UPDATED May 1
Foundations Update – Version 25.000.1 – April 15, 2024
Fortifications
Overview
Fortifications are upgradable walls, gates and guards for Territories
To raid or conquer a territory you’ll need to fight your way through these Fortifications
Fortifications can be built and upgraded with a Territory’s Fortification Points
When a Territory owner changes, or at the end of a Guild Season, all Fortifications are reset
Fortification Points
Each Territory generates Fortification Points, which persist between changes of ownership
Fortification Points are generated at the end of Prime Time
Territories with a higher Power Level generate more Fortification Points
Fortification Points last for the duration of a Guild Season and are reset at the end
Upgrading
Fortifications are always upgraded in pre-defined groups
An upgrade can only be started between the end of one Prime Time and 30 minutes before the next
Walls and Gates:
Require stone blocks and Fortification Points to upgrade
Building upgrades are always finished at the end of the following Prime Time
Guards
Require Silver and Fortification Points to upgrade
Guards upgrade immediately but then cannot be upgraded again until after the following Prime Time
Since guards can now be upgraded with Fortification Points, they no longer scale with Tower Levels
Sentry Mages and Siphoning Mages cannot be upgraded
The Amount of required resources per upgrade increases with the Quality Level of the region
This only affects stone blocks and silver. Fortification Points costs do not scale with Quality Level.
Upgrading Fortifications requires the new Guild Right “Manage Fortifications”
Pre-Battle Phase and Prime Time
30 minutes before Prime Time, the Pre-Battle Phase begins and all gates are closed
Any enemies inside an enclosed territory are teleported out (only applies if the Fortification walls have been upgraded at least once)
Fortification buildings are always protected by a Force Shield, which reduces any damage against them by 100%
The Force Shield can only be weakened by raising a Siege Banner during Prime Time
Siege Banners
Siege Banners are now required to raid or conquer a territory
These are new items that can be crafted at the Toolmaker
They have their own crafting specialization node on the Destiny Board
A guild can use a Siege Banner during Prime Time near an enemy territory
A raised banner will slowly weaken the Territory Force Shield over time, allowing fortifications to take damage
A raised banner can be carried like a Power Crystal by guild members
If a dropped banner isn’t picked up within 10 minutes it will vanish
Enemies can reduce this time to 5 minutes by channeling the dropped banner
In addition, they provide a defensive buff to its carrier and an attack speed buff to any allies within its range
Each guild can only have one active banner in a region at any given time
If an attack was declared during the previous Prime Time, a raised banner is upgraded to a Conquest Banner
During a conquest, a territory’s guards are strengthened
Any attack declaration is automatically pacified if no banner is raised within the first 15 minutes of Prime Time
Siege Hammer
Demolition Hammers have been renamed Siege Hammers
Attacks on walls and gates require a Siege Hammer
Defenders and their allies can use a Siege Hammer to repair walls and gates
Fortification Gates
During Prime Time, Fortification Gates can be opened and closed manually
This requires the guild right “Open/Close Fortification Gate”
However, any enemies inside the Fortification can also open the gates
The crystal on the gate enables allies to teleport through the gate
The gate has two health bars: the first for the crystal, the second for the gate
The gate can be repaired, but the crystal cannot
Outside of Prime Time, Fortification Gates are always open to ensure territories are a playable area for everyone
Territory Activity Chest
To reward guilds that are active in the regions they control via territories, and at the same time to offer an additional incentive to raid those territories, we have introduced Territory Activity Chests.
These replace the old Crystal League Battlevaults.
Whenever any player in the region receives loot from killing mobs, opening loot chests, gathering, or fishing, there is a small chance that this will add additional loot to a cache
The amount of loot generated through these activities depends on the Territory Tower’s Power level; activity in non-instanced neighboring regions will also add loot to the cache, at 25% of this rate
Roads of Avalon are excluded from this
This cache is inaccessible to players
After 24 hours, at the start of Prime Time, the cache’s most valuable loot will be moved into the Territory Activity Chest
During Prime Time, the territory owners cannot open the chest, but other guilds can raid the Territory, break the chest’s protection and steal these items
Raiding will destroy 30% of these items randomly, however
After Prime Time, any guild member can check the chest’s content but only members with the guild right “Access Territory Activity Chest” are allowed to take loot from this chest and transport it to safety
The current accumulated estimated value as well as the average estimated value can be viewed in Territory Information on the World Map. This way players can decide whether or not it is worth raiding or protecting these chests.
Territory Changes
All territories in the Outlands have received one of five new layouts
The number of farming plots have been halved but their output has been doubled
You can no longer sign-up for Crystal League matches at the tower
Season Changes
Season Names
Beginning with Season 23, Guild Seasons across all three servers will use the same naming convention (ie., the next Guild Season will be named Season 23 on all servers).
