Edited Winter Beta Patch Notes

"DEAR BETA FRIENDS,

What you are about to read will make you squeal with delight. You may pee your pants a little. Here's the deal, though: We're right in the middle of our Class Drops on the website. Yes, everyone knows about the last two classes, but we're so close to being able to "officially" reveal them that we're going to ask for your help in letting us have this one thing. Let us be the ones to "officially" announce the final two classes, and hold off on posting the next two paragraphs until we do so in a few, short weeks. We love you and trust you implicitly, which is why we're letting you play with them shortly before the official drop, so please help us show our bosses that we made the right decision in doing so.

Love, Team WildStar"

EDITED PATCH NOTES BELOW

(Due to the size of this patch, we are unable to provide full details of everything that has changed since CBT3. See below for the major new changes since you've last played WildStar!)

Patch Highlights

We have fully integrated our new account system. All testers must now login to the game and forum using the NCSOFT account on which they redeemed their beta key.

Sweeping changes have been made to the game since you last saw it, including:

New Challenge system. Earning gold/silver/bronze will now increase the chance of winning your selected reward. All challenge rewards loot has also been rebalanced across the entire game.

New quest system! Quests now use progress bars to quantify completion.

Open mob tagging is now implemented. Helping another player kill a creature will grant you relative XP/quest progress based on your contribution.

The Arkships are here! Character creation now begins at level 1 and you'll be able to run through these tutorial zones before you reach Nexus.
        Time To Kill has been significantly decreased for all creatures.
        Creatures now both telegraph more frequently and (most) creatures now have a greater variety of telegraphs to use.
    Adventures - specialized 5-man group content - are now available for queuing!
    Open Arenas - Enter without a team. No rewards, no ratings, just fun.
    Halls of the Bloodsworn redesign: New art, new spawn rooms, capture mechanics fixed/changed.
    DUNGEON TIMING RUNS: We need to start gathering data on how long runs take so we can balance the medal rewards. If you can, run dungeons and complete all optional objectives, then post on the forums to let us know how long it took you to do so.
    TONS OF POLISH! Our team has worked tirelessly over the last four months to kill thousands of bugs, improve game performance, and build amazingly cool new systems. It's a whole new world out there!

