Until now every set paid the same +10% / +20% to all six stats. The 201 authored sets now pay a bonus read from the set itself: its pieces decide the two focus stats (+30% each on a dungeon set, +32% on a relic set, +35% on a raid set, with +10% on the other four; a set with an even spread pays +22% to +25% on all six), its name decides a theme line (the Crypts and Blights rot through enemy defence, the Embers and Infernos sharpen Artes, the Tides and Frosts cheapen spells, the Storms and Spires cool abilities, the Voids and Shadows add dodge, the Forges and Fortresses turn blows aside, the Crystals and Sanctums lengthen buffs), and at four pieces the class you play adds its own line: Arte classes pay less TP, casters less MP, the Paladin cools abilities faster, the Minstrel’s songs last longer, the Runesmith detonates harder, the Hexblade holds a hex stack more, the Mimic absorbs more echoes, the Tamer’s pet hits harder.
A piece that drops in a fight — boss loot in the overworld, a dungeon or a raid, a rare’s drop, a relic, a set piece, the Descent’s finds — may now carry one affix: a named effect beside the six attributes, which stay what they were. One plain drop in five rolls one; every Legendary does. Eight to hunt: Vampiric (lifesteal), Warding (less damage taken), Rending (ignores part of enemy defence), Fierce (Weapon Arte damage), Fortunate (gold from kills), Hunting (drop chance), Swift (ability cooldowns), Keen (TP gained), each at tier I, II or III by the level of the drop.
Each class now has four essence slots of its own, beside the slots on its gear. They open one by one: at class level 250, at 50 achievements earned, when the Echo Wastes quest line is turned in, and with a Soulbinding Vial sold at any Crystagyn for 20,000 Ascension Dust. Bind at a Crystagyn as you would to a piece of gear — pick Your character instead of an item — at the price your class level sets, always at 100%.
A forged piece now takes the shape of its six lines from what went in. Every material in a bill leans toward some of the six stats: the bench’s own four resources give 45% of the shape, the heart material you pick on the bench 45%, the band’s boss material 10%. The recipe keeps its total of the six lines, its damage or armour, its crit, durability and value, so nothing forged outgrows a drop of its level.
A raid floor was a walk to the boss and a few swings. Now the floor boss returns dormant: an empty throne, and three objectives under the map that everyone on the floor advances together. Slay a share of the floor’s foes, fell its three Wardens (marked foes that hit harder and stay down until the boss next returns), and purge every quarter of the floor. When the last is done the boss rises on its throne and everyone on the floor is told.
Raid foes now play at raid strength. Trash had sat at overworld strength or below it on the older floors; it now carries more life and defence and hits a little harder. Wardens sit between an elite and a dungeon boss. Bosses carry more life, defence and bite.
Twelve tracks of achievements for what the realm’s best already do, each with three rungs — Veteran (rare, 150 points), Master (legendary, 400) and Grandmaster (legendary, 1,000): Wardens felled (25 / 100 / 300), Warden sweeps (3 / 15 / 50), raid bosses felled at full enrage (1 / 10 / 30), raid thrones taken (5 / 15 / 33 different raids), dungeon types cleared on Ultimate (50 / 85 / 99), Ultimate modifiers cleared (3 / 7 / 12), Labyrinth depth (50 / 100 / 150), the Hunt Chain (50 / 100 / 200), Realm Boss blows (500 / 2,500 / 7,500), Hardcore points (2,500 / 10,000 / 30,000), Echo rating (1,600 / 2,000 / 2,400) and classes at the level cap (1 / 2 / 4).
A Keystone names a dungeon and a tier. Tiers 1 to 4 are the four difficulties; above Ultimate every tier adds a wall of 10% to every foe, scaled from your own Power Level, and from tier 5 two modifiers ride the key, drawn from eight: Wardens on the floor, a dormant boss, no grace before the enrage, an affliction at every Engage, no potions, walls up, a silent floor (no Fusions) and one life. A run has a turn budget read from the layout (40, plus 2 a tile, 8 a foe, 12 a wall): clear the boss inside it and the key goes up a tier; run out, fall or leave and it goes down.
When a raid’s final boss drops its signature weapon, one time in ten it falls as a Legendary copy — 120–130% of its stats — carrying one line nothing else in the realm has: Ruinforged, a killing blow heals everyone on the floor by a tenth of the foe’s life; Sundered, Weapon Artes critically hit at twice your chance; Cinderplate, a Fusion costs no MP and a tenth of your life instead; Worldcrown, Detonate fires twice; Voidwarden, every kill leaves an echo and your next blow strikes twice; Starcrowned, the pet acts twice on its turn; Heartsworn, a blow that would kill you is taken by the Warden nearest you, once a floor; Eternity, the first Arte of a fight costs nothing.
Open Character → Relic. Each step is fed by something you were going to do anyway and adds a line to the weapon: 1 ten raid floors awakened — the relic is forged at your level, Legendary, of your class’s own weapon type; 2 Keystone tier 10 — an affix of your choice at tier III; 3 Labyrinth floor 50 and 500 Realm Boss blows — your class line, as a raid set pays it, while you wield it; 4 a hidden crafting pair forged into it from your stores — its effect, kept; 5 Keystone tier 20 and a Grandmaster deed — a Signature line of your choosing; 6 250 Hardcore points, a raid boss on a Hardcore run, or Legend Rank 3 — the Relicborne skin, the title Relicbearer, and from then on the relic follows your level for free at the Raise.
Once a class stands at level 20,000, everything it earns past the full bar is your account’s Legend EXP. A rank costs one level’s worth at the cap — 141,421,356 EXP for the first, each rank 5% more than the last — and shows beside your level, on your profile and at Character → Legend. A rank pays nothing that fights for you; it opens room, choice and marks of standing.
The Raise asked the purse for its bill even when the bill was nothing, and read an unchanged purse as “not enough gold”. A zero bill (an awakened relic’s) now spends nothing and goes through.