2026 vocation test

Hi there,
thanks for the large amount of feedback, both for the dev notes as well during this test server. Now that you actually had the chance to test the changes yourself and thus give better feedback, we are working tirelessly to address your main concerns.
Below are the first batch of planned changes and we are eager to hear from you both if they address your feedback and about the things we failed to address. These changes will not go live during test phase I. However tomorrow I'll add additional planned changes based on your feedback. Please use the corresponding threads:

So far we are looking at the following changes:
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General
Runes
We are increasing the affected area by 4 squares for a total of 25 squares.

Energy Ring
Reducing the multiplier to 2 (Was 3)

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Knight:
Chivalrous Challenge rework:Will be changed from a chain spell to a self centered area that hits a very large area, however does not hit adjacent squares. In turn its cooldown will be increased to 6 seconds and the Wheel of Destiny Perks will be adjusted:

• I: Now hits adjacent squares
  
• II: -4 seconds cooldown

Groundshaker: We will switch augment I and augment II in the Wheel of Destiny and in turn allow knights to access a new rotation much earlier.

Front Sweep: Before ditching this spell completely we want to try out one more set of changes.

• Increasing base power from 72 to 80
  
• Wheel of Destiny I: Changing to +40% base power (Was 15% life leech)
  
• Wheel of Destiny II: Increasing shape to two additional squares to the sides of your character, for a total of 5 affected squares.

If these Front Sweep changes are still lackluster we will look at non-Front Sweep alternatives.

Shield Bash/Slam: The defensive impact is a bit to high for our taste. We will adjust the applied debuff to reduce the damage of the next autoattack by 50% instead of dodging it completely. Additionally we will adjust visual effect to better highlight the squares hit.

Self healing
Weapon proficiency perks that grant healing based on your skills will be doubled to account for the higher cooldown.
We are still watching the paralyze situation, but at this time there is no change to be announced.

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Paladin
Sharpshooter and Sniper
We decided that we rather adjust the Sharpshooter functionality and turn it into the offensive stance replacing the current Sniper stance. The effect will be:

• +35% distance fighting
  
• Gain 5% of your distance skill as holy magic level
  
• No longer reduces speed but reduces healing by 15% instead.

Divine Defiance:
We will adjust and improve its effect. It now will grant a 5% chance to dodge damage from non-adjacent enemies and additionally increase your self healing by 15%.These two changes should provide a clear usage for both stances regardless of distance to enemies.

Divine and Ethereal Barrage
We will rework the targeting behaviour and create something unique:
Both barrage spells will hit all adjacent targets as well as a 3x3 area around your target. Squares cannot be double hit and you can cast this spell without a target which will result in only hitting adjacent squares.

Additional changes:

Divine grenade will be returned to its old targeting behaviour

Elemental arrows will have their attack increased slightly (From 18 to 21)

Haste and Swift Foot no longer stack

Sorcerer
Death Echo
We will improve the targeting of this spell. You will be able to decide if it targets with a crosshair or at your current cursor position.
Additionaly the spell will be buffed in the following way:

• Reducing the delay to 1 second
  
• Increasing the base area to a 5x5 area making the initial cast and the echo cover the same squares
  
• Wheel of Destiny I: Changing to -2 seconds cooldown (Was -5% base damage)
  
• Wheel of Destiny II: +8% base damage (Was -1 second delay)

These changes should make using death echo a much better alternative and through the wheel of destiny even create simple death rotations that do not include the Great Death Beam if you so desire.

Beam Mastery:
Buffing the values from 20/35/50% to 40/60/80%.

Additional changes:

Lightning now chains to 2 additional targets with a jump range of 5, reducing its damage by 25% with each jump.

Wheel of Destiny: Switching the position of Death Echo and Special Spells

Wheel of Destiny: Fixed wrong Lord of Destruction description

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Druid
Stances
We will remove both the Rejuvenation and the Channeled Preservation stances and in turn adjust Shared Conservation as well as create a new offensive stance called Elemental Synthesis:

• Shared Conservation now additionaly grants +10% self healing
  
• Elemental Synthesis will grant 10% of your magic level as additional ice and earth magic level

Forked Glacier/Thorns:
We will increase the jump range to 4 (Was 3)

Additional changes:

Wheel of Destiny: Switching the position of Strong Ice Wave and Heal Friend to better match the augments with their revelation perks.

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Monk
Chain Spells
We are removing the special chaining logic that prioritized high health enemies and making these chain spells always jump to the closest enemy. This should improve their consistency.

Virtue of Harmony and Justice
Our intend was not nerfing the vocation and we will remedy that with the following change:
Virtue of Justice will return to granting 16% fist fighting.

Additionally monks will grant following bonuses regardless of their stance and they will gain them while serene:

Knight: –3% damage received

Paladin: +6% auto attack damage

Sorcerer: +6% spell and rune damage

Druid: +12% healing done