General

    The level cap for this round of beta is 36.
    We’ve added in-game feedback popups which will appear from time to time.  You’ll see these randomly when you level up, as you play the game, and generally whenever we’d like to hear what you thought about a specific piece of content.  These aren’t mandatory, but every little bit of feedback will be helpful to us. Thanks in advance for your participation!
    A new Level Up interface has been added. When you *ding*, an optional pop-up will inform you of the new content, systems, and abilities you just unlocked.
    Leveling up is now 666% more epic, including new visuals, new sound effects, and unique voiceovers for all 50 levels.
    All planned Class / Race / Gender combinations are now available.
    Creature difficulty has had a major update:
        Moments of Opportunity (MoO) now last longer (5 seconds) and the additional damage creatures take has been increased to 150%.
        Overall Time To Kill (TTK) has been reduced.
    In addition to the changes above, Creature Telegraphs have had a major overhaul:
        Creatures now cast telegraphs more often.
        Creatures have access to more telegraphs than they previously had.
        With these new telegraphs, there is a greater variety of shapes, speeds and mechanics to spice things up a bit!
    Item challenges are now available to try out! While this patch contains just a few samples around level 5, in future patches you may find rare gear pieces throughout the world that require a challenge to be completed in order to upgrade the item's capabilities.
    Lots of new vendors have been added throughout the game.
    Players may now purchase PVP gear and consumables from vendors in Gallow, Lightreach Mission, Sylvan Glade, Feralplan Park, Thayd and Illium.
    A new social currency called Renown can now be collected. Players earn renown by completing game content while playing in groups.
    Players may now purchase various items using Renown from vendors near the Guild Registrar in Thayd and Illium.
    Crafting Tutorial quests have been added throughout Nexus.
    Mentoring and Rallying now scale gear and abilities more appropriately, accurately preserving stat distributions.
    Costume slots now unlock at levels 7, 14, 25, 35, 45, and 50.
    Server queues have been enabled. Once a realm has reached maximum capacity a queue will begin, indicating a player’s place in the queue.
    Realm Population is now listed as low, medium, or high populations on the realm selection screen.
    New memory optimizations now allow for 32-bit computers to play WildStar!
    Tooltips now appear over Loot Piñata items in the open world.
    Group Finder
        Group must now wait 10 minutes before being allowed to initiate a votekick. However, players may be kicked after 2 minutes if the target of the votekick has not yet entered the instance or if the target is offline.
        Group Finder no longer says that players are flagged for PvP in Sanctuary Zones.
        After completing a dungeon with a Group Finder group, the group leader can requeue the group for another dungeon!
        Players will now receive a 15-minute deserter debuff when dropping out of their Group Finder group if the instance is incomplete. The duration of the penalty is based on the how much of the instance is completed at the time of the drop (the more complete, the longer the penalty duration). A player with a Dungeon deserter penalty may still queue for a PvP activity.
            This penalty is temporarily reduced to 2 minutes during beta for testing purposes (and in case you run into a dungeon-breaking bug!).
        Players will now receive a 15-minute deserter debuff when dropping of their Battleground or Open Arena group if the match is incomplete. A player with a Battleground/Open Arena deserter penalty may still queue for a PvE or Rated Arena activity.
        Players can now queue for a random Battleground!
        Players can now queue for multiple Battleground or Dungeon instances. Simply select the instances you wish to queue for, then click the Join the Fight or Join as Group (if you are in a group) button.
        Players who wish to only group with other on their own realm for Dungeons may now opt in via a Group Finder “My Realm Only” flag option. Please note that if the player changes his/her mind and wants to queue cross-realm, the player must leave the queue, disable the “My Realm Only” option, and requeue.
        General Note on Matching: When in the cross-realm queue, the matching system will first attempt to match you with others in your home realm. If a match cannot be found, you will be moved into the extended cross-realm pool for matching.
    For completionists, you can now find your Zone completion percentages (quests, exploration, etc.) by opening your map.

Social

    Players may now create account-level friends through the revised Friends UI. These friends will be visible to you (and can be communicated with) regardless of their server or faction.
    Players may now purchase various items using Renown from vendors near the Guild Registrar in Thayd and Illium. Renown is earned by completing content while grouped with other players.
    Guilds can be now created by visiting a Guild Registrar in Thayd or Illium.
        Guilds cost 100 Renown to create, and the guildmaster must be level 12 or higher.
    Guilds can now create Holomarks that display their guild’s heraldry in holographic form.
        The character panel contains controls to determine how the holomark is displayed on your character.
    Guild members now earn Influence for their guild when they are grouped together and kill creatures.
        Influence is capped at 2,000,000.
    Guild Perks - Guild members (with the appropriate permission) can spend Influence to purchase a variety of perks in the guild panel. Options include:
        Permanent amenities, such as raising the number of available guild vault tabs.
        Guild-wide 7-day boosts, such as XP boosts.
        Instant spells, such as summoning an NPC repair vendor.

Housing

    Player housing is now obtained at level 14. As soon as you reach your faction's capital city, you'll receive a quest directing you to a Protostar Housing Specialist.
    The Clearing Your Plot quests that were granted immediately upon arriving on your housing plot have been removed.
    Players can now purchase Mannequins upon which to display armor and equipment. A player may only own 5 mannequins at any one time!
    Homeowners can now determine the percentage distribution of resources that other players harvest from their property.
        This option is available through the Housing Options panel.
    Housing now has faction-specific music associated with it.
    Hundreds of décor items and FABkits have been distributed throughout Nexus.
    The rest XP décor objects now properly boost your rest XP gain when you logout on your property.
    All housing challenges have had rewards added.
    All Expeditions have had rewards added.

