Combat had quietly broken at high levels: a weapon's damage acted as a runaway multiplier, so a well-geared veteran could land hits in the hundreds of thousands while enemy defence did nothing — one-shotting everything. We've rebuilt the core damage curve from the ground up.
This touches melee, dual-wield, Weapon Artes, spells and Unleashes alike. Numbers will look very different — that's intended. We'll keep tuning the feel; tell us if anything lands too hard or too soft.
Previously, a player on the receiving end of an attack fought with only their base stats — their equipped gear was ignored — so a fully-kitted high-level player could be out-traded by someone far weaker. Defenders now bring their equipped gear to the fight, exactly like the attacker does. Duel results should finally reflect who's actually stronger.
Ten brand-new dungeons fill out the level curve from the early game to the edge of the Underworld — including the long-missing 270–320 and 875–1000 brackets. Each comes with its own boss, scaled loot, and an Ultimate variant with an apex rare, an ultimate boss and a mythic weapon. New arrivals include Duskfen Reach, Stormcrag Spire, Frostvein Tomb, Glacial Reach and Abyssal Reach.
Group content now continues past the Eternal Spire all the way to the level cap. Five new raids — Underworld Gate, Emberforge Throne, Frostfall Apex, The Shattered Crown and Throne of Oblivion — span levels 1,000 to 2,000, each with 6–10 floors and a full nine-piece unique gear set from its final boss.
Bring friends. Five new party dungeons fill the bands the party family left thin: Warband Crossing, Sunless Reliquary, Stormhold Bastion, Emberdeep Vault and Dragon's Roost (a 4-player capstone at 740–1,000), each with sweetened rewards for rolling deep.
High-level bosses could roll a trivially low-level reward (a level-1,000 boss handing you level-100 boots). Drops are now floored to the encounter's level band across the overworld, dungeons and raids, so a tough kill pays out like one.