Hellgate London: Mail Call! Stone Henge Calls!

Wow, I hadn't heard anything about this update in a while but then I checked my mail this morning and...:

Multiplayer: The Stonehenge Chronicles - JANUARY 21, 2008

North America and Europe Only

The Stonehenge Chronicles

Update Notes

Happy New Year!

2008 is upon us, and we’re thrilled to be kicking it off with our first major update – the Stonehenge Chronicles. We’ve got a lot in store for all of our players, so let’s get to it!

In this update, you’ll see the first of the big balance sweeps we’re doing on all of the character classes. Both the Guardian and the Evoker got a lot of attention this time around, and we hope that players of those classes will dig into how the classes play now. We’re making it simple for these players to get a handle on the new balances by allowing them to completely respec their characters.

PvP is starting to get more attention with the introduction of the Dueling Arena. This both makes dueling easier to accomplish and also gives us a better and more accurate way to track play habits and stats – a key to really increasing this section of the game.

There’s also a whole slew of other overall improvements, tweaks, and additions, so take a couple of minutes to go through the release notes and see what’s new.

For our Subscription Members, we’re opening the portal to Stonehenge! This is a completely new area that not only has new items and monsters, but also completely new ways to experience the game.

The Essence Caves are the first of our non-linear style of play. You can repeat this long quest chain multiple times throughout the career of your character as it scales with your character (or party) level. The rewards are rich and many of them are unique to the Stonehenge area.

The Wild is also a new type of game play since it is focused exclusively on group play. You need big groups to have success out there – and the deeper you get, the harder it gets. It’s time to get your friends together!

We’ve got lots more in store, and we’re working on every aspect of the game. Thank you all for your support over the past couple of months. We’re listening and doing all we can to make Hellgate: London what we all want.

See you online!

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General
Based on the number and depth of balance changes to skills in this update, certain characters will be provided a “respec token” that allows them to reassign their skill points. This token is automatically placed in the character’s inventory and can be used at any time.

All Evokers and Guardians will receive respec tokens, as will all characters in Subscription Member accounts.

PvP
A Dueling Arena has been built for those who wish to test their mettle against each other. When challenging another character to a duel, the invitation dialogue indicates that the duel will take place in the Arena. When the duel is accepted, both characters are instantly transported there.

When both characters have loaded into the Arena, a countdown begins. During the countdown, characters can move, but they cannot use skills, activate items, cast spells, or attack their opponent. After a duel has been won, the defeated character is reset, as is their opponent and a new countdown clock begins. Players can leave the Dueling Arena by activating their Recall device.

Players can still duel in other areas by joining the same party and activating their /pvp flag as before.

Group Play

• Increased experience and treasure bonus for groups. Characters now receive more experience and treasure on a greatly accelerated scale based on number of players in a group.

• Fixed a bug where grouped players that were separated from the rest of their party were receiving extra experience for all of the other group members.
  

Graphics

• Templar melee animations have been tweaked for smoother combat flow.

Memory Manager

• Party members will now show up in higher resolutions. Players will not see the change until they move to a different zone and users must have Textures at least set to High.

User Interface

• The Mini Map is now set to the top right of the screen with character state icons appearing below.

• The Chat Window is now scalable. To adjust the size of the chat window, hold down the ALT key. There is a small tab in the upper right hand corner of the chat interface that can be used to resize the window.

• The LFG interface has received new functionality. To activate the LFG Interface, simply press the ‘P’ key.
  • The screen has been re-arranged to allow for more information and additional features.
  • Party Leaders can advertise existing groups to add new members.
  • Individuals can advertise themselves as being available for a group. To instead create an entirely new group, select the CREATE PARTY option. Otherwise, the character is listed as an individual looking for a group to join.
  • New search filters have been added to better find the right group dynamic.
  • Players can now Invite, Join and Whisper to individuals or groups listed in the LFG interface.
    

Skills
There are a wide variety of balance tweaks across the Templar and Cabalist factions.

Cabalist:

• Brom's Curse
  • This spell now heals a fixed amount based on the attacker's level instead of being based on a percentage of the attacker's health.
  • The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Brom's Curse affects up to 4 targets for 5 seconds at rank 1. The maximum number of targets is increased by 1, the duration increased by 1 second, and the amount healed is increased by 12.5% per rank.
  • This spell may now be cast while moving.
  • The range of Brom's Curse has been increased to 20 meters.
  
  

• Afterlife
  • The power cost of this spell has been reduced.
  