Content

The following zones are available in this round of Beta:

    Dominion Arkship
        Now when you create a new Dominion character you will start out at Level 1 inside the Dominion Arkship.
    Exile Arkship
        Now when you create a new Exile character you will start out at Level 1 inside the Exile Arkship.
    Northern Wilds
        Approximate Level Range: 3-6
        This is an Exile zone available after completion of the Exile Arkship.
    Everstar Grove
        Approximate Level Range: 3-6
        This is an Exile zone available after completion of the Exile Arkship.
    Crimson Isle
        Approximate Level Range: 3-6
        This is a Dominion zone available after completion of the Dominion Arkship.
    Levian Bay
        Approximate Level Range: 3-6
        This is a Dominion zone available after completion of the Dominion Arkship.
    Algoroc
        Approximate Level Range: 6-14
        This is an Exile zone accessed after completing Northern Wilds.
    Celestion
        Approximate Level Range: 6-14
        This is an Exile zone accessed after completing Everstar Grove.
    Deradune
        Approximate Level Range: 6-14
        This is a Dominion zone accessed after completing Crimson Isle.
    Ellevar
        Approximate Level Range: 6-14
        This is a Dominion zone accessed after completing Levian Bay.
    Galeras
        Approximate Level Range: 14-22
        This is an Exile zone accessed after completing Algoroc or Celestion.
    Auroria
        Approximate Level Range: 14-22
        This is a Dominion zone accessed after completing Deradune or Ellevar.
    Whitevale
        Approximate Level Range: 22-30
        This zone is available to both factions after completing Galeras or Auroria.
    Farside
        Approximate Level Range: 28-36
        This zone immediately follows Whitevale.
Paths

    Players can now unlock Titles as path rewards.
    New Settler Missions
        Civil Service
            A mission that has you build up each depot through a zone.
        Public Safety
            Get a group together and kill a tough, nearby creature.
        Cache
            Scout out some extra Settler resources.
    Infrastructures are now called Projects.
    Scientist Scanbot customization pieces can now be unlocked and equipped.

Path Ability Update
In this update, we have changed all action-set based Path abilities. We decided that Path abilities should not impact combat and instead should focus on increasing quality of life. Most of these new abilities are not usable in PvP Instances and can never be used in Combat.

Soldier

    Teleport Beacon – Creates a Beacon object that any ally can use to teleport to their bind point.
    Soldier’s Rations – Creates a crate object that any ally can use to restore health over time.
    Soldier’s March – Creates an aura around the player that increases movement speed.

Settler

    Report Home – Creates a Portal object that any ally can use to teleport to their Player Housing.
    Summon: Vendbot – Creates a temporary Vendor object that ally players can use to buy, sell, and repair items.
    Tech-Totem: Experience – Creates a totem that increases experience gain for allies near the totem.

Scientist

    Clarity Elixir - Creates a crate object that any ally can use to restore focus over time.
    Generator: Reputation - Creates a totem that increases reputation gain for allies near the totem.
    Create Portal – Capital City - Creates a Portal object that any ally can use to teleport to their Capital City.

Explorer

    Teleport – Creates a Beacon object at the player’s location saving the location. Press again within the allotted time and the player is returned to that spot.
    Safe Fall – Player takes reduced damage from falling for a period of time.
    Enduring Breath – Player air supply decays at a slower rate while in water.

