Are you ready to take on the challenge of a Wizard’s lifetime? The Spring Update introduces 5th Age PvP! With 5th Age, PvP play has been moved to a season-based system with season-based leagues, a new zero-sum Elo scoring system, and a complete overhaul of the fundamentals of how we achieve a fair, fun, and competitive PvP gameplay experience. A new PvP system is just the start of what you can check out in the Spring Update!
Have you ever wanted to spell cast outside of combat? Now you can with an exciting array of new spells called Cantrips! Also in the update are new Beastforms for Beastmoon events, an expansion to Spellements that extends the feature to your main Arc 1 spells, a new Loyalty Program that rewards long-term concurrent subscribers, and much more. It’s a spellrific update!
Welcome to 5th Age PvP! We’re excited to reveal all the improvements we have made to support a more fun, more fair PvP experience, so let’s get right to it!
Leagues
The biggest change for 5th Age is the introduction of Leagues. Leagues allow us to set specific entry requirements and customize the play experience using specific rulesets that may vary from League to League. Players will find Leagues appealing because they are intended to funnel certain styles of PvP gameplay into the same queue, making queues stronger and play all-around more compatible.
Based on our observations about where players tended to congregate, and on feedback from current players, we have decided to launch 5th Age with the following Leagues:
We've chosen these initial League level bands in order to focus players (currently scattered across lots of level bands) into specific ranges that closely correlate to the most popular rulesets, gear availability, and to some degree, the story itself (arc 1, arc 2, etc.) While we are certainly open to exploring other Leagues (with other level requirements) we feel this initial offering is the best starting place to accommodate the most players and keep a healthy queue.
Leagues will also allow us to modify various settings like the Damage and Resist limits (to address gear imbalance at certain level bands); Crit, Block, and Shadow Pip gain; or even to modify stats directly (such as the Incoming Healing stat). To help facilitate players’ ability to “freeze” their progress at a desired League, we have implemented Level Locking (see below).
Leagues will play out over Seasons, which are currently slated to run for about 2 months at a time. During a season, players will work to rank up and climb the Leaderboard for that League. Each League has its own rating system (see below) and your performance in one League does not affect your rating in any other League.
Between Seasons, there may be some rating resets, changes to the meta to keep the play fresh – or even the launch of entirely new Leagues.
New Arena!
Players have been asking us for a new PvP arena for a while and – yep! – we are happy to announce that we’ve added another arena that you may see in the course of your matches. We’ve pulled together something from our “heap” of assets and we think you’ll like it.
But what you might not have expected is an entirely new Arena complex which will be the new home of our current (and future?) competitive content. From one location, you can mix and mingle with afficionados of PvP, Beastmoon, the Deckathalon, and our amazing upcoming end game content
, redacted because it is way too cool!
Elo Rating System
In 4th Age PvP and prior, PvP used a “flat” rating exchange of +/- 16 rating for wins and losses. In 5th Age we are moving to an Elo-based system which varies the amount of rating won or lost according to the difference between the players’ current rating. A higher rated player gains less by defeating a lower rated player, and a lower rated player gains more by defeating a higher rated player. (If you want to learn more about how Elo works – Google it! It’s a well-established system used as the basis for games as old as chess to today’s modern e-sports.)
Our system allows us to set the amount of rating exchanged at each Rank, so that it becomes progressively more difficult to gain rating as you move up towards Warlord. We also have safeguards in place to prevent aggressive down-ranking; and we have the ability to “reset” rating between Seasons (for example reducing players to the rating floor of their current Rank). These numbers are customizable and we will watch player feedback carefully to ensure that the system feels good for all participants.
In accordance with this change, Ranks (and rating required) have also changed:
Rating
Rank
1500
Recruit
1550
Corporal
1600
Sergeant
1650
Veteran
1700
Knight
1800
Captain
1900
Marshal
2000
Warlord
Draw Results
A Draw will result in a rating loss for both players. Our goal is to completely remove any incentive for players to opt for a Draw instead of a Win. Players have cautioned (and we agree) that players who find themselves in a losing match may instead try for a Draw to “punish” their opponent, which leads us to our next feature.
Infraction System
To help ensure a fair 5th Age play environment, we’ve brought the Infraction system from Beastmoon to PvP. The Infraction system allows us to create “infractions” in order to discourage certain types of disruptive play. If a player accumulates too many infraction points, they will be placed on a cooldown and unable to queue for a match until their infraction total decreases (which occurs naturally over time).
