quests in Edengrove at the Last Stand Outpost, and 2. Ranger Herath’s quests in Shattered Mountain at the Mountainrise Outpost

Garden of Genesis Boss Encounters

• The Caretaker: Beware the murky waters in the den of this once-gentle giant.
• The Blighted Greenskeeper: This blighted soul stands guard at the very heart of the Garden of Genesis.

Patch Notes: General

Introduced the first version of Outpost Rush, a new 20v20 endgame PvP game mode. There will be more information on Outpost Rush in the next update.

• Main story quests updated through level 40.
• English voice over for the main story quests and starter beaches has been added.

New Armor & Weapon Quests

Added new weapon quests as journeys to craft and obtain rare armor and weapons, starting at level 40. Gear obtained through these quests is not in contention for best-in-slot, leaving the market for end-game items and crafters unaffected." instead.

• Each quest has these prerequisites: completion of all zone quests for the area the quest is found in; completion of the main storyline up to a specific threshold; and player level 40+.

Armor Quests

• This is a quest chain consisting of 5 child quests, which will guide players to forge each piece of the set. Each successive quest requires a new player level threshold (40, 45, 50, 55, 60).
• Unique quest recipes with no skill requirement are given for each armor item. Players can craft the item after gathering the requisite ingredients.
• The light armor Quests are granted by Survivalist Severino in Weaver's Fen.
• The Medium Armor Quests are granted by Quartermaster Duffy in Cutlass keys.
• The Heavy Armor Quests are granted by Justiciar Sobol in Brightwood.
• Each item in the set contributes to a set bonus, which will confer increased stats depending on the number of armor pieces from a given set are equipped.

Weapon Quests

• Each quest line consists of 3 child quests to gather materials and forge a weapon.
• The Keen Temper sword quest is granted by Captain Lucian in Cutlass Keys.
• The Executioner great axe quest is granted by the Head Priest in Brightwood.
• The Huntress bow quest is granted by the Barkeep in Weaver's Fen.
• The Falmea's Wrath fire staff quest is granted by Magistrate Allen in Weaver's Fen.
• The Hope Manifest life staff quest is granted by Herbalist Lau in Brightwood.

Progression Updates

• Decreased XP required to level from level 8 to 60 by 10%.
• Decreased XP from PvP Faction missions by 5% to 18%.
• Players killing weaker creatures now suffer diminishing returns on XP gains of 40% for creatures 10-19 levels below them and 80% for 20+ levels below them
• Adjusted the level range at which enemies present to player with a skull icon, indicating that they are high above the player's level and should be treated with caution. Previously, this skull icon was displayed when an enemy was 6+ levels above the player; it is now displayed when an enemy is 10+ levels above the player.
• As a reminder, the skull icon indicates that an enemy has the following properties: they outright kill the player rather than leaving them at death's door, they have an increased perception range of +10m, and they do not get staggered by the player. Enemies still gain armor buffs starting at 3 levels over the player and damage buffs at 5 levels

Loot & Gear

• Adjusted drop logic so that weapons are more likely to drop with attributes that are more directly relevant to the weapon.
• Increased the chance of items dropping with a gem slot so they are the the same as the chances of rolling other perks or attributes. Due to the multiplicative nature of drop calculation, this will also affect the odds of items rolling additional bonuses, so expect to see an increase in natural rare and epic rolls at the tiers they are available.
• Added additional named items as Expedition drops. Each Expedition boss and miniboss now has a wider variety of named items, including some new named trinkets. Each Expedition now has a variety of named items in its global dungeon drop table.
• After level 10, Quest Reward Containers for Armor and Weapons will always result in an item of uncommon rarity or higher.
• Adjusted drop logic of large chests so they drop between 2-3 gear pieces.
• All equippable items are now either Bind-on-Equip or Bind-on-Pickup. This is a important step to protect the item economy and keep demand for quality items high. By ensuring that an item (once equipped) is removed from the economy by being bound to a player and unable to be resold, space is created in the economy for similar items to be sold to other players on the trading post or scrapped for repair parts.
• Updated the look of some of the armor pieces dropped by Ancient Enemies in the open world, including: Tier 5 light armor, Tier 5 heavy armor, and Tier 3 & 4 medium armor

Crafting & Gathering

• Updated drop rates for rare gathering resources (e.g., Fae Iron). Drops are now less rare and more heavily impacted by luck bonuses from food and armor. When a drop occurs, it drops a quantity range instead of just a single item.
• Adjusted the crafting requirements of named items to accommodate the additional rare gathering resources that multiple drops will create.
• Adjusted refining requirements for precious metals to reflect the same pattern of mundane metals (e.g., silver ingots are now mixed with gold ore to create gold ingots). This is a necessary step in keeping the demand for silver relevant like other, lower-tier resources.
• Added a new set of crafting modifiers that enable you to apply a specific attribute roll to an item when crafting. These crafting modifiers come from a variety of sources, including loot containers, various enemy families, and gathering.
• Attribute crafting modifiers can be upgraded by skilled crafters to apply more powerful bonuses on higher-tier items. Note that the tier of the item being crafted ultimately restricts the level of the bonus that can be applied, so using a higher-level crafting modifiers on a lower-tier item won’t necessarily result in a better bonus.
• Upgrading an attribute crafting modifiers requires a Transmutation Catalyst, which can be purchased from your Faction’s shop.
• Removed the ability to salvage Elemental Essences down to lower tiers. Instead, skilled Arcanists can upgrade Elemental Essences to higher tiers.
• Tier 1 Elemental Essences can be acquired in the world; all others must be upgraded.
• Primary ingredients of procedural crafts are now constrained to their tier. There was some confusion with how the system worked with regards to changing the tier of the primary ingredient resulting in changing the entire recipe.
• Secondary ingredients can still use any tier of ingredient or resource and achieve the same effect.
• Unmasked the variety of secret ingredients in the ingredient selector on the crafting screen. Players should now be able to see the various ways rare resources like Fae Iron can be used, even without having the resource.
• Tier 2 craftable named magic staves now grant attribute bonuses that directly benefit their performance.
• Reduced crafting ingredient requirements for repair kits.
• Increased the attribute bonuses provided by food at each tier.
• Tuned Health Recovery Food buff to recover more health and adjusted the burst healing time from 10 seconds to 20 seconds. It now also has a status effect to more clearly explain the mechanic.
• Adjusted buff durations on foods, potions, and coatings so that higher tiers last longer in addition to being more effective.
• Added Material Converters to the Faction Shop. Material Converters can be used to alchemically convert refining reagents (e.g., Sandpaper) to another refining reagent with a small loss of efficiency. Currently, the ratio is 4:3, and the action requires the use of one of the refining stations in a settlement.