Economy

    A new modding system called Runes has been added
        Starting at level 15, items can have Rune Slots on them. Each slot has an elemental affinity, and only Runes of that Element can be engraved on the item.
        Water, Earth, Fire, and Air sockets are unlocked at level 15.
        Starting at level 35, some Runes belong to a Rune Set. Rune sets have multiple ranks that grant bonus special abilities, or alter existing Runes.
    Circuit Board Crafting has been updated.
        Virtualized Stat Chips – Attribute Microchips are no longer physical inventory items and instead only exist in the crafting interface. Some of them have a material cost (Elemental Signs) and must be unlocked with Talents.
        Removed Specials Chips – All specials and Item Challenges are now locked onto crafted items.
        Added a Charge Bar and Fail Percent – Choosing microchips now has a charge cost. The item comes with a maximum charge cost. The player can overcharge the item, but there is a chance the item will fail.
        Updated Power Cores – Power Amps are now called Power Cores. They give additional maximum charge to the item and can give additional bonuses, such as reduced fail chance, and increased number of Rune Slots.
    The Circuit Board Modding System has been removed (and replaced with Rune Modding).
        Extraction has been removed from the game.
        Microchip drops no longer exist (except Power Cores).
    Added a Runecrafting Hobby. (All players have access to Hobbies. This does not count against your tradeskill limit.)
        Runecrafting and Engraving are both done at the Engraving Stations, found in Thayd or Ilium.
        Elemental Signs are gained from salvaging or from killing creatures of a given type.
            These are required for Runecrafting. They are also used sporadically in regular crafting.
            There are 4 Tiers of the basic elements (Earth, Water, Fire, and Air), 3 of Life and Logic, and 2 of Fusion.
        Rune Fragments are used exclusively to craft Runes.
            Runes and Rune Fragments are freely tradable before the Elder Game.
            Runes are crafted from Rune Fragments. Each Rune requires 4 various fragments to make.
            One Rune Set Fragment is one of the required ingredients for each Set Rune.
            Set Runes only show in the crafting list if you have the appropriate Rune Set Fragment.
    All tradeskills have now been fully implemented.
        Nearly all tradeskills have seen their recipe numbers double, or in some cases triple, from the additions of world drops, dungeon drops, and vendor-sold recipes.
    Experience rewards for crafting an item now take into account the materials and difficulty of the recipes.
    A small amount of experience is awarded for failure results when a crafting session ends.
    Tech Trees have undergone changes to accommodate the new recipes.
    Tradeskill Talents have been implemented for all Tradeskills.
    The Architect Profession has been reworked
        Architect creates a different set of décor items and FABkits than in previous version.
        New items means new blueprints to learn and new required materials to create.
        The tech tree for Architect has been reworked to compensate for the item changes.

    Harvesting
        Harvesting tools now deplete nodes faster than before.
        Harvesting Wurms now look different based off of their metal type.
        Wurm Tunnels have received a visual upgrade.
    Cooking
        Meals no longer give tooltip and visual errors.
        Many varieties of regional recipes now appear on cooking vendors, reputation vendors, and through open world drops.
    The Supply Satchel has been updated to include the latest materials.
    The Auction House is now accessible from auctioneers.
        Features:
            Search auctions by category and a variety of filters.
            Post auctions with bid and buyout prices. You may have up to 15 auctions active at one time.
            Bid on or buyout auctions.
            Winning auctions and bids will be sent via mail.
        Known issues/missing features:
            Currently auctions cannot be canceled, though they will automatically expire after two days.
            Items cannot be searched for by name.
    The Commodities Exchange is now accessible from commodities brokers.
        Features:
            Post buy and sell orders for items, which will automatically be resolved with one another. You may have up to 15 orders active at one time.
            Click "Buy Now" or "Sell Now" to immediately cancel the order if it can't be filled right away.
            View statistics for a commodity's recent prices in the exchange.
            View your list of orders and cancel them.