To address specific problems in PvP, the following actions will result in an infraction:
Disconnecting during a match (for any reason)
Abandoning a matched opponent before the match begins (aka “queue dodging”)
Playing to a Draw (both players)
The Infraction system is designed to be tolerant of a “reasonable” amount of infractions (especially those that may occasionally happen unintentionally). Nevertheless, we expect that player feedback will be necessary to dial in the system—so let us know!
New PvP Rewards
With a new Age comes a slate of new rewards! We have retired all 4th Age currency and most 4th Age rewards. If you had previously purchased 4th Age PvP gear, you’ll find that we’ve removed the stats but left the items in your inventory, should you choose to use them for stitching purposes.
We’re introducing a new currency for 5th Age – blue Arena tickets! Unsurprisingly, they work just like the red tickets: Use 5th Age Arena tickets to buy cosmetic items, jewels, pet snacks and even a few pets. We’ll also be gathering feedback from players from season to season to keep the offerings fresh and exciting.
Dual School Play
One of our goals for both PvP and PvE play is to encourage players to engage in more diverse and interesting gameplay. As part of our gear overhaul, and to help encourage diverse play in PvP, we have selected specific world bosses and given their loot drops a “dual school” overhaul. We have focused our efforts for now on worlds that align with most of our chosen Leagues: Dragonspyre (for L50 Master League play), Khrysalis (for L100 Exalted play), and Lemuria (for Premier League play).
The New Age of Gear
A hot topic related to Rewards and PvP is the future of Gear! This is going to be a major topic in future discussions, but felt that we should summarize what we’re doing ahead of 5th Age!
We’ve undertaken a major effort to revisit gear on a global level not only in terms of its power and stats, but also in how you acquire it. Don’t consider this an audit, but think of it more of an assessment of where we’ve been, where we are, and using that assessment to determine where we’d like to go.
For this section, we can touch upon three main topics: PvP Craftable Gear, Dual School Play, and New World Gear.
PvP Craftable Gear
It is important that players in 5th Age have meaningful gear choices when deciding how to best outfit their Wizard for PvP. One way to grow the choices for all PvP interested players is to provide some choice in how to acquire their desired gear. Starting in 5th Age, players will be able to craft PvP-only versions of popular Crown Shop gear using reagents you can earn only through PvP. This gear may not have the cool looks of the Crown Shop gear, but you’ll find the stat profiles exactly what you have been asking for.
Dual School Play
One of our goals for both PvP and PvE is to encourage players to engage in more diverse and interesting gameplay. We began this with introducing the Roshambo as was described previously in a Dev Diary by Ratbeard. The next logical step is having the Roshambo influence what Gear a Wizard chooses to equip based on what secondary School they want to use. As a result, we have designed new dual school gear which reflects and empowers these Roshambo relationships. All of the new Gear introduced in the Spring update are built using this new paradigm.
New World Gear
As this relates to 5th Age, we created all new gear for dual school play. We have focused our efforts for now on worlds that align with most of our chosen Leagues: Dragonspyre (for L50 Master League play), Khrysalis (for L100 Exalted play), and Lemuria (for Premier League play). There is new gear for all seven Schools. Level appropriate players can earn this gear by defeating the world bosses found in each these respective Worlds.
It’s a new age for Gear to go with a new age of PvP!
LEVEL LOCKING
The new 5th Age PvP includes three Leagues for lower-level players. The Master League is for players level 40-50, Legendary League is for players level 60-69, and the Exalted League is for players level 100-109. If you decide to play in one of these Leagues, you may still want to do a Skeleton Key boss now and then or you may want to help a friend with a dungeon. The problem is you may earn Experience Points, which could cause you to accidentally out-level your favorite league. As a solution to this issue, we’re introducing the Level Locking feature.
When your Wizard reaches level 50 or greater, then you’ll see a Lock button on the Experience portion of your Character Sheet in your Spellbook. Click the lock to activate Level Locking!
When Level Locking is activated, any Experience Points you earn will be shown as Overflow Experience. You can continue to earn XP, but you will stop earning Levels! Note: If you have Level Locking activated, you won’t be able to use the Join a Team Kiosk.
When you want to redeem your Overflow Experience, just click the Unlock button. The “banked” Overflow Experience is then returned to your Experience Points, and Levels are gained as normal. If you’ve earned a lot of Overflow Experience then it may take a few seconds for your Leveling to catch up (but it’s pretty cool to watch!)
Although this feature was created to address a specific problem for PvP players, other players could use it if they are looking for a more challenging PvE experience! How far along the Spiral can you travel as a Level 50 Wizard?
This is *not* to be confused with PvE Hard or Hard Mode, which has been mentioned in previous KI Lives and Roundtables.
