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.