Fishing Tuning and Polish

• Polished fishing quest objectives and improved the rewards, including new fishing armor with new perks and special fishing poles.
• Added rarities/tiers to Fish Filets to support fish rarity and bolster procedural cooking as well as general salvaging improvements
• Added fishing projects to territory projects

Patch Notes: UX / UI

Inventory Update (Part 1)

New World is implementing some improvements to the Inventory screen. For this release, we’ve changed the screen’s overall presentation.

• Added a full character view, for players to inspect their loadouts in full glory.
• Added a new dynamic layout that keeps your inventory closest to your equipment for more convenient drag-and-dropping (and less accidentally dropping items).
• All icons have been updated to single-size grid squares, allowing more compact formatting in multiple screens.
• Added equip load numbers for players to clearly see the threshold amounts for their equip load.

Patch Notes: Combat

General Combat Updates

• AI Combat Updates (part 3) – continued to tune and refine the existing AI combat experience. This release, Another large batch of AI enemies has been updated.
• Potions now have a cooldown timer. Potions of the same type will share a timer when consumed (all health potions, all health regens, all mana potions), not allowing you to consume another potion of that type until the cooldown has expired. The act of consuming a potion is considerably faster and no longer slows you down if you are navigating.
• The respective cooldowns in place are: 10s for mana potions, 10s for cleansing potions, 30s for health potions, 30s for health regen potions, and 60s for haste potions.
• The default block angle is now front 180 degrees. The previous angle of front 90 degrees would sometimes allow hits through even when it visually looked like an attack was blocked.
• Updated functionality on melee attacks, which should now have more consistent hits against shorter enemies or enemies that are above or below you on an incline, resulting in fewer misses while attacking.

Attribute Rework

• Increased the amount of damage scaling per attribute point invested. Players should invest in the appropriate attribute to use weapons efficiently. Reduced the base damage of weapons to account for the new attribute point increase.
• Tuned Constitution so that the percentage of increase in health is generally equal to the new damage increases.
• Adjusted the way dual-attribute weapons scale to make them competitive with single-attribute weapons and offer more build flexibility. Single-attribute weapons still offer max weapon damage, but this will keep dual-attribute weapons competitive.
• Single-attribute weapons have only a primary attribute, and the way this single attribute scales is considered the baseline (1x).
• Warhammer: Strength
• Great Axe: Strength
• Bow: Dexterity
• Fire Staff: Intelligence
• Life Staff: Focus
• For dual-attribute weapons, the primary attribute (listed first below) scales at .9x compared to single-attribute weapons, and the secondary attribute scales at .65x compared to single-attribute weapons.
• Sword: Strength & Dexterity
• Rapier: Dexterity & Intelligence
• Hatchet: Primary: Strength & Dexterity
• Spear: Primary: Strength & Dexterity
• Rifle: Primary: Dexterity & Intelligence

Armor Changes

• Physical and elemental armor ratings now scale consistently across armor classes. This means that heavy armor now has the highest armor ratings for both physical and elemental damage, while light armor has the lowest.
• Each weight class of armor has 3 different types of armor distribution:
• Physical: more physical protection, less elemental protection
• Elemental: more elemental protection, less physical protection
• Balanced: equal protection for physical and elemental
• The amount of armor that shields provide has been reduced significantly. New damage mitigation bonus: Round Shield: 1.35%, Kite Shield: 2.6%, Tower Shield: 5.2%.
• These mitigation bonuses scale down with higher base armor ratings. With light armor, these mitigation numbers would be reduced slightly and with heavy armor, they’d be cut by about 50%.
• Shields weights have been standardized across tiers. Because shields affect equip load, it was frustrating that a higher tier of the same type of shield could cause a player to go over their equipment load; that has been solved with this update.

Equip Load Changes

Each equip load should have a unique role and strengths, so some major changes have been made to the way equip load works.

• Light and medium equip loads now get a damage bonus (20% for light and 10% for medium).
• Medium and heavy equip loads now get a duration bonus (10% for medium and 20% for heavy) for Stuns, Slows and Roots.
• Removed accuracy, Grit, damage resistance, and stamina modifiers from all equip load bonuses.
• Reduced block stability bonus for heavy equip loads from 35% to 25% and removed penalty from light.
• Increased stamina cost for light and heavy equip load dodges from 40 to 50. Dodging with a medium equip load still costs 40.
• Medium Equip Load threshold reduced from 17.5 to 15 and Heavy Equip Load threshold reduced from 32.5 to 30.

