Masters of the Book,

The development team plans to balance the Knights of Veda and items in preparation for the upcoming "Battlefield of the War Gods" update on June 13th.

Our goal is to enhance underperforming knights, fix errors in some knights, and ensure balance for the upcoming diverse content updates.

The development team has carefully reviewed the direction of players' gameplay, item possession status, and the balance of each character to adjust the balance for the future diversity of characters and the expansiveness of content.

The balance improvement patch will be carried out in two phases. The first phase will be through the "Battlefield of the War Gods" on the 13th, and the second phase will be through the "Portrait of Thierry Update" (Hundred-Day Commemoration Event).

To preserve the value of your items and characters, our goal is to avoid nerfs as much as possible and to meticulously refine the balance between attributes and characters.


1) Knights of Veda Balance Changes

■ General
We fully understand that the Knights of Veda who use melee weapons lack stability in PVE compared to those who use ranged weapons and experience damage loss due to mob patterns. Additionally, they are often targeted in concentrated fire in PVP, which requires several improvements.

The "active resistance" for Knights of Veda who use melee weapons will be increased by 40% compared to before.

The time during which Knights of Veda who use melee weapons are staggered when hit while sprinting will be reduced by 75% compared to before.

The delay between motions for Knights of Veda who use melee weapons has been finely adjusted to allow easier counterattacks after evasion.

■ Arin
The delay between the 3rd and 4th hits of the normal attack [Shadow Slash] will be reduced, decreasing the overall time required for normal attacks and the delay after the 4th hit, thereby increasing the overall attack speed.

The Z-axis range (vertical) of the normal attack [Shadow Slash] will be increased by approximately 14%, allowing you to attack a wider range of enemies more quickly.

The activation condition for [Death's Grip] with the normal skill at Fate 2 will be eased from requiring 4 hits to just 3 hits for additional damage. Additionally, the damage will be increased from 42% to 63%, enhancing the overall damage effect of the normal skill.

■ Edward
Using the signature skill [Time for Punishment] will now apply a 10% Damage Reduction buff, allowing for more aggressive play. 

After using the signature extend skill [Wounds of Flames], you will be able to attack again more quickly.

■ Atterisee
The explosion from the normal skill [Roll Roll Roll!] often misses the target, making it hard to focus the damage. The animated bear is now a summon, which makes its actions more precise. It can better push and gather small monsters, and it won't miss large monsters, exploding after a short delay upon contact. 

Additionally, like the signature skill [Research Pays Off!], it will apply a defense reduction debuff.

■ Veleno
The stationary casting motion of the signature skill [Metastases of Poisoning] often puts the user in danger. Users frequently need to dodge before finishing all three consecutive attacks. To address this, the casting motion will be changed to make the user retreat backward while firing, as it originally did.

■ Eliyar
The signature skill [Reindeer Strong Bow] will be adjusted to allow for a quicker follow-up attack.

■ Rani
The usage frequency of the strong attack [Midday Beam] has been found to be low, so its damage per hit will be increased by 25%.

■ Andrei
The initial hit range of the signature skill [Blazing Pillar] is too small, so it will be adjusted to hit a wider range of targets, similar to its subsequent hits.

The signature extend skill [Burn!], which consumes additional Veda energy, has a low damage output and is underused. It will now also inflict 'Burn' on all targets hit, with the burn effect being influenced by Andrei's DoT stat.

■ Yanko
Yanko's signature skill [Complete the Bond!] has not been very useful. Therefore, at Fate 4, a piercing effect will be added (up to 2 times), and all pierced enemies will also be bound, making the skill more effective.

■ Nayan
Nayan's healing skills [Elemental's Blessing] and [Walrus Vigor] are based on Nayan's HP. However, there was an error where the extra HP from the "Cooked Food" effect was not included. This will be fixed so that the "Cooked Food" effect is also counted in the recovery amount.

■ Nec
The effect [Abyssal Eye] of Nec's exclusive weapon [Misplaced Love] increases HP, and the damage of Nec's normal skill [Bansch's Dance] and strong attack [Spirit's Touch] is based on HP.

However, [Abyssal Eye] was not increasing the damage of Nec's normal skills and strong attacks. This has been fixed to boost Nec's damage.

Additionally, the summon Roderick will now benefit from the [Abyssal Eye] effect, gaining more HP and damage. (However, the HP Nec gains from [Abyssal Eye] will not be counted again for Roderick's HP and damage.)

The damage of the signature extend skill [Darkness Retribution] was supposed to increase with level, but an error prevented this when used by Roderick. This has been corrected to ensure the level increase is applied.

 

2) Option Balance Changes

■ DoT(%)
For [DoT (%)], it generally deals damage that ignores defense, but it was not affected by attack power.

Additionally, its availability was limited to rings, reducing the effectiveness of the Knights of Veda who rely on DoT.

Now, DoT will be based on the attacker's attack power.

