With the release of Zealot its time we did a bit of team balancing.

A lot of this focuses upon damage becoming too prevalent as a tactic, so you'll find a lot of resistance changes to provide a bit more lenience. They're not too huge overall, but should hopefully encourage a bit more strategy in approaching group fights.

Sentinels have gotten some extra love as they're often cited as a poor choice in a team setting, so look forward to that if you're one of them.

I've also included some changes to the Templar 1v1 limb route to make them a little more evened out, and some minor downgrades to Luminary damage resistance as they have by far one of the best team toolkits. Plus, I want to get them away from sharing those particular resistances with Monk.

General
=====================
- UNENEMY and UNALLY no longer cost equilibrium to do so.
* They will still require balance/equilibrium however.
- ENEMY and ALLY now cost 1 second of equilibrium in order to declare.
* This gives a slight advantage to attackers who use surprise and/or speed.

Afflictions
=====================
- Dementia now has a 33% chance to make you say a different player name when speaking.
* Basically it will sub a said player name for another.
* The player name that gets chosen will be someone from within your location.
- Dementia no longer alters your entire sentence.
- Weariness now reduces all damage by 50%, rather then just magical.
- Weariness no longer affects passive damage.
- Sensitivity bonus is now halved when the damage does not originate from the affliction giver.
- Fear now disables BLOCK while you have the affliction.

Artifacts
=====================
- The 'grab_throw' boomerang can now be upgraded to level 2.
* Allows it to be flung in a direction without a target.
* This will cause it to grab a random enemy in that direction that doesn't have mass.
* This action has an increased balance cost compared to normal.

Battlefury
=====================
- Rupture now requires two free arms to order to use.
- Rupture is now subject to dodging and miss chance.
- Rupture now causes deep bleeding instead of normal bleeding.
- Rupture armour modifier has been increased to 20%, up from 0%.
- Rupture damage on a moderate bruising has been slightly increased.

Bladefire
=====================
- Crippled body now inherits the effects of the crippled affliction.
- Penance now procs for anybody instead of just the caster.
- Penance can no longer proc on passive damage.
- Sacrifice damage is now based on current health instead of max health.
- Hemorrhage now totals its damage from deep bleeding as well as normal bleeding.
- Removed the limb damage penalty on Trauma if the limb has no bruising.

Bioessence
=====================
- Ethereal can now be cast on others.

Dhuriv
=====================
- Increased the bleeding on Gorge to 250, up from 150.

Domination
=====================
- Removed the delay on doppleganger seek.
- ENSORCELL now only cancels if you use something that consumes balance.
- You can now use RITES, VIBES, and TRAPS through your doppleganger.

Fury
=====================
- Expunge now allows a FURY EXPUNGE BOOST option, which allows you to purge an extra random affliction.
* However, this will clear out all your accumulated fury.

Illumination
=====================
- Increased Lightshield resistance to 15%, up from 10%.

Kaido
=====================
- Increased Resistance magical resistance to 15%, up from 10%.

Naturalism
=====================
- Thorncoat damage block/return increased to 50%, up from 20%.
- Thorncoat now only lasts 10 seconds, down from 30.
- Reduced the cooldown on Thorncoat to 20 seconds, down from 60.

Necromancy
=====================
- Gravechill now grants 15% resistance to fire damage.
- Soulcage now grants additional health and mana above your max when it procs.

Psionics
=====================
- New skill: Dread.
* Can be used with Projection.
- Removed the equilibrium cost on movement in astral form.
- You can now use RITES, VIBES, and TRAPS through your astral form.
- Hold will no longer allow items to fall if you fly into the skies.

Sanguis
=====================
- Affinity now only requires you to be mutual allies for casting.
* Before, you had to remain mutual allies for the damage share to occur.
- Feast now removes the fangbarrier defence.

Sect of Blades
=====================
- You can now buy ghost arrows from the Sect of Blades shop.
* These will knock you into astral form for a short period.
* Damaging someone will snap them back into their body, otherwise you must wait for the timeout.
* Psionics will need to PSI RETURN and cannot be snapped back into their body through damage.
* Don't go too wild buying them, I'm not sure if they'll stick around just yet.

Spirituality
=====================
- Removed skill: Resistance.
- Removed skill: Toughness.

Terramancy
=====================
- Rockshower can now only be performed in an earthen environment.
- Rockshower damage has been increased if it is underground/indoors.
* You can't obtain this bonus damage if the environment was formed through Numerology Formation.
- Rockshower has a 30% chance of upsetting the balance of enemies.
- Rockshower swapped to equilibrium from balance, and is now 5 seconds.
- Earthenform now grants 10% resistance to electrical damage.
- Earthenform now persists through death as long as you are undead.

Vision
=====================
- New skill: Terraform.

Woodlore
=====================
- New skill: Might.
- New skill: Wisp.
- Hardiness damage resistance to cold and poison increased to 15%, up from 7%.
- Thornspray can now be used in Overgrowth, but it is weaker than normal.
- Thornspray now inflicts the loki venom on enemies.
- Nightingale can now heal allies as well as yourself.

Along with this, I have some big changes to the Hunting Ground items. These items are now incredibly potent in a team fight scenario, so those of you who consider yourselves top PK'ers will likely need to defend these items in the Hunting Grounds if you don't want to give your enemies an advantage.

Do note that these items are disabled in the Sect of Blades and within the arena to keep these locations competitive and sportsman-like.

Claw, sword of the Hunt
- RAISE the sword to turn the location into a state where everyone cannot be damaged below 1 hp for a short period. Has a cooldown after use.

Shade, robe of the Hunt
- You can WARP <direction> to leave a location. This action is unstoppable by most means.

Silence, cloak of the Hunt
- Makes it impossible for players to target you with ranged attacks. Indiscriminate abilities are unaffected.

Stag Helm
- You can HELM LINK <target> and then HELM PULSE to deal damage and a very brief stun from a range.

Rowan Box
- Solving this puzzle will grant your city additional ylem and give you some gold.

Night Eye Pendant
- Find the location of another and their class through all means. TOUCH it and then speak their name.

Defiant Rose
- WEAR it and receive 20% damage resistance against the last damage type that hurt you.

Ivory Bough
- POUR it UPON GROUND to instantly destroy most in-room effects. Must be dry ground. One use only.

Lastly, a lot of these changes are experimental. It comes from the request on the forum board to introduce some more powerful tools within team combat so small numbers can overwhelm bigger numbers with intelligent play. We'll see if they stick around in the long term, but just remember that change needs to begin somewhere.

Enjoy!

Penned by my hand on Gosday, the 23rd of Lanosian, in the year 478 MA.
Discuss this post on our forums:
http://forums.aetolia.com/discussion/3065/announce-post-2927-team-balance-update