UI

    Apollo updates:
        PublicEventObjects have a new function ShouldShowOnMiniMapEdge()
        Pixies will now draw on buttons, if desired, but that's weird, but fine, do it if you want.
        The CashWindow will now support the DT_CENTER text flag.
        EditBoxes will now display their caret and selection in the right place when using DT_CENTER or DT_RIGHT
        Added a fTransitionTime parameter to Apollo's Window:Show. You can make windows fade away verrrrry slowly.
        If a Window has AutoHideScroll flag and its VScrollRange is set to 0, mouse wheel messages will pass through it.
        BuffWindow icons have a DoNotShowTimeRemaining flag and ShowMS flag. Guess what they do! Go on, guess.
        Added WindowSizeChanged event. It gets fired when... the window's size, um, changes.
        New items in the player's bag are drawn with an overlay sprite, which you can specify in XML with "NewItemSprite" attribute.
        You can also set the bag window's new item sprite with BagWindow:SetNewItemSprite(strSpriteName)
        Alpha testing for buttons works again! And for other things. Make some non-rectangular buttons. It's fun!
        Some Asynchronous file loading options have been made available but are not used much yet. Next major update will have most Addons using this, so look for it then.
        GridWindows now support disabled attribute for drawing cells.
        There are new buttons that handle committing to trades, sending emails, deleting items, and salvaging items. The old API calls have been removed. THANKS, SCELESTIC.
        Windows will generate a MouseExit event if they were hidden while they contained the mouse.
        Added a parameter to all Button signal events that signify double clicks.
        Added GetSel to EditBox. It wasn't there? Nope. Isn't that weird?
        EditBox has ability to add "pseudo-links" which are treated as atomic characters.
    Mini-map Improvements
        Now displays highlighted roads & paths.
        Maps are now of a higher resolution.
        Topographical shaders have been added to outline geometry based upon its height to help communicate impassible areas.
        The mini-map is now able to be scaled in size.
        Ability Trainers, Neutral Creatures, and Hostile Creatures now appear on the minimap.
    Map Improvements
        Reduced texture resolution to improve memory optimization.
        Now displays highlighted roads & paths.
    New Loading Screens
        3D Scenes are now available during loading screens.
        Load screens will now change based on your location in the world.
        Pro tips are now displayed on loading screens.
    A new Sprint Meter now pops up in the center of the HUD when in use.
    Action Set Bar
        Now supports a Gadget and Path Slot.
        Now supports stances and keybinds.
    The Ability Vendor has been fully redesigned.
    Added an option (in Combat Options) for disabling automatically targeting an attacking creature.
    Target frames have a new info panel for identifying quest/path objectives.
    Fully redesigned and reorganized item tooltips.
    Added a “/stuck” interface to the game.
    Character customization options can now be saved and/or imported through character customization.
    Added an amazing placeholder character for realms the player doesn’t have a character on.
    Breakout Gameplay now has new, more eye-catching UI.
    The quest tracker has been updated to make temporary abilities/items more obvious.
    The Options menu has been reskinned and updated.

Combat

    All planned launch abilities are now available.
    Added “Hold to Continue Casting” to the Combat Options Menu
        With this enabled, holding down an ability button will make the ability continually cast as long as it is available.
    Class abilities are no longer usable while Sprinting.
    Shields take less time to start regenerate, and regenerate at a faster rate.
    OOC Health regeneration has been slowed.
    Mana has been renamed to Focus.
    Right Clicking will now use a Basic attack (if one is part of your LAS).
    Utility Abilities now gain 50% damage and healing from both Assault and Support Power.
    A new slot on the Action Set is reserved for Gadget Abilities. This slot fills whenever you equip a Gadget.
    Tether CC State
        Victims are now restricted to moving within a small radius around the tether object
    Ability slots now unlock at the following levels: Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, Level 6, Level 9, Level 15, Level 30
        The levels in which new abilities become available has also been revised.
    Expected damage values are now displayed in tooltips.
        These are based upon your Assault Power AND/OR Support Power.
    Freeform Target Conversion
        Most targeted abilities have been turned into FFT abilities.

Class Change Notes
All classes have undergone major iteration, ranging from resource mechanics to abilities and everything in-between. All changes are mainly intended to improve gameplay pacing and combat rhythm. Below you will find the key changes to each class.