LOYALTY PROGRAM
Sometimes we feel like the wizards who have a membership may feel a little neglected as new and fun things are added to the Crown Shop, so we decided it was time to give our loyal Members a bonus in the form of the Loyalty Program!
In addition to all the normal benefits which come with being a member (such as access to Test Realm and periodic Membership Benefits), we decided to give something extra to those members who maintain their membership! Members who have maintained membership for two or more months begin earning Loyalty Tokens. Members can spend these Loyalty Tokens on special items in the Loyalty Store found in the Shopping District in Wizard City.
You can buy a variety of exciting things in the Loyalty Store including the following:
Early access to new Packs
Elixirs, which grant Member Benefits
Cosmetic Gear
Spellements
Mounts
A variety of Packs
Each month members may earn Loyalty Tokens and we will refresh the Loyalty Store’s inventory, so members should check regularly to see if there are Loyalty Tokens available to claim and to see what new has been added. With the Loyalty Program, we wanted to create something as a *Token* of our appreciation to our most loyal Members (get it?)!
Only renewing memberships count for the Loyalty Program.
INTRODUCING CANTRIPS
Hey, mighty Wizard! You cast spells at menacing creatures. You cast spells to grow monstrous plants. You cast spells to catch fantastical fish. Now, with Cantrips, you can cast spells all of the time!
Hampshire Buttersfield is the Pigswick Academy professor that teaches Cantrips. Once you achieve level 25, talk to Abner K. Doodle in Commons to get started.
After you enroll in Cantrips, a Wand Button next to your spell book will open the Cantrips spell casting menu.
There are currently several different kinds of Cantrips:
Flourish Cantrips are spells that produce a personal magical effect.
Teleport Cantrips can take you to a new location quickly.
Radiance Cantrips create a beneficial effect in a large area for a limited time. Anyone inside the area will enjoy the benefits of the Radiance Cantrip, such as Healing or Fishing Luck!
Ritual Cantrips allow you cast magical energy at a target. When multiple wizards cast a Ritual Cantrip spell on a Ritual Object interesting things can happen! Look for a new kind of treasure chest that requires 3 different players to cast a Ritual Cantrip for it to open.
Sigil Support Cantrips will appear in the future.
Cantrip spells have a rank. You can only cast Cantrip spells of a Rank equal to or below your Cantrip Level. Just like fishing and gardening spells, Cantrip spells cost magical energy. You will gain Cantrip XP when you cast a Cantrip that is the same rank as your Cantrip level.
There are many ways to Acquire Cantrips. Some can be bought for gold or found in monster loot. Some Cantrip Treasure Cards can be crafted at the Cantrips Crafting Station in Pigswick Academy.
NEW SPELLEMENTS
We’ve previously mentioned our plans to revisit the Spellwrighting content completely (see our Dev Notes). The overhaul of the Spellement system is an effort that is going to take a long time to complete, but this update marks our first steps towards achieving our goals.
In this update, we’ve taken steps to integrate Spellements into a Wizard’s experience as they complete the mainline quests in the Spiral. We’ve added new Spellements to collect and new Spellwrighting paths to main “Arc One” spells for each school!
Wizards can develop, progress, and customize a range of spells from Scarab to Triton while collecting Spellements from most of the Arc One worlds from Krokotopia to Dragonspyre. You’ll find that we’ve shuffled around the unlock levels for some old favorites, and you’ll also find some entirely new spells available for some schools.
Check out your trainers for the new spell options!
The goal of this first step was to develop the mainline Spells for each School, and begin investigating different sources for the Spellements the Players may want.
As you know, Spellements are available in a variety of Packs, but in addition to that, we’re introducing a number of new sources for the new Spellements in this update including:
Wizards of appropriate Levels can earn these Spellements by defeating various Bosses found in the World.
Wizards of all Levels can use the appropriate Pet Adventure Power to earn these Spellements
Wizards who are trained in Cantrips can discover a new world Chest which can only be opened by casting Magic Touch on it! Once three Wizards cast Magic Touch on the Chest, then it will open and everyone who cast Magic Touch on the Chest will be rewarded the Spellements which are held inside.
This is the first step as we grow the Spellement system and find new ways for Players to acquire the Spellements they want. Stay tuned for more!
NEW BEASTMOON HUNT MAP
We’re introducing a new map to Beastmoon Hunt – the Lemuria/Heap Beastmoon Map! Does anything more need to be said? Okay, maybe a little. Pip wisps in Heap are not as plentiful as the usual Beastmoon Hunt.
We have also gone through and adjusted the pip wisp spawns in the other 4 Beastmoon Hunt maps so that the spawns are on par with the Mirage map.