Grit Changes

• While Grit is active, you are Unstoppable, which means that attacks will no longer be interrupted. You will continue to take damage though, and can be killed during a Grit attack.
• Grit has been removed from many abilities: Flurry, Skewer, Perforate, Judgement's Reach, Gravity Well, Maelstrom, Incinerate, Fleche, Vault Kick, Whirlwind, Burnout, Whirling Blade, and Power Throw.

Balance

Major updates have been made to every weapon and their mastery lines to continue to push ability differentiation by giving each ability a clear primary focus. As part of this, the total mastery choices per weapon has been increased from 32 to 38, to allow for even more options to tailor your fighting style.

Sword

• Renamed the two mastery lines from Sword and Shield to Swordmaster and Defender
• Sped up light attacks
• Added a third hit to light attack chain
• Swordmaster Mastery Line: Moved Leadership to the Swordmaster line
• Swordmaster Mastery Line: Removed: Precision, Fine Precision, Keen Blade, Ultra Keen and Killer Advantage
• Swordmaster Mastery Line: Added: Empowered Stab, Achilles Heel, Precision, Freeing Justice, Mobility, Opportunist, Critical precision, Confidence.
• Reverse Stab: Increased damage to 175%, removed the first swing from the animation.
• Reverse Stab: Added a new upgrade: Tactician. On a successful hit with Reverse Stab, all sword cooldowns are reduced by 35%.
• Whirling Blade: Removed current upgrades and added two new upgrades:
• Whirling Blade: Opportunity: Whirling Blade causes 20% rend for 5s (Rend reduces targets armor).
• Whirling Blade: Tactical Strike: Whirling Blade reduces its cooldown by 10% for each enemy hit.
• Leaping Strike: Increased Leaping Strike leap distance by 2 meters, and speed up the animation.
• Leaping Strike: Removed current upgrades and added two new upgrades.
• Leaping Strike: Final Strike: If you hit a foe below 30% health deal 50% more damage.
• Leaping Strike: Cowardly Punishment: If Leaping Strike hits a target in the back: cause slow (reduced target movement speed) for 10s.
• Defender Mastery Line: Added new Ultimate Mastery: Defensive Formation: While blocking reduce damage to all other allies within 2 meters by 33%.
• Defender Mastery Line: Removed: Incoming Resistance, Bladed Fortitude
• Defender Mastery Line: Added: On with the Shield, Final Blow, and Defensive Training.
• Defender Mastery Line: Changed Barricade Shield’s name to High Grip
• Shield Rush: Removed Refreshing Rush upgrade.
• Shield Rush: Moved Intimidating Rush to the final upgrade
• Shield Rush: Added new upgrade: Improved Rush. On successful hit all enemies within 5m are weakened for 4s.
• Shield Bash: Added a new upgrade: Intimidating Bash. Shield Bash greatly increases threat and deals 100% more damage.
• Final Stand: Final Stand upgrade now reduces damage by a flat 30% for 8s.
• Final StandReduced cooldown from 120s to 45s.
• Final StandRemoved Enduring Stand.
• Final StandAdded new upgrade: Final Count Down. If your health is above 50%: damage reduction increased by 20%
• Final StandAdded new upgrade: Restoration. Gain 15% health when Final Stand ends.

Hatchet

• Most passives across both trees have been updated to be more conditional and unique.
• Berserk Mastery Line: Added new Ultimate Mastery: Defy Death: When you receive lethal damage: avoid death, reduce health to 50, gain immortality for 4s. (60s cooldown)
• Berserk Mastery Line: Removed: Cull the Weak, Relentless Fury, Rejuvenating Kills, Iron Splitter
• Berserk Mastery Line: Added: Enraging Strike, Accomplished Power, Relentless Fury, Desperate Refresh, Against all Odds, Fortifying Strikes, Frenzied Purge.
• Removed Aimed Throw as an ability and turned it into a passive that replaces block. With this passive selected, holding down the right mouse button (RMB) initiates Aimed Throw, and each throw consumes stamina.
• Removed Purge, Quick Throw and Power Throw abilities and replaced them with new abilities.
• Feral Rush (renamed from Sprint Attack): Removed Sprinting Grit, Sprinting Refresh, and Sprinting Wound
• Feral Rush: Added upgrade: Dispatch. If target is below 30% health Feral Rush deals 20% more damage.
• Feral Rush: Added upgrade: Crippling Strike. If you hit a target in the back Feral Rush causes root (immobilizing the target) for 2s.
• Berserk: Berserk now applies a flat damage bonus while active, and no longer require hits to be taken in order to work.
• Berserk: Berserking Speed renamed to On the Hunt
• Berserk: Berserking Refresh now heals for 30% of max health when Berserk ends.
• Berserk: Added Berserking Purge: Triggering Berserk removes all Crowd Control effects (Stun, Slow, Root)
• Berserk: Added new upgrade: Unstoppable Berserk. While in Berserk, you are unstoppable and cannot be interrupted.
• Berserk: Removed Immortal Berserk.
• Ragging Torrent (New): Perform 4 fast attacks each dealing 80% weapon damage.
• Ragging Torrent: Added upgrade: Aggressive Approach. Hitting a target grants 20% haste for 6 seconds.
• Ragging Torrent: Added upgrade: Final Blow. Press LBM to perform a final attack dealing 115% weapon damage.
• Throwing Mastery Line: Added New Ultimate Passive: Persistent Hindrance. Successful throwing hatchet hits extend all debuff durations by 1s.
• Throwing Mastery Line: Removed Blood Lust
• Throwing Mastery Line: Added:
• Aimed Throw: Replaces block with an Aimed Throw that deals 90% weapon damage. Hold RMB to enter aimed stance. Each throw consumes 30 Stamina.
• Critical Throw: Thrown axes are now capable of triggering headshot or random critical hit. Also increases critical hit chance of all attacks by 5%.
• On Fire: Every third successfully thrown axe is a guaranteed crit.
• Rejuvenating Crits: Successful critical hits with light attacks or Aimed Throws regenerate 20 stamina.
• Refreshing Throws: Light Attacks and Aimed Throws against targets with an active debuff reduce all cooldowns by 10%.
• Exploration: All attacks deal 15% additional damage to targets with an active debuff.
• Boot and Rally: Light attacks and Aimed Throws regenerate 20 stamina when hitting targets with an active debuff.
• Adrenaline Rush: Dodging within 2 seconds of triggering an ability consumes 25% less stamina.
• Rending Throw (New): Rending Throw applies Rend to the target, causing them to take additional damage.
• Rending Throw: Added upgrade: Targeted Impact. Rending Throw increased to 20% damage and 6s if you are more than 8m away from the target.
• Rending Throw: Added upgrade: Opportunistic. Rending Throw deals 20% more damage if target has another debuff already.
• Rending Throw: Added upgrade: Second Wind. Using Rending Throw on a target with another debuff already applied causes Rending Throw to refresh 20% faster.
• Social Distancing (New): Throw an axe and dodge backwards, dealing 120% weapon damage and causing 15% slow for 3s.
• Social Distancing: Added upgrade: Quick Power. Increase your movement speed by 30% for 3s if your target had an active debuff.
• Social Distancing: Added upgrade: Stay Back. Slow increased to 25% for 4s
• Infected Throw (New): Throw an axe causing 130% weapon damage, and causing disease and weakness for 5s
• Infected Throw: Added upgrade: Mortal Power. Increase the duration of disease and weakness to 8s if target is below 30% health.
• Infected Throw: Added upgrade: Aerial Transmission. Create a 3m disease area on impact that lingers for 3s.

