We have some big new features coming with our Steam launch update, from new item properties, enchantment, the professions system and more. We’ve some big posts coming detailing these systems, but today we want to give you an update on some of the more crunchy changes we have made in response to player feedback and our experience of Early Access thus far. This includes two new skills and an exciting overhaul to a seemingly forgotten skill.

New Skill: Martial Prowess

Light and Heavy armor skills were far from perfect as rewarding standalone skills and represented arbitrary choices in acquiring certain abilities. We haven’t been happy with these for some time and this has certainly been mirrored back to us by you, particularly with respect to the ninja armour bonuses which was not intuitive and was confusing for many players.

All forms of armor now grants 100% of their Defense property and both Light & Heavy Armor skills have been removed.

Enter Martial Prowess, a new skill to Legends of Aria that effectively replaces the Light and Heavy Armor Mastery skills as part of a core fighter template*. Strength and Vigor have been rebalanced, reducing their respective damage bonuses to be refactored into the inclusion of Martial Prowess. We have very big plans for further diversifying this skill in an upcoming update, more on that later. For the time being this will serve as a far more robust and simplified skill offering at the heart of fighter templates.

*Every character with 30+ Vigor and/or Heavy/Light Armor will be granted a single account bound Soulstone for Martial Prowess equal to the greatest of these skills.

New Skill: Magical Attunement

Staves and wands are finally making their return! Players may now train the new Magical Attunement ability by casting spells whilst holding a 2 handed staff or a single handed wand. Staffs and wands will be classified as Mage Weapons and may possess attunement properties, available in varieties from Lesser to Greater with respect to their individual power. Armed with a powerful staff and a developed Magical Attunement skill, casters will be able to deliver more powerful spells and effects!

Magical Attunement is a single skill intended as a specialisation skill to add to an existing Mage template, offering marginal but powerful gains in creating a more pure magical caster. This will be an exciting additional to player templates and another of many specialist skills we will be bringing to Legends of Aria.

You’ll hear more on staves as when we discuss our item property expansion, watch this space!

Archery Overhaul

Due to popular demand and tons of feedback, we’ve prototyped and tested and found what we believe to be the sweet spot for Archery in Legends of Aria. 

The Archery firing mechanic has been overhauled in its entirety to facilitate firing in motion and balancing more explosive damage to truly set archery apart from other combat styles.

Previously, archers were forced to remain stationary to loose an arrow, reloading on the move, rinse repeat. We’ve flipped this mechanic on it’s head, allowing archers to instantly fire an arrow and reload their next arrow on the move.

How have we achieved this? Archery no longer operates along conventional combat lines. The automated firing of bows has been removed. The primary ability for bows has been replaced with a universal Fire ability. This ability has a cooldown and stamina cost dictated by each bows classification. Short bows have the cheapest stamina requirement and the shortest reload time, Warbows the most expensive and the longest etc. After loosing an arrow at your target, players will be slowed during the reload duration, much like mages whilst casting spells. After this reload periods, the player is again free to deliver another arrow.

We’re excited to get this change live as Archery has now become an extremely versatile and powerful ability in both PvE and especially in PvP. The ability to rain arrows on your opponent whilst on the move, or the opportunity to quickly launch an arrow following a spell or to check a a fleeing opponent – this is going to make a huge difference to gameplay and make archery an asset to any template.

This is far from the extent of the tweaks and changes we’ve made to better balance, refine and improve our features – tomorrow we’ll be detailing our crafting system. We’ve more news coming, so please join us again soon as we further reveal what is to come to Aria on August 6th!

Discover a world forged by players, where your choices write the story. What role will you play?

Key Features:

• • A Living, Breathing MMORPG: Explore a true open world without limitation. Build, explore and adventure with thousands of players in a living breathing world defined by you.
  • Skill-Based World: Legends of Aria returns to a true skill based system. Build your character your way, be you a crafter, adventurer, merchant or humble fisherman. Hone your skills through use and play your way with a choice of over 32 unique skills.
  • Return to a True Sandbox: Legends of Aria is inspired by the original sandbox MMORPGs. Experience a world that does not hold your hand. A world that is driven by you and shaped by our community. A world of dangers, where friendships, enemies made and your actions written into legend.
  • Community Servers and Modding: The first MMORPG to fully support player run servers. Legends of Aria is designed to be modded from top to bottom including custom gameplay rules, custom content and even entirely custom created worlds.