Hi Tibians,

welcome to the test server of the winter update 2024!

This thread is for the new hunting grounds from the quest No Rest for the Wicked:

Azzilon Castle

• Sineater Inferniarch
  
• Broodrider Inferniarch
  
• Gorger Inferniarch

Castle Catacombs

• Spellreaper Inferniarch
  
• Hellhunter Inferniarch
  
• Brinebrute Inferniarch

Azzilon Castle is comparable to the Secret Library Ice Section. The Castle Catacombs, on the other hand, cater to more experienced players and can be compared to the Secret Library Energy Section.

Both hunting grounds have their own set of challenges and risks but you should be especially wary of the brinebrute inferniarch, as this beast can not only endure substantial damage but also deliver devastating blows.

In the Castle Catacombs, you also need to be wary of the demonic corruption that will reduce your hit points at fixed intervals. Use demonic core essences to strengthen your defense against this damage and the creatures within the catacombs.

Deep down in the catacombs, you will encounter three altars that emit a malicious aura. Sacrifice the right creature products to summon the three inferniarch commanders: Twisterror, Gralvalon and Malvaroth.

These foes won't go down easily but the Forgemaster might be able to craft something special with their skins.

If you want to make us aware of a balancing issue, please use the following template:

Title/Abstract: What's it about?

• Provide a short and clear headline that captures the essence of your feedback.
  

Situation/Problem: In a nutshell, what bothers you and why?

• Be specific, concise and to the point while giving enough detail for understanding.
  
• Tell us about your own personal experiences, observations and your point of view.
  

Goals and Suggestions: What do you propose?

• Explain what you want to see changed and why.
  
• Make a reasonable suggestion on how to remedy the situation/problem.
  

In general, make sure that your feedback...

• fits our overall goals/vision as described in the FAQ.
  
• is split into focused and manageable chunks instead of mixing multiple balancing topics or suggestions together.
  
• is posted in an organised, easy to read way.

We are looking forward to your feedback and wish you happy hunting!

Ilyndor

Official replies
Nov 05: Difficulty of the new hunting grounds
Nov 06: Changed fire sensitivity of sineater inferniarch
Nov 06: Design goals and potential balancing adjustments
Nov 06: Creature products for sacrificial altar added to testserver assistant
Nov 07: Balancing changes to castle catacombs
Nov 08: Update on brinebrute inferniarch, inferniarch commander loot and map obstacles
Nov 12: Balancing changes II
Nov 13: Map changes inside Azzilon Castle
Nov 14: Adjusted experience and walking range of monsters in Castle Catacombs
Nov 15: Adjusted experience gain in Azzilon Castle

Dear Tibians,

Welcome to the test server, and thank you for your valuable feedback!

We would like to address your comments regarding the difficulty of the new hunting grounds.

As mentioned in the teasers and this thread, Azzilon Castle and the Castle Catacombs can be compared to the Secret Library's Ice Section and Energy Section. What we mean by that is that the new hunting grounds are suitable for solo players who have prior experience with team hunting in the Secret Library.

If you explore Azzilon Castle and the Castle Catacombs as a team, you will find that the difficulty is indeed lower than that of a team hunt in the Secret Library.

Team players who are not yet ready for the challenges of the Secret Library can therefore find a more appropriate setting for their hunts in this new update.

We hope this information clarifies our design goals for these hunting grounds.

Best regards, and happy hunting!
Ilyndor

Dear Tibians,

We have changed the fire sensitivity of the sineater inferniarch to 0. Therefore, he will no longer take damage from his own fire fields. This change will go live with one of the next testserver patches.

Best regards,
Ilyndor

Greetings Tibians,

thank you for your ongoing feedback, I am glad to read that you are enjoying the new hunting grounds. At the moment, we are still evaluating possible balancing adjustments, especially nerfs regarding the monster density and experience in the Castle Catacombs.

I am not very fond of these debuffs, specially because they cancel boost (like magic level food, utito spells, potions). Could we discuss a bit more of the utility of adding these on every newest spawn?

In the Castle Catacombs, every creature presents its own unique challenge. The Brinebrute Inferniarch, for instance, is tankier and stronger than the other two monsters.

Meanwhile, the Hellhunter Inferniarch attacks from a distance, and the Spellreaper Inferniarch employs debuffs and mana drain. We will, of course, continue to monitor how these challenges affect hunting behavior and make adjustments as necessary.

I really enjoyed the size of the map in each floor, reminds me of Ingol, just better. I think there will be a need to readjust density and experience, but hopefully this turns out an alternative for solo experience (compared to Quaras, the highest solo atm), and also mid/high level teams (maybe comparing to Rootthings).

I need a proper reference of what I'm going to expect of the hunting ground I'm in.

Azzilon Castle is designed as a hunting ground for small teams or solo players at level 500 and above. The Castle Catacombs, with their extensive size, are better suited to experienced team players at level 700 and beyond, though high-level solo players will also find them accessible.

As the difficulty of these hunting grounds is noticeably lower than Podzilla Bottom and Podzilla Stalk, loot and experience will be balanced accordingly.

Will the essences be available in test server assistance so we can test the reduced damage spawn. Also, does using these essences give a permanent or only a temporary damage reduction in the respawns?

You can get the demonic core essences from the testserver assistant.