Additionally, DoT options have been added to attribute enchantments, making it easier to get this option.

New options [Bleed DMG(%)], [Burn DMG(%)], [Shock DMG(%)], and [Poison DMG(%)] have been added to each elemental gem.

[Bleed DMG ], [Burn DMG ], [Shock DMG ], and [Poison Effect DMG ] can each be obtained through the crafting of blood, fire, lightning, and poison attribute gems, respectively, and have higher base values compared to [DoT (%)].

■ [Bleed DMG ], [Burn DMG ], [Shock DMG ], and [Poison Effect DMG ]
They can each be obtained through the crafting of blood, fire, lightning, and poison attribute gems, and have higher base values compared to [DoT (%)].

■ Reduce Incoming Wound Rate(%)
The utility of the “Reduce Incoming Wound Rate” sub-option for necklaces was deemed low, resulting in diminished usability. Therefore it has been increased to a maximum of 36%. [Updated 06/13 02:11 UTC]
 
■ ATK Bonus (%)
The current [Attack Bonus(%)] option only affects [ATK] and not [Elemental ATK], which makes the [Elemental ATK] options less desirable. To rectify this, we’re changing the effect of [Attack Bonus(%)] to apply to both [ATK] and [Elemental ATK]. 

Moving forward, this will open up more avenues to strategize with elements in mind. 
 
■ Absolute Defense
The existing ‘Guard Rate’ option will be replaced with an option called [Absolute Defense]. [Absolute Defense] includes the existing [Guard Rate] effect and a new stat [Minimum Defense]. 
 
The existing Guard Rate effect will remain, reducing the amount of stamina consumed while guarding and increasing the amount of Veda Energy restored. It will also still apply up to a maximum of 80%. Now, when taking damage while guarding, the amount of Stamina consumed will be reduced, and the amount of Veda energy restored will be increased by the [Absolute Defense] value.

[Minimum Defense] guarantees that your minimum defense is equal to a percentage of your [Absolute Defense], and will apply from any damaging threat, even when you are not guarding. 

This effect only applied to defense ignoring attacks that exceed your [Minimum Defense].

It remains effective above the maximum [Guard Rate] value of 80%, but its efficiency gradually decreases near this threshold. For example, with 10% [Absolute Defense], you will have about 28% [Minimum Defense] . 

Example 1) [Absolute Defense (10%)] = [Guard Rate (10%)] + [Minimum Defense (28%)]
Example 2) [Absolute Defense (80%)] = [Guard Rate (80%)] + [Minimum Defense (40%)]
Example 3) [Absolute Defense (200%)] = [Guard Rate (80%)] + [Minimum Defense (51%)]
 
These values can be checked in a Knight’s Detailed Information window. 

Additionally, the above option values will also apply to new content’s monsters and bosses. 

■ LV up effects
Skill levels can be increased to level 10, and additional levels could be added through high Fate levels. While skills that hit level 11 were fine, skills beyond this level were applying less boosts than shown. This issue will be fixed. 

■ Emergency Dodge
The emergency dodge function will be improved for all Knights of Veda to provide a more dynamic combat experience. Before the emergency dodge function could only be activated after two stiffs, but we’re changing the rules so that it can also be used when a character is exposed to a vacuum skill that impedes their movement for a period of time. 

■ Resistance Improvement
Activated resistances will now provide protection against certain disruptive effects. 

■ Auto-battle Strong Attack Usage
Strong attacks are efficient and powerful attacks, and many Knights that rely on Auto-battle to perform well were being under-utilized. Strong attacks will now be used in auto-combat. 

Due to the balance changes, [Knight’s Oblivion], [Weapon’s Oblivion] items will be sent to all Masters of the Book. Each Master of the Book will receive one of these items, allowing you to reclaim resources and materials used to enhance them. 

■ Knight’s Oblivion
A Knight of Veda’s Level and Skills level will be reset to level 1, and you will receive all resources that have been used for their growth. 

■ Weapon’s Oblivion
Reset a weapon’s Level to 1, and receive all resources that have been used to enhance it. 

* Fate Levels, Weapon Refinement Levels, Sockets, Gems and Enchantments will not be reset.
* ‘Knight’s Oblivion’ and ‘Weapon’s Oblivion’ items will be stored in your [Inventory > Valuables] tab. 
* Activate by pressing the ‘Use’ button from your inventory, which will bring up a list of Knights/weapons that can be reset. 
* As soon as you press the reset button, the Knight of Veda/ Weapon will be reset. Since consumed ‘Oblivion’ items and character progress can not be restored to their original state, please take care when using these items.

This concludes our briefing of the balance changes for the Knights of Veda that will be introduced in the June 13 update. Once again, we apologize for the unavoidable need for a balance update. 

With the upcoming update bringing in the Battlefield of the War Gods, we’ll be introducing a variety of new content, and we’ll do our best to be more careful with character and item balancing. 

Thank you