Rapier

• Flurry: Animation sped up by 30%.
• Flurry: Non critical damage reduced by 25%.
• Flurry: Critical damage reduced by 35%.
• Flurry: Flurry can now be canceled by dodging.
• Flurry: Increased distance of initial lunge, but removed the rest of the movement during the ability.
• Finish: Increased base damage-over-time (DoT) consumption to 110%.
• Riposte: No longer has a 3-frame startup.
• Riposte: Duration increased from .75s to 1s.
• Fleche: Will no longer cancel auto-run.
• Fleche: Will now correctly disable player collision during the entire ability.
• Evade: Will no longer cancel auto-run.
• Evade: Evasion distance increased as follows: Forward: from 1.3m to 1.5m, Back: from 2.0m to 2.3m, Left or right: from 1.5m to 1.7m
• Evade: Perk 3 changed to: Evading forward gains 15% increased damage on your next light attack for 1s. (Previously, this perk reduced cooldown by 75% after Heavy Attacks)

Great Axe

• Renamed the Reaper mastery line to Mauler, and renamed the Marauder mastery line to Reaping.
• Reaping Mastery Line: Added New Ultimate Mastery: Blood Lust. Move 30% faster and deal 15% more damage while looking at a foe within 15m.
• Reaping Mastery Line: Removed the following passives: Empowered Swing, Resistant Grit, Painless Wounds, Unending Slice
• Reaping Mastery Line: Added Passives:
• Greed: Light attacks with your great axe give you 10% damage for 5s (max 3 stacks.)
• Executioner's Speed: Every 2 consecutive light attacks with a greataxe grants 3s of 20% Haste (You move faster.)
• Critical Gains: When you make a critical hit with a great axe: Heal yourself for 10% of the damage done.
• Deaths Embrace: Great Axe attacks against foes below 50% health: penetrate armor by 10%.
• Frustration: After one of your attacks is blocked gain 15% damage for 10s. (Only one stack of this particular damage boost may be active at once.)
• Keen Edge: Critical damage increased by 15%.
• Critical Condition: Great Axe attacks against foes below 50% health will crit 15% more often.
• Feed: Great Axe attacks against foes below 30% health heal you for 10% of damage done.
• Charge (renamed from Engage): Changed base ability to no longer scale with distance.
• Charge: Indefensible replaced with new upgrade: Momentum. Charge deals 130-150% weapon damage based on how far you traveled.
• Charge: Charge Swing renamed to Unpredictable strike.
• Charge: Unpredictable strike damage increased from 110-130% to 150-175%
• Reap (renamed from Judgement's Reach): Moved to the Reaping line.
• Reap: Added a Row 3 upgrade for Reap called Hunger. Heal yourself for 30% of damage done by Reap.
• Execute: Base ability now deals 30% more damage to foes below 50% health.
• Execute: Damage increased from 130% to 150%.
• Execute: Killing Refresh replaced with new upgrade: Unstoppable Greed. Execute becomes Unstoppable.
• Mauler Mastery Line
• Whirlwind: Moved to the Mauler line.
• Whirlwind: Base damage reduced from 75% to 50%.
• Whirlwind: Whirlwind moved to unlock at row 2.
• Whirlwind: Strengthen Winds removed.
• Whirlwind: Unending Winds renamed to Gusting Winds and moved to row 3.
• Whirlwind: New row 4 upgrade called Surrounded: If you have 3 or more foes around you, deal 20% more damage while in Whirlwind.
• Maelstrom: Maelstrom moved up to row 1.
• Gravity Well: Area of effect has been increased from 2m to 4m.
• Gravity Well: Refreshing Well replaced with Unyielding: Allies gain 20% damage reduction while standing in your well.
• Mauler’s Fury: Marauder's Fury renamed to Mauler's Fury and moved to new Mauler Line.
• Mauler’s Fury: Removed the following passives: Weakened Restraint and Pursuit
• Mauler’s Fury: Added Passives: Mauler's Resolve, Revenge, Center of Attention
• Mauler’s Fury: Renamed Enduring Pull to Gravity.
• Mauler’s Fury: Moved Crowded Protection to row 5.