Esper

    Innate Ability: Spectral Form
        Reduces the Esper’s damage taken by 100% and generates a Psi Point every .5 seconds for 8 seconds. This ability is on a 2 minute cooldown.
        The old Innate, Meditate, is now in the Esper’s normal ability rollout.
    Focus Points have been renamed Psi Points.

Spellslinger

    Resource: Spell Power
        Has an automatic, base regeneration rate that continues as long as Spell Surge is not active.
        Has a default max value of 100.
        Various upgrades through the AMP system allow you to increase the max capacity and generate Spell Power through different means.

    Innate Ability: Spell Surge
        Requires > 50 Spell Power to activate.
        Consumes Spell Power each second it is active.
        Has a 2.0s cooldown, after which the player can deactivate the ability early.
        Automatically deactivated when Spell Power is depleted.
        While active, all abilities with a ‘Surge Bonus’ will receive that effect when cast.
        Various upgrades to Spell Surge are available through the AMP system.

Stalker

    Stealth
        Now has a 20 second cooldown but can be triggered in combat and does not break combat.
    Innate Ability/Stance #1: Suit Mode: Standard
        While in Standard Stance the Stalker suffers no Stealth movement penalties.
    Innate Ability/Stance #2: Suit Mode: Lethal
        Added a new stance that increases the Stalkers Assault Power to be in line with a Light Armor wearer but also reduces their Armor. Additionally while in Lethal Stance, any attack made from Stealth will always hit and crit.
    Innate Ability/Stance #3: Suit Mode: Evasive
        Added a new Tank stance that increases the Stalker’s Evasion chance and Threat Generation. While in Evasive stance, Evasion is increased by an additional 15%.

Warrior

    Resource: Kinetic Energy
        Kinetic Energy: Built by abilities such as Relentless Strikes and required for powerful abilities such as Power Strike. Starts empty and decays over time.

    Innate Ability/Stance #1: Juggernaut
        Passive: Increases Assault Power but reduces Resistances
        Active: Resets all cooldowns, greatly increases Assault Power and Movement Speed, and prevents Kinetic Energy from decaying for a short period of time.
    Innate Ability/Stance #2: Bulwark
        Passive: Increases Threat Generation
        Active: Greatly reduces all incoming damage and prevents Kinetic Energy from decaying for a short period of time.

Ability Tiering System
The Ability Tiering System is one of two systems we’ve added to increase the amount of character customization available to players. It has been integrated into the Action Set Builder and allows players to increase the potency of their favorite abilities.

    Players gain 1 Ability Tier Point every level, starting at level 10.
    Players are able to upgrade an individual ability 8 times.
    A new tier unlocks every 5 levels, starting at level 10.
    Tiers 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 are considered Minor, while Tiers 4 and 8 are considered Major.
        Minor Tier Bonuses generally increase Damage/Healing/Duration of abilities.
        Major Tier Bonuses are varied and are upgrades. Examples include converting an ability to use ability charges, giving boosts when a target is under certain CC states, and many more.
    Ability Tiering Points can be adjusted at any time (outside of combat) without cost.

Attribute Milestone System
The upcoming addition of the A.M.P. System caused the Attribute Milestone to undergo significant changes. It has been streamlined to better serve its purpose and to differentiate it from the other player advancement systems.

    Major Milestones have been removed, but many of those can now be found within the A.M.P. System.

    Players now gain more Milestones and every class can now raise every Attribute to Rank 6 (although it is difficult to raise them outside of rank 4 with current gear).
    Healers no longer gain Recovery from Grit.
    UI has received an overhaul to accommodate these changes.

Action Set Builder Update
The Action Set Builder has received a large update from the UI team to accommodate the new systems we have implemented since the last round of beta.

    Abilities are now divided into Assault/Support/Utility/Path tabs.
    All abilities are always visible, if locked they tell you how they can be unlocked.
    Abilities are now sorted by the order in which you unlock them.
    The A.M.P. UI is now contained within the Action Set Builder.