Prime Times
Prime Times have been reworked to focus on periods of high activity. Albion Americas (formerly Albion West) has been changed to more closely resemble Albion Asia (formerly Albion East), with constant action happening from the beginning of the Prime Time window to the end.
Albion Americas Prime Times
15:00 → 18:00
18:00 → 20:00
21:00 → 22:00
00:00 (Unchanged)
03:00 → 02:00
05:00 → 04:00
12:00 → Removed, merged with the new 04:00 timer
Albion Asia Prime Times
02:00 → Removed, merged with the new 06:00 timer
05:00 → 06:00
08:00 (Unchanged)
12:00 (Unchanged)
14:00 (Unchanged)
16:00 (Unchanged)
18:00 (Unchanged)
These Prime Time windows have Castles and Castle Outpost chests unlocking one hour before they begin, one hour after they end, and on every hour between Prime Times. As this results in a two-hour gap between Castle timers, the lock duration of Castle chests has been reduced to 60 minutes (down from 120 minutes)
The exact Unlock Times are as follows:
Albion Americas:
17:00
19:00
21:00
23:00
01:00
03:00
05:00
Albion Europe:
11:00
13:00
15:00
17:00
19:00
21:00
23:00
Albion Asia:
05:00
07:00
09:00
13:00
15:00
17:00
19:00
Bolded times are Legendary spawns on both Saturday and Sunday. As we previously had three timers, the remaining Legendary Castles and Castle Outposts will spawn randomly throughout the week during normal spawn periods.
World Bosses
On Albion Asia, World Bosses now spawn every even-numbered hour (UTC), to avoid colliding with maintenance.
Season Winner Statues
Season Winner Statues will be uniform across all servers from Season 23 onwards, and will no longer be designed by the guilds themselves.
Spectator Mode
A new Spectator Mode gives third-party players the ability to observe Arena battles, allowing content creators to stream battles and tournaments which they organize themselves.
Custom Matches now have the option to invite one spectator, who is completely invisible to the participants and has no influence on gameplay.
When setting up a Custom Match, the UI includes the option to add a spectator
They can then accept or decline the invitation, similar to an active participant in a battle
If the organizer is also the spectator, they will still have to invite themselves in this way
During the match:
Spectators can choose on which players or parts of the map the camera will focus
Should a creator wish to stop broadcasting a match before the end, they have the option to leave the match at any time
New Crystal Weapons
This update introduces the next three Crystal Weapons, with their own unique spells (note: weapon and spell names are subject to change before the update is released).
Arctic Staff (Frost Staff): Arctic Volley continuously fires icicles in the targeted direction while you can move freely.
Phantom Twinblade (Quarterstaff): Phantom Blade lets you summon multiple phantoms which travel while slashing through your enemies, ending with a powerful knock up from the last phantom.
Crystal Reaper (Axe): Relentless Assault marks an area around you. While you are in this area you gain access to a short, powerful, low-cooldown dash that decreases the cooldown of all other weapon spells if it hits successfully.
The artifacts for crafting these weapons will become available at the end of Season 23.
Tracking Changes
Tracking in Black Zones can be a dangerous endeavor, especially for solo adventurers. A common tactic we've observed is a group besieging a target's position to get to the hunter. There was previously no way to deal with this situation besides aborting the hunt and starting a new one. As a result, targets that have been engaged at least once will now escape after some time even when not in combat and move to a new position only known to the hunter.
Earthmother
HP scaling has been adjusted, now increases by the following amounts:
6 players: 10%
7 players: 18%
8+ players: 24%
Thunderslam damage reduced by 20% for each phase:
Phase 1
Center: 400 → 320
Medium Radius: 200 → 160
Outer Radius: 100 → 80
Phase 2
Center: 800 → 640
Medium Radius: 400 → 320
Outer Radius: 200 → 160
Phase 3
Center: 1200 → 960
Medium Radius: 800 → 640
Outer Radius: 400 → 320
Fixed issue where Thunderslam could hit multiple times
Frenzy damage reduced by 20%:
500 → 400
Additional Changes and Improvements
Albion Asia
Low tier resource spawn rates, which had been increased for the launch of Albion Asia, have been reduced to match Albion Americas
Crafting Changes
The batch size of Rare Potions has been doubled from 5 to 10, while the Rare Ingredient requirement remains the same. This doubles the amount of Potions that can be crafted per Rare Ingredient.
Resources required to craft Gathering Armor increased from 8 to 16, in line with other Armors.