War Hammer

• Most passives across both trees have been updated to be more conditional and unique, with fewer passives that provide flat bonuses.
• Light attack: Sped up the war hammer's light attacks slightly.
• Light attack: The 2nd light attack of the War Hammer's two hit chain has been updated and fits better with the flow of the first attack.
• Light attack: Modified the window between the first and second light attacks to make the transition feel smoother.
• Juggernaut mastery line adjusted to focus more on single target damage.
• Crowd Crusher Tree mastery line to focus more on crowd control, debuffs, and dealing with multiple enemies at once.
• Removed Grit from automatically being added to heavy attacks. Grit is now unlocked via a passive upgrade.
• Removed passives relating to only Siege as their functionality was too specific to a single game mode.
• Removed passive that increased Grit damage due to Grit being modified to no be interruptible anymore.
• Removed all upgrades to abilities that added a flat damage increase or AOE size increase.
• Armor Breaker (renamed from Block Breaker): Base ability now penetrates a percentage of the target's armor.
• Armor Breaker: Upgrades expand on the idea of being unstoppable and weakening enemy.
• Mighty Gavel: Animation updated. Mighty Gavel now uses the old Path Of Destiny animation.
• Mighty Gavel: Removed reactions from Mighty Gavel to keep it from being a CC ability.
• Mighty Gavel: Made the Justice For All Mighty Gavel Ultimate trigger off a button push instead of automatically.
• Mighty Gavel: Increased the damage of Mighty Gavel now that it no longer does any CC.
• Wrecking Ball: Animation updated. Wrecking Ball now uses the old Mighty Gavel animation.
• Wrecking Ball: This attack no longer channels multiple attacks after first hit.
• Wrecking Ball: Added a flattening reaction.
• Wrecking Ball: Removed Siege-related upgrade as it was too specific to a single game mode.
• Clear Out: Reduced the knock back distance to allow for more actions to be done to enemies after using a crowd control ability on them. Previously, targets hit with Clear Out would be knocked back so far it was impossible to capitalize on the attack afterwards.
• Shockwave: Slightly sped up the startup of Shockwave.
• Shockwave: Removed push back on Shockwave to make it easier to attack an enemy that has been stunned by the attack.
• Shockwave: Sped up the recovery of the Shockwave ability to allow players to more effectively follow up on the hit and the Stun it creates.
• Shockwave: Stun duration was shortened to account for equip load modifications.
• Shockwave: Removed the upgrade that increased the range of Shockwave and made the upgraded range the default.
• Path Of Destiny: Animation updated. Path of Destiny now uses the old Wrecking Ball animation.
• Path Of Destiny: Path of Destiny now pushes back directionally based on the attacker's position. This will prevent enemies from being pushed random directions on hit.
• Path Of Destiny: Path of Destiny no longer has a full knock back. Now the skill damages, does a small push back, and has an upgrade option to stagger targets on hit.
• Path Of Destiny: Adjusted Path of Destiny area of effect (AoE) to be able to hit targets closer to the player.
• Path Of Destiny: Removed the upgrade that increased the area of Path Of Destiny and made the upgraded range the default.

Spear

• Removed Potent Thrust, Defensive Adjustment, Invigorating Kills and Refreshing Bloodlust passives.
• Added Refreshing Reach, Precise Jabs, Invigorating Crits, Evasive Maneuvers, Defensive Stance, Strong Conditioning, Crippling Jabs, Aggressive Maneuvers and
• Exposed Wounds passives.
• Reduced pushback on light and heavy attacks.
• Reduced delay between attacks in the light attack chain.
• Standardized the pushback distance between regular heavy and fully charged heavy attacks.
• Deadly Reach now increases critical chance by 10% instead of increasing damage.
• Cyclone: Increased from 75% weapon damage to 100% weapon damage.
• Cyclone: Removed staggering.
• Cyclone: Reduced pushback from 5m to 3m.
• Cyclone: Added 50% slow for 3s on successful hits.
• Perforate: Increased from 50% weapon damage per hit to 70% weapon damage per hit.
• Perforate: Removed stagger from first hit.
• Perforate: Increased Rupturing Strikes Rend bonus from 8% to 10% and added condition that the target be above 50% health.
• Perforate: Impactful Strike has new functionality: Now staggers the target if all three hits are successful.
• Skewer: Bleed reduced from 15% weapon damage to 10% weapon damage.
• Skewer: Bleed now ticks once per second instead of 2 seconds.
• Skewer: Removed stagger and follow-up kick.
• Skewer: Reduced stab from 135% weapon damage to 125% weapon damage.
• Skewer: Added 1m pushback to stab.
• Skewer: Replaced Empowering Execution with new upgrade Follow Through: Adds 20% Empower for 10s on Critical Hit.
• Skewer: Deep Wound now increases Bleed duration from 10s to 15s instead of increasing Bleed damage.
• Vault Kick: Replaced Exhaust with 1.5s Stun.
• Vault Kick: Reduced from 100% weapon damage to 75% weapon damage.
• Vault Kick: Reduced pushback from 4m to 2m.
• Vault Kick: Replaced Deadly Opportunity with Relentless Blows: Adds 20% Empower for 5s after successfully hitting a target below 50% health.
• Vault Kick: Replaced Exhausting Impact with Continuous Motion: Cooldowns for other Spear abilities are reduced by 30% on successful hit.