PvP

General

    Personal and Team ratings-based achievements for 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 Arena and Battlegrounds have been added.
    Upon an open-world PvP death, the defeated player's base prestige and XP values are reduced for 5 minutes. If the player is killed again within that timeframe, the reduction will reset and stack up to 5 times.
    There is now a 30 second grace period after an open world-PvP death, where the defeated player’s PvP flag will be temporarily turned off. Attacking another player while in this state will immediately re-enable the flag.
    Players will no longer hear duplicate "Match Start" voiceovers in battlegrounds.
    Saves are now tracked in PvP matches! A save is defined as healing a player when that player is at or below 10% health and the player makes a killing blow on a player within 10 seconds after the heal. The contributing player being counted for the save must still be in range (<=45m) of the healed player.
    Assists are now tracked in PvP matches! An assist is defined as an active contribution to damaging or negatively affecting an opposing player within 10 seconds of their death, as long as the player being counted for the assist is still in range (<=45m) of the opponent.

Crowd Control Diminishing Returns
The Diminishing Returns system is designed to reduce frustrations associated with CC stacking and increase strategy while fighting other players.

    Diminishing returns only apply in PvP.
    Initial application of crowd control applies at full listed duration and triggers the diminishing return state on the target.
    Subsequent applications of crowd control on the same target within the diminishing return state will reduce the duration by 25%. The duration reduction can happen up to 3 times. Also, each application resets the diminishing return state timer.
    A 4th application of crowd control will show the target as immune and they will be so until they are out of the diminishing return state.
    All crowd control types are now categorized and diminishing returns apply on a per category basis. As shown below, any stun or knockdown will count toward the “Hard Crowd Control” diminishing return state.
        Hard – Stun and Knockdown
        Medium – Blind, Disorient, and Subdue
        Moderate – Root and Tether
        Light – Pacify and Taunt

Dueling
Dueling is now available! Players can request a duel using the /duel command (or by right-clicking their target frame).

    If the duel is accepted, a flag appears at the invited player’s position and a countdown message appears in chat. At the end of the countdown, the players are able to fight each other.
    At the end of the duel, the flag will disappear and the winner is announced in chat.
    A player can forfeit a duel using the /forfeit, /yield, or /surrender slash commands.
    A duel will be forfeit if a player moves out of range of the duel flag.
    Duel requests cannot be sent by characters that are on the target character’s ignore list.
    When dueling against a same-faction PvP flagged character, the first hostile action taken against that character will cause the other character to become PvP flagged.
    Opposing faction duels cannot be performed.
    Dueling is disabled in sanctuary areas.
    Players who do not wish to be bothered by duel requests can ignore all incoming duel requests via Options -> Interface -> Toggle.
    The Dueling Pit housing plug has been reworked to function with the /duel feature. The plug’s doors will be open at the start and will close when two participants enter the pit. The players must then initiate a /duel and complete the duel. Failure to /duel will abort the public event (and the doors will open to let the contestants back out). After a duel or duel failure, the pit will take 60 seconds to reset, to let other players get into position.

Arena

    Rated Arenas are now available at level 36.
    Arena music is now in! Players will now experience staging music during the preparation phase of an Arena match and battle music during the combat phase. The battle music will ramp dynamically, as the match progresses!
    Open Arenas are now available at level 30! In Open Arenas, you do not need an Arena team to play an Arena map. Use this match type to hone your skills, find potential team mates, or dip your toe into the Arena environment for the first time. Open Group Finder and choose “Open Arena” to queue. You may queue as a group (in the group size allowed for the match) or solo.
        Experience and prestige will not be awarded from player kills in the Open Arena.
        Open Arena matches will also not result in any ratings changes for your character.
        Players will be matched by their gear strength, instead of rating.
    You can no longer right-click to resurrect players in the Arena.
    Players can now earn experience and prestige from player kills in Rated Arenas.