  

• Elemental Drain
  • The power cost of this spell has been greatly reduced.
  • The casting time has been reduced by 1 second.
  
  

• Word of Fear
  • The Fear Attack Strength of this spell now properly scales with the caster's level.
  • The base Fear Attack Strength of this spell has been increased by 25%.
  • The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Word of Fear now gains 33% more Fear Attack Strength per rank.

Evoker
Skill Rank bonus descriptions have been updated and normalized to be based on their initial rank 1 effect. For example, Spectral Bolt now displays no Phase Attack Strength bonus at rank 1, but displays a more clear bonus of 25% Phase Attack Strength per additional rank.

• Spectral Curse
  • Spectral Curse now also reduces targets' movement speed by 10%.
  • The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Spectral Curse now affects up to 4 targets for a 5 seconds at rank 1. The maximum number of targets is increased by 1, the duration increased by 1 second, and movement speed penalty increased by 5% per rank.
  • This spell may now be cast while moving.
  • The power cost of has been reduced substantially, and the range has been increased to 20 meters.
  • The explosion damage caused by Spectral Curse has been increased.
  
  

• Drain Power
  • The damage of this spell has been increased significantly.
  
  

• Drain Life
  • The damage of this spell has been doubled.
  
  

• Arcane Shield
  • The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted, providing slightly less shields at lower ranks.
  • Arcane Shield is unaffected by the Evoker's movement.
  • This spell now lasts for 10 seconds with a 25 second recast time.
  
  

• Concentrate Damage
  • The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Concentrate Damage now provides a lower initial damage bonus, but grants a greater bonus per rank. Concentrate Damage's new damage bonus progression surpasses its previous curve damage bonus progression at rank 4.
  
  

• Summon Ember
  • The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Additional ranks of this skill now provide 15% more damage instead of 20%, but the base damage of the Ember pet is significantly higher across all ranks.
  • The Ember's Health, Damage, Ignite Attack Strength, Critical Chance, Interrupt Strength, Interrupt Defense, and Armor have been increased.
  
  

• Firestorm
  • The rank progression of this spell has been re-designed. Additional ranks of Firestorm now provide a 5% increase in damage rather than an increase in Ignite Attack Strength. Firestorm surpasses its previous damage at rank 3.
  • The Ignite Attack Strength of this spell has been reduced.
  • The range of this spell has been increased to 10 meters.
  
  

• Flameshards
  • The Flameshards spell has been re-worked. The number of shards fired is now fixed at 7, but multiple shards stack with each other. Individual shard damage has been decreased slightly to take damage stacking into account.
  • Increased ranks in Flameshards now increases each shard's Ignite Attack Strength by 25%.
  • The spells now has a cool-down time of 2 seconds.
  • This spell's power cost has been decreased.
  • The base Ignite Attack Strength of this spell has been increased by 25%.
  • The range of this spell has been increased to 25 meters.
  • The explosion delay of Flameshards has been decreased to 1 second.
  
  

• Hellfire
  • This spell's casting time and initial power cost have been reduced significantly. Additional ranks now provide a slightly smaller decrease in power cost.
  • This spell now has a cool-down time of 2 seconds.
  • The damage and Ignite Attack Strength of this spell have been increased substantially.
  • The range of Hellfire has been decreased to 25 meters.
  • The targeting of this spell has been fixed.
  
  

• Spectral Bolt
  • The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Spectral Bolt now provides an additional 25% Phase Attack Strength per rank. The initial Phase Attack Strength of Spectral Bolt has been slightly increased.
  • The power cost of this spell has been decreased, and the Phase duration has been increased by 1 second.
  • The cooldown of Spectral Bolt has been decreased to 1 second.
  • The base Phase Attack Strength of this spell has been increased by 25%.
  
  

• Spectral Lash
  • The damage of this spell has been increased by 35%.
  
  

• Spectral Lash Mastery
  • The damage of the explosion caused by this spell has been doubled.
  • The rank bonus of this spell is now applied to the explosion effect properly.
  
  

• Lightning Field
  • The damage of the Lightning Field has been increased substantially.
  • The power cost of this skill has been decreased.
  • This spell now has a cool-down time of 2 seconds.
  • The rank bonus tooltip now properly displays a 15% instead increase in radius.
  • The splash damage of the initial effect has been increased by an additional 17%.
  