Did we mention the new Arena in the 5th Age PvP section earlier? Yes, we did! The shiny and completely renovated Arena is going to be seen in full for the first time. This is your portal for all things PvP as well as Beastmoon events. Hang out with the crowd there for a competitively fun time and to talk about this new Beastmoon Hunt map. Be sure to also let us know in the forums what you think of it!
NEW BEASTFORMS
Excited to switch up your Beastmoon gameplay? Check out these brand new Beastforms joining the roster in this Spring Update:
Fire Draconian
The Fire Draconian is the master of over time effects. He is strongest when healed up, allowing him to detonate his Damage Over Time. To keep his health up, he extends Heal Over Times along with casting a few himself.
Death Krokomummy
The Death Krokomummy sacrifices himself to deal extra damage and heal his team. He’s got all the bells and whistles you’d expect on a Death form as well as showing off the very first Drain that hits all enemies.
Expect the Death Krokomummy to unravel into the Summer Scroll of Fortune event!
Which school and general form are your favorites to play? Let us know in the forums and on social media!
NEW EVENT REWARDS
Your hard work defeating challenge bosses and other players in the Beastmoon events should be rewarded, which is why we’ve added new event rewards for both Beastmoon Hunt and Monster Mayhem. For the Beastmoon Hunt there are new gold idols, pets, and of course added Spellements. Pets and craftable gold idols will be released in the coming Beastmoon Monster Mayhem events.
We’re sure you are eager to get hold of these precious new resources. Check out below when some of the new rewards are expected to become available. Be sure to keep watch on the Live update notes and the game’s social media channels for upcoming announcements, and of course in-game as events kick off, for when event rewards are updated.
Beastmoon Hunt Rewards
Gold Beastform Idols and Pets:
MAY: Fire Ninja Pig
JUN: Myth Wolf Warrior
JUL: Fire Elf
Beastmoon Mayhem Rewards
Progress Bar Pets:
MAY: Ice Krokomummy
JUN: Life Draconian
JUL: Fire Colossus
Craftable Gold Idols:
MAY: Fire Ninja Pig, Storm Elf, Ice Krokomummy
JUN: Death Cyclops, Myth Draconian, Life Draconian
JUL: Storm Elf, Ice Krokomummy, Fire Colossus
Beastmoon Spellemental Rewards
And here are new Spellements that will become available for both Beastmoon events! As mentioned earlier, all dates are tentative:
MAY: Elemental
JUN: Spiritual
JUL: Elemental
NEW SPRING GAUNTLET
Also in this Spring update, we’re introducing, unforgivingly, the Unforgiven Dead Housing Gauntlet!
Battle the best warriors the Highlands has to offer for the right to challenge the Boss, the Banrigh Sluagh and her army of the Unforgiven Dead. Once every century, the magical seals that lock the Queen of the Unforgiven Dead in her castle wane, unleashing her army of cursed souls upon the folk of Ettinburgh. Never ones to miss an opportunity for blood-sport, the Ettins call the best warriors from across the Highlands to battle it out for the ultimate honor of defeating the Banrigh, in a little competition they’ve dubbed the Sluagh Slugfest.
On top of great loot, the Slugfest Champion also earns the Stone Throne of Scones. Oh, and don’t forget that pesky secret Boss, Grounds-Creeper Willie!
The Unforgiven Dead Housing Gauntlet has 3 Tiers of play, with the lowest tier intended for level 50 wizards.
THE SOCIAL KIOSK
Are you looking for an Adventure Party to join or is your current Adventure Party looking for new members? The Social Kiosk makes it easier to grow Adventure Parties! The kiosk is in Olde Town near the Cyclops Lane entrance.
Adding an Adventure Party to the Kiosk
If you would like to add your Adventure Party to the Social Kiosk, open the Social Kiosk window and click the Add Adventure Party button.
If you are the owner of an Adventure Party, you will be asked once if you would like to automatically add your Adventure Party to the Social Kiosk whenever you are playing. You can control if an Adventure Party is added to the kiosk with a button on the Adventure Party Details window.
Adventure Parties in the Social Kiosk are listed by purpose. When you add an Adventure Party to the kiosk, you’ll be prompted to declare a purpose. You can change the purpose of your Adventure Party by clicking the Change Purpose button on the Adventure Party Details window. This purpose is used to help players find agreeable Adventure Parties.
The Adventure Party purposes available are questing in a world, farming dungeons in a world, playing Beastmoon, playing PvP, playing Pet Derby, pet activities, housing or simply to just hang out with fellow wizards.
Joining an Adventure Party in the Kiosk
Open the Social Kiosk window and click on an Adventure Party that you would like to join. The owner of the Adventure Party will be asked to admit you as a provisional member.