Best regards and happy hunting.
Ilyndor

To help test the minibosses, please make it possible to obtain the Sacrificial Altar items (Bloodstained Scythe, Spellreaper Staff Totem, Hellhunter Eye) from the Testserver Assistant. Thank you.

Hello,

thank you for your suggestion. The three creature products needed at the altars will be added to the testserver assistant in one of the next testserver patches.

Best regards,
Ilyndor

Dear Tibians,

based on our data, we have decided to reduce the monster density on the three deepest levels of the castle catacombs.

Additionally, the brinebrute inferniarch will receive a new attack, that will inflict damage based on the maximum hitpoints of its victim.
This attack is designed to be an additional challenge for players at a higher level.

Please try out these changes once they go live with one of the next testserver patches and let us know what you think.

Of course, we will monitor the impact of these adjustments and will make changes as necessary.

I've noticed that in the bestiary of the creatures, their location looks weird.

Thank you for the hint, this will be fixed in one of the next patches.

Best regards and happy hunting,
Ilyndor

Hello Tibians,

Are the density changes live?

Yes, they should already be live.

Best regards,
Ilyndor

Dear Tibians,

Thank you for your feedback on the brinebrute inferniarch's new attack. We will evaluate potential changes and alternatives and will share more details with you next week.

In the meantime, please feel free to share any feedback on this attack, the density changes and the two hunting grounds in general in this thread.

Next week, the loot from the three inferniarch commanders Twisterror, Gralvalon and Malvaroth will be changed from regular loot to cooperative loot.

Especially numbers of objects that you cannot move or step in should be highly reduced. I know that they create atmosphere but it's supper annoying. If you dont want to remove them, make them at least walkable.

We are taking a look at the amount of map obstacles in Azzilon Castle and will share more details on this next week.

Back to the "problem" in question. For example, to climb the tower to NPC Lai or to go down to the basement, we have to go to the SOUTHEAST tower of the castle. In this tower, creatures keep entering, throwing fire at the door (which makes it difficult to close and open) and causes a lot of mobility problems. In this case, I propose that the doors in the southeast tower be on the castle floor, and the ground floor should have the option to "open the passage and close".

We will take a look at this, thank you for your hint.

Thanks again for all of your valuable feedback. I wish all of you a pleasant weekend and happy hunting.

Best regards,
Ilyndor

Dear Tibians,

Thank you for your feedback on the changes to the new hunting grounds last week. Based on your input and our data, we have decided to implement the following adjustments:

Castle Catacombs

• Decreased respawn rate on all floors
  
• Slightly decreased the monster density around the boss teleporter to reduce the risk of getting surrounded after exiting the boss room

spellreaper inferniarch

• Reduced XP: 10,200 -> 9,400
  
• Increased fire sensitivity: 100 -> 105

hellhunter inferniarch

• Reduced XP: 9,800 -> 9,100
  
• Increased fire sensitivity: 100 -> 105

brinebrute inferniarch

• Thank you for your feedback on the brinebrute inferniarch's new attack. We have reduced the damage and probability of this attack in a way that will reduce high damage spikes and balance the attack more evenly across all vocations.

Azzilon Castle

sineater inferniarch

• Reduced probability of fire fields

Please let us know what you think of these changes. They will go live with one of the next testserver patches.

Best regards,
Ilyndor

Dear Tibians,

Thank you for your feedback. We are currently evaluating hunting ground data from the recent patch and will make adjustments as needed.

Regarding Azzilon Castle: We have removed some obstacles from inside the castle. If you encounter obstacles in other areas inside or around the castle, please provide us with specific details so we can investigate further.

Additionally, we will be updating the doors in the southeast tower to prevent monsters from being lured inside. This change will go live in one of the upcoming testserver patches.

Best regards, and happy hunting!
Ilyndor

Dear Tibians,

Thank you for your feedback on the new hunting grounds. We have decided to slightly increase the experience gained in the Castle Catacombs again:

spellreaper inferniarch

• XP increased from 9,400 to 9,750

hellhunter inferniarch

• XP increased from 9,100 to 9,400

To make it more challenging to achieve large monster pulls in these hunting grounds, we have also decreased the walking range of all monsters in the Castle Catacombs.

We invite you to try out these changes once they go live with the next testserver patch and look forward to your feedback.

Best regards,
Ilyndor

Hello Tibians,

Based on our data, the experience gain in Azzilon Castle appears to be too high relative to its difficulty. As we currently have no plans to increase the difficulty of this hunting ground, we have decided to adjust the experience gain as follows:

• sineater inferniarch: 7,900 -> 7,250 XP
  
• broodrider inferniarch: 8,450 -> 7,850 XP
  
• gorger inferniarch: 8,300 -> 7,680 XP

These changes will go live on the test server on Monday. We encourage you to try them out and share your feedback with us.

Best regards,
Ilyndor

Dear Tibians,

As this testserver comes to an end and before I close this thread, I want to thank you all once again for your feedback on the new hunting grounds. I hope you enjoyed exploring the vast Castle Catacombs and the terrifying Azzilon Castle.

As always, we will monitor the performance of these hunting grounds once the update goes live and will consider your feedback for potential adjustments. This includes your suggestions regarding the special attack of the brinebrute inferniarch, the walking range of creatures, and the overall profitability of the new hunting grounds.

If you are participating in today's monster rampage, I wish you the best of luck and happy slaying!

Best regards and until next time,
Ilyndor