Learning Points required for Bag and Satchel of Insight crafting reduced by 50%, bringing them in line with other tools
Specialization Bonus to Focus Cost Efficiency when crafting Tracking Toolkits increased, to bring it in line with other tools
Spell Icons
New spell icons have been added for Harpoon (Spears) and Rooting Smash (Pikes)
Dagger spell icons have had their coloring and contrast adjusted to improve readability
Additional Changes
Buildings and Furniture now display their tier when attacking or repairing them
Veteran Mad Fuzzy’s (Heretic Mob) Big Bang damage can no longer be reflected
Enchanted Randomized Dungeons no longer appear in Tier 3 zones, as they are somewhat too difficult to trouble players with at that stage
Combat Balance Changes
Hammers
Removed the ability Bash Knee (all Hammers)
Added the new ability: Powerful Swing(all Hammers)
Dash 2m into the targeted direction, knocking all mobs 3m in that direction
Swing your Hammer, dealing 94 physical damage to all enemies hit
If the enemy hit is affected by any crowd control effect, deal an additional 48 physical damage
Removed the ability Heavy Smash (all Hammers)
Added the new ability: Seismic Tremor (all Hammers)
Smash your hammer repeatedly into the ground while channeling for 2s
Hit Time: 0.4s | 0.8s | 2s
Damage: 70 | 70 | 140
Radius: 3m | 3m | 5m
Axes
Morgana Raven (Carrioncaller)
Cooldown: 18s → 15s
Healing Debuff: 30% → 40%
Duration: 5s → 4s
Bleed Ticks: 5 → 3
Damage per tick: 18.12 → 30.2 (Total bleed damage stays the same)
Frost Staffs
Frozen Hell (Icicle Staff)
Standtime: 0.4s → 0.3s
Maces
Defensive Slam (all Maces)
Max allies affected: 5 → 10
Guard Rune (all Maces)
Resistance Factor: 0.25 → 0.225
Nature Staffs
Rejuvenating Flower (all Nature Staffs)
Cooldown: 3s → 2.5s
Spears
Harpoon (all Spears)
Projectile Speed: 19.4 m/s → 23.3 m/s
Helmets
Firebreath (Mage Cowl)
Cooldown: 30s → 20s
Damage per Tick: 44 → 33
Growing Rage (Royal Hood)
Damage Increase per stack: 4% → 5%
Avalonian Beam (Cowl of Purity)
Instant Damage: 160 → 80
Added DoT Effect (stacks up to 1 time)
Ticks: 2 (starting 1s after impact)
Damage: 40 per Tick
Armors
Requite (Armor of Valor)
Channel duration: 2s → 3s
Shoes
Ethereal Form (Feyscale Sandals)
Transformation Delay: 1.5s → 2s
Base Move Speed: 20% → 40%
Stack Move Speed: 20% → 16%
After Image (Mistwalker Shoes)
Cooldown: 20s → 15s
Mounts
Crystal Beam (Roving Bastion)
Cooldown: 6s → 7s
Max targets: 25 → 15
Damage: 24 → 0 (removed)
Diminishing Returns
Max Stun Diminishing Return Time: 10s → 5s
Max Root Diminishing Return Time: 10s → 5s
Max Silence Diminishing Return Time: 10s → 5s
Max Transformation Diminishing Return Time: 10s → 5s
Fixes
Various fixes and improvements made to Arabic and Turkish localization
Spell fixes:
Tectonic Shift (Earthrune Staff): Tectonic Slam’s knock-up now behaves as a Forced Movement
Shadow Edge (Daggers): Fixed issue where immunity would persist after reaching target
Fixed issue where Air Compressor (Maces) could ignore forced movement immunity
Fixed issue where Brambleseed (Nature Staffs) could ignore forced movement effects
Fixed inaccurate range indicators for Lunging Strike (Spears), Frostbite (Frost Staffs)
Fixed issue where Breakthrough (Daybreakers) could hit an enemy but cause no damage if purged
Fixed issue where Purifying Smoke (Helmets of Valor) would not cleanse the Fort Sterling Champion’s Hammerfall debuff
Fixed issue where Howl (Mercenary Hoods) could deal damage multiple times against opponents with high ping
Fixed issue where Adrenaline Boost would not be completely removed by a movement buff purge, and could be reapplied with an auto-attack
Fixed issue where Anguished Soul would not cast in the intended direction if rooted at the moment of casting
Fixed issue where reconnecting during gameplay would place spells on cooldown
UI fixes:
Fixed issue where error message would display after a friend invitation was accepted
Fixed issue where Arena Match Stats UI would be partially obscured after death
Fixed issue where Item Details UI could display slightly different values to tooltips
Fixed issue where changing pages quickly in the Guild Finder UI could cause text to overlap
Fixed issue where Awakened Items shared in chat displayed an error when clicked
Fixed issue where the Starter Town tutorial expedition would not register as completed when finished
Additional graphical, UI, terrain, animation, audio, and localization fixes
Those are the patch notes on April 15 for Albion Online.