NoDrop Updates
As I'm sure everyone has noticed, there have been a *lot* of updates in the past week - and the release was both early (new nodrop shields!) and late (UltraGuardian). We were releasing things as they were ready to go out - which tells you just how much work it was getting some of them ready to go. So here's a list of what we did!
The first release was the addition of new nodrop shields - Adventurer, Guardian, and Awe - which level with your character. The Guardian and Awe ones also follow the elemental selection you choose for your Guardian armor.
Second came updates to existing nodrops:
Adventurer (Long Sword, Short Sword, Wooden Staff, and Spear) weapons are Earth and scale to YourLevel - 20 (minimum 0)
Guardian (Blade, Dagger, Spear, and Staff) weapons are random element and scale to YourLevel - 5 (minimum 0). Guardian Dragon was also updated.
Awe (and Awe!!!) (Blade, Dagger, Spear, and Staff) weapons follow the element you select for your Guardian Armor (None is Earth) and scale to YourLevel - 5 (minimum 0) (Awe!! weapons scale to YourLevel). They also had significant updates to the Special (including a very large increase in the frequency of Power Word Die - which was also updated so that if it fails, it does the new Guardian Dragon attack).
Dragonhand (PLvl 110) and Dragonhand Z (PLvl 105) were updated in themselves and to use the new Guardian Dragon.
Adventurer (Steel Plate, Leather Armor, Cloth Robes, and Students Robes) armors now scale to YourLevel - 20 (minimum 0). They are all flat resistance.
Guardian (Plate, Leathers, Robes, and Savant Robe) armors now scale to YourLevel - 5 (minimum 0). They adjust significantly based on the element you choose for them.
Full Set bonuses for using an Adventurer, Guardian, or Awe set (weapon, shield, and armor) together were also added.
The Insightful Armor of Awe also had its attack changed to be less powerful but to boost spells cast in the armor (similar to what the Guardian armor does).
The rentable Awe weapons were updated. All elements are now available and scale to YourLevel. You can switch between them during the same login session for no extra charge.
Adventurers can also rent the Awe weapons - for a slight additional fee.
The Tomb and Army of Awe quests were added to Valencia's menus.
Valencia can now swap you temporarily or permanently to any of the Awe items instead of just the weapon. For the armor and shield, you must have first taken the Awe armor and shield for free permanently from the Armor of Awe quest. You still need to have collected all of the pieces of the Blade of Awe for her to give you an Awe weapon.
Yulgar can now swap you temporarily to any of the Adventurer no-drop items.
Valencia shows your progress in collecting the Blade of Awe
After that, the Guardian Tower was updated:
The AntiGuardian quest arrived!
AntiGuardian armor is the quest reward for the AntiGuardian quest
If you are a Guardian, you can do the Challenge battle at the end of the AntiGuardian quest and unlock a new nodrop armor and shield - UltraGuardian
The UltraGuardian armor and shield are equivalent in power to the Awe armor and shield - they are MasterCrafted upgrades to the Guardian armor and shield (each with a special ability)
The Guardian Armory can swap you to any of the Guardian nodrop items - temporarily or permanently.
The Guardian Armory can swap you to any UltraGuardian armor or the shield temporarily or permanently as long as you have accepted them permanently for free from the UltraGuardian quest.
Element Customization has been updated (there is now a cost).
Missing Miss Fixit is now available from Nimrod.
In addition:
The Legendary Warriors are now Elite monsters; the weapon they drop is now different for each variant. It is the power level of the Legendary Warrior. The Mythical Warrior is currently in hiding, enhancing its evil (and buffing its weapon!)
A number of other monsters were updated or had new versions added (Mummicane, Cyclops Chieftain, Roc, Enormous Salamander, Scorpzard)
Color Customization can now be saved with any Guardian, Awe, or UltraGuardian items equipped.
UltraGuardian resistances have been buffed
Gokar's Gi no longer has the old doubled spell statpercent and also now takes normal LUK/2 on LUKy Strikes
Solaris now takes LUK/4 on Solar Call LUKy Strikes (instead of LUK/2)
AntiGuardian now uses shields properly
Tiny clickable buttons now appear below the menu with AntiGuardian equipped, so that you can click your shield and weapon for those with click-effects.
AntiGuardian now takes LUK/4 on Dark Bolt LUKy Strikes (instead of LUK/2)
AntiGuardian Z armors are now using the MPLevel to determine how much Dark Bolt costs
IF you are wearing the UltraGuardian armor, the AntiGuardian monster now reverse-seeks on all attacks EXCEPT his Challenge Battle Dark Bolt (which seeks normally) (UltraGuardian is protecting you). This is because you are forced into the UltraGuardian armor.
As you can see, this was a tremendous release. The final dev and balance work on this was started several weeks ago (for example, Awe stats were created in time for the Awe release, but could not go out until the shields all weapons were ready to go). Due to schedule issues, the final crunch time started on Tuesday and lasted 16+ hours a day until the Guardian Tower was released; we're still doing small things (as you can see from the "In Addition" section), but the major release is out.
Work on next week is already well underway. It's not nearly as large (we have to sleep SOME time)!