Bow

• Descriptions have all been updated to include more info.
• Huntsman Line renamed to Skirmisher.
• Bowman line renamed to Hunter.
• Removed Smoke Shot.
• Skirmisher Mastery Line: Added New Ultimate Passive: Knee Shot. All leg shots cause 30% slow for 4s.
• Skirmisher Mastery Line: Removed passives: Arrow Range, Head Hunter, Steady Hand, Shooter's Hand
• Skirmisher Mastery Line Added passives: Catch Me If You Can: If surrounded by 3 or more foes within 3m of you gain 33% Haste (you move faster.)
• Skirmisher Mastery Line Added passives: Impale: If you hit a foe with 100% health cause 30% slow for 2s
• Skirmisher Mastery Line Added passives: Closing In: Hitting a foe below 50% health: reduces bow ability recharge by -5%
• Skirmisher Mastery Line Added passives: Dodge and Weave: After you dodge: Gain 20% haste for 5s. (you move faster.)
• Skirmisher Mastery Line Added passives: Hunter's Insight: Hitting a foe with a debuff grants 5 stamina.
• Skirmisher Mastery Line Added passives: Archer's Speed: Gain 20% haste for 5s when you swap to your bow. 10s cooldown)
• Skirmisher Mastery Line Added passives: Mark: Deal 10% more damage to foes suffering from a debuff.
• Skirmisher Mastery Line Added passives: Battle Precision: Debuff duration last 20% longer.
• Evade Shot: Evade Shot moved up to row 1.
• Evade Shot: Removed Evasive Distance and added new Go the Distance passive.
• Poison Shot (new): Poison shot creates a cloud of poison where the arrow lands.
• Poison Shot: Upgrade 1: Infected Arrows: Poison deals more damage per tick.
• Poison Shot: Upgrade 2: If you directly hit a target with poison Shot it deals 200% more damage.
• Hunter Mastery Line: Added new Ultimate Passive: Concussion: Headshots deal 20% more damage and have 50% chance to return your arrow.
• Hunter Mastery Line: Removed passives: Piercing Arrow, Heavy Knock back, Quick Kill. Archer's Efficiency, Kill Power.
• Hunter Mastery Line Added passives: Long Range: Deal 20% more damage to foes at least 10m away.
• Hunter Mastery Line Added passives: Aim True: Heavy attacks arrows fly faster and deal 30% more damage.
• Hunter Mastery Line Added passives: Finishing Shot: If your target is below 50% health: Deal 20% more damage.
• Hunter Mastery Line Added passives: Unbreakable Focus: Receive 20% less damage while aiming.
• Hunter Mastery Line Added passives: Opening Strike: Heavy attacks deal +20% damage to foes with 100% health.
• Hunter Mastery Line Added passives: Surprise Attack: If you haven't damaged a foe in the last 10s: Deal 20% extra damage.
• Hunter Mastery Line Added passives: Arrow Range: Increased arrow distance before start of gravity by 100%
• Hunter Mastery Line Added passives: Hawkeye: When you land a headshot heal yourself for 10% of damage done.
• Hunter Mastery Line Added passives: Bullseye: Bow shots critical chance increase by 10%
• Penetrating Shot: Moved to new Skirmisher Line in row 3.
• Penetrating Shot: Penetrating Shot no longer loses damage per hit.
• Penetrating Shot: Upgrade 1: Blood Soaked Arrow: Increase damage by 20% after each hit.
• Penetrating Shot: Upgrade 2: Deep Strike: if target is more than 20 meters deal 20% more damage.
• Splinter Shot (renamed from Spread Shot): Moved to row 1
• Splinter Shot now splits into multiple arrows after traveling 10m.
• Splinter Shot: Upgrade 1: Scatter Shot: Splinter shot splits into 5 arrows
• Splinter Shot: Upgrade 2: Calculated: Reduce cooldown of Splinter shot per hit by 10%
• Rapid shot: Moved to row 3 and moved to Hunter line.
• Rapid shot: Upgrade 1: Rapid Accuracy: If all 3 arrows hit Rapid Shot’s cooldown is reduced by 50%
• Rapid shot: Upgrade 2: Final Blow: 3rd shot of Rapid Shot deal 50% extra damage.
• Rain of arrows: Moved to Hunter line and into row 2.
• Rain of arrows: Upgrade 1: Barbed Arrows: Rain of Arrows now causes bleed dealing 85% damage over 12s.
• Rain of arrows: Upgrade 2: Hooked Arrows: Rain of Arrows now causes 30% slow for 4s.