Battlegrounds

General

    Added stat-based achievements for Walatiki Temple, Halls of the Bloodsworn. Please note that all achievement values are placeholder values until we gather more accurate data from the beta.
    New battleground achievements have been added to track multi-kills in a single match.
    Teams that are unable to be backfilled in a match (due to low queue population) will now be buffed to help even the odds in the Battleground.

Halls of the Bloodsworn

    Rated and Open brackets for Halls of the Bloodsworn are as follows:
        Level 15-29
        Level 30-49
    Halls of the Bloodsworn music is now in! Players will now experience staging music during the preparation phase of the match and battle music during the combat phase. The battle music will ramp dynamically, as the match progresses!
    Fixed an issue where players were receiving credit for Scrapper/Brawler/Bruiser/Slayer of the Halls achievement while NOT in the Halls of the Bloodsworn.
    Adjusted the capture time for the primary control point so that it will take 1 person 10 minutes to cap.
    Reduced the capture time (increased the benefit of the secondaries) when holding secondary objectives.
    Defenders will now have shorter run times to reach the primary control point when respawning.
    Spawn rooms are now in place, to help prevent respawn camping.
    New art, effects, and sounds are in as well!

Walatiki Temple

    Rated and Open brackets for Walatiki Temple are as follows:
        Level 6-14
        Level 15-29
        Level 30-49
    Walatiki Temple music is now in! Players will now experience staging music during the preparation phase of the match and battle music during the combat phase. The battle music will ramp dynamically, as the match progresses!
    The channeling time for picking up a Moodie Mask and stealing a Moodie Mask has been reduced from 5 seconds to 3 seconds.
    Fixed an issue where Warriors could use Bum Rush while holding the Moodie Mask (Mask will now drop).
    Fixed an issue where Spellslingers could use Void Slip while holding the Moodie Mask (Mask will now drop).
    Fixed several issues where players were able to escape the map or front gate (during prep phase).

Adventures
Adventures are now live! Explore the Eldan Sim Cores scattered throughout Nexus to unlock access to these 5-man group instances and show the Caretaker what you’re made of!

    The Hycrest Insurrection becomes available to Exile players at level 15. Leading a rebellion isn’t easy. Are you ready for the tough decisions and tougher enemies that come along with leadership?

    Riot in the Void becomes available to Dominion players at level 15. A disturbance at an off-world prison demands your attention. Can you identify the worst threats in time to maintain control?

    War of the Wilds becomes available to both Exile and Dominion players at level 25. Prepare to lead an army of angry, spear-wielding, runts against… an army of angry, spear-wielding runts in a frantic battle for supremacy!

    The Siege of Tempest Refuge becomes available to both Exile and Dominion players at level 30. Outnumbered. Outgunned. Exhausted. Everything rests on your ability to stand tall in the face of overwhelming odds. Think you’re ready?

Dungeons

    Players can no longer enter an instance if players in the instance are in combat.
    Dungeons must now first be discovered in the open-world before you can queue for them.
    All dungeons have had major polish passes. Changes are too many to list, but expect some changes to most of the bosses in each dungeon (including a complete redesign of Forgemaster Trogun in Kel Voreth).

Audio

    Brand new class ability sounds have been added to most classes.
    Many creatures now have appropriate sounds.
    Datacubes in the first 12 zones now have voiceover.
    Cinematics in the first 10 zones now have voiceover.
    Every class now has basic player vocals. Proper effects will be added in future patches.
    Combat music will now play when you have entered combat, and will fade out when you leave combat.
    Theme music for the Mechari, Chua, and Humans now exist. You'll notice these generally playing whenever you're in areas specific to those races.
    Upon a successfully landing blow, the player will now hear an impact indicating the hit. If there is no impact sound, you or the target probably missed. This should greatly increases the feel of combat and the sense of hitting.

    Tradeskill Tools now have sounds when used for harvesting.