  

• Tempest
  • The casting time, power cost, and cool-down of Tempest have been decreased.
  • The base damage of Tempest has been decreased.
  • The strike frequency bonus per rank of Tempest has been decreased to 10% per rank.
  • Each Tempest cloud now lasts for 15 seconds and has a range of 15 meters.
  • The rank bonus of this spell now properly increases the frequency of lightning strikes.
  
  

• Arc Legion
  • The rank progression bonus of this spell has been changed. Additional ranks now increase the Shock Attack Strength and Shock Effect Damage of Arc Legion by 25%.
  • The range of this spell has been fixed at 18 meters.
  • The damage of this spell has been increased.
  
  

• Demonspine
  • The rank bonus of this spell has been slightly adjusted to a 25% increase in Stun Attack Strength per rank.
  • The power cost of this spell has been decreased.
  • The damage of this skill has been increased.
  • The base Stun Attack Strength of Demonspine has been increased by 20%.
  
  

• Boneshards
  • The rank bonus of this spell has been slightly adjusted to a 50% increase in Stun Attack Strength per rank.
  • The damage of this spell has been increased by 60%.
  • The cooldown of this skill has been decreased to 6 seconds.
  • The base Stun Attack Strength of Boneshards has been increased by 25%.
  • The power cost of this skill has been increased.
  
  

• Skullsplitter
  • The rank progression of this spell has been adjusted. Skullsplitter now begins with 12 fragments and gains 2 additional fragments per rank.
  • Skullsplitter now explodes into a significantly more predictable nova pattern.
  • The power cost and cool-down of this spell have been slightly decreased.
  
  

• Venomous Spirit
  • The damage of this spell has been increased and the power cost has been decreased.
  • The Fear Attack Strength of this spell now scales properly with the caster's level and has been increased significantly. Additional ranks of Venomous Spirit no longer provide an increase in Fear Duration.
  • The travel speed of the Venomous Spirit has been increased significantly.
  
  

• Venom Armor
  • Several bugs with which allowed the swarms created by Venom Armor to bypass its intended cool-down time have been fixed.
  • The damage of each swarm created by this spell has been increased, and each swarm now lasts for a fixed amount of time on their target.
  • The initial armor provided by this spell has been decreased, but the absolute bonus to armor per rank has been increased, reaching the previous maximum armor bonus at rank 10.
  
  

• Swarm
  • The rank progression of this spell has changed. Additional ranks in Swarm now increase the Poison Attack Strength and Poison Duration of Swarm by 20%.
  • The cool-down of this spell is now fixed at 6 seconds.
  • The power cost of this spell has been decreased significantly.

Templar:
Aura of Power, Aura of Renewal, Aura of Defense, and Aura of Salvation have been rebalanced. Additionally, their skill rank progressions have been normalized to provide a 33% increase in effectiveness per skill level. Blademasters and Guardians will now see more return on investment in these auras.

• Aura of Power
  • The power regeneration granted by Aura of Power has been decreased. At rank 10, Aura of Power grants 94% of the power it gave previously.

Blademaster

• Call of the Chosen
  • The Taunt and Fear Attack Strengths of this skill now properly scale with the Blademaster's level.

Guardian

• Aura of Renewal
  • The initial health regeneration granted by Aura of Renewal has been slightly decreased. By rank 10, this aura provides significantly more health regeneration than it did previously.
  
  

• Aura of Defense
  • The armor bonus granted by Aura of Defense has been decreased.
  
  

• Aura of Salvation
  • The initial elemental attack defense granted by Aura of Salvation has been slightly decreased. By rank 10, this aura provides significantly more elemental attack defense than it did previously.
  
  

• Grand Aura
  • This skill now provides an equal percentage increase to the Guardian's Holy Aura radius at each rank, ending with the same total increase at rank 5 as it did previously.
  
  

• Challenge
  • The Taunt Attack Strength of this skill now properly scales with the Guardian's level.
  
  

• Denounce
  • The Taunt Attack Strength of this skill now properly scales with the Guardian's level.

Quests

• Certain quests that could not be completed after defeating Sydonai because Emmera was no longer accessible can now be turned in to a new NPC named Sammy.

Items

• Unique items that were found before Patch 0.5 that are missing special attributes may now be rerolled for free. The process is as follows:
  • All mods must first be removed using a Delux De-Modificator. This is available once at no cost for qualifying items.
  • Once all the mods are removed, insert the item into an Augmentrex 3000. Now click any of the three "Add Property" buttons to reroll the item attributes.
  • All item attributes will be rerolled and the item balance will be up-to-date. If the item level was previously upgraded with the Nano Forge, the additional item levels will be added to the newly generated base level after the item reroll. This means that the new item level may not be the same.
  