Musket

• Most passives across both mastery lines have been updated to be more conditional and unique.
• Removed the 1.5x Zoom Passive and kept the Sniper 3x Zoom ultimate. The zoom level has also been balanced to fit with the default field of view (FOV) and added a permanent headshot damage modifier to the passive.
• Slightly sped up standard musket reload time.
• Removed the Gun Butt melee attack to prevent it from interfering with hip firing or reloading.
• Removed Sacrifice, as abilities that trigger on death are too situational.
• Made the Sharpshooter tree's passives focus more on ranged combat and greatly rewarding accuracy by providing more benefits for headshots and consistently hitting targets.
• Made the Trapper tree's passives focus more on movement and debuffing targets to allow for more options when closer to enemies.
• Power Shot: Slightly increased damage of Power Shot to make it stand out more from the other Overloaded shots and because the shots can no longer carry over into all shots of Shooter's Stance.
• Power Shot: Removed the upgrade to speed up the loading of Power Shot and made it the default load speed for Overloaded shots.
• Powder Burn: Replaced Play Dead with Powder Burn, an alternate shot to load into the musket that does initial damage upon hit and sets the target on fire for burning damage over time.
• Shooter's Stance: Extended Shooter's Stance rotation angle to 180 degrees in order to widen the field of view while aiming.
• Shooter's Stance: Removed Shoot Power. This allows us to increase the damage of Power Shot without worrying about it being too powerful when combined with Shooter's Stance.
• Shooter's Stance: Reduced the reload time while in Shooter's Stance to make it easier to fire off shots more quickly, reducing overall time needed to be in the stance.
• Traps: Reduced the max trap count to 2.
• Traps: Lowered the cooldown from 30s to 20s.
• Traps: Reduced duration of the Musket Traps on ground from 30s to 20s to account for the shorter cooldown, and to encourage more dynamic use in combat.
• Traps: Made it so traps are thrown by default instead of requiring an upgrade to throw them.
• Stopping Power (replacing Hunter's Vision): Stopping Power is an alternate shot to load into the musket that knocks back targets a few meters, allowing player to create some room between self and enemy if needed.
• Sticky Bomb: Reduced max sticky bomb count to 1, but reduced cooldown. This makes it easier to immediately shoot after throwing a Bomb and also helps balance out the damage, as a single sticky bomb previously did not do much damage, but 2 bombs on the same target would do too much.
• Sticky Bomb: Reduced knock back on Sticky Bomb explosions.

Fire Staff

• Renamed Flame Summoner mastery line to Fire Mage.
• Renamed Pyromaniac mastery line to Pyromancer.
• Siege has been removed and replaced with Fireball.
• Fire Mage Mastery Line: Added new Ultimate: Runes of Helios. Casting a spell places a rune on the ground, increasing that spell's damage and all your subsequent damage by 30% for 7s. This has an internal cooldown of 30s.
• Fire Mage Mastery Line: Removed Advanced Sorcery, Demonic Ascension, Summoners Gift, Burning Charge, and Fire Flare from the Flame Summoner's Tree
• Fire Mage Mastery Line Added upgrades: Spell Focus: Heavy Attacks restore 5% of your max mana on hit.
• Fire Mage Mastery Line Added upgrades: Fiery Restoration: Heavy Attacks reduce fire staff cooldowns by 10% on hit.
• Fire Mage Mastery Line Added upgrades: Clear Mind: While above 50% mana: you gain 10% Empower. (Empower increases damage.)
• Fire Mage Mastery Line Added upgrades: Flare: Heavy Attacks no longer consume mana.
• Fire Mage Mastery Line Added upgrades: Singe: When you crit while holding a fire staff, cause burning dealing 3% weapon damage each second for 6s.
• Fire Mage Mastery Line Added upgrades: Spell Slinger: Your abilities gain an extra 15% chance to crit.
• Fire Mage Mastery Line Added upgrades: Clear Casting: If you haven't taken damage in the last 3s, deal 10% more damage.
• Fire Mage Mastery Line Added upgrades: Prophet of the Fire God: While holding a fire staff, your critical strike damage is increase by 35%.
• Flame Pillars: Flame Pillars upgrades have been reworked.
• Flame Pillars: First Strike: Increased the damage of Pillar of Fire by 40% to enemies at 100% health.
• Flame Pillars: Arson's Advantage: Regain 10 mana per enemy hit by this ability.
• Meteor Shower: This has moved within the mastery tree, and its upgrades have been reworked.
• Meteor Shower: Immolation: Hits of Meteor Shower refund 1 mana each
• Meteor Shower: Determination: Gain unstoppable while casting meteor
• Meteor Shower: Judgment of Helios: Cause 25% more meteors to hit during the entire channel.
• Fireball (New): Shoot a heavy fireball that deals damage on impact and leaves behind burning fields 3m wide at its impact location. This skill has two upgrades:
• Fireball: Scorched Earth: Burning zone persist for 9s.
• Fireball: Catch: Direct hits refund 10 mana and reduce cooldown by 10%.
• Pyromancer Mastery Line: Added new Ultimate: Reheat. After going 5s without using an active ability, you gain mana 500% mana regeneration.
• Pyromancer Mastery Line: Removed upgrades: Flame Barrier, Burning Agony, and Prophet of a Fire God
• Pyromancer Mastery Line Added upgrades:
• Pyromancer Mastery Line Added upgrades: Heat Up: When you block a melee attack, restore 5% of your max mana.
• Pyromancer Mastery Line Added upgrades: Let it Burn: Whenever burn deals damage, gain 30% Fortify for 2s. (Fortify reduces damage taken.)
• Pyromancer Mastery Line Added upgrades: Kindle: Burning lasts 20% longer.
• Pyromancer Mastery Line Added upgrades: Watch it Burn: Light attacks cause the enemy to catch fire, dealing 3% weapon damage each second for 6s.
• Pyromancer Mastery Line Added upgrades: Combat Speed: When you activate a fire staff ability, gain 20% Haste for 3s. This has a 10s internal cooldown.
• Pyromancer Mastery Line Added upgrades: Rebalanced Pyromania to be 20% damage while below 50% health.
• Incinerate: Moved Incinerate's location within the mastery tree and reworked its upgrades.
• Incinerate: Scorched: Applies an additional stacks of burning
• Incinerate: Cauterize Wounds: Restore 30% of damage dealt by incinerate.
• Incinerate: Flame Out!: Cast Incinerate twice, second cast at 50% effectiveness.
• Flame Thrower: Moved Flame Thrower's location within the mastery tree and reworked its upgrades.
• Flame Thrower: Fire's Reach: Increase the range of the Flame Thrower by 50%.
• Flame Thrower: Infernal Flames: Increase the base damage of the Flame Thrower by 25%.
• Flame Thrower: Pyro Dancer: Flame Thrower has no cooldown.

