Release 054

Sorry, guys but no word on the Spellweaver issue (Release 051).

Instead, honor points will no longer solely be for armor. Every point you earn in battle will bring you closer to unlocking improved skills from the Talents of Honor.

And you get...fame (Irene Cara's song of the same title suddenly comes to mind)!

The Talents of Honor (PVP)

• Increase your skills in addition to the Talents of Experience in player versus player battles and in Anderworld
• Each time you reach a new talent level, your powers in battle improve and, with every 5th talent level you reach, you can choose from one of 2 talents
• To learn how to use your new talents, you need honor points, which you can win while battling other warriors

Read all the details about the new Release here.

XVII: Resting at Level 39

As much as I want to race my character till level 40, I decided to stop playing and stop at 39 (I am still very upset with the update).

It's also hard to grind and fill the XP cells when there's very limited quests. Since being a Spellweaver is expensive, I'll probably be online occasionally or when I feel like playing

Click on thumbnail for a larger image.

I really feel bad about the R051 update which according to them is predominantly a "revision of the Spellweaver" (WHY THE HELL DID YOU NEED TO DO THAT?!).

Before I can grind solo in Dragon's Cavern without breaking a sweat. Now, I need a bodyguard (thank you very much, Jonas) or else I'll be dead most of the time. My character feels helpless whenever I grind solo. When I'm surrounded by monsters I can't perform chain attacks because of the stupid mana cap.

So, after that update, I ran out of interest in playing.

Maybe one of the game developers got his heart broken by an ex-GF who used to play Drakensang as a Spellweaver and decided to get even by de-powering the Spellweaver class.

Xvii: Ranting Time

I really don't like the revision for the Spellweaver class.

Let me say that again: I DON'T LIKE THE REVISION FOR SPELLWEAVERS!

The revision made the Spellweavers weaker because of the new Mana cap which basically means no more chain attacks because we have limited Mana points.

And I really hate to see "not enough mana" on my screen.

I don't know what they were thinking when they made this revision. When they first balanced the Spellweaver, removing the Lighting and changing it to Magic Missile, it was somehow acceptable but not this time.

Click on thumbnail for a larger image.

Aside from putting a Mana cap they also changed the Mana requirement of some skills which became a hindrance especially when grinding solo which I used to be able to do in Teganswall and Dragon's Cavern. Just a bunch of essence and Mana potions and I'm good to go. But now, even if i have a bunch of mana potions in my inventory, I can easily die because of the mana cap.

Okay, so I appreciate that the Mana points recovers faster despite the cap but it's still not enough (the Mana points will recover faster if you use Magic Missiles...that's the time you can see a Mana ball glowing around you because you are using that skill). Unfortunately you can't kill your opponent fast enough with that skill because, in my opinion, when they made that balancing crap it made the main skill set of the Spellweaver weaker.

And that skill tree or talent tree. I can' figure out what it has to do with my HP.

Sorry, guys but I won't promote this game anymore. Especially not with people I know who's into online gaming too.

Spellweavers on an uproar over Release 051

Release 051 saw the introduction of a new talent system, a new monster, and brand new quests in Teganswall.

Unfortunately, it also saw the complete revision of the Spellweaver class which didn’t sit particularly well with a lot of Spellweavers, Ysa Arce (in-game name: Xvii) included. Apparently, aside from other changes brought about by the rebalancing of the character class, the Spellweaver’s Mana reservoir got capped at 100 points.

Suffice to say, people are not happy. Not happy at all.

Word from the developers over at the message boards (click here for the complete details) says that, as far as the Spellweavers are concerned:

• The Mana enchantments on Spellweavers’ armor have been converted to damage points or hitpoints enchantments
• Mana potions and Mana roots have been completed revamped

A spellweaver.

I can certainly understand where the disgruntled Spellweavers are coming from.

After all, if I spent hundreds of hours painstakingly collecting Mana boosting items and paid good money for Andermants to beef up my Spellweaver’s Mana reservoir only to find it capped at a 100 after the update, I’d certainly be pissed off too.

The Spellweaver rebalancing has also made the class less effective fighters and less enjoyable to play for several reasons:

1. They’re unable to do chain attacks because of the Mana cap (and some of those spells eat up a lot of Mana and once a Spellweaver is out of Mana they’re quite vulnerable even with armor and hitpoints enhancing items)
2. The limitation in Mana also means a more limited repertoire of spells they can cast, making them less helpful in a party setting and more of a liability (since they need to be defended more often by the Dragon Knights and/or Ranger)
3. The Spellweaver’s new found vulnerability necessitates that they join a party when grinding, farming, or questing to avoid getting killed prematurely (i.e., less solo flights)

And, let’s face it, going from god-like to pathetic overnight after an update is a total buzz kill.

Still, Drakensang-Online is in open beta, undergoing more development and updates.

Hopefully we’ll see a return of the Spellweaver class to their former glory (the developers do take the community’s feedback seriously after all). As for Ysa, she decided to stop playing the game in the meantime.

It hurts too much to see her Spellweaver as a shadow of its former self.