  
• The Stun Defense granted by the Gyro Stabilizer has been increased.

• Health and Power injectors now show up in high level stations.

• Fire Extinguishers now give the appropriate Ignite Defense.

Monsters

• Monsters with the Infested ability have had their damage reduced.

Crafting

• The limit on number of times an item can be upgraded has been raised to 10.

• Upgrading an item takes 50% less resources.

• A new, rare salvaged material crafting material called Nanoshards are now required to upgrade items.
  • Nanoshards can be obtained from any item, but the chance to salvage one is increased when disassembling rarer items.
  • The number of Nanoshards required to upgrade an item increases each time the same item is upgraded.

Fixes

• The mini-game now has a timer. This is partly a fix for characters at level 50 who have finished all the quests and get the quest icon and therefore cannot finish it.

• Fixed a bug where characters would not save when they killed 65,534 monsters in one session.

• Grappler no longer changes a character’s position in PvP.

• Fixed a rare bug where equipping the Cleanser and a shield can delete the shield.

• Fixed a rare bug where Templar could equip both the Cleanser and a shield.

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Special Subscriber Features
Stonehenge is a new, non-linear adventuring area that can be accessed through a special portal in Templar Base. The quests and areas around Stonehenge scale in difficulty to challenge characters of any level. This is to allow players to return to this section of the world numerous times and complete the longer associated quests, missions, and raid areas.

Stonehenge itself is a new hub that holds a larger number of players than most Underground Stations. There are new NPCs, new quests, and most importantly, new adventuring areas that are unlike anything within the confines of London.

Quests
A new series of non-linear quests introduce the area surrounding the great druidic monument of Stonehenge.

The Caste Caves
These mystic caves can be found in the wilderness areas outside of Stonehenge. Each caste of demon - Beast, Necro, Spectral, and Primus – has a powerful overlord that resides in these caves. The caves themselves are sealed by the essential aspect of their master’s caste. These caves cannot be entered until the essence of five (5) Champions of the matching demonic caste has been collected. Essence can be collected from any Champion, so adventuring above and below the streets of London may gain you the keys to unlocking these special areas.

Once a character has gathered the required essence of a single Caste, they can either solo or lead a party into the caves and battle against the resident overlord. Not only are there great and special riches to be won, but the head of the caste overlord is also claimed. Once a character has collected the heads of the Beast, Necro, Spectral, and Primus overlords, the adventure continues.

Moloch’s Lair
A great and powerful Demon known as Moloch resides in the rough countryside surrounding Stonehenge, and only the worthy may enter his domain. Characters that have collected the heads of the Beast, Necro, Spectral, and Primus overlords can then make their way deep into the realms of Moloch, the Pit Baron.

Moloch has very unique items that can only be won by defeating him in combat, so the journey to his defeat can be well worth the effort. His soul is eternal, however, so the process of opening his sanctum and destroying his corporeal form is a never-ending challenge.

The Wild
The other main area that lies outside of Stonehenge is known only as The Wild. The challenges here are far greater than anywhere else in or around London, requiring raiding parties to properly navigate them.

The Wild is divided into three increasingly difficult sections that are balanced for parties of six, seven, and eight. This is regardless of the number of characters that enter The Wild, so while you could try to make your way slowly with a smaller group, the going will not be easy.

Items
There are new weapons and armor that can only be found in the areas surrounding Stonehenge. These new items have very different appearances from those found within London, so keep a sharp lookout for them.

• 13 new base weapon types divided amongst the Templar, Cabalist, and Hunters.

• Each faction also has two all-new Helmet types.

Environments
Apart from the settlement that has secreted itself at the Stonehenge triliths, there are numerous new areas to explore. Chief amongst these are the various Caste Caves and grand expanses and dark forests of The Wild. There are also new undergrounds and interiors to explore scattered throughout the countryside.

Monsters
The areas around Stonehenge also have spawned new Demons. The Winged Imps rain death down from the skies and swoop in to sever heads of those foolish enough to seek them out. Burning Fiends move amongst the underbrush and between the windswept trees. Moloch, the Pit Baron, also makes his fiery presence felt for the first time.

Patch Notes Disclaimer: While we make every effort to include all upcoming changes in our patch notes, please be aware that occasionally some changes are unintentionally omitted.

Unfortunately, is it too little too late?