Life Staff

• Updated all descriptions to include more information.
• Renamed Protector mastery line to Healing.
• Renamed the Lifestealer mastery line to Protection.
• Removed Holy Shield, Speed of Light, Healing Pulse, Siphon, and Smite abilities.
• Healing Mastery Line: Added new Ultimate Mastery: Divine Blessing: When you heal an ally, if their health is below 50%, heal for 30% more.
• Healing Mastery Line: Removed upgrades: Celestial Projectile, Mana Flow, Sacred Protection, Mass Resurrection, and Ancient Guardian
• Healing Mastery Line Added upgrades: Absolved: Life staff's light and heavy attack no longer take mana.
• Healing Mastery Line Added upgrades: Mending Touch: Life staff's heavy attack now removes all debuffs when hitting an ally.
• Healing Mastery Line Added upgrades: Blissful Touch: Light attack now heals for 20% weapon damage when hitting an ally.
• Healing Mastery Line Added upgrades: Revitalize: When you hit with a light attack, reduce all your cooldowns by 5%.
• Healing Mastery Line Added upgrades: Desperate Speed: When you heal an ally with less than 50% health, all life staff skills' cooldowns are reduced by 10%.
• Healing Mastery Line Added upgrades: Sacred Protection: While holding a life staff, increase the base health of all friendlies in your group by 10%.
• Healing Mastery Line Added upgrades: Intensify: Heavy attacks give you increased healing by 10% for 10s (max 3 stacks).
• Divine Embrace: Royal Privilege renamed to Privilege.
• Divine Embrace: Added a new upgrade: Shared Struggle. If target is below 50% health, heal one additional ally within 8m for the same amount.
• Divine Embrace: Added a new upgrade: If second target is below 50% health, heal another ally within 8m of that ally.
• Sacred Ground (new): Create a shield on the ground that emits light, healing allies standing in it for 10% weapon damage every second for 12s.
• Sacred Ground: Upgrade 1: Holy Ground. Allies regenerate stamina and mana by 100% while in Sacred Ground.
• Sacred Ground: Upgrade 2: Blessed. While allies are in Sacred Ground they are healed for 20% more from all heals.
• Splash of Light (new): You and all group members are healed for 50% of your weapon damage.
• Splash of Light: Upgrade 1: Shared Recovery: If you heal a target below 50% health, gain 3 mana.
• Splash of Light: Upgrade 2: Purify: Splash of Light also removes all debuffs from healed players.
• Protection Mastery Line: Removed upgrades: Refresh, Arcane Rage, Soul Steal, Transcendence, and Resuscitate
• Protection Mastery Line Added upgrades: Bend Light: After a dodge roll, your heals are 20% more effective for 5s.
• Protection Mastery Line Added upgrades: Defensive Light: When you block a melee attack, gain 5% of your max mana.
• Protection Mastery Line Added upgrades: Protector's Touch: Life staff's light and heavy attacks grant 15% Fortify for 3s when hitting an enemy. (Fortify reduces incoming damage.)
• Protection Mastery Line Added upgrades: Protector’s Strength: If you have a buff, heal for 10% more.
• Protection Mastery Line Added upgrades: Balance: When you get hit while below 50% health, gain 20% Haste for 5s. This upgrade has an internal cooldown of 20s.
• Protection Mastery Line Added upgrades: Glowing Focus: Buffs you grant last 20% longer.
• Orb of Protection (new): Shoot out a light projectile that grants 20% Fortify for 20s if it hits an ally and deals 85% weapon damage if it hits an enemy.
• Orb of Protection: Upgrade 1: Protectors Blessing. If your orb hits an ally, it grants them 15% Empower for 10s (Empower increases damage).
• Orb of Protection: Upgrade 2: Shared Protection. If you successfully hit an ally, you gain 20% Fortify for 20s.
• Orb of Protection: Upgrade 3: Aegis. When this projectile hits, it affects all allies and enemies within a 3m radius of target.
• Light's Embrace (new): Targeted heal for 75% of weapon damage plus 50% more healing for each buff on that target.
• Light's Embrace: Upgrade 1: Inspire. Target receives 25 stamina.
• Light's Embrace: Upgrade 2: Connection. Gain 1% mana for each buff that target player has.
• Light's Embrace: Upgrade 3(ultimate): Magnify. Light's Embrace extends life staff buffs by 2s.
• Beacon (new): Shoot out a projectile that creates a healing area on hit that moves with the target, healing allies each second for 10% weapon damage.
• Beacon: Upgrade 1: Infused Light. Increase the area of Beacon by 50%.
• Beacon: Upgrade 2: Radiance's Blessing. Beacon lasts 5s longer.
• Beacon: Upgrade 3: Speed of Light. Beacon now applies 30% Haste for 3s. (Haste increases movement speed.)

New World Related Guides

All New World Patch Notes

Latest Game Patch

New World Update 1.2.1:
Patch Notes and Release Date

Previous Patch Notes

Previous Patch Notes
New World Update 1.2	New World Update 1.1.2
1.1.1 Update	Into the Void Update 1.1
1.0.5 Update	1.0.4 Update
1.0.3 Update	1.0.2 Update
1.0.1 Update	Launch Update
Open Beta Update	Closed Beta Update
June Alpha Update Part 2	June Alpha Update Part 1
In-Game Store Update	May Alpha Update
Ice Bound Update	Quest Design Update
The Empress of Ebonscale Reach	Forge and Fury Update
Honing the Craft Update	Secrets of the Swamp Update
Alpha Test Update