If the owner approves, you will be made a member of the Adventure Party for one week. The owner of the Adventure Party can promote you to a full member at any time. If after one week, you are still a provisional member, you will be removed from the Adventure Party.
BOSS REMATCHES
Wondering where you as a veteran wizard can get your Arc 1 Spellements? Look no further! Introducing Boss Rematches! Raquel is a new vendor in the Arena that sells boss fights to be placed in your house of all the Arc 1 bosses which drop Spellement specific to the world they're from! Once you complete the boss of choice, you can go back to Raquel with the completed trophy and purchase another boss fight with a discount on crafting supplies! Raquel is waiting for you, so good luck and get those Spellements!
BUG FIXES AND OTHER CHANGES
Players may now purchase an additional Bric-a-Brac Elixir in each area of a house. The overall item cap limit is now 400 items
Gorgon Hunter's Xiphos, Gorgonsbane Xiphos, and Gorgon Slayer's Xiphos in the Aquila Hoard Pack are now sellable for gold
Most spells on Loremaster have been converted to Spellements. At a later date, most of these Spellements will be moved to various other sources.
Players can now trash pets from the pet inspect window
Fixed a couple of Deckathalon exploits
Fixed Din Ho’s camera angle in quest "Release"
Added more Second Chance Chests to Lemuria and Karamelle
Added new spell icons from Lemuria into the Help section
Several animation and UI adjustments
Several performance and stability fixes
Additional Patch Notes
June 30, 2022
Highlights
A set of 5th Age Season 2 changes we announced in advance on June 16
Beastmoon Anvil crafting station recipes now available when event is active
Fixed an issue where players would sometimes be marked for two losses when losing a match
Players can now enter Angoro’s Tower while on quest Mything Link
Updated Villain’s Hoard Gear
Changed Rank 1 item cards
Corrected a bug that resulted in repeating item cards or stats
Combat & Spells
Fixed an issue to prevent Stone Colossus from attacking the caster’s team
Change to Headless Horseman Spellement path
Fixed an issue to allow Enchants on Spectral Blast path A
Fixed various bugs in the Jade Oni Rematch and tweaked combat difficulty (reduced Jade Oni’s pierce by 20%)
Damage Limit increased to 250 in both PvP and PvE. Damage Intersect remains the same
UI & Visuals
Some label corrections to housing items, including changing the “Frog” to “House Toaddle”
Added a preview window for the Daisy Flower housing item
Various other visual corrections, mostly related to housing
A new game patch has arrived! A new feature called Boss Rematches is here, along with many other fixes to Beastmoon, and adjustments:
Boss rematches
Beastmoon bugs fixed
Connecting teleports added to the Library and Arena
Malistaire’s gear drop rates increased
Slightly increased the Balance Spellements drop rate from bosses
Mobs now properly show up in the first combat of the Unforgiven Dead Gauntlet
Tournaments "Help Screen" now points out the actual location of vendors in the Arena
Updated look of the school Trident Wands
Various animation improvements
May 11, 2022
A new game patch has arrived! See below for a quest and a couple of PvP adjustments:
Players on Mything Link quest should now be able to access Angoro's Tower
PvP leaderboard and other result statistics are more accurate
PvP Ranks should no longer appear to be resetting
May 4, 2022
A new game patch has arrived! We adjusted several Spellement areas, including significantly increasing the drop amounts for World Spellements. 5th Age PvP is now free to play and various other adjustments were made. See below!
5th AGE PVP
PvP is once again FREE! We have removed the requirement for Membership or Crowns purchase in order to queue for ranked matches.
Temporarily restored a vendor who will accept 4th Age tickets for a selection of 4th Age rewards… LAST CALL! Spend ‘em if you got ‘em!
Lowered the points requirements to earn rewards on the PvP Battle Pass! Earn points for every match played (more points for those sweet W’s of course!)
Adjusted some parameters of the Elo system to provide smoother rating win/loss
SPELLEMENTS & CANTRIPS
Significantly increased the drop amounts for World Spellements coming from Pet Powers, Cantrip Chests, and Area Bosses
Reduced the energy cost of Magic Touch cantrip from 15 to 5
Added Spellements to Silver Chests from Krokotopia to Dragonspyre
A combat option for high level players is in the works and will be released in a future update
OTHER
Increased some Lemuria gear drop rates
Removed Participation Trophies as a reagent requirement and changed all recipes that required Revered Crafter to Visionary Crafter
Fixed training point cost of Gearhead Destroyer
Fixed various issues with the Creepy Clown Mask (both crowns and crafted versions)
Deluxe Spellement timed rewards pack should now be redeemable
